"Mei-chan, are you free right now?" Yachi asked her after class.

"Yeah, why do you-?" Mei started to say, but she got cut off when Yachi pulled her arm and dragged her to the gym.

Mei's eyes grew wide as she saw the boys' team practising. Yachi had run up to Coach Ukai while Mei followed her with hesitation. "Mei can spike to the team," she said to Ukai.

"Wait, what?" said Mei as she panicked. "You wanted me to help with the boys' volleyball team?"

"Well, I won't be asking too much from you," said Ukai. "I told Yachi that it would be nice to have someone who could spike for defensive training. You'll just have to stand on the table and direct your spikes to the different players."

"Well...," Mei hesitated, still a bit unsure about the whole thing, "if that's all you need me to do..."

She looked over at Yachi who encouraged her with a nod. Mei sighed, "Sure. I can do it."

*****

Mei was later welcomed by the team as a temporary assistant. She didn't recognize a lot of them. She really only remembered Tsukishima, but then the other guy with freckles started to look familiar. She laughed at herself the next day because Yamaguchi actually sat behind her in class.

"Yamaguchi, what kind of things does Tsukishima like?" she asked him.

Yamaguchi looked at her with a slight worry on his face. "What do you mean?"

"You know, like what are his hobbies, what's his favourite food, or where would be his ideal date?" she elaborated.

Yamaguchi started to panic and wasn't sure how to respond. But then he blurted out, "Tsukki isn't interested in you!"

Mei blinked for a minute or two, and then she just laughed. "I'm not interested in him! Sorry, I should have said it differently so that you wouldn't misunderstand."

"Oh," Yamaguchi nervously laughed. "Sorry, I guess I just got used to pretty girls asking me about Tsukki that I just assumed."

Mei blushed and the word 'pretty' kept repeating in her mind. But then she shook her head to snap herself out of her daze. When she remembered what she was getting at, she told him, "I want to set up Yachi on a date with Tsukishima."

She remembered how embarrassed Yachi was when she told her what had happened at the training camp. The silly girl had finally realized her feelings for Tsukishima. Mei knew it was very likely that he returned her feelings, so she wanted to give them a gentle push.

"Hopefully a date would encourage them to confess to each other," Mei continued to explain her plan to Yamaguchi.

"Wait!" Yamaguchi exclaimed. "Yachi likes him back?"

"Shh!" Mei responded, then said in a whisper, "Yeah, I'm trying to give them the perfect opportunity to confess."

"Don't they have plenty of opportunities though?" asked Yamaguchi confused. "They sit beside each other during class and see each other during practice."

"A date is different. It might prompt them to say something," she explained. "The atmosphere needs to be right."

"Wow. Are you a hopeless romantic or something?" wondering Yamaguchi.

"I guess you can say that," she thoughtfully replied. "But only with other people. I can't stand cheesy stuff like that. No way."

Yamaguchi just stared back at her and sweat-dropped.

*****

Yamaguchi couldn't believe that Mei had actually followed through with her plans. The four of them met up at the train station and went to a museum in Sendai. When they arrived there, Mei gave their tickets to the admission officer.

"Uhh... So why are we at Sendai City Museum when I told you that Tsukki liked dinosaurs?" Yamaguchi whispered to Mei. "You know that this is a historical museum about our prefecture, right?"

"It's close enough?" she answered. "They have old stuff here. It's the same thing, right?"

Yamaguchi sweat-dropped and said, "Remind me not to trust you with anything besides volleyball."

After the four of them entered the museum, Mei suddenly said, "Oh look! What's that over there?" and dragged Yamaguchi away from the two blondes. When Mei felt like they had gotten far enough, she checked around the corner to see if they had lost them.

"I think they know what's up," said Yamaguchi. He especially knew that Tsukishima probably noticed right away.

"Nah, Yachi knows I'm like this when I get excited. She'll think it's normal."

"Umm... But wouldn't you have dragged Yachi along instead of me?"

Mei flinched in shock, knowing that Yamaguchi was right. In denial, she brushed off what he just told her as if he never mentioned it.

After looking around the exhibit that they ran into, she said, "Well, I should probably tell Yachi that I'm not feeling well and decided to go home. Maybe I'll tell her I just got my period or something."

Yamaguchi couldn't believe she just said that out loud to him. It seemed like Mei was the type who didn't have much of a filter. After Mei chatted with Yachi on the phone and hung up, she told him that they should probably leave before they found out she was lying.

"Umm... why don't we stay?" Yamaguchi suggested. "We're already here anyway and the tickets weren't exactly cheap. We might as well stay?"

"I don't want Yachi to find out I set this up though," she reasoned. "She'll know if she sees me."

Yamaguchi thought for a moment and then opened up his backpack to rummage through it. He found a couple of baseball caps and some masks. "Maybe you can wear these and pretend you have a cold or allergies? I can wear it too." Mei stared back at him like he was crazy. "Never mind. You don't have to wear them. We could just stay in this exhibit or in the auditorium until they leave. Maybe if we stay in one place, it'll be less likely to bump into them."

Mei was hesitant at first but then decided to take the mask and the cap. "Okay," she smiled as she put them on.

The two of them started browsing through the special exhibit. A bit later, Yamaguchi felt his phone vibrate. He had gotten a reply from Tsukishima.

Me: We're hiding in the Ancient Egypt exhibit so don't come here.

