I've been alone for so long.

Chapter 16

Pov Kiyoko

Oh My God. Oh My God. What is happening here? I was so overwhelmed. How could I not even realise? I'm actually sleeping in the freaking house of my fucking crush. I don't know if this is a joke, a dream, a prophecy or is just a sign we are meant to be friends. Why am I so nervous? It's not the first time I sleep in the same place as him. Fortunately, my brain was smart enough to say separate rooms. What is happening to me? Come back old Kiyoko. I'll go to church and everything.

After a while of me panicking and begging on the floor I finally fell asleep. It took a long while. But at the end it was only 2:45 when I closed my eyes and drifted in a silent sleep.

*

"Okay, lets revise the plan." Koushi said clapping his hands. "So, we go out of this house after seeing if the coast is clear." "Then we head to school and you go through the passages to your normal road." "So, I can see Chiyo and start a normal day. You'll head to morning practice as always and meet Daichi and Asahi on the way." "We'll try talking the less possible to each other. So, no one discovers this little secret." "When we leave from practice, we'll go our separate ways and meet up" "In the same passage we say goodbye this morning. Got it?" "Got it." "Then lets go." "Have a nice day, Sugawara." "You too Shimizu."

*

Today Keiji has been operated. It's been three weeks since he announced it. Which means it's been three weeks since my father kicked me out of my house. In the last few days, I've been able to get some clothes from the house. To be more accurate for the first week of staying at Koushi's house I either used my school uniform or borrowed some of his clothes. This is so weird. I think I might die in the inside. For some reason it feels as if we are dating or something. Or worse. As if we were married. Ugh.

It seems Kanna told everyone except Koushi about my love problem because the other day Koemi phoned and asked how everything was going. She is the one with most experience in living with Koushi. They lived together for three years. For the last year and a half, they were accompanied by Kanna. But even so we spent most of our nights with Kei at the hospital.

Koemi told me to just relax myself. Nothing could go wrong except if his parents appear at the door. And that only happens once every 3 months, if his lucky. The two most difficult things of living together is the fact I have feelings for him and school. If Daichi or Asahi find out they'll kill us. If Chiyo finds out she'll tell everyone in the class. And our class is filled with people looking for gossip. This is just stressful.

*

"Shimizu-san would you like to go out with me?" "No thank you." "Asahi, I told you to stop disturbing Shimizu." "Daichi. Please don't get mad." "You two are pointless." "Sugaaaaa. Don't say that." "But it's true." I started giggling. Those three are worthless. Do they share the same braincell or something? "Oh, come on. You can't disrespect me like this. I'm Jesus remember." They all burst out in laughter. "If your Jesus then I'm an angel and Daichi is Satan." "Yes... Heeeeeey!!! That isn't true and you know that. take that back Suga." "You literally said yes." Asahi and Sugawara couldn't stop laughing.

Each day they are growing closer to each other. Ever since the tournament 3 weeks ago they've been together 24/7. As a matter of fact, they've been counting me for all of their practices and plans. In a way I've helped them by finding ways to practice better the serves and everything. The four of us where totally humiliated in the tournament. We lost first match and this Karasuno cheerleader started booing us. We'll never let him humiliate us like that again.

Today is Friday once again. Daichi and Asahi told us by pure accident that they will try out the challenge once again tonight. We stopped them before they told us all the information. It's so boring when people challenge us, and we already know what they are going to do. Although they did tell us that this time they had come into an agreement with many players and guilds. The reason all of them took so long to prepare was because they were agreeing with the greatest number of players they could. In other words, today we are going to do a match of five against around 1500 players. It's time to show them our real power. Everything happens on Fridays or something.

But first training. This time I'm there. It was pretty nice of them to ask me. But there is something weird and I don't like it one bit. Firstly, it was Asahi's and Daichi's idea, not mine nor Sugawara's. Secondly, their smiles are not as wide as usual. Finally, they are too welcoming. As if they are faking something. I think Sugawara realised because he isn't putting his guard down. I think I'm getting a bit anxious.

We went inside the gym and prepared the net. "Shimizu could you try and set the balls to me and Asahi so Suga can practice his receive." "Daichi when did you think about that?" "Sorry forgot to tell you. But you barely practice your receive and you should start doing it. Or else the thing that happened three weeks ago will happen once again." The thing that happened three weeks ago. That match was horrendous. Everything went wrong. But Sugawara didn't even play. They probably want to practice his receive to surprise the opposing team or something. "Yeah, that still doesn't make much sense." Daichi sighed. "You only have to practice more this part because you are an already capable setter and server, and we want to see if you are a good receiver." "Ah, okay." He smiled once again.

With that we started training. I'm not a good setter or even a good thrower but Asahi and Daichi were able to hit them. Sugawara on the other hand, was forced to run from one side to the other receiving every single ball he could. It was actually pretty surprising. Although, he was exhausted after it. "Why can't we change for a while?" "Because you don't know how to spike." "Daichi that isn't nice." Ups I forgot about that. Sugawara used to be a very good spiker. But after everything that happened, we were left with a psychological mark everywhere. This is so frustrating.

At 5 o'clock practice ended. Sugawara sat down on the bench and relaxed for a while. Me, Asahi and Daichi started cleaning the gym. After like 5 minutes Sugawara came to help me with the net. That's when it happened. The door of the gym closed. And the key was left on.

Sugawara and I went out of the storage room to find Daichi closing the door by key and Asahi watching. "What are you guys doing?" Sugawara asked. "Making sure you guys can't get out." "And why can't we get out?" I asked angrily. "Because you guys are going to answer our questions. Truthfully." "We want the true story. No lies nor semi-lies." "We didn't want to do it by force. So, don't make us." Oh, my what are we going to do now.