leaper - banana fish
come practice that evening, and ushijima had completely dismissed the girl by then. after goshiki returned to his teammates bearing the news that the girl was gone, ushijima found no reason to care after that. he told himself that he just wasn't feeling well, and that's why he was acting so stupidly.
the boys changed in their large and expensive locker room, where tendou insisted on prying the weirdest answers out of second year kawanishi.
"so... kawanishi. i happen to remember you mentioning the fact that you might have a bit of a crush on someone."
though most of the boys showed little to no interest in kawanishi's love life, a select couple, being goshiki and yamagata, found the fact that someone as stoic and blunt as taichi could have emotional feelings for someone a mystery to be solved. who in the world could possibly have been perfect enough?
but then again, if kawanishi could find love, then maybe there was hope for ushijima after all.
"so what?" kawanishi replied. "she's probably moved away."
"oh? what makes you think so?"
kawanishi sighed. "i haven't seen her around. i assumed that she's left."
"what's her name?" goshiki asked.
kawanishi pulled his shirt over his head of ginger hair.
"you wouldn't know her," he rejected. "she would be a third year now."
"a third year, eh?" tendou grinned. "you have a thing for older women, taichi?"
"quit it. it's only by a year." though kawanishi showed irritation in the face of tendou's teasing, his face turned light pink.
"i might know her," yamagata chimed. "i'm pretty popular, y'know. i get around."
"i'm sure," kawanishi sarcastically dismissed. "the last people that i want to tell are you or tendou. if you guys find her, you'll harass her and bother her to no end."
"i'm offended that you don't trust us, taichi. your upperclassmen!" tendou held a hand to his heart in offense.
"personally, i think taichi's right not to trust you." semi admitted. "you two especially tend to make a lot of trouble."
"it's not on purpose..." yamagata defensively mumbled, stuffing his clothing in his locker.
kawanishi sighed. "i guess, if she's moved, it doesn't really matter. does it?"
tendou grinned and excitedly nodded his head. "please, please, please! i'm practically dying to know!"
"i wish," kawanishi scoffed. "anyway, her name is tenma y/n."
the silence painfully rang through the locker room, where the only noise was ushijima's shuffling around and shirabu awkwardly clearing his throat.
semi leaned over to whisper in yamagata's ear. "wasn't she the weird girl with super huge glasses in our class?"
"i think so... to each his own, i guess?"
"for your information," kawanishi snobbily replied. "she's not weird. she's really smart, and funny, too!"
"would you look at that! taichi's in love!"
while the other boys oohed and awed at kawanishi's flushing expression, ushijima slammed his locker closed and fled the locker room. it wasn't out of the ordinary for ushijima to be the first person out of the lockers, but it was strange that he hadn't stopped to remind his teammates that they were on the clock like the natural captain that he was.
