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Hajime was sure something was up with Tooru. You aren’t best friends with someone for so long without learning almost everything that can be learnt about them. And also it’d also just got to the point where it was pretty obvious.
For a couple weeks now, Tooru was always busy on free periods, lunch break and every single free moment during school hours. He’d even been late to volleyball practice a few times. On top of that, every time Hajime asked to hang out after school or on the weekends, he said he already had plans.
Tooru never said no to hanging out with Hajime. He would be lying if he said it didn’t piss him off. Tooru Oikawa might be an annoying idiot, but he was Hajime’s annoying idiot and he wanted to be with him.
Or maybe he was just jealous because of what those two other idiots had said.
“Where’s Oikawa?” Hanamaki asked as Hajime sat on the table during lunch that day.
“I don’t fucking know.” Hajime replied, pissed they kept asking. It’d been a while since Tooru had shown up to have lunch with them.
“I bet he’s got a girlfriend again.” Matsukawa, the third person at their table, pointed out.
“What? Why would you think that?” He’d asked the middle blocker.
“I mean, what else could he be doing if not? He’s never with us anymore. Last time he did this was when he was dating that girl, Endou or whatever.” Matsukawa explained.
“But that doesn’t make sense. He’s always told me when he’s liked someone. He’s always asked me for advice or made me third wheel his dates. If he liked someone, I’d know.” Hajime said, ignoring the lump forming in his throat.
“Maybe… Maybe he doesn’t want to tell you.” Hanamaki replied, voice surprisingly gentle, like he was afraid his words might hurt Hajime.
“Why not? We tell each other everything.”
“What if he’s not ready?”
“Ready for what? What are you going on about, Makki?”
“I’ve seen him around a lot with this guy from his class.” Hanamaki admitted. “Like, every time he wasn’t with us.”
“Wait, are you saying he’s dating a guy?” Matsukawa asked.
“I’m saying he might be. And I’m saying he might not be ready to come out to you, Iwaizumi.”
“Why not? I’d never judge him or anything. I’m not homophobic, he knows.” Hajime replied, stomach twisting.
“When my sister came out, she told me she’d been scared to tell the family even if she knew we’d be okay with it. She was scared it’d make things change between us. Maybe Oikawa is the same.” Hanamaki explained. “Maybe he doesn’t want things to change between you two.”
Hajime didn’t reply, frowning at his food and focusing on eating even if it felt like something was blocking his throat. He didn’t even know what the hell he was feeling.
Now, almost six hours later, Hajime knew exactly what he was feeling. He was jealous, impossibly jealous at the thought of Tooru dating a guy.
It was new. Hajime had never felt jealous of any of Tooru’s girlfriends. And yet, just the idea of him getting anywhere close to a guy made his stomach churn. He wanted to say he didn’t know why that was, but he was well aware.
He had a crush on Tooru.
Hajime knew when he’d realized that. It’d been back in August, after playing the Spring Tournament Qualifying Rounds. They were on the bus back to the school, everyone sleeping after playing all day. Tooru was watching the results of all the matches, seeing how the brackets ended up and already starting to plan for the Qualifiers in October. In that moment he was all determination and passion and Hajime suddenly understood he wanted to be loved by Tooru the way Tooru loved volleyball.
What he didn’t know was how long he’d been crushing without even realizing it. Maybe there hadn’t been a starting point and it was all building up since they met as kids, making Tooru the most important person in Hajime’s life just so he could watch with a broken heart as he left with some random girl. Or maybe even a boy. In the end, Hajime didn’t care because it wouldn’t be him.
It only made him jealous that it was a boy because it felt like he was so close and yet so far away. If Tooru actually liked guys, why couldn’t he like Hajime? Because he was sure he’d know it if his best friend liked him. After all, he knew him better than everyone else.
On impulse, he grabbed his phone. The school festival was tomorrow. Hajime didn’t have anything to do aside from helping his class set up some stuff at the start, so he would have time to hang out all day. He tried to not overthink as he called Tooru.
