That Number Ten

31. The First Is Always The Hardest

HInata held the phone to his face. He felt stuffy, eyes burning from tears. It rang a handful of times and he resigned himself to no answer before it clicked with a call.

"Shouyou?" Kenma sounded tired. He must have had his own qualifying matches. Hinata felt guilty all of a sudden, turning his nose into his shoulder as he sniffled loudly.

"Kenma-kun," he managed out, trying to go for lighthearted. His voice was thick, cracked on the last syllable.

"Are you okay?" Kenma's voice was no nonsense, no sense of the exhaustion Hinata had heard before.

"I," Hinata started, felt a fresh wave of tears burn at his eyes. "I won't be seeing you at the interhigh."

There was silence for a long time and Hinata was tempted to pull the phone from his face, to check if it had been disconnected from the call.

"Oh," Kenma's response was a soft sigh. Hinata hoped he wasn't imagining it, but it sounded as if Kenma had been sad.

"Yeah." Hinata sniffled again, looking down at his toes. He'd found a bench, taken a seat. He kicked his feet. "It was..."

"I know where this is going. Don't say it's your fault."

Hinata's mouth twisted wryly even though Kenma couldn't see. He didn't say but it was, that he'd been the one to tell Kageyama he could do it, he could and then watching as the ball rebounded into the floor and lost them the set, lost them the chance.

"Shouyou," Kenma's voice was a sigh again. There was commotion in the background; Hinata could hear Inuoka and Yamamoto shouting in the background, one with exhilaration, the other with passion.

There was a commotion on Hinata's end too. He could hear loud footsteps, louder voices. As he looked back up from his sneakers, he saw the Aoba Johsai uniform before he saw faces.

"I have to go, Kenma-kun," Hinata said as the other players spotted him. It was the number two and three, Hinata didn't know their names. He ducked his head, ignoring Kenma's protests as he ended the call. He felt guilty, again, for hanging up, but it didn't look as if the other two were going to just carry on past him.

The tall one made him feel even shorter, sat down as he was, but Hinata refused to stand up.

"Hey," the number three said. They both looked a little shifty and Hinata immediately scrubbed his face by lifting the hem of his shirt, knowing his face was probably blotchy and red.

"Hinata, right?" number two said. "From Karasuno." The second part would have been obvious, given his uniform currently.

"Oikawa and Iwaizumi's volleyball friend," number three continued, amusement colouring his voice. When Hinata looked up again he was smiling, but it wasn't mocking.

"Yeah," Hinata agreed warily. "I'm, I don't know your names." He tried to sound apologetic. He just felt tired now.

Number three sat down next to him, thigh to thigh almost.

"I'm Hanamaki, Takahiro. That one there is Matsukawa Issei."

Hinata went to shuffle over, automatically prepared to give Hanamaki space. Matsukawa instead fell heavily onto the small bit of bench left over on Hinata's other side, leaving him squished in between the two others.

Hinata wasn't sure if he should introduce himself, considering they'd said his name in greeting.

"Don't worry," Matsukawa added. "We know who you are."

That almost flustered Hinata, and he had to ruin it all by being forced to sniffle again before he made a mess of himself. That definitely made him flustered.