Work Text:
An interview, dated 24th September 2020, 4:05pm
Two men sit on the ends of a black leather sofa, leaving enough space for another person in between them. A pale yellow table in front of them has two glasses on red coasters. The glasses usually filled with alcohol of the participants’ choice, instead have fruit juice as requested by the Olympic athletes seated here.
The participants mirror each other in their nervousness. Kageyama Tobio, age 25, starting setter for the Japan Olympic volleyball team, sits uncomfortably on one end of the sofa. He looks elegant in black, but his hands alternate between tugging on his turtleneck and fixing his hair. A beat of tension bunches his shoulders together.
On the other end of the sofa sits Oikawa Tooru, age 27, starting setter for the Argentinian Olympic volleyball team. Oikawa is dressed in a Persian green shirt with black pants, tailored perfectly. His back is reclined comfortably, one arm on the back of the sofa and one leg thrown above the other. His eyebrows, however, are furrowed. His gaze shifts from his watch to the camerapersons to the ceiling. Anything but the man next to him. He drinks from the glass.
The interview begins.
Where did you two first meet?
“Kitaiichi Middle School.” Kageyama pauses and clears his throat. “My second day in school, I joined the volleyball club. I saw Oikawa there.”
“I saw you before that.”
“You’ve told me this, and I don’t believe you.”
“What is so unbelievable about having seen you play in a game in primary school? Iwaizumi and I used to go to matches together and you were already brilliant by then.” Oikawa’s eyes roll. “I found you first Tobio.”
“Let’s move on to the next question.”
When did you break up?
Oikawa says, “A year and a month ago.”
Kageyama nods.
“None of us are good at math, but we are the kind to keep count, aren’t we?” Oikawa looks just a touch amused.
Kageyama nods again, this time more hesitantly.
Why did you break up?
“Oh this is a question for him,” Oikawa says, pointing an index finger at Kageyama seated next to him.
Kageyama tilts his head to look at Oikawa. “I couldn’t give him what he wanted.”
Oikawa scoffs, “That’s one way of putting it.”
There’s a beat of silence, and Kageyama’s gaze flickers back to the floor. He drinks from his glass.
“He didn’t need me anymore,” Oikawa answers finally. He pulls his arm at the back of the sofa closer to himself.
When did you realize you were in love with him?
“When he won the Best Setter Award in middle school.” It’s an immediate answer. There is no doubt in that voice. “I watched Oikawa like I always did, one face in the audience. But then he smiled, with the award in hand and it felt like the answer had been there all along.”
“Back then?” Oikawa asks, turning to Kageyama. “That was ages ago, Tobio.”
Kageyama nods at Oikawa. “Ask me when I fell in love with you.”
“I know this answer,” Oikawa says, with a small smile. “When you first saw my serve.”
Kageyama nods again, this time with more confidence.
“You had wings Oikawa. I saw a boy fly and that was nothing less than miraculous to me. I saw the sun shine behind your head, and the dust that rose with you turn into gold, and thought here he is, here is my ‘someone better’. I had found you.”
For a second it looks like Oikawa might break out into a bigger smile. It lasts a moment. He breaks the eye contact instead.
What does your family think of him?
“Miwa loves you.”
“She hated me for a while.”
“She did. But she did grow to love you quickly.”
“I miss talking to her sometimes. Going to that nail salon without her isn’t the same.” Oikawa takes a cursory look at his manicured nails. The camera zooms in to show that he has clear nailpolish on.
“You can still talk to her, you know,” Kageyama says softly, the mic barely picking up his voice. “Besides, she blames me for the break up.”
Oikawa taps a finger on his knee. “My mom misses you,” he says after a moment. An admission. “Takeru asks about you more times than I’d like. Teenage boys have no consideration for feelings.”
“Does he still have--”
“Your autograph on his Karasuno jersey? Oh yeah, he bought a new one to play matches with, since he wanted this one framed or something,” Oikawa says. “Never wanted to frame mine though,” he says in a quiet voice, not with any malice.
Kageyama makes an amused sound at that, not enough to count as a laugh but just enough. “Well, his uncle will sign anything for him whenever he asks, so it’s fair. You’re always there.”
“I suppose that’s smart of him then,” Oikawa says, looking away, “to get your autograph before you left. He knew too, I guess.”
Kageyama’s face wipes clean of any amusement.
When did you feel like it was over?
Oikawa’s gaze hovers over his glass. For a second, he looks like he might drink instead of answer.
He looks up instead. “He stopped talking to me,” Oikawa says. “One day I realized I was talking to myself, about myself, in an apartment that was more mine than his and that was that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’ve gotten used to losing to him so many times, but now I had to learn how to lose him . I told him that I needed him to open up more, to tell me what’s going on in that head of his. I’m a lot of things, but I’m not a mind reader.”
“I know,” Kageyama replies to a man not talking to him.
There is silence.
“I worry that sometimes dating me is what ruined this,” Oikawa finally turns to Kageyama. “Was that it, a decade of running after each other, and then when you finally had me, you realized it wasn’t what you wanted?”
“That’s not true,” Kageyama’s voice is strained. “It was… It was just difficult sometimes. I was scared.”
“You were never the kind to run away Tobio,” Oikawa says softly. “I used to admire that about you.”
What do you think he should change about himself in the next relationship?
“Nothing,” Kageyama says like it’s the last page of a book.
Oikawa laughs, it’s a cruel little thing. “Nothing? Not even a ‘be less selfish Tooru’?”
“No.”
“No ‘stop wanting so much’? No ‘you’ll scare them away’?”
“No.” Kageyama looks just as resolute.
“How about ‘love less’? Less obsessively.. less…”
“No.”
“Okay.”
How long did it take you to get over your relationship?
