Startled, Hinata shuddered, his footsteps coming to an instinctive halt.
He scanned the entire corridor, after confirming that there was indeed no one around his location, he stood there hesitating.
There's no one here, so that sound must have come from the corridor ahead..
Standing in place and thinking for half a minute, Hinata stood on his tiptoes, tiptoed toward the corner over there, quietly peeked his head around.
Before he could see the situation inside clearly, an extremely sharp gaze suddenly projected itself onto him.
“Who is it?”
The corridor was very dark, as if the rooms inside were unoccupied, with only the setting sun spilling through the door of a certain room.
Someone stood there with a hunched back; beneath their slightly long hair, squinted eyes scrutinized Hinata as he poked his head in.
The sound of something dripping onto the ground echoed, sounding exceptionally clear in the extremely quiet space.
Hinata's eyes widened.
The original fear vanished, the figure hiding behind the wall stepped out uncontrollably, walking completely out into the hallway.
Your hand—your hand is injured!!
Hinata rushed over almost immediately, reaching out to grab the other's hand.
For some reason, the other person's movement to step backward froze halfway through, in that moment of hesitation, he was caught by Hinata.
In that moment of losing his footing, the force of Hinata's pounce was not absorbed; instead, it dragged both of them down to the ground.
The chestnut-haired boy's expression was clearly one of panic, or even terror.
Even after his body hit the ground with a heavy thud, he still hadn't realized what had happened.
Realizing he had bumped into someone, Hinata hurriedly apologized, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
“But your hand—it's injured!”
Hinata looked at his right hand; there was a deep and obvious laceration on the knuckle of his middle finger, as if it had been cut by some sharp metal object.
Catching sight of the metal chairs to the side out of the corner of his eye, connecting them to the sound he had just heard, Hinata had already guessed what had happened.
The rest chairs in this hallway had all been replaced with metal ones, identical to those in a hospital, a faint scent of disinfectant could be detected in the air.. Was this near the infirmary mentioned yesterday?
Hinata's voice was very anxious: "He's bleeding! He's right next to the infirmary, go take care of him quickly!"
The probability of injury in volleyball is quite high, but most are just bruises. This kind of bloody scene.. to be honest, he had only seen it once, when a ball hit him in the face and caused a nosebleed that wouldn't stop.
Just as Hinata was about to approach and press his whole body against the other person's legs, the person who had been standing there dazed suddenly slapped Hinata's hand away.
Don't touch me!
A sharp reprimand rang in his ears, the sense of resistance conveying itself with absolute clarity, causing Hinata to pull his hand back instantly.
The blood droplets that had just been flung stuck to Hinata's face, but he himself remained completely unaware.
He blinked, his mind not quite catching up.
Realizing that he was becoming too emotional, the chestnut-haired youth trembled as he raised his hands, using his bleeding hands to cover his face and hide his current emotions.
I'm sorry..
Hinata waved his hands repeatedly. "No, no, no, none of that matters. It's mainly your hand—"
As if his emotions had calmed down a bit, the chestnut-haired boy used his hands to push off the chair beside him to stand up, said softly with downcast eyes, "The doctor went to the head coach's place and will be back in a while. I'll go to the infirmary to wait for him."
After standing in place for a while, the boy, who hadn't raised his head once, said softly, "I'm sorry."
That not-so-tall figure stumbled away, back hunched, disappearing from Hinata's sight as he turned into a half-open room.
Hinata sat on the floor, tilting his head in confusion.
Not a bad person.. probably.
Moreover, for some reason, he felt that the other person looked somewhat familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before.
Thinking about this question, Hinata got up from the ground, rubbed his chin, left this corridor.
Although he really wanted to go to the infirmary to see that person from just now, the other party was clearly rejecting his approach, which was different from everyone else he had interacted with.
The other person seemed quite familiar with the doctor, so there probably wouldn't be any major issues.
Furthermore, the injury was likely sustained unconsciously, without any intention of self-harm, so no other accidents should occur.
The people one meets inside the Volleyball Association building.. there should be other opportunities to encounter them in the future.
As Hinata passed by the vending machine, his footsteps faltered for a moment.
Ah, Atsumu-ge's drink.
Carrying the drinks upstairs, Hinata was immediately met with the collective gaze of everyone chatting on the sofas the moment he entered the lounge.
Hoshiumi sat up straight immediately, his voice filled with confusion, but more so with worry and surprise: "Shoyo?"
Aoba also leaned over: "Are you injured?"
Hinata, who hadn't processed it at all, had a look of complete confusion on his face: "What?"
Sitting on the single sofa nearby, wearing a mask and positioned apart from the others, Sakusa said simply, "There's blood on your face."
Hinata raised his hand to wipe it, but Sakusa spoke up to stop him: "Don't move. Use this."
After saying that, he raised his hand and tossed a pack of tissues over.
