OMG I SAW A REVIEW IN MY STORY AND IT MADE ME SO HAPPY. TO THINK SOMEONE READ MY OTHER FIC ABOUT MY OC'S AND IS STILL READING THIS NEW ONE RIGHT HERE. OMGGGGGGG

This one is completely different from It's Okay To Be Selfish(my first Haikyuu fic). I just used the same OCs because, well, they're fun. And this had angst on it, unlike the other one which was full of fluff and humor.

So yeah. I hope you guys still continue following this story. :)

Wednesday.

After a short argument in the clubroom, the four first-years decided to visit Tsukishima and Yamaguchi's classroom booth – the fortunetelling room. "Okay, so the first thing we have to do is get a fortune cookie!" Hinata instructed his companion. Tsukishima craned his neck. "… This is our classroom. We're supposed to accommodate the guests, not be the guests." He reminded Hinata about this being Class 1-4, the famous classroom of the famous Tsukishima Kei. Both Hinata and Kageyama blinked before turning to Yamaguchi. "Your call, Yamaguchi." Hinata said. Yamaguchi swallowed. "Since when did I become the leader?" He answered. "Okay, fine! How 'bout you two be our personal fortunetellers and accommodate us?" Hinata placed his forearm on Kageyama's shoulder; much to the latter's annoyance.

Tsukishima opened his mouth to say something in protest, but the class representative stepped out of her boundaries and gladly told Tsukishima and Yamaguchi to tell the guests their fortune with a lovely smile and a glowing aura. The shirt she was wearing even had the words 'I'll hammer your bones if you don't' on it.

Again, Tsukishima had no choice.

Tsukishima looked down at the tarot cards set on the table, refusing to raise his view to Kageyama's face. Kageyama was too obvious in not wanting to even play along, since his head was cocked to the side and he didn't dare say anything. Hinata and Yamaguchi, on the other hand…

"WOAH! Is that really my fortune? So cool!"

"Yes! Oh, Hinata… look! The last card you picked says that you will get better in something you really love!"

"Volleyball! It's volleyball!"

The blonde's hand massaged his temples. He thought he wouldn't be able to hear Mashumaro and Hirari for a while because of the festival, but now he still has two loud people beside him. It wasn't rare to hear Yamaguchi talk loud when he's with Hinata, but sometimes he wished Yamaguchi would just keep it down. "… I thought we were here because of a new plan?" Kageyama finally said, trying to cut to the chase, leaving his tarot cards untouched. "We're going to let the horoscope fortunetellers read your horoscope and tell us how lucky you will be in love and relationships!" Hinata was even more eager than Kageyama was.

"Who's the horoscope teller, Tsuki?" Yamaguchi picked up the cards from the table and placed them neatly inside a box.

"I don't know." Tsukishima unbuttoned a few on his shirt, cursing whoever's idea it was to fill the classroom with different tents assigned with different fortune-telling styles. The tent they were in had satin cloth covering it with an intense lightbulb lighting the inside so it was impossible for cool air to get in. It felt more like a sauna than a tent.

Hinata was already dragging Kageyama out. Tsukishima followed after, not because he was interested but because he could barely breathe in that tent. As usual, Yamaguchi made sure they didn't leave anything scattered inside before he headed out. "So… let's see… oh, look! The sign on that tent is Ishikawa's drawing, right?" Hinata pointed towards what seemed to be a picture of a roulette with all the zodiac symbols decorating it. "Yeah, it's the horoscope tent." Yamaguchi introduced. Hinata's face was blooming with impatience and interest that he went running inside. Kageyama was about to walk away, but Yamaguchi decided to be a pal and lead him inside or he will be gutted by their class representative.

Tsukishima sighed in defeat. He didn't know why he was supposed to go through with this again.

Again, he was only here because he's currently the only sane person in the group.

He followed the three inside, not expecting the next events.

Just when he thought his luck would probably change today, he saw Theresa and Mashumaro on the other side of the table, wearing colorful dresses and translucent pieces of cloth draping over their noses and mouths. Mashumaro was terrifyingly waving around a realistic-looking glass eye while twirling around, the hems of her long skirt swaying along with her movements. It looked creepy. Theresa was just sitting there, smiling at the visitors.

