Forty Winks | K. Shirabu

┗ 𝘛𝘞𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘠-𝘚𝘐𝘟𝘛𝘏 𝘞𝘐𝘕𝘒

━━━━━━━━

𝘛𝘞𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘠-𝘚𝘐𝘟𝘛𝘏 𝘞𝘐𝘕𝘒:
— you give me hope.

━━━━━━━━

"Terushima-san, I swear if you don't back off right now, I'll have Misaki-san scold you relentlessly." The blond male did nothing for her wishes. A lopsided smile graced his lips as she sighed in return. Since when did he start greeting her like this every time they meet? His intentions were clear but greatly unsure in her perspective. Like how we can only see one side of the moon, she could only see what he portrays, and none of his actual thoughts. 

"That's not what you'd say to someone you begged to have a practice match with."

Yui's eye twitched, "We both know I didn't. And I spoke to Misaki-san, not you."

"I don't see any difference." She pushed away from the arm that rested around her shoulders passively. If she didn't think of him as an acquaintance, possibly a friend, of some sort, he would have been reported already for protruding her privacy every single time their paths cross. 

When the fellow manager passed by in search of Terushima, judging the way there was both haste and irritation in the squint of her eyebrows, Yui thanked whoever answered her prayers. She raised her hand, walked several steps forward, and called out to Misaki. The female in mention stopped in her tracks and sighed in relief. Upon noticing that, Yui placed both of her hands inside the pocket of her tracksuit and sent the blond captain a gaze, "Seriously, cut her some slack."

"It's not like I won't be back before the match starts."

"That's not the point." It was Misaki that intervened, a look of disappointment plastered across her face as she stopped in front of the duo. The male looked away like it wasn't of his concern which caused the Johzenji manager to face Yui instead. She sent an apologetic look, as always, that Yui waved off with a smile - almost letting a polite chuckle out. Their interaction would be about their team and most often involved the captain, so this scenario wasn't anything new to them. 

When Terushima set on his way to get inside the gym voluntarily before he gets dragged by his ear, Misaki took the opportunity to initiate a small chatter in which the captain isn't included. "You can ignore him."

"Is he always like that?"

She sighed for the nth time, "Yes, apparently." 

Misaki reminisced the little incident with Karasuno's manager and winced internally for the apologies she had to do to clean up his mess, "Sorry for the trouble really."

At that statement, Yui smiled internally. "I'm not saying that it's fine. But, he should take accountability for his actions instead of you cleaning up for him every time."

"I understand. It's just - I don't know, hard to leave him alone? Who knows what he'll bring himself into these days."

It was her genuine worry that rendered Yui silent. The familiarity of not being able to leave someone alone, though it was a different matter altogether, was painful. Seriously, it was stressful to think that everything she'd ever hear would be connected to him, no matter how little the detail may be. Her mind would find a way to make sure it could be mended together.

Yui bit her bottom lip, "Was he ever properly interested in someone?"

"You mean, you don't believe he's actually interested in you?" Misaki blinked in surprise.

"He isn't." She laughed, "At first, perhaps he was. But now, I think he's just doing it to anger someone from my team to get back at me."

"Oh - really? That's news. Are you talking about that time you gave him a different number?"