It was Wednesday.
Two more days to go, Seito thought to himself as he walked to the third gymnasium.
It was already a routine to him, after he did all of his work at the student council Natsumi would either barge in after her practice and drag him to the third gymnasium to talk to her crush or they would meet up somewhere on the way to the gymnasium, still with the goal of Natsumi talking to Koshi.
Though today Natsumi was nowhere to be seen. Seito went ahead to the volleyball practice, where he thought Natsumi would be waiting for him in front of the door. She wasn't, that was suspicious, she always waited for him to open the doors so she could have a more spectacular entrance, as she claimed.
Thinking that she already went inside Seito entered the gymnasium and was immediately met with a ball that was flying at a high speed in his direction.
Quickly he put his hands upwards and set the ball out of reflex high up into the air. When the ball returned he caught it and looked around.
Immediately Shoyo Hinata, one of the first years, ran up to him and bowed while apologizing profusely, "I'm so sorry", he repeated those words over and over until Seito awkwardly told him to stop it and that it wasn't a big deal.
After that it was like a switch was flipped. Shoyo went closer to Seito and asked him how he could react so quickly and where he learned to set so well and, and, and ... the questions were all volleyball related and endless.
Daichi Sawamura decided to intervene, seeing how Seito slowly grew uncomfortable with the flow of questions. "Hinata, I think you should give him some time to respond to your questions", he said with a small smile.
When Shoyo turned around to apologize to his captain, Seito took it as his chance to escape and quickly ran over to Natsumi, who was sitting on the bench next to Kiyoko and in front of her stood Koshi with an amused smile.
"Since when are you here?", Seito asked. "The whole council got worried when you didn't show up."
Natsumi smiled at him, her cheeks had a light pink color. "I fell during practice, so my knee hurt and I didn't want to go all the way up to the third floor."
Seito's eyes immediately widened in shock, he didn't take injuries lightly after what happened to Kenjiro in his last year of middle school. "Are you alright? Do you need anything? Ice? Water? – "
"No need to worry, we already gave her some ice," Koshi smiled his sunshine smile and calmed the boy down.
"And it's really not that bad, I promise," Natsumi thought it was funny and at the same time cute when Seito got this worried about a small injury.
When she asked him about why he acted this way, he just told her that if you don't treat small injuries immediately and in the right way, they can turn into nasty and severe injuries. And no athlete wanted a severe injury.
Seito calmed down, however he still threw a worried glance at her knee, "Okay."
For a short time there was a small silence between the group. It was only interrupted when Yu and Ryu started shouting at each other for whatever reason.
Clearing his throat, Koshi said, "We actually were just talking about us having a practice match on Saturday and if Shirai and you would like to come watch it."
Seito didn't miss how Koshi mentioned Natsumi first and the way he looked hopefully in her direction.
"We also planned to go eat ice cream afterwards," Daichi added, coming over to them.
Somehow hearing their captain's words over their shouting, Yu and Ryu went over to the group and added, with big, mischievous smiles, "We would be really happy if you came and supported us."
With a smile on her face Natsumi responded first, "I would love to come", then in a moment of confidence she added, "But if you lose you have to pay for me."
Koshi laughed and responded, "Sure, that would be the least we could do." He winked at her which led Natsumi's blush to deepen.
Seito was sure he would throw up because of their not so subtle flirting. He just hoped that Kenjiro and him didn't act like that.
Now everyone turned to Seito, waiting for his response, especially Yu and Ryu were eager to spend time with him to get more information for their little mission.
"I'm sorry but I'm already meeting a friend to go to the cinema on Saturday," And once again Seito felt guilty for lying to his friends.
"No need to apologize, you can always come to another game", Daichi smiled at him. He knew exactly that having the student council president watch their practice match or an official match would make everyone put their everything into each rally.
Seito smiled at him, mostly to avoid looking at the disappointed look Natsumi, Ryu and Yu gave him, "Sure"
After that conversation the coach of the boys came back and told them to play 3-vs-3 while Seito and Natsumi could stay and watch them.
"I thought I was your only friend," Natsumi asked half-jokingly.
