The Birth of A Volleyball Legend

The first half of the second day was like a torture for Yuki. He – and the other participants – had to spend about three hours listening to the lecture about astronomy nowadays, the works, and, discoveries. At first, he was interested in the topic. However, after five minutes he sat on the class, Yuki finally realized why it was necessary to have a good basic in math and physics.

"Come on, Yuki!" Kato whispered, nudging him gently with her elbow. "Wake up! This is the cool part!"

"Right…" He mumbled, rubbing his eyes. "But… I don't get it."

The lecturer continued, "Exoplanets are worlds that orbit other stars outside of our solar system. We've discovered thousands of them, and some might even support life!"

Yuki tried to process this information, but it felt like trying to catch smoke with his hands. The words swirled around in his mind, and despite his efforts, he couldn't make sense of them. He looked over at Amagi who was leaning forward intently and taking notes and Yuki couldn't help but wonder.

'How can he understand this stuff?' This was another time when Yuki realized that even with his arrogance on the volleyball court, Amagi was still the son of a professional astronomer, and it was no wonder that he could follow the rhythm easily.

"Don't worry, Yuki," Kato said softly. "I'll help you after class. It's fascinating stuff!"

"Okay, but I feel like I'm so behind," Yuki admitted, slumping down in his seat. "I thought I had a good handle on math and physics, but… this is something else."

After the lecture was over, the camp participants were set free for a short break. Yuki sighed and rubbed his temples, feeling overwhelmed. Seeing that, Amagi who sat in front of him suddenly came and asked, "So, how is it?"

"I don't know, man." Yuki sighed helplessly. "I thought I have a good basic, you know? I am also in the top four in my class, and before I came here, I even read several books to stay relevant. But in the end, all of those things are useless since I couldn't even understand a single thing about the lecture, not like you, Amagi-san." There was a hint of frustration laced in his voice.

Amagi himself was taken aback by the sudden outburst before his shoulder was shaking from holding back laughter. Yuki had half his mind offended by this, but he knew the older boy wasn't a cruel person. Still, he was confused here, not knowing what was funny about his rant.

"Do you want to know a little secret?" Amagi suddenly whispered conspiratory. Yuki and Kato stared at each other for a moment before the boy nodded unconsciously. "Just like you, I don't understand even a single thing in the lecture before. Hell, I didn't even try to listen to it since I knew it would be useless, you know?" He giggled at the shocked expression on Yuki's face and the affronted gaze he received from Kato.

"B-But how? Why?" Yuki was speechless while his brain was full of questions. "You look so serious in the class! Hell, I could even see you scribbling something on your notes!"

"Yeah, but what makes you think I take notes on the lecture?" Amagi smiled knowingly. "The thing is, the lecture before is way too advanced for a high school student. I am sure except for the over-achiever students like Ayaka-san – no offense, Ayaka-san," He apologized to the girl, which she accepted quickly. "Anyone else would have no clue of what he was babbling about."

For that, Yuki sighed in relief. Even though it was cruel to be glad that the other students also couldn't understand the lecture, at least he knew he wasn't alone on this boat.

"But if this is too advanced, why would Chikako-san still put this for the camp?" Kato asked.

"Oh, it is not her who put it there, but him," Amagi replied easily. "Don't you get it? He is the dean of the faculty of Astronomy at Gunma University, or in other words, my mom's boss. He has the biggest power here, so when he wants to join the camp, my mom has to make time for his class."

'Ah, that is explaining a lot of things here.' Yuki murmured wryly.

And indeed, it did, mainly for why Amagi was trying so hard to pretend in the class. After all, falling asleep in the middle of the class lectured by his mother's boss would be a disaster, not only for Amagi but also for his mother.

After having to fight against the headache from the last lecture, the next activity was pretty light, which everyone seemed to enjoy. They had a treasure hunter game, with all of them having to solve six riddles related to Astronomy to figure out where their lunch was hidden. Every time they solved one riddle, they had to go to that place to get the next riddle, and so on until they solved all of it.

Yuki enjoyed this activity very much, not knowing how he missed having his legs moving around like when he was on the court. The fact that he could also see Kato thinking hard to solve the puzzle also added the fun here.

After a while, they finally figured out everything and found their lunch in one of the rooms for the observatory's gigantic telescope. They stared at it in awe, some of the participants even bouncing in excitement as almost everyone was fanboying/fangirling over the telescope in front of them. Unfortunately, Chikako told them that the telescope was too advanced and they wouldn't use it for the camp, dampening the enthusiasm there.

Still, the excitement was there. They chatted and laughed with each other while enjoying lunch with a giant telescope in their back. Hell, some even took a photo of them, sharing it with the chat group that they had just created for it. Enjoy new tales from empire

After lunch, it was time for another lecture. Fortunately, this one was far more interesting, about the work prospect in this field. In this section, Kato grew out of her shell and became the most active participant here, barraging the lecturer with one question after another. Yuki even had to stop him from asking after she dragged the session fifteen more minutes from the schedule.

Everyone could only stare at her with a dumbfounded face as she gave the impression of a shy, quiet girl here.

After that, even though it was still five in the evening, they had free time and were advised to take an early nap. Everyone followed it without complaining while some of them couldn't hide their excitement. Their reaction was predictable, since later after midnight was the time for the best agenda in this camp.

Stargazing.