Hitomi was in the usual convenience store, going on her normal snack run for this week. Lately, she had been going alone and it was mostly very quiet for obvious reasons. Just as expected, she hadn't seen Nishinoya for around three or four weeks now because of his training camp.

At first, she thought everything would resume to being normal but that was hardly the case. She found that coming to the store and realizing that he wouldn't be here as well made the place seem…empty.

Eventually, she became accustomed to him not being here. Although, that's actually how it always was before she had ever met him. In other words, her life returned to how it used to be and yet, she felt a strange sense of loneliness. Of course, she would never openly admit that though.

Well, not everything returned to how it used to be. In his absence, Nishinoya had continued to text her periodically. Today appeared to be no different, as her phone buzzed just as she was picking out a few bottles of drinks to buy.

From: Weirdo

Subject: I Miss You!

Text: Hitomi-chan! I feel like it's been so long since I've seen your beautiful face! So long that I could have forgotten what you look like by now! But I could never forget how beautiful you look! I miss you and can't wait to see you again! My training camp just ended today too, so I hope we can see each other soon!

Hitomi rolled her eyes at his usual corny lines, but there was a small smile on her face nonetheless. Lately, she had begun to reply a bit more often. It was mostly because she was bored. There wasn't much studying to do during the summer vacation, and she had already completed all of her summer homework.

There was only so much she could do at home, and it wasn't like she had any friends. Watching TV, playing video games, reading, and other seemingly fun activities very quickly became mundane when that's all she could do every day during the break. What used to be a reward for studying hard and completing homework was now a repetitive and monotonous task.

To: Weirdo

Subject RE: I Miss You!

Text: Did the training camp go well?

Even so, her replies were always rather short. She was a cold and blunter person by nature, but her responses also revealed her awkwardness. Not that she lacked social etiquette, but it was more of just the unfamiliarity of it all.

She was used to interacting with business partners and people of a higher class. It was the world she was born in. The kind of world that forced her to always put on a mask. To smile and be cordial to the right people. In that sense, she had no problems with interacting with others.

Nishinoya, however, was the only person in her contacts that wasn't a part of this world. He wasn't just some person she had to act nice to in order to be on their good side. He had nothing to do with her family connections and their businesses.

He was an acquaintance that was slowly but surely becoming a real friend.

As such, Hitomi was a bit unfamiliar on how to act. Of how friends treated each other and how they responded to texts. She thought she knew from past experiences, but those people weren't exactly to be considered friends.

Originally, she was curt because she didn't want to get the boy's hopes up. Now, she just simply didn't know how to handle it.

His messages were always filled with enthusiasm, and she wanted to respond in kind but was entirely unused to it. While she convinced herself that she was only responding so much because she was bored, there most certainly was a part of her that wanted to continue doing so just because.

Eventually, she'd be able to text back with more ease and in a gentler way. For now, this would have to do and Nishinoya didn't mind in the slightest. Something Hitomi was grateful for. After sending her reply, she shoved her phone back into her pocket.

Not even half a minute later, she felt the same vibration on her thigh. The girl blinked, setting down the bottle back onto the shelf and taking out her phone again.

From: Weirdo

Subject RE:RE: I Miss You!

Text: It was awesome! We fought so many strong teams! We even had a big barbecue on the last day! I made a lot of friends and even saw the Tokyo Skytree!

Hitomi furrowed her brows in confusion at that. Tokyo Skytree? He had told her before that their training camp was going to be at Shinzen Private High School. Looking the school up on her phone, her confusion increased. The school was in Saitama. How could he have seen the Tokyo Skytree from there?

The girl laughed, realizing that he must have seen just a regular cell tower and mistook itfor Tokyo Skytree. She wouldn't put it past him. It seemed like something he would do, being the happy idiot that he was. She typed back a reply, informing him of his mistake.

Hitomi relocked her phone, returning it to her pocket. Again, within a few seconds, her phone buzzed. She sighed while taking it out, although there wasn't really much annoyance in the single breath.

Nishinoya seemed to laugh off his mistake, noting how even just a regular cell tower looked enormous to someone who's only ever lived in Miyagi. He casually invited her out to Tokyo, suggesting that they could see the real Tokyo Skytree together. While on that note, he asked her where she was and when he could see her next because texting her tonight really made him miss her all the more.

Hitomi looked up in thought, debating on whether or not to tell him she was actually at the store right now. After a moment, she decided to snap a picture of what was inside her shopping basket. She attached the image to her message, letting him know that she was at the usual store.

