08:55am.
On the outside, Shimizu Ren was the epitome of everything calm, composed and charming. Her "delightful" appointment for the day hadn't arrived yet, so she waited for him while making small talk with the players who have come up. Shion-san was keeping her entertained with some his witty quips directed at the players, especially Kiyoomi-kun.
Kiyoomi-kun...
The man was a mystery and that had very little to do with his face constantly being covered a mask. The only thing she always noticed were the way his eyebrows furrowed at anyone who spoke to him, except when it was Shouyo and herself. Boy, was she glad she read his file before meeting the team.
If only she had read through the other important file as well... She would have been better prepared.
"Atsumu-san!" shouted Shouyo, announcing the presence of her day's appointment.
"Good luck, Ren-chan," whispered Bokuto-san as he placed his warm hand on her back. "You're definitely going to need it," he sighed.
She looked around to see his intimidating form approaching her with narrowed eyes.
"Bokkun, your locker is mess. Better go check it out," he said out loud.
"Eh? Really?" he asked, and shot off in the direction of their locker rooms. A niggling feeling told her that the Spongebob lied about it, only to get Bokuto-san away from her, and Ren has come this far in life only because she trusted her instincts. She decided to believe in it again. So now she was all alone in the presence of the setter...
Eh? Alone?
She looked around, only to find that most people had indeed dispersed and left her vicinity with the sole exception of Sakusa-san who was glancing between her and Atsumu. She couldn't make out his expression, and his eyes weren't giving away anything either.
"Let me know if you need any help, Ren-san," he said and left her, as she stared at his receding back, a little despair creeping into her thoughts especially when his tone sounded so ominous.
Alone... with Miya Freakin' Atsumu...
She shifted her gaze to look back at Atsumu and turned around to slowly face him, as if bracing herself for the inevitable battle, that he picked to fight out, and seem a little intimidating.
But that didn't stop Atsumu from swaggering towards her though, as if he was calling her bluff on the false bravado. He roved his gaze up and down her frame intently, taking his own sweet time as it travelled everywhere at a painfully slow pace, leaving her insides in a quivering mess. She crossed her arms in defiance, unable to find any other way to escape from the heat in his gaze.
He stopped right in front her, letting his entire frame lean and rest on his left side and his head slightly tilted to the left as well. His gaze was still locked on her chest, which (as she belatedly realised) was now even more on display because she crossed had crossed her arms.
Ugh, stupid Ren! What the hell did you do? I can't seem to do a single thing right these days, because every bloody thing seems to be setting him off!
He leered further up her frame and finally locked eyes with her to reveal his gaze that was a little too heady. His breaths were a little too deep when she felt little wisps of air caress her arms as he would exhale. And when she probed further into his eyes, the melted swirls of chocolate were alive with unbridled lust, rage, jealousy and other emotions she couldn't figure out, because moments after their eyes met, he looked away.
With frustration wrinkling his brows, he turned back and said, "I'm gonna start warming up now." He then folded his arms across his chest, the whole movement distracting her a little (like always), and added, "It's my slot today so your eyes better not leave me." And with that he stalked off towards his team-mates.
She was left stunned. STUNNED!
This boy...
She whipped her phone out and sent a quick text before, God forbid, His Highness would catch her doing anything other than looking at his majestic existence.
Her phone beeped moments later as her saviour responded back.
R: Aran-san. Pls collect my dead body from MSBY's reception today after work T_T
A: hahahaha
Can't wait.
9:42am.
It had only been 40 odd minutes since their warm-ups had begun, but to Ren it seemed like an eternity had gone by. The boy was stretching every single muscle in his body and like clockwork, he'd glance at her to make sure she had trained her eyes on him and wasn't getting distracted by anything or anyone else.
Knowing the kind of control freak he would sometimes become around her, she was sure she wasn't allowed to blink more than 10 times in a minute too!
God damn it!
Thoughts of regret over taking this job trickled in the back of her head, mentally cursing Kuroo and her friends too for not telling her how to handle this maniac.
No, Renny! You. Were. Born. To. Conquer. Over. All.
You got over your yips, so Miya Atsumu isn't that big of a deal...
Or maybe he is...
She was pulled out of her reverie when she heard someone clear their throat. Looking in that direction, she should have expected that it would be the stupid Spongebob. A little irritation flared inside her and she sneered at his childish display, when in reality what she really wanted to do was bare her fangs and growl at him for making her second guess her decision to join MSBY.
In response to her sneers he just pursed his lips and looked away. Maybe he sensed that she was very close to ripping him to tiny shreds if he continued behaving in that immature manner?
Deep breaths, Ren. You're the more mature person here...
All she had to do was ensure that he wouldn't create any real opportunity for a conflict to start. It was only 9:42am and she had 7 hours and 18 minutes to go before she would be free from his clutches. She had to survive this.
Bring it on, Baka Miya!
11:37am.
Wow... That was quick!
Ever since the players started their 2-on-2 drills, even if Ren wanted to look away from Atsumu, she couldn't. And that's when she realised how quickly time had passed by, because she was so entranced by his plays.
Of course, during their high school days, she had attended a few of their practice matches and their final Spring Tournament, the last few years had done wonders to him.
Back then, he was an extremely cunning player. With apt analysis of opponents' emotions and exercising his ability to shake them off their game by constantly playing mind games, he was able to pull off even the most unexpected of plays at critical junctures in the game.
Rin had a huge part to play in that too, though.
Back then, he basked in the time he got on the court. He was at his happiest and liveliest when playing, especially with his teammates.
But now, he was so much more!
His overall aura was calmer on the surface but his passion for the game burned brighter than ever before. His eyes gleamed in ecstasy as long as his side of the court players kept the ball in the play.
PASSIONATE.
She jotted it down in her notepad.
