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Miyuki - Narumiya's Third Year, Middle School
Mei being on his phone between classes wasn't normally something that Kazuya paid a lot of attention to.
Mostly because Mei tended to default to things like this when he wasn't focused on playing baseball or boosting his ego. He was a social person in a way that Kazuya wasn't. Mei's attention was in high demand and Mei's constant need for have attention on him made him more than happy to talk to anyone willing to give him the time of day. When Kazuya wasn't willing to put up with him, Mei had an entire collection of friends from baseball, elementary school, and other classes to occupy himself with.
However, it was unusual for Mei to be so focused on his phone that he didn't even attempt to bother Kazuya.
He didn't try looping Kazuya into the conversation, relaying whatever his friend had said and asking Kazuya for his opinion, or try having a conversation with Kazuya about their next match while carrying on his other conversation.
He wasn't particularly unhappy with the fact that Mei wasn't talking to him, would have been perfectly happy to focus on completing his math homework any other time, but Mei changing his behavior was strange and Kazuya was curious by nature.
He found himself leaning forward, peering over Mei's shoulder and down at the screen.
"Oh?" Kazuya said, eyes flicking across the top of the screen. Instead of a name there was a sequence of emojis - a heart, two sunflowers, and then a poop emoji. If the heart hadn't been enough to tip Kazuya off, the bit of the conversation that he could read would have been. "What's this, Mei? Did you get a girlfriend without telling any of us?"
"No," Mei responded.
"Mei," Kazuya said. He shifted his weight around so that he could lean forward more, draping himself against Mei's back and setting his chin on his shoulder. "Do you think I can't read? Because I can and I can read your messages right now. Including the one you just got that says, 'I think I can come visit this weekend if you don't have practice. It's been a while since we went on a date.'" Kazuya hummed a bit before adding, "Though the spelling is so atrocious that I suppose I could be wrong."
"You aren't," Mei said. "But I don't have girlfriend. I have a boyfriend."
Kazuya let out a tiny hum. He wasn't really phased by the information. Mei's fluid sexuality wasn't a secret. Kazuya already knew that Mei liked boys and girls.
"When did you get a boyfriend? And why didn't any of us know about this?"
"Over summer break," he responded. Seeming unfazed by Kazuya's peeking, he sent back a message informing the boy on the other end that they did have practice that weekend, tacking on an amount of frowny faces that Kazuya found a bit excessive. "And it never came up. He doesn't live around here so it's not like I'm skipping practice to go on dates." Kazuya figured as much, not just because of the text message but also because he highly doubted that Mei wouldn't have used an excuse like that to skip practice given how much he hated it.
"Where's he live?"
"Nagano."
Kazuya's eyebrows raised. "How did you meet someone from Nagano?" Mei loved the city far too much to ever be caught dead spending a vacation in Nagano.
"He was meeting up with a cousin and got lost. He ended up asking me for directions."
"And you helped?"
"Of course I helped, a cute boy was asking me a favor."
"And you somehow ended up dating this random kid you met?"
"I mean, eventually yeah." Two responses came through - the first filled with several frowny faces to match the ones that Mei had sent and the second reading 'I guess we'll try a different weekend then.' Mei sent back a quick apology before setting his phone down and turning to focus on Kazuya. "You are asking a lot of questions."
"Yeah," Kazuya agreed. He grinned, showing off his teeth. "I mean it's hard to tease you if I don't know what's going on." Mei scrunched his nose and shrugged his shoulder, jostling Kazuya from his position. Kazuya just laughed as he let himself fall backwards. Knowing that Mei probably wasn't going to answer very many more questions, he asked, "What's his name?"
"Eijun."
Rei - Sawamura's Third Year, Middle School
"Tokyo," Sawamura Eitoku said, arms crossed over his chest and a thoughtful look on his face.
"Yes," Rei said. She had been on enough scouting trips before to know that while Eijun's parents would certainly influence their son's decision, it was the eldest Sawamura that she needed to agree with her the most. It was clear that the man was well respected in the Sawamura's household. And just by looking around their living room she could tell that Eijun shared a close bond with his grandfather. If Eijun's grandfather told him not to come to Seidou, then Eijun wouldn't. "I know it's quite far, but I believe that Eijun would do very well on our team."
