Chapter Text
»»————- ♡ ————-««
You walk through the school in a hurry, trying not to be late, your next class was going to start in 10 minutes, and you still didn’t know how to navigate around the gigantic campus. Coming from your old school, the big buildings and multitude of club rooms made your head spin.
Of course, getting into such a respected school was great, but you were already missing the simplicity and the cozy feeling that Johzenji irradiated. Shiratorizawa seemed too big for cozy feelings, and especially too empty since your best friend wasn’t there with you. Terushima got ecstatic when you said you were going to Shiratorizawa in your second year, but you both knew there was a bittersweet feeling behind his words.
You guys promised to text each other everyday, and you were already spamming him with desperate messages about the size of the new school and how everyone looked so much more refined than you.
╔═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════╗
To: TeruTeru [07:50am]
I’m so lost help me 🙂🙂
From; TeruTeru [07:50am]
chibi-chan how tf
To: TeruTeru [07:50am]
Have u seen this school???
To: TeruTeru [07:51am]
TERUSHIMA THERE ARE HORSES HERE WHERE AM I DDDD:
From: TeruTeru [07:51am]
wait what?!
To: TeruTeru [07:51am]
Exactly
To: Teruteru [07:51am]
Wait, there’s someone coming to talk to me brb
╚═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════╝
“Hey! You’re new here, right?” a girl with short, black hair asks you. “What’s your class? I can help you get there.”
“Oh, I’m in class 2, I’m a 2nd year.” you smile, relieved that someone is offering to help you out. “Do you have any idea where that might be?”
“Yeah, I got you, it’s my sister’s class too. I’m Higuchi Minako, and you are?”
Telling her your name, you let the girl guide you to the main building, talking about her sister and making sure to point out where the cafeteria is on your way there, stopping in front of the doors of a classroom with the small 2-2 sign.
Higuchi motioned to a small black-haired girl inside the class, making her get up and go towards both of you. She introduced you to each other, saying that she was her little sister, Higuchi Fujiko. The younger one looked you up and down, smiling politely and inviting you to come inside, while Minako waved at you happily, leaving for her own class.
“So, where did you come from?” Fujiko asked, taking her seat and motioning to the seat in front of her. “This one’s free, by the way, though you’ll have to sit next to the Youkai.”
“The what?!” you ask, a bit scared, glancing at the empty seat next to yours. “What do you mean a youkai?!”
“You’ll get it when you see him. It’s scary to even think that we’re in the same class as that.” she snickered, covering her mouth with her hand and letting out a gasp as she watched the door behind you open.
You turned to look at who had entered, seeing a boy your age, his bright red hair styled in a way that made it look spiky and soft at the same time, he was way taller than you, with lanky members that moved somewhat graciously as he sat on the seat on your right, his arms on the desk in front of him and his head resting on them, ready to take a nap. Your gaze went back to the door, trying to understand why Fujiko made that shocked noise for.
“So… you were talking about a youkai, are you sure you’re okay? Please tell me aren’t having some kind of weird hallucination.” you put your hands in front of her face, worried.
You hear the boy next to you let out a dry chuckle, turning his face the other way, his shoulders slumping a bit. Fujiko is looking at you in a weird way, while you still look at her with a worried expression, her gaze shifting to the boy next to you with what looked like a disgusted expression before turning back to you.
Luckily for you, the teacher enters the class right this moment, greeting the class and going to his desk, you turn to the black-haired girl, but she seemed to be somewhat annoyed with you, turning her head away to look at her other friends as you take your stuff out of your bag, noticing you forgot an eraser.
"Excuse me" you turn to the redhead next to you, hearing someone behind you let out a silent gasp. "I forgot my eraser, c-could you lend me one?"
"Sure…" he looked at you with a puzzled expression before opening his pencil case and grabbing a small eraser with a penguin character on it.
"Bad Badtz-Maru!" you say to yourself, happily taking the eraser from his hand and turning your attention back to class.
You could still hear whispers behind you, not quite grasping what they were saying and honestly not caring that much, deciding to focus on taking notes about the subject in class and doodling on the borders of the page mindlessly.
And then, it finally hit you. The "youkai" that Fujiko was talking about moments before was the cute guy next to you. Turning to look at him, you got even more confused, he looked nice, even if his features were a bit unusual, and he was pretty chill with you, so why would they call him such a mean name?
