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Since Tendou was now a permanent member of the volleyball team, his situation at school had improved considerably. There were still students who looked at him in a bad way or insulted him behind his back and spread nasty rumors, but more and more were also quite nice to him.
At first, the redhead was a bit suspicious, but soon noticed that most of the students weren't pulling his leg, but were serious. With his fancy style of volleyball, he made sure that their school was doing well, which pleased most of them. His self-confidence grew every day. His teammates took him as he was and he didn't have to pretend, even if he had a bad day.
Today was May 20 and thus Tendou's 17th birthday. Since hardly anyone knew that it was his birthday, he didn't expect anyone at school to ask him about it. He had not even told Michi Itô, his best friend, because he had not considered it necessary.
Tendou lay on his bed in the room of the Shiratorizawa dormitory and looked at his cell phone for what felt like the 1000th time. His mother had not yet contacted him.
She had told him that his birthday was no reason to celebrate. Actually, she was right. On the day he was born, his father had died. His mother didn't talk about it, so he didn't know the exact circumstances. Even though it sounded strange, it didn't bother him much, after all, he didn't know the man who was his biological father and so he didn't miss him.
She probably hadn't had time to call or write yet. After all, she was responsible for a large company since his father's death and that took up a lot of time.
Tendou was freshly showered and had not restyled his hair either, since he had no plans to go outside again today. He was wearing a loose black sweater and equally loose gray pants. He had no socks on.
He was about to look at his cell phone again when there was a knock on his door. Who could that be? From bad experience, he thought someone was trying to play a trick on him again, which is why he didn't get up right away.
But there was another knock. With difficulty, Tendou swung himself to his feet. He just hoped that someone had made a mistake at the door, because he wasn't in the mood for stupid remarks.
Slowly, the redhead opened the door a crack and looked out suspiciously. But when he saw who was standing outside his room, he tore the door completely open and was speechless for a moment.
"W... Wakatoshi-kun! What... are you doing here? Is there anything I can do for you?" Tendou tilted his head slightly and looked skeptically at his counterpart. Ushijima had never been here before.
The latter bowed slightly. "I'm sorry to bother you. I..." When Ushijima lifted his gaze again and it fell on the relatively dark room, since the curtains were drawn, he raised his eyebrows. "You're alone." He said. Tendou wasn't sure if that was a question or a statement. The redhead turned his head briefly towards the room, as if to make sure it was true. "Um... Yeah?" he said, putting on an exaggerated fake smile.
In the hallway, a few students had gathered and were looking in their direction. No matter where Ushijima appeared, he always drew a lot of attention.
"Will you... getting more visitors?" asked Ushijima without much enthusiasm in his voice. Tendou's cheeks flushed slightly. He was completely on the fence and didn't know what was going on. He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Um... actually not... uhm... I don't know?"
Ushijima shook his head. "That´s not ok."
Now Tendou's brain completely shut down. What´s not ok? What is Ushijima doing here anyway? He was wearing casual clothes and looked pretty good. He had on a pair of dark cloth pants under which his strong legs were clearly visible, and a light blue shirt that was quite tight-fitting and emphasized his upper arms. He also smelled pretty good.
Tendou looked at his friend in confusion. "What´s not ok?"
Ushijima sighed. "Let's go somewhere. You don't have any chairs." Shiratorizawa's ace said and pointed into the room.
Again, Tendou looked into his room. This time it depressed him a little. It really didn't look very inviting. However, he hadn't even had any visitors in his first year of school either.
"Um... yeah... wait a minute, I'll go put on something else."
Ushijima nodded and took a step back so Tendou could close the door. What Tendou didn't see anymore was Ushijima pulling out his cell phone and typing a message.
Tendou looked around the room in confusion. He needed something to wear quickly. Next to Ushijima he would stand out negatively anyway, but he didn't want his friend to feel ashamed. Except for Michi, Tendou had never met anyone outside school. Not even with his comrades from the team.
He quickly sniffed at the shirts lying around and found a light blue T-shirt, with a Dalmatian with pink sunglasses on it, that still smelled quite acceptable. Then he quickly put on clean socks and a pair of jeans that he had only worn 4 times and was therefore still good. Half a can of deodorant had to believe in it and then the redhead looked quickly still controlling in the mirror. His hair! He has no more time to fix his hair.
It was quite uncomfortable for him to go out with "normal" hair and tried to tousle it a little more. It had to fit like this, because he didn't want to make Ushijima wait any longer and quickly grabbed another black hoodie that was too big for him, but very comfortable.
As Tendou walked outside into the hallway, Ushijima just put his smartphone back into his shirt pocket.
"So... where are we going?" the redhead asked, a little uncertainly. Ushijima looked at him seriously. "Come." That's all he said, and Tendou had to laugh. He always thought he was bad with other people himself, but Ushijima was even worse in another way. Tendou followed his teammate outside.
