Chapter Text
Why seventeen?
This was the single question that had been floating around in Oikawa Tooru's mind since the last year of middle school.
Such an inconvenient timing. Couldn't be worse, actually.
Especially when he woke up to those words on his left hand.
It's nice to meet you
Honestly, it would take more than all the fingers on both his hands to count how many people have said that to him. New students, but mostly his fangirls, stuttering out those exact words.
But with college right around the corner, Oikawa wanted nothing more than proving that he and Iwaizumi are soulmates and that they could go into the same college.
...
Ok. Maybe that was a bit big for a simple wish.
July 20th, right before the summer break of third year begins, Oikawa woke up with a start.
It's my birthday, he thought.
After frantically feeling his back and looking at the mirror, and checking even the underside of his feet, he found nothing.
It was only when he raised his hand to rub his bleary eyes, did he notice the words imprinted on his fingers.
A simple greeting, much to his agony, was spelled out in a choppy, slanting font.
Almost like a kindergartener wrote it with crayons, He observed.
And do you know who you also met in kindergarten? His mind added helpfully.
Quit it. Oikawa told himself. Don't get your hopes up.
But it was true though. He had met his long-time secret crush, a.k.a., his childhood friend Iwaizumi, all the way back then.
It's such a long time ago, and the words on his hand were definitely First Words, and not an inside joke. Even if it really was Iwa-chan, how could either of them be able to remember what he first said to Oikawa?
And while he definitely wouldn't give up completely, Oikawa certainly could not let himself be let down too much in the end.
Very bitterly, Oikawa thought about just how much trouble it would have saved him if Iwaizumi had a slightly more informative cue, but things didn't work that way.
Iwaizumi, a month older with his birthday in June, had Words that were arguably worse than Oikawa's. In fact, Iwaizumi's Words didn't form a sentence.
Hi was literally what his Words were. The first thing Iwa-chan's soulmate had said to him was one simple little word.
There really was no hope for them was there? And to be honest, Oikawa really didn't feel like knowing the answer. At least if he didn't know it, there's still a chance right?
He's not exactly sure if he should laugh or feel sorry, considering the fact that he desperately wished that Iwaizumi's soulmate was himself. But he decided to tease his friend mercilessly about it. Dealt with his problems the same way he always did- laughed it off and secretly worked at it elsewhere, usually alone.
So here he was, sulking in his bedroom, looking at the glow-in-the-dark stars on his ceiling, torn between self-pity and denial. Pretty typical.
But brooding wasn't helping his restless mind. So when he couldn't stand the silence anymore, he grabbed his phone and typed a new message to his loyal consultant.
-makki _sent at 4:23 a.m.
-makki _sent at 4:23 a.m.
_makkimakkimakkimakki _sent at 4:24 a.m.
-What the f uck do you want?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! _sent at 4:24 a.m.
-Fuk you Oikawa _sent at 4:24 a.m.
-3 hrs on tumblr took energy you egg _sent at 4:24 a.m.
-weeeell then makkichan that's perfect!! youre still awake to listen to my problems ;)) _sent at 4:24 a.m.
-If youd talk about this problem of urs about 30 mins earlier Id been awake and would gkadly gave u help _sent at 4:24 a.m.
-*gladly _sent at 4:25 a.m.
-riiip ha makki u spelled it wrong _sent at 4:25 a.m.
-o shush bby face _sent at 4:25 a.m.
-r00d _sent at 4:25 a.m.
- ;))) _sent at 4:25 a.m.
-hope u didnt wake me up for nothing _sent at 4:25 a.m.
-eeeeh put more faith in me makkki _sent at 4:25 a.m.
-makki u kno wut day it is tooday????? _sent at 4:25 a.m.
-yaya it's ur 17 bday and you wake me up on a saturday morning to talk bout ur Words right? _sent at 4:25 a.m.
-so u dooo kno makki ^w^ _sent at 4:26 a.m.
-weeell u kno how iwa-chan's word sucks _sent at 4:26 a.m.
-lmao ye iwaizumi's Words were sad af _sent at 4:26 a.m.
-oikawa _sent at 4:30 a.m.
-hellooo _sent at 4:31
-oikawa dont tell me ur words r worse _sent at 4:33 a.m.
-thats so mean makkichan _sent at 4:33 a.m.
-frick what is it _sent at 4:33 a.m.
-"It's nice to meet you" _sent at 4:34 a.m.
-well isn't that just perfect oikawa _sent at 4:35 a.m.
-makki it's not very funny _sent at 4:35 a.m.
-o but it is tho _sent at 4:35 a.m.
-okok it isnt _sent at 4:37 a.m.
-how am I ever supposed to find my soulmate _sent at 4:37 a.m.
-I can't count how many people have said that to me _sent at 4:37 a.m.
-wow isn't that a surprise there're people who are happy to meet you I bet theyre lying _sent at 4:38 a.m.
-continue _sent at 4:38 a.m.
-ugh I have the worst Words evereverever _sent at 4:38 a.m.
