Which Matters More, Me or Volleyball?

[Writing is hard, so I hope everyone will support the official version!] [Check out my new serial, This Is F*cking Definitely Love, a sweet danmei story. The blurb is below ↓] [Written in third person] My name is Yuan Chuanling. I’m 32, male, and work as a physical therapist. I have a partner who’s so handsome he makes my heart flutter. He’s gentle, kind, mature, and dependable. His only real flaw is attracting too many admirers. My partner used to be the setter for Argentina’s national team. We’ve been married for four years, we’re happy together, and I hope we’ll stay that way for a long, long time. My only regret is that our relationship began too hastily. I was the one who pursued him, and that left me insecure. Whenever we argued, I’d ask him, “Which matters more, volleyball or me?” After I asked that question for the hundredth time, I fainted from low blood sugar. When I opened my eyes again, I was twenty years in the past. I decided to find the rotten excuse for a partner who’d sent me back in time, and while I was at it, see what was so appealing about volleyball. I took up volleyball and enrolled at my partner’s school. The moment I saw my partner as a teenager, I recognized him. He was striking what he thought was a cool pose and boldly taunting a rival school’s volleyball team, like a white peacock showing off its feathers. Me: ? Where did my gentle, kind, mature, dependable partner go? Who’s this narcissistic, obnoxious brat? * Yuan Chuanling never liked sports as a child. He chose a career he could manage without too much effort, and his whole life was about just getting by. The only time he ever took the initiative was when he proposed to Oikawa. They’d been married for four years, and he still didn’t think volleyball was all that interesting, so he couldn’t understand Oikawa’s passion for it. Reborn one day, Yuan Chuanling learned his lesson and decided that understanding his partner meant starting with the volleyball he loved. So, against his every instinct, he began learning a sport that might well exhaust him to death. But the first time he successfully spiked the ball, he watched it fly from his hand, sail over the net, pass the blockers, and slam into the floor. His heart raced. Maybe he was starting to understand the joy of volleyball. Later, Yuan Chuanling settled one thing for himself: playing volleyball really was more important than dating a brat. :) * Three months into dating Yuan Chuanling, Oikawa was turned down for a date yet again because his boyfriend had practice. Oikawa finally snapped. He cornered him in the locker room and gritted out, “Which matters more, volleyball or me?” Yuan Chuanling: “?” You tell me. :) #Volleyball fanatics shouldn’t laugh at each other# #Volleyball or romance: how do you choose?# 1. The male lead plays middle blocker. He’s a technique-focused, ambitious type with terrible stamina who hates exercise. He’s a big shipper. Written in third person. 2. This is a self-indulgent fic. The author is an amateur when it comes to volleyball, so please don’t nitpick. 3. Lots of headcanon. Please don’t expect strict canon accuracy. 4. Major warning: This is a standard romance-focused story. Romance-focused is the key point. It is not a sports competition story; the romance is the main focus. It’s mostly here to make up for all the things the author regrets about the original. If this isn’t your thing, please leave quickly before the VIP chapters! Leave quickly! Leave quickly! Let’s part on good terms. Please don’t make inflammatory comments or attack and insult my main character. He hasn’t done anything to you. If you can’t accept the style, please leave before the VIP chapters. Thank you. Blurb for This Is F*cking Definitely Love ↓ When Xie Tiao was thirty, the Xie family was at the height of its power, while the Jiang family was on the verge of bankruptcy. Xie Tiao bought up the Jiang family’s mess and took in their youngest son, Jiang Wang, along with it. Outsiders liked to call their relationship coercion and domineering force. But Xie Tiao was convinced this was f*cking definitely love. Until one day, Xie Tiao died of an illness. He fell asleep in the cold operating room and woke up beneath soft silk covers, opening his eyes to see his naked lover. Still groggy, Xie Tiao was kicked out of bed by the little brat. “Who said you could get into my bed? Get out!” Xie Tiao glanced at the old photo of the two of them on the bedside table. Xie Tiao: ? Whose bed did you say this was? On the first day after Xie Tiao was reborn, his former lover, now his employer, threw him out. Even the security guard at the gate was gossiping about him. “Did you hear? After that Xie family guy died, Jiang went crazy. He found a man who looks just like him and keeps him in the villa as a stand-in!” Xie Tiao crouched by the gate and thought for a moment before coming to a conclusion. The brat’s got some interesting tastes. Who am I supposed to be standing in for? Myself? * When Jiang Wang was eighteen, his mother died in a car accident. His no-good father planned to abandon him and run off with the money. To protect the last of his mother’s inheritance, Jiang Wang sold himself and the Jiang company as a package deal to the powerful Xie family. Outsiders liked to call their relationship a business arrangement doomed to fail. But Jiang Wang was convinced this was f*cking definitely love. Until, after parting through life and death, they met again, and his lover, returned from the dead, refused to acknowledge him. “Wouldn’t it be better to leave things here? Do we really need to go down the same road again?” Jiang Wang, utterly despairing, decided to go mad, and succeeded in getting himself admitted to a psychiatric hospital. After he fell ill, Jiang Wang’s memories regressed to when Xie Tiao had just brought him home. At that time, Jiang Wang was covered in sharp edges, like a wild wolf that could never be tamed. Xie Tiao found it hard to adjust. His friends also felt Jiang Wang had been wronged, and accused Xie Tiao of not knowing how to love, after all the years Jiang Wang had suffered. Xie Tiao wouldn’t accept that. There was nothing in the world he couldn’t do. He walked into the hospital room and sat on the edge of the bed. After hesitating for a long time, he shut his eyes and blurted out, “I’m your lover. Call me hubby.” Jiang Wang froze, then flew into a rage. “Weren’t we clear that I wouldn’t sell my body?” Xie Tiao tensed up as if facing a mortal enemy. After a long pause, Jiang Wang pressed his lips together, his ears turning red. “That’s a different price.” Friend: “...” You two really are a match made in a broken-pot-and-cracked-lid kind of way. Just make do with each other. What else can you do, get divorced? Content warnings: 1. Neither lead is particularly normal. Both are extremely possessive, with full points in the gloomy, obsessive ghost-boyfriend category. 2. Their feelings are emphatically mutual. The shou has a slight everyone-loves-him tendency. 3. Both are each other’s one and only. 1v1. Happy ending. Theme: