WHEWIE. I'm back (for now)!!! Sorry for the horribly late update ;-; ... Things have been getting busy, and I ended up using my free time for some healing and family time during the holidays. AND I HAVE BEEN NEGLIGENT TOO! I apologize unu.... Sorry if I get the setting/time wrong in the story. It's been a while haha...

Edit: Holy f word... 8k? Y'all r too kind. :'0 Thank you for sticking around 💙💙✨
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"Oh! Good morning (Y/n)-san!" Yahaba's head perked up as you walked over to your seat.

"G-good morning..." You kindly smiled back and placed your bag onto your desk.

'Sh-should I try creating a conversation?' You bit down on your lip, thoughts and questions running through your head on what topic to pick up on when you hardly know much about his interests.

"Are you excited?!" Yahaba's bright tone startled you out of your thoughts, whipping your head towards his direction.

"P-pardon?" You blinked your eyes and folded your hands, missing whatever he had said prior to his question.

"InterHigh! We have only have two weeks of practice before InterHigh!"

"InterHigh...?" You repeated in a small voice as if trying to process the word.

*COUGH*

You whipped your head the opposite way, shocked at the words that had finally processed through your head. You lightly pounded your chest as your face grew incredibly hot in embarrassment.

"(Y-Y/n)-san...?" Yahaba called out in a flabbergasted and concerned tone. "Are you alright...?"

"... Y-y-yes..." You sheepishly lowered your head and directed your gaze onto your desktop. "I-I was just surprised by h-how close the date is..."

'Gaaah!!! Please tell me my classmates aren't staring at me...! And it was so quiet...!" You let out a small sigh and fixed the already neat setup of your notebooks.

"Let's do our best Manager!" Yahaba energetically exclaimed. 

"Y-yeah...!" You nodded your head with a small, strained smile.

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"Hah..." You planted your head onto the wooden wall of the gym. Drained of your energy, you were not able to focus on anything today.

'I knew this would have happened... I thought I had mentally prepared myself for this...' You pouted your lips and lightly hammered your head onto the wall repeatedly for a couple of times.

"..."

"..."

Frozen, you could not bring yourself to turn your gaze to your left. Feeling the presence of one of the volleyball players to your left, you immediately felt the desperate need to drill a hole into the wood-board floor.

"... (L/n)-san..."

"Uck...!" As if coughing back on blood, you cringed and folded your upper half body into a bow. You slowly looked up to the familiar voice and jaggedly smiled.

"H-h-hello... I-Iwaizumi... Senpai..." Your face was flushed a deep crimson that reflected your immense embarrassment.

"Do you feel sick...?"

"Ah... N-no... P-perhaps..." You avoided his concern gaze and felt your legs cave into the awkward atmosphere.

"Pft..." Iwaizumi covered his mouth and aggressively tried holding back from breaking a poke face. He made a firm cough to cease his laughter and looked back at you. "Sorry... I didn't mean to laugh."

"S-sure..." You sweat dropped and hugged around your chest. You could feel your heart rapidly beat against your arms, and your face failed to chill its feverish embarrassment.

'I-I should make up for shooting down the conversation...?' You awkwardly shifted your feet and brought your gaze towards Iwaizumi's face.

"I-Iwaizumi senpai, I, uh..." Without realizing that you didn't think of what to discuss, your mind shut down in shame. Flustered and stressed about needing to quickly say something as he arched his brow in question, you blurted whatever came to your mind.

"S-s-so! What do y-you usually do on the weekends?!"

"What I do on the weekends?" Iwaizumi blinked his eyes and placed his hand to his chin. The gym slowly was filling up with members beginning to set up the gym.

'Ah... lord... P-please take me away...' You silently cried as you stood frozen in front of Iwaizumi.

"I usually take a run at the park in the morning or evening or Oikawa bombards my house." Iwaizumi sighed mentioning the second half.

"I-I see..." Thinking that the conversation had fully ended as the gym was being set up, you shifted your foot to begin running away.

"(L/n)-san, do you want to spend the weekend together?" Iwaizumi brought his gaze towards you, your face shocked in surprised.

"P-p-pardon?!"

"Sorry, I just thought maybe you would like to jog around the park. You mentioned one time that you're trying to exercise more lately." Iwaizumi rubbed the back of his neck, unsure on how to explain himself in front of your dumbfounded expression.

"... I, I don't mind, but I'd probably hold you back and burden you." You looked away and played with your hair.

"You don't have to worry about that. After all, you said you wanted to improve. I'll go at your pace." Iwaizumi smiled, bringing a small sense of comfort as he debunked your worries of being a burden.

"Th-then I would l-like to join you..." You lightly smiled and nodded your head.

"IWA-CHAN~!" A sing song voice shouted from across the gym. "YOU LAZY BUM~!"

"Kuh...!" Iwaizumi's face soured, his veins popping on his forehead. He groaned and let out a sigh. "I'll message you the details when later." He waved his hand as he retreated onto the court to help set up.

