"Oh~ and? Have you told him?"

When you were sure your mind was playing tricks on you, your mum's joyous and cheerful tone almost knocked you off of your seat. The chopsticks clattered onto the table from your sudden slack grip and she paused to see what was wrong. Perhaps just now, she had realised just how hard it was for you to confess what you did. Even when it made her so happy.

"H-Huh? Wha-"

The trembling of your chin warned the both of you of the oncoming tears and you didn't bother trying too hard to restrain them when your heart was hurting so much. How could her simple response cause such a tsunami of emotions to erupt to the point where you could barely reply or think. More than the people at school, you were absolutely terrified of what your own mum would think and say about you. But that didn't happen. So it all fell out because you couldn't understand how the people who you had been hanging around with for so long during junior high could turn on you because of such a thing.

Blubbering about childishly and lost, your broken voice managed to get across to her, wondering why everyone thought you were a freak, and why it was so disgusting to like your best friend as you did. The more you spoke, the more your mum's face fell into heartbreak and rage.

"Oh, honey..." Her eyes were shining with unshed tears, she reached over to hold your hand, feeling absolutely defeated to witness her son feeling so alone and in despair, "I promise there is nothing wrong with you. Some people are mean and horrible, they need time understanding things that they haven't seen before but that does not excuse the things they did and said." She passed you a napkin, "You're still [Name], you're still my precious son and I'll always love you, alright?"

"Some people may be really mean but others will understand and accept you, those are the people that you should associate yourself with, okay? People who don't get it may take some time to understand and others won't, it's just how people are, you know? But above all that, you don't need everyone's validation, [Name], so don't think about what others think and be happy for yourself."

"What about Kenma?" You couldn't help choking it out,

"I can't say anything for him," your mum smiled, "but even if it's only platonically, I'm sure he adores you."

"HEY!"

The frustration and immovable rage of not exactly knowing what to do to fix this showed on your face when the two girls turned to see who was calling out towards them. The one you were talking to stared, her eyes widening exponentially and she gripped the sides of her skirt in anxiousness though you barely registered the nervous gesture. She thankfully stayed put and waited for you to approach her in the middle of the hall on the way to the school building. The other nameless girl stood by a bit and watched as if eager to watch some kind of drama go down. Even when your knees trembled a bit for yourself, you just couldn't let this go when you recalled the fact that your boyfriend's name had come up amongst the rumours.

"[Name]-kun, I-"

"No," your hard stare pinned her down and shut her mouth, "you listen to me."

The air around the two of you seemed to drop a few degrees.

"I told you and I tried to be as sincere and as gentle as I could be." She leaned back slightly in fear, your voice didn't raise in volume but it felt like it held so much weight that she couldn't do anything but listen. Everything you said came straight from your chest, stern and not messing around in the slightest.

"I told you I wasn't attracted to you and I said we could be friends if you wanted to. I-"

"You didn't even tell her why you were turning her down!"

Her friend piped up from the side, her voice smug and defiant. There was a cold and calculating look in her eyes that almost faltered from your glare.

"Chi-chan, stop!" The girl before you squeaked and turned back to you quickly, "I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for this to happen, I-"

"I can't date you because I have a boyfriend and he's the only one I want."

...

Two years ago this silence would've kicked the flight or fight senses in you to make a break for it and hide. This time, it was different because you weren't afraid anymore. The girl standing on the side gasped audibly yet the girl before you bowed shortly and immediately answered, "I understand, I'm so sorry! I-I'll," her eyes, panicked and in disbelief, struck to the other girl watching pointedly, before turning back to you, "I swear I didn't mean for this to happen... Even without being told..." her shoulders sagged in defeat, "It's so clear to see how much you and Kenma-kun care for each other... I'm sorry, I guess I was just... jealous of him. But I'll fix this, okay?"

Raising a single brow, you were almost sceptical of how oddly smoothly that went, especially when you turned to walk away just to have her call your name to tell you one last thing,

"You guys make a great couple."

Wandering aimlessly around the school for a bit, you couldn't help feeling exhausted and kind of disorientated. And don't even get you started on the guilt and complete regret of what you had done to Kenma. Running away like a coward instead of listening to him and even running away from Kuroo and the others, too... it was like you hadn't even grown up from junior high when everyone treated you like you had the plague and called you so many mean things. The memories made your teeth squeeze together to make your jaw clench, fists clenching in the pockets of your slightly sagging pants.

And Kenma... You just felt so deprived and alone right now, also mixed with the fact that you were ashamed, you were way too embarrassed to go back to him feeling like this. The only people in school were the people in clubs and even then, a lot of them were either on the sports field outside or in classrooms so the place felt pretty secluded.

