The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

"YOU WHAT?!"

"Ssst" Yuki hissed immediately the moment Riku's shriek registered in his head. "Tone it down!"

It was after school was over when Riku and Kato decided to visit Yuki in the orphanage. Those two were relieved when they saw Yuki was in good health, chatting and laughing with the other children there. They also expressed their condolences for Aiko's accident which forced Yuki to skip school for a day. However, when Riku heard Yuki's idea, he was too bewildered to consider how high his voice was.

"What do you mean by quitting the team?" Riku hissed, now with the same low voice as Yuki.

"It is exactly what you thought, I need to focus more on what is more important for now." Yuki sighed. "The orphanage is lucky that Aiko-obaasan is okay, but God wouldn't always be in our favor. What if something worse happened to her? This place would crumble immediately like a wet biscuit. I am the oldest out of the children here, so I need to help her manage this place."

Riku had his mouth gaped wide, still too speechless to make a response.

"And it is not like I will be missed in the team, right? Especially with what happened yesterday." Yuki added wryly.

Riku could only nod, couldn't even deny his friend's words. They both turned their eyes to the children who were chatting with Kato who was kind enough to help cook for them all.

"I am sorry for bothering you, Kato-san." Yuki apologized one more time to the girl. "You are here just to see if I am okay, yet it ends up with you cooking for all of us. It is so embarrassing for us."

"It is okay, Kobayashi-kun." The girl smiled, even though there was still a hint of shyness on her face, she had this light of confidence in her eyes when she operated around the kitchen. "I love cooking for my family, so this is nothing. And it is not like the little ones are embarrassed to eat my food, right?" She smiled at the children.

"Right, Kato-san!" Almost all of them replied, showing their toothy grin to the girl. Yuki had his eyes rolled exasperatedly at how shameless his little siblings acted around his friend.

Honestly, the reason why he was absent from school today was to help with the household chores until Aiko went back from the hospital. The doctor said that the matron would be back again before the night. He was so excited to make this building as bright as new again, and true to his words, everything was shining like it just came out of a package even before the sun was straight above their head.

Unfortunately, out of all the chores in the world, the only thing he couldn't do was the most important one, the chores that could keep him alive.

Cooking.

"If only I could cook as good as you." Yuki sighed. All the children there suddenly grimaced at the same time before they laughed at him.

"Don't feel bad, Yuki-nii! A person cannot be too perfect!"

"Yeah! Just stay away from the kitchen!"

"I don't want that atrocious thing you called egg fried rice again, Yuki-nii!"

"Yeah! Don't do it again!"

"Well, thank you for your glowing review, guys." Yuki sniffed, glaring mockingly at the children. "As the punishment for it, you all will have to finish the leftover food I made earlier. How about that?" A menacing grin suddenly grew on his face, eliciting horror gasps from the children.

"NO!"

"Please, keep that as far away as possible from me!"

"Yuki-nii, you evil!"

Riku and Kato couldn't help but smile, all the trouble they had suddenly seemed to disappear when they saw the interaction between their friend and the children there. Driven by curiosity, Riku asked, "How did you make the egg-fried rice that would make them react like that?"

In his mind, egg fried rice was probably the universal dish anyone had to be able to cook if they wanted to survive adulthood. There was no way Yuki would mess up so badly as the children suggested in the conversation.

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"It wasn't that bad." Yuki furrowed his brows. "I just add a little twist to it. Like carrots, potatoes, a few veggies like spinach and broccoli, oh, and that cabbage Aiko-obaasan left in the fridge! You know, to keep it healthy."

Now, it was Riku and Kato's turn to be dumbfounded. They had never expected those ingredients that came out of Yuki's mouth would be associated withfried rice.

"You know it only takes three ingredients to cook a classic egg fried rice, right?" Riku asked hesitantly.

"What is so healthy with just rice, egg, and oil?" Yuki retorted.

Kato couldn't help but sigh, finally realized why the children were antagonizing Yuki's food. "Did you at least boil them all first?" She asked, seemed to be afraid to hear the answer.

"Boil?" Yuki tilted his head confusedly. "Why should I boil it if, in the end, I would just cook them all?"

Kato sighed once again, now giving the children a sympathetic gaze. "I hate to say it, Kobayashi-kun, but the children are right. You should be as far away from the kitchen as possible."

"EH?! WHY?!" Yuki cried comically, followed by the roar of laughter from the others.

-0-

"Thank you for visiting us." Yuki bowed gratefully after they had done their dinner there. "Even though they all looked carefree, I know the children were still worried a lot about our matron, and your presence here at least managed to lift up the mood. For that, I am grateful to you."

