"Are you okay, Kobayashi-kun?" Megumi asked, concerned.
It was after Riku's last serve that everyone gathered around Yuki, some glared at him full of jealousy for receiving Megumi's tender care. Yuki himself didn't care, busy rubbing his bruised wrists and the spot near his thumbs that turned bright red instantly after the last play.
"It is okay, Megumi-senpai." Yuki smiled weakly. "It would sting for a night, but I bet this would disappear after I wake up tomorrow morning."
"Are you sure?" Megumi bit her lips nervously, her face sweated a bit. Yuki felt a bit guilty for the girl since the moment the incident happened, she dashed to bring the emergency medical box every club had here as quickly as possible.
However, before he could answer that question, a big arm suddenly tangled around his neck, dragging Yuki away from the attention. "Don't worry about him, Megumi-san. I am sure he will be okay." Koji, one of the boys who was his opponent before smiled stiffly while secretly glaring at Yuki.
"Yeah! Don't worry, Megumi-san!"
One after another, almost all the players gave testimony for Yuki, saying that he was okay while glaring at him, sending a message to silence the boy. The boy himself sighed, knowing that he was somehow offending his senpai here.
'I am the one who is injured here, why are they the ones who were panicked?' He thought wryly.
The commotion stopped out of sudden when Riku walked in his direction. All the players gathered around Yuki dispersed immediately, giving the two boys room to talk. They didn't leave though, waiting curiously for any fight or something similar that could possibly happen.
Yuki cursed them all inwardly for not giving him and Riku any privacy at all, blaming it on the teenager's thirst for drama. He didn't back down though, staring back at Riku curiously, observing his expression to see what was the blonde boy thinking. There were so many thoughts reflected on Riku's face, from concern, panic, distracted, to…. Guilt?
'Why did he feel guilty toward me?' Yuki tilted his head confusedly.
He furrowed his brows, trying to recall what happened before. It was just a normal play with Yuki receiving Riku's serve for the second time today after the warmup session before, nothing special. What stopped the game immediately was because Yuki miscalculated where the ball would land and instead of hitting his forearm, it went directly to his fists, hitting his thumb until its nail was bleeding.
While it hurt, Yuki didn't see how it could be Riku's fault.
"Are you okay?" The blonde half-Italian boy asked, trying to look unconcerned.
"Just like I said, don't worry about it. A bit sore, but after resting it for a night, everything would be alright." Yuki waved his concern nonchalantly.
"Good." Riku nodded, then walked away to the bench to grab a bottle of water. Some people were bound to be disappointed since they were there to see some drama. However, Yuki was glad the awkward conversation between those two happened so quickly, not giving everyone the gossip they wanted.
They all suddenly heard a loud cough, attracting everyone's attention. When they turned around, they could see Akira walking toward their direction, rubbing his mustache elegantly as if he was some sort of a royal family member, the temperament that was so not suitable for the tracking suit he wore. While he was also concerned for Yuki, he didn't join the commotion there, knowing it would make everyone more panicked. The teacher knew Megumi was more capable of handling the situation, even though he also knew she would turn into her usual 'mama bear' mode, nagging everyone to do what she told.
Now that he could see the tension was gone, Akira finally spoke, announcing his presence once again. "Well, since Kobayashi-kun is slightly injured, even though he could still continue, I think it is time to stop the game, don't you also think so?"
That was when all of them realized that the basketball court next to them was already empty and the crowds that seemed to be on the sideline watching them play were also gone, leaving the entire gymnasium just for them. Yuki checked the sky for a second to see whether the sky was dark already or not, starting to panic as he forgot he hadn't told anyone in the orphanage that he would be late.
"Damn, I need to go back!"
"You are worried you haven't told anyone that you are here? Don't worry about that." Akira waved his hand nonchalantly, flipping up his phone and showing something to Yuki. "Here, I have already told Aiko-san. She asked me to tell you to have some fun here and she would handle the rest of the kids by herself, so you have her permission to be here. Oh, and in case you are wondering how could I contact her, it is mandatory for every student to leave their contact here for the school for the administration, so I got it from the school system." He said the last sentence to answer everyone's unasked question.
