At morning practice...

"Sugawara-san, who's the kid practicing in the gym earlier?" Kageyama asked.

Apparently while he was on his way to practice on his own, he saw a kid with dark hair practicing his own receives and spikes. It was odd since Sugawara usually was the first one to come. If not, it should be Tanaka.

"Kid?" Sugawara repeated then started to think until he came up with an answer. "You mean Nishinoya?"

Kageyama was surprised. "Nishinoya-san?"

"Did you call for me?"

And when Kageyama looked closely, it really is Nishinoya. But he grew... shorter?

"Kageyama-kun thought there was someone else occupying the gym earlier but I said it was just you," Sugawara quickly explained.

"Okay," Nishinoya seemed to agree and went off to practice again.

When he was out of sight, Sugawara patted Kageyama's back. "Kageyama-kun, if you value your life, please do not call him a kid."

And the setter only nodded.

During lunchtime...

"Akihana-san, someone is calling for you."

Aoi looked up from her notes and noticed the murmurs of her classmates along with the lines 'what's a kid doing here?'. When she went out, she saw Nishinoya with his hair down and a frown on his lips.

"YUU-KUN?!" She forgot to hide her surprise that she instantly covered her mouth. "I-I mean, why is your hair down? And why are you looking for me?"

"I ran out of wax," he replied, rubbing his head. "The others are even staring at me weirdly."

"Oh."

"And for the other question, I just wanted to see you."

Aoi blushed but she insisted to get back on the topic. "Did your classmates cause you trouble?"

He shook his head. "They just kept on asking me who I am. There were even some third year girls asking if I'm lost or something."

Because you look like a kid right now, she wanted to say but he'll only get mad.

"How about Ryu-san and the other volleyball club members? Did they say something about your hair?"

"They didn't say anything..." he trailed off then remembered something. "But Kiyoko-san said that I looked a lot gentler!" He exclaimed proudly. "You think she'll say I look so handsome by the end of the day?"

Aoi nodded in agreement then pointed out, "Why wouldn't she? You're so handsome after all."

When the bell rang later on, Nishinoya was blushing the entire class.

During afternoon practice...

The third years blankly stared at Nishinoya who was demonstrating another kind of receive to the first years.

No matter how you look at it, Nishinoya really looks like a lot shorter.

And while they were practicing, half of the gym were occupied by the cheerleading club and some of them kept on glancing at either Kageyama, Tsukishima, or Nishinoya.

"Who's their libero?"

"They say his name is Nishinoya Yuu."

"Nishinoya? The amazing libero from Chidoriyama?"

One girl nodded. "But his hair is not spiked up."

"He looks a lot cooler that way."

"I heard they also call him Guardian Deity."

The girls gasped. "That's amazing! We should ask for his phone number."

"Eh? But I heard he has a girlfriend though?"

There was a sound of disbelief. "Then which one of them?" One of them pointed at the two managers.

"He's not dating either of them."

"Then he's dating who?"

While gossiping, they saw how Nishinoya effectively saved the ball when Kageyama spiked on their team and they all swooned at that.

"He really looks so cute though. Too bad he's taken."

"Oh! Oh! I found out who he's dating."

They all turned towards the source of the voice and the girl showed a picture of Aoi on her cellphone.

"Hey, she's the manju girl from our class."

"Really? What's she like?"

"She's nice... but she looks so plain."

A ball suddenly hit the floor and bounced up towards the girls' faces. They all shrieked and the ball was about to make an impact when Nishinoya stepped in and stopped the ball with one hand.

He is so cool!

"T-T-Thank you, Nishinoya—"

"Sorry," he said rather coldly than what he had intended.

They were slightly nervous at his tone. "N-No, it's—"

"I heard you girls call my girlfriend plain so I thought about hitting you."

The girls got annoyed upon the revelation but Nishinoya only grinned. Having other girls' attention sure is fun, but he knew that it would be meaningless if it wasn't her.

BONUS:

Aoi was about to make her way to the gym when she saw Yachi refilling water bottles at the tank. While the manager was busy, Aoi approached her.

"Yachi-san!"

Yachi turned to the voice. "Oh, Akihana-senpai! You're about to go to the gym, right? Give me a sec and I'll be finished here soon."

"Oh, I won't be going to the gym. I 'll be working on the shop today," Aoi informed.

"I thought you were gonna wait for Nishinoya-senpai."

"Speaking of him," she fished something out of her bag then gave it to Yachi, "please give it to Yuu-kun."

Yachi examined the material in her hand. "A hair wax?"

Aoi nodded. "As I thought, Yuu-kun is not Yuu-kun without his spiky hair."

The very next day, everything was all back to normal. No one is looking at Nishinoya again like he's some kind of lost kid.