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Wakatoshi hadn’t been, by any means, eavesdropping, no. The red-haired stranger three tables to his right just happened to be louder than necessary talking with who Wakatoshi presumed was his date and his dimples just happened to attract two-third of Wakatoshi’s attention span when he had been scanning the room for a waiter earlier.
Wakatoshi unavoidably listened further as the redhead talked about his plan for their “adventure” (chocolate ice cream, the beach, souvenir shop, and the bar. No, Wakatoshi didn’t just repeat it in his head). He only caught a few hums and grunts from the other guy though. Wakatoshi can’t remember how he looked like and that absolutely wasn’t because he only memorized a certain dimpled smile in his mind.
He eventually decided to mind his own business when he caught them sharing drinks. Wakatoshi took in the view of the small diner outlooking the beach he currently had his lunch at. The ocean breeze was refreshing and even though he wasn’t the type of person who needed to go on constant vacations, Wakatoshi enjoyed the change of scenery. This trip was a gift from one of Adlers’ sponsor and he could still remember the team’s euphoria when the coach announced that this trip could happen because their next match wasn’t until late September. He checked his phone when it pinged once and saw Hoshiumi texted him, asking if he was interested in joining the beach volleyball game the team was going to play. However, as he was about to agree, Wakatoshi caught something from the corner of his eye.
There, three tables to his right, the other stranger—grey-haired, he learned—was flirting with the waitress. While his boyfriend was absent. Wakatoshi forgot about the text all together as he tried to subtly glance over and caught the redhead heading for the restroom.
He listened to the grey-haired dropping pick-up lines and casually chatting with the waitress, clearly with more enthusiasts compared to his previous responses.
“This? This is my natural hair color,” he explained while twirling the end of his hair, which was different colored from the rest of his grey hair.
“It’s cute,” the waitress responded, Wakatoshi noted the shy tone in her voice.
“Thanks. But you are cuter,”
And that—that was wrong. Wakatoshi frowned at his empty glass, the red-haired had been so excited to spend their day together. He talked about his plans in detail and even listed the people they had to buy souvenirs for just to get half-hearted answers and now his boyfriend was flirting with their waitress, even called her cute? The red-haired was cute too if someone asked for Wakatoshi’s opinion, but that wasn’t the point. The point was, the red-haired stranger didn’t deserve his cheerful mood to be ruined by finding out his boyfriend was flirting with another.
Wakatoshi got up and heading towards the restroom before his mind could even fathom his action.
“Do you want to get ice cream with me?” Wakatoshi heard himself asking that question out loud when he finally came upon the red-haired stranger, who was currently washing his hands peacefully.
The red-haired stopped his activity to stare with his eyebrows up so high they almost touched his hairline. He whipped his head around in confusion. “You’re talking to me?” Tilting his head, he finally replied as he discovered no one else but the two of them here.
“Yes,” Wakatoshi answered without pausing.
“Uh, aaand why is that?” the red-haired squinted his eyes suspiciously. Then Wakatoshi realized he must have sounded so creepy. Though before he could make up any excuses, the stranger’s mouth turned up in a sly smile (and hello to that dimples) as he continued, “Not that I’m dumb enough to completely refuse a hot and handsome stranger, but I gotta show a little suspicion so I don’t look easy, right?” he winked.
“I suppose you’re right, I’m sorry,” Wakatoshi apologized, ignoring the stranger’s compliment on his look.
“Nah, don’t be! I’ll go with you for the ice cream if you tell me your name first!” the stranger extended his hand. “Tendou Satori. Nice to meet you!”
“Ushijima Wakatoshi. It’s nice to meet you too,” Wakatoshi shook the stranger—Tendou’s hand.
“Good, let me just ask Semi-Semi if he wanted to come with u—”
“Just you, please,”
Tendou stopped abruptly at the door to turn his head towards him. He squinted his eyes towards him and grinned.
“Wakatoshi-kuun~ I’m flattered that you want me all to yourself. Was ‘ice cream’ only a coded message to get into my pants? What is it that got you so hooked? Is it my hair? My legs? Or my ass—”
“Your dimples,” Wakatoshi cut off Tendou’s questions because; 1. He needed to stop the other before he could say anything inappropriate and 2. He didn’t find any reason to lie to the redhead. “When you smile, they stand out.”
