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"Do you know him, Aki-chan?" The silver-haired male questioned the female beside him, Chiaki nodding as she adjusted the face mask she wore, keeping it on although her identity was probably already found out by Iwaizumi.

Chiaki pushed a fringe of hair behind her ear as she spoke, her words getting a bit muffled by the mask, "he was Tobi-kun and my senpai in middle school. He has a pretty nasty personality, but his ability as a setter and server is a real deal," the teen pauses, her grey eyes following Oikawa as he begins to warm up. "He's probably the one who requested Tobi-kun to set for the whole game."

A dark look appears on Sugawara's face, something Chiaki doesn't miss from the corner of her eyes.

"Suga-senpai," the called male hums, his eyes on the court as the game continues, "I'm actually glad they made that request."

These are not words he was expecting from Chiaki, a look of hurt briefly flashing in his brown eyes. Before he could say anything, Chiaki was speaking.

"They don't know a player like you exists on our team, all of their attention is on Tobi-kun. Tobi-kun is a good setter, but he's not perfect either, and there are times when we'll probably have to pull him out to cool his head. That's when your ability will really shine, Suga-senpai. If we play Seijoh at Interhigh, they'll underestimate us, and that'll put us at an advantage," Chiaki quietly explains as Sugawara takes in her words. He clenched his fist and nodded, seeing her point. And what she said made him realize he has to work harder.

Chiaki smiles as she sees the determined look appear on the face of the male beside her. However, the smile doesn't stay on her face for long as Oikawa steps onto the court, warmed up, and ready to play. Her eyes darted to the scoreboard, seeing that they were on their third game, twenty-one to twenty-four, Karasuno winning. However, she was getting a feeling that with Oikawa joining, the game's flow would significantly change.

"I never liked his serves, he can be pretty accurate," Chiaki admits, Sugawara looking at her with an eyebrow raised.

"Says Miss Dove, who had both spike jump serves and float serves under her belt," Sugawara sends a stink eye to the female beside him who shrugged her shoulder, "you were known for that, and you act like it's nothing."

Chiaki releases a small chuckle with a shake of her head. "A part of my past, Suga-senpai. I probably can't even do it now, I haven't held a volleyball on the court for over a year. I've lost my touch," she admits a bit of sadness in her tone. However, she doesn't really think of it, seeing as her attention gets pulled onto the court.

Oikawa spun the ball, before holding it easily with one hand as he pointed at Tsukishima. In response, Tsukishima's eyebrows furrowed, not seeming to understand that action. Chiaki, on the other hand, pinched the bridge of her nose as Oikawa blatantly declared to them who he was aiming at. He's going to aim for those who are weak at receiving...

Chiaki sucks in a breath as the loud smack echoed through the gym as Oikawa's palm smacked into the red, green, and white ball, it flying over the net and making its way to Tsukishima. A look of shock flashed on many of the Karasuno teams' faces, taken aback at the shot's accuracy.

The blond glassed male isn't able to receive the ball as it ricochets off his forearms and smacks into the second story rail where students watched.

Chiaki can't help the shiver that ran down her back, her lips twitching into a smile as she imagined the familiar sting. He's gotten even better than the last time I've seen him... She can almost feel it against her own skin, her fingers twitching, silently wanting to play herself.

"Yup, just as I thought. I noticed it while I was stretching, but," Oikawa spoke, a pleasant smile on his face as he placed one of his hands on his hip, eyeing two Karasuno players, "you, number six and you, number five, are bad at receives, right?"

Getting blatantly called out, both Hinata and Tsukishima grimaces, the former looking more dejected at the observation made of them.

"His control is insane," Sugawara gapes as Oikawa aims for Tsukishima again, the same thing happening as the blond isn't able to receive his strong serves.

Chiaki silently watches as Daichi moves, placing Tsukishima a bit behind him and expanding his defensive sphere seeing as he specialized in receives. However, she only narrows her eyes, having a feeling that wasn't really going to help.

As just as she had assumed, it doesn't help that much, Oikawa has enough control to still aim at the glassed-male. But this time, Tsukishima is somewhat able to bring the ball up, although it was a chance ball for the opponent team.

