𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 | 𝐤.𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐨

thirty-nine

"ano...i think i'll walk from here." "o-oh, okay."

she slowly got off his back, her feet meeting the ground once again as they approached her house.

"t-thanks for carrying me all the way back...you really didn't have to..." the raven-haired girl stuttered, her cheeks slowly turning pink.

the setter scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "i-it's fine...you're pretty light, anyway."

"well...i'll see you tomorrow, kageyama-kun," ayako said, about to turn to open her door.

"w-wait..."

"hm?" she turned back around, an eyebrow arched in question.

and instead of saying anything, the raven-haired boy pulled her into a hug.

she was taken by surprise at first, but returned it, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"you did really well today, sorry for not saying it earlier," he murmured.

"a-arigato, kageyama-kun," she said with a light smile, as they pulled away from their hug. "also, sorry we couldn't go out today, because of my injury."

a soft smile formed on his face. "ie, it's fine. we can do it another day."

"tomorrow?"

his eyes sparkled for a split second. "yeah, sure."

"okay, i'll be looking forward to it. see you tomorrow, kageyama-kun."

"see you."

ayako pushed open the door to see her mother sitting at the dining table, typing off her computer.

doesn't she usually work in her room...? was she waiting for me to come back?

"ah, you're back, ayako."

she looked up, meeting her mother's eyes. "hai, kaa-san..."

"i saw your run just now, at least you made it to nationals this time," the woman spoke.

at least? don't tell me she's mad that i didn't get ranked first...

"-but you barely made it to nationals. you were doing so well until the last two hundred metres. since when you get hamstring tears in the middle of your races? it's obviously because you didn't warm up enough," she continued. "you're so much worse now than junior high. i can already tell you're not going to make it past the semi-finals at nationals."

anger stirred in the girl. she'd worked so hard to make it to nationals, so her mother would be content. and she had, but it wasn't enough?

"you should transfer out of karasuno next year. staying in that damned school won't make you any better at track."

that was the last straw.

"i'm not going anywhere," she snapped.

her mother scoffed. "you see? stubborn as usual. you don't know what's best for yourself, i do."

her gaze hardened into a glare. "you're wrong. if i didn't go to karasuno, i would've never continued track, and you would never seen me run a race ever again."

"-also," she continued. "my hamstring tear was caused by overwork. you know what that means? i trained so much, so much that it led to me getting injured on race day, so i could do well and come home to at least get a compliment from you."

"bullshit. you worked twice as hard as now in junior high and you never once got injure-" she cut the elder woman off, refusing to let her speak further.