Practice with Nekoma seemed to go smoothly. They were able to score points and lose some. The blocking moves that they made was so very impressive each time Yachi sees Lev and Kuroo grouped together and had their hands reach out to block the spikes towards their way.
Yachi smiles as another spiked ball got blocked by Kuroo's arms as a point scored for Nekoma. On the other hand, Karasuno were groaning with disappointment as they loss another set which means that they had to do another penalty.
Yachi cheered for her team members when they started to do another drills around the gym. Sugawara smiled when he noticed Yachi's cheers and the rest of the third years waved back at her when she mouthed towards them 'Do your best!' – which seemed to become an effective boost because they were energetically diving to the floors for their penalties.
Kiyoko chuckles lightly when she reached towards the younger first year manager. "You did great, Yachi-chan. It seemed that you are able to manage Nekoma team impressively."
The compliment from the older girl made Yachi flushes red. It was one thing to be complimented by someone she knows but it was another thing to be complimented by someone she really respected. She felt happy when her senpai praises her.
"Th-thank you, Shimizu-senpai! I'll keep doing my best!" She chirped happily, earning a light laughter from the older girl as Kiyoko reaches out to gently squeeze Yachi's cheek.
"Of course you will. I'm glad that you're enjoying during this time as well. It looks like I was worried for nothing."
"O-oh no, Shimizu-senpai. If it weren't for your help, I wouldn't have gotten this far." Yachi replied surely, her eyes brightening with persuasion.
This time, the older manager laughed. Her voice beautifully sings in the air that made the entire atmosphere brightened and warm, Yachi couldn't help but was in awe of Kiyoko's beauty. 'As expected as someone who is very beautiful! Even her laughter is melodious!' Yachi thought in her mind.
Kiyoko patted Yachi's head warmly, "You're too sweet, Yachi-chan."
Yachi lightly chuckles, feeling extremely happy by the praise she received from her senpai.
Practice went smoothly and Yachi was grateful for all the members' cooperation with her. She managed to help several members who needed medical assistance and she was able to make sure that everyone performed greatly that day. As soon as it ended, Yachi wasted no time and helped to clean up the gym before she had to go to the kitchen since tonight was her duty to be preparing dinner with Kaori-san.
When she passes by the doors, she was suddenly greeted by a grumbling Hinata and bumped into her when he tries to walk in the gym.
"Ack!" Hinata yelped when he bumped into Yachi head on. Seeing Yachi wavering from her feet as if she was about to fall, Hinata quickly grabs her arms in place. "Sorry, Yachi-san!"
"H-Hinata." Yachi greeted, a little bit surprised by the sudden bump earlier.
"Sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going, are you okay?" Hinata asked, checking Yachi all over to make sure she was alright.
Yachi gave him a smile, "I'm okay." She replied when she noticed the rough expression in his eyes, "What's wrong, Hinata?"
Hinata's eyes widened at her question and quickly shook his head. "Nothing's wrong, I promise! Um – I'm going to practice a little bit more, see ya!"
"Eh? O-okay…" Yachi replied softly as she watches Hinata quickly dashes inside the gym and went to Nekoma's side where he greeted Lev and Kenma. It seemed like he wanted to practice more with them even when the official training hours has officially ended.
'He's really working hard.' Yachi thought before she went out of the gym's way and walked towards the kitchen area.
Along the way, she sees a figure of Kageyama hitting a vending machine as he grumbled under his breath. He doesn't seem to be in particular good mood like Hinata earlier.
"Kageyama-kun, what's wrong?" Yachi greeted as she walked towards him.
Kageyama instantly stops his grumbling and turned towards Yachi, his furrowed eyebrows slightly lose its tension and greeted her. "Oh, Yachi-san."
The vending machine made another humming sound as if it was on a malfunctioning mode and Yachi looked towards where a box of milk was suddenly caught between the vending machine's glass. Yachi could guess that he was struggling to get his drink out.
"I'll help." She gets some coins out of her pocket and inserted it into the vending machine, pressing on to the same button of drink that the milk box was currently stuck at.
Kageyama blinked at her actions and spoke out, "It's alright, Yachi-san. You don't have to buy a drink to push mine – "
Too late, since Yachi already pressed the button – both Kageyama's and Yachi's milk box came out from the stack and properly dropped. Yachi crouches to get both of the milk boxes and handed one to Kageyama.
"Still cool and fresh, here you go, Kageyama-kun." Yachi handed him his milk box.
Kageyama accepted it, relatively with ease and watches as Yachi props the straw into her own box and sips on it. She hums, "Hm, it's fresh milk alright. You sure drink healthy stuff every day, Kageyama-kun."
"It's not every day…" Kageyama replied with a light flush on his face, a little bit embarrassed that his favorite drink from the school's vending machine was predictable to Yachi.
"I usually drink banana milk since it's sweeter but drinking fresh milk isn't so bad." Yachi says with a light smile as she continues to sip her drink, "Are you done with practice, Kageyama-kun?"
He shook his head, gripping on his milk box a little tighter. "No…I'm going to practice with – I mean by myself now."
