chapter twenty-six: festival date
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"alright everyone, we're done for today. you can all head home now."
"won't you be treating us with meat buns, daichi-san?"
"hinata, you have no shame!"
the afternoon volleyball practice of the karasuno boys' team had ended earlier than usual. it was near five o'clock; the sun is still up, yet the sky is showing the harmony of various colors. their final examination of the first semester is just around the corner, so the captain, daichi, has to limit their practice time until the break.
after cleaning up and closing the gymnasium, everyone went ahead together to the club room to change into their school uniforms rather than wearing their practice outfits damp with their sweat after hours of playing volleyball.
"nishinoya, aren't you heading home yet?" sugawara asked, seeing that the latter seemed to be agitated and couldn't stand in one place.
nishinoya smiled at them and shook his head, "not yet. i'm waiting for-"
"yū-kun."
to say, everyone was stunned to see the raven-haired girl for the second time this week, and she is even standing right inside their school's premises despite the fact that outsiders aren't allowed, if someone might add.
nishinoya's smile reached his ears, and he rushed to greet the female. "kii-chan, you're here!" he threw his arms around her, which she returned and even made the others go wild in confusion.
however, a certain blond gaze went sharper like a knife. if looks could kill, then his senior libero could be lying on the floor lifeless instantly. tsukishima could feel his heart twisting so tight that it made his mood sour—this very feeling is unknown to him. if the banana milk provider is this upset at the moment, then what else is going on with the best friend?
"kiiro-san, how did you manage to get inside though? the guard by the gates is strict when it comes to outsiders." asahi questioned in curiosity.
on the other hand, kiiro had a hard time prying nishinoya from her, and it even required daichi to restrain the boy from lunging and showering her with all of his affection. to which, it isn't a problem for the girl, as she knew it was only nishinoya's personality, so it was normal for him to do stuff like that—at least that's what she thought.
kiiro smooths her tracksuit first before responding with the most unusual answer: "i fired the guard." her poker face and monotone voice even made the situation awkwardly hilarious. who knew that this girl has a top-tier sense of humor?
"noya actually invited me to the festival tonight, so i figured to visit him beforehand since my training finished earlier," she explained.
"invited? who? her? the festival tonight? how come i didn't know?" tsukishima furrowed his eyebrows and clicked his tongue in annoyance, while kageyama was muttering curses under his breath.
"that sounds like a festival date!" hinata exclaimed, but regretted saying it out loud not even a second later, as he nearly shit his pants after receiving death glares from the blond and the setter.
meanwhile, sugawara lightened up upon hearing the unexpected news, feeling internally proud of nishinoya for being brave enough to make moves on the girl he really likes.
"that's great to know, kiiro-san. we might even stumble upon each other later on, but who knows?"
right, who knows?
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whoever is in the heavens knows how to play with the strings. right in front of kiiro were tsukishima and kageyama, wearing their respective kimono, and beside her is nishinoya, who's staring questionably at his two kōhai. tonight was supposedly meant for kiiro and nishinoya, but fate decided to make things a bit fun.
"what are you doing here, tsukishima? not to offend you or anything, but it's unusual for you to be here." nishinoya pointed out.
tsukishima shrugged his shoulders with his typical smirk on his face. "the festival tonight seems interesting," he answered, staring at the raven-haired girl beside nishinoya.
kiiro raised an eyebrow at his response and pursed her lips. her eyes trailing over her best friend, who had a scowling face on. "and you, tobi-kun, what are you doing here?" she asked.
kageyama raised his head only to meet multiple pairs of eyes watching him. "h-huh? we used to go to festivals all the time back in middle school, roro." his scowl shifted into a proud smirk when he saw the other boys' shocked faces.
kiiro hummed in agreement, remembering the gist of some memories of her and kageyama in their early teen years. hanging out after school and even on the weekends was a part of their lifestyle back then. it was only kageyama and kiiro before; he preferred to keep it that way until now, but it seems like he got himself into a competition.
"what do you guys want to do?" kiiro asked, leading the way with the boys—nishinoya and kageyama on each of her side, while the tallest of them, tsukishima is just right behind her.
"ring toss!"
"the goldfish scooping."
"kamen."
(note: kamen is a mask made of plastic depicting a certain character from anime and tv shows or animal faces.)
kiiro scrunched her nose upon hearing different answers. "we'll do the ring toss first since noya was the first one to speak up," she said, and seeing that the other two were about to object to her decision, but she glared at them.
