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Karasuno was losing the second set. It was all their fault, too.
Kageyama and Hinata were arguing, again, causing no end of trouble for the team. Hinata had been too fast for Kageyama’s toss, since he’d done a slower one than his usual freak, and the setter had just about reached his wit’s end.
“I gave you the signal, didn’t? Why did you jump so soon?” he barked.
The shrimp stared at his feet. “Well, because… I forgot, okay?” The last words were a defensive snap. Typical.
Kei sighed. Here we go, he thought bitterly.
Kageyama turned three shades darker. “You forgot? You forgot? How long have you played volleyball, again? How many times have we rehearsed those signals?”
“I’ll do better next time, quit whining!”
Their rivals, Nekoma, were watching them, thinly disguised amusement plain on their faces.
Kei rolled his eyes. Unbelievable. Those two were an embarrassment. Their constant bickering was only barely made up for by their combined talent. Barely.
That didn’t make him want to throttle them any less.
It was so obvious why they fought all the time. They were head over heels, but too stubborn, or stupid (or both), to realize it. The entire team knew it. Tanaka had proposed talking to them about it, but Suga denied him, telling him that they needed to figure it out in their own time. Well, Kei’s patience was very quickly running out, and there hadn’t been a lot to begin with.
“Will you lovebirds kiss and make up, please? I’d like to get home sometime today,” he called out from the back of the court.
The king fixed him with a fiery glare, but he was unfazed.
Hinata spluttered. He leaped away from Kageyama as if burned, returning to his post on the right side of the court.
“Good riddance,” Kei muttered. He sank into a receiving position in preparation for Spiky Hair’s serve. Maybe now that they’d settled somewhat, Karasuno would be able to win at least one set against their longstanding rivals.
They didn’t.
The pair yelled at each other between every point, win or lose. Even Suga was visibly irritated. The rest of the team was a mess. By the end, they were so frazzled, it was a miracle if they could set up an attack.
Something had to be done.
Maybe, just maybe, if Kei could make them realize that all of their tension wasn’t from rivalry, but massive, disgustingly clichéd crushes on each other, the team would be able to function for a single game without any major altercations.
But how to do it?
An idea occurred to him as they were boarding the bus. Hinata had gotten on first, picking the best seat for himself and Kageyama. It was in the back half, just a few rows from the end. He had sat by the window, and was staring out of it as he waited for the setter to join him.
He would be sorely disappointed, however, as Kei happened to be in front of Kageyama in the line. He sat next to Hinata, trying not to take too much satisfaction in the terrified look the spiker shot him.
“H-hey, why are you sitting here?” he demanded, his fear covered up by indignant confusion.
He gave him a sidelong glance. “This is the best seat on the bus. It’s not my fault you sat here.” He reached up and put on his headphones before the other could respond. Just because he was doing this didn’t mean he wanted to talk to the shrimp any more than he had to.
Kageyama ended up sitting beside Nishinoya (after shooting Kei a weird glance), across from Kei and Hinata, and one row up. Yamaguchi was forced to sit with Tanaka. Ordinarily, Kei would feel bad for him, but he was a little busy feeling bad for himself. Hinata would not stop fidgeting, and it was driving him insane.
His only relief came when shrimpy finally fell asleep, but it was short lived. The bus took a turn, and as it did Hinata slumped against him, his head resting on the blocker’s shoulder.
Kei fought the urge to shove him away. His willpower almost broke when he noticed the idiot was drooling on his jacket. He had finally snapped and was about to do something about it when Kageyama turned around.
He took in the sight, his mouth falling open a little bit. He snapped it shut quickly, as if realizing that he had been staring, and met Kei’s gaze, his eyes confused—but there was anger there, too.
Kei just gave him a small smirk, and winked.
The setter turned around quickly, his cheeks turning pink with rage, and Kei decided that a little drool stain on his jacket was worth it. Besides, this was only just the beginning.
The next day at practice, everyone was mystified. Hinata had just made a competent receive, and if that wasn’t shocking enough, Kei had complimented him. “Nice!” he called out, his voice monotone, but the word kind nonetheless.
Hinata gaped at him, along with half the team, before clenching his fists with a sudden surge of suspicion. “What do you mean, ‘nice’?” he snapped.
