one step further // haikyuu x OC

emotional creatures // 56

My face tingled as my blood ran cold. My stomach squeezed painfully and felt hollow.

"Um..." I began. "Is this some kind of joke? Because if it is that's really messed up. And the fact that you got the teachers involved with it is—"

"What?!" Bokuto proclaimed. "No! This is clearly not a prank! Look at our hair! Our eye shape! And Bokuto with the same kanji?!"

"That's just a coincidence." I snapped and stood from the floor, glaring at him. "If you'll excuse me..."

Without another word and his voice calling out to me, I left that room. I felt dizzy as I tried to navigate the hallways.

"Which way... did I come from? I can't breathe. Gotta get out of here." My voice puffed out in mumbled breaths, I was desperate for oxygen. Turning a corner a little too quickly, I ran into somebody. Already not feeling well, I couldn't get my balance back before I fell over.

"Toshiko, there you are!" Ryonosuke bellowed. "Wait, are you okay? You look like you're about to be sick." In a hurry he helped me to my feet, but I had to clutch onto his arm to prevent myself from falling over again.

"I'm... fine." I wheezed. "Please just... just get me back to the gym."

"But, shouldn't you—?"

"Tanaka! Please... the gym. I'm okay. I'm okay."

"Alright..." He clearly didn't believe what I said, but I was stubborn enough to get him to help me with what I asked. He demanded to know what the hell happened, if he had to beat up that Bokuto guy. I considered it, but just explained what the guy said. His eyes bugged out of his head in shock. And by that time we finally got to the gym and I was able to walk on my own again.

The floor still swayed under my feet when we made it back to our team's corner, I had to sit down. I needed to calm down. Water was my only salvation in that moment. Daichi and Asahi rushed over after noticing the state I was in and asked what happened. I explained between desperate attempts at hydration.

"Crazy right??" I laughed. My dizziness was gone. "Can you believe that guy—? Look! Look, there he is walking in now." I pointed him out, my upperclassmen's jaws practically on floor.

Asahi stuttered, "W-wow. You two really do look alike."

"Not you too!" I whined. We three watched as the captain tried to integrate himself back into his team, they swarmed him and were speaking. Every once and a while one of them would look across the court at me, every time it happened I got more irritated. Whatever I was feeling when I walked in was being swallowed by my growing bad mood. I don't know why I was getting irritated, but I chose to let it take over. It felt better than being dizzy and panicky.

"Whatcha doin'?!" Tanaka blurted.

"Warming up." I replied, bouncing on the balls of my feet. I pulled my knee pads up as Coach Nekomata began announcing the first teams on the courts.

"Okay!" He smiled and read from a piece of paper. "On our schedule we got Nekoma vs. Karasuno on court 1... Fukorodani vs. Shinzen... Ubugawa you're on standby with drills until the next rotation."
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'BOOM!'

"It's up!" I shouted once the ball exploded off my arms. Mohawk guy on Nekoma's team couldn't get one hit past me when they let me sub in the back row. All those negative emotions I felt earlier were being channeled into my playing, and I was actually doing surprisingly well! Of course, Kageyama was able to get the perfect set to Asahi and we managed another point.

But we didn't even win the match.

As Daichi made us do diving drills around the gym, as we did sprints up the hill, even when I was playing in that match I could feel those heavy eyes watching me every so often.