You were beyond relieved to be able to clear all that shit up but when it all came down to it, they were dumb rumours and they were exactly the types of things that your mum had been talking about years ago when you came out to her, the things she said about people always having something to say but you should only worry about the people you cared about. And Kuroo said that no one in the club would care about looking at you differently just because of your sexuality.

You really shouldn't have reacted the way you did.

Now, you really just wanted to cuddle Kenma and tell him how much you adored him and you wanted him to cup your jaw in his hands and only look at you. As you walked around a little more, you decided to take your time and head back to the volleyball gym so that you could wait outside and sit on the ground while listening to yells, the sound of shoes squeaking against the floor and the ball slapping against hands or the ground. And maybe it was because of the exhaustion from what happened or maybe it was because you were relieved you had gotten to the root of the rumours, but sitting on the ground on the sandy dirt was comfortable enough to make your eyes slip closed.

"[Name]."

Junior high, third-year Kenma approached his best friend carefully. He didn't know how he should act around you, especially when he knew you were upset because of what had been going around at school. You looked so small and so troubled, he didn't want to do nor say anything to make it worse, but he wanted to be next to you, he wanted to think that maybe he could help you.

"I'm sorry, Kenma... it's all my fault."

You couldn't even look at him. Squeezing your fists closed until they turned white.

Kenma frowned, something squeezing painfully in his chest and he didn't like having to look down at you as you sat on the sand behind the janitors shed so he lowered down in front of you, disliking how you turned your head away to make sure you couldn't look at him.

"I'm not mad."

He wanted to say more. He didn't know how much he could say, he didn't know how he could properly get across to you. He looked from your short hair that was shining in the midday sunlight and to your biceps, thin but still with some muscle present (one of his favourite things about you) and he had to bypass your forearm that was firm and tanned because he undeniably loved that too. Instead, his eyes locked onto your hands and how they were clenched so tightly.

He reached forward, slow and silent, the only sound surrounding the two of you being the trees swaying in the breeze. The blunt nail of his pointer finger skimmed across the front of your hand, the sensation making goosebumps rise along your forearms as you shivered and snapped your gaze up. He didn't pull away, keeping his gaze on your hands when he instantly noticed the way your grip had loosened, he didn't know he had that effect on you and now that he had seen it, he felt breathless.

"Kenma..." your voice cracked, as if you were on the verge of tears, it certainly felt like it from the way your chest was feeling constricted and your thoughts were muddled, "what they're saying is true."

And the words fell from Kenma's pink lips, "I like you."

Like how flowers like the sun, how rains loves the concrete and how cats love napping all day in the sun, he likes you.

"[Name]"

You felt the blunt nail grazing across the top of your hand before you heard the smooth and quiet voice. Eyes opening slowly, blinking rapidly to wave away the tiredness in your bones, you smacked your lips together and poked your tongue out to get rid of the dryness. He said your name again, his fingers still on your hand like he was too shy to actually grab it but he didn't want to pull away either. A dopey smile came across your lips.

"I'm sorry."

He shook his head slightly, you almost missed it and he stood back up and reached his arm out to you so you could grab it and get pulled up (even if it was mostly you helping yourself and merely holding Kenma's hand just because it was there) and from there, you easily pulled him into you so you could wrap your arm around his shoulders and have his body slide right by yours, feeling his warmth on you, "I'm sorry, Kenma. I mean it, it won't happen again, I love you."

"Yes, Yes, I know, we can talk about this later." He turns and you see Kuroo, Morisuke and Taketora waiting for the two of you. The silence, thankfully, only lasting a mere second before Kuroo grinned to which you made the same face, "I saved the day, boys."

"You're all good, then?" Taketora wondered gruffly. Huffing, you slapped the ace's shoulder playfully and nodded, though you were still unwilling to let go of Kenma so he was pulled along with you though you saw that he wasn't opposed to it.

"Of course I am, you know me!" He watched your smile as if he wanted to catch the lie as you turned to reassure Morisuke as well, "this chick confessed to me and I said I didn't like her and apparently that wasn't enough for her friend so she thought spreading all that shit would do make her feel better or something... I don't know, I don't get girls."

"Eh!?? Was she cute?!" Taketora yelled, causing Kuroo to click his tongue from the volume and Kenma to flinch. Morisuke got a sour look on his face, "I don't care, honestly."

"Well, I know you don't but I just mean.. in general, y'know... I'm kinda jealous!"

"Hu~h," smirking, you squeezing Kenma for a second before returning to normally holding him, "I guess she was then, but why do you say that? About me?"

He looked at you like it was completely obvious, and maybe it was, "Well, you know... you and Kenma are pretty much connected by the hip! So I can't really imagine you being around someone other than him..." he scratched at his head like he was really thinking about how to answer that, making you laugh shortly before deciding to separate from the group, "well, with that being said, I'm gonna be stealing Kenma away this fine evening, see you guys later!"

What a coincidence that it was Friday so you could take your boyfriend out.