A pause, and then—
“HUH, that’s-!” Tendou gawked and Wakatoshi noticed his cheeks turning red. “—unexpected,” he paused. “Okay, because not only you’re so hot but you’re also so sweet and I like sweet things, it’s a date! Let me get rid of Eita’s boring ass first,” he continued while walking out of the restroom.
“What, you’re leaving me alone?! So what do you expect me to do this whole day?”
“Lounge around by the pool?”
Wakatoshi only watched from where he was, standing behind Tendou. “Eita” sighed and ruffled his hair. “I can’t believe you’re doing this. Whatever, take the polaroid camera. I’m taking the key with me. Bye.”
Wakatoshi remained silent as the grey-haired man left the diner. That wasn’t so hard, but still, even though he didn’t seem very upset by the fact his boyfriend decided to go with someone else—which was weirding Wakatoshi out more—he still felt a little guilty. He really should have considered things better earlier.
“I apologize, is this really okay? He’s your b—”
“No, no, no. No second thoughts, sir. You are treating me to chocolate ice cream! ‘Sides, Semi-Semi is not angry, it was only his default emotion!” Tendou grabbed his arm to drag him outside. And in all honesty, Wakatoshi found that he didn’t mind the fact that Tendou’s hand stayed where it had been as they were walking across the street. “Just consider this you helping me paying him back for the many times he ditched me,” the red-haired suggested while smirking victoriously. Without even noticing it, Wakatoshi tensed less as he absorbed that information, returning to his initial aim to take the redhead out for the exciting “adventure” he deserved.
Wakatoshi found the fact that Tendou was still talking as in really, really rattled on about anything that crossed his mind very bemusing. He, of course was aware that people who barely knew him usually had given up on having a conversation with him by this point. One of his closest friends, Reon, told him it was because sometimes his lack of response made people unsure whether or not he was interested in the topic. However, that didn’t mean Wakatoshi accepted that statement whole, because he was sure he had never dismissed anyone before, he just let them talk while he offered necessary responses. Then he met Tendou, the first stranger ever to just understand, because he never once left a gap in their conversation and the things he talked about were genuinely interesting.
“You play volleyball professionally? Damn, it’s really my win today, huh?” Tendou said as he took a spoonful of his ice cream right after he took a picture with it using his Polaroid camera. They were currently inside a cozy ice cream parlour near the main road. It was quite crowded but Tendou hadn’t been lying when he had told him the ice cream here was “out of this world”. They continued to talk about random topics—well, Tendou mainly carried the conversation alone but he didn’t seem to mind. He talked about how chocolate is human kind’s greatest invention, about the reason they bought a whole new Polaroid camera was because of Eita’s new weird scrapbook-making hobby, to the reason of his bald head was because the head chef back on his culinary school day had been so bitchy about long hairs. He proceeded to show Wakatoshi the picture of his high school days where he still had his ‘long mighty mane’ styled and gelled up. Wakatoshi thought the short-trimmed hair style suited the red-haired as much as his long hair was, except that he didn’t realize he had said it out loud.
“Well, thank you, Wakatoshi. But be careful, I might take your sweet-talks seriously and ends up crushing hard on you,”
“I’m only stating the truth,” he replied shortly. Tendou seemed to be taken aback for a second there before he sent him an amused look and finished the rest of his ice cream while talking about the newest Jump issue Wakatoshi had zero ideas about.
“I’m pretty superb at guessing things, you know. Eita’s friend even told me I would make an amazing middle blocker if I were to play volleyball,” Tendou bragged as they were walking side by side. After having finished their ice cream, Wakatoshi agreed to accompany the red-haired man to pick up souvenirs. Well, this had been a part of his small plan.
That piqued Wakatoshi’s interest. “Really?”
“Yeah, really. Want proof? I know a place, let’s go,”
Apparently, the place he had meant was a small arcade near the pier, souvenirs forgotten.
“’Whac-a-mole’?