"Eh, don't worry about it." Riku rubbed the back of his head embarrassedly. "We are happy to help."

"U-Um!" Kato nodded too, went back to her default shy mode again.

There was an awkward silence settled over there as they didn't know what to say once again. For all the times Yuki and Riku spent on the volleyball team, they had never tried to get to know each other well, and Yuki also always tried to respect the boundary Kato set in the classroom, so he couldn't find a topic to start a conversation with those two.

It didn't help that Riku who was usually a chatter-box was not himself today, didn't speak a lot even compared to Kato.

"Wait." Yuki suddenly said, realized something. "How could you two go and visit me together? I swear you both didn't know each other."

Yuki blinked several times when he saw Riku turn his head away guiltily while Kato clicked her tongue loudly in an unladylike manner, then narrowed his eyes at the blonde boy suspiciously. "Did you do something idiotic that would possibly bring trouble to her?"

"Hey, I resent that accusation!" Riku sniffed.

"Resent all you want! I know a trouble when I see one!"

"Speaking from experience?"

"Why, you!"

"Enough!" The two boys jumped from their seats reflexively, then widened their eyes in shock immediately. They had never thought Kato had a big lung inside her petite body. The girl herself just blushed, her face beet red as she had never imagined herself to raise her voice like that. However, she still acted accordingly, narrowing her eyes while hissing at the boys. "Lower your tone!

The children are sleeping there!"

Yeah, they forgot it was dark already, and although they were in the kitchen and the children were in their room, the orphanage was not that big to prevent the sound from traveling to the other room.

"Damn, Kato-san. That is straight in my ears." Riku whispered in a low voice, wincing while rubbing his ears painfully.

Kato blushed in embarrassment, yet she still crossed her arms in front of her chest while showing a firm expression to let the boys know who was in charge here.

Having finally recovered from the shock, Yuki asked once again while pointing his finger at Riku. "So, how could you get dragged by this idiot, Kato-san?"

"Well…" Riku chuckled helplessly when he saw Kato throw away her face from him, still fuming at what happened. Seeing he had no choice, the blonde boy sighed before explaining, "It is like this…"

-Flashback-

Just like usual, the moment the school bell rang to end the school, three or four girls flocked into Riku's seat immediately, either to ask him to go home together or just to strike up a conversation. By now, all the students in the class were used to it, and while some boys still looked at Riku in jealousy, no one tried to bother him.

However, unlike how normally he responded, today, Riku stood up immediately, not even greeting those girls back politely. He walked quickly to the front row where Kato sat, eliciting gasps and murmurs from all around the class.

"Who is she?"

"She is the loner nerd who has never spoken anything to anyone! I forget her name!"

"Does Riku-san have an interest in that kind of girl?"

"No! She is a friend of Kobayashi-kun, right? Maybe it is a revenge!"

"Revenge for what?"

"Don't you hear how Kobayashi-kun beat Riku-kun in a volleyball game?"

"No way!"

"Yes! This should be a retribution for that!"

"Is this the legendary triangle love? Kyaaa! I hope I am in the girl's position!"

-End of the Flashback-

Yuki had a sweat drop when he saw Riku trying to mimic what the girls in the class said. Hell, the expression was on point that he suspected if the blondie wanted to go for acting, any good agency would be willing to lend their hand.

Still…

"So, to put it simply, you ignored all the commotions around you, which was basically ABOUT you, and like an idiot, you approached Kato-san to draw more attention, and by doing that, you dragged me too to this triangle love gossip. Am I missing something?"

Riku turned his head around, trying to avoid his eyes while putting on his best 'I am innocent' look.

"You forget the fact that he knew and could hear all the murmurs around yet decided to make it worse." Kato crossed her arms in front of her chest, didn't bother to hide her displeasure.

"Hey, I didn't do it deliberately!" Riku tried to defend himself.

"Really?" Yuki raised his eyebrows sarcastically. "I thought you were the one enjoying gossip and attention around you."

"Not you too, Kobayashi-kun!"

Yuki sighed before turning his attention to the girl next to him. "So, why did you agree to his invitation?"

"Because he dragged me without giving me any chance to refute!" Kato glared heatedly at Riku who shrunk small on his seat immediately. "Thus, further cement the idea that you both have some sort of problems in the volleyball team and I am the trophy you both wanted to get for revenge." The last words were laced with venom, something that Yuki had never thought the girl had in her.

"Well, what do you say, Mister Agostini?" Yuki crooked his eyebrows judgy.

"I am not guilty here!" Riku crossed his arms, glared at the two friends in front of them.

Silence settled over once again as they all glared at each other before a small giggle cracked from Kato to break the quietness around. Then, it spread like a charm, as a smile and small chuckle suddenly could be heard from the two boys. And after that, a burst of laughter broke, filling up the silence in the small kitchen there.

