fate, destiny, & love

03 | lo stesso tempo

03

lo stesso tempo [it.]
— at the same speed

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quqi grabbed the black hair tie off her dresser and swiftly tied her medium-length hair into a ponytail. she then leaned forward, eyeing her head to see if any of her hair was sticking out of place. seeing none, she grabbed the handle of her small ballet slipper pink-coloured luggage and walked out of her room, straight into the hall. she grabbed a small packet of biscuits and a packet of milo from the pantry, spotting her younger sister qiyue, who was all dressed up in her school uniform and her long black hair tied into a ponytail, making toast for breakfast.

"don't burn down the house this week," quqi lilted.

qiyue rolled her eyes, grabbing the strawberry jam, "we both know that you're the only one capable of doing that."

"don't miss me too much!" quqi yelled as she walked to the genkan with her luggage.

"don't worry, i won't!" qiyue yelled from the kitchen.

quickly, quqi put on a pair of shiba inu-printed socks and wore her favourite pair of sports shoes — blush-coloured with holographic highlights. it matched her outfit of the day, too (which made her feel very satisfied): an old pink shirt and black sports tights, with her black-and-white waterproof windbreaker wrapped around her waist for good measure. she exited out of the apartment and headed toward the elevators, all while plugging her earphones to her phone and listening to whatever came up first on shuffle in her music library. she then opened the packet of biscuits and began to eat (she still had time to finish them as well as the packet of milo before she reached campus, anyway).

when the elevator arrived, she stepped into it and pressed the button with the number one on it, then continued snacking on her biscuits. the elevator stopped, however, at the twelfth floor, which was the floor below hers. the doors opened, and quqi lifted her head to see who was the one who lived on this particular floor as she shoved another biscuit into her mouth: it was kageyama tobio, dressed in a navy t-shirt which had sleeves that nearly came down to his elbows, a pair of baggy grey sweatpants, and black sports shoes, with his dark blue luggage beside him. he, too, had earphones in. the two bowed slightly in acknowledgement before he entered the elevator. quqi held out a biscuit towards him and raised her eyebrows at him, "want one?"

he shook his head in response, "no, thank you. i've already had my breakfast."

she shrugged and popped the biscuit into her mouth and chewed. none of them made any small talk from then on throughout their trip to campus, completely clueless to what fate had in store for them.

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quqi's and kageyama's simultaneous appearance on campus caused quite a stir, with the entire cohort throwing glances at the two when they walked towards the same group. (the groupings were sent to everyone's emails the night before the camp, and quqi and kageyama coincidentally happened to be on the same team, along with remi.) quqi ignored them all and sipped the last drop of milo out of her drink packet, having consumed all the biscuits before arriving on campus, then threw the now empty carton away.

"i see you came to school with kageyama today," remi elbowed quqi jokingly with a suggestive look on her face, accompanied with an eyebrow wiggle as she sat down next to quqi on the bus.

quqi sighed, "that's because he lives in the same apartment complex as me."

remi's eyes widened, "whoa, really?! fate must really be hell-bent on making sure that your match turns out to be successful."