Orange Breath (Haikyuu Fanfic)

29. The Meaningless Piece (Part 2)

It would be another day of practice for the Karasuno team after school. When the last class had ended, I quickly left the classroom to head to the gym. But then in my half way to the outside building, I found Yamaguchi and Tsukishima at the first floor's corridor.

"Oh, Ayazume-san!" Yamaguchi quickly greeted me as soon as he found me.

"Tsukishima, Yamaguchi-kun!" I replied to the warm greetings.

"You're walking to the gym, too? Let's go together." Yamaguchi's invitation was gladly to be accepted by me.

"Ano, Ayazume-san..." Yamaguchi sounded like he was trying to start a conversation with me as we continued to walk together to the gym.

"What's up with the '-san'? We're in the same age, Yamaguchi-kun. Just call me casually, I'm fine with that." I smiled at him.

"W-well then, uhm... A-Ayazume..?" (Yamaguchi)

"Yes? What is it?" I replied.

"Uhmm... Y-you know, uh..." Yamaguchi couldn't find the right words to let out his thought. He sounded really nervous until suddenly Tsukishima slapped his friend's back to make him letting out his voice.

"H-how's... YOUR DAY!!?" Yamaguchi ended up screaming which turned me a bit startled.

That time, Yamaguchi was actually trying to ask about what made her looking so sad a few days ago but he was afraid his question would bother her. At the end, Tsukishima could only shake his head, feeling a bit disappointed that his friend just failed to ask the real question.

"It's fine! Also, I like today's weather so much even if it's quite hot."

"Good day, huh. Seems like you'll be in a good mood to train us really hard today." Tsukishima snorted.

"Of course~! I will do my best to train all of you with Ukai. Though, I personally think our teaching style is quite different from one another, but I'm sure we'll find a way out." Ayazume smiled charmingly, making the two boys could only fall for her again and again.

Though it was so obvious that Tsukishima and Yamaguchi had a thing for Ayazume, the girl herself never noticed. It was painful to them of course, but everyone in the team had known the fact Ayazume was still an innocent when it came to this thing that people often called it as 'love'.

"We really can't wait to learn from you, Ayazume-chan..!" Yamaguchi smiled.

"...as if we will..." Tsukishima hid his smile with his hand.

---

After a session of warming up, I gave the players a pretty long physical training to improve their body endurance, but it seemed my method had confused everyone a little. Everyone had lost their energy already and they became slower to move around.

"A...Ayazume... Can we have a little break..?" Sugawara asked.

"Alright, I guess. You may take a break for now."

All the players quickly dropped themselves to the floor, feeling really tired and powerless after doing all of the physical trainings. Meanwhile, Ukai had just returned from finishing a few problems in his family's shop. When he found the poor boys laying on the floor, he immediately came to my direction to ask about what I had done to them.

"Say, what did you tell them to do?" Ukai asked.

"Just a simple physical training to improve their body endurance. It's fine to give them a little push over their limit, right?"

"Doesn't sound simple to me but let me guess, after two hours of leaving you here with them, you also told them to have the training for two hours, didn't you?" (Ukai)