𝐌𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐞 [ᴋ. ʙᴏᴋᴜᴛᴏ]

twenty-six

Katana stopped going to college for the next few days. Tooru let her have some alone time, despite knowing that she was feeling down and crying in her room. He brought her food and sweets during the day but never forced her to talk, knowing that if she wanted to talk to him she would.

Bokuto on the other hand had never been more worried. He called and texted her several times, only to get a text back that said she was ill. The ace was distracted the whole time - even during his volleyball practices. He even wanted to visit her but Tooru said that she wanted to be alone. He sulked the whole time, thinking that he messed up because of the kiss; he desperately wanted to fix things up between them.

"Kata-chan?" Tooru froze when Katana left her room fully clothed and her backpack swung over her shoulder.

She looked at him and shot him a tiny smile. "Hey To-chan, you ready to go?" When he hummed and nodded, she put on her shoes and left the apartment. Looking over her shoulder she raised an eyebrow when Tooru was still standing in front of her room, eying her as if he had seen a ghost. "Aren't you coming?"

He snapped out of his trance and quickly nodded before following her out of the door. Their walk was silent and Tooru glanced at her from time to time. It bugged him that she didn't talk to him and now she was acting as if nothing happened. "Are you okay?" He slowly asked, carefully eying her and waiting for a reaction.

She nodded and clenched her jaw. "It'll get better from tomorrow on." Her face hardened and she gulped. It has to.

Tooru tilted his head to the side a bit, not knowing what she meant. "Okay?" He said quietly to himself with knitted eyebrows before they reached the campus.

Katana postponed talking to Bokuto until lunch but she knew that she couldn't delay it even more. It is neither fair for me nor for him.

With a heavy heart, she made her way into the cafeteria and slowly approached Bokuto's table. When Hinata saw her his face lit up, making the others look at what got his attention. She forced a small smile on her face before turning to Bokuto. "Hey, can we talk for a sec?" She quietly asked. He nodded and got off his chair before following her. The other guys, especially Oikawa, wanted to know why she seemed so off.

Bokuto saw this as the perfect opportunity to apologise to her and get rid of the tense and awkward air around them. He wanted them to go back to normal.

Katana led them to an empty classroom, the knot in her stomach only tightening. Taking a shaky breath, she looked at his face and gulped. And before Bokuto could apologise, she interrupted. "I want to... well," Katana looked on the floor, "I don't think we should continue this any more."

Bokuto froze. He gulped in order to get rid of his dry throat while trying to dismiss the loud pumping of his heart that didn't let him process the situation any further. "What?" he managed to breath out quietly.

"Well, your fans seem to finally get the message. There's no point in faking our relationship any longer." Katana clenched her jaw and blinked the tears out of her eyes. Don't cry now.

The ace came back to his senses, a flush of panic rushing through him. He stepped closer to her, a desperate look in his eyes. "But why?"

She couldn't meet his eye and simply shook her head. If she talked more than necessary, she would break down in tears and that's something she didn't want to do. "I simply can't do this anymore," she whispered, "sorry."

When she walked past him, he grabbed her wrist, turning her to face him. "If it's because of the kiss, I'm sorry. We can work things out-"

"Please stop," she interrupted him and looked him into the eyes. He tensed when he saw her glossy and sad eyes, his heart clenching. "I don't want to fall in love with you even more. So please just stop." She pulled her wrist out of his loosened grip and left him standing in the empty classroom.