There was probably a better way

Kasumi tried to pay attention to the teacher at the front of the classroom and not at the headache that was threatening to come on. Normally she would have been a bit more focused, but right now he wasn’t teaching, he was talking about the overnight field trip they were going on next week.
At the beginning, when he had been talking about where they were going, and how they would have to prepare she had been more interested but now he had just gone into the usual ‘you are representing the school be sure to behave’ lecture. She had heard it before and was only half paying attention to what he was saying.
From the faint rustling and whispering from the rest of the class, some people were paying less attention than that.
She glanced over at Ennoshita, like she always did when her attention wandered. At least he looked like he was trying to be a good student and pay attention, but from the glazed look in his eyes he was succeeding about as well as she.
Eventually Sensei stopped talking and there was a clatter as class finished, and the students started to leave their seats. Kasumi took off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose, glad that they had a break before the next class.
“Ah, yes,” Sensei suddenly cleared his throat and she put her glasses back on. He had paused right before he left the room. “Please remember to form yourselves into groups of five. I’ll expect a list of your members by the next class. If there’s anyone left over, I’ll be putting them in a group myself. Also, Yamamoto, I need to speak with you.” Her friend Umi looked less than thrilled, and Kasumi couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for her
Everyone started talking at once after that, voices raising happily. Kasumi stared at him, a smile slowly forming on her face. This was the first time Sensei had been lenient to let them pick their own groups. Last year he had just assigned them himself. She glanced across the room at Umii who grinned back at her. Her friend gave her a lowkey thumbs up, and turned to say something to the person at the desk in front of her. Well, that was two for their group. They just had to find three more people.
With that thought in mind she turned back to her seat, and was just starting to put her stuff away when she happened to look up. Ennoshita was getting up, joking with a couple of other boys in the class about the trip. She froze as everything seemed to slow for a second. If they could choose their own groups, that meant that she could ask Ennoshita if he wanted to be with her and Umi. They would be able to spend that much more time together. She had no idea if he would even agree, or if someone else had already asked him to be in a group, but it was worth a shot at least. Mind made up, she shot out of her seat.
“Ennoshita-ku…” she took a single step towards him She felt her foot hook the edge of her desk. Then suddenly her stomach dropped, and her world tilted. As the ground rushed up at her, she barely had time to form a vague thought of ‘crap’. She hadn’t even had time to get her bands up to catch herself. Pain exploded across her face the next millisecond, she saw stars and she could swear she heard something go ‘crack’.
“Sato!”
“Kasumi-chan!”
She heard chairs scrapping as she slowly levered herself up, blinking away pain. Her face ached a little.
“I’m fine…” she said carefully, “just tripped is all.” She looked up then, and the world was blurry. Just fuzzy blobs of color, that were surrounding her. Her heart jumped into her a throat for a moment. She hadn’t thought she had hit her head that hard!
Then logic clicked and she glanced down at the broken shapes on the floor in front of her. She picked up one of them. Her glasses, or at least half of them. That explained the crack. At least it was comforting that she hadn’t broken her nose. It felt a little funny. She reached up to touch it
Half her classmates had gathered around her, but suddenly someone was kneeling right in front of her.
“Sato-san,” he said urgently, and her heart gave another funny little jump when she recognized Ennoshita-kun’s voice. He shoved something at her. “Here.” She stared at the kleenex for a second, but then reached out to take it by reflex. There was the blood on her fingers, and she froze in shock for a moment, not making the connection. Then exactly why her nose must feel funny occured to her and she made a mad grab at the tissue, holding it but her nose.
“Just pinch your nose closed. There, that’s it. You’ll be all right.” Ennoshita-kun was right next to her now, his voice sounding the same as ever, even though her nose was bleeding.
“Seriously? Did she really just do that?” Someone said from nearby and she couldn’t even tell who’s voice it was, just that they were almost laughing and she guessed that they probably weren’t the only one. She felt heat rush to her face and she wasn’t sure if it was because of the fall, or because of embarrassment.
Suddenly there was a yelp. “Like you haven’t fallen before!” was the acrid reply from Umi. She felt a rush of gratitude towards her friend.
