Chapter Text
Isagi, despite sleeping late, still woke up early. Though, he opened his eyes and was still tired and sleepy, given that he only slept for about 3 hours. He forced himself to get up. He can't be late.
The first thing he did was not get out of his bed, he fiddled around the his blankets to find his phone, opening it and sending a "Hello, I just woke up. Good morning." message to Shoyou. When the other didn't reply in the span of five minutes with Isagi patiently waiting, he eventually got up, carrying his phone to the bathroom.
While he was grabbing his toothbrush, he kept Hinata's profile open, still waiting to see any reply.
Yoichi<3 sent 6 minutes ago
-Hello, just woke up.
-Good morning Shoyou:)
Shoyou:)
HELLO!! I literealy jst woke up too!-
GOODMORNING YOICHI-
-How was ur sleep??
bad. u kept me up at night late!!-
-Well you were the one talking about why you were interested at volleyball for hours??
no! you kept talking about some moel noah guyಠಗಠ-
also i didn't even finish talking about the story! its sooo longg-
i think i left off the story when i was in elementary right?? then i fell asleep-
-Its Noel Noa. How can you not know about his name! He's supeer popular!
-Wait, you probably know his name you're just messing with me!
-Yeah you're messing with me, you can't be serious.
-Goodness, I dont even know why we chat.
-Wait why am I sending so many messages because of this?
-Im going crazy over you
LOL im sorrryy it was a jokee-
u react so funny hahaha(╥﹏╥)-
-Seriously though, Im sorry for keeping you up.
NOO DONT APOLOGIZE I KEPT ON TALKING TOO-
-Wait, i'll go get some breakfast. Just a moment.
Ok!! I'll go get some too, chat u later-
—
Isagi quick set down his brush, rinsed his mouth, and washed his face. He exited the bathroom and made a b-line towards the kitchen area with a wide grin in his face. It's so stupid... but he's genuinely enjoying talking to the other boy now. He's never been this comfortable with someone..
On the way there, he was greeted by the scene of his mom and dad lounging around the couch while watching TV. He sent them a smile as a reply when they gave him a chorus of "Good morning!"
"Yoichi, there's already breakfast ready at the table!"
"Alright, thanks mom!"
Once Isagi is seated down at the dining table, alone, he decides to open up his phone and check Hinata's profile again.
Yoichi:)
-Hello, Im back, im eating breakfast:)
-japanese pancakes..
Shoyou<3
HII im also eatingg-
-You can continue your story from last night then?? If you want.
i want to-
but its so long!! so tiring to type:<-
-Well, we could call, if that's okay with you?
Isagi stared at his phone for a moment, nervous, wondering if he asked something too far for their one-week-relataionship. Um, friendship. He was on the verge of unsending the message and sending an apology, when a 'ding' sounded from his device.
YEAH SURE-
good ideaa!! wait im gonns grab some headphpnes first!!!-
The raven haired boy smiled into his chopsticks, his previous anxiousness mixing with excitement. Sure, it was a little embrassing for him, since this would be the first time in a week or so that they'll hear each other's voice. The first time it happened, it wasn't even a full, long conversation! And people typically changed when they were talking online compared to talking in real life, right? Yoichi just wishes it wouldn't be too awkward.
Maybe this wouldn't be too troublesome if they had just met-up in these past days, just hang-out and stuff... just, not a date. Though, he's too scared to ask. Maybe next time?
After a couple of seconds, a ring emerged from his device. He clicked the button hesitantly, raised the phone to his ear, and turned-up his volume.
He heard some shuffling, some huffs of air, then,
"Um...hello, hello?" A high, smooth voice said from the other line.
"Hello, Shoyou? Can you hear me?" Yoichi answered, still not used to hearing Hinata's voice.
"Yes! Yes, I can hear you.." He heard the other boy let out an awkward giggle. 'Gosh, I wish it wouldn't be this awkward for the whole call.' thought Isagi. Maybe it was only like this since he's only 10 seconds into the conversation.
"Hm, that's good. I was worried my connection wouldn't be too good," He mutters, not really meaning it. He heard an audio of someone chewing, it's barely audible, so it must've been done quietly but the mic still caught it.
"Uhh also, my audio is not like, messed up, right? This headphone hasn't been used in a whiilleeee... its um, really cheap too." Shoyou says as he, as what Isagi could tell, fumbled around the mic.
"Yeah, don't worry, I could hear you clearly."
"Also, what are you eating?" The raven haired boy adds.
"Um..b-breakfast..? I mean um, just some egg rolls.."
He was about to say something like, "Wow um, that's good, yeah I love those haha" when Hinata, thankfully, added more.
"Im so sorry, im not that used to talking in phone.."
The orange-haired boy mumbled shyly, his voice sounding so timid and clumsy, but you can hear the smile clearly in his voice. It's almost cute, which made the soccer player grin.