“Is this something you get over? Ridiculous to think I could ever get rid of your presence in my life.” Oikawa speaks to the ceiling, head tilted up. A silver earring glints under the stage lights. He says more softly, “Everything I do has you in it.”
“I was so cruel to you Oikawa,” Kageyama says, his nails cutting into his palms.
“As if only cruelty was all that was needed to cure a heartbreak Tobio.”
They share a look.
“Besides,” Oikawa continues, “you knew before I did what that meant, to love despite cruelty.”
Kageyama looks conflicted. He says after a moment, “You know I’ve forgiven you for that. There wasn’t even anything to forgive to begin with.”
Oikawa doesn’t respond.
Would you go out with him again?
Kageyama considers his words. He presses his hands together, and then unfolds them, palms up. “I waited a long time for Oikawa-san. I’ve spent my whole life chasing after him, begging for him to turn around and just see me for once.”
Oikawa stares at Kageyama without blinking.
“And then one day, he did. He turned around, looked me in the eyes and recognized the same hunger. For volleyball. For love. For each other too, I hope.”
Kageyama closes his palms. “I fucked up. He’s right, I didn’t know what to do once I finally had him. It’s so much easier to chase someone when you think you’re alone, so much easier to love someone with no audience. And then suddenly, I didn’t know what to do when I realized I was loved back. I didn’t know what to do with the knowledge that here was someone who would go above and beyond for my happiness. Sometimes I felt as though I had not done anything to deserve so much.”
He pauses again, and Oikawa shifts imperceptibly closer.
“But that’s the thing right? I know better now. And I waited a decade for this.” Kageyama shifts his legs closer to Oikawa. He places a hand in the space between them. “I can wait for another.”
Oikawa’s eyes flicker between Kageyama’s eyes and his outreached hand. “What if I don’t want you to?”
“I’d respect that. Tell me that, tell me that you don’t want me to wait.” Kageyama’s hand curls into itself.
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
Do you still love him?
Oikawa signals someone off-screen. “Is it too late to ask for alcohol? I’ll speak to my coach, I should be allowed one alcoholic drink of choice.”
“I don’t know about him, but I still do,” Kageyama says, quieter than ever before.
“Tobio,” he says, “this is not fair.” His raised arm comes down slowly, a line forming between his eyebrows.
“I love him still,” Kageyama says, this time stronger and clearer. The camera zooms into his face.
“That question was meant for me.”
“You weren’t answering.”
“I want alcohol, that’s my answer.”
“Tooru…”
“Don’t call me that.”
Do you think he will make a good husband?
“You took my question, so I’ll take yours,” Oikawa announces.
He waits a second. Hearing no sound of protest from Kageyama, he says, “Yes. Tobio tells the world he doesn’t know what love is like, or that he doesn’t know how to love but it’s all bullshit. He loves people the same way he loves volleyball. The same bull-headed, unflinching kind of love. Once you’re loved that way, there’s really nothing that comes close to it.”
He laughs, a little bitter, a little sad.
“He’d make a great husband, once he gets his shit together.”
Kageyama smiles, a little bitter, a little sad. “For what it’s worth, I think you would make an even better husband.”
“Gold is my color you know,” Oikawa admits, “But I did want to see what a gold ring would look like on your hand.”
“You did?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’ll get over it.”
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
Kageyama shakes his head. He tilts his chin, asking Oikawa the same question.
“There isn’t anything else left I suppose.”
“See you at the next Olympics?” Kageyama offers.
Oikawa grins at that. “See you at the next Olympics.”
A banner appears with the name of the production company of the show. The endscreen names the guests as well as the producers of the show. The screen flickers black.
The screen bursts in colour again, with a distorted screech. What appears to be an outtake from the interview plays.
Oikawa Tooru sits in a chair of the make-up room, waving away someone applying a blush on his cheek. He is washed in the golden lights of the table ahead of him.
“What do you expect to happen today?”
Oikawa scoffs immediately. “Wait, am I allowed to swear?” He receives a nod from behind the camera. Oikawa exhales softly. “Fuck if I know!”
The camera continues to hover around him.
“Have you asked him this question? Kageyama I mean.”
A soft ‘no’ can be heard.
“Yeah well, I regret saying yes to this already.”
He steps off the chair, and looks into the mirror. Raising a hand to his eye, he smudges a little of the eyeliner at the end of his lower eyelid.
“May as well get this over with.” He smiles at the mirror, and then turns around to smile at the camera.
Kageyama Tobio sits on the sofa on the main stage. He is early. Several spot boys are rushing behind him to get into position before shooting formally begins. Kageyama tugs on the fabric of the arm of the sofa.
“What do you expect to happen today?” the camerawoman asks.
Kageyama purses his lips together for a moment. “I don’t know, honestly. I’ll just-- I’ll do what I have failed to do all this time. I just need to apologize.”
He stops worrying on the maroon threads of the sofa.
“The rest is up to him.”
The screen fades to black.
Comments on “Exes Play Truth or Drink: The Japan Vs Argentina Edition”
julyseventh99:
girl i don’t ever wanna fall in love at this rate??
imEmoOverMitski:
Who knew volleyball had so much drama? I don’t know why youtube recommended me this but I don’t regret it
babadookluigi:
can y’all just get back together. this is homophobic
mrsoikawa20:
oikawa you are SO HOT !!! i love you but, you are so obviously still in love with kageyama. an international romance!!! the implications!!!!
kunimi_akira13:
you guys haven't changed one bit. i don't know what i expected.
A text message, dated 25th September 2020, 12:53am
To: Kageyama
From: Oikawa
Wait for me.
A text message, dated 25th September 2020, 12:57am
To: Oikawa
From: Kageyama
As long as you need.