Instead of putting her phone away again, Hitomi decided to wait for his reply. Except, it never came, oddly enough. He almost always replied within seconds, so it would have been pointless for her to lock her phone and put it back in her pocket. If the previous two times were any indication. However, the one time she decided to wait on his response was the one time he didn't text back immediately.

Even after a couple of minutes, there was still no new messages. Hitomi tilted her head and slightly furrowed her brows in confusion. She shrugged, not thinking much about it. She relocked her phone and shoved it into her pocket.

Finally, she was able to return to picking out which flavor of Mitsuya Cider she wanted to drink for the next week. While she was deciding between the lemon flavor and white peach flavor, she heard the sliding doors chime behind her, signifying another customer entering the store. The chime was coupled with panting, like someone was out of breath.

Hitomi glanced over her shoulder, her eyes widening as she saw Nishinoya. He was hunched over with his hands on his knees as his head was bent over, heaving up and down with his chest as he caught his breath. Normally, running this distance wouldn't have fazed him like so. Hitomi knew this from that one time he ran all the way to her school without so much as breaking a sweat.

This probably meant he was incredibly tired. His training camp did just end today and from his texts over the past weeks, it was a rather intense training camp. That, and he came here in record time. She wasn't sure how far his house was, but the time between her sending him that text and him getting here was only a couple of minutes. For a boy so short, he sure could run fast when he wanted to.

She vaguely wondered if that was due to him being a libero while she picked up a bottle of Pocari Sweat. She set her basket down in the aisle, going to pay for the Pocari Sweat first. Standing in front of the boy, she wordlessly handed the bottle over. He gratefully took it, chugging down half of it.

When he was done, he released a sound of satisfaction, capping the bottle. When he finally looked up at her, Hitomi expected him to beam at her with that blindingly bright smile of his and greet her enthusiastically as usual. It seemed like that's how things were going to go at first until Nishinoya laid eyes on her.

He had finally caught his breath from running here, but now it was caught in his throat as his heart pumped erratically. Even though she hadn't seen him in person, he sent plenty of pictures to her over the course of the training camp. Nishinoya, however, hadn't seen any of Hitomi for the entire duration.

Seeing her today felt like the first time he ever saw her. Except, he didn't remember his heart fluttering so much the first time. "…Beautiful…" He breathed out, like he hadn't meant to say it aloud. It sounded like his thoughts just slipped out.

Hitomi slightly flinched, seeing his loving gaze paired with his genuine voice. She quickly turned around, walking back to the drinks aisle where she left her basket. "Again with that? I can't believe you ran all the way here just to tell me that." She said incredulously, hiding her embarrassment.

The libero laughed, his boisterous personality returning. "I really wanted to see you, Hitomi-chan! I missed you a lot! I was so sleepy after coming back from the training camp, but after seeing your text, I instantly woke up!" He smiled at her, an excited blush forming on his cheeks. "The next thing I knew, I was running full speed here!" He laughed again, like this was the most normal thing in the world to him.

Hitomi peeked at him over her shoulder, a small tint of pink dusting her cheeks. She should have been used to all of his cheesy lines already, so why did today feel different? Maybe it's because she had only been reading them lately and that she hadn't actually heard them in a while. The girl turned back around, shaking her head as if she was trying to rid it of these thoughts.

"You're so reckless. If you're tired, then you should rest. You'll end up hurting yourself one day if you keep this up." She admonished him. Even though she used her usual harsh tone, she was genuinely concerned.

Nishinoya brightened up, and she could almost see him with a tail wagging back and forth. "Are you worried about me, Hitomi-chan!? Are you!? Does that mean you missed me too!? Did you? Did you?" He eagerly asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet all around her.

The girl just gave him a blank face. "Forget I said anything. You can just drop dead for all I care." She stated coldly, giving her full attention to picking out snacks.

Instead of being dejected like other boys, Nishinoya had actually shivered in pleasure. He wrapped his arms around himself. "Ahh~! Even Hitomi-chan's cold side is refreshing after so long~!" He mumbled to himself, a look of bliss coming over him.

Hitomi rolled her eyes, but there was the smallest smile on the corner of her lips. "The training camp must have been tough if you're so tired." She remarked, changing the topic.

"It was! But it was really fun too! There were so many strong guys there!" Nishinoya excitedly revealed. Unexpectedly, his face turned more serious and the aura around him changed. He looked down at his hands, clenching them into fists. "I need to get stronger too…" He muttered, the determination clear in his voice.

