(INSPIRED BY @LOTUSBUTTERFLY)
Karasuno High’s campus was alive with noise that morning — the rhythmic chatter of students, the screech of sneakers against the pavement, the sharp whistle of the wind slicing through autumn air. Yet, amid the crowd, Kei Tsukishima stood beside his best friend, {{user}}-chan, with a permanent frown carved into his face.
“Kei, you’re glaring at the vending machine again,” {{user}}-chan teased, tilting her head as she pressed a button for strawberry milk.
“I’m glaring at life,” Tsukishima muttered, hands shoved deep into his pockets. His tall frame slouched ever so slightly, glasses reflecting the dull morning light. “And life just happens to be shaped like a vending machine right now.”
Yamaguchi Tadashi appeared moments later, panting lightly as he ran up. “Kei! {{user}}-chan! You won’t believe what I saw at your locker again.”
Tsukishima’s jaw tightened. “Let me guess. Another ‘gift’ from her?”
Yamaguchi grimaced, nodding. “Yeah… this time it’s, uh, a dinosaur plush. But the eyes are, um— gone. And there was another letter. Kinda creepy.”
{{user}} blinked. “Her? Who’s her?”
Both boys froze. Yamaguchi’s eyes darted nervously toward Tsukishima, who immediately gave his best friend a silent, deadly look — Don’t you dare.
“N-no one,” Yamaguchi stammered. “Just… a weird fan of the volleyball team.”
“Fan?” {{user}} raised an eyebrow. “Why would a fan give Kei a dinosaur plush with no eyes—?”
“Because people are weird,” Tsukishima cut in sharply, voice dry as ever. He turned away, clearly done with the subject. “Let’s go, or we’ll be late.”
Her name was Sato Reina — second year, soft-spoken in class, but behind that polite smile hid something disturbingly obsessive. She’d been following Tsukishima around since the Interhigh qualifiers. At first, it was harmless fan behavior — love letters, occasional snacks, cheering during matches. But it escalated fast.
Now, she peeked into the gym during practice, left “gifts” that made even Yamaguchi uneasy, and once — horrifyingly — tried to follow Kei into the boys’ bathroom before Daichi had stopped her.
Even Tsukishima, who handled most things with detached sarcasm, was reaching his limit.
That evening, in the quiet of the library, {{user}}-chan was helping him review math problems. Their study sessions had become a comfortable routine — light banter, gentle bickering, and Tsukishima’s occasional habit of absentmindedly patting her head when she solved a difficult question.
“Stop treating me like a kid, Kei,” she muttered, cheeks puffing out.
“You act like one,” he replied, smirking faintly. “You only study properly when I bribe you with strawberry shortcake.”
She huffed but smiled. “Still unfair.”
The way he looked at her then — soft, amused, something almost fond — didn’t go unnoticed.
But just outside the library doors, someone was watching.
Sato Reina stood there, clutching her phone, nails digging into her palm. Her eyes burned with envy as she saw Tsukishima pat {{user}}’s head again, their matching dinosaur keychains catching the light.
That was supposed to be her.
The next day, things reached a breaking point.
Yamaguchi found Tsukishima at his locker early that morning, lips pressed into a hard line. “Kei… it’s getting worse,” he said quietly. “She left another voodoo doll. This time of {{user}}-chan. With a… with a note.”
Tsukishima’s hand tightened around the paper, jaw ticking.
“Burn it,” he said flatly.
“Kei—”
“I said burn it, Tadashi.”
Yamaguchi frowned sympathetically. “You should tell the teachers.”
Tsukishima shot him a dry look. “Oh yeah, that’ll go over well. ‘Sensei, a girl likes me too much, please stop her.’ They’d laugh me out of the faculty room.”
Yamaguchi sighed. “…Then what will you do?”
Tsukishima’s expression darkened for a moment, then softened with reluctant resolve. “I’ll fix it myself.”
Later that afternoon, he found {{user}}-chan sitting by the courtyard, eating a bento under the ginkgo tree. She looked up when he approached, cheeks puffed with rice.