The Fading Sunshine

Chapter 21

**Hinata's POV

I woke up the next morning and got ready for school. I packed my bag and headed down stairs and was confronted by my dad.

"Just because you were gone for a week doesn't mean the rules don't still apply. Home by 5:30 or you'll get it." He said with an expressionless face. He must be hungover.

I ran down the rode to meet Kageyama but when I got to our usual spot he wasn't there. Maybe he's just a little late today, i'll wait for him.

About 10 minutes passed and no sign from Kageyama. I decided to call him to see where he was at. I dialed his number and listened to the ringing, waiting for him to pick up. After two rings the call ended. Did he just decline my call? What the hell is up with him this morning. I started to walk to school by myself.

When I got to the gym the door was unlocked. I peered inside and saw Kageyama, Suga, and Daichi sitting together in the middle of the court. I stuck my head inside and said, "What are you guys doing? Kageyama why didn't you wait on me this morning?"

"Oh, well I got up earlier this morning to discuss a few new attacks we wanna try with Asahi." Kageyama said and glanced at Daichi.

"O-oh yeah. I had some ideas I thought we could try and told him to come early today." Daichi said.

"Oh... Alright well i'm gonna go get changed.." I Said. Something was going on. They were acting so weird. What were they really talking about?

Soon the rest of the team showed up and we all went down to the gym to practice. We practiced our game warmups and then did a few drills, nothing crazy. But I'm pretty sure they were going easy since I was released from the hospital almost 2 days ago. I was cleared to play but they still worried.

When practice ended we all changed out of our practice jerseys and made our way to class. My class schedule was Math, Japanese, Anatomy, then lunch, then I go to our afternoon volleyball practice.

(I don't want to bore anyone out of their minds from talking about school... so let's skip to lunch ;)

I walked out of Anatomy and was making my way to the roof where I usually ate lunch with Kageyama when I heard 3 voices behind me. I recognized them immediately. I hadn't seen them in awhile. I hopedthey had gotten bored of messing with me. I guess not.

"Hey shrimpy, hows our favorite homo?" One of them said as he pushed me into a wall.

I came out about a year ago and most people were supportive of me and treated me the same. But there are a few people who looked down on me and thought I was disgusting for being gay. These three happened to be some of the people who didn't agree with my decision.

"How did you go from straight to gay and you still haven't found someone that likes you? That's pathetic. I guess no one wants your sorry ass." He said with a sneer.

I just looked down at the ground. I've learned that these guys only want attention and they'll usually get bored if you just ignore them.

One of them grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and pulled me forward. "Why don't you show some respect and look me in the eyes when i'm talking to you. People like you should really learn your place. You're just a bunch of freaks." He spat as he shoved me onto the ground, causing me to drop my belongings.

"What not gonna fight back? You're a coward? Guess we'll have to make you fight then." He said as he rolled up his sleeves.

I began brace my self for the punch when out of no where so one punched the guy in the face. He fell down and looked up at whoever just saved me from a beating. I looked up and Kageyama was standing over him with rage in his eyes. "Get the hell away from him..." He muttered.

"What the hells your problem, he's a freak. Maybe a good beating will whip it out of him." He said as he looked over and flared at me.

I felt my face turn pink and the tears began to pool up. I turned away. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing he had upset me. I saw Kageyama glance over out of the corner of my eye. "Get out of here before I do something I regret." He said as he turned towards me and reached his hand out to help me up.

"Tch.. what ever... His sorry ass is your problem now." He said as the three of them walked away.

Kageyama and I knelt down and gathered my school supplies from off the ground. "Why would you just let them push you around like that?" Kageyama asked suddenly.

"They've been picking on me since I came out. I realized that they usually get bored and leave if I just ignore them, but that wasn't the case today." I said, looking up at him.

"You've been getting bullied since you came out? Why didn't you tell me or a teacher. We could've helped." He said with hurt in his eyes. I saw that hurt look a lot lately from him. The more he finds about the life I don't tell him about, the more I seem to hurt him.

"It's not that I didn't think you would help me. I didn't want you to think I couldn't handle things on my own. I didn't want you to think I was weak." I told him.

"Hinata, asking for help doesn't make you weak. Its okay to let someone help you every now and then." He said.

We picked up the rest of my stuff and headed to the gym. We missed most of lunch so we would just have to eat while we changed for practice.

When everyone arrived we began a scrimmage game. We've been scrimmaging more often ever since we realized we all benefit and get better from these games.

I was of course on Kageyama's team. We were team black while the other side was team orange. We started off strong with a lead of 6-3. We were well into the second set when we all started to get pretty tired. I went up to hit and got a kill. When I came back down I stumbled a bit, but was fine. I turned around and cheered for the point but Kageyama was right by my side with a serious face. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"Uhhh yeah why wouldn't I be." I asked with a laugh.

"You just... You stumbled." He said.

"Yeah. We're all tired from playing Kageyama. I'm fine." I said with confusion in my voice. Why wouldn't I be okay? We're all just tired from practice.

"Alright but you will say something if you're feeling off right?" He asked.

"Yeah, sure..." I said. I realized that they all were probably watching me and making sure I didn't get hurt. They were worrying again because of how soon I started playing after leaving the hospital.

"Can we continue playing now?" I said, getting kinda irritated.

"Oh uhhh.. Yeah." Kageyama said as he walked back to serve.

We won the second set 27-25. It was a close scrimmage and we were all exhausted from all the hard work we put in today. We changed and went our separate ways to go home.

Kageyama stayed after to work on his serves but it was getting late and I didn't want to upset dad. So I walked home alone.

When I arrived at my house. I noticed a car I didn't recognize in our driveway. I walked in and my heart stopped. Standing in the middle of my kitchen talking to my dad... Was Koki.