I Can't Say "I Love You" | Kuroo Tetsurō

Chapter 11: Doubts

The end of the school term was coming up and Mirai felt nervous as the words of coach Nekomata rang in her mind.

[Flashback to a few hours earlier]

"The end of the school term is coming soon, which means final exams are coming up. I don't think I need to remind you of why you need to pass your tests, right?" He sneered at the first years, including her.

Lev and Inuoka paled beside her.

"W-Will I do alright..?" Inuoka stammered nervously.

"I'm sure you'll pull through, don't worry." She patted him on the back to reassure him.

"Mirai-san, will you help me study?!" Lev asked loudly, making the entire team look at them.

"Eh, no fair! If Lev gets to be tutored then I won't lose! Shibayama, please help me study!" He turned to the first year libero hopefully.

"O-Oh, sure!"

[End of Flashback]

What should she do? Her grades were alright, but she had always believed that she just got lucky. Now that she was in a club and held the position of the club's manager, she had already felt a bit of pressure when the exams starting nearing. But Lev had to go and ask her to tutor him, making her feel even more stressed.

"It's gonna be my fault if that simpleton has to take supplementary tests and miss practice..." She sighed and rubbed her forehead.

Shortly after their final exams, Nekoma would be partaking in an event held by the Fukurodani Academy Athletic Association, a group of high schools located in the Kanto region. From what Kuroo had informed her, they regularly schedule practice games and training camps with each other.

"The location for their training camp is in Saitama," She hummed thoughtfully. "That shouldn't be too far. Ah! But Kenma said that Karasuno would be joining us this time around. If any of them fail then they would be left behind to take makeup exams. Miyagi is pretty far, I think..."

Riiing! Riiing! Riiing!

Her phone buzzed to life with an incoming call from the quirky owl captain Bokuto Kōtarō. She clicked the answer button and pressed the phone against her ear, hearing the loud and familiar "HEY HEY HEY" before she could even open her mouth to greet him properly.

"Kōtarō-senpai, good evening to you too." Mirai laughed. "Why are you calling? Shouldn't you be busy studying for your upcoming exams?"

Wherever he was at the moment, it sounded like a gym from the squeaking of shoes she could hear in the background. The loud smacking of volleyballs probably meant that he was at practice.

"I've been meaning to ask him that myself." Akaashi loudly said from the background.

"I'm studying as hard as I can, Akaashi!" Bokuto retorted.

"Taking 30 minute breaks whenever you can't understand something isn't studying, Bokuto-san."

"But you need to rest your brain if you don't understand something!"

"So that means that you've been resting this whole time?"

"Urk! Akaashi, you're so savage!"

Mirai began to laugh at their argument. Bokuto began grumbling into the phone and telling her to stop laughing.

"Sorry, Kōtarō-senpai! But you really should listen to Keiji-senpai!"

"Eh, you're siding with Akaashi?!" Bokuto exclaimed.

"Sure am! If you don't get your grades up then how are you supposed to be the team's ace if you can't balance your priorities?" She teased, snickering as he began to accuse her of spending too much time with Kuroo.

"Say, how are things with you and Kuroo anyway?" He asked.

"Me and Kuroo-senpai? We're okay, I guess. Why do you ask?" She took out her notebook and started reading her notes.

"Ah, n-nothing! Kuroo texted me that day after we met about that thing he was doing." He replied. "You know, the one where he tries to make you fall in love with him?"

Mirai choked a bit.

"WHY THE HELL IS HE GOING AROUND TELLING PEOPLE ABOUT THAT?!"

"Ah, so it's true then!?" Bokuto exclaimed excitedly. "Then, you guys have my support! Mhm!"

"Just be careful around pain-in-the-ass-Kuroo-san." Akaashi advised. "I heard that he has quite a number of ex-girlfriends."

"Oi, Akaashi! If you say that then Mirai will start doubting him!"

"I think she has the right to know if she's going to be his next target, Bokuto-san."

"Don't use the word 'target'! It sounds suspicious!"

"Kuroo-san is normally suspicious."

"Akaashi!!"

The dial tone beeped monotonously and Mirai felt a heavy weight in her chest. She gently placed her phone down on the table and stared at it, trying to process the information given to her.

"Kuroo-senpai has that many girlfriends in his life..? Is he some kind of womanizer??"

Her thoughts of Kuroo weren't very pleasant to begin with and, after hearing what Akaashi had just told her, she began to feel less and less relaxed around the so-called scheming captain. A loud buzzing sound caused her to scream and backpedal away.

"Oh. It's just my phone." She sighed in relief and crawled back to the table to pick it up.

Upon checking who had texted her, her heart stopped when she saw the name Kuroo Tetsurō flash across the screen. Hesitantly, she clicked on the message.

From: Kuroo Tetsurō
Subject: Hang out?

Hey, kitten!

Kenma and I are going somewhere tomorrow. Wanna come?

"IT'S A TRAP!" She screamed to herself and dove under the blankets. "I-If I say that I would go then he's going to tell Kenma to leave us alone somewhere and then he'll violate me like the other girls!!"

Her fingers seemed to blur as she typed furiously into her phone's keyboard. Apparently Akaashi's words seemed to have affected her greatly.

Kuroo had just walked out of the shower when his phone alerted him of a text message. Smiling excitedly, he opened the message to find a reply from his crush.

From: Hoshizora Mirai
Subject: Offer Rejected

DEFINITELY NOT!!!

"Eh, so she won't go? Wait. Why is this all in caps?" He pouted and sent a text to Kenma saying that it would just be the two of them.

From: Kozume Kenma
Subject: None

She probably doesn't want to go because you'll be there.

"Kenma, you're harsh..."