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Hiiragi should not be near this high school firstly, because he doesn’t go here. Secondly, it is creepy. At least he is self-aware.
Next time Umemiya should stalk high schools or he should tag along with him. He has better people skills (read: annoying people into submission) than him anyway.
He just needs to act like he belongs here. School is over anyway, it’s time for after-school club activities and this place is brimming with students engaged in some or the other activity.
He should’ve brought Kaji along. At least he wouldn’t be alone in a new place then. Now, would Sako appreciate 2 people he hasn’t talked to in a while breaking into his high school instead of just 1? Probably not. He would probably chew him out for this.
And it isn’t like it's only Sako here. A few other people from his middle school also made it to Makochi-West Metropolitan High School. He should look out for them. They probably know where Sako is. (A/N: let us put on our thinking caps).
The high school is bigger than Furin. Equipped with 2 gyms and a track and field course. He could’ve gone here if he wasn’t convinced (read: hounded) by Umemiya to attend Furin.
Would Sako be in the gym? That seems unlikely. Sako is someone who would run home as soon as school ends, but there might be people he knows in the gym.
An image flashes in his mind. Someone who can jump high, a girl who was in his middle school volleyball team. Sako’s friend. If you can even call her that.
He remembers Yuki. Mostly because of how loud she was. Compared to his usual company of Sako, Jien, and Kaji, Yuki stood out vividly in his memory of middle school. For some reason, she reminds him of Yodai or even Choji now. Well, maybe not that loud.
If she still plays Volleyball, she should be in one of the gyms. She would know where Sako is.
The gym, he needs to go to the gym. Brilliant planning. That is why he is leading a team. Yuki being there when he talks to Sako might be a good idea too. If Hiiragi gets murdered, at least there would be a witness.
Find Yuki then find Sako. Then get him to help him.
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Yuki is in the gym. The problem is that she is also busy with a practice match. If the peep inside the gym told him anything it’s that he is looking like a weirdo staring at a girl’s practice match. But he can’t help but look.
Yuki is good at what she does. He has seen her games in middle school. It’s been a while and even though it was routine to go and watch her matches, he had forgotten just how spectacular she was.
Watching her is like watching a hummingbird play. Keeping track of her is exhausting because she darts around so much. He can only hope the other team is good at their job.
Maybe he can go inside and watch from the sidelines. Instead of peeping from the threshold of the gym.
The match is about to be over soon. The scoreboard looks to be in favour of Yuki’s team.
He will go inside when the match ends.
He should look away but he can’t. It’s fun and it’s been a while since he has just stopped and looked at something. And you can’t blame him. Everyone likes to enjoy a good game.
So he watches her play until the match ends.
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Yuki likes it when a match is played well. She likes it even more when she scores the winning point.
The match was fun. They bow to the other team and thank them for coming, and as they file out, she catches a glimpse of someone else lingering at the door of the gym. She recognises the dude. Or she thinks she does.
The match has ended and all of them are cooling down. They wouldn’t care if she got up and went to the door for some fresh air.
“I’ll be back in a minute. Gonna go get a breather.” She says to Sayaka on her right, who is doing some stretches.
“Uh-huh, I’ll tell the captain.” That was all she got in reply.
She fixes her shoes and decides that she will take the water bottle with her.
The guy is nowhere to be seen now. She wonders if he was just a weirdo.
Until she spots him a few feet away. Back turned to her, on a phone call.
She jogs up to him and taps his shoulder.
“You know it’s weird to break into someone’s high school, right?” she asks. Seeing the spooked look on Hiiragi’s face as he fumbles to cut the call is fun.
“Wassup? Or did you just come to see the best volleyball player ever?” she continued, a bit smug, head cocked to the side like a bird.
“Hello, Yuki.” is all she gets in reply. She takes a swing of her water and smiles
“Hi. Seriously what’s up, dude? You look like you’ve seen a ghost” she continues.
“Well, you did scare me” he decides to tell her.
