The Setup

"Hajime..."

There it was. That heavy, suffocating silence, paired with the exact same disappointed stares he had spent years trying to escape.

Iwaizumi stared down at his plate, the warmth of the home-cooked meal instantly souring. He had finally come home, hoping against hope for a sliver of progress, but they hadn't changed a bit.

"Hajime, listen to your mother," his father stated, his voice carrying that rehearsed, lecturing tone. He picked up his wine glass, swirling the dark liquid with practiced nonchalance.

"You need to start dating women. You're in university now, Hajime. Live a little."

Iwaizumi let out a slow, exhausted sigh. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, the headache already forming behind his eyes.

"I already told you," he said, keeping his voice as steady as possible. "I like men."

The clinking of silverware stopped. The entire dining room went dead silent, the kind of quiet that makes your ears ring.

His mother shifted uncomfortably in her chair, her fingers nervously gripping her napkin. "I... I thought that was just a phase," she stammered, offering a fragile, forced smile as if trying to laugh off a bad joke.

She leaned forward, her voice dropping to a pleading whisper. "When are you going to get over it?"

"Yes, hobbies don't tend to last this long," his father chimed in, taking a slow sip of his wine, completely dismissing his son's identity as nothing more than a passing collegiate trend.

Iwaizumi didn't answer. He just stared at the two of them, the silence stretching between them like a canyon. *It's always been like this. It's always going to be like this.* The realization brought a cold wave of finality.

Dropping his napkin onto the table, Iwaizumi stood up, his chair scraping loudly against the hardwood floor.

"I'm done," he said, his voice clipped and laced with a sharp, undeniable annoyance. "I'm going back to my place now."

"A-already?!" His mother gasped, half-rising from her seat. Her eyes darted from his nearly full plate to his hardened expression.

"You haven't even finished eating, and you promised you'd stay the night!"

Iwaizumi looked down at them one last time, his gaze cold. The disappointment in his chest had long since hardened into irritation. "That promise was made before you decided to bring up my dating life."

Neither of them had a reply for that. His parents sat frozen, trapped in their own stubborn silence, watching wordlessly as Iwaizumi turned on his heel and walked away.

As the front door clicked shut behind him, cutting off the suffocating atmosphere of his childhood home, one final thought echoed in his mind: *They'll never change.*

.

.

.

The next morning at Seirin University, the campus was buzzing with students rushing to their morning lectures.

Walking through the crowded courtyard, Tooru Oikawa practically radiated a dark, dramatic aura of pure annoyance, while Takahiro Hanamaki strolled beside him, thoroughly amused by his friend's misery.

"Damn, Tooru, what's got your briefs in a twist today\~?" Hanamaki teased, casting a sideways glance at Oikawa's deeply furrowed brow.

Oikawa let out a sigh so loud and theatrical it nearly turned heads.

"Ugh! Don't even get me started!" Oikawa snapped, though his eyes lit up slightly, clearly thrilled that someone had finally given him the cue to complain.

"My clingy ex-boyfriend has been absolutely *all* up in my business lately!"

He crossed his arms, huffing as they walked. "I literally broke things off with him *because* of how suffocatingly needy he was, and now look at him! It's like he didn't even hear the breakup speech!"

Hanamaki just chuckled, entirely unfazed by the performance. "Isn't that completely your fault, though?" he asked, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"You always jump headfirst into dating people before you even bother to learn what their actual personality is like."

Oikawa stopped dead in his tracks. He turned to Hanamaki, wide-eyed with a look of utter, tragic betrayal, as if his best friend had just stabbed him in the back. 

"Hey! You're supposed to be taking *my* side\~!" Oikawa whined, lunging forward to aggressively shake Hanamaki by the shoulder.

He pouted, his voice dripping with dramatic accusation. "You're just using my misery as an excuse to brag about how *you're* in a perfectly healthy, rock-solid relationship!"

Hanamaki effortlessly reached up, catching Oikawa's wrists to stop the shaking. A slow, incredibly smug smirk spread across his face. "I mean... I am\~"

"Ugh! Unbelievable! You are the absolute worst!" Oikawa threw his hands up in defeat and stormed off down the path.

"Hey! Wait up, drama queen!" Hanamaki laughed. He jogged a few paces to catch up, snagging the loop on the back of Oikawa's backpack to slow him down before tossing a casual arm over his shoulders. 

Oikawa muttered a few more complaints under his breath, but he didn't push Hanamaki off as the two of them finally blended into the crowd, heading toward their morning class.

.

.

.