"Okay. Don't practice for too long or else you'll miss dinner. I'll see you then, Kageyama-kun. Do your best!" Yachi bid farewell as she waved to Kageyama before leaving the area.
Kageyama nodded and watches Yachi walks out of his vision before she disappears when she turns in a corner from a far. He sighed, lightly biting on to his milk straw and sighed again. Then he turns his feet around towards another opened gym to practice his sets on his own.
Yachi was able to eat dinner earlier so she didn't eat with the rest of her friends during the time dinner hour occurred. She helped with cleaning up the dishes and plates before Yukie calls for her help.
"There are still some people practicing at this hour, could you help me to remind them that the cafeteria is closing soon?" Yukie requested.
Seeing that the time was getting late, Yachi hurried to the gym and called for the rest of the players who were still practicing at this time of hour. Perhaps because they were in the mood for practice, they didn't really recognize the time that dinner was going to end soon.
She sees several team members from Shinzen still practicing their service aces. Yachi gently took off her shoes and called out to the members who were still practicing in the gym.
"Hello! Cafeteria is closing soon, so please clean up and make sure to eat dinner before the cafeteria closes!"
Yachi was glad that her voice was loud enough for the entire gym to stop and paid attention to her. Upon hearing that the cafeteria was closing soon, the members started to clean up the place and stop their practice.
Yachi chuckles lightly when she sees two Shinzen members escaped their cleaning duties and head straight to the cafeteria, ignoring the yelling from their captain.
"I'll help." Yachi volunteered as she started picking up the stray balls.
"Oh, Karasuno-chan! Thank you so much!" Shinzen's captain thanked her as he picked up the mop. "Do you mind collecting the vests too?"
"Yes, senpai." Yachi replied back and proceed to help clean up the place with the rest of the members who were currently inside the gym.
As Yachi was collecting the vests that were piled on the floor, someone came and gave their vest to her. "Here you go – um, sorry I haven't caught your name."
Yachi turned around and gave a polite smile, "Ah – my name is Yachi Hitoka. I'm a first year from Karasuno." She introduced herself. Noticing his height and figure, Yachi's mind echoes again in her head. 'Here comes another tall person. He's even taller than Tsukishima-kun.'
"Cool. My name is Chigaya Eikichi. I'm a first year from Shinzen. Nice to meet you, Yachi-san." He spoke with a friendly smile. "I've only met the other manager from Karasuno."
"That must be Shimizu-senpai."
Chigaya's cheeks tinted with a shy pink, "Shimizu-senpai. She's very nice. We didn't have a manager this year so having a manager for this training camp helped us a lot in practice."
Yachi hummed, "Is it difficult to train without a manager around?"
Chigaya's curly hair seemed to bounce every time he moves his head, perhaps it was just Yachi's imagination since he was super tall and every head movement looked intriguing to her.
Chigaya brought his hand to his chin in a thinking pose, "Personally it is difficult to train without a manager. I mean we can take care of ourselves but it'll be too much on our hands." Then his eyes brightened up, "Shimizu-san showed us how convenient it was to have someone like her around in our team. She's an incredible manager."
Yachi smiled brighter, feeling the pride of being the underclassman of Kiyoko blooms in her chest. "I agree. Shimizu-san is so reliable." Yachi hugged the pile of vests tighter in her arms with a determined glaze in her eyes. "I'll do my best like Shimizu-senpai too."
Chigaya laughs, "It seems like you're doing a great job already, Yachi-san. I heard nothing but praises from my friends about you. It's too bad you didn't rotate to our team in the schedule."
"Maybe next time." Yachi smiles sheepishly.
Chigaya nods then slowly tilts his head as he stares at Yachi's face, contemplating about something. With this gesture, Yachi was a bit confused.
"Is something wrong?" She asked.
Chigaya's head went back to its original position and spoke, "Nothing it's just…I just realized you kind of look like that idol that got famous recently."
"I – Idol?" Yachi repeated numbly. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
Chigaya nodded, "Hn. See, that expression. You really look like her - woah." He then started to whip out his phone from his pocket and searched for the idol's picture he mentioned, showing it off to Yachi from his screen.
Yachi looks over to it, reading the name of the idol and the group she came from. "Riri-chan from Dream Girls Idol group – oh, I've heard of them before but I don't really remember the members."
Yachi closely inspects to his screen again. Yachi isn't sure whether this cute looking idol with blonde hair resembled Yachi. The only thing that was similar between them was the fact that they wore star accented accessories and the apple hair style the girls of their age usually wear.
"I don't see how I look like her. Our features don't look the same." Yachi commented before she leaned back and faced Chigaya.
Chigaya grinned, "It's the aura. Riri-chan is known to have that shy and cute idol-like aura with the fans."
"Oh. Hm…we'd probably be similar in that aspect as well." Yachi added.
Chigaya placed his phone back in his pocket. "I think it's kind of cool. Riri-chan is quite well known in Tokyo. I won't be surprised if people mistook you for Riri-chan in the streets, Yachi-san."
