FORTY-SIX. GF-FORHIRE
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it was already seventeen minutes past nine in the evening by the time ymari got back to her hotel, bokuto bidding her goodbye as she entered the premise.
she entered the elevator, clutching onto the thick fukurōdani jacket that bokuto had graciously lent her earlier. the doors closed and she sighed, leaning against the wall tiredly.
her brows knitted together as she thought about how her plans for the night were ruined. she was going to check up on a few clients tonight, despite her being on a break. however, with the doctor's restrictions- she concludes that she may not be able to do just that.
the elevator doors soon opened again, and a certain tall brunette entered. his fox eyes widened by a fraction when he saw the familiar white haired girl shivering against the elevator wall.
"seinaru-san?" he asked.
the girl, who didn't even notice him enter because she was just too tired to be coherent, looked up at the mention of her name. through half-lidded eyes, she recognized the inarizaki middle blocker.
"ah, suna-san." her voice rasped out as she coughed into her sleeve.
he suddenly remembered the conversation between the miya twins that he overheard earlier today before their last spring nationals game began- this girl is ill. he went over to her side with worried eyes.
"hey.." he touched her forehead. "you're burning hot. have you taken any medicine?"
"yup." she sniffled, covering her already-masked face with her handkerchief. "i just got back from the hospital. the doctor gave me prescriptions."
"ah, thats good." the middle blocker nodded. "why did you go there alone?"
"i didn't." she coughed into her sleeve again. "i was with ko-chin."
suna blinked, 'who on earth is ko-chin?'
he noticed that she was wearing a fukurōdani jacket and wondered where she got it from.
"let me take you to your room."
he sighed, pushing all of that to the back of his mind as he went over to her side, carefully holding her shoulders.
seinaru's eyes flashed as she heard someone say something from her side, a wave of nostalgia crashing onto her like a tsunami.
"he's gonna be alright." she felt the shadow of nostalgic hands drape a coat over her shoulders and pat her back.
her eyes quickly snapped towards suna who didn't even open his mouth— he didn't say those words. she looked and he did have his hands over her shoulder blades but, those weren't the same hands she felt just now.
"no, i can manage." she hurriedly shrugged his hands off, feeling like she was about to faint from the sudden rush of flashbacks at the front of her mind.
she looked away from suna's questioning eyes, shrugging off the voice, the hands- the memory she recalled.
it was all because she had to go to a damn hospital.
her eyes lowered to the ground. she shouldn't have entered the hospital. it brought back unwanted memories that constantly haunted her very being.
"'tsumu.."
she looked up at suna with reddish eyes. "can you get my phone from this bag and call 'tsumu?"
suna blinked, "ah, okay."
he proceeded to unzip her bag and took the phone that was at the very top of the heap of things she had organized neatly inside the bag.
"password?" he asked, seeing the locked screen.
her eyes glazed over, "021410."
suna typed in the password and looked for the call log. littered all over were the contact names, 'client #2', 'client #3', 'client #4', and the list goes on. he also saw some familiar names, like 'shōyo hinata', and 'tobio kageyama' which brought a small frown to his lips as he literally just lost to them a few hours ago. he wonders why she's calling so many people. she's had literally several call logs for these contacts for the past few days,with the exception of yesterday and today.
"find his contact name." she instructed. "it's saved under 'my world'."
she didn't do that. utsui did that this morning, simply because she was an extreme #seinamiya slash #ymatsu shipper.
suna frowned even more at the contact name but clicked on it as soon as he found it.
after the first ring, the person on the other end immediately picked up. "ymari, you finally-"
"atsumu." suna greeted him, cutting the setter off. there was a cunning tone to his voice but seinaru didn't take notice.
there was a loud gasp from the other end. "hah?! suna?!"
ymari motioned for suna to bring her phone near her and he obeyed. " 'tsumu, i can't come over to your room. can you just-" she coughed into her handkerchief. "-come to my room?"
there was a short pause before the miya twin answered. "okay. i'll see ya'."
"alright. i love you." ymari called out, to which atsumu replied back with an "i love ya' too" before hanging up.
just as suna put her phone back in her bag and zipped it up, the elevator doors dinged open.
it was inarizaki's floor.
suna looked at her, "will you be able to walk to your room?"
"i can manage." she smiled, pushing him out, before leaning against the elevator walls once more when the doors closed again.
she looked to her side to make sure that nobody was there. the hands and the voice from earlier were just fragments of a memory she would very much rather forget.
-
later that night, akaashi finds bokuto standing outside their hotel.
the owl-eyed ace had just come back from his trip with ymari about an hour ago and even watched the volleyball news coverage on tv with the team after he'd arrived. akaashi, albeit curious of what the "couple" did and where they went, stopped himself from asking anything about their lovelife.
"aren't you gonna watch tv?" he asked his captain.
