What's even more heartbreaking is.. his Setter teammate, who coordinates so well with him on the court and is always giving him high-fives and cheers, is actually ignoring him!
Their relationship was clearly so good!
Shiratori said goodbye to Hinata, then leaned over and reached out to grab Bokuto by the back of his collar. "Alright, pack it up and head back. You'll have free time for stretching after you're done."
Bokuto responded blankly, "Oh."
Watching Bokuto being forcefully dragged away by Shiratori, Hinata's expression turned solemn.
That's bad. Because Natsume-senpai always acts so gentle, he subconsciously ignores the fact that he is even taller than Bokuto-senpai and Ushijima-senpai.
And.. Natsume-senpai has incredible strength!
See, all the setters outside are bad people," Miya Atsumu tried to smear Shiratori, "If he dares to drag down Bokuto-senpai like this, he'll dare to drag you down too. Once you go to college, remember to stay far away from him.
Hinata nodded, feeling that Miya Atsumu was absolutely right: "Yeah, Atsumu-senpai is the best."
Although he felt like he wouldn't be dragged away, but.. Atsumu-senpai was right!
Iizuna-senpai behind them coughed again: "Cough, cough, cough."
He is also a Setter, he's still right here!
Miya Atsumu had originally intended to ignore Iizuna-senpai behind him, but after thinking of Komori, he ultimately added a sentence: "Iizuna-senpai is a good person; he's so reliable, he must be a good person."
Iizuna was satisfied.
On the second floor, Hoshiumi narrowed his eyes: "Something's wrong, something is very wrong."
Why did he have such an ominous feeling? Hinata and Miya Atsumu were perfectly normal yesterday, so why was their contact so frequent today?
Just now, with the two of them at that distance.. they were practically about to kiss!
But it doesn't seem like anything happened yesterday either; wasn't it just him screwing over Miya Atsumu and instigating Oikawa-senpai to give Miya Atsumu an autograph?
The key thing is that the autograph ended up in Hinata's hands in the end; since he isn't wearing it today, it was probably carefully preserved.
It shouldn't be that they're just making things easy for Miya Atsumu.. probably.
In his field of vision, Miya Atsumu below seemed to say something to Hinata, then Hinata reached out and grabbed his hand directly, the two of them jogging together as they prepared to leave the venue.
Ah.. what an eyesore that sight is!
Seeing Hoshiumi's distorted expression, looking as if he was about to jump straight from the second floor to beat up Miya Atsumu, Hirugami spoke up in time, "Hikari-kun."
Hoshiumi Hikari was in a complete state of breakdown: "Aaaah—that damn Miya Atsumu! Just what kind of damn soup did he feed my little apprentice!"
Imai, sitting in the opposite stands, put down his binoculars and turned to look at Unabara: "Now, I have a very serious question."
Unabara Uta sat up straight and honest, "What?"
I looked up and down at my unreliable boyfriend, squinting my eyes as I asked, "What exactly did you say to Hinata yesterday? I want to hear the original words."
Unabara Uta raised a hand and scratched his head, trying to recall seriously, "I told him that if he wanted to know if Atsumu-senpai likes him too, he should just go ask directly, because some things are better said in person. Then I told him he could try to get close to Atsumu-senpai just like the two of us do."
After saying that, he looked at Imai with a bit of confusion. "Is there.. a problem with that? As long as Hinata asks, Atsumu-senpai will definitely agree."
Imai tried hard to smile: "Do you think.. Hinata will understand?"
It is very possible that Hinata would just ask him directly if he likes him, but the meaning of those two words is extremely broad, especially for Hinata and Miya Atsumu.
After all, Unabara Uta had even said yesterday that Atsumu-senpai had the words "I like Shoyo" on his lips every single day!
Unabara fell silent.
Unabara was filled with terror.
“Nooo—Atsumu-senpai is going to hold a grudge against me for the rest of my life!!”
He even made Hinata cry yesterday, ran away right in front of Atsumu-senpai, even spouted all that nonsense.
He was even planning to stage a comeback based on Hinata's confession!
Imai reached out and patted Unabara Uta's back. "Don't panic, we still have room for rectification."
Unabara Uta looked up as if seeing the goddess of hope. "What?"
Imai held up two fingers. "One, you're going to become the number one high school Libero; two, you have to find a way to settle things between those two before Atsumu-senpai goes back."
Unabara Uta fell to the ground, unable to get up: "It feels.. quite unrealistic."
The first point is ruled out, the second point is also somewhat difficult to execute right now.
Hinata's comprehension is a bit hard for him to fathom, as for Atsumu-senpai.. he feels like he wouldn't believe a word he says.
I can't exactly block the entrance to corner him and set up a grand marriage proposal scene for Atsumu-senpai, then wish the two of them a lifetime of happiness without them having any idea!
Imai wiped away the crocodile tears. "Your credibility is zero now, poor Unabara."
Unabara Uta wept bitterly, "You're still making fun of me.."
After being in a slump for a while, Unabara Uta pulled himself back together: "No, I have to find Hinata and have a proper talk with him."
For the sake of his own physical and mental health over the next year, he must find a way to conquer Hinata!
