Losing is Winning

Chapter 15

After that day, contrary to what Tobio had expected, Hinata started acting oddly. He noticed him staring all the time during practice, as if he was trying to read where Tobio was planning to toss to next so he could be there. Tobio traced it back to the fact that he hadn't been invited to any camp and now felt the need to prove himself by overdoing it in the process.

Even though it took Tobio a while to get used to the staring, he tried not to grow impatient with Hinata. After all those months of training together, he knew how hard Hinata worked for his position and to improve, and he could hardly imagine how he himself would feel if Hinata and Tsukishima had been invited to camps instead.

However, Hinata's staring only rarely led to a good spike, making it difficult for Tobio to keep his calm. Most of the time, Hinata watched Tobio so intently, that he completely forgot to start running to the net. The fifth time that happened, Tobio couldn't hold himself back from shouting at him, anymore, but Hinata just blushed in embarrassment and let the same thing happen barely ten minutes later.

"Alright," Coach Ukai called out in the middle of Friday's morning practice. Hinata had once again forgotten to move his arms during his jump, messing up their entire defense in the process. "Everyone, take a few minutes break. Hinata, I expect you to focus after that break."

With his head hanging low, Hinata walked off the court. "Yes, Coach," he answered.

"Don't do that tomorrow," Tobio warned him as he passed him by. No way they would lose against the school from Nihonmatsu just because Hinata was being stupid.

"I'm not doing it on purpose," he grumbled.

"Oh, I'm sure the Ohashi players will understand that," Tanaka mocked him, and Hinata pulled an even grumpier face.

Once Tobio put his water bottle down, he looked over to Hinata to see if he was ready to resume playing yet. To his surprise, however, Hinata's bottle of water was still standing next to him on the bench, untouched, while Hinata was typing furiously on his phone.

Tobio creased his forehead. He walked up behind Hinata and read over his shoulder to see what was so important for him to disregard everything else.

Apparently, Hinata was texting with Kenma. Tobio frowned. What does he want?

He knew he probably shouldn't read over Hinata's shoulder, but he was curious and he wanted to know what the conversation was about. It was important information for a setter to know what was going on with his teammates, after all.

Shouyou:

And what did your parents do?

I hope they weren't mean to you?!?

If you need to talk I'm sure Coach would understand!!

Kenma:

They want me to marry

Tobio furrowed his brows as Hinata's thumbs hovered over the keys. What in the world were they talking about?

Shouyou:

Uhm...

But isn't that kinda a good reaction?

Kenma:

To a girl

They say it would ruin their image if their son was gay

I don't even think they know it for sure. It's just a precaution or something because I don't act normal

Tobio still didn't know what their conversation was about, but this sounded dumb, even without the context. "His parents sound stupid," he spoke up, and Hinata shrieked with a little jump as he turned around to him.