𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒊 𝒎𝒆𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 - 𝘵𝘦𝘵𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘰 𝘬𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘰

1: no need to get testy

"One touch!" Tetsurō Kuroo called out. The volleyball bounced back into the air but Rini wasn't paying it any mind. The players were her point of interest. The rally ended and Kuroo glanced in her direction. Rini quickly reverted her gaze. Kuroo was popular, especially among the girls, and he knew it. She didn't want him to think she was one of his adoring fans.

She was only there to observe the team for an article in the school paper after all. This was only a practice game, but they had some very serious opponents from a rival school.

Once the game had concluded, Rini collected her notebook and supplies and prepared to leave the gym. Kuroo was sitting on the bench, a towel around his neck. Kenma Kozume sat next to him, making quiet observations about the opposing team's setter. Come to think of it, Rini had taken note of that setter. She'd heard a lot about him around school, seeing as he was one of the top players in the entire high school level.

Kuroo looked up and met Rini's eyes. She bit her tongue and quickened her walk. She had been trying so hard not to get noticed.

Rini secretly wondered though, if Kuroo knew her name. They shared the same home room, along with having home economics and language in the same periods. She supposed it wasn't an unreasonable possibility.

Well obviously he'd know her name...the teacher called it out every morning during roll call. Besides, she was relatively popular despite being incredibly introverted. She didn't know why it mattered anyway.

Rini hurried to the library, the room the journalism club used as their headquarters. The computers were usually reserved for the club after school hours, during the time when the clubs convened. There were already several other students there, busy on assignments. Rini set to work immediately.

She found it difficult to keep the focus of the article from drifting to Kuroo's incredible blocking. Rini knew enough about volleyball to know that Kuroo was one of the most skilled players on Nekoma's team.

Not only was he a skilled blocker, but he was a strong leader. It was made clear to Rini early on in the game that Kuroo's being captain was one of the main reasons for Nekoma's success. He was good at spotting his teammates', sometimes even his opponents', weak sides and how to help them improve. No wonder he was so popular.

Rini made an effort to clear her head and begin with new focus. She didn't have a lot of time left before the computers would be shut down for the day, and she still had a lot of work to do. Her observations on today's practice game were only some final notes she'd taken for the article. The next issue of the school's newspaper was due to be published on Monday, and today was Friday. She'd been working on this project for two weeks already. Why was it giving her so much trouble?

Before too long, Rini had finished her work on the article and sent it in for review. Monday came, and the paper was available for the students and faculty to enjoy. Rini smiled as she was on her way to home room for lunch, hearing many of the students talking about the volleyball team's feature.

"Yamazaki," Kuroo prompted as she entered the room.

"Oh hi, Kuroo," She smiled at him. He'd never spoken a word to her, what had she said wrong in her article to prompt him talking to her now?

"Great article." He said.

"Thanks," Rini responded, although she hesitated a little. She couldn't tell how sincere his comment had been. Kuroo was sometimes almost as difficult to read as his sidekick, Kozume.

"You really like my blocking, huh?" He smirked, although pleasantly. Rini hadn't been expecting that.

"Uh, yeah. I mean, you're good at what you do." She was uncomfortable as she felt a blush rising from her uniform collar. She supposed her intentions of keeping the spotlight off of Kuroo had failed.

"I usually don't find the school newspaper worth reading, but your article was actually interesting."

Again, Rini wasn't sure if she was supposed to take that as a compliment or not. Maybe he only enjoyed the article because it was about him. "Thanks," She said again. She checked herself momentarily before adding, "I'm sorry the school paper hasn't lived up to your expectations until now."

That came out wrong.

Kuroo smiled, with only one side of his mouth. Rini hated how hot he looked when he did that. "No need to get testy," He said, his tone either teasing or domineering, she couldn't tell which. Either way, he seemed to be enticed by her boldness.

It'd be too embarrassing to backtrack now, so Rini decided to roll with it. "If the paper isn't good enough for you, maybe I should ask your advice on how to improve it?" She asked, her eyes sparkling as she dove into the role as the confident and cocky reporter.

"I'm happy to help any way I can." Kuroo said, his eyes unmoving from hers. It almost sent a shiver down her spine.

She told herself to tone it down. She wasn't the type to change her attitude to get attention. Kuroo seemed to have a way of drawing her out of her shell, and she wasn't sure how she felt about that.

Thankfully, the teacher entered and prevented the conversation from escalating anymore. Rini felt Kuroo glance at her several times during roll call, and he was definitely looking at her when the teacher called her name.

She reminded herself to ignore him. He probably just liked the attention he was getting from the article. Once the school quit talking about it, he'd go back to paying no attention to her.

𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆
𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 "𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪 𝘮𝘦𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶". 𝘪 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘪 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵, 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘬𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘰 𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘦.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒗𝒐𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒅𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒆𝒏𝒋𝒐𝒚𝒆𝒅! 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓!