"I hate kids who show too much emotion so shut up, would you?"
The robber aimed the gun towards a young girl who covered her mouth to prevent her cries from being loud. Her mother beside her hugged her tightly as she stared at the armed robber pleadingly. "Please don't do anything to my daughter. Please let her go." The mother begged as she held her daughter close to her and covered her daughter's head just in case. The sudden action from her mother made the young girl weep louder, causing the robber's irritation.
"I said shut up!" the robber yelled before shooting the gun upwards. The people inside the bank shrieked in terror as they covered their heads. The young girl embraced her mother as she tried to keep quiet.
"I won't show emotions anymore! Please... stop!" The young girl pleaded in between her sobs. The robber glowered at the child before aiming the gun then pulling the trigger.
As the shot was heard inside the bank, the person that was warmly embracing the young girl dropped on the floor as the white tiles began to cover it with a red blanket. The people who witnessed it shouted in horror yet even with that, the daughter of the woman who was shot kept quiet, her eyes wide and her mouth ajar. Seeing her mother lying on the floor with something red covering her, she didn't know basic anatomy at that time so she doesn't know whether her mother is still alive so in an attempt to understand the situation, the young girl holds her mother's hands and gripped it tightly. She then glances at the robber with confusion and fear dwelling in her eyes.
"What... happened?" the girl asked in an utterly lost tone. When the young girl blinks, she lets her eyelids cover her eyes for a while as the darkness tucked her to sleep but that sleep only lasted for a minute because as soon as she opens her eyes, she sees the beige ceiling and the window where the sunlight passed through.
Sighing with gloominess, Nagishima sat on her bed.
"That dream sucks ass." She murmured, clearly irked by her dream before standing up to fix herself.
Nagishima sighed in irritation as she watched her two childhood friends.
"What happened? Why are you two having a lover's spat?" the black-haired female asked Saikane who huffed with an evident scowl. "Go ask him." She spoke, clearly angry. Nagishima shifts her attention to Kenma who was playing his game. "Go ask her." He responds and Nagishima stands up.
"If you two keep acting like this, I'll tell Tetsurou. You think he won't do something about this? You're clearly underestimating his ability to be an annoying friend." The black-haired female uttered.
"He was getting jealous over a girl I was talking to. Why would he act like that? Did I ever get jealous when he was talking to that Shouyo person? I didn't so why would he get jealous over me talking to a lady friend?!" Saikane ranted as she whined about how irritating it was.
"You liked Rino before. You also told me that you like girls and boys and I was the first one who knew that you were bisexual." Kenma responded calmly but a hint of annoyance was shown in his voice.
The room went silent when Kenma stated that. Nagishima cleared her throat and nodded in agreement while Saikane blushed furiously. "I am but... I... I'm... I'm your girlfriend now! Don't be jealous easily! You have my attention, you have it all!" The female blonde yelled while she covered her face to avoid being seen blushing madly. Whereas Kenma eyed her with shock, Nagishima held her laughter inside and covered her lips to hide her smile. Then, Kenma turns to her and motions her to leave. Nagishima catches what her male childhood friend was implying and creases her nose.
"Disgusting. You two are acting like a real couple." Nagishima comments. "We are a couple." Kenma states. Nagishima shakes her head in disgust before saying, "Use protection." Saikane attempted to throw a pillow at her but Nagishima dodges and slams the door behind her, leaving the two awkward couple by themselves.
When Nagishima finally leaves Kenma's house, she pulls her phone out and sees the date. It was the day where a certain brunette would finally arrive. All of a sudden, her phone shows someone calling and when she reads the name, she sees her cousin's name. Answering it, Nagishima cleared her throat.
"Yes?"
"You wouldn't believe what Hori got me!" Kuroo greeted eagerly.
"What is it?"
"She got me the new volume from my favorite series and she bought me a figurine of my favorite character. Do you want to see it?" Kuroo responded.
"No, I don't. I'm not in the mood to see 2D girls who are almost naked."
"Don't be like that. I'm not that kind of guy, you know."
"Of course. That explains why you have a suggestive figurine of a character from To-Love-Ru."
The line went quiet as Nagishima reminded her cousin about that one pink-haired figurine that had a short skirt and was posed sensually. Kuroo clicked his tongue before replying with, "That was a gift from a classmate. I didn't want it." Nagishima sighed and hung up on her cousin, realizing that he was probably lying to her. Why can't he just admit that he bought it with his own money? It's not like she'll use it as a blackmail material over her cousin.
