The Great King -「大王様」

Chapter 17

日野歩美
Hino Ayumi

-x-

"起きて(Wake up.)" I heard a gentle voice. My cheek felt the lightest, most tickling finger run down from my forehead to my chin. The fingers held it up, and a soft kiss landed on my lips. "ね。。起きて(Hey.. Wake up.)"

The moment my eyelids fluttered open, the first thing that I saw was a black disheveled shirt, showing bits of Tooru's skin. I was only half awake then, but Tooru grabbed hold of my hips and made me lie down on top of him. The only sounds I made were sleepy groans. I could barely keep my eyes open.

A short chuckle made his stomach jump a little, then his morning voice echoed in my head. "学校をサボってましょうか？(Should we skip school then?)" My natural reaction to that is to probably get up and shower, but my position felt so comfortable, I didn't want to move an inch. Instead, I nodded my head in response.

Tooru's laugh got louder. "ダメだ夕暉。早く起きてよ(We can't do that Sekki. Get up already)," he said.

For this, I struggled to gather all my energy just to tilt my head up to look at him. He looked back at me. A quick thought of him being my husband popped in my head, but I disregarded it anyway.

"ダメのか？(Can't we?)" I asked with a voice too sleepy to try acting cute.

Tooru shut his eyes and turned his head away from me. I felt a growing bump from where my hips were at. Well, I'm not exactly a child anymore to be curious of what was happening. And unfortunately, I was also not awake enough to control myself. "欲しい？(Do you want?)" I asked.

My hands moved up his arms to his cheek. But then held my wrist midway. Tooru's voice shook. "ダメ(Don't.)" from the sound of his voice and the look on his face, I knew that he wanted to say the opposite. Unfortunately, I've then lost all my energy and my body slowly shut down again.

--

In the end, we ended up going to school. A bit later than we usually do, but not late. Yui was falling asleep in class, and my consciousness already assumed that she and Kunimi got busy. She visited the volleyball club after classes with me. Yui was all energized at that time, and it was my turn to fall into sleep mode.

I'm not sure how the practice went, but Yui told me that Tooru kept sitting beside me whenever they went on break.

The day went on as per normal, I would say. People didn't seem to care nor realize that Tooru and I've started dating because our treatment for each other didn't really change.

Then, on the way home, Tooru talked about Karasuno's first day in Nationals. Despite already knowing, since Tobio updates me all the time. In contrast to what Yui concluded, I feel that when Tobio expressed his relief when he found out that Tooru and I weren't dating was for his epiphany that he won't get in trouble for meeting up with the grand king's girlfriend. Because Tobio speaks to me like he does with other people. Either he doesn't know how to express his feelings, or he just sees me as his friend.

More or less, it's definitely the latter.

Our talk was disrupted when a girl in a uniform similar to Shirabu's stopped in front of us. My head was in a knot, wondering what was going on, but when Tooru muttered that name under his breath, I caught a gist of what was going to happen.

"内山夕暉ですか？(Are you Uchiyama Sekki?)" Hino asked with an innocent smile and a tone that made her appear to be in a good mood. I gave her a subtle nod in response, and she turned to Tooru for her following question. "ちょっといい？(Can I have her a bit?)" He was hesitant at first. It took a second before he agreed to it.

We didn't go far however. Just a few meters away from Tooru, enough to have a girl talk without him hearing.

"私は日野歩美です(I'm Hino Ayumi.)" She lowered her head. The tone of her voice and the movements she made reminded me of Suzuki. Graceful and sophisticated. I could tell she was a woman of class. "白布さんと少し問題が有るから。。手伝ってください (I have a small problem with Shirabu-san, so... I'm asking for help, please.)" she lowered her head even more.

Crap, I don't know how to deal with these situations. "いいよーあの問題が何？(It's fine— What's that problem?)" I asked, feeling all flustered.

"彼は多分怒っています(He probably got mad)," she said firmly, which I don't think should be said in the tone she just used. "『君が夕暉のようなものではないと』。。言った ('You're nothing like Sekki'.. he said.)"

That does sound very Shirabu-like. "どうして？何だしたの？(Why? What did you do?)" I completely forgot she was in a position higher than me, and yet she was the on using a formal tone between us. It'll be too awkward to switch to a formal tkne now.

"告白したです(I confessed.)" The face Hino made was full of determination, like she did a brave thing or something. Shirabu can be quite scary, and I understand that it'll take a whole lot of bravery to woman up and confess, so if combined together, that's a different level of bravery Hino got. Adding the fact, that she was probably already aware that Shirabu dislikes her presence.

"歩美さん！(Ayumi-san!)" a voice grew from a distance. The both of us turned to that direction and found Shirabu running towards us. Tooru took notice of this, and started to head to us too.

Hino's confidence and sophistication vanished the moment Shirabu stepped foot in front of her. "何がして？(What are you doing?)" he asked with a little anger in his tone and on his face.

"な。。何もー(N-Nothing—)"

Shirabu, with the most emotionless face he had, blurted out, cutting her off. "『失せろ』言ったでしょ？(I told you to get lost, didn't I?)" He stood between me and Hino. "君は何故此処に？(Why are you here?)"

I'm a friend of Shirabu, yeah, but I know for myself that he's definitely wrong in the way he treats Hino. "ちょっと(Wait a minute.)" I grabbed his shoulder and made him face me. I felt Tooru's presence beside me, but he didn't intervene. "辞めて(Stop it)," I commanded, looking straight into his empty irises. Shirabu's hard to read because he seldom expresses his emotions, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have them.

I had Tooru lecture Shirabu, as I got a little bit more time to talk with Hino.

"御免日野さん、彼を許してね？(Sorry Hino-san, forgive him please?)" I suggested, taking my phone out as I did so.

Her eyes were teary, and I couldn't relate to her sadness, but if my crush spoke to me like that, I would most likely break down too. Specially if I really like him.

Hino's confidence never came back even after we exchanged emails to keep in touch. Unlike earlier, her back was then slouched, and her tone was dead, but still formal. Without even looking at her, her voice was enough evidence that she was feeling extremely down.

Because of that incident, I went home with Tooru feeling down too. He persuaded me to allow him to cheer me up before we go to bed, and his initial plan was to watch their last game with Karasuno. The idea worsened my mood, but after he sweet talked me and everything, we somehow ended up together in his bed, watching their last match with Karasuno. His short quiet comments every now and then lulled me to sleep.

Tooru turned his head to me twice when he caught my eyelids dropping. I didn't expect him to turn the screen off, and start to find his sleep with me. He embraced me close and planted a kiss on my forehead. "お休み (Sleep well)," he whispered, before placing his lips on mine. With the way his lips moved, I knew he wasn't letting me drift off to dreamland just yet.