Rice Cake

Chapter 01 ~ A Sad Captain, A Sad Life - Side 1

A Sad Captain

Suguru Daishou is one of multiple volleyball captains across Japan. However, he isn't very well known. He's always shadowed by other captains such as Tooru Oikawa, Shinsuke Kita, and Daichi Sawamura. Hell, he's even often bested in popularity by the Miya twins.
And his team mates make fun of him for it.
     "Alright everybody...gather up. We have a practice match with Nekoma next week", Daishou mumbles. "Oo, Nekoma!", one of his team mates, Naoyasu, chuckles. "They're pretty powerful as a team". "Yea", Akihiko, another team mate, nods.
   "Guys, please just...quiet...? For a second?". "Jeez, someone hates talking about a more popular team". Daishou looks down at his hands as he gently rubs his palm with his other hand's thumb. "Sad cos Kuroo is more popular?"
Daishou just ignores and continues. "Anyways, we need to be on our A-game for this, alright?". The team all hum in acknowledgement. "Thanks. You can all head home now. Practice is over".
   They all cheer as they flow out of the gym, heading home. Meanwhile, Daishou is still at work, putting all the equipment away. Buy why?

Nobody else would...

So he does it every night after practice, just to get home and study for hours. It's always the same. Over and over. And it's starting to tire him out.

At home...

"Suguru! Get studying!". The boy sighs, nodding as he goes to sit at his desk, pulling out a few books and a pad. "Cant even get a break...". And so he sits there, doing revision and studying. Until it gets so late he's snoring at his desk.
     When he wakes up the next morning, he sees his father stood over him, holding some sort of black item. "Get up. Now". Daishou mumbles and sighs before getting up. His father raises the item and a smack rings when he brings his hand down.
Daishou grunts, trying to hold the pain. "Get to school, now!". Daishou nods, not even taking his bag or books as he walks out.

"Daishou, where's your bag?", Akihiko asks through a mouthful of rice. "Shit...I forgot it". He sighs, rubbing his arm. "I might go and ask Mika if she has good to spare...". Akihiko just nods as Daishou gets up and walks to find Mika.

Mika Yamaka is his girlfriend of four years. They only really ge to hang out during school because he's always busy studying and she's busy with her life. So school is his quality time with her.

"Mika~" he keeps round the corner. "Dai! There you are!". She hugs him, "morning!". He smiles, morning, hon". He sighs, "can I nag you for something?". "Depends, go on". The male twiddles his fingers, "can I have some of your food...I forgot everything at home...". Mika tilts her head, "everything? As in...even your bag and stuff?". He nods, "sadly".
Mika opens her bag and pulls out a box. Lucky for him, she had made the two of them a box full of Mochi. "I love you Mika, thank you~". He grins. Mika squeezes his cheeks, "don't talk with a full mouth" and pecks his nose with a chuckle.

The same thing happened again the next day, and she was again willing to share. "There you go, one dango stick". "Yesss. Thanks alot Mika, it means the world to me". He pecks her cheek. She smiles, "only for you".
He then started to bring everything again, and she didn't need to share as much. Even if she wanted to.
However, evening his mood was good throughout the week, the day of the practice match came...and it was all ruined.

"Nice to finally meet you in person, Daishou-kun", Kuroo grins. "You too, Kuroo". He smirks and puts his hand out. The other takes his and shakes firmly. "Uh...are you two secretly dads in your forties?" Taketora blurts. Lev covers his mouth and drags him away.
Kuroo and Daishou both chuckle slightly. "You ready?". "As I'll ever be".

And so the match began. Nekoma took an instant lead with Nohebi struggling to keep up. And they lost the first set completely. Then came the second set, Daishou getting pumped up enough to bring their score up...
But to no avail. Nekoma had won.