chapter six: MANGO POPSICLE
Apparently, Nishinoya-senpai actually want to take his beloved yet very annoying kouhai out for ice cream. A loud warning from Tanaka saying he would 'probably kidnap you and make you his personal slave' somehow did not faze Chiharu, only laughing at him and slapping him on the back to tell him to just eat his ramen in peace.
Natarii just patted her on her head, telling her friend to just go with the flow and not question anything with a devious smirk on her face. She promptly moved over to Kageyama, listening closely to him seriously, probably comforting him about Hinata.
He glanced over to him with quickly with a mean but sort of soft look, his cheeks maybe tinted with light pink.
A thought popped into Chiharu's head, eyes bouncing back from the setter and spiker suspiciously but set it aside, not wanting to dwell on their relationship. Although the fact that Natarii and Kageyama were shockingly similar in appearance scared her a little bit, as if they were each the girl and boy version of each other.
Once everybody set off to goof off elsewhere and she had cleaned up, Nishinoya grabbed her out and dragged her to the nearest ice cream parlour.
So here she was, a mango popsicle in hand and a gari-gari popsicle in his. They sat on a park bench in silence, with Chiharu eating her ice cream hesitantly.
"Hey, Chiha!" Nishinoya-senpai began, his vision locked onto her like a missile jet. "When the hell did you go to my school? I mean, I never saw you. Or remember you. I mean, it's not like you're not memorable and you don't stand out, well, you kind of don't but you still do? And - "
"Noya-senpai," she said, stopping his never ending train of speech. "I was in the grade lower before you, so it's natural that you would not have recognised me." Her tone at the end of the sentence was noticeably disappointed, leaving Nishinoya flustered and guiltier than before.
"SUMIMASEN, CHIHARU-CHAN!" he blurted, bowing at the lowest angle possible. Chiharu waved her arms about wildly trying to get him stand up straighter. She quickly noticed that his popsicle was about to fall off of its stick.
"Senpai! Your popsicle!"
He glanced at his favourite treat in horror, attempting to save it but swiftly turning it into a disaster.
The gari gari kun popsicle was supposed to be eaten, not stuck on your head. The libero's jaw dropped as the shorter girl stood there frozen, hair dripping and sticky, the smell of the stupid thing surrounding her annoyingly.
Chiharu was now sporting the cola-flavoured sweet in her hair, her previously soft and silky looking short toffee hair ruined.
After the few seconds of silence and shock, he screeched, frantically grabbing napkins and shouting at the ice cream parlour owner with panic as Chiharu followed him nervously and soon being pelted at with anything to dry her hair out with.
"Wait! SENPAI, WAIT!" she boomed, grabbing his hands and holding them close to her. "I'm okay! It's no harm, I can just clean myself up at home. Don't worry..." She cupped his cheeks, unaware of his flustered looks, innocently and giggled.
"You're just fine!"
Oh no.
A nosebleed threatened to come out of the boy's nose, but used all of his willpower not to let it show. He nodded, using the last of his power and stepped away, handing her the last unused white napkin into her tiny hand.
That was adorable!
"AH THANK YOUR - I MEAN YOU, CHIHAYA - NO CHIHARU!" Nishinoya spluttered, with the girl ignoring the fact he just got her name wrong for a second there. "Let me walk you home and explain to your parents about the accident!"
The ramen shop heiress' mind stopped in their tracks, freezing her whole body to the ground for a few seconds almost unnoticeably. "It's fine, Nishinoya-senpai," she grinned, slightly bothered looking and quieter. "I can walk home by myself. You live far away I presume, so go."
Her words were unchanging and firm, somehow making the older student agree with her. He said his goodbye quickly, not wanting to make a worse impression he had to today or so he thought. Quickly, he ran out, off to his house at the speed of light, his mind on that incident.
Chiharu made her way to her house with the smell of ice cream sticking to her. She immediately entered the bath, washing herself and getting out, drying her hair vigorously in her room with a nostalgic smile and a hint of loneliness in her unnaturally green eyes.
They wandered over to the printed out picture she had taken from middle school on sports day, Nishinoya photobombing the peaceful looking scenery with a tongue stuck out and a 'V' sign.
She chuckled.
"That guy's so stupid sometimes."
• • •
.........
hi?
*is attacked by the readers* WAIT STOP I - I NEED TO - I HAVE AN EXPLANATION FOR THIS!
so i am starting school next week and i've been gone on holidays for a week and my stress levels have been through the roof lately from unpacking and getting my report card (i got straight a's whoo) and getting books really late and yeah.
i have now some chapters pre-written and i have an idea for a tsukishima story (wow what great timing) so i might add that on as a stress reliever story because i love making this story ridiculously intricate and detailed which is a great thought process.
thank you for understanding and please vote! winning the category in the HQ! watt awards would be amazing! you're all wonderful and i'll see you soon.
- michaela