Lin

“We saw smoke coming from underneath Wakatoshi’s and Satori’s dorm room and we all collectively said ‘He must've exploded the microwave.’” Ohira takes a sip of water before carrying on with a grin. “And of course we were right, Satori had exploded the microwave via chocolate ice cream and ramen cup concoction.”

Entertained laughter rattles from the people around you. After leaving the stadium, Sakou, the third years and you, made your way to a local shokudo to share a meal together. And so, here you are, wedged in between Ohira and Sakou on a low table, with the rest of the guys circling the low table around you.

“I think it was because of the foil in the ramen lid.” Jin Soekawa, the last of the third years that Satori had introduced to you a mere 20 minutes ago, says calmly.

So it was because of the foil, that makes sense. I’ve almost done that once or twice.

Everyone’s understanding blends together into a collective ‘ohhhh’, it’s funny how everyone is so in sync with each other.

Except for Ushijima, He sits, blinking on the other side of the table diagonal to you. He’s listening but he doesn't look very entertained- although, his facial expressions are pretty limited. It’s almost impossible to guess what he’s thinking about the majority of the time.

Your eyes wander over to the huge pile of rice that has become a dome in Ushijima’s bowl.

He must be really hungry, especially after that performance on the court.

Looking around, you notice that most of the boy’s bowls are similar. They must all have one hell of an appetite.

Makes sense though, all of them are crazy-good athletes.

“Speaking of, we better start looking at getting another microwave hey, Waka?” Satori places a piece of sweet pork on his tongue and then chews it animatedly.

“Sure.”

“We had that one since our first year, y'know? It’s a shame it exploded.” Satori says, turning to face you.

“I’m surprised it lasted that long with you around.” You grin.

“A miracle really.” Semi joins in.

“Ay! Semi-semi! You’re meant to be on my side.” Satori pouts. “Dropping me for a girl you met a couple weeks ago…” He pretends to wipe a tear away mournfully. “Tragic, really.”

Ushijima pats him on the back. “I would like to be on your side, Tendou. However, unfortunately you did explode the microwave.”

“...And ruin like 5 textbooks in the process.” Yamagata - the libero whose name you can finally remember - adds.

Satori throws his hands up in the air defeatedly. “Is everyone here against me??”

“Yes.” Sakou, Semi and you chime.

Idle chatter continues as the night goes on, the boys relay statistics and details about today's game that you find yourself straining your brain to try and make sense of.

Sakou offers you some braised lotus root and you take it thankfully, letting your teeth sink into the soft flesh of the vegetable.

The game talk reminds you of a play that confused you earlier when watching the first team.

What was it- something to do with a block?

Oh yeah- the pink team blocked but the other one ended up with a point.

“In the first game the pink team made a play that I was confused about,” A few heads turn to you, including Ushijima. He settles his piercing, unwavering gaze on you. “I think they made a block or something but the other team ended up with a point. How does that work?”

“It was pro-” Yamagata starts off.

“Most likely an illegal block or a net touch.” Ushijima’s voice vibrates slowly around the room.

You nod, avoiding eye contact as usual. “How do you block illegally?" You ask, you know that it's a bit silly question but you want him to talk to you more, even if it makes you feel like there's a giant worm in your stomach.

“In this case an illegal block occurs when a player's hand or arm crosses the vertical plane of the net which interferes with the opponent's spike.” He talks in the same kind of monotone voice he would to ask someone to ‘pass the salt’. “And a net touch is exactly what it sounds like, it is when a player makes contact with the net during an active play.

You hum. “Okayy, volleyball is a lot more complicated than I thought it was.”

Ushijima sticks a hunk of marinated beef in his mouth.

Alrighty then. End of conversation I guess.

When you turn to your left side you find that Sakou is smirking at you, an acusing twinkle in her eye.

What?

You search for something, anything that could distract her from her train of thought. You’d rather her not bring any Ushijima-crush related topics to the table right now, especially not with all the boys around.

“Your eyelash is falling off.” you say, trying to match the kind of monotone voice that Ushijima uses.

Sakou slaps the side of her face with one hand, hiding the sight of her wonky eyelash. “Dammit! You should have told me earlier!” She shoots herself up from her cushion and trudges off to the bathroom.

For a moment, everything is silent.

Yamagata finally speaks. “How can her eyelashes just… fall off?” He looks pale. Like he’s just seen something that he wasn’t supposed to.

Semi looks like he’s solving advanced calculus in his head. “Has she got some sort of disease or something?”

Ushijima stares into his soup, not a thought behind those slanted olive eyes.

You and Ohira both stifle giggles at all of their ignorance.

Soekawa looks around the table, stunned. “Are you guys really that stupid?”

“I know right!” Satori leans way too far over the table and tries to whisper to you, he ends up toppling over two dishes in the process. “Can you explain it to me so I look smart?” His attempt at whispering fails so badly, the customers in the next room probably heard him.

You push his head back so he’s forced to retreat back across into his spot.

“You guys aren’t serious right?” You sip at your lime soda.

You get no reply.

Imaginary cricket sounds fill the room.

You and Ohira both glance at each other out of fear for the boys around you.

How did some of these guys get into Shiratorizawa?

“They’re falsies.”

Yamagata nods like he’s actually registered what you're talking about. “Falsies. I see.” He strokes his imaginary beard.

Satori plays along. “Ahh yes..falsies. Love those. Or something..” he trails off, eyes squinted off into the distance.

Semi sniffs, having forgotten the conversation entirely.

“False eyelashes.” You confirm. “You glue them on. C’mon guys.”

The boys eyes widen at this, finally understanding.

“Can you glue some on me?” Satori asks and you know that the question is completely genuine.

“Yeah, me too!” Yamagata adds. “Wait, can boys wear them too?”

Just as you were about to answer their questions and loose half your brain cells in the process, Sakou returns to the table, eyelashes sleek and back in place.

“What’d I miss?” she smiles, wiggling to get comfortable in her seat.

“Pass me the lobotomy kit.”

“What’s a lobotomy?”

Oh my god.

“Something I’m about to give you.” You turn to Yamagata and say, half aggressive, half laughing.

Ushijima checks his leather watch and the motion grabs Ohira’s attention, who then checks his.

“It’s getting quite late, we should get going soon.”

Everyone nods in agreement.

All of a sudden Semi jumps up from his cushion with a high-pitched yelp. “Someone’s touching my feet.” He says, horrified.

Everyone turns to Satori- the usual culprit.

He raises his hands into the air. “In my defence I was trying to touch y/n’s”

“That's worse?” Soekawa’’s face contorts.

You shrug and sigh at the same time. “No to be honest, I’m used to it.”

After all, he’s said and done much, much worse.

You shiver.

While the group starts to pack up and stack dishes, hammering droplets of rain begin to pelt the roof, filling the room with harsh sounds. You like the rain, but only when your inside.

You look outside to note just how heavy the rainfall is. It’s pretty bad.

Great. Just what we need.

“Who’s betting the buses have been cancelled?" Sakou says sadly, pushing around the scraps at the bottom her soup.

You grimace, stressed at the thought. “Don’t jinx it.”

*****

Yes. The remaining buses for the night were cancelled and just to everyone's luck a spring thunderstorm had also begun.

How lovely.

The group stands under an overhanging shop sign while everyone taps their phone screens desperately to find some sort of transportation. Soekawa’s on a call right now, he said something about his grandparents living in the area.

Hopefully they can save us then.

“If we aren’t going to make it back to campus tonight we have to contact the school.” You say to the group. It was a rule that the academy had put in place many years ago to ensure the well-being of its students - it was the same kind of idea as the curfew that was put in place too.

You understand why these rules exist but that doesn’t mean that they’re not annoying, especially in a situation like this when you’ve already got enough on your hands.

“Yeah true. Okay everyone, listen to what y/n said, make sure you contact the school to confirm your absence.”

“I’ll do mine now.” Semi starts dialing a number into his phone, just as Soekawa gets off of his.

“Good news,” He smiles hesitantly. “My grandparents live just a few streets over and they said that they’ll take us in for the night.”

