128√e980

Chapter 3

Crickets slowly filled the silence as teams started packing up to get to their rooms for the night shower. The clock strikes at six and the once crowded gymnasium they rented has only few teenagers left. Bokuto and Akaashi from Fukurodani, Kuroo and Haiba from Nekoma and Tsukishima from Karasuno cleaning his eyeglasses are present. Kuroo steals a glance at the doorway of the gym, waiting for someone who's been catching his eyes. 

Kuroo doesn't know if he's going to pursue the grenette or just let the feelings pass since that's what his parents did to him. For Kuroo to witness his parents fighting every now and then makes him eager to distract him from hearing them throw daggers toward each other. And aside from that, he's afraid to have the same relationship as his parents. So just like most guys in his batch, he hasn't confessed to anybody.

Hearing the squeaky steps inside the gym, all of them look at Yamaguchi panting at the doorway together with the orange head, Hinata. Kuroo suddenly feels so excited just by seeing the hot panting Yamaguchi resting his left hand at the side of the wall. 

"Sorry for keeping you waiting!" Yamaguchi bows down. He can't believe that he'll be trained by the seniors together with his best friend, who seemed not surprised about the invite. 

"Tsukishima! You didn't say you're going to have special training with powerful team captains!" Hinata frowns, complaining about how the tall blonde's 'unfair' training. Hearing this from his favorite disciple, Bokuto chuckles. Bokuto really likes to be praised, especially to someone like Hinata who's as eager as him to play volleyball. 

"Don't worry, Shrimpy! You're very welcome to join us! HAHAHA" Bokuto laughs, proud of himself for being one of the best captains according to Hinata. 

'Shrimpy pfft' Both Tsukishima and Yamguchi tries to suppress their laughter as they heard the word coming from Bokuto which Hinata noticed and gritted his teeth glaring at Tsukishima's annoying face. Even the tall Russian, Lev Haiba who's just watching them annoying Hinata laughs at the orange head's cute reaction.

Hinata then turns to face Bokuto with glittering eyes thanking seniors, making the Fukorodani's captain smirk. Akaashi fixes his hair as he eyes everyone, silently observing their personalities. His eyes then landed on blushing Kuroo staring towards the blonde and grenette best friends. By that, Akaashi smiles and continues observing others.

'My friend must be having his heart fallen once again.'

Seeing how the two best friends act upon the scene flutters Kuroo's heart, especially on how Yamaguchi joins in teasing Hinata.  The way he covers his mouth and his shoulders goes up as he lets out heartily chuckles gives heat to Kuroo's cheeks that he averts his gaze after realizing what he may look. He should not be like this if he wanted not to mess things up. 

"Seems like these interesting first years are already here." A light pink sports bib with number 6 enters the gym which stops everyone from talking. This average looking brunette teen waves his hand as a sign of greetings. 

"Finally you're here, Ishikawa." 

"Indeed I am." With a smirk plastered on his face and his arms bent sideways and shrugs his shoulders. He walks towards them inside the volleyball court and looks at Kuroo and everyone. He has been Kuroo and Kenma's friend back when they were in middle school and back then, Kuroo has been in contact with him even when they joined different high schools. Ishikawa Reiji joined Shinzen high while Kuroo and Kenma in Nekoma. 

"So, who has the apple of your eye?" 

Kuroo's starts to turn pink at the sudden question from his friend. 'Why ask that all of the sudden?' He asks back with just using his eyes but the brunette just smiles slyly as he waves his eye brows up and down, trying to tease his own friend. 

For Ishikawa, it is rare for Kuroo to be interested or as invested in someone who just mostly focuses on volleyball and academics for he knows Kuroo. And just guessing that his friend is having interest in someone in a different way and seeing him blush at his question, it is for sure someone he admires. 

"Is it the tall blonde?" Kuroo widens his eyes and chuckles awkwardly. Ishikawa must have guessed he's having interest in someone but he doesn't know who. 

"No, it's Yama-chan you're going to practice with. He's good at pinch services so maybe help him more with the receives and setting." If only the ground could swallow Kuroo alive, he'd be more glad. 

"Yama-chan, you'll go practice with Ishikawa-kun first with the receives, Haiba should also join your side since he's terrible at it." Lev scoffs at Kuroo's remark to him. Hinata chuckles which made Lev glare at him. 

"I'm not a terrible receiver, Kuroo-senpai!"

"Yes, you are. Together with chibi-chan." This time it is Tsukishima who burst out laughing specifically towards Hinata and if glares could kill, the growling Hinata must have killed the salty taller guy. 

"Oh I see, I'll try giving them good practice then." With that, they are divided into two groups, Kuroo is with Yamaguchi, Lev and Bokuto while Ishikawa is with Akaashi, Tsukishima and Hinata. 

Their practice started by the service of Hinata to which is received by Yamaguchi through positioning himself and slightly stiffens his bent legs to the ground which gives a good chance for Kuroo to set the ball towards Bokuto who's already in the inner right line of the court. Tsukishima observes Bokuto's hands and checks Spiky head's timing. Just as when he already knows how Bokuto will work it out, Tsukishima jumps and positions his hands above his head towards the right side. He slightly flinches at the impact of Bokuto's spike but that didn't stop him from being the top three best hitter in all highschools in Japan.

Both Lev and Kuroo try to save the ball dropping down near the net but their speed is a little slower from the drop, making the score of the other side. 

It's 0-1 and team Ishikawa leads. 

It is Hinata's set again but this time he attempted to do a jump serve which unfortunately aimed at Tsukishima's back. 

"Tsukki!" Worried Yamaguchi shouts. Tsukishima frowns and glares at Hinata saying sorry with his hands forming a peace sign.

"You should be more careful, Hinata!" Yamaguchi reprimands the orange head while Ishikawa just shakes his head, smiling.

They continued playing up until dinner time and making everyone satisfied with the play, team Kuroo won the practice game making Yamaguchi feel happy that his receiving skills are slowly developing more. His receives are good but he knows that there will be a time where he'll be left behind by the other first years in their team. Maybe it is also the reason why he decided to work harder just like Hinata. 

"Kuroo-san, Thank you for inviting me from the practice." Yamaguchi bows down, earning more points toward Kuroo's heart. Will Yamaguchi still respect Kuroo like this if Kuroo decides to confess his feelings towards him? He will of course but it will really make it awkward which Kuroo does not want to see. After all, most men does not like the idea of men liking them romantically.

"No problem. It's the least I can do to help you fight your insecurities towards your skills. You really have your potential, Yama-chan. Now that you are about to enter Nationals, all of you must be stronger and stronger together." It would be a lie for Yamaguchi to say he's not amazed by this man. Among all the captains he saw in this camp aside from Daichi, Kuroo is the most approachable one. Yamaguchi feels more comfortable towards the Nekoma captain.

"Uhm... May I ask you a favor, Kuroo-san?" Yamaguchi bites his lower lip, thinking of his decision to bring this topic out of nowhere. He has seen how Kuroo blushed earlier when Ishikawa asked who caught his eye and if it's his best friend. He also concluded that it's the reason why Tsukishima changed his perspective towards volleyball. 

"Sure, what is it?"

"Please take care Tsukki? I've been observing you two, and I think you have been liking each other. So, I want to suggest you confess to Tsukki. Tsukki is not the type of a person who'll admit it."

"Wait, what?" Kuroo can't process what Yamaguchi has said. Why would he think Kuroo likes Tsukishima when on fact he's the one Kuroo likes?