As Nagishima walked with boredom, she catches a glimpse of a familiar brunette buying a bread.
"Oh? Horikoshi-san!" Nagishima greeted in a monotone voice. Horikoshi blinks and turns to her before smiling gently and bowing. Nagishima does the same before drawing near the older female. "Hello, Nagishima-san." Horikoshi greeted back with her soft voice.
"I didn't see you around. Where did you go?" Nagishima asked curiously. The female brunette gave a small laugh before answering. "I was in Akihabara for my job. I stayed there for fifteen days. Ah! By the way, I bought your cousin something he likes." She informed and Nagishima narrowed her eyes. "Why are you telling me that? Do you possibly... want to look good in my eyes?" she questioned. Horikoshi fervently shakes her head. "No! I was just trying to make a conversation since... you usually don't show as much emotion as most people so... I decided to take the role of a more talkative person." The female brunette retorted. Nagishima nodded as a thought entered her mind.
"Did you buy my cousin things he like because you like him?"
Horikoshi stopped smiling when she hears the younger female's question.
"Uh... no but there's one thing I want your cousin to realize." Horikoshi mumbled timidly.
"What is it?" Nagishima leaned closer.
"... I'm not... no... He shouldn't... no..." Horikoshi paused as she cleared her train of thoughts and fixed her order of words. Taking a deep breath, she exclaims, "I'm a girl as well! He should stop treating me like a fellow man just because we have the same taste in humor! Just because I like memes doesn't mean he should act like I'm a dude! Do you even know how much he slings his arms over my shoulder like I'm his brother or stealing my food or bragging to me about the girls who confessed to him or even how he tells me that he likes a girl at first sight?! It's not that it's uncomfortable! It's just really annoying me because I feel like he doesn't see me as a woman at all!"
Nagishima gawked at the older female's outburst. She gulps and sighs at what her cousin is doing. "That idiot... do you want me to scold him?" She asks the older female only to see her nod. Nagishima blinks at what Horikoshi does before saying, "Buying him things won't make him realize that you're a lady, in fact, I don't know where you got that idea. It would only make you look like a pushover." She informs and Horikoshi despairs after hearing it. "What should I do then?" she questioned.
"Learn to be frank with him. If he's doing something annoying, make sure to say why it's irritating you." Nagishima suggested with her usual monotone voice.
"But wouldn't that hurt his feelings? He's stupidly sensitive at time." Horikoshi responded, unaware of how condescending her words are.
Nagishima nodded before giving a thumbs up. "Don't worry. You've been hurting him with your words without knowing it so it's better to up your frankness by ten so he won't make you uncomfortable with his stupidity." She says. Horikoshi gazed weirdly at the younger girl as she smiled sheepishly. "You're really frank, huh? Come to think of it, your frankness makes it better when paired with how you lack emotions." The older notes and when Nagishima hears this, she lowers her hands and blinks.
"Lacks emotions, huh..."
Nagishima roamed the town because she's bored. Suddenly, she stops in front of a flower shop and when she sees the label on one of the flowers, she smiles.
"Miss? Do you need something?" A female staff asked her and when she notices the younger female staring at the pink carnations labeled "Mother's favorite." Smiling softly, the staff asks Nagishima, "Are you getting a pink carnation for your mother?" Nagishima shakes her head and stares at the female staff. "Do you have white carnations?" she questioned. The female staff, knowing what white carnations meant, dropped her smile and bows apologetically. Nagishima smiled kindly before deciding to buy white carnations some other time.
While she walked around the town, Nagishima sees a bakery and decides to enter it to buy a sweet dessert. When she enters, she immediately buys one and scans the tables inside. Seeing that there was no tables left, she goes to a table where only one person occupies it. Saying excuse me, Nagishima checks the person's face and realizes that he looks familiar.
"Oh? You're the girl who – "
"The man who looks like an angel?"
The silver-haired male blinks at what Nagishima says then he laughs and when Nagishima hears it, it felt like the cake she was eating wasn't as sweet as the male's laugh.
"Are you alright, miss?"
Nagishima snaps out of it when she hears the male's voice. She clears her throat and sits down on the empty seat in front of the male. "I hope you don't mind." She says as she placed her food down the table. "No, please eat." He says as he checked the papers in front of him. Nagishima couldn't help herself and narrows her eyes to scan the paper, to her surprise, she sees the school where the male attends. "You go to Tokyo University?" she questioned.
