98 percent
Chapter 6
It was raining again.
"Hey, what do you guys think about Ike-chan?"
"Is this another one of your existential discussions again about where we all belong in the universe, or is it a genuine question?"
"I think she's nice. She's been helping out a lot. Why?"
"Yeah she's great, we wouldn't have made it to practice matches without her."
"And she's super easy to talk to, she's really chill altogether. Been an MVP manager-wise too."
"Why?"
"Yeah, why, did something happen?"
"… Nah. It was more of an existential question anyway."
"Oh we are so not doing that discussion again."
"Yeah no way dude."
Haruko yawned and slumped into her seat. These Friday afternoon-only classes were really messing with her sleep schedule. It was always an excuse to stay up late playing video games.
She was in class a little earlier than expected, usually she would meet Oikawa somewhere on the way but he was nowhere to be found. She wondered if he had skipped class today.
"Ya-hoo, Ike-chan!"
Think of the devil.
She turned to Oikawa who was walking up the stairs towards her. Haruko loved that grey NASA hoodie he had, it looked good on him, as nerdy as it was. He had his hand up waving to her, so she gave him a smile and small wave as well, eyes trailing towards what he had in the hand he was waving with.
She froze mid-wave, eyes wide.
A navy notebook with a pen strapped to it. Her diary.
Oh HELL no.
Of course everything had to go to shit.
No way. No WAY is this happening. Nothing in there even applies anymore! No no no no and it's the ONLY fucking entry in there! Uuurgh maybe I can explain? Maybe he didn't read it? Of course he read it, he's Oikawa fucking Tooru. Oh god, oh jeez, oh wow, now is about the time I'd like to descend into hell, or some different dimension, any dimension but this one, oh god I probably left it on the sofa yesterday when I emptied my bag, why did I even bring that thing to university? What is WRONG with me? This is-… wait... why is he acting normal?
Haruko continued staring at her diary and swearing in her mind until Oikawa sat down next to her and handed the diary to her. "You left this behind yesterday."
Haruko looked down at it and slowly took it from his hand, trying her best not to shake while she does so, then looked back at him and raised her eyebrow.
"Jeez, Ike-chan, don't give me that look. I didn't read it."
She squinted.
"Alright, alright, I'll admit I tried. But for some ungodly reason you had to write everything in English. My English is so bad the only thing I understood was the word 'volleyball' and then I gave up. Honestly, it's hard enough to find things to tease you about, I was hoping for this to be a gold mine, but you've saved yourself." he chuckled.
Haruko closed her eyes is disbelief and she finally exhaled after holding her breath for the past 30 seconds.
Are you fucking kidding me.
"When…" Haruko started, putting her diary away, still shaken up, "When I was in middle school, my English was really bad too, so my teacher told me to try keeping a diary in English and it really helped. I developed a habit to start a new one every school year since then." she explained.
I'd thank her for it, if me having a diary in the first place wouldn't be her fault.
"Smart." Oikawa commented, taking out his notes.
Still, Haruko worried. No matter how bad his English was, he must have noticed his name somewhere, right? And the fact that he wasn't questioning anything in there AT ALL was getting to her. He could have easily translated it online as well, sure it was an extra step, but the Oikawa she knows had no respect for people's privacy, at least when it came to a chance to find out someone's secrets. He was a good friend, but he was also a nosy little shit. So why not now?
The worst part was that he was so incredibly hard to read. Especially when he's focusing on studying.
Right, class. Focus.
Haruko took out her tablet and started taking notes on the lecture that had just started a moment ago. It was difficult, to say the least, to focus on the lecture after what had just happened. This whole event nearly gave her a heart attack. Haruko decided to slam-dunk her diary into a garbage bin later. Her English was top-notch at this point, there was no reason to keep it anymore, it was just a habit. A habit that almost screwed her over just now.
Ugh, FOCUS.
She groaned quietly. They had exams coming up and she had no right to slack off or have her mind pre-occupied like this. Not in this class, at least.
Oikawa glanced over to her, hearing her grumbling. It was obvious that Haruko was having trouble keeping up with the lecture, frantically scribbling notes down with her tablet pen, constantly crossing things out, and spacing out every so often.
That really did a number on you, huh? Oikawa thought, looking back at his notes. I wonder… Is there anything else about you that's fake? And just how much can you handle before you give up this whole ordeal?
"You gotta join us for drinks this time, come on Ikeda-san!" Maki whined.
Another Friday, another disappointment.
"Don't tease her Maki, you know Ike-chan has work on Fridays." Oikawa said as the group was walking out of the campus after practice.
