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Sakusa grabs Iizuna by his jacket, with his lint roller in hand: "Iizuna-san, I can't reach the back, could you help?"
Surprised by his underclassman's gestures, Iizuna takes over the lint roller: "Oh-oh, yeah sure."
Knowing Sakusa, he usually never lets others touch his stuff, let alone be this close to him physically. Iizuna wonders what has changed, causing this boy to trust him so much.
"Iizuna-san, could you stop that?"
"I thought you asked me to help?"
"No, not the lint rolling. I mean the thing you do to mess with my BPM."
"What? What the heck did I do???"
"I don't know, but whenever I see you, I get a little excited, and my heart rate goes up. It's not good for my health, so I wish you could stop it somehow. I've been training my cardio, but it doesn't help at all."
Iizuna looks up at Sakusa's face, flabbergasted by every word he just heard.
"Do you like me or something???"
"I don't know, do I?" Sakusa tilts his head, taking back the lint roller in his upperclassman's hand. After a few seconds of silence and blank staring, he nods his head with a reply, "yeah, I do."
Caught off-guarded by the ambiguity of the response, Iizuna grabs his bag and dashes out of the club room, unable to say anything back.
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"Komori, Komori-" Iizuna gestures at the 2nd year libero outside of his classroom, "do you have a moment? Make sure Sakusa doesn't know about this."
"Iizuna-san? I'll be right there," Komori gobbles down the last bits of food he has for lunch, before rushing out of the classroom.
The two quietly walk over to the corner of a staircase, it's a nice spot for a private conversation, as most students are either on the rooftop track field or in the classrooms for their lunch break.
"You're the only person I can consult about this. Sorry to use up your lunch time…" Iizuna looks down at his fiddling hands, his fingertips nicely trimmed and filed, as a setter would.
"Senpai, you don't usually consult me for things, what could it possibly be? Is this about Kiyoomi?"
Iizuna looks over to Komori with a slight flush on his face, before breaking out an awkward mumble: "I feel bad talking about this with someone else, but I'm also confused by Sakusa's words. I was hoping you'd know something about this…"
Looking at Iizuna's expression, Komori immediately clocked what's going on. He's no stranger to what's going on in his younger cousin's life, especially since they've been around each other for so long.
"Let me guess, he might have a little crush on you?" Komori giggles as his upperclassman's face flushes with a even brighter red.
"So you do know something about this…" The captain clears his throat in an attempt to suppress his shyness in the topic, "anyways, I wanted to talk to you 'cuz I'm confused. When I asked him if he likes me, he replied with 'I don't know, do I?' before nodding away. Who even does that???"
Komori breaks into a laughter upon hearing the actions from his awkward cousin, before collecting himself to explain.
"You see, Kiyoomi is uh, kind of a weird one. He's got a unique connection with people. He likes his things proper and clean. He takes care of himself so that no germs or illness shall ever visit him. That's why he's so close to Ushijima from Shiratorizawa. Ah, Iizuna-san, you know about Ushijima?"
"Ushijima? Yeah, he's one of the top 3 high school spikers in the nation."
"Yeah, that's him. Kiyoomi gets excited every time they play against each other, just because apparently he spotted Ushijima in the washroom folding his handkerchief the 'right' way." Komori giggles as he recalls the bits and pieces of his cousin's life, "that's why he was super happy when he found you with your lint roller when we first met."
"Seriously? He likes me because of some lint roller?!?" Iizuna exclaimed in surprise, he has no idea whether he should laugh or cry upon discovering this information.
"Well, I'm sure just doesn't like you only by the fact that you carry a lint roller around. There's other aspects to it too, you know? You keep your things nice and tidy, you take care of yourself /and/ everyone else on the team. You understand him and his little quirks instead of judging. He knows you like your things clean as well, which is why he lets you touch his precious lint roller…"
Komori turns around and gestures to his back, "before you, Kiyoomi would rather take off his jacket and roll the back himself than ask someone else to help." The 2nd year peeks at his captain before continuing: "Iizuna-san, I'm sure you know that Kiyoomi sees through whatever he starts. He wouldn't tell you things he doesn't mean. I'm an outsider on this, but I'm his relative after all, so naturally I'd want things to go well for him. You should give it a thought and give him a proper response, even if it's a no."
The younger boy takes a slight bow with his head before excusing himself to go back to his classroom. Iizuna waves good-bye, while ruminating the words from his underclassman.
"I thought I know my team well, but turns out I've still got a long way to go, huh?"
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After club activities, the Itachiyama boy's volleyball team gather in their club room as they change back into school uniform. The room filled with rowdy chatter immediately becomes silent with Sakusa's sudden words: "Iizuna-san, have you thought about it yet?"
The team members turn as their ace who seems to have a daily word limit sprout out the limit all in one line.
