He always thought that animals did not like him.
This… this was entirely new.
Kageyama watched in utter disbelief at the puppy sniffing at him, unable to move another inch from his position. He managed to unintentionally drag the neighbor's dog all the way to only a few meters away from Karasuno, and now he's too shocked to do anything while the dog barked playfully at him, wagging its tail as if it just fell in love with him as quick as their freak quick.
His hand flew to his chin in thought, unmindful of how bothersome his aura was to the passing students. "Why's he challenging the dog to a staring contest?" A couple of girls whispered to each other, while the others all looked at the odd scene between the mellow aura of happiness emanating from the animal to the menacing guy looking down at it while lost in his thoughts.
Should Kageyama go back? Should he just wait for his neighbor to come to school? Is he going to catch another cold? Can a cold be transferred from person to animal? Maybe he should take it back home while it's still early? How long will it take to—
"KAGEYAMAAAA!"
And just like that, his natural instinct made his ears perk up at the sound of a familiar irritating voice and fast running footsteps. Kageyama looked up to see Hinata dashing towards him. His heart raced and the first thing his mind compelled him to do was never to let the spiker catch up to him as long as any one of them was running.
His feet moved from their positioning as his legs moved him forward towards the school in the fastest speed he could ever have recorded. He accelerated; frustrated that Hinata was still able to come neck-on-neck with him despite that fact that he was ahead a few steps. They ran yelling loud enough for all people in the way to move to the side unless they want to get ran over by the morning race.
And just like that, it was another draw. Hinata was lying on the ground, completely out of breath. Kageyama steadied himself using the railings of the staircase they had seemed to stop on. He opened his mouth even though he could not say anything with empty lungs. Hinata recovered quickly, as he usually did, and went back up on his feet. "Kageyama, was that dog yours? The one you left behind a hundred meters ago?"
Hirari had an annoying habit that Mashumaro never liked. Rather, everyone else who knew where she lived had the same habit, as well, and she was always pissed or irritated.
They all visit every time she's asleep.
"Maro, wake up. You have a visitor." Mashumaro groaned, moving to face the wall with a pillow still pressed against her face, annoyed that people always have to involve her in their morning routine. Mashumaro was many things, but never a morning person. No matter how early or how late she sleeps every night, she will always be in a bad mood when she wakes up. It's supposedly an unspoken rule to never wake her up, she thought. Unfortunately, she did not make herself clear enough. "You wake up this instant, young lady, or else. You have Saturday club, right?"
Mashumaro murmured something incoherent – she was stating that she did not have a club yet - while her face was still pressed against the pillow she was hugging. "KAJI MASHUMARO." One last wake-up call from her mother and Mashumaro finally threw the pillow to her side and opened her eyes tiredly, blinking at the ceiling a few times. She could feel her head throbbing and her mood sour, as usual. She stretched with a groan, still annoyed, before she looked at her bedroom door to see her mother. The older woman had her left hand on her hip and her right holding a soup ladle.
"Get up. Hirari's here to see you."
Mashumaro blinked confusingly. It was rare for Hirari to even bother going all the way to her house before club. She checked her phone, which was lying beside her on the bed, and was more surprised that it was still 6:00am. It was too early. Much, much early for Mashumaro, who always wakes up at 8:00.
She dragged her feet, exiting her room and on towards the front door. As soon as she opened it, prepared to complain to her friend about how early it was, she was immediately grabbed by the shoulders to her bafflement. "MARO-CHAN!"
Hirari's eyes were swollen and teary while she shook Mashumaro's shoulders desperately. Mashumaro could feel her morning headache get worse in every movement. "STOP!" She shouted; her eyes in swirls while she tried to grab Hirari's arms to stop the violent shaking. "Gunchan… Gunchan's missing!"
"Who's Gunchan?" Mashumaro asked, worsening Hirari's tears. "W-Wait, don't cry! I legit don't know who Gunchan is!"
