The bookmark
Third person / Himawari, Namine's POV.
As a child, Himawari, Namine had learned, that fairy tales always started with an 'Once upon a time'. Often such stories were about helpless princesses, who had to be rescued by their princes in shining armor, until they would finally live happily ever after. Those charming boys would sweep their fair lady's of their feet, with their dashing looks and strong physique.
Quite superficial if someone would have asked the young girl nowadays. She had never understood how one could act like a damsel in distress. After all, Namine had always been a very independent person since she could remember. She was not a petty, helpless girl who needed a handsome boy, who thought that she was in need of a hero, who had to save her from any dreary fate. On the contrary, she actually, was good in solving her own problems and by all means had a very normal and completely relaxed life so far. So she couldn't complain at all.
She was born in Miyagi, in Japan and lived there with her loving, hard-working father for as long as she could remember. They had a good relationship, even if he spent a lot of time at work. But, hey, that only helped to form her into the very independent young girl she was today.
Of course, like any adolescent teenager, she had had to deal with the day-to-day difficulties that growing up had brought with it. Puberty was a bitch after all. She had to learn how to make friends, to deal with disappointments, to cope with the physical and psychological changes of her mind and body and how to somehow find oneself in all of this disturbing chaos. She had to learn what she felt to be right and wrong, to whom she wanted to confide and what she hoped for from her future self.
Well, at the current age of 17, she felt that she was actually well on the way to solidifying herself. Sure, maybe she was sometimes too quick to judge other people and had the tendency to pigeonhole them. Often during her worst times, she didn't like to show her true feelings, even in front of her closest friends and family. She didn't like being ripped out of her comfort zone and was a bit overly cautious at times. Better to be safe than sorry was her motto after all.
Namine was not very popular in highschool and stuck her nose most of her time a little too deep into science fiction novels, to really care for all the superficial drama around her. Maybe she was a bit stuck up in her own nerdy way, for thinking that she was better than most of her peers. After all she couldn't look into someones head, to really know what was going on inside of others, but who was actually perfect? The important thing was that she was satisfied with her life, wasn't it?
She knew how to distance herself from drama as much as possible and mostly swam under the radar of the cooler part of her fellow students, even if she occasionally experienced a few awkward dropouts. Nowadays she was easily overlooked, inconspicuous, no risks involved. She lived a predictable life. Just the way she liked it.
In junior high she had actually been one of the cooler kids herself, hiding herself and her nerdy interests behind a pretty facade. But that had only made sure that she had to experience how shallow and selfish the people around her could be. Especially athletes and the peers who were drawn to such people...
Sure, it was probably not fair to lump every single one of them together, but those were the experiences she had made and no one had yet been able to teach her better.
With the start of her time at her high school she had decided that she didn't want to be a part of it anymore, had clearly distanced herself from such people and had a much more relaxed life since then. Those years were much quieter and far less dramatic. All she had to do was staying away from people who loved to be popular and everything else would be staying the same. She was pretty sure of that. She didn't need those people anyway. She may not have many friends, but she had some really close ones. Even if they didn't necessarily share all of her interests, or were not as preoccupied with the same life questions as she was sometimes. She really do care and would always be there for them, because despite all of her not so charming quirks, she was a really kind and gentle soul who cared more about the well-being of her friends than about her own.
But sometimes she wished, that she had someone in her life with whom she could discuss even the most uncomfortable and weird topics. A person who shared her interest in science fiction and dealt with her and her sometimes really stupid train of thoughts. A person to whom she could show all her weaknesses and strengths without being judged. Someone she could dare to completely open up to. Not in a friendly way, however, no! She wanted something more. Something deeper. Not someone who things she had to be saved, but someone who was at eye level with her.
But even if she had not yet found such a person among her current circle off riends, it was clear to her that she would also not find this person among the famous people of her school, so she really didn't have to look there, right?
But who knows? Sometimes things turn out differently than expected.
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"God, I am through! The classes today were particularly exhausting!", Namine's best friend, Mikawa Ayame, grumbled, while she stretched her back extensively. The dark-haired girl next to her hummed in confirmation as they strolled down the hall together, in order to get to the stairs that led to the first floor. A faint smile crept onto the quiet girl's lips, as she listened how her blonde friend continued to complain about their classes. Math in particular. "I really don't get it. How can someone be good in math? Mr. Fukushima is going to kill me! I swear!", she rambled seamlessly.
