YUMI SHOVES HER phone into the back pocket of her jeans, running over to the pile of balls. "you ready?" she asks, handing kageyama a ball before jogging to the other side of the court.

kageyama nods firmly, breathing out a sigh. he throws the ball up into the air, getting a run-up before jumping upwards and smacking the ball with such power. yumi freezes in place, her legs carrying her towards the direction where the ball was heading.

she braces herself for impact, head turned away and her arms stuck out oddly. no pain? the ball hasn't fully made its way to her even though she had heard the thumping sound of the volleyball making contact with the gym floor.

yumi opens her eyes hesitantly, dropping her arms to her side. she looks around for the ball to find it only a couple of feet away from her. she picks the circular object up, looking at kageyama's side of the court.

he was already getting ready for another spike. yumi drops the ball and goes back to her original spot on her side of the court. she tries to read his face, figuring out which direction he was spiking the ball. with no luck, he spikes another hard ball.

it was coming in swiftly, again, yumi's legs ran to a spot where she had guessed the ball was going. she sticks her arms out with her hands in the same position she's always seen shoyo done. then, she feels the hard impact from kageyama's hit onto her forearm.

her eyes shoot open, widening with amusement. even thought the ball only just shot up towards the ceiling, her excitement couldn't have increased anymore. the ball falls downwards quickly, the same thumping sound echoed in the volleyball court.

"holy shit, i did it!" yumi jumps around happily, her hands bunched up in a fist. she pumps her hand joyously, running to where kageyama was. "did you see that? did you?"

his lips quirked up into a tiny smile, he quickly hid it with the usual stoic face. he ruffles her hair, messing it up. "good job. try getting it over the net next time," he teases, pushing her to her side of the court softly.

yumi pouts, sticking out her tongue at the dark haired boy. she walks onto the opposite side of the court, gathering two balls in her hand while she pushed the others with her feet. she dumps it into the cart while kageyama continued to practice.

once she had finished, she sat atop the wooden floorboard, watching him as he nailed the volleyball onto the floor. the impact always shook the ground, each hit getting more and more impenetrable.

she played with the top of the plastic bottle, an unconscious smile laying atop her lips as she watched him with hearts looming around her.

"oi, yumi," he hollers, his hands motioning for her to join him on the court. she pushes herself off the ground, scurrying over to him. she hums for him to continue, her fingers playing with one another as she waited. "do you still wanna.."

yumi waits impatiently, rocking on her heels as she waited for him to continue his sentence. "wanna what?"

"wanna try a spike?" he mutters under his breath, already regretting calling her over. her eyes shined as he asked her, she clings onto his arm tightly.

"of course!" kageyama lets out a breath of relief as yumi continued to squeal over finally being able to learn how to do a proper spike. he manages to contain the energetic girl by holding her firmly by the shoulders, keeping her in place.

"ooh, can i try your kind of serves? what's it called? are they difficult to do? it looks fun," although, yumi was contained, all she did was talk about her enthusiasm. "are there any other serves? can i try-"

kageyama places his right hand over her mouth, immediately shutting up her talkativeness. "finally, you shut up," he lets go of his hand on her mouth, releasing his grip on her shoulder. "the serve i do is called a jump serve, i guess you could say it's difficult."

"so, you're saying that i probably can't do it very well?" he nods at her question, throwing a volleyball towards her. she swiftly catches it, analyzing its red and green swirls. "i can try it though, along with the serve for beginners too!"

kageyama shrugs, doing another jump serve. the sound of the volleyball making contact with the wooden floors echoing in the gym again. "let me teach you how to do an underhand."

he holds out the ball with his left hand, cupping it, then proceeds to hit the ball with his right hand balled into a fist, sending the volleyball on its way.

"oh, that looks easy enough," she mimics the same position he did, ball in her left hand and a balled up right hand. her right hand makes contact with the ball in her left, but the ball only flew towards and into the net.

boy, was she disappointed. kageyama's amusment only grew as she continued to fire volleyballs into the net, gravity doing its job, it drops to the ground. "you know what, i'm done," yumi pouts, running over to pick up the volleyballs she had failed to get over the net. "i'll just stick to ball girl."

kageyama walks over to her side, picking out the ball she had just dropped into the cart full of greens and reds. "you should stick to softball," he walks away with the volleyball, leaving the girl in a sour mood.

yumi turned her back to kageyama, the sound of kageyama smacking the volleyball onto the ground in the background. she slid down the wall, watching as he inhaled air then released it in tiny breaths when he was feeling tired.

"hey, i'm going to the vending machine! do you want anything," the dark haired female asked, turning her head towards his way.

