*Clap Clap*
A loud clap echoed in the gym and everyone who was playing paused their games and looked towards the source of the sound. Nekoma's head coach smiled slightly as he got the attention of everyone in the gym.
"Please finish up these last few points as it is getting late now. I would like that when you guys are finished to help clean up the gym so we could use it tomorrow once again."
All the teams listened carefully before nodding their heads and giving him a reply saying that they will do it. They returned back to the games and finished up the last few points and ended their first day of practice matches.
"Kageyama! Hinata! I forgot to ask, how was the drive with my sister coming here?"
Tanaka who was carrying some volleyballs, called out to the duo who came late. Once they heard his question their faces suddenly became pale and covered their mouths as if they were traumatized.
"She's a very interesting driver…"
"All I heard were eurobeats playing everytime we took a corner…"
The lifeless look on both of their faces made everyone focus their attention towards Tanaka. His face was frozen and slowly moved his gaze away from the rest of the team.
"Is she a master drifter??"
"I don't think she is.."
Tanaka was unsure how to answer Haruto's question and conviced himself in his head that his sister doesn't go out at night to drive through curvy paths down a mountain.
"Guys once you finish cleaning up, there is food already being served in the cafeteria!"
One of the managers from Fukurodani yelled out and once everyone heard there was food, they rushed to clean the whole gym not leaving a single spot dirty.
***
"Mahiru's special curry really is the best."
Haruto smiled contentedly as he patted his stomach that was filled with curry and rice. Mahiru helped out with cooking dinner for the group of people that attended today's practice match and it was a big success.
Many people went up to get seconds and even thirds of the cooked dinner that they had to prepare even more food for the hungry players.
"But that one manager from Fukurodani really has a big appetite."
Haruto remembered one manager that ate so much that Hinata didn't want to lose to her. So they had a cold war between the two to see who could eat the most and it ended up in Hinata's complete loss.
Haruto was about to check out the classroom where he would be sleeping for the night, but he wanted to wash his hands first from the slight curry smell it had.
"DAMMIT KENMA! QUIT HITTING ME OFF EDGE."
As Haruto was finishing up washing his hands he heard a loud shout from one of the rooms. Being curious he went up to the door and peeked inside and saw a mix of people inside holding controllers.
"Hmm? Ah Haruto, come in come in!!"
"What are you guys even doing?"
Haruto walked into the room with the invitation of Kuroo and sat down beside him. They had a projector set up and were playing a fighting game that featured many famous characters from different franchises fighting each other.
Kuroo, with extreme focus tried to hit Kenma's character but was stopped when his attack got parried and was knocked off the screen after a very brutal combo.
[GAME!]
Kuroo saw the ending screen and ruffled his already messy hair in frustration. Kenma still had his blank stare and gave a small peace sign toward Kuroo.
"You…"
Ticks started to appear on Kuroo's forehead and he tried his best to control himself from crushing the controller in his hands.
"Is this your console Kenma?"
"Yeah I brought it from home since Kuroo said that he wanted to play some games after we finished the practice matches."
"Ehh so did you only bring only one game or is there more?"
Kenma's eyes twinkled as he heard Haruto's question and pulled multiple game cards showcasing he was thoroughly prepared.
"Kenma, I challenge you to a rematch in this game instead!"
Kuroo, who saw the games Kenma pulled out, took one that had a red hatted plumber in a race car on its front and quickly went to change the game card from the console.
"Ohh I love this one. I play it all the time with my sister."
"Really I never played this one before."
Yamamoto yelled out with excitement and Yaku tiled his head as he saw the new game being set up. Yaku gave his controller to Haruto and said that he wanted to watch how it was played first.
The four players of Kuroo, Kenma, Yamamoto and Haruto got seated and everyone began to crowd wanting to see how this matchup would result in.
"See I told you that I saw Haruto enter this room!"
"Quiet down idiot. I heard it a million times already."
Hinata rushed towards the huddle of people with Kageyama following right behind not wanting to be the only person left.
[3,2,1… GO!]
The screen counted down and the four of them started their karts with 3 of them getting a slight boost at the start and 1 other person getting smoke blasted from his kart ended far back from the other three.
"Kuroo, are you sure you know how to play this game?"
"Shut up! Just wait and see, the comeback will happen."
Haruto quickly said and Kuroo yelled at his question and leaned his body forward to focus more.
"Kenma take this red shell!!"
"Move and stop leaning towards me…"
Yamamoto yelled out as he leaned towards his side each time he turned which annoyed Kenma greatly. He saw a red shell come his direction but he quickly pulled out some of his saved items to stop it from hitting him.
The race continued with Kuroo in last place followed by Yamamoto who reached third place. Haruto was in second but the gap between first was really big since Kenma used lots of shortcuts on the map.
"Come on, give it to me.."
Haruto drove past a box and his eyes shined as he got a blue shell that had wings on it.