Everyone collectively sighs in relief.

“But their house is pretty small so we’re going to be bunched in. Is everyone okay with that?”

Sakou sniffs and wipes hair away from her eyes. “Anything to not have to walk back to school in this rain.”

“Yeah well,” Soekawa shoves his phone into his pocket. “We’ll have to run through the rain to get to their house regardless.”

“Looks like we’ll be swimming at this point.” Satori giggles.

“You cannot swim on wet concrete, Tendou.” Ushijima responds.

You smile.

He takes things so literally.

You look around at the street you're on, the rainfall is so heavy that it acts almost like fog, you can only see a few metres in front of you. Luckily there's some streetlamps dotted around the place that cut through the darkness.

You hear something rustling behind you and then you turn to find Ushijima behind you, who has taken off his club jacket and is now outstretching it - folded - towards you.

“You are not wearing warm clothes. You should put this on.”

Oh.

The world stops.

THE Ushijima Wakatoshi is giving you his jacket?

Your heart threatens to leap out of your chest.

You're glad for the rain and it’s darkness now because without it, everyone would see that you're blushing deep crimson.

You realize that you haven't taken the jacket yet and snap back to reality, noting the array of eyes set on you two.

“Won’t you be cold?” You gesture to the rain.

Ushijima has that uncomfortable gaze settled on you. It makes your skin crawl.

“No. I will be fine.”

You dip your head slightly, partly out of thanks and partly out of embarrassment. “...thanks.”

Satori whistles in the background, you ignore him.

“Damn bro, I’m pretty cold right now too.” Hayato’s voice shivers out.

If you were in a better state of mind, you would’ve laughed at his joke. But right now? Your mind is solely focused on Ushijima’s jacket resting in your hands.

You slip the white and purple volleyball jacket over your shoulders. Warmth still sticks to it. His warmth. It's big too. And it smells like him. You hate how you notice so many details.

You zip it up to your neck and bury your hands in the pockets.

Sakou is going to give me so much shit for this.

You already know that she’s trying to stare into your soul, that mischievous grin on her face.

As you all make your way to Soekawa’s grandparents house in the cold and rain, you can’t help but keep focus on the jacket you're wearing and more importantly, the boy who lent it to you. The boy who noticed that you weren't wearing anything warm and sacrificed his jacket to you during a storm.

You think back to all the things Sakou has said, especially that time when you told her about Ushijima ‘complementing’ you in that classroom and what she said about it.

Do I actually have a chance?

You let yourself indulge in the thought.

Do you actually have a chance with Wakatoshi Ushijima?

*****

“What a fucking opportunity.” Your black-haired friend says, eyes ablaze.

You had made it to Soekawa’s grandparents house, soaked through and panting with exhaustion. Thank the gods, Soekawa has a big family - which means that there were plenty of loungewear robes for you all to switch your clothes for.

Despite the Soekawa family being large, the amount of room in the house was limited.

Two rooms.

Two. Rooms.

Much less than you were expecting when Soekawa said there was ‘limited space’.

One of the rooms was already occupied by Grandma Emiko - who insisted you all call her by such - and Soekawa’s grandfather. So that meant that there was the second room for-

You count on your fingers.

6,7,8.

-there was one tatami room for the eight of you.

Of course, Grandma Emiko had pulled you and Sakou aside and asked if you were comfortable with that since you were the only two girls. Sakou didn’t give you time to open your mouth, instead she convinced her that you were all very close and that the two of you didn’t mind at all.

The idea does excite you- being in such close proximity to Ushijima - but at the same time, it makes you so nervous you feel sick. And to be honest, you'd rather skip the entire ordeal to avoid the feeling.

You think back to what you were pondering over before about him.

‘Do I actually have a chance?’

If you do have a chance with Ushijima, avoiding interactions with him is not how anything will come to happen. You have to gain courage and face him head-on if you want anything, anything at all to happen.

What do I want to happen?

You brush the thought away, you’ve already come to the conclusion that you actually have a crush on Ushijima, that's enough for now. Anything else will overwhelm you.

That’s what you try to convince yourself, anyway.

Do I want to be with him? Is that what I want?

Maybe- date? That’s what most people do when they like someone.

The thought itself flusters you.

You? Dating Wakatoshi Ushijima?

The concept seems insane to you- yet, could it happen? Could he happen?

“Babes, you've been staring off into space for the past fifteen minutes. We need to go help set up the futons.”

“Oh,” you whip your head around to her and then double knot your yukata. “Yeah, let's go.”

You slide open the door, not before Sakou can loop her arm around yours and lightly shove you.

“Let me guess- you were thinking about him?”

You stay silent for a second, eyes desperately trying not to meet hers. You know that you're blushing and that she can see. You also know that she probably already knows your answer and yet, you succumb to vulnerability.

“And what if I was…?” You say in a small voice.

Build up the courage. Face the situation head-on.

She smiles- softer than you were expecting. “You know, step one on that list we made was something like ‘get to know him more’, the second was to flirt and the last was to not be afraid to be friends first.” She lets go of your arm, tone switching to a more serious one. “I think you're almost done with at least two of them.”

“What do you mean?” you try to figure out which ones she’s implying. You already know that it is definitely not the flirting one. And you're not sure if you're actually considered friends yet. You wouldn’t even say that you know him that well either, afterall, what do you even know about him? Separate to volleyball and to his friends.

“I don’t know him that well though? And I don’t think he would consider me as a friend.”

Sakou Shibata sighs.

“You’re blind, y/n. Everyone can see what you two can’t.”

*****

“You’re blind, y/n. Everyone can see what you two can’t.”

That sentence sticks with you for the rest of the night.

Even as you finish ogling Ushijima in his robe that's just a little too tight across his shoulders, even as Tendou has a staring competing with Yamagata which leads to him sneezing on his face, even when Sakou shoots you a wink from her futon next to you and even as Ohira turns off the lights and you’re all left in the looming, quiet darkness.

“You’re blind, y/n. Everyone can see what you two can’t.”

You repeat the sentence over and over in your head, turning each word around and around, trying to understand them at different angles.

What exactly did she mean by that?

“Everyone can see what you two can’t.”

‘You two?’

Does she mean both me and Ushijima? She knows that I like him, I’ve told her that. So, what exactly does she mean by ‘everyone can see it’? Does she mean that everyone knows that I like him?

I haven’t been that obvious, have I?

You shift under a thick blanket.

But she said ‘you two.’ meaning that both me and Ushijima can’t see it. If it was about my crush on him, I would be able to see it, so how does that make sense? It can’t be just about me then, can it?

The realization hits you like a ten ton fucking truck.

You gasp - audibly and then look around without breathing to check if anyone had noticed. They hadn’t.

You ease back down into the bed.

Was she implying that both of us have a crush on each other and that's what we both can’t see?

Nope. There's absolutely no way.

Ushijima doesn’t have a crush on me.

He does not.

Your mind flashes snippets of small moments. Like him saying he liked your face, or how tenderly he touched your knees when he was putting that ointment on them. Even when he said ‘especially y/n.” mere hours ago.

You dare to imagine his gaze, something softer in it when he looks at you.

There's no way.

There's no way.

Maybe.. there is a teeny, small chance that there is a ‘way’?

You think back to- just a day or two ago, when you were convincing yourself that your crush on Ushijima was just a tiny thing.

But maybe, now, you let yourself think.

Maybe my crush isn’t so little afterall.

It never was.

Ushijima Wakatoshi is the only boy who has ever made you feel this way to this extent. You like him so much that sometimes you hate him, your feelings towards him make you irritated, so much that you often avoid him in the school halls. For gods sake you can’t even look him in the eyes half the time. And what makes it worse is that his eyes are so fucking beautiful. Steady, grounding. Every part of him is beautiful- at least based on what you’ve seen.

The room is so hot,you find that you're sweating beneath the blankets.

You think of his clothed shoulders that you were looking at before, the same shoulders and back you were looking at that one day he carried you to the infirmary.

Would he do that for just anyone?

He gave you his jacket when it was raining. He probably froze half to death. Yet he didn’t even mention it once.

