Chapter 20: Mouri Jusaburou, the Innocent Bystander

"Senpai, you're at my mercy now."

Sora's awkward, forced smile immediately disappeared and she stared at his face with her mouth gapped open; his grin was not of the same nature as his usual happy-go-lucky ones. It was definitely more cunning, especially when adding to that line he had just said. She was at his mercy. Sora took a big gulp; cold sweat started trickling down her back and her forehead. What could he possibly want from her? Does she now have to leave since she's technically threatening his position as a first stringer?

"Just kidding~"

"Huh!?"

Mouri broke out into laughter, patting on Sora's shoulder a bit too hard. "Ahaha! Your face just now was priceless, Sora-senpai!"

"You… you…!" Sora fumed in anger. Then Mouri's laughing died out as he noticed tears brimming around her eyes gradually. He flinched and fidgeted in worry and terror.

"Ulp…" Sora hiccupped, forcibly wiping away the tears that kept on rolling down her cheeks. "I-I thought… I had to leave the camp…!"

"I-I'm sorry senpai! I didn't mean to scare you like that…! P-Please don't cry!" Mouri's hands wandered around helplessly as he stuttered out. Sora kept on hiccupping and Mouri flailed around nervously. He then pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight, conveying that he didn't mean any harm with actions speaking instead of words.

"I'm sorry." Mouri said.

Sora's hiccups died out; and soon Mouri felt a great pain on his belly.

"Oof!"

"YOU DAMN BRAT!" Sora yelled, fuming in anger with her fist still clenched after punching Mouri. "I THOUGHT I WAS DONE FOR!"

"I-I'm sorry!" Mouri could only beg. Soon Sora's anger died out and she let out a long sigh.

"S-Sora-senpai, forgive me?" Mouri begged, trying to look as cute as possible.

"Whatever. You damn brat." Sora scoffed and brushed past him, making her way to the door back downstairs. Mouri was a bit sad—until Sora turned around, holding the door open. "Let's go back inside, you'll catch a cold out here." Mouri immediately brightened up and started trailing behind her with a grin.

"Senpai, senpai! You promised that you'll play me the next time we met!" Mouri said. "Can we play?"

"Yeah, yeah. Except not before a big match tomorrow." She said, waving her hand. "And tomorrow I really have to win."

"But you're going against Duke-san." Mouri frowned. "You'll break your hands. Even Byoudouin-san could barely return those."

"If Byoudouin can do it, then so can I and Kazuya." Sora said determinedly. "Just watch. I'm going to bring down Duke and Kazuya's going to bring down Byoudouin."

Mouri just stared at her. "Sora-senpai. Who's this Kazuya guy? Is he's the guy from back there?"

"Yeah. He's my friend and roommate."

"ROOMMATE!?" Mouri yelped. "YOU GUYS ARE ROOMMTATES!?"

"Y-yeah." Sora flinched, slightly taken aback by a sudden yelp of Mouri. "Why?"

"Does he know about you?" Mouri asked nervously. "I-I mean, you guys share a room!"

"Nope." Sora simply shook her head and answered. "I mean, if he knew then I would've been kicked out of this camp a long time ago."

At that Mouri began thinking. Then his eyes glinted as he busily calculated possibilities in his head.

Sora slowly and carefully opened the door to her room; it was past one o'clock and Kazuya should have gone to bed by then. Or so she thought.

"Geh." Sora flinched as she saw Kazuya sitting on the edge of his bed with his arms crossed and staring at her angrily. She gulped; she's never seen him so angry before. He always shouted at her if she did anything wrong, but this time was different. It was completely silent. And silent Kazuya? That was certainly not the best news.

"Y-Y-You didn't sleep yet?" She asked, averting her eyes away and walking over to her closet. He didn't answer her question and kept on glaring at her. 'So this is what it feels like to be a husband who comes home after cheating and finds his wife waiting for him.' Sora gulped. 'Wait a minute, I didn't even cheat! A-And cheating is bad! And I-I'm not even dating this dude!'