"Welcome, wanderers… oh, hello, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi." Theresa's fortuneteller character was rubbed off when she noticed both Tsukishima and Yamaguchi staring at her oddly. Meanwhile, Mashumaro was now humming something, throwing the glass eye in mid-air and catching it with one hand. It went on repeatedly, the glass eye dropping to the floor in some occasions when she failed to catch it. "Come sit down! Don't mind her. She's… um… I don't know, to be honest, but just sit down and tell me what you seek." Theresa was glancing at her arms every now and then. "… COOL! 'SEEK' IS SUCH A STRONG WORD!" Hinata delightfully exclaimed, demonstrating his natural talent in flattery. Theresa blushed a bit and looked over to where Mashumaro was standing. The girl got dizzy spinning around that she ended up dropping to the ground, the glass eye bouncing on her head when she threw it up. The scene was both creepy and funny.

"That girl there… Kaji…" Theresa rolled up her right sleeve and showed the boys her arm. "… She told me to say these lines whenever a visitor arrives… I guess they really are deep." She laughed, even though the boys were dumbly staring at the 'script' Mashumaro wrote on Theresa's arm. "Without further ado, let's dig into our heart's desires!" Theresa delivered the next line excellently, pitching in a few English words. Kageyama and Hinata had no idea what she had just said. Being the only goody-two shoes in the group of boys, Yamaguchi whispered something to them, and a look of enlightenment showered upon their sparkling eyes. "F-Further ado!" Kageyama awkwardly repeated. "So that's what the words mean!" Hinata followed.

Tsukishima's eyebrow twitched.

Theresa took out a large hardbound book from under the table and placed it in front of them. "Now… what do you seek?" She said. Mashumaro was now leaning down and peeking over Tsukishima's shoulder, grateful that he was sitting on a chair since she knew she could never do that when he's standing up. "What's your zodiac sign, Tsukishima?" Her voice was dangerously close and high-pitched that Tsukishima's shoulders tensed. He refused to turn his head because her face was just inches away from his ear. "I'm a Libra, but I have no interest in elemental star signs or the gods that rule over them." He made it clear that he did not want to be in there and he was not having fun at all. And he has no intentions in letting Mashumaro know that they've been stalking her friend for days now.

"We want to know what Ishikawa's zodiac sign is and if it's compatible with Kageyama's!" Hinata shouted, much to Tsukishima's muted horror. There goes the 'secret' he's been trying to keep.

Theresa blinked. "Hirari is an Aries!" Mashumaro quickly answered, ignoring the rest of Hinata's statement and that the boy just indirectly said that they're only here for information about Ishikawa Hirari. Tsukishima wondered if his right eardrum was still okay after the girl technically shouted while her chin rested on his shoulder. It's as if she was openly saying 'go on a date with her, Kageyama!'. "A-And, Kageyama?" Theresa was slowly losing her composure. Mashumaro's lively presence and inability to read the atmosphere was draining all her pent-up energy.

"Capricorn." Kageyama tried to recall, relieved that he was still able to remember the zodiac equivalent to his birthday.

"Get off my shoulder." Tsukishima hissed at Mashumaro. "Haha!" Instead of getting offended, she just mockingly laughed at his face before standing up straight and leaving him thinking of how to remove the annoying eerie sound that was left to echo in his ears.

He was so done babysitting three rash volleyball players and a former fairy. He was so done with life.

Theresa opened the book and turned to the Capricorn page. The boys stared in awe when they realized that all the pages were handwritten. "Y-You wrote everything?" Yamaguchi's eyes were widening as he focused on the words. "Oh, no! Well, not all of it. Kaji did 70% of the work. She's a great note-taker and writer since she was able to summarize everything we've researched." Theresa's finger ran across the page, searching intently for the Capricorn matches. "Oh, here it is!"

"Aries is a born leader whilst Capricorn is a quiet and mature sign. The question of who will dominate cannot be answered with Aries right away. Why? Imagine Aries as a bubbly and young worker entering the world of business. Capricorn, on the other hand is a 'been there, done that' CEO. With a ruling Capricorn boss to control the eager and passionate Aries, it can be said that the Aries can't simply get what it wants that easily anymore. It simple means that the innocent and young Aries' role is to pull the open-minded and mature Capricorn into new and adventurous ideas while Capricorn is to control Aries' rowdy and rash behavior."

