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People always talked about the bond formed when standing with someone on the court. That feeling of trust, of belonging, of knowing you're part of something.
A bond that didn’t often get talked about was the “bench bond” as Sugawara had named it at some point. That bittersweet relationship formed between those perpetually in the bench together, a mix of knowing you’re not good enough for starter but the guy beside you isn’t either so you can be bad at the sport together.
It was kind of depressing, so Ennoshita didn’t want to think about it right now. This was not the time to be depressed, because Karasuno’s bench trio was going to the movies.
Somehow, watching movies together had become kind of their thing. After becoming friends at the volleyball club, Narita, Kinoshita and Ennoshita had started hanging out together a lot.
One summer break afternoon, during their first year of high school, the three of them were at the Kinoshita’s house. They had planned to go out and do something, but then a summer storm had started pouring and there was no way they were going out now. Bored, they’d started going through Kinoshita’s parents' old collection of American movies DVDs and had ended up watching at least three movies that day.
From that point on, it’d only snowballed to the point that almost every weekend they went to one of their houses and watched a movie together. And when a sequel to one of their favorite movies ever had been announced, they knew they’d be sitting in the nearest movie theater on premiere day.
Ennoshita walked towards the movie’s entrance, where his two best friends were waiting for him.
“Ready for the movie?” He asked as he walked up to them.
“You know I am.” Kinoshita replied.
“So you have high expectations for the movie?” Ennoshita asked him as they walked inside.
“Of course! The first movie is my favorite, so I hope this one is just as good.”
“I'm just curious what they’ll do about the deaths at the end of the first movie.” Narita chimed in.
“I guess they'll stay dead?” Ennoshita suggested.
“That'd make sense, but the thing is the dead characters were in the trailer.” Narita explained.
“Wait, what?” Kinoshita replied.
They went on to discuss their theories while they waited on the line to get popcorn. Ennoshita felt his phone buzz in his pocket, someone was texting him. He looked at the screen to see it was Tanaka.
@baldy2: hey, you doing anything today?
@chewbacca: what for?
@baldy2: you know that test we have on monday?
@baldy2: i kinda have no idea what it is about
@chewbacca: sorry, i can't help you study
@baldy2: why?
Instead of replying, Ennoshita looked up to his friends.
“Guys, let's take a photo.”
“What for?” Narita asked.
“To send Tanaka.”
“Okay.”
Ennoshita stretched his arm as his two friends looked at his phone from both of his sides. He took a selfie of the three of them smiling, making sure it was noticeable where they were.
@chewbacca: [sent a picture]
@badly2: you're watching a movie?
@baldy2: you could’ve told me!
@baldy2: noya and i could have gone with you three
@chewbacca: sorry, no starters allowed today
@baldy2: not fair!!
But Ennoshita just put the phone in his pocket, grabbing the popcorn bucket Narita was handing him.
“Come on, let's go!” Kinoshita called them, and the two of them followed him into the movie theater.
Ennoshita turned off his phone. He didn't want to get distracted, he was here to watch a movie with his best friends.
After almost two hours, the three boys walked out of the movies in complete silence. None of them said anything until they were already in the streets, walking home together even if they hadn't talked about it.
“So…” Ennoshita broke the silence.
“The movie was…” Narita added.
“Totally terrible.” Kinoshita finished, and the other two nodded. “Just like the first one.” He finished, a smile appearing on his face.
“I'm sorry for anyone who went into that theater thinking they'd watch a good movie.” Ennoshita said, smiling too.
“They completely ignored the last forty minutes of the first movie.” Narita pointed out, but he was grinning too. “Just what I expected from it.”
They continued walking together, laughing about all the stupid moments in the movie, the continuation mistakes and the terrible acting.
Right then, Ennoshita realized that in that moment there was no “bench bond” or bittersweet feelings, just three best friends who loved being with each other over anything else.
And he wouldn't change a thing.