fragile ; oikawa tooru

⎯ 04 ⎯

chikasue ikari,

although i was determined to not attend oikawa's lunch plans today, he miraculously found a way to twist the situation to his will and force me to eat with him. in the moment, it hadn't seemed like such a bad idea anymore with pairs of eyes boring into me in the cafeteria. in addition to that, i wasn't very confident about having lunch with hattori in the first place.

ignoring my own grudges against oikawa, he was paying and it was a friendly thank you for mending his ankle, despite my views on whether that was necessary.

i further buried my face behind my panini, furrowing my eyebrows at oikawa taking multiple bites of his sausage roll that was falling apart all over the table.

speaking of my 'heroism' last week when i assisted him with his sprained ankle, of course letting alone the struggles with my own, i guess it was almost expected to ask about his ankle. not that i wanted to come off as prying, and anyway, i knew half of the answer.

since the beginning of the semester, oikawa has been working non-stop in the gym. only small bruises proved this but i noticed the energy being drained from him throughout my time with him in class too.

not that i was paying close attention, i just told myself that i need to keep an eye on him. for obvious reasons. if the boy was so tired that he fell down the stairs and broke his neck or something, what kind of position does that put me in?

i felt like, even the 'chi-chan' that helped him with his ankle that he claims to be friends with, deserves at least an excuse for what happened.

i swallowed my mouthful and cleared my throat.

"oikawa?"

"hm?"

"can you tell me... how you injured your ankle?" i asked without a hint of anxiousness, staring right into his brown eyes.

there was a tense air between us until he inhaled sharply and broke eye contact.

"we were playing a 3 on 3 in volleyball club and i had gotten a couple of service aces in but then i just went over my ankle on the jump, i landed on it weird too..." he told me, clearing the table of scraps of pastry.

"i see..." i looked at my hands underneath the table, clearing them out the way to reveal my feet.

i don't know whether or not to believe what he's saying. i would like to shrug it off as 'oh well, it's not really my business' but he also inflicted that injury onto me and, even if he doesn't know it, sitting opposite his is the exact same injury.

this is the first time i have the opportunity to know how i got it.

i rose my eyes to meet his.
"if you say so."

oikawa blinked at my response until a surprising small smile broke onto his face and he leaned on his hand.

"do you know a lot about medical stuff?" he asked, changing the subject.

"a little," i replied honestly. "but i'm not really interested in it..." i glance at him, a little confused.

"ah... you seemed really confident when you were helping, from what i remember," he said, continuing to eat his cinnamon roll.