"Man, that's a good one," Riku said, wiping up tears from the corner of his eyes.

"Yeah." Yuki nodded. "Still, you have to be responsible for dragging us into this mess!"

"How?"

"Hmm…" Yuki and Kato pondered for a moment before having an idea. "You have to hang out with us two to show everyone we are not in a hostile relationship! That would at least answer one of the rumors about you doing this for revenge."

"But it didn't do anything to the more important rumor, which was the one that said we are in a triangle love relationship." Kato frowned.

"Well, I would be happy if you could provide some ideas too." Yuki also frowned.

They both pondered in silence for a moment before Riku said, "Guys, are you treating this too seriously? I mean, it is just a rumor, right? As long as it doesn't affect our lives, why should we bother?"

Yuki and Kato stared at each other for a moment before the former sighed. "As expected of a popular guy." He said.

"Eh?" Riku was confused. "What do you mean by that?!"

Seeing his panicked expression, Kato giggled more before saying, "But Agostini-kun is right, you know? Why would we bother with the rumor? As long as it is harmless, they can say anything they like."

Yuki just sighed helplessly, knowing that they both were right. He just didn't like being in the middle of gossip, knowing it would be hard to get out of the stigma once it stuck in him. The only thing that eased his mind was the two friends of his who would suffer the same treatment together.

'Well, it is better than doing it alone.'

They kept chatting for a while, by now starting to get to know each other. From this conversation, Yuki knew that Riku moved from Italy due to his parent's work, which related to the diplomacy between the two countries. And he also found out that once Kato was out of her shell, the shy, innocent girl turned into a sassy sarcastic one, her tongue was sharp enough to cut everything in front of her.

They also learned some parts of Yuki's life, like what happened during the fateful day, what kind of injury he suffered from the disaster, and how he coped with all the bad things that just changed his life completely. Yuki felt a bit strange about how easy it was to tell that story. It was as if the one suffered there wasn't him and he was just the storyteller of another person's experience.

But he was glad that all the shadow lingered in his heart since that disaster started to dissipate.

Under the dim light of the small kitchen in the Hope Orphanage, the three teenagers grew closer to each other. They chatted, laughed, shared their stories, and even contemplated together the future that held for them.

Somehow, Riku and Kato forgot about the time, and why they were still there although the other children were on the bed already. It wasn't until the sound of a car engine whirring could be heard from the inside that attracted their attention, and when they took a look outside, Yuki saw the familiar figure he had been waiting for since the beginning of the day coming out of a taxi.

"Aiko-obaasan!" He exclaimed in delight. Hearing his words, his two friends also stood up to greet the matron of the orphanage. "Obaasan, you are back! How is it? Is everything okay?" While he was excited, Yuki still said in a small whisper, didn't want to wake up all the children inside.

After paying the bill to the driver of the taxi, Aiko smiled a little at the boy in front of him before rubbing the top of his head fondly. "I am okay. Thank you for worrying about me and taking care of your little siblings during my absence, Yuki-kun."

Yuki's face was beet red in embarrassment, yet his eyes shone brightly at the praise. Then, Aiko's eyes turned to Riku and Kato and she smiled at them. "You should be Yuki-kun's friends, right? Thank you for taking care of him."

"Ah… It is no problem…" Riku rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

"U-Um! D-Don't worry, Obaasan!" Kato nodded in agreement, turning back into her usual shy persona again.

"Anyway, we have already stayed for too long! Our parents should be worried right now." Riku said. Kato also nodded, noticing that it was late already. "Thank you for the hospitality, Kobayashi-kun. See you tomorrow!" She bowed before running away without waiting for Riku to say something.

"Eh?! Why are you leaving me like that, Kato-san?!" Riku was dumbfounded. "Anyway, I have to leave too. And about the volleyball team, don't be too hasty, Kobayashi-kun! I will try to talk to Akira-jiisan first, so don't you dare to leave the team that easy! See you tomorrow!"

Yuki blinked a few times, still processing what just happened. One moment they had a pleasant conversation inside, and in a second, those two suddenly grew shy under Aiko's eyes and went back to their home quickly as if they wanted to run away from the matron. It was so strange.

"Your friends sure are interesting, Yuki-kun." Aiko let out a small giggle.

"Yes, they sure are." Yuki nodded in agreement.

"Well, let's come inside first. It is late already. You will need to go to school tomorrow, right?"

"Oh, yeah!"

Yuki jogged, followed Aiko from behind. Inwardly though, he had a hunch that this day would change his life, and it would be because of the two people that he grew closer with today.