"huh?" bokuto blinked, looking back at him. "we did, though."
"i mean, you usually watch it a hundred times."
"who the heck do you think i am?"
he then glanced back at the night sky. "i wasn't on camera that much, so watching it 20 times is plenty."
'so you actually watched it 20 times..' akaashi sweatdropped to himself
"well.."
akaashi looked up when bokuto spoke up again.
"i'm still gonna be playing volleyball after high school, so i really didn't think things were that different.." the ace sighed.
"man! i wish i could play with you guys more!"
the setter blinked. "you're not going to die, are you, bokuto-san?"
"huh? i plan on living until i'm 130 years old."
akaashi just shook his head at the fukurōdani team captain. "what are you talking about? it's only the second day."
"the third round, the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the finals.." he continued. "the road is still long for us."
"yeah.." bokuto answered after a short pause, his face turning serious. "and we're gonna win all of them."
akaashi then felt a shiver run up his spine. the cold was picking up. "alright, let's hurry inside."
"the flu and the norovirus are going around. you can't underestimate january." he started pushing bokuto back inside the hotel.
"january?!" bokuto suddenly gasped with wide eyes. "flu? virus?"
he turned to akaashi with worried eyes just as they entered the hotel. "my girlfriend is sick. she might have either of those.."
akaashi blinked at him as they made their way to the elevator. "heather-san?"
"heather, seinaru- same person. i'm sure you already know who she actually is." bokuto looked at him.
akaashi looked at him quizzically.
how did bokuto find out?
"i actually took her to the hospital after our date. she told me that the doctor said she was fine though.." he trailed off, leaning against the back of his crossed arms as the elevator went up to their floor. "i wanna go out and check on her again but she might get mad at me. she told me to go back to our hotel right after i dropped her off to hers."
akaashi stayed silent. so her pale complexion and sniffles were really signs of her being unwell.
"well then, you can always see her tomorrow after we win."
bokuto blinked, a smile coming onto his lips. "yeah."
-
"hanuka, ichigo." she blinked, seeing her two roommates inside the presidential suite who were worriedly pacing around.
the two perked up at the call of their names.
"cap!"
less than a second later, she was drowned in their hugs.
"you were a no-show the whole day! you weren't even at the tournament earlier." hanuka pouted. "we got really worried."
"futakuchi-kun said you were staying in bed for the day but when we got back a while ago you weren't here." ichigo explained, relieved that they found their captain.
"ah, sumimasen. i didn't mean to worry you all." she apologized, sauntering over to her bed and putting down her things.
the two noticed the addition of a new jacket from the same team as the guy who walked her back home on the night of her birthday but stayed silent about it.
she had removed her hair and contact lenses aka her disguise inside the bathroom in the hallway before getting inside their shared room. good thing she did, otherwise, they would have caught her red-handed. she kept her fukurōdani jacket on because underneath were her clothes as "heather". her huge owl stuffed toy was deposited to the reception, where she asked the receptionist to keep it for the meantime to prevent further questioning from utsui and her teammates.
she went over to the small closet where she put her clothing and grabbed a few essentials before going inside the bathroom to wash up, despite her fever- well the doctor did say she was getting better.
ichigo and hanuka lied down on their beds and texted their nippon teammates through the group chat that the captain was back in their quarters to prevent them from worrying further.
hanuka sighed, "hey, we're leaving next week, right?"
"no, we leave on the tenth." ichigo murmured, scrolling through her phone.
"and we come back on?" hanuka asked.
"twenty-seventh. we'll be here til' the second of february." the current center of the nippon team relayed.
" 'kay, got it, thanks." hanuka nodded. then her mind went somewhere else, remembering something so important, yet it completely slipped her mind during the first weeks of training.
"hey, didn't the email say there were thirteen members?"
ichigo hummed, "yeah."
"d'ya know who the other two are? they haven't trained with us at all, and its already rest time. the next time we'll all meet will be at the olympics already." hanuka voiced out her concerns.
ichigo's eyes flashed an unrecognizable emotion before she turned back to her phone. "i have a clue as to who they may be. but if they didn't attend training, that must mean their skills are already polished."
"ah, alright.." hanuka shrugged off the topic pretty quickly.
she rolled over onto her bed and tucked herself under the covers. "i'm gonna turn in for the night. oyasumi."