The boys blinked twice, dumbfounded. "… Something seems off…" Yamaguchi spoke up. "It's like Kageyama's the Aries while Ishikawa's the Capricorn. The personalities are switched." Tsukishima explained. He knew from the start that the zodiac won't be much help in Kageyama's mission impossible.

'Leader', 'rash' and 'passionate' are definitely not terms used to describe Ishikawa Hirari.

'Quiet' and 'mature' are definitely not terms used to describe Kageyama Tobio.

"Oh, well. It says the Capricorn is the boss. That's not much different from being a King, anyway." Tsukishima adjusted his glasses, smirking. Kageyama gritted his teeth and shot a nasty glare at the blonde. Hinata was biting his nails, since he was out of ideas to convince Kageyama to ask the girl out.

All of the sudden, the book was shut close. If it weren't for the cloth surrounding them and making up the tent, the echoing sound of the slam would have been heard by all people in the classroom. Mashumaro's left hand firmly made its place on the cover of the book while her right hand rested on her hips. She had a smile on her face, immediately giving Tsukishima bad news. "My turn!" She lifted the book from the table and opened it slightly, making sure no one else sees what she was reading.

"Oooohhh! It says here Capricorn is supposed to ask an Aries out on date in order to succeed in something the Capricorn loves! In your case, it's volleyball, right?" She shifted her gaze to Kageyama, whose face was painted with a pink tint. His lips started quivering and he couldn't think of words to string together. "S-Show me evidence!" He demanded. "She wrote that! That's enough evidence!" Hinata obviously lied, since he was unable to look at Kageyama straight in the eye like he always did.

Grinning, Mashumaro turned the book to face them, showing them the words. It didn't take Tsukishima a while to figure out that there was something fishy about her actions, since he spotted her thumb covering the page number below. "I-It's true! Kageyama! Ask her out! We might be able to develop a new technique if you did!" Hinata's persuasion skills were at point since Kageyama stood up from his seat and bowed to both Theresa and Mashumaro. "Thank you very much!"

"Hey! It also says here that if you give cookies to Aries, the percentage of her saying 'yes' is 100 percent!" Yamaguchi didn't really believe in horoscopes, but he was smart enough to know how to convince a volleyball freak to ask a drawing geek out. It was a funny pair, but he liked the idea of pulling Kageyama out of his shell. It was the same for Hirari, too. "Come on, let's go!" Hinata was once again, pushing Kageyama out with the help of Yamaguchi. "Stop pushing, dumbasses!"

When the trio gone out to buy cookies, Tsukishima stopped to look at Mashumaro who flinched upon eye contact. She accidentally dropped the book on her feet. "Ow!" She fell to the floor, clutching her poor toes. "… That page never existed, right?" He bluntly asked her. Mashumaro tilted her head and giggled. It was a really adorable and mischievous giggle that Tsukishima couldn't help but smile subtly, although he immediately placed his frown back on. "I stuck that piece of bond paper on the book while you guys were arguing." She stood up and skipped towards the exit of the tent. Tsukishima shrugged his shoulders, feeling irritated at her strange upbeat behavior. He was about to head out, when Theresa called. "Tsukishima… she's an Aquarius."

He looked back at the girl, and she already readied the Libra page on the book and had an irritating smile that Tsukishima was tempted to say something rude just to get it off her face.

"A Libra and Aquarius relationship is an intelligent relationship, although Libra is more open-minded and won't be swayed by Aquarius' eccentricities. Both of them find intelligence and intellectuality sexy, and they both see the world in their own special ways, although Libra's eyes are more accepting. Aquarius values freedom very much, but is willing to sacrifice that playful freedom to make time for Libra. However, Aquarius is the least romantic out of all the signs and will constantly need to make Libra feel loved. Gentle Libra will coax Aquarius into more real emotions than they think possible while carefree Aquarius is capable of telling Libra that sometimes, it's okay to take a risk and make an effort."

Tsukishima's eyebrow twitched once again. It was surprisingly accurate, but he chose not to say anything and walked away. "You two seem really compatible." Theresa told him.

He went out the tent and decided to forget about it. Besides… she wasn't his girlfriend.

