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"Is there a Yamaguchi Tadashi here?"
A first-year girl is at the door and Tadashi turns to face her. She has brown hair tied up in a ponytail and dark brown eyes. A cute red bow is tied around her neck. She's average height, probably a handful of centimeters shorter than Tadashi is. Although not as beautiful as Kiyoko-senpai, this girl's appearance isn't lacking all that much.
Tadashi idly fidgets with the pen he is holding. With his dominant hand, he points to himself. "That's uhh— That would be me."
His eyes follow the girl until she is right by his desk, with an envelope and a heart-shaped lolli-pop in hand. She sets it down in front of him. With an innocent smile, she adds, "This is for you."
Before Tadashi can say a word to her, she's already out of the classroom again. His eyes linger at the door for a beat, before he averts his gaze to look down at the gift he received. A heart-shaped lolli-pop. Tadashi wasn't one for overly sweet candy, but Yachi would probably enjoy it. He makes a mental note to give the lolli-pop to her later.
Red and pink heart stickers are scattered around the envelope, almost to an excessive degree. Tadashi, ignoring the stickers, opens the envelope in which resides a singular folded sheet of pink paper. With… heart decorations all over it.
Anyone with two braincells could put the pieces together. Even scrubs like Hinata and Kageyama could figure it out. From the looks of everything, this girl was confessing to Tadashi.
Nobody had ever confessed to Tadashi before.
𖦹
"So Yamaguchi…" a girl had said to Tadashi once. It was Aiko, one of the cutest girls in Tadashi's grade in junior high. She was talking to him! Tadashi! An insanely cute girl actually wanted to talk to him! Inching closer to Tadashi, Aiko continued, "…Who's that insanely hot, tall blondie with glasses you're always hanging out with. You should totally give him my number. I tried to talk to him but he just wouldn't…"
Oh. Tadashi tuned out her voice and tried to direct his attention elsewhere. An awkward smile on his face and dread in his stomach, Tadashi mustered up all of the politeness he could to say, "Sorry, he's not interested in talking to anyone right now."
Aiko's expression dropped. The color drained from her face and her eyes dulled. Disapopintment was written everywhere on her face. Tadashi avoided eye contact as he stood up and mumbled, "I have to use the restroom."
Tadashi's lip was quivering the entire walk to the restroom. He tried his best to appear stoic and apathetic, but his true emotions shone through in the squint of his eyes. Fuck. He was crying. Silently crying. At first only a couple tears came out of each eye. Then more followed. And more. And now he was just sobbing. Wiping away some tears with his wrist, Tadashi tried taking deep breathes to calm himself. It did not work. Instead what came out were hiccups and shaky breathes that he couldn't control.
It was always like this. Everyone wanted to talk about Tsukishima. Everyone had a crush on Tsukishima. Everyone wanted to date Tsukishima. And who could blame them? He was attractive. Blond and fair-skinned. Tall and confident. He was always so unbothered, and he had a kind of aura that would attract all of the girls. Not that he wanted to attract a ton of girls. But Tadashi couldn't help but envy him for being so adored by everyone.
No one really wanted to go out with the scrawny, shy kid with freckles. It was always his friend they would go for. It was always Tsukki.
𖦹
This is why Tadashi has a bit of a hard time believing this girl's confession is really meant for him. There's only one way to find out if it's truly meant for Tadashi or if it's just another ploy to get to Tsukki. Tadashi unfolds the pink paper.
A pile of glitter falls out. That's gonna be a pain in the ass to clean up.
Tadashi focuses on his supposed love note. Scanning line by line, Tadashi roughly grasps what this girl is trying to say. Yep. This was definitely meant for him.
"This girl sure has a thing for hearts." Tadashi turns to face toward Kei, who sits diagonally behind him. With the pink paper in hand, Tadashi reads off, "My heart belongs to you. You've stolen my heart. You'll always live in my heart. She seriously wrote all of this for me."
Meanwhile, Kei is livid. Does this girl even know Tadashi?? Kei has never seen her in his life, and Kei is Tadashi's best friend. Yeah that's right, Kei is his best friend. Not some rando girl. If anyone's heart should belong to Tadashi, it should be Kei.
Did this girl meet Tadashi when he was just a kid? Did this girl play volleyball with Tadashi? Did this girl so much as notice Tadashi before today? Did this girl know the amount of freckles that were on Tadashi's face? Did this girl memorize—ingrain in her head—the shade of amber you could only see when the sun hit Tadashi's wide eyes just right???
Tsukishima Kei didn't think so.
This girl had no right to be the first person to confess to Tadashi. She didn't know him like Kei did. The only person that should get to confess to Tadashi was Kei—
Oh. That's what it was.
"Good grief," Kei huffed, "If she was gonna confess, she could've at least written a better confession. Don't give her the time of day."
