"I knew it...

"

Ever since I heard that Aoba Johsai lost, I knew that we were bound to lose. And we just did.
Shiratorizawa Academy has fallen to Karasuno High School.

"Eehhh? Seriously?" my cousin reacted.

"They had it coming," I told him.

"What?! Wait, whose side are you on anyway?"

"Karasuno."

"You traitor!" he remarked.

I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't hoping that our team would win but my instincts already told
me who would take the trophy.

He just sighed and said, "Well... Guess it can't be helped. This year's just not for
Shiratorizawa."

"Yeah... It isn't..." I responded as I watched the familiar back of a certain player more
slouched than usual.

It was getting late but me and my cousin just got out of the convenience store.
"Yes! It's finally here!" the world was so bright as I held the latest edition of Shounen Jump
up high.

"Yeah, yeah. It's finally here," he deadpanned.

"Woah! The latest edition is already out? Let me see, let me see!" a familiar voice caught our
attention as he ran towards me to look at the Shounen Jump that I was holding. "Hmm...
This week's cover is pretty nice," he said as I froze while the Shounen Jump was at his eye
level.

"He's so tall!" I mentally screamed as it was the first time that he was standing right in front
of me. "Ah... Eh..." I started to speak.

"Sorry about that. I was just excited," he said as he took a step back and I put my arms
down. "Oh? You look familiar."

"Daki Reeis. We're in the same class, Tendou Satori-san," I told him.

"Ah! Daki-chan! No need to be so formal. You can call me by my first name too," his face
was beaming but it stopped when he realized that I wasn't alone. "Your boyfriend?" he
asked.

"I'm keigo. A year younger. Daki's cousin," he answered.

"Oh, thank goodness. I thought I was a third wheel for a second there," Tendou--- I mean
Satori was relieved. "Anyway, I should get going. Gotta buy that edition before they ran out."

"Okay. See you later, Satori," I said.

He happily nodded. "See you, Daki-chan! Keigo!" he waved as he ran towards the
convenience store.

"Well, well. Looks like you finally made a new friend," keigo teased me.

"Shut up. He's also your new friend," I told him as we continue to walk to the dormitory.

The next day, I found myself flustered. My mind was all over the place as I take on order
after order and give the customer's change at the same time. Thankfully, the rush hour at the
fast food chain where I worked has ended and there were only two more customers left to be
entertained.

"Oi, oi. The change you gave is lacking," a customer complained. He insisted that I mistook
his bill to be a bill of lower amount.

"Was it? Did I mistook it? Was I really tired to make such a mistake?" I asked myself as I
started to get the customer's additional change.

"I won't give him what he wants if I were you," I suddenly heard a familiar voice.

I looked up to see that the person standing in line behind the complaining customer was the
redheaded middle blocker.

"Satori..." I was surprised to see him here.

"Yo! Daki-chan!" he greeted me.

"Hey! What are you saying, huh? Are you telling me that I'm lying? That I'm tricking her to
give me some extra money? Is that it?!" the customer was mad at Satori.

"Hey, those words came out from your own mouth, mister," Satori raised his hands in
defense. "Besides, if you want to clean yourself that badly, why don't we just go and take a
look at the CCTV record now, shall we?" the change in his demeanor was significant. It was
more on the dark side. The redhead was clearly sardonic towards the customer.

As the customer looked at the dark red eyes of the middle blocker, trying to speak up while
his knuckles were turning white, the intimidating redhead made me gulp.

"M-Monster!" the customer reacted. He was scared and hurriedly took his leave.

Before I could even try to stop him, Satori told me, "Let him be."

"But----------"

"You would've gotten into trouble because of that guy."

Because of that, I realized that the customer really did just tricked me into giving him
additional change.

"That asshole..." I uttered.

"Now, now. It's over. His plan ended in an epic fail," the cheerful voice was back in action.

"Thank you, Satori. Without you, I would've----------"

"No need to thank me, Daki-chan."

"But he called you a monster."

"Well, I am the Guess Monster, Tendou Satori!" he was proud of his title. "Besides, we're
jump buddies, aren't we?"

"Jump buddies?"

He happily nodded. "We both like reading Shounen Jump, right? That makes us jump
buddies!"

"Yeah..." I was taken aback by his overwhelming enthusiasm.

"You know, I've been looking everywhere for you, f/n," those words made my heart skip a
beat. I was pretty sure he meant the jump buddy thing but still...

"Huh? You're face is getting red, Daki-chan. Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine. It's j-just a little hot, that's all," I tried to cover up my embarassed self.

"Oh," the redhead responded like a little kid. "Anyway, what time does your shift end?" he
asked.

"Around 8pm. Why?"

"Great! I'll be back here later so wait for me, okay?"

"What?!"

"Then, see you later!" he bid farewell as he left.

"Wait! Satori!" I tried to call him but it was no use.

I just found myself sighing at the development.

"He didn't even order..."

True to his words, he did came back around 8. He even waited for me to change into regular
clothes before heading out.

"Satori, where are we going?" I asked.

"You'll see once we get there," he seemed to be excited so I just let him slide with his
answer.

After few minutes of walking, we finally reached our destination.

"Don't tell me..."

"Tadah! We'll be watching this!" he told me.

"No way! It's still showing?!" I asked as Satori planned to watch this movie adaptation of a
Shounen Jump in the theatre with me.

He happily nodded. "I planned to watch this during its first few weeks but I was busy with
practice. Now, I can finally watch it!"

I also nodded to him happily. We were getting excited so the two of us hurriedly went in to
watch the movie.

As we got comfy on the seats while watching, I was getting dozy. With my eyes starting to
close due to being worn out from work, I try to fight against it because I want to continue
watching the movie. Before I even realized it, I fell asleep.

"So cute..." Satori thought as he noticed that I was already sleeping.

Taking off his jacket, he covered it over my body and continued watching the movie by
himself.

Days went on. Satori and I have been talking on and on about some Jump series whenever
there's time available in the classroom. Being his one and only jump buddy, it was already a
given. This time, we ended up spending our lunch break together at the school cafeteria.

"Man, that was my favorite part throughout the whole series!" he exclaimed as he we were
eating.

"That was mine, too! Too bad I wasn't able to see it when we went to watch it's movie
adaptation," I told him.
"It's your fault for falling asleep."

"And it's your fault for not waking me up, Satori."

"Can't help it. I was too immersed. It was sooo goooodddd..."

"Yeah. Thanks for rubbing it in," I was being sarcastic.

"Oh. Wakatoshi-kun!" he suddenly called as he waved his hands up high.

"Tendou," a stoic large man approached us.

"Come on now. Don't be shy. Sit down and join us," he ushered him.

The man sat down right across me. He looked familiar.

"Satori's teammate? Maybe I saw him from that recent match."

"Wakatoshi-kun, this is reeis daki-chan. Daki-chan, this is Ushijima Wakatoshi-kun. He's the
ace and captain of our volleyball team."

"Nice to meet you, Ushijima-san," I greeted him but he was silent and was looking at me so
intently.
"Your girlfriend?" the ace's sudden question to the middle blocker lit my face on fire.

"No!" my immediate impulse was to deny his assumption.

"Well," the redhead wrapped his arm over my shoulder as he wore that lopsided grin of his,
asking the captain, "we look good together, don't we?"

"Satori!" I was blushing hard due to the embarrassment.

Meanwhile, Ushijima-san took a second before he answered, "The two of you look just fine."

The redhead laughed and got his arm off my shoulder. "That answer is so like you,
Wakatoshi-kun."

"Ah... Ushijima-san," I was finally able to get his attention. "I'm not Satori's girlfriend," I was
able to tell him at last.

