A/N: HERE WE GO! ENJOY THE NEWEST CHAPTER OF Miracle Lover!
Blue Sky of Love: I'm glad you like the story so far, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter and the many more to come! I like Tendou and Reika as well, but let's focus on Wakatoshi and Yukina for now. I will keep Tendou's and Reika's interactions in mind as the story develops.
You're insane."
"How mean." Tendou pouted. "But I'll take that as a compliment."
Shirabu shook his head at the eccentric middle blocker as they ate lunch with the team. Wakatoshi and Reon gave each other knowing looks while the others were talking amongst themselves about other topics. As Wakatoshi ate, he didn't know if he should feel concerned at the extra pairs of eyes that seemed to follow him since he left the dorm for classes earlier in the morning. When he walked the halls, whispers were silenced and students attempted to avoid eye contact with him when he looked over his shoulder. When he was in class, his classmates looked so eager to ask him something, but they forced themselves away when they were in front of his desk. Wakatoshi had no idea why it seemed like the entire school was watching him, causing a frown on the Ace's face.
Seeing how their Captain paused in eating his lunch – hayashi rice, his absolute favorite food – the team paused their conversations.
"What's wrong, Wakatoshi-kun?" Tendou asked. He started at the Ace who seemed to have a deeper frown on his face than usual. It was unlike Wakatoshi to seem so troubled.
"Everyone is staring."
The team looked at each other, not understanding Wakatoshi's words. "You mean, us?" Kenjirou asked.
Wakatoshi shook his head. "Not you, the student body."
Tendou leaned back in his chair, placing his arms behind his head. "They always do, what's so different now?"
"I do not know." The boys were going to resume eating, but Hayato snapped his fingers, causing the team to turn their attention to the libero.
"Now that I think about, Hisato-san was strangely talkative today to me in class." Hayato said.
"The Student Council President, why?" Jin asked. "He's not really the best company to keep."
"He was asking questions about Wakatoshi and Kurosawa-chan." The team turned to Wakatoshi whose frown turned deeper. "And if the President knows, then the whole school does."
"Did anyone see you and Kurosawa last night?" Taichi asked.
Thinking about it now, Wakatoshi remembered a group of students pass him before he and Kurosawa-san went into the elevator, but didn't put much thought into it. "Yes, but what could they think?"
"They think you guys are dating." Reon said. The reaction from Wakatoshi was priceless. His eyes somewhat widened and his mouth was scrunched up like he tasted a lemon. It was quite an expression, causing Tendou to quickly take a picture of it on his phone for safekeeping.
Wakatoshi shook his head. "We're not."
"They don't know that." Jin declared. Wakatoshi had looked away from his team to scan his eyes at the bustling dining hall. It was crowded as usual, with students talking and eating with one another before the bell rang to signify the lunch period was over for the day. Although, there seemed to be more eyes fixed towards his teams' table than before. A student would look up every now and then to point at the Ace directly and whisper among their friends. Wakatoshi noticed how groups of girls would stare at him directly, pouting in anger or sadness, that he couldn't tell.
"Well speak of the devil." Tendou said. The team turned around to the entrance – as well as many other noisy students – to see the swim girls and Goshiki talking as they came inside for lunch. "I'm gonna go say hi!"
Before anyone could stop him, Tendou had shot up and ran out of his seat to the five athletes who were about to be bombarded by the crazy middle blocker.
"Idiot!" Semi yelled. "He's gonna make these rumors blow up."
"Good luck, Wakatoshi." Reon said, giving him a reassuring pat on the back for the craziness that was sure to change his life here at Shiratorizawa.
"So, did you get interrogated by the girls' tennis team, or was that just me?" Kazusa asked. Kazusa and Reika walked towards the first-year classrooms, wanting to grab Mitsuki so they could go to lunch.
"That was just you." Reika said. "The equestrian captain held me captive in the bathroom, earlier today."
"I swear, these girls are insane." Kazusa smirked. Noticing the lack of their captain, Kausa turned back to Reika. "Where's Yukina?"
"She ran to the bathroom the second the bell rang." Reika snorted. "You should've seen her. I thought she was fast in water, she's just as fast on solid ground when running."
Yukina knew she wasn't losing her mind, right? She had made sure that her uniform was in place before leaving the dorm this morning. Her purple skirt and short blue dress shirt were wrinkle-free. Her bowtie was in perfect place and her white jacket was how she liked it, unbuttoned. Yukina even made sure to put her long brown waves into a high ponytail, letting only a few pieces out that adorned the sides of her face. She was pretty sure the entire student body had their eyes on her today.
"Is that her?"
"She's cute!"
"Cute enough."
"I told you I saw her with Ushijima-san!"
"Are they a couple?"
"Ushijima doesn't date!"
"There's no way Ushijima changed his no-dating stance."
"You think Ushijima likes her?"
