ganymede : chapter 8

finally, you could sense the tutoring help of tsukishima rubbing off on you. 

a recent quiz in your english class seemed to be a great indicator of this, seeing as your english professor and yua seemed pleasantly surprised (not to mention your parents too). you couldn't wait to show tsukki what you had been able to accomplish with his help, envisioning a possible smile on his face. 

you wouldn't deny it - the boy did have quite handsome features (some of them kept you up at night, and you couldn't really pinpoint why), and you thought that maybe if you could see at least a small smile on his face, it would make you feel good. 

and so, you were very excited when the bell rung. as you were packing up your things at your desk, yua had come over to check up on you. 

"so, you haven't really updated me on the whole... tutoring situation. how's it been? obviously it's been helping, but like... relationship wise, you know?" yua grinned, her usual silly smile on her face. a dirty volleyball was at her hip, and you could sense that she was getting quite invested in volleyball more and more. 

"well, i guess it's going alright," you said nonchalantly, when in reality it was MORE than alright. the fact that tsukki was opening up to you slowly but surely gave you a lot of hope in the blossoming friendship. although, to be fair, from time to time you did wonder if you were striving only for friendship, but every time that thought surfaced you tried brushing it off a bit. it would be a bit silly to fall for such a stoic boy when you guys weren't even that close yet. 

"alright? c'mon y/n, give me more detail! it's been like, what, two weeks or something now? there's gotta be MORE than 'alright'," yua whined, pouting and slumping over your desk. you couldn't help but give a small smile, before sighing and continuing to speak once more. 

"i don't know what to tell you," you shrugged. "okay, well, at one point, we did go to get meat buns together after tutoring. i guess we're becoming better friends, or something of the sort."

"something of the sort?" yua repeated, looking thoughtfully into your eyes as if trying to decipher your words carefully. 

"yeah. maybe friends, maybe acquaintances. i do hope that he becomes my friend, though," you said earnestly, humming. 

"only friends? onlyyy? are you suuure?" yua giggled, trying to tease you once more. you sighed, suppressing a laugh as you shoved her playfully. 

"i'm sure," you mumbled, before checking the clock. "i gotta go, i'm gonna be late."

"bye bye!" yua's voice called out as you left the classroom. 

---

"are you sure you didn't cheat? i don't see you trying that hard in our tutoring sessions," tsukishima teased, glaring at your test paper with an incomprehensible look. 

"oi, i don't need this from you. can't you just be proud?" you retorted, crossing your arms and leaning back in your chair. 

"fine. i guess it's plausible," tsukki laughed, handing your paper back to you. "anyways, so what i'm hearing is... i'm doing a good job at tutoring, and you're getting better grades. we won't have to put up with each other for much longer, then."

you couldn't help but go a bit silent at that sentence. of course, it's what you both were yearning when thee tutoring sessions started - all you guys did was get on each others' nerves at the start. 

but, after spending a few days with him and genuinely having fun in his company, you weren't really sure if you wanted these afternoons of solitude with him to end. yeah, you guys still took jabs at each other and sometimes he was a complete jerk, but something about him deemed different. 

maybe it was because he was the boy who reminded you of the one thing you absolutely adored in this world - the ever-expanding universe and its beautiful moon. you've said this to yourself many times, almost sounding like a broken record at this point. but it was true, and maybe that was the reason you kept repeating that. maybe it was because you couldn't get him out of your mind. and at that moment you were asking yourself, what the hell's wrong with me?

be honest with yourself, you suddenly thought, gritting your teeth. do you like him?

you felt like a silly schoolgirl, pondering about her future love life as she sat under an innocent cherry blossom tree ... which was exactly the opposite of what you wanted to happen. you never really gave a second thought about love; it just wasn't a big factor in your life for you. so why was he so different? this snarky, tall volleyball player should be the last person to be tugging on your heartstrings, you thought. 

"hey, are you still awake?" tsukki's snappy voice brought you back to earth. you blinked a few times before registering his voice in your head. 

"sorry," you grumbled, now a bit tired from all your thinking and honestly feeling confused about your emotions. 

"what do you even think about in that tiny head of your's?" tsukki teased, checking his phone.

"oh shut up," you said, lolling your head back and emitting a sigh. 

---

that afternoon, you had gone to the convenience store alone. tsukki was "busy" apparently, or maybe he just didn't want to accompany you today. 

but you weren't alone. 

at the store, as if on cue, shoyo hinata scrambled out of the front door in a hurry. a rusty looking bike was parked in front of the store, presumably his looking at the way he fumbled around with its brakes. 

"oh, hey hinata," you greeted, stopping in front of his bike. 

the boy lifted his head, and greeted you with a big smile. "hi y/n! what's up?"

"nothing much. i'm just here for some meat buns again."

"hmm, tsukki's not with you?" hinata asked, his bottom lip jutting out like a kid. 

"huh? why would he be?" you quickly said, a little too defensively. goddamnit, even at the slight mention of his name, your heart started picking up the pace a little bit. get it together y/n; you've only known this kid for, what, only two weeks or so? it'd only been a few weeks since you've known him, so how could you possibly have weird feelings for him?

i thought we already made it clear that it might be a crush, you reminded yourself. you didn't like being confused on feelings - who did? - so you tried to keep it simple and accept the fact that yes, you probably had a crush on the snarky volleyball player. 

"i don't know, he talks about you a lot you know," hinata teased, leaning against his bike. "and this time, it's not all bad things. he sometimes... compliments you too, believe it or not."

"oh? what does he say?" you pressed on further, getting giddy at the idea of tsukki talking good about you. 

"he says your hair is pretty. he likes the way your eyes kinda... do this cute thing when you concentrate or something like that," hinata explained, tapping his chin as if trying to recall memories. "he seems to like you a lot."

you couldn't help but flush a little bit at that comment. "really?"

"yeah! i've never heard him talk about anyone like that before!" hinata egged your ego on. "of course, he didn't say those things outwardly, but you know... wait, hey, you should come to our next game! it's in a few days, and i'm sure tsukki would like to see you in the crowds, don't you think? to be honest, he hasn't been playing his best this week, so we think that if you're there, he might play better!"

"... you think that my presence will boost his morale?" 

"totally. so what do you say? wanna come? we're playing against aoba johsai - it'll be quite an exciting game i can promise you that."

"sure, why not," you finally said, shrugging. you'd never seen a volleyball game before, so it was bound to be somewhat exciting (not to mention you get to see tsukki actually playing). 

at your answer, hinata brightened up. "great! here, i'll give you my number so i can tell you how to get there and stuff," he offered, pulling out his phone. you got his number, saving it under 'hinata'. 

"you can call me shoyo, i don't mind," he grinned, before putting his phone back. "now i gotta go, my mom's waiting for me."

"oh, alright. see you, shoyo," you said, as the boy pedalled away on his bike. you headed home in the opposite direction, completely forgetting about the meatbun you had planned to buy. bigger things were clouding your mind now - like your supposed crush and the aoba johsai volleyball game. 

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