"Uwaaa. So Wakatoshi was hiding something like that?" Semi groans as they make their way to the gym.
"It makes me kind of mad how he always gets to eat those meals." Tendo confesses with a frown.
"Tell me about it."
"It was a sly thing to do, even for Miracle boy Wakatoshi."
They nodded in agreement.
"If Wakatoshi stays at the dorms, she'll probably have no choice but to cook here, no?" Hayato thinks aloud.
Then they stopped short.
"You know what to do, Tendo." The others suddenly looked at him sharply.
"Leave it to me." The blocker waves them off.
But the chatter stopped as a girl walked towards them, with a face that was glaringly familiar. Their footsteps stop along with hers and she gives them a smile that didn't reached her eyes.
"Hello. Tendo-san." She starts off.
"Have you seen Ushijima-san?" She asked before them.
A stifling silence suddenly settles in the air and the blocker's eyes looked at her, the playfulness in his tone and face gone as a serious expression replaces it instead.
Then his eyes widened to assess her.
"You're still at it." The blocker's voice trails off and echoes in the hallways, not answering her question.
"I can't believe you went this far." He adds as he stares at the girl and she only grins.
"Nothing's wrong with it, right?" Her lips curl up to a smile.
"Since I look better than the real thing now."
And at the moment she says it, a face similar to her's appeared beside her like a mirage, as if to tell a reminder to those before her.
The red head's eyes narrowed.
"But Wakatoshi isn't looking at you though."
"He'll get used to me soon." The girl says reassuringly.
"But you... got rejected earlier, didn't you?"
She suddenly stops.
"For now. But Ushijima-san won't reject me in the future. Now that I look like this." Her voice trails off. And they both stopped as players started appearing on the hallways.
"He's in the cafeteria." The blocker answers and she gives him a smile before leaving.
"She's still annoying, oh god." Tendo looks at her as she walks away.
"Who knew Manager-san cooked like that." The boys recall the moment.
They've never been so fast before too, they almost caught up with the current ace's speed too.
"But Ushijima-san always eats those lunches, huh?"
"And she's pretty too boot."
"Isn't it kind of unfair?" Someone crossed their arms and the others agreed.
"But they're close, no?"
"And Ushijima-san is really tame when he's with her."
"I get what you mean. I saw him smile a little too when he's with her. It was kind of shocking."
"Then... are they dating then?" Some first year actually asked and the others looked at them, the third years particularly looking at each other.
"What makes you say that?" Sagae asks.
"They went home together."
"And they even go around the school together."
"She also made those lunches for him."
"They're definitely dating." The first years nod in unison.
"You shouldn't pry too much." Goshiki suddenly interrupts them as he walks by.
"Oohhh. Why does senpai look a little mad?" The first years started whispering with each other.
"Let him." Akakura brushes them off. The vice captain only looks at them with a sigh.
"When Ushijima-san was still on his third year and we were still first years back then. He used to date the captain of the girls' volleyball team." Sagae explains to them.
"Whaaaa."
"Ushijima-san could date???" The lower years asked, astonished and the third years looked at them with dead eyes.
"Oohhhh. But what does she look like?" They ask.
These kids. The seniors immediately showed a picture of the former captain of the girls' team.
The lower years suddenly looked at it intently, pausing before finally speaking.
"I'd definitely pick Clara-san."
"Clara-san is the best."
"OI. Don't be rude!" The vice captain yells although he was internally in agreement.
"Sorry, senpai."
"But doesn't she look familiar?" Someone raised and the third years gulped before nodding.
The boys looked at her closely again.
"What's her name?"
"This the former captain of the girls' volleyball team. Miyazono Hanako."
"Apparently, this girl was Ushijima-san's first girlfriend."
"She was really friendly and were good friends with Tsutomu too." Sagae tell them.
"So yeah. Maybe that's the reason he doesn't see how manager-san and Ushijima-san are dating."
The lower years paused before looking at each other.
"Sounds hard."
"Dating sounds kind of complicated."
The lower years mumbled and their seniors only looked at them with dead eyes. 'Ahh. It's a good thing they're good at other things'.
"But doesn't the current girls' volleyball team captain look like her?" A second year suddenly said and the Shiratorizawa members looked at each other.
"The captain now?" A second year asks.
"You know. The school's idol, Hanazono Chiho-san."
"Ah! I can see it! They really do look alike!"
"Maybe the hairstyles are coincidental too."
