Sugar Cookie

5

You make your way to the third years' floor. You looked for Asahi's classroom, quickly finding it and asking one of his classmates to bring you the boy you were looking for.

He comes out, looking down at you in surprise. "Uh... hello... were you the one that asked for me?"

You nod, smiling at the older boy. "I'm L/m Y/n, a second year. I'm friends with Sugawara Koushi and wanted to talk to you, Asahi-san."

His eyes widened. "You want to talk to me? Why?"

You bow to a perfect 90 degree angle. "Please go back to being the ace for the boys' volleyball club! The team really needs you!"

Asahi nervously looked around, making sure no one was seeing this. "P-Please stand back up!"

"Please be the ace we need you to be!"

He puts his hands in front of him, feeling more nervous about this. "Fine, fine! I'll rejoin the team! Just, please stop bowing before people get the wrong idea!"

You stand straight up. "Really? You're really gonna go back to the volleyball club?"

Asahi nods, taking deep breaths to calm himself down. "Yes, I will."

You jump up, feeling proud to solve two problems already during this lunch break. "Great!"

"Did you really come to find me just for that?"

You look at him, nodding. "Yes. Koushi told me about problems the team was having, so I offered to go around to members of the team and fix everything for you guys."

His eyes widened. "You'd really do all of that? Even though you haven't met any of us on the team, aside from Suga?"

You beam at him. "Of course. I want everyone to get along. And I'm doing this to help Koushi. All of this has been stressing him out, and I decided to take matters into my own hands."

Asahi just looked at you. "Are you his girlfriend?"

You feel your face heat up, you wave your hands in front of you frantically. "N-no! It's nothing like that! We've just been friends our whole lives, we live next to each other!"

He lets out a breath, feeling slightly doubtful. "I see. You must really care a lot about him if you're willing to go through all the trouble of talking to his teammates in order fix any problems the team is having."

"He's my best friend and I don't like it when he's feeling stressed over anything. I just want to help him as much as possible."

Asahi smiles at you. "That's sweet. Who else have you talked to?"

"Nishinoya. I had to bribe him."

"With what?"

"I have to go to a cafe with him this weekend."

Asahi's eyes widened. "Wow. You must really want to fix our problems."

You nod. "I do. And I still have to talk with some of the first years on the team."

"I see. Good luck with that."

You smile at the third year. "Thanks, I think I'm going to need it based on everything Koushi has told me about the first years."

"What kind of problems are they having with the first years?"

"Apparently three of them aren't getting along with each other."

Asahi's eyes widened. "How are you going to fix that?"

You shrug. "I was just going to start by talking it out with each one separately. Hopefully, at least one of them will start putting in effort to get along with the others. It could cause a chain reaction and soon the first years won't have any problems working together."

"I see. So... since you came to ask me to go back to the team, I'm guessing this means Suga told you everything?"

You nod. "He explained why you left in the first place, along with the explanation behind Nishinoya's reluctance to be back on the team. I got worried with how well the team would function without two of their key players."

Asahi sighs, attempting to lean against a nearby wall. "I felt bad about running away, but I'm not sure how well I can help the team with how Datekyo kept blocking my spikes. It was really hard to deal with, made me lose confidence in myself."

You put a hand on his shoulder. "It's fine. I understand you might not be feeling the best about this. But once you're back with the team, you'll start enjoying volleyball again. And I think all the members that have played beside you miss you and want you back with them."

"I wish I had half the confidence you have. A part of me thinks that it might be the best thing to stay away from the team, put volleyball behind me."

You frown. "That won't help anything. You need to go back to the team and work hard with everyone. One day, you'll see that hard work pay off and you'll defeat Datekyo with your own hands. Trust me."

He lets out another sigh. "Alright, I'll give it a shot. Thanks for talking about this with me."

"No problem. I'm just trying to help out Koushi."

He starts turning to his classroom. "Alright, I guess I'll see you around, L/n. Good luck with the rest of the team."

You wave at him, preparing to walk away to finish the talks with the volleyball team's members. "Thanks, Asahi-san. I look forward to watching you be the ace of the team!"

You walk away, beginning to make your way to the first years' floor.