As the class ended, you quickly collected your stuff, putting the penguin eraser on the redhead's desk and turning to Fujiko. The girl ignored you completely, turning away to talk to her friends once again, leaving you confused in your seat.
Picking up your phone, you decided to text your friend again as you walked to the vending machine, Fujiko didn't seem to be happy with you, and you craved something sweet and some fresh air.
╔═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════╗
To: TeruTeru [10:30am]
We're on break finally
To: TeruTeru [10:30am]
So apparently there's a guy that seats next to me in class
From: TeruTeru [10:31am]
yeah? that's how classrooms work??
To: TeruTeru [10:31am]
I'm gonna ignore this and keep going with my story
To: TeruTeru [10:31am]
ANYWAY my classmates kept calling him a youkai, saying they're scared of him and stuff, but like???? He's so pretty???? TeruTeru help
From: TeruTeru [10:31am]
prettier than me??
To: TeruTeru [10:31am]
Just please let me finish my story I’m begging you
From: TeruTeru [10:31am]
maybe he has a shit personality who knows
To: TeruTeru [10:32am]
He was pretty chill with me, so I dunno
To: TeruTeru [10:32am]
And the girls stopped talking to me after I asked him for an eraser so like :))))
From: TeruTeru [10:32am]
well it's their loss honestly
From: TeruTeru [10:33am]
just out of curiosity, what's the guy like? 👀👀
╚═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════╝
You describe the guy to your friend, getting to the vending machine and pushing a random button, there weren’t many candies you disliked, so you found it more fun to get something random.
A blue package with the KitKat logo fell down, “Watermelon, huh?” you think to yourself, opening the packaging and taking a bite. “Not bad" . Walking back to class, you get startled by a row of notifications making your phone buzz.
Taking it out of your pocket, you see a string of messages from Terushima, talking about how he thought he sounded familiar, followed by him saying that “of course he looks familiar, he’s on the Shiratorizawa volleyball team!!!” and a bunch of random emojis to get your attention.
You answer the text quickly with an “oh, nice” and go back to class, throwing the chocolate wrapping in the trash and getting to your seat. Fujiko and her friends are still not looking at you, turning to the redhead for a bit and whispering to themselves, so you decide to ignore them too, focusing on your school work as best as you can.
◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆
The school day went on without any main events, you didn’t talk to many people, apart from meeting Minako for lunch, making her company as her younger sister went with her friends and her classmates finished a project they had.
You thought about asking if she knew anything about the guy in your class, but that would probably come out as a bit creepy, so you guys just chatted about school subjects and random stuff about yourselves before it was time to go back to class.
And now, you were making your way back to your dorm, as you passed the gym, hearing the sound of volleyballs hitting the ground and people chatting happily. You remembered how watching the team practice was fun back at your old school, especially since you were able to sketch some pretty dynamic poses for the art club.
Deciding to go see if you could watch and maybe sketch a bit, you saw some people already watching from the bleachers. You sit at the back row, getting a good view of the court, but not standing out much, and sit down to sketch.
╔═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════╗
To: TeruTeru [03:10pm]
I’m watching them practicing volleyball, trying to get some nice poses like I used to do back at Johzenji
To: TeruTeru [03:10pm]
Hope I don’t get a serve to the face, but they’re a famous team, right? So I’m doubting it’d happen
From: TeruTeru [03:12pm]
already replacing us, huh? I’ll remember that 👀👀
To: TeruTeru [03:12pm]
Shouldn’t you be at practice, Mr. Captain?
From: TeruTeru [03:13pm]
fUCK
From: TeruTeru [03:13pm]
Coach Anabara is gonna kill me
To: TeruTeru [03:13pm]
RIP in peace 😔😔
╚═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════╝
You watched the team finish stretching and, as Terushima had said, you noticed a familiar redhead in the middle of them. Even for player standards, he was one of the tallest ones there, only smaller than Ushiwaka.
Tapping your pencil on the page, you thought about where to start, maybe you could sketch the white-haired setter: He was already practicing his tosses and it would make for a nice warmup sketch. You put your earbuds on, playing a random playlist of yours and starting to work.