"You're not?" he asked.

"I'm his jump buddy. We became friends due to our interest in Shounen Jump so..."

"I see. I'm sorry," the ace apologized. "I thought you were going out since the two of you
were on firstname basis."

"Wakatoshi-kun, if that's the case, then do you consider the two of us dating?" the redhead
teased.
"No. I don't call you by your firstname, Tendou," the ace just answered it like that and Satori
just laughed at him.

"No way... Is Ushijima-san always been this straightforward?" I asked myself about the
emotionless face of a person in front of me as I chuckled.

Before I even realized it, classes were finally over for today. Ushijima-san invited me to
come watch the volleyball team practice. Well... It was actually Satori whom he invited to
visit the gym, then the middle blocker insisted me to go with him and the ace was fine with
that.

"But why, though?" I asked myself.

Why would the captain invite his teammate to visit the gym to practice?

My train of thoughts was abruptly stopped with a loud bang courtesy of Ushijima-san. His
spike was too powerful, it sounded like a cannon.

"Awesome..." I was amazed.

As of now, I still haven't know the other members' names but what I do know was that the
game was played third years against the lower years.

Continuing with the game, it was pretty intense. They're so good and so strong.
Shiratorizawa truly is a powerhouse yet this year's Nationals is already out of reach for them.

Throughout the game, there was something that always caught my eyes and it wasn't
Ushijima-san's oh-so-powerful-I-might-die-if-I'm-hit-by-the-ball spike. It was Satori. The way
he played... The way he annoyed his opponents one way or another... His triumphant look
whenever his opponents looked at him desperately just after he blocked their spikes...
"He truly is the 'Guess Monster'..."

"Daki-chan!" he suddenly called me as he just came out from their huddle. "Sorry I made you
wait."

I shook my head. "It's alright. I had fun watching you guys play. Besides, you were so cool,
Satori!"

"Really?!"

"He wasn't really cool. He was just showing off," a guy with ash blonde hair with dark tips
said.

"Well, there's that, too," the middle blocker admitted.

"Not wanting to look lame in front of your girlfriend, huh?" he teased him.

I can feel myself starting to blush.

"Of course, I don't! She's precious to me, afterall," Satori responded and the shade of pink
was all over my face.

I was pretty sure he meant that he didn't want to look lame on his one and only jump buddy
but...

"This guy is just letting anyone mistook me as his girlfriend!!!"

"Ah... I'm Reeis Daki. Satori's jump buddy," I managed to introduce myself.

"Jump buddy?" the guy asked.

"We have similar interests in Shounen Jump so..."

"Ah! No wonder you're precious to him," he said. "I'm Semi Eita. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too."

"Well then, I should get going. I still have some things to do," he told us. "Tendou, let's
hangout again sometime."

"Yeah, sure," the redhead replied and Semi-san finally left.

Not long after that, the two of us started to walk to the dormitory.

"Satori..." I started.

"Yeah?"
"Why did Ushijima-san invited you earlier? Why did Semi-san said that you should hangout?
Aren't you guys teammates?"

"You didn't know?" he asked me back. "We already retired."

The word 'retired' brought me back to the day when Shiratorizawa lost to Karasuno and
Satori had his back more slouched.

"B-but you still play volleyball, right?"

"Nope. I decided that high school would be the last time that I'll play."

"But you're so good, Satori! Earlier, you were knocking down balls with your blocks. You
were so cool!" I really did thought that Satori was cool. My compliments were pure but the
middle blocker was just silent. "Besides, it seems like you can read the movements of your
opponents. It's like you have powers!" I tried to lighten up the mood.

"To tell you the truth, f/n-chan," he finally spoke, "I can see the future."

"At last, he's back..." I was relieved.

"Wow! That's awesome! You're supernatural and I'm just a mere mortal."

"Shall I tell you your future?" he was riding along with me.

"Nah, I don't wanna hear it. But man, you're so cool! You're a whole lot cooler than those
popular-with-girls bishounen on a shoujo manga."

"So you read shoujo mangas, too?"

"Well... Not really. I mean, I was fond of reading them but as I keep reading more and more,
the storylines became pretty much the same to me," I told him.

"Like?"

"Like those misunderstandings. The characters keep on mistaking the boy to like this other
girl and the girl to like this other boy."

"Is that so?"

"Oh. Speaking of misunderstandings, you just let your friends mistook me as your girlfriend,
Satori."

"Oh. That reminds me. Kabedon is pretty famous in shoujo mangas, right?" he was not
listening to me.

"Yeah."
Before I even knew it, my back was already against the wall with his hand slammed against
it. I was being trapped by Satori.

"Then, to clear that particular misunderstanding, Daki..." he said as he brought his elbow
down against the wall to lean in close to me, "won't you just be my girlfriend?"

My heart was racing. It was pounding so hard that I bet he could hear it. I tried to speak but
no words would come out of my mouth. Despite being embarassed, my sight won't leave his
dark red eyes. They were pulling me in so hard, I couldn't take my eyes off.

"S-Satori----------"

The redhead took a step back and distanced himself away from me.

"Well... That went just like it was straight out of a shoujo manga, right?" his playful tone was
present.

"Eh?" was all I could say.

"Now then, my room is this way so I'll get going now. See you around, Daki-chan!" he waved
his hand and took his leave.

"W-Wait! Satori!" I tried to go after him but without any warning, my knees buckled.

"What the----------"

"Daki! Are you alright?" c/n asked as he hurriedly helped me.

"Yeah... I'm fine..." I answered him.

"The way he looked at me so intently... The way he said those words... Why? Why did it felt
like Satori actually meant it?" I asked myself as I clenched onto my chest.

It was cold. The clouds hovering the skies indicate that it might snow anytime soon.

"Alright, class. Find yourselves a pair. You can rearrange the chairs to sit across each
other," our sensei told us.

As I watch, my classmates were starting to get up and approach their partners.

There was only one person in the room whom I am willing to be my pair, but I wonder if he
already found himself a part----------

"Looks like you still don't have a partner, Daki-chan," my thoughts were interrupted.

"Satori..." I looked at him. "Haven't you got yourself a partner?" I asked.

"Yeah. She's sitting right in front of me," he answered as he grabbed a chair and sat right
across me, wearing that grin on his face.

"Now that you've found your pair," our sensei caught our attention, "each of you will draw
your partner on the sketchpad I've given earlier."

"Eeehhh??!?!?!?"

"Seriously?"

The class had different reactions. Some were happy and some were worried. I'm on the
latter.

"I'm gonna collect your drawings before I dismiss the class," she added.

"Argh... Can't it just be a bring-home assignment to be passed tomorrow?" I groan and to my

surprise, the redhead laughed.

"You're that worried about drawing?" he asked.

Blushing out of embarrassment, I internally screamed, "Shit, I actually said that out loud!"
realizing that my inner complaint was out in the open.

"Well... I'm not good at drawing..." I admitted to my partner.

"Hmm... I'm guessing that you're actually really good at it but you just hide it. A very humble
artist!"

"No, I'm not! I do suck at it, Satori. If I really am an artist, then my masterpiece would be a
drawing of a stickman!"

"Really? Wow! That must be such a piece of art. I wanna see it!" he exclaimed.

"I'm being serious here!" I told him as he was just messing with me.

"Alright, alright. But my guess is pretty strong, Daki-chan."

And the Guess Monster was wrong on his guess. I really am not good at it.

Minutes have passed and the class was busy with the activity. Staring at the blank page of
the sketchpad, I still don't know where to start drawing.

"What should I do? What if my drawing turns out to be so bad? Will he get mad? Will he
unfriend me?!"

