CHAPTER FIVE

      With one week left for the Inter-High prelims, practice was going strong.

      Most of the players were busy practicing their serves, their receives and their blocks. As the manager, Misaki was busy in her own way. During the day, she and Yuki were watching over the players, making sure no one was practicing too much or overworking themselves. At night, Misaki was studying their games from last year.

      Like clockwork, the same thing repeated. As though it was some sort of tradition, her sleep schedule was completely fucked up.

      The partial blame of this lay on Oikawa and Iwaizumi, both of whom were players who tended to stay late to practice. Sometimes, Oikawa stayed even later and Misaki stayed with him, keeping an eye on him.

      (She didn't want him to repeat his knee injury. She had been around when that happened and memories of that still haunted her)

      Still, it was often a task to pry Oikawa away from the gym. He was obsessed with perfecting his serves and stayed late to practice. Most of the times, it involved both Iwaizumi and Misaki literally dragging him away by his arms. Other times, bribing him with milk bread worked.

      By then, it would be eight-thirty and when they cleaned up the gym, it would nine at night.

      It was the time when Misaki started her two-hour binge of the shows she watched. And that would then be delayed till ten and she would be up till midnight, finishing whatever she was watching. So effectively, she only got five hours since morning practice often started at 5AM.

      Today was another one of those days. (Nights would be the proper term)

      Iwaizumi had to leave early to run an errand for his mom, so it was just Oikawa and Misaki in the gym. Volleyballs were scattered around the gym. As Oikawa continued to practice, she provided him inputs from time to time. Though after the seventh or eighth time, she had gone silent, instead choosing to silently watch serves she considered perfect.

      The boy in question refused to believe that and still wanted to practice. She had to be careful and watch him so that he didn't push himself too much.

     She let out a yawn. 'How many hours did I sleep last night? Four? I probably shouldn't have stayed up still 1. At least, the power nap in math class worked a little. Still, I feel like I need to sleep a lot.'

      As Oikawa went for his next serve, Misaki watched. Another jump serve with perfect form. He was soaked with sweat and probably was starting to feel tired, but he was still giving his all.

      'He's doing good. I'm gonna just rest my eyes for a second and then I'm gonna tell him to stop.'

      But a second turned into a minute, a minute turned into two minutes. Two minutes turned into three. And in the end, Misaki fell back onto the bench, completely falling asleep.

      During this time, Oikawa finished another jump. This time, it was perfect, even for him. The accuracy was great, the amount of strength was perfect. He had finally nailed his jump serve and he was proud of himself. He turned around to face Misaki on the bench, ready to brag about his serve,

      "Misa-chan, did you see my serve? It was..."

      The words died in his throat as he spotted Misaki curled up on the bench in an uncomfortable position, fast asleep. He snickered slightly, covering his mouth as he neared the bench. Oh, how he wished his phone wasn't in the club room. He wanted to take a picture and finally have something to tease Misaki about. He poked her cheek, covering his mouth to stop any sound from escaping.

      Misaki only let out a sound that was somewhere between a 'snore' and a 'grunt' and shifted slightly so that her entire body now faced Oikawa. He crouched down next to the bench, staring down at the girl who was asleep.

      "Misa-chan, wake up," Oikawa poked her cheek again.

       Misaki let out a cute-sounding sniffle. "Mom, give me five more minutes. Need to...need to..."

      "Hey, I don't sound like a girl!" Oikawa protested loudly, before remembering that Misaki was asleep on the bench. He also remembered that she wasn't the person who liked to be woken up from her naps. The last time he had done that (to force her to play volleyball with him back in middle school) had led to him almost having a broken nose when a sleepy Misaki whacked him in the face with a pillow. And mind you, it hurt.

      Oikawa turned back, looking back at the volleyballs scattered all over the gym, the net hung up in the middle and then turned back to face Misaki's sleeping face.

      Truth be told, he had noticed the slight dark circles under her eyes even though she had put some amount of concealer to hide them. He had also noticed her yawning during their morning and afternoon practice. Sometimes, he wondered whether his bad habits of overworking had somehow rubbed off on Misaki.

      In some ways, Oikawa and Misaki were similar. Both of them were hard-workers, striving only for perfection and achieving it most of the time. But for Oikawa, Misaki was the one who was perfect, while he was the one who needed to improve. His pride wouldn't let him admit that though.

      "You sleep now, Misa-chan. I'll clean up for today," Oikawa said as he gently stroked her forehead, pushing away the stray hairs. As an afterthought, he added, with a soft grin, "But I'll make you buy me milk bread for the next week."

      He stood up straight, his fingers momentarily lingering on Misaki's cheek. 'Huh.' Her skin was surprisingly soft and cool, but Oikawa resisted the urge to touch it some more, lest he invite her wrath.

      Dazed and confused, Misaki woke up from her impromptu nap, only to find out that the gym was shrouded in darkness except for the lights near the bench and Oikawa Tooru was staring down at her with the brightest grin she had ever seen.

      "Misa-chan, you're awake! I was beginning to think that you wanted to spend the night in the gym," He said as he held out his hand. Misaki took it, allowing the boy to help her up.

