It was after lunch time when Yachi feels the tiredness kicks in earlier than usual. She had just finished helping the kitchen staff in washing the dishes before she had to go back to the gym and prepare for the next session of practice for the rest of the day.
She isn't that tired but she feels a little lethargic. Her usual energy for the day has somehow dried up and she wondered if her body had caught up to the hyped tension from the training camp this week. She really felt left behind from the other managers and athletes who still had so much energy even during the day.
Speaking of energy, right now Yachi was battling her might to carry all the filled water bottles into Fukurodani's court in a basket but even so her arms felt sore and she felt the discomfort in carrying the basket from the kitchen all the way to the gym.
"…chan! Yacchan!"
Bokuto calls her with his sudden appearance, causing Yachi to yelp and fumbles with her basket from shock. Bokuto instantly reached out to keep the basket in place by placing his hands on top of hers on the sides of the basket without having it fall to the ground.
"What's wrong, Yacchan? Your heads still up in the clouds?" Bokuto asks in concern as he stares down at the girl.
"B-Bokuto-san…" She greeted him sheepishly, smiling at him despite feeling tired. "Sorry, I didn't know you were calling for me."
She feels a little strange as his large hands were placed over her small ones on the sides of the basket where they momentarily held on to each other. For some reason, Yachi felt a little bewildered at such bold gesture from Fukurodani's ace but it seemed like he doesn't have other intention with this action, keeping in place so that the basket doesn't fall.
Bokuto blinks his eyes for a few times before his face zoomed in to lean to Yachi's face and Yachi immediately leaned back in surprise from his action. "B-Bokuto-san?"
Bokuto hummed before he leaned back and tilted his head, "Yacchan, you look a little paler than usual. Are you feeling unwell?"
He then proceeds to place his palm on her forehead and Yachi slightly flushed at the gesture before she shook her head a little, "Oh - I'm not sick, Bokuto-san."
"But you look a little pale. Wait, I'll carry this one for you. Maybe you shouldn't push yourself too hard today, Yacchan." Bokuto then took the basket out of her hands.
"Eh – but Bokuto-san, I can carry those by myself." She tries to reason with him but the owl captain merely laughs brightly and easily reach out to pat Yachi's head.
"It's fine, Yacchan! Let me help you a bit." He says as he smiled brightly at her before his eyes turns into a softer look, "But I'm serious when I say you shouldn't push yourself too much, Yacchan. As captain, I want to make sure that you're okay."
Yachi decided to let him be and nodded obediently, "Okay, Bokuto-san. Thank you for looking out for me."
Bokuto lifted his chin up in pride and harrumphed, "I'm such a great captain after all! Haha!"
Yachi couldn't help the giggle passing from her lips as she tried to hide her laughter behind her hand. What a bold and confident person, Yachi is greatly amused.
"Besides I know how hard it is to take care of our team. Kaori and Yukippe also worked really hard when they support our team as managers, that is why the members must always look for each other." Bokuto began explaining as they walk their way towards the gym.
Yachi tilts her head and smiles warmly, "You all must really care for each other. It's wonderful."
Bokuto smirked wider, "Of course! Our team is the best after all, gyahaha! But – " He looked back to Yachi in a serious tone as continued, "This does not exclude you, Yacchan. So you don't have to feel indebted or guilty when we choose to help you out at times."
Yachi blinked at his words, a little surprised by his statement. "Eh?"
Bokuto continued with an eased tone, "I'm just saying – I had a feeling that you were that type of person. I heard you just became a manager recently, right?"
"R-right." Yachi replied, unsure of where this was going.
Bokuto gave a loose smile, "Once you are in a sports team – comradeship is usually very close between members so we always look out for each other without having second thoughts. It's why we call each other by first names so that we can feel closer as teammates."
Yachi slowly nodded, suddenly understanding why the members of Fukurodani team calls her by the nickname despite them only knowing for a few hours of the day. Since she isn't in a sports team before, she didn't exactly know the culture within sports team altogether but this was something that she learns very recently.
She feels like she understands what Bokuto meant. "I see…"
Bokuto shrugged his shoulders, "It's not that different but I'd like to imagine that we're all sort of like a family. That's why we always look out and help each other so easily. Hmm…how do I say it? It's like a second nature to us that we should help each other and be helped in return – something like that?"
'So he's telling me that I shouldn't think too much when someone tries to help because it's considered normal for them to help each other out even if it's not within their duties to do so.' Yachi thought over the conclusion to Bokuto's words.
"I…I understand them now, Bokuto-san. Thank you for your insight…honestly I'm not really used to such things like this. Being in a team has brought me thinking for so many things. I always learn something new every time." Yachi spoke.
Bokuto chuckles and ruffles her hair, the gesture warms Yachi's heart again. "It'll take some time for you to adapt to fully into the team but I hope that you can learn a little bit with us during the training camps we have."