"How come you're always hanging out at our house and you don't even know who Gunchan is!?" Hirari whined, her voice even sadder than she intended it to sound. Mashumaro yawned while rubbing the back of her head, messing up her bed-hair even more, to Hirari's dismay. "He's our dog!"
Mashumaro looked at Hirari with a raised eyebrow and narrowed eyes. "…Dude, you just moved houses and got him two months ago while I was in Tokyo. I literally only hung out in that house once in my whole life." She pointed out to Hirari. The latter's eyes brightened up. "Oh, right! Anyway, we have to find him! Please help me, I don't know what happened! It appears he has been working on digging a deep hole under the fence through the neighbor's house for a while now!"
"… How could your dog dig an escape hole for so many days and none of you guys noticed?" Mashumaro could feel the sun's rays melting her, the longer she stayed outside. A scowl was evident on her face, giving off the sign of how much she despised greeting the sunrise. She is probably the only person in the entire world who didn't like greeting the sunrise. She looked at Hirari, who was practically doing sparkly puppy-eyes at her. Mashumaro could feel her sweat dripping from the way her friend was bent on convincing her to actually take a bath at 6, fucking, 15 in the morning. "…Ugh, let me take a shower."
"That's not necessary, you know. You can go for days without taking a single shower."
Mashumaro slammed the door at Hirari's face. Hirari did not regret anything – she knew Mashumaro's terrible morning mood, but she still said what should not be said, anyway.
After what seemed like forever – Mashumaro was very slow-moving and unmotivated in the morning – outside the apartment, Hirari finally heard the door open. Mashumaro was dressed in casual clothes instead of a school uniform, which was probably okay(?) since she had no club activities and wasn't planning to attend any Saturday class. Mashumaro was smart and excelled in many things, but she was so lazy, she probably belonged in Nekoma, after all. (It was a cat pun that Hirari has thought about just now.)
But that was exactly what made Mashumaro appear mature and hard-working to others. She was anxiety-driven – she'll do everything to make sure she does her job without disappointing anyone's expectations – and wanted to finish everything as quickly as possible. Hirari knew how to use that quality to her advantage, such as today. "I'll probably cry for a month if we never find him…" She softly whispered to Mashumaro.
And even though Mashumaro knew how incredibly persuasive and low-key manipulative Hirari was, she still always gets herself baited into the latter's influence. "You know what." Mashumaro sighed, unable to believe that she was dragged out of the house on a Saturday, for goodness' sake. "Let's split up. We'll find him quicker and you'll be able to attend Saturday cla—"
"NO!" An immediate strike of denial caused Mashumaro to flinch. "I'm sure Gunchan didn't run off too far! He has a collar on! We can find him together."
"Jiru… why'd you name a dog Gunchan, anyway?"
"THAT'S YOUR CONCERN?"
Mashumaro seemed unfazed as they walked down the stairs of the apartment building. "Okay, chill. We'll just split up if we don't find him together. Capiche?"
And so they went off to various paths around town, even around grassy areas, making sure they don't miss a spot. Mashumaro was carefully deducing which things could attract a dog from running away – one of the few times she actually uses her head for something useful – like the smell of meat in the marketplace or moving vehicles. Hirari would pitch in what Gunchan likes and his dislikes, such as eating grass and ending up with a green mouth later on. They found themselves in the busy area of town, as much as they both didn't like crowds of people (especially our resident introvert, Kaji Mashumaro) and Hirari never found the loud voices of market vendors to be appealing.
They passed by the area where owners usually took their dogs out, and even the park where Hirari often took Gunchan to. An hour and a half has passed. Hirari's feet were starting to hurt, and she was slowly regretting why she decided that it would be a good idea to buy heeled school shoes. And then she remembered that she wanted to appear taller than she already was (and she was already taller than Mashumaro naturally), so she shrugs off the regret and never lets it happen again.
