Yachi's POV
"Wh-what are you doing?!" I panicked at Tsukishima-kun stood up and started walking over to the guys who touched Aki back at the cafe. They were seated on the bleachers on the other side of the court. I followed him as we walked around the courts while Aki played against Jiro.
The guys were casually watching Aki as she ran around the court, sending wolf whistles and nasty comments down her way.
"She's focused," Tsukishima-kun said as we walked.
"At least she isn't getting pushed out of her groove," someone suddenly said. I turned around and saw Tanaka-san and Noya-san following us.
"Oh no," I muttered to myself.
The guys of the volleyball club can be very protective of their own, especially Tanaka-san and Noya-san. Although, this is the first time I've seen Tsukishima-kun like this...
They casually sat on the seats behind the guys, and they didn't even notice.
"Oi," Tanaka-san said casually. They turned around to look at us. The look on their faces showed that they were a mix of scared and pissed.
"T-Tanaka-san," I muttered, tugging on the sleeve of his jacket. I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to calm them down.
"Gonna kick us out again?" one of them said with a smug look on their face.
"Only if you don't show yourselves out," Tsukishima-kun said with a serious look on his face.
"Or we can kick your asses and teach you not to talk and treat girls the way you do," Tanaka-san said. His hands were balled up into fists and he had his iconic "gangster" face on.
"And what do you have to say about it, cutie?" one of the guys asked, winking my way. I wanted to slap his face, but the guys looked like they were ready to do it for me.
"You wouldn't want us to add another report to your record, would you? I'm sure your school wouldn't like that," someone said. We turned and saw that Daichi-san had followed us. His arms were cross and he had a scary smile on his face.
"Tch, this place is no fun," one of the guys said.
"Beat it," Tsukishima-kun said, following up with a glare.
The guys rolled their eyes, stood up and left, while the rest of us went back to our seats. Aki was still focused on the game. The score was 19 to 20, Aki in the lead.
"Go Aki!"
"Beat his ass!"
"Did someone actually just yell that?" I asked to myself, letting out a small laugh.
And with one last rally, Aki had won the match, and the crowd cheered.
"She really turned the badminton club around, huh?" Sugawara-san said with a proud smile as he clapped along with the rest of us.
"She re-invented it," Ukai-san said, letting out a small laugh. "I remember how lackluster the badminton club was years ago. No fight at all. They competed but never really won any titles for themselves. Members started quitting until the captain did too, and they disappeared."
"And now she brought it back," Hinata said with a smile. "With a tournament win on top of all that! She really is amazing, huh, Kageyama?"
I glanced at Kageyama-kun and he didn't say anything at all. He just kept his eyes on Aki with a small smile on his lips and a slightly rosy tint on his cheeks.
Kageyama's POV
"You guys did great," Daichi-san said as the crowd started leaving the badminton gym. Aki and the rest of her club were packing up and we were helping out. "Everyone was hyped up!"
"I made a good choice choosing your club as the featured match," the president of the student council said, walking over to give Akira a high five. She gave her thanks and headed out to handle the rest of the events.
"Aki," Tsukishima called out while Akira was busy fiddling with the strings of her jacket. Whenever they talked, the rest of the team would always tease them, but no one teased this time.
She looked up at him and sighed. I couldn't understand the expression on her face - whether she was scared or okay. She put her racket in its case and left her bag on the bench before she walked out of the gym with Tsukishima.
"Let's give them some space," Shimizu-san said, gripping my wrist. I didn't realize that my feet started moving to follow them until she spoke up, I nodded and looked down at the floor.
"I'll take her stuff to the locker room," one of the other girls of the badminton club said and we all started clearing out. We had our own match to do as well, and we had to focus on that now.
"Do you think she's okay?" Hinata asked me as we walked.
"I don't know," I answered.
"You looked extra worried. You just started walking towards her. Do you like her?"
I looked at him and saw a serious expression on his face. He wasn't joking around or teasing.
"What are you talking about?" I asked before I kept walking, leaving him behind.
I put a hand over my heart, trying to calm it down as it started beating a million times a second.
Akira's POV
"Don't you have a game to play too?" I asked as I waited for Tsukishima to get a drink from a vending machine. He shrugged.
"I've got time," was all he said.
We sat down under the shade of a tree. It was the same spot we sat on back then - the day after I met the volleyball club. It felt a bit nostalgic. I've only known them for a month and they already felt like family.
The seniors would always check in on me when we ran into each other during school. Did I eat lunch? Did I drink my vitamins? Was I feeling okay?
Hinata and Yachi were always cheerful when I talked to them. They'd invite me to eat lunch with them sometimes, and Kageyama-kun was always quiet during lunch whenever he wasn't bickering with Hinata. Sometimes it felt like he was holding back. I'd even wonder if he just didn't like me or something since he always seemed a bit more eager during their practices.
Tsu-kun and Yamaguchi-kun were really nice to me too. Yamaguchi would invite me out to watch movies with them and sometimes we'd spend hours at the arcade too. And of course, it's like I basically live at Tsu-kun's place now. His mom would get sad whenever I'd tell them that I'd stay at my place and she'd force me to stay and talk until it got too late for me to even go out.
I'm pretty amazed at how close Tsu-kun and I got too...
I still don't understand how things got to the way they are now. We'd share the same bed, eat dinner together, study together, and watch movies late at night before going to sleep.
Sometimes, when I stay at my own place, I feel uneasy knowing that I'm alone. I got so used to how things are.
It's scary...
"What's on your mind?" Tsu-kun asked. I sighed and found myself leaning on his shoulder.
"Too much," I said.
"Wanna talk about it?"
I took a sip of my drink and let out a sigh.
"Thanks," I told him. "I saw you and the others back at the match when you got those guys to leave the place."
"You're welcome," he answered. "But there must be something else on your mind that's bothering you right now."
"There is." I let out a small laugh as I looked up at the sky. It was a cloudy day and there was a light breeze running through the field. Despite all that's happened today, it was an oddly calming moment. There's just one thing bothering me right now. "I'm scared."
"Scared of what?"
"Of how things are right now," I answered. "I remember how things were before, when my mom was around and I wasn't always so stressed about how much food I'd be able to eat the next day. Everything went bad so quickly."
"What happened to your mom, if you don't mind me asking?"
Tsukishima was looking at me with a worried expression on his face. He was being careful with his words, but it felt like he didn't need to. It felt like I could trust him.
"She got sick," I told him. He looked down at the floor. "It's a bit ironic, considering she was studying medicine. She had to work extra shifts to get the meds she needed, and dad wasn't really being much of a help. Whatever she was sick with got the best of her."
"What happened after that? To you and your dad?"
"Not much. A few days after mom's funeral, he dropped me off at a bus station in this city then took off."
There was an angry look on his face. I couldn't help but smile. I gave his arm a light squeeze. He let out a sigh and leaned his head on the tree trunk behind us.
"So you're scared of things going bad again?" he asked and I nodded. "It won't. Things are okay now, and it'll stay that way, don't worry. I promise."
"You sound so sure."
"Because I am. You have me, you'll be okay."