Shy

Chapter 14

          Bang!

"HOGYAA!!!" The sudden, loud noise resonating from the slammed gymnasium doors caused Hinata's head to swerve in that direction. Losing his focus, he received the ball with his face. "Hinata, you dumbass!!" was heard along a chorus of sarcastic "Nice receive!" and snickering. Coach Ukai momentarily stopped the practice.

Matsumoto openly laughed. Lifting up a hand in a wave and flashing a seemingly friendly closed-eyes smile, he greeted them. "Hey boys' volleyball club! Sorry for the intrusion, what's up?" Like a small, scared animal, Tsukiko poked her head out from behind the boy. That odd human-like noise and the sound of a volleyball hitting flesh did not sound pleasant, nor did it ease her nerves in coming here.

Tanaka's eyes widened in recognition. "Oh? Ryu!! It's your future girlfriend!" Nishinoya exclaimed. "Wh-what?! F-future girlfriend?! Noya-san, please!" The wing spiker became flustered, trying to quiet the libero so as to not cause any misunderstandings between him and the shy first-year girl. Although...it did sound rather nice to refer to her as his girlfriend. "Pfft, I'd feel bad for her if that's what her future holds." "Tsukishima, you b*stard!"

Luckily, despite how loud Nishinoya was, Tsukiko was too concerned about trying to keep her stability in front of so many upperclassmen to hear him. Matsumoto continued, "I am Matsumoto Hiroki, Co-President of the Student Council, and this is my cute little Vice President, Kita Tsukiko!"

Tsukiko flinched at his introduction of her, blushing furiously not only because of his embarrassing words, but also because many of the club members' eyes travelled to her. She refused to look at anything but her shoes for the moment.

Tanaka flinched as well, but for a different reason. He had a sudden flare of anger at Matsumoto's words. Since when had they become so close?!?! And the way he was making her blush? Tanaka glared at the fellow second-year, mentally declaring that no man should be able to make Tsukiko look so cute but himself! However, he couldn't be mad for long. After all, did he really have the right to think that? She wasn't exactly his girlfriend...yet(?)

Daichi questioned, "The Student Council? What do we owe this visit?" Takeda piped in, "Oh! I guess it's that time of the year again. Inspections, right?" Hinata tilted his head in confusion, "Inspections?"

"Bingo! The Student Council is doing inspections to evaluate whether club spaces are being properly used by respective clubs and whether or not clubs can continue to operate." Matsumoto answered, continuing to use the same closed-eyes smile that he walked in with.

The smile was oddly familiar, and not in a comforting sense. It unnerved the second and third-years, often seeing this very same menacingly subtle smile on their own captain. Daichi thought, "Ah. He's a cunning one." He announced, "Well, as you can see, the volleyball club is operating just fine and we are properly using our space and the club room."

"Ah, yes, I see. Well, uhh...hmm. How should I put this?" The president put his hand to his chin in thought. "Inspections for sports clubs in particular are...how you say...particular. They require a bit more troubleshooting, you see. Other clubs are relatively easy to deal with since they just need an average classroom. Sports clubs, however, require a much larger space and sometimes, conflicts may occur between different sports clubs."

The third-years furrowed their eyebrows at that. "Yes, I'm sure you remember your small squabble with the boys' basketball club. Luckily, the girls' volleyball club agreed to share half of the other gymnasium with them, so you were able to keep this entire gym all for yourselves." The third-years furrowed their eyebrows further, not liking his choice of words or where this was leading.