"I think…" Tadashi's eyes came back to the pink sheet of paper, squinting as he examined it one last time. "I'm gonna go talk to her."
"Do whatever," Kei scoffed, feigning nonchalantness. He pulled his headphones over his ears as he fixed his attention on a textbook for one of his classes. Though he found he couldn't focus at all with thoughts of Tadashi flooding his brain. Thoughts of the girl and her confession pestered him the whole time. Concentration wasn't an option anymore. Kei needed to stop Tadashi from accepting that girl's confession.
✿
"Hey." Tadashi slows as he catches up to the girl walking through the hallway.
"Yamaguchi-san! Did you read the letter I wrote for you?"
"Yeah I did." Tadashi averts his gaze, and a beat passes. "Look, if this is some kind of joke or prank, then…"
"This isn't a prank, I swear! I really like you!"
Another beat passes.
"What do you like about me?" Tadashi finally says.
"Ah— uhh, your heart."
"Besides my heart."
"Um." The girl's eyes dart around everywhere except for Tadashi's own eyes, "I like your… sense of fashion."
"I'm wearing our school uniform," Tadashi responds in a painfully flat tone.
The girl struggles to form words, and all she can do is look down at her thumbs that she's twiddling with.
"It's okay if you don't have a crush on me." Tadashi places his hand on the nape of his neck. "But why did you write that confession?"
The girl bites her lip. "How can you be okay with that? I said I liked you and I don't—"
"It's okay," Tadashi assures with a firmness in his tone, "I'm used to it. But just why?"
There's another pause.
The girl takes a breath. Like rapidfire, the girl explains, "My friends keep getting mad at me because apparently I get too close to their boyfriends and they think I'm gonna steal their boyfriends, but I'm not! so I thought that maybe if i got a boyfriend of my own then…"
The explanation comes to a slow pace, "then I thought it'd make them feel better and they wouldn't hate me as much."
"But…" Tadashi could stare a hole into the ground with how his eyes are glued to it. "What if there's a guy that you really like? And you can't be with him because you decided to be with me? Even though you don't like me?"
"That's the thing," the girl states as if there's something obvious Tadashi is missing, "I don't like guys. I like girls."
"Oh," Tadashi says before it even registers in his mind that he's speaking. "Oh," Tadashi says a second time when he realizes what the girl just said.
"My best friend—she doesn't have a boyfriend—she doesn't really like me because all of our friends don't like me. But I like her so, so much. I just want her to like me too, or even just tolerate me. I'm sorry for dragging you into all of this."
A few beats pass, and the girl considers making a run for it and leaving Tadashi to stand in the middle of the hallway.
"It's…fine," Tadashi finally speaks, "You're in love…with your best friend, though? Even though you guys are the same gender?"
The girl's face pales and she squints as though she's going to be sick. "Omigosh I shouldn't have said that. Please don't tell anyone. Please just don't."
"I won't! I promise I won't. I just…didn't know you could…do that…"
A blush spreads across Tadashi's face as he looks away. Being in love with your best friend of the same gender. Tadashi had never thought of that.
"I need to go see someone," Tadashi declares. He turns to run the other way, and he adds, "Tell your best friend how you feel! I don't think she'll hate you if you just tell her the truth!"
Tadashi is a few meters away when he stops after running into a tall blond guy with headphones around his neck.
"Um."
✿
Kei is frozen in place. He's too late. Down the hallway, he can make out two figures, one of them being his best friend and the other being his best friend's possible future girlfriend. Fuck.
Kei wants to bolt over to them. He wants to object and protest and declare his love for Tadashi. Instead, his legs won't move and he's stuck staring holes into the back of Tadashi's head. A wave of clarity washes over Kei, and he doesn't want to run to Tadashi anymore. He wants to run away. He wants to pretend he never followed Tadashi and Tadashi's admirer so that he could hear from Tadashi himself about his amazing new girlfriend.
It would piss him off, sure. A lot of people pissed off Kei. Tadashi was one of the few who didn't. And that was why Kei would bear the torture of Tadashi telling him about his girlfriend. Even though it would be killing Kei on the inside.
Before Kei can take his first step to leave, Tadashi is already leaving and running toward Kei. His head is turned to the girl as he shouts something unintelligible, and Tadashi collides with Kei before he can react.
"Um." Kei stares down at Tadashi. In a flat tone, he says, "Yamaguchi."
"Tsukki," Yamaguchi responds, "What are you doing here?"
Kei stiffens. "I'm—You can't—I—"
FUCKKKK.
Kei clears his throat, and before he even knows what he's going to say, he blurts out, "You can't go out with that girl because I liked you first and I can't stand to see you dating someone else."
Tadashi blinks. Kei contemplates jumping out of the window.
Tadashi's mouth curls into a smile. Giggles escape from him, and before he knows it, he's bursting out laughing.
