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“Wait! Orange Head-kun!”
Hinata turned his head towards the source of the voice, to a girl taller than him wearing dark blue sailor uniform. She jogged towards Hinata and panted in a kind of hot way that made Hinata gulped. Her hair was light brown and went smoothly over her slender shoulder. Hinata blinked. He was sure he didn’t know this lovely girl yet curious as to why she approached him.
“Y-you… you’re member of Karasuno High’s male volleyball club right?” she asked, standing up straight and tucking strands of light brown hair behind her ear.
Hinata nodded. Did she happen to see him on one of their matches? But why would she go to Hinata? Girls usually squeal over the tall annoying guy, like Tsukishima or Kageyama.
“I saw you a couple of times on some evenings, probably after practice,” she smiled down at Hinata. “You’re Kageyama’s best friend, right?”
Hinata nodded, but silently went, ‘Ah, so she’s after Kageyama. That’s not very surprising.’
“Can I treat you something? I want to talk to you,” she was still smiling.
Hinata finally opened up his mouth to say, “Yes,” and followed the mysterious girl.
*)*
She didn’t get him for meat buns from convenience store, nor she walked to nearest burger chain or family restaurant. Instead, she brought Hinata to elegant-looking café, with wooden floor and wall full with framed photograph. She ordered some sort of tea and Hinata chose tea with milk.
She smiled sweetly from across the small wooden rounded table, “I was Tooru’s ex-girlfriend.”
It took Hinata several seconds to catch up with the fact that this girl was Oikawa-san’s ex-girlfriend.
“I dated Tooru very, very briefly. Our personality doesn’t match, but at least he was friendly and nice. I went to the gym a lot to see Tooru, before and when we dated, but I still come to the gym even after Tooru graduated.”
Hinata listened, not sure where this would go, not sure he wanted to be here at all.
“Then I kind of go for Kageyama, but, as you know very well, he’s not interested in romance,” she smiled sadly, but chuckled afterwards. “I heard that he experienced some awful time with volleyball by the time we almost graduated, then he went to Karasuno.”
Hinata nodded. Could he just skip the whole thing and get to the point where she gave Hinata love letter for Kageyama? The mostly female, mostly pretty, mostly well dressed other visitors of the café made Hinata nervous.
“I guess he looks so much better now. He smiles a lot when he’s with you and the Karasuno guys,” she said, chuckling again. “Anyway, since next week is Valentine’s Day, I want to give him chocolate. It’s no big deal, really, but it'd be weird if I waited for him outside Karasuno just to give it to him, right? It’s just friendship chocolate, but can you at least send him my regards?”
“Okay," Hinata nodded, glad that she finally got to the point.
She pulled out a palm-sized box with dark blue ribbon, “Tell Kageyama it’s from Hinata.”
“Eh?” Hinata raised his face.
“Huh? What? That’s my name. I’m Hinata Sora.”
Hinata laughed, “I’m Hinata too! Hinata Shouyou!”
“Well, then, Shouyou-chan,” she winked after finishing her tea and grab her bag. “Please tell Kageyama it’s from Hinata Sora from Kitagawai Daiichi. He always accept chocolate every Valentine even though he rejected all the love letters, so it should be fine.”
*)*
Hinata didn’t particularly care about Valentine’s Day. To him, it’s just another day for volleyball practice. He got his fair share of friendship chocolate from his female friends, many of them already had boyfriends, and Hinata smiled and thanked them wholeheartedly.
On lunch break, he had to get Kageyama because, Hinata wasn't surprised to this, there was a line of girls wanting to give him chocolate.
Kageyama looked up when he saw Hinata, then he turned to the girl—Hinata’s classmate, Hinata knew her—who was standing before him. “Sorry, I have to go. I’m really sorry, but I don’t accept any chocolate.”
Hinata tried not to look at the line of girls who made distressed groans.
“Come on, Hinata,” Kageyama grabbed Hinata’s arm with his bento-free box and they descended to rooftop as usual.
*)*
“I didn’t know you don’t accept chocolate on Valentine,” said Hinata with mouth full of salmon onigiri.
Kageyama grunted, gulped his octopus sausage, and placed his chopstick carefully before rubbing Hinata’s cheeks from rice using his calloused right palm. “No, I don’t. Why do you care anyway?”
