Disclaimer: I do not own the song that is mentioned in this chapter!
It was close to the Interhigh-Preliminaries. Nekoma High boys team have been practicing extremely hard, with their training starting at 5:30pm, and ending as late as close to midnight. The girls were also helping them with their trainings, and [name] was teaching them all the blocking techniques she had used during the practice matches then.
"Yamamoto, nice serve!"
"Nice receive!"
"Kenma!" and Kenma tossed the ball to Kuroo who jumped up as Lev also tried to block him. Kuroo then did a straight instead as he saw the gap in between Lev's arms.
"Nice kill, Kuroo-san!"
"Lev!" [name] called out as she had been watching from the sides. The girls giggled whenever [name] called out the players' name, for they knew that they're going to get a scolding from her.
"This is the 7th time I'm telling you, when you block, don't leave such a big gap between your arms! Now that bed head is going to get cocky and start showing off to me about how he can spike through blocks!" [name] yelled and Lev paled.
And a certain Kuroo sneezed on the court.
"One more time!" [name] yelled and tossed a ball to Kai.
"Kai, nice serve!"
"Oh, crap!" Inuoka hissed as he couldn't receive the ball properly.
"Move when the ball is about to cross the net! Eyes on the ball! Gosh." [name] yelled and rubbed her temples.
"[name] now understands how I feel whenever I coach these idiots." Nekomata spoke as he chuckled in his seat, watching [name] giving the boys tips.
"One more time!" [name] tossed the ball to Kai once again.
"Kai, nice serve!"
"Nice receive!"
"Nice one, Inuoka!" [name] called out and continued to let her eyes wander about the court, watching the ball and players, and all of a sudden…
.
.
.
"KENMA!" [name] yelled, and the girls giggled again.
"Don't run away! Oh my god! Just block his damn spike!" [name] yelled again.
"But I feel my arms are going to break if I really blocked it…" Kenma replied in his monotone.
"IT'S NOT GOING TO BREAK!" [name] yelled again with an angry mark on her forehead. And then silenced filled the court as [name] took in deep breaths.
"Kenma, you better be blocking at least 6 spikes from Yamamoto, or else I'm taking away your PSP." [name] threatened with a serious look in her eyes, and Kenma immediately nodded and got serious. Whereas everybody snickered at how [name] had threatened Kenma then.
"One more time!" [name] yelled and passed the ball to Lev.
"Lev, nice serve!"
.
.
.
"LEV!" [name] yelled and groaned at the same time, whereas the girls burst out laughing at the scene before them. Lev had served the ball, right into the back of the head of Inuoka.
"God, please give me the power to not strangle idiots like Lev." [name] prayed and the girls continued to laugh at what [name] was doing.
"That's enough for today, [name]." The coach called out, and [name] who was kneeling on the floor turned to look at him, and nodded. She sighed as she stood up and went to join her girls on the floor, drinking water from the bottle as she had been shouting too much.
[name] then took out her phone to take a look at the messages, and then the girls giggled again. She looked up and stared at them with a confused look, and then Aiyu spoke up.
"You're still keeping that photo, hehe." And pointed to the back of [name]'s phone. [name] turned and saw the photo of Kuroo and her when they were at the carnival that day. She shrugged her shoulders and continued to look at the messages she had received.
"Seijō is going to take part in the Interhigh-Preliminaries. I want to see you there." – Oikawa.
[name] clutched her phone tightly, and sighed. She was still debating as to whether should she go to support Nekoma High, or should she just avoid going there to avoid Oikawa. She then turned to look at Kuroo who was in a meeting with the coach and the other team members. She then shrugged her shoulders and stood up.
"I'm heading home first, girls." She called out, and grabbed her back.
"Aren't you going to wait for Kuroo-senpai?" Yuki called out.
"Nah. See ya!" and she waved, waving to the coach and the boys as well, and heading out of the gym.
"OI, [NAME]!" Kuroo yelled, but she was already gone.
It was the 2nd of June, the day that the Interhigh-Preliminaries was being held, at Sendai City Gymnasium. Nekoma was registered as team 2, block A.
[name] sighed as she sat on her bed, looking through the messages she had received in the group chat with the volleyball girls.
"[name], are you coming to watch the boys play today?" – Yuki
[name] sighed and thought about it. She then typed a reply and laid back in her bed.