For a short moment Seito was too surprised to respond, he didn't think that Natsumi would pick up that subject again. Luckily he had an arsenal of excuses ready.
"I'm just meeting with someone from my old middle school, to catch up on things," he responded.
She looked at him suspiciously, "And you go to the cinema for that?"
Damn, Seito you're supposed to be smart, he cursed in his head.
"Yeah, I mean no . . . I mean, we go to a café beforehand and then to the cinema. He told me he wanted to watch this new movie and had no one to go with him."
"Oookayyy."
To be frank Natsumi was starting to grow suspicious of her best friend's behaviour.
Seito always had something planned on Saturdays and each time he used a new excuse. She was beginning to not believe his excuses anymore, since two weeks ago he told her that he had to go to the funeral of his cousin's fish. Seito didn't even like any of his cousins, why would he go to the funeral of their fish? It just didn't make any sense anymore. (She choose to ignore what happened last Saturday, because he was probably just scared of her.)
Then there was also the fact that he had an endless amount of relationship advice, even if he claimed to have been single his whole life.
He was also turning down every girl that confessed to him, with the same words of "I'm sorry, but I already have someone I like."
Yes, that could also be just so the girls would feel a bit better or whatever, but when Natsumi once asked about it his ears turned red, he avoided eye contact and quickly changed the subject.
Whenever they met after school, he would look at his phone from time to time, smiling softly at something unknown with a love sick look in his eyes. And the boy never left his phone alone or unlocked, as if he had something to hide.
Slowly Natsumi grew frustrated with her best friend, but she knew that he would (hopefully) tell her what all this is about when the right time came.
Until then she would wait.
Even if it hurt her thinking about how the person she told every single one of her secrets without thinking twice, would hide something from her. But he surely had his reasons for that. She repeated this sentence over and over, like a mantra, whenever she was close to exploding and just wanted to ask him all the questions that have accumulated over time.
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Seito was done for the day.
He was so tired that he almost didn't want to eat anything, but he knew he shouldn't start skipping meals.
Choosing to eat instant ramen, he sat down after boiling the water. While he waited for the water to do it's magic on the noodles, he went to his chat with Kenjiro.
baby pygmy mouse
can i call you?
He didn't have to wait long for a response.
ancient giraffe
sure
In his dorm, Kenjiro began to smile a bit when he saw that Seito didn't waste a single second and called him immediately.
Picking up the call he walked into the bathroom he had to share with Tsutomu Goshiki, who was already in his pajamas and watched a volleyball match with his earphones in.
Locking the door behind him, he put the phone to his ear to greet Seito sweetly, "Hey, how are you?"
For a second Seito was silent until he sighed, knowing that lying to his boyfriend would do him no good.
"How about you tell me first how your day was and how you are," Seito said tiredly. He first had to sort his thoughts. "I'll tell you everything, I just have to eat first and while I do that you can talk about yourself."
Kenjiro laughed a bit, "Sure, but do you want to switch to a video call?"
The question surprised Seito so much that he dropped his chopsticks that fell clattering to the ground.
"Are you alright?" Kenjiro asked, amused and worried at the same time.
Quickly picking up his chopsticks and wiping them on his hoodie Seito sat down and responded, "Yes, I was just a bit surprised."
Changing to a video call they looked at each other in silence before both of them started laughing. It wasn't their first time facetiming each other but somehow they thought that it was special because it was the first time with Kenjiro being in his dorm.
"So how was your day?" Seito asked, stirring the noodles around.
"Nothing interesting happened today, except that Kawanishi –"
"Wait, he's the ginger, right?", Seito inquired.
"Yup. Well, during practice he ran into the net pole and I think he has a bruise on his forehead now, and his crush was there to watch our practice", Kenjiro said with a grin.
Seito started laughing.
It was funny thinking about how the scene progressed and how the whole team acted. Kenjiro and Eita probably just looked at the accident happening and turned back to what they were doing, Tsutomu would surely be in complete panic, running around and trying to call the emergency number, while Wakatoshi would probably just stand around, not knowing what to do and just told Tsutomu that he was thinking of the wrong emergency number. Or he was already planning Taichi Kawanishi's funeral.