“It’s really not that big a deal,” she heard Ennoshita say, and she could have sworn her heart stop at that. Then he reached out and touched her shoulder. “Sato-san, you should…”
“What’s going on here?” Came Sensei’s measured voice,and she suddenly remembered that Umi had been talking with him for a moment and he must still be here and suddenly it seemed even more embarrassing.
“She tripped,” someone snickered.
Thankfully Ennoshita spoke up over him.“Sato-san fell and has a bloody nose, sir.”
“Are you all right, Sato?” Sensei said seriously.
“Yes sir,” she tried to force out but the actually words sounded more like ‘Yeb sir’ with the way she was holding her nose. She looked up at him or at least she hoped she did. Everything was very blurry without her glasses, and she was really regretting wearing them to school at all. There was a reason she usually just used them at home. “I’m fine!” She stood up slowly, being careful that she kept the tissue on her. To her surprise Ennoshita grabbed her upper arm to steady her a little, and at the moment the only emotion she could summon in response to that was gratitude. She managed to stand up straight, and it wasn’t as if she was dizzy. She was fine.
“Still, you should go check in with the nurse. Ennoshita-kun, since you seem to have it in hand, can you take her?”
“Me?” Ennoshita had let go of her as soon as she had her feet under her, but he was still close. “I don’t really need help,” the last thing she wanted was for him to feel like he was forced into anything, and this was her own stupid fault anyway. “I can get to the infirmary on my own.” Or at least she thought she could. Things were kind of blurry at the moment. She should know the school by now though, so it would be okay. She hoped.
“You heard me,” sensei said firmly. “You and Ennoshita-kun are to head to the infirmary.” “I could…” she heard Umi start to say but then Sensei sighed.
“I still need to speak to you about your grades,” was his reply, “so you stay here.”
“Come on,” Ennoshita muttered under his breath as he pushed her towards the door. “You know that it’s useless to argue when he’s in that sort of mood.
Since she’d been having class with this teacher all year, she could only agree and just nodded before letting him push her out of the classroom. She could hear Umi arguing in the background, and made a mental note to remind her friend that annoying the teacher probably wasn’t going to help her case at all.
Once outside, she paused. The nurse’s office was to the...right she was pretty sure. She turned the way and Ennoshita fell into step beside her. As they walked, what had happened played over and over again in her head and she couldn’t help groaning a little.
“Are you okay?” Ennoshita asked, and he did sound worried.
She sighed. “Fine, at least I think I am,” she said, trying to keep her head tilted back a little. She probably looked funny. “...I just face planted in front of the entire class, didn’t I?”
“You did,” Ennoshita almost sounded amused, but at least he wasn’t outright laughing at her. “That wasn’t your most graceful moment.”
“I would point out how much of an understatement that is, but I’m not sure it’s worth the effort,” she grumbled to him. It was hard to talk when you were trying to hold your nose closed. She just hoped she wasn’t dripping anywhere.
He did chuckle at that, but at least she had been trying to be funny so she didn’t mind that much. After that she didn’t have the energy to say anything, and Ennoshita apparently didn’t take offense.
She was kind of glad that Sensei had insisted he come with her though. Without her glasses the school looked a lot different than she was used to. She would have walked by the infirmary if Ennoshita hadn’t stopped her. Thankfully he didn’t say anything about or about how red her face was from that mistake.
“...I don’t think the nurse is here,” Ennoshita said after a moment. Kasumi had been hoping that that the nurse was just of of sight, or somehow somewhere that she couldn’t see without her glasses.
“I guess I’ll wait until my nose stops bleeding then,” she said after a moment and found a seat on one of the beds. “You can go back to the classroom, if you want. Sorry that you had to come all the way here.”
Ennoshita paused for a second, then crossed the room and sat on the bed next to her. “I would feel bad leaving you alone,” he said cheerfully. “Especially after something like that. Sensei is right in his own way.”
“Yeah,” Kasumi could only mumble her agreement, since suddenly Ennoshita-kun was right next to her, and she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say to that.
They sat in silence, each tick of the clock echoing like thunder with hours stretching between them. The only thing she thought sounded louder than that was the thudding of her heart. She was surprised that Ennoshita-kun couldn’t hear both.
