UNBOUND - h. iwaizumi

chapter eight

iwaizumi frowned as he looked at the gymnasium. he came alone. he did his research on nekoma and learned that they were known for their tight defense, so he thought the two middle blockers would want to come.

he cursed at kindaichi and matsukawa for not coming and instead spend their time sleeping or gaming.

he saw a familiar face talking to a few boys in red jerseys. locking his car, he walked over to his classmate, her eyes brightening up at the sight of him.

"iwaizumi-san! i'm glad you could make it!" she called, a few other pair of eyes going on him.

iwaizumi scratched the nape of his neck with his left hand while he used the other to wave back. "hey, l/n-san." he walked up to the group, greeting the boys.

"this is my friends from nekoma, kuroo tetsurou, yamamoto taketora, nobuyuki kai and morisuke yaku." she first pointed to the tallest guy with unruly hair, bangs covering his right eye. she then pointed to the guy with a dyed mohak, moving onto one a buzz cut before landing on the shortest of the bunch. "guys, meet iwaizumi hajime. he's in my class."

kuroo and nobuyuki rose a hand, waving at the boy while yamamoto was trying to intimidate him. morisuke sighed at the second year's actions before smiling and stretching out a hand, "it's nice to meet you, iwaizumi-san. we're currently on a break for our fourth set — since y/n told us about you coming — so i apologize if we stink a bit."

"us? stink? it's more of you and kuroo-senpai, yaku-san." taketora grumbled, earning a smack on the back by their captain.

"uhm, it's nice to meet you guys too, l/n-san's told me about you guys a few times." iwaizumi says, shaking hands with the libero.

"oya? you talk about us, n/n-chan~?" kuroo teased, ruffling up the girl's hair.

y/n rolled her eyes, pouting at the boy, "shut the hell up, kurooster."

"eh? you're one to talk, forehead."

"least i don't use my hair as a height advantage."

before the two could bicker even more, a voice yelled out from the gym catching all their attentions. "guys, break's over!" they notice it was sugawara, karasuno's senior setter.

the four players called out an 'okay', bidding y/n a temporary farewell and taketora told iwaizumi to make sure to watch the winning team — their team.

y/n chuckled at his comment, seeing the boys go into the gym before turning towards her classmate. "how was camp, iwaizumi-san?"

"it was good," he said walking towards the foyer, the girl following next to him. "tiring, but i couldn't pass up this chance to watch the trash can showdown. it's been five years, no?"

"yup, people used to go wild over this until aoba johsai got our own current third years." she smirked, secretly bragging at the fact seijoh was a strong school. "you guys did well, oikawa-kun had told me you won ninety percent of your matches."

iwaizumi chuckled not knowing how else to take the compliments, "thanks, the teams we went against were pretty tough, so i'm glad we won most of them."

y/n hummed as they continue to walk towards the spectator area. they arrived soon after, watching as the score was 24-21, nekoma in the lead. karasuno scores a point with kageyama and hinata, and another rally is quick to follow.

"'losing is essential to anyone's success. the more you lose, the more you want to win'." y/n quoted, he looked at her, questioning why she'd said that out of the blue. "i know that's how you feel about your loses, iwaizumi-san. like, 'maybe if i had spiked more and ran faster, we would've won', right?"