Hinata was jumping around every food and souvenir stall he sees with twinkling eyes, forgetting the reason why they're there and what they were supposed to buy. "Calm down, moron. It's not the first time a cultural festival was held." Kageyama walked with his hands in pockets, scanning every food stall he sees. The takoyaki stall seems tempting. Tsukishima was trailing from behind side-by-side with Yamaguchi.

Now, he could hardly care about anything at the moment since they're inside the school, anyway. If ever Kageyama or Hinata gets in trouble, the school will have to deal with the oddball duo and that is none of Tsukishima's business anymore. However, he had grown strangely accustomed to having two extra people with him(besides, Yamaguchi) that it almost scares him in a bad way. Besides, he didn't want to spend the rest of his day in the clubroom with Tanaka and the others or stay in their tent-filled classroom, decorated with an illusion of stars on the walls and ceilings.

"That looks delicious! Let's buy that!" Hinata pointed at the takoyaki stand where Kageyama was coincidentally staring at. Kageyama looked down at his feet then to the takoyaki stand, a tinge of pink on his cheeks symbolizing that he really wanted to buy one but he had no money with him at the moment since he just left his bag with the wallet inside in the clubroom. Hinata's smile was replaced with a scrunched-up look of curiosity. Kageyama's distressed face was truly more horrifying than his usual frown. "You allergic to takoyaki? You don't like takoyaki?" He asked the taller boy, waving his hand in front of Kageyama's face. A vein popped on the setter's forehead, his eyebrows creasing further until they almost met at the middle.

"You didn't tell me we were going here! I don't have my wallet with me, dumbass Hinata…" Kageyama's yell turned into a grumble halfway, his face darkening into fifty shades of red out of embarrassment. He certainly was too prideful to let anyone treat him. "Hmm? That's not a problem. Nishinoya-san told us that when we're in a pinch, we should resort to 'Tsukishima alternative methods'." Hinata didn't even look troubled at all. "NO!" Kageyama immediately shouted, making it clear that he really did not want anyone to treat him, especially the beanpole. "Hey! Why are you always so picky? First, you wanted to be able to toss, receive, and spike all by yourself. Next, you didn't want Tsukishima to teach us for the exams! And now, you don't want him to treat us? You'll never be able to ask a really nice girl like Ishikawa out! She's smart and caring and not picky and—ow!" Hinata's face was grabbed by an angry setter.

Watching from a distance, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi sweat-dropped at the two idiots.

"What are they doing?" Yamaguchi asked. Tsukishima didn't even make an effort to answer such a rhetorical question, his gaze focused on Hinata who was suspiciously dragging a scowling Kageyama towards them. "We ordered takoyaki!" The short crow finally let go of Kageyama's arm. "Tch." Kageyama looked like a spoiled brat in Tsukishima's and Yamaguchi's eyes, their minds washing over the memory and false knowledge that Capricorns are supposedly mature.

Tsukishima chuckled. "Giving up on the cookies, eh?" He decided to razz an already angry Kageyama a bit more just for fun. To their surprise, Kageyama didn't even bat an eyelash at Tsukishima's words. He just stood there beside Hinata, scowling to a great extent. It didn't take long until they heard a bell sound. "Oh, it's done!" Hinata looked back at the takoyaki stand. Kageyama finally looked at Tsukishima, his face back to normal.

"By the way, Tsukishima, pay for it, okay?" Hinata skipped towards the stand, sniffing in the scent of newly-cooked squid takoyaki. Yamaguchi nervously watched Tsukishima's reaction at the corner of his eye and regretted it. Tsukishima's face was even more terrifying than Kageyama's. "I am not going to pay for anything that does not benefit me." He calmly told them with a rather cheerful smile, but a cheerful Tsukishima is a furious Tsukishima, and Yamaguchi knew that very well.

Kageyama cleared his throat. "T-Thanks." He bowed reluctantly before heading back to the stand as well. Tsukishima was taken aback at the King's show of gratitude, but he was still not paying for it. "Tsuki… the food stalls here have a different mode of payment than normal." Yamaguchi started explaining, mustering up his courage to reveal the truth to Tsukishima. "So?" The blonde responded, suddenly feeling a tingling sensation of fear running in his veins.

"In paying for the food, you have to give the name and class of the one who's paying. It's kind of like a bank account record passed to the homeroom teachers. It's the homeroom teachers' job to collect payments from their students once the day ends. I think what Hinata means to say is that they listed your name in there."