If Kei wasn’t so irritated he would have been offended. He wasn’t that rude all the time, was he? “I mean, literally. That was a nice receive.” He fought to keep the annoyance out of his voice.
“Hah?” Hinata was dumbfounded.
Tanaka put on his best intimidation face and sauntered over, sticking his face uncomfortably close to Kei’s. “What angle are you pulling now, eh? Why are you complimenting Hinata?”
Before Kei could respond, Tanaka was pulled away by an apologetic looking Suga. “Sorry, Tsukishima, ignore them,” he muttered, bowing slightly. As he dragged Tanaka away, he looked over his shoulder, flashing the blocker a smile full of pride.
Kei stopped himself from rolling his eyes. He wasn’t actually doing any of this to be nice. Suga didn’t have to look at him like he was learning how to be a good person. He knew how, he just chose not to be.
Practice continued somewhat uneventfully, though Kei was sure to compliment Hinata whenever he did well. He could tell it made Hinata uncomfortable. It didn’t bother Kei very much, though, because when he looked across the court and saw Kageyama glaring at him with the force of a thousand suns, he had to fight down a satisfied smirk. At this rate, he probably wouldn’t have to keep it up much longer. The king would have to confront him eventually, and when he did, the truth could come out.
He saw the opportunity to further his goals when Hinata took a spike to the face from Daichi, knocking him flat to the ground. Daichi had spewed out apologies, running forward to help, but Kei was there first.
He knelt next to the shrimp, who was cradling his nose, and gently but firmly pulled his hands away to assess the damage. Blood was gushing from his left nostril. Kei reached up and pulled his shirt off over his head, wadding it up and using it to wipe away some of the blood, his other hand holding Hinata’s head up.
Everyone froze.
Hinata had a look on his face like Kei had just grown fangs and was preparing to rip him apart.
Kageyama looked, and sounded, like a bull ready to charge.
Kei met everyone’s shocked gaze, his eyebrows pulled together. “What?” he bit out. It was just a white shirt. He could buy one anywhere. Why did everyone have to make such a big deal out of everything? It wasn’t as if he actually wanted to help Hinata. Couldn’t they see that?
“Ts-Tsukki, why…” began Yamaguchi quietly.
“Yeah, Tsukishima, what’s wrong with you?” asked Tanaka, making that ridiculous face again.
He glared. “Am I not allowed to help a teammate who’s been hurt?”
Tanaka opened his mouth, probably to say ‘no,’ when Suga cut him off.
“Of course you can! Right, everyone? I think it’s very generous what Tsukishima just did.” He looked around at the circle that had formed, trying to reassure them with an easy smile, but even Daichi wasn’t completely convinced.
The captain just shook his head. “Hinata,” he began.
“Y-yes!”
“Are you okay? I’m sorry about that, I lost control of the ball.”
“I’m fine! It’s not a problem!”
“Can you play?”
“Yes!”
His nose had stopped bleeding, at least. Before he could hop up and run away, Kei used one hand on his shoulder to keep him down while he gently wiped off the last of the blood with his now ruined t-shirt. As he did, he made eye contact with Kageyama, and raised an eyebrow.
Kageyama turned on his heel and stormed away. Hinata hopped up and followed him, shooting Kei an almost scared look over his shoulder.
Good riddance.
This pattern continued for several days. Hinata would be an idiot, Kei would try to find ways to make him feel good about it, and Kageyama would do convincing impressions of a toad with a stick up his ass. One time, Hinata had tripped on his own foot, and fallen face first. When Kei helped him up, his fingers lingered on the other’s wrist just a moment too long to be considered casual, and Kei had actually heard a squawk of indignation from the setter. It was going better than expected.
Or it would have, if that pattern had held up.
But, as he was wont to do with other people, Kei had underestimated the king. Sure, he was a straight C student with emotional constipation and unparalleled narcissism, but he wasn’t actually stupid.
Kei should have seen it coming.
It started on Thursday night’s practice. They were practicing serves, and Yamaguchi, as per the usual, was having a hard time of it. Ukai was about to give up and order the next person in line to the front, when Kageyama stepped out of line and came to the front, earning a couple confused looks from his teammates. He took Yamaguchi’s arm and repositioned it, so that when he made his toss, the ball wouldn’t fly forward as much.
“Try it like that,” he said.
Yamaguchi stared at him. As did the rest of the team.
He blushed and returned to his spot.
