≫ Chapter 16 ≪

No One's POV

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Silence filled Hikari's bedroom, nothing but the sound of a pencil brushing smoothly against the fine paper on the table heard.

Shadows, there were still shadows of her arms on the paper, making it a bit difficult to see what she was doing; she then adjusted her table-lamp's light to a better angle.

Slowly but surely, a new piece of artwork was being formed, despite the fact that it was just a simple, rough draft of something she'd never dare to show anyone. (Except Tsukishima and Yamaguchi, apparently.)

Switching her gaze from her notebook– which contained a lot of her notes for this one particular piece– to her paper now and then, she filled up the new sheet in about twenty minutes before grabbing a new paper to start working on.

This was her secret project, something she had wanted to work hard on, only to hide it and forget all about it until she found it somewhere in the far future lying ahead, like a priceless treasure.

Swaying her head and body to the calming beat of the lovely melody in her ears, she gave herself a well-deserved pat on the back for being prepared to work.

After all, listening to music was much better than working in the deafening silence. (Or so she thought.)

When she had finished with her small goal of nine pages for that day, it was already ten in the evening, and Hikari was getting quite tired.

Stretching, she made her way to her bed, snuggling comfortably in the sheets before pulling out her phone to message her two dear friends the usual "Goodnight (=w=)" text she always sent before sleeping.

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It was once again the standard morning in the courtyard of Karasuno, students being as chatty as always on the sides of the walkway as the third-year female walked by herself towards the shoe lockers.

"Pff, doesn't she look like a loner this wonderful morning. Such a downing mood over there!"

A snarky blonde's comment made its way to Hikari's ears, irk marks almost immediately popping up as she turned around to face the pair of first-year friends to give a good retort to the taller one.

'On second thought, let's kill him with kindness,' she thought schemingly, inwardly smirking.

"Nice hair today, Kei. And Tadashi, looking great as always. Let's go in, yeah?" Hikari smiled warmly, her conscience giving her a thumbs-up for doing such a great job.

And as she expected, Tsukishima fell silent, the tips of his ears slightly pink as he looked away.

"Arigato na, Ayu-chan! Iku yo!" Yamaguchi grinned, the three heading to the shoe lockers quite joyfully.

After changing into their school shoes, they headed to their usual hangout– the bench right under a lovely, shady tree– and decided to relax before their fifteen minutes before class was all used up.

"So, how's the thing going? Have you decided on the title?" the freckled teen questioned curiously.

"Wanna see? I've got it right here in my bag. It's not finished, though," Hikari answered, eagerly taking out a pastel mint-colored folder.

"Sure!" Yamaguchi told her, taking a look at the papers. "Sugoi, you made this? Tsukki, look, look!"

Tsukishima sighed and took out his headphones, proceeding to glance at the artwork his friend had drawn.

He had to give her some credit– he thought it was actually good.

"It's pretty nice," the blonde admitted, flipping through the pages. "The title's Riganryū, huh?"

Smiling, she responded, "Yeah. I guess it is."

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There she was, sitting alone at the back of the school building in her secret workplace, which was composed of an old and ragged pillow for a chair and a poor excuse of a wooden slab as a table. (Sponsored by the one-and-only, Nakano the janitor.)

'Yosh. Time to finish a little bit of this before this measly twenty minutes of the remain of my lunchtime is gone!' she thought, grabbing out her pencil case.

Hikari quickly sketched out yet another page, not noticing a man watching her from the side, staying silent for a little bit before revealing himself.

"Ne, Ayumu-san. What's that? You seem pretty into it," Nakano chuckled, approaching the flustered girl, who quickly covered up her work with her art supplies.

"E-Eh? What are you talking about?" she laughed nervously, turning to face him.

"There's no point in hiding it from your old pal, kid. Come on, lemme look," he told her, trying to glimpse at the papers.

"Fine, fine. But you're not telling anyone, got that? Especially Hamako-sensei and Inoue-sensei! They'd just be a tease," she sighed, clearing the table to show the janitor the artwork she had been working on.

