Chapter 6: Stay up the deepest night and contact Grind and you will be Grind Amway...
Contacting someone would lead to them introducing a new game. Unable to resist, Yuihara Kaoru happily spent the entire week playing it in between training and studying.
Even after washing up and lying in bed for a long time without feeling sleepy, she would quietly get up and continue playing. When she woke up and heard the rustling sound coming from her parents' bedroom, the time in the lower right corner of the computer screen showed that it was already six o'clock.
Today is Monday and it's time to get up and get ready for school.
Relieving himself from the adrenaline-fueled game, a sudden wave of fatigue instantly drained his mind. His head felt like it was buzzing with a low-frequency electric current, and his eyes felt dry and prickly. Yuihara Kaoru rubbed his eyes, noticing the swelling around them.
I forced myself to clean up the "crime scene," washed up in a daze, and before my parents came downstairs, I went to the refrigerator to find my mother's eye patches for emergency treatment. The cool touch finally brought me a little clarity.
It felt like we'd only been playing for a short while, so how come it was already dawn so soon? After rubbing his eyes and starting to rub his temples, Yuihara Kaoru mumbled a greeting to his father as he came downstairs. Yuihara Nagatomo adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and asked with a perceptive look, "Did you stay up late?"
"No," Yuhara Kaoru sat up straight and tried to get away with it, "It's just Monday syndrome!"
Yuhara Nagatomo just stared at her for a few seconds without exposing her lie. He walked straight to the refrigerator and started thawing the breakfast ingredients.
Having escaped the danger, Yuihara Xiangcheng calmed her heartbeat. As expected, compared to her mother, she was still more afraid of her father who didn't seem to lose his temper very often - never mess with a black-bellied man!
When Yuihara Kaoru was halfway through her breakfast, she thought of something more important. She screamed and scared Yuihara Nagatomo who was eating toast and the two cats coiled on the stool.
"Xiangcheng! Don't be so startled!"
"I'm sorry! I remembered that this morning's training has been changed to 7 o'clock. I'm going to be late~" Yuihara Xiangcheng hurriedly drank the milk in the cup in one breath, and then ran away with her schoolbag and training bag in her hands.
When Mikiko finished packing her lunch box, she saw that the child had already run away.
"Really," she complained to her husband, "how reckless."
Yuhara Nagatomo was clearing the table when he said, "Just give me the lunch box. I don't have to eat in the cafeteria at noon."
"What about the oranges? I didn't bring any food..."
Yuhara Nagatomo smiled strangely: "Only when you are hungry can you learn your lesson."
"Huh?"
Volleyball hall.
"I'm sorry I'm late—" Yuihara Kaoru, breathless from running, apologized as soon as she pushed open the door. Everyone who was practicing basic steps turned to look at her.
Matsumoto Genon tied her waist-length black hair into a ponytail today. As she turned around, it arced through the air. She bit her lower lip, a little angrily, "Everyone else, continue!"
Then he walked to the door alone and said to Xiangcheng, "You'll be late once, and you'll have to run five laps around the outside of the building!"
"Yes!" Yuihara Xiangcheng admitted his mistake with a good attitude. He quickly changed into sportswear, stretched, and started running.
When they returned to the team, it was their turn for defense training. Matsumoto Genon glanced around and made the arrangements: "Hayazu-senpai and Sakurai will be in one group, Hanami-senpai and Kobayashi will be in one group, and... I will be in one group with Yuihara."
After the other groups found their spots, Matsumoto Genon said to Yuihara, "Come on!"
Yuihara Kaoru nodded, tossing the ball in hand and swishing it. Matsumoto, three meters away, had already prepared a pass, with Yuihara attacking and Matsumoto defending, and they rarely made mistakes.
Feeling that it was almost time, Matsumoto hugged the flying volleyball and said, "Now let's switch, you play defense."
"Okay, Senior."
Yuihara Kaoru defended more seriously, and Matsumoto Genon's attacks gradually became more difficult to defend against. The ball landed directly on Yuihara's face and chest, and on the sides where it was difficult to maintain balance. Yuihara had to be extremely vigilant in his response.
After it was over, Sakurai Rika finally had time to come over and chat for a few minutes, but she had to go to the student union for her shift so she left early.
When Yuihara Kaoru finished changing her clothes and came out, she saw Matsumoto Genon leaning against the wall outside the locker room, wondering what she was thinking about.
"Senior!"
"Ah," Matsumoto came back to his senses: "I'm waiting for you, let's go together."
Hoping not to get scolded, Yuihara Kaoru obediently agreed and the two walked forward.
Matsumoto crossed his arms over his chest out of habit and said slowly, "Are you adapting well this month?"
"fine."
"You are completely different from what I imagined." Matsumoto Genon said, recalling the time when Yuihara Kaoru joined the club. There was indifference in her blue eyes, with a hint of scrutiny of this place.
She was furious at the time. Just because she won the Best Spiker award, did she feel wronged by coming to Rikkai University? Then why did she come?
But she's also a well-behaved girl. Besides the volleyball club, she doesn't join any other clubs, never skips practice, is rarely late, and occasionally even adds extra practice. But aside from Sakurai, she doesn't really interact with her teammates...