From there, everything moved quickly, Takeda, who was still new to the sport having trouble keeping up. Chiaki silently watched as her teammates cheered when Hinata was able to slow Kindaichi's ball.

The corner of the silver-haired female's lips tugged up as Kageyama moved to set the ball as Hinata sprinted across the net, leaping into the air. Chiaki almost felt the satisfaction herself as Hinata slammed the ball down, earning the final point for the practice match.

However, at the same time, the female gulped, dread dripping into her veins, a fearful shiver running down her back.

                  "Aki-chan, are you okay?" Daichi questioned as their lifeless medic opened and closed their emergency box for the hundredth time, although she had already cleaned up everything she needed.

Hearing her name, the said female looked up, just staring at the captain, making Daichi's smile twitch. She's not okay...!? He thinks along with Sugawara, who stood next to him.

"C-Can we leave before their team is finished with cleaning?" Chiaki whimpered, leaping onto Daichi, twisting her head side to side into his chest like a drill.

Her action makes them laugh, but they don't realize how dead serious Chiaki is. When they brush it off, she pouts, hiding behind them as they line up to bow at the opponent team. Silently she stays with Shimizu, shrinking herself although she is taller than the older girl.

She glances at Kunimi and Kindaichi, briefly making eye contact with them. And Chiaki can't help but smile at them behind her mask, being able to see the ghost of a smile on Kunimi's lips and the blush that covers Kindaichi's face.

She lightly waves at them before rushing out of the gym as soon as Takeda-sensei calls out to the team to leave. Chiaki feels the anxiety that was built in her chest getting released as she catches sight of Iwaizumi talking to their coach as they cleaned up the gym. The said male is distracted with the conversation, not noticing the Karasuno team slipping out.

As soon as they're out and away from the gym, Chiaki pulls the face mask down to her chin, inhaling fresh air. To many of her teammates' amusement, she keeps glancing back with a look of worry, looking anxious to get out of Seijoh's campus.

Eventually, Sugawara grabbed her hand, squeezing it to assure the female, Chiaki visibly relaxing at the contact much to his hidden amusement.

"You know," Daichi spoke, catching all of their attention, "with today's match, I realized something. No matter how excellent Hinata and Kageyama's combo may be, frankly, when it comes to strengthening the perimeter, we're still extremely weak. It's frustrating to admit," the dark-haired third-years says, gritting his teeth.

At his words, both Chiaki and Sugawara nod, knowing what Daichi said was true.

"Heh, as expected of the captain~"

Chiaki flinches, Sugawara wincing as the grip she had on his hand tightened. All of their eyes moved to the male that leaned against the Seijoh gate, grinning widely as he observed the team.

Okinawa pushed off the brick wall, turning to face the Karasuno team, "I'm glad you seem to understand the situation."

Chiaki immediately ducked behind Tanaka as the male stepped forward, looking ready to pick a fight. "What the hell, you wanna fight, huh?" Tanaka hissed, his sharp eyes gleaming with annoyance, Hinata bouncing behind him, egging him on.

In response, Oikawa only laughs, waving his hand in front of him. "Aww, don't be so aggressive, I've only come to give you my greetings," the brunet chuckled, his eyes narrowing on Hinata. "Hey you, the little guy. That last one-touch and broad attack was amazing."

Oikawa's words make Hinata flustered, the orange-haired boy bashfully rubbing the back of his head while giggling. Kageyama sends an irritated look at Hinata, a small 'tsk' leaving his lips, seeing how easily Oikawa's words made him bashful.

"Today, I was only able to join in for the last few points, but next time, let's compete at full throttle from the start, okay?" Oikawa smiled. However, his expression became a bit condescending, "ah, and that's right. Be sure to improve your receives and serves."

At his words, the Karasuno team became rigid, being able to tell that the Seijoh captain's atmosphere had changed. "Your attacks were certainly incredible, but if all of your early receives are slow and hesitant, you'll reach your limit sooner, don't you think?"

Chiaki slowly let Sugawara's hand go, stepping forward as she slipped her face mask back on. However, Okinawa doesn't seem to notice her, his eyes landing on Kageyama. "I'm not the only one who hits an intensely strong serve. The inter-high preliminaries are coming up. I'll be troubled if you don't be able to survive, seeing as I," Oikawa's hand shoots out, pointing his finger to Kageyama's face, "want to crush my uselessly adorable kouhai in a regular game fair and square as a setter."

