Kenhina || Catch me

Chapter 25 // Kenma

The outcome of the practice match was a score of 25-21, in Nekoma's favor. Still, compared to the first day of the training camp, Karasuno had improved a lot. After the match between Karasuno and Nekoma, Kenma's team played another round against Fukurodani as well as Shinzen High. 

Nekoma lost the first one but managed to win against Shinzen. Then the third day of their volleyball practice came to an end, many people stormed off, probably to be the first ones to make it to the showers. Unfortunately for Kenma, he was picked as one of the students to help clean up the gymnasium. The majority of the teenagers on cleaning duty left prematurely, right after the teachers took off. Normally the second-year would have done the same, but that was a lot harder when he was with Kuroo, who was determined to set the right example as team captain.

"So, you seemed pretty out of it today," the black-haired third-year noted as the two of them appeared to be the only people who remained in the gymnasium. "I can guess what was on your mind, puddinghead, I caught you staring quite a few times," Kuroo teased his childhood friend, who looked up at him in annoyance. 

"If I remember correctly, you were the one to bring me into a state of confusion, so naturally I spent time thinking about what you said," the second-year commented, without much emotion in his voice. 

"You're not even going to deny you were staring? Ohhhh Kenma, that's character development!"

"Shut up, I wasn't staring at Shoyo."

"Maybe, but you can't deny you were thinking about him," Nekoma's captain commented. As much as Kenma would have liked to deny it, he couldn't. Maybe it was a good idea to open up to Kuroo about his feelings, it was the third-year's fault he was this confused, to begin with anyway. "Shut up," was the setter's final response, which made the third-year smirk.

"So, after thinking a full day, what's your conclusion? Do you like the orange?" 

"Well- I mean, a day is a very short period to figure out my feelings," Kenma admitted in full honesty. The setter knew he held feelings for the redhead, but he didn't know whether those feelings were romantic. They could as well have been feelings of deep friendship or admiration, Kenma didn't have much to compare these feelings too either, which made it even harder to make up his mind. 

Kuroo looked back at the setter with a pleased expression on his face, "well, that's not a no. It seems like we're heading in the right direction!" 

Kenma sighed in response, it felt like the sigh was one he had been holding back for a very long time. 

"I don't know, you know how I feel when I'm with him, but in reality, I hardly know Shoyo. Of course, we text a lot. I know which school he goes to, I know he sucks at English, I know the things that make him happy, I might even know his favorite color, but I feel like we'd need to form a deeper bond before I even consider such a thing as romantic feelings. If I were to jump into a relationship right now, it'd be like jumping into a game without reading the instructions first, you know?" Kenma explained, trying to express his feelings. The second-year surprised himself by the fact he seemed to be ranting. This was so unlike him. Was this what Shoyo did to the setter?

Kuroo laughed at Kenma, which made the setter look away in embarrassment. "God, you're such a nerd to explain your feelings using game-related metaphors, but yeah, I understand," the third-year snickered. "I think you're on the right track though, it seems like you really want to get to know him first, that's smart," Kuroo explained, he sounded more serious this time. 

"I don't want Shoyo to know about any of this before I figure out what I feel. It'd only make things more confusing," Kenma softly added to his previous statement.