The next morning after practice, she sees Tanaka, Nishinoya, Asahi and Sugawara with a magazine. Curious, the brunette approaches them with Kageyama and Hinata. "What's with the commotion...?" Haneul hesitantly asked, kneeling a bit to see the magazine Tanaka held. As the petite Libero was close to him, Tanaka got flustered and showed her the magazine page. "L-look, Kazama-chan!! This is Wakatoshi Ushijima!! One of Japan’s top three players and the number-one ace of Miyagi Prefecture!!"

Haneul looked at the picture of the Ace, joined in by Daichi. "Well, he certainly does look like an Ace..." their captain remarked, glaring at Asahi. Said Ace cowered into a corner, and Haneul gave him a hug, which caught him and the others off guard. "I-I-I'm sorry!" She blurted out, noticing what she had done. "I'm still, u-um, I'm not used to b-being really conservative..."

The small girl proceeded to explain that she was still trying to get used to the conservative nature of Japan, since she grew up with a lot of physical contact. "So, you don't mind if we hug you?" Nishinoya asked. "Or hold your hand?" Asked Tanaka afterwards. "No, I really don't mind any of that..." The two first years grinned at each other.

Kageyama later on said that he tried getting into Shiratorizawa, but didn't pass the entrance exams. "I did," Haneul interrupted shyly. "H... HUH?!" The whole team was shocked. "You got in to Shiratorizawa, Ka-chan?" Sugawara asked, tilting his head. She nodded with a blush as she proceeded to sit on the floor, aside Daichi. "I didn't go because, well, it's too far away from where I live now... And it's pretty expensive..." Haneul said, the last sentence barely over a whisper.

"Remember," Keishin started, approaching the group, "You won't just face off against Shiratorizawa. The top four schools of this year are, other than Shiratorizawa: Wakutani South, Date Tech and Aoba Johsai. Haneul instantly grew scared as the boys all stared at each other intensely at the mention of their rival. Asahi saw this and patted her head.

"Oh right. You weren't here when we had that practice match, Kazama-chan," the soft giant said, getting the others to soften up. "That's right!" Hinata stood, jumping in place while speaking to Haneul, "They have the king!!" "T-the king...?" Haneul tilted her head to the side, making half the team die of cuteness.

"Not an actual king, Hinata baka," Kageyama explained, "They have this genius setter named Oikawa. They're a super strong team." "Omo, they sound tough," she said, using a korean expression. Even Kageyama blushed when she used it, since Haneul never had used it before.

"Guys!!" Takeda ran in, holding a paper. "I have the match-ups for the Interhigh!" Everyone immediately stood up, walking and crowding over him. Haneul was in the back of the crowd, trying to see what Takeda was showing, but couldn't see anything because of her height. Kei, who was aside her, saw this, and sighed. He figured trying to make the others move was too big of a hassle, so he picked her up from her torso.

Initially, Haneul was spooked, but when she turned around to see who had picked her up so easily and saw Kei, she thanked him, asking if she was too heavy. "You need to eat more," he bluntly said, which translates to, "You're surprisingly light." Takeda explained that if Karasuno and Date Tech both win their matches, they might end up facing each other, but that wasn't the problem.

Aoba Johsai was also in their block, so they might end up facing off too. Haneul noticed they were all a little too stiff, and decided to say something. "At the end of hardship comes happiness, so all of our hard work will pay off at the end!" Everyone looked at her with heavenly smiles, until they noticed Kei was holding her up. "TSUKISHIMA!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOIN TOUCHING OUR PRECIOUS KAZAMA, YOU BASTARD?!" Tanaka exclaimed, ready to throw punches. "... She couldn't see."

"Oh."

When class started, Haneul noticed that more than half of her classmates didn't care anymore of what she was doing. Almost everyone, in fact. Except this group of girls, which usually hung around the back of the class. Of course, Haneul k ew who they were. It was the group of girls that had harassed her the morning before training camp. She tried her best to ignore them, and they had behaved themselves in Takeda's class, but afterwards, they started throwing paper planes and things at her.

Finally, lunch had arrived, and Haneul was happily tidying up her desk so she could meet Kei and Tadashi at the cafeteria. The petite brunette walked down the hall, but before she could walk down the stairs, an arm pulled her into an empty music classroom.

Haneul fell flat on her back, and the door shut closed. She opened her green orbs after wincing, to see the six girls from her class, all staring down at her. "W-what d-do you w-want," Haneul stuttered out, backing up against the wall as the six girls walked towards her.

"What do we want?" "What a nerve." "You got us in trouble, you b*tch!" "We didn't even push you that hard!"

