Chapter Text
Once in a blue moon, you would go down to the dining hall to indulge in a late night snack after a long study session. When you arrived, you saw a few other students already doing the same, carrying around cups of instant ramen or snacks from the vending machine to eat after a long study session.
All normal, except there was a ruckus happening at the table smack dab in the middle of the room. You resisted the urge to sigh when you realized it was the volleyball club causing all the commotion. Some kids grumbled past you as they left, complaining about the noise level so late in the night which caused you to sink your shoulders in embarrassment as manager of the club. You were about to turn on your heel and leave, but you were immediately spotted.
“Ah, [Surname]!” You turned your head and saw Goshiki approach, a smile plastered on his face. “What are you doing down here so late?”
“I should be asking you the same…” you mumbled out as you looked at the group. They seemed more animated and riled up than usual. The boys at the table waved at you and you reluctantly waved back. “Shouldn’t you guys be resting after today’s workout? The conditioning Coach Washijou had you guys do at the end of practice was tough.”
Goshiki nodded his head like an excited puppy. “We did rest! But then Tendou showed me a video about these super spicy noodles and he said that Ushijima could probably beat me at eating the noodles faster. So I challenged Ushijima to an eat-off! Luckily, Tendou had a box of the noodles in his room and the rest of the team is joining in as well!”
In an attempt to stop yourself from laughing at his naiveté, you bit your bottom lip. Tendou had Goshiki playing right into the palm of his hand. You held back from telling him this as he dragged you to the table the others were sitting at.
“We need an unbiased judge to proctor this challenge; it’s a good thing you showed up.” Goshiki was absolutely beaming by now. His rivalry with Ushijima knows no bounds. “[Surname] will be proctoring the challenge for us!”
“Don’t go lugging [Surname] around, Goshiki,” Shirabu sighed out and then pulled a chair for you to sit in. Goshiki immediately released your wrist and then began to apologize while also earning a light whack to the back of his head from Shirabu.
“It’s fine!” You suddenly felt really bad for the first year. His relationship with the setter wasn’t the best off the court. “I had nothing to do in my dorm anyway... so I guess this could kill some time.”
Tendou began to flail his arms excitedly into the air. “Yeah! The more the merrier! Now that Kenjirou isn’t proctoring, he can join in on the noodle festivities!”
“Yeah,” Shirbu said and then looked at the black noodle cup. Something about it just screamed danger to his intestines. “No thanks, Tendou.”
“Ah, there he is….” Tendou hummed with his eyes closed and then crossed his arms. “The killer of fun.”
“Excuse me?”
“Hm?” Tendou mused out and then began to pour hot water in the aligned noodle cups.
Shirabu narrowed his eyes for a moment while Tendou smiled as innocently as possible.
“Just make me a cup…” Shirabu said, giving in to his senior's persuasive means. Tendou merely cackled as he grabbed another bowl of noodles from the side.
Another pawn to play with for Tendou, you thought as Shirabu left the table to grab an extra pair of chopsticks for himself. How scary!
“Hey, just how spicy can these noodles be?” Semi asked as he inspected the red packet by lifting it up into the light. Joining his side, Oohira stared at the liquid sauce packet. He gave a half-crooked smile that showed maybe eating spicy noodles right before bed wasn’t the best idea.
“I heard these noodles are really spicy… like to the point that people have breathing problems from eating them,” you chimed in.
The two shuddered at the thought of potentially being hospitalized from eating a cup of noodles.
“You don’t think we’ll die from eating this stuff...” Semi muttered as he tossed the sauce packet back to the pile sitting on the table. “Right?”
“If it was made to be eaten,” Ushijima began in a nonchalant manner, “then the noodles cannot be too terrifying.”
The other members nodded in agreement with their captain while Goshiki looked fired up and ready to devour the noodles. The dining hall was nearly empty besides you and the rest of the volleyball team by now. It’d probably take only ten minutes to finish this whole challenge if they ate fast enough which meant you could go to sleep on time for the next day.
