Chapter 12:

After Hinata's and Kageyama's arrival, it was as if a switch was turned on when they joined the team to play in the match. Yachi watches with giddiness for every time Hinata did his amazing high jumps in the air and how Kageyama sets quickly to Hinata's hand for quick sets. It was always satisfying to watch the response from people who sees their quicks for the first time.

Yachi smiled brightly when the whistle blows and the referee signs the end of the match with Karasuno's first win of the day. Shinzen's faced looked disgruntled before the captain ordered the entire team to do the penalty of diving drills.

Yachi head over to Karasuno's members and gave them towels and water bottles while Kiyoko discussing over the result of todays' matches in her notebook along with the coach.

"Hinata! Kageyama-kun! I'm so glad you both made it here just in time for the last match!" Yachi bounced towards their side as said boys turned to her.

"Yachi-san! I totally aced the tests perfectly! It was all thanks to your help!" Hinata beamed with his arms open wide.

Kageyama added with a nod, "Thank you for helping us pass the remedial, Yachi-san."

"As long as you both got here safe and sound. You both did amazing against Shinzen team members. They're well known for their combination attacks so going against them with your fast quicks was the best outcome." Yachi beamed back.

Hinata smiled sheepishly before he snorted his nose in a haughty expression, putting his hands on his hips while he lifts his chin as if to imitate an overly proud person. "You can count on me to do the unpredictable spikes."

Kageyama sneered, "You can't spike without my toss, idiot."

"I-I totally can!" Hinata growled back.

Yachi kind of misses how they bicker back and forth like this, it was a funny yet amusing sight to see that they were getting along in that way. "You got here so fast. Did you leave earlier?"

"Saeko-nee-san drove really fast so I'm glad we got here quicker than we thought." Kageyema said.

"Not sure if it was a safe ride though." Hinata added with a low mutter but Yachi and Kageyama caught what he said and trembled at his statement.

The only thing that mattered was the fact that they got here in full piece.

Yachi flailed her hands, "A-at least you got here which is good! Ah – since this is the last practice match for the day, you both can clean up and head to the cafeteria for dinner. Also – "

"Yachi-san, can I talk to you right now?"

The three Karasuno first years turned around and saw the familiar looking figure of Nekoma's captain. He was waving her to motion her to come over to his side of the court. Yachi's eyes widened as she remembered that she had to talk to him about tomorrow's temporary manager business.

"I have to go now. Oh, don't forget to put the vests in the basket since we have to do laundry later. I'll see you both later!" Yachi said quickly before she rushes away from them and head towards Nekoma's captain.

He was standing over with his arms crossed over his chest, eyes following her figure as she hops closer to him. "Kuroo-san, I'm sorry for the time."

Kuroo gave a friendly smile, "No worries. Just want to give you some heads up before we start tomorrow. So, I just want to brief on some few things."

Yachi prepares to jot down in her notebook as Kuroo began to explain some certain tasks about the Nekoma team that she had to help before the start and throughout the practice. How she has to collect all of the members, make sure that some of the members who were feeling injured gets notified immediately to her attention and be ready on standby in case anything happened.

"You might have to hear more pointers tomorrow from the director and our coach but overall that's what I wanted to brief you up on. As for as meeting the members…we can do that tomorrow morning."

Yachi stops jotting down the words in her notebook before she looked up, "Are you sure, Kuroo-san?"

Kuroo eyes twinkle in amusement before he winked at her. "I just feel like keeping you to myself for now, is that alright?"

"Eh?" Yachi was stupefied by his previous word that her eyes widened in shock and she felt a little feverish too.

Suddenly Kuroo laughs and poked her right cheek with his finger, "Loosen up, Karasuno-chan. I don't bite."

He might say that but his eyes speak another meaning and Yachi just finds herself flustered and confused. "K-Kuroo-san…um…" Yachi mumbles off incoherent words due to the sudden feeling of being awfully out of place and shy.

She wasn't used to encountering situations like this. Her whole relationship with boys has always been platonic and polite at most, since they were mostly classmate-term so she has never been picked on like this directly. There might have been some cases where it was accidental because she was unsure of her own control of emotions but this – this was real.

Yachi felt incredibly flustered when she sees how Kuroo openly stared at her like that with the bright eyes, handsome smile and a charming expression on his face.

But Yachi needs to think of an escape, she really can't deal with this yet. She didn't have a plan for this situation yet!

"Excuse me but…I – I have to go now for kitchen duty. Um…excuse me, Kuroo-san."

Yachi said quickly before she leaps away with her little feet running across the gym and head out to where the kitchen was to prepare the camp's dinner. Kuroo stared to where she goes with her little legs fluttering away as she ran and he also noticed the way her hair adorably bounces to her steps.

"So Karasuno-chan manages to find a way out." Kuroo muttered with a grin as he watches the little starry girl who ran away from him.

Kuroo couldn't help himself to feel eager in getting to know her. When he sees her bright brown eyes for the first time, he was stunned for a moment because she looked familiar to the idol that he had been crushing on since forever.