Just as Oikawa was about to pull his hand back, a soft hand wraps around his finger, squeezing it. His eyes widened as a silver-haired female appeared in front of him. She's reasonably tall... is the first thought he has. However, that thought quickly gets pushed to the side as he blinks, staring at her visible eyes.

Eyes that are familiar, but he can't quite place where he's seen them.

"Eh? Did you want to hold hands with me, Mane-chan? You're really cute and bold, Oikawa-san is shy!" Oikawa speaks in third-person as he flashes Chiaki a smile.

However, his eyes widened, the smile disappearing from his face as she speaks, finally figuring out why her eyes are familiar.

"I'm not a manager, I'm a medic," the silver-haired teen corrects, her eyes narrowing to two slits as she smiled. Her grip around the finger she held tightened, making Oikawa wince, his eyes widening at the strength. "Were you not taught that pointing at people is rude by your parents, Oikawa-San? And even if they didn't, I know for a fact Hajime-senpai has multiple times."

The brunet can't help but take a staggering step back, his mouth opening and closing, and not producing proper words. Chiaki lets his hand go and smiles, her legs subconsciously getting crossed as she stands in front of the taller male.

"Y-Y-You...?!"

"Thank you for your concern, Oikawa-san. But my team will be fine, I'll make sure that you'll see a more stable team by inter-high. I'll personally make sure they deserve where they stand," Chiaki sweetly says, her eyes narrowing into a smile, although her mask hides her lips.

"EEHH?!" Oikawa finally yells, "are you seriously- GEH!" The male isn't able to finish his sentence as a shoe smack him straight into his nose.

Chiaki can't help but flinch as the shoe slips down the surface of his face, falling to the ground pitifully. She's almost surprised that Oikawa's nose wasn't bleeding at the speed and strength the shoe hit him.

"I-Iwa-chan!!!" Oikawa whined, covered his nose with his hand as tears stung at the corner of his eyes. Chiaki sucked in a quick breath at the nickname Oikawa has for his best friend, not daring to move or look back.

She's nearly shaking, almost hyperventilating as Oikawa stares at the figure standing behind them, the male stomping towards them with a glare.

"Oi, Kuzukawa! How dare you skip out on cleaning and instead pick a fight with another school!" Iwaizumi hissed, not seeming to care that he was barefoot for one of his feet.

Oikawa released another whine, "b-but, I had to talk to Tobio-chan! And can you believe it?! Ahiru-chan is here too!!!"

A look of confusion flashed in Karasunos' eyes. They could tell that the nickname was probably for Chiaki, but they couldn't understand why and only silently observes what was happening in front of them in interest. Daichi and Sugawara were the only ones silently wondering if they should step in, seeing as Chiaki was frozen.

A vein popped on Iwaizumi's forehead and arm as he stomped towards Oikawa, walking past a frozen Chiaki and smacking the back of his captain's head again. "Oi, stop giving people rude nicknames, Kusokawa!"

"Eh? But Ahiru-Chan is a cute nickname! She always used to follow after you like a little duckling! You know best that she follows after people she's attached to just like a baby duck that imprint on its parent!" Oikawa released a pitiful whine as he gets hit multiple times by his best friend.

Ah... The others who heard the explanation all held in a laugh, realizing what Oikawa said was true. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi covered their mouth with their hand, holding in a snicker realizing Chiaki really was like a duckling desperately following after their parents, aka, Sugawara and Daichi. Even the said two can't help but think of her as a duckling after it's mentioned. Sugawara holds in a laugh, an image of Chiaki in a little duckling form following Daichi popping in his mind.

Oikawa continues to babble, his eyes wide as he stared at Chiaki, his gaze moving from head to toe, "is that really Ahiru-Chan? Like, wow, there's growth! Like a huge growth! Like 'boing!'" Oikawa, who was insensitive, moves his hand to his chest, which makes all the male blush as they realize what he's talking about. Sugawara and Daichi glare at their team, daring them to look at Chiaki in that way, Tanaka and Hinata looking ready to explode at any moment, heat seeming to escape from the top of their head.