Taking a glance at me, Satori asked, "Having a problem?"

"W-Well..."

"Is it because I move too much?"

"Eh?"

"Maybe I should pose."

"No, that's not really----------"

I failed to hold my first few haha's but I was able to muffle the rest of my laugh using my
hands. Satori was making a whole lot of different funny faces and it made my stomach hurt.
It was too funny that I can't even breathe.

"Please, just---------- Pfft..." I was supposed to tell him to stop but I failed.

"It's just too funny!!!"

I kept laughing against my hands until I was finally able to control my breathing.

As I took deep breaths, the redhead asked, "Feeling better?"

"Yeah... What was... that for?"

"I just wanted you to relax. Loosen up a bit," he answered. "Don't think about it too much.
Just draw," he told me and smiled.
He was right. I should just draw. Just draw Satori and get this over with.

"Why was I worried about his would-be reaction, anyway?"

Finally, the sketchpad was no longer blank. I took a glance at the middle blocker from time to
time as I tried my best to draw his eyebrows that correspond to the red downturned eyes of
his.

"Those dark red eyes that pulled me in so hard..."

That thought suddenly made me blush as it brought back the memory of what I call the
'kabedon incident'. Without any warning, my face was lit on fire as Satori caught me staring.

Grinning, the redhead asked, "Like what you see?"

I just averted my eyes out of impulse and he chuckled.

"Your eyes can feast on me, Daki. I don't mind as long as it's those beautiful blue light eyes
of yours," Satori added fuel to the fire.

I was feeling so bashful. I was gripping on the sketchpad so hard like I was holding on for
dear life.

"Ah! The sketchpad! It's starting to crumple, Daki-chan!" he warned me.

"Eh?!" I reacted, finally looking back at him and looked at the sketchpad. "Shit!" I cursed
underneath my breath and tried to smoothen it back as he laughed at my resort.

Before I even knew it, my sketchpad with semi-crumpled sides, along with my classmates',
were collected by sensei and the class was over.

I was about to leave the classroom when Satori called out to me.

"You going home already?" he asked.

"Nope. Gonna head to the convenience store to buy something," I answered.

"Great! I'll come with you."

"Eh?"

"I'm heading there, anyway, so let's just go together."

"Okay," I responded as we headed out.

While we were walking towards the convenience store, it was cold and it started to snow.

"So, what're you gonna buy?" he asked me.

"Ah... W-Well... I... I can't say it out loud, so..."

"Oh. Alright, alright," he didn't push through his question and just accepted my half-hearted
answer.

"It's not my fault that I can't say that I'll be buying sanitary pads..."

"How about you?" I asked him.

"I'll be buying lots of heat packs!" he happily replied.

"Ah... I should buy some, too..." I said as we arrived at our destination.

As we entered, I realized that there were too much snow on the middle blocker's head.

"Satori," I called out and gestured him to lean down.

He did what I asked of him and I started to take the snow off him.

He didn't expect me to do that. As I was busy, I didn't noticed him to slightly blushed at my
action.

"There. All done," he heard me told him as I finished.

He stood right up and saw me smiling at him.

After grabbing and paying our respective items, we put our purchased items inside our bags.

"Here," the redhead suddenly handed me a warm meatbun.

"Thank you, Satori."

"Think of it as a thank you for what you did earlier," he told me.

"It was nothing, really," I responded as he took a bite from his meatbun.

It was still snowing as the two of us were walking back to the dorm.

"Now that I think about it, I haven't seen your drawing, Daki-chan," he said.

"Eh?"

"I should've taken a look at it before we submitted it."

"N-No, you shouldn't! It was horrible! It's too embarrassing!"

"Oh? Then... Once sensei returned our sketchpads, how about I give you my drawing and in
exchange, you give me yours?" he proposed a deal.

"Nah..." I refused.

"Please? Even if it's just for a second, let me see it!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

We were going back and forth like little children in their little argument. In the end, I lost to
his persistence.

"Fine! I'll let you take a peek! Just for a second!" I told him.

"Yaaayyyy!!!!!" he celebrated like a kid who just received his favorite toy, and I just sighed.

At that time, we failed to notice that a pair of eyes saw the two of us.

"Eehhh???? Seriously?" he had that smirk on his face as his disbelief was directed at the
middle blocker.

The day just went on as usual. As I was walking out of the dorm, going to my workplace, I
saw some of my classmates whispering about something as they took glances at me.

"Is there something on my face?"

"Reeis-san," one of them called out to me. "You're pretty close with Tendou-kun, right?"

"Yeah. Why did you ask?"

"Aren't you afraid of him?" another one asked.

"Why would I be afraid of Satori?" I questioned back.

They looked at me as if I needed to know something about the redhead.

"You see... Tendou-kun... He has quite a reputation, you know..."

"Yeah. He's Shiratorizawa's middle blocker, known as the Guess Monster," I responded.

"Do you know why he had such a title? He's not known just for his guessing abilities. He is
also known for his monster-like personality..."

"Eh?" My eyes widened as I couldn't believe what I just heard.

"He's creepy and scary. If I were you, I should be a----------"

"Thanks for your concern but I'll be fine," I cutted her off as I kept it short and simple, gave
them my best fake smile, and continued walking.

I couldn't believe that they were actually judging a book by its cover. I mean, Satori might be
intimidating and annoying at times, but he's a really good person. He's nice, kind, cool and
fun to be with. Being with him makes me feel so lively.

"People tend to have different opinions, afterall..." I just thought to myself.

Hours later, Satori was planning on giving me a surprise visit. He saw me sitting on a table
inside my workplace. He was about to enter but he saw a black undercut haired guy sat on
the same table as me.
"Oh? This is interesting," he thought as he was bemused.

He wanted to know about that guy whom he can't see his face as his back was facing the
middle blocker. It was just out of curiosity, but when the redhead saw me having fun
conversing with that guy, his interest just dropped. He didn't liked it.

"Keep on breaking them..."

He couldn't stand it.

"What, you say?"

He was pricked by jealousy.

"Their hearts..."

Ironically, the song intended for his opponents just suddenly became meant for him.

As he was about to take his leave, I suddenly noticed the oh so familiar redhead.

"Satori!" I called him.

He was stopped on his tracks as he saw me gesturing him to come inside. Having second
thoughts about it, he ended up doing what I wanted.
"Tendou," the black undercut haired guy suddenly called.

Finally able to see the guy's face, the middle blocker knew his identity at last. "isumi" he
didn't expect to see him once again.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yeah. Elementary."

"Back then, you had a bowl cut."

"Really?" I suddenly imagined Satori as a kid fitting that description. "You must have been
really cute back then, Satori."

A tiny blush was formed on the redhead's face.

"Anyway, isumi-san accidentally spilled his drink on me so he insisted on treating me a

meal," I told him as I let him see the stain on my shirt. "I ended up learning that you two were
friends."

"Friends? Nah, I wouldn't call it that," the middle blocker thought.

"So, Tendou... Must be so fortunate to have Daki as a girlfriend, right?" isumi asked as I was
once again mistaken as Satori's girlfriend.

"I'm not----------"
"Her eyes were sparkling as she was talking about how cool you are and how fun you are to
be with. She was so lively when she was talking about you," he revealed.

"Oh my God, was I really that lively?!" I internally screamed as I my face was covered with a
shade of pink.

"Really?!" the redhead reacted. "Wow, Daki-chan! I never thought you'd be so high-spirited
to talk about me," he told me as his amusement was shown in how wide his grin was.