The man hummed quietly. "I knew that Eijun was considering going to school in Tokyo, but I never imagined he'd get an offer from Seidou."
"Eijun has been considering schools in Tokyo?" Rei asked, a spark of shock rolling through her. From what she had seen of him, she knew that Eijun was a loving and fiercely loyal person. The reason she wanted Eitoku on her side so badly was because she had thought it would be difficult to convince him to leave his friends and family. She found it hard to believe that Eijun had been considering leaving all of that without the sort of offer that she had.
"Not seriously, but I'm sure the thought has crossed his mind," he said. "You're certainly not the first person to suggest it."
Another spark of shock, this one harder to bury under her facade. She was sure that she had been the only one watching Eijun, the only one who had noticed was a diamond the boy could become with proper coaching and the right team to back him up. "Not to pry, but has Eijun been scouted by another team?"
"No, no. Nothing like that," Eitoku dismissed. "But someone very important to that boy lives in Tokyo and I know they've suggested that Eijun go to school in Tokyo so they can see each other more often. I don't think Eijun took it very seriously, but I'm sure he's thought about it more than once since it came up."
"We make every effort to make the boys feel at home at Seidou, but the transition is definitely smoother for the students who have someone nearby to make them more comfortable," Rei said.
Eitoku hummed a bit more before falling into quiet thought again.
After a moment, he asked, "Is Seidou close to Inashiro Industrial?"
The shift in the conversation threw Rei off a bit. She had been anticipating receiving more information on the person that Eijun had in Tokyo, hoping to learn something that might help her convince the boy that Seidou was the right choice for him.
"Not exactly, but I wouldn't say it's terribly far either," she said. "The trip is a little over half an hour."
Eitoku hummed again.
There was another long moment before the man nodded sharply.
"Alright," he said. He had clearly made some decision regarding the offer, but Rei wasn't entirely sure what that decision was. He shifted, putting his hands against the floor to leverage himself up. "I'll go get Eijun for you so you can speak to him properly about this offer."
Kuramochi - Sawamura's First Year, High School
Kuramochi was walking down the sidewalk towards the dorms, a bag with pudding and juice hanging off of his arm. Normally he would have had Sawamura go out for their resupply run, but the first year had left early that morning and Kuramochi hadn't seen him since.
He was kind of curious about it. They worked so hard during the week that most of them preferred just to laze around the dorms when they got a free day, but Sawamura left almost every time they had a day off. It was even stranger when one considered that Sawamura's family lived in Nagano so there was no way Sawamura was making trips out to see them with that sort of regularity.
He suspected that Sawamura had a girlfriend or something, but Sawamura denied that even when Kuramochi was practicing his deadliest wrestling moves on him, so he was inclined to believe him. It wasn't like Sawamura spoke to that many girls to begin with. There were a few girls in his class that Sawamura talked to regularly as well as the managers, but Sawamura hadn't showed any interest in any of them other than friendship. And there was Wakana, but Kuramochi spoke to her and knew that she wasn't making the trip from Nagano that often.
"-if you weren't planning on staying for a little while." Kuramochi had gotten so used to listening to Sawamura chatter that he knew who was speaking right away, even with the distance between them.
He looked around until he spotted Sawamura.
His roommate was standing on the opposite side of the street, next to the bus stop that headed away from Seidou. Standing in front him was another boy. He had his back to Kuramochi, facing Sawamura, so Kuramochi couldn't see his face. He was just about Sawamura's height, though he was smaller in the shoulders and thinner overall. His hair was a shock of platinum blonde, so light that it almost appeared white.
There was something familiar about him, though Kuramochi couldn't quite put his finger on where he'd seen the kid before.
"We're both gonna be busy soon," the blonde said. There was something familiar about his voice, too. Like Kuramochi had heard it somewhere before, but distantly and without actually listening to what was being said. "I thought you'd wanna spend some more time together."
"Yeah, but we could spend even more time together if you came back to the dorm with me for a little while."
"I have to get back to campus and you have roommates."
Kuramochi saw Sawamura make a face. "I wasn't asking you over so we could do anything. Me having roommates doesn't really matter."
"I'm pretty sure your roommates would have a reaction to me being in your dorm regardless of what we're doing."
