NEO-POP | Iwaizumi Hajime ✓

06 SYNTHESIS OF CHANGE & CONTINUITY

CHAPTER SIX
synthesis of change & continuity

AOBA JŌSAI HIGH
YEAR ONE

Iwaizumi is sixteen years old when he finds out you've decided to ditch art for photography altogether. You don't tell any of your friends because you assume they'll figure it out anyway once they notice that none of the artworks displayed on the white walls of this new school have your name under them and that instead it's a handful of the photographs in the monthly school newspaper where they'll be more likely to find the words Photos taken by: [L/N] [Y/N]. Soon enough, this is exactly how Iwaizumi finds out.

He can't say he's upset. Maybe surprised is a better word. After all, it was ultimately your decision, and things aren't bound to stay the same forever, but he'd always thought you were too passionate about art to let go of it. Nevertheless, no matter what clubs you choose to immerse yourself in, he still waits for you after school so that you two can walk home together, just like you've been doing for the past two and a half years since Oikawa had given up waiting for you way long ago, claiming that he just wants to go home already. Iwaizumi doesn't blame him, yet he can't help but think from time to time: what a wuss.

At the moment, you and him are on the floor of his bedroom, working on an assignment for a class you two share. It's silent for the most part between the two of you as Iwaizumi twirls a pen in his hand in concentration, stopping occasionally once he figures out the answer to a question on the homework to write it down.

Your process of doing homework is slightly different from his. You're sprawled out across the floor on your stomach with the side of your head resting atop your forearms while you stare mindlessly at the wall in front of you. Once in a while, you have some sort of epiphany and you lift your head only to scribble something on the assignment (more likely a small doodle than an answer to a question) for a couple of seconds before going back to your original position to space out once again.

Iwaizumi's about almost done with the assignment when you fling a small egg-shaped eraser you got from the dentist at him to catch his attention. At first, he ignores it in favour of finishing his homework. Just a few more questions... But then you toss another eraser at him, one that's decorated with apples. And then another.

"Okay, what do you want?"

You're a little slow to react, so once Iwaizumi looks up from his now completed homework after finally acknowledging you, you've already yet again thrown another eraser at him. It hits smack-dab in the middle of his forehead before bouncing back to the ground, and you see a faint red mark start to form around the area where the eraser hit him.

You don't dare mention it to him. Instead, you ask him tentatively, as if you're dealing with a child who's ready to unleash a temper tantrum at any moment now, "What'd you get for question four?"

Iwaizumi is not a gatekeeping type of guy so he merely sighs in slight annoyance and squints down at his own worksheet, scanning through his written calculations to find the answer. "Four-thousand one-hundred fifty-two point six-five-one," he reads out loud.

"What."

"You can just round up or something."

"What," you say again.

"Four-thousand one-hundred fifty-three."

You gladly write the answer down onto your paper. After you finish writing, you look back at Iwaizumi who stares at you skeptically, noticing that that's all you do: write down the answer. Furrowing his eyebrows, he recalls back to earlier in the day when the teacher mentioned something about docking points if calculations aren't shown for your answers.