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all of the boys participated in the ring toss for the first game tonight. at first, both kageyama and tsukishima were reluctant to join because, one, nishinoya was there to play. two, they only want kiiro to themselves. lastly, they are competing with one another, but joined the game when they heard kiiro's encouragement to nishinoya.
"all three of you are playing?" the man behind the counter raised a brow in confusion at the boys with scary faces on. "anyway, you'll get five rings for one game. all you have to do is throw your rings at these bottles. however, these bottles have their corresponding points, and by the end of the game, you'll receive a prize depending on the collated points. that simple, do you get it?" he asked them, to which they merely responded with a nod.
the man handed out three different colors of rings to each of them before standing at the side with his arms crossed.
"don't throw too hard or the bottle might bre—"
none of them even let the man finish his sentence as they all started to throw the rings—ironically, with all of their might and energy to get high points. the only thing on their mind was to "get that enormous stuffed koala."
by the end of the game, their points they each got were counted, and none of them had been able to get the stuffed koala.
"what's with the long faces? you guys got..." kiiro looked at the bag of candies in their hands and snickered, "a bag of candies. it's still the month of halloween, anyway."
the others trailed behind her and they arrived at the goldfish scooping booth. nishinoya didn't join them since he said that he has shaky hands when it comes to this stuff. animals are one of kiiro's likes, so it seemed that there was a switch in her mind that she turned into a child once she saw the little fishes by the medium-sized round pool. it was a rare sigh to witness a childish kiiro, but they liked it nonetheless.
by the end of the time allotted to catch a fish, kageyama barely managed to catch one, but with the help of kiiro, he got one goldfish. kiiro also got one, and tsukishima got two, which stunned the former, who started complaining that she didn't get more. one thing about the raven-haired girl is that she hates losing to anyone.
"cheer up, kiiro! you still got one!" nishinoya patted her head, trying to make her feel better, which kind of worked. "how about let's go eat?" he asked her, expecting that food would cheer her up.
they say that the way to a woman's heart is food, and it is the same case with the sixteen-year-old, kozume kiiro. she wasn't really a picky eater, so both kageyama and nishinoya went ahead to the food stalls to buy any food they came across, while tsukishima was left behind with the girl to find a vacant table for the four of them.
"it's impossible to find a table for us. look how crowded it is here," tsukishima said. now, he was reminded of why he hates going out to festivals because so many people are here.
kiiro scanned their surroundings, and surely there was no vacant area for them. but as her gaze went around the place, a certain stall at the corner piqued her attention. without any words, she grabbed the blond's wrist and pulled him through the sea of people.
"kiiro, where are we going?" tsukishima yelled out to her, but he only received silence. he couldn't completely understand what was going on in her mind. it frustrates him, but part of him likes it for some reason.
"i swear, your little head has a lot of shits going on there," he muttered, mentally thanking the gods as they came to a halt after a marathon while holding the prizes they all got from the games.
kiiro turned to him in disbelief and said, "stop with your complaints, bitchshima. go pick what you want." she pointed at the different masks hanging up on the wooden board.
tsukishima was wide-eyed upon hearing what she had said. he couldn't believe it. she remembered what he said earlier: the kamen. he wanted to get a mask together with her only, but he was upset that kiiro chose to do other things first. and at the moment that he was about to dismiss his thought of wearing a kamen, she brought it up last minute.
"which one will you be getting?" kiiro questioned him without looking at him, taking off the masks from their hook.
tsukishima shrugged his shoulders. "i don't know," he mumbled as his eyes scanned each of the displays.
kiiro gave him a sidelong glance, noticing that he had been unusually quiet for the past couple of minutes, which worried her a bit. her eyes gazing down at the two kamens in her hands—both of them look similar with each other as if they're matching couple masks. she suddenly felt nervous when an idea popped up in her mind, chewing the insides of her cheeks before turning to the blond with the other mask on.
"here!" the raven-haired girl pulled him closer, went on her tiptoes, and carefully put the mask on him. "it looks good on you," she stated, and turned away to talk to the vendor.
behind the mask tsukishima was wearing, his face was all flaming red. his golden-brown eyes only remained on her figure. he didn't even get the chance to check her out awhile ago, but seeing the black kimono with yellow floral prints she is wearing, her black hair with blonde streaks beneath tied into a messy bun, and her natural beauty enhanced with simple makeup.
out of nowhere, he grabbed her hand and turned kiiro to face him. his head leaning down to her height, and he didn't dare break the eye contact between them. the moment those words left his lips, the night sky was filled with blasting colorful fireworks that perfectly concealed the loud beating of two hearts.
"have i told you that you look perfect tonight?"