ganymede : chapter 10

"... so you straight up asked him if he liked you?" yua asked, raising her eyebrows in disbelief. 

"i think so."

"you think so? you just told me so," yua sighed, letting you rest your head on her shoulder as you two curled up on your bed. you had been venting to yua for the past hour, all about your confused feelings and whatnot. romance was very difficult, it seemed. 

"i don't know..." you mumbled, burying your face in your hands. everything was so murky, and time seemed to kind of blend together like muddy paint. everything felt so gross to you. yua had told you that maybe you were still embarrassed or wound up from the incident at the volleyball game, and that seemed like a good possibility. 

or maybe you were getting sick. coming down with the flu and missing school (and tutoring with tsukishima) seemed very favourable right now. 

"y/n, how many people have you had a crush on before?" yua suddenly asked, her voice toned down and quieter than it would be during the day. this was a vulnerable, rawer side of her that she rarely ever let out. 

"not that many, to be honest," you sighed, reaching forward for another handful of chips from yua's bowl. "i know that i'm not very... experienced at this kind of stuff. i bet i was too forward, right? he probably thinks i'm a weirdo now!"

"don't say that," yua scolded, bopping your head. "well, you said he hesitated, so that might mean that maybe he likes you too... but from what i see, both of you are HORRIBLE at this love stuff!" 

you let out a muffled giggle, before sighing again. 

"but hey... how do i know if this is a crush? it feels like i've been around him for too little to actually have developed a proper crush," you said, twiddling your thumbs. 

"how long has it been since your tutoring sessions?" yua asked, counting on her fingers while muttering numbers to herself. "three-ish weeks, right?"

you nodded. 

"that seems reasonable... and you see each other almost every day. but time doesn't really matter with this kind of stuff, to be honest. y/n, you really like him right? i think that's all that matters," yua confessed, rubbing her eyes tiredly. you shrugged in response. 

"he really helps me. he's nicer to me than to other people - i've seen him with the volleyball boys during the match, and he's not that nice to them. and when he first met me, yeah he was cold and all, but eventually he softened and he let me get closer and i felt so nice around him, and he didn't show it a lot but i think he was proud of how well i was doing with the english quizzes and all that, and i was proud of him for opening up to me more and yua - i just really don't want to screw things up. i think we've come so far, especially with our respective personalities," you spilled, attempting to hide your face and shutting your eyes tightly. oh god, being a lovestruck idiot was tiring. 

"and that's all the signs of our little y/n being in love!" yua cheered, her cheerful personality manifesting once more. she ruffled your hair, before looking out of your window. her eyes rested on the dim moon that hung in the sky, and so did yours. 

"it's dark tonight. it's not bright," you pointed out. how ironic. 

suddenly, you wondered how tsukishima was dealing with all of this. 

---

yamaguchi groaned in annoyance for the fifth time that afternoon. 

"i knew something was happening in the backs of those bleachers... i just thought it'd be more spicy. i thought that you'd finally confess your undying love-"

"shut up yamaguchi, it's nothing like that."

"mm, sure. c'mon tsukki... i hate to say it, but you're so stubborn," yamaguchi huffed, sitting on tsukki's bed with his arms crossed in frustration. "how hard is it to just say i like you?"

"in fact, it's very hard," tsukishima protested, his guard slowly coming down. yamaguchi's angry demeanour made him feel more vulnerable than he liked to admit. he glanced at his annoyed friend, who was obviously fed up with how secretive tsukishima was being about his crush. 

"it's not that big of a deal," yamaguchi said quietly after a minute of threatening silence. "she asked if you liked her. go back and tell her yes. it's tiring even from a third party's point of view."

"it's not tiring-"

"tsukishima kei, please shut up and stop being unnecessarily stubborn!" 

"... fine."

"thank you. so, the next time you see her at tutoring, tell her how you really feel. i can tell that both of you will benefit from this. it's like reading a mutual pining fanfiction that never ends!" yamaguchi said, before looking tsukishima in the eyes and bursting from laughter. tsukishima managed to muster up a few chuckles too, in light of this very confusing situation. 

"i'll try my best," tsukishima sighed, knowing well that this might as well be a lie. he definitely would not be wanting to see y/n for the next few... years, maybe. she made him feel confused and made him consider his inner feelings and all this shit that he tried so hard not to consider at all usually... so naturally, he was furious at her. how dare she, right?

as yamaguchi calmed down and laid on tsukishima's bed, tsukishima glanced at the window. it was a habit now, to at least try and spot some stars before he went to bed because it reminded him of you. even through this mad state, he tried to spot the moon. 

tonight, it was dim. 

and suddenly, he felt a pang of regret wash over his anger and annoyance. 

---

the following monday, you woke up with sleep still stained on your face. you and yua walked to school, phones in hand, and tiredness in your eyes. yua wasn't chatty today, instead she looked quite exhausted. 

suddenly, a figure bounded up to the two of you, excitement (or maybe that was fear? exertion?) in his eyes. you recognized him at yamaguchi, tsukishima's friend. 

"y/n, Y/N!!" he said frantically. "i know that tsukki's not going to do this himself... so i need to tell you this-"

oh my god. 

you felt energy start from your toes and run up your spine. oh my god oh my god oh my god was this about saturday? when you... did that? when you half-confessed and then cried to yua in a state of utter panic?

"tsukki forgive me," yamaguchi muttered, before taking a deep breath. 

"tsukishima... he likes you."

that, admittedly, was the most anticlimactic third-party confession ever, but you couldn't help but feel absolute overjoyed. of course, you tried to stay calm. 

"really now? why didn't he tell me this on saturday?" you asked, trying to stay cool, but that was quite hard when your fingers were shaking for excitement. 

"he's just... he's got some walls up, you know? it's hard for him to do stuff like this, but it was just getting too hard to watch," yamaguchi finally spilled, rubbing his eyes tiredly. 

 "well thanks for telling me, yamaguchi," you said sweetly, before turning to yua with a gaze full of ecstasy. 

"ah, you're welcome! i've gotta get going, i hope your situation eventually goes well," he said, bidding a goodbye and rushing off to his early morning volleyball practice. yua tapped your arm frantically, excitement spilling purely only from her action. 

"OH MY GOD!!!" yua screeched, practically loud enough to wake the entire neighborhood. you tried to shout something happy along with her, but it seemed like your voice was lost. maybe it was from the sudden realization that you were going to have to confess properly to the stoic tsukishima kei or maybe because you were still so wound up in the whole news that he actually liked you. 

"i... what do i do now?" you asked hoarsely. 

"y/n, you're hopeless."

---