Hinata said something along ‘Because you seem so popular!’ but it was hard to talk when your mouth was full with rice and you had really big palm rubbing on your cheeks.
Kageyama finally seemed satisfied enough to return to his bento, “Do you… accept chocolate on Valentine, Hinata?” He didn’t look at Hinata when he said that, but clenching his chopsticks so hard Hinata was surprised they didn't break in half.
Hinata gulped his food and nodded spiritfully, “Yes! I got many friendship chocolates! They look sooo good. There’s the one from Ama-san that has orange flavor. Oh! Miki made a lot of chocolate cupcakes for every male students in my class.”
Kageyama grumbled and attacked his salad with chopsticks, “I see.”
Hinata thought Kageyama was a little jealous because Hinata got to get chocolate, but Kageyama rejected the mountain of chocolates he could totally get. This left Hinata confused. “You can still accept those chocolates, you know, since I’m not giving you any. I’m sure you’ll get so many more chocolates than me, Kageyama.”
Kageyama glared at Hinata and Hinata was sure there was nothing wrong or glare-worthy from his words. “What?”
“I don’t want any stupid-ass chocolate, Dumbass!” he grunted, now attacking rice on his bento.
“So you don’t take any chocolate at all?” Hinata sighed. “That’s too bad, because I have one for you.”
Kageyama straightened up his back so fast his bento almost dropped from his lap, “You do? For me? You get chocolate for me on Valentine?”
Hinata was surprised, but he still managed to laugh, “Not from me! It’s from your friend at Kitagawa! Her name is Hinata too. Hinata Sora. Do you remember her? Long brown hair—ah, I don’t know whether her hair was long back then…”
Kageyama visibly deflated. His shoulders drooped. “Ah. Her. I know her. She dated Oikawa-san for a while. We also went to the same cram school when I tried to enter Shiratorizawa. She always brought me to weird café to drink tea, but she checked my homework for cram school.”
Hinata’s onigiri stuck on his throat. So Hinata Sora had brought Kageyama for a mini date disguised as study session on beautiful café. “Do you like her, Kageyama?”
Kageyama glared at Hinata again, “No! Of course not! If I did like her, I’d just date her since way back, wouldn’t I? Beside—“ then Kageyama braked visibly.
“Beside?” Hinata pouted at the image of Kageyama entering Karasuno with a girlfriend from junior high. Sora-san was pretty and cute too! Why did she have to be pretty? Why did this bother Hinata, anyway?
“It’s nothing,” Kageyama sighed and returned to his bento. “Finish your lunch. We only have ten minutes left.”
Hinata gave his onigiri large, angry bites and apparently smeared more rice all of his cheek. Kageyama insisted to rub all rice from Hinata’s cheeks as they walked downstairs to the sound of bell and even though his cheeks was red and hurt, Hinata felt a little happy to think that Kageyama left line of girls to have lunch with him.
*)*
Practice went as usual, if Hinata ruled out how bright and shiny Tanaka-san and Nishinoya were, since Kiyoko-san and Yachi made chocolate truffles for everyone in the team.
After they practised diving, Kageyama pouted when he put on his kneepads. He tugged Hinata’s collar from behind and grunted, “Hinata, can you please get me new kneepads from my bag? I brought them but I forgot to bring it to gym. I’ll practice toss with Asahi-san for now and I’ll toss to you later.”
“Okay!” Hinata answered cheerfully and leapt out of the gym.
On clubroom, Hinata muttered ‘excuse me’ to no one as he zipped Kageyama’s white messenger bag open. The kneepads were on the corner of his bag, but when Hinata pulled it out, his hand bump into something else.
It was definitely a Valentine chocolate, wrapped on orange box with transparent plastic front. The chocolate was volleyball-shaped and there was writing in English next to tiny red hearts ‘For my valentine’.
Hinata scoffed. So Kageyama did take chocolate on Valentine, even before Hinata managed to shove Sora-san’s chocolate to him. Who was she, by the way? Good strategy on having it volleyball shaped, since Kageyama was an absolute volleyball freak. Hinata closed Kageyama’s bag and squashed Kageyama’s new kneepads on his hands.
“Did you fall from the stairs of something?” Kageyama scoffed to Hinata’s face when he returned. “You look like crap.”