Would he do that for just anyone?

He walked behind you in the halls when you got your period in class and even got you a whole pack of sanitary products without blinking, he also never brung it up again.

Would he do that for just anyone?

Maybe…? He is quite the gentleman after all, despite what his intimidating appearance might point to.

But the most important thing is that he did all of those things for you. Whether he was doing them just because he was a good person or because he liked you or- whatever. What matters is that it happened to you. And that could mean something.

Could.

A bead of sweat drips down your face. The combined breathing and bodyheat of everyone squished up together has made the temperature in the room unbearable.

You slip out of your futon and creep to the sliding door that leads to the deck outside. You slither outside.

The air is cool, relaxing. You let your shoulders droop and you let out a sigh at the same time. Then you patter over to the edge and sit at the edge of the wooden terrace, head lifting upwards to watch the trees and plants in front of you dance along to the wind.

I might have a chance with Ushijima, he might even like me.

You grin to yourself.

God, this is stupid, I would’ve never expected this.

You're sitting outside for another ten minutes or so before you hear the sound of the sliding door behind you. You turn, straining your neck to look back.

It’s Ushijima, hair a little tousled from bed but awake-looking nonetheless. He looks nice like this, in the quiet glow of the night.

Your heartbeat quickens.

Build up the courage. Face the situation head-on.

You open your mouth to greet him but no words come out- instead you silently watch him as he makes his way over to you and sits down to your side, an arms length away.

Ushijima speaks first, the tone of his voice clinging onto the drowsiness of sleep.

“Hello.”

You dip your head and give him a small nod, not ready to speak yet.

“It is peaceful out here.”

You let a swirl of cool air find its way into your lungs, your heart slows, returning to its usual, steady pace.

Build up the courage. Face the situation head-on.

“Yeah.” You say calmly. “It is pretty nice.”

You watch the boy as he tilts his head slightly and looks up into the night sky. There’s stars visible tonight, plenty of them.

The two are a good pair- Ushijima and the stars.

Both of them are quiet yet they hold a sort of strong presence that has everyone aware of them.

“It is not good for your body to be up so late.” He says to the stars, but you know he's talking to you.

You look up to them too, letting your eyes trace over every twinkling spark. And then you shrug.

“Couldn’t sleep, it was too hot.” You brush the hair away from your face. “Too many people in there y’know?”

He nods in understanding.

“Why are you out here? Same thing?”

“...”

You wait for his answer, which doesn’t take long.

“There was static in the room. I cannot sleep with noise like that.”

“Static…?” You think of what a tv shows when it loses connection and the sound that it makes. “Like the sound that a tv makes? Or like a refrigerator?"

You aren’t afraid to look at him now, unlike you usually are. The contact that your eyes make is comfortable, it makes you feel warm, contrasting the cool air outside.

“Yes. The sound of electricity.”

“Huh. Weird. I couldn’t hear it at all.”

“..People often say that.”

You turn to tilt your head at him

“Most people cannot hear what I hear.”

You take a second to think, after all, you two have the time anyway. It doesn’t look like either of you are going anywhere.

“Maybe you have like- sensitive ears or something. Heightened hearing.”

“...that is possible.”

You two lapse into a comfortable silence, being with him now feels significantly less awkward than it usually does. And for some reason you feel an odd sense of gratitude for it.

“Hey- Ushijima,” There’s something you want to ask.

He turns, settling his attention onto you.

This is a hard thing to ask. Hopefully he won’t think that it’s weird.

Build up the courage. Face the situation head-on.

You inhale slowly.

“You said you liked my face once- that time when you picked the boys up from detention. What did you mean?” You weren’t going to even try to flirt- much to Sakou’s future disappointment - but you were going to at least try to understand. Understand him.

He blinks slowly, taking in your words. Then a small circle in between his eyebrows appeared.

“I meant what I said. I do like your face. It is…pleasing to look at.”

His answer makes you huff a laugh. Of course he meant exactly what he said then, that’s how Ushijima is; he says things as he sees them.

At least now you know that it was an actual compliment.

You smile awkwardly into the trees and twiddle your fingers. “...Alright.”

Ushijima keeps his focus on you, studying the curves and features of your face.

He meant what he said, every word of it.

You turn back to Ushijima, you're a little surprised that he’s still looking at you but you have no complaints, you're just a bit embarrassed.

This is my chance to ask him. It’s now or never, y/n.

You muster up the courage to ask him a question, a question that could open up an entire new world for you.

And him.

Maybe.

You straighten your shoulders and look directly into those stoic eyes of his.

He always looks people in the eyes like this. I wonder why.

Maybe it’s just who he is.

Five more seconds, you decide. Five more seconds and then you’ll ask him a question. An easy question. One only slightly confrontational that you won’t be too afraid to let go past your lips.

You count down the seconds, they pass too quick.

1,

2,

3,

4,

5.

“Ushijima, …do you like someone?” You blurt the words quickly, embarrassed to let them sit on your tongue for too long.

“I enjoy the company of a few people.”

Of course that’s how he would interpret it.

You feel a tug at the side of your lips, he’s so oblivious to things that it’s funny.

“No like- romantically. Do you like anyone like…that?”

This could be your chance.

This could be the perfect opportunity to find out whether or not you actually have a chance with Ushijima.

He takes a moment to think and shifts his face to stare off into the shrubbery.

Ushijima Wakatoshi then turns to you, meeting your aching, waiting gaze.

“No.”

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀

A/n: Feeling evil today.

You apply mascara on your top lashes from a new purple and blue tube, careful to not let it smudge. Sakou, who’s about a metre away from you, sticks a pair of lashes with a silver streak through each of them on.

Not to be vain, but you think you two make quite the pair.

“Boot’s or flats?” Sakou holds up a pair of black doc martens in one hand and a pair of studded ballerina flats in the other.

“Don’t the boots give you blisters?”

“Yeah, I haven’t broken them in properly yet. It just depends on if we’ll be walking much or not.”

“I don’t think we will be- aside from getting to the bus stop.” You stick your spoolie back into the mascara tube, which makes a wet ‘pop’ sound. “We’ll be sitting in the stands most of the game.”

“Sweeet. I’ll wear the boots then, they look better with this outfit anyway.”

You get up from your criss-cross position on the floor and stretch your body upwards, letting out a soft groan. “Let me just grab my bag and then I’ll be ready.”

The commute to the venue was short yet sweet, the weather was steadily getting warmer and as a result the scenery was becoming more vibrant. Pink cherry blossoms lined your bus ride to the stadium. The humble stadium had many more stairs to get to than you had expected, resulting in Sakou inevitably getting blisters on the backs of her heels.

“Shoulda gone for the flats.” Sakou whispers solemnly.

You give her a light pat on the back. “...yeah. I did tell you that I thought we wouldn’t be walking much though, blame me.” You shrug, reaching the top of the stairs.

To your surprise, the venue isn’t actually anything fancy. It’s average-sized and honestly- a little underwhelming, Semi did mention that this wasn’t a particularly important match so that was probably why. But hey, you're not here to judge the infrastructure, you're here to support your friend’s volleyball team.

Sakou and you walk through a pair of pushable glass doors which lead you to a small air-conditioned hallway.

The event is free-entry and so you just follow the flow of the people in front of you.

You scan the people around you, eyes trailing heads one by one.

Hm. No Ushijim-

Team.

No Shiratorizawa’s volleyball team. Satori’s team. You don’t see them.

They must already be in there, warming up or something.

You look around to make sure that nobody else can hear your thoughts.

That means he will be in there too. Not that it matters or anything.

You feel giddy.

The two of you make your way to your seats on a raised platform. You make sure not to sit too close to the awfully large school cheer squad because you have a feeling they’ll make quite the racket. That's good though, knowing that Ushijim- Satori’s team has a good support system.

Satori’s team. Right.

The venue has one volleyball court that all the seating is organized around, it's nice, shiny and clean, and looks pretty new too. There’s two teams you don’t recognize on the court currently, the one on your side wears a dark green and yellow jersey and the other team’s jerseys are light pink and blue with silver accents. You like the second teams jerseys’, they're cute.