Hinata raised his free hand and accurately caught the pack of tissues. "Thank you, Kami-senpai!"
Hoshiumi leaned in and inspected Hinata's body from head to toe. "What happened? You aren't injured, are you?"
Hinata shook his head. "No, I just ran into someone with a hand injury; it probably got on me then."
Wiping the blood from his face, Hinata found that Miya Atsumu was nowhere to be seen, so he simply opened the bottle of drink himself, sat down beside Hoshiumi, began to drink.
He turned to look at Hoshiumi. "Where is Atsumu-ge?"
Hearing that annoying name, Hoshiumi rolled his eyes. "Why bother with him?"
Komori replied, "Atsumu went to find Suna; the two of them seem to be getting ready for a fight."
As he spoke, he added, "Hanae said it."
Hanae and Suna were roommates. Just as they were coming out, they happened to run into Miya Atsumu, who was chasing Suna all the way into the dormitory, using his foot to wedge the door open to force his way in, while shouting something about deleting things.
Right at that moment, Hoshiumi's phone suddenly let out a ring.
Having waited for a long time, Hoshiumi rubbed his hands together and clicked on his phone with an excited expression: "I got it, I got it!"
Hinata poked his head over to take a look at Hoshiumi's phone screen, his first instinct being to hide himself behind the sofa.
Hoshiumi held up his phone, repeatedly showing everyone present a high-definition GIF of Miya Atsumu slipping at the entrance of the bathhouse.
Hearing the sound of a door opening over at the dormitory, the voices of Miya Atsumu and Suna followed immediately after..
Hinata's vision went black.
Chapter 385: The 385th Fox
Sakusa, who had originally been on the sofa, glanced toward the hallway, exchanged a look with Komori, then stood up. Carrying his water bottle, he headed toward the stairwell, preparing to leave this hell that was about to become a place of chaos.
Hiding behind the sofa, Hinata watched Sakusa's receding figure, his eyes filled with envy, even wanting to chase after Sakusa and leave this place.
Sakusa's back was incredibly resolute, not sparing a single glance for the people behind him.
Why was he standing here like a statue instead of enjoying the quiet in his own room?
Because his and Komori's rooms were right next to Suna's, the sound of Miya Atsumu and Suna fighting was simply too loud; he and Komori couldn't stand it, so they came out to wait in the lobby for them to finish fighting.
Moreover, Komori also wanted to have a chat with Hoshiumi; he was just listening in.
Now that the root of the problem has come to light, the lobby is clearly about to become very noisy.
He decided to go downstairs for a walk and return to the dormitory via the stairwell on the other side.
Hoshiumi placed his phone beside him and crossed his left leg over his right, acting as if nothing had happened.
Footsteps drew closer, realizing something was wrong, Hoshiumi reached out decisively and pulled Hinata out from behind the sofa.
Hoshiumi pulled him to his side, making Hinata sit between him and the arm of the sofa: "Sit here."
Hinata shrugged his shoulders.
The aggressive Miya Atsumu charged straight up to Hoshiumi and reached out toward him. "Give me the phone."
Hoshiumi did not back down in the slightest. He rested both hands on the back of the sofa behind him and slightly lifted his chin to look at Miya Atsumu. "Why should I give you my phone?"
After speaking, his gaze shifted to Suna, whose hair was a tangled mess.
Suna shrugged at him, taking his hands out of his pockets and simply pressing down on his hair twice.
But because of static and tangles, his grooming was unsuccessful; his hair remained a messy clump, the perfect horns on both sides had completely vanished, turning into two tiny horns.
He admitted that he couldn't beat Miya Atsumu and had his phone snatched away by him.
Although he had already unlocked the screen, under the physical threats of the crazed Miya Atsumu, he could only be pinned down and forced to unlock the phone, only to have the ten consecutive photos he had just taken deleted.
Fortunately, he was very cautious in his daily life; he would back up all the photos he took every day to his alt account's email, then delete the photos taken that day in the process.
It was a way to be vigilant against being discovered and losing all the stock, while simultaneously reducing the pressure on the phone's storage.
—It seems to be a perfect approach now.
Miya Atsumu, locked in a standoff with Hoshiumi, glanced at Hinata standing beside Hoshiumi.
Hinata pursed his lips and shook his head slightly.
He patted his chest and spoke with absolute certainty, "Hoshiumi-senpai won't go around spreading rumors! At most, he'll just show everyone!"
That's right!
Even if Iizuna-senpai had shown him that video of Atsumu getting hit in the head before, it had only circulated within a small circle and hadn't affected Atsumu's public image!
Across from him, Komori couldn't help but burst out laughing.
He looked at Hoshiumi, then at Miya Atsumu, finally settled his gaze on Hinata.
If it really wasn't contagious.. Miya Atsumu's classic video wouldn't have been a close-up of someone getting hit in the head.