A crack ran along the sides of Tsukishima's eyeglasses.

Finally.

Tsukishima watched as Kageyama nervously looked around for signs of people.

Finally.

Hinata and Yamaguchi were hiding from afar, silently cheering for Kageyama, while Tsukishima was just watching Kageyama from the same spot.

Finally.

"Coast clear!" Hinata tried keeping his voice down as he signaled Kageyama. The setter swallowed his saliva, and opened the locker.

Finally.

Tsukishima let out a relieved sigh, making sure Yamaguchi and Hinata didn't notice him do so. They finally decided to do something normal like putting cookies in a girl's locker along with a letter of confession. It's finally over.

Kageyama shoved the cookies roughly into the locker, clumsily breaking a few crumbs with his strong and panicky grip. He blushed at the sight of the pink floral-designed envelope with, hopefully, a cute stationary inside. Breathing in air, making sure his lungs were filled with the oxygen needed to complete his stunt, he placed it carefully(although it was a struggle for Kageyama to be careful) inside before closing it. He was finally able to exhale. He looked over to where his companions are and saw Hinata with a more-than-happy expression and Yamaguchi wiping off a tear he just shed. Tsukishima just stood there with a smirk on his face and hands in his pockets.

The setter heard footsteps and a bunch of females' voices coming. His eyes widened and he dashed over to where Hinata was, almost stumbling over when he bumped into a girl. "Sorry!" They said in unison. When Kageyama finally reached his mates, they all bumped their fists into one another. Except Tsukishima because he's an asshole.

"Okay! It's a mission success! Good job, team!" Hinata looked even more kingly than Kageyama in their current situation, as he lightly tapped Kageyama on the shoulder for a job well done.

Tsukishima suddenly froze in his place. "… Oi, King." His voice was stern and rude, ruining the good atmosphere that was there once upon a time. "Ha?" Kageyama tried to retain his nice mood, but just looking at Tsukishima fixing his eyeglasses up the bridge of his nose is already irksome enough for Kageyama's eyes.

"…You put it on the wrong locker, you stupid royal Highne—" Tsukishima's anger dripped from his words, cutting off his sentence by gritting his teeth.

"HA!?"

Hinata, Kageyama, and Yamaguchi all scrambled back to their previous spot, accidentally bumping into each other's shoulders. Hinata fell flat on the floor face-first when Yamaguchi accidentally elbowed his back. "Ah! Sorry!" Yamaguchi panicked as he tried pulling Hinata up. Kageyama watched in complete terror as an unknown girl opened the locker he just put his gifts into. The girl looked surprised for a moment, and then a blush crept up her cheeks when her friends started teasing her about what they found in her locker. "A-Abort mission!" Yamaguchi stood up and ran towards the girls.

"A-A guy is dashing towards us!" One of the female students pointed at Yamaguchi, who had an intense expression on his face as he ran. Ear-piercing screams came from all directions, and Hinata finally ran after Yamaguchi, clutching his bleeding nose with one hand.

Meanwhile, Tsukishima and Kageyama were bickering. "T-The locker had 'Ishikawa' on it!" Kageyama reasoned out. "Are you that stupid? There's not just one Ishikawa studying in this school." Tsukishima wasn't angry because Kageyama was stupid. He was angry for the fact that he thought all of it would be over by now, but the Royal Majesty just had to be clumsy over a petty issue such as placing a letter inside a locker. It wasn't that hard. He didn't even have to talk to Ishikawa directly. But he still failed in the simplest and most normal attempt in the field of love.

Tsukishima wondered if Nishinoya was right about him being worse than Kageyama in love attempts. He was probably wrong, after all. Kageyama really is the worst in everything that includes being interested in anything else besides volleyball.

The girl had already opened the envelope, but Yamaguchi snatched the letter and bag of cookies from her hands. "I-I'm so sorry! This is, um, this is for my mother!" The freckled boy was just as bad in lying as Hinata was. Probably even worse, since he was too sweet to lie. Hinata slid through the floor with his feet and went in front of Yamaguchi, shielding him from the glares he received from the girl's friends. "Hi, we—" Hinata couldn't finish his explanation when the girl started crying on the spot. Both boys shrieked inwardly.

"Hey! You made her cry!"