“How’s your nose doing?” he said after a while.
She started a little, and moved the kleenex to check. “I think it stopped bleeding,” she said with relief.
Beside her Ennoshita heaved a sigh. “Good,” he said, sounding relieved himself. Then he fell backwards onto the bed with a flop. “I didn’t think it was bad, but nice to know you aren’t going to bleed to death.
She turned a little to look at where he was laying, wishing that she could actually see him better. “I feel bad about making you come all the way here for nothing..”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ennoshita sat back up, and then she thought he smiled at her. “Besides, if it takes a while for the nurse to return, then I have the perfect excuse as to why I’m missing class. I’m just following a teacher's orders after all.”
She had to laugh a little like that. “So what, I’m your excuse for skipping class?”
“Yep,” he said, cheerfully. “And no one can even say anything about me being with a girl this time.”
She knew he probably didn’t mean it that way, but the words still caused a faint heat to rise in her cheeks.
“I wish I had that sort of excuse,” she said instead, to avoid thinking any further about his words. “It would be nice to skip class until they forgot about me giving myself a blood nose. Which could take...how many months.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be bad,” Ennoshita said comfortingly. “People might say something at first, but you know how fast rumors at school move. Something else will happen soon and they’ll forget all about it.”
She couldn’t help cracking a very small smile. “Something like your team winning your next tournament? Because if that’s true then you have to bring home a trophy..”
“We will,” Ennoshita said, voice soft and fierce. His fist clenched on his knee and she heard him took a deep breath. “I guess that means you won’t be famous anymore. Sorry about that.” He was trying to sound cheerful but there was something a trifle forced about it. Suddenly she remembered that his team had lost recently and kicked herself for even bringing it up.
“...I haven’t really said thanks yet,” she said realizing that her attempt to change topic was about as as subtle as a traffic cone, but she had to do something, “for helping me back there. So...thanks.”
Thankfully, Ennoshita was too well-mannered to say anything about it. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I’m glad you’re okay.” He paused. “Though I guess your glasses aren’t. Are you going to be okay with that?”
“It’ll be fine,” she said and gave him a reassuring smile. “At least until I get home and I get yelled at for breaking them. I brought my contacts in my bag just in case. I guess I’m just lucky that way.”
“Or smart,” Ennoshita leaned back a little.. “So you normally wear contacts? Because today was the first time I remember seeing you in glasses.”
“Yeah,” she brushed a strand of hair out of her face. “I thought I would try be different for once.” She wasn’t about to give him the real reason; that during a conversation last night Umi had abruptly decided that Ennoshita was the type who liked intellectual girls. And that had managed to turn into ‘You’re smart Kasumi-chan, but don’t look it’ and somehow that meant that if she wore her glasses she would look smarter and this would make Ennoshita confess immediately. All of it had been in such a rush that she’d found herself agreeing to the idea before she could really think. “It wasn’t exactly my smartest moment.” She grumbled out loud. Ennoshita seemed to find that amusing.
“Yeah, I’m sure you’re glasses were what cursed you to fall,” he said. “And caused you to have a bloody nose.”
“Please don’t bring that up anymore,” she groaned a little. “All through I appreciate you being calm about it. It wasn’t quite as embarrassing as it would have been in someone hadn’t told me about it.”
“I think you would have noticed,” he said, sounding amused, “and I guess I’m kind of used to nosebleeds at this point. Volleyball team, remember?”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “I know that all sports can be a bit dangerous, but does it seriously happen that much?”
“Sometimes,” Ennoshita shrugged then shook his head. “Although it probably happens a bit more often with our team. Some of my teammates are a little…” he paused for a second, “I can’t decide if I should say wild, stupid, or reckless.”
That caused her to chuckle a little. “It can’t be that bad,” she said, “and I bet none of them ever got one from falling flat on their faces.”
“Well no,” Ennoshita said, which caused a vaguely uncomfortable feeling to settle in her stomach before he started talking again, “at least not when I’ve been watching. Although knowing half the team, it’s happened at some point.” At her disbelieving look he chuckled. “I’ve seen them get hurt from a lot worse while I have been watching through.”
“Okay, now you have to be exaggerating.”
