𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 | 𝐤.𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐨

four

"wah, sugoi! nice to meet you, miyazaki-chan!"

i returned nishinoya with a forced smile, my ears already dying from all the noise he had been making.

"u-uh, nishi...?" kageyama started.

i nudged him. "it's nishinoya-san."

"nishinoya-san...which junior high were you from?" kageyama continued.

"chidoriyama!"

chidoriyama?  i repeated in my head. weren't they one of the powerhouse schools as well, like kitagawa daiichi?

"why are you at karasuno then?" the setter questioned.

the libero grinned. "i came because...i like the girls uniform! a lot!"

i instantly face palmed.

he was indeed a second tanaka.

just then, the doors of the gymnasium opened, revealing the pretty third-year manager, who stepped in, unaware of all the chaos going on, and nishinoya's long talk about how the uniforms in karasuno were the best.

but almost instantly, nishinoya stopped speaking, and his head spun in the direction of shimizu.

"kiyoko-sannn!! i've come to see youu!!"

once again, my ear drums were bursting at the sound of his loud voice.

the libero charged towards her, with tanaka chasing him from behind, also eager to get to their female manager.

as nishinoya sprinted towards her, the third-year raised a hand to slap him, smacking tanaka with her notebook on another.

that left a large, red hand mark on his cheek.

he didn't seem to be in pain, only caught in a daze, his eyes twinkling.

"kiyoko-san just slapped me~!"

i rolled my eyes. honestly, how much more worse could these boys get?

practice went on after everyone had welcomed nishinoya back, and i returned to the bench to grab my camera, before heading closer towards the court to catch some pictures of the new libero in action.

although he was extremely loud and noisy outside, i had to admit, nishinoya was completely different on court, all silent and focused, and it wasn't a doubt that he was a really skilled libero.

-

"what do you mean asahi-san's not coming back?!"

the sound of nishinoya's loud exclaimation reverberated through the gym.

i turned my attention to him, and realized that this wasn't like his loud and cheery voice earlier on. instead, his tone was filled with anger.

"a coward's a coward! it's like i said before, if asahi-san's not coming back, so am i!"

i stood there, stunned. i had no clue who this asahi-san was, but i gathered that it was also another player who was on a break, though i still couldn't comprehend why nishinoya was so riled up about.

his harsh outburst seemed to have struck some of the upperclassmen, and he was soon storming out of the gym, slamming the doors behind him.

i turned to the closest person to me, a second-year called ennoshita.

"ano...what is going on?" i asked softly.

ennoshita sighed, and replied,

"well...nishinoya-kun kind of has some issues with our ace."

i quickly nodded, and didn't pry further. "oh, i see."

suddenly, the cold silence was interrupted by shouts from the excitable ginger.

"wait! can you please teach me how to do receives?"

kageyama turned to me, and i turned back to him.

we were both thinking the same thing.

hinata you dumbass.

but before anyone could do anything, the boy had already ran out of the gymnasium doors, going after the libero.

daichi and sugawara immediately went after him, but apparently hinata had reached nishinoya before the two captains could hold him back, and now the entire team had followed suit.

so everyone was now eavesdropping on hinata's conversation with the second-year.

"you haven't taught me how to receive properly yet!" the first-year protested.

nishinoya sulked. "yeah, i can teach you how to receive, but i'm not going back."

"but you have to go back! the team needs you! daichi-san called you the team's guardian deity!"

"he called me what-?"

"a guardian deity!" hinata exclaimed.

the name had made the libero all flustered, and he was clearly trying to hide his pleasure.

"d-did daichi-san really call me that?"

"yeah! so you have to come back, nishinoya-senpai!" the ginger squealed.

"did you just say s-senpai?!" nishinoya exclaimed, his eyes growing wide. "i'm treating you ice-cream after practice! i'll get you two flavors, soda and pear!"

hinata seemed stunned by the upperclassmen's sudden reaction. "r-really? arigato, nishinoya-senpai!"

being called senpai seemed to have lifted his spirits and nishinoya was now laughing heartily. "i am your senpai, afterall!"

hinata's eyes twinkled. "so does that mean you're coming back?"

however, all those praises still didn't convince the second-year to return.

"no," he replied, his expression returning back to a more solemn one again. "i'll come for practices, but i'm not playing unless asahi-san comes back."

"aww! i really want to play with you though!" hinata pouted.

nishinoya shook his head. "i've made myself clear. unless asahi-san comes back, i'm not playing."

-

so, since hinata had managed to convince his senior to return to the gym to teach him receives, the libero was now teaching him, though i honestly couldn't understand which part of it could be considered as teaching.

"so i go like whoosh, then saa, then gwahh!" nishinoya exclaimed, as he did some form of receiving action.

i frowned. what on earth did that mean?

kageyama raised an eyebrow at my frown. "you don't understand nishinoya-san?"

i scoffed. "who would understand him?"

he blinked at me, pointing to himself. "i did."

from behind, tanaka let out a loud laugh, swinging his arm around kageyama's shoulder.

"you don't make much sense when your explaining things either, y'know?"

i chuckled, shaking my head, and walking off.

training ended not long after, and as everyone was cleaning up, i couldn't help but go up to nishinoya.

the curiosity of knowing more about this 'asahi-san' had been bubbling inside me throughout the entire training.