Smart Girl | Ushijima x OC

Chapter 25: What Almost Happened

"Uhh Tendo, why does Ushijima keep glaring at you and Eita?" Goshiki asked.

Ushijima was still pissed at the two from this morning. He was annoyed that they could get him riled up so easily just using mere words. He always believed himself to be more resilient than that. But now that Hana was involved, they found a way to get under his skin about it.

"So basically, you weren't there but there was a bunch of times when Hana and Wakatoshi totally flirted but like, by accident? You know? And now He's major crushing on her or whatever and he's being all grumpy about it because me and semi find it very obvious despite him trying to 'hide it'" he droned quoting with his fingers.

Goshiki was speechless for a moment, still processing Tendo's disregarding tone with this kind of information.
"Wait.. Hana as in, Hana Watanabe? OUR MANAGER?? USHIJIMA HAS A CRUSH ON OUR MANAGER??" He yelled in disbelief.

His voice was loud enough to alert the rest of team who were still warming up. The third years all shrugged, already in touch with this information. The other members gawked and gasped.

"Ushijima has a crush on a girl?? That's unusual. Never thought he'd ever get hots for anyone."
"And hana? I thought they didn't get along, I mean yeah, they haven't fought in a while but still,"
"Dude you should've told us, we can help you out man."

Ushijima stared daggers into Goshiki, sending shivers down his back.
"It's no one's business," he grunted. "And practise isn't the place to discuss something like this." Everyone quickly started the drills as to not bother their captain any further, but the conversation still continued mid-exercise.

"Everyone knows now Ushiwaka. No point in pretending. Besides, she likes you anyways. You guys will most definitely get together." Tendo shrugged, standing by the net in position.
"Yeah, the two of you are kinda perfect for each other. Hana seems to get you on more levels than even us." Reon added.

Ushijima was standing on the far side of the court, practising his jump serve. This was more of an open discussion than he was happy to admit. 

"For the last time, we're at volleyball practise. Stay focused please. We're the best of the best and we need to act like it," his voice got softer as he went on. "And Hana does not like me. We're not close enough for that. She's just an admirable person." Yamagata and Tendo gave each other 'the look'.

"Do you think Hana is as in-denial as he is?" Yamagata whispered.
"Oh yeah 100%. Kaori told me all about it. They're scarily similar." He replied. The two stared at Ushijima helplessly and shrugged, as he hit one spike after the other, a natural scowl plastered on his face.

                             ~~~~~~

"Exactly, and then the only thing left to do is draw the line of best fit. It's a rookie mistake to forget, and it'll lose at least one mark if you forget." Hana explained.

They were currently charging through their second tutoring session, but Hana was struggling to keep her mind on correlation graphs alone.

The heart of the problem was, Hana's mother had a cold. And because she was ill, she got full authority of the heater. The whole house was like a furnace. Because of this, Ushijima was wearing nothing more than a black tank top and track shorts.

'YOU ARE A DISGRACE HANA WATANABE. YOUR FATHER DID NOT RAISE YOU TO GET DISTRACTED FROM SCHOOL WORK BY A STUPID SEXY BUFF HIGH SCHOOL DUDE.' Her conscience screamed at her. To be fair, it wasn't entirely her fault.

Kaori, Aya and Mari had their share of teasing Hana once the first session had ended. All last week, the only thing they talked about was who would be the maid of honour at their wedding, and godmother of her first child. Eventually she got them to let it go, but by no means did their gossip leave her head.