“Two first-years on the team knocked the principals wig off,” he shot back, and she could just tell that he was grinning at her.
She just stared at him for a moment, and her mouth fell open before she recovered herself. “I thought that was just a rumor! You’re telling me it seriously happened?”
“It did,” he said, “out captain saw it, and was upset about it for over a week.”
Normally she would have been more concerned over the fact that someone had managed to mess with the principals wig but she thought she remembered something else about the leader of the volleyball team. “...Is your captain one of the guys who set off the fire alarm the other day?”
“...That would be him, yes.”
“Okay, now I’m starting to believe you,” she said at last, wondering what sort of people were really on the volleyball team. “Though I still can’t believe you guys managed to get away with that. You know how……protective the principal is of his wig”
“You mean his whole ,” Ennoshita reached up and touched his head, “‘this isn’t a wig what part of my hair looks like a wig deal?” His voice sounded so much like the old man’s that she had to laugh.
“Yeah, like that! That was good!”
Ennoshita chuckled. “I think he was probably too shocked to actually do anything about it. Other than swear everyone involved to silence.”
Since she could just see their principal doing something that, she laughed again. This was nice. She was honestly even forgetting what she had been embarrassed about earlier. Being with Ennoshita always made her feel calm. She glanced over at his blurry form, hoping her cheeks weren’t red.
Why was she trying so hard anyway? It would be nice if he was the one to confess, yeah, but that didn’t mean he had to be the one to say it. was it really worth all the worrying and wondering? When had she started caring about that anyway?
I don’t care about it, she suddenly realized, but Umi does. Her friend had been the one to come up with all the grand ideas, most of which seemed to be so over dramatic she wouldn’t touch them or were so sublet that Ennoshita didn’t even notice. Umiwas the one that insisted they make Ennoshita feel so impressed that he had to confessed Maybe telling her about the guy I liked wasn’t the best idea….
She had just assumed that since her friend had had a couple boyfriends that maybe she knew something that she didn’t. This was the first time she had felt like this, and had been looking for anyone to help explain her feelings.
Then again, she really should have put some thought into how long those two relationships of Umi’s had lasted.
“Oh yeah,” Ennoshita said suddenly making her refocus a little. “Was there something you needed before? I thought I heard you say my name earlier, but you were already on the ground when I turned around. Kind of forgot about it after that.”
She almost jumped a little, surprise he had heard that. That seemed like it had been forever ago. “It was…” she said hoping she didn’t sound as nervously, “it was nothing major. I just wanted to know if you wanted to be part of my group for the fieldtrip.” She hoped she sound casual, and that her cheeks weren't as red as she felt they were.
“Ah, the trip, huh?” Ennoshita said thoughtfully, then shrugged. “Sure, we can be in a group. I didn’t have one yet anyone.”
It took all her willpower to keep from going ‘yes’ out loud. That had been easier than she thought it would be.
Of course, the fact that everything was blurry might have something to do with that. It was harder to feel self-conscious when nothing was in focus.
Still she gave Ennoshita-kun her best smile. “I’m looking forward to it then.”
Ennoshita froze for a moment, then looked away one hand reaching up to ruffle his hair. After a moment he let out a breath.
“I wonder what’s taking the nurse so long,” he said and stood up. “I’m going to see if I can find him…”
He started to walk away. Kasumi stared after him, nerves starting to make her stomach feel weird and her heart pound. She opened her mouth almost squeaking before she got her breath. She had to do this now, before her nerves failed her, while he was still blurry and everything seemed kind of dream-like. She would do this.
“Ennoshita-kun?” she finally got out. He stopped and looked back towards her. “I like you.” Three small words that felt heavy on her tongue and seemed to be harder to say than she thought possible.
He stopped and just stared at her for a moment.
“I, ah,” he stammered, voice sounding strangely high-pitched to her.
“I’m not talking about about as just a friend either,” she said as quickly as she could. She had to clarify that.
“I…” he stopped talking then and shifted nervously. Before he could say anything else, there was the rattle of the door open and a blurry white shape entered the room.
“What are you the two of you doing here?” the nurse’s familiar voice said.
“...I was just heading back to class,” Ennoshita said quickly. “Sorry, sensei.”