You ended up liking the sketch a lot, moving on to sketch their libero. This went on for a good while, and before you noticed it was almost 5pm and you had at least 3 pages of sketches done.
Closing your sketchbook, you finally make your way to your dorm, the first day of school was pretty chill, and you didn’t get any homework, so you could just take a shower and spend the rest of the day reading or browsing the internet as you usually do. You weren’t in any school clubs yet, but maybe you could go for the art club or even try out something like photography.
Being in class 2 made scheduling stuff easier, since you didn’t have subjects that were that advanced. It’s not that you weren’t capable of going to higher classes, but it didn’t seem worth it to spend most of your day studying even outside of school, so you opted for an easier program.
You thought about the day, and about how you heard people talk about your classmate (Terushima told you his name was Tendou Satori), they were usually commenting on his appearance, using names as “monster” and “youkai” even when he was around.
Not even the people watching the team practice refrained from making such comments, and it was starting to rub you the wrong way. Don’t get it wrong, the guy could be a terrible person somehow, but at least to you he was polite and you were starting to suspect it didn’t have anything to do with his personality at all.
And then there was the fact that the only people you interacted with that talked about him in such a way were pretty much outcasting you, so you knew they couldn’t really be trusted in their judgement after all.
Deciding to leave these thoughts aside, you went to bed.
◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆
Time passed by pretty quickly, you didn’t make many friends, sticking to Minako and her friends from her class, it wasn’t bad per say, but they weren’t your friends, you guys just hung out together because of Minako.
Surprisingly, the person in your class that you interacted the most was the redhead next to you, and it was mostly you saying a quick “good morning” to him before going to your seat, hearing scoffs or getting weird looks every single time.
It was starting to piss you off.
And there’s where you find yourself. It was monday, almost two weeks after the whole incident with Fujiko, and you got to class a bit earlier than usual, seeing as you pulled an all-nighter the night before to finish reading the newest chapters for Komi-san¹ .
That’s why, when you got to class that morning, half-asleep and moved only by energy drinks and hate, and saw Fujiko and some other people around Tendou’s desk, writing random offenses and drawing stupid stuff, something in you snapped.
“Oh, my fucking god, don’t you guys have anything better to do?!” you exclaimed, loudly throwing your bag at your seat, next to them. “What did this guy even do to you that you feel the need to be such assholes?”
“W-What do you mean?” Fujiko asked, taking a step back, the people around the desk doing the same thing as you got closer. You may be small, but the way you talked, with such anger and made you look so much more threatening. “Have you ever seen him? He’s a creep.”
“Are you serious, right now?” barking those words at the girl, you stepped closer to her. “The only creeps here are you guys, writing shit on other people’s desks and talking about them like they aren’t even there. Are you really that miserable to depend on someone else’s sadness to feel good about yourselves?! Get out of my face.”
Before she could say anything, you turned around to go back to your seat, still annoyed at them, but there wasn’t much else you could do without getting yourself in detention or something worse, you’d have to cope by ranting to Terushima about them or something.
Instead of your seat, you saw someone standing right behind you. Their height made them tower over you, you looked up, praying to all of the gods above that it wasn’t who you thought it was. Wide crimson eyes looked at you, and you could see the shock in the redhead’s face when he looked at you.
Fuck.
He heard everything, didn’t he?
You looked at each other, wide-eyed, for a second, before hearing the teacher greet the class with a “good morning”, and you went past the guy, going to your seat and trying to focus on anything that wasn’t the boy next to you.
»»————- ★ ————-««
Satori was used to people talking, he really was. It didn’t mean he wasn’t fazed at all, but the amount of times it happened were enough for him to learn how to tune them out. Just listen to music, don’t make eye contact, ignore the stuff that’s written in your desk, pretend like you didn’t even notice they were there.
It was a system that worked , it had to, or else he’d go insane. Of course some things struck a nerve, those were harder to ignore, to pretend like they didn’t hurt, but he managed. His whole life, apart from the safe haven that was volleyball, was like that, so one could imagine the surprise when the new girl stuck up to him, with such ferocity in her voice that even he was taken aback.
His day started the same as ever, he woke up at 6:00am, brushed his teeth, ate a fruit salad, got into his uniform and headed to the gym, ready for morning practice. They took a bit more time that day getting everything settled, but by 7:55am he had already showered and put on his normal uniform, heading to class.