Yukina wanted to scream to all the students in the hall as she walked out of her class and downstairs, headed to the dining hall for lunch with the girls. Yukina was not dating Ushijima, nor would she ever. Heck, she didn't even know what their relationship was.
Yukina went into the nearest bathroom and immediately locked herself in the farthest stall from the entrance. She leaned against the wall and felt relieved when nobody else was there to interrogate her on her relationship with Ushijima. Ushijima had plenty of attention on him from the minute he entered Shiratorizawa's Middle School division. He was the Captain back then and his popularity soared as his power grew, especially when he went to Nationals with the team last year, earning third place among some of the best high school teams in Japan. Yukina was relatively popular with most of the students on campus, but putting her and Ushijima together was a juggernaut for attention.
"Please focus on something else. . . " Yukina said. She was about to walk out of the stall and head out to the dining hall, but a group of girls coming in halted her steps. Yukina looked through the small crack of the stall, spying the first-year girls – she thought – fixing their hair and gossiping about her and Ushijima.
"Did you hear about Wakatoshi and that swimmer?"
"Kurosawa Yukina, right?"
"Yep!"
"It would be believable if it were one of the volleyball girls, but her? No way."
"Ushijima-kun could do so much better."
Yukina was quiet as she clenched the lock to the stall, hating how the girls could trash her and her name, but didn't have the nerve to say their true feelings to her face or Ushijima's.
"The joy of going to an elite school." Yukina muttered. She walked out of the bathroom and headed to lunch, her stomach growling as she went towards the dining hall that was sure to be full of gossip of her and Wakatoshi.
Kazusa laughed at the joke Reika told her, gaining attention from the noisy first-years. As they neared Mitsuki's classroom, the first-years started to whisper – failing horribly – about Yukina. Reika and Kazusa ignored them, not wanting to entertain the newest overeager students of Shiratorizawa to even the smallest detail about Yukina. When they entered the classroom, their eyes immediately zeroed on Mitsuki who sat at her desk talking to Goshiki.
"Up up up, children." Reika teased as she Kazusa walked towards the first-years. The swimmer and volleyball player stopped their conversation and looked up to the two grinning swimmers. Both Mitsuki and Goshiki blushed in unison.
"Senpai!" they said in unison.
"Mitsuki, I don't care for that seniority crap." Reika spoke. "Well, just a bit."
"She secretly loves it when people call her senpai." Kazusa said, earning a frown from the third-year swimmer. "Don't stop anytime soon."
"Oh, shut up." Reika said, her cheeks flushing in embarrassment. "Now are we gonna stand here and talk, or get something to eat?"
Mitsuki nodded, standing up and grabbing her phone from inside her desk. Kazusa, noticing Goshiki's lack of movement, frowned at the volleyball player.
"Aren't you coming?" Kazusa asked, her blonde hair falling into her face as she stilted her head. Goshiki widened his eyes, looking at Mitsuki, then Reika, and Kazusa.
"Really!?" Goshiki exclaimed. It was as if a tail had appeared on him and it was wagging furiously with excitement. "Thank you, Ai-senpai!"
Kazusa and Reika shared a look of amusement as the four of them walked out of the classroom and headed out for lunch. As Goshiki and Mitsuki walked ahead of them, Reika pulled the hem of Kazusa's skirt to gain her attention.
"Yeah?"
"Is it smart to bring Goshiki to lunch with us?" Reika asked. "If we're seen talking to more volleyball members, Yukina is sure to be brought up again."
"Even if Goshiki wasn't with us, I wouldn't be surprised if the other members tried to seek us out." Kazusa said, frowning at her friend's overprotective nature. "Plus, Goshiki just got onto the team. How attention driven could the guy be?"
"Oh!" Mitsuki said. She turned her head to her teammates. "Goshiki-kun said that he's going to be the next Ace of the volleyball team, although I can't imagine anyone else but Ushijima-senpai."
Goshiki stopped in the middle of the hall and turned around to face the girls. "I'LL BE BIGGER AND BETTER THAN USHIJIMA-SAN! I'LL WIN IT ALL!" Goshiki shouted, his eyes burning with passion at his words. Unfortunately, every student turned towards the four of them, giving them their full attention.
Reika shook her head at the idiotic volleyball player and turned to Kazusa. "You were saying?"
Kazusa just sighed and walked ahead of the three of them as she heard Reika scold Goshiki for being so loud in the halls. Unfortunately for them, the attention was off Goshiki and onto Yukina as the girl stepped out of the bathroom and the students looked at her. Yukina not wanting attention on her as usual attempted to hide beneath her long waves of hair, but failed. When she noticed Reika and the others, she felt relieved.
"Thank god you're here." Yukina said, her gray eyes shining with relief at the presence of her friends and Goshiki. "I think I might snap soon."
