I, the Supporting Character, Decided to Love the Main Character in Secret... Or So I Thought. - The Watcher's Bargain

His smartphone vibrated. The short notification sound echoed through the quiet after-school hallway. Hayashi Kanata stopped in his tracks and pulled his phone from his pocket. The moment he saw the screen, the blood drained from his fingertips. *Library. Come now. Kageyama.* That was all. No reason, no explanation, nothing. Just an order. (*...It's here.*) The scene in the clubroom yesterday spun endlessly in his head. His own figure, burying his face in Shouyou's jersey. The door opening. Kageyama's expressionless face, silhouetted against the backlight. *"If you don't get in my way, I'll keep quiet."* That's what he'd said. But at that time, he hadn't yet been told "what would be demanded in return." It had just ended with him fleeing the scene. Kanata gently leaned the scoreboard he'd been carrying against the wall. An empty hallway. From outside the window, he could hear the laughter of students heading to their club activities. A peaceful after-school scene. And yet, it felt like he alone was living in a different flow of time. The library was on the second floor of the annex. It was a place people rarely visited. Twelve thousand books in the collection. In the back, there were a few reading seats, some of them in blind spots. If you had a secret conversation there, no one would overhear. Kageyama had deliberately chosen such a place. To avoid prying eyes. Kanata took a deep breath. (*I'm scared.*) That was his honest feeling. But he couldn't run. If he ran, he didn't know what Kageyama would do. And more than that—the thought of not being able to stay near Shouyou was far more terrifying. Kanata was far more dependent on Shouyou than he himself realized. Back in middle school, he'd been a manager for the basketball team. But when he voiced his opinions, they found him annoying. When they lost a match, they blamed him, saying it was his data's fault. Since then, not standing out, not voicing his opinions—that had become his way of surviving. *I want to be useful to someone. But I mustn't stick my nose in where it doesn't belong.* That contradiction had always lived inside Kanata. Shouyou would smile at that Kanata and say, "Thank you!" Just that alone made him feel needed. To see that smile, he would record scores, prepare towels, and pick up balls. He felt he could do it for hours, for days on end. But that was "love." Even he didn't know when it had started. By the time he realized it, watching Shouyou had become a part of his reason for living. His manager duties were a camouflage, a pretext to gaze at Shouyou legitimately. And Kageyama had found out that secret. Kanata climbed the stairs. Each step felt heavy. The library door was open, as always. When he entered, the librarian, Mr. Minegishi, was reading a newspaper at the counter. Kanata gave a small nod and headed deeper inside. The very back of the reading area. A dimly lit spot, out of the sunlight. Kageyama was there. Black hair. Eyes tinged with blue. He sat with his long limbs crossed, leaning against the wall. There were no books around him. The weight of the atmosphere made it clear he was there for one reason only: to wait for Kanata. "...I'm here." Kanata kept his voice low. Kageyama looked up. His emotionless eyes fixed on Kanata. It was a gaze like a predator sizing up its prey. "Sit." An order. Kanata sat down in the chair opposite Kageyama. There was nothing on the desk. Except for a single notebook and pen placed in front of Kageyama. "I'm going to tell you what I need you to do." Kageyama skipped all preliminaries. No talk about the weather, no follow-up on yesterday, no small talk. He just got straight to the point. That was probably just the kind of man Kageyama was. Kanata swallowed hard. "An observation report on Hinata Shouyou. You're a manager, so you can do it, right?" He'd heard those words yesterday too. But today, they were more concrete. Kageyama held up one finger. "First, during practice. At what timing can he jump the highest? What kind of toss does he want? His habits when he's in bad shape. The time frame when his stamina runs out." A second finger. "Next, his daily rhythm. What does he drink at what time? His favorite drinks, and when he buys them. What does he eat after practice? Who does he talk to the most?" A third finger. "Also, his small mannerisms. Where does he touch when he's tired? The timing when his habit of touching his hair comes out. The movement of his eyes when he's concentrating. The situations where his tone of voice changes." Kanata was speechless. This wasn't just "recording scores." It went far beyond a manager's duties. It was the kind of content that would strip Shouyou of his privacy, root and branch. "...Is all that really necessary?" When he forced the words out, Kageyama's eyes narrowed slightly. "It's necessary." Cut off with a single phrase. "I'm going to give him the best tosses. For that, I need to know everything about him. Where and how to move him so he can output the most power. When he won't fail. If I don't grasp all of it, I can't create the ultimate weapon." "...Weapon." Kanata repeated the word. Kageyama had called Shouyou a "weapon." He saw him not as a person, but as a tool. At least, in his words. But his voice held an abnormal amount of heat. Was it passion for volleyball? Or— "While I'm at it, I'll test just how much you've been watching Hinata." For the first time, Kageyama's mouth twisted. Kanata couldn't tell if it was a smile or a sneer. But those lips, drawing a cold arc, squeezed Kanata's heart tight. (*Testing...?*) Kageyama knew that Kanata was in love with Shouyou. And now, he was trying to measure the depth of that emotion. *Just how much have you been "watching" Shouyou? How much have you been observing him?* He was checking the level of that abnormality. Kanata clenched his fists under the desk. He was scared. Ashamed. This underclassman was trying to expose the depth of his secret. But, at the same time— (*If I do this, I'll be allowed to watch Shouyou even more.