He left moments after that, as if he couldn’t get away fast enough. Kasumi hoped that she hadn’t ruined everything between them.
“And what about you?” the nurse said, interrupting her thoughts.Then she was stuck trying to focus and explain to him why she was sitting there in the middle of the school day, even though her mind kept wandering back to what Ennoshita’s reaction would be.
She wasn’t sure if she should be hopeful, or be preparing for the worst.

~*~*~*~*~*.

A while later, after the nurse had declared that she was fine, she walked out into the hall and nearly ran right into Umi.
“Umi-chan,” she said, taking a step back even though that made her friend blurrier. “What are you doing here?” Since as far as she knew, her friend should be in class right now. She was surprised the teacher had let her go.
“I came to see if you were okay!” her friend said automatically and looked closer. “You look all right. I was worried because Ennoshita was acting weird when he came back, and I was sure that meant something was really wrong even though he kept saying you were fine.” She paused for breath. “Oh, and I brought your contacts!” Umi held up something, and Kasumi grabbed it. “Thank you,” she said, feeling more relieved than she wanted to let on. Trying to make her way back to the classroom would have been a bit of a challenge. “You are the best friend ever.” Normally she wouldn’t have been pleased about someone rifling through her things, but this was a special circumstance and she was really glad that Umi knew her well enough to figure that out. “Of course I am,” Umi said happily as they walked down the hall.
A bit later, after Kasumi had finished putting her contacts in, she was standing in front of the bathroom poking at her nose to make sure that it actually still looked okay.
“So what happened with Ennoshita-kun?” Umi asked and leaned over her shoulder. “I mean normally it’s hard to tell what he’s thinking but even he looked a bit like you’d smacked him over the head with a board.”
“Was it really that obvious?” Kasmui said nervously. If Ennoshita was acting that strange then someone might ask him what was going on. If he told people about her confession it would be all over the school in no time. She didn’t exactly care if people knew about it but she would rather have his answer before it went everywhere, so she could at least brace herself if it came to the worst.
“Probably not obvious,” Umi confessed and leaned on the sink counter, “but I was waiting for him to get back, since Sensei you didn’t need anyone else to check on you and wouldn’t let me go. Just what happened between you two anyway?” She leaned forward eagerly.
Kasumi leaned in towards the mirror like she was checking her contacts. “I asked him if he wanted to be part of our group for the field trip. He said okay.”
“Oh, that’s great!” Umi pereked up at that for a moment before narrowing her eyes at her friend. “Is that all that happened?”
“...And I might have confessed to him,” Kasumi admitted, pulling away from the mirror so she couldn't have see how red her cheeks were up close.
Umi started nodding sagely. “Okay, that makes sense, something like that would…” then she froze for half a breath. “You did what!?”
“I confessed to him,” Kasumi repeated and looked over at her friend. “There was a good mood, so I figured it might work.
“But I thought we were going to make him confess to you!”
She shook her head slightly and looked at Umi. “That was your plan. I just decided that I wanted to try something on my own. I think it worked pretty well.”
“It did?” Umi was suddenly right in her face. “What happened? What did Ennoshita say? What did he do?”
“Um,” Kasumi took a half step back and raised her hands. “I...err...couldn’t see. I didn’t have my glasses, remember, and he was halfway across the room. And the nurse showed up before he could give me the answer.”
“Seriously!?” Umi stared at her for a moment then looked thoughtful. “Do you think he’ll say anything about it? I mean, he has to, right? If we’re going to be in the same group then it’s not like can avoid it. Unless he’s going to try pretending that you never said anything. I’m not sure how you could do that though….”
Since she hadn’t been thinking of anything beyond that moment, Kasumi hadn’t given much thought to what Ennoshita’s actual reply would be other than if it would be ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Or how he would actually take a sudden confession like that. “We’ll just have to wait and see I guess,” she said at last. “And I’m sorry if this makes things awkward for you, Umi.” Since if they were in the same group, and Ennoshita really did avoid everything before the field trip, her friend would end up caught in the middle no matter what happened.
“Don’t worry about it!” Umi said cheerfully. “I’m just happy that you managed to make some progress! Now maybe something will finally happen between you and Ennoshita.”