Reika shook her head in amusement. "C'mon, let's go grab some food before we all lose it."
As the five of them walked down the halls and eventually into the dining hall, Goshiki entertained the girls to stories of matches he did in middle school. Yukina approved of Goshiki being a temporary distraction with all the attention that was on her. Despite not knowing what a 'dig' or 'first tempo' was in volleyball, she found herself relaxing and the tension leaving her body as the five of them slowly moved in line to get food.
"Tsutomu, how dare you have lunch with such pretty ladies without inviting me?" The small group turned to see Tendou grinning down at all of them, causing MItsuki and Yukina to blush in embarrassment, Kazusa and Reika to shake their heads, while Goshiki just look flustered at Tendou's presence.
"Tendou-san!" Goshiki said. Goshiki looked at Tendou with stars in his eyes and Yukina could tell that Tendou was loving every second of it. Tendou turned his eyes to the blushing Yukina, but before he could say or do anything, the satanic aura that Reika emitted stopped him.
"So, mean, Reika-chan." Tendou pouted. "I was just going to invite all of you to join us at lunch."
Yukina and Reika shared a look and shook their heads. When the group was finally in front, they grabbed their respective dishes and was about to walk away, but Tendou wasn't taking no for an answer. He spread his arms and pushed all four girls to the table where the team was, while Goshiki gaped in surprise before following his teammate.
Viewing Tendou and the others from their table, Semi and Reon looked on with shock evident on their face while the others just looked at Tendou without any expression at all, trying hard not to comment on the stupidity of his actions.
"This is your way of saying hi?" Kenjirou questioned, his chopsticks pointing accusingly at the middle blocker. "You truly are something else."
"Tendou." Wakatoshi said. He turned around to look at his friend, but his eyes lingered on Yukina who was still blushing from earlier. "That was rude."
"I just wanted to bring them here to join us for lunch." Tendou defended.
"And where are they going to sit?" Taichi asked. "There isn't any room." Tendoou frowned at him, but when he noticed an empty table, his red eyes shined in excitement. He quickly picked up the table which caused plenty of noise, drawing even more attention to the volleyball boys and swim girls. Tendou ran back to grab the missing chairs and struck a pose of confidence at his work.
"Oh wow, you moved a table." Reika said, her tone dry and unenthusiastic. She turned to Yukina and threw an arm over her shoulder and balanced her food in her other hand. "Should we pet him and reward him with a treat?"
"Reika, you're being rude!" Yukina said. Wakatoshi watched the girls' interaction, inwardly pleased at seeing Yukina break out of her former embarrassed state.
"You should listen to Yuki-chan here, she knows what she's talking about." Yukina frowned at Tendou's way of saying her name so casually, but followed the other's lead when taking a seat. She had to sit in between Reika and Ushijima, but felt piercing stares onto her back once again when she sat down. Noticing Yukina's despondent mood appear once again, Wakatoshi spoke up.
"I'm sorry if Tendou pushed you into sitting with us." Wakatoshi said. "He tends to overdo things most of the time."
Yukina blinked in surprise. "Oh, it's no problem." They turned to see Tendou talking to Reon and Shirabu about some manga, his eyes bright and passionate about it as he waved his spoon around animatedly. "He's quite eccentric, isn't he?"
"Yes." Wakatoshi agreed. "That's also one of his best traits. Tendou may be loud and overeager most of the time, but he can cheer us up quite often." Yukina smiled in amusement at Wakatoshi's words, his thoughts on his friend were quite clear and truthful, not one hint of doubt.
"Did you hear that?" Tendou said. Everyone at the table turned to him in wait. "Wakatoshi said I'm the cheerful one of us." Tendou puffed his chest out in pride.
"I believe he also said loud and overeager." Hayato smirked. Taichi snorted as Hayato and him clapped their hands together in agreement.
''Don't be jealous Hayato and Taichi." Tendou said. "It's sad that you're not on my level of love with Wakatoshi-kun."
Wakatoshi shook his head at Tendou. "I do not love you, Tendou." Yukina and the girls started to laugh, causing the boys to turn their heads towards the amused swimmers.
"You were right Wakatoshi-kun, she does have a nice laugh." Yukina immediately blushed, her eyes turned to Wakatoshi who looked down at her curiously.
Is she upset or embarrassed? What I said was the truth, Wakatoshi thought.
Wakatoshi saw no issue in his words and continued to eat until Tendou's eyes lit up, forcing him to pause and wonder what the middle blocker intended to do.
"Wakatoshi-kun loves volleyball, right?" Tendou asked. Despite knowing Tendou since his first day at Shiratorizawa's High School Division, he could never get a good read on the eccentric middle blocker who tended to push the limits of some people's patience.
"Yes, I do." Wakatoshi and the others watched Tendou as the red-head continued to talk. "Tendou, what is this about?"