Sure enough, when Yamaguchi tried it, his serve went over the net and landed inside the court. It wasn’t a beautiful serve by any means, but it was a marked improvement.
Kei had shrugged off the incident as unimportant. He felt no need to read into it.
Practice ended. Kei had already changed and was waiting for Yamaguchi to stop talking to the damned king. His patience ran out after two minutes. “Oi, Yamaguchi,” he called out, letting his irritation show.
The pinch server jumped and turned, his eyes wide. “Y-yes, Tsukki?”
“Will you hurry? I want to go home.”
He suddenly looked very uncomfortable, rubbing the back of his head as he stared at the ground. “Oh, well…You see, the thing is…”
Kei had a very bad feeling. “Spit it out.”
“Kageyama-kun offered to help me with my serve for a bit. So I was just going to walk home later.” He looked up sheepishly, fearful of Kei’s wrath.
Kei met Kageyama’s gaze. The setter just gave him a small smirk, and winked.
“Okay,” he said calmly, pushing down the storm of rage that had just unleashed in his chest. “See you tomorrow, then.”
Only once he was outside did he allow himself to clench his fists and grit his teeth. He pulled on his headphones and blasted his music, taking long, purposeful strides. That smug-faced bastard. He wouldn’t get away with this. He wanted to play dirty? Fine. But he would regret it.
Over the next several days, things only intensified. Yamaguchi had declined walking home with him again the next night, and the night after that. His serves were definitely improving, but that didn’t matter to Kei. No, what mattered was making Kageyama regret ever getting himself involved.
“Oi, Hinata.”
The shrimp froze, turning his head slowly. “What?” he asked sharply. He was obviously terrified.
Kei couldn’t blame him. “Come here.”
“Wha-Why?”
“Just do it.”
Slowly, the spiker approached him, clearly wary. He stopped a few feet away. “What? What do you want?”
Kei reached forward slowly with one hand, his fingers running through Hinata’s surprisingly soft orange hair. When he pulled his hand away, he was holding a piece of lint between his fingers. “You had this in your hair. It was bugging me.”
Hinata looked like he was going to pass out.
Kageyama looked like he was going to explode.
Kei dropped the lint and turned away, allowing himself this small victory.
His satisfaction soured, however, when he saw Kageyama give Yamaguchi a friendly pat on the back after the latter made a successful receive. They exchanged a few words, and Yamaguchi smiled at him.
Kei had to stop himself from growling.
It didn’t help that every time Kageyama hit a ball well (which was very often), Yamaguchi would call out, “Kageyama, nice!” from the sidelines.
That was supposed to be a Kei thing, not a Kageyama thing.
Every time he said it Kei wanted to punch a wall.
He got his chance for revenge shortly after. Kei was up front, at the net, holding the blocking device. The spikers would spike, the ball would deflect, and Nishinoya would try to save it. It was Hinata’s turn to spike. The shrimp charged forward, his eyes on the ball. Unfortunately, he didn’t notice that his shoelace had come undone, so when he took a step, he tripped and crashed into Kei.
Kei pounced on the opportunity, letting the device down, before he put one hand on Hinata’s waist, as if steadying him. “Careful, idiot,” he muttered.
Hinata stared at him, his cheeks pink.
Kei slid down slowly, onto his knees, and began tying Hinata’s shoe for him. “You should pay more attention.” The shrimp was so tiny that even when Kei was on his knees, he was at a level with the other’s crotch. This disgusted him, of course, but he didn’t need to look at Kageyama to know that jealous rage was burned into every fiber of his being.
When he straightened up, Hinata looked like he would rather melt into the floor than have to stand there under everyone’s stare. Kei smirked, ever so slightly.
Daichi cleared his throat. “Okay, let’s try that again. Hinata, from the back line.”
Throughout the rest of the practice, Kei felt Kageyama’s poisonous glare on him, and was unable, and unwilling, to keep from sneering about it. He was being wildly immature, he knew, but the king had made it personal.
He was in the locker rooms when he heard laughter behind him. His heart sank. It was Yamaguchi.
“Gosh, Kageyama-kun, that’s a crazy story.” His voice was so sincere and honest. Dammit.
“That’s what I thought. And you can just call me Kageyama.”
“Okay…Kageyama.”
Kei slammed his locker a little too hard.
