A different Hinata Shoyou

Chapter 4 - His reason

Mori POV

We were sitting together with shoyou in the cafeteria like we usually do nowadays.

'We've gotten quite close with Sho, it's nice to know that he opens himself up to us, slowly but surely, at his own pace'. Suddenly while we were talking random stuff like usual, Shoyou's phone went off. "Give me a second guys" he said and we simply responded with "take your time". Shoyou looked through his phone and we could see his expression darken.

Whatever it was couldn't have been good considering Shoyou's expression. He looked extremely grim, and he had this dark aura around him. "Sho, who is it? Shoyou looked up at us biting his bottom lip, it looked like he was on the verge of breaking down. We all shared a look and hugged him. "We're here if you need to talk Sho, just tell us, okay?

He nodded slightly, the dark aura around him lessened and we all felt more at ease. "Do you want to talk about it?" I asked him once we let go.

"Uhm, can we talk somewhere else?" He asked looking down. We all nodded before we realized he couldn't see us so I just said "yeah, let's go." We walked to the place where we had seen shoyou's amazing jump for the first time since it was rare for others to go there.

After he had been quiet for a while, Shoyou said with a quiet voice "I was betrayed, that's why I'm here, I was betrayed by the people I trusted the most, the only ones I had. My mother who had custody of me abused me verbally and physically, the only place I felt I belonged was with my volleyball team, they were my everything. I trusted them, and yet... and yet..."

Shoyou started crying and we were all stunned for a moment before we hugged him. "It's okay, you have us now, we won't betray you okay? Those people are assholes, you have nothing to worry about." I said, giving him my signature smile. Shoyou only nodded, he then handed me his phone. He opened an old IG account to us, we were all shocked reading what it said and seeing the photo.

"I thought I had gotten over it, so why does this still hurt? It's not even visible anymore but it still hurts... How do I make it not hurt?" Shoyou looked at us with tears in his eyes, despite the tears his eyes were still dull, void of emotion despite him obviously feeling something. "I want the pain to disappear, but no matter what I do, no matter how much I train my body that part still hurts like it just happened."

I looked at the others with an expression of uncertainty, "I'm not sure Sho, but know that we're here with you, and will help you okay?" Shoyou only nodded then gave one of his very rare, but forced smiles, "thank you!" he said with genuine gratitude. 'I used to wonder why he ended up like this when he told us he used to be all bubbly and talkative while in Japan, I guess I finally got my answer. How could they do something like that.. They're the reason behind Shoyou's dull eyes and indifferent expression..' was all I could think before I heard Cal ask Shoyou a question.

"Sho, can you go into detail on how they betrayed you? You don't have to feel pressured of course, take your time."

He shook his head "no, it's alright, I'll tell you, it's better if you know anyways." We all share a look at that but stay quiet and let him continue.

"I used to play volleyball, I loved it, spiking and seeing the other side of the court as the ball hit my hand hearing the signal that we earned a point. The feeling of just, flying, a place where my height didn't matter. I aimed to be an ace. And as you already know, I chose my school based on where my idol went, he was called the little giant."

"I honestly didn't even notice that my team was using me. I was really loud and obnoxious, I loved my team, they were my family, I was safe with them, despite all the teasing and all. I became the teams 'number one decoy'." the others shared a look at that 'did they seriously name him a decoy'.

"I loved spiking and wanted to become the ace, my friend got me to realize that being a decoy wasn't all that bad, I really don't think so either, he said how, because of me I trick the other team, disturbing their defense, so just jump. I didn't have to be an ace to be a part of the team. I could just be me. This person was my best friend and rival. Bakayama... but he... he's the one that punched me in the stomach and gut leaving that huge bruise."

"I heard them one day, talking about how I was a really good decoy, and had some amazing spikes, that made me overjoyed, but... their next words were 'yeah, but except that and speed he sucks at everything else, sure he does a good job at times and all but, we've been super close to losing because of him', the one that said this was my best friend.... And one of my senpais.."

The three boys were listening intently to what Shoyou told them. "I talked with Sugawara about this, but he didn't believe me, if Suga didn't believe me, no one would, so I let it go. However suga must've talked to them, because after that a rumor was spread around saying I was talking shit about my teammates, being an ungrateful bastard and overall that I was a shit player who shouldn't be on the starting team. I was hurt. Especially since my teammates believed them, they didn't even ask me about it, just ignored me or pretended I didn't exist. They didn't even let me say my side!"

"...One day bakayama told me to meet him behind the gym so I did. When I got there he punched me in the gut, picked me up and punched me in the stomach. Then threw me to the ground, he said 'this is what happens when you go telling others lies, boke.' He grinned at me, the last sentence I heard was 'you're useless without me.' And I thought it was true, I believed those words."

"When I got home I got a beating from mom, it was louder than normal so a neighbor called the cops who took my mom away and my dad finally got custody."

"No one in the whole school believed me.." he said with a weak, pained smile.

3rd POV

It was rare seeing shoyo smile, even rarer to see him cry, but rarest was the possibility of seeing any emotion from the boy. The amount of times the three boys had seen true emotion from the boy was now two times, the first time was when he jumped and the second time was now, the moment he laid his heart bare of his memories.

"I want to prove them wrong" they suddenly heard and as they looked at the ginger they smiled, 'he's determined'.

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