To say that Hinata felt quite disheartened was but a misunderstanding. For the past few days, he began to notice how distant Kageyama had become as of lately, slowly slipping away from the grip their patnership had.
And each time Hinata tried to confront Kageyama regarding this, the aforementioned setter would escape under his very nose before he could even had a chance to utter a word. It displeased him, least to say. Their encounters became rather short-lived now, lasting only for a single moment as Kageyama brushed by him without a glance in the corridors, and their interactions spiraled downward from long conversations once consisted of pointless topics to complete silence.
Silence.
So far, that was the only thing he received.
During their practices, Kageyama faltered to pay much mind to him. With every leap that he put his energy into, and every spike that he made, his palm never managed to hit the ball. There was no lingering satisfaction, only emptiness and slight disappointment. By the time he landed and turned to look, he could only watch as the ball went to someone else. He first thought that it might have to do with his task as a decoy, then it turns out that it became so much more than that as the practice goes on and this treatment now prolonged with his usual daily life.
Every attempt that Hinata made in capturing the other's attention merely went down the flush. Thereby, it's understandable why the decoy felt agitated by this. He tried to coax Kageyama into doing the usual things that they have done; tried to have lunch with him, practice with him, challenging him to a race, share meat buns with him, and tried to walk home together with him. However, his words never got through. Kageyama simply moved on ahead without him, and upon knowing this, it felt as if a bucket of cold water was poured over him.
Yet, Hinata kept his head high, reasoned that Kageyama might be having a bad day, and reassured himself that everything would go back to normal the next day.
But as each day flew by, it didn't go back to normal the next day. Or the next. And the next.
"Kageyama!" Hinata called out to him again one day, "Race you to the gym!" Without waiting for the other's response, he went ahead and picked up at a faster pace after announcing the usual declaration of their race. But once he looked behind, he noticed that Kageyama never did chase after him.
And so, followed up by the next events.
"Kageyama! How was the test?"
He was blatantly ignored. Again.
"Kageyama! Let's eat lunch together!"
He was only shoved to the side. Again.
"Kageyama! Toss to me!"
In the end, his shouts almost always went unheard. Again.
"Kageyama! Let's go back home together!"
But Kageyama was already leaving without him, his back turned to him as the distance between them grew within each step the setter takes. Again.
How long would this continue?
Days stretched out into a week, and he slowly came to a realization that this was, in fact, not a mistake. This wasn't because of a bad day, or such the like. This was done on purpose, and it was reality. Kageyama was ignoring him. The other members of their team had taken note of this too, it seemed. The distance between them placed quite an impact on their practice matches to the point where Daichi carried out a confrontation with Kageyama, advising him to give Hinata at least some tosses. Kageyama heeded the captain's order, and for once in that week, their side finally gained victory. Even then, Kageyama remained to be adamant in ignoring him outside of practices.
Had all these attempts then been for naught but misery?
For the umpteenth time since then, Hinata could only let his gaze linger upon the familiar retreating back of the setter as he stayed rooted to his spot.
The strangling emotion which was once a mere bud inside him, it grew. It grew, and it bloomed. While the emotion, itself, may be indescribable; one thing for it to be made ascertained, Hinata embraced it with all open arms. He filed no complaints, only lets himself to drown in the suffocating sentiment as each and every ounce of negativity seeped into his body. On that day, the clouds turned a darker shade along with the sky, and little by little, droplets of rain began to spill against the ground.
Regardless of how utterly miserable he felt at this very moment, Hinata could not cry. He would not cry over such an incredibly petty thing. There was no need to do so when the sky was already doing the favor for him.
With a begrudging heart, he trudged towards the road which was the opposite from where Kageyama walked through. In his mind, he was ready to go home. But in his heart, he wasn't. Hinata so desperately wanted to go back. He wants answers. He has to- no, he needs to know the reason why Kageyama was giving him a cold shoulder, and what is that he had done to receive such treatment.
