effervescent (nishinoya yū)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN / the new manager

You yawned as you stretched your arms above your head. Next to you, Nishinoya scribbled down some answers on his worksheet, his tongue poking out of his mouth and his hair down in his face. He had been silent for the past twenty minutes, save for a few questions here and there, and you were undoubtedly impressed by it.

It was the day after the practice match with Ogi Nishi, and the exams were coming up in just a few days. Nishinoya had asked you to give him some one-on-one tutoring so he could focus on the parts that he was still struggling with, while Ennoshita handled Tanaka's tutoring. You had to admit, now that it was just one idiot instead of two, the process suddenly became a lot more manageable.

He put his pencil down with a groan and rubbed his hand. "I don't know how I'm going to survive exams," he whined. "My hand is killing me!"

"You have been writing nonstop," you reminded him as you took his paper and brought out the answer key you had printed out. "The exams last for about three hours each, so you should have plenty of time to give your hand a break." You paused and raised an eyebrow. "Plus, aren't you ambidextrous?"

"That's beside the point." He rocked back and forth and stared at you like he was trying to solve a complicated puzzle. You tried your best to ignore it and focused on grading his worksheet. "How did I do?"

You rolled your eyes and reached over to grab one of the bags of snacks you had brought into your room. He yelped as you threw it right at his face. "It's going to take a while to grade," you scolded. "Calm down and eat something. You need to give your brain time to relax."

He mumbled and rubbed at the red spot on his head, but heeded your advice and ripped the bag open. The moment he put a chip in his mouth, it was like a switch turned on. You made a mental note to vacuum your room as he began shoving food into his mouth with shameless gusto.

After a few more minutes of silence, you sighed and put his grade in the corner. "Well, there's definitely room for improvement, but you passed."

He yelled in celebration and threw his hands up in the air. You and he both deadpanned as the bag of chips flew up in the air, hit the ceiling, and scattered both crumbs and chips all over the ground. "Oh."

"Yū..." You didn't bother finishing the sentence.

"I-I'm so sorry! I'll help you clean it up."

"Yeah, you better. Jeez."

You grabbed a broom and dustpan from the hallway closet. Your mom looked up from the couch and smiled. "How are you guys doing? Do you need any snacks?"

"No, we're fine." You beamed at her and prayed that she hadn't heard anything. If she saw the mess in your room, even if you told her you would clean it up, she would not be happy at all. "What about you? We just finished up the last worksheet. Do you need me to get you anything?"

She shook her head and waved you off. "Go on, get back to your boyfriend." She drew out the last word and gave you a wink, disregarding the half-hearted glare you sent back at her. You hurried back into your room and saw that Nishinoya had already put the bag in the trash and was currently trying to gather all the chips into a pile.

You swept the trash into the dustpan and Nishinoya tossed everything into the trash. "I'm sorry," he apologized again, looking like a hurt puppy. "I didn't mean to do that, I just got really excited because if I passed this, then it means that I'll do fine on my exams and--"

You cut him off with a quick peck on the lips. "Yū, it's fine," you reassured him. "After you leave, I'll vacuum and everything will be a-okay, alright?"

He hesitantly nodded, although he still looked guilty. He's so sweet, you mused silently.

"Do you want to cuddle and watch a movie?"