fate, destiny, & love

20 | animato

20

animato [it.] — in an animated manner;
with excitement and spirit; lit. "animated"

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it was slightly before three in the afternoon and tokyo university's volleyball players were getting ready at the sides of the court. kageyama stretched his hands over his head and threw periodic glances over to the audience, hoping to spot a familiar face in the crowd.

"what'cha lookin' at, tobio-kun?" atsumu lilted as he slung an arm around his precious junior, looking at him with a smirk on his face.

"he's probably looking for huan-san," hinata piped up, following kageyama's gaze at the crowd.

"ooh, ya invited yer soulmate to our game?" atsumu teased, ruffling kageyama's hair while at it, "our tobio sure has grown up~"

"he's blushing! he's blushing!" hinata yelled, pointing at kageyama's face, which was turning redder and redder with each passing second, then gasped, "so he does like—"

"shut up, dumbass hinata!" kageyama yelled as he made a move to grab hinata by the collar (and start a brawl on the court) just as the referee blew the whistle to indicate that the game was starting soon.

at that precise moment, quqi, remi, and nakajima entered the gym and found seats up front in the overhead gallery to watch the game. remi glanced over to the right, where their own university's players were standing, and pointed at someone, "oh, qq, look! look! it's kageyama!"

she squinted over to where remi was pointing, only to realise that she was right, it was indeed kageyama. he had the team's jersey on and his signature scowl on his face, to which quqi realised that the latter was part of his 'everyday look'. kageyama turned his head and glanced at the audience once more, only to lock eyes with quqi. she raised a hand up to wave at him and he nodded in acknowledgement. little did she know, her poor soulmate had been reduced to a fresh peach, and atsumu and hinata had already gathered around him to make fun of him.

"they're fighting right before their match?" quqi asked as she watched kageyama try and grab hinata, to which the latter was dodging all of the ravenette's attacks easily.

"nah, i think they're having a friendly little argument over something," remi laughed, already knowing full well what the three of them were doing.

subtly, kageyama turned his head to see who had come along with quqi. he could see that his soulmate was talking to remi, and sitting just beside her was nakajima. his stomach turned in the nastiest way possible and he suddenly felt the burning urge to play extra well that day.

the referee blew the whistle again and both teams walked onto the court. two players, one from each team, walked up to each other at the side and stuck their hands out to give the other a handshake before they returned to their positions on the court.

"kageyama's serving!" remi said as all three of them turned their heads to tokyo university's side of the court.

kageyama had the volleyball in his hands and once the referee blew the whistle for the second time, kageyama threw the ball up into the air and did a short run-up, then jumped into the air and smacked it down to their opponent's court. the ball was not received by any of the opposing team's players, and it ricocheted off the wooden floors. the referee blew the whistle and raised his hand towards tokyo university's court, and the score-keeper turned the score page. cheers erupted from the gym as tokyo university's players yelled, "whoa, kageyama! nice service ace!"