During their lunch break, Yachi saw Tsukishima outside her classroom. She waved at him and started to walk to the water fountain but stopped when Tsukishima called out to her.

"Yachi-san," Tsukishima said, "I actually have something for you." He held out a few sheets of paper. "I have some more volleyball information for you."

Yachi gave him a gentle smile. She noticed lately that Tsukishima enjoyed teaching her about volleyball after school. It wasn't very obvious, but she did see that his eyes would light up like when he would play a volleyball match. She didn't understand why he enjoyed teaching her but guessed that he just liked volleyball a lot. "Thanks Tsukishima," she replied.

Tsukishima had a sudden thought about how cute Yachi's smile was, but turned away to stop looking at it because he could feel his cheeks warming up. Instead, he asked, "Could you come with me for a moment?" He gestured to her to follow him.

They walked around the side of the school to the vending machine. Tsukishima inserted a few coins in. "Which drink do you want?" he asked.

Yachi was shocked since it seemed like he had read her mind. She initially left the classroom to get a drink of water. "What a coincidence!" she giggled. "I was thirsty!"

After he paid for their drinks, the two sat at the bench together. After Tsukishima took a sip out of his drink, he sighed and held out Yumi's card for her to see, "Did you put this in my bag?"

"Yes," Yachi replied in a panic. Tsukishima thought she looked pretty nervous about the card.

He sighed again as he got frustrated at the difficulty of ignoring the feeling in his stomach. "Are you free after practice today?"

"Yes...?"

"Okay, wait for me after practice," he quickly said afterwards.

"Oh, okay. But why?" she gave him a confused look.

"I don't know. We can grab some food. Maybe watch a movie. I don't know what I'm really supposed to do," he said while trying to maintain his composure.

To his relief, the bell rang. He got up to leave before he added, "You know, you should make sure to write your name on the card. I only knew that it was from you because Yamaguchi told me."

"Oh, okay," Yachi replied. "I'll do that next time."

"Next time?" Tsukishima thought to himself. As he left, he got annoyed at how often he had blushed.

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

"Why did I say that?" thought Yachi as she waited for Tsukishima after practice. She kept pondering over her conversation with Tsukishima all afternoon even after ranting to Mei about it. Even with all that thinking, she still didn't know how to clear up the misunderstanding.

She thought back to when Yumi had given her the card. Yumi was shy around boys but had a bubbly personality otherwise. Yachi had initially thought that Tsukishima might get along with Yumi once they had gotten to know each other and that they could have been a cute couple, but now she didn't know what to do.

Yumi had approached her because she had noticed that Yachi would study with the volleyball boys and then had found out that she was the manager of their team. The day that Yumi gave her the card, Yachi had called out Tsukishima's name when she saw him, with the intention of giving him the card directly. But for some reason, she couldn't do it. So when Tsukishima responded to her call, she had told him that it was nothing.

When Yumi had later asked her about it, Yachi had told her that she had forgotten to give it to him and later decided to put it in Tsukishima's bag. She didn't think that by doing so that she would have be trapped in this misunderstanding.

Tsukishima came out after he packed his bag and switched back to his regular glasses. "So what did you want to do today?"

"Run away and hide under my bedsheets," she said, but quickly clasped her mouth when she realized she said that out loud.

Tsukishima snorted at her. "Did you want to do that?" he joked. "I could just walk you home if you'd like. I didn't really have anything planned." She wouldn't have minded that if she wasn't dying of embarrassment, not to mention that she still had to figure out how to clear up the misunderstanding.

The two had started to walk and they were both fairly quiet. Yachi felt the need to say something, but for Tsukishima, her company was enough. As they walked down the street, Yachi glanced into a stationary store and suddenly felt the urge to go in. She looked up at Tsukishima with sparkles in her eyes as if she was asking him permission to go inside. He prompted her to go ahead and they entered the store together.

Tsukishima saw her pick up a pencil set with a wide range of pencil grades. This one in particular had fourteen graphite pencils with a 6H pencil at the lightest shade and a 12B pencil at the darkest. She looked like she wanted to buy it but returned it to its place. Tsukishima picked it up and asked, "What is this?"

"Those are drawing pencils," she said. "I thought it would be nice for when I practice designing posters and other things." She shrugged, "I don't really need it though. I can always borrow some from my mom if I need to." He nodded and continued to walk her home.

***********

"So how was your date?" Mei nudged Yachi during class.

"I guess it was nice," were the words that slipped out as she blushed. "Wait! Ugh... Why is this happening to me?"

"I'm guessing you weren't able to tell him?" she asked. Yachi shook her head and Mei responded by giving her an amused look. "Well, I guess you'll just have to keep dating your secret boyfriend," she grinned. Yachi let out a groan from her mouth. She told herself that she'd clear up everything with him later, but little did she know that things would get slightly more complicated.

One day after school, the first years decided to join their third year senpais who were studying in Coach Ukai's store. It was there that Hinata asked her the question that she didn't want to hear. "Yachi-san, who's your secret boyfriend?" Hinata asked her with a grin.

Yachi coughed in response. She had choked on her drink and had almost spat it out. Somehow, her conversation with Mei had turned into a rumour that had spread to Hinata's class.

"Who is it?" he continued to ask excitedly with stars in his eyes. "Is it someone on the team? Is it one of the senpais?"

"It's not any of us," Sugawara answered while laughing. "Asahi and Daichi wouldn't keep it a secret if they were dating someone."

The hairs on the back of Sawamura's neck stood up. "Actually...," he chuckled nervously.

Sugawara's jaw dropped, disbelieving what Sawamura's words were implying. "What?! You're dating Yachi-san?!" he exclaimed.

"No, not Yachi-san," he replied nervously. "But I started dating Yui last week."

"What?!" he shouted back. Sawamura's response didn't exactly calm him down. "Why didn't you tell me? I've been shipping you two for months! Do you know how long I've waited for you to finally get a clue?" The two continued to talk about this newly-found information while Hinata was still wondering whom Yachi could be dating.

"There's no point in thinking about it," Tsukishima told Hinata as he held Yachi's drink for her until she finished coughing. "If it's a secret, wouldn't they just deny it?" His straight-faced response prompted Yachi to cough some more. How could he have such a good poker face?

"But... But... I'm just so curious," pouted Hinata.

"Just leave her alone," said Kageyama. "It's none of our business anyway." He pushed Hinata's head back into his textbook. "Just keep studying."

"It's just a rumour," added Yamaguchi. "We don't know if it's true or not." He actually knew what was going on though. He had heard the rumour floating around in their classroom and had mentioned it to Tsukishima. Tsukishima had noticed that Yamaguchi had looked a little sad about it and had learned that Yamaguchi had thought that Yachi was cute. Tsukishima didn't know what to do after knowing how Yamaguchi felt. He had simply told to him, "Sorry."

Yamaguchi had been confused at first but then congratulated him when he had realized that Tsukishima had started dating Yachi. He had clarified that he was sad because it seemed that Tsukishima might have liked her, but now it had looked like he didn't have to worry about him.

Yamaguchi smirked and nudged Tsukishima to tease him a bit. He had noticed that Tsukishima had sat beside Yachi and also had held her drink during her coughing fit. Yamaguchi wanted to show him that he noticed those small caring details, knowing that he'd be embarrassed by them.

"Shut up," Tsukishima quietly snapped at Yamaguchi. "Just go back to studying."