Kei's face burns. "Don't laugh about this; I'm serious!"
Tadashi laughs more for a few moments before he calms down enough to speak. "I'm not going out with her. I was going to go back to our classroom to tell you that I liked you."
Tadashi points a finger into Kei's chest, and Kei contemplates jumping out of the window yet again.
"I don't want to go out with her," Tadashi continues. Kei heartrate speeds up as he reads Tadashi's lips. "I want to go out with you."
Kei doesn't hesitate to run to the nearest window and try to pry it open.
"Tsukki, what the hell are you doing??"
"I can't do this anymore. I'm leaving."
Tadashi is bewildered as Kei continues to try to open the window. "You could've left normally then??? Why are you leaving out the window? You're gonna get in trouble."
Struggling for a few moments more, Kei stops in defeat. "I just— You can't be so cool and expect me to act normal."
"I'm the cool one? Tsukki, you've always been cool. Ever since we were kids and even now. Why do you think I like you?"
Kei flinches. "But you've gotten way cooler, so why do you think I like you?"
"You're cooler, so I like you more."
"No way. I ran out here to make sure you didn't go out with that girl. Obviously I like you more."
"And I didn't go out with her because I liked you—"
"Um. I'm right here," the girl says, making Kei and Tadashi both jump. It didn't occur to them that they were in the middle of the hallway and anyone could have seen Kei almost defenestrate himself and argue with Tadashi over who liked who more. The girl goes on, "You guys are weird. I should've chosen someone else to send my fake confession to."
"Ack— sorry," Tadashi says, "We weren't talking bad about you. And we're not weird."
The girl chuckles. "Uh-huh. And I have a name by the way. It's Mina."
The girl—or uh, Mina—keeps on walking past Tadashi and Kei. Soon, she's out of sight as she rounds the corner.
"So…" Tadashi asks, "Are we dating now?"
"Yeah, I guess we're dating now," Kei answers.
☆
"Yamaguchi-kun!" Yachi calls out in the midst of the Karasuno High hallway.
Tadashi whips his head around and smiles upon seeing his friend. "Yachi, hey."
Yachi searches her school bag for a moment before pulling out a few stapled sheets of paper.
Holding the papers up to Tadashi's eye level, Yachi says, "This is how many people signed up for the volleyball club this year! A lot more rookies this year." A soft smile forms across Yachi's face as she informs Tadashi. "I just thought you should know since you'll be captain and you'll be teaching them, yaknow?"
"Oh, man don't even remind me about being captain. I still don't know if I'm ready."
"I had to be the team's manager for a whole year after Kiyoko-san graduated," Yachi sighs, "It's seriously so nerve-wracking. But you're reliable and responsible. I'm sure you'll make a great captain."
"Being the manager is way different than being the captain," Tadashi groans.
Yachi giggles as the two of them make their way to the gymnasium.
Tadashi and Yachi, as well as Kei, Kageyama, and Hinata, had entered their third and final year of high school. Now they were the upperclassmen guiding and advising the underclassmen. It was stressful at times. Other times, it was fun to guide the underclassmen and share their passion of volleyball. It was fun to have people look up to you and call you "senpai."
Despite it being an autumn day, the Karasuno gym is humid and stuffy during volleyball practice. The smell of sweat outweighs the smell of salonpas, and the only thing you can hear is heavy breathing, sneakers squeaking, and volleyballs being hit around. Tadashi grabs his water bottle and steps outside of the gym with a sigh. He sits at the bottom of the stairs outside the door.
Behind him, Kei sits down with his legs on either side of Tadashi as he rests his chin on top of Tadashi's head. Tadashi's long hair is tied up into a bun today, and Kei honestly thinks he can die happy upon seeing the sight.
"Augh, the school year just started and I'm already getting confessions from all of these first years," Tadashi starts, "I mean, there's probably a confession or two from the second years, but either way, I have to figure out how to turn them down. In a nice way."
"In their confessions," Kei smirks, "Did they mention hearts an annoying amount of times?"
Tadashi takes a sip from his water bottle. "What?"
Kei's grin grows wider. "Did they write about how Oh Yamaguchi, you stole my heart, my heart belongs to you?"
"Oh my gosh Tsukki stop it," Tadashi chuckled, "Mina has a girlfriend now, and that was in first year anyway."
"First year, when the only person that liked you was me." Kei wraps his arms around Tadashi and leans forward to lightly plant a kiss on his head.
"And yet, the first person to confess to me wasn't you."
"But," Kei can barely stop himself from laughing as he feigns innocence, "You'll always live in my heart."
Tadashi laughs and begins standing up, "Whatever. I'll just tell the underclassmen that I have a boyfriend. Is that good enough for you?"
Words can't even describe the amount of smugness on Kei's face. "Yeah, that's good enough."