"You aren't that interesting. Pretty sure they'd get over it as soon as they realized what an asshole you are."
"Rude," the stranger huffed, though he didn't sound that offended.
"It's true." There was a roaring noise down the street. Kuramochi glanced away from the curious duo to find the bus coming down the street. Sawamura said, "That's yours."
"Yup. I'll text you when I get back home."
"Alright."
The two of them shifted closer together, pressing into each other's space.
Oh, Kuramochi thought as he turned his head away from the kiss. Curiosity aside, he didn't have any desire to watch Sawamura kiss anyone. He started making his way down the sidewalk again. It wasn't a girlfriend.
Haruichi - Sawamura's First Year, High School
Haruichi walked into Class 1-C to find a Sawamura's desk surrounded by his classmates.
It wasn't exactly unusual for someone to be by Sawamura's desk when Haruichi came over, Sawamura and Haruichi always had lunch together but Sawamura was fairly popular amongst his classmates and was usually talking to someone when Haruichi arrived, but it was strange to see Sawamura's desk surrounded by what seemed to be every boy in his class.
"Is it true?" demanded a boy Haruichi only vaguely recognized. One of Sawamura's classmates, but not a member of the baseball team. He was standing in front of Sawamura's desk with his hands braced against the top, clearly the leader of the group for the moment.
"Is what true?" Sawamura asked, looking genuinely confused.
"Did Sawatori confess to you this morning?"
"Oh." The confusion swept away from Sawamura's expression, replaced with something a little upset. "Yeah. I didn't know she felt that way about me. I felt really bad when I turned her down."
There was a loud roar from the group of boys.
Sawamura looked surprised, but Haruichi thought that was kind of expected. Sawatori was a beautiful girl and most of the boys in their year harbored some kind of crush for her.
Haruichi had found himself watching her as well, caught in the way her long hair fell around her shoulders and how bright her smile was.
Despite his own crush on her, Haruichi was a little surprised to learn that Sawamura had turned her down. He hadn't ever seen Sawamura look at Sawatori the way the rest of them did and he knew that his friend was focused on baseball, but Sawatori seemed like the type of girl that Sawamura would get along with. She was a lot like Sawamura - kind, energetic, a little talkative.
"Eijun," Haruichi said, moving towards the group. He figured now was as good a time as ever to step him and rescue Sawamura from the group.
"Harucchi!" Sawamura chirped, smile settling over his face again.
Haruichi glanced around the room before asking, "Do you want to eat outside today?"
"Yes!" Sawamura agreed. He gathered his things quickly before making his way towards Haruichi. As they stepped out of Sawamura's classroom, he added, "Thanks for saving me, Harucchi! I think they would have spent all of lunch asking me about Sawatori."
"Probably," Haruichi said.
"I don't know why their all so upset about it," Sawamura told him. "I mean wouldn't it have been worst if I accepted her confession even though I'm dating someone else? It's better to just tell her that I don't feel the same way instead of giving her hope or something."
Haruichi felt a jolt of surprise. Looking properly at Sawamura, he asked, "You're dating someone?"
"Yes....?" Sawamura drawled out, looking as surprised as Haruichi felt. Like he expected that Haruichi would already know this information.
"Since when?"
"Uh...It's been almost three years," Sawamura said. There was a moment of shocked silence before Sawamura asked, "You didn't know?"
"You never told me!"
Sawamura blinked a little bit before letting out a quiet sound. "Oh. I guess I didn't." He lifted one hand, reaching up to rub at the back of his neck. "Sorry, Harucchi. I guess I'm so used to all of my friends from home knowing that I just forgot that my new friends didn't know."
"It's okay," Haruichi said. There had been some part of him upset that Sawamura had kept something like this from him, but he supposed it made sense of Sawamura simply wasn't used to having to share the information. Still, Sawamura was one of the closest friends that Haruichi had ever had and he found himself wanting to know more if for no reason other than that this was the sort of thing people were supposed to know about their friends. "What's her name?"
"Oh, he's not a girl," Sawamura said. Haruichi found that it suddenly made a lot more sense why it was that Sawamura had never watched Sawatori the way the rest of them did. "His name is Mei though! He's a pitcher like me and a southpaw too."
"That's interesting. Tell me more?"
"Sure! I think you'll probably meet him soon, though, so you have to promise that you won't tell him anything nice that I say when you do. His ego's already out of control."
Kanemaru - Sawamura's First Year, High School
"Are you not going to say anything to me?"
"I don't have anything to say to you."
Kanemaru found himself slowing as the voices drifted towards him, not rounding the corner as aggressively as he had been planning. He could tell that one of them was Sawamura, sounding softer and more upset than Kanemaru had ever heard him before, while the other speaker was unfamiliar.
He'd been sent to find Sawamura and bring him back to the bus so that they could leave.
No one had said anything when Sawamura had gone to the bathroom immediately following the Inashiro match, understanding that their usually cheerful pitcher was carrying a burden on his shoulders and needed space. The coaches had given him a while to cool down, but the result of the match had taken a toll on everyone and they were all eager to leave now.
"Eijun," the unfamiliar voice said. "You made me promise when you decided to go to Seidou that I wouldn't shut you out if you beat me. Does that not go the same way?"
"I'm not shutting you out," Sawamura said. "I just don't want to be around you right now, okay? I don't want to sit here, congratulating you when you winning means that the third years on my team won't get a shot at Nationals."
"I won't apologize for winning."
"I don't expect you to. I just want you to give me space so that I can deal with the fact that I lost."
There was a quiet moment.
If Kanemaru were a less socially conscious person, like say Furuya or Sawamura himself, he might have thought now was a good time to round the corner and catch Sawamura's attention. As it was, he knew that this was the moment when tension was thickest and that he wouldn't be doing Sawamura or the boy he was speaking to any good by interrupting now.
"Alright," the stranger said. "But even if your not ready to talk about this or congratulate me, talk to me in the morning. Even if it's just to say 'good morning' and tell me about a manga you read last week."
"Okay," Sawamura agreed, voice quiet.
There was another beat before the other boy asked, "Can I kiss you?" Kanemaru assumed that Sawamura must have nodded because a moment later he heard a soft sound, similar to the sound of his mother kissing his cheek when she sent him back off to Seidou after a weekend at home. "I guess I'll get going then. I love you. I'll talk to you tomorrow."
Sawamura's voice was quiet as he murmured, "I love you too. I'll talk to you then."
Kanemaru didn't hesitate to spin on his foot and head in the direct he'd come from.
He'd take a lap around the nearby area, he decided. That way Sawamura would have a few more moments before Kanemaru interrupted him.
It All Fits Together - Sawamura's First Year, High School
The sound of knocking echoed through the room.
Kuramochi looked away from Sawamura, pinned under him in a wrestling move that had him twisted up like a pretzel, and over at Miyuki, sitting on his bed with a controller resting in his lap as he waited for them to get back to the game. He asked, "Who the hell is that?"
The first and second year first-stringers were all gathered in Miyuki's room for one of their usual bonding nights. Sometimes the third years joined them on nights like this, but today was one of the days when they were all too busy studying to join in the chaos. The first few times they'd done this without them it had seemed strange, but in the months since the third years retirement the team had grown closer and become more comfortable in their positions.
"No idea," Miyuki said. He pushed himself off the bed, maneuvering himself around Furuya who was lying down on the bed's empty space, and to his feet.
"You don't need to get up, Miyuki," Sawamura wheezed, speaking in a breathy whisper as he tried to get the words out despite Kuramochi's weight on top of him. "I could grab it."
Miyuki ignored him, stepping over Haruichi and Kanemaru who were sitting in front of the bed. He knew that Kuramochi wasn't going to let Sawamura out of his hold, not after Sawamura's blue shells had swept the victory out from under him at the last minute.
"You just want to get out of your punishment," Kuramochi said. He twisted Sawamura's arm a little, listening to the way the younger boy squeaked. He knew that he wasn't really hurting Sawamura, the first year was far too flexible for that, but Kuramochi knew it was at least a little uncomfortable.
"I didn't do anything to be punished for!" Sawamura wailed.
"You know what you did, idioooot."
Miyuki had reached the door now.
Ignoring all of the chaos, he pull it open and stopped as soon as he saw who stood on the other side.
