"Y/N-CHANNNN, WHY'RE WE TAKING SO LONG HERE? YOU PROMISED ME WE'D BE GETTING MILK BREAD!" whined the captain of seijoh's volleyball team, latching onto the small female as he buried her under his weight.
the h/c-nette groaned, the air knocking out of her lungs upon having his whole weight press down upon her back. god she hated when he got like this. "oikawa-senpai, k-knock it off — you're too heavy for me, i'm gonna fall over!" she wheezed out, the book falling from her hands as she tried pushing him off of her.
goodness, take the grand king to library with you after school one day and nearly collapse to ground beneath him; yeah, she definitely planned that happening.
reluctantly, after a good few seconds he pulled away, huffing childishly. "so mean, y/n-chan! you should have more respect for your senpai, i bet this is iwa-chan's terrible influence on you! this is what happens when you look up to him, shame on you!" he pouted, his arms crossing over his chest as he turned his nose up in the air.
"well you shouldn't use your own kohai to support your weight, i'm not some kinda lean rest y'know," she sighed, straightening her back out after picking the book up off the ground.
the brunet huffed once more, feeling rather offended by the girl's attitude, "well you're lucky i walked you here! not even a single thank you for your caring upperclassman!"
turning to him briefly, she gave him a deadpanned look, her tone dropping to something a little more monotone. "oikawa-san, you're the one who followed me here though," she muttered, resuming back to the shelf she was previously looking at as she stuffed the book in her hand back in its place.
man, there just wasn't anything good today! did all those other bookworms and geeks take all the good and interesting fantasy books? what a drag..
she sighed again after placing yet another book back in its place, deciding on maybe checking out another shelf when something heavy landed on her in the head.
yelping in surprise, she alerted the chocolate eyed third year with the startled noise, a sense of concern washing over him as he ran up to check on the younger girl. "y/n-chan! are you okay? who threw the book, i'll let them have it!" he asked in worry, his large hand resting on her head as he rubbed the spot where she was hit.
"senpai don't worry, i'm fine. a book probably just fell off the shelf, it's normal," she smiled, waving her hand dismissively before bending down to grab the book, only to have the third year stop her and pick it up for her.
he shook his head at her protests, simply placing one hand on her shoulder as he reached down with ease to grab it. stupid tall boys and their long arms..
"here," he smiled as he handed it to her, his expression soft since he was still fairly concerned for her. i mean who wouldn't be, that book was pretty heavy, and dusty too.
she returned the smile with ease, her hands reaching to take the maroon book with caution as she thanked him quietly before deciding on taking a quick skim through it. it can't possibly be that bad right? maybe it was a fantasy book written in old fashioned english!
tooru rose a brow at the way her face turned slightly excited, his head poking out from behind her as he rested his chin on her shoulder to have a look too. no way would a fallen book turn out to be that interesting. in fact, it looked suspicious.
his eyes averted briefly to the nearest shelf, noticing how there was no missing space. now that was a little creepy, even for him.
turning back to the girl, he sighed, "y/n-chan, i wouldn't want to ruin the moment and all, but i'd be careful with that book y'know. it seems a little off looking," he told the girl, his eyes still locked on the book before her.
now from the close proximity, you'd think she heard him, but unfortunately whatever he said entered one ear and departed the other. "uh huh.. yeah," she answered incoherently, her fingers sliding down to flip the page when a hand stopped her.
his hand cupped over hers so easily, she couldn't help snap out of whatever daze she was in. honestly she hasn't even noticed tooru latching onto her again.
her hand wiggled beneath his, a small pout coming to her lips. "oikawa-san, what's wrong? come on i wanna see the rest," she asked, slightly annoyed with the weird way he was acting today. why was he so clingy right now, it was just a book. more specifically one on fairytales — if he would just move his damn hand for her to see!
he rose a brow, his chin lifting from her shoulder as he backed away with his arms now folding over his chest, his head tilting at a certain angle. man not this again..