"Nah, I'm not going. Help me cheer them on ^^"
"She said she isn't coming…" Yuki told Kuroo, and Kuroo felt heartache.
"W-Well, it's alright. We can't force her, after all its Seijō that we're going against." Kuroo mumbled and picked up his bag to board the bus that was going to take him and the Nekoma High team to the venue. He felt disappointed, and extremely affected that [name] wasn't going to come personally to cheer them on.
He sat alone on the bus and brought out his earphones and plugged them into his phone. Then he pressed shuffle on his phone's playlist, and leaned back into the seat. A song came up, and his eyes widened at the song, as it was the song that [name] had introduced to him; Love is a beautiful pain.
"Kimi no kokoro ni tsutsumare ta mama ai o chikai?
nemure nai yoru nan do sugi te mo nē uketome te
ima sugu ai tai namida tomara nai fure taku te
suki da kara kurushiku te"
"I only like the part that said 'At sleepless nights no matter how hard I try accept me'." [name] spoke as she listened the song together with Kuroo, while leaning her head on his shoulder.
"Ah, but I like the part where it said, 'we just said bye bye but i want to meet you again'." Kuroo answered as he stared up at the night sky before them.
"Oh? And I wonder who you wanted to meet." [name] chuckled as she sat up straight.
"You of course. Idiot." Kuroo said in his mind.
"kimi to ae ba semaru taimurimitto
ni nin no jikan daiji ni
baibai shi te mo mata ai tai
kimi to no mēru de mata saikai
kaeru keshiki gai wa Twilight
isso no koto kun o ubaisari tai
kimi no nukumori ga kieru koro
yume kara samere ba genjitsu no door"
[name] laid in bed, listening to Love is a beautiful pain on the speaker in her room. And then she remembered the part that Kuroo had told her that he like, and she went up to her speaker to rewind to that part again.
"we just said bye bye but I want to meet you again" she whispered. She then looked out of the window, with a soft smile on her face.
"Kuroo Tetsuro, you're an idiot I swear."
"Isn't that Nekoma High volleyball girls team as well?"
"I heard they've got a captain already."
"Really? I heard they've got a middle blocker as well."
"But it looks like she isn't here."
"Nene, let's go, they're staring at us."
The girls had on extremely displeased looks on their faces as they heard the whispers.
"Come on, let's head in. We need to prepare." Yaku ushered the girls in as the boys walked in. They then bumped into their opponent, Seijō, and Oikawa stared at them with a smirk on his face.
"If it isn't the cats."
Kuroo had on a very displeased look, and so did Aiyu, who was clenching her fist. Kuroo then smiled at Oikawa to not cause any trouble, and he spoke, "Oya? A pleasure to meet you, Oikawa-senpai."
"Oikawa will do, Kuroo." Oikawa spoke, and somehow the look that he gave Kuroo, wasn't a very pleased look too.
"We're looking forward to our match against the cats~" Oikawa called out and all of a sudden he was surrounded by his fangirls.
"Oikawa-senpai! Please accept this!"
"Oikawa-senpai! Can I take a photo with you?"
"A photo? Sure!" Oikawa then posed, and all of a sudden he was hit hard by a volleyball on the back of his head. He turned to glare at who it was muttering that even the coach doesn't dare to hit him, and he paled when he saw it was Iwaizumi.
"A-Another time, ladies." He stuttered, and then he smirked at the Nekoma team and walked off with Iwaizumi. He didn't notice that Iwaizumi had nodded to Aiyu, and he seems to know Aiyu. The girls then looked at her and gave her a questioning look.
"H-He's my sister's boyfriend." She whispered, and the girls just 'oh' in response and started to walk behind the Nekoma boys.
"Iwaizumi, nice serve!"
"Nice receive!"
"Kenma!" Kuroo yelled and Kenma tossed the Personal Time Difference Attack toss, causing the blocker from Seijō to fake out. Kuroo then jumped up and spiked, but the damn libero from Seijō just had to receive the ball. Kuroo gritted his teeth as he landed and quickly got back into position.
The first set was ending pretty soon with Seijō leading, 24-21.
The girls were on the spectators' bench on the second level, watching the intense match.
"Kuroo looks very distracted today." Kyoko commented.
