𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 | 𝐤.𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐨

four

ayako

i headed for the boys' morning practice early that day, to find hinata and kageyama already busy practicing.

most of the other members were already there too.

kageyama was busy working on his serves, and i was pretty sure that he was more determined to make his serves stronger than oikawa after the practice match.

just as kageyama served again, a figure zipped past and received the serve perfectly.

"noyaaa!" i heard tanaka call out.

i realized that that was probably the libero, nishinoya yuu, that daichi had been talking about.

"ryuu!" he called back, his loud voice bursting my eardrums.

kageyama had stopped serving, and seemed to have froze there, either in surprise that someone was able to receive his serve of perfectly, or taken aback by the sudden appearance of the libero.

hinata had also noticed the libero, and his jaw dropped.

"y-you're shorter than me!" he exclaimed from across the gym, running up to the boy.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" nishinoya exclaimed.

loud. he really was pretty similar to tanaka.

"g-gomen...i just haven't met someone shorter than me before in a volleyball club.." hinata stammered, immediately bowing. "but...can i ask h-how tall are you?"

i smacked my forehead. you've got to be kidding me.

it was already clear that nishinoya didn't enjoy having his height pointed out, and hinata just had to make the same mistake twice in a row.

however, the libero didn't seem to be angered, or even showed the slightest bit of annoyance at the question.

"159 centimeters!"

the ginger's jaw dropped. "t-this is the first time i've been taller than someone...!"

nishinoya scowled. "being taller isn't such a big deal! don't get all happy about it!"

"h-hai...gomen...!"

the libero looked around the gym, ignoring hinata's apology. "so you guys are all first-years?"

hinata and kageyama nodded. "hai!"

he nodded, and turned back to kageyama.

"which junior high are you from?"

the setter seemed to have been taken by surprise, and stammered,

"kitagawa daiichi..."

"no wonder! they're really good, aren't they? i played against them and we lost 2-1!" nishinoya exclaimed, making me wince at his volume again.

"for real?!" tanaka's eyes widened, also turning to kageyama now.

i caught sugawara and daichi shaking their heads from behind, clearly embarrassed by the libero's behavior.

just as he was about to continue, nishinoya seemed to have noticed my presence.

"daichi-san! who's this pretty girl?!" he called out, making me flush bright red.

shimizu was right after all.

"she's ayako miyazaki, a first-year. she's been helping the team take pictures," daichi piped up.

i bowed politely at him. "k-konichiwa, nishinoya-san."

"she takes pictures?! that's so cool!"

tanaka nodded. "yeah! her pictures are really nice too! you should see all the cool pictures she took of me!"