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The team moves past their loss.
The time he's able to spend with the volleyball players dwindles as he gets occupied with school and track. However, he's promised to attend the Tokyo training camp after a handful of people begged him to— Bokuto-san and Kuroo-san were very insistent on his attendance, begging the boy for "bro" time; whatever that meant. He still tries to spend time with them when prompted.
Spending time with the other second years in Ukai-sensei's shop, tending the school's garden after hours with Shoyou and Tobio, with Nibuya-sensei's approval, and occasionally meeting his new acquaintance, Tendou-san, in the library and recommending each other books and manga to read.
Y/N closes his laptop and takes a sip of his cocoa, cold now, but the sweetness soothes his nerves. As much as he loves studying, the subject he's currently studying makes his brain hurt. The material is difficult—heaven's blessings on his decisions to be in an advanced class—and the teacher thinks all her students are published astrophysicists who can understand topics with just a few seconds of "teaching."
It baffles him and every student she's had how she still has her job or her teaching certificate, but Y/N supposes it's the way of the world. A pale finger taps the wood in front of him.
Y/N sets his headphones on his shoulders and tilts his head. "Ya done reading?" With a small gesture, he nods."...y-yes, I-I-I appreciate the c-c-c-company, T-T-Tendou-san." Tendou places a bookmark between the pages and blows a raspberry, lying his cheek flat on the table and watching through his eyelashes. "I appreciate yours too. Having silent time with someone new is nice. Whenever I try to make my friend read manga, he spends more time looking at the ads than anything else. Seriously, I don't think an ad about generic isekai is more important than Fullmetal Alchemist!" He says, exasperated, but there's a fond undertone in his voice that Y/N can't ignore.
Though the unfamiliar title piques Y/N's interest. "...f-f-fullmetal a-a-alchemist?"
Whatever tangent Tendou-san was about to go on pauses as he stares at the other with wide eyes. "You've never read Fullmetal?" The manager shakes his head, "...I-I-I d-d-don't think I have a s-s-set genre I s-s-stick to, I u-u-usually read whatever my s-s-sister or m-my friends recommend me."
"When you're done reading JoJo's please for my sake— start Fullmetal. You can watch it too— I did, and it was good, but you have to watch Brotherhood, not the regular one. There's a difference." Tendou-san grins, typical and lazy, and he pulls it up on his phone. Shimizu makes a mental note.
So far, he's liked all of Tendou-san's recommendations, albeit only one, but he doesn't have a reason to distrust him all of a sudden. "...t-t-thank you f-f-for the insight, T-T-Tendou-san."
He waves it off. "It's nothing, I'm just glad I have someone who will yammer with me about manga. Wakatoshi-kun listens, but he doesn't really get it, yanno?"