"Probably, [name] isn't here to motivate him and the team." Yuki mumbled as she watches Lev being able to block a power spike from number 13, Kunimi.
"Aiyu?" a voice called out, and Aiyu turned to take a look.
"Big sister!" and she ran to hug her big sister.
"Hey, the whole Nekoma team is here?" Ai asked, and Aiyu looked up and saw that Ai and the volleyball girls from Seijō were there as well. Aiyu shook her head and mumbled that [name] wasn't coming at all.
"Seijō wins the first set!" the announcer announced, and the Seijō fans cheered for them.
"Ah, I missed the first set." A voice spoke up, and everybody turned to take a look at who it was. Everybody stared in shock at the girl who was clad in long black skinny jeans and covered shoes, wearing a short sleeve black coloured shirt, with her hair down.
The girl then placed a finger on her lips to shush them as she walked towards the railing and peered down towards the Nekoma side. She saw how devastated the team look, and it was irking her quite badly then. She then heard the coach yelling at them as well.
"Lev! How many times do I have to say, don't leave such a big gap! And Kenma, stop running away!"
[name] shook her head and breathed in a deep breath before yelling.
"What's up with all the sour look on your damn faces, you cats!" and then the whole team looked up to who had shouted. Kuroo's mouth immediately went up into a wide grin as he saw [name] waving at them, and he waved back.
Soon whispers were heard as well.
"Hey, isn't that Oikawa's girlfriend?"
"What is she doing, shouting at the Nekoma team and waving at them?"
"I heard she transferred to Nekoma High and joined the volleyball team."
"Really? Traitor."
And [name] felt someone staring at her. She reluctantly looked towards Seijō side, and sure enough, she saw Oikawa staring at her. He smiled at her with an angelic smile, which all the fangirls started screaming about, but [name] knew that smile meant what. She then gripped the railings tightly as Oikawa shouted at her in his kindest voice.
"So that's where you are. I've been looking for you, my love~"
And immediately [name]'s body trembled with fear, and Kuroo noticed it. He then clenched his hand into a fist tightly, trying to contain his anger. And then the whistle blew, for the second set to start. The teams quickly got into their positions then, and it was Oikawa who was going to serve. But he stopped and looked at [name].
"You're coming back with me, [name] when we win." He called out, and [name] stared at him with wide open eyes, and she shook her head in fear. Oikawa then smiled at her with an angelic smile and once again the fans screamed.
"What the heck, Oikawa wants her. She's so lucky!"
"Dumb bitch doesn't realise how lucky she is."
"Oi, Trashykawa." Kuroo yelled out, and Seijō snickered at the nickname that he had used on Oikawa which was created by Iwaizumi.
"What do you want, Rooster Head." Oikawa sneered.
"Don't even think about taking [name] away. She belongs to Nekoma High, she belongs to us now!" he yelled, and his body shook with anger. [name] just stared at Kuroo's outburst, whereas Oikawa smirked. The girls from Nekoma High also shouted, "Yeah, she belongs to us now!"
"Who does he think he is?"
"What in the world, did he just talk back to Oikawa-senpai?!"
All of a sudden [name] was pulled into a hug, by Haru. She then gripped tightly onto Haru's shirt and started to sob.
"Save… Me…" she cried out, and Kuroo's heart ached at the scene, but soon he felt anger as he saw Oikawa smirking at the scene.
"She's probably crying for attention."
"Or she just realised how much Oikawa-senpai loves her."
"[name]!" Yaku yelled out. [name] then lifted her head from Haru's shirt and looked at Yaku who had shouted. He then relaxed and gave a soft smile, and shouted once more, "You're safe with us!"
And that, got [name] stunned. She comprehended what Yaku had said, and she nodded vigorously with tears still running down her cheek.
"Oikawa, nice serve!" and Oikawa did his extremely powerful serve, but Kuroo managed to receive it nicely sending it up.
"Nice receive!"
"Kenma!" Taketora yelled out, and Kenma tossed to him, which then Taketora slammed down, but was blocked by Iwaizumi. Yaku then dived down and managed to save the ball in time hitting it up.
"Nice save, Yaku!"
"Connect, connect!"
"Pesky troublemakers." Oikawa muttered under his breath and signalled to Iwaizumi who just nodded.