Iwaizumi's eyes twitched as he raises his fist again, punching Oikawa's head, this time not holding back as much. "Shuddup Erokawa!" He snaps before picking his shoe off the ground and slipping it on.

Chiaki is frozen stiff like a statue, seeming to lose feeling to all of her limbs. She isn't able to hear anything either, the conversation sounding like a bee's low buzz. She desperately wants to turn around and run the other way, but everything feels like it was cut off from her brain.

The silver-haired teen can only release a squeak as Iwaizumi slowly turns to her, his sharp eyes landing on her. Her mouth opens and closes behind her mask, no sound leaving her lips.

Her eyes are shaking as Iwaizumi takes a step forward, his eyebrows furrowed with his mouth tugged down in a frown he always wears. He takes another step. And another. And another followed after that. Until he was right in front of her, only a few centimeters away from her. She doesn't even stop him as he lifts a hand up, pulling her mask away from her face before ripping it off.

His face softened as he took a good look at her face.

"Chiaki."

Chiaki nearly bursts into tears at the way Iwaizumi says her name. It was a mixture of relief and sadness. The silver-haired female bite onto her bottom lip, desperately holding in the tears as she looks into Iwaizumi's green eyes.

The other who watched almost felt like they were intruding. Hinata's cheeks flush pink as he thinks what he's currently witnessing was like a movie scene of an intimate reunion between a couple.

Iwaizumi doesn't say anything as he silently opens his arm, looking at her expectantly. And Chiaki doesn't need any other permission before jumping into his chest, hugging him tightly as a quiet sob left her mouth.

"H-Hajime-senpai...! I-I-I'm so sorry! I-I—"Chiaki can't even make a proper sentence as she blabbers into his chest, tears finally leaving her eyes and creating a small stain on his white track jacket.

Iwaizumi only wraps strong arms around her, hugging her close. His hand lightly petting the back of her dyed hair, still adjusting to her new hair color. He sends a glare at Oikawa, who 'awww'ed. The Karasuno team, on the other hand, isn't keeping up, not exactly understanding what was happening. Most of them are sending the crying Chiaki a concerned look, not knowing what to do. Daichi is almost thinking of stepping forward to make sure his friend is okay. But someone beats him to it.

Kageyama, who silently watched this, finally stepped forward, catching everyone's attention. The said boy's dark eyes stare straight at the older boy without wavering. "Iwaizumi-san, I'm sure there's a lot of things you need to talk to Aki-senpai. And we came here on the bus."

With just those words, Iwaizumi had a reasonably good idea what the younger boy was trying to suggest, knowing the female's tendency with motion sickness.

"I'll take her home," the spiky-haired male stated without hesitation, patting Chiaki's head as she sniffled, small hiccups leaving her mouth. An uncertain look was on many of the Karasuno boys' faces, wanting to argue against leaving their teammate behind when she was vulnerable. But seeing the particular look of trust on Kageyama's face, they don't speak up, silently climbing onto the bus as Takeda called them to hurry up.

Daichi and Sugawara are the last to climb onto the bus, the former sending a warning look at Iwaizumi before stepping onto the vehicle. Sugawara, on the other hand, gives the fellow vice-captain a polite smile.

"We'll leave Aki-chan in your care," the silver-haired male states friendly. But Iwaizumi can see the warning gleam in Sugawara's eyes, stiffly nodding. Seeing this, Sugawara reached out, patting Chiaki's head briefly before stepping onto the bus. The boys all looked out the window as the bus began moving, leaving the Seijoh campus.

"Oi, Kageyama, was it really a good idea leaving Aki-senpai?" Hinata questioned out loud, all the boys turning their attention to the setter who was munching on a protein bar.

At the question, the raven-haired male turned to the ginger, swallowing his bar and crushing the wrapper in his hand. "Yeah, Aki-senpai had a special relationship with Iwaizumi-San in middle school. There's a lot of things she hasn't told him after her accident, and it was a good chance to do that. And she'll rather take the train home then be on the bus."

"But, leaving her with that guy..." Tanaka grumbled, suddenly remembering the violence Iwaizumi showed when he hit Oikawa.