Yuki sighed in relief when he heard that, glad that it was not something outrageous like his sensei stalking him or using his shady informant to get the matron's contact. He was also somehow touched by his sensei's thoughtfulness to inform Aiko of his whereabouts.
"So, what would we do now?" He asked hesitantly.
"Well, of course, it is evaluation." It was Noriyuki who answered that question for the coach. "It is a tradition for us to give feedback to each other after training sessions, throwing opinions to see what could we do to improve ourselves. Come on, let's gather first!"
"Okay."
The silence there was palpable as the volleyball team players gathered in the empty gym, the only sound being the soft squeak of sneakers on the polished floor. The fluorescent lights overhead seemed to hum a gentle melody, casting a warm glow over the group. The echoes of their earlier shouts and laughter had faded away, leaving only the quiet murmur of conversation and the occasional rustle of sweat-drenched shirts.
"Man, it has been a long time since we had the entire gym just for ourselves." Okumura sighed, lying down on the floor. "Damn, I really miss this cold feeling."
"So, is it that often for the team to be the last one leaving the gym?" Yuki asked curiously, sitting next to him.
"Not really." Yori – the setter of the team answered. "When the summer tournament is near, the basketball team would be crazier than us. I often found my classmate who joined that team to be sleeping in the class in the morning because he went back from the training session at around 9:30 PM."
"That late?" Yuki was surprised.
"Yeah. I mean, it is for the tournament, so of course, the closer it was the more intense their preparation would be."
"Oh, by the way, I have been meaning to ask this, but how could everyone be so close to Agostini-san? Isn't he also a freshman like me?" Yuki suddenly asked the question that had been bugging his mind for a while.
"Oh, it is because he joined the Facebook group of our team last day, right after the challenge was over. He is also a noisy person, keeps chatting and inviting everyone to play some sort of online game until midnight. That is probably why it is easy for him to blend in." Yori chuckled a little at that. He paused a second before adding, "Anyway, you can go to Megumi and give her your Facebook username, she will invite you to join the group too."
Yuki just chuckled wryly, inwardly thinking of the Facebook account he had forgotten by now. That social media has been booming in the last few years and almost every teenager has at least one account for themselves, including Yuki. But since the disaster happened, he lost his phone and everything in it and this had never crossed his mind until he was reminded now.
'Well, not just Facebook, but I also need to think of having a phone too to communicate with others.' He mused. But after thinking about the amount of money he possessed right now, Yuki sighed before adding a note in his mind, 'I really need to find a part-time job after this.'
"Okay, everyone, hear me up!" Akira suddenly raised his voice, killing all the whispers around there. "Since it is already dark outside, let's keep it short. First, I will talk about your condition. After a month of holiday, you all are becoming sloppier! Your stamina gets worsened, your movements are slower, and hell, I can even see the fat on your belly! Where the hell does all the discipline I trained you all last year go?!" He roared, scolding all the senpai in the gymnasium.
Yuki winced a little, feeling sorry for his senpai. If he who wasn't the target of the scolding felt bad and guilty, he didn't want to think what the object of the scold would feel right now.
"I know that you deserve a holiday too after a long year, but come on, guys!" It seemed Akira was frustrated too. "Really? After the disappointing result last year, do you think you can be better with this kind of attitude?"
All of the senpai just bowed their heads, didn't even plead innocent in front of their coach.
Akira sighed before finally deciding, "Well, as the punishment, we will restart our morning routine once again starting from tomorrow. Do you all understand?!"
Based on how pale their face were, even though Yuki didn't know what the morning routine the coach said was, he knew it should be terrible. However, it seemed all the players there had some sort of self-consciousness, just sighing in resignation as they all realized they were guilty.
"Well, let's move on to the two new freshmen who decided to join us today." In a blink, the attention suddenly turned to Yuki and Riku. "This is your first game with us, right? What do you think? And please, don't mince your words. This is an evaluation session, so we want to hear your thoughts."
Yuki paused for a second, thinking of his words to not offend the others. However, Riku didn't have the same thought, words seemed to leave his mouth so easily.
"Well, the team is so unbalanced!" He complained directly, making everyone dumbfounded instantly. "I mean, the other team is so good in defense it doesn't make sense anymore! Don't you know about that already, Uncle?!"