"y/n-chan, i believe you should put that book away. as your senpai, i strong advise against taking it home," he told her, the playfulness leaving his voice as he looked down at her rather seriously.
she frowned, shaking her head at him, "oikawa-san you're a year older than me and while i have respect for you, you shouldn't get to decide these sort of things for me.. besides it's a book, how harmful could it possibly be?" she asked, her gaze drawing away from meeting anywhere near his eyes. he was scary when he got like this — and so oddly intimidating with the way he did that stupid head tilt of his..
his lips parted in protest, but she turned away before he could speak. how rude!
instead of giving her another lecture that she'll never listen to, he decided to examine the book again for himself. fairytales or not, something was off.
it was oddly heavy for its appearance, but tooru figured it was like that because of how outdated it was. nowadays, the paper used in books were much thinner and hardcovers aren't created as much as paperback.
the female gazed down at the golden inked lettering, deciding to skim through it once more when she read the world 'original'. original as in the first versions from their official authors? what exactly did that mean..
the brunet peered over her shoulder once more to see what her book was about, finding himself becoming rather puzzled as well at the word 'original'.
"senpai, what do you think they mean by original? and it's also so dark looking.. aren't fairytales meant to be for kids?" she asked her upperclassman, looking up at him for any sort of answer, however he seemed to be stuck as well.
although, he did have a bit of an idea. "i can't say that i'm sure either, those stories had their own original creators at some point, but they were first told as folktales — meaning that it was done verbally before it was written," he began, grabbing ahold of the book to turn a few pages, showing her that there was in fact no name.
"because of how it was back then, you weren't allowed to put your name down for what you made, so the original author is nameless, but of course, that didn't really stop people from writing their own 'versions' later on." he hummed, adding quotations marks with his fingers at the end.
nodding slowly, she peeped over his shoulder to see what he was reading however there was nothing out of the ordinary. it was nothing but an old dusty book of fairytales. definitely nothing to worry about, right? so she can borrow it.
"i think i'm gonna take it," she told him, looking up to see if he was with her on her decision, but he wasn't. he was already on the offense to begin with.
the setter sighed once more, deciding to hold onto the maroon colored book for a minute longer, "i think you should put it back," he answered simply, turning to her with a serious glint in his chocolate colored embers. "it may seem normal looking and all, but it couldn't be more suspicious. i mean, look at it, y/n-chan."
huh?
blinking, the female looked between the book and the male, quirking a brow at him. "but it looks completely normal aside from being old," she muttered, her hands reaching to take the book back — which the boy reluctantly released.
tooru didn't quite show it, but he was a bit irritated with her. why was she being so difficult with him about this? was she really that naive..?
he wanted to steer her in the right direction, but how could he when she didn't listen to him?
"still, you should be a little weary, y/n-chan," he started, his hand sliding down loosely to his hip, "if something looks iffy i wouldn't really take it. but of course, how else would you learn," he said, draping a hand over his forehead rather dramatically. "clearly you refuse to listen to oikawa-san, so you'll be left to figure this one out on your own!" he declared, his cheeks slightly puffed out as he walked away to another shelf, leaving the girl to herself.
well that was weird..
sighing, she massaged her temples with her free hand, approaching the librarian as she wore a small smile.
"excuse me miss, could i please borrow this book for some time? i have my library card with me if necessary!" said the young maiden to the older woman, placing the book down on the counter so she could examine it for herself.
peeling her gaze away from her computer, the librarian focused her attention on the excited customer before her — well actually, more so the book. how odd, she hadn't seen this one before..
"ah l/n-san," she called after looking at her library card, a puzzled look now presenting itself on her features. "where exactly did you find this book? i've never seen it before."
talk about bizarre, now she was saying things to her too? just what was up with everyone, it's just a book on fairytales; nothing more, nothing less.
"i-it fell from the top shelf over," she started, turning to point at the book shelf to show that there was a space, "there.."
however there wasn't a space.
it's as if the book never even existed.
how did she not notice before?
the woman wanted to question her further on her choice, but with the lack of energy and motivation she had now, she allowed it to slide just this once. what bad could possibly happen?
maybe she just forgot about this book and her mind was playing games on her for the lack of sleep. who knows.
grabbing her notepad and a pen, she wrote the girl a receipt and return date, handing the small paper to her with a soft sigh. "here you go miss, don't ruin the book please and don't be late either when returning it. happy readings."
"thank you very much!"
and that would be the start of the apparition that was the mysterious book of fairytales that was fated to be put in the hands of our curious heroine, y/n l/n.
now what could possibly go wrong?