"WHERE WERE YOU?"...

     "I...umm....was at the gym...the whole night", shiyumi admitted, causing oikawa and atsumu to obnoxiously gasp.

"what were you doing there so late?", oikawa questioned.

"did you even eat?", kozume asked, to which shiyumi had physically tensed up.

"well...I was practicing my serves, because I wanted to be better at it", the orange-haired girl answered.

"is it because you smacked tobio-chan in the head with a ball yesterday?", oikawa teased.

"oikawa-san, tease me about that any more and I'll never introduce you to my sister!", shiyumi huffed, childishly sticking out her tongue.

oikawa playfully choked, in a state of disbelief.

"chibi-chan, that was not nice!"

     "anyways, I'm gonna go shower. do you think there'll be blueberry muffins for breakfast today??", shiyumi sweetly asked.

     "maybe", kozume answered, as everyone waited for shiyumi to be done using the bathroom.

     once the four were all set, they headed down to the cafeteria, to which atsumu had suddenly came to a realization.

     "shōyō-kun, where'd you get that jacket from?"

     "huh?"

     "isn't this the inarizaki team color?", oikawa noticed.

"um...well—"

"huh? I spot karasuno's number ten!!", a cheerful voice suddenly interrupted, causing everyone to turn towards a redhead that was with shiratorizawa's captain.

"oh, good morning ushijima-senpai and..."

"tendō satori! the one and only guess monster!!"

"guess monster? why're you called the guess monster? it's a cool name though!!", shiyumi stated.

meanwhile tendō was conversing with the orange-haired girl with kozume and atsumu listening in, ushijima was reasoning with oikawa about why shiratorizawa is the better choice.

"because my ability to read and predict my opponents' moves are spectacular!", tendō self-praised.

"and I'm assuming that the monster part of the nickname is just because you're like a beast on the court, right?! man! you and kageyama are so lucky!! I want a cool nickname too...", shiyumi slightly pouted.

tendō hummed in amusement at the praise that he received.

it felt nice that someone didn't think that he looked like a monster.

"a nickname?", tendō repeated.

"mhm! oikawa-san calls me chibi-chan, but that's not really a name that I'd use on the court, ya know?"

"why not? I think it's cute!", oikawa grinned, as he ignored the olive-haired captain.

shiyumi made an unimpressed expression.

     "hinata, come here please!", kita called out, as everyone's attention was now directed at the inarizaki captain, who was sitting with suna and another member from their team.

     "anyways, I hope to play against you, mr. guess monster! see you later", shiyumi waved, as oikawa and kozume had left to go sit with their teammates.

"ohayo! ah, I'm hinata shōyō by the way", the girl introduced, extending her hand out for the last inarizaki member to shake.

"ojiro aran", the mature boy replied with a firm grip.

     "huh? did you transfer to the inarizaki team?", osamu asked, taking a seat beside shiyumi, who was sandwiched between the twins.

     "I let him borrow my jacket, that's all", kita explained.

     "oh".

     "how unfortunate~ shōyō-kun could've been inarizaki's little fox", atsumu joked.

     "but foxes can't fly", shiyumi honestly stated.

everyone looked up at the girl, who just displayed the most serious yet innocent expression ever.

"hinata, you should eat more since you didn't have dinner last night", kita suddenly said, breaking the silence.

"thanks for the reminder, kita-san!"

ʚ♡⃛ɞ

after a morning of receiving — something that shiyumi was also not so good at — lunch had also ended, bringing the volleyball players to the beginning of afternoon practice.

     "today we'll be playing three versus three, except this time, I wish for some of you to watch the match and perhaps learn some things. sometimes visually seeing others play can help boost your own motivation and skills as well", hibarida announced.

     "so first up, we'll have setters choose who they want on their team. team blue is oikawa, and team red is shirabu!"

     both knew that their coach probably wished to see them work with other players, considering how they were already used to their own teammates.

     hence oikawa had made the decision of picking ojiro and yaku. meanwhile shirabu was with hoshiumi and kuroo.

with ojiro starting to serve, kuroo had messily received it, giving shirabu a chance to toss to hoshiumi.

shiyumi watched in awe as hoshiumi skyrocketed into the air, slamming the ball onto the other side of the court like there was no tomorrow.

though both teams were superior, it was a close match with oikawa's team taking the win.

and with kozume and akaashi being next, shiyumi had quickly came to a realization.

"suna-san!", shiyumi whispered, nudging the dark-haired boy who seemed on the verge of falling asleep.

"hm?"

"don't you think you look like the love child of kenma and akaashi-san?", shiyumi asked, as the girl and suna both stared at the two setters who were currently on the court.

kozume bitterly scrunched up his face as he cursed gravity for dropping the ball onto his side of the court.

"gravity pisses me off!"

suna then glanced back to see a curious shiyumi, to which atsumu had snickered, as suna wasn't sure how to respond to that.

     "um...yeah...", suna quietly muttered.

"oh! I hope I didn't offend you or anything!! I just thought that you three had some similar features...which is good!! b-because you three are very handsome, y-ya feel?", shiyumi tried to explain.

suna's stoic expression made shiyumi even more concerned, as she wasn't able to tell whether suna had taken her words to heart or not.

"AHEM!"

the two teens then snapped their heads up towards their coach, who was looming over them.

"since you two have so much to say, why don't you both go up next? suna, you're team blue. and hinata, you're team red", hibarida stated.

suna cringed, as he could feel kita's judging stare; punishment for being called out.

the dark-haired male just sighed, as he picked tendō and kageyama.

     shiyumi scratched the back of her head as her original pick for setter would've been kageyama — which was exactly why suna had picked the boy, because he knew that shiyumi's comfort setter was the first-year prodigy.

     "umm..."

     "hinata, you have many great options. keep your mind open", hibarida reminded.

     "then my first pick is tsukki!!", shiyumi smiled, causing the blonde to softly curse beneath his breath.

     "just my luck", he muttered.

     "alright! and your second pick?", hibarida asked.

     shiyumi scanned the group of players that were sitting on the bleachers.

     the orange-haired girl had then started grinning like a fool.

     "I have just the perfect setter in mind!"