      "I also cleaned the gym and locked everything in the equipment room. All by myself."

      "Good, that's good," Misaki replied, yawning and stretching her arms. How had she fallen asleep on a metal bench? She was definitely waking up with back pain.

      "So will you buy me milk bread for the week?"

      "Huh? What kind of a question-? You know what, okay. I'm too tired to say no."

      "Yes! Okay! Let's go home now before your mom calls my mom and my mom blames me for keeping you in the gym too late."

      "Well, it is your fault that you want to stay late and practice more."

       "Misa-chan," Oikawa pouted, before he ruffled her hair. Misaki immediately slapped his hand away. When she glanced at him, he was looking at her with a strange glance, almost as though he had noticed something about her. "Misa-chan, if you're tired, then you should go home on the usual time and rest. I don't want my precious manager to fall sick because of the lack of sleep."

      "Says who?" Misaki playfully flicked his forehead. "You should also learn to stop practicing so much when your serves are already good."

      "They can be better," Oikawa argued in return. "They have to be better."

      Misaki glared at him. "Do I have to beat it into you? You don't suck. You have the most amazing serves I've ever seen. I love watching your serves."

      Suddenly, Oikawa grabbed her and hugged her tight. "Aww, you love me! That makes me so happy!"

     She smacked his arms, struggling to get out of his grips. He could give really good hugs when he wanted to, but she just wanted to go home and sleep on her bed. "I said I love your serves, not you! Now let go of me!"

      She moved to hit him again, but he stepped out of the way, winking at her. "I'm gonna tell Iwaizumi you are troubling me."

       The threat of Iwaizumi was enough to make Oikawa look fearful and apologetic. "Please don't tell him. Iwa-chan really will kill me."

      Misaki just stuck her tongue out at him. She grabbed her bag from the floor. Then she grabbed Oikawa's arm and started dragging him. "No more talking from you. We're going home now."

      "Yes, ma'am!"

      "I think they are all practicing too much, don't you think?"

      Yuki posed the question as she and Misaki walked back to the gym, after filling the water bottles for the team. Four days were left for the prelims and practices were intense.

      "You're kind of right, but technically they need it," Misaki answered.

      "But won't they end up overworking themselves?" Yuki said, stopping right in front of the gym doors. "The tournament's close, but it doesn't mean they should push themselves too much. If they go too far and then get injured right before the tournament, then that's going to make them feel worse. We should try and make them relax somehow."

      "You're passionate about this," Misaki noted, half-smiling. The first year reminded her of her own self. It looked like she had found a perfect manager.

      "Sorry," Yuki immediately apologized. Her expression turned soft. "I get like this because I have a cousin who plays volleyball and he kind of pushed himself too hard and he couldn't play for months. It hurt me to see him like that and I don't want that to be repeated with the team."

      "What do you want to do then?" Misaki asked.

      "Me?"

      "Yeah. Just because you're the second manager, doesn't mean your suggestions aren't important. So what do you want to do?"

      Yuki hesitated a little before saying, "Something like a movie night? After practice today? My house is pretty big and both my parents tend to stay out late because of work so the house is pretty much empty."

      Misaki snorted a little. "A Seijoh movie night would be pretty chaotic, you know? Last year, us third years had one at my place and boy, cleaning up the house after that...not fun."

      "Wait, really? What happened?"

      "You know the usual; Oikawa being an idiot and annoying Iwaizumi, Makki and Mattsun laughing in the background and then somehow we ended up in a food fight after which I had to make them clean up the living room. Even then I was picking out pieces of popcorn from the couch."

     "You-I...I'm a little worried now."

      Misaki laughed loudly as she hopped on one foot, using the other to kick open the gym door. "You have to be with this team. But you'll have fun; I promise."

      "Right," Yuki answered as she followed her inside. But Misaki hadn't lied to her. She also knew that a Seijoh movie night without chaos would not be possible; not in a million years.

      Well...Yuki would just have to experience it for herself to learn. She just hoped no food fight happened. (Her parents would kill her if it did)

      The team gathered around the two managers as they handed out the water bottles. Once their hands were empty and the team was drinking their water, Misaki called out. "Everyone, Yuki wants to talk to you about something."

      Yuki stumbled a little in surprise. Why was it that Misaki always choose to announce things like that? She wasn't even sure of her idea yet. But the team was already looking at her, waiting to hear what she wanted to say. So she took in a breath, releasing it. Then she said it.

      "I think everyone needs to relax, even a little bit, before the tournament. So, movie night at my place after practice?"

      (Seijoh's volleyball team...highly amazing, with multiple strengths...but also very chaotic. Yuki was just about to learn how much.)

Once this book is finished, I'll probably be writing a bunch of extra scenes for it and you bet I'm gonna include the movie night scene in those. Oikawa being unknowingly having a itsy-bitsy crush on Misaki is kinda cute and I am here for it. You bet there are going to be more scenes like that in the future. From the next chapter onwards, we start the Inter-High arc, after which things will pick up the pace. Till then, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

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