RED - miya atsumu

NINE

NINE

AUTUMN ALWAYS REMINDED Miya Atsumu of his high school manager.

In his mind's eye, he could picture the first time he'd seen her. Black hair swept across her shoulders from the wind, scarlet leaves cascading down her back. The Inarizaki girl's uniform was ruffled by a stray breeze. On the threshold of the boy's volleyball gym, she had one foot on its polished wooden floor and another on the concrete outside.

They were first-years, and the Miya Twins had already gained national popularity. A fan, he'd assumed, although he couldn't recall ever seeing her in the stands. Then again, the faces of the girls had always blurred together. It wasn't like any specific one stood out.

With a faint smile on his lips, he stepped forward. "Looking for someone?" The query echoed in the back of his mind, a look into the past. She'd turned around then, the sunlight a glimmering sheen on her hair.

Brown met black– a heartstopping moment, really. Yet in retrospect, back then, Akiko wasn't all that much. But it was the look she had that drove the breath from his chest.

Now, here today, Kogawa was beautiful of all sorts. The inconspicuous type, where you only recognized the beauty after calming the heart to appreciate its serenity. But it was also sharp, like the strength of a still, winter's scene.

The autumn sunlight showered his skin, allowing Miya to bask in the gentle, golden light. The silence here was calm, sitting on the park's bench at dusk. Something heavy yet kind, a memorial to what something could've been, would've been, should've been.

Atsumu closed his eyes again and continued to reminisce.

"Yes," Akiko had answered back then. Her black eyes had a clear depth, something the twin had never seen before. It vaguely unsettled him, yet it perked his interest. "I'm looking for Kita Shinsuke. Is he here?"

Words clipped, articulate, and clear, Kogawa tended to give an audience the urge to be just as professional as she was. "He should be," Atsumu had offered as a reply back then. He stepped forward and up to the girl who appeared to be startled by their proximity. She, noticed Miya from the corner of his eye as he poked his head into the gym, had rapidly taken a step back.

It surprised him. Normally, girls would exult at the thought of being close to him at all. Atsumu hummed, then moved back to look at the unnamed girl. "He's in there," he'd answered. "Want me to get him for you?"

"Yes please," Akiko had taken up the offer. She watched with no particular emotion as Miya strode across the gym and to his senior, informing of the girl who stood outside the gym awaiting him.

As Kita jogged to the door, Atsumu turned to look at Akiko one more time. Their gazes met momentarily, yet the setter still shivered at the depth of her black irises, clear even from this distance. Birdsong severed their connection, and both sides returned to their schedules.

What day was that? The thought suddenly occurred to Miya. A Monday, maybe? Or a Thursday? Wait, definitely not a Thursday... we don't have practice then.

It was strange to suddenly be wondering about such a question so far into the future, decided the setter. Back then, he hadn't spared a single moment thinking about the date. And yet, suddenly, he wanted to be able to remember every single moment he had spent with Akiko, whether it was direct or indirect...

Caught up in his monologue, Atsumu failed to notice the crunch of autumn leaves underfoot that signified Hinata Shoyo's entrance.

"So." The audible dialogue caught the setter off guard. He started and blinked at the sight of the bright wing spiker beside him. "Shoyo. I didn't see you," Atsumu began once he'd recovered from his shock, but Hinata waved him off.

"No need for explanations," he grinned good-naturedly. He spun his head around to briefly observe Atsumu's face. A moment passed before he parted his lips to speak again: "So. How's it going with Red?"

Miya blinked. "What? What do you mean?" Confusion flitted across his features. Above them, a butterfly came to rest on the scarlet leaves that loomed behind them.

The sunlight caught Hinata's brown eyes. "What do you mean, what do I mean? I'm asking you how it's going with Kogawa-san. Are you guys going to get back together?"

Pink, coral clouds drifted aimlessly above. The sky had been painted a brilliant shade of scarlet, that gently bled into a pale, then darker blue that signified the entrance of the moon. It was the time of day when it was both day and night, where everybody was on the border, and when the line was erased.

The line was erased. It brought his mind back, Atsumu's, to Akiko's voice. Why was it always Kogawa? Everything seemed to trace its way back to her.

A sunset so similar to what they'd been viewing together seven years ago, the setter could've been looking into the past, observing this extravagant sight before the two volleyball players. "It's dusk." Akiko's voice was light and thin, a husky whisper worthy of the flight of a butterfly. She had turned her head toward his. Her black eyes seemed to have a veil over them, clear yet too deep to see the end of their eternal depth. "The time when the line was erased."

Seventeen-year-old Atsumu had no idea what she was talking about. Now, in the present, despite not knowing the specifics, he could finally comprehend. The feeling of vertigo she must have felt, balanced between two opposites, amid day and night.

In the real world, nothing was black or white. Everything was... gray.

The setter smiled sadly at Hinata. "I'm hoping we will," his reply was concise yet somber. The latter's bright eyes blinked once. "Why so sad?" there was a curious lilt to his voice. "You're not sure you'll be able to win her heart again?"

Miya shifted his focus to the darkening skies above. The silence enveloped both men, wrapping them in a content space outside of the world that continued to pass around them. "I guess that's what it is when you break it down to the bone," chuckled the blonde genially.

Hinata seemed unusually happy. "Well, don't be!" he responded cheerily. When Atsumu looked at him in confusion, he clarified, "Well, I'm personally a huge fan of Red. I find it amazing and inspiring to see a woman fight her way to, essentially, the top of the world. I like to think that at the end of the day, we and Red have the same goal. To reach the top!" As he spoke, he stretched his hands out toward the sky.

"So, if you think about it, there's nothing to overthink," Hinata added after a short pause. Then, he turned toward the blonde setter. "Yeah?"

Miya Atsumu laughed amicably. He could always count on his bright junior friend to cheer him up. "Yeah. Thanks, Shoyo," the sun had grown to glow a brilliant shade of scarlet. The light flooded both men's faces, alighting their brown eyes.

"Of course."

—❝RED❞—

Alone in his room, Akabane Kohaku watched as the sun gradually set, leaving nothing but a rose-colored sky as its remnants.

On his bed, an indention indicated where he sat. Black wisps of hair curled languidly above his head. His skin was a vibrant shade of orange as a souvenir from the sunset. When he parted his lips to speak, he seemed to be talking to the wall, to the setting sun, or perhaps to nobody at all.

"'Change is an everyday occurrence in the human life... I hope you adjust quickly.'"

Akabane momentarily paused once he'd finished speaking. Then, a wide grin spread across his lips, creasing the skin around his cheeks.

In the face of the dying sun, he laughed.

NINE