Looking at his senpai's face, Kageyama had an idea of what he was thinking of. "Iwaizumi-San may be a bit rough with Oikawa-San, but he would never hurt Aki-senpai," the boy assured, pulling out a banana next from his bag, peeling it as he spoke. "They've known her much longer than me. I think they met when they were around nine or ten. Iwaizumi-san is as protective of Aki-senpai as her brothers."

Hearing this, Daichi closed his eyes, looking a bit sick. "Three is enough..." He whispered, his words not being heard by anyone else.

With the Karasuno bus gone, Iwaizumi releases a grunt and turns towards Oikawa, who was silently watching everything. But with a simple glance, Iwaizumi can see that it was taking everything in his friend's power to stay quiet. It looked like Oikawa was holding himself back from laughing out loud and making fun of Iwaizumi.

Iwaizumi clicked his tongue, his arm still wrapped around Chiaki, the female's head pressed into his shoulder as she gripped his jacket. "Don't you fucking say anything, Kusokawa, I'll beat the shit out of you," the spiky-haired male grumbled, his cheeks flushing a bit.

Oikawa snickered at his friend's embarrassment. But doesn't say anything, lazily waving a hand in the air, "I'll go back to the gym, Iwa-chan! I'll let Coach know you got caught up on something," the brunet chirped as he skipped away, not even glancing at Chiaki.

With Oikawa finally gone, Iwaizumi looked around, finally realizing that they weren't precisely somewhere that's private, being in front of the school gate. Glancing at Chiaki, he gripped her slightly smaller hand, pulling her along towards the back of the gym where people didn't walk often.

"Oi, stop crying," Iwaizumi sighed, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. Chiaki couldn't help but giggle while sniffling, her hand coming to rub at her eyes that were still wet.

"You're still bad at comforting people, Hajime-senpai," Chiaki sniffed while laughing.

This makes Iwaizumi pout a bit, before he reaches forward, grabbing her hand to stop her from rubbing at her eye, "stop making fun of me. And stop rubbing at your eyes as well, you're making them redder," the male gently scolded, using his thumb to brush under her eyes, lightly going over her beauty mark under her right eye.

Chiaki giggles, finding his light touches ticklish. But she doesn't pull away, letting the older male wipe at her tears as she looks up at his face. She noted that the little amount of baby fat Iwaizumi had the last time she had seen him was utterly gone, his facial structure maturing out and looking more like a young man. He seemed to grow into his body, muscles replaced scrawny arms and legs, his height a bit taller too. Iwaizumi Hajime was no longer the same adolescent she had know.  

Iwaizumi can't help but feel his lips tug up as Chiaki gave him a messy smile, the corner of her eyes red from crying. He patted her head once before speaking, "I'll take you home. I just have to grab my bag from the gym, and I think I have some eye drops in my locker for you."

Secretly, Chiaki feels thankful that Iwaizumi doesn't immediately suggest that they talk, although she knows the boy desperately wants to. So, she pats her chest down, intaking a shuddering breath to calm herself, using her jacket sleeve to wipe her nose to make sure nothing dripped. Iwaizumi patiently waits as he watches her, his fingers lightly brushing against her eyelashes, taking a droplet off a tear that stuck to them.

When Chiaki deemed she looked presentable enough after looking at herself in her phone camera, Iwaizumi led her to grab his bag so they could leave.

Kindaichi and Kunimi both blinked in surprise as they turned their head to the gym door when they heard it open. While they had expected their vice-captain to come in through the door seeing as he was the only one missing, they didn't expect the silver-haired female in a black tracksuit to follow in after him.

Both first years quickly see that Chiaki no longer had a mask covering her face, allowing those in the gym to get a good look at her.

Hanamaki released a low whistle, his eyes widening a fraction before he nudged Matsukawa next to him.

In response, Matsukawa gulps the mouthful of water he has in his mouth, nearly spitting it out. "Wow..."

Hearing his friend's words, Hanamaki nods, dazedly watching as Chiaki follows after Iwaizumi while clutching the back of his jacket. "How is it fair that Karasuno has two pretty girls on the team? Hell, what is she doing with Iwaizumi?" The pink-haired male questioned with his eyes wide as he processed what he was witnessing.

When no one answered him, he turned his head to Oikawa, who was packing up his volleyball shoes, a small pout on his face. Oikawa pretends to act like he doesn't notice the look he was getting from his pink-haired friend, angrily stuffing his bag with his items.

