Haikyuu!!: The Disaster of Gamers

The night, like a sponge soaked in ink, pressed heavily on the rooftops of Karasuno Town.

The atmosphere at Lu Ren's dinner table tonight was exceptionally harmonious, or rather, a little too harmonious. Because Qingze Yazhi's parents had unexpectedly gone on a business trip, this childhood sweetheart from next door was conveniently detained by Ms. Lu Xin. During dinner, Ms. Lu Xin treated Yazhi even more kindly than her own son, constantly serving her food and showering her with concern. Lu Ren, holding his bowl, huddled in a corner, feeling like the guest who had come to stay.

Having barely endured the process of dinner and showering, Lu Ren fled back to his room as if escaping a disaster.

There weren't any extra guest rooms, so following the practice that the two families had maintained for over a decade, Ya-zhi slept in the bed while he slept on the floor. This routine was as practiced as logging in and claiming a daily reward.

Lu Ren pulled the bedding out of the closet and spread it on the floor. Only a small, warm yellow lamp was on in the room, the light so dim it made him feel sleepy. The door clicked open, and Lu Ren instinctively turned around, then froze on the spot, his brain's CPU fan spinning wildly.

Qingze Yazhi had just finished showering and was wearing a light pink cotton nightgown, not her usual smart sportswear, nor the school uniform that covered her up completely. Her hair wasn't tied up; it was loose and damp, with a few glistening water droplets still clinging to the ends. The lemon scent of her shower gel, mixed with the unique fragrance of a young girl, forcefully entered Lu Ren's nostrils.

She sat cross-legged on the edge of the bed, drying her hair with a towel in her hand. Her cheeks were flushed from the steam, and her eyes, which always carried a smile, shone brightly under the light.

"What are you looking at?" Ya-Chi tilted her head, her movement incredibly natural.

Lu Ren snapped out of his daze, feeling his face burning. He quickly shifted his gaze to the monitor and frantically grabbed the controller: "N-nothing. I was just thinking... um, how about playing a game? The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess."

Suggesting to play games at a time like this, Lu Ren felt like he was a prime example of someone destined to be single forever.

"No, you play." Ya-zhi draped the towel around her neck, leaned closer to the headboard, and said in a soft, sweet voice, "I'll watch you play."

Lu Ren had no choice but to bite the bullet and open the save file. On the screen, the protagonist named Link was riding a horse across the Hyrule continent, but Lu Ren's skills were as bad as a newbie who had just left the starting village; he kept crashing into trees or falling into pits.

The breathing behind me was very soft, yet its presence was extremely strong.

Yazhi hugged her knees, her gaze fixed on Lu Ren's broad back, but her thoughts drifted back to ten years ago like a kite with a broken string.

It was a summer filled with the incessant chirping of cicadas.

In a first-grade classroom, the homeroom teacher led a short boy to the podium and introduced him to everyone: "This is Lu Ren, a student who transferred from China. Please help him."

Back then, Lu Ren looked even more clueless than he does now. He stood on the podium, wearing an ill-fitting short-sleeved shirt and carrying a large backpack, seemingly at a loss for what to do.

The teacher assigned Ya-zhi, the class monitor, to take care of this "foreign friend." Ya-zhi originally thought that the language barrier would be a big problem, but after getting to know him, she found that although he had a basic understanding of Japanese, his approach was... well, to put it another way, very unorthodox.

"Lu Ren, this is an eraser." Xiao Yazhi held up the eraser and taught him.

Little Lu Ren nodded, hesitated for a long time, and then blurted out, "Ya Mei Daddy (Stop)?"

Xiao Yazhi was stunned.

"Well...we're going to the playground now."

"Hurry up!"

Ya-Chi later learned that this kid had learned all his Japanese from late-night anime, and his vocabulary was poor and full of strange ambiguities.

Even more coincidentally, when she got home from school, she discovered that her new neighbors next door were Lu Ren's family. Out of curiosity about that faraway country, and also out of a sense of responsibility to correct the boy's strange Japanese, the two children reached a "strategic cooperation agreement" by the yard wall.

"I'll teach you Japanese, and you teach me Chinese."

"make a deal."

From that day on, whether it was copying homework, playing games, or plotting a counterattack together after being bullied by older students, the two were never apart. She watched him grow from that little kid who only knew how to say strange things into the boy he is today, who talks nonsense but is sometimes surprisingly reliable.

On the screen, Link finally solved the temple's puzzle. Lu Ren breathed a sigh of relief and was about to turn around to show off his solution when he found that there was no sound behind him.

He put down the handle and carefully turned around.

Ya-zhi leaned against the headboard, her head nodding slightly, clearly asleep. A few strands of hair playfully clung to her cheeks, trembling gently with her breathing.

Lu Ren held his breath.

This was the first time he had observed her so closely and without any guard up.