“Well, you happen to look like pretentious crap all the time,” replied Hinata sternly, before walking to Suga-san. “Suga-san, practice toss and spike with me!”
“Huh? Wait, Hinata—“
“Continue your practice with Asahi-san!” barked Hinata and Kageyama, though confused, obeyed.
Hinata had no idea why he was so bothered with Kageyama lying.
Maybe Kageyama might not like Sora-san, but he had someone else in mind. It was probably someone that he was about to mention when Kageyama said ‘Beside—‘ on lunch break. He probably didn’t want to tell Hinata because he thought Hinata was too childish for grown-up love story that Kageyama had, though Hinata was practically the oldest first year and Kageyama the youngest.
He spiked Suga-san’s toss with enormous power that even Asahi-san stopped to look at him.
“You’re full of energy today, Hinata,” he commented meekly when Hinata glared at him, but Hinata was actually glaring at Kageyama behind Asahi-san.
*)*
“Okay, I know you’re upset with me. To be honest, I don’t know why. We honestly need to practice together, so can’t I just apologize and tell me what I did wrong?” Kageyama followed Hinata, five minutes after they left the rest of Karasuno guys when practice was over.
Hinata was walking his bike and pouting, “Because you lied to me, Kageyama.”
“What…?”
“You accepted chocolate. I don’t know from who, but I saw it, you know. I saw it on your bag when I took your kneepads, so—“
“You saw?” Kageyama cut, sounded positively alarmed. "I guess I forgot that I—“
Kageyama didn't finish his sentence.
Curious and furious, Hinata finally turned around to see Kageyama. The dark-haired setter was blushing so much even his ears turned a little red. It would be an entertaining and perhaps endearing view, if only Hinata wasn't currently angry at Kageyama.
“Oh My God. You saw,” said Kageyama and he covered his face with one palm, hiding his reddening face.
Hinata grunted, “Yes. So… you lied to me. I don’t know why, but that upset me. I trust you with our combo, I close my eyes and all, so I’d like you to at least not lie to me—I… I can understand, you know? I can understand if you had secret girlfriend who knows you well enough that she made your chocolate volleyball-shaped, and she probably secretly watched our match too, and when we win the Nationals you would probably run to her and kiss her and then when you turn twenty five you’d propose her and—“ he went on in one breath.
“Wait, what?” Kageyama finally pulled his palm away from his face.
“I’m not a kid!” Hinata stumped his feet, actually acting like a kid, but he was too angry to care. “I might not be popular and get tons of serious Valentine chocolates like you, but I consider you my great partner and I don’t want you to lie to me!”
“But I don’t lie to you!” Kageyama looked at Hinata, still blushing but looking determined.
“What do you mean you don’t? So that chocolate just magically appeared on your bag, huh? Stupid Kageyama!”
“Of course not!”
“Then what?”
Kageyama took a deep breath and his cheeks glowed red again, “I… bought it.”
That was the last thing Hinata thought Kageyama would say, “Why the hell did you buy chocolate for Valentine? You’re supposed to receive them, Stupid Popular Kageyama!”
Kageyama grabbed Hinata’s head, “Shut up! Shut up, Dumbass! Let me finish my story!”
“What is it, then? Tell me!”
Kageyama didn’t look at Hinata, “I… it’s just… the reason I don’t accept any chocolate this year is because I expected someone to give me chocolate. And I… just want chocolate from that person. I don’t want to take anyone’s feeling but that person’s, so…”
“Ah,” Hinata finally understood. “So you buy chocolate to give instead.”
Kageyama nodded, pulling his hand away from Hinata’s head, “I don’t get the chocolate I want, though.” He shrugged.
Hinata looked up at Kageyama. Despite his popularity, Hinata suppose it would still feel lonely if the person you like doesn’t like you back. Poor Kageyama. “I’m sorry, Kageyama," Hinata muttered, his anger dissolved into cool night air.
“It’s okay. I kind of expected that. So that’s why I bought the chocolate, though I know it’s not very normal for boy to be the one who give chocolate instead.”
Hinata stared at Kageyama, “But why don’t you give that person your chocolate? Ah! Everyone in school had already gone home now! This is bad! Or is she from different school? You should at least try to convey your feeling with that chocolate, Kageyama!”
