Previous: Promise Rings Chapter 7
And we're back! The work has died down momentarily, so I can put some more writing on the internet (huhu). Anyways, I think it's time for another chapter of Promise Rings because I'm pretty sure I haven't posted another chapter in a hot second, so oops...
Anyways, new chapter with new adventures! I hope you like this one!
I could only close my eyes from the pain in my back as I tried to hold back my tears. I tried to control my breath to make the pain settle down, but the pain didn’t go away. It’s too painful to ignore.
“Oi, is everything o-” I heard the door swinging open and the sound of footsteps stopping. I willed myself to look at the guest at my door to see Tobio watching my figure closely.
For a moment, he stared at me before carefully placing himself beside me on the bed. “Is it your shoulder?” he whispered as he checked my condition. I nodded, hesitating whether I wanted to tell him how I really felt.
“I’m not really sure why they hurt,” I muttered as his fingers carefully grazed over my shirt to check for any abnormalities. His fingers suddenly stopped on a spot between my shoulder blade and the spine, and I froze as he started to feel around the area.
“Karin-chan, what did you do during PE yesterday?” he questioned as he grabbed my shoulders to spin around.
“We did some water polo stuff like throwing the ball to a person-” I started, and I watched his face morph into an annoyed expression. “Wait, are you saying that I threw my shoulder out from that?” I questioned.
“Did you stretch properly because it feels more like you might have tore a muscle?” he shot back at him, and I slowly lowered my gaze. Well, he caught me, and I could feel his hard gaze on my head. “Karin-chan, I thought I told you to always stretch before PE,” he scolded me, and I started playing with my hands. He sighed, making me look at him. “Well, since you should get that checked out,” he started again, “what do you want to do? I’m not letting you go outside because, knowing you, you would want to do something active, but you need to let your shoulder heal properly if it’s what I think it is.” I pouted, trying to figure out what I wanted to do.
“Movie?” I questioned, looking outside the door to see the TV not being used at all. He shrugged, accepting the idea.
“I know your legs are fine, but can you get up?” Tobio questioned, knowing that I often used my arms to boost myself up from sitting. I carefully tried to get up but felt some pain from slouching. He carefully placed his arm around my waist to give me some support. With the extra support, I managed to straighten my posture but continued clinging onto him. Slowly, he guided me over to the couch before letting me go and walking towards the TV. “Which one?” he questioned as his hands picked through the long line of movies nearby.
“Ponyo,” I immediately answered. He chuckled at my answer as he picked it out of the group.
“Why am I not surprised?” I heard him mutter, and I started to feel tired holding the good posture for so long. Once he started playing the movie, he sat down beside me, and I rested my head against his shoulder. “Does it feel okay?” he questioned as his eyes ran up and down my body to check for any issues.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I responded as he grabbed a blanket and wrapped it over our legs. “It feels like only my back needs to be straight, so I can still move my head,” I described as I felt his arm across my back. He nodded as he patted my head slightly. He turned towards the movie, and we quieted down in order to relive the story again.
Silence filled the room as we sat in silence and worked. While this was a rare occurrence, I definitely took advantage of it and worked on whatever I could while Tobio was occupied. While I stared at the essay that was due in a couple days, my eyes seemed to skim over the words quickly, my finger following the words.
“Karin-chan,” Tobio called for me from the bed. At first, I could barely hear it as I focused on the essay. From the corner of my eye, I notice Tobio pull up a chair and sit in it. “Karin-chan,” he called again, poking my cheek for my attention.
“Hm,” I barely hummed as I began revising a sentence, making my words more concise. I was too in the zone to specifically figure out what he needed.
“I’m tired of working,” he complained, trying to rest his head on the back of the chair. Although we’ve only been hanging out for a few hours, we have been only working on homework since he came in. I paused my work to look at him briefly.
“Tobio-kun, we need to finish our work,” I reminded him as I glared at him before returning my attention back to the screen to continue revising. I hear him huff and try to call my attention again. I proceeded to ignore him to make it clear that we were supposed to be working and not chatting. Considering that we were nearing the end of the school year, we needed to keep up our efforts to finish with high grades. From beside me, I hear him complaining about the workload as I neared the end of the essay.
