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Hinata stood near the station entrance, shifting his weight impatiently from one foot to the other. Train passengers came and went, a small surge of people occurring with the arrival and departure of each train. Hinata dodged them and their bags, shouting “Excuse me!” or “I’m sorry!” when he accidentally got in the way. There were definitely safer (and warmer) places in the station to wait than near the doors of the main lobby. Even so, he didn't move. He scanned each face that came through the door, getting a little more antsy with every face that wasn't the one he was expecting.
After what felt like an eternity, a familiar figure came into view. Before they'd even made it all the way through the doorway, Hinata was shouting across the lobby.
“Kageyamaaaaa!”
Kageyama caught sight of him, and his eyes widened briefly as he recognized the boy waving both arms at him. Then his mouth turned downward and he strode towards Hinata.
“You're being too loud, idiot!” Kageyama glared down at the shorter boy.
Hinata stared right back at him. “But I've been waiting for twenty minutes! It got boring.”
Kageyama looked surprised. He glanced up at the station clock and then back at Hinata. “Dumbass! I said to meet me here at 5 o’clock, not 4!”
“I know that!” Hinata defended. “But 4th is better than 5th, and I always hear that being early is better than being late, so I got here closer to 4. Besides,” he said, his face breaking into a grin, “this means I beat you.”
“It wasn't a race!”
“Oh, yeah? Then why are you here at 4:30?”
Kageyama’s face flushed. “That’s— I’m— You— Whatever! Let's just go!” He spun around and marched toward the ticket gates.
Hinata sniggered at the other boy’s reaction, but pulled his pass out of his pocket and ran after Kageyama anyway.
It wasn’t until the train was pulling away from the station that Kageyama realized his mistake.
Still feeling slightly flustered, he sat down in an open seat. Hinata flopped down in the seat next to him. “Hey,” Hinata asked, “Where are we going, anyway?”
Kageyama stiffened. If he was early, and Hinata was early, and then they immediately got on the train… then they were too early.
“So early isn’t always better than late,” Kageyama muttered, one finger on his chin. Now what were they going to do?
“Huh? What did you say? Speak up! I can’t hear you!” When Kageyama didn’t answer right away, Hinata leaned forward in his seat and craned his neck to look up into Kageyama’s strangely thoughtful face.
Suddenly, Kageyama looked up, and his gaze was so intense that it nearly made Hinata fall out of his seat.
“Ramen,” he intoned. “We’re getting ramen.”
“Huh?” Hinata looked confused. “But why come all the way out to Sendai? We could’ve gone to that one shop by your house, or one of the ones near Karasuno…”
“I’m buying!” Kageyama blurted in an effort to make Hinata stop questioning. Miraculously, it worked.
“Really?! Thanks!” Hinata’s eyes sparkled, but soon his face fell. “Wait a minute. You never offer to pay. Are you sick or something? Should we go home?” He stretched out one hand and placed it on Kageyama’s forehead as if to check for a fever.
“I’m not sick!” Kageyama pushed Hinata’s hand away.
Hinata tucked his chin into his scarf. “Sorry. I just wanted to make sure.” He looked back up at Kageyama. “Nationals are in three weeks, so you have to stay healthy, okay?”
Kageyama’s face softened. “I won’t get sick. But you’d better not either!”
The rest of their train ride was filled with volleyball talk and Tokyo plans. Before long, the train pulled into Sendai station, and the two boys got off. The station was bustling with holiday shoppers and travelers in addition to the locals, and Hinata worried that he might lose sight of Kageyama in the crowd. But they wove their way through the rush of people and finally stepped outside into the city. The sky was barely tinged with the last light of the day, but the city’s signs glowed brightly.
They walked to a nearby ramen restaurant and sat down at the counter. When their food was placed in front of them, Hinata turned to Kageyama with a mischievous glint in his eye.
“I bet I can eat faster than you.”
“I bet you can’t.” Kageyama shot back. “Loser pays?”
