Chapter 2:
Yachi numbly follows Kiyoko-senpai as they take off their shoes before the older girl slides the gym door open and called out. "Excuse me, can I have a moment."
Suddenly there were boys looking at the manager's way and they stopped all of their movements together before heading towards her. Yachi felt her nervousness spilling all over her body so she resides by hiding behind the black haired girl.
There were too many people in front of her and she was feeling a little lightheaded because they were suddenly looking at her way. She briefly caught several colored hair and the orange-haired colored boy suddenly exclaimed loudly when he landed his gaze on her.
"You found a new member!"
Yachi was already shaking in nervousness already. Hiding behind Kiyoko-senpai wasn't much of a good strategy in the end. Yachi timidly walks beside the third year manager and looked up nervously at the team members crowding around her.
"She's here to try out as our new manager." Kiyoko-senpai smiled back to Yachi.
It was time to introduce herself. "I'm Ya-Yachi Hitoka." With quivering yet loud voice she introduces herself.
Several members then responded to her introduction.
"Woah."
"Really? That's amazing!"
"I knew it you could find one, Shimizu-senpai!"
Yachi felt a little warmth of butterflies filling from the coldness of her stomach. The floaty-like feelings were suddenly growing in the midst of moments like these, Yachi felt a little bit confused but flustered as well. She wasn't used to having so much attention on her for a long time yet their expressions and warmth seem to make her welcomed at the gym.
Then suddenly a tall guy with long hair and gloomy beard-chin leaned down to her, "Are you first year?" asking her in such surprisingly scary expression.
Yachi shrieked in terror and replied instantly. "I'm in class 5, s-sir!"
"Asahi, you're too close." Another guy with broad shoulder pushed him slightly away from Yachi's space however it seemed that this retort made the beard-nii-chan hurt by the reaction.
The strangeness didn't stop there because Yachi felt another pairs of intense eyes staring at her when she looked to the other side and saw two people staring intensely at her with such eyes, making her tremble all over again.
A shaved-head tall boy with intense looking eyes and another shorter boy with spiky hair stood behind a gentle looking grey haired boy. However, their gaze was abruptly cut by the gentle looking boy that slaps their gaze away from her way when he noticed that she looked uncomfortable.
"Hey! Don't stare at her like that, it's rude."
Yachi felt a flustered, confused and overall anxious. In this short introduction she had never felt so many things at once it was starting to overwhelm her.
"This is great, there will be a manager to support you all next year too." The beard-nii-chan spoke again, this time surprisingly with much gentler tone than earlier. However, this remark made her a little jumpy and slightly burdened because Yachi have not decided yet whether she joins the team or not.
Yet Kiyoko-senpai came to the rescue. "She's still on a try out besides I suddenly invited her today, she'll be leaving for her committee duties. She's here to say hello."
"Nice to meet you all." Yachi bows properly this time to greet them.
"Nice to meet you!" The sudden loud yell from the entire team replied instantly, making Yachi jumped from the sudden response.
"She's still not used to us so please don't crowd her too often." Kiyoko-senpai spoke again.
Since Yachi already made an introduction and there was nothing left to do, Kiyoko-senpai tells her that there will be a practice tomorrow right after school so she can participate as manager candidate and make sure she wears her P.E uniform so she'll be comfortable.
"I understand. I will see you tomorrow, please excuse me." Yachi bid her farewell before closing the gym door again.
She instantly let out a huge breath and clutched to her chest. "So scary…" She wears her shoes and walks back to the school building for her committee duties.
"I went there on an impulse. They guys over there were huge too. What am I going to do tomorrow?"
The next day's weather seemed to reflect with Yachi's feelings. The sky was gloomy from the early morning and the rain seemed to keep pouring down even towards the lunch time. After knowing that she had to meet the volleyball team after school for a try out, she was all more nervous and anxious for what will happen in the later day.
Although Yachi was a bit clueless on managing a team, a quick research to the internet tells her that a manager must support the team directly in working towards their best performance in the games. They also required to work closely with the coaches to understand how each athlete perform.
'It all sounds simple but I never work closely with anyone before on a daily basis. Besides classwork and assignments, would I be able to make it through the team with my personality like this?' Yachi wonders that question throughout the entire night.
Which is perhaps why the due day for the tryout of the volleyball practice as a candidate manager, Yachi was feeling underwhelmed and restless. The sun was not visible through the dark clouds and she kept feeling tired.
'What should I do after school?' She sips on her banana juice mindlessly.
"Yachi-san!"
She jumps at the new voice calling for her from a distance. She looks towards the door where she sees familiar looking boys that she met form the previous days. The orange-haired boy waved at her with a bright smile from the door as the taller boy merely gave a small polite bow as they entered the classroom with ease while walking towards her.
