Chapter 38, Idiot

THIRD POV

"Furumi-san!!"

She slightly jolted and looked up to see Hinata dashing towards her, the players stopped when they noticed her.

She stood up as Hinata stopped infront of her, slightly panting. He grinned, "Hello! What are you doing in Miyagi?"

She hummed, "I needed to hand out important files, but the coaches left for an important meeting. I'm staying here for a while."

Hinata slightly cheered and sat with her on the bench, the others eyed them suspiciously.

"Woah, Furumi-san. Your hair looks really beautiful!" He said as he stroked a petal. Some of the boys' eye twitched.

She turned to him with closed eyed smile, "Amazing people did it. By the way, congratulations making it to this camp."

He blushed and looked away, smiling awkwardly, "Um, I'm actually not....invited," He trailed off.

Tsukishima walked infront of Hinata with a brow raised, "Oi, ball boy. You don't sit around and make chit-chat."

Ball boy?

"R-Right!" He stuttered and went to another area in the gym. Tsukishima replaced Hinata's seat as he crossed his arms at Shirome who continued back to taking notes.

"Good day, Tsukki," She grinned.

"What are you doing in Miyagi?" He asked.

She glanced at him, "I only came here to give important files. But the coaches had meeting so they asked me if I can stay for a bit to coach, although I don't need to do that. All of you are doing great," The girl smiled and looked infront where most of them were staring.

"They're idiots, they can manage," Tsukishima's lips formed a line then stood up, "I'll go on ahead now."

Shirome nodded and continued to write.

"Furumi–" Kindaichi, Kunimi, Yahaba, and Goshiki approached but stopped when they realized others were also walking to her.

"What?" Goshiki's eyes widened.

"The hell?" Kunimi raised a brow at them.

"I was also gonna–" Kindaichi blinked.

"Not if I go first–" Yahaba dashed to Shirome.

The three followed and pushed each other until they got to Shirome. Semi sighed and pulled her away from them.

"Stop getting distracted. Go back to practice," Ushijima appeared and told them. Their eyes widened but they nodded and ran away.

"That was embarassing," Shirome said.

Semi chuckled, "Yeah. What's up? Why the sudden trip to Miyagi?"

She looked to Ushijima who nodded and explained to Semi. The two toned nodded, understanding.

"Furumi, can you toss for me? Shirabu and Semi is on break," The taller captain asked her after Semi left to rest.

She frowned, "It's your break, Wakatoshi. You should use it to rest. Stop overworking yourself."

"I already rested enough, though," He slightly pouted but remained a stoic face.

"Alright then, I guess," She nodded and placed her clipboard on a bench.

Shirome whistled a little and kindly asked someone to step off court. Ushijima held a ball and nodded once Shirome was in position.

The toss was high and fast but Ushijjma managed to hit it. It continued like this for about 5 tosses, until Shirabu awkwardly approached them.

"Uh, I can take over now. After all, I'm his setter," His mouth formed a line.

The girl nodded to Ushijima and walked back to the bench.

"That's cool, she managed to toss for Shiratorizawa's captain," A blonde with black fringe said.

"Of course. She's a top setter in Japan after all," Kindaichi said and sighed.

"Eh? That's cool! She's so small," He hummed.

"You should take lessons from her," Kunimi sarcastically said.

He smiled, "Oh! That's a nice idea, Kunimi! Here I go."

Kunimi and Kindaichi choked when he said that. They didn't think he would take it seriously.

"The hell is up with that dork?" Kunimi grimaced.

"Should we stop him...?" Kindaichi frowned. Kunimi shook his head, "No, let him embarrass himself."

All they could do was watch the scene unfold.

"Hi! I'm Kanji Koganegawa. I play setter," He grinned at the girl.

A fringe fell off and she tucked it behind her ear, "Hello, I'm Shirome Furumi. Do you need something, Kanji-san?"

My first name?! He panicked.

"Oh uh, you also play setter right? I was hoping to get advice from you," He said and poked his pointer fingers together.

"Sure. What kind of advice, exactly?" She asked and stood up.

"Anything," He slightly blushed.

