15

Thunderous explosions sounded from the boy's side of the gymnasium. It thundered one after another. At times there was silence, but most of the time, it was thunder and more thunder.

"Oi, Tendou!" Yanagida growled. He grabbed the red head's shirt and pulled him up. "Stop with that fucking guess block! You completely missed both!" He pointed at the other court.

Tendou narrowed his eyes. "I joined this club 'cause I can do whatever I want, sen-pai." He snarked back. He slapped off the 2nd year's hand and walked off.

"Get back here, you shit!" The 2nd year reached for the red head, but was cut off by an arm.

Ushijima glared at him. "We're in the court. Deal with it later." Yanagida grumbled, but stalked off after another glare.

Ishikawa sighed from the side. "This is bad. The 1st years get along well, but their eccentric personalities clash with the 2nd year's mindsets for what's supposed to be done in the court." He facepalmed when Nishida cheered them on, but only got ignored. "Our captain is pretty useless right now."

The boys were currently having their 2nd practice match for the day against Mujinazaka. Their teams clashed with offense versus offense, with also a stable defense on both sides. It was a three-game practice match. Currently, Shiratorizawa won the 1st game and were losing the 2nd set with a point difference of 23-24.

It was match point for Mujinzaka.

If they lost, Coach Washijo would sure to punish them with a 100 lap around the hotel. And they didn't want that.

Nishida clapped his hands. "Come on, guys. Focus on the game. After this, we'll have break for lunch." A few nodded, though most ignored it. The captain could only sigh, but returned his focus to the game after the referee whistled.

The other team served and was received by Ushijima from the back line.

"Semi, pass it to me!" Yanagida yelled, doing the run up.

The 1st year knew they needed to score this point. His choice had to be… He locked eyes with Ushijima.

"Ushijima!" Semi yelled, passing a long ball to the tall 1st year.

Ushijima did his run up. Three blockers up in the air. He spiked with full force, breaking through the block and scoring a point for Shiratorizawa.

"Yosh!" Nishida cheered. He raised his hands up for Ushijima. "Nice spike, 1st year!" He received a blank stare and his high five was ignored.

"It's your serve, Captain." Semi patted the captain's shoulder. "He's like that. You'll get used to it." The captain nodded sadly. He walked to the back of the court and did his run up.

The ball was successfully received by the other team's libero. The captain clicked his tongue.

"Lock your defense, boys!" Nishida yelled, watching the other team. Tendou, Yanagida, and Semi were up front.

Yanagida and Semi moved to the right, using the read block method. However, Tendou waited at the middle. The 2nd year glared at the red head, saying with his eyes 'get your ass over here'. Tendou ignored it and backed away a bit.

Semi tugged the 2nd year and motioned to leave him alone. They both jumped as the other team's ace jumped into the air.

However, the setter dumped it. Yanagida and Semi watched in shock as Tendou received it.

"Captain!" Tendou passed it over to the captain since Semi was unavailable.

Nishida locked eyes with Ushijima. "Ushijima, smash it!" He gave the ball in a high toss. Ushijima jumped into the air, faced again with the same high blocks, but smashed through it. The other team's libero received it, but the strong spin caused it to fly backwards.

"Nice!" Shiratorizawa cheered and won the 2nd set, bringing the practice match to a close. They shook hands with the other team who were disappointed to have lost twice against the prestigious school.

Tendou wiped his face and sighed in relief. "Urg, I wanna go back to the room and sleep. The bed was so fluffy." He proceeded to fall to the floor, but Ohira karate chopped his head. ���Why you too?!"

Ohira sighed. "It's lunch time then practice matches continue in the afternoon. You can't go back to the room until then." Tendou pouted.

Soekawa sighed. "I know. I want to go back too." He stretched his back. Semi was packing up the bottles when he noticed Ushijima walking out.

"Ushijima, where are you going?" He asked.

Ushijima responded without an ounce of hesitation. "I'll go to the girls' gym. I promised Yoshikami to watch their game." Yamagata spat out the water from in his mouth. The group of friends looked at each other in confusion.

"Since when was he interested in the girls' practice matches?" Was what the guys asked in their thoughts.

Ohira pursed his lips. "We should leave him alone and prepare for lunch." He grabbed Tendou who was about to sneak off.

Tendou puffed his cheeks. "Come on! I wanna see too!"

Semi rolled his eyes. "No, we need all the help for these." He pointed to the empty bottles. Their manager, Miyashita, smiled at them gratefully.

"Thank you so much. But I'll be fine really. This is my job, after all."

Semi laughed, brushing it off. "No, no. It's fine. We'd like to help. Right, boys?" He glared at his friends. They sighed, and decided to help.

Ushijima arrived at the girls' gym. It was just across the field from the boys' gym, so there was a five-minute walk to get there. Once he arrived, it was already the 2nd set between Shiratorizawa and Aoba Jhosai. Yoshikami was at the front line. He approached Coach Haruto.

"What's the points, Coach?" He asked.

Coach Haruto looked up from her clip board. "Hello there, Ushijima-san. First set was 25-16. Second set is right over there…" She pointed at the score board behind the net. It showed 23 to 10. "…we got the lead."

Ushijima nodded and leaned against the wall, eyes watching over Yoshikami. The other team scored the point bringing it up to 11.

"Oi, their service acer is back. Let's put it to a stop." Kagami said to her teammates. They grunted in reply. The service acer delivered a powerful serve, but it was badly received by Izumimoto.

"Sorry! Pick it up, Sano-chan!"

The 1st year setter shouted back, "Yoshikami!" The short girl did her run up, but stopped and ran to the other side of the court. The other team's blockers could only watch as Yoshikami smashed it from above.

"Nice run, Yoshi!" Akari cheered from the sidelines. Yoshikami sent a peace sign with a huge grin.

Ushijima smiled, but immediately returned to his nonchalant stare.

The game soon ended with Kagami's service ace. The teams congratulated each other and gathered around their respective coaches.

Yoshikami finally saw Ushijima and waved at him. He raised his hand, acknowledging her.

Coach Haruto coughed, "Okay, you did well for the practice matches this morning. However, Yoshikami, I haven't forgotten the serve slip up." The short girl smiled guiltily. "Izumimoto-san, the receive was bad, learn from that." The libero nodded, scratching her head. "Hatsume, you know why I switched you with Sano." The vice-captain clenched her fists. "That's all for this morning's slip ups. Everyone else did great. Now, go and have your lunch break." The girls cheered.

Yoshikami quickly went to Ushijima's side. She smiled, looking up at him. "How did I do, Ushijima-kun?"

Ushijima shrugged. "You panic too much. Also, you missed the set for last point."

Yoshikami pouted. "I hoped no one noticed that…" If her fingers hadn't touched the ball, they would have lost another point.

Ushijima sighed, patting her head. "Let's go have lunch, Yoshikami."

Yoshikami narrowed her eyes at him. "I thought we agreed to add -chan or -kun." Ushijima stared at her. The short girl sighed. "Okay, okay. Let's go have lunch." She grabbed his hand and entwined their fingers.

Ushijima rose a brow at this.

The short girl grumbled, "So even that's not allowed…" She loosened her hold, but he returned the hold. She looked up at him in confusion. But he was just looking straight. She smiled and hummed as they walked together to take their lunch, hand in hand.

This did not escape the eyes of a certain Ushijima hating person.