"Wait," the main girl said, with a grin on her face. "It's obvious! She's sleeping with the sensei!" She laughed, and all the others started laughing as well. The main girl stopped laughing and took a piece of Haneul's hair in her fist, yanking it.

"Ah!" Haneul yelped, but the others just grinned. "It's no use." "The walls are sound proof." "Yell aaaalll you want, but no one will ever hear you." The girls giggled as they proceeded, led by the main girl.

They started by slapping her in the face, and later punching and kicking her. "Oh, also," the main girl said, "My boyfriend thinks your body's hot. So, this is payback." She took Haneul by the hair again, and slammed her to the ground. She tried to yell and scream, but nobody heard her, and the girls just kept on kicking her while she laid in the ground.

After a while, they stopped, and decided it was time to leave. "So you remember me," the main girl said, "My name is Minamoto Sakura." And with that, they left.

Haneul was sobbing, clutching the nearest desk to be able to stand. Looking down, she noticed her white shirt uniform was covered in foot marks, and her tights were all ripped apart, and her skirt as well. Then, a drop of blood made it's way to the floor, and she panicked. Where was she bleeding from??

Not her cheek, not her forehead, but her nose. Sakura had punched her right in the nose, and now she was bleeding. She put her blazer sleeve up to her nose, trying to stop or delay the bleeding until she could get to the nurses office. Haneul hesitated leaving the classroom, since it was still lunch and the nurse was down in the first floor, but everything hurt, so she had no choice.

The brunette started her descent down the stairs, and no one noticed she was limping or bleeding. At least, no one showed that they noticed. Haneul tried her best to hold back her tears, but failed when she tripped down the last flight of stairs.

She landed on her face at the bottom, and she started crying again. "Kazama-chan!" She looked to the left to see who had called her, and it was Tadashi and Kei. The tall blond looked at her in shock, and that's when she felt the blood coming down her nose again. Rapidly, Haneul covered her nose with her blazer sleeve and tried to get up.

"I'm sorry," she muffled out from her sleeve and tears, trying to walk, but limping. To her surprise, Kei picked her up, making some girls that were nearby squeal. "Yamaguchi, look for Takeda-sensei," Kei said, and the green haired boy nodded, giving Haneul one last look, and running up the stairs to the faculty room.

"They told you that?" Takeda asked, gaining a nod from Haneul. She had been the past few minutes explaining what happened inside the music room to Takeda, the vice principal, the Dean and Kei. It was already way past lunch, so Takeda told Tadashi to go to class while Kei waited to give his side of the story, which wasn't much.

Haneul's bleeding had stopped, and now had patches on her arms, legs and face. The nurse had given her some tissues because she was still crying. "Do you know their names?" The vice principal asked, fixing his toupee. "T-the name o-of the one t-that p-p-punched me is M-Minamoto Sakura," Haneul hiccuped, trying her best to calm down.

After the Dean filled in some paperwork, he left Takeda incharge and told Kei he could go back to class. "See you later," Kei said to Haneul as he left. "Thank you, Tsuki-kun," she called after him, and he just nodded, closing the door behind him. The vice principal left as well, taking some papers with him.

"You can go home if you want to, Kazama-chan," Takeda said, sitting down in a chair aside her. "I can call your uncle to pick you up, and you'll be excused from practice." Haneul shook her head. "He won't come. I'll stay. I promised Kiyoko-senpai to help her with something..." Takeda nodded, and escorted her to class. When she got there, the six girls weren't there, so she managed to relax a little.

"WHO DID THIS TO YOU, KA-CHAN?!" Tanaka asked, fire in his eyes. "I WILL HAVE THEIR HEADS!!!" Nishinoya joined in. The duo had gone nuts right after laying eyes on her in the court, since she got there early and was setting up for them. They saw the patches on her legs and arms, as well as her face, and freaked.

"I-I'm fine now, senpai," Haneul blushed, trying to get them to calm down. Daichi and Sugawara calmed them down once they entered the court. When everyone was there, Haneul helped them practice. "Kazama-chan, are you supposed to be helping?" Tadashi asked, taking a ball from her. She smiled at him softly. "I'm okay now, Yama-kun. Thank you for earlier," she said, making him blush.

Keishin called them all over to talk over their formations, so Haneul went with Kiyoko to do something she had asked for help with. When it was time to head home, Haneul walked with Kei and Tadashi, but the green haired boy said he had something to do, and left them alone. In the bus, Kei and Haneul ended up listening to music together.

When the bus arrived in Kei's stop, he turned to her. "Try not to get into trouble," he said, then proceeded to leave. Haneul smiled, knowing what he meant, and waved at him from inside the bus.

Picture by me
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