Breaking Through the Iron Wall - Aone Takanobu x Reader

Chapter 6

By the end of practice after school had ended, I started to understand the basics of volleyball. The premise was rather simple, however the strategy required a state of mind only pure geniuses possessed. Just from observing, you could understand how you need to have all of the cogs in your brain churning - but you couldn't understand just how much of the game was impacted by it. Sure, some aspects relied on just instinct, but the winner would always be the one to strategise. The practice was intense, not even our own team could get past the iron wall half of the time. 'Iron wall' seemed like such an intimidating name, blocking everything in its path and crushing down all who tried to get past - when it was truly just a measure of protection for our field of grass behind it. The wall was a sneering enemy to our opposition but a great protector to us.

As I was packing up the chairs, Futakuchi sneaked around behind me, "Your highness..." He whispered into the air.

"What is it this time, Futakuchi?" I didn't turn around - trying my best to ignore him and his antics.

"What's the deal with you and Aone?" He snickered.

"Nothing."

"Your highness... I don't really believe that. Why are you always with each other? Could it be something interesting?" He leered over my shoulder, though I couldn't see his face - I could still see his grimace.

"We just catch the same train. Nothing more." I replied curtly, quickly scurrying away from him.

His pace matched mine, trailing behind me at the same rhythm, "I don't think that's very believable. Aone's not that kind of person, you know."

"How am I meant to know that, I only met all of you yesterday." I finally turned around to face him; my arms folded in a very annoyed manner.

"The thing is your highness, Aone is the type of person to shy away from everyone, like he's somehow scared of what people will think." Futakuchi sneered, moving to match his height to mine.

I understood that feeling all to well, and I understood why Aone felt that way too. One person could tell you that your true nature was too much to handle, you were told that people would think badly of you if you didn't mask yourself. So you began to act how you presumed people wanted you to act, never raise a hand in objection, never praise yourself - for people will think of you as narcissistic. Along with many other things. Those teachings were partly to blame as to why crowds were such a problem to me, there would always be someone looking at me, and judging me... And I wouldn't even know. Maybe somehow, Aone thought that very way too, but only sometimes of course.

I cockily raised my eyebrow, "Maybe he's just like that with you, I doubt anyone would feel comfortable with you around." That didn't make sense at all. I had no clue why I just said that.

"Good point there, your highness. I bid you farewell." He bowed elegantly, one arm flourished to the side. When he rose, he looked behind me and nodded as the smirk on his face rose again. Once he had became a comfortable distance away from me, I swivelled around to meet the sight behind me - Aone. Who knew how long he had been standing there and how much of our conversation he had listened to.

"Hey, Aone..." My voice slightly cracking as I said that, "Have you been standing there for long, sorry if I didn't notice you." In return - he shook his head. It was relieving to say that he didn't listen in on that rather out of the blue conversation, even if it carried little meaning to him. Would I have felt differently if he did hear it? Was there really any difference at all, nothing had been revealed during our conversation.

After that, I headed to the club room, the only place where I knew nobody would disturb me - I took my time to get changed, hoping everyone would have cleared out before I left. In a swift click, the key turned in the lock, closing the club room for the day. Descending the stairs, I didn't look up from my feet - I habit I had learned years ago in order to draw attention away from me. The last step was then behind me, and something else stood in front of me. Aone. As silent as ever. No other team member was here, so he had no purpose in staying at practice a second longer - even for me. "Aone..." I calmly spoke, in a tone close to a whisper, "You didn't have to wait for me, you know."