“Ta-da!” Tendou presented the seven cups of instant noodles and slid them across the table to each member. The sauce packets were in the middle and each person grabbed one for their cup.
“Are there any rules that I should know before you guys start?” you asked, fiddling with the stopwatch that Shirabu had given to you before he decided to join the challenge. "I don't want to accidentally mess this up."
“Yeah, a couple. You're going to be recording the times once someone finishes eating. Whoever finishes last loses, but,” Yamagata pointed his finger to the clustering of milk boxes, “whoever drinks the milk first before everyone is finished eating is the automatic loser.”
For a moment, you kept silent, completely baffled. What went on in their minds? This just seemed like pure torture.
“Wow, you guys are taking this to a new level…”
“It’s all just good, friendly fun! Also,” Tendou squeezed his sauce packet into his cup and gave a devious chuckle, “loser has to pay for yakiniku this weekend.”
Ah, suddenly everything made sense. The reason the other guys joined in was just an attempt at scoring free barbecue on the weekend. You couldn’t help but sympathize with the loser as their wallet would be feeling significantly lighter.
With the rules laid out, the rest of the guys followed Tendou's lead and began to pour the sauce into their noodles.
“Oh God, it looks just like blood…” Semi remarked as he made a disgusted face and stirred his chopsticks into the cup.
“And this smell…” Shirabu added, pinching his nose. Even you could smell how potent the spice was.
“Any last words, guys?” Oohira chipped in; there was a feeling of dread falling on each member.
“Itadakimasu,” Ushijima answered and placed his hands together.
There was a short exchange in looks between the other guys, but nevertheless, they followed suit. With everyone ready, you cleared your throat.
“Alright… ready in three, two, one.”
You pressed the start button on the stopwatch. Everyone except Shirabu, Tendou, and Ushijima shoved as many noodles into their mouths as humanly possible as soon as the challenge commenced. However, this proved to be inefficient as Semi, Oohira, Yamagata, and Goshiki began to choke on their food due to how spicy it was. Goshiki's eyes teared up in agony while Semi and Yamagata opened their mouths and dropped the noodles back into the cup in order to relieve themselves of the pain. Only Oohira continued to chew his mouthful, albeit in a very slow manner.
“Eet’s sew hoawt!” Goshiki cried out while trying to slurp more noodles into his mouth. He chewed as fast as he could and opened his mouth in between to mitigate the intense spice.
“Who the hell eats this stuff!” Semi yelled out in agreement and slammed his fist onto the table in frustration. His face was turning red and small beads of sweat were forming on his forehead.
Nodding his head furiously at Semi’s outburst, Yamagata began to shove another (this time smaller than his first attempt) mouthful of noodles while Semi did the exact opposite and ate little by little. Shirabu and Tendou ate small bits of the noodle at first in order to build up their spice tolerance before attempting to eat larger quantities. The only one eating normally was Ushijima; he ate at a regular pace and it didn’t even look like the spice affected him.
“I’m done,” Ushijima declared and then showed his empty cup to you. For a second you didn’t know if you should be amazed or downright scared of his spice tolerance.
“Was it not spicy for you, Ushijima?” you asked while writing down his time. The other members stared in shock at how unstirred he was to the whole ordeal.
“No, it was very spicy. My mouth is on fire.”
You wouldn’t have guessed it because of the blasé air around him. Not noticing your dazed state, Ushijima unzipped his jacket and took it off. He looked to his right and then to his left, soon realizing that no one else was near finishing. He eyed the cartons of milk on the table and sighed in discontent.
Is this guy even human? How can he eat these death noodles without showing an ounce of pain?
Ushijima is too powerful on and off the court…
I expected Wakatoshi to finish first, but even this is a bit much!
“I-I’m finished…” Oohira presented his empty cup to you and coughed in agony. You recorded his time and whispered words of encouragement because it seemed as if he needed them now more than ever. He slumped into his seat and you swore you saw his soul leave his body.
The rest of the competitors began to amp themselves up as they shoved the noodles into their mouths. At this point their taste buds were completely burned off and the only thing on their minds was not losing.