The male looks at the black-haired female before nodding. Nagishima hummed in amazement. "Can I know your name?" she asked carelessly, forgetting the everyday advice she receives from her friends and cousin.
"Ah... why?" The male asked. "It's because I'll attend Tokyo University soon." Nagishima informs. When the male hears this, he wows. "Really? That's cool. My name's Sugawara Koushi! It's nice to meet you." He smiled as sweetly as possible without looking fake. Nagishima shook his hands and sighed in relief when she hears his name. She then accidentally looks at Sugawara's eyes and looks away.
"Excuse me, aren't you a friend of Oikawa Tooru?" Sugawara asked with interest. Nagishima gazes at the male in front of her and nods. "Do you know him?" the young female interrogated with her eyes narrowing. Sugawara smiled gently before nodding. "Yeah, we met before. I fought with him." He tells. Nagishima gasps before asking, "You fought with him? How? Fist fight? Kick boxing? Or... MMA-style?" Nagishima pondered as she tried to visualize the male brunette and the silver-haired male having a fist fight with both of their clothes all tattered up and their faces bruised and bleeding.
Sugawara laughed and shook his head. "A volleyball match is what I meant. I thought you would know since you're with him." He retorted as he fixed his papers. "I know that he plays volleyball but I don't really ask him about anything that touches on that topic." She replied as she takes a bite off of her cake.
Sugawara observed the female in front of him and grinned in amusement. "You're not showing as much emotion as you did when you were with Oikawa. Are you two an item?" Sugawara smiled mischievously and Nagishima gave a weird look as she tried to grasp what the older male. "Uh... no. We're not an item, we're obviously human."
Hearing the girl's response, Sugawara can't help but snort in delight. "Seeing you up close. You remind me of someone. Both of you don't show too much emotion and you two are really clueless at time. It makes me wonder what you went through to end up like that."
Nagishima gripped her fork tightly when she hears Sugawara's words. She sighs and says, "Well, I was held captive along with my mother when an armed robber robbed in a bank. He told me that he hated emotional kids so when I begged him to stop, he shot my mother."
Sugawara gasped. "That's..." Nagishima realizes what she's done and stared at the male apologetically. "I'm sorry. I made you uncomfortable." She apologized. "No, it's fine. I'm actually studying psychology so I'm fine with it. I'll hear more traumatic stories like that in the near future." He smiled comfortingly that somehow, Nagishima can't help but remember her mother. "You're doing fine right now, right?" Sugawara asked softly. The black-haired female nodded slowly before looking outside of the window. Coincidentally, a mother and daughter was walking pass the store she's in and seeing them smile, she can't help but feel envious.
Feeling her throat suddenly tighten and an emotion she doesn't want to quench appears, Nagishima says, "Sugawara-san, please assist me on my first day in Tokyo U." She bowed to the male and Sugawara nods kindly. "Sure, but... you haven't told me your name yet." He grinned cheerily and Nagishima blinks before introducing herself.
Unaware to her, Oikawa came home and was about to go to the bakery where Nagishima was in to buy the black-haired female a cake she likes. Unexpectedly, he catches Nagishima talking to the familiar gray-haired male who defeated him on his last year in high school. Watching the two converse, Oikawa gasped when he sees Nagishima give her phone to Sugawara who was seemingly taking her phone number. Scoffing in irritation, and not jealousy as said by the brunette himself, Oikawa enters the bakery.
He then walks to the two person he accidentally caught conversing to each other and as he loomed nearer, he hears their conversation.
"Your father made you go to a child therapist, didn't he?" Sugawara mused.
"Yes, he did. He didn't want to at first but my twin brothers decided that it would be for the better." Nagishima spoke gloomily. "That's good then. You're really strong, you know. Being able to live on after that stuff you experienced... you're a tough one." Sugawara complimented and when Nagishima hears this, she realized, that compliment was one of the things she's waiting someone to tell her. Clenching her fist, she felt her eyes tear up when suddenly, a jacket gets thrown over her head.
Sugawara gaped at what happened and glanced at the person who threw a jacket over Nagishima. He then gasps when he sees Oikawa standing with a small smirk. "Hi. Mr. Refreshing. I'll take this girl with me for now." The brunette says before pulling Nagishima, who had no clue what was happening, up.