For the final time, he called out with a pout, “Karin-chan.” I decided to give in and expected to glare at him. However, he surprised me with his face a few centimeters away from me. I froze in my spot as I tried to process what was happening. For all I knew, I could feel my heart beat out of my chest and the blood flooding my cheeks. “Can we take a break please?” Trying to calm myself down, I could only bring myself to nod, and I took my hands off the keyboard. I watched his eyes light up as he noticed my actions, springing up from his chair. He reached into his bag and immediately grabbed out the volleyball.
“Practice?” I questioned him, a bit confused. He nodded, his energy through the roof. I sighed and stood up from my desk and followed him into the backyard for some practice.
The bell finally rang, signaling the end of the day. As soon as the teacher finished class, I quickly packed my bag and plugged one earbud into my ear, listening to a playlist that Karin made. She insisted that I listened to these songs in order to get used to listening to English. Today was one of the rare days that practice was canceled, and I was going to walk home with her. I quickly walked through the hallways, getting to the exit to catch up with her. At the gate of the school, I noticed Karin-chan with earbuds in, texting on her phone.
“Karin-chan!” I called out from a few meters away. The song changed, and a few guitar strums played in my ear before the lyrics started.
Do you hear me? I’m talking to you. She seemed to move in slow motion as she pulled out an earbud and turned towards me. Her hair seemed to perfectly fly over her shoulder as her eyes met with mine. I never noticed how big her eyes were in comparison with some of the other girls in the school.
Across the water, across the deep blue ocean. Her paler skin contrasted her dark eyes and hair. Her nose came to a soft point, and her pink lips were slightly open as she stared at me. Even from a distance, I could notice her soft gaze on mine. Her head seemed to tilt as she noticed me just standing there.
Under the open sky. Oh my, baby I’m trying. The school uniform seemed to fit her body perfectly: her skirt didn’t seem too long, and the black blazer that matched her eyes sat comfortably around her shoulders. Her slender fingers seemed to lightly hold the earbud as the wind seemed to blow through the area, making her hair fly with the flow.
Boy, I hear you in my dreams. She pulled the other earbud out of her ear before she started coiling the wire around her phone. Carefully, she placed her phone into her bag before she tucked a few strands behind her hair.
I feel your whisper across the sea. As she approached me, she seemed to radiate maturity from just her walk. I felt my heartbeat against my chest as I watched my childhood best friend started running towards me.
I keep you with me in my heart. The pounds of my heart matched her feet hitting the ground as her hand raised up to make sure I knew she was there. I watched a bright smile grow on her face as her eyes crinkled to the point she couldn’t see much. I smiled back at her as time seemed to keep slowing down.
You make it easier when life gets hard. She suddenly leaped to stop her momentum, making her land in front of me. However, the momentum she built up was a bit too much, causing her to stumble forward slightly. Immediately, my hands went out to catch her, one holding onto her wrist and the other landing in between her shoulders. Her hands landed on my shoulder and chest, and she looked up at me with an innocent aura. I could hear my heart beating in my ears. Was Karin always this pretty?
“Hey, Tobio-kun!” she greeted me as I helped her stand up on her own feet. She smoothed down her skirt before asking, “Ready to go?” I could only nod as she hooked her arm with mine and started dragging me off of campus. I looked down at her, and something in my heart swelled.
I’m lucky I’m in love with my best friend.
I watched the ball float through the air before curling down towards me. I quickly shifted my feet and quickly set the ball to Michimiya-san, our captain. I watched her hand quickly slam the ball into the court, scoring a point. The whistle was blown, and we looked at the score: set 2, 25-23; we won our first practice match of the season.
“Aw yeah!” Watabe-san cheered as we jumped around. We began high-fiving each other before we lined up for the end of the match. While we lined up to give our thanks to the cheering section, my eyes caught Tobio’s figure in the stands. I noticed him staring at me, and I gave him a small smile before I bowed with the rest of the team. When I looked up to find Tobio again, I noticed that he disappeared from his spot in the crowd, making me confused. Turning around, I sulked over to grab my stuff, giving myself the small signal out of habit. Looking up, I spotted Tobio standing by himself by the entrance. When he noticed me looking at him, he waved me over, and I rushed over to him.
When I ran over to him, I jumped to hug him, wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. His arms wrapped around my waist as he muttered into my ear, “Congrats, Karin-chan.”
Smiling widely, I whispered, “Thank you, Tobio-kun.” I rested my head on my shoulder, snuggling my face into the crook of his neck as I found Tobio not resisting the skinship before I felt some eyes on my back. Turning around towards the crowd behind us, I saw the team staring at us, and I quickly scrambled out of Tobio’s grasp and stood on the floor.