And there was something more... something about his moves...
His play style! Of course! How could she have missed such an important detail?!
His play style had seen a drastic change, even if the fundamentals of who he was as a player in high school remained unchanged. While he had always been good at figuring out the opponent's trail of thoughts, and used it to exert his tremendous skill in mentally destabilising them, he was now using that power on another level.
INTELLECTUAL.
She noted.
Not only was he actively seeking out his opponents' weaknesses, but he also thrashing them (through his plays) with sheer force, giving it back to them tenfold. If there was a sentence that would aptly describe his plays, it would be "kick them in the back of the knees and pound them into the ground."
POWER PLAYS.
She added another bullet point to his strengths' repertoire.
Tiresome is more appropriate though...
And forget his opponents; he didn't even let his teammates off the hook! If he was giving his 100% in his plays, he expected the same from them too.
But somehow, luckily for him, almost always, they were not satisfied with giving anything below 120%, at all times. They had the same hungry gazes as him, all of them wanting to devour their challengers.
JACKALS.
She wrote down another aspect of him.
Indeed, The Black Jackals... Monsters, the whole lot of them...
And were they influenced by him or influencing him, she pondered over their chemistry?
... Well, it could be both ways...
She glanced back at her watch due to force of habit of sporadically checking the time, to see it display 11:59!
Well, time sure flies when you play...
12:23pm.
Bloody. Hell.
While the walk to the cafeteria was relatively peaceful, as Atsumu was probably satisfied with how much she observed his game skills, it didn't last too long.
Idiot, she thought, as she rolled her eyes.
"Why are you rolling your eyes?"
Argh...
"Why are you looking at me?" she countered.
"It's my eyes. I can look wherever I want," he retorted.
"It's MY eyes too. I can roll them whenever I want," she snapped back, sticking out tongue at him for a good measure too.
But the mood for light-hearted, and borderline imbecilic quips didn't last between them for too long, as his stare fixed itself on her lips for longer than necessary.
She looked away trying to hide herself and the welcome sight of the queue for lunch made her rush ahead of him, but she didn't hear him sprint behind her.
She sighed, grateful for the little distance she thought she had put between them, but she stiffened up as soon as felt a wisp of breath near her left ear followed by a sultry whisper. "You can run, Ren-chan. But you can't hide~"
She swerved around to face him, feeling her heart race as the distance between them was the shortest today. It wasn't even half of her total working hours yet, and she was unsure about how the rest of the day pan out if this went on any longer.
His stares betrayed nothing but the fire that was laced in his words and Ren, for the first time that day, wondered what he on earth was making him behave so dubiously.
"Well, not till I get what I want... from you," he added, his expression unchanging.
But before she could clarify what he meant, they were interrupted by the lunch guy.
"Hello miss! What would you like to have for lunch? We have Combo A and B," he said with a chirpy demeanour and she openly gaped at his timing and the sheer contrast of their situations.
Screw lunch combos! I still have to digest what this guy just said to me!
2:08pm.
Lunch left her feeling slightly unnerved.
On one hand she was happy that the other members of their team decided to crash on their two-person lunch plans, as that made spending a couple of hours with the insufferable blonde a lot easier.
But on the other hand, she really, really wanted to know what he meant by his last statement to her. It left her confused, and she wondered if his current behaviour could be classified as "sexual harassment" or not...
Damn the dual wielder of power serves, and his stupid double entendres!
And now, a few minutes into his physio check-up, she could sense how he was just bursting to say something, when both her and the physiotherapist staunchly ignored him, while they chatted away about his physical well-being and improvements since he joined the Black Jackals. After all this time, he could do with a few minutes of silent treatment. Luckily, he didn't throw any more tantrums, and satisfied himself with listening in to their conversation.
Good! Now, only 2 hours and 52 minutes more, Renny! And then you'll fly away into freedom from his heated, stifling and unashamed stares...
3:21pm.
The walk from the physiotherapist's office to the gym reminded her of the concept of "peacetime," the thought of which almost made her burst out laughing.
Argh, this day has been so long, even my thoughts have become warped.
"So... Ren-chan... how's your progress been with finding info on me today?" He asked, and Ren mentally thanked the gods for he had finally spoken a relatively neutral statement. She mentally even promised to go to the shrine in the upcoming weekend to faithfully show her gratitude.
"I have a few ideas here and there but when the promotions team will joins us in a couple of weeks, they'll help us visualise it better," she said. "But don't worry too much about it, it will definitely be cohesive with the some premature ideas I have for Kiyoomi-kun, and we'll be-"
"Kiyoomi-KUN?" he said, as his visibly gritted his teeth. "Was calling him by his first name not friendly," he stressed as gestured quotation marks in the air, "enough for you to be pally with him?"
"Atsumu, it's nothing lik-."
"Ah!" he exclaimed, "And the next thing we'd know is that you've crawled into his sparkly, shiny bed! Is that what this is?" He asked, as his voice got louder with each word he uttered.
"I-..., Atsumu, you-."
"Is that who you're trying to be with Renny? Is that hand sanitiser bastard the one you told Osamu about?" his whispered, taking the volume of his speech down by a few notches, but his eyes danced in irrepressible rage.
Her jaws dropped at the line of query.
What on earth?!
Osamu, you big fat tattletale, I'm going to mince you up and stuff you in sticky rice balls to make the REAL MIYA ONIGIRI!
"ANSWER ME DAMN IT, BEFORE I MURDER HIM IN HIS 2-HOUR LONG SHOWERS!"
She jumped out of her skin at the sudden shout from the seething blonde that echoed in the vast empty gym room. For the longest time, the sound of the monotonous hum of the central air conditioning was the only thing that mingled with his harsh breaths and her hitched gasps, before she heard maniacal cackles reverberate through the room.