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the seesaw seemed more rusty than he last remembered.
the last time daiki set his foot in this playground were the times when he was still in middle school. seven of them sometimes spent time together there, winding down after a long day in school with popsicles on their hands as they all bicker and laugh about stupid things that happened during practice hours. satsuki sat on the swings with akashi next to her as they talked about trainings, he and kise spinning on the roundabout as murasakibara spun it too fast that the blond once flung out of it—crashing right to midorima who was just standing next to the sandbox and fell with the other right inside of it.
it was pretty funny to say the least, but daiki remembered noticing that tetsu's sitting on the seesaw all by himself.
leaving the other three bickering behind, daiki remembered calling his partner out—inviting him to come in the roundabout with them. tetsu refused after seeing what just happened, of course—and he couldn't blame him with that, so he just took the other end of the seesaw and told him to play with him. the other let out a sigh and sat properly and held on the bars as both them began to swing up and down, throwing teasing quips with grins while kicking themselves up and down from the ground.
it's pretty weird to mention that specific memory, but daiki somehow find it quite ironic that he could now see how did the beginning of their end played the way as how seesaw works.
daiki had always been the heavier person between them, after all. he dropped his weight too deep, seeing how the other couldn't understand what he's been struggling with the weight of expectations dragging him down. he was too busy carrying that weight all by himself that he left his shadow up in the air, believing that he wouldn't be understood even after sharing a piece of that weight to the other.
they were never been parallel in the first place, he thought—that's why it had been once easy to spend his days with the others as they had their ups and downs on that seesaw game. it was all until the weight from the other people began to pile up on the other side where they began to hover too high that they couldn't reach anyone at every match anymore. they were lifted so high, and no one else tried to pull them back to the ground except for one who was left behind.
that point became the very moment daiki got sick and tired, right after that rainy day where their coach told him that he could finally skip practices.
when tetsu asked him to come and practice with him after that moment, he now realized how their coach knew how pointless it is to come anymore.
so he turned and threw all of his weight right at his partner out of disbelief, only to hear that even his own shadow was troubled by the distance between them.
at that very point, it became clear that the light and shadow became parallel from another already.
daiki completely forgot how to receive his past shadow's passes, after all.
it was the light who first get off from that stupid seesaw game between him and his shadow. he was the one who ended it after the reality of their life gave up on them. now that the weight of the past finally lose its grip from them, it was too late for him to take everything back from what they have been.
his shadow had finally left the seesaw with another light that broke through its stupid game, after all.
so all daiki could do is walk on that seesaw of the past—
getting back on it just to see how empty it was at that point.
so he get off that seesaw and walk off from the past,
knowing that his past partner had already did with the light of his present.