As Monday rolled around, you almost forgot about Oikawa sticking around to hang out with you in your club until he called you out in the hallway.

"Rudolph-chan!"

You keep walking.

"Rudolph!" You notice he doesn't seem to be letting up and people were starting to stare. You took a deep breath to calm yourself before you finally faced him. "Finally! Did you not hear me?"

Your eyes narrowed at him. He knew exactly why you didn't want to turn around and he was playing dumb. "I guess not. What did you need?"

"Oh, I was just reminding you that I'll be visiting your club after my practice is finished!"

You raise your brow. "I thought you didn't practice on Mondays?"

He gives you his usual smile. "Oh I don't, but I still watch on the sidelines to stay informed."

"Oh, okay." You weren't all that surprised. You knew he was pretty dedicated to the sport. "See you after then." You begin to turn back around to go to your original destination.

"Oh!" He calls out. "And leave the door open!"

You just wave back dismissively at his comment, hoping to not stir anymore commotion.

~~

You didn't notice that talking with Oikawa was a bad thing until you saw the situations it lead to.

One, the girls in your class seemed to have decided you didn't exist over the weekend.

Two, your desk didn't look that messy when you left it.

Your brows furrowed in thought. You only knew of things like this happening in mangas but you didn't know these gestures of bullying were real and very in your face. You felt more confused than upset at the situation, really. I mean, doing this seems like more effort than actually just talking to the guy and from those few interactions with him, he would more than happily welcome more girls in his arms. Having no thoughts on how to solve this unneeded dispute as of now, you just begin by cleaning off your desk almost absentmindedly, brainstorming solutions. You were interrupted by a couple pairs of hands that began helping you. Looking up, you see Oikawa's friend Iwaizumi and your art club member Tadashi.

"Man, girls are scary." Tadashi muttered as he helped you organize your papers.

"That idiot..." Iwaizumi grumbles under his breath, taking a napkin and wiping down some unflattering words written on your desk.

"Uh..." You were taken aback by their sudden appearance before you composed yourself again. "Thanks guys, but I can take it from here." You hold out one hand for the papers Tadashi organized and the other hand for the napkin Iwaizumi was using. They seemed unconvinced by leaving you as is until you shot them a confident smile, a smile that showed that this definitely had not brought you down. They then went ahead and gave you your papers and a napkin to clean the rest of your desk.

As you finished fixing up your desk, you sat down and began to observe who would have the drive to pull a stunt like this.

It doesn't take long for you to see a couple of the same girls you saw with Ami huddled around the desk. The same girls who seemed to glance back at you once in a while as they did back in the gym were looking at you with such distaste that you didn't notice was possible until now.

Well, mystery one solved.

You looked back down and continued to brainstorm in your head. The main thing was the fact that their strength was in numbers. If you could weaken the foundation that seemed to spur their actions, this unnecessary dispute will be resolved. Now the second mystery would be figuring out what that foundation is...

~~

Classes went by normally, you taking your notes diligently as usual. As the lunch bell rang, you saw the group of girls walk out of the room and you were about to follow them until Ami popped by.

"[Name]!" She rushes over. "I heard what happened."

You sigh. "I was hoping to resolve it before it got out of hand."

"I'll get the person who did it!" She shakes her fist angrily.

Your head snaps to her. "Wait, so no one knows who it is?"

Ami blinks confusedly. "No? Wait, do you know?!" She grips your shoulders, "tell me so I can give them a piece of my mind."

You shake your head. "No, I don't know." If no one knew who the culprit was, you would keep it in the wraps. You had the confidence that you'd resolve it before it got out of hand. "Anyway Ami, I'll meet you at the rooftop but I need to go to the washroom first."

Still unconvinced, Ami begins to walk slowly out the door. "You seem to know what you're doing [Name] but if they hurt you again, I'm stepping in no matter what you say!"

You nod nonchalantly. "It won't come to that, promise." You flick your wrist in her direction gesturing her to 'shoo'. "I'll be right back."

She shakes her head before she fully walks out the door. "I'll be waiting!"

~~

You manage to find the girls and a few new faces by the stairs and walk over to them. "Hey."

Some of them don't even look up and the ones that did made no move to mask the distaste in their expression. "Oh look, it's [Name], or should we say 'Rudolph-chan'?"

You felt your eye twitch at the name. You definitely did not want that one to spread either. But never mind that now, you were on a mission. "Could I at least know why?"

One of the girls which you guessed was the leader snorted. "Why should we explain ourselves to you?" She starts laughing and soon a couple of the girls join in. "We didn't do anything."

"Yeah, I'm offended you would even think that Rudolph!" Another girl pipes in.

You scratch your head in thought as you try to form a response that got to the bottom of things without being too passive. "I've noticed that you guys have been on edge with my presence lately. It would be easier for the both of us just to get everything out in the open." You give them a hard stare. "Let me start."

"This situation between us doesn't solve anything unless both parties know what the actual problem is." Your form never falters as you continue talking. "I don't mind if you don't like me but going to such lengths that it starts to become everyones problem is something I do mind."