"I wasn't really----------"

Isumi slightly laughed. "I'm really surprised that you're not afraid of him, Daki."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Tendou was once feared by everyone. Like an outcast, no one really goes near him as we
thought that he was weird and creepy... like a monster..." I noticed how much he
emphasized his last word and he was smirking.

"This guy..."

"Yeah, I remember that," I suddenly heard Satori said. "There was this certain person who
once told me that I couldn't join the human team, and this monster ended up blocking the
ball, knocking it down as I looked down at that person's face with satisfaction," he was
smirking back.

It was obvious that the certain person that Satori was referring to was Isumi.
"Oh. Must be tough for that poor little guy," Isumi responded, acting like he knew nothing
about it.

"Nah, I wasn't feeling sorry about that. It just felt so good."

They just went on and on. I don't need someone to point out what was happening. These
two were getting under their skins.

After a while, I cleared my throat and I got both of their attention. "Satori, we should probably
get going. It's getting late and we still need to buy something," I told him.

The redhead's mouth formed an "O" shape. "I forgot!" he exclaimed.

Isumi just chuckled. "Well then, I'll also get going. It was nice meeting you, Daki. Talk to you
some other time, Tendou."

We just gave him a nod. Now walking alone with Satori, I can't help but noticed that he
walking close to me. At last, we have arrived at our destination: the convenience store.

"Finally!!!" we were both enthusiastic as we each grabbed a copy of the latest edition of
Shounen Jump.

"If you hadn't told me that we needed to buy something, I wouldn't be able to remember,
Daki-chan!" he told me.

"Hehe... No need to thank me, Satori. That's what a jump buddy is for, right?"
He happily nodded.

The two of us spent the night standing in the convenience store, reading Jump. Inside, there
were nobody else besides us and the storekeeper.

Satori and I talked about how cool a particular series was and shared some theories on what
we think might happened as the story goes on. We also ended up arguing about who will get
the greatest powerup and who the coolest character was. We were spitballing childish insults
here and there, but it was all natural.

We were pretty loud but the storekeeper didn't mind. He just told us that it's nice to have the
place a little bit rowdy every once in a while.

I looked at Satori and saw how he's having fun with me. To be honest, I was feeling the
same, too. I enjoy his company very much. Not only that...

"I like seeing him so happy..."

"Tendou was once feared by everyone. Like an outcast, no one really goes near him as we
thought that he was weird and creepy... like a monster..." I suddenly remembered what Isami
said, along with some of our classmates' point of view which I just recently discovered.

"Like an outcast, huh?" I thought to myself as I imagined how sad it might have been for him.

I looked at the redhead beside me and he smiled at me.

"Satori... Are you perhaps... feeling lonely behind that cheerful side of yours?"
"Wanna go out with me?"

"Eh?" a fair shade of pink spread all over my face towards the middle blocker who asked the
question.

He was grinning and I know he meant going out to go somewhere, but I just can't help
myself to blush at his words.

"A-Aren't we already going out?" I mustered courage to actually asked him back.

His eyes widened for a second and he chuckled as he finally got what I meant.

"You're right. We're already out to go and change into PE clothes and head to the gym," he
replied as we were indeed doing that.

And there was silence. Neither of us talked for a few seconds.

"Say... Isn't this the best time for us to disappear?" he suddenly asked as the word
'disappear' made my eyes widened. "It's not like anybody would notice," he added.

He was being playful but I can't help but noticed that there was a glint of something
underlying in his words. It just brought a small pang in my chest.

"I would've noticed..." I suddenly whispered underneath my breath and it caught him off
guard.

"Daki----------"
"Satori, wanna go out with me?" I asked him like the way he asked me earlier.

He didn't saw that one coming but in the end, he happily nodded at me.

After successfully sneaking out of the school, we headed to the dorms to change into our
casual clothes. Not long after that, the two of us were walking on the road.

"So, what do you have in mind?" Satori asked.

"Hmm... I have no idea..." I admitted.

"What?! You were the one who asked me to go out with you!"

"And you were the one who actually asked me first!" I retorted and we both just found
ourselves laughing. "How about arcade?" I asked him.

"Yeah. That would be nice."

"Great! Whoever loses buy the winner a drink?" grinning as I waged.

He grinned back at me. "Whoever loses buy a drink and has to do something for the winner."

My grin widened at his add-on and responded, "You're on!"

Before we even knew it, we were playing arcades for more than an hour. We competed
against each other, collecting tickets to determine who's the winner. In the end, I was the
loser.

"Victory!!!" he exclaimed.

"Argh, I can't believe I lost! You're just 15 tickets ahead of me!"

"Hahaha!!! Don't be a sore loser, Daki-chan!"

"I'm not! It's just---------- Argh!" I just groaned and Satori just laughed his heart out.

"C'mon now. You know the deal."

"Alright, alright. I'll buy you a drink."

"And do something for me," the redhead added.

"Fine. I'll buy you a drink and do something for you," I told him.

"Yay! Daki-chan's keeping her word!" he was like a kid.

"What do you want, Satori?"

"I want you, Daki..." he answered and my face was as red as a tomato. "I want you... to give
me your tickets."

"Eh?" my eyes widened as I was dumbfounded.

"You heard me. Tickets. That's what I want you to do," he said as he held out his hand.

"To give you my tickets? That's it?"

"Yeah. That's it. Unless, you want me to make you act like a dog for the rest of the day," he
was grinning at his last sentence.

"Nah, I'll choose the first one," I told him as I gave him my tickets.

"A great choice, Daki-chan!" his face was so bright.

"Now then, I'll buy you your drink. The nearest vending machine around here is at the park
so..."

"You can go ahead. I'll meet you there," he told me.

I nodded. "Wait for me, okay?"

He nodded back. He watched me took my leave as I was skipping around.

"So cute..." he thought as he chuckled.

My body feel so light. I feel like I'm gonna float anytime soon.

"Why am I feeling this way?"

Suddenly, the lightness that I felt dissipated in the air as I suddenly feel so heavy.

"Oh shit..." I mentally cursed as I wanted to use the bathroom so badly.

Hurriedly going to the park's public toilet, I ran like my life depended on it. Unfortunately, my
speed was no use as there was a line outside the CR.
"C'mon! Hurry up, hurry up!" I was doing my very best to hold myself back from exploding as
snow started to fall down.

"Ah, finally," I released a sigh of relief as I was finally able to let go of whatever's making me
heavy. It took a whole lot longer than I expected.

"Like waaaayyyyy longer..."

Remembering Satori, I rushed to buy the two of us drinks from the vending machine. I saw
him sitting on a bench. As I ran towards him, I was about to call him but I was stopped in my
tracks at what I saw.

"Satori..."

He was looking up, staring as the snow fell down on his face. His lips were slightly parted as
he exhaled through his mouth. Not long after that, he released a big sigh as he looked down
on the ground, propping his elbows on his thighs. He looked so lonely like a brokenhearted
person, and it made my heart broke.

"It hurts..." I just clenched on the cans that I was holding.

Slowly walking towards him, he noticed me. Looking up, he was surprised to see me
standing in front of him.

"Here you go," I told him as I handed out his drink.

"I thought you already left..." his voice was covered with sadness.

Feeling guilty, I told him, "I'm sorry, Satori. I took too long to use the toilet and made you
think that I left you."

"I was just... I was having so much fun with you but then when I came here, you were
nowhere to be found. I thought, 'Ah, she ditched me... just like everybody else...' "

"Now, why would I do that?" I asked him, not liking the thought of him being 'ditched' by
everyone. "I wanna be with you, Satori. Would I have asked you to go out with me if I
didn't?"

His expressions told me that he wasn't expecting me to say something like that. With him still
taken aback, I gave him a smile as I nudged his drink closer to him. "I keep my word,
remember?"