"Damn."
Kenma had a slight frown as he saw the blue shell explode allowing for Haruto to drive right past him. He tried his best to drift around corners to gradually catch up to Haruto.
The spectators who were watching got excited seeing Kenma catch up to Haruto who tried his best to keep the lead that he had.
"HAHAH THE GODDESS OF LUCK IS BY MY SIDE!!"
Kuroo suddenly yelled out, confusing the people around him. They were about to question him but they suddenly saw a huge black bullet pass both Haruto and Kenma.
"What kind of dogshit luck is that!?"
Yamamoto cursed as he was suddenly passed by Kuroo and now the leaderboards switched in an instant.
"Come to me sweet victory!!"
Kuroo smiled as he reached the last straight road towards the finish line. He was already thinking of his victory dance he would do when he was suddenly hit by a fireball.
"Huh??"
Kuroo was in a state of confusion as right after getting hit by a fireball, he crashed into a banana and got hit by a green shell stunning his kart in place. As he was stunned he saw three players drive past him and crossed the finish line that was right in front of him.
"Whew, that was a close one Kenma. Good thing you held onto one of your items until the end."
"You did the same thing as well."
"You two really aimed at Kuroo right at the end.."
Haruto and Kenma spoke casually as Yamamoto stared at them blankly, seeing how they teamed up at the end to hit Kuroo and stop him from winning.
"Kuroo I think you should just accept the L."
Haruto gave him an understanding gaze which made Kuroo annoyed as he saw everyone hold in their laughter.
"Dammit Kenma, let's play another game!!"
"I don't want to."
Kuroo shook him as he wanted to play another one. Luckily Hinata wanted to play against Kuroo so his attention was quickly diverted to a new prey that he could potentially beat.
Haruto laughed as he watched Kuroo begin to bully Hinata who was tried and fight against Kuroo's character who kept hitting him off the screen of the map.
Laughter grew louder in the room as the reactions of the new players who started to play was very fun to watch. The laughter grew until it reached to the point where some of the coaches had to check up on them and tell them to go and sleep.
"Kageyama, you should have seen your face when you fell off the map."
"Shut up, at least I didn't almost fall over from leaning too far back when using my controller."
Hinata was teasing fun towards Kageyama who held a stone face trying to ignore the nonsense that Hinata was saying.
"I'm going to the toilet quickly."
"Alright we'll wait for you here."
Haruto said as Kageyama entered the bathroom leaving Hinata and him to wait near the windows of the hallway.
"Eh Hinata and Watanabe, what are you guys doing out here?"
The two guys heard a voice and saw Yachi and Mahiru turn a corner and approach the two of them. They told them that they were waiting for Kageyama and they nodded their heads.
Hinata spoke to Yachi who asked him about the details of his drive coming to the practice match, since she was curious after seeing how their faces looked whenever the drive was mentioned.
"I saw how some of the managers from the other team were asking you if they could become your disciples after seeing how you cooked."
"Please don't remind me of that scene.."
Haruto chuckled after seeing how Mahiru covered her face trying to forget the embarrassing scene that happened in the kitchen. She had to try her best in controlling her facial expressions every time she heard them call her master.
"But it looks like you guys got closer because of that."
"Yeah, each of them are interesting to be around so it was pretty fun to talk with them."
Haruto looked at Mahiru's face who had a large smile as she talked about some moments she had with the other managers. It wasn't the 'Angel' face that she wears at school but a genuine smile which he couldn't help but tenderly smile at.
They talked for a while before seeing that Kageyama had come out and they said their goodbyes. They turned around to go back into their designated classrooms to rest for the night.
Before Mahiru turned around completely, she stared at Haruto who felt her gaze hitting the back of his head. He turned around and saw Mahiru with a blank look on her face and wondered what she wanted.
After a brief silence she quickly got closer to Haruto and lowered her head a little to show the top of her head. Haruto, seeing her actions, read the request that she wanted to convey and rubbed her head gently.
Mahiru smiled, happy to know that Haruto had read her actions on what she wanted. After brushing through her hair for a while she crashed into Haruto to give him a hug.
"Goodnight, I hope you rest well."
Mahiru gave a slight squeeze before running off to catch up to Yachi who went ahead. Watching Marhiru's back, Haruto felt his heartbeat rise due to her sudden actions.
He thought back to the day where he saw Mahiru skipping down the road with her hair dancing through the air, and the same beautiful smile she had on her face.
"I really have fallen deeply for…"
Haruto whispered as he took in a few breaths to calm down his fast heartbeat and walked back in the direction towards his classroom.
He took out his phone and played a video of himself hitting a ball to distract himself from the vision of Mahiru that was constantly running through his mind.
***
Woah, 50 chapters?? I never imagined writing 50 chapters on something that I made on whim but I'm happy that people seem to enjoy it. Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope you will continue to enjoy it despite its flaws. Peacu.