Having shed her usual capable demeanor as a team manager, Yazhi was now as quiet as a delicate porcelain doll. Her long eyelashes cast a small shadow beneath her eyelids, and her lips were rosy, slightly parted.

Lu Ren swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

The room was so quiet that the only sounds were the hum of the computer's cooling fan and the pounding of my own heart.

A debuff called "Impulse" began to spread in his brain, and the turrets of reason were being frantically destroyed by minions called "Hormones".

"I'll just take a look," Lu Ren said to himself.

He moved closer as if possessed, kneeling on the floor and slowly leaning forward.

Nearly.

closer.

He could even feel her warm breath on his face.

Just as Lu Ren's nose was only centimeters away from Ya Zhi's, his mind went blank, unsure of what to do next—

"What do you want to do?"

A cool voice suddenly rang out, with a hint of hoarseness from just waking up.

Lu Ren froze, as if struck by Medusa's petrifying ray, his entire body suspended in mid-air in an extremely awkward position.

Ya-zhi, who had kept her eyes tightly closed, slowly opened them. There wasn't a trace of sleepiness in those eyes; they were clearly filled with mockery and cunning, like a little fox waiting for its prey.

"I... um..."

Lu Ren's brain completely shut down; his language module failed him, and he stammered for a long time without managing to utter a complete sentence. He couldn't retreat, nor could he advance; he could only remain in this ambiguous position, his face as red as a ripe tomato.

Yazhi looked at the flustered young man in front of her, and the smile on her lips grew deeper and deeper.

She suddenly reached out and gently cradled the back of Lu Ren's head with her warm palm.

Before Lu Ren could react to what was happening, he felt a force coming from him, followed by a soft, warm touch on his lips.

Like a dragonfly skimming the water, they part ways in an instant.

It felt like a feather brushing against my heart, or like an electric current instantly coursing through my body.

Time seemed to stand still at that moment.

Ya-zhi let go of her hand, leaned back against the headboard, pulled the blanket up to cover half her face, revealing only her crescent-shaped eyes, and said in a muffled voice, "Idiot."

Lu Ren remained kneeling on the ground, his eyes glazed over, as if his soul had left his body and flown into outer space.

System notification: Player [Lu Ren] has suffered a critical hit, his HP has dropped to zero, and he has entered the [Confusion] state, which lasts indefinitely.

Three seconds later, Lu Ren suddenly stood up, the movement so forceful it almost knocked over the lamp next to him. He spun around twice, unsure what to do with his hands and feet, finally pointing to the door and stammering, "Water... I'm going to get some water! Yes, water!"

After saying that, he rushed out of the room, his back view looking somewhat like he was fleeing in panic.

The moment the door closed, Ya-Chih, who had been calm all along, instantly lost her composure.

Her face flushed crimson at a visible speed, like a boiled shrimp. She abruptly rolled over and burrowed into the covers, wrapping herself up like a cocoon, feeling as if her heart was about to leap out of her throat.

"Ahhhhh!"

She screamed silently in her heart, kicking her feet wildly at the foot of the bed, making the sheets crumpled and wrinkled.

What did I just do? How did I suddenly...kiss him? It must be because I ate too much for dinner and my brain isn't getting enough blood! Or maybe I caught his silly antics!

In the living room.

Lu Ren stood in front of the water dispenser, the water cup in his hand trembling slightly.

Cold water poured down his throat, but it couldn't extinguish the fire in his heart. He took a deep breath, trying to restart his brain, but the lingering sensation on his lips seemed to constantly remind him of what had just happened.

That was... my first kiss, wasn't it?

right?

Lu Ren covered his face and leaned against the wall, but he couldn't suppress the corners of his mouth from turning up in a crazy smile.

What is this? A hidden storyline trigger? A special event after maxing out affection? Or... is this the reward for completing the game?

He calmed himself down in the living room for a full five minutes, until his heartbeat was no longer so fast that he felt like he was about to die, before he picked up his water glass again and tiptoed back to his room like a thief.

The main lights in the room were off, leaving only the dim yellow table lamp.

Ya-zhi lay on her side on the bed with her back to him, curled up in the blankets, motionless, looking as if she were asleep.

Lu Ren quietly placed the water glass on the table, turned off the game console, and then crawled into his sleeping mat on the floor.

He turned to the side, looking at the raised "cocoon" on the bed, his eyes so tender they could melt water.

"You win."

He whispered in the darkness, his voice filled with an unprecedented mix of doting affection and helplessness, "You've completely won me over."

The "silkworm pupa" on the bed stirred slightly, but did not respond.

Lu Ren smiled, pulled the blanket over himself, and closed his eyes: "Goodnight."

Silence returned to the room.

After a long while, just as Lu Ren's breathing gradually became steady, the blanket on the bed was quietly pulled open a crack.

Yazhi revealed her rosy cheeks, looked at the sleeping boy on the floor, and a beautiful smile curved her lips.

"The same to you."

She spoke softly, in a voice only she could hear.

Goodnight, my idiot.