The Unfamiliar Player | Kei Tsukishima

4 (四): Tutor

4/29/20
(86 Days)

[Name] grumbled as she walked with Tobio to the library. Tsukishima agreed with her that they would tutor the duo there, while Tanaka and Nishinoya got tutored at Tanaka's house.

"I can't believe you suck this bad in your studies!" She scolded the boy who was sulking behind her. The two went inside and took a table.

Putting their things down, Tobio sat there, resting his head on the table while [Name] went through the shelves, trying to pick out books that could help the two idiots.

Today, they were learning proverbs and she found exactly the book. Going on her tiptoes, she managed to get part of the book out but stumbled into someone.

"Gomen-"She started before looking up to see the blonde smirking down at her.

"Oh yay, you're finally here." She said and pretended to cheer.

"Pfft, and you're here struggling. Chisai." He said, tilting his head at her.

Sighing, she looked at the blonde. "Can you please get me the book?" She whispered, avoiding eye contact.

"What? I know we're supposed to be quiet in this library but I can't quite hear you." Tsukishima leaned down, trapping [Name] between his arms.

"Just be of use with your beanstalk- self and get the damn book. Or maybe I should get you a hearing aid because clearly you can't hear shit." [Name] said, rolling her eyes.

Scowling, he grabbed the book. "Here. Let's get this over with."

Giving her the book, he grabbed her wrist and dragged her towards Hinata and Kageyama, who were in an intense battle of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Clearing his throat, Tsukishima let go her of her wrist and sat down. [Name] had no other choice but to sit beside him.

"Osu. So the question says 'Please insert the correct word or phrase that goes in the parenthesis to correctly complete the proverb.' [Name], can you please read the proverb." Tsukishima asked, turning to [Name].

Nodding, she looked at the paper and read. "This proverb explains that even ruthless people can show compassion and shed a tear. Even ogres can be moved to.." [Name] looked at the paper and hesitated. 

"..an iron club?" She looked at Hinata with a deadpanned expression. Hinata looked away and scooted back into his chair.

"You must've skipped the whole thing and only read the word 'ogre' and put 'iron club' in. Jeez, you really are a simpleton." Tsukishima groaned, glaring at Hinata.

"Yeah, Hinata. You should be smarter than that." Kageyama scolded him. [Name] glared at Tobio. 

"Tobio- kun. You're worse than he is. You need to memorize English word vocab!" The girl replied, which earned a chuckle from Tsukishima.

"Japanese people can't understand English!" Kageyama retorted.

Smacking her cousin. She shot him a glare. "My mom can't speak Japanese! So you need to learn English!"

"And give up on Tokyo." Tsukishima added as Kageyama's sweat dropped. 'This is going to be a long day..' Tsukishima thought and looked over at [Name] who was teaching her cousin.

Before she could turn her head, his way, he glanced back onto Hinata's ogre proverb.

___

The four teens walked out of the library, starving. "We can go to a store and get adobo and pork buns!" Hinata exclaimed, as [Name] and Tobio nodded in agreement.

"Whatever, I'm going home." Tsukishima muttered and began to walk away.

[Name] frowned and went to grab Tsukishima's shirt, stopping him. 

"What- Hey-" Tsukishima grumbled but stop when he looked down at [Name].

"C'mon, just come and eat with us. I'll even pay for you." [Name] said, softly biting her bottom lip and looking away.

Tsukishima was slightly surprised but soon nodded. [Name] couldn't help but smile at him. Kageyama and Hinata looked at each other and sprinted, leaving the two by themselves.

"Hey- Wait!" They called out to them but their screams were overpowered.

"Great. Just great." [Name] whined and looked at the ground. 

"Don't worry. They go to Keishin- sensei's store. I'll lead you." Tsukishima offered.

"You just gotta catch up though." [Name] was startled by his offer and ran to catch up to the four- eyed boy.

"You're so mean, you know that?" Tsukishima grunted and looked at the girl.

"That's just how I am. Got a problem with it?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Y-Yes! You treat your bestfriend, Yamaguchi, horribly and you don't even put an effort in volleyball!" [Name] said, looking at the boy.

"Yamaguchi knows me and volleyball is just a club. There's nothing to it." He replied, but [Name] looked into his eyes and saw a distant glow to them.

Deep down, she knew he had a story. She had her own. "Okay, well, when we played against each other, you were certainly breaking a sweat." She smirked, looking at his expression.

"Yeah- well, I was already practicing before and I was still pretty tired." [Name] laughed at his excuse and Tsukishima couldn't help but grin internally.

The two stopped walking and saw that Hinata and Kageyama were already devouring buns. Tsukishima stopped and eyed the strawberry shortcake at the window.

[Name] went inside to get the food for her and Tsukishima. Walking out, she bit into her pork bun and handed Tsukishima a small box.

"What's in this?" He asked, eyeing it.

"Just open it, baka." [Name] gestured at the box.

Tsukishima opened it and saw a slice of strawberry shortcake.

He looked at [Name] and smirked. "What? Are you going to confess to me?" He leaned down at her.

"No way! I would jump in a volcano than confess to someone like you!" Fuming, she grabbed Kageyama and walked away.

Hinata was already long gone as Tsukishima stood by himself, watching [Name]'s retreating figure.

Looking down, back at the slice of strawberry shortcake. The tall boy smiled and whispered 'thank you' before putting on his white headphones, turning and walking home.

****
Tsukishima: "Vote and I'll share my strawberry shortcake with you.."