"You're so mean! That was a letter for her! Her last name's even on the envelope!"

Stuff was thrown at Hinata and Yamaguchi. The raging female species grabbed everything available on the floor or in their lockers, aiming at the poor boys. "Gak! Ouch!" Hinata tried jumping away to avoid them. In the end, they just ran away with their hands on the back of their heads, the fuming women calling and cursing after them while chasing. Tsukishima and Kageyama watched pitifully at the scene.

"Tch. Those cookies, the decorated envelope, and stationary were expensive for my taste, too." Kageyama complained. "That's your fault for being careless. You should have just asked a commoner to do the errand for you, Your Highness." Tsukishima blurted out.

However, Kageyama did not even say anything mean in return. Instead, he replied with "That's okay. We listed your name as the buyer when we chose it from the stalls. You didn't know?"

Another crack ran along the sides of Tsukishima's eyeglasses.

They retreated back to the clubroom.

"Dammit, I give up." Kageyama pressed a ball against his face, tired from the day's work. Yamaguchi was plastering a wound on his face, which was the result of a book thrown at him by an angry female. "Why are women so frightening?" He asked no one in particular. Hinata was lying down on the floor with a tissue stuck in his nose, absorbing the oozing red liquid, as he stared at the ceiling. Tsukishima's eyes were narrowing at his wallet, hatching up a plan to run away from his homeroom teacher when she asks for the payments to all the useless stuff his idiot teammates bought.

Hinata took something out of his pocket and waved it around. "At least I got the letter back… I saved Kageyama from further embarrassment." His voice was low and droopy. The three other people in the clubroom looked at the letter, inquisitiveness washing all their exhaustion away. Tsukishima snatched the letter from Hinata, his smug smile back on his face. "H-Hey! Don't read that!" Hinata jumped up to get it, but the blonde was far too tall.

Kageyama and Yamaguchi were both tall enough to see what was written on it, though.

"When I saw you, my heart all went "bam!" and "doki doki!"!

Please go on a date with me, Ishikawa!

You made my life go "ahhh" and "ooh-lala!".

With love, Kageyama."

Before they knew it, Kageyama was already wrestling Hinata on the floor. "YOU DUMBASS! YOU PLANNED ON MAKING HER READ THAT AND RUIN MY IMAGE, YOU PIECE OF CRAPPY—!?"

Yamaguchi and Tsukishima had an air of misery and shame around them as they read the letter over and over again, trying to understand what it's supposed to mean. "… So this is how Hinata confesses…?" Tsukishima felt a headache coming. "… Seems like it." Yamaguchi could hardly contain his concern over the poor confession skills of the oddball duo.

The door was opened all of the sudden and all four boys halted everything they've been doing, as if they had just been caught in act of a crime. Nishinoya and Tanaka entered the room, a confident smile plastered on their rather glowing faces. "Kageyama, that frown on your face is unpleasant so we're going to change it!" Nishinoya assured.

"T-This is permanent!" Kageyama defended.

Tanaka and Nishinoya quickly put both Yamaguchi and Hinata in headlocks, whispering something into the boys' ears. The tired look from the first-years' eyes were replaced with a shine. "Kageyama!" Hinata dropped the bag of crushed cookies on Kageyama's palms and quickly ran out the room. Yamaguchi followed after.

Tsukishima raised an eyebrow at the two second-years. Nishinoya's hands were on the blonde's shoulders, supporting himself as he jumped up and down as Tanaka whispered something to the blonde, making Tsukishima let out a snicker. The three of them started walking out of the room. "O-Oi!" Kageyama tried interrupting their actions, but the only thing Tsukishima did was look back and smirk deviously. "Good luck, your royal Highness."

Then the door was shut.

With teeth grinding against each other and fists clenching in infuriation, Kageyama stomped after them, opening the door and slamming it against the wall. His dangerous expression was the first thing that greeted a certain someone who was just standing there fearfully.

Hirari's face drained as soon as she was greeted by an atrocious sight. Her hand was lifted, about to reach the doorknob, until it was opened. She just stood there with her mouth hung agape. "A-A—" She stuttered.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, both of them jumped away, tumbling down on the floor in shock. "S-Sorry." Kageyama tried crawling back towards her when he saw her shaking, traumatized. He picked up the cookies he dropped, wondering if she still likes it when the bread crumbs are already in bits and pieces. Hirari choked on particularly nothing. "T-Tanaka asked me to fetch something from the clubroom, so I, uhh… sorry!" The girl kneeled down with her head pressed on the floor, making Kageyama panic.

