WILDFLOWER [Ryunosuke Tanaka x OC]

Chapter 5 - The Second Set

❀

The boys narrowly won the first set: 23 - 25.

So Kano hid during lunch to regroup.

    With her bento box salad in its sunflower-patterned furoshiki cloth, she jogged off to find a quiet, secluded spot to eat in peace. Around the back of the club rooms, Kano sunk to the dirt and shimmied her knee pads down to her ankles before unwrapping her meal and digging in.

    Her aunt's voice rang in her head, clear as day. "Baby Bundt! What are you missing? What will solve the puzzle?"

    But the longer that Kano ruminated over the game - running and rerunning plays in her head like she played every position, like it was her own fault for every problem - the more upset she got. So she gave up. The game was over, and there was nothing she could do about that one... so she just had to focus on the next set. She had to be better, be the best, for her team. And she could only win... no.

They could only win if she chilled out a little.

    The sound of stamping feet interrupted her meal planning for the week (she'd been thinking curry rice some night, beef stew in the crockpot on Tuesday... probably tempura veggies for Meatless Monday). A sweaty and wide-eyed Tanaka rounded the side of the building, chest heaving. His whole face lit up at the sight of Kano. "There you are!" He beamed, sauntering over to crouch beside her.

His heart beat a panicked rhythm as Nishinoya's words simmered in his brain, over and over and over.

"You and Kano... it's obvious, Ryu."

"Kano, look-" Tanaka started, hesitated, and tried again, "Listen, I-"

A sigh escaped through her clenched teeth. "Well, which is it?" She muttered, eyeing him cautiously as she placed the lid on her salad and set it beside her. "Look? Or listen?"

He chuckled and ran both hands over his buzz cut, hiding his flushed face in his fingers. "Listen. Definitely listen," Tanaka sighed, "I-I'm really sorry about earlier. I don't have a filter, and it gets me in trouble a lot."

"...I know."

Stiffening, he dragged his gaze from the dirt, up and up until he met her chilling stare. "Y-you do?"

She shrugged. "We've been in the same class for two years, buttmunch. I've tutored you for that long, too. I know how you are." With an idle hand, Kano doodled flowers in the dirt beside her sneakers. "I guess after a month away from you and your nonsense, I forgot how razor-sharp your tongue can be. So... apology accepted. Or whatever."

"My tongue can do other things too, goddess, just you-"

Kano karate-chopped him on the head. "Stop."

"Got it. Hearing you loud and clear."

❀

The second set played totally different from the first.

With Tanaka and Kano back on good terms, the two teams spit trash talk like breathing.

And of course... Tanaka started it.

"Send it right here, princess," he jeered at Kano, wiggling his butt in anticipation as he waited for her jump serve with his arms outstretched, "I can take it."

Kano snorted, then sent her serve to the opposite side of the court, where Hinata was caught totally off guard. "Eat my ass, Tanaka, you fuckface!" She yelled across the court, just after the boys' coach called the girls' point.