𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 {𝐔𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐣𝐢𝐦𝐚 𝐱 𝐅𝐞𝐦 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫}

Chapter 25: Social Safety

*Your POV*

I was good at reading people. I could predict their behavior and deal with them accordingly. I figured I'd be able to handle whatever Uchida was scheming up whether I saw it coming or not.

Sitting through biology with her being only yards away was tense. She wasn't even looking at me. She wasn't doing anything.

Lunch was worse. We were facing each other. I was right here, and she didn't bat an eye in my direction.

This may have been her attempt at an appearance of innocence before her attack. I'd rather be safe than sorry, so I wasn't going to let my guard down, but I'd be pleasant in her presence to avoid later blame.

"Are you guys going to the party tomorrow?" I asked the table.

"You mean Oikawa's?" Semi asked.

"Yeah, he invited me too. You should all come! It'll be a chance to mingle with other teams. Plus, I don't want to be alone."

"Wait, he invited you? Personally?" He inquired.

"Yes... why?"

"Is he hitting on you? Was he creepy? I'll take care of it if he is."

He'd taken on a protective tone, but it was hard to take him seriously.

"You don't have to worry. If he does anything out of line, I'll put him back into place myself." I reassured.

"I don't like that guy. He pisses me off." Kawanishi voiced.

"Same here, he just has such a punchable face." Yamagata agreed.

"Alright, I get it, but he is the host, so you have to play nicely."

"I will admit that letting off some steam sounds nice..." Yamagata muttered.

"So will you all go?"

There was a moment of silent consideration amongst them.

"Sure, why not? It would be rude not to." Shirabu sighed with a smile.

The rest seemed to agree as well.

"Yay! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"What do people do at parties?" Ushijima asked openly.

"Have you ever been to one?"

"They were more like get-togethers or meetings."

"I can teach you the ways of the party animal. You'll have a lampshade permanently fastened to your head once I'm through with you." I joked.

"Y/n, I think you're underestimating how dense Ushijima is in terms of social skills." Tendou said.

"It can't be that difficult. Even if he is dense, he isn't dumb."

"If you say so. Just don't complain when he asks for the book of knock-knock jokes like at my cousin's birthday."

"You didn't give it to me back then." Ushijima voiced.

"That's because you wanted to read them straight out of the book verbatim like a dork!"

"It seems I've got my job cut out for me. Ushi, I can teach you a bit after practice, okay?" I told him.

"Ushi?" Tendou interrupted, "Since when do you let anyone call you that?" He questioned to the boy who only shrugged.

The redhead smirked conspicuously, but I chose to ignore him to save myself from the embarrassment.

*Ushijima's POV*

As planned, after the equipment was put away, y/n and I settled on the bench underneath the cherry blossom tree where we'd been once before.