Meanwhile, in the venue's merchandise area today, Hinata raised his hand and pointed at a short-sleeved shirt featuring the Black Eagle Flag symbol and the words "Unite as One": "That one! I want one of each in size S and 3XL!"
The staff member responded with a smile, "Certainly, I'll wrap those up for you right away."
Hinata quickly pulled out his coin purse and made the payment.
After watching that match just now, he remembered that when he arrived this morning, half of the merchandise stalls here were still being set up; it was said that they had swapped places with the other side, today they were selling clothes here.
They had wanted to buy them yesterday, so they decided to purchase them today. Since he was very clear on Atsumu-senpai's size, there would definitely be no mistake.
Miya Atsumu, who had just been about to buy them for himself, froze for a moment. "Why is there one for me too?"
Hinata said, "It's a gift for Atsumu-senpai."
Unabara Uta had said that using gifts appropriately is also an important part of increasing favorability.
Looking at the short-sleeved shirt being handed to him, then at the identical one in Hinata's hands, Miya Atsumu's brain short-circuited for a second.
Is this.. is this the legendary couple's outfit?!
Author's Note:
Unabara Uta: Sometimes I really want to crack Shoyo's little head open just to see what's inside!
Chapter 294: The Two Hundred and Ninety-Fourth Fox
Hoshiumi stared at the two empty seats in the first row, his mind racing through everything that had happened over the past two days, as that ominous premonition grew increasingly intense.
After a short while, the two people who had just gone out returned, but for some inexplicable reason, their clothes had changed into identical styles.
After his brain stalled for two seconds, Hoshiumi felt his vision go black.
It's all over, everything is over, his little apprentice has truly gone astray!
They're even wearing matching outfits! That shameless fellow wouldn't actually lay a hand on his little apprentice, would he!
Thinking of this, Hoshiumi raised his hand to cover his face and bent over, letting out a cry of despair under the gaze of the passersby around him.
Aaaaah! You bastard, Miya Atsumu—
Miya Atsumu, who was being dragged by his arm by Hinata, stated that he hadn't done anything.
By the gods of the three foxes, he didn't do anything, really.
Although he did indeed have a slight desire to do something to pique Hinata's interest in him, he hadn't really acted on it yet.
After all, Hinata's reaction was much greater than he had imagined, so he wasn't quite sure if it was affection or just the repulsion caused by being out of his element.
.. But seeing how enthusiastic Hinata was toward him today, he was probably liking it?
Atsumu curled the corners of his mouth, his eyes crinkling as his mood brightened.
Feeling Miya Atsumu's gaze, Hinata turned his head slightly and looked at him.
After locking eyes with the smiling Miya Atsumu for a few seconds, Hinata frowned and then slightly pulled away. "I feel like Atsumu-senpai is thinking about something bad."
Miya Atsumu denied it flatly, "How could I be?"
Hinata snorted twice and turned his gaze back toward the court. "Oikawa-senpai looks very happy right now."
For some reason, even though he knew that nothing substantial had changed about Oikawa-senpai, watching his volleyball.. he could sense a sense of joy and freedom in it that was even greater than before.
The Oikawa in his memory.. even though he was often smiling, his intuition told him that the other person wasn't actually very happy.
Oikawa Tooru high-fived Aran on the court and shared a light hug with the Libero on the other side, then, after the cheering subsided, they continued preparing for the next offensive and defensive play.
“I can completely understand.” Miya Atsumu leaned back slightly against the back of his chair.
A more comfortable environment for growth, mentors who share his philosophy, powerful teammates, a larger stage—these are the things Oikawa-senpai has been pursuing, aren't they?
Miya Atsumu sighed softly, "Walking through the mud all this way.. Oikawa-senpai has also reached the sanctuary of his dreams."
Thinking back to the first time he met Oikawa Tooru, his impression of the other was "a guy who looks decent enough, but doesn't have any idea of his own worth."
To this day, he had to admit that he had indeed misjudged him just a little bit back then.
Yeah, just a little bit.
But that's also normal. Before finding your own path, trial and error is an inevitable part of the experience.
Miya Atsumu turned his head to look at Hinata. "Just like you, Shoyo, you have your own times of searching, don't you?"
Noticing the brief moment of confusion on Hinata's face, Miya Atsumu couldn't help but chuckle. "But.. whether it's you or Oikawa-senpai, you're both actually very determined people, that's enough."
As expected, Hinata completely failed to understand what he was saying.
After all, for Hinata himself, the experiences he had before coming to Inarizaki weren't the bad part.
However, none of that really mattered; Hinata had already made the best decision of his life—enrolling in Inarizaki.
First of all, he is the strongest Setter; no one would be more suitable to be Hinata's Setter than him.
Secondly, they have Inarizaki, which boasts a renowned coach with "the sharpest eye" in the entire country; even though Hinata hadn't done anything yet, Coach Kurosu was able to discern Hinata's brilliance from just a single encounter.
Despite how much Utsunomiya and Coach Kusubashi liked Hinata, they might not have noticed Hinata's true potential when he was a complete blank slate back then.
Hinata's potential needs some actual match experience to be revealed.
Either it's a team like Inarizaki, which regularly organizes selections to refresh its roster, or a team where even a rookie like Hinata can make the starting lineup.