However, there was something special about Yachi that made her stand out to him. When she smiled towards him for the first time in their first greeting, Kuroo felt something that he hadn't felt for such a long time.

Something was starting to bloom inside his chest.


"You're really good at this, Yachi-chan." Yukie commented as she watches Yachi placed down several trays of food on the table for the members to come and eat. Dinner time starts in a few minutes and Yachi managed to get all the food and drinks prepared.

Yachi smiles sheepishly, "Thank you, Yukie-san. You're also really quick in making the dishes too."

Yukie grins, "I cook really quick because I get too hungry if I make them for too long."

"I totally understand what you mean." Yachi laughs at the older girl's words.

A few members of different teams came inside the cafeteria and brightened when they saw the food. They came quickly and took their plates, eagerly receiving the food by Yukie and Yachi.

Yukie and Yachi manages to quickly serve the food for the people who came to eat their dinner at that hour. Yachi was able to prepare more dishes as they were quickly running out and placed them again so that there won't be empty food-trays.

As Yachi gave out a bowl of miso soup to a member from Ubugawa team, a familiar face came to her and hold out his empty bowl of rice. "Seconds please!"

'The Mohawk guy…he seems to be pretty hungry tonight.' Yachi smiles and gets the bowl from him, "Of course. Do you need more scoops than usual?"

"Yes, please!" He replied eagerly with bright eyes and a wobbly smile. Yachi remembered him crying his heart out in the morning earlier when they saw each other for the first time.

As Yachi fills his bowl of rice with extra scoop, he smiled widely and suddenly cried out again in tears when he receives the bowl. "Th-thank you so much!"

Yachi was dumbfounded by his reaction so she could only say with a confused, "You're welcome?"

She hears several laughter coming from the members, who were wearing the Nekoma jerseys, stood in line beside the crying Mohawk guy.

"Yamamoto, please don't embarrass yourself further."

"You're scaring her away!"

"Move along, Tora! We're hungry!"

Tora-san, Yachi concluded, moved from his position and gave Yachi a wobbly smile again and went to his table to eat. Yachi scooped more rice bowls for the Nekoma members when she saw Hinata standing in between them.

"Yachi-san! You cooked the dishes tonight?" Hinata asks as he gave her his bowl of rice.

Yachi receives it to fill his bowl full. "Yes. Please eat a lot, Hinata."

"Of course! Oh, I want to introduce him to you – he's Kenma! The guy I talk about before with you." Hinata then nudged to the awfully tired-looking pudding-blonde haired boy next to him.

Yachi remembers him as the setter of Nekoma, she remembered how sharp his eyes looked when he played in the game despite him looking like he wasn't athletic. Yachi gave a small bow, "Nice to meet you, I'm Yachi Hitoka."

The setter returned her greeting with his own. "Kozume Kenma. Nice to meet you." Kenma gave her his bowl and spoke up, "Please scoop a half amount of rice for me."

Yachi nodded and scooped his rice but Hinata slipped in, "Eh Kenma, you're only eating that much? You need to eat more."

"I don't feel like eating more." Kenma commented then he receives the bowl from Yachi. "Thank you."

"Kenma-san, Kuroo-san told me that you should at least eat one bowl full of rice. You were so out of energy when we did our matches today." Another boy spoke up beside Kenma.

Hinata nodded in agreement to the other boy's statement. "I agree with Inuoka. You should eat more."

"Hee…it's so troublesome though." Kenma replied tiredly.

"But the food is so delicious tonight so you don't have to hold back, Kenma-san. Ah! Are you the one who cooked our dinner? Are you from Karasuno too? I'm Inuoka Sou!" The bright tall brown haired boy spoke energetically.

"Yachi Hitoka, nice to meet you Inuoka-san." Yachi remembers that Hinata mentioned Inuoka before.

"Inuoka is fine. I heard that you'll be our temporary manager for tomorrow, Yachi-san. Have you talked to our captain yet?" Inuoka piped brightly.

Hinata's eyes widened and he faltered when he heard this. "Wait – why is Yachi-san going to be your manager for tomorrow?"

Yachi smiled sheepishly, she forgot to tell Hinata about this. "Ah…in order to accommodate every teams fairly, we have the managers to rotate into several team per day. I was pointed to be with Nekoma for tomorrow."

Hinata frowned, "Eh?! But Yachi-san, we need you in our team."

"You'll have Yukie-san from Fukurodani to help you out tomorrow." Yachi replied, "Don't worry, I'll be rotating back to you again soon."

However, Hinata could only respond in defeated tone. He wanted to talk more but Inuoka cuts in saying that they were holding the line for too long. Hinata walks away defeated expression, followed by Kenma who managed to grabbed another plate of salad. Inuoka turned to Yachi and beamed, "I'll look forward to work with you, Yachi-san."

Yachi couldn't help but smile at the puppy-smile expression Inuoka was showing to her. "Me too."

