Chapter 52 Siblings: Middle School Students vs. Elementary School Students
Sawada Tsunayoshi hesitated for a moment, realizing he still couldn't be as good at dealing with strangers as Hinata.
His face showed distress. Irie Shoichi had gone out again at some point, leaving only him and Tsukishima in the corner of the pharmacy.
"Actually, even though I've been playing volleyball for more than two years, I still don't understand why I play volleyball."
Sawada Tsunayoshi noticed out of the corner of his eye that Tsukishima was looking at him, probably listening, and he himself was recalling the past.
"I don't have any strengths, or rather, I'm full of weaknesses. I can't do anything well. Then Xiao Xiang, ah, he's my good friend now, dragged me to play volleyball, and I suddenly realized that I'm not completely incapable of anything."
Hotaru Tsukishima couldn't help but speak up, "Who talks about themselves like that?"
And with such a self-righteous tone, why be so proud?
Tsuna didn't think there was anything wrong with his tone, "Because I'm stating the truth."
"Well, that's not important." He waved his hand and continued.
"Although I play volleyball now, many people around me have told me after hearing about it, 'Playing volleyball is great, it will definitely make your resume look good in the future,' 'It's good for physical fitness,' but I don't think I play volleyball for those reasons."
It was rare for him to speak so much in front of strangers. Perhaps Sawada Tsunayoshi sensed unease from the tall boy in front of him. Tsukishima remained silent and listened quietly to his outpouring.
"I'm a loser, so nobody cares about my resume. Besides, I don't like sports. After playing volleyball, I feel sore all over, like my lungs are about to explode and I'm going to die."
With Hinata not present, Sawada Tsunayoshi began to speak with genuine emotion.
Tsukishima asked him, "Then why do you still play volleyball?"
It's so hard, and I don't even like it.
Sawada Tsunayoshi smiled and said, "It's fun to play volleyball with my friends. Every time I score a point, I celebrate and cheer with them. Even if it's not because of me, I feel super happy and satisfied."
Tsukishima thought of his brother on the sidelines earlier, who cheered for his team with all his might even though he wasn't playing. Did he feel the same way?
Hotaru Tsukishima calmed down a little, but he was still angry at being deceived. He nodded silently. He wasn't quite sure why he played volleyball, but it was probably different from why he played for his brother and the guy in front of him.
“After all, we’re a team,” Sawada Tsunayoshi added.
Before Tsukishima could even express his thoughts, another tall boy with freckles ran into the pharmacy, his face filled with anxiety.
"Ah Yue, are you alright?"
The other person immediately locked onto Tsukishima upon arrival, ran over to observe him for a while, and then stared intently at his facial expression for several seconds to confirm that Tsukishima was no longer as easily angered as before, before carefully sitting down next to the two of them.
"If you come any later, my wound will be almost healed." Tsukishima knew that it was wrong of him to run away without saying a word, and he felt a little awkward in the face of Yamaguchi's concern.
Shoichi Irie walked in carrying bread. Having learned from his previous experience, he hadn't bought anything too hot. He handed the toast to Tsunayoshi Sawada and explained...
"This is Tadashi Yamaguchi. I ran into him outside earlier. He was probably looking for Tsukishima, so I brought him here."
"Oh, I see," Tsuna said, understanding. The two of them ate their bread while watching their good friends chatting.
"Um, Yue, are we going back later?" Yamaguchi asked hesitantly.
Tsukishima remained calm, asking, "Why go back?"
Tadashi Yamaguchi probably felt relieved, thinking that his friend wasn't as irrational as he had imagined.
“Mingguang will be worried.”
It would have been better if this hadn't been mentioned; the pent-up frustration in Tsukishima's heart resurfaced, and his tone became even more subdued.
"What does this have to do with him?"
He regretted it as soon as he said it. He clearly understood, but his emotions drove him to say something inappropriate.
Yamaguchi seemed a little lost, and Tsukishima softened his tone, "I don't want to watch the game anymore, let's go home first."
After hearing this, for a moment Sawada Tsunayoshi thought that the guy named Yamaguchi would stand up and say something to Tsukishima, but in the end, he still offered his suggestion in a soft voice, showing his gentle nature.
"Then we should say goodbye."
Tsuna seemed to see a reflection of himself in him. He and Irie Masaki exchanged a glance, then swallowed the bread in their mouths.
"Is he Tsukishima-kun's older brother?"
The two friends, caught in the middle of the argument, then realized that the people next to them hadn't left. Tsukishima frowned, and Sawada Tsunayoshi translated it as, "These two guys are still here."
Yamaguchi felt this was a matter of personal privacy for a friend and remained silent. Tsukishima Hotaru nodded.
"Yes, he was one of the Karasuno cheerleaders who was on the sidelines just now."
He's not some so-called ace player.
Hotaru Tsukishima felt irritated again; he still couldn't understand.
Why couldn't he just tell me directly?
They insisted on keeping him in the dark.
Seeing that Tsukishima made no attempt to hide anything, Yamaguchi quietly explained a few things. From their conversation, Sawada Tsunayoshi pieced together the general outline of the incident and understood somewhat.
