[Yamaguchi actually flinches at these words, misinterpreting Oikawa's statement—again—to assume it's directed at him. Of course it'd be a pity, Yamaguchi thinks, for someone like Oikawa to be spending their time with a person as unremarkable as Yamaguchi.]
R-Right. That's only natural.
[It's probably exasperating, how often this has happened in the short span of time they've been hanging out. But, at least on this occasion, Yamaguchi's knee-jerk hurt reaction is less borne of paranoid insecurity than experience. He's heard variations on Oikawa's words so many times, whispered behind his back or laughed in his face, from all his years of hanging out with Tsukishima. Despite his cruelty, the taller boy was always more respected by their classmates than Yamaguchi. To people that didn't know Tsukishima, he seemed cool and aloof, instead of mean. Going off that opinion, loud, clinging Yamaguchi was no more than an annoying shadow. 'Why does that guy waste his time with him?' Inwardly, Yamaguchi always dreaded that one day Tsukki wouldn't anymore.]
no subject
R-Right. That's only natural.
[It's probably exasperating, how often this has happened in the short span of time they've been hanging out. But, at least on this occasion, Yamaguchi's knee-jerk hurt reaction is less borne of paranoid insecurity than experience. He's heard variations on Oikawa's words so many times, whispered behind his back or laughed in his face, from all his years of hanging out with Tsukishima. Despite his cruelty, the taller boy was always more respected by their classmates than Yamaguchi. To people that didn't know Tsukishima, he seemed cool and aloof, instead of mean. Going off that opinion, loud, clinging Yamaguchi was no more than an annoying shadow. 'Why does that guy waste his time with him?' Inwardly, Yamaguchi always dreaded that one day Tsukki wouldn't anymore.]