My Voice - Tsukishima Kei

9-First Dates & Confessions

"I haven't seen my brother play since..." Tsukishima stares blankly at the court.

"Hm? You've never seen your brother play volleyball?" I ask for clarification and he shakes his head.

"No, I haven't seen him play si- ah. Just never mind. I don't really want to talk about it."

A frown comes over my face at that. He's hardly watched the game since we got here, and he hasn't been in the best of moods either. He seems more irritable and annoyed. He did say he hated this, so why did he still want to come? I don't want to make him be uncomfortable the whole time.

"I don't feel like I've paid you back for translating all those notes for me. Everything I've given you ended up being something you don't really like." I say and he sighs.

"I don't know why you're so obsessed with giving me things. It's bothersome if it's going to end up like this." Tsukishima rolls his eyes.

From what I understood, his sentences went like this 'I don't know why, obsessed giving things, it's bothersome'

So I really am annoying him, huh.

"Then let's leave." I stand up, an ugly feeling developing in the pit of my stomach.

Before I can walk away, Tsukishima grabs my hand and pulls me to sit back down.

"We already came all this way. It'd be a waste." He sighs.

I don't even want to be here anymore. I don't feel good anymore.

I thought that since he said he hated it but still wanted to go- that we'd have a decent time. But if he's going to act like this then I don't want to be here at all.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I'm just not having a good day, I shouldn't have taken it out on you." He says, still holding onto my hand.

"I don't care. It's fine to have a bad day, be in a shitty mood, talk shit. But what's not fine is the fact that you want to say it in Japanese instead of English in hopes that I don't get what you're saying. That's mean, Tsukishima." I yank my hand away from him, leaning towards the empty seat on my right, and crossing my arms.

Now I can't enjoy the game either, and I want to go home.

"Next time, take Yamaguchi-Kun." I mutter under my breath, but I think he heard me.

For the remainder of the game, the two of us were silent. Akiteru, who knew we were coming because it was brought up at dinner the night before, waved us down after the game and we had to pretend that we were in good moods.

Well, apparently Tsukishima is never in a good mood so he didn't need to act any different. He ends up insisting on taking us to dinner, and we eat at a really good ramen spot.

I made conversation with Akiteru, and it was mostly just us talking. He told me about his college days and how he's about to graduate. We talked about his job, and how he balances that with school and sports. Then he was really interested in America and how different things were between the two countries.

It was a little difficult trying to talk with one another, but he knew English fairly well so our mix of English and Japanese worked out pretty good in the end. I was proud of myself for being able to respond to a good amount in Japanese rather than English- and grateful Akiteru was patient with me while I tried to think of the right words.

It was nice. The food was good. But it felt incomplete.

"And here we are! Kei, walk her to the door." Akiteru says as he parks in front of my house and smiles at me, who's sitting in the backseat alone.