Shrugging, Namine's gaze lowered to the well used book, which her arms pressed gently against her chest, while she zoned out of their small conversation for a brief moment. Her light blue eyes traced the lines of the small piece of her colorful bookmark that peeked out of the sand-colored pages, but it was impossible to see what kind of motif was drawn on the laminated paper, from her point of view. "I don't know, Aya-chan.", Namine responded half heartly, knowing full well, that the both of them knew, that she was quite good in the subject. Ayame snorted softly and gave her a somber look.
The corridor was full of students who were either enjoying their break or taking their time after their classes had ended, to get their individual tasks done, before their extracurricular activities are going to get started. Looking up again Namine and her friend avoided two soccer players who rushed past them and giggled when they were chided by a passing teacher for running though the halls. "Hah, serves them right!", the blonde girl joked, before she fell into a comfortable silence. After a brief moment, Namine's gaze wandered from the well-filled corridor to Ayame in order to look at her questioningly. "You are going to be busy with the newspaper club, right?", she asked, changing their topic smoothly. Her friend nodded and grinned, while she replied with a new found motivation: "Yes, come along, too. You haven't signed up for any of the extracurricular activities yet. I think you might really like it.", she suggested after confirming her friend's question. Namine shrugged her shoulders thoughtfully, before she carefully answered: "Maybe another time. I wanted to go straight to the library. I still need a copy of the book that we have to read in english and I wanted to see if they had it there."
A pout formed on Ayame's lower lip, ready to debate against her best friend, when the squeaking of some random girls on the lower floor caught their attention. Curiously, the two friends strolled down the stairs, to find a cluster of female peers, who had gathered around a young man who went to one of their parallel classes. He was wearing a volleyball tracksuit with the school insignia imprinted on it. Like a Superstar, he stood casually in front of his audience, while he was grinning mischievously at his female companions, listening quite satisfied to their praises.
It was Oikawa Tooru, Captain of the Aoba Johsai Volleyball club. One of the greatest heartthrob's of their school. Namine really had no idea why everyone was making such a fuss about him. Well, yeah he was quite handsome with his chocolate brown eyes and windswept hair, but she found his fake manner incredibly unsympathetic. However, the girls around him doesn't seem to share her opinion at all.
"Oikawa-kun, you are so cool!"
"Oikawa-senpai, I baked cookies for you!"
"O-Oikawa-senpai, I'll keep my fingers crossed for your next game!"
The high voices echoed through the corridor of the first floor and reached Ayame and Namine, who just committed to descend the last few steps of the staircase. The dark-haired young woman rolled her eyes at the scene that transpired in front of her. Really now, how could someone hang on a guy's sleeve like that? It was incredibly silly and somehow quite self-degrading how each of these girls were trying to get his attention, by batting their long eyelashes at him. Didn't they have any dignity? Urgh, she really didn't like athletes and their little lap dogs... they were just so annoyingly ridiculous.
Quite humored the two friends watched the scene in front of them, as the young man thanked his admirers with a charming smile on his full lips. Namine clicked her tongue, when she saw how the girls giggled coquettishly at the Volleyball captain, looking at him like starry eyed puppies. A little further away some other guys in the same tracksuits leaned against the walls in a cool manner. They seemed to be waiting for their occupied friend. Two of the three boys grinned playfully and made some frivolous gestures to each other, but the third seemed rather annoyed and impatient, while he kept throwing his volleyball into the air, before catching it again shortly afterwards.
Loosing her interest, Namine turned to her friend and gave her a brief smile before raising her hand in goodbye. "Well... See you tomorrow, Aya-chan!", she mumbled with a soft smile on her lips. The two hugged each other before they broke away. Giggling, Ayame squeezed Namine's fore arm, before they parted from each other. "Please humor me and think about it, okay Nami-chan? The doors of the newspaper club are always open for you. You could be our little star photographer!", the blonde girl took up their previous topic one last time, rising her hands in front of her eyes to mimic taking pictures, before she started to leave in the opposite direction as her friend. "Okay, okay. I'll think about it!", Namine answered loudly, as she took a few steps backwards and waved her hand one last time.