His face finally softened. "Thank you, Daki..." he told me as he grabbed his drink.

Not really sure if he's thanking me for the drink or for what I just said, I just gave him a
simple "you're welcome" as I sat down beside him.

"By the way, I got you this," he said as he took a plushie out.
I was surprised as he gave it to me. "It's so cute!" I said as the plushie was the one of the
arcades' mascot.

"You're cute," he told me and I feel myself blush. "It reminds me of you. I hope you like it."

"So that's why you wanted me to give you my ticket... Thank you so much, Satori. I really
appreciate it," I told him as I smiled.

He smiled back at me. "You're welcome, Daki"

Suddenly, Satori took a shower as his drink was sprayed all over his face just as he opened
it.

I found myself laughing my heart out. Of course, I felt bad for him but I just couldn't stop.

"Man, I--------- That was----------"

I tried to apologize for my behavior but I all I could ever do was laugh. My stomach hurts and
I can't breathe.

"That's so rude, Daki-chan!" he told me as he playfully pouted.

I tried to control my breathing as I took deep breathes. Still chuckling, I looked at my drink.
Before I even knew it, I shook the can and opened it, also taking a shower just like the
redhead.

I heard him laugh at my action. "What was that for?" he asked.

"Just showing you how sorry I am. I wanted it to be even," I answered.

"You really didn't have to----------" he wasn't able to finish his sentence as he continued
laughing.

I also started to laugh once again and before we even realized it, the both of us looked like a
bunch of crazy people.

Settling down at last, I finally had a chance to take a look at the middle blocker. He was busy
scratching his head, raking his hair back and forth in attempt of drying it.

Suddenly, he caught me staring at him. I was about to avert my eyes but I found myself
being pulled in by his dark red eyes once again. The way he looked at me intently... The way
his red hair was tousled in a good way... The way he looked so good underneath this falling
snow... I was enthralled by Satori.

Then I saw him grinning at me. "As I've told you before... Your eyes can feast on me, Daki..."
"Such beautiful red..." the words suddenly escaped from my mouth and I gasped upon my
realization, covering my mouth.

Slowly, his hand reached out to me, taking off my hand from my mouth. "You're beautiful,
Daki..." he told me, smiling as he gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

My heart was pounding so fast, so hard. I felt like I'm gonna have a heart attack and Satori
will be the death of me. I tried to say something, anything, but I just found myself being mute.

It was like I was being enchanted and surprisingly, I wouldn't mind surrendering to the spell
as long as the one bewitching me was Satori.

--------------------

"keigo, keigo!" I kept calling my cousin as he was walking with his friends inside the dorm.

"Daki" he responded.

"We'll get going," one of his friends told him and he gave them a nod as they took their
leave.

"What do you want?" he asked. "Wait, what happened to you?" he asked as he noticed the
stain on my clothes and my damp hair.

"keigo, am I beautiful?"

"What?"

"Tell me I'm beautiful!" I demanded as I grabbed his hand.

"And why would I do that, huh?!"

"Just say it!" I told him as I kept yanking his hand.

"Alright, alright! Geez... You're beautiful," he did what I asked of him. "There! I said it!"

"It's not the same..." I said as I let go of his hand.

"What is?"

Realizing that I actually said that out loud, I just responded, "Nothing..."

He suddenly grinned widely. "You know what. I think I actually got it," keigo told me.

"What is?"

"Nothing," he copied my answer.

I raised my eyebrow at him and he just laughed at my action.

"I most definitely will not tell you that I saw you and Tendou-san sneaked out of school
earlier."

"What?!" I was surprised that we were actually caught by my cousin.

"I actually can't believe that my inexperienced older cousin sneaked out of school to have a
date with his boyfriend," keigo was being cocky.

"He's not my boyfriend! He's my jump buddy!" I told him as I didn't know why was I getting
embarrassed.

"Yeah, sure. Jump buddy," he was throwing salt with his tease. "He told you you're beautiful
and you asked me to do the same to know if it had the same impact as he did."

"keigo!" I was getting more embarrassed as he read me like an open book.

"You like him, don't you?"

And that's where it hit me. Sure, I like Satori. He's cool, fun, nice and a good person. But in
the sense of I like, like, like him...

"I don't know..." I responded out loud as I wasn't really sure of it, holding the arcade plushie
a little bit tighter.

Keigo paused for a second and dropped the subject.

The air has grown colder as the days went by. Students have started to feel excited as one
of their most awaited time was coming near.

"Yay!!! Winter break is just around the corner!" Satori was pumped up as we were eating
lunch together at the school cafeteria.
"It's just the first week of December, Satori. We still have few more weeks of school left," I
rained on his parade.

"It'll just fly by before we even knew it," he responded. "Anyway, any plans for the upcoming
break?"

"Hmm... Try guessing," I dared him.

"Hmm... You're thinking of going back home but you won't."

I replied with a correct-answer sound effect. "That's right! But why though?"

"Because you'll be binge watching the episodes of a Shounen Jump anime adaptation that
you missed."

"What the---------- How did you know that?! Is this the true power of the Guess Monster?!" I
was amazed as his answer was spot-on.

He laughed at my reaction. "This is the true power of recollection of memories, Daki-chan!

You already told me that you were gonna binge watch the series."

"Then I was an idiot who made you guess despite the fact that you already knew the
answer."

"Now then, your turn! Try guessing what I'll be doing this winter break," he told me.

"Hmm... I guess you'll be... staying here and----------"

"Oh. Wakatoshi-kun!" Satori suddenly called.

"Ushijima-san," I said as the redhead gestured the ace to come and sit with us.
"Dani Reeis," he said my name as he made his way to us and sat down.

"Now, now. You don't really have to call me by my full name, Ushijima-san," I told him.

"Tendou! Wakatoshi!" we suddenly heard.

"Semisemi!" Satori called back.

"Don't call me that!" Semi-san reacted as he went to us.

"Huh? Aren't you the girl before? The one who went along with Tendou and watch the
practice?" a guy with an undercut dark brown spiky hair asked.

I looked at the guy beside him and he was a tall guy with a black thick buzzcut.

"He looks like Benkei..." I added.

"Oya? It seems like f/n-chan thinks you're Benkei, Reon," Satori was teasing and I feel so
embarrassed that the redhead noticed it.

"I'm not Benkei. Our personalities are different," he said and said a little 'there we go' as he
sat down.

"Like an old man..." Satori commented and I gave him a slight elbow.

"Now that's just being rude, Tendou," the one with undercut spiky hair pointed out.

The redhead raised his hands in defense. "I'm just saying."

"Ah... I'm Daki Reeis. Satori's jump buddy," I managed to introduce myself.

"Yamagata Hayato."

"Ohira Reon. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too," I responded.

And with that, we talked about several things. They asked questions about me, particularly
about my relationship with Satori.

"Are you sure you're not his girlfriend?"

"I already told you I'm not. I'm his jump buddy, a person with similar interest in Shounen
Jump," I replied.

"Interest just in Shounen Jump or interest also with your jump buddy?" that question made
me blush.
"Well, if you asked me, I admit that I'm also interested in you, Daki," Satori said and the fire
in my face spread like a wildfire.

"Wait, was that a confession?" Semi-san asked.

"Seemed like it was," Yamagata-san responded.

The teasing just went on and on as Ohira-san sometimes reminded us to keep it down for a
bit. Ushijima-san was just there listening to our endless banters.

Finally, lunch break was over and we were all back to our respective classrooms for our
classes. Going through with the lesson, I tried my best to pay attention to sensei.

Few hours later, classes were finally over for the day.

