Strings (Ryuunosuke Tanaka x Reader)

Chapter Nine: Aftermath

Everyone was startled and turned back to each other. The chatter continue amongst themselves.

"I'm not part of the team anymore, I'm not going to be at the early morning practices. I'm going to your later ones instead." I smiled and patted his head.

"So I still get to see you?"

"Of course. Oh also my parents want you to come over after school because they need to tell us something. It seemed important so please come."

"Definitely, we'll leave practice just a bit early." Tanaka stood up and slung his bag over his shoulder.

"Now, go to class. Being here doesn't help your delinquent act and class starts soon!" I pointed him out the door and he ran off.

The bell rang and the teacher still didn't come to class. I stared out the window and heard whispering from two girls nearby.

"I feel bad for the poor girl," One girl whispered.

"I know right? She's adopted and a loner. I wonder what's her deal." The other told the first.

I ignored their whispers, no point in fueling the fire. That's until girl one said something I couldn't ignore.

"Now she's stuck with that scary delinquent from the volleyball team. I bet he's forcing her to be around him. What a shame for someone so pretty."

"God, just shut up." I said rather loudly, making sure they could hear.

"Excuse me?" Asked the first girl, all snotty and crap.

"I said shut up. I choose who I hang around with and I chose this "scary delinquent" over you so let that sink in. Say whatever you want about me, leave Tanaka out if this." I stared forward to not give them a facial reaction.

"You're being forced into hanging around with him aren't you? You definitely can't be saying and doing this by option. Did he threaten you into doing this?" The second girl's voice was a mix of concern and rudeness.

"You're taking him at face value with nothing to back it up, judgemental. We're all guilty of it but you spread baseless, useless, pitiful rumors on it. Man do I pity your soulmate." I stared at the first girl in the eyes.

She looked a little intimidated and looked away. The teacher walked in just then and started his class.

The two gossiping girls glared daggers at me all class. Only when I wasn't looking would they do so. The second I would even glance at them, they pretended never to even think of glaring.

The school day soon passed with no other interruption by the two girls. They backed off after the confrontation this morning.

That didn't matter to me anymore when practice came. I took my time walking downstairs because I didn't have to be there so early anymore. I stood in front of the door to the gym and took a breath.

I quietly slid the door open and hoped no one would notice. Unfortunately for me, everyone did.

Hinata ran up to me and started jumping around. "(Y/N)! (Y/N)! You're here again!"

I smiled and ruffled his hair, "I'll be here every day after school."

"Hinata continue your drills!" Coach Ukai yelled from the sideline.

Hinata ran back to the court and coach nodded at me, "you can help if you want but you're not required to anymore."

I nodded and stood by the edge of the court. I watched them all sharpening their skills and practicing until the sun started setting.

I looked around and saw Tanaka wave me over. My bag dropped and I carefully walked over to him who was on the court.

"Do you want to leave now?" He looked down to me.

"If you want, I don't mind if you want to stay," I told him.

"We'll leave now so your parents don't-" Tanaka looked up in alarm.

In the blink of an eye, I was pulled into his arms. Tanaka pulled me up against his chest and held a hand behind my head. I looked up to see the issue and saw a ball bouncing past where I was standing earlier.

"Hey watch it, you almost hit my girlfriend!" Tanaka yelled out.

"Girlfriend?" Sugawara tilted his head.

Tanaka's eyes widened when he realized he had called me his girlfriend in front of the whole team. He looked down to me for approval to tell the team and I nodded with a smile.

Tanaka released his tight grip on me, "Y-yeah, (Y/N) is my girlfriend." He rubbed the back of his neck.

"You should've talked to her off court if you didn't want her to get hit!" Tsukishima yelled from the opposite side of the net.

"You-" Tanaka started getting a little aggravated.

"Ignore that, congratulations!" Sugawara started clapping.

Everyone soon followed suit and the gym erupted in claps. The sudden attention made me a little uncomfortable. Tanaka noticed this and told everyone to continue their drills.

Tanaka nodded and walked me off the busy court. He told coach about why he's leaving a little early and coach gave him the okay. We picked up our bags and started leaving.

Tanaka closed the door behind him and ran up to me who was just a few paces in front. He interlocked our hands and started walking in a comfortable silence.

A few minutes into the walk Tanaka started speaking, "Thank you (Y/N)" he said abruptly.

"For what?"

"This morning I wanted to tell you something so I ran back to your classroom. Right before I opened the door, I recognized your voice and heard it stand up for me. Thank you for that." Tanaka looked at me and smiled.

"You heard that? They were pissing me off, they don't know what you're really like. They can say all they want about me, it doesn't faze me much, but not about you."

"I don't know how I got such a great girlfriend like you!"

Within seconds, Tanaka had lifted me and spun me in a circle, both of us laughing the whole time. He didn't put me down afterwards though, he held me up in front of him with his arms around my waist on the empty sidewalk.

I threw my arms over his shoulders and our smiles slowly faded. We inched closer and closer before the gap was entirely closed.

The kiss was short and sweet with butterflies fluttering in my stomach. We broke away and I stared into his blue-gray eyes.

"I love you." He whispered.

My heartbeat raced at these three words. "I love you too."

He closed his eyes and broke into a huge grin. Reluctantly, Tanaka set me back down with a kiss on my forehead and held my hand.

"Let's go see what you're parents want to tell us." Tanaka started walking again.

"Yeah let's go."