“H-hey, Tsukki, are you…?”
“Fine,” he snarled. He turned and hefted his bag over his shoulder. “Bye.” He started walking away, but when Kageyama next spoke, he raised his voice, as if to compensate for the growing distance between them.
“So anyway, Yamaguchi, you live out past the track field, right? I wouldn’t mind walking with you in that direction for a little while…”
He put on his headphones and turned up the volume.
Ridiculous.
Thursday at lunch. Kei left his homeroom, bag slung over one shoulder because he couldn’t be bothered, and waited for Yamaguchi to show up. He was already pissed; their teacher had given them a quiz with no warning, and he hadn’t studied any of the material, too caught up in plotting revenge against the king. So when Yamaguchi was late, he pulled out his phone to send him an irritated text. Kei froze when he saw a new message. From Yamaguchi.
To:Tsukishima Kei
From: Yamaguchi Tadashi
Sent: 10/13/14, 12:27
hey tsukki, im really sorry this is such short notice, but kageyama asked me to lunch and i felt bad saying no! i hope thats okay!! please dont be mad!!!!!
Kei shoved his phone into his pocket. He wasn’t mad. Of course he wasn’t mad. He was fucking furious.
He found Hinata in the halls, looking a little lonely. Kei could empathize. “Oi, shrimp,” he said as he approached him.
Shrimpy looked up, instant distrust overpowering his loneliness. “What?” he asked cautiously.
“What are you doing for lunch?”
“Uh…” he blinked, clearly taken aback. “Nothing, I guess… Kageyama ditched me,” he muttered, looking away.
Kei grabbed his hand. “Follow me.”
“H-hey, you can’t just--” he began indignantly, trying to pull out of his grasp as they walked down the halls.
Some of the other students shot them weird looks.
“Yes I can. Now be quiet.”
He led them outside, onto the hill overlooking the East wing of the school, where the gymnasium was. A single maple tree sat at the top of the hill. Kei sat down beneath it, pulling Hinata down beside him.
“Why are we--” the shrimp began, but Kei cut him off.
“This is where Yamaguchi and I always eat lunch. But since he’s off with the king,” he swallowed his bitterness. “I thought you and I could eat here instead.”
Hinata paused, his outrage falling away. “Oh,” he said quietly. “Okay.”
They ate in silence for a moment before Hinata cleared his throat.
“So, uh, Tsukishima…”
“Call me Kei.” Even Yamaguchi didn’t call him that. He got a small spark of satisfaction.
Hinata blushed inexplicably and looked away. “Uh, okay…So, Kei, why--”
“Before you ask me that question, I want to know more about you,” he interrupted. Okay, so it was a lie, he honestly didn’t give a damn about Hinata’s life, but he didn’t feel like answering any questions. He wanted someone else to do the talking.
He blinked, surprised. “Like what?”
“You have a sister, right? What’s she like?”
His face lit up, all wariness forgotten. “Oh, she’s great! Her name is Natsu, and she’s pretty small, but she has a big personality. One time when she was three…”
Hinata talked for practically the entire lunch period. And, if Kei was being honest with himself (which he wasn’t), it actually wasn’t so bad. Hinata was annoying, sure, but it was nice just listening to someone without having to try too hard to supply the conversation. His stories were fairly entertaining, too. Even if he did use a bunch of irritating sound effects and hand motions to convey some of the more dramatic parts.
He had just finished a story in which he was stranded on his roof for six hours with nothing but a stick and a volleyball, when the bell rang. His face fell. “Oh, I was going to tell you about Natsu’s birthday party last year…There was a bear.”
Kei blinked. “Oh, well, it’s fine…Really. Some other time.”
He hadn’t really meant it, but the way Hinata’s face lit up, he realized maybe hanging out again would have been okay. It did sound like a good story.
“Okay!” he said, hopping to his feet. He coughed, suddenly looking uncomfortable. “Uh, thanks for having lunch with me…Kei.”
“Sure,” he said simply.
“Um. If you wanted to, I wouldn’t mind…I mean, I have some friends who call me Shouyou. So. You could too.” He blushed, staring at his feet.
“Okay. Shouyou.” He shouldered his bag and started walking away.
"H-hey, wait! I have a story about my cousin’s graduation, it’s short enough that I could tell you on the way to class!” he yelled after him, bounding to catch up to Kei’s longer stride.