Hirari sat on the swings in the playground they stopped by, heaving out a heavy sigh. "… He's nowhere." She started tearing up once again; ready to give up on life and everything in it. Meanwhile, Mashumaro watched her friend wipe off the tears before they could fall from her eyes. She struggled in her mind – she was never really good at comforting people. That was an understatement; she actually sucked at comforting people.
"H-Hey, we'll find him! You can go to Saturday classes, if you even have them today although I'm not sure if Karasuno even has them, but yeah! I can continue the search while you just go secure your future or something, I mean, I'm sure I can think of something to find Gunchan, what do you take me for? I rescue cats from the streets and leave them in front of random people's houses so they get forced to adopt them, I'm good with animals!" Mashumaro ended up rambling helplessly, moving her hands around as she talked. Hirari looked up in confusion with swollen eyes and an expression that can be read as 'what'.
"…H-Hirari?"
A third voice caught their attention. They both looked into the direction of the street and found themselves coming eye-to-eye with a certain blonde girl. "Yachi!" Hirari shot up from the swings, holding her hands out towards the first-year volleyball club manager. Yachi flinched with a matching short squeal. Mashumaro had no idea who the girl was, so she stood there awkwardly fiddling with her fingers.
"G-Gunchan's lost!" Hirari shrieked as she ran towards Yachi.
"Who's Gunchan?"
"How come none of you know who he is; I'm going to give up on life the next time someone asks me who Gunchan is!" Hirari declared loudly, causing Yachi to panic as well. The emotional girl meets the nervous wreck, while Mashumaro was just watching them from her position, entirely baffled by the escalation of events. "He's my dog! And this is Kaji Mashumaro-chan!" Hirari pointed at the girl from afar.
"…Is that how you always introduce me to people?" Mashumaro spoke. Yachi looked at her from head to toe with awe-filled eyes. She dresses like a doll, Yachi thought as she took in the image of the vintage dress with a ribbon collar and ankle boots. It was like looking at a porcelain doll.
On the other hand, Mashumaro was inwardly panicking as to why the blonde was eyeing her like that.
Bonus points that Hirari was still complaining about why no one knows who Gunchan is.
"Nice to meet you! I-I'm Yachi Hitoka!" Yachi bowed to Mashumaro, who bowed back slightly without saying a word. "Um, well, have you guys looked all over for him?" Yachi tried to avoid the awkward tension by focusing solely on the matter at-hand. Mashumaro shook her head, puzzling Hirari. "What do you mean by that? We looked everywhere!" She told Mashumaro, who only shook her head another time.
"I kept telling you to ask your neighbor and you keep refusing to. The hole was dug in between your fences, dude, really." Mashumaro spoke, shocking Yachi with the usage of informal vocabulary. It did not match her ladylike appearance at all! Hirari, unbothered, looked at the ground with a blush on her face. "Okay, so maybe we should have done that, but I don't think anyone was home when I looked into Kageyama-san's yard."
Kageyama… san?
Yachi gawked at Hirari. So she was right about them being neighbors, after all? Not to mention, it was the first time she even heard someone use such a respectful honorific for Kageyama! Not that Kageyama didn't deserve it, he totally did; he was a genius and Yachi wasn't judging anything, but it still surprised her and she felt bad that she ended up kneeling and apologizing to Hirari, making the situation even more confusing and chaotic.
"Orrr, you can just tell me that you secretly have a crush on him. Don't worry, I won't judge. Yachi won't, too. Right?" Mashumaro always had the talent of increasing the pressure of the atmosphere to its maximum extent, and it did not help that she was smirking at Yachi while she said that. "Um, y-yes! I mean, no! I won't judge! I mean… what?"
"Don't listen to her, Yacchan! She's crazy! And once you finally reach Friendship Level 10 and get to the bottom of her craziness, you'll find an underground basement!" Hirari ran towards Mashumaro, pushing and covering her mouth with brute force to keep her from saying anything further. Yachi's eyes went blank while she trembled nervously, not knowing what to do. Some passers-by watched the scene from the streets with unreadable expressions. Hirari was dragging Mashumaro out of the playground area towards where Yachi was forcefully while the latter complained.