“Yes! I’m going to show you how great I am at this game, just watch!” Tendou replied as he got ready. And true to his words, Tendou was really good at the game despite Wakatoshi’s concept of this game was about speed and strength. Just in the next couple of minutes, he had already beaten the previous high score. He cheered when the game ended and Wakatoshi couldn’t help but smile and clapped along. They continued to play other games they could find in that small arcade, obtained a few tickets from winning the said games, and managed to exchange it with a small sea eagle phone strap which Tendou got to keep.
“Stay there, Wakatoshi,” Tendou directed him to stand still.
“We are blocking the entry,” Wakatoshi reminded the other while still obliged and stood where he was told.
Tendou put the sea eagle phone strap next to his cheek and pointed his camera in front of his face. “It’s not gonna be long, hold still. Get ready, three, two—”
SNAP!
FLASH!
Wakatoshi blinked a few times to regain his vision. “Tendou, please warn me first if you are going to do that,” he asked as he rubbed his eyes. When his vision finally cleared, the first thing he saw was a big smile on Tendou’s face, so genuine and bright as he looked at the picture he had just taken.
“Wakatoshi-kuun~ you look so cute here!” he stated giddily. “This is officially my best shot. And this little guy right here,” he dangled the phone strap, “is officially my favourite thing in the world,” Wakatoshi opened his mouth to object, that he wasn’t cute, but instead, Tendou continued quitely, “And you, big guy, keep this up and you might gain the first place in my heart. Please have mercy on Lil’ old me, Wakatoshi,” he said while looking directly into him with something in his eyes that Wakatoshi couldn’t pinpoint. What he did know, though, Tendou looked softer like this and his dimples weren’t any help for the apparent silence between them.
Wakatoshi almost forgot where they were standing if it weren’t for a couple excused themselves from behind him. The silence between them broke as he apologized to the couple and stepped aside.
“Should we go for the souvenirs now?”
“I’m definitely watching all Adlers’ matches when I get to the hotel,” Tendou spoke up as they enjoyed a stroll along the coast. They were waiting for the sun to set and planned to eat in a grill restaurant near Tendou’s hotel. “Wait, not all. Only the ones with you in it,” he corrected, wiggling his eyebrows.
“Sure,” Wakatoshi responded shortly.
Tendou continued to pry him about his left-handed-ness. The red-haired asked Wakatoshi how did he use his phone, the scissors, whether or not he smudged the ink when he was writing and other random ‘lefties myths’ he felt the need of confirmation. Tendou looked genuinely curious and Wakatoshi couldn’t help a small smile as he answered.
“I think it’s true, then,” Tendou started. “Lefties couldn’t do anything right,” he continued with a serious expression. Wakatoshi could only stare confusedly, not sure whether Tendou was insulting him or he was just joking. “I’m pretty sure I already explained all the things you asked me,” he frowned.
“Huh, no, ugh,” Tendou seemed frustrated. “Couldn’t do anything right, as in,” the red-haired gestured, “the right side, ya doof!” he threw his hands up.
And oh- oh. “Oh yes, you’re right,”
“Yes, I am! You’re not, though!” Tendou obviously was faking his sulk.
Wakatoshi wasn’t sure if that was another joke but when Tendou laughed, Wakatoshi couldn’t help but followed suit.
“Say, Wakatoshi-kun~” Tendou called him when he had calmed down. Wakatoshi shifted his full attention to the man beside him, noticing how he played with his camera. “You want to take a picture with me?” he asked as he stopped on his track.
Wakatoshi didn’t see why not, so he nodded without hesitation. “Sure, where should I stand?”
“Let’s face the sun so it won’t be our silhouettes only,” Tendou turned his body around and Wakatoshi mimicked him. Then the red-haired put his hand around his shoulder to pull him closer.
“Look at the camera, okay! Get ready, three,” Wakatoshi braced himself for the blinding flash, knowing Tendou wouldn’t actually finish his count until one.
“Two—”
Suddenly, he could feel something soft and warm pressing unto his cheek as Tendou’s finger pushed the shutter and the camera flashed.
The delicate touch was gone as fast as it had appeared. He instantly turned to face Tendou, who now had his back against him. When he saw his how red his ears were while he sputtered about how hungry he was, let’s go to that grill restaurant, Wakatoshi, that was when Wakatoshi realized he was—Hoshiumi’s words—fucked.
