[Haikyuu!!] How Could I Possibly Like Him?

You fell for someone you had known since childhood.

But you weren't close. If there weren't other familiar faces around, you wouldn't even say hello.

There was only one reason: he was a difficult, prickly guy.

And you were even more difficult than he was.

As for how you realized you liked him, a friend had to tell you.

"Why are you looking at Tsukishima again?"

"What's it to you?"

Maybe the wind had blown your wits away, because you actually forgot to deny it. Or maybe arguing back would have sounded even more like a guilty confession.

"Then you like him."

That was the conclusion your friend reached.

You fell silent. The pen spinning between your fingers dropped to the floor, its clatter barely audible over the classroom noise between lessons.

But you noticed Tsukishima taking off his headphones.

After tossing a pebble that broke the calm, your friend left the classroom.

She had no idea what she was saying.

There was no way you liked him.

1. Second-person narration. Tsukishima x female reader, with Yamaguchi having an unrequited crush on the protagonist.

2. The protagonist has flaws that show up in the first three chapters. She does change, but she won't suddenly turn into someone who says everything straight out. If that's not your thing, don't read.

3. A story about childhood friends who aren't very close, two people who each think the other hates them, and two prickly people falling in love.

Later:

You and Tsukishima have been dating for a while, but there's one thing you still haven't figured out.

"Tsukishima, when did you start liking me?"

On an ordinary rainy day, you ask Tsukishima, who's holding an umbrella.

A car passes. He catches a bit of your sleeve and pulls you close. The umbrella, already tilted in your favor, angles even farther over you. The moment he lets go, you take his hand of your own accord.

"When?" he repeats with a mischievous glint, his amused tone sounding almost like a sigh or a question to himself.

You turn an ordinary handhold into fingers intertwined.

"What about this?"

"Hmm..." His response is hard to interpret.

The rain falls harder. Their homes are just past the next corner.

You let go and stop walking, then simply wrap your arms around him, burying your head in his gakuran, lightly dampened by raindrops. Even the rain can't wash away the scent that belongs to Tsukishima.

"Wow... You really want to know that badly?"

His voice comes from above and beside your ear. An arm wraps around your shoulder, the umbrella shifts back to the middle, and he switches hands, using the one that had held the umbrella to keep hugging you.

"Even this won't do?"

Thesis: A sincere heart is all it takes.