According to the scoreboard, this match is on its third set, the final. The green and yellow team are currently ahead with a score of 9-7.

Sakou taps you on the thigh.

“Want a drink? I’m gonna go to the vending machine.”

“Ooo yes please, just whatever iced tea they’ve got.”

Sakou makes an ‘OK’ symbol with her hand and then walks off to hunt down a vending machine.

You turn your focus back to the game in front of you. Each team has both scored another point now, so the score is 10-8. It’s hard to keep track of the actual plays, especially when you're not accustomed to the rules of volleyball. But you try to make sense of it anyway, scratching your head when the pink team makes a block but the opposing team gets a point.

What? How does that work?

The referee makes an array of silly hand gestures that you’ll have to ask someone about later.

“Tch, why are you here?” A taut voice grumbles beside you.

You turn to find that it’s Ayumi, her long, straight brown hair is tied into two low pigtails, twin yellow pom-poms resting where she’s got her hands stuck on her hips. She’s clad in the matching Shiratorizawa cheer team uniform.

Great. Just who I wanted to see.

You raise your upper lip slightly, furrowing your eyebrows at her. “...To watch the game?”

Why else would I be here? The hell?

“Obviously,” she rolls her eyes “but you don’t even play volleyball so why are you here to watch Shiratorizawa?

“I have friends on the team.” You say blankly.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay away from Wakatoshi?” Ayumi’s voice raises slightly.

“Some girl came up to me and said that you liked him so sure, if that’s what that means.”

“Exactly? So the fuck are you here for?”

“My friends. Did you not hear me the first time or something?”

She’s really pissing you off.

,i>Why is she so rude? Oh my god.

“Did you not hear me the first time?” She flicks some non-existent hair out of her face. “And what, you mean all the boys on the team are your friends? Whore.”

“Excuse me?” You stand, squaring your body towards her. “Just because you’ve got some unrealistic fat fucking crush on Ushijima- who, mind you- has probably never even spared you a glance, does not mean you need to act all bitchy towards me.”

Like, first of all, I’m only friends with a few of them. And how the fuck does having friends make you a whore? Just because they’re guys? What the hell.

Ayumi blinks a couple times, clearly not expecting you to lash out on her. She rubs her arm once.

“Whatever. Bitch.” She adds in the last part quietly as she storms away.

You replay that interaction in your head on repeat.

God she’s so rude. I doubt Ushijima would like a girl like that anyway.

You huff.

Sakou appears in time to see Ayumi marching away. She hands you a bottle of Lipton milk tea.

“What was that about?” Her eyes trail the pig-tailed girl’s path as she cracks open a can of Coke. “You know her?”

You shrug, grabbing your tea. “Sorta.”

“You don’t like her?” She says, already guessing your opinion on Ayumi.

“..No.”

She nods in understanding. “Do you want me to hate her too?”

“..yeah.”

“What a bitch.”

You snort. “She is.”

Just short of five minutes later the court is clear and a team with lime green and blue jerseys start filing in through a pair of large wooden doors. All of the boys wear matching dark blue headbands tied at the back. From your judgement - which isn’t saying much since you don’t know an awful lot about volleyball - they seem to look like a pretty solid team.

But they're not who you’ve been waiting for.

Ushijima walks at the front of the Shiratorizawa volleyball team, Coach Washijo with his usual scowl trottering just behind him. Familiar faces start to emerge within the group, but you find yourself staring at one of them in particular, the boy you first laid your eyes on.

Ushijima walks with determination in every step, stone-faced and ready for a worthy challenge on the court. His hair is as usual too, well-kept and clean looking. The only big differences you notice are how much more intensity radiates around him than usual - and that's saying something - plus the fact that he’s wearing his official volleyball uniform.

“That goofy-looking one is Tendou right?” Sakou’s sultry voice brings you back to reality.

“Hm?” You take a second to process what she just asked. “Oh yeah- that's him.”

“He seems interesting.”

“Interestings an understatement.”

Sakou nods her head and rests it on her fist, frame leaning forward.

She notices Ushijima three business days after you do.

Sakou nudges you playfully with her elbows. “Who’s that eh?” She teases.

You let a small smile slip and turn away. “Dunno.”

Sakou chuckles, watching all the players stretch and start their warm-ups with you. “Hmmm I wonder.”

She takes a swig of her coke. “Am I allowed to know what was up with that chick earlier? You know, the grumpy-looking one...”

You make an awkward noise that sounds like something between a groan and a sigh, turning towards her “...Yeah? To be honest I don’t really know what’s going on either, I’m still kind of confused about it.”

Sakou nods, ready to listen.

You take a sip of your milk tea before placing it down by your feet. “Okay so- it started off with one of her friends coming up to me after class, she came up to me randomly and was all like ‘are you dating Ushijima?’ or something. And obviously I said no, because I’m not- wait no actually I think I asked her why first.” You correct yourself, trying to recite the memory as accurately as possible. “Uh- and then she said something about her friend - who is Ayumi, by the way, the girl you saw before - seeing Ushijima taking me to our dorm that one time I got hurt. I explained myself so there were no misunderstandings about anything freaky and then her tone switched up and she was all like ‘good, because my friend-’ Ayumi ‘-wants him.’ or has a crush on him or whatever.”

You pause to take a big breath.

“And so yeah I was just really confused and all that and then- the friend of Ayumi, you know, the one who was telling me all of this said to stay away from him. Or like ‘you better stay away from him’, like a threat. And I was like ‘wtf’ because suddenly she started being so rude and - she can’t tell me what to do? I can be around him if I want to?”

“What the fuck? They can’t try and boss you around like that.”

“Exactly. So that pissed me off and then Ayumi came up to me just before asking why I was here and all that and started getting all pissy at me. I was telling her I was watching the game because I had friends on the team - honestly I shouldn’t have even had to justify why I was here - but she kept repeating herself and she wasn’t listening to me so I just went off at her.”

You decide to leave the part out where she called you a whore. You're not sure why you do though. Maybe you’ll mention it another day. Or not.

Sakou raises her upper lip and squints her eyebrows in confusion. “As you should though? Neither of them had the right to be straight-up assholes and come at you like that girl.” Sakou kisses her teeth.

“I know!” you throw your hands up, getting more riled up by reminiscing the situation.

“I’m annoyed for you. What did you end up saying to her? Like when you said you went off at her.”

“I was just like ‘just because you have a crush on Ushjima- who’ll probably never acknowledge you - doesn’t mean you get to act all bitchy towards me.’”

“Mhm. It’s good that you defended yourself, someone has to put people like that in their place.”

You hum in answer. “Yeah. I think she’ll come back though.”

“I’ll distract her and then you catch her with an overhand, aye?”

You fully laugh at this. “Sounds like a plan.”

In the time that you and Sakou were gossiping, both teams had finished their warm-ups.

You now look onto the court at the two teams lined up, facing each other. They bow out of respect and then move in closer towards the line to shake each other's hands.

Ushijima stands apart from the team, to the side of the net and shares a serious handshake with the other team’s #1. The captain.

You can feel the tension radiating off of the two, not to mention the intimidation that is the Shiratorizawa team in itself.

A whistle blows, signifying to everyone to get into their positions.

Six players remain on the court as the others go into a designated little square off to the side.

Ushijima, Ohira, Satori, both funky bangs #1 and #2 and a tall boy with dark ginger hair starts off the game.

And of course, that all-famous jump serve of Ushijima’s crushes the opposition team’s spirits first. Slicing through the air with so much force you thought you could hear it- and ultimately smashing down in the opposite court.

Screams ignite not too far away from you caused by the cheer team. You hear someone yell something about a ‘service ace’ and then the school representatives start singing the Shiratorizawa chant in an attempt to fire up the boys even more. They block out all the noise from the other school.

The game continues in a blur of slams, shouts and cheers. Everything goes so fast it’s hard to process what’s going on before a team scores a point and before you know it, the players are in their third set, Shiratorizawa in the lead, of course.

They have that libero in play now. You watch as he dives for every ball, determined to score his team that one extra point.

