effervescent (nishinoya yū)

CHAPTER TWENTY / the sunflower field

As you cleaned your room and vacuumed the floor, your phone buzzed on your bed. You took your earbuds out and paused in your movements to look at the message.

nishinoya: hey, where are you right now?

You turned the vacuum off and sat down on your bed with a little sigh. The air in your room was stifling and you really wished you had thought to turn your fan on before you'd started cleaning.

me: i'm cleaning my room. why?

nishinoya: well, the gym's closed because they're doing inspections and so we don't have practice today. i just realized i've never actually asked you out on a date, so i was wondering if you wanted to go out on one? 

nishinoya: it's fine if you're busy though! school's about to end in a few weeks so we can wait until then

me: oh, that sounds awesome! give me about ten minutes to change and i'll meet you at your house.

You boosted yourself to your feet and quickly threw some better clothes on. Given the randomness of the text and the weather outside, you figured it wasn't going to be anything fancy, so you threw on a casual set of warm weather clothes and fixed your hair.

"Mom, I'm going on a date with Yū!" you called out as you put your phone in your pocket and came out from your room. "I'll be back sometime after sunset."

Your mom looked up from the table, a cloth in one hand and a bottle of cleaning spray in the other. "Oh, okay," she said with a smile. "Make sure you stay safe and don't do anything stupid. Have fun!"

"Alright. See you later!"

You put your shoes on and walked over to Nishinoya's house, not wanting to risk getting sweaty by jogging. Luckily, you had more than a few minutes to spare, so you didn't keep Nishinoya waiting. In fact, he came out almost exactly when you did, wearing a huge smile and one of his four-character shirts with a pair of cargo shorts.

"You look cute!" he gushed as he hurried over to you and linked his hand with yours. "Wow, it almost makes me wish we didn't have uniforms so I could see you like this all the time."

You rolled your eyes and squeezed his hand. "Where are we going?" you asked.

He lifted your interlocked hands and pointed straight ahead. "First, we're going to drop by Coach's store to grab some snacks, and then we're going to walk over to the subway station. The place I want to show you is pretty far!"

You smiled and started walking. "Well then, let's get going!"

When you got to the store, to your surprise Ukai wasn't there. Instead, a person who you could only assume was Ukai's mom looked up from the counter with a kind smile. "Good afternoon!"

"Hi!" Nishinoya greeted enthusiastically. You and Nishinoya split up and each grabbed a few snacks. When you both got what you needed, you went up front and put the bags on the counter. "Where's Coach?"

Ukai's mom cocked her head to the side a little, but she quickly realized who Nishinoya was talking about. "Oh, you mean Keishin. A boy came in here earlier and Keishin left with him. I think it had something to do with volleyball." She shrugged and rang up your purchases.

You quickly paid before Nishinoya had the chance to. "Do you know what the boy looked like?"

She hummed. "He had orange hair, from what I remember."

"Shōyō," Nishinoya mused as the two of you walked down the street, munching on your popsicles as you went. "Wonder if it has anything to do with him and Kageyama falling out?"