one step further // haikyuu x OC

interlude // 32

~ Subaru Kojima ~

"Damn cousin, she really hit you?" A voice called out from the phone. Subaru sighed and rubbed his bruising cheek.

"Yeah man, I didn't think a girl could hit that hard..."

"From the way you treat girls, I'm surprised it's taken this long for one of them to fight you." The voice laughed. "I told you that it was gonna bite you in the ass if you didn't quit that awful behavior."

"Man I called for girl advice not a lecture!" Subaru grumbled. "You always have ladies fawning over you..."

"It's because I respect them, dumbass. I hope you apologized to her at least."

"Apologize?! She HIT me in my FACE!" His stubborn attitude was met with a disappointed sigh.

"Of course you didn't. You know Subaru, you really need to grow out of this behavior. It's shitty. God, you're not even emotionally mature enough to apologize to a girl you pressured into a date then bullied. Text me her email, her number, whatever - or I'm telling your mom what you-"

"Okay- OKAY! Alright, I'll send you her email... damn obnoxious pretty boy."

"Hm. I hope this taught you a lesson. Girls aren't objects."

"Yeah, whatever. Bye." He tossed the phone on the floor and groaned.

Damn bitch will leave my face bruised for a while. She even got Fukuhara scared... crazy.

Kojima's thoughts were brought to a halt when the doorbell rang. He swiftly sat up on the couch and gave the front door a weird look. His parents were out for the night, he definitely wasn't expecting guests, so he wondered who would be at the door at that hour. Regrettably he dragged his feet to the door and opened it. The whole ordeal was hesitant and unenthusiastic. He squinted his eyes when he didn't see a face, but just the front of a uniform. Subaru tilted his head far back to look this person in the face.

"A-ah? You're that tall guy from my class! Tsukishima, right?" Once he recognized a classmate, he assumed his friendly-guy mask that everyone knew him for. "What are you doing here?"

Kei's glasses partially caught the light as he looked down at him. "Kojima," his voice was aloof as usual. "I'm here because I want to talk to you about something."

"Is that so? Wanna step in for some tea, pal?" Kojima grinned at his classmate but he was, to his surprise, rejected. Tsukishima returned a wry smile.

"You're not my 'pal'... and this will only take a minute." In an instant, he tightly gripped the top of Kojima's head. Keeping him there as he babbled questions and panicked confusion. Slowly... very slowly, the height difference between them dwindled as Tsukishima started crouching to be nearly eye level with Subaru.

"Listen carefully Kojima," He began while keeping hard eye contact with his classmate. "If you so much as look in her direction again... you'll regret ever being born."

"Gah- Tsukishima! What are you-? Her...?" Subaru stopped squirming for a moment as he put it together. He put on a front, acting conceited and crossing his arms. "Ah... I see what this is. You're here because of that bitch, Toshiko, aren't you?" The regret was apparent as soon as the words left his mouth. Instead of gripping his head, Tsukishima took hold of a handful of hair and craned Kojima's neck back to direct his eyes back to his.

"I think you're smart enough to know you're in no position to be acting smug... Leave. Toshiko. Alone. Do you understand?"

"Ouch! Let go- yes! Understood!" Finally releasing him, Tsukishima stood to his full height with a dry smile on his face as he watched Kojima rub the pain from his head.

"Glad you could gather enough brain cells to understand, Kojima. I'm gonna get going then." He turned to walk away, but stopped to look over his shoulder with an ominous glare. Subaru froze up. "Congratulations, you've landed yourself on several people's shit lists. I'm not even the one you should be looking out for, she has friends much more inclined to violence than me."

Then Tsukishima just walked away, pulling his headphones over his ears as Kojima tried to protest and talk back from his front door.