"Mei?" he questioned, disbelief filling him. He couldn't think of any reason why Inashiro's ace would be standing outside of his dorm room door. "What are you doing here?"
"Hey Kazuya," Mei greeted. He was wearing a pair of dark jeans with a pale yellow tee-shirt. Over his tee-shirt, he had a dark green flannel with thin yellow lines creating a square pattern. His hands were shoved into his pockets and there was a thousand watt smile on his face. It was like Mei was perfectly comfortable standing in front of Miyuki's door, like it hadn't even occurred to him that he didn't belong or wasn't wanted. "Is Eijun here? He told me that his roommate drags him over here fairly often."
"Eijun?" Miyuki echoed. "Did you just call Sawamura Eijun?"
"Yeeees?" Mei said, dragging the word out.
"Miyuki! Who is it!" Kuramochi shouted.
Feeling like he couldn't possibly explain the situation, Miyuki stepped sideways and pulled the door open so that everyone in the room could see.
The room went abruptly quiet as everyone took in the sight of Mei.
It was Sawamura who broke the silence, wheezing out, "Mei? What are you doing here?"
Mei's eyes flickered around the room for a moment before focusing on Sawamura. "We had plans for tonight, remember?"
"We did?" Sawamura said.
"Yes. You were supposed to buy me ice cream." He added, "When you didn't answer my text messages or tell me you were canceling, I came over here to see what was going on." Eyeing the pile on the floor, he said, "Apparently you're canceling on me to wrestle your roommate?"
"No!" Sawamura exclaimed. He took advantage of Kuramochi's surprise and how it had loosened his hold, twisting until he had wiggled out. He jumped to his feet. "I'm not canceling on you. Kuramochi just dragged me over here and I meant to duck out early to meet up with you, but then I got caught up in everything and forgot we had plans."
The team had been watching the exchange in stunned silence, but now Haruichi spoke, "Your boyfriend Mei is Narumiya Mei." There was a surprised tone in his voice, but he didn't sound nearly as caught off guard as one would have expected.
"Yeah," Sawamura said, nodding a bit. "Did I never tell you his last name?"
"No," Haruichi said. If he had been any one else, the word might have sounded a little bit like a cry. "I can't believe you've been dating Narumiya Mei for three years."
"Has it really been that long?" Mei said, surprise settling over his features. He made a face as if he was trying to remember something before letting out a soft, "Huh. I guess so."
"Three years?" Miyuki echoed. "That would mean you've been dating him since we were in-" He stopped, cutting himself off. He remembered a conversation during their third year when Mei had mentioned a boyfriend named Eijun who lived in Nagano. He remembered teasing Mei about it for the entirety of their third year, up until the two of them had decided to go to different high schools and lost contact with each other. He'd forgotten all about Mei's boyfriend once they lost contact since Mei himself wasn't often on Miyuki's mind. He couldn't help murmuring, "Holy shit," as all of this washed over him.
"I totally saw you make out with Narumiya Mei at a bus stop," Kuramochi said, sounding dazed.
"What?" Sawamura squeaked.
"This is so surreal," Kanemaru said, thinking of his own experience with Sawamura and what he now realized had been Mei. "But honestly, this puts that entire conversation I heard into context."
"The entire what?" Sawamura exclaimed. "Kuramochi watched us make out and you've been eavesdropping on us? What the hell, guys?"
"Don't act like we're the ridiculous ones here. I only saw that by accident," Kuramochi objected. "You're the one who was keeping an entire relationship from us!"
"It's not like it's a secret that we're dating! I think we'd have been a bit more careful if we were. You guys are the ones who didn't put anything together or ask me straight out!"
Kuramochi pressed his lips together, thinking about how long it had been since he'd witnessed their kiss by the bus stop and how many times he could've brought up what he'd seen. "Alright. That's fair, I guess."
"Well," Mei said. "This has been fun, but if we're done talking about all the ways you've spied on us then I'd like to go get ice cream now." There was a moment where everyone in the room exchanged looks, as if expecting someone else to come up with something they knew or seen. When a beat passed without anything being said, Mei nodded. "Alright then. Eijun, ice cream?"
"Yeah. Of course." Sawamura crossed the room, making his way over and grabbing Mei's hand. "Let's go now. I don't want either of us to end up missing curfew."