Shard Society [Haikyuu!!] | ✔

The Tale of Sakusa (2)

A/N: Warning for sheltered!Sakusa, who does demonize drug users while cussing out another guy. Also for implied infidelity, cursing, drug references, and shitty people being shitty people.

xXx

April—May, 2007

Seasons changed. Autumn transformed into winter, and winter into spring. Sakusa entered his first year of middle school, and saw Midorima less and less. Marumi talked with Shiko about how things were going on Midorima's end, though, so Sakusa was not completely out of the loop. It was complicated and Sakusa had little investment in Midorima's business outside their interactions. Whatever had happened with the Generation of Miracles during the Winter Cup was none of his business.

What was this business, however, was how distant Midorima was becoming from him.

"We don't talk anymore," Sakusa told him one afternoon during Golden Week. Dosho was hosting a training camp for the holiday with some neighboring powerhouse schools, and training for today had just finished. Midorima, who had been practicing his three-pointers in a nearby court, had offered to walk him home. "You're never around, Shintaro."

And Midorima? He was... giddy. As giddy as Midorima would ever get, anyway. Sakusa didn't like talking to a giddy Midorima. It was like making conversation with a brick wall. Midorima bounced his basketball in front of him as they walked, replying, "I'm sorry for that, Kiyoomi. But I've been finding myself occupied lately."

"Occupied with what?"

Deep down, Sakusa knew it wasn't a what, but a who.

Hirakawa Noriko visited Midorima every chance she got. She had graduated from high school last year, and was in her first year of university. A double degree in criminology and law. Midorima had expressed an interest in the same thing according to his mother.

"Following in the footsteps of his father," she had said, proudly. "I shouldn't have been worried that he would take up that silly sport professionally."

Basketball isn't silly, though, Sakusa had wanted to say to her.

There was a flush across his cheeks that Sakusa swore hadn't been there before. Spring fever? Or... "It should be obvious by now—Kiyoomi, there's someone I... There's someone I like. Her blood type is compatible with mine," he went on, almost rambling, "as is her star sign. Kiyoomi, I—"

"You have it bad," snorted Sakusa. "It's Hirakawa Noriko, isn't it?"

"Would you like a medal?"

"Just the rush of victory is enough for me." Outwardly, he presented himself as unruffled about Midorima's confirmation of his crush, but it bothered him more than he would have liked. What kind of person was Noriko, anyway? He had only met her a few times, and had talked to her even less. She was timid, prudish, and soft-spoken at first glance. But Sakusa had seen something lurking deeper beneath the skin—something authoritarian, punishing, and paradoxically self-abnegating—waiting to emerge at the right time.

They walked past the courts Midorima had been shooting hoops in earlier. There was a red-haired teen in there today, his back facing them, but Midorima never called out to him. He must have been Akashi, then. The two of them passed by the courts without issue or intervention.

"Kiyoomi," Midorima said, a lilt to his voice as if he had just remembered something. "Has your father told you about the upcoming gathering yet? Your family has been invited."

"Gathering?" Sakusa had heard of no such thing from either of his parents. "What gathering?"

"A social event," Midorima clarified, "Between some of the most wealthy and influential people on the planet. People from Japan and further away. HNN Foundation hosts a few parties at the Mikura Oriental Hotel in Tokyo—the chain is a subsidiary of the company—every year."