“If he wants something to happen between us,” Kasumi felt she had to remind her. No matter how much the thought of him saying no, or telling her he didn’t see her that way at all, made her heart hurt and threatened to make her cry, it was always a possibility.
Umi didn’t appear to be listening though and was looking like she was lost in through again. “You know,” she said, “if you wanted to get Ennoshita-kun alone, there was probably a better way to do it. Falling flat on your nose and giving yourself a nosebleed is kind of dramatic.”
“I didn’t…!” she started to protest automatically before she saw the mischievous little grin on her friend’s face. “....Very funny Umi.”
All Umi did to that was giggle.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Ennoshita like to believe that he was pretty good at volleyball. Not a genius or the best or anything, but pretty solid player. At least that was what he hoped.
Except, he thought glumly from where he was leaning against the wall of the gym, for today apparently. Today, apparently, he was having trouble focusing on practice. It was making him careless and he was making stupid mistakes.
He supposed that getting confessed to would do that to anyone. He’d managed to mess up a perfectly normal receive and had the ball slam into his face hard enough that he’d seen stars. Tanaka had thought it was funny, and declared he hadn’t see anyone but Hinata do that. It seemed to have concerned everyone else though, and Coach Ukai had told him to take a break and ‘calm down’. Though from the look the Coach had given him, he was probably wondering what was going on.
Ennoshita couldn’t actually explain it though. A shout of ‘rolling thunder’ reminded him of why he was keeping it to himself. Tanaka and Nishinoya wouldn’t be quiet it about it, and he didn’t want them teasing him until he figure things out for himself.
He picked up his water bottle and took a sip, wondering just what Sato expected him to do. He had to say something to her, right? Just what were you supposed to say to something like that? It wasn’t like he was unhappy about it or anything but how were you supposed to.. “Ennoshita?”
He actually jumped. He had been so busy trying to figure out what he was going to do that he hadn’t realized that everyone else was taking a breather now too
“Suga-san? What is it?” He said trying to act like he was perfectly fine. The silver-haired upperclassman wasn’t fooled at all though and was giving him a concerned look.
“Are you feeling all right?” Suga said as he peered closer. “If you’re sick, you should go home. No one’s going to mind if you skip one practice.”
He stared at his upperclassman for a moment, wondering just how obvious he had been being. Mutley he shook his head.
“it’s not that,” he said at last, “I’m fine. Really.”
He could tell that Suga didn’t believe him. “Are you sure?” He asked. “You can talk to me if you want.”
“Ah, thank you,” Ennoshita managed to stammer. If he had really managed to worry Suga then he felt a bit guilty. He hadn’t realized just how out of it he was. So much for keeping it a secret.. ...Then again, maybe it wouldn’t be too bad to talk to someone about it. He remembered hearing that Suga-san was relatively popular, right? “It’s really nothing to do with the club though.”
“Oh?”
Ennoshita took a sip of water. “...A girl in my class confessed to me today.”
It was actually kind of funny. Suga stared at him a moment eyes going wider and wider before he sputtered a loud “What!” Followed by a headshake,“A confession?” he said at last, “you really..?” Suga-san was slightly red himself. “Seriously? You actually had that happen?” His voice was rising slightly with each word.
“Suga-san, shh!” Ennoshita said frantically, waving his hands to cry and calm him down. He looked over to where other member of their team were talking. To his horror Nishinoya actually glanced over in their direction.
Luckily, Suga must have noticed something because he stopped, glanced over at where he was looking and understanding dawned on him.
“Ah,” he said in a faint way, “I guess you don’t want anyone else knowing yet.”
“Particularly a certain pair of idiots,” Ennoshita said flatly. “They aren’t going to be able to shut up about it. I’d rather wait until I’m ready to deal with that.”
“That I understand,” Suga sighed, then perked up again, looking far, far too curious for his underclassman’s liking. “So, what’s your girlfriend like?”
Suddenly hearing those words made him blush a little. “I...she’s not my girlfriend yet,” he said, “though, I she does have a pretty eyes. And a really nice smile.”
“Not your..? But you said she confessed!” Suga was making a frantic motion with his hands. “How is she not your girlfriend?”