Everyone on the court is working so hard.

Your eyes trail to one of them in particular and you let a small smile creep up on your face.

This is fun.

Sakou raises an eyebrow at you. “What ya cheesing for, aye?”

You shrug, trying to act oblivious to what she’s implying. “Nothing. Just enjoying the game, that's all.”

You both share a mischievous grin.

“Mhm. Sure.”

“Yep.”

“Or enjoying something else.” She adds quietly, playing it off with a cough.

You roll your eyes. But she’s right. You really are enjoying something else.

It’s time for Ushijima to serve again and you let yourself indulge in the sight of his back muscles rippling as he warms up for the serve and the way his sleeves tighten when he brings his arms backward to hit the ball.

God would I like a piece of that.

You immediately sit up straighter and check your surroundings like an alert meerkat, checking that you didn’t say that aloud. Based on the lack of heads turned to you, you conclude that yes, it was just in your head.

You blush anyway.

“What? You see his shirt ride up or something?”

“What?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. What was that reaction for?”

You lie. “Nothing. I just thought it was a good serve.”

She snorts just as Satori scores the final point with his odd blocking. “Yeah. Sure. The serve was what you were paying attention to.” Her voice is mocking.

You both start clapping, joining in with the crowd's celebration.

“It was.”

“Yeah. Totally.” Her voice is dripping with sarcasm.

The boys on the court huddle up for a celebratory hug, everyone stoked with the win they just achieved together. Meanwhile, on the other side of the court, the other boy's energy visibly droops down, probably crushed that they lost to Shiratorizawa.

Well,

You feel a weird twinge of pride start to swell up in your chest.

What did they expect going against a powerhouse school like Shiratorizawa?

Like Ushijima.

Satori breaks apart from the group to face the crowd and if you could see any better you might claim that he was looking at you.

But nah, he’s too far away. You don’t expect any of them to see you from the stands.

That thought is crushed when Satori stomps his foot down dramatically and points at you, chest still heaving from the game and his hair lopsided and out of place.

“Y/NNNNN.” He screams loud enough that you think people passing by outside would be able to hear him.

“DID YOU SEE MY FANTASTIC BLOCKS?”

You sink into your seat, aware of all the faces turning their attention to you.

God this is embarrassing. And what is he even talking about? Like yes, his blocks were good, I’ll give him that. But he missed at least half of them.

You're proud of him nonetheless but the embarrassment of the moment is overshadowing that.

He yells something that you don’t hear and so you put your hands slightly up questionably and tilt your head to the side.

Hopefully he gets the point.

It looks like he does because then he makes a big ‘X’ symbol with his arms and then jabs his finger and the door that they came out of earlier.

“We should go congratulate them.” You say, hoping you understood his body language well enough.

“For sure. I’d like to see that horrendous bang duo up close.”

You smile, grabbing your things after the Shiratorizawa boys bow to the audience. “Prepare yourself. Their hair is much more painful to look at in person.”

She pulls a meat bun out of her pocket and tears off a chunk with her teeth. “I bet.”

“Where the hell did that come from?”

She shrugs and then looks at you like you're the weird one. "Emergency pocket meat bun. Duh.”

You stare at her for a second, lost for words. The one understandable sentence that you manage to come up with is: “I think you’ll like Satori.”

*****

“Yeesh. The bangs are really bad.” Sakou stands in front of the group of players, hands stuck to her hips.

You see that Goshiki visibly deflates at her words and starts smoothing down his bowl-cut shaped bangs self-consciously. Shirabu Kenjiro - who Satori has only now introduced to you formally - narrows his eyes at her.

“And you.” Sakou points a manicured finger at Satori who tilts his head and points at himself in return.

“Me?”

“Yeah you. Tendou, right? How’d you get your hair to stick up like that?”

Satori slicks his fingers back against his hair and then looks the girl up and down. After about another minute of that and some interpretive dancing from Satori he ushers her closer with his pointer finger and then leans down to whisper in her ear.

Everyone around you has now sunk into their own conversations, chatting with the buzz of adrenaline left from their win.

Now is my chance.

You look over to Ushijima, hair still a little damp from the match, who has taken himself out of the group to load the sports drink bottles into a carrier, he completes the task with the same focus as he would to write an exam.

Of course you came around the back to congratulate your friends and their teammates on their game but there was someone in particular that you had more interest in talking to.

You make your way over to Ushijima, playing with your hands nervously.

What should I say to him? Will a single ‘congratulations’ work or will that be too formal since we’re friends now? Wait- are we friends now? I mean, we hang out sometimes but it’s usually because of Satori and with him too. Am I even allowed to think of him as a friend? Does he think of me that way too?

Before you know it, you're standing over Ushijima from where he’s crouched, staring at him.

He stares back from beneath you, looking up.

He’s got very long eyelashes.

You notice you're still staring.

“Oh..”

Your eyes dart around the room.

You haven’t decided what to say yet and he’s already in front of you, staring like he’s trying to burn a hole into your soul.

Ushijima stands up, his towing height unfolds before you.

“Hello.” His voice is firm. Direct. It’s a simple greeting that doesn’t have anything behind it. But it only makes you more nervous.

You look up at him for a moment, growing even more socially constipated at the second.

You manage to blurt one sentence out, it comes out jumbled and stuck together.

“Youdidreallywellandyouruh..serveswerereallygood.”

Ushijima’s eyebrows raise slightly at your sudden babble of words, he looks a little taken aback.

Just as you're about to turn around, he speaks.

“Thank you.”

You look back to him, watching how the spring sun lights up the skin on his face. He doesn’t look or turn away from you. Instead he waits. For you or him to say something? You don’t know.

His lips part, and you get a small glimpse of frustratingly perfect teeth.

“I..appreciate that.”

The way his words come out makes it seem like it physically hurt him to say them, but not in a bad way.

At least that's what you think.

You smile at him, happy that you were able to get your message across and talk to him.

“If you would like to, you should come to Shiratorizawa’s next game. Where our plays will be optimal.”

You nod, not knowing what to say back.

He’s just invited you to another game.

Some sort of weight swings around your neck, pulling you sideways, it’s Satori’s arm.

“Ew dude your still sweaty.” You push him off grimacing. Satori being there disrupts the awkward air of you and Ushijima’s interaction.

“Yeah but you were too busy talking to Wakatoshi-kun to hear me.”

You scratch your neck, you didn’t even realize he had been trying to get your attention. “Well I’m listening now.”

“Duh.” He sticks his tongue out at you. “All the third years are going for food, you two are coming.”

You furrow your eyebrows at him. “Don’t you mean ‘Do you want to come?’”

“No.”

“So we don’t get a choice?”

“Nope.”

You blink at him slowly and then search for Sakou, who’s talking to Ohira about scrapbooking- of all things.

“Satori just said we were going with them to get food…?”

“Yeah, I said that I’d come and I assumed you’d be cool with it. That's ok?”

“Yeah no, it’s fine.”

You see a flash of something mischievous fill her eyes, the next moment, it's gone.

What is she up to?

“Right Waka? Those two should come!”

Ushijima and Satori appear behind you, it seems like most of the first and second years have all left now, leaving just the third years behind. Including one with very thick eyebrows that you don’t recognise.

“I agree. Especially y/n.”

Oh.

Oh?

“...”

The room goes so silent you swear you could hear a pin drop.

You can hear the slight rustle of trees outside.

It’s surprising because you didn’t know that Satori was capable of not making constant noise.

The atmosphere in the room is suddenly extremely uncomfortable.

And of course everyone is aware of the awkward situation except for Ushijima.

Semi shifts on his feet. Ohira clears his throat. Satori looks intrigued along with Sakou.

But Ushijima?

He stands there like normal, blinking. Like he hadn’t just said something completely out of character.

You, on the other hand, are not sure if you are going to faint out of happiness or on the contrary- embarrassment.

Ohira claps Ushijima on the back and you don’t miss the quaint smile that ghosts his face.

What's that about?

“Yeah. Alright. We should go get all our things then.” Ohira looks down and pats the oblivious person beside him twice more.

