warnings : cursing.

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HUSHED HALLWAYS WERE never common unless one went to school extraordinarily early — which was exactly what [name] did.

they chugged down some coffee while they continued walking toward their destination.

taking a turn, they finally reached the library. tugging on the strap of their bag, they quickly checked through the new sticky notes from the anonymous project.

huh. four people had confessed to the same somebody i don't know about.

and two confessed to akaashi keiji.

[name] shrugged, not knowing the big deal over him. sure, he's pretty — looks were undeniably good — but from their letters, that was all they fawned over.

geez, at least get to know him first.

criticizing the taste of other people was not what they were there for; instead, they zipped open their bag and pulled out a [favorite color] sticky note of their own.

they spent a shameful amount of time thinking about whether they should even write back. it was foolish of them to keep their pride up, because there was a high chance that if they didn't reply, reo would never let it slide.

they scanned the board full of color and after a few seconds, found the yellow heart from yesterday. the student took a piece of washi tape and taped their note below the original origami. using some cut twine, they connected the messages together to create a literal thread for them to see.

when they took a step back, [name] nodded to themself. i won't regret this at all, right?

right... they took out their phone and took a photo of the sticky notes as proof, then sent it to the one who stayed up with them during the entire brainstorming that early morning.

the one and only fujimaru gwen was on call with them the entire time they mediated on the idea. their childhood friend surprisingly came to the rescue — thanks to her, the [hair color]ette settled on a decent decision.

"it's not a huge deal right?"

"you called me at 2am for a reason, right?? anyway, will actually you write back?"

"what's the worst that can happen?"

[name] prayed that those weren't their famous last words.

closing their device, they quickly packed up and left the scene before anyone could catch them.

( 🐚 )

what once was an empty corridor was now full with bustling students and a collective hunger for food.

"yosh, agaashie! we have lunch training — reo's gonna pass by too!" bokuto chirped, greeting his friend with a big wave.

akaashi hummed in reply. "i just have to pass by somewhere, i'll follow."

his smile turned downward into a curious line. the captain quickly followed suite as akaashi started to walk in the opposite direction.

"where?"

"library."

"oh?!" bokuto's voice suddenly rose in pitch. he leaned closer, trying to whisper, "did you write on the board?"

the setter rolled his eyes and quicked his walking speed to avoid the question. on the other hand, bokuto gasped out loud, yelling out a whiny "agaashieeee!!!"

"tell me more! you actually wrote a letter?!"

his deviance was loud enough for those in the hall to hear, much to keiji's displeasure. he furrowed his eyebrows and glared lightly at his senior.

"not so loud, bokuto-san," he muttered before turning around again and continuing his walk. the white haired male sighed and decided to not bother him anymore until they got to the library.

akaashi did his best to ignore the pestering stares from the others, but it was too distracting — he was thankful that it was only a few seconds of attention til they turned a corner and moved out from the hallway.

"...so — "

"later, bokuto-san."

"fine! i'm going to kick your *ss if we're late for the lunch training."

he'll have to give an answer to him later.

soon enough, they reached the library; sure enough, there were people crowding the boards, trying to get a peek of its contents. some pens were scattered on the floor and there was a bit of a line attempting to grab at the materials both on the ground and on the full tables.

akaashi flinched — crowds were not his cup of tea.

some girls began to approach the two of them, however, and it made the two friends glance at each other in a similar, peeved expression when their nasally voices called out for them.

bokuto huffed, placing a hand on akaashi's shoulder. "leave it to me! go take a look at the board, i'll cover for ya."

"thanks, i'll be quick."

while the 3rd year entertained the volleyball fangirls, akaashi made his way towards the small crowd around the anonymous project stand. thanks to his height, it was easy to find a spot at the back to be able to read what was on the board.

he squinted his eyes, trying to look for where his heart was.

when he did, he was surprised to see that there was an additional thread taped to the bottom of the yellow paper. akaashi leaned a bit closer, following the line downwards to the right... ending at the corner of [favorite color] paper.

written on it was:

i'm kinda lonely, so let's be friends. nice to meet you, now ask me any question:)
-library kid

his lips slowly parted upon reading the text. whoever this library kid was, he certainly had to think of a good question to ask.

( 🐚 )

"there's no response yet!"

[name] groaned, brushing their fingers through the pages of their notebook until they landed on a bookmarked page.

a pitiful chuckle echoed in the empty classroom, albeit a bit rusty from the call quality.

"relax, my god. it hasn't been a day yet, give them some time," the voice on the other end mused. her words slightly comforted the 2nd year, although it was still hard to not think about the note.

ah, the wonders of overthinking.

"i'll try not to think much, gwen."

they typed away on their computer, frowning when they seemed to forget what they were just about to input.

the girl on the other end noticed the silence. "you good there?"

"yeah," they mumbled, deleting some nonsense they typed. "just wish there was a button to switch off certain thoughts in my head."

"too hard to ask?" fujimaru chortled. "if there was one, i think i'd use it too many times that it'd break."

[name] couldn't agree less.

they were making some decent progress in their report. oddly, there were a lot of missing and unreturned books in the past few weeks. meanwhile, gwen was enjoying her lunch on the other end.

the two got to talk almost everyday — although, it was only over the phone due to the fact that they lived in opposite parts of japan.

the clicking noises abruptly stopped, followed by a single hit of the mouse and a satisfied sigh from [name].

"i finished one more page... 18 left to go!"

"[name] go take a f*cking break — "

the door slammed open, interrupting what gwen was about to say. the [hair color]ette shot their eyes up and frowned when it was just reo who walked in.

"hotaru? i thought you were gonna visit the volleyball club."

"hotaru's there?"

reo perked up when he heard the voice of gwen, moving closer to their desk. a paper bag dropped in front of them, while they bent down and leaned their chin on his palm.

"sweetie, i'm present, yes!"

some giggles were heard from the phone. "whatever. [name] said you're supposed to be somewhere else. so shoo."

"how rude! i just came back from the gym!"

the 2nd year quietly opened whatever reo brought with him, the smell of sweet dango hitting their senses. with their sweet tooth hitting them out of the blue, they brought out the treat and took a bite of it.

"damn, thanks for the dango," mused the secretary as they leaned back on the back rest of their chair.

"dango?!" gwen pouted, although no one could see her do so.

reo grinned, shooting them a thumbs up. they stood up straight, brushing his shoulders lightly. "welcome. the due had been extended already for the papers, so no rush."

their eyes instantly lit up and they immediately shut their laptop close. "are you suddenly my savior?"

"i'm your super cool senior, so yes."

"i know much cooler upperclassmen than you, hotaru." their childhood friend countered, to which he dramatically gasped.

hotaru, gwen, and [name] were all close friends. the latter two met when they were kids; ever since she moved out of tokyo, they still kept in contact. few weeks later, the 2nd year introduced her to the one and only reo.

now, they're almost inseparable even from a long distance.

"shut up — at least rintaro wasn't so obvious — "

"who said i was obvious?!"

[name] cleared their throat and swiped the phone away from hotaru. "he's obvious, yes, but so were you and suna."

"WHA — "

a chime was heard from their device — they ended the call with an amused smile and stood up, placing their phone in their sling bag.

"you really had to get the last word, huh."

[name] shrugged. "it's worth it. her and suna were painful to watch, and so are you and bokuto."

"literally, no one asked, my dear [name]," reo grinned, sarcasm lacing his voice. "'kayy?"

"'kay."

the lunch bell rang, ending their conversation as they packed up to head to their separate afternoon classes.

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for some odd reason im just in love w slowburn love help me BAJAHAHAHA

thank you for almost 200 reads tho !! <333