"Kenma!" Kuroo yelled out, and Kenma tossed the ball to Lev as the blockers were blocking Kuroo. But in the end Lev missed the ball, and the ball hit his own head instead. Everybody stared at what happen, and the coach was about to shout when all of a sudden…
.
.
.
"LEV!" [name] yelled from the spectators' area. Lev then quickly turned and bowed to her, apologising, and [name] could only rub her temples. The girls, including Seijō's girls giggled at [name]'s outburst.
"I see she is attached to the boys." Oikawa mumbled as he set off a dark aura, which [name] sensed it and she quickly looked at him. Oikawa then smiled at her before turning his back, preparing to serve again.
"Oikawa, nice serve!"
"Yaku, nice receive!"
And Kenma tossed the ball that Yaku had passed to him to Kuroo. Kuroo then did a feint, but the libero managed to save the ball in time, hitting it up, passing it to the setter, Oikawa. Oikawa then tossed the ball to Iwaizumi, and Iwaizumi slammed the ball down, getting past Taketora and Kenma's and hitting the floor.
[name] had on an angry mark as she saw what had just happened and then…
.
.
.
"KENMA!" she yelled, and the girls giggled again.
"WHEN I'M DONE WITH YOU, I SWEAR TO GOD YOU WILL NEVER EVER PLAY YOUR VIDEO GAMES EVER AGAIN, IS THAT CLEAR?!" she yelled, and the coach just laughed as she took out all the words that he wanted to say. Kenma had ran away, once again.
"But if I block that my arms will-." Kenma spoke, and [name] cut him off.
"YOUR ARMS WILL ONLY BREAK IF I BREAK IT! A SPIKE WON'T BREAK YOUR DAMN ARMS. GOSH!" and then she rubbed her temples and let out a groan.
"Match point." The referee called out, and it was the third set. Nekoma High had won the second set, and now the third set was about to be taken over by Seijō, with a score of 25-24. [name] gripped on the railings tightly, as she was really afraid of the outcome. She saw how tired the Nekoma team was, and she couldn't help but feel sorry for them as they were up against Seijō.
"Kindaichi, nice serve!"
"Crap!" Inuoka called out as he didn't receive the ball properly, and it flew slightly out of the court. Kuroo immediately started to run, but he was too tired and he started to slow down.
"It's too far…" Kuroo mumbled, and all of a sudden.
"BED HEAD! DON'T GIVE UP!" he heard [name]'s yell, and somehow it gave him energy and he threw himself, stretching his arm out and hitting the ball back into the court. His back then slammed against the wall with a loud impact, and [name] could only cringe at it. He quickly stood up and ran back to his position despite feeling pain from the impact.
Nekoma High had lost. And Kuroo slammed his fist into the wall of the changing room. He wasn't angry at his teammates, or the fact that they had lost. He was angry because he couldn't protect [name] from Oikawa. He was angry that he saw [name]'s fearful look when she saw Oikawa.
"Kuroo! Hurry!" he suddenly heard a girl's yell coming from outside the changing room, and he quickly put on his jacket and grabbed his bag, running out of the changing room.
"What is it?!" he asked, as soon as the rest of his volleyball team came up behind him.
"[name], she's missing!" Naomi cried out, panting.
"We don't know where she went. One minute was with us, but when we went to the toilet, she was gone!" Aria continued.
Kuroo then clenched his fist, and then slammed into the wall just next to the door, muttering out…
"Oikawa…" and he immediately took a turn and ran down towards where the bus that was bringing Seijō back to school was.
Oikawa was just about to board the bus when all of a sudden…
"TRASHYKAWA!" he heard a yell, and turned to look, seeing an extremely angry looking Kuroo coming towards him. Kuroo then grabbed hold of Oikawa by the collar and pinned him against the bus.
"Where is she?!" Kuroo yelled as the Nekoma High volleyball teams came running behind.
"[name]? Oh I don't know~" he chanted out, smirking as well. Kuroo felt anger rising in him, and he raised his fist up and then Iwaizumi held his hand by the wrist.
"Don't. Check the back of the gymnasium." Iwaziumi spoke and Kuroo let go out Oikawa, letting him fix his collar and continue his way to board the bus. But before he entered, he turned to look at Kuroo and smirked.
"I'll be taking her back soon. Rooster head." And he entered the bus as Iwaizumi kicked him in the butt, hard.