"This week, the Shonan Girls' Junior High School team will have a practice match with us," Matsumoto Genon lowered her voice. "If you play, you must learn to communicate with your teammates."
"Volleyball is never a one-person sport."
After saying goodbye in the teaching building, Yuihara Xiangcheng couldn't help but yawn a few times. She looked weak when she walked into the classroom. After greeting the classmates she was familiar with, she quickly lay down for a while before class.
It’s really hard to stay awake for a whole night. I just exercised for so long... Especially having to concentrate on dealing with the attacks from the senior sister, it’s too brain-consuming.
Meanwhile, in the tennis club, Yukimura Seiichi was watching the other members swing their rackets coldly. Niou and Marui were whispering about why he looked so angry.
But no one expected...that he would quarrel with his family.
It wasn't a quarrel, but rather a one-sided one, leaving him feeling bewildered and overwhelmed. His dreams and his body seemed to be two incompatible things in his family's eyes.
But tennis is his life, and stepping onto a bigger stage is his dream and pursuit.
He already had a good peer group to encourage him - but his family still disagreed due to his physical condition.
His anxiety was like a rolling wave pressing on his heart, raging, rolling, and surging.
He had a hard time calming down after hearing the news that Kunimitsu Tezuka was participating in the Junior ITF Tour and that he had won three matches as he had hoped.
He should also be standing on that field, getting rankings, accumulating experience, and preparing to go to the world, instead of... Closing his eyes and sorting out his thoughts, Yukimura announced the end of morning training and walked out alone.
"Pfft, something happened."
Marui Bunta threw a piece of bubble gum into his mouth and quickly blew a big bubble. He looked at Yukimura's lonely back, worried and silent.
Yukimura quickly greeted everyone as usual, while the student sitting behind him was still sleeping with his head buried in his clothes.
Seeing that it was almost time, Yukimura knocked on her desk, waking up the deep sleeping Yukihara.
"Didn't you sleep well?"
Jie Yuan rubbed his eyes and sat up, nodding lazily. The morning's lessons ended in an extremely inefficient state, with everything he learned going in one ear and out the other.
"I'm sorry, Rika. I was in a hurry to go out today and forgot to bring a lunch box. You and Kobayashi go together. I'll go buy some bread later." Yuihara Kaoru looked apologetic. The aftereffects of staying up late were getting worse.
Having said she was going to buy bread, Yuihara Kaoru, who was actually preparing to go to bed, was suddenly startled by Sanada Genichirō's deep voice.
"Yuhara, have you seen Yukimura?"
Huh? I didn't notice this morning, but Yukimura seems to be talking very little, disappearing during lunch break.
"Isn't he with you?" He usually went to the gardening class with a few friends.
Sanada shook his head: "He wasn't in a good mood this morning. Niou said he saw him leaving alone."
"Want to go look for it?"
Sanada was silent for a while, and finally said, "No." He probably knew what it was about.
Yukihara nodded, but then he saw Yukimura's lunch box was still in the drawer. "Oh, Shin..." He turned around and saw that Sanada had already walked away.
So, I decided to go check it out. Grabbing some change, Yuihara Kaoru went to the campus convenience store and bought some bread and two bottles of juice. He ate as he walked, wondering where this person would go. No need to change, the guy cosplaying as The Thinker on the tennis court was him.
Looking up at the huge sun and Yukimura who was exposed to the sun like a puppet, it really looked like a confiscated game console.
"Isn't it hot?" Yukimura was handed a bottle of juice from behind by Kyouhara Kaoru, successfully interrupting all the thoughts of the "Thinker".
Yukimura lowered his head: "Why are you here?"
Yuihara Kaoru forced the juice into his arms and sat on the other side of the coaching seat with his back to him.
"You don't look well," Xiangcheng said, "and you're not eating."
Yukimura still maintained that posture: "It's okay."
"Oh," Xiangcheng started to eat the remaining half of the bread, as if she believed what he said.
After an unknown amount of time, when Yukimura had finished her bread and started drinking her juice, Yukimura finally spoke: "Yuhara really likes playing volleyball, right? Would you...want to become a professional player?"
Yuihara Kaoru smiled knowingly, "After junior high, I realized there's a difference between having a hobby and turning it into a lifelong career. I can't discipline myself to follow my coach's instructions, and I don't want to turn my hobby into mechanical training."
"How can I explain it more clearly? My volleyball dream has only progressed to the point where I want to participate in the Spring High School. I'm not sure what I'll do in the future."
Yukimura remembered what she had said about "freedom" and felt that he himself was not free either.
"Since Yukimura asked me that, you must want to become a professional player. After all, you look like the kind of person who would risk everything for his dream."
"Yeah, I want to become a professional player... I guess I can't live without tennis."
"But my family is afraid... My physical condition can't keep up with the high-intensity training, so..."
I want him to give up, or at least graduate from high school.
It’s just that an athlete’s golden age is only a few years or more, and he had already recovered long ago.
Yuihara Kaoru didn't know that he had been seriously ill. She turned her head and looked at him in shock. Feeling that was impolite, she looked down at her water bottle.
"I haven't seen Yukimura play tennis yet," Yuihara Kaoru said carefully, "but for you to confidently say you want to become a professional player, you must be really impressive."
"It's just that you don't have to be so anxious."
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