In this second, Yachi's entire brain panicked.
'The boys from the volleyball team?! What do I do? What were their names?!' Yachi's train of questions starts running in her mind and she lightly gapes at the horror that she didn't even know their names from the previous day introduction.
Her palms started sweating and she could feel her heart banging against her chest. The dread started to fill inside her stomach.
'Have they introduced themselves? How can I forget the people I just met yesterday?!' Yachi's panics continues. Inside her brain, she envisions herself as being a failure for not being able to remember people's names properly. Although it might seem like an exaggeration, this mental mindscape made her froze completely over this trivial matter.
"Hi! I'm Hinata from class 1." The orange-colored boy introduced himself as Hinata before he points to the grumpy looking taller boy next to him. "His name is Kageyama."
"Hello." Kageyama greeted.
'Eh, am I saved?' Yachi wonders before she responds back to his greeting.
"Yachi-san, do you like studying?" Hinata asked.
It was a sudden and abrupt question that Yachi didn't expect. Still, this was their first personal meeting and Yachi didn't really know why they were here to meet her in the first place. She lets herself calm down and answered him.
"I don't hate it but…"
Hinata then showed his notebook towards her. "Can you teach us, English?" He asked, then he turns to Kageyama again. "Kageyama, you ask her too."
Kageyama bowed lightly again. "Please tutor us."
"If we fail the final exam we won't be able to make it to away games in Tokyo. We even went to Tsukishima, the glasses guy, for help but...Kageyama and I are so stupid that it sorts of pisses him off." Hinata pleaded.
"I'm not afraid of him." Kageyama grumbly spoke out.
Hinata hissed towards Kageyama's words. "Wouldn't it be better to have someone to teach us nicely?"
Yachi perked up at their conversation. 'So they went over to me to help them study?' That was fine for her, even for Yachi's standards. She wouldn't mind helping others with their studies. "If you don't mind me teaching you – "
"Really?" Hinata perked up happily.
Yachi nodded however her eyes furrowed worriedly. "Though I can't guarantee you that I'll teach you nicer than glasses-san."
Both Hinata and Kageyama shook their heads, "Don't worry about that part."
Afterwards Hinata and Kageyama took their own chairs to sit around Yachi's table as she took out her English notes. Upon taking their seats, Yachi then realized that this was the first time she sat close to any guys in her school here. Kageyama seemed really tall that he even towers over her when he sits down next to her. Meanwhile Hinata took his own seat right in front of her as she laid down his own notebook on her desk.
Yachi tries to shake away the nervousness of sitting down closely next to these boys so she settles it with asking what problems they were having issues on and helped them explain them thoroughly with her own notes.
Hinata beamed at the colorful pages of Yachi's notebooks and Kageyama listened attentively while he copies down Yachi's notes in his own book. Hinata was so impressed by Yachi's notes that his entire face beamed up with such gleeful expression which made Yachi's heart skips a little faster than usual. Yachi continues to ignore her skipping heart by explaining some of the exercises that they could follow.
"Your notes are so easy to read and you draw really well." Hinata complimented.
"My mom works at a design firm so she's always been picky about things like this. Oh, if you leave a space here, it'll be easier to fill in later." Yachi unconsciously took her own pencil and made several marks on Hinata's notes, "Also if you limit the numbers of colors you use, it won't get confusing…and then – ah!"
It was at this moment she realized that she was practically writing on Hinata's notes all over without permission. "I'm sorry! I'm writing all over your notebook."
Instead of being angry in response, Hinata looked down to his notes with his hands and beamed again. "Oh I see, you're amazing."
"It's…nothing…" Yachi felt the skip of her heart beat went faster than before and she couldn't really accept Hinata's words so wholeheartedly because she was embarrassed. Her cheeks were flushing and she could feel her neck was starting to get warmer too. She laughs off her flustered emotions aside with a broken chuckle.
Hinata continued on to copy Yachi's notes attentively afterwards. Watching the two boys writing so spiritedly, Yachi were curios to why they had to work so hard for volleyball.
"So…Hinata-kun…" Yachi started.
"Just Hinata is fine." Hinata chirped without taking his eyes away from his notes.
"Do you not like studying, Hinata?"
A cloud of gloom appeared above Hinata's head as he looked up from his notes. "I hate it. Sitting for a long time like this sucks."
"So you're trying really hard so you can go to Tokyo?"
"Yeah! We're going to have practice matches with the strongest schools from Tokyo." Hinata chirped excitedly.
Somehow in that few seconds of amazement, Yachi was enchanted by Hinata's passion about volleyball. He seemed so serious about making it through the final exams and it was because he had bigger goals afterwards.