After the line of Hinata, Kenma, and Inuoka moved away – Yachi was greeted with the captain of the Nekoma and Fukurodani team together.

Kuroo gave Yachi a soft smile, "Hello Yachi-san, you're working really hard."

"Kuroo-san, hello." Yachi greeted back.

"Hello! You're going to be our temporary manager too for this week, right?" A wild black and white haired boy chirped when he came next to Kuroo, smiling brightly towards Yachi.

Yachi recognized him as the ace of the Fukurodani team, one that she was so enchanted with when she watched Fukurodani played against Karasuno for the first time.

What a presence, even in off court Yachi could tell that he's the ace. The way he carried himself was confident. Something that Yachi wasn't accustomed with on a regular basis.

Yachi blinks her eyes, she almost sees the shadowed image of Hinata and him overlapping each other when he smiled brightly like that.

"Y-yes. You must be…Bokuto-san, right?"

"Haha so you knew my name, that's great! I'm very excited to meet someone new as our manager! Kaori and Yukippe are cool girls so I'm looking forward to have you in our team!"

Kuroo rolled his eyes, "Leave it to Bokuto to scare off new people." He commented playfully.

Bokuto huffed in response, like an owl puffing his wings towards another. "I'm not scaring off people, I'm trying to be friendly!"

"Yeah, yeah." Kuroo waved his hand lazily to the owl captain pouting, "Just get your food, bro – we're going to hold the line for too long."

"You're such a loser." Bokuto grumbled as he asked for another plate of serving to Yachi. He then smiles widely again towards her, "By the way, I haven't caught your name yet."

"My name is Yachi Hitoka, nice to meet you, Bokuto-san." Yachi said as she gave his serving.

Bokuto beamed when he received the food, "Ho – what a cute name! Is it okay if I call you Yachi?"

"S-sure?" Yachi replied, unsure of how to act before the overly bright cheerful boy. "Um…do you need another serving, Bokuto-san?"

"Really?! Then can I have another plate of chicken too? Those are really yummy!"

Yukie spoke up as she passes by behind Yachi while carrying a box in her hands, "Yachi cooked most of the dishes tonight and she cooked a lot of amount. Have as much as you like, boys."

"WOAH! No wonder the dishes tastes so delicious!" Bokuto's eyes widened before sending a thumbs up towards Yachi. "Send my compliments to the chef!"

It was such a funny gesture that Yachi couldn't help but laughed because of him. Yachi covered her mouth with her hands.

In this situation, both Kuroo and Bokuto was caught off guard by Yachi's laugh. It was surprising because they didn't expect to hear such laughter from her in this short amount of time they encounter each other.

The way her eyes twinkled with amusement, her cheeks flushed pink and her the edges of her lips was caught behind her hand.

And her sound – she sounds likes twinkling summer bells that reminds you of the warm and happy days.

Bokuto smiled sheepishly, suddenly feeling proud that he was able to make the younger girl laughed out loud like that.

Kuroo on the other hand, froze up from the the tips of his wild hair to the toes of his feet. All that was repeated inside his mind was –

'CUTECUTECUTECUTECUTECUTE CUTECUTECUTECUTECUTECUTE!'

"Um…Bokuto-san, if you're done with your food then please go back to your seat." The Fukurodani's setter spoke up in the line after them. "You're keeping the line too long."

Yachi watches with a light chuckle as the captains of Nekoma and Fukurodani was pushed away by the setter of the Fukurodani team. Once they walked away with their trays full of food, he turned to Yachi with an apologetic smile.

"I'm so sorry for Bokuto-san. He gets really rowdy when he is excited to meet someone." He said.

"That's fine. Full scoop?" Yachi asked when he prepares his bowl of rice.

"Yes, please." He replied.

He watches Yachi as she scooped a full bowl of rice for him. As he was about to move, he turned towards her again. "Yachi-san, was it?"

Yachi blinked at his call but replied. "Yes."

He nodded, "My name is Akaashi Keiji. I'm looking forward to your cooperation on the day you rotate to us as our manager. Bokuto-san might be a strange character so I hope you don't feel burden by him too much." He explained, "Our team is quite cooperative but we have some individuals who are a little bit difficult to handle with. If there are any questions about the team, you can always come to me."

Yachi felt her chest lighten with a bit of ease when she hears that. 'What a nice person.'

"Thank you very much, Akaashi-san."

"Then I'll see you later. Thank you for the food." The other boy smiled in return before he goes back to his seat.

Yachi sighs, feeling a little strange after the encounters she met today but she was glad that she managed to help everyone for today. Even though she was only a first year, she learned that she was also capable of meeting new people and communicating with others well if she doesn't focus too much on messing things up. As Yachi continues to serve dinner for the members, a hopeful seed planted in her mind.

'Being a manager is worth breaking out of my shell. I have to keep doing my best!'.


Author's note

Hello there! I appreciate everyone who read my story until this far. Thank you for the favs and follows :D Please review my story too if you can, I'm very curious about what you all think about this story. Thank you for your time!