"Maji de, you drew this?" he gasped in awe, taking a look at the pages. "Uso!"

"Don't laugh," she pouted, looking away.

"Why would I laugh?" he asked, looking at her like she was the dumbest person in the world. "You should be more proud of your talent! What is this, in the shoujo genre? Just because it looks dramatic doesn't mean the storyline's bad and all."

"Truth is, I want to become a mangaka. An animator, even. But I need to practice more. I mean, the hands are always off, I can't draw backgrounds very well, and I'd need an edi–"

"You'll be fine, kid! This is great. You don't have to show anyone if you're not comfortable, but don't give up! I see great potential in 'ya. If you need moral support, I'll always be here," he encouraged, flashing a goofy grin and shooting her a thumbs-up. "Anyway, I gotta go. There's been a food spill in the cafeteria, and I need to clean it up. Don't forget what I said, 'kay, kid? Jaa ne."

"A-Arigato, Nakocchi! G-Gambarimasu!" Hikari thanked him, waving.

As soon as Nakano left, she immediately grabbed a new piece of paper and started sketching the outline of a man, smiling at the idea she had gotten.

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The afternoon sun was in its place, the classroom already empty, as class had ended about fifteen minutes ago, and everyone had left except for a certain female brunette.

Finally, she lifted the marker she held in her hand, done with what she started.

Packing up the messy scatter of art supplies on her desk, she smiled, then placing the sheet of paper in her mint-green folder.

She stood up and carried her bag on her shoulder before heading out with the folder in her arms.

Hikari was excited to hand over her little gift to Nakano; she cheerfully dashed in the hallways, towards the janitor's closet.

It wasn't long before she collided with another student, making her whole body (as well as the folder) crash into the floor.

"I-Ittai... Sumimasendeshita..." she mumbled, picking up the scattered papers on the floor.

"Eh? You drew this, Hikari?" Sugawara asked, taking a look at the piece she had just finished.

"S-Sugawara?! What the hell are you doing here? Give that to me!" Hikari yelled, clearly embarrassed.

"Huh? Here," he answered, handing her the paper. "Are you going to give that to Nakano-san?"

"How did you–"

"It looks like him. You're really good at this. K-Keep it up. Etto, here's the rest of the papers," the silver-head told her, compiling the fallen sheets and giving it his classmate.

Looking away, she grabbed the papers. "Hey. I've been meaning to ask. If you hate me so much, why are you being so nice to me?"

Sugawara's eyes widened as he stood up, turning around abruptly.

"Hate is a strong word, isn't it?" he mumbled. "Perhaps, really dislike?"

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a/n: would you look at that. do you call that progress tho

:')

ayyyee i hop y'all ready. act I is finished, we're in act II now

which means

more fluff and escalation shooting through the roof

aYEEEE

anyways, what are your thoughts, everyone? i really wanna know what people think so far, etc. esp what you think might happen and stuff. you'll never know. i might grant some of your wishes if i find them too interesting for words.

anyway, sorry it's another filler-ish chapter. It's half filler because I wanted to emphasize Hikari's love for art bc i feel like i dont put that enough

kyaaa~ i really like the ending of this chapter though, i had a lot of fun writing it ;;w;;

y'all, let me know what you think, alright? it helps me get motivated to write, plus did i ever tell you how much i love reading comments? salty comments, sweet comments, hilarious comments, comment comments, cOMMENTS ARE SO INTERESTING TO REAd. inline comments esp.

I MEAN YOU DONT NEED TO BUT IT WOULD BE V APPRECIATED !! NO PRESSURE

i hope you guys enjoyed ;;o;;

honestly i cant even believe im reaching this far into the story. usually when it comes to fanfictions, i dont even get past the second chapter before resetting the plot and rewriting everything and getting pissed at my writing, but wow we've reached the sixteenth chapter ;0;

AND THANK YOU GUYS FOR 12K??? GUYS WHATS THAT WHY

GUYS WHAT

IM

OK

10/10

JAA NE

NYX