THE DAY HAD FINALLY CAME. after winning against wakutani, its now karasuno vs aoba johsai. "you'll do just fine, okay?" you told your teammates after coach's announcement for the team and they all nodded. "you can do this, now go." mr takeda encouraged and they all went to the court, standing in position.
you and iwaizumi made eye contact from across the room, and you gave him a small smile, to which he returned. the whistle blew and the match started. oikawa's serve was as intimidating as ever, but thankfully, the new karasuno is doing just fine in receiving those serves.
bam! hinata scored a point from the center with his and kageyama's quick attack. and just like that, karasuno won the first set. you welcomed your team to the bench and handed them their bottles while the coach advised them. soon, the whistle was blew again and the numbers on the scoreboard were refreshed for the second set.
you stared at iwaizumi, and he seemed pretty intense and eager. losing the first set must've gotten to them. balls were spiked and served, some missed and some outs. "we're at deuce now." mr takeda spoke. you and coach nodded. "if the team don't pull up, seijoh will win this set." coach ukai said. you stared at the scoreboard and the players, and true enough karasuno was at a disadvantage.
after a while, seijoh won with two consecutive points. their team cheered and karasuno seemed a little down, some of them already panting and sweating excessively. "don't worry too much, play as usual, okay?" coach suggested. the team nodded.
however, they didn't seem that dejected after losing the second set. instead they promised to win this set. "one more nice serve!" daichi shouted at kageyama. kageyama throw the ball mid-air and jumped, before hitting it. he quickly ran back to his spot, waiting for the ball to be spiked from the other side.
hinata ran from one side of the court to the other, then jumped up high as kageyama pinpointed the ball into his hand and he spiked it down with full force. next attack, the team did synchronized attack, including kageyama who joined the offense with nishinoya setting the ball.
you saw oikawa mouthed a fuck under his breath as tanaka hit the ball down with an a straight. pretty quickly, karasuno had already pulled over with two consecutive points, taking the lead from seijoh.
after approximately an hour or more of playing, the game had gotten pretty intense, karasuno was at their match point, while seijoh tried to catch up. the ball went too far away from the court and oikawa ran after it. he pointed at iwaizumi from across the court, and tossed the ball to iwaizumi from the side of the court.
once the ball was set, oikawa fell on his knees, his bad knee. "oh god that's his bad knee." you murmured. coach stared at you a little confused. "oikawa injured his knee, that must've hurt." you said and coach eyed his knee, seeing the knee patch.
you turned your attention back to the match in front of you. the ball spiked by iwaizumi bounced right past him, hitting his side of the court. silence filled the gymnasium as everyone's eyes widened, never expecting karasuno to beat aoba johsai. karasuno cheered and coach along with mr takeda stood up, amazed.
you stood up in complete shock, not knowing how to react. you glanced at the other side of the court, watching each of them had a devastated expression. you recalled when oikawa and iwaizumi told you it was their last year, and they intend to go to nationals. the karasuno boys lined up with happy smiles on their face.
your lips started shaking when your eyes caught a glimpse of what happened on the other side of the court. it was iwaizumi, who stood there, stopping in his tracks with tears rolling down his face. you felt your heart ached for him, and oikawa patted his back and he wiped his face with his shirt, joining everyone else to queue up.
aoba johsai left the courtroom almost immediately, not a word being said nor a glance being spared. you watched their backs walking out the door. you turned to see your teammates in good condition and happy moods. daichi noticed your uneasiness and gave you an approving nod, telling you to go after hajime. you mouthed a thank you and dashed out the door.
you paced down the hall and looked around, not being able to find any signs of the seijoh boys. you took a turn and heard footsteps, and soon enough you saw aoba johsai in a corner, but no sign of iwaizumi. you approached the team and asked if they had seen him.
"he went outside." their libero answered your question and you thanked him, hurriedly leaving the gymnasium. you ran outside and searched for him, only to find him quietly sobbing behind the building. you slowly approached him and touched his arm.
he tensed up a little and quickly wiped off his tears before looking at you. "oh, i thought you were someone else." he simply stated. you were silent, you didn't know what to say. he was upset that your team had won. so you stood there, staring at his red and puffy eyes.
without second thoughts, you embraced him. you hugged him tightly and pulled his head towards the nape of your neck. "it's okay. cry it all out, i won't judge you." you softly whispered, and as if on cue, his tears start falling down your neck, soaking the collar of your shirt.
"it was my fault... i didn't spiked... pass the block. how... how could i be called ace when... i couldn't even lead my team to nationals?" he made out his words through sobs. you slowly rubbed his back, letting him cry into your shoulder as you comfort him.
his knees started to feel weak. he slowly knelt down, as if his body gave up trying to support his weight. you went down with him, keeping yourself stable and steady while whispering it's okay into his ears, never pulling away from the embrace. both of you just sat there behind the building, holding onto each other.
he finally calmed down and tried to steady his breathing. you pulled out a small packet of tissues from your pocket and handed them to him. you slowly make your hands up to touch his face, cupping them and stared into his eyes.
"hajime, it wasn't your fault. it was no one's fault. you're a great player, you deserve to be called ace. no one is going to blame you, and you shouldn't blame yourself too, alright?" you spoke softly, slowly caressing his cheeks with your thumb and placing your forehead on his. he sniffled and nodded.
"i'll try... thank you..." he said placing his hands on top of yours. "we should get going." he said and pulled you up with him. you stood up and waited for him to start moving but he didn't. "what's wrong?" you asked, a little concerned. "i... i don't know how to... face my team. or what to tell them..." he simply muttered.
your eyes soften at the male. you grabbed his hand in yours and stood in front of him. "it's going to be okay. they're your teammates, your friends. its not anyone's fault, okay?" you gave him a convincing smile, and a small smile formed on his lips. he nodded and you both walked over to the entrance of the gymnasium.
you gave him an encouraging nod as he approached his teammates, while you approached yours. they welcomed him with a hug and patted his back. you and the team waited outside for coach and mr takeda to finish discussing some business matter with the other coaches.
footsteps were heard approached karasuno, and everyone turned around to see the opponent from earlier. "congrats on winning." iwaizumi shook hands with daichi, while tooru had a frown on his face. "you and ushiwaka both pisses me off!" he directed at kageyama and stormed off. iwaizumi gave an apologetic smile and said, "you guys better beat them tomorrow. good luck."
"well... we can't probably beat ushiwaka, can we?" tsukishima said in a sly manner. "um... about that... we kinda have to beat him tomorrow..." you stammered, emphasizing on the have. "what do you mean?" sugawara was quick to react.
"well, i may or may not have picked a fight with ushijima..." you mumbled. daichi's face flared up. "you did what?!" he raised his voice. you shut your eyes. "he was picking on hinata! so i told him we..." you lowered your voice.
"you told him what, y/n?" sugawara asked. "i told him we would beat him and... go to nationals..." you stared up at the upperclassmen. their eyes soften after they heard what you said. "i'm just confident you guys could do it, that's all i'm saying." you defended. "we all know you did that because he picked on hinata. you have a soft spot for him, y/n." daichi chuckled.
"but, i guess you're right. we will beat ushijima and go to nationals." you beamed at the captain's words.