To say he was excited is an understatement. Today is the day he has been waiting for, the day they will go to attend a training camp with other schools, Nekoma included. Of course, Hinata was excited to play volleyball, but as an addition he cannot wait to meet his friend, Kenma, and of course the other boys too. They were all gathered at their school now, waiting for the last of them—Asahi and Ennoshita—to arrive. They are going to depart in the middle of the night so that they would arrive there in the morning.
When they arrived, they were greeted by some boys from the other schools. Hinata bounced to Kenma and talked excitedly. Everyone went to the room they will be staying in to drop their belongings and get changed to their gears. They were up against Nekoma first, and Hinata was super excited. Kageyama just kept staring pointedly at Kenma, while Lev was riling Hinata up.
Nekoma won the first set, which clearly made both Hinata and Kageyama more determined to beat their rival up. Their other teammates are fired up too, except of course Tsukishima who was just playing calmly as usual. Karasuno won the second set, but in the end Nekoma won the last set, so it was Karasuno's loss.
It went that way until the end of the day, they keep having practice matches with the other teams, learning new things and making new friends. Even the antisocial Tsukishima is getting approached by Bokuto, Kuroo and some other boys, even though the tall blonde himself seems a little bit annoyed.
It happened when they were eating dinner. Most of the boys had already finished their meals, and were just sitting around chatting with each other. Suddenly, the coaches said that they want to announce something, so everyone sat down and settled. Everyone eyed their coaches curiously.
"This might be a little bit sudden," Coach Nekomata started. "But we will have an addition to this camp. Please welcome them and be nice." He stated before glancing to the cafeteria entrance and nodding.
A group of boys walked in, led by a tall man in his thirties. He gave the coaches a quick nod, and faced the boys. Everyone stared at the new team curiously. Tanaka and Nishinoya are making scary faces without any reason as usual, supported by Yamamoto while Daichi smacked them all.
"Oya oya oya?" Both Bokuto and Kuroo stupidly exclaimed.
Kenma took a glance uninterestedly and reverted his attention back to his phone. Tsukishima stared at the addition boredly, clicking his tongue. The rest just looked at the new team curiously, trying to see whether they recognize any faces. Unfortunately for Hinata, he recognized a face he doesn't want to see. Not now, not ever. Thankfully, he was seated far from the new team and the coaches, so he just looked down and tried to make himself smaller, praying that he wouldn't be noticed. The others were too preoccupied staring at the new group to notice.
"Good evening. I'm Ito Ryosuke, the coach of Kaisei Volleyball Team. It's a pleasure to be here. Please take care of us." he bowed slightly, and the boys from Kaisei followed his example.
"Kaisei?"
"Isn't that school strong?"
"The rumors are they are pretty good!" the boys started whispering. The boys from Karasuno, of course, doesn't know anything about this team.
The team looked normal. They were mostly tall, most of them were around 180 and 190cm, even though there were some short ones. Most of them looked bored and uninterested, mirroring Tsukishima's expression.
The boy with the dark-blue hair and black eyes, in particular, looked very uninterested. He stood lazily, scanning the crowd in front of him without any interest. That is before, he spotted the boy with messy orange hair.
"HA!" he scoffed loudly. Every eyes went to him and he smirked. "to think that I thought this training camp would be a waste of time!" he exclaimed, staring at the Karasuno table. The boys just stared at him confusedly.
"This is such a blessing!" he exclaimed—sarcasm thick. Suga thought his coach would have scolded him but he just sighed and made a face at the blue-haired boy. "to think that I'm given the chance to meet such a talented player!" he continued, still staring at Karasuno's table. Everyone started realizing where he's looking at, and tried to find out who is he was referring to.
"Is he talking about Kageyama?" Yamaguchi asked questioningly.
Kageyama tilted his head,"I don't know him."
"You don't know him, but maybe he knows you. After all, you are the infamous king of the court." Tsukishima scoffed. Daichi shot a warning look towards Tsukishima while Kageyama gritted his teeth, trying not to get worked up by the blonde. The third years eyed each other in confusion. Is this new kid mental?
The blue-haired boy laughed,"What are you doing, staring at the floor? Is there anything interesting on the floor, oh mighty Ares?"
The boys looked around and found the one the crazy boy has been referring to. Hinata is staring at the floor, body and expression stiff.
"What—"
"He's talking about Hinata?!" Tanaka didn't understand.
"No, no Ryu. He said talented player!" Nishinoya said, and got elbowed by Suga.
Everyone else was just too stunned to say anything. Hinata doesn't move, he kept staring at the floor, which is definitely strange for him. Kenma started throwing him worried glance.
"What?"
"Ares? Oi Tamura, what are you saying?" the boys from Kaisei started questioning their teammate. But the boy just ignored them and strolled casually towards the table, directly towards Hinata. Everyone followed his movements in silence, faces clearly stating that they are beyond confused. Even Tsukishima raised his eyebrows.
"Oooi~" the dark-blue haired boy waved his hands near Hinata's head, and grabbed his shoulder. "I'm right here, Oh Mighty Ares! Or should I call you The G—" before he could finish what he was saying, Hinata pushed him back with such force he fell down. The expression on Hinata's face was unreadable. He stood up, ignoring his gaping teammates.
"Don't—don't call me that." He said, voice tight, and he ran out of the room.