“Get a room you two!” Michimiya-san yelled from the bags. The entire team laughed at our antics as my cheeks started to redden.
“You would’ve done the same with Sawamura-san, Michimiya-san!” I yelled back at her. Even from a distance, I could tell that Michimiya-san’s cheeks were turning red and burning up. She quickly turned around and continued packing up her bag, appearing extremely flustered. From behind me, I heard Tobio chuckle as he rested his elbow on my head, leaning onto me.
“You weren’t kidding when you said that Michimiya-san really likes Daichi-san,” Tobio admitted, whispering into my ear. Laughing a little, I nodded slightly. I felt his hand move from my head to my shoulders. I felt my cheeks heat up a little from the contact. “Anyways,” Tobio started again, “you ready to go get some food?” Looking over at me, I looked back at him and nodded, trying to cover up how shy I was getting. He released his arm off of my shoulders before I ran over to the team to grab my bag.
“So you’re going on a date with Kageyama-kun, Yamaji-chan?” Watabe-san questioned with her teasing tone. Aside from my cheeks, I felt the heat in my ears as I comprehended the word “date.”
“I-It’s not a date!” I refuted, my voice a little too loud. I realized I caught the attention of some people including Tobio, and I flashed everyone an awkward smile before looking down, trying to hide my face. Around me, I heard the girls giggle along with the coaches.
“Now, now,” Aihara-san caught the team’s attention, “let’s give Yamaji-chan some breathing room before she gets too hot and flustered around Kageyama-kun.” She giggles as she teases me more. Feeling somewhat betrayed, I finished fixing my bag before giving my farewells to the girls.
As I walked further away from the group, Megumi loudly called out, “Have fun on your date, Care Bear!” Her loud voice echoed against the spacious area of the gym, scaring me for a moment. Turning my head to glare at her, I notice all the girls giggling at my reaction. Before I could say anything in response, I felt something warm grabbing my wrist to turn me around before feeling Tobio’s arm around my shoulders. In the background, I could hear all the girls squealing, and as much as I wanted to turn around, Tobio forced me to keep looking forward. With the weight of his arm, I felt myself leaning forward with the extra weight sitting on my shoulders.
As we were walking out the gym into the golden hour of the day, Tobio’s arm fell off my shoulders as we began walking home. After all the comments from the team, there was no way I could face him right now; I betted my cheeks were extremely red right now. My eyes were lowered to the ground, trying to avoid any sort of awkward moment with Tobio. I felt something warm in my right hand, causing me to look up.
“Oi, I know that you’re thinking about the match, but you can’t get lost,” he responded as he placed our hands into his hoodie pocket. Nodding, I let him cling onto my hand as we walked down the sidewalk, enjoying the last sunlight beams of the day. “Oh yeah,” he started again, “what’s up?”
Laughing at how he just remembered our routine, I responded, “There are some things that I could work on, but that’s just because it’s been awhile since my shoulder injury.” He nodded in response as we continued our way down the street. “Oh right!” I suddenly remembered. Turning his head towards me for a moment, he gave me some affirmation that he was listening. “Someone confessed to me earlier today,” I nervously chuckled a little. Over the past year at Karasuno, a few guys had confessed, but I wanted to try dating while I was still young. I felt his hand slightly twitch against mine before squeezing it a little tighter.
After a moment or two of silence, he finally whispered, “Did you accept?” Gulping for a second, I nodded; I had accepted fully knowing that I had no chance with Tobio even if I tried. The guy just loves volleyball so much, and this guy was kind of cute. Plus, holding hands and hugging is normal between friends, right? Honestly, I can’t just wait for him to fall for me anyways. “Well,” his voice began trailing off, “congrats, Karin-chan.”
“Thanks,” I whispered as I felt his hand release mine. I slipped my hand out of his pocket as we continued walking in silence. The atmosphere was almost suffocating even though we breathed in the clean air.
“So who is it?” Tobio questioned, finally breaking the silence.
“Just a classmate,” I responded quietly. I didn’t bother telling him who exactly it was, knowing that he could care less. Feeling his radiating anger, I closed my mouth, and we continued walking in silence. How come he was so quiet from this? Jealous.
Okay, I think this is a good stopping place for this chapter. I know that this chapter is shorter than normal, but I guess it is what it is. Anyways, I hope that you liked this chapter, and see you in the next one!
Next: Promise Rings Chapter 9