"Hm, I guess being a setter, you need to devote yourself to your spikers and the team. You need to be fast when making decisions and make sure you're really confident about your sets," She hummed and dodged a stray ball.

"Sorry about that!"

She waved them off and turned to Koganegawa who was looking at her with a bright face, "Do you understand?"

"Yup!" He saluted.

Shirome nodded, "Good. I'm counting on you, Kanji-san."

"R-Right!" He flashed a crooked smile.

"Koganegawa, it's time for blocking," Tsukishima gave him a small glare. The boy nodded and followed him back to the court.

The gradient head looked over at Hinata who was picking up stray balls, but not playing. Confusion engulfed her as she continued to stare at him. He caught her staring and blushed deep, almost tripping on a ball. She waved with a smile, he waved back rapidly.

He got hit in the face because of that.

Shirome's eyes widened as she rushed to him, "Shoyo! Are you okay??" She cupped his face and scanned all over to see if he was hurt.

"Eek! I-I'm fine, I guess!" He lightly squealed and burned with her touch.

She frowned, "Be careful."

He saluted and Yahaba appeared with a pretend-innocent look, "Sorry," He sarcastically said.

"What's his deal?!" Hinata lightly whined and rubbed his cheek. Shirome removed his hand and told him not to touch it like that.

Most of the boys can't help but feel pissed off at how Shirome was treating him.

"Don't mind them–why aren't you playing anyways?" She asked.

"Oh uh...," He fumbled with his words. The tangerine didn't want to humiliate himself infront of her.

"Furumi-san, thank you for staying with them for a while. Turns out, our meeting was hust really short. We'll take over now," The co-coach smiled at Shirome, Washijo was already scolding some slackers.

"Ah, no problem," She smiled and handed him the clipboard. He rasied a brow in confusion when she stopped and stared at the whistle.

"I'll clean this," She muttered but he stopepd her.

"It's okay, you can just leave it to us," He reassured her.

Hinata tapped her shoulder, "Furumi-san, are you leaving already?"

"Yeah," She nodded.

"Ball boy, don't stay there chatting with her," Washijo scowled at him, saying it a little louder. The people in the gym fell silent as others sweatdropped.

"Washijo-san, may I ask why he is a ball boy?" Shirome slowly asked and turned to Hinata who can't return her gaze.

"Small players that rely on their setter hold no value," Washijo said somewhat proudly.

The girl fell silent and Hinata grew embarrassed every second. Tsukishima silently sighed.

"Even though most of the players here was beaten by him, he's just a ball boy?" Shirome turned to Washijo with a pressuring stare. The others frowned when she said that.

"Well–yeah, it doesn't matter. There's a reason why he isn't invited," He stammered as he sweatdropped.

Shirome went closer to Hinata as she cupped her hand beside her mouth near his ear, "Maybe you're not invited because you're too great for this camp," She silently whispered at him and smiled, in hopes of cheering his attitude up.

His face bursted in flames and confused everyone. He gave her a shaky smile.

Shirome gave the old man a small-lipped smile and turned to Washijo, "Well, I guess that can't be helped. I'll get going now, if you don't mind."

The coaches nervously nodded as she nodded at Hinata and disappeared behind the gym doors. Washijo breathed out.

"Get back to work," He muttered at Hinata.

Tendo squinted at Hinata. He jumped at the scary look Tendo was giving him, but met Yahaba's glare when he looked away. Tsukishima rolled his eyes at him, and Kindaichi huffed. Koganegawa gave Hinata a thumbs up, "Nice one, Hinata! She totally likes you!"

"Y-You think so??" Hinata shyly smiled and rubbed the back of his neck.

Tsukishima scoffed, "You looked like an idiot earlier."

"You were so awkward," Kindaichi added.

Kunimi huffed, "It was like diamond beside a pebble."

"You all are mean!" Hinata whined as he pouted and walked away to do his job.

The others just rolled his eyes and continued playing.

Hinata was radiating fluff as he recalled what happened earlier. His heart can't help but flutter, and his stomach was feeling fuzzy with all the butterflies flying around.

—

a/n
i love shirome