"Daki-chan! Let's go back to the dorm together!" Satori said.

"I can't, Satori. Today's my cleaning duty so..."

"Want me to help you?" he offered.

"Are you sure?" I asked him.

He happily nodded. "It's better to do something than to do nothing."

"Alright. Half-half! I'll clean this half while you the other half. Whoever finishes cleaning last
will buy the winner a drink?" I proposed a bet.

The middle blocker laughed. "Maybe we'll be taking another shower if that happens, Daki-
chan!" he told me, recalling what happened to us several days ago.

I laughed at that memory. "You're right."

"How about meatbuns? The loser will treat the winner a meatbun."

Grinning, I replied, "Sure! You're on!"

We cleaned the classroom in no time. Not to brag, but I finished first just as I expected.

"Woah! The cleaning master of the world!" Satori applauded.

"Not just the world, but the entire universe!!!" I told him.

He laughed. "Really? You have earned my greatest respect, Daki-chan! As agreed, I shall
offer you a meatbun," he was as playful as he can be.
"That is correct! Let us go! I am famished for a delicious meatbun," I played along and we
just laughed at ourselves as we headed to the convenience store to buy.

Walking halfway towards the dorm as we eat the meatbuns, we were exchanging jokes,
citing references on some Jump series. We were having fun just doing that until I feel my
mouth starting to stiffened from all the laughter.

"Man, I never laughed so much like this before," I told him.

"As do I," he said as he smiled at me. "I mean, I laughed a lot of times but this is the first
time I felt so happy about exchanging jokes and references non-stop. Like literally non-stop!"

I chuckled at his exaggeration.

"You know, I always have fun whenever I'm with you, Satori," he was caught off guard as he
didn't saw it coming. He wasn't expecting me to say those words.

For the redhead, the smile I gave him was warm enough to repeal the cold wind blowing
towards us.

He stopped walking and I followed his action.

"I actually mean what I said earlier," he said as he briefly averted his eyes before locking
them with mine once again. "I am interested in you, Daki..."

Hearing him say those words again made my heart skipped a beat. I was blushing hard and
my heart started to pound even harder.

"I'm..." I stuttered as I didn't tore away my sight from him. "You're so cool and fun and such a
great person. I just wanna s-spend more time with you... to get to know you better because
I..." I gulped before releasing my next words. "I'm... interested in you, too, Satori..."

My voice was barely audible but he heard it so clearly. His mouth was gaping and then he
started to chuckle.

"Well, I guess we really do share similiar interests... Both in Jump and on each other," he
said as he started to continue walking.

"Yeah..." I responded as I continued to walk as well. "Don't tell me we also have similar
interest in men," I joked.

"Oh darling, you have no idea!" the redhead made his voice as feminine as possible.

It made the two of us laugh out loud as we continued our journey to the dorms

"Argh, I can't take it anymore!!!" I internally screamed my frustration as my workplace was so

hectic.
It was like the place was like a can full of tuna. There's too much volume of customers
coming inside and the distribution of orders were falling behind. There were a lot of tables to
be cleaned and dishes to be washed.

"It's just too damn stressful!!!"

"At last... I'm free!!!!!" I suddenly remembered Satori shouted the other day as he ran around
the classroom like a little kid.

As usual, the redhead was full of energy even after spending the whole day of class. He was
so happy that the second term was finally over.

"But I have my freaking shift on Christmas Eve!!!" my inner thoughts just revealed how
agitated I was with the workload as I tried to keep myself together.

I took a deep breath for a second, trying to calm myself down. I took that chance to remind
myself that my hellish struggle will finally end in less than 10 minutes.

"Excuse me, excuse me. Coming through," a customer was stumbling into the counter
through the sea of other customers.

"I'm sorry, sir, but there's a line. I can't entertain you," I told him as I was busy doing some
orders and filling up drinks.

"In around 5 minutes, you can," he said and I recognized his familiar voice, along with the
fact that I don't need to look at him to see that loopside grin of his.
"Satori, you're bothering the other customers," I told him as I put the orders into the tray.
"Here's your order, Ma'am! Have a nice meal!" I told the customer in front of me as I gave
her the tray.

"After your shift ends, look for me at the leftmost table at the corner," the redhead just told
me and left.

"Wait a sec----------"

I was cutted off as the customer started to give me his order. At the moment, I just kicked it
off my mind in order to entertain him.

After few more minutes of continuous work, I was finally relieved off duty. Recalling about
what Satori said, I looked for him.

"F/n-chan! F/n-chan, over here!" I heard the redhead called me as he stood up and waved
his hand.

"Satori!" I called back as I went to him and the rest of his 3rd year teammates.

"L/n," Ushijima-san acknowledged my presence.

"Merry Christmas!" Semi-san greeted.

"You guys..." I actually didn't expect all of them to be here.

"Since we're not going home, we thought of having chicken together," Satori said. He leaned
down and whispered, "C/n told me to keep his dear cousin occupied, not letting her spend
Christmas Eve alone."

I was surprised. C/n decided to spend his winter break back home as usual, but I never
thought he'd actually say those words to the middle blocker.

"We also bought a Christmas cake!" he happily added as I saw the strawberry shortcake on
the table.

"C'mon now. Take a seat," Ohira-san warmly said.

"I'm getting hungry. Let's start eating!" Yamagata-san told us.

"Yeah!" the redhead responded.

Before we even knew it, we were enjoying eating chicken and cake at my workplace.
Normally, I'd also spend the winter break back at home and spend Chrismas Eve with my
family. This year's the first time that I decided to stay in the dorm and it ended up spending
my first ever Christmas Eve with friends.

"It's so much fun!" I thought as we were having a lively conversation.

Minutes later, we decided to do an impromptu exchange gifts. We draw lots, buy gifts and
exchange them at our meeting place.

Not long after that, I found myself walking along the road, looking from one store to another.
One thing that I always noticed was that couples were seen everywhere.

"Like everyyyywhereeeee....."
Well, Christmas is the time for couples, afterall.

Suddenly, something caught my eyes.

"This is it! The perfect gift!!!" I exclaimed in my mind and hurriedly went into the store to buy
it.

I rushed to the meeting place and saw that the guys were already there.

"Took you long enough," Semi-san told me and I just apologized.

"Now then, who wants to go first?" Ohira-san asked.

"Me," Yamagata-san volunteered. "Then the recipient will give his gift and so on, right?"

"Yup! That's right," Satori responded.

"Alright," Yamagata-san said as he started to walk towards his recipient.

Before heading our ways to buy the presents, we already drew lots. Thus, we knew who will
be the one receiving a gift from us.

"Here you go," Yamagata-san said to me as he gave me the gift.

"Eh?" I didn't expect this.

"Oohhh... F/n-chan receives the first one! Open it, open it!" Satori was more excited than me.

I opened the bag and saw a white beanie.

"Wow! Thanks, Yamagata-san!" I told him as I wore it.

It was my turn to give a gift. I gave mine to Ohira-san and it was a mug with a nice design.

Ohira-san gave Ushijima-san an earmuffs and eyemasks. He said it would help the ace to
sleep better.

Ushijima-san gave Yamagata-san a pair of gloves. He said it would help him against the
cold.

And with that, it was already a given that Satori and Semi-san ended up exchanging gifts for
each other.

"Now, now! Don't be shy! Exchange them at the same time!" I teased them.

"Okay, okay! Geez!" they both reacted. "H-Here you go!" they both stuttered as they gave
the gifts to each other.
"Pfft!" I chuckled as I watched them open the presents.

"Socks?" Semi-san reacted.

"Yeah. It'll warm you up since you often get cold feet," Satori teased him and succeeded in
annoying him. Looking at the gift he received, the redhead asked, "A scarf?"