Turning on her heel, she sighed quietly, before she quickly headed for the library. When she turned around, she had fixed her gaze on the floor, circling the small crowd of girls in order to avoid them. Unfortunately she hadn't seen how one of the Volleyball players had started to break away from the wall on the other side, while she rushed past the group of female students. Before either of them could react properly, they accidentally crashed into each other. With a thud, her book landed on the pale linoleum floor, while the young man had also lost his grip on his volleyball, which rolled a few feet away from them. The dark-haired girl looked up in surprise and raised her light blue eyes towards his dark ones, which were also looking down at her in astonishment. She immediately recognized him as another boy from one of her parallel classes. It was Iwaizumi Hajime. Perplexed, she watched his eyebrows contract slowly, while his lips curled in annoyance, waking her up from her state of shock.
"Ah, sorry! I wasn't paying attention to where I was going", Namine mumbled quite embarrassed, while she bowed apologetically in front of the guy, before she averted her eyes to look for the ball, which had been lost because of their collision. When she discovered it, however, it was already picked up by that teammate with the pinkish brown hair. "No problem!", the other person answered grumpily, while he leaned down to pick up the book that Namine had accidentally dropped. Her gaze snapped back to him, as she took a step away. The serious expression on the dark-haired boy's face took on a slightly softer look for a brief moment, but he couldn't quite drive the annoyed sting out of his eyes, while he held her object up to her, as he kept looking past her to his buddy, who still seemed to be busy. She gratefully accepted her book, before she decided to walk past him with another apologetic smile on her lips. She had seen, that he wanted to say something more, but she was a bit quicker: "Sorry again. I... better watch out where I'm walking from now on."
With an awkward wave, she hurried off, before the dark-haired guy with the gloomy expression could utter another word to her. She ignored the curious look Hajime threw after her as she hurried around the corner, but she could still hear his deep voice echoing through the hall, while he seemed to yell at one of his friends, after she had already been out of sight: "Shut up and come on, Shittykawa! We don't have all day!"
Third person / Oikawa, Tooru's POV.
He was the great king of the court. Captain of the volleyball team of the private high school, Aoba Johsei. Oikawa Tooru. Tall, successful, determined, popular, charming, intelligent, handsome. In many eyes of his peers he was like the perfect specimen. He had it all. Other guys wanted to be like him, while the girls fell in front of his feet, wishing to be his girlfriend. For some of those girls he was like the epitome of their knight in shining armor, ready to strife their demons in their most secret dreams. They imagined him to be the perfect man for them. Some would argue that there was nothing that he, Oikawa Tooru, couldn't achieve. Guys like him knew no boundaries and got everything they wanted. Problems? What's this? People like him had no problems, everything flew right into his hands and no obstacles were ever put in his way.
That was utter bullshit, of course, but who cares? If they wanted to think that way, they could all do assume that he and his whole life was a picture perfect story. People tended to think what they wanted anyway. Of course, it was also clear to him that his behavior only strengthened such thoughts. But he didn't saw the need in proving to others that he wasn't the perfect young man he was claiming to be. Actually he really do liked his life and his image so far and he knew that they were right in one point: He really had quite a bit of a better chance in life than others. Good looks and intelligence weren't everything, but it helped non the less.
But no matter what they all thought about him, the truth was that everything Tooru had gained so far, had been the fruits of his hard work. In everything he had done he had put all his focus on improving himself. Even if people thought he was a natural, he knew that everything he had achieved so far was a testament to his steeled determination. Furthermore he actually didn't like to be titled as a natural, because he wasn't one... He would never be one. He was just incredibly hard working, when it comes to archiving his goals!
And Volleyball was the one thing he loved the most. He lived for this sport. He would go through the fucking hell for his passion and prove to everyone that he was exactly what they all thought he was. The goddamn great king of the freaking court! He had worked hard for his position and wore this mask of skillful perfection like one of these so much hated naturals. Well, he could be pretty manipulative, he knew that. His best friend loved to remind him that he had a narcissistic, inflated streak, but hey, who was actually perfect? The important thing was that he was satisfied with his life so far,wasn't it?