"Aki-senpai, it was really you," Chiaki nearly jumped out of her skin at the voice behind her. Turning her head, she sees two tall figures, a small smile spreading on her face.

Iwaizumi, on the other hand, nodded at his teammates, deciding that he'll go get his stuff from the locker room while they spoke to Chiaki.

"Kindaichi-kun, Kunimi-chan. You've grown in height," the silver-haired female smiled as she let Iwaizumi go, facing her two former underclassmen.

Kindaichi barely can hide the flush in his cheek as he witnessed the older girl's warm smile, suddenly feeling like he was back in the first year of middle school when he had first met her.

Kunimi, on the other hand, frowns a bit. Before Chiaki could even say anything, the younger boy reaches out, his finger pinching her cheek and squeezing.

"K-Kunimi!" Kindaichi gasps in panic, his eyes widened because he hadn't expected his friend to take such action.

The wing spiker ignores his friend and pinches harder, stretching Chiaki's cheek with an icy close-eyed smile. "Aki-senpai, is that the only thing you can say after going missing for the last year? You've grown taller? I'm sure there's other things to say, don't you think, senpai?"

"Iamm sowwy, pweave fohgeav meh!" Chiaki mumbles as best as she could. She winces, a low whine leaving her lips as the taller boy finally lets her go. With teary eyes, Chiaki rubs at her sore and red cheeks, pouting a bit as Kunimi crosses his arm over his chest and stares down at the girl with a scowl.

"I'll forgive you if you bring me a box of salted caramel the next time I see you at a match," Kunimi grumbles as he turns on his heel and walks off. Chiaki and Kindaichi are left in surprise, watching as the boy disappears from their sight as he enters the locker room.

Kindaichi seemed to snap out of his shock and turn to face Chiaki, his eyebrows furrowing, "a-ah, Aki-senpai... I'm sorry about that guy, I don't know why he was like that," the boy gives her an apologetic look, his eyes moving back to the locker room Kunimi disappeared into.

Chiaki waves a hand in her air, "don't apologize, Kindaichi-kun. I deserved that. I'm sorry to you too, Kindaichi-kun." She sends the younger boy a sad smile as she continues to rub the pain out of her cheek.

Kindaichi flushes and awkwardly scratches the back of his head, looking a bit embarrassed to be under Chiaki's attention. Chiaki, on the other hand, looks at the taller boy, humming to herself.

"But I wasn't kidding about you and Kunimi-chan growing taller. It's really amazing to see how you boys grow so tall in just a year. You two and Tobi-kun were shorter than me in middle school, but now, you're all probably over 180 cm," Chiaki offhandedly comments, a fond smile spreading on her face.

Kindaichi opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, a hand slams into his back, making him flinch.

"Oi, Kindaichi, are you not going to introduce her to us?" Hanamaki questioned, a grin spreading across his face.

Behind him, Matsukawa stands with an equally mischievous smile, the dark-haired male giving Chiaki a nod of greeting.

While taken aback at their sudden appearance, the silver-haired female recognized them looking at their faces. "Number 3, Hanamaki Takahiro-San and Number 2 Matsukawa Issei-san, right? I'm Ibato Chiaki, nice to meet you," the female is quick to name the two players from the earlier game and roster and introduced herself, placing a friendly smile on her face.

Both boys seemed to be taken aback at her knowing their names. But they are both quick to recover, smiling at her in greeting.

"Well, Ibato-chan, why are you still here? Didn't your team already leave?" Hanamaki asked the million-dollar question, the others who were silently listening a few feet away, perking their ears up in curiosity.

But before she could answer, a voice beat her to it. "Don't bother Aki-chan too much, guys. Iwa-Chan's going to get angry."

Chiaki blinks, not expecting Oikawa to join into the conversation. She became even more surprised as the male placed a hand on her shoulder as he stood behind her, squeezing it gently with his hand. She can't help but stare at his face with her eyebrows furrowed, not really understanding the situation she's in.

Oikawa was touching her. On his own account...

What?

Chiaki had known Oikawa for a reasonably long time. If people asked if they were childhood friends, she wouldn't deny it. Although she wasn't quite sure if they could count as friends seeing as Oikawa didn't really like her.