"Yeah. A scarf to strangle that rotten personality of yours," Semi-san teased back.

"This scarf is as rotten as your fashion sense," the middle blocker added.

"Why you...." Semi-san was riled up and it was obvious that the two were getting under their
skins.

"Alright, alright. Settle down now," Ohira-san calmed them down as I just chuckled at their
banter-based relationship.

Before we even knew it, the guys finally decided to call it a day. They went back to the dorm
first as I decided to stay behind.

"You're not going with them?" I asked Satori as he chose to stay with me, drinking a bottle of
water.

"Nah. C/n will kill me if I'll leave you," he answered as he put the lid back. "Besides, I wanna
stay by your side as much as possible."

It made me blush.

"B-By the way, I got you this," I gave him a gift. I decided to buy him one as I was walking
towards the meeting place. "Merry Christmas, Satori," I told him as I smiled.

His mouth was slightly gaping, showing that he was surprised to receive a present from me.

He smiled back at me. "Merry Christmas to you, too, f/n," he said as he actually gave me a
gift in return.

Now it's my turn to be surprised. Because of this, we just found ourselves laughing at the
situation.

"Let's open them together, shall we?" he proposed and I nodded in agreement.

I opened the gift and saw a braided leather triple wrap bracelet.

"Wow! It's so pretty!" I told him as I looked at it, noticing that it was the same color as the
middle blocker's hair. I wore it on my wrist and said, "Thank you so much, Satori!"

The redhead always liked to see that smile on my face. It was contagious. Simultaneously,
he was amused by the gift that I gave him. "It's a hair wax!"
"Yeah," I said as I nodded. "Even though you actually look great with your hair down,"
recalling that time when the drink showered him, "you like to make it spiky so... I-It's not
really much, unlike the bracelet that you gave me."

"You think I look great with my hair down?" he asked and that's when I realized that I
actually did said it.

Nodding my head, there was a shade of pink all over my face due to embarrassment.

"Thank you for the hair wax, f/n. I'll definitely use it," he told me and put it inside his pocket.
"But for now..."

My eyes widened as I didn't expect him to pour his bottle of water on his head, his body was
leaning forward to avoid it from getting wet.

"Satori----------"

"I'll let your beautiful e/c eyes feast on the image of me with my hair down, f/n," the redhead
was grinning as droplets of water were falling at the end of his strands, making him look hot.

"Wait, what?!" I blushed hard as my thoughts caught me off guard.

"I-Idiot," I uttered as I grabbed my handkerchief and gestured him to lean down.

He did what I asked of him and I attempted to dry off his hair with my handkerchief.

"What if you catch a cold, huh?" I asked.

He chuckled. "It'll be worth it."

His words made my heart skip a beat, making me stop for a second.

He slowly stood up straight. His hair was disheveled and still damp, but it was down. Satori's
hair was down.

Grinning, he told me, "The night's still young, f/n-chan. Wanna roam around some more and
have a Christmas date with me?"

I honestly did not thought that my Christmas Eve will lead to this. I just can't believe it.

Looking at the person in front of me, spending time with him, just being beside him... It's
already enough to make me forget about my earlier stress and work fatigue.

Giving Satori a big smile, I responded, "Sure!" and his grin just grew wider.

"This is going to be a loooooongggggg night... And I'm looking forward to it."

"Wow! Amazing!" I exclaimed as we finally arrived at our destination downtown.

We were standing underneath the stunning illuminated trees. It looked like a tunnel full of
lights.

"It's so beautiful!" I said as I hurriedly grabbed my phone.

As I was busy taking pictures, the redhead was just there. Though astonished by the
decorative lightings all over the place, Satori found himself mesmerized by me. He was
fascinated by the sparkle in my eyes.

"There's so many lights! It's so bright!" I kept stating the obvious until I bumped my foot into
a plant box.

I heard the middle blocker chuckled and I just playfully glared at him.

"Want me to take a picture of you?" he asked and I happily nodded.

He took several shots of me, most of them were open smiled. Of course, the main attraction
was also captured along with me.

"Thanks!" I told him as he gave me back my phone. Then, I did a mini evil laugh as I looked
at the pictures. "When he comes back, I'm gonna brag this to keigo."

"You're gonna brag about our date?"

Heat instantly rose on my cheeks, recalling that Satori did asked me to go on a Christmas
date and I actually did agreed.

"Not the date! The lights! I'm gonna brag about how I finally saw the lights downtown!" I told
him.

The redhead laughed at my stuttering reply. "You know, you always look cute when you
blush. You should do it more often."

"I am blushing more often because of you, Satori..." I whispered underneath my breath.

A faint shade of pink started creeping on the redhead's face and that's when I realized that
he actually heard what I just said. My face was set on fire as he chuckled his heart out.

That's when I realized that Satori actually looked so good underneath these lights. It's not
because his hair was down. It's not because his clothes looked fine on him. It's just that... It
was like my fascination about the lights were all taken away by the redhead. It was like I
could just stare at the handsome man chuckling in front of me all night.

"I wanna capture it..."

Taking advantage of the fact that he was no longer paying attention, I took a candid photo of
him. The flash when I took the picture made Satori aware of what I just did.

Grinning, he asked, "Oya? So eager to take a secret picture of me, eh, Daki-chan?"

"Not really," I responded as I tried to hide the embarrassment of being caught. "It's just that
now I that I've got my pictures taken, I'm thinking of taking yours."
"You should have just told me! I would've gladly posed," he said as he started doing some
silly poses.

"Oohhh..." I said as I started taking his pictures. "Nice, Satori! Nice! Keep it up! More!" I kept
telling him as he kept posing like a child.

As the two of us continued to stroll underneath the illuminated trees, we were taking photos
of each other. Sometimes solo shots, sometimes together. Some were well taken, some
were blurry, some were just as random as we were at that time.

It was so much fun. Probably the most enjoyable Christmas eve I've ever had in my life.

I gave the redhead a warm smile.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Thank you, Satori," I simply told him.

He smiled back. "I should be the one thanking you for giving me such a wonderful night."

"Do you know what would make this night even more wonderful?" I asked. "Watching a
movie," I told him.

"That's right," he agreed. "Too bad, the theatres are already closed. If there are open ones,
then it'll probably be already packed."

"Who says we can't watch a movie if we're not in a theatre?" I asked him as I grinned.
Minutes later, it started snowing just as we came back and entered the dormitory.

"Are you sure about this?" Satori asked as I grabbed the keys to my room.

"Yeah," I responded.

"I mean, would your roommate be alright with this?" he asked as I was finally able to open
the door.

"I don't have a roommate, Satori," I told him as I turned the lights on and gestured him to
come in.

He stood there for a second before he chuckled. "You just shared a dangerous information
to me."

"What do you mean?" I asked as I was busy getting some stuff out of the way.

"I mean, now I know that I could just sneak into your room without anyone knowing and do
some bad, dirty, nasty things with you alone, daki," he answered as he closed the door.

His words brought shiver into my spine. He was just joking yet there was something
underneath his playful tone. It reminded me that I'm actually alone with a man inside my
room.

"A boy and a girl alone inside a room..." I was as red as a tomato as I flail my arms to get rid
of my imagination.

"Oya? Could it be that Daki-chan took my words into something impure?" the Guess Monster
was teasing me as he read me like an open book. "I was talking about stealing some of your
stuff like your phone, laptop, money. That would be pretty bad, right?"

"Yeah," I couldn't help but stutter. "Ah... Satori, c-could you get the futon? It's inside the
cabinet."