"Nothing at all. Just confirming that the only thing you love is volleyball, right guys?" Realizing what Tendou was doing, the team nodded in confirmation while Wakatoshi just frowned. The girls and Goshiki just watched in curiosity, but it clicked when Tendou was being louder than usual.
He's drawing attention away from Ushijima and I, Yukina thought. Yukina's eyes widened as she could feel the eyes on her back slowly disappear, causing the girl to sag in relief in her chair. Noticing the change in demeanor, Wakatoshi turned to Yukina curiously.
"Are you okay?" Wakatoshi asked. Yukina smiled at his curiosty, but just waved him off so he could focus on eating his lunch. Everyone started to talk more openly, though their conversations shifted towards their respective sports. Goshiki pulled the last issue of Monthly Volleyball! Out of his pocket and shouted when he turned a few pages.
"It's Ushijima-san!" Goshiki passed the magazine around and everyone looked at it. When Yukina got it, she looked at the article it had on the Great Ace.
The Great Ace, Ushijima Wakatoshi!
The famous Ushijima Wakatoshi (17) is the best Ace in the Miyagi Prefecture. With overwhelming talent and precision, he's helped his team on the road to Nationals last year, coming in third place, behind second place Inarizaki High and first place winners Itachiyama Academy. Now being in his third-year and the new Captain at Shiratorizawa, the volleyball community expects great results from the talented Ushijima!
Yukina saw there were plenty of pictures of Shiratorizawa's old lineup, but most of the regulars were present in them. The biggest picture of them all was one of Ushijima ready to spike a ball at his opponents. The scene practically screamed absolute power and talent, something that Ushijima exuded. Yukina turned a few pages and saw more photos of the Boys' volleyball team holding a trophy from Nationals. Ushijima even held an award for Best Ace. Yukina knew Ushijjima was something else, but this was on another level indeed.
"Amazing." Yukina said, handing the magazine to Ushijima. "You guys are great."
"Don't sell yourself short, Yukina-senpai!" Mitsuki said. "You're an amazing athlete as well."
"Half the school are amazing athletes as well." Kazusa said, causing Yukina to glare at her. "But half the school doesn't go their National tournaments each year."
"Which teams go to Nationals each year?" Goshiki asked. The third-years thought back at their time at Shiratorizawa while the first and second-years at the table watched their seniors curiously.
"In the Men's Division, I believe the Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, and of course, the Volleyball team." Reon commented. "Although I don't know about the Women's Division. We only know that our Girls volleyball team loses to Niiyami each year, so they rarely go to Nationals."
"I know the Boys Swim team goes to Nationals, but they don't make it too far." Reika said. "I think in the Women's Division, it's the Softball, Track, Figure skating, Equesterian, Tennis, and of course, Swimming team."
"We got second overall, only losing to Akita High's Girls'." Yukina said, her eyes lit up in determination. "Their swimmers are quite crazy in the water, especially during relays. I was still surprised that I beat their captain for the Best Butterfly award." Wakatoshi noticed that Yukina was different when she talked about her sport, any nervousness or embarrassment washed away and all that was left was pride that shined through.
"Butterfly?" Wakatoshi asked. The first thing that came to his mind was the insect, but it seemed that wasn't the case when Yukina looked at him.
"Butterfly, Backstroke, Freestyle, and Breaststroke are the four types of swimming specialties." Yukina said, moving her fingers as she listed each specialty. "A swimmer doesn't have to be limited to only one, they can do each one in a competition."
"Well I swim free all the time, I'm a master!" Tendou said. Reika let out a groan as she put her head in her hands at Tendou's words.
"It's a style of swimming you toothpick, not some casual swim you do at the beach." Reika said. She rolled her eyes at Tendou while he just smirked.
"It's okay Reika-chan, you don't have to be jealous of Wakatoshi-kun." Reika's eye twitched in annoyance and Reon and Jin silently prayed for Tendou to stop talking. "He's better than you, it's okay to admit it."
"Tendou, Akiyama-san will kill you." Semi said. "Shut up."
"You should listen to your friends." Reika said, an edge present in her voice. The chopsticks in her hand broke with an audible crack, causing Mitsuki and Goshiki to flinch.
"Tendou." Yukina said suddenly, causing everyone at the table to turn towards her. "Heaven Child."
"That's my name, don't wear it out!" Yukina frowned at the middle blocker before opening her mouth once again.
"You remind me more of a demon child since you seem to bring out the worst in people." Silence followed Yukina's words after she spoke them. As she put her head down in embarrassment, Tendou pouted and then the laughter began from everyone else. Yukina and Wakatoshi looked up as their friends and teammates laughed at Tendou's expense. Wakatoshi looked at Yukina as the red on her cheeks lingered, even more curious on the passionate, yet easily embarrassed swimmer that sat beside him.
A/N: NEXT CHAPTER: Rivals