"'Kay, but you didn't even deny anything." Mashumaro said, making Hirari say something incoherent; anything just to cover up the former's words. "E-Eh, but, um… Kaji-san, maybe we should lay off, I mean… that's a matter she should think for herself… her feelings, I mean…" Yachi suggested sheepishly. It was Hirari's turn to gawk at her.
"You… you actually believe what this airhead is saying? This airhead who asks people she just met questions like 'what are your standards in men'!? She honestly did that to a classmate in Shiratorizawa!" Hirari's voice had never been that loud in their classroom, and Yachi shook her head violently in defense and astonishment.
"You're right, Yachi. Let's all agree to leave this matter to Hirari. I mean, the poor girl thinks the back of her neighbor's head is attractive; who even what how, right?" Mashumaro smiled, and although Yachi had no idea what the last part meant, she nodded with a smile of her own. "A-Are we just going to ignore Gunchan now?" Hirari was now struggling to get into the conversation, when Yachi spotted something at the corner of her eye. She turned her head towards the sidewalk, her face pale.
"G-Guys! Someone from the volleyball club's coming! Act natural!" Yachi hurriedly told the two confused girls. Mashumaro looked at the direction of the two very, very familiar people and her face turned into that of a horrified one. "But do they know where Gunchan is, because—" Hirari was silenced when Mashumaro sent a knowing look at her while the two people got closer.
They were just thankful it wasn't Kageyama.
"Oh, Tsukki. Isn't that Yacchan and the transfer student? Oh, there's another girl."
In the end, they all looked like criminals. Mashumaro had her arms crossed over her chest, standing up straight with her feet together, glaring at the ground angrily for no apparent reason except to avoid the gazes of her two classmates – one of them which caught her stalk—watching the volleyball practice match before. Hirari didn't know who the two were so she didn't know what else to do but to glance back forth between them and Mashumaro, pretending not to care and actually failing at it because her sweat continuously dripped from her forehead, her hands going up every second just to wipe her face with her sleeves. Yachi fumbled with her arms helplessly, lacking ideas of her own, so she ended up moving her hands in awkward positions, looking at the ground with shaky pupils and a trembling body, trying so hard to keep the scowl on her face and wondering how Mashumaro was doing it so effortlessly.
Mashumaro was trying so hard not to yell at Hirari for being so obvious, so she decided to avert her gaze, trying to find anything else that's interesting to look at besides the trail of ants at her feet. Yachi could not keep the straight posture for too long, so her body slowly sank down, making her even shorter than the two girls and the most eye-catching one, so far. Hirari's neutral expression turned into a weird awkward smile, while she tried not to laugh at how the freckled boy and the blonde giant was looking at them.
"I-Is everything okay?" Yamaguchi asked. Tsukishima was eyeing each girl questioningly. Yachi's mind went blank. Slowly looking up to meet the gazes of her two club mates, she tried so hard to grin; it only increased the amount of suspicion in the area. "Yeah, we're good." She weakly said.
"You sure?" Tsukishima spoke, and Yachi knew that there could be no escaping his keen observation skills. She inwardly dug out any topic she could from her brain – anything just to keep them away from the awkwardness of this meeting. "Well, uh, we sort of… lost Gunchan."
"Who's Gunchan?" Yamaguchi asked, unfortunately, making Hirari snap. "Okay, that's it! I'm done, bye!" She waved her arms up in the air, as if to signal that she is so over everything. She walked away, making Mashumaro lose her 'cool' composure. The brunette quickly tailed Hirari, leaving Yachi to deal with the predicament. "D-Did I do something?" Yamaguchi asked in panic while the two boys watched the girls walk away from the scene hurriedly.
"No, you didn't! It's her lost dog and it's a long story, trust me! You're okay! You're good!" Yachi and Yamaguchi ended up bowing to each other apologetically, even though there was absolutely nothing to apologize for.
Who in the world would name their dog Gunchan?
Tsukishima thought.
