DISCLAIMER : Following the word itself "fanfiction", I do not own anything in this fiction and credits belong to the rightful creators of the manga: Inoue Takehiko, the publisher, the broadcasting company of the anime and etc.

"Remember, the match starts at 9 am." Doumoto-sensei stated as he gave his final instructions in regards to tomorrow's Practice Match, before he bid the whole team to go for an early slumber. "That means, we had to leave at 7. Waking up at 6 is ideal so we had to sleep now."

"Whaaat?" Sawakita blurted out. "It's not even 9!"

"We all know we practiced till death the whole day round, and we needed a rewarding rest to be able to function well tomorrow, specially YOU! Sawakita..."

"But-"

"Sensei's right yo. Just stop whining yo." Fukatsu seconded.

"So, yeah. Give yourselves a rewarding sleep and make sure to set your clocks at 5:30. That's for an extra time for the snooze bar."

"Yes sir!" They all chorused.

"Good night..."

Then Doumoto-sensei shut the door gently, leaving the room assigned for the starters shut, before proceeding to the rest of the club member's room to give them the same instructions.

"Ahhh... It's not even 9..." Sawakita carried on whining, lying down restless, tossing and turning on his mattress.

"Shall I turn off the lights yo...?" Fukatsu announced, addressing to those reading some books, fixing their stuff, and those who aren't ready to sleep yet.

"Yeah..." All, except Sawakita confirmed in unison upon keeping all of their stuff then tucking themselves on their mattresses that laid side by side together down the floor.

"Sawakita..." Fukatsu called Sawakita's attention. "You ready to sleep yo?"

"Yeah.." he muttered in a low reluctant voice, before tucking himself under the quilt. Fukatsu then flicked the switch off finally.

Fukatsu then carefully made his way to his mattress that laid besides Sawakita, making sure he won't step on anyone.

"Good night yo..."

"Yeah... Good night too..." And again everyone in unison except Sawakita, before silence started to ensue...

.

.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Sawakita shrieked startling the hell out of everyone making Minoru, the one nearest to the switch jolt up and dash to open the lights.

"What the hell is it this time Sawakita!" Everyone ticked, with their enraged eyes all on Sawakita...

"Umm haha" Sawakita just scratched the back of his head with a guilty choked laughter responded... "I thought I forgot something? teehee..."

Still, everyone is glaring at him without a word...

"I... I think I gotta pee?" He then sprinted to the door and dashed out of it the banging it close.

"'tch... what a pain in the ass..." Masashi grunted before proceeding back to his mattress... "Mikio, aren't you gonna take a piss too?"

"Naahh..." Mikio responded. "I'm rather bothered with this short quilt and mattress... I need a bigger one..."

"Just roll to your side and crouch."...

"Okay brother..."

"Alright. This is the last yo..." Fukatsu irritated finally shut the lights off, then finally heading to his mattress as well.

"He's supposed to be here, right?" Naomi asked, tapping her fingers impatiently on the table. "It's like 8 in the evening."

Ayako decided not to join them as she still had a lot to do so the two just went together instead.

"I don't know... he usually comes late... haha." Mika let out a sheepish giggle.

"And you're okay with that?"

"Yeah? He's just awkward and he doesn't talk much since he's really bad on keeping conversations and giving appropriate and encouraging remarks, but he's actually nice to me..."

"Connection please?

"I mean, he is bad at formalities, and such. He isnt usually punctual and he might appear standoffish too sometimes. Don't worry! I think YOU GUYS would get along well... haha!" Mika gave her friend a reassurance, with an eager look in her eyes.

"Whatever..." Naomi rolled her eyes. "He should at least show up on time, specially when meeting a girl, like you said you're childhood friends. Seriously, he can't make a maiden wait, jeez..." Naomi, a step close to snapping off, instead plunged the fork in her plate of spaghetti and twirled it before serving herself a mouthful. "If he doesn't come at 8:30, whether you LIKE IT OR NOT, we're leaving..."

"What? No!" Mika objected. "Give the guy a chance? He could be busy or something? I haven't seen him for quite some time, and I really want you guys to meet!"

"You said 'usually'. It means he often regards you unimportant and he might be a total asshole and seems like youre the only one who cares about him in here."