Turning away to set up the water bottles, you can hear a distant impacted kick and a short yelp.

'I shouldn't reject his kind offer. I think Iwaizumi senpai is a good person... It should be alright.' You reassured yourself, the sounds behind you ever so vividly growing more chaotic.

—————

Standing alone under the shade of a giant tree, your legs ever so shook nervously. You were pressing your lips and beginning to form a pout from the growing anxiousness.

'I can't believe I accepted to do this...' You internally cried.

It was a Saturday morning, the day you had accepted Iwaizumi's offer to jog with him at the park.

Sure you felt more comfortable around Iwaizumi than anyone else at school, but that doesn't mean being alone with them. Outside of school. Spending time together. Especially if you would be running with your much weaker constitution.

"Sigh... To think I have degraded this much..." You frowned and folded your hands.

'Maybe I shouldn't have come... Wh-what  if someone at school starts—'

"(L/n)-san!" A familiar voice called out to you, breaking you out of your trance.

"Iwaizumi senpai-" You began to greet until your eyes went down in shock.

(Y'all plz don't ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°))

"A-a dog?!" You gasped, not expecting an addition to the party.

"Are you afraid of dogs? Sorry, my neighbors asked if I could watch over their dog since they'll be out on a business trip." Iwaizumi looked down to the dog and squatted down to pet its head.

"N-no, I actually like dogs... I-I use to have one in junior high..." You folded your hands behind your back as you stared at the golden retriever in awe. "Wh-what's their name?"

"Her name is Chu. You can per her, she won't bite."

"Chu? What an interesting choice of name..." You softly mumbled out loud and hesitantly stepped forward to pet the dog. Feeling lighter and happier at the friendly and adorable dog, you couldn't help but form a wrinkled smile.

"You said you had a dog before?" Iwaizumi glanced over to you, unknowingly stuck in staring upon your brilliant yet distant smile.

"Y-yeah... I-I had a Shih Tzu named (whatever dog name lol)... He died of old age." You continued to ruffle through the softness of Chu's hair as you reminisced of your pet.

"If you ever want to, you can visit my place. My neighbors like for Chu to stay active, so they urge me to take her out time to time." Iwaizumi casually grinned and stood up.

"..." You didn't want to, or rather you didn't know how you would want to respond to his offer.

"Should we start?" Iwaizumi adjusted the leash in his hand and stretched out his arms.

You nodded your head and started off your jog together at an easy and slow pace. Although you couldn't help pondering over burdening his time strapped to your slow pace, you stayed silent.

'I-I have to get through this no matter h-how tired I get...!' Not wanting to let yourself down in spite of a spark of competitiveness, you breathed in through your nose and out of your mouth. Your lungs heaved and you felt your sides burn and ache.

Only focused on the path ahead of you and as Chu ran further ahead to lead the both you and Iwaizumi, you failed to notice his gaze on you.

Iwaizumi felt relieved that your anxious-filled and dim expression had brightened. A grin laced his lips as he steadily jogged besides you.

—————

Dead tired, you leaned onto the tree with ragged and deep breaths. You had just used your inhaler seeing to it that you pushed yourself too much.

'I... I haven't felt any sort of competitiveness is such a long time...'

"Here." Iwaizumi handed your bottle, and Chu circled around your feet with a curious tilt of her head.

"Th-thank you..." You took the bottle and drank a healthy amount. Exhaling, you breathed in and out as you straightened out your back.

"You did good. You made quite the distance." Iwaizumi commented with a warm smile.

"I-is that so?" Your eyes lit up, your expression perking up just like Chu's. Iwaizumi held in a chuckle as he turned his head away from comparing your silly face with Chu's.

"Th-thank you for offering m-me to come w-with you at the park." You brushed back your (h/c) hair that came loose from your hair tie. Your small feeling of gratitude seem to have outdo your worries and anxiousness before.

"It's no big deal. Whenever you need a partner to jog with, just let me know!" Iwaizumi grinned with a chuckle and pointed his thumb at himself.

"I, I will-"

"Hm? Iwa-chan? (L/n)-san?"

Both you and Iwaizumi turned your head to the voice with very contrasting reactions.

"O-O-Oikawa senpai?!??!" You shrieked in surprised. Although you felt relieved that it was just Oikawa and not some other schoolmate, the memory of Oikawa mistaking you having a crush on Iwaizumi resurfaced.

"Tch, what are you doing here?" Iwaizumi scowled.

(I smell a scandal ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°))

"Just taking a run~! Did you not invite me so that you can keep cutie-chan all to yourself~!" Oikawa swung his arm around Iwaizumi and dug his finger into his cheek.

"OI GET OFF OF ME SHITTYKAWA!" Iwaizumi roared, tearing away at the headlocked.

"..." You stared at the two quarrel with a blank face until you broke out into a small endearing giggle.

'I suppose... This isn't so bad...'

A/N
Happy Belated New Years and Christmas! I hope you had a good and relaxing holiday. If it wasn't so great, I hope that your day, week, and days ahead will get better :)

1/8/2021