"Who were you with until now." Kazuya asked with a frighteningly calm voice.

"I-I was with t-the guy f-from b-back at the corridor. H-He's my kouhai from Rikkaidai." Sora answered trying to sound as casually as possible.

"And what did you do."

"W-We just talked. Nothing fancy." She said. Not hearing any more replies from the boy, she gulped. Silence was doom. Then Kazuya slowly stood up and stepped towards her; intimidated by his gaze, Sora backed away slowly, only to have her back stopped by the wall. 'Dammit, what's with me and getting backed into a wall today?!' She thought. Kazuya stilled looked down at her with his icy gaze and Sora started fidgeting.

"I-Is anything bothering you?" She asked as carefully as possible.

"Is anything bothering!?" Kazuya snapped, making her flinch. "Everything you do bothers me! Just how dumb are you for staying up until this late at night before a big match tomorrow?! And to talk to a 1st stringer after all that! Do you have any idea how much your performance is going to affect the 2nd stringers as well?! Can't you be wearier of your situation!?"

"I-I'm sorry…" Sora looked down, finding his every word undeniable and irrefutable. But he didn't have to shout at her like that.

"I thought you'd know better! Why are you getting so careless now when you tried so hard for the last year and a half?!"

"I'm not getting careless." Sora frowned at that and retorted, a tad bit offended by someone dismissing her efforts. Although she was at fault, the last year and a half's effort was not something that was done in vain.

"Oh yeah? Then just why in the world were you getting so friendly with that first stringer?" He said.

"Wha—what does that have anything to do with any of this?" Sora cocked her eyebrows and said as well, her voice getting louder.

"It has to do with everything!" He said as he clenched her shoulders. And he knew he wasn't making any sense or logic, but a part of him kept on making him say nonsensical things, bringing that guy into the conversation. Sora sighed in frustration; she shoved him away angrily, grabbed her clothes, and walked into the bathroom. The door closed shut with a loud bang.

For Kazuya, he knew very well that he was lashing out at her because she was with that guy—who clearly knew that Sora was a girl from both his actions and background—and he couldn't control his anger, although he knew that it wasn't entirely her fault. Of course she'd have to talk to him to make sure that her secret doesn't get leaked. 'But still…!' Kazuya recalled how that redhead clung onto her and looked at her; when he looked at Sora, his eyes weren't those of simple friendliness. They were those of intimate affection.

He angrily plopped onto his bed and pulled the blanket up to his neck, turning his back on Sora's bed. Soon enough Sora came out of the shower; without saying another word, she turned off the light, and the two dozed off to sleep while trying to figure their way out of this messy situation.

Next morning—

Irie and Oni exchanged nervous and confused looks. Sora and Kazuya—the duo, who was always together, and if they weren't seen together once in a while, they'd be doing something differently in different places—was sitting alone separately in different tables at the opposite sides of the cafeteria, not even facing in the same direction.

"Y-you go talk to Sora. I'll talk to Kazuya." Oni said and Irie nodded.

"Good morning." Oni said as he set his plate down, grabbing a chair next to Kazuya.

"Good morning." Kazuya greeted with a stern face.

"What happened?" He asked straightforwardly. At that Kazuya sighed.

"We fought."

"That's as clear as daylight. What exactly happened?"

"I just… I was being stupid." Kazuya managed to mumble out; he couldn't say that he got jealous and mad because of Sora, who was supposed to be a guy for everyone else in the camp. That would just make him seem really weird.

"Well, whatever you do, just tell him that you're sorry and say your true feelings." Oni said simply. "That's the simplest solution to all complicated problems."

Meanwhile, for Irie—

Sora looked up and found Irie setting his plate down with his refreshing, flowery smile.

"K-Kan-chan…!" Sora immediately teared up upon seeing a good friend. She needed a good reassuring smile to make her terrible day better.

