Chapter 15:

The match ended with Fukurodani's win and Yachi watched as the team did a lap of diving drills. The members groaned but do their punishment with heavy hearts. Yachi quickly prepares for the towels and water bottles to give to the members who were done with their penalties.

As she gave the water bottles to libero, he sighed heavily before looking to the other side. "It seems like we can't really budge our points further if we can't find another strategy against Fukurdoani's strong offense."

Yachi gave a towel for the vice-captain, Kai. He gave a friendly smile towards Yachi for the towel before he wiped his sweat with it. "I guess we need to know what's the best course to go against them. Our back attacks are also not improving against their defense."

"Can't we just try to spike in the places that are empty? Do we need to think of complicated strategies to get a point after all?" Lev came over with a worried expression.

Yaku glared, "Don't be ridiculous, it's not that easy. Besides, Lev – you need to get your receives right! How many times do I have to tell you that you can't just rely on your long limbs to reach the ball properly, you have to move!"

"Geh! But it's the same thing." Lev protested with a pout.

"It's not! We're going to practice your receives later so don't even try to escape your basic skill training."

"Eh….Yaku-san~" Lev continued to whine.

Yachi watches their conversation with a light expression before she notices the other members finished their penalties and out of breath. Yachi quickly gives them their water bottles for them to drink.

"Thank you, Yachi. You're a lifesaver." Inuoka says as he panted heavily on his knees before he stood straight up and accepted the water bottle from her.

"You did great, Inuoka! I'm really amazed by how quick you are with read blocking."

Inuoka smiles and tilts his head, "You think so? Hehe." Inuoka felt a little bashful by her comment.

Kenma was about to walk pass by them when Yachi reaches out to him, "Kozume-san, here's your drink."

"Guhh…." Kenma voiced tiredly as he accepted the bottle tiredly as he drank it all in one go.

Inuoka chuckles at his action, "Kenma-san gets tired easily in doing the penalties than the actual games."

Kenma breathes out when he finishes with his water bottle, "It's torture. They're torturing us."

"He's always a little dramatic. You'll get used to it, Yachi." Inuoka added with laughter in his eyes.

Yachi hands out a clean tower to the setter. "You did really well, Kozume-san. Ah, if your neck feels worse then you should apply the gel muscle again."

"Inuoka, come here!"

The brown haired tall boy turned, "Ah, Kai-senpai is calling me. See ya!" Then dashing off to the third years who were calling for him.

Yachi opens her notebook again and inspected the scores and detailed notes that she jotted down from the previous games. Rounding a conclusion after watching the match between Nekoma and Fukurodani.

"It seems like Fukurodani are the most well-versed players so far. Their points from their spikes are higher than the number of their blockings." Yachi concluded from her notes.

Kenma's head perked up after hearing her words. "You counted their numbers of scored spikes too?"

Yachi nodded, "I gathered their numbers from Karasuno's matches too but from this I'm able to draw a conclusion from Fukurdoani's play like this."

Yachi lowered her notebook to show her page to Kenma who leaned closer to her side to read it properly. Kenma was surprised by the neat and detailed layout of the writing in Yachi's notebooks – he also spotted something in the bottom corner of the page.

"Is that…me?" Kenma asked.

He pointed to a light sketch of Kenma's figure in a setting position. What surprised Kenma by this simple sketch was how the image was able to show that this was really him with his features.

Yachi fumbles a bit, forgetting that she just did draw a sketch of Kenma from the game, and closes her book. "A-ah! I'm so sorry! Sometimes I sketch players when I found them posing a really interesting action so – I'm sorry I drew you without your permission. I'll tear it off right now if you don't want – "

When Yachi was about to tear the edge of the page where Kenma's sketch was, he reached out and stopped her hand quickly. "Don't. It's okay."

"Eh?" Yachi was bewildered.

"I don't really mind. You said you drew players? Can I see them?"

Yachi faltered a little bit, "You…want to see my sketches?"

"Un. Is it okay?" Kenma asks.

Yachi was doubtful to show it to him but decided to do it since he already saw her small sketch of him, it would be impolite if she didn't show him her drawings since she did draw him without permission.

"Um…my drawings are not really that good but…here." Yachi then flips to her previous pages where there were several pages shows various sketches of players from the training camp drawn in different positions.

Kenma's eyes glued to the pages as he leaned in closer next to her, inspecting the line of her artwork closely. He was amazed. Even with the simple lines she sketched on to the page, he could see the detailed features of the figures and faces of the person she drew from. He was curious to see more of her work as Yachi shyly shows him a page where she recently drew members from the previous game of Nekoma and Fukurodani.

Bokuto's spiking figure, Akaashi's setting, Yaku's receiving through a drill, Lev's broad spike, Kuroo's blocking arms, Tora's jump serves and it seems like she also drew some Kenma of when he did the dump shots. Such detailed work, Kenma was even impressed by the expression on Tora's face from Yachi's sketch.

His eyes lingered on the sketches of him, "You draw really well, Yachi-san but I do confess I didn't know whether you drew me differently on purpose."

Yachi's eyes widened, panic spread across her eyes. "Eh? Did I perhaps offend you with my drawing, Kozume-san? I'm so sorry." She tries to bow in apology but Kenma stops her before she does.

"No, I mean – um…" He felt a little weird explaining it to her without making it awkward. He taps to the sketch of him on her page, "I mean, you drew me too nicely. I don't look as good as that."