"oyasumi.." the brunette muttered, still thinking about the two potential members that she theorized.
she dreaded seeing both of them. it would be straight out of a nightmare if they turned out to be the ones that would complete the thirteen members of the nippon team.
ichigo sighed, shaking off the unwanted thoughts. she then looked up slightly and switched off hanuka's lamp that was right by her side. the hotel room wasn't that bright anymore, so the pink-haired girl was able to sleep. not even a few minutes later, ichigo was also succumbed by sleep.
later on, seinaru walked out of the bathroom silently. her eyes grazed over her two teammates that were now both asleep.
she felt a lot better after the hot bath. her muscles that were previously aching for the whole day were relaxed now. her sinuses that were more or less blocked, weren't anymore- she can now breathe properly.
she blinked to herself as she dried her hair while sitting on her bed. it seems as if she can't invite atsumu over after all. she would have to inform him of the circumstance.
she took her medicine from the paper bag inside her duffle. she made her way to the kitchen and grabbed herself a glass of water. she slipped the paracetamol in her lips and then gulping it down with water. she was advised to stay indoors- and she was. the hotel is considered 'indoors', right?
she combed her hair and wrapped her thick black night robe around her body to prevent herself from shivering. she was wearing her white silk nighties set, a sleeveless top, and silk pants. she wore her burgundy-colored iconic socks with yellow and brown fox patterns and slipped on her slides. she took her phone with her, along with a handkerchief, her hotel key card, and wallet (she never leaves without one), and stood up.
"oyasuminasai." she murmured underneath her breath as she left the two inside their room, locking the door shut behind her.
she checked the time on her phone as she walked out the silent hallways of the hotel. it was already thirty-eight minutes past ten in the evening. had she stayed in the hot bath that long?
she coughed into a handkerchief she brought, the sound echoing through the halls.
she quickly made her way downstairs using the stairs. she didn't want a repeat of her disturbingly nostalgic experience inside the elevator so she decided she wouldn't use it for the time being.
she got to the fifth floor and started making her way to the room her hyogo client was in.
room 36, family suite.
it was cute. a family suite for a team.
she knows that the boy was leaving tomorrow, and she might not get the opportunity to talk to him about his defeat if she waited til the morning. he might leave first thing tomorrow.
she knocked three times and then the door was swung open.
"ah.." kita blinked upon recognizing the girl in her sleepwear. "seinaru-san."
the girl bowed lightly, "konbanwa, kita-san. gomen for coming this late in the evening. i'm here for atsumu."
"oh." the boy nodded. "it's completely fine. you may come inside. he's in his room."
shinsuke kita let seinaru inside. the basketball player looked around at the spacious main room.
turns out, this family suite has separate rooms inside. they had sixteen members, so there were four rooms inside. four team members shared one bedroom.
"his room is over here." kita guided her over to the last room in the row.
"arigato, kita-san." she bowed lightly. she then gave him a smile. "good work today. inarizaki did great."
the team captain blinked at her, before a small smile flitted upon his lips. "arigato."
he then left her to her devices.
ymari knocked twice on the door and there was no answer.
she knocked again.
no answer.
she sighed, she didn't want to disturb him in case he was already asleep. maybe he even forgot about their rendezvous tonight because he was so exhausted of their game versus karasuno earlier.
the door was swung open and her eyes met droopy fox ones. he looked shocked to see her. "seinaru-san, what are you doing here?"
"konbanwa, i'm here for 'tsumu." she looked behind suna and saw that there were two people on their own respective beds- one was ginjima who was reading a sports magazine, the other miya twin, who was playing on his phone, whilst the other miya was nowhere to be found.
suna looked behind him as well and then glanced back at the girl. "he's in the bathroom. he'll probably be out in a bit."
osamu looked up and saw her. "hey."
"hey." she nodded back at him and then looked at suna, "i'll wait out here then."
she was about to go back to the main room when suna's hands clasped around her wrist. "i'll wait with you."
she just nodded and let him follow, with his hand no longer clasped around her wrist.
once suna closed the door behind him, ginjima looked up from his sports magazine and glanced at osamu. "i think we found the black sock."
the gray-haired miya nodded, "indeed."
now the two weren't idiots. i mean, don't get me wrong. there really was a 50-50 chance that suna just had a sock kink. but analyzing his analogies from before, the two had come to a conclusion that the middle blocker might like someone who he isn't supposed to like. they narrowed down the potential someone to atsumu's girlfriend- since atsumu was suna's only friend that had a girlfriend.
see, all these boys can't even bag themselves nice girls and yet they think atsumu's the weakest link.
ugh, boys.
now, they've confirmed that it was indeed, seinaru who was the black sock from his analogy.
how come they're smart at being gossipers, and complete garbage in mathematics and literature?
once again..
ugh, boys.
a few seconds later, the door to the bathroom opened, revealing a half naked atsumu miya.
osamu looked at his twin and threw him a gray sweatshirt, "put on a shirt. yer girlfriend's here."
"ymari?" atsumu blinked. "where?"
"in the lounge with suna." ginjima said.
atsumu's eyes widened before he quickly sauntered out the door, leaving the two inarizaki players inside once more with a quiet slam of the door.
the gray haired twin looked at ginjima, "i think we also found the yellow sock."
the boy nodded in agreement, "indeed we have."
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