"Since when have you been close to Yachi?" asked Yamaguchi.

"Close? We're not close," replied a confused Tsukishima.

Yamaguchi had thought back to their last practice. Yachi had sat at a desk on one side of the court and had looked like she had been writing quite a bit. Yamaguchi had been afraid she wouldn't have noticed a stray ball. Tsukishima later had gone to chat with her during their water break. She had been consolidating the volleyball calendar for the next school year. She had the dates for both the summer and spring Inter High tournaments and she also had the planned dates for some training camp and potential practice matches. For fun, she had also wondered if she should have put the birthdays of each of the players.

Considering this, Yamaguchi was skeptical about Tsukishima's reply. But if they weren't close, they were at least comfortable with each other. He saw how the two of them would interact as they continued tutoring Kageyama and Hinata together. Other days, Tsukishima had stayed at school with Yachi even when Hinata and Kageyama weren't there.

The two of them walked down the hall and passed class 1-5. Tsukishima took a glance and saw that Yachi was mindlessly drawing in her notebook. A moment later, she freaked out when she realized she drew all over her notes. Tsukishima chuckled at her.

"What's so funny?" Yamaguchi asked.

"Nothing," Tsukishima replied with a straight face, but Yamaguchi peaked in the classroom to see Yachi pulling at her hair.

"Does he have a crush on her?" wondered Yamaguchi. It was fine if it was true. He'd never seen Tsukishima interested someone before. He smirked at the possibility of seeing Tsukishima flustered and embarrassed if he did like her. "Are you interested in someone in that class?" nudged Yamaguchi.

"No," Tsukishima replied, looking at Yamaguchi as if something was growing from his head. "Finding someone funny doesn't mean I'm interested in them." This reply made Yamaguchi doubt his initial thought and wondered if he was just reading into things.

*****

"Yachi-san, do you know where our water bottles are?" Tsukishima asked her as he stepped off the court. The team had been practising their spikes with Kageyama. The first and second years lined up in rows according to their position to wait for their turn.

"Oh, I placed them over here," she pointed next to her. She bent down to get his bottle and stood up to give it to him. As she handed his water bottle to him, she accidentally squirted Tsukishima's face. They both froze. Water dripped off his glasses. "Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry Tsukishima!" she freaked out. "I'm so clumsy! I'm not cut out for this!" She continued to ramble with her arms waving frantically. "Maybe I shouldn't be a manager! I can't even do this properly. Am I going to be fired? Did Coach Ukai see? Is this how I'm going to die? What do I-?"

Tsukishima sprayed water on her face which caused Yachi to go speechless. "Oh, that worked," stated Tsukishima with a smirk. "You stopped."

Hinata, who saw the whole exchange, was just about to step in to defend Yachi. But before he could, Yachi grabbed another water bottle to squirt at Tsukishima. Tsukishima smirked at her and retaliated, and in turn, Yachi made sure to get water all over his face. Water sprayed everywhere, and the two only stopped when their respective water bottles were emptied.

Tsukishima took a look at Yachi and saw how wet her face and hair were. Her sweater was equally as wet. He accidentally let out a snort that he had tried to hold back. But this slip was too much for Yachi and they both erupted in laughter at the sight of their childishness.

"Okay you kids," Ennoshita said as he placed his hands on their shoulders. The two straightened up when they realized everyone saw all of that. "You should probably clean this up now."

Tsukishima and Yachi looked at each other with embarrassed faces. They responded, "Yes," to the new captain and rushed off to grab some towels.

Tsukishima sighed since during the rest of the practice, he couldn't concentrate. He didn't understand why he made a fool of himself. He knew better than to join a water fight, let alone in the gym.

"Yachi-san~~," said Hinata with Kageyama standing next to him. "Let's go to the Sakanoshita store after. I'll treat you for some meat buns for tutoring us." Hinata wore a large smile.

"Ha? Meat buns? Why meat buns?" asked Kageyama.

"Doesn't everyone like meat buns?" answered Hinata. Tsukishima glanced over at Yachi and noticed a small wrapped snack on the side on her backpack. It looked like some fugashi.

"I'm glad Hinata gets along with shy people like Yachi easily," Ennoshita commented to Tanaka. "It'll be helpful when the new players join in April."

Yachi replied back to Hinata, "Sure! I'd like a meat bun." She started to put her backpack on. "Oh, but if it's for the tutoring, shouldn't Tsukishima and Yamaguchi get one too? They've been there almost every time I was." She looked over at Tsukishima as if she was asking him to join.

"Nah, I don't want any," said Tsukishima. He put on his headphones and walked away. Yamaguchi caught up to join him. While they walked in silence, Yamaguchi wondered what was going through Tsukishima's head.

Then, Yamaguchi remembered something. "Oh! I forgot to tell you! I think I saw Yachi put something in your bag. It looked like a card. I was going to ask her about it but it slipped my mind."

Tsukishima looked puzzled as to why she would do that. She could have given it to him directly. "I'll check it out later," he said.

**************

After eating dinner, Tsukishima took out his gym clothes to put in the laundry. A card fell out onto his living room floor and he stared at it for a moment before he remembered that this was probably the card that Yamaguchi was referring to. On the envelope, his name was written with a little heart on the end. Confused, he opened it.

"I'm home," said his brother as he entered the front door. His eyes initially were directed to his shoes, but then he looked up at Tsukishima afterwards - just fast enough to see him quickly hide the card behind his back and see his flushed face.

"Well this is annoying," Tsukishima grumbled to himself.

"What's that? It's not every day I see my little brother get flustered," Akiteru approached him with a big grin. Tsukishima sighed as he placed his hand on his face. "Is it a love letter?" joked Akiteru. Tsukishima groaned again. "Wait, am I right? I was just kidding."

Not wanting his brother to keep probing at the topic, Tsukishima picked up his gym clothes and walked to his room. He closed his door and reviewed the contents of the letter again to make sure he had read it correctly.

"Dear Tsukishima. I really like you - enough that I keep peeking into your classroom just to see you. You don't have to reply or anything but I just wanted to let you know."

He blushed at the thought of Yachi liking him, but then, he placed his palm on his face to cover a grin that he was holding back. He felt stupid for feeling happy about it. He groaned and rationalized that anyone would be happy if they found out someone liked them.

He looked at the card again and noticed that Yachi didn't sign it. He sighed and decided not to say anything for now until he figured out what to do with these troublesome feelings.