"It's because Tsukishima's older brother cares about Tsukishima-kun a lot, so he wants to be the strongest in Tsukishima-kun's heart. Just like Shoyo and Natsumi, even though he didn't play in that game, he insisted on telling Natsumi that he scored 20 points in that game by himself."
After speaking, he looked at Irie Shoichi and confirmed with another childhood friend. Irie nodded.
"That's right. My older sister also has this so-called 'older brother and older sister dignity,' and she always has some image burden in front of us younger brothers and sisters."
"Before I was ten years old, I genuinely believed that she had magic, but later I found out that it was just a magic trick she had come up with."
He complained, but Shoichi Irie actually had a smile on his face.
Tadashi Yamaguchi nodded repeatedly, "Mingguang really likes Yue."
"That's the kind of thing love can do—it can cloud your judgment," Irie Masakazu sighed, then said somewhat sheepishly.
"For example, I also want Xiaogang to think I'm great. I can't help but worry before the band's performance, hoping that I'll be the best one."
This was the first time Sawada Tsunayoshi had heard Irie Shoichi say something like that. His eyes widened involuntarily, and he quickly spoke up.
"In my eyes, Xiao Zheng is the best! Every time I go to see Xiao Zheng's performance, I can only see Xiao Zheng."
Tsukishima and Yamaguchi watched the two enjoying themselves immensely. "Hmm," they thought, "weren't they talking about being blood brothers and sisters? These two don't look like brothers at all."
Feeling inexplicably like they'd been shown off, Tsukishima silently agreed to Sawada Tsunayoshi's suggestion when he asked if they wanted to go back to the stadium together.
After they entered the court, the teams were playing the second round. Sawada Tsunayoshi glanced at the scoreboard on the sidelines and saw that Karasuno was still in the lead. Well, Karasuno had won the previous round without any suspense.
The exciting match attracted many tourists, and there were many more people at the sidelines than when they had visited before.
Sawada Tsunayoshi and his friends were small, so they easily stood in their original front row seats. The empty seats next to them were occupied by strangers. When they looked closely, they saw that Hinata was chatting happily with the stranger.
The stranger also had brown hair and was very good-looking. Sawada Tsunayoshi's first reaction was that he was a complete idiot, but then he was drawn to the arena.
Tsukishima sat beside them, deliberately avoiding eye contact with Tsukishima Akira.
However, Yamaguchi noticed that although Akira still looked worried, he was clearly relieved.
I really should persuade them to have a good talk. Thinking about his conversation with Sawada Tsunayoshi earlier, Yamaguchi Tadashi felt that a heart-to-heart talk was very important. At least now Tsuki is much calmer.
It's best to talk about these things as soon as possible.
Hyuga saw them and exclaimed, "Hey, come quick! The Little Giant just had an amazing spike! Whoosh! And then thud! Karasuno won that set!"
The stranger next to him couldn't help but burst into laughter upon hearing this, "Little one, are you that excited? Hahaha!"
Hinata didn't think anything was wrong with herself at all. "Oikawa-senpai, don't you think so?"
Oikawa nodded. "Yes, yes, that's impressive."
Upon learning that the handsome guy's name was Oikawa Tetsu, Sawada Tsunayoshi looked around their small group and thought, "Huh? Why are there so many more people?"
I didn't think much of it at first, since watching the game with Hinata was already noisy enough, but with Oikawa Tetsu joining in, it became even noisier. The two of them watched with more passion than the students from Karasuno University.
Hotaru Tsukishima's eyes gradually went blank. He could understand Hinata's comments, since that guy was a fan, but Oikawa was clearly Kitagawa's number one, so why was he getting excited along with Hinata?
"Are they two elementary school students?"
Sawada Tsunayoshi quietly chimed in, "We're just elementary school students, aren't we?"
However, Tsunayoshi and Irie Shoichi understood why the two got along so well—it was probably because they were both quite naive.
During their break, the Karasuno High School players nudged their ace player and joked,
"Hey ace, you even have such a small fan now."
Several tall, muscular high school volleyball players probably mistook Hinata for a first or second grader.
As soon as Yuu-nai Tenman stepped off the stage, his imposing aura subsided slightly. He scratched his head somewhat awkwardly.
"Isn't it a bit unsafe for such a young child to come here to watch the game?"
As they spoke, they caught a glimpse of Hotaru Tsukishima and Tadashi Yamaguchi appearing beside them.
"Ah, I knew it. How could any parent feel comfortable letting such a young child out to watch the game? Look, that must be their older brother or something."
Yuu-nai Tenma withdrew his gaze. Judging from the student's appearance, he was probably a middle school student. He nodded in relief.
However, the only middle school student in the team, Oikawa Tetsu, was ignored by the Karasuno players because he was too in sync with Hinata. Instead, the real elementary school students, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi, were recognized by them.
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Author's note: This person is starting to write in a chaotic way, so don't worry about the plot. The main thing is that I like and want to write a little bit about everyone.
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