Chapter Text
It had been a stifling summer. Hinata hopped off of his bike and pushed back his bangs, which had stuck to his forehead with sweat on the ride over. He pulled up to the arcade and hopped off his bike, chaining it to the bike rack and hurrying inside. Yamaguchi had asked to meet at 11:30, and it was only 11:00- surely he had time for a game or two.
Hinata wouldn’t call games his strong suit, but he still loved them. The vintage machines in the air-conditioned arcade were his happy place during the summer break. He dropped some coins on the counter, grabbed his tokens,and ran to the nearest open machine- an old Donkey Kong game- to play. He was doing remarkably well, though he’d played it a million times so that was to be expected. He hadn’t beaten his own high score- though, even after a few tries. He was third on the leaderboard, currently- that wasn’t right. Hadn’t he been second? He looked again. At the top, unsurprisingly, was “KKENMA”, but under that was a name that struck him- “KAGYAM”. ‘KAGYAM’? What a dumb name. But it was familiar.
He went to another machine, played a round, and checked the leaderboard- there again, “KAGYAM”, second place. On the pac man machine. On Space Invaders. Not on Dance Dance Revolution- Hinata had held the top spot on that one for months as Kenma wasn’t a fan. But on at least six machines so far, “KAGYAM” was above “HINATA” on the scoreboard. Hinata grit his teeth- Kenma was certainly allowed to be better than him at so many games, but who was this guy to beat all his scores? What sort of a person was “KAGYAM”? Evidently, pretty good at video games. Also a fan of the vintage ones, apparently. So he had good taste. He was probably pretty cool. Crap, probably taller than Hinata, too. Hinata could practically picture him in his head- some tall, cool guy beating Hinata’s high score, turning around and smiling at him evilly. Hinata’s brow furrowed. Whoever “KAGYAM” was, he’d set himself up to be Hinata’s fated rival from here on out-
“Shoyo, you jerk! I’ve been across the street for an hour wondering where you were! Answer your phone!” Hinata blinked. Looming above him was Yamaguchi, looking very put out.
“You know when I stand in the sun I get more freckles!”
“Sorry, sorry! I got distracted! There’s this name on all the machines-”
“Listen, tell me about it on the way. We missed the showing I’d planned for, but the next one’s in 10 minutes.”
“Well- it’s really nothing. Let’s go.”
As they walked, Yamaguchi nudged him. “Hey, did you bring the hat?”
“Oh, I totally forgot! But yeah!” Hinata pulled a winter hat out of his bag- bright red, with a “10” embroidered on it in white. “It came yesterday- I was so psyched! Look, it’s totally legit.” He showed Yamaguchi the tag.
“That must have cost so much! Any merch for the Tiny Giant is a total unicorn!”
“It wasn’t so bad- I had some leftover birthday money and stuff. And Ebay is a magical place!” He pulled on the hat and immediately made a face.”It’s way too hot for this.”
“It’ll be colder in the theater, though. Keep it on.”
“Fair enough.”
“Hey, Shoyo?”
“Whats up?”
“...Have you ever been in love?”
Hinata stopped and looked at Yamaguchi. “What?!”
“C’mon, I’m really asking! And keep walking, or we’ll be late.”
He kept walking.
“Hm… no, I guess I haven’t been in love. But that’s such a weird question. Is something bugging you, Yamaguchi?”
Yamaguchi shrugged, blushing.
“... Oh my gosh, Tadashi! You love someone! Right? Right?”
“Shut up! Someone will hear you!”
They had made it to the theater- Yamaguchi quickly bought tickets while Hinata grabbed popcorn. When they regrouped, Hinata poked him.
“So? Who?”
“Ah… maybe I won’t tell you.”
“Stingyguchi! You brought it up!”
“Ugh, fine. I was gonna tell you eventually… It’s Tsu-”
“Oi, Hinata.”
“Hi, Tsukishima!”
The (stupidly) tall boy approached. He nodded at Yamaguchi.
“Didn’t expect to see you here, Hinata.”
“Why not? I’m at the movies all the time.”
“Sure, but break is almost over… I expected you to be freaking out and cramming all your summer homework right about now.”
Hinata squawked- “Stupidshima! I did it on time this year! I can be a good student, too!” He jumped at Tsukishima, who was snickering.
Yamaguchi piped up, “Are you here to see Stars Unaligned as well, Tsukishima-san?”
“Hm? Oh, no- they’re screening a documentary about the rainforest here today.”
“Ah, how cool! Are you interested in environmental science, Tsukishima-san?”
“Sort of. It’s starting now, so.” He pulled his arm out of Hinata’s grip. “Nice hat, by the way.” Hinata scowled, taking off his hat and shoving it in his back pocket. Tsukishima nodded to the two of them, and walked off. Yamaguchi checked his phone.
“Ours is starting too- come on, Shoyo.” He grabbed Hinata’s wrist and pulled him along.
“Wait, Tadashi… you were saying before-”
“Not now-” Yamaguchi’s face was red.
“But…” it dawned on him. “Wait, YOU LIKE-”
He was muffled by Yamaguchi’s hand. “We can talk about it later! Let’s just watch the movie, okay?”
“Fiiiine. Just one question- why?!”
“I just think he’s cool. And smart. And funny… I dunno.”
“Funny if you think jerks are funny.”
“The movie’s starting, Shoyo.”
Only when they got back to the arcade did Hinata realize his new hat was nowhere on his person, or in his backpack.
“Shit, it’s probably at the theater! I’ll see you later, Tadashi!” He sprinted off, just barely hearing Yamaguchi’s answer.
“Tomorrow! I know you didn’t do your homework, so I’ll help!”
Hinata biked as fast as he could back to the theater, though just as he reached it his lungs rebelled and he was stuck catching his breath at the entrance. Just then, he saw a boy walk out. Holding his hat.
“That’s mine!” He rushed to the boy, still panting. A pair of (very) intense eyes met his.
“Ah… I saw it on one of the seats when I was walking out. It’s yours?”
“I just bought it, actually.”
“Really?” The boy looked at it. “Kind of an old piece of merch, though.” He held it out to Hinata, who took it.
“... I guess. Thank you for finding it.”
“No problem. Tiny Giant, though…” he sized Hinata up. “Well, I could see why you’d like him.” And he began to walk off.
Hinata was frozen for a moment. He watched the boy walk away- he slung a black backpack over his shoulder, embroidered with a small orange “9”. And he didn’t turn around. Hinata glanced at the hat, then at the boy. He hopped on his bike, then turned to shout at him.
“Jerk!”
He sped off to avoid retaliation.