On my way back home, I stopped by Ukai's store.

Unfortunately, the lights were off and the sliding doors didn't open when I came near them.

I came closer to the glass and with my hands on the sides of my face, I tried to look inside to see if I could spot him there somewhere.

Where could he be? Oh, right, maybe he's at practice.

I pondered while my face was still glued to the glass.

Suddenly, a hand heavily landed on my shoulder, making me jump in surprise.

"Looking for someone?" I recognized the familiar cockiness.

I turned around to see Ukai in his tracksuit he wore to volleyball practices and a bag slung over his shoulder.

"Uh, yes. Do you have some discarded volleyball balls?" I asked, hoping he would just answer my question and not probe me about why I needed them.

He looked at me confused and crossed his arms.

"Hm? And for what would those be to you?" He smirked.

My eyes squinted and I huffed.

"What do you think?" I gritted.

Just answer my question. I thought as I was losing my patience with his stupid jokes.

"Well, if you intend to use them, I'd be afraid you'd break your leg or something." He joked.

My eyes widened.

How stupid he thinks I am?

"What?" I spat out.

"I've seen how clumsy you're. When you ran to help that Nekoma student at the camp, you almost tripped like two times and I'm not talking about the time you DID trip and your first aid pack scattered all over the floor." He gave me a winning look recalling the times I, unfortunately, made a fool of myself at the training camp.

I was fuming, I was almost certain you'd be able to see the smoke coming out of my ears.

"That's different, running and volleyball..." I tried to argue, to which he only raised his eyebrow in disbelief.

Waiting for him to say something I sighed.

"Look, if you don't have any ball to give me just say it. I wouldn't ask you if the one I had wasn't deflated." I huffed.

Seeing my defeated attitude, Ukai finally started to take me seriously and a small smile appeared on his face.

"Well, they're discarded for a reason. Most of them are popped or damaged so they wouldn't be useful in playing if that's what you intend to do." His tone wasn't sarcastic now but rather calm.

"But I could inflate that ball you have. I have an air pump with me." He gave a few pats to the bag that was hanging from his shoulder.

"Really? Thank you! My house is that way" I gave him a big smile while pointing in the direction of my home. Finally, he said something sincere and not sarcastic.

While on our way, we chatted to not walk in silence.

"So where did you get that ball? I specifically recall that you said you and sports don't go together." He pondered.

"Yeah, I did say that." I chuckled.

"It's not technically mine, the previous owners of the house just left it there, alongside other stuff." I explained and he hummed in understanding.

When we got to my house, I quickly ushered him to the basement so he didn't have a time to see the mess I had in my living room. I still had heaps of papers and documents from work laying on the table that I needed to go through but just left them, promising I'd come back to them soon.

As we descent to the basement, I clicked on the light switch that lit up the small hanging light bulb on the ceiling.

"Woah, that's a lot of stuff." Ukai announced as the light gave away the view to the mountain of garbage.

"I told you, I need to clean it out someday. I can't even imagine how long it will take me to get rid of all this." I sighed and made my way towards the pile where I found the deflated ball.

"I mean, I could help you if you wanted. Cleaning all this alone seems exhausting." I could hear the strain in his voice as he imagined the work it'd take.

"Thank you but I don't want to bother you...Ha! Here!" I reached down to the ball.

I showed it to Ukai who took it from me.

"Yep, that's pretty squished. Let's hope it doesn't have any holes." He announced while inspecting the ball.

After he had inflated the ball, he tried to squish it in his hands to test the hardness.

After he was satisfied with the way the ball reacted to the pressure of his hands, he tossed it to me.

"Here, catch!" He called and I hastily caught it.

He watched my hands tightly gripping the ball and my surprised face. He smiled to himself as he packed the air pump back into his bag.

I just hoped he didn't notice how I was watching him like a hawk while he pumped the ball because the moment he started grunting and the muscles on his arms were bulging, I couldn't focus on anything else.

He was already putting his shoes back on when I got out of my trance.

"Hey, wait!" I called out.

He turned around and looked at me.

"Yes, what is it? You need to pump anything else?" He asked.