But right now, Oikawa Tooru was smiling down at her sweetly, pulling her away from his teammates and creating a small distance. At this, she can't help but raise an eyebrow, trying to understand the tall Seijoh captain's motive. After a moment, she realized that was something she just couldn't seem to find.

"What's going on?"

Oikawa lifts his hand off Chiaki's shoulder as he hears Iwaizumi's voice. He spins on his heel and faces his best friend with a beam, "nothing, Iwa-chan! We were just introducing Aki-Chan to everyone! Are you ready to take her home?"

Iwaizumi sends Oikawa an uncertain look, his eyebrows furrowed as he stares at the cheery brunet, seeming to try to figure out if what he was saying was true. But he eventually brushes it off, nodding as he peered over Oikawa's shoulder to look at Chiaki.

"Ready, Chiaki?" He questions, his hand automatically going out to her. Without hesitation, Chiaki grabs it, holding it tightly as she nods.

"I'll let Coach know you dipped, leave the rest to me," Oikawa chirped as he waved lazily at Iwaizumi, who nodded in thanks.

Oikawa kept the smile on his face until Iwaizumi and Chiaki were out of the gym, the door closing behind them. When they were gone from his sight, he released a low groan, falling onto the ground in a squat as he roughly scratched his head, messing up his styled hair.

His team watched him in confusion as Oikawa seemed to be fighting his inner dilemma, mumbling under his breath.

"What the hell is wrong with him," Matsukawa questioned, his thick eyebrows furrowing together as he watched as Oikawa continued to mumble under his breath, sounding almost like a mantra of curses.

Hanamaki shrugged, not seeming to care, finding Oikawa acting weird as a part of their typical day. Instead, he stared at the door, his mind on something else that was definitely not normal in their everyday life.

"Someone please tell me I was not hallucinating. Cause I swear I thought I saw Iwaizumi walk out of here holding a cute girl's hand," the pink-haired male spoke out loud. At his words, the others seemed to realize that what he said was indeed true, multiple gasps echoing through the loud gym.

"That's just something he does with Aki-senpai. It's a calming mechanism for her."

They all blink in surprise as they see Kunimi with his bag thrown over his shoulder, lazily moving to the door. The said boy mutters a quiet, "chissu," a goodbye as he steps out of the gym. Seeing this, Kindaichi also grabs his bag, scrambling after his friend he usually walks home with, leaving a mumbling Oikawa and the rest of their teammates confused.

                   🏐🏐EXTRA🏐🏐

"Oi, Kunimi! Wait up!" Kindaichi called out, scowling as the said boy does the absolute opposite as he ignored the middle blocker. Kindaichi stares at his friend's side profile when he finally catches up, Kunimi refusing to acknowledge him. "Why're you in such a bad mood, Kunimi?" Kindaichi finally questioned, his eyebrows furrowing.

Kunimi doesn't respond, his own eyebrows knitted together, his lips pulled in a small pout, obviously in a bad mood. Even his steps seemed to be heavier than usual, stomping as they walked to the closest train station.

"I would have thought you would have been happier seeing Aki-senpai again."

Kindaichi can't help but raise an eyebrow as Kunimi finally showed a reaction to his words, the wing spiker's face softening for a brief second before hardening again. The male finally releases a sigh, the tension seeming to leave his shoulder.

"Yeah, but it pisses me off," Kunimi clicked his tongue, his hands stuffed into his sweatshirt's pocket. He briefly shifts his gaze to the taller male for a moment before looking forward again. "Out of all the people, Kageyama ends up going to the same school as Aki-senpai."

This makes Kindaichi pause for a moment, thinking about Kunimi's words. During that time, he stopped walking, standing in the middle of the street as the boy with parted hair continued forward.

Realizing this, Kindaichi jogged to catch up to Kindaichi again, now wearing a similar scowl to what Kunimi has on his face. "Why do you have to put it like that? Now, I'm annoyed too," the boy grumbled, seeming to sulk a bit.

The two silently stand at the train station, the area fairly crowded with salarymen and students returning home from work and club activities.

"But don't you think Aki-senpai has gotten even prettier than the last time we saw her?" Kindaichi finally broke the silence, staring at the crowd of people that passed around him.

