Love Hurts (Teruyama)

Chapter Five

 Yamaguchi took multiple gasping breaths once the petals stopped, and looked up at the circle of people surrounding him. Once he regained his breath, he let out a sigh of relief, but that relief vanished quickly once he caught sight of Ukai and Takeda walking up to him.

 "Come on," Takeda murmured quietly, helping Yamaguchi up. "We'll be right back," He announced to the team. "So, don't worry!"

 Once the three of them were out of the gym, Takeda and Ukai gave Yamaguchi a look of pity.

 "So, I guess that's why you haven't been practicing," Ukai mumbled, not entirely sure what to say.

 Yamaguchi nodded, but stayed silent.

 "Do your parents know?" Takeda asked.

 Yamaguchi didn't respond.

 Takeda let out a small sigh. "We'll have to let them know," He muttered, pulling out his phone.

 Yamaguchi lifted his head up, and stared at Takeda with wide eyes. "Please don't!" He shouted, tears threatening to spill again. "If you do, they'll force me to get the surgery, and I'll have to live the rest of my life never feeling anything, and I don't want that!"

 Takeda bit his lip. "I'm sorry, but as a teacher, I have to."

 Yamaguchi looked down at the ground, the tears spilling from his eyes. "Please. I can't live like that..."

 "Specs, put the phone away," Ukai said, making Yamaguchi and Takeda look over to him in shock.

 "But, as a teacher I'm required to-" Takeda started, only to be interrupted again.

 "Look at him," Ukai pointed at Yamaguchi. "He clearly doesn't want them to know, and I'm sure that he'll tell them in his own time," Ukai shrugged. "Besides, they'd probably wanna hear it from him, and not some teacher that they've never met."

 Takeda hesitantly, and reluctantly put his phone away, but pulled it out right after. "What if I get fired for not telling his parents?" He panicked. "What if-"

 Ukai snatched the phone away from Takeda, and put it in his pocket. "Can't get fired if you 'lost' your phone, can ya?"

 Takeda let out a defeated sigh, and nodded.

 "So, how long have you had the disease?" Ukai asked, turning back to Yamaguchi.

 "About a month now," Yamaguchi answered.

 Ukai nodded. "So, does anyone know, or were you keeping it a secret from everyone?"

 "Tsukki knew."

 "That explains a lot..." Ukai murmured. "When were you planning on telling the rest of the team?"

 Yamaguchi stayed silent for a bit. "Honestly, I didn't really plan on telling them at all," He admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't want to worry anyone."

 "Well, they were worrying about you anyways," Ukai commented. "Ennoshita brought it up to me a few times, and Tanaka and Nishinoya told me that you said you weren't getting that much sleep, at least, from what they had heard from you."

 "Really?" Yamaguchi asked, a wave of sympathy washing over him. The entire reason he kept the disease a secret was so that no one would worry too much, and after hearing that, it made him wonder if his parents were worried about him as well.

 "We should probably get back inside, but ya gotta promise me one thing, kid," Ukai said.

 "What?"

 "You need to tell your parents about this by the end of the week, just so that Specs doesn't stress over it too much," He said, pointing at a panicking Takeda.

 Yamaguchi gave a quick nod, and braced himself for the chaos that would unfold the moment he stepped in the gym.

 "Yamaguchi, are you okay?"

 "Yamaguchi, who did you fall in love with?"

 "Yamaguchi, how long have you had the Hanahaki disease?"

 Yamaguchi knew that he had a long week ahead of him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Tsukishima sighed as he sat at his desk. It had been a week since the entire team found out about the Hanahaki disease, and they wouldn't stop bugging him about it, and to top it all off, Tsukishima still didn't know if Yamaguchi ever told his parents. After last week, Yamaguchi had stopped showing up to practice, so he figured he had told his parents something. Either way, Yamaguchi had neither confirmed, nor denied anything that Tsukishima had asked about, and it was getting on his nerves. Tsukishima knew that Yamaguchi didn't have much time left, because yesterday Yamaguchi had coughed up an entire flower, and Tsukishima doubted that things would get better.

 He rolled his eyes, and pulled out his phone. He was about to do something that he just knew he'd regret, but he felt as though it had to be done. He pulled up his contacts, and texted Yamaguchi.

Could you give me Terushima's number?

I think I found something of his.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Tsukishima crossed his arms, and leaned up against a tree. "He was supposed to be here 30 minutes ago," He muttered angrily.

 "Hey, Saltyshima," Came a smug voice from behind.

 Tsukishima jumped, but regained his composure. "What took you so long?" He snapped.

 Terushima shrugged. "It took me a while to figure out what your vague text meant by, 'meet me at the park,'" He stated. "I mean, you could've at least told me which park..."

 Tsukishima rolled his eyes. "Well, at least your small brain was able to figure it out."

 "Hey!" Terushima shouted, clearly offended. "I'm in a college class, I'm not as stupid as you make me out to be," He mumbled. "Anyways, what did you need? You said that it was important."

 Tsukishima sighed, and twiddled with his hands for a bit. "I need to tell you something about Yamaguchi..."

 Terushima let out an annoyed groan. "Let me guess, it's not enough that he's ignoring me, so he asked you to tell me that he hates me or something?"

 Tsukishima shook his head. "No. It's the opposite actually," He admitted. Yamaguchi doesn't even know that I'm here, he just thinks I'm returning something to you."

 Terushima raised an eyebrow. "Going behind your best friends back? Man, that's low, even for you, Saltyshima."

 Tsukishima glared at him. "It's to help Yamaguchi," He stated. He took a deep breath, and softened his tone a bit. "There's a reason Yamaguchi's been ignoring you, and maybe if you find out, it'll help him."

 "Well, don't leave me hanging. What's up?"

 Tsukishima opened his mouth, and got ready to tell Terushima everything.

(A/N~ Heheh, please don't kill me. Hope you have fun reading the next few chapters, I think you guys will actually appreciate them, but I'm not giving anything away, so have fun suffering for a bit! 😊)