Tsukki: K.

*****

Yachi watched as Mei ran off with Yamaguchi and stared after their dust trails in disbelief. She couldn't believe that Mei just left her alone with Tsukishima. She had gotten a bit more nervous around him lately especially when she was alone with him. Ever since she realized her feelings, she had needed to put more effort into acting normal around him.

"Have they always been close?" Tsukishima asked her.

"I don't know," she answered. "I think Mei has been helping him with volleyball though."

Yachi took a look at Tsukishima and thought that he seemed to be acting like he usually does. She guessed that he probably wasn't nervous around her like she was with him.

"Is that a dinosaur in your hair?" asked Tsukishima. He looked a little closer at her side ponytail.

Yachi got flustered at how close he was to her face. With a blush, she replied, "Yeah, Mei gave it to me recently. I thought it looked cute so I wore it today."

Noting what she said, it seemed like he realized something and then sighed. "Well, shall we go?" he said.

The two of them started to proceed through the museum. Some of the information signs indicated the times of the tours that were occurring that day. Yachi commented on how well the signs were designed and wondered who created them. Tsukishima told her that he wasn't surprised that the signs and pamphlets caught her eye.

They decided to check out the next tour and waited for it to start. As they hung out in the lobby, they saw some people taking pictures with a face cutout board. On the board was Date Masamune, the feudal lord who founded Sendai. His armour was one of the major artifacts that were held at the museum so it wasn't surprising that they had a cutout board of him. The black samurai armour he wore looked kind of like a Darth Vader costume.

"Tsukishima come! I can take a picture of you as Date Masamune!" said Yachi excitedly. Tsukishima flat out denied her offer, but she continued to insist. "But I brought my camera and wanted to take pictures of our memories here."

Tsukishima sighed but then reluctantly agreed. He stood behind the cutout board and crouched down a bit to place his face in the hole. Yachi giggled at him because his glasses and blond hair didn't match with the era. "Just take the picture already," he told her.

After she did, a young mom and dad were waiting for their kids to have their turn. The mom asked them, "Did you want me to take a picture of you two at the other cutout?" She was referring to the one with Date Masamune with his wife.

"Uhh...," Tsukishima started to reply. But before he knew it, Yachi had already given her the camera and was standing behind the board.

"Come on Tsukishima!" she called out to him with a grin. He just smirked back at her before he joined her behind the board.

During the tour, they learned more about the Date clan and how Date Masamune turned Sendai from a small fishing town to a prosperous city. Tsukishima seemed to remember some of the content from their social studies classes but they learned more of the details here. Yachi started to take an interest in Date Masamune's eldest daughter, Irohahime, and her story.

Irohahime was considered to be a beautiful and intelligent woman. Her younger brother even went to her for advice even though he was the next heir of the clan. She was placed into a political marriage with the sixth son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was effectively the ruler of Japan at that time. But when her husband was exiled, she never remarried even when her parents encouraged her to. Some sources say she was a Christian which would explain why she didn't want to marry another man since Christian doctrine discouraged divorce. It would have be interesting if that was the case because her father-in-law had actually banned Christianity and persecuted the Christians.

"I think that she didn't marry again not only because she had made a vow before God, but also because she had actually fell in love with her husband," speculated the tour guide. "Imagine being in an arranged marriage with a man only to fall in love with him in the end." The tour guide squealed at the thought. "She must have been so heart-broken at her young age when her husband was sent to exile. And she stayed loyal to him even though her parents tried to find other suitors for her!"

"I think this tour guide is more of a historical fiction fangirl than a legitimate historian," Tsukishima commented to Yachi.

But when he turned to look at her, he flinched at seeing tears streaming from her eyes. "That was so romantic," said Yachi with a sniff. But to her surprise, the tour guide went on to a different topic as she led the group out of the room. "Wait! That's it? Irohahime became my favourite historical figure within five minutes! That can't be it!" cried out Yachi.

Tsukishima smirked at her reaction. "Well, maybe one day someone at the museum will be able to find out more about her."

Yachi smiled at his reassurance. "Thanks Tsukishima. I'll look forward to that."

When the tour ended, the two of them got hungry and decided to grab some lunch. Yachi giggled at Tsukishima's drink of choice; he got a carton of strawberry milk.

"What?" he said with a shrug. "It tastes good." Others had compared his taste to a kid's but he didn't care.

"It's cute," said Yachi. When Tsukishima raised an eyebrow at her, she realized what she said and started to get flustered. "I meant that your affinity for strawberries is cute. I didn't mean that you're cute, not that, uhh..." She shyly looked up at him and when his eyes met hers, she added, "I think I'll just stop talking now."

She could feel the warmth of her embarrassment. Tsukishima was staring at her with what seemed to be a curious look. After it seemed like he figured out something, he said with a smirk, "Don't worry. I think you're cute too."

Yachi felt like the temperature in her body was turned to maximum heat and she couldn't think straight. She had accidentally pushed her chopsticks off the table when she panicked. She went to pick them up but then she hit her head on the table which almost made her drink spill. After checking if she was okay, Tsukishima casually told her, "I meant that you're short. Cute can be another word for short."

Yachi laughed nervously, thinking about how she made a fool of herself. She figured that he had noticed how much that comment affected her so he retracted what he had said. "I guess I definitely look short compared to you," she replied with a timid smile.