Tomorrow [Tsukishima Kei x Reader]

19

Tsukishima Kei's POV

I wasn't avoiding her. But I did wish I didn't see her. There wasn't a particular reason why— I just didn't want to.

"Why are you here?" [Surname] asked me.

I happened to stop by the Hironaka Hospital because of my mother's request— giving my sick cousin one of those get well soon food.

"I was visiting my cousin," I said. "What about you? What are you doing here?"

"I-um. I was visiting someone as well."

"Who?"

"My aunt," she said.

"The aunt you love to visit?"

"Yes!"

"Is she sick as well?" I asked.

"Sick? Oh! No, she isn't! She's a doctor here," she explained. "Anyway, there's a great bakery nearby. Wanna hang there for a while?"

"I don't want to."

"Oh come on!"

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I say with complete honesty that I really didn't want to join her, but you can only do much when you're against an annoying pushy person who can make you go back on what you said.

"So," [Surname] said after she swallowed the bread she was chewing. "You're not practicing like the others?"

"No," I replied.

"Why?" she asked, raising her eyebrow at me with a curious face.

"I just don't feel like it. I don't see the point of going the extra mile just to get better at it when in the end it might just be nothing. I don't get why people push themselves over a sport even to the point it might harm them. I mean, look at yo-"

I caught myself stopping my talking when I realized just what I was about to say.

I've always known that in terms of being an athlete, [Surname] and I were the two ends of the spectrum. I was the type to do the bare minimum while she was the one who would do more than she should just to get better.

Because of my blunt nature, I was about to bring up one of the most sensitive topics for her as of the moment— volleyball.

"Were you going to say like me?" she asked.

I only looked away, not really knowing what to say. I didn't want to hurt her furthermore than how she already was, surprisingly.

"That's okay. It's not like you were insulting me," she said with a smile. "I guess for people like us, other than loving volleyball with all our hearts, we also have these goals connected to volleyball. Some of us want to be stronger than a specific person so they keep on pushing themselves. Some just want to be a better version of what they already are. It's really funny how a dedicated person is willing to go when faced with something they love."

I only looked at her while she talked as I wondered to myself.

"You aren't gonna react in a mad way?" I asked, confused with her reaction. When I had brought up how she was the type of players I couldn't understand, I expected her to shout and preach just how much of a great sport volleyball is.

"Not really. I mean, that'd be very hypocritical of me to call you out."

"Hypocritical?"

'How could she be a hypocrite?'

"Hypocritical," [Surname] said, holding up her phone. "Behaving in a way that suggests one has higher standards or-"

"Idiot. I know what it means. I was wondering how you could be when you're the exact opposite of me."

"Well," she started. "I'm guilty of only trying to make myself better. I never called out any of my teammates if they looked like they weren't giving effort in training."

She started poking the bread in front of her as she talked.

"I guess I believed that if I was strong, that'd be enough," she said. "I never bothered to tell my teammates to get stronger like me because I knew I had the ability to bring out their best. That sounded like I'm full of myself, aren't I?"

"Well, I already knew you were very full of yourself so you don't have to hide it," I said, smirking at her.

[Surname] laughed as she gave me a playful glare.

"Anyway," she said. "Although I want to tell you to try harder because you have so much potential, I'd let someone else do that for me. Besides, I'm not gonna force you to do something you don't want to. I'll let you fall in love with volleyball at your own pace."

"I don't think that'd ever happen," I admitted.

"Oh, come on! You never know! Falling in love is completely unpredictable. Soon, you'll fall for volleyball without knowing," she said.

"Sounds fun," I said with a straight face. "No thanks."

"When you finally fall for volleyball, you'll see me telling you that I told you so," she said with a grin.

I didn't respond anymore. I only looked away as a way to tell her I wasn't going to continue the conversation.

When I finally glanced at her again, I saw her looking out the window. She had her elbow on the table while she placed her chin on her palm. Her eyes held a sort of melancholic look in them.

I followed where she was looking at and saw her staring at a group passing by. From their outift, it was obvious they were athletes as well but what sport they participated in was something I couldn't deduce.

"Falling for another sport?" I teased. "And here I thought you were loyal."

"Silly Tsukki," she said, still looking outside. "I guess other than missing playing volleyball, I miss being a member of a team. I miss staying late with them after school and just working on our own skills. I miss practicing for the next tournament and anticipating it with my team. I miss connecting with them and forming a bond with them. I just miss being in a team."

"You talk as if you aren't part of a team right now," I said.

"Huh?" she asked, facing me with a confused look.

"You're our manager, aren't you? Then you're part of the team, idiot," I said. "You're not playing but you're still part of a team."

"Oh," [Surname] said. She then gave me a soft smile before saying, "You're right."