“Hey!” Hinata squawked. “You already said you’d pay this time!”
“Oh, right. Loser pays next time, then.”
“You’re on.”
Without even waiting for an agreed upon start signal, they were off, slurping up noodles and gulping down still-too-hot broth. They glared at each other, barely pausing long enough to breathe in between slurps.
Before long, they were both down to their last bit of broth. At the exact same time, the two of them put down their utensils and announced, “Finished!”
Kageyama looked at Hinata. “I guess it’s a tie, then?”
Hinata looked at Kageyama. “I guess. But I’m gonna beat you next time!”
Kageyama gave the shopkeeper money, and they thanked her for the food. When they got outside, he pulled his phone out of his pocket. 5:08. Still too early. But maybe it was close enough?
“Come on,” he said to Hinata, walking away from the shop.
Hinata had already taken a few steps back towards the station. When he realized Kageyama wasn’t next to him, he whirled around and sprinted to catch up with him. “Hey! Isn’t the station back that way?”
“Yeah, so?” Kageyama kept walking.
“So then where are we going?”
“Just wait, stupid!”
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at an intersection. On the other side of the street was a long pedestrian walkway flanked by rows of trees. A number of people were there. Some of them sat on benches with hot drinks cradled in their hands, while others laughed with their friends as they traveled down the walkway. The street ran on either side, and cars zoomed past.
As they crossed onto the walkway, Kageyama slowed his pace. Hinata matched him, looking around at the people and trees with a confused look on his face.
Any second now, Kageyama thought. As if reading his mind, the whole street was suddenly flooded with light, almost as bright as if it were day. Every tree was wrapped in strings and strings of lights. 600,000 lightbulbs, the fliers had said.
“Uwaaaahhh!” Hinata shouted. He ran forward a few steps, then to one side, then to the other. The lights were dazzling, and he wanted to see them as well as he could.
Behind him, Kageyama’s face broke into a smile. Hinata’s reaction was predictable, and it was exactly what he’d been hoping for. “Dumbass!” he called out. “Haven’t you seen the lights before?”
Hinata turned back to Kageyama. “Well, it’s been a few years,” he said, “and I don’t remember them very well. I wanna see them more up close!”
“It’s cold,” Kageyama said, moving toward Hinata and closer to the lights, “so let’s keep walking.”
“Yes!” Hinata leaped into the air, one fist raised above his head. Then he raced off, forcing Kageyama to break into a jog in order to keep up.
On the way back to the station, Hinata couldn’t stop talking. “And the lights were so bright! And when they all lit up, it was like, ‘Gwahhh!’” He spread his fingers and waved his hands in the air to emphasize this point. “It was like… like…” He struggled to find a good comparison. “Like when you toss to me, and I can see the other side perfectly, and then bam! we score! And it feels good. Like that.”
Kageyama smiled. Seeing the lights come on had been rather thrilling. Maybe not quite as much as a volleyball game, but Hinata’s reaction definitely made it better. It was well worth all the trouble he’d gone to.
“Hey, Kageyama?” Hearing his name made Kageyama glance over at Hinata, but the now-subdued boy was keeping his eyes on the ground in front of him as they walked.
“Hm?”
“We’re gonna win, right? At nationals.”
“Of course.”
“And we’ll keep winning? Next year, and the year after that?”
“We’ll keep winning.” And he meant it. As long as I’m here, you’re invincible, he’d told Hinata once. A lot had changed since then, and their journey hadn’t been an easy one, but that statement still held truth. Together, there was nothing they couldn’t do, no obstacle they couldn’t overcome, no game they couldn't win.
Hinata looked up at him and grinned, and to Kageyama, it seemed that his smile shone more brilliantly than any of the lights they’d seen that evening. “Good. You’d better keep that promise!”
The lights were well behind them now, but both boys felt like they were still surrounded by their warm glow. There were sure to be challenges ahead, but they knew would make it through. The path to their future was clear, just like a walkway lit up by 600,000 lights.