"milk," he mutters under his breath, struggling to keep his concentration up as he continued to talk to her.

"what? speak up," yumi urges, her foot tapping against the floorboard impatiently.

"never mind, i'll just come with you," kageyama dropped the ball in his hands, wiping away the sweat he had built up when practicing.

yumi shrugs, sliding the doors of karasuno's gym to the side. she continued to walk ahead of kageyama with an unusual pep in her step. "do you know where you're going?" kageyama asked, looking around at the campus.

"oh, no," she let out a small smile, waiting for the boy behind her to catch up. kageyama shakes his head with a slight grin, walking towards the side of the gym.

after a couple minutes, they duo had already arrived at their designated spot. "woah, it's so pretty," yumi says, fawning over the pretty aesthetic of the vending machine. "where do i insert the coins?" she asked to which kageyama pointed at the little insert slot.

she pushes in a certain amount of coins, illuminating the lights at the bottom of the drinks. "pick," she tells him, nudging his side.

kageyama looks from her to the vending machine before shaking his head, "no, it's alright. i have my own money, go ahead and choose your drink," he pushes her towards the aesthetically pleasing vending machine. yumi tries to stay firmly in place, but kageyama easily pushes her.

"just pick, kags. if it makes you feel better then you can just pay me back," she lies, there was no way she'd let kageyama pay her back. this was a nice gesture she was trying to do for him.

kageyama finally gives in, pressing his slender fingers against the button for regular milk. the milk soon comes tumbling down the machine, he picks it up and urges for her to get her drink.

"thanks," he mumbles shyly, stabbing the straw into his carton. he drinks the opaque substance while he waits for her to choose her drink. yumi hums as a 'your welcome' response, pressing the button underneath the capri-sun.

"ready to head back?" she questions, stabbing the plastic straw into the plastic bottle. kageyama nods, holding his milk carton in one hand. together, they walked with their drinks in hand back to the gym.

kageyama slides the door open, half-expecting for the rest of his team to appear from the sides to scare them both. but surprisingly, nobody popped out of anywhere.

he steps into the gym, the humidity in the room circulating around them. yumi continued to drink her drink all the way from the vending machine, she continued to suck through her straw but she could tell that she was almost out.

the two took a seat atop the polished floors, cross-legged. "you like white milk?" yumi suddenly says as an attempt to start a conversation.

kageyama looks up from the ground to stare at her, he nods. "you don't?" the girl shakes her head, a sour look sprouted upon her face. kageyama furrows his brows before scooting away from her jokingly. "i can't be friends with you."

"seriously, though. chocolate milk on the other hand," yumi clicks her tongue before pointing a finger at him while winking. "that's the good stuff."

kageyama cocks his head backwards as an attempt to get away from her, "you're lying. chocolate milk is so sweet. too sweet."

yumi scoots in a bit closer to him, "just like me, right?" she whispered, her eyes darting from between his eyes and his lips. she sets her capri-sun down on the ground, her lips inching closer and closer to his.

the blush evident on kageyama's cheeks, he stares at the same girl who had failed at underhand serves. her lips were a few inches away from his, anyone could push her head just a bit close, and it would connect with his. "can i?" she whispered, he could heard her every breath.

kageyama breaks eye contact with her, pushing her off of him lightly. he stands up from his position on the ground, clutching onto his milk carton tightly. he was fighting the urge to hold her face in his hands and press a kiss against her lips.

but he couldn't do that. she had a boyfriend. he can't stand to be the reason why she was going to suffer heartbreak. he can't stand to think of what her boyfriend was going to feel after finding out about the intimate moment that had just happened between them.

"s-should i call the others?" kageyama's voice surprisingly quivers, his footsteps fading farther into the distance as he walked towards the cart full of volleyballs.

yumi sat there, dumbfounded, her messy hair covering her face. her right hand finds its way to the capri-sun bottle, she lifts it up and sticks the straw into her mouth, sucking up whatever's left of the juice.

the gym that was once filled with shouts and cackles from the two was filled with silence.

the sound of the gym's metal doors sliding opened echoed in the gym. "kageyama, yumi. you guys were here the whole time!" yamaguchi exclaims upon seeing the two.

yumi looks up from her spot, catching the eyes of all the karasuno volleyball club team members, excluding the third years. she gives them a small smile.

she goes over to them to greet them, subtly looking over the court for kageyama. he was there by the court, bouncing the volleyball, his hair covering the sullen look on his face. "kageyama, that's a volleyball, not a basketball!" one of them quirks, but kageyama didn't even spare them a glance.

soon it was once again filled with laughs and joy, just not from the two.