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Hinata finds himself driven up against a wall, surrounded by three tall and burly men. Each of them gave off an intimidating air from appearances alone. One of them had a bleached pompadour cut, another was wearing a long, unbuttoned gakuran that revealed his bare chest and the last of the three had on a black face mask with a skull design imprinted on it.
Although Hinata had a small stature, the delinquents left no gaps in between them for the boy to worm himself past them. He could probably try leaping across their shoulders, but his instincts were telling him that that was a bad idea.
Hinata, without a doubt, had the worst luck with toilets.
“Where do ya’ think yer’ going, huh?” Yankee #1 with the pompadour cut bends his back to be on eye level with Hinata. “Ya’ think a half-assed apology like that is enough for bumpin' into big bro?”
“N-No..” Hinata stammers, keeping himself grounded by trailing his fingertips down the wall behind him.
“I was born pretty frail, you know?” Yankee #2 wearing the old-fashioned gakuran claims, with one of his hands holding his elbow in a dramatic fashion. “I’m pretty sure I broke a bone or two. You better cough up the money for the hospital fees, punk.”
Hinata was sure that his forehead was in more pain from colliding with the man’s bulging frame, “I-I’m pretty sure it can’t be that serious—”
“Huuuuh?” Yankee #1 cuts in before Hinata can finish his sentence, and he rams his feet against the wall inches away from Hinata’s temple. “Ya’ wanna’ go, kid? Why don'tcha' just be a good boy and give us the money, yeah?”
“Eek—!” Hinata squeaks, feeling a chill run down his spine from the impact of the kick that rang in his ear. “P-Please have mercy!! I don’t have the money for that—!!”
“Oh come on, your parents must be loaded with cash.” Yankee #2 intercedes. “We definitely aren’t letting you go until you can reassure us our compensation.”
“Urk..” Hinata groans quietly to himself. How were the delinquents even expecting him to deliver their cash from his parents right there and then?
But before Hinata could speak up, he hears a click in the distance, followed by the sound of a door creaking open. Someone had just come out of one of the occupied stalls lined up in the restroom. He subtly tip-toes to see past the yankees’ shoulders in hopes of seeking help from a familiar face or an adult. He finds himself overcome with mixed feelings however, when his eyes instead land upon the average figure of a high school student.
The only thing that stood out about the stranger was his odd white colour of his hair and the black tips on his bangs, which reminded Hinata of Fukuroudani’s captain. As if sensing his gaze on him, the said high schooler stops in his tracks and partially turns his head in Hinata’s direction. Their eyes lock with one another, and Hinata feels a glimmer of hope.
But that hope is shattered into pieces when the stranger faces the other way and nonchalantly walks off as if nothing was happening in the room. A vein pops on Hinata’s forehead; he could have at least shown a reaction to Hinata’s dilemma! His expression had been stoic and seemingly devoid of emotion the entire time from the very moment their eyes met. Even Tsukishima would have been a little fazed! (He would probably make more of a sneer though, and he would definitely walk off afterwards too).
The door swings close behind the stranger as he leaves the restroom, and Hinata’s heart sinks when he realizes that his only shard of hope is completely gone now.
“What are ya’ lookin’ at huh, dweeb?!” Yankee #1 asks in a booming voice, and Hinata’s eyes jerk back to the wall of humans in front of him. “So? What's it? Are ya’ gonna’ call yer’ parents for the money or not?”
“N-No! I-I mean, yes!” Hinata squawks a reply, and he immediately fishes his pockets for his cell phone. Much to his dismay however, his pockets turn up empty, save for his purse. But his purse happens to slip out of his pocket when Hinata’s hand brush against it, and it falls onto the floor with a thud. It lands beside the foot of the masked delinquent, or Yankee #3 as dubbed in Hinata’s mind.
“Ah, my wallet—!” Hinata reaches his hand down towards his purse, but his hand stops when his face comes dangerously close to the Yankee #3’s frame.
Yankee #3 picks up the purse instead, and he unzips it without sparing a word. He peers at the contents of the purse with a curious glint in his eyes.
“Ooh, that’s a pretty cute purse for a guy.” Yankee #2 says in a drawl. “Is it loaded?”
Yankee #3 pulls out a ¥5000 note from the purse, and Hinata’s head perks up. That was the New Year’s money he had received from his grandmother this year.
