"Owowow! Daichi! C'mon man! I'm sorry!"

"You absolutely are not."

Daichi pulled Suga by the ear all the way to the sofa in the living room, where he very roughly forced his friend to sit and wait. In his underwear. Waiting, in silence, while Kitsuna scrambled for clothes and found the courage to slink out of her room. She did sooner than he gave her credit for, standing rigid beside the couch and trying to ignore Asahi's looming form there at the end of the hallway.

"Ahem," Daichi cleared his throat. His two victims flinched and felt the air leave their lungs at an alarming rate, with no intention to return. Asahi experienced the same feeling, and sympathized with them. He genuinely did, but there was no force of heaven nor hell that would propel him even a single step further.

"You," Daichi addressed Kitsuna first.

"Yes!"

"You're late. I can see you aren't sick or injured. Get your things. You have a ride to Tokyo, and you will be explaining yourself on arrival," Daichi gave his orders, and Kitsuna bowed before getting to it.

Suga's eyes wandered around the room while Kitsuna scrambled to gather her things. There were dishes in the sink, filled with water that was losing the froth of the soap. Some drink bottles in the living room, with varying levels of liquid still in them. Manga beside the couch on the floor. Game controllers on the floor, cords stretching up to a still-burning tv screen. The open bag on the coffee table, with a few items set out beside it.

"Hm?," he stared over to the table. Something caught his eye, a little note pad with a pen tossed beside it. A list? Several were scrawled on the notepad's pages. Dates, items, and some other stuff related to their shared hobby: volleyball. Some other notes, that he had never seen before. Names, sometimes one or two to a page. Flipping through it, he found a range of notes beside or under each name listed like bullet points. Likes, dislikes, some sort of stats. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a lot less. Like a little guide for each of her teammates, friends, and classmates. The simultaneous hilarity and cuteness of that made him temporarily forget his looming death sentence mere feet away from where he was seated. The notepad was snatched up, and hurriedly stuffed into the bag with a few other things. Something fell over his head, clothes. A fresh set. That's when he remembered his poor state of dress and felt his face heating up to a dangerous level.

"Get dressed. We're leaving in five minutes," Daichi barked another curt order and headed for the door. He slid his shoes on, pulled some keys from his pocket, and headed outside. The three remaining inside were frozen stiff.

"Dude," Asahi finally broke the crushing silence with a single wheezy word. Just the one, as he stared at his once-classmate and friend that was slowly getting dressed. Suga wouldn't meet his eyes, staring instead at some spec on the floor or an invisible phenomena by his legs. Suddenly a bag appeared, foisted up to Asahi's chest level. He took it half on instinct, pointing his same stunned expression toward Kitsuna who handed it off to him. Her face was blank, or closer to empty. A husk. Once she was relieved of the bag's hefty weight, she turned wordlessly and sped into her room. Slamming the door shut behind her.

"I'll…be in the car. Don't take too long," Asahi had his fill of the house's dense air and hastily retreated outside. He slid into the car, choosing the seat directly behind the fuming man in the driver's seat. Soon after, the other two stood outside the doors. Seeing the arrangement of the seating, they engaged in the most heated rock paper scissors match in history. Suga was victorious, and slid beside Asahi with a heartfelt but short apology. Kitsuna took the front passenger seat, and was trembling so bad that Daichi had to click her seatbelt in for her. Then it was time, as he pulled onto the street proper and started toward a hilly road, for the longest and most painful car ride of their lives. A several-hour drive passed in complete and total silence, with no breaks or naps. No complaints. Nothing but the sound of the engine straining over hills, or the tires shooting a loose pebble aside.

Several hours later they finally arrived at their destination, rolling to a stop in a large parking lot. Nobody made a move after the car stopped, despite every instinct screaming to get away as soon as possible.

…

"Oh, hey. Aren't you missing one? Same thing as last year?," the manager from Fukurodani asked Yachi while their respective teams were waiting for the current match to end.

"Ah, n-no. She wasn't there when we left last night, so maybe she's sick?," the blonde girl answered with only a slight stutter.

"Hm? You sure about that?," Tsukishima barged in on the conversation, insinuating something.

"Huh? What d'you mean?"

"Well, college is on break right now isn't it?," he grinned darkly, and all minds reached similar conclusions.

"Eh?! No way! No way, dude! Tsukki, you don't seriously think that right? Ennoshita, c'mon man. You know that wouldn't be the reason, too. Don't you?," Yamaguchi very quickly tried to dispel that notion, though he was obviously flustered like Yachi was. He pulled Ennoshita in, hoping for a shining beacon of light.

"I dunno man," Ennoshita's reaction was the exact opposite, crushing the flailing spirits of the other two while Tsukishima spat out a quiet laugh. The other team's manager wasn't sure what to do here, but she definitely caught the implications. Ennoshita's face went dark, and his eyebrow twitched as he tried hard not to think about what might have occurred just out of their sight.

"Dude! No way! You don't mean-"

"Well Suga does have that sneaky streak sometimes. And Kitsuna…isn't always the best influence either," Ennoshita's eyes went dead. He was trying not to think about it, but that made him think about what he wasn't supposed to be thinking about and brought him right back to thinking about it. While he got trapped in that loop, the door to the gym flew open and drew all eyes in that direction.

"Get in there!"

"I will! Gimme a minute! Jus-rk!"

"Don't make this worse."

There, bickering in the doorway, was the missing student and a former student. Daichi and Kitsuna traded blows in the air, with her desperately trying to avoid his clutches. He finally caught her, and half-dragged her inside while the coaches apologized and went to quiet the situation.