"Thought about what?" Iizuna stops his hands, asking in confusion.
"You know, about me liking-" before Sakusa can finish his words, Iizuna grabs Sakusa's towel and shoves it into the his face.
"About you liking?" a 3rd year asks in curiosity.
"About him liking Sukiyaki. I was surpsied too, didn't know he was into that. Right, Sakusa?" Iizuna glares as Sakusa, as if one wrong word would cause the younger boy a life sentence.
"Mmm, mmm-" Sakusa nods with a muffled response, gesturing for his captain to remove the towel from his face.
Iizuna sighs as he hands the towel back to Sakusa: "let's go eat sukiyaki right now, how about that?"
Sakusa nods again while folding his towel, neatly placing it into the dedicated compartment of his bag. Seeing his nod, Iizuna rushes the others out, before locking up and leaving with this underclassman of his.
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The subway train rattles into a different part of Tokyo, as the two high school boys stand, holding onto the railing.
It's not super late, but the evening rush has already passed, leaving an empty seat here and there in the carriage. Neither Sakusa nor Iizuna wants to take a seat though, since they know how nasty subway seats can be.
"Sorry about this spontaneous sukiyaki dinner thing, I'm sure your family are waiting for you at the dinner table. You can just go home, you know? My place is this direction anyways, so I'll just keep riding the train to my stop," Iizuna looks at his junior with guilt, his heart beats with a sense of uneasiness.
"It's alright, I'll just ride with you till your stop," Sakusa's muffled voice under his mask sounds a little softer than usual. Although he likes the idea of spending more time with his senior, he really does not want to go to a loud crowded restarurant full of the sukiyaki smell. Same thing with the train ride, but since he's already here, he's going to see through it till the end.
Knowing the personality of his junior, Iizuna understands not to reject Sakusa's proposed company, since he knows his junior will do as he pleases anyways.
"Alright, thanks."
Silence fills between the two before Iizuna speaks again: "About what you said the other day. I'll think about it, so give me some time."
Sakusa turns his head in surprised. With the sight of his senior, his gaze softens a little. "Yeah," he nods as he goes back to looking at nothing.
The rest of the train ride turns out to be a silent one. Sakusa sees off Iizuna at his station as promised, before taking the train back to his own place.
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Whether you like it or not, time will always pass. The constant progression of time becomes what that makes life precious, with a slight scent of sorrow.
Itachiyama 3rd years end their high school volleybal careers with Iizuna's injury, leaving their glory behind on the very courts of Tokyo. And what follows the end of Spring High National Tournament, is none other than graduation of the 3rd year members.
"Iizuna-san, you're graduating tomorrow…" Sakusa says with a quiet voice.
Iizuna looks up at Sakusa, and laughs a little, "just how fast time flies, huh? Don't miss me too much when I'm gone."
After a slight moment of silence, Sakusa responds: "Iizuna-san, you know how you said that you want to finish your last game with a smile? To me, just being able to keep playing match after match is enough. With that, I can consider myself lucky, just like how I was lucky enough to meet you."
The black-haired boy turns his gaze towards Iizuna: "I want to be lucky enough to keep playing volleyball. And I want to be lucky enough to keep seeing you, whether as a underclassman, as a teammate, as a part of the audience, or as an opponent."
What follows might be claimed as one of the rarest sights Iizuna Tsukasa has ever seen in his life - a genuine, soft smile from Sakusa.
"Iizuna-san, congratulations on your graduation. Good luck with your career at DESEO. I'll go cheer you on."
Sakusa? Cheering him on? The image of Sakusa yelling across the audience of a volleyball game seems so absurd that Iizuna can't help but break out a laughter.
"Hahahahaha, that'd go on the headlines of the news!"
Sakusa frowns in confusion, not sure about the reason behind his senior's laughter.
"You know why I said what I said back in Spring High?"
Sakusa shakes his head.
"Because I knew that wouldn't be my last game, but I couldn't help thinking about how that was my last game with you guys, with this team. I wasn't counting on victory, but I also wasn't expecting a defeat with an injury just like that. How unfair life may be, right? Even when I take care of myself, and play with so much caution. But you were right, what I needed wasn't pity. There's no point dwelling in what could've been. That's why I had to put my future into words, to remind myself that that was not the end."
Iizuna returns Sakusa's gaze, before continuing: "Sakusa, in a world so ever-changing, I too, want to be lucky enough to keep seeing you. Though I'm sure you know by now that counting on luck alone without effort is not going to get us anywhere."
With an inhale, Iizuna's look of determination changes into a warm smile: "I'm sorry for keeping you waiting so long for a response. Sakusa, would you like to witness this future we hold together with me?"
Sakusa gapes in search of words, nodding his head with sparkles in his eyes, the same sparkles he shared the day he met Iizuna.
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"I heard you started to like me because of my lint roller?"
"…No comment."