If someone had asked him if it was more important to him, to be loved or to be feared, he would have replied that he wanted people to be afraid of how much they loved him. Because he had learned that outside his passion, it was all about the image, to be outstanding.
Of course it would be nice to have a someone outside of his team. Not in a friendly way, however, no! He wanted something more. Something deeper. Not someone who worshiped him, but someone who was at eye level with him. To have someone with whom he could held deeper conversations that broke though the surface of superficially. To have someone who appreciate him for himself, even if they knew what an ass he actually could be. Someone who could live with the fact that Volleyball occupied a huge place in his life. He wanted to be able to speak as freely as he sometimes did with Iwa-chan, but even with him he couldn't talk about everything that would occupy his mind. But that was probably the price for being popular. He had to keep the well-polished facade, because that was what they all wanted to see anyway, right?
But who knows? Sometimes wishes can come true in the weirdest ways.
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Grinning, Tooru accepted a self-made cookie that one of the many faceless girls had baked for him and tasted it to her satisfaction in front of the entire gathering. "Hmm delicious! Thank you, honey!", the brown-haired captain purred, while he took the effort to close his eyes with feigned pleasure. The girls sighed dreamily as they watched him do it. When he opened his eyes again, he saw out of the corner of his eyes how his best friend had stepped into his field of vision. But Hajime had turned his back away from him and was watching a dark-haired girl who was disappearing around the corner, before Tooru was able to take a proper glimpse at her. Curiously he saw how his other two friends laughed mischievously and approached their grim-looking buddy. Issei smacked Hajime on the shoulder as he pointed in the direction the girl had disappeared, but they were too far away for their captain to hear, what they said to each other.
Quickly, the handsome young man turned back to the girls who were still flocking around him in admiration and smiled apologetically down to them. "Ahh, I'm sorry, ladies, but I shouldn't keep my friends waiting. However, I hope you guys watch us training later!", he said quickly, while he gifted them with a winning smile, before he fought his way to his teammates. Although he heard the disappointed sigh's of the girls, he didn't bother to care as he slowly walked up to his best friend to put a hand on his shoulder blades.
"Well, am I dreaming or has my dear Iwa-chan just flirted with a cute girl?", the handsome young man asked teasingly, while he watched as the addressed young man turned around to send him a deadly glare. Coupled with a targeted slap on the back of Tooru's head, his best friend replied angrily: "Shut up and come on, Shittykawa! We don't have all day!"
Rubbing the emerging bump, Tooru bowed his head, eyes narrowed in pain, while he heard the rest of his snickering teammates slowly pull away, to follow their ace, who had stomped away, after hitting his Captain. He was just about to hurry up to his friends when something colorful caught his re-opening gaze. Curiously, the handsome young man leaned forward and picked up the item before realizing that it was a bookmark that had been lying next to him on the floor.
It was designed quite nicely. For people who would be interested in something like that, it would probably be quite pretty. It seemed to be homemade. The colors merged neatly, as if the artist had spend a few more hours on it than necessary. Not that he was one of those people who would actually be interested in that. Nevertheless, he had noticed it any way. Actually, it wouldn't have been something he'd payed special attention to, but the motive had piqued his interest, because little drawn aliens and UFOs filled the entire front in a cute way. A small smile spread across his lips as he examined the neat, but often used, laminated paper. There was no owner's name on it, but when he looked at its back he found the words 'Is anybody out there?#4370LadyStardust' drawn within a starry nightsky in italic handwriting, while a female silhouette was sitting on top of a small drawn hill, seemingly looking up to the stars. Tooru turned on his own axis, searching, to see if anyone was looking for their lost bookmark, but no one seemed to care.
"Hurry up, Dumbass!", Hajime called out to him, when the ace had noticed that his captain was dawdling again. Promptly, Tooru shoved the bookmark into the left pocket of his training jacket while he set out to hurry after his teammates. "I'm coming. Stop rushing me, Iwa-chan!", the Volleyball captain whined, catching up to his friends. The elongated piece of paper was immediately forgotten in his pocket, while he began to talk to his friends about some moves that they wanted to refine in the upcoming training session.