♯ 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗠

⌗ 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘

THIRD PERSON

"tsukki." yamaguchi mumbles under his breath.

"is tsukishima doing alright? he seems really on edge today." the orange-haired male asks, only earning a sigh as a reply from yamaguchi.

"we all have times when we don't feel alright, dumbass. let the guy be." kageyama says beside him, sighing as well.

it has been a day ever since the plan to bring their female friend back failed, yet here we have our blonde protagonist with his mind flying away from its nest.

"you can rest if you want, tsukishima." daichi says, looking over the younger as he hands him a towel.

"no. i'm alright, captain." tsukishima lies, getting the towel.

with that response, sugawara heaved out a deep sigh, worrying about his junior's state.

"it's not like you to be gloomy, tsukishima! throw us some salty statements or you'll get to taste how cool my rolling thunder double is!" nishinoya yells with the widest grin, trying to cheer the taller up, yet tsukishima didn't bother to answer nor to even give him a glance.

he found nishinoya much more annoying in this kind of situation.

"don't sweat it, bro. the guy's sad. we can't do anything about that." tanaka butts in with a frown plastered on his face, shaking his head from side to side to signal his friend to cut it out.

the libero heaved out a deep sigh before leaving the blonde alone.

"consoling him at this point won't work. the only way for him to feel better is to find a solution to get over it himself." the third year manager mutters under her breath, only enough for yachi to hear.

"alright, you guys! let's continue practicing!" their coach yells with high spirits, trying to lighten the mood up.

"is it okay to continue with tsukishima in this state? not that i'm saying he shouldn't, i'm just worried." narita says towards their coach.

"yeah. we could sub him out for a while until he feels better, coach." kinoshita agrees, causing the coach to sigh.

"if i could, i would. but if i do so, he'll despise me for not letting him play. he's not the same tsukishima today. he's not that guy who doesn't care if he gets switched out or not. he's giving it his all."

with that, the practice continued with kinoshita serving the ball towards the other team, which ennoshita received successfully.

"nice receive!" sugawara yells, ready to give asahi the toss their soft ace loves.

asahi ran up to the attack line to hit the ball, which he successfully did even though there were three blockers blocking the summit. however, daichi made a way to receive it flawlessly, sending the ball to kageyama.

"left, left!" tanaka yells.

"come to me!" hinata yells as well, running up to the attack line.

the blockers of the other group, including tsukishima, fell for their opponent's trick and jumped to block hinata, not being able to read kageyama'a next move.

ah, it's that annoying setter dump again. i used to be able to read that. the blonde says inside his head, sighing mentally as he admits defeat.

for their surprise, nishinoya caught the ball, and thus keeping the rally going.

"getting better day by day, i see." coach ukai mumbles, scoffing as his eyes are fixated onto both teams.

"hinata, last!" tanaka yells, wiping the sweat dripping from his forehead with his left arm.

hinata ran up to the attack line once again, ready to hit the ball with all his might.

kageyama sent the ball towards the orange-haired male and at the same time, tsukishima ran up as well to block the attack.

as hinata spiked the ball, it hit tsukishima's left hand too harshly before flying to the back, thus earning a point for kageyama'a team.

"tsukki, your hand!" yamaguchi yells all of a sudden as he gets a view of his friend's hand with blood dripping from it.

"hinata's spike is that strong now?"
"i thought only ushiwaka can do that to tsukishima's hand. amazing, shoyo!"
"this is not the time to he amazed, nishinoya."
"shimizu! the first aid kit, please!"

tsukishima cursed under his breath, furrowing his eyebrows.

i seem to be extremely off today. what's happening? he asks in his mind, only to answer himself.

ah, i see. it failed. he scoffs mentally.

"geez, look at how messy you are right now, kei!" the blonde male hears by the door, causing him to look immediately towards that direction.

as he saw who it was, his eyes tears up.

as the figure noticed what was going on inside tsukishima's head, she gave him a sweet smile he longed to see.

"did you miss me, tsukishima-kun?"