Kenma POV
(6 months later - Last few days for the seniors)
(On the stairs nearby the school)
"Kenma are you really planning to quit the team," Kuroo asks me as I hand him the club resignation form.
"Yes," I answered. It has been six months since I joined the volleyball team and ever since the first day I joined the team, I was treated terribly by the 3rd years.
It's just because you're a first year... They would always say. Those words have been a constant reminder on how they see me in the team. Not as a team mate, but as the little kouhai of the team that does everything for them... I hate it. I don't know want to deal with it anymore. Every time I came to practice, I would barely ever play a game and instead they made work like a slave doing their bidding. I never got to do what I wanted and I could never go against them... I wasn't even officially in the team. I'm not needed in this club.
"Kenma. Try to think about it, we're going to have a new coach and I'll be the official captain for this team next season. The 1st and 2nd years know your worth as a setter for the team... Are you really going to throw it all away because of the seniors?" Kuroo asks me again and I don't say anything. He's just trying to convince me to join the team, but he's the one who tricked me into getting into the team.
"Just turn in the form for me okay?" I tell him. He sighs as he scratches the back of his neck and goes through the form checking everything I wrote.
"If this is what you really want, okay then~ I'll give you a week to think about it more and then I'll turn it," he says and I nod my head in agreement... This is for the best. I'll play video games instead of going to volleyball practice or play with the kittens in Akane's house. There's no need to commit myself to a team.
Ring ring
"Kenma, Yaku is calling us. He probably wants to know where we are," Kuroo looks at the caller ID of the cellphone with the contact pic of an angry Yaku.
"Go hangout with the team without me... I want to be alone right now," I tell him. Kuroo doesn't say anything and eventually I hear the footsteps of him leaving. Once he leaves, I hug my knees to my chest and listen to the car traffic that typically takes place around this time with cars honking along with little kids playing on a near by playground. I inhale and exhale some air as I let the wind blow against my hair. I rest my head under my arms as I look down on the floor as I get deep into my thoughts.
I never had a passion for volleyball so why... Why do I want to be on the team? I didn't play many matches as a setter... I want to play more, just a little... But I don't want this kind of treatment of the ranking of senpais... If volleyball is like that, then it's not even worth the --
"Kenma what are you doing here?"
I raise my head up knowing this voice all too well and that the person's voice was indeed Akane's as she waves her hands with all the kittens in her large bag. "How was practice today?" She asks with a silly grin on her face.
"I'm not going to have practice anymore... I going to quit. I don't want play anymore. I hate it." I muttered in a voice that she probably can't hear.
"Um... Kenma I can't hear you..." Akane says with a strained smile. That right she's all the way below the stairs, I'll speak a little louder then....
"I hate being treated like crap because I'm younger than most of the players in the team." I spurt my honest opinions, "I don't want to face that anymore so I'm going to quit the club," I say again and Akane doesn't say anything, but slowing gets up the stairs and stand next to me, not saying anything.
Akane doesn't give any contact to me and stares at the near by playground with the kids laughing and playing with each other as they go back onto the slide and swing through the monkey bars. The wind lightly blows in the sunset and Akane then looks up at the orange sky and a sad smile appears on her face.
"I don't know what to say. I don't understand anything... but I guess, we're both similar in that way. You have your problems and I have mine we can't really understand each other. Kenma... You're truly my first friend I ever made in a long time and if you are sure about doing something then go ahead and do it.... But if it's about quitting the club, don't quickly give in. Playing volleyball is something you have always done with Kuroo..." The wind goes against her hair and she moves some strands of her hair away from her face and her voice becomes a little edgy.
"Y-You don't know how it is to not lose something that you wouldn't expect to lose. Volleyball is something that you don't think is important now, can end up being something very important to you in the future... So rather than frown about that one little problem about the team. Just think about volleyball and how fun it is." She turns to me with small smile as she inhales a huge breath, "I think seeing you with your dorky happy expression of getting a new video game suits you more." She reaches for my cheeks and pulls it into a smile, "just stay in the team after all good things happen to those who wait," she widely grins and I felt as if a burden is lighten just a little. I notice her lips are twitching as if she's about to cry. Is about me or something else?
She turns around again and I can only see her back as she looks up at the orange sky. I watch her blond hair blow with the wind and the orange sky that blends in with her hair. She's like the sunsets the sky. Akane has always been my best friend along with Kuroo and the last time we ever had a heart to heart moment like this was when she was fighting with her brother... I chuckle and now it's me who receiving the long lecture.
I pull on her sleeve from behind her. "Thanks Akane. I'm okay, let's go play with the kittens." I say as I stand up and point to the kittens in her bag that try to get out to stretch.
Akane POV
I hate myself. My best friend Kenma is angry and frustrated with himself, but I can't help him. I can't hear him at all. I can only see by his expression how's he's feeling. I couldn't even read his lips because his arms were covering his mouth. Not being able to hear anything...I constantly try to forget about it but it can never get out of mind. Tears almost form from my eyes as I look at the sky to distract myself. I try to hold my emotions in because the way Kenma feels is just as incomparable as to mine. I never played a sport and never been treated terribly by any seniors. I heard from Kuroo that Kenma was considering to quit the team because of that... I just never thought it would pull him down this much.
I look at not the blue, but the orange sky that expands to no where. Maybe the orange sky and I are alike... We aren't seen as normal except the orange sky is pretty, but I'm just a burden... I want to cry all the feelings that I have...But I can't... not here. I don't want Kenma to see my weak side. We are friends after all aren't we... Right?.... I feel a sudden tug on my sleeve to see Kenma with a faint smile, "Thanks Akane, I'm okay. Let's go play with the kittens," he says and stands up.
"Sure," I say with a forced grin on the outside, but in the inside something new grew inside of me. Something that was best to have hidden away in my heart... This feeling...
My relationship with Kenma. It was at that moment I realized that I always loved him ever since the first day we met and at the same time I realized that my love can never work out... The burden that I would have to carry for the rest of my life. The burden that no one wants to share with me... Not being able to hear anything. Not even the voice of the person I love.
Kenma POV
(A few days later)
"Kenma what is it?" Kuroo says as he comes out of the gym after volleyball practice.
"I want to join the team again as the team setter," I straightforwardly tell him and I can see the tips of his lips curve up ever so slightly.
"Did Akane's words convince to stay on the team," he asks and I give him a deadpan expression hearing his words.
"Kuroo, if you wanted to say something you should have said it when Akane was here," I tell him, "I knew you were there when I was talking to Akane." He shrugs his shoulders and takes the resignation form and rips it in half in front of my face.
"I wasn't ever planning to give to the club advisor to begin with," he snickers, " I never thought Akane would be the one to convince you though. I wish it would've been me."
"What are you talking about? Akane didn't do anything. I decided this on my own." I bluntly tell him, but he bursts out laughing.
"Kenma, I didn't know that you're this dense," he laughs in an annoying way.
"What are you talking about?" I cock my head in confusion, but Kuroo doesn't give me an answer.
"That's for you to figure out," he says suggestively. He regains his composure after laughing so hard and offers me a handshake, "As captain of this team, I welcome you to Nekoma's High boy's volleyball team."