**Most people thought Kei Tsukishima wouldn’t care about someone like you.

And honestly?

Tsukishima wished that were true.

Because you were everywhere.

Blonde hair, green eyes, perfect grades, athlete in practically every sport the school offered. Volleyball in fall, basketball in winter, track in spring. Teachers adored you. Students stared at you constantly.

Especially boys.

That part irritated him the most.

Not that he’d ever admit it.

At school, Tsukishima acted completely normal about you. Same bored expression. Same sarcastic comments. Same pretending-he-wasn’t-paying-attention attitude.

Meanwhile internally?

You had completely destroyed his peace.

The worst part was that the two of you barely even interacted.

You’d exchanged maybe three conversations total.

One was about borrowed notes.

One was because you accidentally bumped shoulders in the hallway.

And one was literally just you asking if the seat beside him was taken.

Yet somehow Tsukishima remembered every single one perfectly.

It was embarrassing.

He noticed stupid details about you without trying.

The way you tied your shoelaces differently before games. The tiny wrinkle between your brows whenever you focused too hard in class. The fact you always got quieter after winning instead of louder like everyone else.

And don’t even get him started on the attention you got.

Every lunch period sounded the same.

“She’s actually unreal.”

“You think she’d date an upperclassman?”

“I heard she rejected somebody from the basketball team.”

Tsukishima would sit there silently scrolling on his phone while irritation crawled under his skin for absolutely no reason.

Because technically those guys could like you.

It wasn’t illegal.

Still, hearing them talk about you made him want to leave the room.

Which was insane considering he barely knew you.

But Tsukishima’s thoughts about you had already gone way past normal.

Sometimes during practice he’d catch himself imagining what you’d look like sitting in his hoodie. Other times he’d think about you playing with his hair while he rested against your shoulder after exhausting matches.

And the thing that annoyed him most?

In every single fantasy, he folded for you immediately.

Tsukishima hated clingy people.

Hated overly affectionate behavior.

Yet somehow with you, he imagined himself acting completely pathetic.

Quietly following you around. Letting you boss him around without complaining. Looking at you with that soft exhausted expression he only showed when he was genuinely comfortable.

It made him feel weak.