"But... she's eating her cake." Sugawara responded. "I can buy her many cakes if she wants me to. I'm her... I'm her friend so it's my responsibility to buy her stuff." Oikawa argued back and pulled Nagishima closer to him. "We're going then." He says Sugawara, who waved at them goodbye. He watched the two as the older male pulled Nagishima by the hand. Sugawara then wondered if they were a thing but when he takes note of what Oikawa said, the situation became clear in his mind. Sugawara then smiled playfully.
Meanwhile, Nagishima couldn't take the jacket off of her head because someone was keeping it on her. Groaning at her situation, Nagishima cusses in irritation. Who tried to ruin a moment of her sadness?
The two walked and walked until they reached the bus stop. Oikawa sits Nagishima on the bench and sat beside her. Removing his jacket that was thrown over her head, Oikawa sees Nagishima giving a look of melancholy.
"Are you sad? Did you want to cry in front of a stranger?" the brunette grilled.
"He called me strong. He told me I was tough... I only realized at that time that I was yearning to be called that." Nagishima replied.
"Did you open up to him?" Oikawa asked while sulking.
"Yes." The black-haired female answered with her never-changing voice.
"Then open up to me as well."
"I don't think I can open up to someone who played me."
The two didn't speak after that. Oikawa looked away whereas Nagishima kept her gaze towards the male brunette. She sighs and looks around and when she sees the flower shop she passed by earlier, she blinks and remembers that every moment with her mother. She felt her eyes water as she tried to act tough. She has to or people will think she's weak.
"Are you going to cry?"
Hearing the brunette's question, Nagishima shakes her head. "No, I won't." she denied her tears that was about to fall before sniffing. Oikawa snorted at what he hears and kept his gaze away from the female beside him. "I don't care if you cry. Just start with it and cry until your eyes bleed." He uttered as he hugged his bag on his arms, ignoring the bus that stopped by then drove away when it realized that the two won't ride a bus.
"Is it alright...? To cry, I mean." Nagishima questioned while sniffing.
"Ask yourself if it's alright to get hungry. Whatever is the answer there is my answer as well." Oikawa responded back and when Nagishima hears this, she laughs heartily. This shock Oikawa and when he looks at the girl beside him, his stunned face morphs into desolation as he catches a glimpse of Nagishima crying. Blinking at the girl in front of him, he reaches out both of his hands and holds her cheeks, unsure with what he'll do.
As Nagishima sobbed, she paid no heed to the male brunette's action and kept weeping nostalgically.
"Rino, do you trust me?" Oikawa asked seriously.
Nagishima simply bawled her eyes out before saying her answer in between her hiccups. "Mom told me... that if I cry... in front of someone, then I... completely trust them... It's unfair! You played with me... yet I trust you completely!" she sobbed as she spoke childishly that somehow, even when there's tears on her eyes, Oikawa still found her cute. Smiling at what he heard, he closes the distance between them.
Sitting on the bench under the bus stop, two people were seen where the male brunette was kissing the black-haired female's forehead.
Nagishima went soundless when she feels the male brunette's lips on her forehead. She registered the situation she's in and when she did, a realization hits her.
"Telling me to call him when I get home, getting angry when I told him that I won't call him, getting happy that he took a picture of me, being unable say no to me, being over-protective all of a sudden, calling me when he got to Miyagi and now... kissing me in the forehead..." Nagishima pondered to herself. She watched as the male brunette moved away from her.
"What... happened?" the girl asked in an utterly lost tone.
"Oikawa-san... do you... like me?" Nagishima asked and when Oikawa smiles at her before shaking his head in denial, she feels her heartbeat pound loudly. It's as if someone was using a jackhammer inside her heart with how loud her heart beat.
The two stayed seated, still confused about what just occurred. Whereas Oikawa smiled gently at the female before looking at the flower shop on the other side of the road, Nagishima kept her gaze towards the male and felt an unfamiliar emotion. If it was the emotion she knows of, then Nagishima knows the perfect solution to that problem.
"Oikawa-san, please avoid me from now on."
The male brunette glances at the female with furrowed eyebrows before muttering a short what.
Inhaling deeply, Nagishima says, "I might've started liking someone so please avoid me from now on."
Hearing the female's statement, Oikawa frowned. He leaned on the bench under the waiting shed and sighed melancholically. "Tell me who you like. I'll help you." He says before chuckling at how stupid his situation is. It's the first time he's experiencing this. It's not particularly pleasant.
As the two sat on the bench, neither spoke after Oikawa's reply. They simply eyed the road and the vehicles that passed by. Under the ever-present sun, the blue skies and the things that typically happened on a typical spring day transpired, the two wondered if things would be alright between them.