“Done!” Semi shoved the cup in your face and you noted that his lips were swollen as you recorded his time.
“Alakazam!” Tendou showcased his cup in an extravagant manner. All the noodles were gone. This was a surprise since Tendou was typically a slow eater.
Following him, Shirabu pushed his cup in front of you without saying a word. His eyes looked dead. There was an orange lining around his lips which contrasted his paling face.
You recorded each time and looked at the last two competitors: Goshiki and Yamagata. They were both chewing as fervently as possible, their table manners a thing of the past with a yakiniku bill at stake.
Though neck-in-neck, Goshiki finished a second faster than Yamagata and slammed his cup down, yelling out in victory. Small bits of spit landed on the table and you jumped back in revulsion.
“Goshiki! That’s disgusting!” you screeched at the younger boy while also writing down his time. Shirabu gave another light whack to the back of Goshiki’s head in annoyance, but he didn’t care. The pain in his mouth took complete priority. Yamagata groaned in agony and cursed at being last. He pushed his empty cup away from him and then pressed his face into the table.
Wasting no time, Ushijima reached over and grabbed a small milk box for himself. The rest of the guys followed and took a relief sip in silence, a moment of content shared between the competitors now that the challenge was finished. Nearly everyone at the table looked like they experienced a near death situation (Ushijima, the outlier, kept his usual visage).
As they regained their strength, you passed napkins to everyone at the table and motioned around the lip area. Shirabu pulled out his phone and used his camera to inspect his face. His eyes widened and in a flustered moment he quickly wiped the noodle tint off of his lips as fast as he could. Tendou cackled at the embarrassed second year while Semi patted Yamagata on the back. Oohira finally regained his composure and then stretched his arms out, ready to go back to his dorm.
“Our miracle boy Wakatoshi prevails once again!” Tendou jumped out of his seat and then pranced around the ace. He did little jazz hands and you couldn’t help but laugh at how ridiculous the scene in front of you looked. “Tsutomu, it’s another tally on the loser side for you.”
In a burst of adrenaline, Goshiki pushed himself up out of his seat and then raised a fist into the air. “Just wait! I’ll prepare myself for the next challenge and show Ushijima that I’m capable! I’ll develop the highest spice tolerance on the entire team!”
At his declaration, you couldn’t help but giggle into your hand. He would always get fired up for the most unusual things when it came to Ushijima. There was something very endearing about his dedication towards becoming the best ace in every possible sense.
“You nearly finished last, Goshiki. Maybe you should make more capable goals before you challenge Ushijima.” Shirabu’s gaze was icy cold as he delivered his words to the first year. He sighed out in exasperation and then began to pick up the empty noodle cups to start the clean up process.
With their little challenge done and over with, you checked the time on the screen of your phone. It was already past 11 PM; way over the time you expected this all to end. Picking up some of the trash on the table, you helped the boys clean the mess they made.
“Go back to your dorms,” you instructed as the last of the trash was picked up. “You all still have practice scheduled for tomorrow and it’s already late.”
“Thanks for helping us, [Surname]!” Goshiki exclaimed and then gave a wave. The other members expressed their thanks (including Yamagata who was still rather depressed about losing the whole ordeal) as well and wished you a good night.
“What do you mean they’re not feeling well? They were perfectly fine last night!” you exclaimed in shock as Ushijima kept a cool appearance.
“They’re having… digestive issues.”
“That’s half of the starting lineup!” Frustration began to kick in. You should have never helped them with their dumb little noodle challenge. “Coach Washijou is going to be so pissed, what will we even say to him? ‘Oh, Goshiki, Shirabu, Semi, and Yamagata are skipping today because they ate some spicy noodles late last night and turns out they couldn't digest any of it!”
“Yes, that sounds about right.”
You pushed your hair back in frustration. Ushijima was a smart guy (despite being as dense as a pile of bricks), but sometimes he was so hard to work with.
“So they’re all in their dorms right now?”