Sakou wiggles her eyebrows at you. “Remeber the things I was saying when we were writing that list?” She says quietly, close to your ear.

You feel like both your heart and brain are going to implode instantaneously.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀

Friday. One day until the Shiratorizawa match you were invited to.

Excitingggg.

You sit in the cafeteria with Semi. Tendou was here, but he seems to have disappeared somewhere else now though. As per usual.

You and the ash-headed boy are discussing bands that you like, and surprisingly, you have a lot in common when it comes to music taste.

“Yeah Joumyaku’s pretty good,” Semi carries on. “I’ve been listening to the Ink album a lot recently aswell.”

“Oh really?” You don’t know anyone who listens to Plastic Tree so being able to fangirl over their music is an opportunity you definitely don't want to miss out on. “What's your favourite song?” You’ve completely forgotten about your lunch now. “From the ink album I mean. I don’t think I can narrow it down to one but I really like Ink and Kuchizuke, ooo and Life is Beautiful.”

Semi nods along. “Yeah those are good. My favorites are probably Tefutefu or Abangyarudo.”

The side of his mouth quirks up and he glances at you momentarily.

“...What?” You ask, wondering why he looked at you like that.

Do I have something on my face?

You wipe your mouth with your sleeve.

Semi’s smile widens.

“Okay okay,” he raises his hands, his voice pitch raises a notch. “Don’t come at me for this but… I think Kuchizuke is overrated.”

You scoff dramatically, offended. “How dare you.”

Semi puts a piece of grilled fish into his mouth. “It's overplayed. Kinda boring too.” He says between bites.

You cross your arms and make a ‘hmph’ sound. Making an effort to show that you're ignoring him. You know something that’ll really make him riled up. “Oh yeah? Well I think Kuchuu Buranko is both overplayed and boring too.”

It was a lie. Kuchuu Buranko was the first song you ever listened to by Plastic Tree and it’s what got you into the band in the first place but you needed something to retaliate with. Maybe it was a little overplayed but it was by no means boring, none of their songs were.

Semi’s face looks like you just told him you killed his non-existent dog. It then shifts into a stubborn, fed-up kind of look.

“Whatever. That's just what you think.”

His eyebrows crease and that's when you really know you got to him.

“Yeah and I’m right.” You tease, trying to rile him up even more.

Semi ignores you but chews his food extra aggressively for the next fifteen minutes.

A pair of hands wrap around your face and blocks out the daylight from your vision.

“Guesss whooo?”

Who else could it be accept him?

“Where did you go before? We were waiting for you.”

“No idea who you're talking about.”

You sigh.

“Oh my god Tendou?! Is that really you?” You put on your most fake, anime-girl esque voice you can manage. You curl your hands up to your face and even bat up your eyelashes at him for extra points.

Tendou brings a fist to his mouth and clears his throat, ignoring your attempt to make fun of him. “Actually– no. It’s ‘Skibidi Sigma Alpha Wolf Satori. I can’’t believe you keep getting it so wrong.”

You think you hear all Semi’s brain cells dissolving.

You rub your temples, putting your chopsticks down. “We’ve gone over this.”

You think your brain cells are dissolving too.

These are seriously the types of normal conversations you have with Tendou.

The red-headed boy just pouts and then perches himself on the seat across from you.

“You should at least call me Satori.” He narrows his eyes at you and jabs his finger accusingly.

You two have been friends for a while.

Hmm.

Maybe you should.

You’ve never even spared that a thought. You’re really close to Tendou nowadays. Hell, he even called you while he was shitting once.

Not that that's a good thing.

You’ve kind of just stuck with calling him ‘Tendou’, paying no mind to his first name.

Maybe it's time to call him that then?

You twiddle your thumbs. You don’t want to say it, it's just kind of..odd now. And both Semi and Tendou are looking directly at you. You grimace, your cheeks reddening.

“Hey…Satori.”

You immediately drop down to cover your face with your hands.

Ohmygodwhattheactaulhellwasthat.

The way you said it?? So awkward! Why did you even say ‘Hey’ like that? You sounded like that creepy convenience store guy from when you visited Tohoku.

“Ehuhuhu.”

You lift your head out of your hands and your jaw drops.

“Fuck your actually so weird.” You smile nervously at the sight in front of you.

Tendou has his head tilted downwards, one hand covers his mouth and his eyes are closed. He inhales. Loudly. “That was so…”

“Oh hell nah.” Semi looks at him like he’s a disfigured cockroach.

Satori’s creeping you out too.

At the moment you could only describe him as…- what was that guy's name again? From HXH?

Oh yeah, Hisoka.

Specifically in that one scene.

Maybe you should just stick with using his family name.

You two kind of just stare at the boy for a few seconds until he packs the act up and goes back to normal. His version of normal anyway.

“-So,” He leans over the table to take a look at both your trays. “What for lunch hm?”

“Yeah I’m going to throw you across the room.” you say, resting your hands on the cafeteria table.

“Yeah I’d rather if you didn’t do that.”

“Yeah can you throw me instead so I get a concussion and forget this whole thing?” Semi chimes in.

You scratch your head. “Maybe I’lll just throw myself instead.”

“I’d prefer you alive.” Satori says.

“Awww, how nice of you. Can’t say the same for you though.”

Satori scoffs while Semi cracks a wide smile.

The hot-cheeto boy pretends to faint dramatically, pressing the back of his hand to his forehead. “I should’ve known you didn’t love me the moment you said you were too busy to watch that horror movie with me.” He sobs.

“Yeah yeah, cuz I'd be here right now if I didn’t. Didn’t that second year watch it with you anyway? Shirabu?”

“It just wasn’t the same.” He sniffs, wiping away a fake tear.

You roll your eyes and turn to Semi, jerking your thumb backwards to point at Satori “Get a load of this guy.” You say in a demeaning tone.

Semi laughs this time, playing into your little gag. “I know right? Who let this guy in?” he tuts, shaking his head.

Satori sulks. “Neither of you like me.”

“Nope.” You both say, sharing a smile that feels like a high-five.

You look at Satori who is wallowing in self-pity. “You have a game tomorrow, you should probably carb up.”

Satori looks up, straightening his posture only slightly. It reminds you of that conversation you had with him and Ushijima when you were dying Tendou- Satori’s hair.

Only now, around a week later are your hand’s finally dye-stain free.

You look at your right hand.

Maybe they're still a little pink.

The wide-eyed boy reaches into his pants which makes both Semi and you recoil and share a look. You reach your hand out to either stop him or stop yourself from seeing what he’s about to do- one of the two- when Satori slams a can of monster onto the table.

“Nah, I’ve got this.” He gestures to the red can.

“Dude.” Semi whispers. “Thats not food.”

“Yeah..” you add in concerningly.

“Then why is it edible then?” Tendou says, giving you both attitudes. He cracks the can open and downs a big gulp.

“You're going to die on that court.”

“I hope so.” Your band-buddy says.

“The flavour is literally ‘Ultra red’, what the hell does that even mean?”

“Matches my aura. Bought another one for game day too, it’ll help release the alpha beast inside of me.”

“Bro.” The word ends up turning into a laugh. “I should buy you one of those cringe alpha wolf t-shirts for your birthday, isn’t it soon?”

“Ya the 20th. And they are so not cringe. It's an accurate representation of the beast inside of me. You two wouldn’t get it, I’m just a misunderstood skibidi alpha like that.”

“We should all get matching ones.” Semi says quietly, maybe hoping that you two wouldn’t have heard.

You shove Semi lightly, one eyebrow raised. “Ay, welcome to the Alpha club.”

“Never say that again. Please.”

Satori pumps two of his fists up into the air. “YES! That is such a good idea!” He points at you, almost climbing on the table.

You have to look around to check if there’s any teachers around. God forbid you get in trouble because of him again.

“We should totally get Wakatoshi-kun one too. He fits the criteria.”

“What’s the criteria?” Semi asks concerningly.

“To be alpha.” You say before Satori. “Obviouly.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Tsutomu would take it so seriously, especially if he saw Ushiwaka wearing one.” Satori says, rubbing his chin and looking up to the ceiling.

