Forty Winks | K. Shirabu

┗ 𝘍𝘖𝘜𝘙𝘛𝘌𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘏 𝘞𝘐𝘕𝘒

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𝘍𝘖𝘜𝘙𝘛𝘌𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘏 𝘞𝘐𝘕𝘒:
— you keep pushing me away.

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It was heinous, Goshiki concluded — what was inseminated in the mind of their only manager. To put it simply, he wanted nothing to do with it whatsoever. Even with the pleading eyes and pout, no, he wasn't going to let his final thoughts be swayed by mere facial expressions.

His own face might have deteriorated to a quivering mess and his arms might be crossed above his chest — perhaps closing his eyes did help resist the idea forming in his mind too but, just this once, he had to say no to her request.

Goshiki never thought that a day would come that their manager suddenly comes up to him to ask for his help in something he absolutely wouldn't be able to face tomorrow with.

It was a tiring afternoon beneath the roof of the gymnasium as per usual. The background chatters and the preoccupied murmurs were nothing too diverse during a normal day. They just finished 1 match earlier and won it respectively, giving them the right to fight for a spot in the semi-finals if they win the next round of quarter-finals. Everyone knew of their fate by the end of the day; they can already imagine the exhaustion taking a toll by playing three whole matches. The least they could do about it is limit the number of sets to 2—which really isn't much of a challenge.

When she saw the frustration and helplessness in the crows' eyes the moment they lost, she felt a peculiar sense of satisfaction deep within her; despite the fact that she mentally sent her pities to the court. Since they were required to switch gymnasium for the quarter-finals, they immediately headed to the Sendai City Gym as soon as they prevailed over the third round. The sight that greeted her was the painstaking faces the crows wore from the sides of the court after experiencing a miserable loss by the team they had beaten once already.

She assumed as much. Aoba Johsai's a solid team— one doesn't need to look twice in order to see that. The only reason the crows won once was that the key to Seijoh's potential on the court was missing until the very last minute. Regardless, the fact that Karasuno was able to see a part of her haven was unsettling. They weren't supposed to reach this far, yet they still did.

Expressing sheer dislike towards that fact, she directed her vexation to the 2nd-year setter. It was evident that he felt someone looking at him, hence he turned to look at her— eyes narrowing to examine the glare she harbored in his direction. Assuming she was stuck in her thoughts, which occurs most of the time, or it was possibly the time of the month, he waved her off and went to talk to Ushijima regarding the other teams.

Remembering those events, Goshiki shouldn't have approached her and asked what was wrong. For all he received was, "Can you help me push him?"

Maybe he heard it wrong, so he asked again.

"Can you help me push him?"

Oh, he heard it right. He shouldn't have asked to repeat it a second time and should have pretended to not hear it and ran away.

His mind fell in a state of bafflement— he knew that she was in a bad mood or something, with the way she glanced, but he didn't think that she'd actually result to violence to let her frustrations out. He immediately recollected that one time wherein she was not feeling too well and practically scoffed at every move Shirabu did. With that, Goshiki reached the same conclusion as the setter.

But, he still wasn't planning to say yes even if she was his senpai and manager.

He ought to see another day on the court.