That made Yachi a little envious. "That's amazing. I've never thought about anything so seriously before." Yachi muttered.
Hinata proceed to tell Yachi about the current team's rival is a school from Tokyo called Nekoma and how there were several players that were considered super powerful from their positions in volleyball terms that seemed to fly pass Yachi's ears because she didn't understand these volleyball terms quite right. He proceed in telling her about the powerhouses that he was looking forward to play against when he mentioned that one of the player's height was about 190cm tall.
"190 cm?!" Yachi was perplexed. Volleyball sounds like a rough sports game to her somehow. But she was also curios about another thing. "Hinata, are you a manager too?"
"Why?"
"I thought only tall people play volleyball and there were a lot of tall people at the team too."
Hinata's face turned into an expression of hurt and shock as he explained. "I m-may be short but I'm also a regular on the team too."
The last thing Yachi wanted to do to another person is to misjudge them especially when she judged them only from their appearance. But she isn't exactly doing great so far because she just offended one of regulars from the volleyball team.
Feeling awfully embarrassed and horrified due to her mistake, Yachi bowed her head in return for apology. "I'm so sorry!".
"That's fine! I'm used to it." Hinata chirped back in response, unbothered by her misjudgment. "Even if I'm not tall, I can fly."
With his smile full of confidence and bravery, such expressions that Yachi rarely sees on someone before, she was somehow becoming more perplexed by how awfully courageous Hinata came out to be. Yachi went speechless for a few seconds after Hinata's response that it took Kegayama's nudge to Hinata to shake her out of her reverie.
Seeing Hinata being so excited about facing tall and stronger teams in the future, Yachi added. "Then you must be like the Little Giant, Hinata."
"You know about the Little Giant too?!" Hinata jumps from his seat.
Kageyama merely rolled his eyes when he sees Hinata reacting vibrantly towards Yachi's comment. The dark haired boy then stares towards Yachi who seemed to be having difficulties in responding to Hinata. She momentarily shifts his eyes towards him for help but Kageyama only shrugged his shoulders and continue to write down on his notebook again.
'I guess this is the usual reaction when someone talks to Hinata according to Kageyama's reaction.'
"Isn't it a term when they call Japanese players who fights against tall and strong foreigners in sports matches?" Yachi replied although her voice wavers in uncertainty.
"Oh that's right. I am the Little Giant." Hinata nodded brightly at her in return.
"Hey, Little Giant that's not going to make it to Tokyo, hurry and copy this." Kageyama reminded Hinata who was starting to go out of topic again and Hinata hurries down to finish off their writing before the bell ring soon.
Yachi helped with the rest of the studies afterwards and they were able to make it before the bell rings when Hinata bounced back to Yachi again to ask for her number.
"It would be more convenient if I can ask you some questions through messages, is that fine with you, Yachi-san?" Hinata asks as he flips out his phone on his hand.
Surprisingly Kageyama was also quick to follow. "Me too." Before he added with a soft, "Please."
Yachi smiles at them both, feeling a little impressed that the boys were actually trying hard to get through their final exams with whatever they can so Yachi couldn't help but feel touched by their effort.
"It's okay." Yachi took out her own phone and proceed to exchange numbers with the two boys in front of her as they typed out their phone numbers in her phones as well. Seeing both Kageyama and Hinata wrote their names in hiragana, Yachi was started to feel strangely peculiar after she realized that she just put boys' numbers in her phone for the first time.
"Will you teach us again next time?" Hinata requested as the boys were about to leave from her classroom.
Yachi nodded. "Yes. Helping you both also helps me revise the materials too."
Suddenly Hinata reached out to grab Yachi's hands in his as he excitedly shakes her hands up and down in gratitude. Yachi was too slow to ever compute what just happened as he thanked her for her help with their English studies.
Yachi was thankful that Kageyama didn't start to shake her hands up and down too or else she won't be able to compute her brain even longer.
"See you at the club later!" Hinata waved goodbye as Kageyama took a bow in return as they both walked back to their own classes.
Yachi sighed at their figures disappearing into the distance. Keeping her flushed hands that was recently held by Hinata, she breathes deeply in exhaustion. "What is this feeling…it feels like I'm been directly left out under the sun for a while."
When Yachi reached back to her desk, she sees her open English notebooks and were about to pack them away when she sees the additional writing that was left on her page recently. On the corner of the page, there was a brightly colored sunflower with a small sunny face and a bubble speech saying "Thank you, Yachi-san!" followed by a drawing of an orange-haired and dark haired chibi crows next to it.
Yachi couldn't help but laugh lightly at the adorable drawings from the page already guessing who just left the additional drawings on her notebook.
