The white blossom stared at Ushijima Wakatoshi as he looks at it. It looks so small in his hand and strangely... out of place. The accessory was small in his hands, the other end brimming with crystal clear white blossoms that bore no resemblance to the current summer season. It was out of place like that. But he still can't help but glance at it.
He stares at the traditional hairpin in his hand.
The crystal white blossoms shone as it gets hit by the afternoon sun, as if it was a mirror reflecting the color of orange skies.
He wonders why he brought such an accessory along. But when he looked at it earlier, it felt like he was being compelled to bring it along. And maybe he really needed to.
It was just a gut feeling, as if he knows that he'll bring it out eventually, give it and leave it there. It just felt like that.
"Toshi!"
He suddenly comes to a halt as he hears it. A familiar voice made his ears ring and he immediately stops short, looking its way.
—
Tendo Satori looks up to glance at the afternoon sun.
He stares at the clashing colors of the setting sun in the sky. He finds satisfaction in looking at the view— of how the setting skies looked like a battlefield engulfed in what seemed like a sea of fire. But he doesn't look at it just because of that.
He glances at it to look at a memory— a memory of how a volleyball idiot and a girl who loved volleyball just the same used to bear witness to this battlefield in the skies.
They bore witness, looking almost like they were a perfect match, as if no one could separate the two of them.
He didn't think it was possible then. Whenever he looked at the athlete, he used to find it hard to picture how Ushijima Wakatoshi would look if ever the athlete would be in a relationship.
But to think he did managed to see what Ushijima Wakatoshi would look like in one.
And It was refreshing. It was refreshing to see the former ace had that look in his face.
To think happiness could be expressed in such a stoic face.
And he played a part in their happiness.
He played a part in their happiness...
But where did that all go?
He looks up at the dusk, how it washed over that sea of fire in the skies, leaving not even a single trace, not even a single color of what had been there. And he wonders.
He wonder if all of that fire could really be washed away just like that.
Tendo looks at his phone, sending a lie to the athlete. He closes his eyes as he sighs.
He knows full well as he looks at how that sunset is replaced by the night sky.
Nothing was permanent.
Even the summer heat can go away with a breeze... But does it really go away though?
Tendo Satori had always followed his gut instincts.
He doesn't care about what others think of him. He was already way past the point of being bothered by what people say about him.
And even if they love or hate him for it, his motivations have always been something people couldn't influence.
His every action, every decision, every move is made because of one thing and one thing alone— because he likes and he wants to do it.
That was the way he has always been.
Sure, people may not always like him for it.
But does it really matter?
As long as it doesn't go their way, people will always end up mad even if you accidentally got in their way. The slightest inconvenience irks them. If you don't go along with what they want or how they want you to act, they'd complain at the most minor inconvenience. They were like that. People were like that.
They complain about those who act against what they want, believing as if others needs to follow what they already have in mind.
People believe in things like that. Even if they don't say it, they unconsciously project that he needs to act a certain way, to fit some sort of agreed plot, some agreed standards, some agreed event and for what? because that's what the majority wants? because that's what you all want?
They want him to act how they want him to act. They want him to side with who they want him to side. He wants to laugh.
Are you joking?
He hates it.
He hates being treated like he needs to go along with something— like he needs to go along with what people wants, like he needs to follow a plot of what people expect of him.
Yeah, he was selfish alright.
But Tendo Satori's goals have always been to feed his own satisfaction. He has been that way even when he started playing volleyball.
He had always jumped to the direction that smelled like satisfaction. His plays in the court was something he made because it makes him feel good, because it feels right.
His motivations are and have always been... self-fulfilling.
So he will be with the side he wants.
He will help those he wants.
And he will follow his gut instincts.
It was the way he has always been— on or off the court. And to anyone else that has to say otherwise...
He does not care.
They can cry for all he cares.
The former blocker's eyes glints as he thinks about it, reminiscing of those days when people were afraid, mad, and frustrated— and all because he was on their way. He remembers that look of despair on their faces when they couldn't do anything against him. And ahhh, he made them that way.
He grins as he hums.
"Baki baki ni ore (Keep on breaking them)..."
"Nani wo? (What, you say?)"
That's right, they can always cry for all he cares.
"Kokoro wo dayo~ (Their hearts...)"
And he'd always be glad to see that.
"Tendo! You're late. I thought Wakatoshi was with you." A voice snaps him from his thoughts and he went to look at its direction.
Semi and Reon was looking at him as they stood there, waiting. He gives them a smile before running to their way, ready to spy on whether that fire in the sky really had gone away.
"Semi Semi~!"
—
Ushijima Wakatoshi had imagined it countless of times.
He'd imagined how he'd face her.
This was the same girl he didn't admit he hadn't gone over until he got called out by Tendo. The former blocker used to scold him for dating girls that reminded him of her.
And when he sees her, he realizes.
"Toshi~!" She says and he only nods.
He realizes she really was here. And that this time, this isn't something he imagined.
She was here.
She looked better than the last time he'd seen her. Her hair was longer, she was taller, more mature. Any fragment of the girl she used to be was no longer there. But she seemed to have the same smile, the same eyes, the same voice.
Her short black hair now reached her waist, and her hair was adorned with violet colored pins. She was clad in a violet kimono, filled with patterns lined with black and white.
She was different. But she was exactly as he remembers, probably even better than his expectations, even better than the image he had always imagined in his head.
It was exactly how he imagined it, how he anticipated their first meeting to be once again— in the summer heat, under the setting sun. Just like the last time they saw each other. It was just like last time. The same warmth was here. She was here— at how she seemed so kind, so close, so fleeting.
Something so far was suddenly so near, and he could easily reach it, grasp it...
Something that used to be so far was suddenly so near and yet so...
...distant.
And he wonders.
Why does all this suddenly feels... off?
Like something was missing?
Like something... was gone?
Or was it something on his end?
Was he expecting to feel something else?
"Long time no see, Toshi." She says in a voice too low for her. "How are you?" She asks and he only replies with a nod.
"Where are the others? I thought Tendo and the rest would also be here." She says and he realizes with this familiar setup and the way he just received a mail from the blocker saying how he suddenly couldn't make it.
This was a familiar scenario he had been a witness to back in high school and he knew painfully well.
Tendo just tricked him.