Hitomi stared at him, not used to this serious side of him. She almost looked at him with amazement. She turned back to the shelf, blinking a few times. "And how are you going to do that?" She asked casually, trying to think of something else but the way he looked just now.

"I'm trying to improve my over-hand tosses! If I get better, I'll be able to set the ball to the rest of the team!" He exclaimed, but in the very next moment he had a frustrated frown. "I really suck at over-hand passes though…"

Hitomi's brows furrowed. "Isn't that illegal…?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. She was pretty sure that a libero isn't allowed to use an over-hand toss if it's setting up an attack. Then again, there were so many rules around the libero position that she could be forgetting or misremembering something.

The excitement immediately returned to Nishinoya's face. "Hitomi-chan! You know about volleyball?!" She could almost see the imaginary tail wagging again.

Her eyes shifted around uncomfortably. "…I just happen to know a little about it is all…" She said with unease in her voice. There's no way she was going to reveal that she actually knew quite a lot about the libero position. In fact, she only really knew about the libero position. It was because of a certain libero too.

Hitomi knew close to nothing about the sport, but Nishinoya's passion for it piqued her interest. She had checked out various volleyball books from her school's library and even watched some videos. She only read the sections dedicated for learning about liberos though and of course she'd never let him know that.

"That's awesome, Hitomi-chan! You're so smart! You really know everything!" Nishinoya eagerly complimented her, but she brushed it off. "If I set it up behind the mid-line, then it's fine! The libero from Aobajohsai did it during our match!" He explained, jumping and using his hands to gesture.

He continued to fervently explain to her all about the kind of training he was doing and what he was hoping to improve on in the future as she paid for her snacks. They were met with the warm, summer air as they exited the air-conditioned store. "Uhm! Hitomi-chan!" Nishinoya shouted out before Hitomi could say goodbye to him.

She gave him her attention, seeing him slightly fidgeting in place. He was clearly nervous, like that time he asked for her phone number. "Do you…Do you want to go out somewhere some time!?" He yelled, as if he had to get it out before he doubted himself. "It's fine if you don't want to!" He quickly added, remembering her reaction from last time.

Hitomi knew exactly what his intentions were, but she strangely didn't feel that same anger she usually did when someone asked her out. She knew by now that he wasn't entirely like the others.

She also didn't want to see that disappointed and pained expression of his like the last time she rejected him. She didn't think she could take it. Not anymore.

"If…If it's just as…friends…then I guess it's fine…" Hitomi answered hesitantly. The other, more guarded Hitomi inside of her was screaming at her to take it back and reject him so that she wouldn't be hurt in the future.

For once, she didn't listen.

While her hesitation was largely in part due to her apprehension in opening up to the boy, it was also something else. The idea of hanging out with friends was so foreign. Even up until now, she had fooled herself into thinking that Nishinoya was an acquaintance at best. She knew now that she could no longer think that way.

He was becoming a friend, whether she wanted to keep denying it or not.

What did friends do together? Where did they go together? All of her studying never prepared her to feel this way.

While Hitomi was battling her emotions, Nishinoya was over the moon. He was exuding happiness, his aura almost becoming littered with sparkles. "What do you want to do!? We can do whatever you want, Hitomi-chan!" He shouted, unable to contain his excitement.

Not knowing how to go about the situation, Hitomi fell back on the one thing she was comfortable with: Studying. "You haven't finished all of your summer homework, right? We could go to the library…" She suggested with far less excitement.

In the midst of all of his volleyball training, Nishinoya had completely forgotten that summer homework even existed. His face slowly went from one of joy to one of blank realization, to one of absolute dread and despair. Ennoshita had made sure to let him and Tanaka know that he wouldn't save them this year. So, if they didn't know something, they would be doomed.

The boy gave a fierce ninety-degree bow. "Please teach me, Hitomi-sensei!" He basically begged.

Hitomi stepped back in a sort of double take. She knew this enthusiasm was different from before. He wasn't just begging her because he wanted a date. He was begging her because he really needed help. Thinking back on all of his test scores during the final exam period, she shouldn't have been too surprised. The girl laughed a little, the sound tickling Nishinoya's ears. "Okay, I'll help. Just don't complain because I'm a tough teacher." She teased.

Nishinoya beamed at her, shaking his head. "I won't! I promise!" He eagerly took out his phone, opening up the calendar to find a day between of all his matches and practices that he could spend with his beloved Hitomi.

After settling on the day, they bid each other goodbye. As expected, Nishinoya watched Hitomi walk off until he could no longer see her. One hand clutched his phone while the other clutched at his chest over his heart, trying and failing to quell its intense beating.