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Chapter 7

Haruko yawned.

It was way too early to exist.

With just a few hours of sleep she found it difficult to keep her eyes open, but coffee in one hand and gym keys in the other, she stood next to the campus gates waiting for the delivery guy. It didn't help that the weekend staff was a pain in the ass to deal with when it came to getting gym keys – which she anticipated and showed up a half an hour early.

She yawned again. 7.15am. He's late.

Haruko began tapping her foot. About five minutes later, the delivery guy finally showed up.

Oh for fuc-

"Haru-chan?"

Haruko tried not to cringe at the old nickname. Miyagi was too small.

"So you're doing deliveries now?" she asked.

"Well hello to you, too. You haven't changed a bit."

Haruko wanted to glare at the boy but stopped herself. I will be calm, I will be positive.

"Neither have you, Terushima-san."

"Jeez, what happened to 'Yuu-kun'?" he asked, giving Haruko one of his trademark smirks.

"Where do you want me to sign for these?"

Terushima sighed and rolled his eyes, handing Haruko a pen to sign for the delivery. "So, you're going to Shokey then?"

"Mhm." Haruko murmured.

He took the pen and tablet back from her when she was done, picking up the boxes he had with him. "Where do you want these, then?"

"I can carry them myself, you know."

"I insist." he smiled.

Haruko sighed. There was no arguing with Terushima. She knew this all too well. "Fine. Follow me."

Instead of following Haruko, Terushima insisted on walking next to her. "So what brings you here on a Saturday morning, anyway?" he asked.

"It's our volleyball club's delivery, no one else was availab-"

"Volleyball? Since when are you into that?" he raised a brow at her.

"I'm... not. It just… kind of happened. I'm their manager." Haruko shrugged. He would have a field day if she went into details on why she got herself involved in the first place.

"Maaaaybe you're just subconsciously into volleyball players." he grinned.

"Get over yourself, Terushima." she scoffed, opening the door to the gym. Less than five minutes in and he's already unbearable. "That was one time."

He followed Haruko into the gym and placed the boxes down. "And a fun time it was."

Haruko glared at him. He is never going to let it go, is he?

Then again, this was Terushima Yuuji. The only way to get rid of him was to ignore his advances – getting angry with him only seemed to do the exact opposite.

"Don't you have deliveries you need to… you know, deliver?" she asked, leaning on the doorframe, spinning the keys around her finger impatiently.

"I can take a break." he smirked at her again.

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Get out before I lock you in."

Terushima chuckled and started walking towards the door, stopping in the middle of the doorframe and turning to Haruko. He placed his arm above her and leaned in slightly, getting way too close for comfort.

"Come by Tohoku University sometime. For old time's sake." he smiled.

And with that, he disappeared from the campus as quickly as he appeared.

Haruko, though, stood where he left her for a while. Quite some time has passed since she's seen old friends. It's not like the time she spent with Terushima in the past was bad. If anything, it was actually fun, he wasn't wrong on that part. He was THE party boy of Miyagi, hands down. But it was why she got with him in the first place that-

Nope. She shook her head. I am not going down that road again. I literally do not have the time or energy to think about that.

A part of her even felt bad for being so cold to Terushima. Not like he did anything wrong.

Tohoku… she thought. I'm impressed he got accepted.

She locked the gym's doors leaving the boxes inside and made her way to the university's office to drop the keys off. Doing errands for the volleyball club at this hour was exhausting. And on a Saturday, too. The one day she had off.

Once she was done with that, Haruko made her way out of the campus as well. Never has she been this excited about going back to sleep.

Too bad the excitement had to be ruined by a single phone call. She eyed the called ID. It was Oikawa.

"Heeeeey." she answered, half asleep. The coffee Haruko had in the morning didn't help much.

"Hey, how'd it go?"

She realized he's talking about the delivery. "Ah… Fine."

"Doesn't sound like it went fine?" he questioned.

"No, no, everything went fine, sorry. I just ran into and old friend I would rather have not run into."

"Really? Who?"

Haruko really wasn't up for being interrogated like this. Then again, maybe he was just being polite, asking how it went and all. She wasn't in a state to analyze his actions, either.

"The delivery guy. Listen, I'm really not-"

"Wait, you know Teru-chan?"

Haruko stopped, squinting at nothing. Oikawa and Terushima. Both into volleyball. Both team captains. Both from Miyagi. Moreover, Terushima was the area's delivery guy, and Oikawa took care of most club deliveries himself.

Of course they knew each other. This morning was going great.

"Y-yeah, sort of. Did… did you need something?" The last thing Haruko wanted was for that conversation to go any further.

"Oh, yeah, sorry! Since you're already out, mind doing one more thing?"

Haruko sighed. "Depends."