"Why are you making such presumptions?"

"Once a dick always a dick. We still got 30 minutes left... time is ticking..."

"Well... yeah, making people wait is kinda jerk-ish of him. But believe me, I never had issues with him, and we never had quarelled eversince!" Mika reassured. "Although, sadly those chicks on his jock are always on our way... pestering him..."

"See?!" Naomi interjected with contempt. "Guurl, that's a huge give away that there's no point on still talking to that jerk!" Sapped out of patience, Naomi stood up and grabbed her sling bag up. "Sorry, but if he's making us wait like an idiot here, I gotta say your friend is a dick and you should stop putting up with his shit... I'm going!"

"Naomi!?" Mika tried to at least convince her to stay... "You haven't even finished your spaghetti!"

"Just bag it up!" Naomi threw a hand, waving goodbye whilst she marched down the alley heading to the glass-door exit. "Let's meet at the public court tomorrow at 6! I need to see that pretty-boy Fujima play... teehee!"

"I thought you liked Sendoh better?!"

"Yeah, but I still like both! (winks)"

Mika then just shook her head, with a smile on her face waving back to her naughty, high-spirited, outgoing friend who was also a popular chick herself, being both good looking, academically excellent, and a well-known player nationwide.

"Holy shit, I'm LATE!" Sawakita ran in full-speed, cutting through every obstacle standing blankly around the lively night streets of Kanagawa.

No wonder why he feels restless, while something at the back of his head was reminding him that he had entirely forgotten something important for this day.

And that was to meet his childhood friend who had promised to bring with her and introduce him a friend of her that has exactly the same interests and abilities as him.

It was supposed to be at 7 however...

"It's almost 9!" Whilst running he glanced to his watch to check time. "I'm almost there!" He can now see the glass door... Just a little more. A few more steps and...

BAM! He pushed his way in to look around...

and unfortunately found no sign of his childhood friend around. "Mika... homie, where are you!?" He thought as he started to finally slow down, still panting gasping for some air after some minutes of racing against time.
"I knew I won't make it..." He shrugged, then finding his way to the exit. "She never gets mad at me anyways haha..."

"Who won't get mad at you?!"

A familiar voice spoke behind him the moment he just made it out of the exit.

"Mikio! Dammit!" Masashi grumbled. "Will you stop wiggling around! I can't fuckin sleep!"

"Brother, I really need a bigger mattress!" Mikio complained, feeling uncomfortable of his current hunched situation with the short blanket and mattress. Hunching, tossing and turning around for like more than 30 minutes already, trying to find a way to fit himself in it.

"Why can't you just ignore it and fuckin go to sleep?" Masashi finally ticked.

"Yo... what's that fuss about?" Fukatsu who was still awake, trying to get himself to sleep, inquired slightly bothered. First by Sawakita then next, this one.

"Nothing." Masashi again in his usual calm yet stern monotone. "Just this airhead, bitching over nothing..."

"When you get sleepy enough, you might not be able to notice it anymore Mikio... just stay in one place, don't move, stare at the ceiling and soon you'll feel sleepy. You'll get used to it..." suggested the king of endurance, Ichinokura who was also still awake, overhearing the fuss around.

"Why don't we just call for a room-service and ask for a bigger bedding for him?" Minoru added.

"So none of ya'll have been sleeping yo..." Fukatsu pointed out.

"Actually, Minoru makes sense as I myself sorta needs a bigger..." Nobe seconded Minoru's opinion but interrupted the moment the door slid open, revealing a familiar silhouette, that eventually flicked the lights on to say...

"Alright, boys, what is this fuss about?" It was Doumoto-sensei.

"Ahhh the light burns..." They all squinted, as their eyes were adjusting to the sudden re-appearance of a bright light.

"Sensei yo. Mikio and Nobe need a bigger mattress yo..." Fukatsu spoke in behalf of everyone as the team leader.

"(sigh)..." Doumoto-sensei with his palm on his face shook his head... "You should've just called for room-service at once... but okay, I'll do it for you guys. Hold on..." And even before Doumoto-sensei could leave, he noticed something upon looking around the room...

"Wait... WHERE IS SAWAKITA!?"

END OF CHAPTER 4