Semi just looks at the table like he’s trying to explode it with his brain. At least with what’s left of it.

“Where is Ushijima anyway? I thought he normally eats cafeteria food?” You try and egg Satori on into talking about him whenever you can, he knows so much, why can’t you too? You just hope that he can’t sense anything different. Regarding Ushijima- feelings wise. Not that there's much there of course. It's just a small crush. You're fine. It’s just a teeny weenie crush you have on some jock volleyball guy. Nothing out of the ordinary. No worries.

Your eyes narrow a little at Satori.

I don’t think he’s noticed anything yet.

Good.

“Dunno. I thought he'd be here. Sometimes he’ll just have a protein shake and bar for lunch though, other than that he takes his meals pretty seriously.”

You nod, hoping he’ll say more.

“He might be in the gym practicing his spikes. I haven’t seen Kenjiro so he’s probably with him. Wanna go watch?”

“Oh yeah sure. Could be fun.” You try not to show too much interest. “Wanna come?” You turn to Semi.

“Sure.”

“First,” You grab the packaged melon bread on your tray, you weren't going to eat it, you’ve got a bit of a stomachache anyway. “Have this.” You have to hold Satori’s wrist and peel his fingers back in order for him to actually hold the bread.

He tips his head back and whines like a spoiled toddler but complies. Satori unwraps the bread and takes a small bite while glaring at you. “Done.”

“Satori Tendou.” You warn.

“Ughhh fine. You're so mean.” He takes another bite. “This is not gonna help the alpha come inside of me.”

Semi wrinkles his nose in disgust. “...Be careful how you word things.”

“I’m pretty sure he’s fine with both implications.”

*****

The ball spins through the air after kissing Shirabu’s fingertips, a blur of colour whirling to the target. You watch in awe as it just..stops mid-air, like something's holding it in place. The moment doesn’t last long. Shiratorizawa’s ace meets the ball, slamming it down onto the shiny gym floors before you can even blink.

You, Semi and Satori are standing at the gym doors.

Semi slips his shoes off.

“Maybe I’ll do some sets too.”

And then he’s off.

Satori doesn’t do the same, which surprises you. “Aren’t you gonna train too Satori?”

“Nah. Tanji told us to rest. It’s only the real monsters who train the day before.”

Choppy bangs #1, Goshiki, slams another ball down on the opposite side of the court.

Insane…

“Damn. Makes sense.”

He slips his shoes off too, but doesn't put his gym ones on.

“Let's go sit.”

You hesitate, remembering what happened the last time you came and watched their training. “Umm. Maybe I’ll just stay here. Wouldn’t want to interrupt."

Satori shoves you lightly on the back. “You can’t interrupt somewhere where you're wanted. And you won’t get hit. We’ll sit on the other side of the court.”

He was onto you. “Okay.”

“You scared?~”

“Shut up.”

You watch the boys practicing on the court.

Ushijima’s really good. Like on another level, type good.

No wonder why he’s the top ace in Miyagi.

He spikes the ball with a bang, relentlessly and unwavering. Every touch of the ball is calculated and intense. The way he trusts that the ball will just come to him is crazy to you, as though the concept of failure has never even crossed his mind.

You would not want to be on the receiving end.

“He hits kind of differently right? In a good way though.”

“Yep. Wakatoshi’s left-handed so he can create this different kind of spin that makes his spikes really hard to receive, plus he’s got so much raw power he can punch through just about anything. It's beautiful.”

You hum in reply, eyes fixed onto the boys on the court. They really are something.

Excitement buzzes under your skin, you genuinely can’t wait to see them play tomorrow.

An angry looking boy from the other side of the court swoops in the way of one of Ushijima’s spikes, he lunges underneath it and splays his forearms out forward, connecting with the ball. The sound echoes through the gym and the ball is sent flying upwards, back to Shirabu.

“Holy shit! How did he pick that up?” You exclaim excitedly to Tendou who just gives you a wry smile in return.

“I said that his spikes are really hard to receive, not that they're impossible."

Whoa. Can’t imagine how much his arms must sting after that though.

“Who’s that guy? Is he a third year too?”

“Yep. That’s our Hayato, the libero.”

“Damn. He must be pretty good if he can receive Ushijima's spikes, even if it's just the odd one.”

“Everyone on the team is good.”

“Even you?”

Satori almost pushes you off the bench when he stands up.

“Especially me!” He shouts, his arms splayed wide, chuckling.

You just side-eye him. “Humble much?”

He side-eyes you in return. “Mean much?”

You stick your tongue out at him.

“Hello.” You hear a deep voice say beside you.

It’s Ushijima.

You stand.

“Oh. Hi.”

“...”

Satori grabs you by the arm and yanks you so you’re facing Ushijima.

“Y/n here was just talking about how strong she thought our team was!”

Ushijima nods once. “Thank you. We have all been working very hard.”

“Yeah I can tell.” You say, avoiding eye contact lest it spark something inside of you. You look around the gym. “Why don’t I help you guys clean up? I’ve got the time.”

“That would be helpful.”

“Damn, we really got you out here doing free labour.” Satori chimes in.

You lightly slap him on the shoulder. “You should help clean up too Satori, they're your team too after all.”

“Whateverrr.”

“You are very close.” Ushijima says, just stating a fact.

It’s true, you and Satori are very close and comfortable with each other, it’s probably more noticeable now that you’ve been calling him by his first name. You're grateful for how close you are with Satori though. You just hope Ushijima doesn't take it in the wrong way, misunderstand it somehow.

“Ya.” Satori skips away, almost bowling over Shirabu.

Don’t just leave me here!

A bead of sweat collects on your brow.

Ushijima just stares at you, unmoving. You shouldn’t be as nervous as you are.

“Can you show me where the cleaning stuff is?” You say, twiddling your thumbs. This is awfully similar to the whole paint situation.

Well accept you both aren’t covered in paint.

Yeah it’s not actually similar at all, I just assume mops will be involved.

Goshiki and the libero who’s name you can’t remember work to take down the net while Ushijima leads you to the storage closet which has mops, cleaning supplies, mats and an assortment of other random equipment.

You get to work mopping, running the length of one side of the court horizontally, Ushijima does the other side.

Where the hell did Satori go? That cheeky bastard, always trying to get out of doing things.

These mops are actually really easy to use compared to the ones from the art room, they're wide and cover a lot of space so you don’t actually have to go back and forth that much.

A pretty easy task.

You bump shoulders with something and look up.

Oh.

You were too distracted and didn’t realize that you had crossed over into the other side of the court while cleaning, the side that Ushijima was mopping.

Your eyes interlock for a second too long and then you step back, your heart racing.

“Sorry…”

Ushijima doesn't move. “It’s okay.”

You nod slowly, clutching your mop with both hands. Usually, at least when it comes to him, you're not so good with eye contact, except for right now, you can’t seem to break away your eyes from him.

Your breathing evens out. You swallow.

The gym has emptied now and it's comfortably peaceful, just the two of you, twin mops in hand.

“We are in the same social studies class. Why don’t we go together? I just need to change back into my uniform.”

You finally manage to peel your eyes away from him. “Yeah, sure. I can put your mop back for you.” You say, reaching out.

Ushijima passes it to you, his grip tight. “Thank you. I won’t take long.”

“No rush.”

*****

You two walk to class in comfortable silence. Well, probably comfortable for him, not you though. Your face is on fire and you feel like if you even try to speak you’ll end up falling over your words and stuttering.

Just as he said, Ushijima didn’t take long to get ready. Although you're slightly concerned about how close you two are standing since you're pretty sure he didn’t have enough time to shower. Sure you have a small crush on him but that doesn’t mean you want to smell his sweat.

I mean sometimes a faint natural musk is nice but-

Y/n?? Ew.

I’m so weird.

You sigh and continue walking up a staircase with Ushijima.

Remember that time when he said he liked my face?

You have to inhale deeply a few times to calm yourself and align your thoughts back. All he’s doing is walking you to the class that you share together because he is a nice classmate. And you just happen to have a SMALL crush on him. That's all there is to it.

Remember when he said he liked my face?

