chapter twenty: CARAMEL APPLE

Orange light spilled from the cracks of green leaves on the trees as a group of boys in black jackets and white shirts walked home from school. The idle small talk they made cut through the silence as the smell of convenience store pork buns surrounded them. It was warm and peaceful, the kind of day you could laze around in. A bicycle squeaked against pavement, a crow settled on a branch.

The next generation of the Karasuno Volleyball club was finally at its peak.

Two setters exchanged words of advice and a short middle blocker laughed with a libero next to a wing spiker with a shaved head. The ace and captain simply watched. From now on, they needed to put in all their effort before training camp and the tournaments. But this peace was essential, they all knew it.

A girl with long black hair watched them from a distance at a counter, the silk of her work kimono fell against her skin as a paper fan waved against it. Shizuo Natarii sat at the bathhouse counter calmly, relishing the heat. Her mind drifted away as she gazed upon the boys, memories passing through her.

Three children giggled as ice cream dripped against their fingertips carelessly, the same summer sun above them. A brunette passed her cone to a girl with midnight hair, scrambling up a concrete divider, taking her dessert back. Another girl with strawberry blonde hair — people always said it was peach — followed, passing her ice cream and jumping up with a bit of difficulty. The last one gave back the ice creams, hoisting herself up with them.

It was so stress free back then. So calm. So happy.

Years shot past and they were walking home from school with each other. They could get up easily. They still didn't care about the ice cream on their hands. It was okay. The peach girl looked a little down. The others didn't notice.

This was the first mistake.

Another went by, this time only two came in her line of view. The brunette and black haired girl had worried looks on their faces. Their ice cream was melting. It went in the bin after they opened it. It reminded them of her. They spoke in hushed tones, nervous and scared. Where was the peach girl? They didn't know.

That was a lie.

Some months passed. The peach girl was there this time. Although she was alone. Her face wasn't milky smooth anymore. It was red, purple, black and blue. It didn't suit her. A smile did — happiness did. Where were the other two? She didn't know.

They both did.

A week later, the three were there. It looked okay from afar. But it took just the right pair of eyes to notice what was wrong. They weren't talking. They hugged against each other closely. The brunette was crying. The peach haired girl was sobbing. The black haired girl was heaving in deep breaths. What happened?

Everyone knew this time. Everyone knew.

Not just them.

The next day it was the opposite. Nobody was hugging. The only contact they were making was a small angry comment against another and a lashing tongue back. The brunette was the former. The peach girl was the latter. It came in that order, too. The black haired girl said nothing. They went separate ways.

This was the second mistake.

For the next days, none of them could be seen on the road. One day, they all were. It was a wet early autumn, with rain pouring down. Each girl stood a metre away from each other, waiting for the rain to pass. The black haired girl spoke first. The brunette went second. The peach girl didn't speak. She just fell to the ground and sobbed, while they looked at her.

In a matter of seconds, they looked so similar. Three ice cream cones sat spilled in the rain. The peach girl opened her mouth and spilled out confessions she kept, like she was a thundercloud and sentences were her rain. The two glanced in shock through teary vision. They didn't stop her.

This was the third and final mistake.

The next morning, the peach girl held a resignation form in her hand and a train ticket in the other.

At night, the peach girl wasn't there.

Then, it came to the brunette and the black haired girl's senses she wasn't coming back.

At her counter that day, the black haired girl found a piece of paper and a packet of chocolate ice cream on her counter. A phone number was scratched on it. She called it. Nobody answered. She noticed more writing behind in pencil.

'This is my new number. I don't want you guys to be sad, so ice cream's on me today!'

Natarii sighed, remembering how she leaned behind the counter and balled her eyes out. The way she called Chiharu on her phone, stuttering and choked up. She sounded exactly the same. An empty feeling settled into her stomach at the bittersweet memories.

A loud cheerful voice and a blast of orange came into her vision, Hinata Shouyou waving at her through the glass. She blinked once, twice, then smiled and waved back. He entered the bathhouse abruptly, the team attempting to call him back. It didn't work out too well.

"Hinata, how are you?" Natarii asked, putting her angst in her pocket for another day. "Oh sorry. I meant, 'Welcome to Shizuo Bathhouses, I am very honoured to have you, sir. What is your request?'"

The wannabe–ace laughed at her, letting it subside quickly. "I just wanted to know if you're okay, senpai. You were looking really sad but you were looking at us so I figured someone on our team did something?"

The girl flushed. "No, no," she chuckled, shaking her head. "I'm fine. Just feeling a little sentimental. Nostalgia and melancholy, you know,"

"Nos – what? Coly –? What's that?"