*) A twisted sense of relief sprouted deep in his chest. He could gaze at Shouyou legitimately. For Kanata, that was a temptation like a drug. Kageyama picked up the notebook on the desk. It was Kanata's manager notebook. Kanata hadn't even sensed when he'd taken it out. "I'll be looking through this." "W-wait! That's—" Before Kanata could reach out his hand, Kageyama flipped through the pages. His expressionless eyes slid over the characters. It was supposed to contain the scores of everyone in the volleyball club. Spike success rates, serve success rates, stamina curves. Standard data for a manager. But it was different. In the margins of Kanata's notebook, there were small, scribbled "observation memos." Traces of his own desires, things no one else should ever see. Kageyama's finger stopped. "...'He's in a good mood on Wednesdays. On Mondays and Fridays, his voice is quieter from fatigue. After school on Tuesdays, there's a high probability he buys milk from the vending machine. His mood drops on rainy days, but he switches on the moment he enters the gym.'" The voice reading it aloud was flat, as always. But Kanata's face flushed bright red in an instant. Even his ears felt hot. His breathing became shallow. (*He read it... He read it, he read it, he read it.*) Alarms blared in his head. This wasn't just a score record. Shouyou's trivial mannerisms, his emotional changes, his preferences—it was his own secret notebook, where he'd secretly jotted all of it down. Something he should never have shown anyone. "S-stop it, please!" Kanata stood up, trying to snatch the notebook back. But Kageyama held him off with one hand, continuing to turn the pages with the other. "'He comes to the gym before any of his teammates. Sometimes he does solo practice swings before morning practice. His face at those times is surprisingly serious, making him look like a different person from his usual cheerful self.'" "Stop...!" "'When something good happens, he hops. When he's angry, he bites his lip and looks down. When he's about to cry, he doesn't rub his eyes but looks up at the ceiling to hold it in.'" "Please... stop..." Kanata's voice was tearful now. This was torture. The most embarrassing, precious thing deep inside his heart, something he should never show anyone, was being forcibly dragged out and exposed to the light. Kageyama knew that. He knew it, and he was doing it anyway. The sound of turning pages echoed in the quiet library. The librarian, Mr. Minegishi, still hadn't noticed. In the distance, he could hear someone returning a book to the shelf. Kageyama's hand stopped. The last page. There, written in clumsy handwriting, was just one line. "'...Shouyou's smile is my sun.'" *I'm dead.* Kanata collapsed into his seat, as if crumbling. He couldn't lift his face anymore. He wanted to bury his face in the desk and cover his ears. (*It's over. It's truly over.*) Just how much he had been watching Shouyou. Just how much he yearned for him. All of that abnormality had been laid bare by this underclassman. It wasn't just blackmail material anymore; it was a feeling so heavy it couldn't even be a laughing matter. A long silence flowed. The air in the library was heavy, as if damp. Only the faint hum of the fluorescent lights remained in his ears. Outside the window, it was gradually approaching dusk. "...Usable." Kageyama's voice broke the silence. When Kanata looked up, Kageyama had closed the notebook and placed it on the desk. His expression was slightly different from before. It was still expressionless, but deep in his eyes, there was a faint glimmer of something like satisfaction. "If you're watching Hinata this much, you should be able to meet my demands." "...That's cruel." Kanata spoke in a trembling voice. "It's too cruel... exposing someone's secret like this." "I do think it's bad." *You don't think that at all,* Kanata thought. This man didn't hesitate to trample on others' feelings for his own goals. But maybe it wasn't out of malice; maybe he just didn't know any other way. "...Why are you so fixated on Shouyou to that extent?" Kanata gathered his courage and asked. He wanted to know the reason Kageyama was so abnormally obsessed with Shouyou. Kageyama's eyes wavered for just a moment. It was a change that lasted only a fraction of a second. But Kanata didn't miss it. Deep within Kageyama's blue eyes, something like a cold flame flickered. "...He hits my tosses." Kageyama let out a small breath. "Back in middle school, no one could hit my tosses. They said they were too fast, or they couldn't match them, they said whatever they damn well pleased—and in the end, I was treated like a dictator. They even gave me the nickname 'King.'" His tone was self-deprecating. But deep within his voice, a deep wound was visible. "But he was different. No matter what toss it was, he desperately chased after it and tried to hit it. Even if he failed, he said he'd jump even faster next time." Kanata caught his breath. That famous "first meeting" between Shouyou and Kageyama. When they'd faced each other by chance in a practice match, Shouyou, a complete amateur, had jumped desperately trying to hit Kageyama's toss. And even while failing over and over, he never gave up. For the first time, Kanata understood what a shock that must have been for Kageyama. "He is my ultimate weapon. I won't let anyone get in the way. I'm the only one who can draw out all of his potential. For that—" Kageyama paused for just a moment, then looked straight at Kanata. "I'll at least keep your secret. Or rather, I'll make use of it." *It's not romantic love.* Kanata was sure of it. But it was a pure obsession, fiercer than affection. Possessiveness and a desire to monopolize, laid bare and raw. Kageyama didn't want to hand Shouyou over to anyone. Be

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Episode 2

Name: I, the Supporting Character, Decided to Love the Main Character in Secret... Or So I Thought.
Author: Novelia

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