"Hn! I'll make sure to do my best too!" Yachi gave him her brightest smile in return.
"Yosh! That's the spirit!" Bokuto returns her bright smile with his own.
When the next practice match was starting soon, Yachi helps to prepare the court by mopping some spots where the floor was a little bit slippery. As soon as she was done with mopping, she saw Kuroo standing over to the side of the court while he around as if he was looking for something.
"Kuroo-san, is there something you're looking for?" Yachi came over with her mop and asked the Nekoma captain.
The boy turned around and brightened when he sees Yachi's face. "Yacchan! I was just looking for my phone. I remembered putting them here somewhere on the last practice match before lunch time."
Yachi then also helped to look at where his phone could be before she decided to just make this issue resolved faster. "Do you think it'll be quicker if you call your phone, Kuroo-san?"
Kuroo perked up at this as he stared at Yachi. "Then, do you mind letting me borrow your phone for a bit?"
Yachi took out her phone from her pocket and hands it over to Kuroo to where he smiles in thanks as he typed his phone number in her phone and calls his phone. It didn't take too long before they could hear a ringing tone of a phone somewhere near them from the floor where it sounded like the phone's sound was muffled by some things.
Kuroo and Yachi tries to look and see where the sound was coming from. Upon seeing the piles of sports vests on a corner, Yachi immediately went towards it and pushed the pile of sports vests to the side where she finally sees a buzzing smartphone underneath the pile.
"I found it!" She exclaimed as she took the buzzing phone from her number and then hand it over to Kuroo.
"Oh, thanks a lot, Yacchan!" He says happily as he returned her phone and took his from her hand. As he took the phone in his hand, he then added, "Since you have my number in your phone, make sure to save mine properly, Karasuno-chan."
"A-ah." Yachi just realized that she now has Kuroo's phone number in her phone. "O-okay, Kuroo-san."
Kuroo smiles wider and then motioned to her as he shows his phone screen where he also added her phone number in his. Somehow with this gesture, Yachi felt a little shy at seeing him adding her phone number so easily because of this.
"Hey, I want to have Yacchan's phone number too!" Bokuto came to their spot and pouted when he overheard Kuroo talking about saving his number in her phone. Bokuto quickly whipped out his phone and walk towards Yachi. "Yacchan, let's exchange numbers too!"
"Eh? S-sure, Bokuto-san?" She was a little bit surprised by this but seeing that the owl captain was so excited to exchange phone numbers with her, Yachi allows him to type his phone number in her phone and have her type her number in his phone.
When Yachi received her phone back, she sees the display name that Bokuto saved in her phone.
Ace of Fukurodani, Bokuto Koutaro
'He sure wears his title proudly.' She smiled.
"See, I can also be friends with Yacchan." Bokuto teased Kuroo who was glaring with daggers towards Bokuto, showing off Yachi's number in his phone.
"You really don't do subtle, don't you?" Despite Kuroo's sharp smile, his eyes were filled with vicious glare.
Bokuto raised his eyebrows and laughed, patting Kuroo's shoulder. "Friendship is all about good timing, Kuroo."
"Yeah. Good timing." Kuroo scoffed and rolled his eyes, shaking Bokuto's hand from his shoulder. He then turned his face towards Yachi, "I'm sorry for whatever you're going to have to go through for the rest of the day with this loud owl."
"Eh? I – I um…." Yachi was unsure on how to respond to that but Bokuto easily cuts off and wrapped his arm around Yachi's shoulder easily and pulled her towards his side. Yachi was surprised by this action, again as Bokuto seemed to be comfortable being close to her somehow, and watched as the Fukurodani captain spoke.
"Yacchan will do just fine our team. I'll make sure that she'll have better experience in spending time with our team than yours."
Then he swiftly turned around with Yachi and walked towards their side of the court, "Let's prepare for the next match, Yacchan! We're going to go against Shinzen next."
"Y-yes, Bokuto-san." Yachi piped back and walked with him. She briefly glanced back to Kuroo and gave him a small smile before she follows Bokuto towards their team.
Kuroo watched a scowl as the owl captain dragged the starry blonde manager away. He really didn't like the way Bokuto gets too comfortable with the petite manager so easily.
"Looks like that owl knows a trick or two." He grumbled out before he turned away to his own team, feeling a little bit bitter after Bokuto's closeness to Yachi earlier.
He tries to think on the positive things to cool down his bitter fire in his chest. At least he had Yachi's number in his phone now.
Author's Notes:
Hello everyone, thank you for reading the latest updates :D Two chapters for this week only. I'm also going to be on a hiatus for a while like for around two weeks (or more, I'm not sure) because I had to manage things in my life a little bit. Work and studies are kind of messy at the moment so I had to manage that haha. Anyways, thank you for reading until this far! Don't forget to leave your thoughts in the reviews :) I would appreciate it a lot. See you in the next chapter 3