Unbeknownst to the lad, he halted in his own walk, a hand clutching onto the hem of his collar tightly as he paid no mind to his bicycle that fell to the side. Right now, he was only capable of thinking one thing, and that one thing was how much it hurts.
His head hurts. His chest hurts. And his heart, it was aching.
But the worst part of all was that, he doesn't know how much longer will it take for him to deal with this pain.
Was it possible for rivals to become friends then turn into strangers? Especially when they played quite a major part in your life?
Perhaps. But if you kept thinking of them every now and then, aren't they technically not strangers? In this case, Hinata doubted that Kageyama would ever become a stranger to him. Had it not been for him, Hinata probably wouldn't be the person he was today, and he never would have gotten to taste the euphoric sense of spiking Kageyama's tosses. Now, at the very least, Kageyama was tossing to him. That, itself, should be more than enough. Yet, for some reason, Hinata remained to be distasteful about the whole thing.
Hinata didn't know why was he being miserable about this whole thing. It's not as if they were friends to begin with. It was only till recently when he started to think Kageyama more as his friend- but then, this had to happen.
Another day was to be marked off the calendar, and right now, he was inside the club room along with the few others to change their clothes, readying themselves to get back home after staying back for a practice session. Kageyama long already left, and as the per usual, he didn't bother to wait for Hinata so they could walk home together.
"Oi, Shrimpy. Did you do something again to piss off the king?" Tsukishima clicked his tongue. "This has been going on for more than a week, right? Whatever you did must have been terrible since the king seems to be ignoring you now."
Then when he heard this, it felt like a slap was served to his face. A very harsh slap, and it was if the slap was to be given as a reminder of actual events happening and how it remained unresolved. He wanted to throw a glare at the blond, he really wanted to, but after he couldn't find the heart to do so, soon enough, he set an intense glaring contest with the floor in his stead; bitterness creeping in as contemplation was made on his newfound situation.
The king seems to be ignoring you.
That must be true, because while he still seemed to be interacting with everyone else, he seemed to be avoiding him.
"I don't know if I did anything wrong." He admits, clenching onto the sling of his bag. "I don't even know if I did something. I tried to confront him, but Kageyama... He won't tell me. He refuses to say anything. He won't even look at me."
"Hm. Sounds like you definitely did something this time."
"Tsukishima." Sugawara's firm voice cuts in, and already, Hinata could feel the worried gaze the others were casting at him.
The moment when Hinata clenched his fist more tightly on his bag, it was the moment that he knew he was at his limit. Mostly because he knew that Tsukishima's words were right. If he hadn't done anything wrong, then Kageyama definitely wouldn't be like this towards him. He wouldn't be ignoring him. Instead, they would have continued to do their little routine. As much as Hinata hated to admit, it was better to have Kageyama scolding him, calling him a dumbass rather than this complete treatment of silence. It was slowly beginning to remind him of the day when the two fought over the complications of their quick.
Truth to be told, the tension since then seemed to have grown. Did this have something to do with that day of their argument? Here, he thought that they were starting to get along. "He's my partner," He remembered telling this to Yachi. So, why? Could their relationship be worsening?
Hinata doesn't think he can handle much more of this. Deciding that he had enough of this, that he doesn't need anyone's pity, Hinata immediately picked his bag up and slung it over his shoulders, feeling more determined than ever to get his answers. The concerned yells of his teammates by then fell on deaf ears as the young one ran out of the door.
It was raining heavily again, but the boy couldn't exactly bring himself to care about the weather. He doesn't care if he was about to soak himself along with the contents in his bag. He was going to chase down Kageyama, and he would demand from him for an explanation on why he seemed so adamant in avoiding him, and whether it had to do with their last argument. He wasn't thinking properly, he knew. At this very moment, he was completely overwhelmed by his senses; both of his thoughts as well as his emotions were strewn all over the place. But overall, he felt furious.
On that day, Hinata didn't know that there were hot tears leaking through his eyes as the rain pounded heavily against his small frame, matching along with every rise of his chest and the erratic beats of his aching heart as he rode on his bicycle.
But on that day as well, Hinata didn't return back home.