Scale - Tsukishima Kei

Chapter 6

"I guess I just wasn't hungry." I shrug and he frowns.

"Okay."

"HAHA KAGEYAMA. I GOT A HIGHER SCORE THAN YOU!" I hear Hinata, and look up to see him doing a little dance, while the boy beside him is fuming.

"Haha... guys I haven't even finished grading your practice tests." The gray haired boy, Suga, says nervously.

"Noya and I both got 27%" Tanaka's voice comes.

"I'm surrounded by a bunch of fucking idiots." Tsukishima mumbles. I look up at him, shocked. He meets my gaze and frowns. "What?"

"You talk to your team like that too?" I ask "I thought you just called me names...."

"Why do you look like that?" He asks, looking puzzled.

"S-Sorry...I just-" I don't know what to say. A small smile comes onto my face. "That makes me happy."

"Huh? Why? That's weird..."

"Well, it means that you're not just mean to me. You're mean to everyone. So like, technically you treat me normally. That makes me happy." I say, and he looks at me like I'm crazy.

"Wow... it is not hard to please you." He mumbles, turning back to his work.

"Yuna-Chan! How far are you into your work?" I look forward and suddenly Hinata is barely a foot away.

"U-Um, I'm done." I respond, clutching my bag to me.

"What?!" His eyes widen. Kageyama quickly comes over to me as well and they both bow their heads to me.

"Please teach us the material!" They yell in unison.

"Hey! Leave her alone! Do your own work!" The captains voice comes.

"Then we'll fail our exams and not go to the training camp!" Hinata says worriedly then turns back to me. "Yucchan, please help us. We have the chance to play against super powerful schools in Tokyo! If we don't pass then we'll miss the bus!"

"I. Need. To. Play. Volleyball." Kageyama says and I lean away from him.

"You're scaring her, fuck off. If you two weren't idiots, you wouldn't look so desperate right now." Tsukishima says and I look at him. "You can say no." He tells me.

"I-It's Okay." I say, though my hands are shaky. "Hinata was the first person to befriend me. I'll help." I look at him and he gives me a bright smile.

"Really? You're the best!" He grins, and the two boys get comfortable in front of me.

For the next hour, I spend my time teaching the two boys. I tried my best to be patient...I really did. But these boys are really something else. I had to explain it using volleyball.

"This one is really simple. Think of 10c as 10 players, and C amount of teams. So 10 c + 5 is less then or equal to 45. Take away 5 on both sides. Then just divide by 10 on both sides. What do you get?"

"There's 4 volleyball teams!" They both shout, and I nod.

"Okay so now, on this little graph, which way do the teams need to walk to get to their gym?" I tilt my head, and Kageyama stares angrily at the graph, while Hinata chews on the back of his pen. They whisper to each other, both nodding before looking at me.

"They need to walk left from position four." Hinata says.

"And they're walking in a closed circle" Kageyama says and I nod, smiling.

"Good job. Those questions are easy, right?" I ask as they quickly scribble down the rest of the work.

"Right! Yucchan, I feel smart! I feel like I understand!" Hinata throws his hands in the air.

"My brain hurts." Kageyama groans.

"Are you guys done? Let me grade them." Suga comes over, taking the boy's papers.

"Ooh! They're all right! Yuna-San, you must be a good teacher. Is that what you want to do when you're older? Maybe we can work together." He laughs, giving a soft smile.

"O-Oh, yes." I smile, looking up at him, my cheeks flushed. It is most certainly not what I would like to do, I don't want to be in a place I got bullied all my life. But it's Suga, how am I supposed to say no?

"We're going home." Tsukishima says, standing up quickly.

"I think we should all go home. It's late now. Let's do this tomorrow too, it's the last chance we'll have before exams." Daichi stands.

"Okay, thank you Yuna-Chan!" Hinata waves excitedly at me.

"Thanks" Kageyama nods in my direction.

"No problem" I say shyly, standing.

I grab my bag, Tsukishima's jacket, and throw away my orange peels. We say bye to everyone else before walking out.

"Thanks for letting me use this." I say quietly, folding his jacket up and handing it to him.

"Well, you can't have people seeing your... yeah." He says and then his face scrunches up. He smells the jacket and sighs. "It smells like you now."

"I'm sorry! I-I'll wash it!" I grab it from his hands but he snatches it back.

"It doesn't smell bad. It just smells girly. Stop overreacting." He scoffs and I look at him, shocked.

"It doesn't smell bad?" I ask and he frowns.

"What? You never smell bad." He says and it's my turn to frown.

"People at school say I smell." I look away from him. "I take 3 showers every day because of it."

"What? That's a waste of water. You've never smelt bad." He says and then I feel him grab my hand. "You take three showers daily but your skin is so soft. You must take really good care of yourself." He mumbles and I feel my cheeks heat up.

"O-Oh..." Is all I say. He lets go of my hand only once we reach my doorstep.

"Your parents must be home, judging by the two cars in the driveway. Tell them I said hi." He stuffs his hands into his pocket.

"Okay, I'll tell my mother." I mumble. He hasn't met my father yet.

"So... the training camp. It's for a week. School goes on break for two weeks, so when I come back let's do something together." He says and I look up at him. "Text me while I'm away. But don't be too needy." He frowns.

"Okay." I smile.

I don't know what needy is considered. But maybe I'll text him every other day?

"Goodnight then, Debu."

"Goodnight." I say quietly.

"Oh, almost forgot." I look up at him when he says this, and then immediately his lips are on mine. My eyes shut closed and I smile into the kiss. He pulls away all too quickly and I pout. "Alright. Now seriously goodnight."

"Goodnight." I smile, and he stares at me for a minute before kissing me again.

That night, we said goodnight to each other at least ten times...