-makki? _sent at 4:40 a.m.
-ye I'm still here. Just thinking about when my mum said her classmate's Words are "Today's weather forecast shows a sunny day with a 15% chance of rain" _sent at 4:41 a.m.
-lord _sent at 4:41 a.m.
-her friend checked all the weather forecasts for the past 17 years and had to kept track of the new ones to see who could possibly be her soulmate _sent at 4:41 a.m.
-true determination right there _sent at 4:41 a.m.
-did she find her soulmate??! _sent at 4:41 a.m.
-ye. see if she can find her soulmate with those words, you can with yours _sent at 4:41 a.m.
-thx makki that helped baibaii _sent at 4:42 a.m.
-ur welcome bbyface _sent at 4:42 a.m.
Although Makki's words did help, Oikawa was still anxious about the whole ordeal. After all, that lady whose Words were a weather forecast had somewhere to research it. How can you even check "It's nice to meet you"?
But to be sure, if there were people with head-achingly generic Words so near him, there's gotta people with worse Words... right?
Nah, Oikawa thought, if someone has even worse Words than me or Hajime, than it's too unfortunate for them.
Monday comes around and the second he walked through the gym doors, he got a volleyball to his face. By none other than dear Iwaizumi.
"Dumbass. Don't think I forgot that your birthday was Saturday. You didn't reply any of the texts I sent you."
"Aww Iwa-chan remembers! Well I was so happy with my Words being better than yours that I partied till late last night! Sorry about not checking my phone."
Oikawa got a face of disgust for an answer.
"Oi, cut that crap. Are your Words bad to the point that you can't tell me about them? Because then your Words must be the worst ones in existence."
"Mean! Iwa-chan!"
He'd hoped Iwaizumi would just leave it at that, but of course he didn't.
"So what are your Words?"
"It's nice to meet you", Oikawa whispered quickly, hoping to get this over with fast.
Iwaizumi promptly snorted and gave a short laugh (which flustered Oikawa, but he's never going to admit that).
"Really? Oikawa-san, that's kind of sad."
Oikawa spun around so fast he swore he felt his neck pop. There stood Watari, who was obviously trying to hold back giggles.
"I thought Iwaizumi-san was unlucky, but yours is sort of just as bad."
"Oh shush, Watari!"
"What is just as bad? Watari?" Oikawa groaned as Yahaba joined the conversation with a knowing smirk on his face.
"Yahaba-chan please don't,"
"Yahaba, Oikawa-san's words are 'It's nice to meet you'."
At this point, Oikawa was half curled in on himself, with a small group of Seijoh's starting members around him. Soon, most of the volleyball team came to join the fun. Who didn't love some soulmate drama?
"Ugggh you guys! Just stop already" he whined. And so after a few more snickers were shared, the group scattered back to practice.
Sighing, Oikawa walked away to get some water and calm down.
He nearly tripped over someone's feet, and turned to apologize, but his paused when he saw a fidgety Kunimi who hurriedly gave a small bow.
Kunimi was acting a bit strange, Oikawa couldn't help but think.
Personally, Oikawa had a soft spot for Kunimi, and he's plenty sure that most of the team felt the same.
He'd met the younger boy back in Kitagawa Daiichi, and had been surprised to find that one of the newest additions to the team was mute. Admittedly, Oikawa was a little worried about how the team would work, but most of that concern was wiped away when he noticed how observant and aware Kunimi was of his surroundings.
Oikawa had been pretty delighted to have the boy on his team again, and although Kunimi was the complete opposite of social, it's usually fine.
However, right now, Kunimi seemed quite a bit uncomfortable, and his nonchalant demeanor was almost completely gone. He's picking at his fingers, and was about to rush away, but Oikawa wasn't about to let him. Whatever was bothering his team mate, Oikawa wanted to find out.
"Kunimi-chan, do you want to sit down for a bit with me?" It was not exactly a suggestion.
The boy warily took a seat next to Oikawa against the wall of the gymnasium, and fumbled out his phone.
"So, Kunimi-chan, I'll get straight to the point. I feel like you are acting a little nervous right now, but you seemed fine before all the guys started pestering me about the soulmate stuff. Is something wrong?"
It did not escape Oikawa's notice that the younger flinched at the word "soulmate".
Kunimi tapped a reply. -"It's not a big deal Oikawa-san"-
Oikawa thought about how he should approach next. This conversation was something Kunimi seemed to feel very private about.
"... Is this something you can comfortably tell Kindaichi? You guys know each other better than I do, that's for sure."
Kunimi stared, as if perplexed. But nevertheless, his reply negated the idea.
"Well, Kunimi-chan, I won't push on this subject further, but get me if you need anything?"
The boy still sat stiff, so Oikawa put down his water bottle and turned to leave. Though before he could, he felt something tug at his sleeve.
Kunimi was looking up, and had a hand holding onto the fabric of Oikawa's shirt. He lifted his phone, -"I think I'd like to ask you about something"-