Chapter 2
The jar comes to use less than four hours later.
Harada is worried about Arai.
He's the one who keeps telling Harada to take care of himself, but Arai is not the best example to follow.
They had a good practice and Harada couldn't be more satisfied with his team.
All of them were growing very nicely.
They always move in perfect synchrony, like a well-oiled machine.
Shindo is growing more confident, Mizuno's serves are getting more and more precise, Fujii's defense is becoming stronger and even Matsuda is slowly getting along better with everyone thanks to a connection he seems to be developing with Takano.
And, of course, Arai is one hell of an ace.
His spikes are the most powerful and precise and Harada can always count on him when things get difficult.
As a captain, he is proud of each and every one of them, especially of his ace.
As a friend, he knows that, even though Arai's performance as a player hadn't dropped even a bit, there is something wrong.
There are dark circles beneath his eyes, he yawned through the whole way from home to school and Harada is pretty sure he almost caught his friend half-asleep in the shower.
Who sleeps like that?
Sleep deprived people, of course.
Everybody is getting dressed to go home and Arai is the last one to turn off the shower.
Harada eyes him as he lazily puts on his clothes, which is extremely uncomfortable.
Not only because he can't take his eyes from Arai's muscles flexing – what is this feeling?
Jealousy?
Is he jealous because Arai is a buff?
– but because Arai never does anything lazily.
Hell, they should call him captain stamina.
If Arai is showing signs of laziness, it is because it isn't really laziness.
It's exhaustion.
"Ara-chan, you look even worse than usual.
Like a dying gorilla instead of a regular gorilla."
"Harada." Arai replies softly.
"You shut the fuck up or I'm shoving these sneakers down your throat."
Harada grins, just a little bit relieved.
If he's still replies bitterly, he probably isn't that bad.
However, the lack of raw anger is concerning.
"Why you gotta be so mean every time, Ara-chan?
I'm your captain and I'm concerned for your sake."
Arai scowls at him and, for the first time, Harada notices that Arai's cheeks are all flushed.
Not the angry spots of red that appear when Arai is about to kick the living hell out of Harada, just a very uniform shade of pink covering Arai's skin.
A fever?
"Ara-chan, come here."
Harada slowly cups Arai's face with one hand and leans in until their foreheads are touching.
Arai doesn't even flinch, so used he is to Harada being next to him.
Instead, he just cocks an eyebrow up and asks:
My.
God." A voice comes from the other side of the room.
It's Ogawa.
"What are you two doing?"
Harada turns around, frowning.
Ogawa sounds as if he just witnessed a scandalous scene and, the captain notices, the rest of the team is standing still, shamelessly staring at them – well, everyone but Shindo, who is desperately trying to hide his flushed face behind the door of his locker and pretending that he isn't also staring by the corner of his eye.
"I think Ara-chan might have a fever." Harada explains in a flat voice, still not understanding what all of this was about.
"And why did you feel the need to check his temperature like that?" Kusano sighs and shakes his head, as if Harada had disappointed him.
"Put money in the jar, Harada."
He tries to protest, but Kusano and Ogawa are so synchronized outside the court as they are in it:
I was checking-"
"You gave us your word, captain."
"But Ara-chan-"
"Is shirtless, so you shouldn't be this close to him."
"Are you guys even listen-"
"Captain.
Jar."
Harada immediately turns his eyes to Arai, who's frowning as if somebody just put something really stinky right beneath his nose, but instead of backing him up, this time Arai just shrugs.
"Told ya' you were going to regret letting Flip-Dee and Flip-Dum have their way.
You shouldn't have given your word to them."
He groans, because he knows that he can't beat Ogawa and Kusano at the same time if Arai doesn't have his back.
Against his will and beneath every Katsura High volleyball player scrutiny, Harada fishes an old coin from his backpack and throws it inside the jar with a loud "ping!" Once he does it, everybody goes back to their own business and Harada scoffs, not believing in what just happened.
Arai just puts on his shirt and grabs his backpack, seeming not even a little surprised by the incident – or maybe he was just too tired to react, after all Harada still hasn't discarded the possibility of a fever – and waves their teammates good-bye as he follows Harada, who's pouting his way out of the school.
"What now, Harada?" Arai sighs.
"Aren't you shocked that they made me put money in the jar?"
"Well, no?
They told us that they were going to, what are you so upset about?"
Well, isn't that a good question.
Harada himself isn't sure why he's so bothered.
It was just 100 yen, for God's sake.
He used to be more patient than that.
Maybe it was because they didn't take Arai's (possible) fever seriously?
Because they reprehended Harada for doing it?
It doesn't seem quite right.
Was it because they thought it was weird for him to touch Arai so casually?
Harada was very socially aware, so he was familiar with the concept of personal space, nevertheless those boundaries didn't seem to matter when it was about Arai.
The fact that someone – say his teammates!
– wanted him to put distance between him and his best friend...
Well, he doesn't know, so he just tells Arai the first thing he can think of:
"I didn't think that they were serious.
Thought they found that jar somewhere, believed it would be a good joke and were just being weird as usual."
"You should know by now that Kusano and Ogawa take their own jokes very seriously."
"Ara-chan, you aren't helping."
"And you aren't telling me what's really bothering you, so I guess we are even."
Harada pouts again.
Just as many times he's glad that Arai is his best friend, sometimes he wishes Arai didn't know him so well.
They walk two more blocks in silence while Harada organizes his thoughts and finally voices what's going in his thoughts:
"Do you think it was weird?
For me to touch you casually?"
Another moment of silence, except that Arai now is the one trying to unravel his own mind, apparently.
Harada stares at his friend as he waits for a response, but Arai keeps looking forward thoughtfully and builds up a feeling of apprehension inside Harada's chest.
He waits anxiously, after all talking to Arai, whether he speaks of his problems or not, makes him relax a little.
They walk another whole block before the ace finally speaks up:
"Dunno." And he shrugs.
"We're used to each other because we've been friends since we were babies or whatever.
I guess it's strange, a little."
And for the first time as long as he can recall, talking to Arai makes Harada even more uneasy.
Arai doesn't want to have friends anymore.
He wonders if everyone's friends are like that or if he just hit the jackpot by ending up with Harada
and Ogawa and Kusano
at the same time.
Maybe the little shits knew that Arai was a bit more defenseless than usual, after all God knows that the lack of sleep is tearing his nerves apart and so was the anxiety of not knowing if he was going to make it to the right university.
He wouldn't even be able to beat them up for being such a dickheads with that whole PDA jar thing.
Arai thought he was used to Ogawa and Kusano's shenanigans by now, but, God, was that jar story getting on his nerves.
He knew it wasn't on purpose.
As much as the dynamic duo was annoying with their antics, they would never pile up stress over Arai deliberately.
They were friends, after all, and friends don't stress each other (too much).
And they knew that Arai could beat the living hell outta them if they went too far, but that's not the point!
Arai can't take his mind off the fact that his friends think that he and Harada are doing things that are inappropriate for friends to do.
Or else... it wasn't that bad.
Was it?