Part 3 (Nonchalant Vs Not Interested)
Sae stood in the doorway, curiosity piqued just enough for his brow to arch. It was amazing to him that while Kia & Amya wore panicked expressions, clearly spiraling as they stuttered out explanations, you rolled your eyes.
"We were picking players for this gambling thing we do..."
"Yeah, uh, we pick players & get boxes and..."
"We were talking about my type of guy. And how these two think you like me. Tepid, right?"
The fact you stole the words from his mouth made him breathe out bc he didn't laugh. The sound came out annoyed (thankfully) because Sae had heard enough.
You regarded him as nothing more than a boring, well behaved child & when it wouldn't matter if anyone else said it...For some reason it twisted in his chest and...hurt. Almost like heartburn which he'd only had once when his dumb brother challenged him to eat shitty food last year.
It was all Sae could manage with the sudden burning sensation in his chest. He nearly grabbed the front of his shirt from the discomfort.
"Anyway, did you need something?"
You had already turned your back on him, signing into your laptop.
You glanced up because Kia was on stats this month, but her chair was empty, still spinning from her quick exit moments ago.
"She had a meeting with Otoya this morning," Amya spoke through clenched teeth trying to keep a straight face.
You released a loud sigh before closing your laptop and grabbing your tablet instead.
"Guess you're stuck with me, Itoshi. Let's go."
You walked past him, heading to an open conference room. Sae would want to see replays and dissect them while going over stats.
You used the laptop in the conference room to pull up all the games Sae played in so far this season. Including practices. Sae was particular about his stats.
While the computer loaded up, connecting to the large screen TV on the wall, you began scrolling through his stats on your tablet looking for any anomalies.
Sae observed your focused expression, noticing you gnawed on your bottom lip when in deep thought. You made a little humming sound before tapping on the tablet.
"What?" Sae spoke quickly.
"Normally your stats are consistent. I don't know why Kia didn't catch this, but there are 4 practices where your stats dropped? Here's the first one."
Sae caught your hand as you reached for the laptop to hit play on the first practice date.
"Just send me the list. I can go over them myself."
Sure, you didn't want to spend any extra time with him, but you weren't an idiot. When athletes didn't want to review their footage for possible errors etc, it usually meant they were distracted or injured during that time. All athletes responded in two ways when it came to watching themselves play.
Athletes like Aomine Daiki didn't watch because he knew he was God's gift to basketball. Athletes like Sae Itoshi studied every move down to the millisecond learning how to prevent any unnecessary movements, issues or mistakes.
Athletes like Sae Itoshi didn't watch with an audience because they were afraid to be found out (whether an injury or distraction was the cause).
Sae cocked his head at you arms now crossed over his chest.
"Now," you turned on your boss voice.
"You have ten seconds before I assume you're injured, report it and get you benched."
Sae clicked his tongue again in annoyance, but no one messed with you because you had the power to do what you said.
You remained seated watching Sae as he stood. You sat forward, but then stood up because you weren't sure if you'd seen what you thought you saw.
"What?" Sae felt his heart rate pick up when you got closer.
"Turn and don't give me shit. Just turn, slowly."
Sae's hands fell to his sides as he debated whether or not to just walk out. Instead he turned slowly & you saw it. It was the briefiest of hesitations, but you saw it.
"SON OF A BITCH! Sae Itoshi what the hell?! You tweaked your back and didn't go to medical?"
Sae was in shock. Everyone said you had some kind of super power that showed you an athletes injury no matter how minimal. Sae chalked it up to Shidou & Bachira's usual bullshit, but now he'd experienced it.
No one else had even noticed and it wasn't like he pulled anything or actually injured himself. His lower back was just a bit tight, which had caused his hip to act accordingly. Sae knew his body better than anyone else and it was almost loose.
"Get your ass to therapy right now. Fucking hell," you muttered, now tapping on your cellphone. "Max is free right now, go!"
Sae had never been spoken to like this before and he wasn't quite sure what to say in response. So, he said nothing and made his way to therapy.
The one thing everyone knew about you was you didn't play around with an athlete's health. If they didn't go to therapy, you would take them.
A month ago Sae had nearly choked on his water when his tepid brother had barely twisted his ankle and refused to go to medical. Rin had sat on the ground, arms over his chest like a petulant child, shaking his head. The next thing everyone saw was Rin over your shoulder demanding you put him down. Sae remembered your exact words.
"Act like a child, get treated like a child."
Sae had made a note to never fuck with you that way. Not when you actually dead lifted Kunigami's weight.
Meanwhile, you sat back down very aware his injury was maybe a week old. It didn't explain his stats for those 4 practice games over a period of three months. You spent the next two hours playing and replaying the footage of those practices.
Kia and Amya were eating lunch when you walked back in the office. You didn't acknowledge them and sat down staring into the distance.
"Okay, I'll bite," Amya spoke first. "Why do you look like your whole world was just destroyed?"
You blinked twice before turning to Kia.
"You should have told me."
Kia didn't try to play dumb. Not after she heard you sent Sae to therapy. It was possible you might send her to the hospital.
"I wasn't sure at first. But...Then...What was I going to say? You're distracting the world's best mid-fielder? Stay away from practices?"
"Wait...Itoshi's stats are falling because you distract him?" Amya burst out laughing.
You handed Kia the tablet, the screenshot you'd taken of one of the games on it.
"I think Sae Itoshi might like me," you spoke horrified of the possibility.
Amya leaned over Kia's shoulder to look at the picture and there Sae Itoshi stood after a kick looking at you. They had to zoom in ,but it was there. The tiniest damn smile as his gaze locked on you.
"Holy shit," Amya whispered.
"What're you going to do?"
You looked over at Kia with absolutely no answers, but forced a smile.
"It'll pass. I mean come on...It's Sae Itoshi..."