The middle blocker was surprised how cold it was, when it was quite warm during the day. But now a cold wind was blowing towards him and he was glad he had brought his hoodie. He quickly put it on and then looked at Ushijima, who was walking towards a black car. Car was an understatement, it was a sedan.
Just before the brown-haired man reached the car, the driver got out and opened the rear door. Ushijima turned to Tendou and extended his hand to him. "Come." he said. This time he somehow had a softer voice than before.
Tendou looked around briefly to make sure he really meant him and that someone wasn't standing behind him, and then hesitantly walked over to his friend with his head down. He buried his hands in his jacket. His cheeks were flushed and his heart was pounding so hard against his chest that it was about to jump out.
Shiratorizawa's ace smiled gently at him, making his face look much softer, but not very often. "Get in." And Tendou got in, and while Ushijima got in after him, he went wide-eyed. "Wooow. There's more space here than in my room!" Ushijima looked at the redhead seriously. "That's not possible." At that, Tendou had to laugh out loud. The ace always took everything way too literally. The redhead wiped a tear from his eye. "Say, where are we going anyway?" A small smile was all the middle blocker got in response. Skeptically, he raised an eyebrow and stared at the boy sitting next to him.
Ushijima looked out the window and all of a sudden Tendou started to get scared. What if this was all a bad prank? Lately he had felt so comfortable at training that he was completely himself, maybe now he would have to pay for it? He had never been so open with others before. Again his heart began to race. But this time out of fear. Where were they going? What would be waiting for him when they got there? It wouldn't be the first time that he would be lured somewhere and then be treated badly. Was it just an act by Ushijima to invite him spontaneously? Tendou stared at the boy who still looked out of the window. How could he be so stupid and just go along.
The fear turned into panic and Tendou could hardly breathe. He got carried away thinking that something terrible was going to happen at any moment. What was worse was that he never expected such a thing from Ushijima.
When the car stopped, Tendou held his breath and closed his eyes. It all had to be a bad dream. Maybe he had fallen asleep waiting for a message from his mother.
Tendou's body flinched when he felt a hand on his shoulder and a soft cry escaped his lips. But when he saw who had opened the car door and leaned in, he was more than confused.
Grinning broadly, Michi Itô stood in front of him and almost pulled him out of the car. "What's wrong Tendou-kun? Did you fall asleep? Come on!" The redhead let himself be pulled out of the car, but still didn't understand what was going on. Questioningly, he looked down at the more than 20 cm shorter Michi, who couldn't help but laugh at the face he was making. After wiping a tear from her eye, however, she looked at him angrily. "I can't believe you didn't tell me it was your birthday! I feel like such an idiot!" "Mi-chan...?" was all Tendou could get out before the girl grabbed him by the hand and dragged him into the diner they had been dropped off in front of. Ushijima followed the two silently.
Inside the diner was a long hallway with many sliding doors to the left and right, containing rooms where people could eat and drink in privacy. "Ushijima-kun has reserved a room just for us!" Michi said enthusiastically, still dragging Tendou behind him, who turned to Ushijima. The latter bowed slightly.
Arriving at the very back of the corridor, Michi pushed open the last door. "The others are already here, too!"
Tendou was astonished when he saw Semi, Soekawa and Ohira sitting at a low table on the floor in the room, all greeting him loudly.
When Michi tried to pull Tendou into the room, he stopped his friend by simply standing still. Astonished, the girl turned to him. "What's wrong Tendou-kun?" The redhead leaned down slightly and whispered to his friend. "Mi-chan... what... is going on?" Again, Michi had to laugh at her friend. She had gotten used to him just being different sometimes. She punched him softly in the shoulder. "This is a surprise birthday party, you doof! You're acting like it's your first!" When Tendou turned his gaze to the floor, somewhat ashamed, it was suddenly so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. Michi held a hand over his mouth. Could it be that he had never...? At that moment she was sorry for what she had said.
Suddenly, Tendou felt a big, strong hand on his back, gently pushing him into the room. "Come, let's eat something."
Together with Ushijima, he entered the room and Michi closed the door behind them.
There was an oppressive silence in the room as Ushijima placed a small box on the table in front of Tendou, smiling and gently squeezing one of Tendou's hands. "Happy birthday, Satori Tendou."
With his mouth open, Tendou stared first at Ushijima and then at the tiny box in front of him. It was the first birthday present he had ever received, but not the last.
It made Tendou a little uncomfortable to have everyone staring at him. With shaky hands, he took the box and undid the little bow and opened it. For a moment, the redhead felt tears forming in his eyes, but then he had to laugh so hard that he almost fell over.
"You don't like it?" asked Ushijima almost uncertainly. Tendou needed another moment. He wiped the tears from his face, which weren't just from laughing, and took a deep breath before answering. "I love it, it is... perfect."
Then he held up the gift, it was a relatively large keychain that looked like a volleyball with "I love Volleyball!" written on it and the other Shiratorizawa players laughed too, only Ushijima didn't understand what was so funny about it and stared confusedly at the laughing crowd.