Kageyama stared back at Hinata, “I’m going to.”
“What?”
“I’m going to give that person my chocolate now.”
Hinata squinted his eyes in confusion, but then he understood again, “Oh! So you go to their house after practice. I see… that makes it way more private, huh? Good going, Kageyama! Well, good luck, then, I suppose? I’ll see you at morning practice tomorrow, yeah?”
But Kageyama didn’t reply. He went all silent and blushed again. God, Hinata thought, Kageyama must be so deep in love that he actually bought chocolate for Valentine and blushed that much. How was it possible that Hinata had no idea who she was when Hinata spent so much time with Kageyama? Kageyama was such a good secret-keeper.
“Hinata,” he said, staring down at his shoes. “Stay.”
Hinata chuckled, “Eh… you want me to stay? I’m okay with it. It’s just that if I came with you while you confess, wouldn’t that be weird? Oh! You want me to hide somewhere close to give you strength and confidence…?” Now that was adorable. The always-confident, always-head on Kageyama nervous on prospect of confessing.
But Kageyama stepped forward, placed his calloused palm above Hinata’s hand on the bike’s handlebar, and pulled Hinata into a hug from behind.
Hinata’s brain froze.
This wasn’t exacly what he expected to happen.
“Is this… supposed to practice?” Hinata wiggled with Kageyama’s forearm below his chest. “Are you going to confess while hugging?”
Kageyama’s voice was alarmingly close to Hinata’s ear, “Yeah.”
“Okay,” Hinata stopped wiggling. “Fire away.”
Hinata shuddered when he felt Kageyama breathed on his ear, his body heat seeping into Hinata’s back. He took a deep breath again, probably to get ready, before finally spoke right to Hinata’s ear.
“I’m in love with you. I have been in love with you for a very long time. If it wasn’t too much trouble for you, please go out with me. I promise I’ll take a good care of you.”
Hinata froze again, feeling his heart thundering on his chest. It kind of felt like Kageyama was actually confessing to him. Kageyama had spoken so softly and sincerely that Hinata just had to turn around to see Kageyama’s face, which was hard, because Kageyama was hugging him from behind. He wriggled, but Kageyama slowly released him.
Hinata looked up at Kageyama and Kageyama looked like he wanted to cry.
Hinata’s heart ached.
He knew how does it feel to want something so much but couldn’t get it. Perhaps that was how confessing feel like. The other person doesn’t always love you back and sometimes you have to live with it.
“That… was really good, Kageyama,” Hinata said, finally, feeling like he was speaking through thick mist. “I’m sure you’ll do fine on your real confession.”
But Kageyama stepped forward and hugged Hinata again, this time from front, and sighed, burying Hinata’s face on his chest. Hinata could only see black and Kageyama was strongly smelled of gym and sweat, the smells Hinata was so familiar with and filled him with strange comfort.
“I wasn’t practicing,” he said, somewhere above Hinata’s head.
“… What do you mean, Kageyama?”
“I mean, I have been in love with you for a very long time, Hinata Shouyou.”
Hinata suddenly felt numb, “What?”
“I know you’re really dense, Hinata, but I—I know it’s weird, because you’re a boy and I am too, but I like you. I love you. I just want to be with you. I want to date you. I want… I just want you. I'm sorry. I can't help it.”
Hinata let the understanding slowly seeped into his brain, “Oh… so the volleyball chocolate…”
“It’s for you. I bought it for you.”
“… K-Kageyama—“
Kageyama squeezed Hinata tighter in his arms and Hinata raised his shaky right hand, the one that wasn’t holding his bike, to pat Kageyama’s back. So Kageyama had been in love with him? That probably explained why he left those girls for lunch with him. That also explained why he refused chocolate in high school, because he didn’t meet Hinata yet back in junior high.
“I know that you don’t love me,” said Kageyama, pulling back a little, calm even though his fingers were trembling. “Well, at least not in the way I love you, but it’s okay. I just want to let you know. You don’t have to answer me at all. If you found this gross, we can forget everything and pretended that this never happened. But at least this year you got a serious chocolate, huh? Not just the friendship ones.”
When Hinata looked up at Kageyama, Kageyama was grinning, even though his eyes were watery.
Hinata didn’t like that.