He sighed. This whole ‘friendship’ thing would get really tiring.
Kei was greeted by an unpleasant sight as he walked into the gym for practice that afternoon, one that he had seen too often in the last couple weeks.
Yamaguchi and the king were laughing in the corner, clearly entertained by some sort of inside joke.
Yamaguchi doubled over in a fit of giggles. “I can’t believe he said that!” he gasped out.
Kei rolled his eyes. “Morons,” he muttered under his breath.
Hin—Shouyou came into the gym behind him, and when Kei glanced at him, he saw the shrimp watching the pair, his mouth turned down ever so slightly.
This was getting out of hand.
“Oi,” Kei barked out. “Quit messing around. We should be setting up the nets before everyone gets here.”
Kageyama walked over to them, Yamaguchi in tow.
He clenched a fist.
The king’s face was calm, but he could see the sneer lurking below the facade. “How was lunch?” he asked innocently.
The ball was in his court, now. He had to set up the attack. Kei kept his expression deadpan. “It was fine. I thought I might have to eat alone, but…” He stared into Kageyama’s eyes. “Shouyou kept me company.”
Kageyama’s calm mask broke. He stared incredulously at Kei, then looked to Shouyou, as if for confirmation. The use of shrimpy’s first name was not lost on him.
Shouyou just shrugged.
That was it.
Kageyama sprang forward, grabbing fistfuls of Kei’s shirt and pulling him down to eye level. “What’s the big idea, huh, Tsukishima? Why are you being so friendly with Hinata? What’s your game?” he snarled, shoving his face into Kei’s personal space.
Finally, he thought. He had to work the confession out of him, though. “Why does it matter? I can’t make new friends?” he said, letting some of his irritation show. Kei hated being manhandled.
“No,” he snapped. “I don’t know what you think you’re accomplishing, but it’s not going to work.”
“Oh? Really?” He sneered down at him. “I’d say it’s working quite well. Seeing me, draped over Shouyou all the time? It makes you jealous. You’re only so pissed because you like him. Maybe if you’d just admit that, we could all get on with our lives.”
Kageyama blushed, with embarrassment and fury. “Oh yeah?” he countered. “Like you aren’t jealous that I started hanging out with Yamaguchi? I only did it because I knew it would piss you off.”
Kei opened his mouth to retort when Yamaguchi stepped forward, his mouth turned down, his eyebrows drawn together. “Is that true, Tsukki? Kageyama?” He looked at them in turn. “Were you really just pretending to be our friends to get at each other?”
Both boys looked at each other.
Tsukishima Kei and Kageyama Tobio were two individuals not distinguished for their social finesse. In fact, they were pretty atrocious in any social situation. But even they knew that they’d fucked up.
Kageyama’s anger vanished, replaced by shame. “I…Look, it’s not--”
“Just--” Yamaguchi interrupted. “Just don’t say anything. It’s fine.” He turned his head. “I’m gonna go.” Yamaguchi turned and walked out of the gym.
Kei glanced at Shouyou out of the corner of his eye.
He was staring at his feet, his head low.
He felt a twinge of remorse. What was the world coming to? He opened his mouth to say something, but Shouyou cut him off.
“I’m fine. Really. You should go talk to Yamaguchi, though.” He lifted his head and fixed him with an intense stare.
Kei nodded and turned, walking to the exit. As he turned, he heard the sound of a hand hitting skin, and an indignant, “Ow!”
“I would expect that from Tsukishima, but you?”
“I know, I know. I’m sorry.”
“Tell that to Yamaguchi…”
He walked outside. As he’d guessed, Yamaguchi was sitting under their tree, up on the hill.
The afternoon breeze shook the leaves and toyed with the ends of his long brown hair. His head was lowered in between his knees, which he’d drawn up to his chest. As Kei drew closer, he saw that Yamaguchi was shaking.
He dropped to the grass beside him. “Are you crying?” he asked, his tone flat. Again, social finesse was not his strong point.
Yamaguchi’s head snapped up, as if he hadn’t heard him approach. His eyes were red, his cheeks wet and puffy. He wiped his nose and looked away. “A little.”
“Why? You really let the king get to you that much?”