"No," He drags out after swallowing a peice of his breakfast "It's fine, we're both not used to it. I'm sure it'll get better."
"Oh, um, is my audio good too? I haven't asked, I dont have any mic on." He adds.
"No... Uh, I mean yes! Your voice sound really good."
Isagi lets out a genuine huff of short laughter, deciding to test the waters and see how Hinata will react when he gets teased without the privilege of getting to think throughly before typing out a reply when it comes to chats.
"Well, thank you, you're making me kind of shy here..." He says with a small giggle.
"No, huh? I didn't mean it like that– I mean, im not saying your voice sounds good, wait! It does sound good! but like, ugh!" Isagi hears the boy stutter out a few more complaints, in which he just laughed at.
"But you already know what I mean!" Shoyou whisper-yelled and a bit or air sounded out in his mic.
"Boo! My teammates make fun of me already, and you say your one friend teases you too! We both get teased! We should be like, in alliance now..." The boy said in annoyance, Isagi could hear the pout in his voice.
"Alright, Im sorry. You can continue your story now, "
"Oh yeah – Uh, okay, so before high school I was in a school that didn't really focus on sports, so It was really hard to practice voleyball but still... I kept on practicing, even when I had to annoy my friends who were interested in other games so they'll practice with me." The voice stops for a moment, taking a deep breath, "You get it, right? That moment I told you about last night really inspired me,"
Hinata trails off, starting off his story slow, then suddenly speaking very fast at the middle. It was kind of hard for Isagi to catch up and understand, but he got the gist of it. It was relatable, something that he does too when he's comfortable and when the topic is something he's really interested in.
Isagi just listened, taking small bites of his food so the moment would last longer. He asked questions regarding Hinata's interests, and some follow up ones about his story.
It felt weirdly refreshing. Hearing someone else talk about sport like it was their life line, hearing a story about someone being so devoted to voleyball after just one moment; Watching someone else play really good in a TV screen. It all felt so comforting. A reminder that he wasn't alone. That his feelings are someone else's feelings too, that he wasn't the first and the only one to feel like this towards sports. It was all the same, just a different game.
When he was starting soccer, or well, up until now, he felt... stupid. Everyone around him was so normal. They didn't risk their life and grades to practice something. They weren't weirdly obessed with some sport to the point that they wouldn't care about their academics and friends. They didn't stare at nowhere during classes, thinking about gameplay techniques.
In his life, he's heard countless of whispers and proud statements, saying that being this in sports wouldn't do him any good. They said it will be hard. They said if he wasn't ready, if he wasn't strong and outstanding, he wouldn't get anywhere since he had many competition who were better than him. That the highest he'll ever reach was competing in club activities, going up against other schools, never professional.
Isagi had tried his best to ignore those comments and not think anything of it. He spent so much time in soccer, after all, it would be a shame to let go if it now. It was his life.
But now, hearing someone different actually talk about it, like, hearing their actual voice, not just texts on screen. It made him realize something. It felt warm, like fire — like passion.
He realized it wasn't that weird. It was passion. That was what he and Shoyou had. And they were lucky. Wether they succeeded in their dreams or not, they were lucky. Now many people had a 'calling' of some sorth. Some people just floated around the world, occupying space, not having the strong interest towards anything. No matter how hard they try. Not having anything to be passionate about, something to call their 'life'.
Him and his new friend kept talking more. Isagi had barely eaten, too focused on what Hinata was saying, so his plate still had half of his food in it. When suddenly, his mom enters the kitchen doorway.
"Yoichi, dont you have school?"
Isagi then puts down his phone to look at the time to see that he only had 5 minutes to get dressed and travel to school.
'Shit.' He thought. Well, it didn't really matter now if he acted fast. He'll be late either way! He quickly mumbles out an apology to Hinata, in which the other replied "Wait, im late too!".
He turned off his phone and got up to run towards his bedroom.
"Thanks for checking in, mom!" He yells on the way there.
—————————
He arrives at class as everyone was already doing some activity their teacher gave. It felt embrassing to enter the room and have everyone look at him and his teacher scold him infront of everyone since he was 30 minutes late, which was awfully, reaally, late. But he was used to the stares.
He sat in his seat at the corner of the room, close to the windows that were facing the hallway.
Class was boring. They gave out so much assignments that Isagi has to do, having to balance his time since he gets home late from the club activities.
Throughout the day, he'll catch himself randomly thinking about how Shoyou's day was going, if he was bored in school, thinking about Yoichi too.
Isagi basically ran out of the doorway once the bells sounded out, signifying the end of his suffering.
He passes by Kira's classroom while running down the hall (carefully, since the smooth concrete floor was slippery and covered with floor wax. Isagi learned that the hard way.), dodging the influx of students also exiting the building.
