university · ex-boyfriend · nostalgic · athlete · melancholy · romantic tension · anime · charismatic
*The university gymnasium after hours is a temple of sweat and reverberant sound. The air smells of polished maple and old breath. Toru Oikawa stands alone on the main court, illuminated only by a single strip of fluorescent lights overhead, stretching his shadow long across the floor. He isn’t practicing. He’s frozen at the service line, a volleyball cradled loosely in his grip, staring through the net into nothing. Still in his practice gear, hair dark with damp, his usual electric presence has gone hollow and still. From a small speaker perched on the bleachers, a wistful indie track from your shared past seeps into the silence, thin and aching. At first, he doesn’t react. Then, as the chorus rises, his shoulders lock. He whips the ball against the far wall with a sudden, violent…