Birds of a Feather

12: Meow

Only a few more days till the Nekoma match. Luckily, my nose is almost completely healed. I do have trouble breathing through it though.

I was racing Kageyama, but now I find myself lost.

Did I go the wrong way?

I suddenly hear a cat meow.

I look to the direction of the noise and see a boy in a red jacket next to a calico cat. He had half of his hair a faux blond color while the other half was a brown almost black. He reminded me of pudding. He was playing his phone.

"Whatcha doing?"
I ask running over to him

"Um...I'm lost..."
He says shyly

"What, are you from another town?"
I ask standing next to him

"Yeah."

"Is that fun?"
I say kneeling down next to the boy.

"What? Not really? This is just a time waster."
He responds

"Ahh! Do you play volleyball! Those shoes! They're volleyball shoes!"
I say excitedly as I point to a pair of volleyball shoes poking out of his bag.

"Oh, yeah."
He says

"I play volleyball too! My name is Hinata Shoyo!"
I say excitedly

"Kozume..."
He says shyly

"Kozume? Is that your name?"

"Kozume...Kenma..."
He says

"Kenma, huh? You in high school?"

"Yeah."

"What year? I'm a first-year!"
I say

"Second."

"Crap! An upperclassmen! I'm so sorry!"
I say stiffening up.

"Oh, it's fine. I don't really like all that sports-minded, superiority stuff."
He says and I loosen up a bit

"Oh, really? Um, do you like volleyball?"
I ask

"Umm, not really. I play it cause it's there. I don't mind it, I guess, but I don't like getting tired out. But a friend of mine plays it, and he probably needs me to play it with him."
He says nonchalantly

"I think once you start to like it, you'll find that it's way more fun."
I say leaning up against so chain fencing

"I'm only doing it for the duration of high school."
He says

"What position do you play?"
I ask

"Setter."
He responds

I immediately think of Kageyama.

"Wow! You're nothing like our setter. Ours is more of a "grr" kind of guy."
I say putting my hands out like I was a tiger.

"Oh."

"By the way, I'm a middle blocker!"
I say proudly

"Eh?"

"Oh, do you think that's strange too? Usually taller guys play my position."

"We'll, I guess so. But not really. They say stuff about me a lot when I go to matches. Like, the setter is supposed to be the talented person on the team, so why him. I'm not all the athletic."

"I see. So, is your team good?"
I ask

"Um, I'm not so sure. They said it used to be good, but then it went downhill. But only recently...I'd say it's a pretty good team."