He shrugged, still refusing to look at him. “I guess…It just hurts. I was grateful to him, because you were with Hinata a lot, and I…I guess I felt lonely, and a little jealous.” He swallowed. “I thought he actually wanted to be my friend. We had fun together…But he was just using me.” His hand clenched into a fist against his leg. “I don’t know why I’m surprised.”
Kei frowned. “Don’t be stupid,” he said.
Yamaguchi looked at him, his face shocked.
“I mean it,” he said firmly. Kei stared out over the school, not looking at him. “The king may be an idiot, but he’s not dumb. He might have started out with those intentions, but anyone who spends time with you will inevitably become your friend. Your real friend.”
“Tsukki…”
Kei barreled over him. This was unlike him, sure, but even though he was reluctant to admit it, Yamaguchi meant a lot to him, and it was irritating to see him upset. “You shouldn’t take it personally. In fact, you should be flattered. The only reason he used you like that is because he knew how much you meant to me. He realized that I care about you as much as he cares about Shouyou. Because you’re nice. And loyal. And cute.”
Yamaguchi was staring at him as though he had just confessed to being a government spy. “Tsukki, do you really…?” he began.
Kei decided to drive his point home. He turned his head, grabbing Yamaguchi by the chin and tilting his face up. He brought their lips together in a surprisingly tender kiss. When he pulled away moments later, Yamaguchi was frozen. He frowned. “What?”
His face lit up in an enormous grin, and Kei was irritated at how adorable he found it. “Tsukki!” he cried. “Does this mean--”
Kei stood and brushed off his shorts. “If you’re going to be my boyfriend,” he began. “You might as well call me Kei.” And with that, he started walking away.
There was a pause, as if Yamaguchi was trying to wrap his mind around that. “Okay, Tsu—Kei!” he said finally. “Wait up! Kei!”
When they entered the gym again, the rest of the team had arrived. Daichi looked stern. “Tsukishima, I believe you owe--”
"I know,” he interrupted. He came to stand in front of Shouyou, who was looking up at him expectantly. He took a deep breath. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.” He bit out the next words. “I liked your stories. And…if you wanted, you could still tell me the one about Natsu’s party.”
Suga prompted him with a look.
“…Sorry, Hinata.” He stared at his feet, wishing everyone else would just go away.
There was a long pause.
“That’s Shouyou, to you.”
Kei looked up, shocked.
Shouyou was beaming at him, his face as radiant as his namesake. “It’s all good! I wasn’t that mad. Plus it’s nice to watch you try to apologize like that. You look like you’re about to vomit or something.” He screwed up his face in a very poor imitation.
Kei scowled.
Tanaka clapped him on the back, laughing. “You’re all right, shorty!”
Things fell silent again when Kageyama stepped forward, his eyes lowered with shame. “Yamaguchi…” he began.
Yamaguchi smiled softly. “It’s okay, Kageyama. I don’t mind, as long as it wasn’t all a lie…I mean…You’re okay still being friends?”
He nodded earnestly. “Of course! We’ve been friends! It’s just…I only started being your friend for a selfish reason. But I promise I wasn’t faking it. And…your serves have been getting a lot better.”
Yamaguchi let out a relieved giggle.
Kei almost gagged. There was so much love and acceptance in the room, it was making him sick.
Daichi clapped his hands, shaking Suga off his arm, who was clutching it and making proud mother noises. “Alright everyone, glad we’ve sorted this out. I don’t want any more team drama, though, or there will be punishment. Got it?”
There was a collective affirmative.
“Good. Now let’s play some volleyball!”
The bus was quiet on the way back from the practice match. Everyone had tired themselves out celebrating their victory over Nekoma. Kei had his headphones on, looking out the window, watching the sun set.
Yamaguchi was sleeping next to him. He’d insisted on holding hands before he fell asleep, and now Kei couldn’t extricate his fingers without fear of waking him up.
It was okay, though. He didn’t really mind.
He glanced over and saw that Kageyama was in a similar situation, across the aisle. Shouyou had fallen asleep on him, getting drool on his jacket, as he was wont to do, one arm draped lazily across the other’s stomach. The king had his eyes closed, but opened them when he felt Kei’s gaze.
Kei looked away again, but he heard a muffled, “Oi.” He pulled his headphones down with his free hand.
“What?” he asked, voice monotone.
There was a long pause in which they just looked at each other.
“…Thank you.”
Kei just gave him a small smile, and winked.