paradox | ushijima wakatoshi

nineteen | go with your heart

11:25 AM

The bright, illuminated time flashed across the blaring glare of her phone, and Shiori squinted before the numbers registered in her brain. Quickly, she leaped onto her feet, grabbed her belongings and dashed out the door.

'Shit, Tōru's match lasted longer than I expected' Shiori cursed, before picking up the pace yet again. 'But then again,' she thought, 'the match was with Tobio's team.'

Her heart fluttered at the thought of the familiar blueberry. Although Shiori desperately wanted to escape the torture known as Aoba Johsai, she was hesitant to leave one of her closest friends there by himself. If she left, there would be no one that he could depend on when he was troubled. The inner turmoil lasted for a while, however, it was actually Kageyama himself that convinced her to make a decision.

"Always go with what your heart says," he had murmured to her. Shiori remembers that night as if it had been ingrained into her heart. It had been a very cloudy morning, and in the night, it was as if the clouds themselves had seen the end and broken down. They let their tears splatter onto the rough pavement of Earth, and cried their feelings away. Shiori had been huddled under mountains of blankets, listening to the pitter-patter of the raindrops on the rooftop drum a quiet rhythm.

Her mind seemed to have left the Earth. Her muddled thoughts seemed to have morphed into demons, each of them eating away at her sanity. It was Kageyama that brought her out of her slump. He had appeared before her as if he were her guardian angel with chocolate in one hand, and ice-cream in the other. After some coaxing (and a whole lotta sugar), Shiori had managed to cry out everything that had been in her cluttered mind. Kageyama had talked to her through the entire ordeal. However, since she was such an emotional wreck, she hadn't been able to fully digest what he was saying.

To this day, Shiori still doesn't exactly remember what it is he said to her. No matter how hard she scrapes her brain, the best she can come up with are jumbled phrases and things that don't sound like anything Kageyama would utter, no matter what the circumstance was.

But, there was one thing that Shiori remembers.

"Always go with what your heart says. If you think of trying something, and your heart doesn't flutter with excitement, then don't do it. dUh!" Shiori had made fun of him for uttering something so ridiculously sappy at first, yet in the end, these words guided her to transfer schools.

Shiori sighed. God, she really misses Tobio.

*

Shiori is just about a 10 minute walk away from Shiratorizawa's locker room, when she spots a small food stand in the corner. As she approaches, her stomach screams at her to hurry up and eat while her mind wanders back to this morning when she had received a rather intimidating phone call from Tendō asking why "her ass wasn't on the bus and next to Wakatoshi-kun's."

Well, they did say that the fastest road to a man's forgiveness is through his stomach.

Hastily, Shiori ordered a few items, only to realize a few seconds later that in her rush, she failed to notice that she miscounted the number of zeros on her bills.

Well fuck she was short quite a bit of money. And by the looks of it, the vendor was nearly done packaging all of her food.

With no other choice, Shiori turned to the people around her, begging for help.

After what must have been her tenth failed attempt, someone ended up stepping up. A rather tall and frankly quite built man in what Shiori thought was his early 20s offered to pay for her.

After being sure to thank him profusely, Shiori collected the bags and started to head towards the locker room.

Almost immediately, Shiori noticed that the man who had so graciously offered to pay for her was heading the same way as her. The premonition and feelings of fear started creeping into her mind, but just as quickly, she dismissed the silly thought.

'It is literally a straight hallway. You either go forward or backward. He must be going the same way that I am. Nothing's going to happen.'

Shiori walked on, but just a tiny bit faster than before.

Suddenly, her phone vibrated inside her pocket.

Ushijima
Shiroi-chan.
When are you getting here?
The game is starting soon.
If you do not arrive know that we are going to leave for the gymnasium in approximately 5 minutes.

Shiori
sry!
i stopped by a food vendor to pick up some snacks for u guys becuz i felt bad that i wasn't able to take the bus with u :(

Ushijima
It's quite alright.
I'm sure the entire team will forgive you if you show up with snacks after our match.

Shiori
lol i rly hope so
anyway i'll be getting there in like a min or so

Ushijima
Okay, I'll tell the team.

Shiori
kk
also ushijima-kun

Ushijima
Yes?

Shiori
you sound so stiff
and ur using proper grammar and spelling
be more casual with me! i'm ur friend right?
Read Just now

A flash of pain struck Ushijima. Grunting, he placed a hand on his chest and rubbed it, trying to offer himself some relief.

It didn't work.

He continued to massage the area in a desperate attempt to eliminate the soreness, yet nothing was working.

Why was Ushijima's heart hurting so much, and why coincidentally after texting Shiori?

*

After Ushijima stopped responding, Shiori sighed and tucked her phone into her pocket. It seems like it would take a bit before the stoic ace would allow himself to make friends.

Shiori was close to the practice room now, but still a bit too absorbed in her thoughts.

Way too absorbed in her thoughts.

And it was exactly then that Shiori heard a voice call out from behind her.

"What a whore. I would have never pegged you as someone who would suck up to multiple people at the same time. How disgusting."

***

I'm so sorry, I literally am not feeling this story, but it is actually pretty close to what I imagine the ending to be, so I wanted to push through and finish this. Anyway, happy new year everyone! I'm like a month late but I hope everyone has been doing well! Just a mini life update, I saw seventeen (the kpop band) the other day :D Also, I just wanted to thank everyone that has been supporting me during my extremely long update periods. I can never appreciate you more. <3 As always, thank you for sticking with me, and I hope you will stay by me in the future!

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-zhxngyv