"I wish I could've been there to see it", Seito told him.
The student council president actually knew almost everything about the whole volleyball team of Shiratorizawa, he remembered how at the beginning of the school year he forced his boyfriend to show him the team picture that they had to take. Then he also forced Kenjiro to tell him everything about them, so they could talk together about them.
"Me too," Kenjiro spoke into the phone. "Do you want to tell me about your day now?"
For a second Seito hesitated. But then he just sighed and rambled on.
"On Monday before classes started I talked a bit with Akemi," Seito began. "Then when she was gone Natsumi came over and just said some jokes about us looking like a couple because of the way we acted."
Seito could see the copper haired boy laughing.
"So then we came to talk about my Sunday and how my parents still think that Natsumi and I are dating and so on", again Seito sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "You know it was so fun talking to her and everything that afterwards I felt really bad."
"I mean, I really am the worst friend on earth, right?" He started to tear up. "I feel like I'm just using her or some shit. I mean she literally tells me everything about herself, every little thing. And here I am, lying to her about this huge part of my life."
Kenjiro just listened closely, he was already preparing the words he would say later on.
"Then, today after club we were at the gymnasium with all of the volleyball guys and they asked me to watch their practice match and go eat ice cream with them on Saturday. Of course I turned them down and told them that I would go to the cinema with a friend," Seito sighed again, on the brink of bursting into tears.
"Later she asked me who I would go with and I told her 'someone from my old middle school, to catch up on things'. Why would I go to the cinema to do that? I am so dumb! And then after we talked she just sat next to me silently and looked at me suspiciously. I think she's slowly starting to catch on," the black haired boy took a deep breath to calm himself. Kenjiro was still looking at him attentively.
"I would really like for her to know everything about me, to know about you and stuff, but I'm really scared of her rejecting me. What if she doesn't want to be friends with me anymore? And I mean, to begin with it's my fault because I'm such a coward and I'm literally forcing you to keep our relationship secret."
Kenjiro took this as his cue to start talking,"Dwarf, I really love you, you know that right?
Seito just nodded, not caring about the dumb nickname at this moment.
"I think you're thinking too much about this. I know it's not easy to tell the people around you about you being bi, but from what you told me I'm sure that Natsumi would never stop being friends with you just because you swing in both ways."
"But what if she's going to hate me because I kept it secret for so long?," Seito asked unsure.
"I mean, I would understand her being a bit mad about it, but if you told her about your parents and so on she would surely understand your situation. And if she doesn't, it's her loss.", Kenjiro smiled into the phone. Hopefully this was enough to calm his boyfriend down.
Seito just hummed and stared into space.
"But what should I do if she confronts me about it?"
Kenjiro thought for a second, "Well, I don't know that much about her and how you act around each other, but just do whatever feels right."
Seito snorted, "You know that you sound like a tarot card reading mom, right?"
Kenjiro looked at him offended, "I do not" , then he added, "And do you want to insult my mom? I can tell her about it and she'll probably stop cooking for you when you're visiting."
Seito paled, "Wait, wait, wait. Since when does your mom read tarot cards? And you know that she loves me more than you, she wouldn't even believe you."
"She bought a pack on Saturday and is obsessed with it. We spent the whole Sunday afternoon picking cars and reading through every meaning of them," Kenjiro laughed a bit. "Though after she got 'change of location' five times in a row she got frustrated and went for a walk."
Seito laughed heartily, "Tell them that I'll walk you home on Friday, I really want to pick a card."
"Nah, I think you shouldn't come over," Kenjiro said seriously.
Seito looked at him confused, "Why?"
"Because you don't even want to see me, just my mom and her card deck."
Now knowing that it was just a joke Seito said, "So what? I only date you because your mom is a goddess in the kitchen."
Kenjiro lifted an eyebrow, "And I only date you because you buy comfortable clothes."
"I hate you," Seito said.
"I love you too, you dwarf."
"I'm only two centimeters smaller than you!", Seito exclaimed.
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y'all gotta look up 'pygmy mouse' they're sooo cute
Question of the chapter:
Which country do you want to travel to?
My answer:
Probably Iceland or Canada or Switzerland
-NEPTUNXS