"Now, now. It looks obvious that you guys fought. What happened?" Irie asked, putting sugar in his coffee. Sora explained the whole deal last night—from meeting his kouhai and Kazuya yelling at her.

"Hm, that's certainly a bit childish of him." Irie blinked. "Quite unexpected, too. I didn't think he'd be the type to get so angry."

"Right?" Sora pouted. "I don't even know why he's so upset. He's not the type to get riled up so easily like that."

"SORA-SENPAAAAAAI!" Then, Mouri's bright, cheerful, and happy-go-lucky voice rang out in the cafeteria; Sora flinched and dropped the sausage on her fork, startled by the sudden noise. Soon enough, the giant baby came over and set his plates down, grinning happily while staring at her. "Good morning, senpai!"

"Morning." Sora replied. "Ah, this is the kouhai I was talking about. Mouri, this is Irie Kanata. He's a third year so be respectful." Sora introduced the boy to Irie, who stared at Mouri curiously.

"Nice to meet you! I'm Mouri Jusaburou." He greeted and Irie greeted as well. Then Mouri kept on talking and talking—he sure was an energetic one. The type to be liked by everyone.

Then Irie looked over to Kazuya, who was shooting their table a lazer-death glare. 'Hm… could it be…?' He then stood up, finishing his last bit of toast. "I'll go talk to Kazuya and see what's up. And don't worry, I won't say too much."

"Okay. Thanks Kan-chan."

After Irie walked away, Mouri asked Sora with a curious look. "Did something happen between you and your roommate guy? He's sitting all the way on the other side." At his remark, Sora let out another sigh.

"We fought."

"Why?"

Sora stared at the guy who asked a bit too innocently. Technically speaking, he was the source of why she fought with Kazuya in the first place; but it's not like he intended to cause her any trouble, so she couldn't blame him for it either. She then sighed a second time. "He got mad at me."

"For what?" He asked, although he had a pretty good guess why. 'But she doesn't have to know why.'

"I don't even know...!" Sora ruffled her hair in frustration. "Ugh, whatever! I'm eating."

Meanwhile, Kazuya's insides were churning. That thing—the source of their trouble, the very reason why he and his love fought—was being an annoying nuisance again. He stabbed the sausage with his fork literally pointed straight down, and ground his teeth on it as if the sausage was that redhead he was chewing on. 'Not in a million years, you bastard. How dare you get in the way of our relationship.' Then Kazuya paused. 'Wait, I'm technically not in any sort of relationship… even more, she doesn't even know that I know her true identity.' Kazuya broke out into a sweat. What would she do if he told her that he knew? And it didn't seem like she didn't hate him at least. But it seemed like she was trying really hard to keep her identity.

"Kazuya, you'll chase away all the good fortune if you frown like that early in the morning." Irie said as he sat down. Kazuya just grumbled incoherent words and took a sip of his milk.

'That bastard…!' Kazuya's eyes then widened, bringing the cup down onto the table with a bang and glaring at Sora's table as he witnessed the unwelcomed redhead opening his mouth, waiting to be fed by Sora, who ended up being defeated by his stubbornness and shoving a piece of her cake into his mouth.

"We probably seem like a gay couple." Sora said and put a giant piece of cake in her mouth, earning a suggestive look from Mouri.

"A gay couple is still a couple." He said and grinned. "So you think we look like a couple~"

Sora looked at him while chewing on her cake. 'Okay, Mouri's been sorta kinda really but not really weird ever since yesterday. He's so… suggestive. Does he like me or something? Nah, it can't be, right?' She thought, scoffing a bit. Mouri kept on grinning, staring into her face while leaning on his hand.

"Do you like me or something like that?" She asked him, giving him a teasing look.

"Mmhm."

"…"

"…"

"Wait. What?!"

Ohoho, Mouri.

I'm back! Finals week sucks major balls. Fuck school. ;-;

I have a new Haikyuu! OC fic called Cats Have Nine Lives, check out if you're interested in Haikyuu! Thanks :D