Try Again (SPOTLIGHT SERIES #1) (Tsukishima Kei X OC) (Haikyuu) (Celebrity AU)

Chapter 3

Miyagi, 2012

"Sorry about yesterday, Kageyama. I was really busy after practice." I apologized for leaving so abruptly last night. My mom said she was coming home and I haven't seen her in a while, hence the rush.

I looked at his figure closely, black hair stuck to his forehead from all the sweat running down his head as he looked to the ground and suddenly bowed. Holy hell, did I recently become part of the royal family?

He opened his mouth and I anticipated his next words, unsure what all this fuss is about when he never even bothered to call me with an honorific back when we were middle schoolers. "I- I..." oh my god, get it over with, my lunch is already cold because of my lunch box's shitty insulation.

"Please tutor us!" a higher pitched voice behind Kageyama suddenly spoke. He had unkempt orange hair and his uniform was just as messy. Aside from that, he was so short compared to Kageyama I didn't notice him even when the other was bowing.

"Sorry, who are you?" I smiled in confusion, scratching the back of my head. "Hinata Shoyo! Class 1!" he ran to me and bowed. I took a step back as he almost hit me with his head.

I sighed and close my eyes, just because I'm in class 5 doesn't mean I'm smart, I'm just lucky some people are dumber. "If this is about math, I'm not the right person to ask..." I apologetically said.

"Please, we need you!"

"If you need help with math, she's definitely not the right person to ask. She's right with that, but unfortunately not with these questions." a voice spoke from behind me.

Hesitantly, I turned around, spotting a familiar blonde. A smirk was painted across his lips as he read the answers to my math quiz. How did he even get that?

"Congratulations on passing though." Something-shima said. I'm gonna be honest, I can't remember his name. In fact, I would've probably never remembered Kageyama's name if I wasn't his schoolmate throughout middle school. But I did feel relief wash over me after he at least told me I passed.

He handed the paper to me and my eyes slowly made its way to the score, ignoring all the markings and corrections the teacher made.

72 out of a 100... that's... that's not bad, right?

"P-Please!" GOSH that sounded weird coming from Kageyama's mouth. "I know you're fluent in English! You said it in a magazine interview.." oh, I remember that, the one magazine with a bad angle of me.

"All right, all right." I'll do it, this is gonna sound desperate but this is pretty much my only chance at ever making friends. "Phone." I sighed and stuck my hand out, waiting for one of them to get the message.

Kageyama scrambled through his pockets, handing me a blue flip phone. I quickly typed my number and pressed save under my name.

"Now, if you don't mind. I really gotta go, my lunch bag has really crappy insulation." I apologized and begin walking off.

I felt footsteps following behind me but I chose to ignore it, not until I heard a snicker.

"You don't just buy lunch at the cafeteria?" he mocks.

"No, I have a mother who actually loves me if you don't know what that is." I reply and began to walk faster.

"Don't walk too fast, shorty. Your legs might give out on you before your big swim meet." My god, can this volleyball team get any more annoying?

"Why are you following me?" I turned around and asked him.

He stops walking and stared at me for a few seconds. "Maybe because I also eat at the cafeteria." Fuck.

"Then don't make small talk with me on the way, french fry." I snicker and turned back around and continued walking to my destination.

"French fry? My name is Tsukishima in case Your Highness forgot." he laughs and walks at a slower pace to match mine. I actually did forget but I'll choose to ignore that.

"French fry because you're tall, blonde, and fucking salty." my mouth unconsciously blabbed.

"So vulgar, Hinode-san. Also, the tag line is tall, blonde, and gorgeous. You're quite forgetful." he responds with a smirk.

"I remember what it is, Tsukishima-san. Gorgeous and your name in one sentence just doesn't sound right." Two can play at this game. I've dealt with worse, and by worse, I meant Oikawa Tooru.

We stayed quiet for a few seconds, but there was an itching in the back of my brain I just couldn't ignore.

"How did you get my paper?" I huffed, swallowing my pride to satisfy my curiosity.

I could feel Tsukishima from behind me smirk, and I didn't exactly like it. "I thought you said no small talk." He said and left with a smug look on his face, sitting down at a table with who I assume is his unfortunate best friend.

"You don't seem like the type to listen." I muttered under my breath, grabbing my phone and earphones out of my bag and proceeded to take my food out of the bag.

...

"This one's wrong too." I point out to Kageyama. His comprehension really isn't the best, but hey, he has volleyball to make up for it.

"If the sentence sounds off, it's probably not right. You score really low in grammar so we'll work on that." I sat down beside Kageyama, coaching him while Yachi, who was too intimidated by Kageyama, does the same to Hinata.

It felt like hours waiting for them to finish... the reason being that it was.

I woke up from an almost hour long nap only to see Kageyama still focused on answering his practice paper. Most of their seniors have already left, Yamaguchi and Tsukishima were both just playing on their phones while Yachi was still closely watching Hinata.

"I'm done, L/n-san." Kageyama hands me his paper as I covered my mouth and yawned.

"Sorry for making you stay so late..." he muttered as I began correcting it with Yachi's spare pen.

An object suddenly hit the table and I looked to see it was Tsukishima with a can of coffee. "Here." he placed it in my left as he opened his.

What are you being so nice for? Then again, you're in class 4 and could've just volunteered to help these two, this is the least you could do.

"Thanks." I muttered and continued correcting after taking one sip, only then realizing it was already opened.

...

Everyone exchanged their goodbyes around 10 in the evening, my body was already tired from swim practice and it just so happened that I fell asleep in an awkward position while we were studying.

I listened to Yamaguchi talking as we walked, our houses were in the same direction so we decided to just go home in a group. Eventually, we passed by his house and exchanged our good nights.

And then there were two. I look over at Tsukishima, who was too busy looking at the stars.

"The teacher mixed up Class 4 and 5's papers, yours was attached to mine. That's how I got it." he explains as he quickly put his headphones on, drowning out the sound from our surroundings.

Jerk.