Yuki chuckled at the name slip from Riku. This was the first time he heard the blonde boys addressing the coach as his uncle while before that, he could always restrain himself to avoid any favoritism. This slip just showed how bothered Riku was by the arrangement.
"Indeed, the arrangement is not balanced," Akira admitted it freely. "I just want to see your and Kobayashi-kun's capability when you were placed into the team that fit you the best. Since you are a setter, I placed you with the best attackers on the team, and since Kobayashi-kun showed his capability in blocking and receiving, I arranged for the best defensive players to be his teammates. Fair enough, right?"
This explanation basically confirms Yuki's guess before the game. While he didn't know the characteristic of his opponent's team, he knew just by playing together in one set that his teammates before were too good defensively.
"Well, it is still unbalanced, though." Riku crossed his arms in front of his chest, pouting slightly.
Akira ignored his childish behavior and turned to Yuki, asking, "What about you, Kobayashi-kun? Any opinion for the team?"
Yuki glanced at several of his teammates hesitantly, pondering about what he wanted to say. Seeing his kouhai like this, Noriyuki knew what was inside his mind and reassured him quickly, "Don't worry, Kobayashi-kun. We all are open to critique here. You can see Riku-kun doesn't have any hesitation to speak whatever is inside his mind, right? Just do it like him."
Yuki chuckled wryly, knowing full well he couldn't do it that freely like how Riku did before. He was more reserved and knew there was always a consequence to every word that came out of his mouth. However, after seeing the five teammates he had in the last game also encouraging him, Yuki became more confident to speak his opinion out loud.
"Well, I don't really have that much knowledge about volleyball, but from what I see, my team lacks communication." It seemed he hit the nail as Yuki could see the intrigued look from his coach while the others had their mouth gaped wide. "I mean, the only one who is trying is Yori-senpai. Kaede-senpai might speak once or twice, but it was usually a curse or something similar. Okumura-senpai also the same, only roared wildly after celebrating his good play. Other than that, it is basically nothing, making it hard for me to adapt to the situation on the court."
Yuki blinked a few times in confusion when he noticed the silence around, everyone was looking at him as if he was the second Jesus sent from heaven. He touched his face awkwardly, thinking there was something there while asking, "Is there anything wrong?"
"No, nothing wrong with you, Kobayashi-kun." Akira chuckled richly, breaking the silence. "It is just, you said the exact same thing as I did the last year, so maybe they have a little flashback here. Good observation, though, you really hit the nail here." Then, he turned around to his players who were still processing Yuki's words. "See? Even a freshman could see that problem too."
"Damn, Yuki. You really saw all of that?" Yori shook his head, impressed. He was the happiest here considering he was praised by his kouhai as the only one who tried to communicate on the team.
"Well, isn't it easy to see?" Yuki asked nonchalantly. His words elicited a chain of sighs from the rest of the team as they were reminded of Yuki's outrageous talent in volleyball.
"Man, are you sure you don't want to join the team?" Riku suddenly approached him. Gone was the guilt in his eyes as it shone brightly as if the blonde boy just found a treasure deep inside the ocean. "Your defense is so good! I have never experienced that kind of desperation before! With my offense, maybe we could make some fortune in the national tournament! And if you join too, we can play against each other every day! I am still down to six points against you, don't forget about it! I will chase it down soon!"
Looking at how excited Riku was, Yuki could only shake his head exasperatedly. Inwardly, he thought that it must be good to be as carefree as Riku was. However, even though Yuki could see the charm of the game, he still knew there was something more important for him to do rather than joining the team.
"Unfortunately, Agostini-san, joining the club would be too much for me now. I need a job to make some money."
Everyone cringed, just remembering Yuki's background story. Akira had this mysterious expression when he heard Yuki mention that, but for the others, while they wanted Yuki to join the team, they knew he couldn't do it for now. They all were speechless, didn't know what to say or whether they needed to reassure Yuki it was okay to not join or it was them who needed to be reassured that it was okay for a talent like Yuki to not join the team.
Finally, it was Megumi who broke the silence, asking the question that somehow solved the elephants in the room instantly.
"Well, how about you apply for a part-time job at my family house? We can adjust the time so you can also join the team too. Shouldn't that solve everything?"