"It kinda unsettling. But she's like a carbon copy of Ushijima-san's first girlfriend though."
"The girls were insisting since yesterday on joining the boys' volleyball camp too. But they probably insisted when they heard Ushijima-san was coming."
And with all these news, the seniors only add up the information as they realize and look at each other.
It sounded too absurd. But if it is... This looks like trouble.
—
When Hanazono Chiho walked along the hallways of the school buildings yesterday, she was surprised at the two piece of news floating around the entire school.
Ushijima Wakatoshi was on the school's training camp.
And that a beautiful foreign girl had come to Shiratorizawa.
She ignored the second one, the first one only catching her attention. Not knowing that they were both interrelated.
He was here. Ushijima-san was here.
A senior she had long respected ever since junior high was here. An invincible cannon, the ace, the athlete, he was here. She was ecstatic.
And even more when she was reminded that the senpai she used to be so jealous of were no longer together with the former ace. She remembered the humiliation she felt. Despite liking him the longest, she was actually beaten.
This was her win now.
When she heard how the ace and the foreigner was found walking together, she didn't give it any mind. No matter how pretty she was, she was only able to catch attention because she was new anyway
And she was wrong.
She had never seen anything like it. She boasted about being the school Idol, taking care of her appearance very well, but she had looked so ordinary in front of the foreign girl.
But it was still her win. The athlete was interacting with her after all. He even accepted the lunch she made and finished it quickly.
But when she offered to cook for him for the rest of the camp, it was the first time she noticed the difference.
"Sorry." Ushijima Wakatoshi looks at her with a straight face.
"Someone is making me lunch for the summer camp." The former ace's voice trails off and she was handed the lunch box back, its contents empty. He had finished it before they could even talk of anything and she watch as he returned to the gym to look for something then went to the cafeteria almost immediately.
Ehh?
Hanazono Chiho had done everything to be the best, knowing full well that the former ace only deserves to have the best.
When the Shiratorizawa ace dated the former captain of the girls' team back then, she did not understand why. She wanted to understand... so she became almost the same, no, even better than the former captain.
But she didn't take this into mind. When she arrived at the gym, she sees how the athlete was talking and looking comfortably at you too as he tells you what happened.
This was the first time she had made up your mind to assess you.
And she had realized it a little too late.
"Ahh. Wakatoshi." She hears you say as you call him from a distance.
The girls' captain's eyes widened.
Even the previous captain couldn't say the ace's name that easily.
And she realized as she glances at you all throughout the rest of the day and what you've been doing, how you've been acting.
You were wearing his jacket, his shirt and even the hair tie she saw him bought.
She was wrong.
She was confident that you weren't Ushijima's type.
She had been confident about it since he only ever paid attention to a girl she was trying to be for a long time.
But she had eaten her words and quite fast too.
You were a threat.
And that Ushijima Wakatoshi was no longer the same ace she knows.
It took her the entire afternoon to realize, as she let you act freely for now, to observe you. If it were looks alone, you could make anyone bow just by looking at them. This was something she couldn't contest no matter what she tried.
But you only have looks anyway.
She remembers hearing from some boys how you contended for a ball boy position.
Someone like you doesn't seem to realize how the boys were trying to keep you out of trouble.
But if you were insisting... then why not?
She'll gladly send volleyballs for you to catch too. Maybe then, you'd learn your place.
It was almost the end of the day and she overheard how the boys were problematizing how to assign helpers for the numerous matches tomorrow. Then the topic suddenly went to where she expected it, as if the heavens were giving her an opportunity.
They were talking about your absurd act of volunteering as the ball boy.
"You should let her be the ballgirl. If she wants to." She suddenly says to the vice captain of the boys' volleyball club aloud.
The boys instantly looked at her with mixed expressions of shock and bewilderment.
"But-"
"She could start tomorrow too." She suggested with an innocent smile.
"I'm sure she could take care of herself since she volunteered."
An obvious lie.
She did not think that. At all.
Someone who looked that frail couldn't possibly do anything. And as if to prove whether or not she still has a fighting chance with the ace, she had to test his reaction.
"What do you think Ushijima-san?" She glances at the athlete, wondering how he would reply.
If he truly did liked her, then he'd protect her after all.
"Sure. Go ahead."
The former Shiratorizawa ace suddenly said loud and clear.
She got her answer.
"Wakatoshi???" the players all looked at him in shock.