[ It was winter, ]
Clad in a beige trench coat, neck covered in a dark blue scarf, Harukaze Sawako made her way to the vending machine near the school's gymnasium. Long dark hair swayed lightly as she walked and hands rubbing one another beneath the thick cream-colored gloves. Club duties ended well and with the numbered days of the semester lessening, she can hear the echoing chatters about onsen and festivals. Sawako, too, created plans for the month and this makes her excited. The corner of her lips curled at the thought.
Once she stood right in front of the machine, Sawako pulled her coin purse out from her bag and dropped some yens on the slot. She pushed a button below the row of strawberry milk, waited for the cartoon to drop before bending down to pick it up. She made a few steps back before she stood still, sipping through the straw as she looked up to witness something just in time. Tiny white crystals began to cascade from the heavens above, it slowly made a spectacular show. Some landed on her face and on her hair, but she didn't look away and remained like a statue.
[ when the snow began to fall, ]
A small sound from her side caught her attention. Blinking, she turned to look, only to stare.
A tall child with dark hair was looking up at the sky, watching the snow dance. He was sipping on the straw connected to the cartoon of milk while wearing a different school uniform beneath a knitted blue scarf. Sawako remained to stare at his figure that it caught the lad's attention. Her bluish-green eyes that were just boring at him suddenly found themselves looking at the cool blue eyes he possessed.
[ I found what I was looking for. ]
Sawako was taken aback all of the sudden and initiated to break the eye contact. She felt shame in being caught red-handed for staring too much. She knew it was rude to do so but the crystals and his eyes, they're just – she turned and slowly made steps away from the lad, still clutching at the cartoon of milk she has yet to finish drinking. She walked, hastily for some reason, but she wanted was to stay and stare for a little longer.
Then it sank. She froze.
Our… eyes met.
[ It was winter, ]
Her boots froze above the piling snow on the cemented ground. Her hair came to a stop while covered with dotted white. Her nose was getting red at the cold and her cheeks were having the same effect. The straw remained on her lips and her eyes restless. Sawako turned at her back to look at the direction where she came from, to the direction where she left the lad with blue eyes.
Why did she walk away? Why did she leave? Moreover, why did she have this urge to have the audacity to gawk at someone? Sawako was surprised at herself for the first time. She didn't know why yet she was sure, she assured herself, that it was just because today is the first snow and someone… someone that lovely appeared before her. And so, she looked up. She watched the snowfall…
Is it…?
… And sighed before looking ahead and left.
[ in the earliest days of December, ]
The front door was slid open, revealing Sawako.
"I'm home." She announced. She slowly unbuttoned her trench coat and unwrapped the scarf around her neck. After doing so, she sat on the wooden floor to remove her boots and settle them on the shoe rack at the side.
Sawako stood up and walked inside the hall, barefooted, removing the gloves on her hands to find a mop of blonde emerging in the hall. She blinked, seemingly surprised at the wide grin plastered on the blonde's face but smiled. "You're home early, Hitori."
"Welcome home, Sawa-nee." The aforementioned, Hitori, greeted with a smile still on her face. "Kicchan and Succhan's home early, too, y'know. The exams' okay and wasn't that hard, maybe that's why."
Sawako blinked. She remembered. Today was the entrance exams for upcoming freshmen this coming spring. She had seen younger students wearing different uniforms loitering and roaming around the school after the entrance exams.
No wonder…
Sawako placed a hand on top of Hitori's head before swiftly locking it in a headlock. Surprised, the blonde muffled a yelp before fighting back. A smile was evident on Sawako's face. Not because of Hitori's losing but for some reason, she was glad at the memory of the boy with blue eyes she met earlier. She deducted he was at her school earlier, taking entrance exams like the others. Nothing has made her smile go wider than attending the same school as the lad.
That is if he passed.
"AH! Torin's losing again." There was an unsurprised high – pitched voice from the kitchen.
"… An amazing streak of loss." It was followed by another voice, a deeper and baritone. A small smile was sent on Sawako's way as another blonde, a male, acknowledged her presence. "Welcome home, Sawako-nee."
"How kind for younger siblings, you two." Hitori sarcastically threw.
Sawako chortled.
[ when I found home. ]
note:
hello. today is my favorite setter's birthday - kageyama tobio!
to celebrate his birthday, i revised another old draft for him. superfluous is a fanfiction i wrote back in 2018. i decided to create this kind of story after binge-watching studio ghibli films back then. it was from up on poppy hill that inspired me. and the fact that i am too in love with the lovely blueberry isn't helping, i wrote too much just for him. unfortunately, they remained as drafts. so here i am again, making sure that this draft will not remain as drafts forever.
i'm on my third year in college now. i'll update as soon as i can. for the meantime, i appreciate critiques. i know that i've improved my writing but i won't stop there.
i appreciate you, reader.
thank you so much.