"Stop! Wait, stand up!" His other hand grabbed ahold of her wrist. Hirari was surprised at the strong grip. He really didn't know how to be gentle. Noticing that there was no one around, Kageyama remembered what he was supposed to be doing. "What were the words again? Shit!"

Hirari just tilted her head and raised an eyebrow when they both stood up. Kageyama had a funny look on his face, as if he was really scared of something. His eyes were darkening and his face was all red. He was even sweating heavily. "Be…" He hiccupped accidentally before he could continue. He covered his mouth in complete mortification, his face darkening even more with an intense red tint.

The girl honestly wanted to laugh at the hiccup, but she valued her life so she didn't.

"Be..."

"… Be?"

"BE!"

"H-Ha? Be what?"

The scene was getting even more awkward as time went by. Kageyama thought this was now or never, his eyes looking down as he suddenly decided that the ground was much more interesting than the girl's eyes. Or maybe he was just making up excuses. He inhaled and exhaled. "Shit!"

He suddenly bowed his head down and shoved the cookies to the girl's face in panic, a muffled yelp escaping Hirari's mouth as she used her hands to lower the cookies and his hands down from her face. She was about to yell at him and ask what his problem was, but she was cut off in an instant.

"BE MY DATE, DAMMIT!"

Chirp.

Chirp.

Chirp.

Tweet.

Tweet.

Camera snap.

"Did you capture that?" Nishinoya asked. Tanaka gave him a thumbs-up as he showed them the camera. Sugawara hit them both at the back of their heads. "Why's he talking like Tanaka!?" He scolded, blaming the two for teaching Kageyama the wrong idea about love although they didn't really teach him anything. Azumane and Daichi were just staring at the scene. "He did it!" Yamaguchi and Hinata hugged each other. "SUCCESS!" They both said, barely whispering. "Would she even say 'yes' to that?" Tsukishima doubted everything about the mission.

Hirari and Kageyama were both frozen like statues. The girl's eyes were wider than with her usual shocked expression. She was blushing. Sweat dripped from her forehead down to the side of her face. Kageyama still had his head down. "Ah? O-Okay." She just said, still a bit speechless and thunderstruck.

Upon hearing her answer, Kageyama looked up at her face with a quivering open mouth and eyes as wide as hers. His deadly grip on the poor cookies loosened although he was still stiff. He slowly and mechanically stood up straight, the same expression still on his face. "Kageyama?" Hirari asked. "S-Should I go now? Yeah? Friday, right? Ohhh.. okay… so Friday…right?" Hirari awkwardly took a step backward.

Kageyama wasn't breathing.

Meanwhile, behind a bush, a group of volleyball players were panicking and arguing if they should get out there and perform first-aid to an unbreathing Kageyama or just stay put in the bush and watch the events unfold.

To Hirari's horror, a completely red and flustered Kageyama fell backward, hitting the floor. Little tears of happiness and relief spurted out of his eyes at the same time blood from his nose did. He still had the same expression, though – wide eyes and an open mouth. "G-Get a doctor!" The volleyball players suddenly ran up to the poor setter, screaming and jumping.

"I-Ishikawa! Perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on—"

"TANAKA! STOP MAKING THE SITUATION WORSE!"

Thursday.

Tsukishima tossed and turned on his bed, the rays of sunlight seeping in through the blinds covering his window. He covered his head with a pillow, refusing to get up from bed. He was still exhausted even though Ukai cancelled practice yesterday night.

Loud footsteps were heard making their way towards his room. Suddenly, the door was slammed open. "Kei!" His mother's stern and angry voice astonished him. He jolted upright, not noticing that he was already on the edge of the bed. He fell down the floor with a loud thud, the blankets entangling his arms and legs. He blinked, his mother's upside-down figure looming over him.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR JACKET? DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW MUCH THIS COST?"

She held up the jacket high, the tear on the sleeves visible enough even for Tsukishima's upside-down vision.

Yep. He was really going to kill Hinata and Yamaguchi for this.

17 hours left before the big event.