𝗲𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 | 𝙨𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙧𝙖

𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟯: 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

[白布 賢二郎] Kenjirō Shirabu

Honestly, by the looks of it, Semi hated him more than me. I refused to believe it since I didn't think they met before.

"Did you guys...meet?" I asked nervously.

Semi didn't acknowledge my existence but he just shook his head.

To be honest...

I knew Chiya and his friend didn't want to interfere because there was tensity in the air, but neither did I. Not that I'd ever admit it, but I wanted Chiya to pull me out and save me.

Of course, Semi being that nice guy, just covered it up and smiled. "Nice to meet you, then, Hiro."

"You must have seen me on TV?"

Semi nodded. Usually, he would compliment great players if he met them, so why wasn't he complimenting Hiro?

Chiya noticed something I didn't, but she tried not to make a big fuss about it when...this was happening.

"We'll get going then," Hiro murmured.

Hiro grabbed his friend and rushed out, leaving me a little confused. Semi dropped his happy face. It was expressionless, but before that, I saw a look of disgust.

Chiya told me to go on and she held Semi back. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I heard their conversation.

Chiya: That was nice and considerate.

Semi: What was?

Chiya: You tried to stay away from the topic of volleyball.

Semi: Ah, you're very observant. And I mean you're observant as in you caught up to Shirabu's feelings.

Chiya: Guess that too.

I was never more the definition of confusion. Chiya hurried up again, leaving Semi behind.

"So," I began, "did Semi like, have a bad exchange with," I tried my best not to throw up, "Hiro?"

She shook her head, but I thought that she was lying.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded her head, and she looked so freaking bubbly like a plushie.

Even with her confirmation, I didn't believe that Semi would just hate someone and scare someone off like that. Wait. Semi scared Hiro off, but if they never met before...

But I'm going to go with that they met before. So maybe Semi threatened Hiro, even if it wasn't like him.

"Shirabu, think of any awesome ideas for our project?"

I shook my head. Chiya wanted to turn her head around, I could tell. Her eyes kept trailing back.

"What?"

"I feel bad for Eita. We're here, talking about stuff we could do in our own time, and he's just following and doing who knows what."

"So?"

We talked nothing more on the topic.

"You still think Eita had talked with, um, the Hiro guy?"

I nodded reluctantly. She sighed. "At least you admitted it."

I wanted her to keep on talking, give me more reassurance or something, but she kept silent, which made me even more curious.

Chiya would turn around to check if Semi was there every once in a while.

"Eita!" She finally called out. Semi nodded as a gesture for her to continue, and she said, "we're here!"

I felt fewer footsteps, and I turned around to see Semi staring at the stream, motionless.

"Come on," Chiya said. She quickly hopped away, passing by a few people.

I just left Semi and trudged on to find Chiya.

"Look, pretty flowers," she murmured. She then found a seat on the bench without looking away from the grass and held a few up in her hands.

"I know this one by name. Anemone. Not sure about this one though—" she said, pointing to a purple flower. She was cut off as soon as someone snatched the flower from her. We looked up and saw Semi, watching the flower with a normal expression again.

"It's a hyacinth."

China smiled big, seeing Semi talking to us. "Oo, really? How'd ya know? Interested in flowers? There aren't a lot of those here. Actually, that's the only among three, I think."

She was right.

He pet the flower, his eyes beginning to look a little sad.

"I planted them."

Both of our eyes widened. "Really?" Chiya asked.

"Yeah."

"When?"

"A long time ago. I'm happy it's still here."

"How'd you know no one else planted hyacinths?" I said, finally having a conversation with him. I squinted my eyes.

His pupils flared at me, and I knew if it wasn't for the calming breeze, I would've run away.

"I don't know," he said, "but I know these are the ones I planted."

We decided to stop the questioning because he put the flower back.

"Did you plant any other flowers?"

Semi kept walking around the river. "Here? Yes."

"WAHHH! WHERE?!"

He pointed to a bunch of poppies scattered around the whole place.

"WOAH," she nearly yelled. "ALL OF THIS?"

Semi nodded.

"Did you come here a lot?"

"Mhm, I used to."

"When was that?" I piped suddenly, taking Chiya by surprise.

"A long time ago," he said through gritted teeth.

I had a feeling he wasn't lying, but come on, he didn't have to go full monotone on me.