"She has always been pretty," is the immediate response he receives from Kunimi.

Flustered, Kindaichi scratched his cheek, his cheeks painting a light pink. "Yeah, but like... Like today, when I saw her, it just seemed like there was this air around her? An air of a mature woman? She was someone already eye-catching in middle school, but I didn't expect her to be able to become even more pretty," Kindaichi sighed, seeming to be going into a daydream.

Kunimi was about to give out his own response but held it in as he felt his heart leap into his mouth as he caught sight of who stood behind them from the corner of his eyes.

"That's really sweet of you, Kindaichi-kun. I actually feel a bit embarrassed."

Kindaichi stiffened before slowly turning around, looking like a machine that needs to get oiled with how rigid his movement is. Chiaki stands there, a look of amusement on her face. Beside her, Iwaizumi stands with his arm crossed over his chest. The older male looks just as amused as the female beside him, the corner of his lips tugged up into a small smirk.

"I-I-I! A-Aki-senpai....! Did y-you h-hear all o-of t-that?!" Kindaichi spluttered in a stuttering mess, going red all the way to his ears, standing up straight and rigid as if he got struck by lightning.

Chiaki sent the boy an apologetic smile as she tucked a strand of her fringe behind her ear. "Yeah, before Kunimi-chan responded to you... You two seemed to be talking, and I didn't want to interrupt," the silver-haired female smiled a bit shyly.

Hearing this, Kunimi's own cheeks flushed, realizing she had also heard him. Silently, he wished that he could rewind time by ten minutes, embarrassment seeming to eat him from the inside.

And his friend was no better. If Kindaichi was alone, he was sure he would have crumbled down to his knee and covered his face with his hand.

"Oi, Chiaki, that's the train you said we have to take, right?" Iwaizumi called as he noticed a train entering the station on the opposite side. Seeing him point at it, Chiaki nodded before looking at both Kunimi and Kindaichi, who looked appalled, avoiding any eye contact with her.

"Sorry, boys, get home safely," Chiaki called, smiling and waving at the two of them in goodbye before getting pulled along by Iwaizumi. The said male sent the two younger boys a look of amusement that promised to tease the next time they saw each other again.

Watching them enter the train, Iwaizumi protecting Chiaki from the crowd of people that hustled into the vehicle, Kunimi finally spoke up.

"Kill me, this is your fault, Kindaichi."

"My fault?!" Kindaichi squeaked out, his voice cracking at how flustered he was, "I had a whole damn monologue of me saying how pretty she is. I want to be the one dead!"

                   🏐🏐OIKAWA NAME TRANSLATIONS🏐🏐

Kusokawa- Shit x Oikawa

Erokawa- pervert x Oikawa

Kuzukawa- Trash x Oikawa

🏐🏐Terms:🏐🏐

Mane-chan: aka. Manager-chan, Mane-chan, is often used as a nickname for managers. It is used even in Haikyuu a couple of times!

Ahiru- duck in Japanese

🏐🏐A/N🏐🏐

Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! So the new Haikyuu season has started and I'm super mixed feelings about it, haha. I'm sure you've all seen people making fun of the crappy art of the second episode, not gonna lie, I was pretty shocked lmfao.

Also, there was a slight change to one of the characters. So originally, I had Chiaki's former teammate who was a libero named Takanashi Misaki (the girl that Chiaki pushed out of the way of the motorcycle and got into her accident) Well, with the new season, we kinda found out the name of the girl with the Goshiki bowl cut at the credit roll at the end and it was Komezawa Maiko. So now that we learned her name, I changed it to that from Takanashi Misaki ----> Komezawa Maiko.

I just wanted to mention it here so it doesn't confuse anyone in the future.

Next update Chapter 8 | Forgiveness will be coming out on October 30, 2020! It'll have a small comic of one of the scenes in the chapter that I quickly drew ad put together.

And the picture below is Chi-chan's stats and some info on her, sorry that her drawing is a bit sloppy, especially her hair, I wasn't down to really fix it, rip. Anyhow, thanks for reading and don't forget to comment and vote! Let me know how you think of the story. I've also finally decided after Chi-chan becomes legal in the book and goes into college, they're be a bit more romance and adult themes, so yay!

-Ember