"Waah! Kumi-chan! What happened to you?!"

"….It's a long story."

Suzuki Chiharu, a pretty girl with her red hair cut into a bob cut, only looks questioningly as Kumiko promptly took her seat near the window and began to absent-mindedly open the pages of her English textbook.

"Eeh? But showing up with a bandage on your nose…and why are you wearing those heavy-framed glasses? Aren't those your grandma used to wear?" Suzuki points out. "What really happened to you?"

Kumiko sighs and closes her textbook before facing her. "I'll tell you later... See? I'm fine." She dead-pans before pulling out her Biology manual and scribbled in some notes.

"But—"

*scchhkk!*

The classroom door opened, cutting off Suzuki from another bout of inquiries. Kumiko instinctively drew her gaze to look at the newcomer. Glaring midnight-blue hues stared back at her and she winced. Kageyama was glaring at her before striding inside the classroom.

'Gaah! I forgot he was in the same class too!' Kumiko panicked inside her head.

Kageyama continued on striding towards her direction and Kumiko clutched her book tightly, fearful of her life.

'He-he's coming this way….! What do I do?'

"Oh~ Kageyama! Good morning~"

Suzuki greets Kageyama as usual, making Kumiko look up a bit from her lab manual. 'Are they acquainted?' She wonders as Kageyama took his seat behind her desk.

"Osu." Kageyama greets Suzuki before he drilled his steely gaze on the girl in front of him.

"Oi, you. Is your face okay?"

Kageyama calls out to the girl in front of him and she jumped in her seat, startled by the sudden attention. She turned back to face him, her brown eyes blinking rapidly behind the frame of her glasses, a thin-lipped smile on her face as she responded.

"A-ah~ Yes! It got better after I iced it last night!" Kumiko replies.

Suzuki only blinks questioningly at the exchange of the two in front of her so couldn't help but ask, "Do you two know each other?"

"AH! You're that girl that Kageyama hit yesterday in the face!"

Before either Kumiko or Kageyama could answer Suzuki's question, Hinata came bursting in the classroom, pointing to Kumiko. Kageyama immediately holds up the shorter guy by the scruff of his neck, shaking him violently.

"HINATA, I'LL KILL YOU!"

"Oi, oi. Kageyama! You seriously hit a girl?" Suzuki remarks, astounded before she erupted into a fit of laughter. "Oi, you're pathetic, man!"

"SUZUKI! You shut up too!" The raven-haired male snapped at Suzuki, who was now hysterically laughing, hand clutching her stomach.

"But seriously! Oi, Kumi-chan~ You sure you're okay?" Suzuki's attention shifted to the gaping glasses-wearing girl who looked like she wanted to vanish from sight. "This guy has killer serves you know!"

"I-it was an accident! He didn't mean to hit me with a volleyball!" Kumiko blabbered out and hid her face in her book.

'Waaaah…I sincerely wish I could blend in with the walls and disappear. Why did this happen to me in the first place…?' Kumiko complains in her mind as she groans.


"…that was a long day."

Kumiko slouched and let out a deep sigh as soon as the last bell for class rang. Suzuki looks at her depressed state and good-naturedly patted her in the back, startling poor Kumiko.

"You're letting out a piece of happiness every time you sigh, Kumi-chan! Cheer up, cheer up!" The red-haired girl encouraged as she held up a fist. "Kumi-chan, fight!"

"I wish I could be like you, Chi-chan. Your optimism amazes me to no bounds." Kumiko answers back before a question popped in her mind. "Oh by the way. How do you know Kageyama? You two seemed…" She pondered for the right word, "…acquainted."

"Aah, Kageyama, huh?" Chiharu muttered then placed a finger near her lip to think. "We went to the same middle-school, and got acquainted during a sports club pep rally. I was in the soccer club; he was in the volleyball club." The girl paused to grin at Kumiko. "His volleyball skills are amazing you know~"

Kumiko cringed. The memory of Kageyama's killer serve hitting her face still traumatized her. "Ah, that much I can tell."