"Well…"

It wasn't one thing. It was like, three more things. Reluctantly, Haruko agreed – she was their manager, after all, and she knew about the extra work when she signed up for it. She figured it was because of the official volleyball games that were coming up soon – their team was considered a favorite for the Inter-University games that were happening a month from now, mostly because of the setter and ace duo Shokey was lucky to get – Oikawa and Iwaizumi.

Haruko was excited for the games, but at the same time that meant she would have even more work than usual. Not to mention they had a few exams coming up in two weeks.

"Guess I'll have to kick it into high-gear." she murmured once Oikawa was done listing all the errands their club has to catch up on.

"Yeah, sorry… But I'm sure you can handle it. I'll let you know if anything else comes up."

She sighed. There's bound to be something else, eventually. "Sure."

Once the call ended, Haruko decided to stop by a convenience store for an energy drink. She had an entire Saturday to survive on two hours of sleep. Fabulous.

I gotta admit his dedication is admirable, yeah… But it doesn't mean everyone else around him are going to push themselves to their limits too. Then again, I did sign up for this on my own free, albeit stupid, will.

Haruko sat down on a bench to mentally go over the list of things he asked her to do and started making a plan for the day.

I guess studies come first and I could just quit but…

She stopped herself there. No. She couldn't quit. Quit on the people who have been so… family-like. She was no volleyball player, no, but she knew she was helping by getting their hands off everything that wasn't playing volleyball. And she knew how much it meant to them because, well, they've told her. They've told her how much they appreciate her help. They've told her how happy they are to have her.

To Haruko, Shokey's volleyball team was family.

So at that point, she promised herself to keep on going no matter how tough the going gets.

He had to admit, he was surprised. Anyone else would have quit by now. But she just kept going no matter what amount of work he threw at her.

Oikawa put his phone down on the coffee table next to his sofa and sat back, crossing his arms. Did he actually have plans today? No. But if their so called "I want to gain management experience" manager was available, why not give her the work he was supposed to do and take the day off?

The truth was, he understood every single word she wrote in her diary. Taking a peek just to find something to tease his friend about was both the best and worst decision he's ever made.

On one hand, he was glad he found out before he got any more emotionally invested in her when she had ulterior motives. Very vain ulterior motives. Saved him from getting stabbed in the back too much.

The one girl who was comfortable around him and didn't humor him just to gain his approval, the one girl who he had almost put his full trust in, was apparently a manipulative bitch.

On the other hand, Oikawa wished he had some self-control and actually skipped on reading her diary. The other truth was that she actually was helpful. This whole ordeal was too far in for him to put an end to it – the guys loved both her personality and assistance, the coach and adviser were delighted they had a load of work taken off their shoulders, and even Oikawa himself had to admit she was willing to go far before she breaks, if she breaks. He knew the damage he would do if he called her out. He knew what the damage of losing her from the team was.

And it was annoying as hell.

For Oikawa, being trapped like this was the worst feeling. The worst. So he did what he could to make himself feel better. Maybe the guys were nice to her but it didn't mean he has to be. He just had to tolerate her.

However, he was also petty. Very, very petty. Oikawa was the embodiment of pettiness.

Giving Haruko an extra load of work could always be written off as 'manager duties' and his friendship with her gave him a 'get out of jail free' card when it came to teasing and tormenting her. And that's exactly why he got her to agree to take in the delivery today.

Terushima.

Dealing with the man in charge of their deliveries was a pain. Terushima hit on everyone he found even remotely attractive, including Oikawa, and all he wanted was for him to torment their precious manager-chan for a little while. Oikawa knew how persistent Terushima was. When he called Haruko he expected them to still be in the middle of the "do you have a phone number to go with that pretty face" bullshit.

What he didn't expect was for them to know each other.

"Go figure…"

Oikawa sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

"And she has the audacity to call me a playboy. Tch."

Terushima didn't exactly have a good reputation. Anyone who crossed paths with him, even briefly, would say that. He was Miyagi's party boy.

Oikawa couldn't help but wonder just how well Haruko knew the party boy.

Or… why he even cares about that.

He shook his head and went to get some snacks from the kitchen. He had an entire day ahead of him to binge-watch his favorite TV shows.

AN: I was going to update last week but then university slam-dunked me into a garbage can. I really wasn't ready to go back oh god.

So, thing is, I wasn't going to put Terushima in at all, just briefly mention him later in a (very emotional) later chapter. But I have a few ideas and I'm conflicted. I don't want to over-saturate chapters with him because we're all here for Oiks, so it's up to you guys to let me know if you want to see more or less of him later on! Let me know!

Last but not least, thank you all again for the fanfiction net reviews/favs/follows and ao3 comments and kudos! Ily guys! :')