Yachi felt a little nervous at the thought of being recognized just because she shares similar appearance to an idol. "I hope not." She wishes.
Chigaya snickered, "Let's just hope you don't get bombarded with her fans mistaking you for her."
As Yachi clears out the area, she and Chigaya walks out of the area while carrying the vests in her arms. At this moment, she sees someone walking nearby and Yachi smiles when she recognizes him.
"Yamaguchi-kun."
Yamaguchi looked up from the ground and his eyes brightened when he sees Yachi. "Yachi, ah – hello." He then greeted Chigaya as well as the other boy returned the greeting.
"Did you eat dinner, Yamaguchi?"
Yamaguchi gave a sheepish smile, "Not yet. I'm heading to the cafeteria right now."
"Oh – then you should head there quickly. The cafeteria is closing soon. Chigaya-san is also going there too right now." Yachi spoke.
The taller boy added, "I'm starving."
Yamaguchi chuckled lightly at the Shinzen first year before the turned to Yachi. "What about you, Yachi?"
"I'm heading to the laundry room to drop the vest so you both can go ahead first." Yachi replied, shifting the vests in her arms more comfortably.
Yamaguchi cocks his head to the side and offered, "The laundry room is near the cafeteria, right? I'll help you carry those."
"Hn? Oh – it's okay. Thank you." Yachi spoke as Yamaguchi reached his arm out and took half of the vests from Yachi's arms and carried it easily in his.
The three of them then started to walk to the cafeteria. They talked about the recent volleyball practices and the rotating schedule with the managers. As expected, Chigaya and the rest of the Shinzen team were very impressed by Kiyoko's managerial responsibilities and how quick she was to adapt and help the team to boost their improvement.
"Our previous manager graduated before I even entered high school so the manager position in our team is currently unavailable. Hmm, maybe captain would let us give the opportunity to someone for this position." Chigaya wondered.
Yamaguchi replied, "I think it would be best if you have a manager in your team. I was actually surprised that Shinzen and Nekoma didn't have any managers. You know, because you are all super elite team of Tokyo."
Chigaya laughed at Yamaguchi's statement. "Super elite team of Tokyo is a bit too much."
"But you go to nationals every year. Doesn't super elite team of Tokyo sound fitting?" Yachi added.
This time Chigaya chuckles with a light shade of blush on his cheeks, "Now you're just teasing me. But I would reason that it's natural for our team to go to nationals every year since we're good."
"How cool." Yamaguchi smiles awe before shifting his expression into determination. "Karasuno also won't lose."
"Of course! I'd like to face off against your team in nationals soon!"
Yachi smiles at this warm conversation. Even though their walk was short, the talk with Chigaya was very fun. The two Karasuno students bid farewell to Chigaya as they head straight to the laundry room to drop the vests.
"He's nice. It's cool to know people like that." Yamaguchi piped up after they went to the laundry room.
Yachi nodded, "Gets you motivated, right?"
"Hn. I've always loved receiving motivations from other people and lately – " Yamaguchi stares at his palm and smiled wider, "I also feel like I'm getting stronger too."
"You are getting stronger, Yamaguchi." Yachi spoke with an earnest smile.
Yamaguchi blinked his eyes momentarily before he looked back to Yachi. "Really?"
Yachi laughs lightly, her light voice seemed to tickle his ears again. "Of course! I've seen how hard you worked with your floaters. You are getting better at it. I've always watched you."
After hearing such words from Yachi, Yamaguchi couldn't help but bit his lips as he tries to contain the giddiness inside his chest.
'How come Yachi say those things without realizing how cute she looks – I'm going to melt at any moment soon because of this.'
"Hehe – I, uh – " Yamaguchi clears his throat before he sounds like a fool, "Thank you, Yachi. For always watching…over me."
Yachi giggles and send a twinkling smile. "Of course!"
As Yachi keeps walking ahead towards the cafeteria, Yamaguchi slowed down his steps momentarily and clutched his chest with his hand as he sucked his breath, his expression scrunched as if he bit a sour lemon.
"Guh…she's too…cute!" He muttered through gritted teeth.
Author's Notes:
Hello everyone! Thank you for reading this chapter!
I apologize if this chapter seems kind of dodgy and out of place haha - I was planning to make some bridging chapters so that the flow of the plot can be comfortable in the future. I hope you don't mind with one updated chapter for now. Writing this chapter was difficult somehow since I don't really plan the details on bridging between the plots so this chapter came out meh :/ but I really hope the Yamaguchi and Yachi scene came out okay.
I'm very sorry that I could not update earlier. I've been super duper busy with life lately especially with work since I have additional tasks right now so I did not have the opportunity to write this fic often :(((((( Also my sister recently got married and the pre-wedding ceremony and the wedding ceremony was so hectic that I could not even think of this fic during those times haha. So I can't make any promises now to update weekly since I have to prioritize my work first buuuuuut I will try my best to update as soon as I write the chapters.
Like I said previously, I won't abandon this story but I can't promise quick updates like before. I just hope you all don't get mad at me for this decision :(
Thank you for reading this story until this far! Stay safe everyone!