“Kageyama.”
“What?”
“So do you want to date me or not?”
“W-well, yes, but if you didn’t want to—“
“Let me finish my story!” barked Hinata, copying Kageyama's words just a couple of minutes ago. He shuffled on his feet, parked his bike, and grabbed Kageyama’s hands with his. “Listen to me. I haven’t give you any answer, have I?”
Kageyama shook his head. He was really on the verge of crying, even though he was that popular and confident Kageyama Tobio.
Hinata inhaled and exhaled, “Yes.”
“What?”
“I said ‘yes’, Kageyama.”
“… What?”
“Yes, I’ll go out with you, Stupid Kageyama! Didn’t you ask me to please go out with you?”
Kageyama found his frown again, “Hinata, please don’t do this if you just pitied me.”
“But I don’t!” Hinata glared. “Look at me and say whether I’m faking it or not.”
Kageyama looked back at Hinata's stare and blushed again. He really was too cute.
“N-no, you’re not,” he stuttered.
“Well… good.”
Then Hinata leaned forward and hugged Kageyama.
“Please take care of me from now on, Kageyama.”
Kageyama’s answer reverberated through Hinata’s body, “Okay, Hinata. T-thank you for accepting my feeling and b-be my boyfriend.”
Hinata laughed and pull back. Kageyama was staring down at him when he stared up at his new boyfriend.
Then, as if gravity pulled them so naturally, Kageyama leaned down with his hands on Hinata’s hips and Hinata tiptoed with his hands on Kageyama’s black jacket’s collar, and they shared their first kiss.
Hinata thought Kageyama’s lips was soft and he tasted a little like energy drink they had for practice.
They pulled back and kissed again, before Kageyama straightened up his back, “That was… um… please don’t laugh, but it was my first kiss—well, my first two kisses, those were.”
Hinata beamed at Kageyama and laughed, “That was my first kiss too.”
They just stood there, blushing, forgetting the quiet street they were at, and Kageyama suddenly rummaged his back.
“I almost forgot,” he said, pulling the chocolate in orange box and giving it to Hinata.
Hinata looked at his first serious Valentine chocolate. It was actually really big, bigger than his hand, and Hinata wasn’t sure he could finish it alone. It must be expensive too. He looked up at Kageyama, who seemed extremely eager to see the reaction of his new boyfriend.
“Ah, um, they’re orange-flavored,” said Kageyama, still blushing. “That’s what the staff of the chocolate store said. I heard you like orange flavor, so I bought this one. They have this sports ball series, so I picked the volleyball one for you.”
Hinata looked up at his boyfriend and then at the chocolate on his hands and then laughed.
“Why are you laughing, Hinata?” Kageyama frowned again. He seemed confused.
“I’m just too happy,” Hinata shrugged and carefully placed chocolate from Kageyama to his bag. “I’m really, really happy to be your boyfriend, Kageyama.”
Kageyama spent a solid ten seconds in silence, just blushing and shuffling on his feet. Eventually he mumbled, “D-Dumbass… I-I’m the happiest one, you know!”
They walked again. Hinata itched to hold Kageyama’s hand, but he had both of his hands on the handlebars. Holding hand could wait, Hinata supposed. They just went out for, like, five minutes, anyway.
Before they separated, Kageyama muttered at Hinata, still blushing, and his voice was really soft, “I’m sorry I got you store chocolate. Next year, I’ll try to make you a handmade one.”
Hinata’s heart leapt at the thought of Kageyama giving him handmade chocolate. “Yes! Of course! Thank you, Kageyama!”
“I hope that next year we’d still be together.”
“Huh? Of course we will! I still have to defeat you and we still have to go to Nationals together, right?”
“Right.”
“Well, then… I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Okay.”
They closed the distance between their faces again so naturally one more time before pulling back, smiling at each other. Hinata noted that Kageyama smiled even happier than when he made good toss or serve.
“I love you, Kageyama,” Hinata said as he climbed his bike.
Kageyama fumbled a, “U-um… ah… I-I love you too, H-Hinata.”
And Hinata laughed because his boyfriend was just too cute.
Hinata sped up on his bike and felt like he could fly if he wanted to. Nothing could possibly felt impossible when he just became Kageyama Tobio’s boyfriend.