“I didn’t get a chance to answer her,” Ennoshita looked down at the waterbottle he was fiddling pointlessly with. “I don’t think it’s fair to call her that until I do.”
Suga stared at him for a moment. “You’re thinking of turning her down? Do you not like her or something?”
Slowly Ennoshita shook his head. “It’s not that,” he looked up and glanced around the gym. “It’s just that we’re really busy with practice right now. I’m staying after to practice with everyone. If I’m devoting that much time to a club, then I’m worried I won’t have enough time for a girlfriend.” Suga stared at him, a blank look on his face then he just sputtered. “You’re thinking about something like that!?”
“Well yeah,” Ennoshita blinked. “I mean, it wouldn’t be fair to her if I said I would go out with her then I wasn’t able to spend any time with her.”
“...How cold-blooded are you!?”
“Eh?” Before Ennoshita could really figure out what he meant by that, Couch Ukai’s voice echoed through the gym.
“We’re starting again! Everyone gather round,” he paused and looked in their direction. “You too, Ennoshita, if you’re up for it.”
“Ah, sure,” Ennoshita set his water bottle down, and took a breath, hoping to refocus himself. Maybe he would be okay now that he’d actually told someone about it. Even though Suga-san was giving him some weird looks as he jogged over to the rest of the team.
“Ennoshita-kun.” The soft voice came from behind him, and he glanced back.
“Yes, Takeda-sensei?” he said, wondering what their advisor wanted. Normally he didn’t really say anything during practice. If he had something to say he usually brought it up at the beginning or end of club time.
“I’m sorry,” he said, managing to look slightly emrbassed, “I managed to overhear your conversation with Sugawara-kun.”
Ennoshita swallowed and felt his cheeks heat slightly. “Ah. I’m sorry it’s been distracting me, I won't’ let it affect…”
“Can I give you some advice?” Takeda-sensei just smiled at him. “Ah, sure…”
“You’re young,” he said, “you don’t have to take everything quiet so seriously, or over-think things that much. Just enjoy yourself.”
“But…”
“If you’re that concerned then just bring it to this girl the next time you talk with her. You do still have to give her an answer, right?”
“Yeah,” Ennoshita sighed, “I’ll...think about that sensei.”
Takeda-sensei nodded. “Good luck, Ennoshita-kun.”
“Th..thanks,” he managed to get out and hurried over to the rest of the team, hoping his face wasn’t as red as if felt and that no one else had heard what he and Suga had been talking about.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The next day, Kasumi sat in the classroom going through her notes. Or at least attempting to do so. It was sort of hard when school work was the last thing on your mind. She had been hyper aware of where Ennoshita was all day. So she knew it when he stood, and came to stand by her desk.
“Sato-san,” he said after clearing his throat. “Can we...talk for a bit?” The last was said almost hesitantly, but even those few words caused her stomach to start making funny little flips and her heart to beat faster.
“Sure,” she managed to say, mouth dry as she pushed away from her desk. She tried to pretend it was all casual as they left the classroom, hoping that no one would notice anything odd. Ennoshita lead them to a side hallway that was mostly deserted this time of day. One they were there, he leaned back against a window frame. Then he looked over and they just stared at each other for several seconds.
“So…” he said at last, and just trailed off.
“So…?” she repeated when he didn’t say anything.
He ruffled his hair and gave a self-conscious little chuckle.
“You know, figuring out how to start this is harder than I thought” he admitted and looked at her. “I’m impressed you could just come out and say something like you did yesterday.”
“That was more on impulse than anything else,” she said, crossing her arms and blushing. “I just...really wanted you to know how a felt.” She felt so open right now she wasn’t sure what to do. Her voice trailed off. Was it always like this when you confessed to someone? It felt weird, but at least it was all out in the open now.
At least Ennoshita was blushing too. “I..it was still brave,” he said and then let out a sigh. “Look Sato-san, can I say something?”
“Sure…” she said slowly, feeling her stomach lurch unpleasantly. That sounded slightly ominous. “You know that I’ve been really busy with practice, right?” he said, and she nodded and tried to keep calm.
She had already promised herself that she wouldn’t cry if things didn’t turn out like she wanted. She just hoped that was a promise that she could keep.