Once Isagi catches the sight of the familiar, white messy hair, he immediately walked towards it, stopping at the back of the taller boy who was talking to some other student infront of a class' doorway.
"Yeah, yeah, sure. I'll just text you about our plans... maybe I'll make a group chat somewhere so it'll–"
Isagi taps the other's back. Not even a second later, the other boy turns around and faces him, his face flat before beaming once he sets sights on Yoichi.
"Oh! Yoichi," He says with a weird tone that Isagi still doesn't know what to think of, despite him hearing it everyday from Ryousuke.
"Lets go to the gym together?" The smaller boy tries to state, though it comes out as a question.
"Alright, sure! Thanks for passing by me, lets go!" Kira says, his smile getting larger, which Isagi thought was impossible... well, Kira never fails to suprise him.
"Um... Alright, lets just talk on the group chat then," Isagi's eyes moves to his side, seeing someone he didn't recognize. A small, meek boy,
carrying a large bag on his back. It was the other student that Kira was talking too. Yoichi didn't know what they were talking about, but he didn't bother asking.
"Okay, talk later!" Kira says, before turning back to Isagi and adding "Sorry, he's a member in my group. A project they gave." And then, proceeds to grab the other boy's hand.
"Okayy, let's get going then," The white-haired says, dragging him as he weaved through the people around the halls. Isagi didn't even complain, because he couldn't. The boy was fast. Isagi's carefulness from earlier was thrown out the roof.
—
Practice had nothing new, but Isagi still tried hard for it. He heard some of his members arguing at break, but he didn't care enough to walk over there and ask what was wrong. Instead, he went to the same vending machine he went to yesterday, getting the same stuff, and sitting at the same bench.
It was cold out here. The machine was outside the gym, it was covered by the slight roof hanging over, but the chilly wind still hit him in the face constantly. The sunny weather from earlier completely changed, turning windy and cloudy. It was comforting though. Isagi was always fond of weathers like these, though it was really frustrating if there was game and they had to deal with the cold temperature.
"Aw, why didn't you wait for me?" A voice says, sitting down next to him.
Isagi looks at Ryousuke and huffs, "Sorry..."
"Still eating the same thing? I've got a bento box here, we could share of you want?" The other says, offering a wooden box covered in light-blue fabric in his lap.
"Well, um, alright, if that's fine with you?" Isagi says. It wouldn't hurt if he just took a bit if Kira had something delicious in that.
"Of course it is, go take whatever!" Ryousuke mumbles, opening the box up.
Isagi took one of the onigiris on the side of the box before;"Thanks,"
"Woa, you're like, more quiet today. Less mean replies and you also look kind of.. more tired." Kira says, tilting his head as Yoichi felt the boy's eyes explore his face.
"Are you okay..?" The other boy adds.
"No, Im fine!" Isagi tries to insist knowing the pale boy wouldn't really believe him. "Just didn't get enough sleep, maybe."
"Oh," Kira says, stopping for moment as he grabs some food, "Then, is that why you were late earlier?"
Isagi halts his chewing, "Wait, how'd you even know about that?"
"I know some of the people from your class," Oh. That made sense then. Kira knew atleast one or two people from every class on their grade after all. Isagi doesn't know how the boy does it. Must be a natural talent then, to be able to introduce yourself and be friendly to that amount of people.
"Oh, then, yeah. I was talking to some friend, I didn't notice the time."
"That one friend again, huh? Can't you tell me who they are? C'mon, we've known eachother for so long and you're keeping secretss!" The other drags out.
"It's not a secret ot anything..."
The boy swallows rice down. "Then who is it?"
Alright, fuck it then, It really wasn't like he was keeping a secret from Kira. Shoyou was just a friend. "Do you remember that orange haired boy I was talking to after the latest match we did?"
"Oh, God, you we're talking to that w- that animated little kid?" Kira says in shock, his mouth slightly gaping even after saying the sentence.
"Oh, he's not a kid," Isagi laughs "Im totally gonna tell him you said that!"
"Oh, so he knows about me, huh?"
"Of course he does!"
"Wait, what's his name?"
"Hinata Shoyou, apparently he's a volleyball player. Its fun talking to him," The smaller boy sighs happily, remembering how he felt with Shoyou.
Ryousuke seemed to analyze his expression s for a while, doing nothing but stare. Yoichi eventually gets tired of it, clicking his tounge. That seemed to wake the other boy up, continuing what he's saying, "Well then, as long as you guys don't get too close..."
Isagi didn't know what Kira mant by that. Maybe he was just over protective because his friend is talking to someone he barely knows? Yeah, maybe that was it. Though, Isagi decides to ignore it, not replying anything.
—
They both finish their food at the same time and walked back to the gym together. The rest of the day was blur to him, as it went as any other day goes.
The next Isagi knew, he was already laying down his bed, typing something out and sending it to his new, close friend.