Kuroo clenched his fist, and stood there without moving.
"Kuroo, let's go find her." Kyoko tugged on Kuroo's arm and he immediately took off running towards the back of the gymnasium.
[name] sat on the floor against the wall, crying her heart out. She had her face hidden in her hands, and her whole body was drenched. Her arms were covered with red marks, indicating that bruises are going to form.
Oikawa had managed to dragged her out to the back of the gymnasium, gripping her wrist extremely tight, causing her to wince in pain. She tried her best to get out of his hold, but his grip was so tight that she couldn't even feel her fingers anymore. All of a sudden she was slammed against the wall, and pinned by Oikawa.
"You think you can just run like that huh?" Oikawa spat out as he grabbed hold of [name]'s face by the chin roughly.
"You think that I'll let you go peacefully? Not a chance!" And [name]'s eyes had fear written in it, and her body trembled in fear as well. All of a sudden she saw Oikawa smile his angelic smile at her, and she started to tremble even more.
"Come back to me. I missed you." Oikawa spoke as he grabbed her arms tightly. [name] shook her head, she didn't want to go back to him. She doesn't want to go back to hell at all.
"Why not? Have I not treated you well enough? Or does your pathetic mind of yours decided that the rooster head from Nekoma will make a better choice? Well, it doesn't matter. You belong to me, and only to me!" Oikawa yelled as he gripped [name]'s arm even tighter. She was perspiring as well, from the heat that the fear in her was causing.
"Ah, you look warm. How about a cool down, my love?" Oikawa spoke and smiled his angelic smile before letting go of [name]'s arm. [name] sighed in relief and her eyes was closed, when all of a sudden she was drenched from head to toe. She opened her eyes in shock and saw Oikawa throwing a bucket away to one side.
He then grabbed hold of [name] once more and slammed her into the wall again, causing her to wince in pain. He was about to say something when all of a sudden…
"Oi, shittykawa. Get your hands off her and let's go." Iwaizumi called out. Oikawa sighed and let go of [name], he then pouts at Iwaizumi and said, "Mou, you spoiling my fun Iwa-chan~" in his usual voice.
"Shut up, and let's go. Before I punch you." Iwaizumi threatened, and Oikawa obediently followed him, and before he turned the corner, he called out to [name].
"I'll bring you home soon, [name]~"
[name] trembled and cried even more. She hated how Oikawa was treating her, she hated how the memories haunt her. She hated how pathetic she was, how she couldn't protect herself. All of a sudden she felt her hands being pried away from her face, and she tried to hold it back when all of a sudden she heard his voice.
"It's me."
Kuroo's voice. Her best friend's voice.
She allowed him to remove her hands from her face, and then she saw Kuroo's worried face. He then pulled her up and inspected the red marks on her arms, and he unconsciously gripped her wrists a little too tight as anger built up in him, causing her to wince.
"Oi, Kuroo! You're hurting her!" Yaku yelled, and Kuroo immediately let go of her. He then saw her body shiver from the cold as she was drenched, and he immediately removed his jacket and draped it over her, pulling her close to him and wrapped his arms around her.
"You're safe with us… You're safe with me." He whispered, trying to calm the frightened [name] down.
[name] sat on her bed with a towel draped over her head. She had just showered, and there she was thinking about the incident that had happened earlier. She was traumatised. And she felt suicidal. She was so into her thoughts that she didn't know that Kuroo had entered her room. She had given Kuroo the spare key to her house just in case anything happens to her, and she didn't realise how glad Kuroo accepted it.
She suddenly felt someone drying her hair with the towel and she flinched and turned to look at who it was. She then relaxed as she saw it was Kuroo. Silence filled the room, none of them said a word.
"Goodnight." Kuroo spoke as he got up and drape the towel over a chair in [name]'s room, and proceeded to walk towards her room door to leave, when all of a sudden he felt [name]'s arms wrapping around his chest, tightly and she was trembling as well.
Kuroo then turned his body to face her, and he wrapped his arms around her tightly as well. He rubbed the back of her up and down in order to calm her down. He then picked her up and placed her into her bed and covered her. He pulled the chair over to her bed, and he sat down there.
[name] knew Kuroo wouldn't be leaving her for that night, and she allowed herself to fall asleep while holding his hand in hers, tightly.