"I'm sorry!" said Yachi after she asked Tsukishima to meet her outside the store. "I'm really sorry! Please don't hate me!" she cried.

Tsukishima was confused at her sudden change in behaviour. "What's this about?"

"I...," she tried to start but the words didn't come out of her mouth. She attempted to explain again, but she said it so fast that all of her words came out in a jumble.

"Yachi-san, you'll have to speak slower than that," Tsukishima stated. "I didn't catch anything."

Then she nervously mumbled something and Tsukishima indicated that he didn't hear that either. She had to tell him. With the rumours about her having a secret boyfriend going around the school, she knew she needed to clear the air before things got any worse. "I didn't write that card," she was finally able to say with a sigh.

Tsukishima was still confused, so she explained as calmly as she could. She closed her eyes and said, "A classmate asked me to give you the card. I put in it your bag and you thought that the card was from me. It wasn't me who confessed to you. It was another girl."

When Tsukishima didn't reply right away, she took a peek at him through one of her eyes. Looking at him, she couldn't get any indication of how he felt. She frowned and said, "I'm really sorry, Tsukishima."

"Why are you sorry?" he sighed when he finally replied. "I misunderstood."

"I should have told you sooner," she said. "I was worried about how you'd react-"

"It's fine," Tsukishima interrupted. "Let's just go back."

Yachi trailed behind him as they entered back into the store to rejoin studying with the others. But Tsukishima packed his belongings and left. Yachi's heart sank. She couldn't help but feel that she had just ruined something that couldn't be fixed.

At home, she felt even worse. When she opened her bag, she saw a set of drawing pencils and a pack of fugashi that weren't there before. They were tied together with a simple note that said, "To Yachi. From Tsukishima."

Yachi slumped on her couch and buried her head in her pillow. "Tsukishima has been so nice to me lately and then I ruin it," she thought. "I should have never put the card in his bag. I should have just given it to him directly. No, I should have just told Yumi that I couldn't do it."

Tsukishima didn't talk to Yachi the next day. Maybe he just had no reason to talk to her during practice. The day after he cancelled on helping Kagayama and Hinata with studying, saying he was too annoyed with them. Yachi couldn't tell if he was purposely avoiding her. She started to worry that he was angry with her.

"Stop over-thinking! It's only been two days," she mentally scolded herself. "Nothing is wrong," she tried to convince herself. "He just didn't want to help them anymore."

Yachi walked passed classroom 1-4 and looked inside the classroom. Tsukishima sat at his desk with his headphones on. She wanted to go inside and say hi, but her gut was telling her to back off, so she just sighed and left.

The day after, Yachi learned that the coach had forgotten to hand out the updated schedule. "I can give the handouts to the team," Yachi promptly volunteered. She went into the second year classrooms and then the other first year ones. "Why did I volunteer for this?" she wondered to herself. "The coach could have just given them out during next practice."

When she realized that she had arrived at Tsukishima's classroom, she hesitated to walk inside, not knowing how this would go. She still didn't know how Tsukishima felt about the whole misunderstanding. "He said it was fine," she told herself. "Just go and give the sheet to him."

When she finally walked up to his desk, she said, "Uh... hi."

Tsukishima was surprised to see her there, but he simply replied, "Hi."

"Uh... Here's the updated practice schedule," she said awkwardly while giving him the paper.

"Okay. Thanks," was all he said and then he put this headphone back on. Yachi, unsure of how else to continue talking to him, just decided to walk away for now.

After a week had passed, Tsukishima still hadn't really talked to her. So she started to go and see him with whatever excuse she could think of. One day, she heard that a classmate had used a pencil from Tsukishima. "I'll give it back to him!" she said a little too eagerly.

Her classmate looked at her confused. "He wants it back?"

"I think so. He cares about his stuff," she blurted out. It was technically true, but she knew that he probably didn't care for that pencil anymore. If he did, he wouldn't have lent it out.

She took the pencil and went straight for his class. She hesitated at the door, but she forced herself to move her feet into the classroom. Then, she quickly walked to Tsukishima's desk. "Here's your pencil," she said.

Tsukishima raised his eyebrows at her and he looked back down to his desk. "Thanks," he said while not making eye contact. It seemed like he wasn't sure what else to say.

"Do you like cookies?" Yachi asked out of nowhere.

Tsukishima was taken aback and looked up at Yachi to see her nervous face. "Cookies are fine...," he said.

"I'll bring some tomorrow!" she blurted out. "I'll come back tomorrow!"

"Uh... Okay," he raised an eyebrow since he was still a little baffled at her statement.

*****

"What am I doing?" Tsukishima thought to himself and sighed. He wasn't purposely avoiding Yachi. He was frustrated at the disappointment he had when she had told him that the card wasn't from her. Every time he saw her, it reminded him of how stupid he was acting to her, but the sour feeling in his stomach wouldn't go away.

Yachi came at lunch with cookies the next day. She came the day after with 'extra' candy that she wanted to share with him. Then, it was a volleyball question. The day after she just wanted to say hi. Tsukishima could see that she was trying hard to make things normal again. Throughout all of this, Yamaguchi noticed that things were different between the two of them.

"Did something happen to you two?" asked Yamaguchi.

"No, nothing significant at least," he said. But in his mind, he added, "Nothing that should be significant."

"It looks like Yachi is trying to appease you for doing something wrong."

"Does it? She didn't anything wrong though."

"But you barely talk to her now," Yamaguchi replied.

"That just means there isn't much to talk about," Tsukishima casually said as an excuse.

But that didn't convince Yamaguchi. "What's going on?" he wondered to himself. "Aren't they dating?"

*****

Yachi rested her head on her desk. She didn't realize that she was frowning until Mei had spoken up.

"What's wrong, Yachi?" Mei asked with concern for the petit blond.

"Mei-chan... I think he hates me," she said absent-mindedly.

"Who? Tsukishima?" Mei snickered.

"How did you know?" Yachi said with a gasp.

"Considering that you've gone to his desk every school day for a week, I think it was a fair guess," she replied. "You've also been bringing other things like food and treats to him as if you were trying to get on his good side."

Yachi sighed, "Maybe he really does hate me. Even though I go see him, he doesn't really chat with me. I can't hold a conversation with him anymore."

Mei thought for a moment before she mentioned, "Maybe he was upset the card wasn't from you. Maybe he wanted to date you."

"What? No way!" Yachi replied in shock. "I can't picture Tsukishima being interested in anyone, let alone me."

"Well, if that's not why he's upset, then he probably just thinks you're annoying or something." When Mei saw that Yachi's eyes were tearing up, she retracted her statement. "Wait, no! Maybe he's just going through a rough time and doesn't want to talk to people in general." She tried to convince Yachi that she wasn't annoying, but she could see Yachi sinking deeper and deeper into despair with the possibility that Tsukishima didn't like her anymore.

Over the next few days, Yachi didn't visit Tsukishima in his classroom. On top of running out of ideas, she wondered if their friendship could even be mended. At least, she considered him a friend, but it didn't seem like that was the case anymore.

The school bell rang, but Yachi stayed a bit longer to finished up the math question she was working on. As she left her classroom, she looked up and saw Tsukishima in front of her, leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the hallway. She was happy to see him but wasn't quite sure if she was in a daze or not. She blinked a few more times before Tsukishima smirked back at her. After he awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, he said without making eye contact, "I can walk you home if you'd like."

Yachi's shock turned into a smile. All of her worries about Tsukishima hating her had suddenly floated away. "Okay," she shyly replied as she turned away to hide her smile.