“Iwa-chan. Need anything?” He’d talked with Tooru just a couple hours ago at volleyball practice, so why did he feel like they hadn’t talked in ages?
“Tomorrow is the school festival.” Why the hell did he sound so awkward? It was just Tooru, he needed to calm down.
“I know.”
“Do you think you’ll have time to hang out for a while? Maybe we could go eat together or something.” His heart was beating so fast, what was wrong with him?
“Sorry, I can’t. I’ll be busy helping my class.” Hajime wanted to point out Tooru had told him he wouldn’t be participating in his class’ event, but before he could he heard a voice on Tooru’s side of the call. A guy’s voice.
Kawa? Are you on the phone?
“Sorry, Iwa. I need to go.” Tooru told him through the phone.
“Yes. Okay. It’s fine.”
“Bye. See you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, see you.” And with that, Tooru hung up on Hajime.
Why had he even called? He felt miserable now.
Hajime showed up at school the next day in a really sour mood. His class was doing some theater performance and all he had to do was help them get all the props and stuff needed in place before they started. Because he was busy with volleyball he’d decided to not get that involved.
Matsukawa and Hanamaki, on the other hand, were going to be busy until lunch. Back when they’d first talked about this, Hajime hadn’t really cared because Tooru wouldn’t be participating in any event either so they could just hang out together. But things had changed a lot since then. So by the time Mattsun and Makki found him he was sulking in the same table he’d sat at two hours before.
Their plan to cheer him up was food.
“I’ve heard class 2-5 is serving pancakes. We should try them out.” Hanamaki suggested.
“Isn’t that Yahaba’s class? It was one of his classmates that made those super good cookies last month.” Matsukawa asked.
“Okay, then we need to try those pancakes.”
Hajime just followed them around the school grounds. He wasn’t hungry. To be honest, he wasn’t much of anything. At some point of the night the jealousy had turned into this black hole in his chest that threatened to swallow him whole. But he appreciated his friends’ efforts.
It took him a moment to notice the music. But when he did, he quickly saw it was coming from a band playing on a small stage to their right. The song finished and everyone clapped. The singer guy started talking and Hajime recognized his voice as the guy he’d heard through Tooru’s phone yesterday. That made him stop and watch.
“Our next song will be sung by a special guest.” The guy announced. “You all know him, you all probably have a friend who has a crush on him, you might have even seen him on TV. The volleyball club captain, Tooru Oikawa!”
With some more clapping, Tooru walked onto the stage. Hajime was glued to the ground now. What was going on? Since when could Tooru sing?
His best friend, or maybe he should say stranger because he felt like he didn’t know him anymore, grabbed the mic from the singer and faced the audience, signature smile plastered on his face.
“Before we start, I’d like to dedicate this song to someone very special to me.” A choir of ‘ooooh’ and murmurs could be heard. Hajime felt like he could explode or cry right there, in front of everyone. “Hajime Iwaizumi.”
Right when Tooru said those words, the guitarist started playing the intro of some song, which managed to shut everyone up. The drums and the bass joined a few moments later. And then-
“No, ya no me llores. No me vayas a hacer llorar a mí.” Tooru’s voice resonated through the speakers. Smooth, calm, controlled. “Dame, dame tu mano. Inténtalo, mi niño, quiero verte reír.” He smiled, gripping the mic.
“Abrázame fuerte, ven corriendo a mí. Te quiero, te quiero, te quiero y no hago otra cosa que pensar en ti.”
Hajime couldn’t believe what he was watching. Tooru was singing. Tooru was singing in Spanish and he was so good he felt like he could melt right there, listening to him.
“Tú, estás dormido. Y yo te abrazo y siento que respiras. Sueño, con tu sonrisa. Te beso, muy despacio, en las mejillas.”