She raises her head in a motion to signify that she was looking down on you. "The problem is simple really." Her hand gestures in your direction.

You raise your brow. "Well, yes, we established that. What about me though?"

You're answered by mocking laughs and gasps of disbelief. "As if you don't know." One girl snidely remarks in.

"I'm pretty sure I don't so that's why I asked." You sigh at their attempt at mind games.

The leader stands on the step and once again makes herself seem like the bigger person. "Why would Oikawa like a girl like you?" Her eyes looked you once over in displeasure.

You just blinked at their response. "Oh, that's because we're friends. You wouldn't hang out with someone if you didn't like their company, right?"

Apparently, that response wasn't what they wanted to hear at all and they started to form a circle around you, trying to make you feel isolated. It didn't faze you. As you noted before, their strength was in numbers.

You turn to the girls in your class. "Oikawa-san is a great guy so there is no reason to blow this up out of proportion. He likes talking with you guys so isn't it better to focus your energy on someone you do like?" You see their looks falter and press on. "This time might be better spent cheering him on?"

"We do cheer him on!" Your classmate snaps back.

"Yeah! The loudest as we can be!" Your other classmate responds to her friend after a moment.

"Exactly." You give them a smile. "Don't you think he notices that? He loves the support and he'd probably enjoy that you're around him more than me." The circle around you starts to loosen up, cracks beginning to form between them. "As I said before, if you don't like me that's fine by me but lets just drop this unnecessary dispute and go for things we actually want to."

Your classmates drop their stances and sigh resignedly. They part their circle so you could get out of the stifling inner circle. "Agreed."

The leader, still displeased with you just snorts in response but you could tell that you don't have to worry about anything else coming from this group. "Today never happened." She glances at you and gives you a hard stare. "Don't tell Oikawa."

You just nod at her comment. "Didn't plan to. This is a problem between us." As the conversation came to a close, you turned from them and began walking off.

It didn't matter who did or didn't like you. What mattered to you was that you considered Oikawa a friend and no one would stop you from being just that.

Reaching back into the more crowded halls, you make your way to the rooftop.

~~

When you get to your canvas, you could see what else they managed to get to before you spoke with them. There was paint streaks that you knew you didn't put on it, making your original subject unrecognizable. For a lack of better words, it was sabotaged.

"[Name]..." Ami put a gentle hand on your shoulder.

Oikawa was right about one thing. This and that are totally different things.

You shake your head and take deep breaths. You had been working on this for a while and it just... "I'm going to walk around for a bit."

Turning away from the canvas, you make your way out the door.

Even though the dispute was solved, you forgot about the repercussions. You knew you were relieved that it was behind you now but it didn't mean that you weren't upset by it all.

Making your rounds around the school, you pass by the open gym and spot Oikawa sitting by the sidelines like he said. He seemed completely focused, almost as if he himself was still practicing with his team.

You pause to ponder at your thoughts just now. Here was Oikawa, not letting his injury get him down and you were sulking about a picture you knew you could paint better anyway. You smile at the revelation.

You saw the team starting to clean up and realize that their practice was done for the day.

"Ah Ru--[Surname]-chan!" Oikawa calls out from the gym. He starts walking over to you. "You decided to walk me to your club today? Ah~ Aren't I lucky?"

He definitely heard about what happened today. You couldn't help but feel irked by his change of character. Pity wasn't something you appreciated, even if it got him out of calling you Rudolph. "Uh, yeah. But shouldn't you help clean up first?" You point to his teammates who were doing just that.

"Well I technically didn't practice today so lets go!" He starts walking first and urges you to follow him.

"Some captain you are." You retort.

"Only the best." He grins at you.

When you guys make it back to the clubroom you usher him to one of the empty seats by your canvas. He passes by your canvas with an unreadable expression.

"This is interesting."

"Ah that." You walk over to it and begin setting up your paints on the palette. "It's not finished yet."

"Is that so?" His brow rises at your comment.

"Hm." You hum dismissively at him. "Watch and learn." You turn the canvas away from him and begin applying different colors and merging techniques together. You completely immersed yourself that you forgot that Oikawa was still in the room until you heard him occasionally shift in his seat.

"And..." You put the finishing touches to your canvas. "...done!" You actually felt proud of this work, incorporating colors you didn't think about putting together and merged a lot of the techniques you've been practicing on.

You smile and decide to share with him the revelation that he unknowingly helped out on. "Let me tell you something," You speak up, making him look up from his phone. "A little setback never hurt anyone." You grin a little. "All it does is make it even better because you find a new angle to work in." You turn the canvas over so he could see it. You look at his face to gauge a reaction and find that it is yet again another face you can't decipher. Different from the first time he saw the canvas but still unreadable nonetheless.

"Uh...What is that look for?" Your curiosity won out today.

He glances at you, the expression not leaving his face. "Hm, nothing. I just noticed something interesting." He reaches down and grabs his water bottle from his bag. "I'm going to refill this so I'll be right back."

"Um okay." You were confused by the ambiguity he was emitting right now.

As he walks out of the door you hear him say, "thanks, [Surname]-chan".

You just sat in your seat, still confused.

Thanks for what exactly?