She couldn't help but notice that his tone was a bit dry. Not only that, he would usually be the one trying to convince her to swap shifts with someone. Haruko tried to convince herself it was exam stress. Or volleyball stress. Or any stress that had nothing to do with her.
"Yeah… I'll see you guys on Monday. Have a good weekend!" she said, waving goodbye and heading home without looking back. The rain had stopped, but it was still cold.
This day was too much.
Friday nights were hell at work, so when Haruko came home it felt heavenly to drop on her bed. She lazily took out her phone from her bag to check up on any notifications – the bar was too busy for her to be able to be on her phone, and she did have a habit of keeping her phone safely in her bag as she walked home at night.
Oh jeez okay..?
She tapped on the messenger notification. 278 new messages.
Maki has added Ikeda to the conversation.
Maki: yooo
Daiki: yooooooooooo
Maki: Ikeda-san are you there
Maki: are you theeeeeeeere
Iwaizumi: shes at work you idiot
Maki: i'm boooooored tell Oiks to reconsider
Maki: Oiksssssss
Oikawa: no and wow don't call me that
Maki had changed Oikawa's nickname to Oiks
Oiks: Maki I swear 2 god
Daiki: no for real why you gotta leave us hanging like this
Oiks: I'm not feeling it today, go drink somewhere else
Daiki: youre having one of your moods again arent you
Daiki: Iwa is he having one of his moods
Iwaizumi: fuck if I know
Maki: you knowww no one else has the space to accommodate more than two (2) people except u
Oiks: so that gives you the right
Oiks: to invade the privacy of my home
Oiks: every goddamn Friday
Oiks: ? ? ? ?
Iwaizumi: will you ever learn to stop double-texting
Oiks: screw double texting
Oiks: I'll quadruple text u
Oiks: buzz buzz
Oiks: its me again
Iwaizumi: Maki make me an admin
Maki has promoted Iwaizumi to Admin.
Iwaizumi had changed Oiks's nickname to Shittykawa.
Shittykawa: Maki make me an admin
Maki: hell no lol
Shittykawa: wtf you made Iwa-chan an admin ? ?
Shittykawa: with no questions asked
Maki: yeah cause its Iwa
Haruko chuckled at their usual bickering and skimmed through the messages and cat pictures Daiki kept uploading to a more important part of the group chat.
Shittykawa: is anyone free tmrw morning?
Maki: why?
Shittykawa: new uniforms are coming in and someone has to be at uni to pick them up
Maki: why cant you do it ya freeloader, I have work
Daiki: yeah so do I
Iwaizumi: +1
Shittykawa: I made plans already
Shittykawa: wheres everyone else? theres like 14 people in the chat
Iwaizumi: its 3am what the hell do you think they could be doing
Shittykawa: fair
Shittykawa: well someones gotta be at uni in 4 hours to pick up the delivery and it aint gonna be me
Haruko sighed. These were the newest messages and the guys were obviously still online. She lived nearby, so might as well go do it. Even if that meant getting less than 4 hours of sleep, she could always just take a nap when she came back.
Ikeda: heyyy I can go pick it up
Maki: AYYYY
Daiki: AYYYYYYY youre back!
Shittykawa: hell yes thanks
Maki: hey no didn't you JUST come back from work?
Maki: you gotta take a break woman
Shittykawa: dont underestimate manager-chan
Shittykawa: shes unstoppable
Haruko smiled proudly at the comment. Maybe she had nothing to worry about after all.
Ikeda: damn right
Maki has changed Ikeda's nickname to MVP.
MVP: ahaha thanks
Shittykawa: k so the delivery person should be at the campus gates at about 7am
Shittykawa: b there or b square
MVP: gotcha!
Haruko closed the chat and muted her phone – it was time to squeeze in a few hours of sleep before she drags herself to university on a Saturday.
AN: short chapter again but I really felt like doing an update today haha. Two updates in two days, I'm on fire! I'm like, so ready to move forward with my main ideas for this story, I can't believe how long it's taking me to throw them at each other aaaargh.
For the reviewers/commenters/people leaving kudos on AO3: I see each and every one of you and thank you ahh! Lov u guys.
Also, in case this caused confusion: Maki isn't Hanamaki. It's just a random dude I named Maki. Everyone except for Iwa and Oiks are just random people who happen to go to this uni, they're the only canon characters here. For now lmao. And yeah there's a ton of other people on the team but honestly who has time, you probably JUST got used to the filler boys Maki and Daiki, no way am I introducing more than that. Imagine them as the social butterflies of the team.
Last but not least: while I do have an image of Haruko in my head, I'd prefer to leave her as a blank slate for you guys to imagine whatever you like. Honestly, even if you change her name and take this as a reader-insert fic instead, I really won't judge. You do you!