“I..it’s not like I’m rejecting you or anything,” he said quickly when he saw her face, “I just wanted to tell you that I might not be able to spend a lot of time with you sometimes. I’ll stay later than usual to practice, and we’ve been coming in on days off too. It’s not fair, so…”
“I already knew that,” she said cutting him off, surprised that her own voice was as steady as it was. Her chest felt tight and her throat was still dry. “You’ve mentioned it to me before, remember? When we were talking about what we’d been doing recently and you said club had been keeping you too busy to really do much outside it. So I know that we might not be able to meet up much. And I really don’t care about that. We could still figure out something. If you want too.” She hoped he wanted too.
He stared at her, and slowly smiled. “Are you really sure?” he asked finally.
She nodded. “Yeah,” she said, “we can still call and text each other, right? And we see each other at school. So we’ll be fine.” Her fingers curled into the fabric of her sleeves. She was amazed that Ennoshita couldn’t hear her heart almost beating through her chest.
Suddenly he let out a breath and just smiled at her. He pushed away from the window, and moved forward, so he was standing right in front of her.
“If you’re sure…” he said, then smile and it was the shyest smile she had seen on him. “Is this the part where I ask you out? Because I think I like you too.”
For a moment she could only stare, not really sure she had heard it properly. Her heart was in her throat, and she couldn’t say anything. Then slowly she smiled, and hoped that he couldn’t tell her eyes were watery. Hadn’t she promised herself that she wouldn’t cry over this? “Seriously?” she said softly.
“Yeah,” Ennoshita rubbed the back of his neck, “I would ask you out on a proper date, but I have no idea where to go right now and..”
“You could just have lunch with me,” she was glad the words made sense. Ennoshita laughed. “Let’s do that,” he said, “that sounds..nice.”
She just smiled, her heart pounding again but this time it was because she was so happy. So happy, that for the first time in a long while she felt like she was floating.

*~*~*~*~*~*~
Nishinoya slid into the classroom a mere minute before the bell was due to ring and restart classes.
“Safe!” he declared to no one in particular. Most of his class was used to him by now, and just continued with what they had been doing. He shrugged, and started towards his seat as he finished off the can of juice that he’d picked up.
A burst of laughter near him drew his attention and he looked up to find three of the guys in his class gathered around someone’s desk.
“...seriously, you should have said something!” One of them said to the guy sitting in the desk’s chair, who just shook his head frantically, his cheeks faintly red.
“No way! Do you know how embarrassing that would have been? Besides, why would you do something like that!?”
“To see the look on their faces?” suggest the third as Nishinoya wandered over to join them. “What would be embarrassing?” He couldn’t help asking, since this sounded interesting. “Ah, Nishinoya!” One of them clapped the guy in the chair on the shoulder. “Apparently this guy nearly walked right into a real-life confession!” his voice was almost gleeful about it.
Nishinoya stared for a moment, before bursting out, “What!? You’re serious? Where?” The thought that someone somewhere, not him, had gotten a confession in the school actually made him jealous. Why did someone else get a confession but now him?
“I just went to take a shortcut, and when I turned a corner there was a couple in that little south-side hallway.” The seated guy said, “it’s not like I was looking for them! I mean, wouldn’t you finds somewhere more private for something like that?”
“That’s a good point,” the third guy said, “how are you sure it was a real confession?”
“He said something like ‘so is this the part where I ask you out?’ so I’m pretty sure it was!”
“Man,” his friend chuckled, “that actually sounds pretty smooth! Did you see who it was.”
The seated guy leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes for a moment. “It was only a quick glimpse before I got out of there, but I think it was that sleeping looking guy. You know the one from class four.”
Nishinoya started choking on the last sip of juice he had taken. The others didn’t even seem to notice.
“What him?” the first guy shook his head. “He’s lucky! What was his name again? E-something right? En...en”
“Ennoshita,” Nishinoya said, his voice unusually flat and eyes nearly blank.
The seated guy dropped a fist into his open hand, “that was him! I forgot, he’s in the same club as you, isn’t he Nishi...noy...a?”
The juice can Nishinoya had been holding hit the floor.
“What the hell Chikara!”