Hayato returned home completely exhausted and collapsed spread-eagled onto the living room sofa. He had never expected that idiot duo to be so hopeless at studying. Neither of them was stupid when it came to volleyball, but academics made him want to claw at the walls. Ennoshita and he had even taken turns teaching them, which made it easy to imagine just how difficult it had been when Ennoshita had handled it alone.
"Ennoshita, my poor brother. You should cut back on your training from now on."
Grrr... His stomach wailed from hunger. With no other choice, Hayato dragged himself up and made some udon. After eating his fill, he washed the dishes and glanced at the calendar on the wall.
There were fewer than ten days left until the exams. Summer vacation started on July 26 this year, which meant he still had several more days of being tortured by those two. He weakly picked up his schoolbag and trudged upstairs step by step. After changing into pajamas, he fell asleep without even taking a bath.
He was awakened by the sound of rain. Still groggy, Hayato brought his phone before his eyes and found several unread messages.
It was only 5:40 in the morning. Rubbing his eyes, Hayato gradually woke up as he listened to the endless rain outside and looked through his phone. Most of the messages were from Kiyoko, along with Hinata's usual requests for advice and Tanaka's question about a particular point of knowledge.
"Do you want omelet or hamburger steak tomorrow?"
A cat with a question mark.
"Are you asleep?"
"Looks like you were really tired from training with everyone in the Volleyball Club today. Good night."
A cat tucked beneath a blanket.
Looking at Kiyoko's messages, Hayato writhed around on the bed like a worm. Then he noticed how sticky he felt. He must have gotten sweaty after sleeping all night without bathing yesterday, so he got up, put on his slippers, and headed off for a morning shower.
The splashing water in the bathroom and the rain outside blended together into a gentle summer tune.
After taking a refreshing shower, Hayato wrapped a bath towel around his waist and walked shirtless into the living room. He took some milk from the refrigerator, poured himself a glass, and drank it all in one go.
"Having a glass of milk after a bath like they do in anime really does feel great."
It was still early, and it was raining besides, so Hayato did some simple exercises in his room before preparing himself a hearty breakfast.
He mixed Japanese mustard and butter to make mustard butter for spreading on the bread later. He combined mayonnaise, whole-grain mustard, honey, and coarsely ground pepper to make sandwich sauce. He blanched the wild vegetables in boiling water for a minute or two, removed them, and patted them dry with kitchen paper. Then he seasoned eggs with salt and made scrambled eggs.
Next, he poured a suitable amount of oil into a frying pan, fried the bacon until browned and crisp, then set it aside.
He assembled everything in the order of bread, mustard butter, bacon, wild vegetables, sandwich sauce, scrambled eggs, and bread. After weighing it down with another cutting board for five minutes, he sliced it down the middle. The wild vegetable and bacon sandwich was complete.
He warmed up another glass of milk and wolfed down several pieces in one go.
After breakfast, he sent Kiyoko a message, figuring she was probably awake by now.
"Sorry, Kiyoko-senpai. Tutoring Ryu and the others yesterday wore me out so badly that I went to bed early. I want hamburger steak today!"
He sent a hands-pressed-together apologetic emoji and a drooling hungry emoji.
The message was quickly marked as read, and Kiyoko's reply soon arrived.
"Pfft, so it wasn't training but tutoring that exhausted you?"
A cat laughing while clutching its stomach.
"Yeah. Who would have thought those two could be such a headache when it came to studying?"
"Then you really had it rough. All right, I'm going to make hamburger steak for someone who wants it."
A cat waving.
"Good luck! I'm looking forward to lunch today."
A fist-pumping emoji.
She did not reply again, but the read receipt proved that Kiyoko had seen his message.
They went to school together again. After a morning of studying, lunchtime arrived. The rain that had fallen all morning stopped at just the right time, and the sun emerged from behind the clouds, its light reflecting off the puddles on the field.
Hayato eagerly took out his bento and opened the lid. There were no droplets left on it from the steam, which meant Kiyoko had waited until the food had completely cooled before putting the lid on. That, too, showed just how considerate she was.
Filled with gratitude toward Kiyoko, Hayato pressed his hands together and said, "Thanks for the meal." Ryu, however, leaned over from beside him.
"Nice. Kiyoko-senpai made this hamburger steak too, didn't she?"
Hayato moved his bento away from Ryu. Today, he had no intention of sharing.
"Kiyoko-senpai made this hamburger steak especially for me today. I'm not giving you any."
"What?! She made it especially for you?!"
After chasing off Tanaka, who wanted a bite, Hayato enjoyed the bento Kiyoko had made for him all by himself. Once he had finished every last bit, he pressed his hands together in satisfaction.
"Thanks for the meal. What's wrong, Ryu? Are you still sulking? Is it really that serious?"
With an arm draped over Tanaka's shoulder, Hayato knowingly asked the question.
Tanaka shot him an annoyed look. He truly could not understand why Kiyoko-senpai treated Hayato so well. Was this the power of having a childhood friend? Damn it, why did he not have one?
Then Tanaka suddenly remembered something and fell into thought. It seemed like he had one too, but Hayato's voice interrupted him.
"Ryu, I'm going to buy something to drink. Do you want anything?"
"Uh, green tea is fine."
The sudden question interrupted Tanaka's thoughts, but his nature made him stop dwelling on it.
After lunch break, the afternoon classes were still hard to endure. After eating, listening to the teacher's lecture felt like being subjected to a hypnotic spell that made everyone drowsy. At last, school ended. As the students headed home in groups, Tanaka loudly encouraged himself.
"I didn't fall asleep in class today either. Good job, me! Hayato, let's go train!"
"Idiot, I've already got my things. Hurry up."
Leaning against the classroom door, Hayato, who had been waiting for a while, laughed as he scolded Tanaka to hurry. Tanaka did not mind. He grabbed his sports bag and followed Hayato, and on their way downstairs, they ran into Nishinoya, who was also heading to the locker room.
By the time they reached the locker room together, the first-year duo had already arrived. Hinata excitedly reported to Hayato that he had made great progress with his tool-off-the-block technique. Kageyama, meanwhile, wanted to do one-on-one training with Hayato today. As the team's setter, if he did not properly coordinate with an ace player like Hayato, they could make mistakes during matches.
Apparently, Kageyama had already assumed that Hayato would play in matches.
After calming the two noisy underclassmen, Hayato helplessly pinched the bridge of his nose. So this was what being young was like? They had way too much energy. After changing clothes with a resigned sigh, he followed the group to the gymnasium.
"Please take care of us today as well!"
Everyone first greeted Coach Ukai, then began the day's basic training.
Basic volleyball training consisted of serving, receiving, and spiking. The Karasuno Volleyball Club had excellent offensive strength, but when it came to defense, aside from their guardian deity Nishinoya and the team's pillar Daichi, everyone else's receives were not bad, but they were not particularly good either—just average. Hinata was the exception. He was genuinely terrible.
After the basic training, Hayato found Coach Ukai and told him his idea about increasing the substitute players' training load. Coach Ukai neither agreed nor refused after hearing him out, only saying that he would think about it. Hayato did not press the issue and returned to training after speaking. Though Hayato had only just joined, both his ability and ambition had left a deep impression on Coach Ukai.
That was also a characteristic of athletic clubs. Effective suggestions from strong players could influence a coach's decisions. There were only so many capable athletes around; if one school did not value you today, another would. Those powerhouse sports schools would not be stingy with their recommendation spots. If a school could send out an outstanding player, or even a national team athlete, it would bring considerable benefits to future recruitment.
What, Hayato did not have a reputation yet? With his current ability, where could he not shine?
Before you continue