She just cocks her head to the side, waiting for an actual reply. Hiiragi stares at her. She stares back. He cocks his head to match her position. They both straighten up together.
He groans. Then takes out some pills. She offers him her water bottle, but he declines.
“Wow, you should not take that many pills.” That is all she can say watching him shove around 7 in his mouth in one go. She can’t catch what he says next, because his words are muddled due to the chewing of the pills and because she is kind of scared about him dying due to that many pills.
“Huh? What did you say? Speak up, dude.” She asked, cocking her head to the side again.
“Do you know where Sako is?” he asked. He looked embarrassed, but Yuki didn’t really care about that.
“He isn’t here today. He went to play with Rin and the team outside. 10 minutes’ drive. Outskirt school.” she informs him, grinning a bit. It is funny that he came out all the way here only for the person he is looking to not be there.
“Rin?”
“Yeah, Rin.”
He nods.
“So, he didn’t let Sako stop playing, huh?”
“Yeah.” She nods vigorously.
It was painfully awkward; she could tell that Hiiragi wanted to bolt out of there.
“We can go there if you want. Rin owes me an ice cream and I want to see them play too. If we aren’t too late.” She offers.
He agrees, albeit hesitantly.
“Cool, I’ll go tell the captain and then cool down and then we can leave in 15 minutes.” She is about to bolt back to the gym when she turns back and asks “Do you want to say hello to the team, Hiiragi? You should let’s go.” She turns back to him and drags him by the wrist back to the gym.
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Hiiragi is not socially awkward. That role is fulfilled by Sako, Kaji and Sakura (to a painful degree). But with so many eyes scrutinising him even before he has said “hello” is painfully embarrassing.
“Everybody, meet this guy,” Yuki says, even before he has crossed the threshold of the gym.
At least tell them my name, he thinks.
A girl who was stretching looked up from her spot. Crease in her eyebrows. “Hi?” she says, confused, and throws Yuki a look that perfectly conveys what everyone is probably feeling. A look that says “What-the-hell-is-going-on-and-who-is-this-guy?”
“OH! Right. His name is Hiirgai. He wanted to meet someone on the guy’s team. Oh, also captain, I gotta head out, so, I’ll have to skip on the free snacks. I’m gonna take this guy to where the guys are having a practice match” She says all of that so quickly, it's astonishing that no one batted even an eye. They seemed pretty used to this. Then she runs towards the locker rooms to get her stuff, leaving Hiiragi alone.
“Cool, text when you reach home and stay safe.” A girl has come forward to the halfway point towards the lockers. She is tall with curly hair in a messy ponytail from the game. Everyone is wearing the standard black shorts and bright neon bibs with numbers because of the practice match.
she is walking towards him.
“Can I get your number? Safety reasons. Can’t have my wing-spiker get kidnapped.” She says, cooly.
Okay, that is not something normal to say.
“Sure.” They exchange numbers. And by the time that interaction ends, Yuki is back. Thank God. Because he might’ve just gotten himself a feature on a murder mystery.
“Come on let’s go.” She zooms past Hiiragi so fast he can’t even catch her.
A bird indeed.
“There she goes. You might want to catch up to her.” is all her captain says. “Good luck with whatever you want with the boys’ team. They are not as smart or as humble as us.” she smiles towards him.
He nods her thanks and mentally notes to bring some gifts in gratitude the next time he drops by or makes Umemiya drop by.
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“Wait, why do you need to meet Sako of all people?” Yuki suddenly asks, they’ve been walking silently for a total of 4 minutes now. Hiiragi taking in the scenery and Yuki munching on a protein bar that says “helps you grow taller” on the package.
How do you explain to someone that his friend convinced him to ask his distant friend-with-whom-he-has-a-very-complicated-past-and-who-he-fought-on-stage-and-beat-up-and-then-the-friend-helped-him-fight-some-other-dudes-in-a- pseudo -war to ask him to help their juniors study for an exam? You really can’t.
So, he groans in reply.