He was almost there, mentally getting ready for the school day, when he heard an unfamiliar voice. No that he never heard it before, by any means, but never in that way. Normally he heard it in a soft-spoken tone, never more than a few words at a time, but now... now it was spitting out full sentences in a tone that would make even the toughest shounen character bow down and apologize.
Stepping into the classroom, he needed a second to process the scene in front of him. The new student, a girl that couldn’t have more than 1,50m, was standing in front of his desk, telling almost half of their classmates off for something that he wasn’t entirely sure of, until he noticed that they all had pencils in their hands.
Oh, that again.
“The only creeps here are you guys!” the girl spit out, hands closed into fists next to her body. “Writing shit on other people’s desks and talking about them like they aren’t even there! Are you really that miserable to depend on someone else’s sadness to feel good about yourselves?! Get out of my face.”
Satori watched as the girl turned around to go back to her seat, the anger in her eyes slowly dissipating into something more like embarrassment as she noticed the boy right behind her, her head tilting upwards a little bit so she would be able to look him in the face.
The girl had a shocked expression on her face, and looked like she was about to say something, when the teacher entered the classroom, greeting everyone with a “good morning” . He watched the girl walk past him to her seat, and decided to just sit down and worry about it later.
Except he couldn’t focus on class at all , what was that?!
The redhead didn’t hear any whispers or anyone commenting about him at all for the entire period, and that was strange, to say the least, but it was also kind of comforting in a way, especially when he noticed the reason no one had said a word yet was probably the murderous aura surrounding the usually calm and polite girl next to him.
He wanted to thank the girl for the whole thing, he really did, it wasn't his fault she practically bolted out of the classroom as soon as class was over. Satori humoured the idea of trying to catch up to her, but he feared that it would probably scare her, and he had to go to practice, so the thanks would have to wait.
◇──◆──◇──◆──◇──◆
The next morning, Satori ended up passing by the girl on his way to practice, finding it a bit weird that she'd be going to class an hour earlier than needed, but he figured she'd started a club or something, so that didn't stay in his mind for long.
She did, though. As he finished practice and excused himself a few minutes earlier than usual, heading to the lockers and searching for the one where he saw the girl earlier, she didn't leave his mind. The redhead wanted to do something to thank her for the other day, deciding to put one of his best truffles and a small note on her locker, taking care not to bring any attention to himself.
He would never admit, but he was a bit nervous, what if he came out as creepy? What if she was already regretting sticking up to him yesterday and decided to make fun of him like the rest of them? It's not like it never happened to him before, but he didn't want to risk it again.
Still kind of freaking out, the redhead decided to go to class, heading to his seat and noticing the girl wasn't there yet. He sat down, feeling like something was off, until he looked down at his desk.
It was spotless. Not a single pencil stroke on it.
Satori was sure his heart was about to beat out of his chest, and he had to try not to let his emotions show as much as he could, still looking at the wooden desk in a mesmerized way, letting out a small smile.
At the same time, the girl entered the class, the small box and the note in her hands, heading to her seat with a shy smile on her face.
"Good morning." she waved at him, opening her textbook and turning to the whiteboard again.
»»————- ♡ ————-««
The fight you had with your classmates the day before was still bugging you, and you knew that there was only one thing that you could do that would put your mind at ease, even if it meant waking up way earlier than usual and heading to the school a good while before classes started.
Cleaning Tendou's desk was a tedious job, the terrible stuff written there annoying you to no end, but watching it disappear as you scrubbed the pencil strokes was pretty satisfying.
You only stopped when the desk was looking as clean as the others, and only then you started to worry. What if it came off as creepy? Would Tendou be annoyed that you're intruding in his personal business? But how could you keep quiet and watch people talk about him like that when he was nothing but nice to you?
Shaking your head, you looked at the clock on the classroom wall, 07:50am , there were already other students getting into class, some of them gave you weird looks, even whispering to themselves. And then, you realized, your stuff was still in your locker! Running out of the class, you sped to your locker.
Stopping in front of the metal box, you noticed there was something inside that wasn’t there before, something was shining inside the locker. You opened the small door, seeing a small box with a note on top of it. Weird , you thought, taking the note, I wonder what that is …