Carry Me (Ushijima x Reader AU)

Chapter 05

The next day you went to talk to your club president, Kikuchi, the first chance you got.

"I think we should buy a different kind of hay." You started, not beating around the bush, which expectedly made her raise an eyebrow in question.

"Where did that come from all of a sudden?" She asked, seeming not very amused by your direct approach. 

"Well, we feed silage hay, which is more suited for cows and may be the reason why Shoji colicked last year." You repeated what Ushijima told you.

"We've been feeding that hay since I started school here, it's decent quality and a good price." Kikuchi rebuked and almost made you reconsider.

"What if the quality has dropped recently? Maybe our supplier's been giving us his bad hay for some reason?" You theorized, on admittedly very little evidence.

"Why would he ruin his reputation like that? What's got you hung up on the hay this much anyway? There could have been many different reasons Shoji colicked."

"A guy from the volleyball team approached me about it yesterday evening as I was feeding the horses. He s-" You were interrupted by Kikuchi snorting.

"The volleyball team? Maybe he should stick to his own area of expertise. Who was he? I'll tell the team captain to keep his juniors in check." She said, seeming quite annoyed. You had not expected Kikuchi to get worked up about it this much, but on the other hand, you understood that she might get reprimanded for mismanagement if this was true.

"Ushijima Wakatoshi, he's in my class..." You told her reluctantly, hoping you hadn't just made a big mistake and gotten Ushijima in trouble instead.

Kikuchi was quiet for a moment, however, as she processed your words.

"Ushijima? And he said the hay was bad quality?" She asked and this time it was your turn to be confused.

"He said it was silage hay, which is actually meant for cows and could very well be the reason Shoji colicked." You repeated again, wondering what was going on.

"I'll speak to our supplier about this and find a new one." Kikuchi said to your great surprise. You needed a moment to process what had just happened and she was already preparing to move on to something else when you found the voice to call out to her.

"Why did you change your mind?" You asked, confusion obvious in your voice.

"You should have told me it was him who raised the issue in the first place." She told you as if it was obvious.

"But why?" You asked again, none of that making sense in your mind.

"Have you not heard of the Ushijima brand? They are one of the biggest producers of, well, produce, in the country. You can buy their vegetables in practically every supermarket, big or small. They've been recently branching out into cattle as well. If Ushijima told you the quality is bad, then I would be a fool to ignore his words." With that, she ended the conversation and headed into the clubroom, presumably to give the school's supplier of hay a call.

You were left behind on your own to process what you just learned. While mulling it over you realized that you had, in fact, seen the brand in stores. It was just that you weren't really interested in vegetables enough to actually read the packaging, the only thing you paid attention to was the price.

"He could have told me..." You mumbled, but at the same time you now also knew him enough to know that he was not a man of many words.

The next day in class you arrived a little early and noticed that both Ushijima and Yamagata weren't there yet, probably still on their way from volleyball practice. You took place in your seat next to Haruka.