“Yes, Goshiki has it particularly bad and had to skip some of his classes.”
“Well, thanks for letting me know before practice,” you grumbled out. “Ushijima, you should have stopped Tendou from messing with Goshiki. You know how riled up he gets when it comes to a challenge.”
He took a second to think and then let out a rare smile. “Perhaps, but it seemed like a fun activity for everyone as a team bonding exercise. Tendou said Goshiki was very excited after watching a few videos online about it.”
Blinking twice, you stared at Ushijima as if he had grown another head. Then, after a short pause in conversation, you laughed into your hand. He furrowed his brows together.
“Is something funny?”
“Yes,” you chirped in response. “You really do well to look after this team, Ushijima.”
“Of course,” he spoke in a diligent manner. “It’s something I must do.”
“Well, I’ll let Coach Washijou know. Thanks again.” You waved a farewell as you made your leave. A part of you dreaded going into Coach’s office because the story just sounded flat out stupid: how could a cup of ramen noodles be so formidable to the point that it knocks out half of a starting lineup? It was a good thing there were no practice matches scheduled today.
Before you rounded the corner at the end of the hall, Ushijima caught up to you, stopping you for a moment before making it to Washijou's office.
“I can tell Coach Washijou instead, if you would prefer," he said.
Okay, now this was definitely weird.
“Are you... sure?" you asked in disbelief. It was like he was asking for a death sentence. "I mean, I need to grab some paperwork from him for the next tournament, so this really isn’t putting a damper on things.”
“Yes, I believe Coach is a bit lenient sometimes on me. I think this will be beneficial.”
His reasoning did make sense. After a moment of thought, you continued walking, looking back over your shoulder as an invitation for him to follow.
“Fine, but you need to make sure you get ready for practice on time as well.”
At your words, he nodded in response and you both continued towards Coach Washijou’s office to deliver the unfortunate news.
Things couldn’t have turned out worse.
In a twist of events, Ushijima’s appearance did not make things better. Coach Washijou was already in a sour mood and hearing that half of the starting line up was out sick today because of cup noodles made him blow up. Now, here you both were, sitting on your knees in complete defeat as Coach Washijou drilled his anger into your heads. It must have been at least five minutes of being chewed out before he dismissed you both to get ready for afternoon practice.
“That,” you sighed out in mental exhaustion, “did not go as planned.”
Ushijima nodded his head in silence. Although he kept his same stoic facade, you noticed that his lips were pressed into a thin line; he obviously felt a bit of frustration.
“Sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” You waved a hand in the air to dismiss the topic. “Let’s just get ready for practice...”
The practice session turned out harsher than expected. With a few members missing, Coach Washijou opted to do more conditioning for the team in order to strengthen their stamina. Running around the entire campus in pairs, ab work-outs, serving practice, and then playing 3-on-3 match ups back-to-back was brutal to even watch. By the time all drills were finished, everyone was completely exhausted. As you passed out towels and water bottles to the boys, Coach Washijou beckoned you and Ushijima to him before dismissing the team.
The old man cleared his throat before he began, “Sunday. Instead of having a day off, the ones who couldn’t come will be doing the same drills we did today with the rest of the cup noodle nimrods. Starts at 3PM. I’ll drop by and check to see if everyone is there. Clean up and you’re free to go now.”
You swore a part of you died right then and there.
Instead of the boys eating yakiniku that weekend, they were all stuck doing drills at the gym. Goshiki, Shirabu, Semi, and Yamagata were chewed out as soon as Coach Washijou stepped foot onto the wood paneled floors, berating them for participating in such an idiotic challenge. It was the same scene you shared with Ushijima when you went to his office. You couldn't help but sympathize with the boys, especially Goshiki who just about nearly cried.
Once Coach Washijou was finished with his lecturing, he monitored their practice alongside with you by his side and yelled out notable flaws in their play. No one was safe from his demon coaching. Practice continued until the sun finally set. The look of pure exhaustion was evident on everyone’s face.
The spicy noodle incident was one to never be forgotten.