𝙖𝙠𝙖𝙣𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙞𝙯𝙖𝙠𝙞, 𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩

❣ 𝟎𝟑. 𝐀𝐤𝐚𝐧𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐤𝐢

𝐇𝐚𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐤𝐢 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 [𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞] 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐢𝐦. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭, 𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞. ¹

He tossed and turned in his bed, trying his best to get some sleep. But he couldn't. He just couldn't, and all he could think about was how blind he was back then. Not realizing how much she was suffering.

"I'm pathetic, aren't I?" he muttered out to nobody in particular, yet, there was the lingering sadness he wished someone would respond to him. He sat up, looking towards the lunchbox that was given by [name] the first time she came to visit.

How he had wanted to throw it away, yet, the food she prepared was nothing but a delicacy to his tastebuds. He ruffled his brown hair harshly, wondering if he could finally fall asleep then. But all he could think about was going for a walk instead.

Not bothering to inform his uncle who was passed out on the sofa in the living room due to how hard he was working, Haizaki proceeds to leave the house without a second thought. Yet, Kazuya could only let out a sigh as he sat up on the sofa, watching the silhouette of Haizaki leaving pass the gate.

"This brat..." he muttered out, ruffling his brown hair as well. Wondering how was he supposed to help the young girl from the day before in convincing his nephew to return to school.

But little did he know, that eventually, things would work out.

❣

"Huh? You mean you talked to Akane-san?" Kuroo asked as he looked at [name] who was busy helping with cleaning up the classroom, given how they were on cleaning duty for the day and that there wasn't any practice for the evening.

"Yeah, he was home and let me in," she pointed out and looked at Kuroo who blinked his eyes a few times at her, wondering if she had hit her head or something, which she frowned at as she chucked the cloth at his face.

Where he easily caught it.

"So, what did Akane-san say?" he asked, rather curious to what Haizaki's uncle had spoken to [name] about, and he watched as the manager of the volleyball team shrugged her shoulders in response, not wanting to answer.

"Hey, [name]! Don't leave me hanging!" he called out and [name] turned to look at him, sticking her tongue out did he have an irk mark on his forehead.

"He told me to let him be, that I shouldn't force him to come back if he doesn't want to. Forcing him isn't gonna get him out of his shell," she pointed out and Kuroo let out a sigh as he leaned against the table, but eventually sat on it instead.