Ushijima just says things like that. He’s blunt. You’re sure he also likes a lot of other people's faces too. Him saying that to you wasn’t anything special.

Unless it was?

Just like Sakou said, you two actually talk- well, sometimes. That must mean something, right?

Right?

You hope it does. You’ll convince yourself that it means something.

Delusion is the way.

You squeeze your eyes shut and keep walking when a sharp pang ricochets through your lower stomach causing you to hiss.

“Y/n, are you okay?” Ushijima stops.

“Yeah I’m fine.” You say through clenched teeth, resting a hand on your lower stomach.

“You look pained.”

“I’ve just had a bit of a stomach ache all day, nothing to worry about though.” You wave him off, the pain has faded now.

“That’s unfortunate. Would you like me to escort you to the infirmary?"

You smile slightly at his offer. “It’s okay, I’ll be fine.”

Ushijima pauses and narrows his eyes at you. “...Okay. But you should go if it gets any worse. You need to take care of your body.

You give Ushijima a double thumbs up as a response.

It’s nice that he cares so much, it makes you feel good.

Ushijima slides the door to the classroom open for you and steps aside so you can walk in first, the bell has gone so there's some people already in class but the classroom isn’t full, some students are still making their way back after lunch.

You seat yourself two rows down from the front but next to the window, you don’t like being directly at the front since that makes you uncomfortably close to the teacher but you’d still like a clear view of the chalkboard.

Surprisingly, Ushijima sits himself down right beside you.

“You’re sitting there?” You ask, hoping that it didn’t sound rude.

“Yes.”

Hm. Okay.

The classroom fills up quickly and the social studies teacher comes in and greets the class. You'll be working on the same work you were doing yesterday. Independent work that basically just focused on reading passages and analysing them and then writing the purpose of each in paragraphs.

A pretty laid-back lesson.

That’s what you thought anyway. About ten minutes into the lesson you spare Ushijima a glance, who is bent over his desk awkwardly, brows pinched together- more than usual- and has a firm grip on his pencil.

You’ve been gliding through the work, you didn’t think that it was very hard. Maybe this is one of his weaker subjects- most people have them, you might as well offer to help.

You lean closer to him and talk just a little hushed, there's a few other people chatting so you don’t have to worry about being called out by the teacher. “Are you okay? Do you need help?”

Ushijima turns to look at you, if you were just anyone passing by, you would think that his facial expressions were totally normal, but to you, he looks distressed.

“I…don’t understand any of this.” he admits.

You scoot your seat a little close to his desk so you're able to see what's on his paper.

Ah.

Nothing.

He’s written nothing.

“Oh. Um.”

You thought that he would've at least started with the work, considering everyone was meant to have a few passages done yesterday as well.

“What don’t you understand? You’ve read all the passages right?”

“Yes. I don’t understand what I’m supposed to write about.”

“...Okayyy.”

You tap the first section of his paper where a paragraph should be. “So here- ‘#1’ you need to refer to the first passage, about what that politician guy said. Then you just need to write a short paragraph about like- why it was important and what it actually means.” You scratch your head and turn to him. “Do you get it?”

“I think so.” Ushijima squints at the paper like it's done something to personally offend him.

“Oh-, and make sure to add a direct quote from whatever passage you're doing because otherwise the teacher won’t even grade you for it.”

“I see. Thanks.”

“No problem.” You scoot back closer to your desk again and pick up your pencil.

“You are very good at explaining things. Have you ever thought about becoming a tutor?”

You wave both of your hands over your face in dismissal. “Oh no no no, I’m not good enough at any subject to do that kind of thing.” You chuckle. “Thanks though.”

The boy nods and you two don’t talk for the rest of the lesson.

The bell goes and signifies the end of the period, now you have the 10 minute transition break.

Your next class is in the same room so you don’t have to worry about moving any of your stuff properly, you just have to shuffle a couple books and sheets of paper around.

After putting your social studies work away you get up to go use the bathroom.

Might as well use the transition break for something, even though the bathrooms will be pretty crowded.

A hand yanks you by the blazer back into your seat. Ushijima stands over you, his brows still pinched.

You're in shock. Why did he just pull you down like that?

What the hell?

“What?” You ask, annoyance laced in your voice.

“I think you should go to the nurse.” Ushijima makes an effort to keep his voice low.

“What? Why?”

“You're bleeding.”

What is he on about?

“Bleeding? Wha- oh.”

You gasp, you can feel all of the blood drain out of your face.

It wasn’t just a stomach ache.

“Oh fuck.”

“Yeah.”

Nononono this cannot be happening.

You feel tears of frustration and embarrassment gather in your eyes, how could you not have realised?? You knew it was coming up.

You bury your head in your arms on your desk. What the hell do you do now? You can safely assume that your skirt’s covered in blood so you can’t just walk out of the class- everyone will see. And you can’t just sit here either, class will start soon and the more time you waste the worse it’ll get.

You’ll just have to wrap your blazer around your waist and risk staining it.

Out of all colours the school really had to choose white?

It seems like Ushijima has that thought first though because he slips his off and hands it to you, careful to keep it on the low, you both speak in whispers.

“Thanks but it’s white. I’ll just use my own.”

“Are you sure? Do you want me to go get someone?”

“It’s fine.” You push his blazer back to him, undoing your own.

“I can-”

“I said it's fine. Okay? Just stop.” You snap at him, he’s really getting on your nerves.

This whole thing is stressing you out big time.

“I can leave?” Ushijima says, maybe his way of providing comfort. Trying to give you space.

Your eyes sting as you wrap your blazer around your waist and maneuver yourself out of your chair as strategically as possible.

You wipe your hand over the middle of your seat as you get up.

Better to have blood on your hand than on your chair where people will see.

“I’ll walk behind you.”

You can’t be bothered to say anything back.

You walk through the classroom and into the hallway, not bothering to look back to see if anyone noticed, that’ll just upset you even more.

This is the first time you’ve had your period in public before. You can’t stop shaking.

A tear slips, you wipe it away before anyone can see.

It isn’t that big of a deal. It isn’t that big of a deal. It isn’t that big of a deal.

You feel like everyone who passes you in the hallway knows. Like they can somehow sense it. You know that it's silly. They can’t. But you just can’t help but worry.

You slip into the girl’s toilets and for once, it's empty.

Thank god.

Your stomach is starting to cramp up properly now.

When you untie your blazer and move it away from your waist you find that it’s stained.

Fuckkk.

It’s not too bad, it’s just from what was already on your skirt but because it's white, the mark is way too obvious.

You sigh frustratedly. Maybe you can get the rest of the day off and go back to your dorm.

You manage to clean yourself up quite well despite what you’ve got around you. It’s relieving. The only thing is, your skirts still very badly stained and you don’t have any pads.

Why did I have to be a girl?

You squeeze your eyes shut and sigh. Toilet paper it is.

After about another minute your phone dings. It’s from Ushijima.

Ushijima Wakatoshi

> Are you okay?

< Yeah < Kinda

> ?

< Well like I don’t have anything < To use < I’m kinda stuck < Yk?

This is a really embarrassing situation to be in, especially since Ushijima’s a guy that you're not very close to. But at this point he’s your best bet for help. You hope he understands.

Ushijima Wakatoshi

> Stuck? > You don’t have any sanitary pads?

< Yea 😐

> Ok. Just wait there.

< Sorry.

> Don’t be.

Six minutes later he texts you the message: ‘I’m outside.’ And so you go to meet him, waddling to the entrance of the bathroom.

God this is so embarrassing.

Ushijima looks at you like everything's perfectly fine, like it's just as usual and hands you your bag and a pack of pads.

“You’re excused from the rest of your classes for today. You should go rest.”

“How did you get a whole packe- nevermind. Thanks.”

Ushijima pats you on the shoulder and walks away. You slink back into the bathroom, completely over the day. Over the week, even. You think this ruined it. You hope tomorrow will make up for it.

Ugh, but then I have to see him again after… all that.

Sakou 😛😛

< I’m going to blow up the skl. Including myself. < Guess what just happened 😆🔫

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