Chiharu pursed her lips as she criticized the female in front of her. "But still, Kumi-chan~ You attract danger to you like a magnet!" She gushes out before her eyes sparkled as she remembered something. "Remember that time when you were asked to deliver the papers to the art club? You blanked out and bumped into one of their club members, and got yourself drenched by the water bucket he was hol—"

"Hai! Let's leave it at that shall we~" Kumiko stopped her before Chiharu could narrate a series of one of Kumiko's accidents. Chiharu only grinned then took a glance at her watch and panicked.

"Oh, crap! The time-! Kumi-chan, sorry. I gotta head to soccer practice!" The red-haired immediately panicked and shoved all of her things in her bag in a hurry.

Kumiko then laughed at her. "Better hurry up, Chi-chan~ Your captain is scary when she gets angry, right~?"

"Mou. Hai, hai. You better hurry up too~" Chiharu points out as soon as she was done. "Aniki isn't really lenient with latecomers, recently~"

Kumiko then panicked. "Gaah! Th-that's right! Club duties!" She hurriedly shoved everything into her bag. "Gotta go, Chi-chan! See you tomorrow!"

"Mhm~! Be careful, okay?" Chiharu calls out before Kumiko fully exited the classroom and went to the newspaper club's club room.

"Oh! Takigawa, what's with the old-fashioned glasses?"

"Shut up, Suzuki-senpai."

Kumiko pouts once she settled inside the club room, tossing her bag inside the baggage counter and grabbed a pen and notebook and taking a seat.

The president of the newspaper club and Suzuki Chiharu's older brother, Suzuki Takechiro, only laughs as he playfully ruffles the hair of the only first-year club member, causing the brunette to further complain.

"Senpai…please stop messing my hair..."Kumiko complained as she adjusted the glasses that were falling off on the bridge of her nose almost all the time. "I'll tell Chi-chan."

"Hai, hai, I got it." Takechiro gives up on ruffling her hair and takes a seat before noting her injuries, "But still though, what really happened to you? You look beat up! Did you get into one of your accidents again?" Suzuki notes, taking his seat at the head of the table and pulling out a large notepad.

"We can't help it, can we~ Kumi-chan is a danger magnet~"

A female's voice called out from the outside as she made her way into the club room. Eri Akane a tall, blonde haired 2nd year, entered the room and she sat down next to Kumiko, offering her a bright smile as she also ruffled her hair.

"Eri-senpai, you too?"Kumiko almost groaned in a hushed voice, earning a laugh from the upperclassmen in the room. Soon, the other club members arrived and Suzuki called the meeting to order.

A few minutes later, after he had drawn up a sample lay-out on the whiteboard, he pulled out a circular chalk box from under the desk and placed it on the table, earning a confused look from the other club members.

"Senpai, what's this box for?" Eri voices out and Takechiro only grinned as he stood up and opened the box. Inside nestled various colored papers rolled up and were mixed up.

"Since it's too much of a pain to try to fuss over who should write what, here's the drill. Just pick out a paper and unfold it. Inside, you'll find the topic you'll be writing about." Suzuki explains enthusiastically to his club members who reacted in various ways. "Of course, there's a range of genres and topics so I'm sure whatever you'll pick out will be an interesting experiment for you."

Kumiko eyes the box warily and sighs. Suzuki-senpai is just finding a way to save him the trouble.

Suzuki then taps the board to get everyone's attention. "Hai! Now let's start! Third-year writers get to pick first~" He playfully eyes Kumiko who sighed. "Our cutie kouhai will go last then~"

A few minutes passed and everyone seemed rather satisfied with the topics they chose and Kumiko was the only one who hasn't got a slip of paper. She walked over to the box which held a number of rolled-up papers, waiting to be chosen. Tentatively she reached in and drew out a plain white rolled paper. Gulping, she unfurled it and ran her eyes through her topic, only to drop it to the floor.

For across the plain paper, written in bold letters were the words: Sports – Karasuno Boys' Volleyball Team.