“Hm, not bad.” Yankee #1 strokes his chin with his fingers in interest. “But not quite enough though. Come on, kid, where’re yer’ parents?!”
His grandmother would be disheartened if she heard Hinata had lost her gift to a bunch of delinquents. Hinata clenches his fists and gulps, “G-Give that back! I’m not giving you any money! I’m sure that it didn’t even hurt you at all when I bumped into you just now—!”
“It didn’t hurt?” Yankee #2 raises a brow dangerously. “Care to say that again?”
“Urk..” Hinata’s hands clutches his chest in fear.
“He sure is showing a lot of disrespect to an injured person.” Yankee #2 huffs, and he turns his head to the pompadour-rocking delinquent. “Teach him a lesson or two, will you?”
“Ya’ don’t even have ta’ ask, big bro!” Yankee #1 says enthusiastically, and he proceeds to crack his knuckles. “How about I give ya’ a feel of how it’s like to be in big bro’s shoes, huh?”
Hinata breaks out in a cold sweat. He tries to retreat further back in an attempt to escape, but his back only feels the hard cement of the restroom walls. He still has an important match tomorrow, and he really couldn’t risk taking any wounds now.
When Hinata’s eyes squeeze close in anticipation of a blow to his face, the bored voice of a man resounds in the distance, “Heeeey, ya’ lot over there. What do ya’ think yer’ doing?”
“Huh?” Yankee #1 turns his head in the direction of the new voice. “Who the hell are ya’?”
“A pretty well-known volleyball player, actually.” a blonde emerges from the door, and a devilish smile creeps onto his lips. “Unlike ya’ three good-for-nothing scrubs.”
“..I don’t really wanna’ get my hands dirty.” a silver-haired man also steps forward to stand next to the blonde. Hinata becomes confused when he realizes that they both share the exact same face. “So can ya’ guys just leave the kid alone?”
“T-That’s.. the Miya twins..!” Yankee #2 clenches his teeth. “Come on, let’s scram! It’s not worth getting your hands dirty with them, especially when they’re together!”
“Eh—?! G-Got it, big bro!” Yankee #1 nods frantically.
Yankee #2 turns on his heel and he storms off with his two lackeys following him from behind. The two strangers step aside to make way for the three to go through the door. Hinata raises his chin with his mouth hanging open in bewilderment.
“Looks like we managed ta’ diffuse the situation without much of a fight.” the blonde says almost playfully, and his head turns to his behind. “Told ya’ we didn’t have to trouble the staff members, Kita-san.”
The same stranger with the odd hair colour from earlier pops up behind the twins, “Thanks a lot. You two should gather back with the others, I’ll be there soon.”
“Ussssu.” Both boys say in a drawl, and they slip past the white-haired man and make their ways back into the corridors.
Hinata becomes even more flabbergasted now that it became apparent that the same stranger he had been badmouthing earlier had been the one who called for help. He wasn’t abandoned after all in the end. The stranger knew he needed help, and chose to look for help instead of engaging recklessly with the delinquents.
For some odd reason, Hinata’s heart starts thumping loudly in his chest.
“Um..!” Hinata manages. “T-Thank you so much!”
The other man, whom the two individuals had referred to as Kita, rolled his eyes in Hinata’s direction. “You don’t have to thank me, but I’ll pass on yer’ gratitude to those two. Are you okay?”
“Yes—!” Hinata says energetically.
A gentle smile lights Kita’s features, “I’m glad to hear that.”
And Hinata’s heart skips a beat once again. Kita’s delicate features and his soft smile made him look almost prince-like, and his polite manner of speaking cemented the image even further.
‘It’s a prince..!’ Hinata drew a breath.
Kita heads for the sinks, and Hinata continues to watch him in awe as he proceeds to wash his hands. Hinata doesn’t budge, and his head finally perks up the moment the tap is screwed close and the water stops running. Only when Kita is already past the door and out of the restrooms does Hinata realize that he didn’t get to learn a thing about this ‘Kita’ person.
Even so, the name ‘Kita’ would definitely remain engraved in his mind for a long time, if not forever. Hinata does feel regret that he didn’t get to ask for the man’s full name. Hinata nevertheless finds himself holding onto the hope that he could run into him again somewhere on the stadium grounds.
'..He’s so cool..' Hinata thinks to himself with a wide smile and a dash of pink dusting his cheeks.