I ran past Tooru's grumpy face towards the kitchen. I couldn't be late for practice, not for the next two weeks! The big tournament was in just less than two weeks, and every moment spent perfecting and revising counted - My relay team had yet to completely detail and perfect our exchanges, and we could still improve in other aspects as well. I grabbed an apple and ran out the door, ready to jog to Karasuno, only to be held back by a strong hand.

"Hey, you forgot your shoes, idiot," my brother rolled his chocolate eyes. He handed my spikes to me and hugged me, before pushing me out the door. "I'll see you at home tonight after practice, Hika-chan," he smiled, still sporting his subjectively unattractive bed hair and alien pyjamas.

"Thanks, Nii-chan!" I called back before I started moving my legs to a familiar rhythm and pace. Running had always seemed natural to me. I liked to live life on the fast lane and take on whatever came at me head-on, unlike my brother who valued control and careful observations. I liked to take risks and jump at opportunities, whereas he preferred to think critically about it before coming to a conclusion - that was the difference between us, it always has been, it always will be. Although I loved my brother dearly, he played it too safe and took too much out of situations. I say things happen just by coincidence sometimes, and you shouldn't hold people to their small actions too much. Tooru disagrees, saying that the little things mean everything because people do them by instinct. Either way, we both chose sports that suited us - him and his analytical position in volleyball, me and my ephemeral track. We could both agree that that's all that mattered, anyway - using your strengths to your advantage.

As a kid, people always thought I would pursue a volleyball career like my famous sibling. I tried playing once, back when I was in first-year elementary and my brother and Hajime-san, both in third-year, asked me to play with their friends. I played as a middle blocker, but I just couldn't get the timing right for anything. I practised with my brother after that, but after even a month, I still couldn't get it right. It was just a fundamental problem, I just wasn't hard-wired to watch my opponents and wait for the right time - or rather, I just couldn't find the right time because the right time was "immediately" in my mind. Soon after, I discovered track and it became a routine for me to practice and time my sprints.

In Kitagawa Daiichi, I joined the track team and became a well-known member, even to other schools. Sometimes I'd get random people coming up to me and asking to be friends (or at-least implying very directly), but even I knew that they just wanted to get close to Tooru. People would even come and ask me why I didn't play volleyball like my "hot brother" (choke) did. I would shrug and say something like "I'm not my brother" and walk away. Which was true, I was definitely not my brother, what more did they need to hear? Eventually, people moved on from that fact that I was my brother to the fact that I was myself. At last, by the end of my third year at Kitagawa Daiichi, I had stepped out of my brother's shadow. And there was no way I was stepping back in it. I chose to go to Karasuno not only because of its proficient track team - especially Shimizu-senpai - but also to distance myself from the well-known title of "Grand-King's Sister" that I would have to endure if I attended Aoba Jousai.

I panted as I arrived at the gates of Karasuno. A group of boys were unlocking the doors to the boy's gym at the moment, meaning...

"Tobio-kun!" I called out. A familiar blueberry-head turned to meet me.

"Hey, Hikaru-san," he yelled back. Tobio turned back towards the gymnasium as the doors opened. I resumed to the track and met up with my some of my teammates. We started talking about our weekends while warming up and waiting for the coach to arrive. One of my relay members walked over to me with a sly look on her face.

"You're still close with 'Tobio-kun' from Class 3?" she raised her eyebrow. I guess she overheard us as I was jogging here.

"Yeah, we've been friends for like three years," I replied dismissively. It was true, mostly. Leading up to and after the infamous match last year, he got all emo on me, but thankfully he snapped out of it eventually. We're basically as close as we were before then, now. "But nothing more, Maki!" Maki smiled and raised her arms in defence.

"I was just wondering how your brother hasn't stopped this yet..." she chuckled. "But I mean I guess he wouldn't have to find out if you two just always did it at Kageya-"

"Shut the fuck up before I impale you with my spikes, Maki-chan," I smiled, pushing my shoes to Maki, sole facing her. "You don't think I get shit every time I get a notification on my phone from, walk with, or even look at Tobio? You have no idea how goddamn annoying 'You two are dating, aren't you?!' 'I won't allow this!' and 'Get away from my sister, Tobio-chan!' gets," I whined. I will never forget the time Tobio texted me while I was taking a shower, and my brother thought we were exchanging, quote-unquote, "provocative pictures." What did he actually send me? "I ran out of milk." Just take a moment to imagine how Tooru interpreted that.

Maki laughed, patting my noticeably disgruntled posture. "All right, all right. Whatever you say," she wheezed. "Just remember to be careful when you get 'close' with Kageyama and use prote-" Whatever Maki was about to say (which I can pretty vividly imagine) was cut off as Coach made her distinct entrance, as always.

"Good morning, everyone. Glad to see that you're awake and alive. Let's start by running 5 laps around the track!" She boomed. We nodded and started our 2-kilometre warm up before the intense training that would take place afterwards. I sighed in relief, ready for the practice and, more prominently, relieved that I escaped that conversation with Maki. Smiling, my feet slapped against the textured ground of the track. A dissonant harmony of footsteps and heavy breaths echoed in my mind as I glanced over at the boy's gym, then the ground before me. It was hard being friends with my brother's "sworn enemy," as he claims, but it was worth it. Tobio was sweet and easy to talk to and besides that, I was one of the only people who would talk to him, although I don't know why. Maybe he was just too blunt and oblivious for other people to stand, or he came off as rude. Moi, au contraire, that's what I liked about him. He was so easy to read.

Rounding off the final corner and onto the straight for the fifth time, I concluded my 2k. I waited for the rest of the team to finish as I stretched my calves and quadriceps. At last, it was time to get down to business.

"Now," Coach assembled us, face grim and serious, "let's get it together before these two weeks end."

Word count (excluding bold): 1295

Last updated: Sept. 24, 2017