effervescent (nishinoya yū)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN / the study buddies

After a fairly boring and unfulfilling week, you and Nishinoya headed over to Tanaka's house to begin the study session. Nishinoya was as full of energy as ever, practically bouncing as he walked and pointing out the littlest details about the trip, while you were frantically looking through your stuff to make sure you brought everything you needed.

"Oh, come on, calm down!" Nishinoya urged. He jogged a little so he could walk in front of you and turned around. "It's just a study session, right? I'm sure it won't be that bad. Besides, you'll have Chikara, Kazuhito, and Hisashi there to help you!"

You deadpanned and zipped your bag up. "You forget that we're tutoring you and Tanaka," you scolded. "No offense, but you two are practically impossible to teach, especially when you're in the same room together."

He scoffed. "You've never had to teach us before! I promise that we'll pay attention."

You rolled your eyes. "Alright, sure." He pouted and came back to stand by your side. You intertwined your fingers with his and let out a little sigh at the feeling of his cold hand. "I swear, I don't even need an ice pack if you're around."

"Aww, neat!" He fell oddly silent and you looked over to see him giving you a scheming smirk. You narrowed your eyes and immediately put two and two together as he began raising his other hand to your neck. "You don't need an ice pack, hmm?"

"Don't you dare!"

You began yelling and running as he tried to put his hand on your neck. You absolutely hated it when people touched the nape of your neck; it sent such an odd feeling down your spine and made you squirm a little. You didn't know how Nishinoya had found out, but he'd obviously managed it somehow and the last thing you wanted was for him to try it.

Luckily, you got to Tanaka's house before Nishinoya could get close to your neck. "Tanaka!" you wailed as he opened the door. You ducked behind him and used the confused second-year as a shield between you and Nishinoya. "He's trying to put his hand on my neck!"

"W-What?!" You hadn't expected Tanaka to actually defend you, but he immediately grappled Nishinoya and gave you a gallant smile. "Don't worry, I'll protect you!"

"Argh, Ryū, let me go!"

Kinoshita walked up behind you and gave the wrestling second-years a weird look. You quickly realized he was wearing glasses but didn't say anything about it, figuring it wasn't that big of a deal. "Do you want to go ahead and put your stuff down?" he asked. "Ennoshita and Narita are already set up."

"That'd be great, yeah." You and Kinoshita left Tanaka and Nishinoya to whatever antics they'd eventually get up to and greeted the others in the makeshift study room. "Hi, guys!"

"Good afternoon," Ennoshita said with his usual kind smile. Narita gave you a nod as well and scooted over to make room for you. It'd be a little packed, what with the books and the amount of people in your group, so you were glad you were good friends with all of them. "We're going to go ahead and split everything up so we don't overwhelm ourselves."

You hummed and looked through your bag. "Well, I've already been studying history recently, so I can go ahead and handle that."

"I don't mind tackling English," Narita offered as he pulled out the workbooks the foreign language teacher had assigned the second-years.

Kinoshita grabbed his textbooks. "Well, I'll do mathematics and science then."

"And that leaves me with Japanese literature." Ennoshita popped his neck and deflated a little. "This is going to be a disaster. Those two are...well..."

As if on cue, Nishinoya and Tanaka burst into the room and plopped themselves down on the floor next to each other. Nishinoya's entire leg was practically pressed up against yours and he gave you a grin that made your heart flutter a little. "So, what are we starting with?"