Tendou still carried the conversation like he had done before, but Wakatoshi noticed he would divert his gaze whenever their eyes locked for too long. And from the way he could still feel the warmth of Tendou’s lips on his cheeks, he wouldn’t deny if someone said things had become awkward.
As from Wakatoshi’s standpoint, he did not dislike the kiss at all (Quite the opposite, even). The thing was, to put it mildly, Tendou’s in a relationship. Even though his boyfriend seemed to not appreciate their relationship, they were still tied. And Wakatoshi didn’t blame Tendou for kissing him, no, never, he blamed himself.
“Wakatoshi-kun, you drink?” Tendou’s question disturbed his train of thoughts. He noticed the other holding two big glasses of cold beer. He was pretty sure he hadn’t ordered those, because as much as Wakatoshi wanted to, he didn’t want to bother Kageyama, who happened to share a hotel room with him, with his hangover.
“I’ll skip tonight, sorry, Tendou,”
“Nah, don’t be! Means there’ll be more for me!”
Wakatoshi regretted letting Tendou drink because after his fourth round, he had draped himself over Wakatoshi’s side while nodding off. His hand was still holding his unfinished fifth glass. Wakatoshi was just grateful Tendou was a silent drunk—
“Wakatoshi-kun~ I think I’m falling for you~” Tendou suddenly whined loudly. “Don’t let me fall, Wakatoshi. Just like volleyball games, you keep the ball in the air, okay?” he giggled. People nearby began to stare as Tendou suddenly pressed his face on his shoulder. Wakatoshi didn’t even have the chance to be panic as Tendou continued to babble.
“You are so sweet, kinda dumb, but you’re honest~~ And I like you!”
“Tendou, please lower your voice,”
“I like you, THERE, I said it~ Ah, on second thought, let me fall for you, Wakatoshi~ And make sure you catch me!” he laughed while taking another gulp of his beer.
“Tendou, I—”
“You never once told me to shut up! Everyone I go out with always do! And you know what! They don’t deserve me! Haha! You have to meet Semi-Semi, he’ll be delighted to meet you! He’s nice, even though he’s boring and he gets angry easily and his outfits are the lamest eveeer, you gonna like him and he gonna likes you! Not more than I do though!”
“Talking about me, dumbass?”
Ah, of course, Semi Eita himself had to show up in front of Wakatoshi who currently has Tendou’s long limbs splayed across his laps. Thank goodness they were in a booth, so not many people could see the commotion.
“Speak of the devil!”
Wakatoshi watched as the grey-haired man slide into the table across of him. He tried to keep his cool as Semi only raised his eyebrow as he watched Tendou snuggled closer to Wakatoshi’s side.
Surprisingly, he chuckled.
“I’m sorry, he gets super annoying when he’s drunk,” he apologized. And yes, of course, he knew, he was his boyfriend. Wakatoshi clenched his fist, unsure of what was this ugly emotion suddenly rising in his gut when he was reminded of that fact.
“Eita, shut up, I’m tired of listening to your voice. I want to listen to Wakatoshi’s instead,”
“Well, sorry to break it to you, but we have to get up early so we won’t miss our plane. You’re the dumb-dumb who bought a ticket so early in the morning, if you've forgotten about that, Satori,”
“Nah, take me to your hotel room, Wakatoshi-kun~ let’s get nasty tonight,”
Wakatoshi swore his heart skipped a beat when he heard Tendou said that. He never had the intention to— How could he just say that in front of—
“You’re disgusting, Satori. Let’s go, up you go,”
“Disgusting?! You’re the one having a nasty session with your boyfriend last night and I have to listen to your moans! Ew, even best friends must know boundaries, Eita-kun! You were being inconsiderate towards my gorgeous-single-ass,”
“SHHH, you don’t have to yell all that out loud, baldie!”
“Baldie?! This haircut is sexy, I’ll let you know!”
They continued to argue but honestly, Wakatoshi’s mind stopped and focused on the “boyfriend”, “best friend” and “single” part, because, that meant—? They were not boyfriends. They were not. Boyfriends. Semi Eita has a boyfriend but it wasn’t Tendou Satori. It had never been him, he was no one else’s all along.
Wakatoshi swore he almost said that out loud if not for Semi suddenly pulled Tendou away from him.
“I’m sorry, um,” he realized the grey-haired man was trying to address him. “’Wakatoshi’ was it?”
Wakatoshi only nodded, not really minding. Well, how could he? He had just faced a somehow soothing revelation.
“Yeah, thank you for putting up with his annoying ass,” he smiled sheepishly. “He can be quite a handful, but you must know that by now,”
Wakatoshi chose to ignore Tendou’s shut up Eita-kun don’t shit talk me to Wakatoshi-kun and shook his head instead. “He’s just fine. I’m the one who should be thanking him. He’s a great company,”
Hearing that, Semi gave him a genuine smile.
“Yeah, I’ll let him know when he’s sober. Now if you’ll excuse us. We got a plane to catch in the morning. Good night,”
Wakatoshi nodded as Semi dragged Tendou away. The red-haired seemed to ran out of energy as he only called out his name as Semi tried to quiet him down. Without realizing, Wakatoshi smiled at the realization that Tendou indeed didn’t have a significant other at the moment.
But as he got back to his hotel room, he was hit with another realization. He hadn’t gotten Tendou’s number.
Two weeks later
Wakatoshi was having lunch with Reon in a small café near his friend’s company. Their food had just arrived when Wakatoshi noticed the other suddenly chuckled at his phone.
“Wakatoshi, you remember Kawanishi-kun?”
Wakatoshi shook his head slowly as he tried and failed to fish the name out of his memories.
“He’s the barista from the place we use to get our drinks from,” he explained. Wakatoshi was still confused though, what’s the relevance of that information?
Reon did catch on his confusion though, as he chuckled before continuing. “You remember the picture I took for my Instagram Story?”
“Yes. I’m in there,” Wakatoshi nodded. He didn’t have an account for himself, but he had seen his friends engaging with one another in that application.
“Right. So Kawanishi-kun saw that and he direct-messaged me, asking about you. He said this,” Reon showed his screen towards Wakatoshi. And there—
He saw the post ‘Kawanishi’ had sent to Reon, a picture of an overly familiar polaroid, taken on a dark bedroom judging from the purple blanket on the background, with multiple broken heart symbols on the caption.
Then the barista sent another message that said: “Please tell him to come here to talk to Tendou-san. He needs to stop sulking because it’s starting to affect my boyfriend’s mood too. They are so dramatic, Reon-san, I can’t stand it,”
Wakatoshi stayed silent. He could feel his heart beating fast after he saw that name on Reon’s phone and observed the picture he never got the chance to see before today. Warmth suddenly blossomed from his chest, because no, the feeling he got for the red-haired had never once disappeared, he had only been trying to confine it. But faced with the possibility of seeing him again, he strongly believed that he shouldn’t be hiding anything anymore.
“So, what do you say, Wakatoshi?”
He paused to think for a few second and came into a conclusion. “Teach me how to use Instagram, Reon,” he asked with pure determination.
Omake
“You thought Eita was my boyfriend at first?!” Satori whipped his head around to face Wakatoshi, no doubt close to bursting out. They were currently in Wakatoshi’s apartment, lounging in the living room while watching the snow.
Wakatoshi could feel his cheeks getting warm from embarrassment. He knew he shouldn’t have taught Satori the truth.
“Wakatoshi-kun~ Why are you so sweet?” Satori cooed as he circled his arms around his boyfriend's neck. “You’re worried he’s not treating me right~ That is the sweetest thing someone has ever done for me! Thank you~” he tightened his grip. Wakatoshi sighed and circled his arm around the other’s waist because despite the embarrassment, Satori’s voice when he had said his gratitude had sounded so genuine and soft.
“Now,” Satori loosened his grip and without wasting no time got into his knees. He rested his cheek on Wakatoshi’s thigh as he playfully pulling the waistband of his sweats. “You absolutely deserve a reward for that one, don’t you think so, Wakatoshi-kun~?” he whispered with a smirk. Wakatoshi groaned, because of course, whenever those dimples showed up, it was settled that he was going to lose the fight. But well, not that he really got anything to complain about in the end.