Part 4

As you guessed, Shirabu wasn't prepared for the stress or the performance needed in this tournament. Soon, the recording of the team and Semi smacking the bottles with utmost accuracy and his strategies went viral in the school and amongst the volleyball players in high schools in Japan. The team and the fans were glad to be able to count on him. It was thanks to him and Ushijima that your team solely managed to get to the nationals. You were so proud to help them in these hard times, and happy that things were going on smoothly between you and Semi and the rest of the team again.

It was hard to pretend you felt nothing more than deep respect, admiration and friendship for Semi, but he helped you acting as if nothing happened.

A few weeks later though, you felt ready to fall on your knees in despair in the locker room. Semi had forgotten his jacket. Again. Although this time it was on the floor. You picked it up, feeling like you could tear it apart with your pent up feelings of rage and sadness and love. You felt ready to throw it across the room, as you held it above your head.

But your body faltered, and you sat down on the bench, looking at it pleadingly. It's been weeks, was there any plausible explanation for him to have forgotten it?

Maybe he was really distracted?

You raised it to your nose. It smelled somehow more manly than before. Semi was still physically maturing, you realized. You sighed. You put it on, feeling it comfortably pool around you like a cloak of security. As if it were his arms around you, shielding you.

You missed him, even though you've never been with him. You missed your conversations about volleyball.

You grabbed a handful and brought it to your nose once more. Then you began sobbing violently. Why was it so hard to let go? You did everything in your power, yet you still hurt after all this time after the first time you got it on, like a cursed cloth. "S-Semi... " You cried in the sweater, hoping he wouldn't notice the tears. "W-why... ? Semi... !"

You fell on the bench.

A chance everybody already got home.

A few days later, you couldn't help but feel you were in troubled waters again. Semi was acting normally towards you, except when he thought you wouldn't notice, then you could feel his hard scrutiny gaze on you, longingly pondering.

Did you let anything slip? No, everything was going well from what you remember. Everyone was doing fine. Nobody had any suspicions.

You were talking quietly with two of your classmates in the corridor when suddenly, his smell passed by you, in a huff of air in your back. He must have passed by you really close for you to have felt the wind glide over you, shuffling your hair.

You immediately turned your head around and made eye contact with him as he was walking with Ohira behind. He hadn't been walking this close. It was as if time was in slow motion as you watched him with widened eyes, and he sent you a surprised gaze. Did he brush by knowing you were here? Did he have it figured out? How you could spot him in a crowd by scent alone...

His hard, sharp features softened as his lips eased into a gentle, welcoming smile, and he waved at you as only a guy with his charm and charisma could, head tilted. You almost missed Ohira waving and smiling friendly at you too. Your heart stammered as you blushed.

"Woa! Was that Semi Eita passing by? Third year?" commented your friend, impressed at his appearance when they were far enough.

"Y-yeah... !"

"Gosh, he's so cool! I've never seen him this close! Walking in the same corridor... " Said the other, blushing and fixing their retreating back.

"He's so pretty... You're so lucky (F/N)!"

Somehow, you felt your instinctive awareness of his presence was going to be a big drawback...

A few weeks later, you found his jacket again. Albeit this time it was in the shower room. It wasn't as if Semi was the only one to forget things behind. It was your job to take care of the team and look behind them. But this was happening too often, as if it were planned.

You looked everywhere. He had to be somewhere, watching you. You even checked outside. He was nowhere. Nobody was here. You took the jacket with you inside, and indulged in a most sinful embarrassing act: you put it on, feeling as if his name was burning on your back, held a collar to your face to muffle your moans as your other hand descended your body, inside your pants.

You started pleasuring yourself, engulfed by Semi's scent in a sick fantasy, imagining he was the one rubbing circles on your panties, then inside. "Nng... Eita!" You were on the bench first, then squirming on the floor, sliding, struggling and having nothing to grab on, face on the door of his locker. You couldn't stop, as your fingers went inside. You hadn't planned on going so far, but you suddenly craved the joy and bursting with pent up frustration.

You were careful watching him, now more than ever since the incident, you couldn't stop feeling attracted to him, wanting nothing more than to feel every hard curves and edges of his hot body against you, indulging with you in free inhibited pleasure. You could only imagine how tender yet powerful a partner he would be with you, passionate and restless.

"Ei-Eita... Eita! Ah!"

You were spent when you finished, struggling to catch your breath. You couldn't stop before you had your fill. You were careful to wash your hand thoroughly before getting out of the jacket. You longingly hung it in his locker, making sure none of your smell remained and everything seemed in order.

Right the day after, Semi was out of his mind. He was nearly unresponsive, while he made a point to not show you how affected he was. He tried his best during volleyball practice, but in the end, he pretended to be sick for the first time this winter. Everybody got sick every once in a while so everyone cut him some slack.

But you were distracted yourself. You were still shocked at yourself for having been so careless and sinful in your behavior last night. Such acts should be limited to your own bedroom. What if someone had caught you? Or even more worse, what if it was Semi, and he was there all that time, watching somewhere you didn't find yet to this day.

You were the worst.

This time, everybody left their jackets on the bench. It was winter. It was time to switch the sweaters for a warmer one. You began folding them correctly, putting them in the basket. Like a robot, you quickly smelled every one of them, before finding your prize. You raised it to your face, wishing you could take it back home with you. The famous number 3-Semi Eita. It was as delightful as ever.

But you couldn't. You got your fix, your fill as much as you could in public, then put it in the basket too. Somehow, you would miss finding this jacket around. Maybe you were wrong. Semi was smart, he must be thinking about so many things at once. Maybe he was really distracted. In the end, he didn't act any differently with you.

Someone had to be kidding you. This time, you were the one to forget your jacket. But it wouldn't have been so bad, if when you went back on the court to search for it, you stumbled on a few members of the team still tidying and cleaning up.

Semi was far away in the gymnasium. You saw him through the net. He had your small sweater in his hand. He seemed a little surprised at your appearance. But he quickly recovered.

He looked intently at you, throwing you this heated, half-lidded gaze able to melt your resolve and your stand on your legs right on the spot... as he slowly raised it to his face to passionately take a great intake of air through it. Nobody paid attention to it. But you watched him, heart afire.

He knew. Somehow, he knew. You didn't know how or when, but... he caught you at least once.

You blanched, hastily leaving the gym this day. Nobody followed or complained the next day. You were always so dutiful, staying at ungodly hours for a young student, never missing out or forgetful. You were devoted. And you have been flawless since your start. You were allowed some off-days too.

Semi pretended, like you, that nothing happened. You thought you might as well have invented this moment. But it couldn't be, right? The next day, you found your very jacket in his spot on the bench. This was becoming unbearable.

Later, after practice, after making sure everybody went home, you walked in the locker room, stumbling on the new jacket this time. Your eyes widened, sensing a trap dead on. You freezed in place. Fingers suddenly blocked your vision from behind. You jumped and gasped, even though your brain recognized his presence even before you asked yourself who this was. Thus you had only a couple seconds panicking.

"Incredible. So you know it's me just by smell." Your heart was thundering by now, almost choking out his deep voice. "Or maybe you saw this coming when you saw my sweater."

He took back his hands and stepped around to face you, stance aloof, with his hands in his pockets. Still, he looked intimidating, with 'I mean business' written all over his face.

"We need to talk."