Yachi blinks her eyes before she frowns in confusion, "Good as this? But Kozume-san, I tried to draw with the way I see it with my own eyes. Does it really look that strange?"

"Well," Kenma rubbed his cheek, awkwardness ensues. "I don't believe that I look that good in real life so…"

Yachi replied, "But Kozume-san, you're good looking in my eyes."

Kenma's head did not compute for a few seconds before he actually processed her words. His felt the hitch of his breath and unconsciously froze his entire brain for a few seconds when he heard her words. His heart suddenly beats in fastened pace and an explosion of warmth spread inside his stomach.

Before he could even give out a reply, Yachi seems to realize what she just said when her entire face suddenly colored in red and her eyes shakes in panic.

"N-not that I mean you're good looking like that, I mean – um! You are good looking, handsome even – wait, that didn't come out right, I mean – Kozume-san, you are a good looking person in real life too. Um, realistically speaking, you are…too good looking? I mean it like in that way, not as in – ahh..."

Kenma watches as Yachi fumbles with her words, her hands shakes trying to explain her reason behind her previous statement but find no actual proper words came out so the wording came out quite strange. However, even with Kenma's slight second hand embarrassment he felt from her, he was quite amused by her response.

She really does have a cute side to her personality.

Kenma awkwardly coughed and shifts his eyes a little. "It's okay, Yachi-san. I understand what you mean."

"Um…I didn't mean to insult you, Kozume-san." Yachi says faintly with a guilty expression.

Her brown eyes rounded up like a wounded puppy – Kenma stiffened lightly, blinking his eyes as he thought he saw two puppy-like ears coming out of her her head.

He tries to get a grip of himself when he felt his cheeks warming. 'This is bad, even her charm attacks are sent unconsciously too.'

"I get it, Yachi-san. You don't have to worry." He says before he shyly voices, "Thank you."

Yachi was a little confused but nodded nonetheless.

Afterwards there was quite an awkward tension in the air between the two of them. Kenma was one to experience in many situations where he felt himself at an awkward gap in conversations. But he did feel a little bad for the other girl who seemed to look pained each time a second pass between them.

Maybe he'll try to break the air to save her out of her embarrassment? He did initiate the topic of her drawing after all.

Kenma eventually blurted out again. "Do you have any other works of your art that I can see?"

Yachi blinks out of her stupor and nodded, "Y-yes, I do! Um…I have an account if you'd like to look for it but I should warn you that not all of my work is that great."

Kenma shook his head, "It's fine, I'm curious to see your other works."

Yachi nodded before she took out her phone and showed him her account where she eventually showed him several of her posted works online. Kenma hums as he showed interest to her drawings. He definitely liked her style of drawing, she was also quite good.

A talented artist like her is rare to find.

"Do you do commissions, Yachi-san?"

Yachi shook her head, "I never considered it before…"

"I'm interested in commissioning some pieces."

Yachi's eyes widened as she grips her phone and book to her chest, "Eh? Really? Are you sure?"

Kenma nodded, "I've been actually trying to look for some artist to make something for me for me but it's been hard to find with the style I liked so – I'd like to request a commission if that's okay."

"I've never tried doing commissions before though so I'm not confident if I can sell it to you. But I'd like to give it a try. What kind of drawing would you like me to make?"

It turns out Kenma have some sort of online platform where he shares live streams of games so he also liked to have some art so he can post on his account. Since Yachi understands what kind of piece he wanted to have, she eventually agreed to make some for him.

"Then is it okay to share your number with me? We can exchange info about the commission." Kenma offered.

He kept surprising himself the longer he speaks with her, especially to someone who he just met recently.

Never in his life that he would ask out a girl's phone number outwardly like this but he didn't really want to make things complicated. He just want to keep in touch with her – for the commission, of course.

"Okay."

They proceed to exchange their numbers before talking more about Kenma's online streaming platform. As Yachi and Kenma talked longer in their conversation, several pairs of eyes were staring at them intently from the other side of the court.

"Do you think they're talking about volleyball or something else?" Hinata hums as he watches Yachi smiling and talking animatedly with Kenma, showing her notebook to him as he leaned in closer to her for a better look.

"They look like they're having fun." Kageyama replied bitterly, sipping to his water bottle with frustration. 'He's too close to her, dammit.'

Hinata grits his teeth, "This rotation manager system is too cruel. I can't believe we don't get to spend much time with Yachi-san and Shimizu-senpai."

"With or without Yachi-san, you both should be able to look for your own selves properly. Yachi-san is doing her best at Nekoma so you should also do your best here." Sugawara came with a nagging tone.

"But Sugawara-senpai, I have a gut feeling that something else might be happening with Yachi-san when she's not with us." Hinata retorted.

Asahi, who was near them, shivered, "Please don't jinx it."

Sugawara rolled his eyes instead, "Focus on your own training first, Hinata. And don't worry about, Yachi-chan. She'll report to us if anything happens."

"Osu." Hinata grumbled in reply.

Before Kageyama moves to prepare for the next game, his eyes went back to Yachi again and frowned. He really didn't like the way the Nekoma's setter stood too close to her.

Kageyama's hand gripped to his water bottle tighter as he watched Yachi and Kenma from his side of the court.


Author's note:

Thank you all for reading until this far! Please let me know what you think of the story by reviewing :) I would love to know what you all think. See you next time!