Chapter Text
It’s a crisp early morning when Hinata gets the first text. He’s in the middle of his fifth bite of his steamed bun when he sees it– the array of numbers he doesn’t recognize and the blank profile picture that could only belong to a stranger.
It would be common sense to delete it, marking the comment as spam– but Shoyo doesn’t. Just stares at the lonesome ‘hey’ from ‘unknown’ .
No context, no picture. It could be a gut feeling that makes him leave the text there, or just the fact that he’s in a hurry, but he doesn’t respond. Shoyo tucks his phone into his uniform pocket, finding his friend from class that calls him over, and forgets about it.
He goes about his day– tries to not doze off in class, eats a variety of other snacks, and then goes to volleyball practice with a spring in his step. He gets some pretty good spikes in, and goes home content. It’s only when he gets home entirely does he see there’s a second text.
Unknown: aren’t you going to respond?
Shoyo nearly trips over while putting on his pajama pants– far too occupied by the text message on his phone to watch his balance. He gapes at the screen– and then blinks again. This was so weird! Was Kageyama pulling a prank on him, or something?
“That jerk,” Shoyo mutters to himself, under his breath.
But wait, he was pretty sure Kageyama wouldn’t waste his time prank texting him, if anything. And if he did, he certainly wouldn’t do it in the middle of the day, while they were at practice, right?
It’s with that thought that Shoyo sits hunched over his bed, eyes glued to his flip phone.
When the person on the other side starts texting, and then stops, it’s when Shoyo finds himself picking it up, fingers flying over the keyboard without a second thought.
Shoyo: this isn’t a prank, right!??? Cause that would nto be nice!!
He pushes send, and then an angry emoji after, just for good measure.
And the person on the other side hesitates before texting again. Shoyo’s phone pings with the incoming text.
unknown: um, no. why would i do that
Well, Shoyo wasn’t convinced.
Once again, his thumbs fly over the buttons, sending his response.
Shoyo: I don’t know. You tell me! (* ￣︿￣)
The reply he gets from “unknown” is faster this time.
Unknown: Really? Kaomojis? What year is this?
Pfft!
Shoyo: Oh, so you do know how to text with proper grammar!
Silence. Five seconds, ten seconds, and then…
Shoyo’s phone pings.
Unknown: So funny. I really don’t care tbh
That sounded sarcastic, Shoyo thinks to himself. But he avoids stating the obvious in order to get to the bottom of this prank he’s obviously being put through.
Shoyo: Seriously! Who is this? Cause I’m getting suspicious. (°ロ°)
Shoyo pauses, then sends another quick text.
Shoyo: I’m blocking you.
The speed at which he receives a response is almost comedic in its timing.
Unknown: ????!
Unknown: Why?
Shoyo juts his lip out at the text. Then,
Shoyo: Cause of stranger danger, obviously! ╚(•⌂•)╝
Shoyo isn’t sure why, but he feels for some reason that the person on the other side is merely staring at his text. At least for a good long minute that feels like ten.
He’s not really sure what he’s expecting, or why he waits so long for that matter, but at last the phone pings twice in succession with a response.
Unknown: Oh. loll
Unknown: that’s cute
Shoyo doesn’t send another text that night. And he doesn’t receive anything else, either.
But the conversation definitely lingers in his mind as he brushes his teeth and tucks himself into bed.
Cute. Him?
It’s nearly 11 when he forces himself to go to sleep, promising himself he’ll block the stranger in the morning.