"Yo, Hajime\~"

The lazy, familiar drawl echoed down the crowded university hallway, causing Iwaizumi to halt in his tracks. He turned around to find Issei Matsukawa sauntering toward him, hands shoved deep into his pockets.

"Yeah? What's up?" Iwaizumi asked, turning fully to face his friend.

Matsukawa stopped in front of him, uncharacteristically hesitating for a moment. He rubbed the back of his neck, clearly trying to figure out the best way to broach a tedious subject.

"Well..." he began, trailing off slightly before sighing. "The guys from the club keep begging me to drag you to yet another mixer."

Iwaizumi's jaw clenched, a flash of pure annoyance crossing his features. Before he could speak, Matsukawa raised his hands defensively.

"Hey, they're hounding me too, but I actually have an ironclad excuse since I'm happily taken," Matsukawa pointed out. He fell silent, looking at Iwaizumi long and hard, taking in the heavy shadows under his friend's eyes and his tense shoulders.

Deciding to just rip the bandage off, Matsukawa said bluntly, "Dude. Just tell them you're gay."

To Matsukawa's absolute shock, Iwaizumi didn't even flinch.

The exhaustion from his family dinner the night before had left him entirely drained of his usual privacy-guarding defenses. He didn't care anymore.

"I'll go," Iwaizumi said flatly.

Matsukawa blinked, completely thrown off script. "Wait... seriously?"

Iwaizumi let out a heavy, defeated sigh. "Yeah. If I just show up once and bomb it, that's one way to finally get them off my back forever, right?"

"Uh... I mean, yeah, I guess that's one way to handle it," Matsukawa muttered, still processing the sudden compliance.

Further down the corridor, Hanamaki and Oikawa were making their way to their next lecture. Spotting the two tallest members of their acquaintance circle huddled together, Hanamaki's eyes lit up.

He nudged Oikawa, signaling toward them, and immediately changed direction. Oikawa hesitated for a fraction of a second before reluctantly trailing behind him.

"Yo\~ what are you guys plotting over here?" Hanamaki asked slyly, sliding into the space next to Matsukawa.

"Ah. Hey, Makki," Matsukawa replied, his expression instantly softening. His eyes flicked past his boyfriend, spotting the brunette trailing in his wake.

Oikawa shifted his weight from one foot to the other, suddenly feeling incredibly awkward. He wasn't particularly close with either Iwaizumi or Matsukawa; to him, Matsukawa was simply 'Hanamaki's boyfriend,' and Iwaizumi was just the brooding guy who hung around them.

He crossed his arms, trying to look casual despite the sudden prickle of social discomfort.

Matsukawa looked back at Hanamaki, casually resuming the conversation. "We were just talking about this mixer that's happening tonight-"

He didn't even get to finish the sentence.

The word 'mixer' acted like an electric shock to Oikawa's system. His ears practically perked up, his previous awkwardness vanishing in an instant. He lunged forward, invading Matsukawa's personal space and clasping his hands together in a desperate, pleading gesture.

"What?! Really?! Tonight?! Where? Can I come? Please tell me I can come! Give me the location and the time right now!" Oikawa rambled at a mile a minute.

As a bisexual guy who had just spent the morning complaining about a suffocating ex, a chaotic, crowded mixer sounded like the absolute perfect distraction.

"Uh..." Matsukawa recoiled slightly, utterly caught off guard by the sudden burst of chaotic energy. He looked over at Hanamaki, giving his boyfriend a look that silently asked, *Is this allowed?* Hanamaki just offered a small, amused nod.

Matsukawa turned back to Oikawa, clearing his throat. "Sure, I don't see why not. The guys would probably be thrilled if you showed up, honestly."

It was true. Oikawa was wildly popular on campus; his presence alone would elevate the entire event. Matsukawa pulled out his phone and started rattling off the details.

Iwaizumi watched the sudden, loud display with a mounting sense of dread. The thought of dealing with his own identity crisis *and* Oikawa's dramatic personality in the same room was too much to bear.

"Tsk." Iwaizumi clicked his tongue, already turning on his heel to walk away before the headache in his temple worsened. "Just text me the place and time too."

Matsukawa looked up from his phone, watching Iwaizumi's retreating back as he quickly blended into the crowd. "Ah- sure! Don't be late, Hajime!" he yelled after him.

Oikawa's eyes followed Iwaizumi for a brief, curious second, watching the rigid set of the man's shoulders before he turned his full, dazzling attention back to Matsukawa to lock down the rest of the details.

End of episode 1.

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