"I dunno. But watch out! Your star setter is approaching, Hinata."

A tall, blue eyed boy was the next black jacket crow (a nickname Natarii thought of just now) to arrive at the bathhouse. He opened the door in, an oddly enough, quiet fashion in contrast for his irritated face. Natarii kept quiet, deciding to watch the scene unfold in front of her.

It was a month or two ago, when Kageyama Tobio asked to help him confess his feelings for Hinata Shouyou after Natarii bluntly asked while Chiharu and the said boy were out getting drinks from the vending machine. It was so obvious. He looked like a lost puppy when Hinata was around and wasn't shouting at him back.

Apparently 'dumbass' was the best the setter could do as a sign of affection. Hinata, being the most oblivious being in the world when it came to love, relied on Kageyama so much and pretty much ranted about how Kageyama had loads of people confessing to him on Valentine's day at one point. It was at that moment, she knew she had to help.

Seriously. They looked so desperate for each other, off and especially on the court.

Natarii winked at him the moment he stepped inside, Kageyama blushing with embarrassment. Hinata called it 'red with fury'. They were so unknowing and the girl was pretty much sick of it by now. She decided, regardless of Kageyama's whining, that he had to confess to him when they won the tournaments.

The idea of them definitely winning the tournament and him confessing to the shorter boy sparked motivation inside Kageyama.

It was just the build up to Hinata actually realising his feelings towards Kageyama that she was worried about. Like, what would they do without her?

"Hey dumbass, come on," Kageyama groaned. "Daichi wants you to stop bothering Shizuo-senpai and get back over here. Are you an idiot or what?"

Mmm, classy.

"Oh no it's fine," Natarii replied, arranging the cacti that lined up on her desk. "But you should get going. I can hand-le this."

Kageyama scrunched his face up and attempted to figure out what she meant, finally getting it after a good three seconds of glaring into space. Natarii smiled innocently and he huffed, embarrassed.

"Let's go, idiot," he grumbled, grabbing Hinata's hand forcefully and looking away from him. "We're late."

Hinata's face bloomed a rose coloured tint, stuttering and glancing at Natarii for help. She stared emotionlessly, shrugging, but just before leaving a devious wink to be seen as they exited.

Kageyama and Hinata, exit stage right.

Natarii laughed to herself, then waved at her fellow third years who were in on the matchmaking plan. Daichi covered his mouth and Suga sent her a secret thumbs up, while Asahi just waved back nervously.

So far, it seemed that everything was going to plan.

And somehow, everything in her world just felt right.

• • •

Miruka and Kenma sat outside on the soft grass, a quaint clear lake before them. In one hand held a caramel apple, in another held a second hand. Their backs leaned against each other as they looked up, cotton clouds passing over in short bursts of white.

The girl twisted the stick of the apple, enjoying the taste of caramel on her tongue. The boy breathed in the scent of flowers and let his hand rub against her skin for these few minutes of silence.

His heartbeat for once felt steady around her and his breathing didn't stop when she spoke because he was so 'okay' and she didn't deserve something so human because she was the most everlasting soul he could ever know.

Her heartbeat exploded when his hair brushed against her neck and she couldn't take in air whenever he exhaled. She felt alive, alive, alive and she realised that everything he was and is was so real and genuine that it became so natural to just adore him.

Kenma imagined what she looked like now, eyes closed and lashes fluttering, her lips pulled into one of those smiles and her hair against her pale cheeks. Miruka imagined his, watching people pass by with amber eyes, eyebrows raised in curiosity and lips unmoving and just waiting, waiting.

They were both so obsessed with one another that they just couldn't pull away and see what they looked like from afar, both so connected and content with everything they were and weren't.

"I used to be on the track team, you know," she muttered. "I think I was the best. That's what everyone told me,"

Kenma coughed. "Really?" he whispered.

"Yeah," she said sadly, tossing her stick into a bin near to her in one shot. Miruka grinned. "Although, sometimes it didn't feel like that. Like I could run for hours without my lungs and heart bursting into flames. I mean, I was no prodigy, but I felt like a car on a racetrack."

He laughed and she felt his shoulders jerk up every time sound came out, enjoying that he was even a little bit happy. "What happened?" he asked quietly, his voice shaking slightly.

Miruka laughed. "There was this girl," she murmured, the corners of her lips quirking upwards at the mention of her.

"Her name was Nanami Anzu and she was my first love,"

Kenma turned around abruptly and moved to face her teary brown eyes, their noses just centimetres apart. She let her vision fall to her lap, her hand clasped around his tightly, as if she was in pain.

"And she was the reason why everything fell apart."

• • •

y'all thought she was straight

think again, bitches

- michaela