"don't you have something more fun to do?" yn asked.
"what's more fun than studying on friday night?" that wasn't even a lie. [...]
"woah, you are way more lame than people give you credit for," she chuckled.
"yeah, all of this makes people think t...
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the silence between two siblings grew deeper, but only one of them felt the awkwardness that came with it.
"they didn't let me into the team," yuuto finally said, sighing loudly.
yn hummed and nodded as he spoke, patiently waiting for her brother to say more when he was ready.
yuuto kicked a rock, which fell off the sidewalk onto the street, and the boy groaned. nothing worked for him today.
"they had a problem with my attitude," yuuto explained after taking a few more steps toward their home.
"what's wrong with your attitude?" yn asked, taking a close look at her brother's face. yuuto was a teenage boy, and he had mood swings and sometimes acted in the wrong way, but she had no idea that would be a dealbreaker for allowing him to join the volleyball team. "did you try to act like me?" she questioned, casting him a disappointed look, and his response told her everything.
yuuto shrugged his shoulders, too embarrassed to elaborate on what he had said and done during the trial.
"they didn't let you in, even with how good you are?" yn tried again with a different question.
"they didn't even let me play," yuuto confessed, avoiding his sister's gaze.
yn hummed again, trying to figure out how to solve the problem. they spent a lot of time together, so it was obvious that he would eventually pick up some of her behavior. yuuto was good at mimicking other people's habits as a way to fit in. this wasn't good, and it was her fault, so she needed to think fast.
what could yuuto possibly say that would provoke such hostility from the team? she knew a few guys, or at least knew who they were, and to be honest, they weren't exactly saints. for example, the yamamoto guy from second year was seen by many as deliquent and he was as emotional as a guy can get, but no one protested to him being on the team.
she knew who her brother really was, and he was not like her. he probably thought that if his older sister could get so much 'respect' from other students by acting like that, based on what he heard on his first day of high school before the trial and their reactions to her, he decided it was the best strategy.
"be honest with me for a second." she heard yuuto groan again as soon as those words left her mouth.
it was just a thing in their family, or more specifically between them and their siblings. it was exactly as it sounded. a promise to be honest for the next few seconds. they took it very seriously, as if it were a magic card that could only be used under special circumstances.
they were mostly honest with each other, but they were also teenagers who needed encouragement to tell the truth.
"do you think you deserve a second chance?"
it was even worse than yuuto expected. he hoped that yn would use their promise to find out from him what happened on the trail, but no, she had to play his private therapist.
"deserve... i don't know, but i would act better and i would be good asset to the team if i get one."
yn smiled lightly and bumped her shoulder into her brother's. he was way too tense for a normal conversation. yuuto chuckled lightly and did the same, taking extra care not to push her into the bushes next to the sidewalk.
of course, he deserved another chance, it was her fault in the first place. they should have talked about what yuuto would hear about her in nekoma. she should've known sooner that yuuto would try to act like her after hearing some of the stories, she should've explained to him why she acted like this and why it was wrong. she had just failed him, and now she had to fix it.
"i'll get you another shot, okay?" she said. her tone was so confident that yuuto didn't even question how she could do it.
one thing about yn was that she was persistent and loved her siblings more than anything else, which made it believable that she would truly get him another chance.
yn bit the inside of her cheek, mentally preparing herself for a conversation with the volleyball team captain, deciding that was the easiest way to her goal.