Tooru’s eyes scanned the audience and found Hajime. He locked eyes with him, cheeks reddening for everyone to see, but he kept singing.
“Necesito verte, dondequiera que estés. Te quiero, te quiero, te quiero y no hago otra cosa que pensar en ti. Solo vivo y respiro para ti.”
The song continued, Tooru singing again after a guitar solo, the band’s singer even doing some backing vocals. But Hajime’s brain wasn’t even registering it. All he could do was look at Tooru in that stage, looking far more gorgeous than anyone had any right to be.
“Te quiero, te quiero, te quiero.” The song ended with a last guitar riff and the audience erupted into cheers. Seeing the popular Oikawa sing was definitely a surprise, and especially that he was so good. But Tooru didn’t pay attention to any of that.
He gave the mic back and left the small stage as fast as he could, making a beeline for Hajime. It wasn’t until they were face to face that he felt like he could move again.
Tooru opened his mouth, clearly about to say something, but Hajime grabbed his arm and dragged him. Tooru let himself be pulled away from the rest of the student body.
Hajime finally stopped when they reached an empty hallway. His heart was beating louder than it’d ever had playing volleyball. Tooru was looking at him again with that stupid smile and stupid blush, but this time he wasn’t on a stage, he was right in front of him, in his arms’ reach.
So he pulled his face closer and kissed him.
It was a fast kiss, just lips against lips, more a statement from Hajime than anything else. Still, Tooru’s first words when they both pulled away were:
“That was hot.”
“Not more than you singing.” Hajime replied, face going red against his will. Tooru lighted up at his words.
“So you liked it?”
“Of course I did!”
Silence settled in the hallway as they both just smiled at each other while blushing like idiots.
“Is this why you've been so busy? Because you were preparing this?” Hajime asked.
“Yeah. Comes out learning a whole song and practicing with a band to do well on stage is hard.”
“Who would have expected it?” Tooru pouted at Hajime’s teasing.
“I just thought it’d be really cool and romantic to confess with a song, okay?”
“And it had to be in Spanish? All I understood was ‘I love you’.”
“That was the point. Singing something everyone would understand felt too embarrassing, and Spanish is the only language I know that you and most people at school don’t so…” Tooru explained.
“And singing in front of the whole school wasn’t embarrassing?”
“No, that was actually pretty cool. I felt like a rockstar.” Hajime’s expression softened with fondness as he watched Tooru’s smile.
“I can’t believe I thought you were dating someone else.” He said, shaking his head, and Tooru raised an eyebrow at that.
“You thought what?”
“In my defense, you were being weird, okay? You were never with us and then Mattsun and Makki said you might be dating someone. And when I called you yesterday this guy called you ‘Kawa’ and I just-”
“Stupid Sekimukai! I told him to stop calling me that.” Tooru sighed. “He’s the guy from my class who suggested we do a band for the festival.”
“The one singing, right?”
“Yeah, that’s him. He helped me practice to get the song right. But I promise I don’t like him or anything. The person I like is you.”
“I like you too.” Hajime admitted, looking him in the eyes. It felt good saying it outloud.
Silence formed again, and Tooru once again broke it.
“I thought confessing would be a little more… dramatic.” Hajime chuckled.
“Of course you did. But I like it this way.”
“You do?”
“Yes. It’s easy to confess to you, because it’s easy to talk to you. You’re still my best friend, after all.”
“And what would you say if I also wanted to be your boyfriend?” Tooru asked.
“I’d say that I want to be yours too.”
Tooru reached out to hold his hand and Hajime didn’t hesitate to intertwine his fingers with the setter’s.
“Does this mean you’ll kiss me like that again?”
“All that you want. Unless you do something stupid.”
“Fair.” Tooru replied after considering for some seconds, bringing their hands up so he could kiss the back of Hajime’s hand, whose ears turned red.
“Let’s get you back to your fans, rockstar.” Hajime said.
“Only if you come with me.” Tooru replied.
“Always.”