"Yeah, sure," he responded as I grabbed my laptop from my desk. "Woah! It's the mascot
plushie!" he exclaimed as he saw the plushie he gave me on my bed. "Are you taking good
care of him, Daki-chan?"

"Of course, I do. I make sure to keep him clean. I even sleep beside him."

"Really? I wish I could switch places with him," I heard the redhead said as he grabbed the
futon.

The thought of sleeping beside Satori suddenly came into my mind and it was so
embarrassing.

"Aw, c'mon! You already slept beside him when you watched that Shounen Jump movie
adaptation at the theatre," my mind reminded me.
"So... What are we gonna watch?" he asked as he set the futon on the space between my
bed and the vacant bed, making me come back to reality.

"I'm... I'm planning on watching The Ring," I answered as I located the movie file in my
laptop.

"Oohhh... Watching a horror movie on a Christmas night..." he commented as he sat on the

futon, his back resting on the side of my bed.

"Yup," I said as I put the laptop on the vacant bed and pressed play. "Have you watched this
already?" I asked as I sat beside him.

"Yeah. It's scaaarrrryyyyy~~~" he emphasized it with hand gestures.

"Alright, alright. I guess it's right to not watch this alone. Good thing, I invited you over."

He laughed. "We'll see about that."

Minutes into the movie, I took my words back. It was not a good thing to invite Satori while
watching the movie. Whenever the suspense is so high, he'd suddenly scream or make
these sort of noises that'll frightened the shit out of me.

"Satori!" I slightly hit him whenever he does that and he would just laugh at my response.

I was just glad that he doesn't do it during calm moments or when there are a whole lot of
monologues. It was quiet whenever the characters are busy talking to each other... Quiet like
I could just sleep...

Without even realizing it myself, I did fell asleep.

Satori, on the other hand, noticed that I already dozed off. My head was resting on his
shoulder as he watched the movie and saw Sadako went out of the well and went out of the
TV.

"Eeeee..... Scary....." he grumbled.

He shifted his eyes and just found himself smiling as he saw my sleeping face on his
shoulder.

"You know... Even though the movie is pretty scary, I think Sadako is cute... But you're a
whole lot cuter, daki..." he whispered as he tucked some of my hair strands behind my ear.

Before I even knew it, my eyes slowly opened and saw the familiar ceiling of my room. It was
already morning and I noticed that I was lying on my bed.

"Eh?"
I abruptly sat up, looking around the room. I was alone with my last night's clothes still on, no
futon, my laptop was back on my desk, and the mascot plushie was on the vacant bed,
facing towards me as he sat on a piece of paper.

Standing, I grabbed the paper and read the message:

Ohayou, daki-chan!

I moved you to your bed and tidy the place up. I asked the mascot plushie to look out for you
as you sleep and I headed back to my room.

- Satori

I can't help but smile at the piece of paper. I don't know why but it made me feel giddy.

Going to the bathroom, people were looking at me. The other one snickered as I passed by.

"Is there something on my face?" I asked myself as I touched my face and saw a black
smudge against my hand. "There is!!!" I internally screamed upon realization.

I ran to the bathroom, looked in the mirror and saw my face full of random drawings.

"Shit!" I cursed as I was so embarrassed walking on the corridor with these markings all over
my face. "Satori!!!!!" I screamed the name of the person responsible for this as somewhere
inside the dorm, he was looking at the picture of my scribbled sleeping face on his phone
and he was grinning like an idiot.

"Anyway, just skate and have fun!" I told him as I slightly pushed him, making him lose his
balance as he moved on ice.

Due to his quick reflexes, he was able regain it fast. "What was that for?"

"You better start skating, Satori, or else I'm gonna keep pushing you until you fall," I teased
him as I slowly approached him.

He grinned. "Not if I can make you fall first," he teased back.

With that, I became the hunted. We were skating round and round the rink. Satori was going
after me as I gingerly avoided the people skating along with us.

"Damn your quick reflexes!" I shouted as he swiftly dodged from one person to another,
laughing as the gap between us was fastly decreasing.

"Get ready to fall hard on the ice, daki-chan!" he warned me as his hands were were just
inches away from me.

"Shiiiittttt!!!!!!" I squealed, but then...

"yeah! I overshot!!!" Satori yelled as he went right passed me.

He was going so fast and I just laughed at him.

Before we even knew it, we were lost in the moment. It was just the same as usual---
teasing, joking around, laughing, but on ice.

Taking a selfie, I decided to post it on social media.

Suddenly, Satori's phone vibrated as he just got out of the toilet. Looking at his phone, he
saw his Jump buddy posted a selfie, saying:

Will I finally found the one who'll make me unable to neglect Life and Love?

"That reference..." he thought as he chuckled at the caption. "So that's why we're here," he
said as he grinned.

Taking my time, I skated slowly around the rink as I waited for Satori to come back. I
watched the people around me. Usually, they're all skating near the edge of the rink. There
was one who was skating like he was performing a program at the center.

"So good..." I thought to myself as I can't do what that guy was doing.

Suddenly, I heard my phone rang a notification. I stopped to take a look at the new comment
on my recent post.

You already found him... He's standing right in front of you...

My heart skipped a beat as my eyes widened at what I read, and my immediate impulse was
to tore my eyes away from my phone and look in front of me. I saw him... The middle blocker
who was responsible for the comment was smiling so casually at me...

"Satori... ----------"

He suddenly started to skate. I laughed out loud as he was doing an awful impersonation of
a certain character. Satori's moves were quirky yet I just can't help myself but join him on his
antic.

"You're doing it wrong, you know!" I told him.

"You're also doing it wrong, Daki!" he responded.

We both laughed as we did a bad impersonation of a paired skating program and people
were looking at us weirdly.

Suddenly, the redhead grabbed my hand and skated so fast, dragging me along with him.
"Oh no! No, no, no, no!!! Don't you dare, Satori!!!!!" I told him as I realized what he was
about to do.

Then he let go of my hand, making me skate with so much speed.

"Eeeee!!!!!!!!!!" I squealed as people were hurriedly getting out of the way.

As I was nearing the edge of the rink, I tried to turn but I was going too fast. I won't be able
to finish turning on time.

"Cheers!" we shouted as we were raising our glasses full of fruit juices.

We were having a mini New Year's Eve party in the dorm. It was all unplanned. Keigo finally
came back and brought some osechi ryori from home. Satori, Ushijima-san and the rest of
the volleyball team were having some mochi and toshikoshi soba (year end soba), and
invited us over. In the end, we decided to share our meals with them.

"Seriously?! You guys made the mochi yourselves?!" I reacted.

"Yup!" Satori replied. "The mochi making actually became an intense battle of the century!!!"

"Oohhh... Intense battle of the century, huh? Do tell!" I said as if I really was into gossiping.

Grinning, he said, "As we were making it, we ended up comparing the way we strike the
mochi. And then Tsutomu challenged Wakatoshi-kun to see who's stronger between the two
of them!"

"No. You added fuel and set Goshiki on fire as you talked him into doing it, Tendou," Semi-
san corrected.
"My hands were clean on that, Semisemi," the redhead said as he raised his hands in
defense. "It was just an honest challenge to see whoever's stronger! Afterall, Tsutomu's
going to be the team's ace, am I right?" he asked the guy with a black bowl cut hair, his sly
grin was present as he wrapped his arm over Goshiki Tsutomu's shoulder.

I could literally see how the first year's eyes were burning as he heard what the middle
blocker said.

"Yes!" he was hyped up. "Ushijima-san! I wanna have another challenge with you! This time,
I won't lose!" Goshiki declared.

His overwhelming enthusiasm and simple-mindedness was returned by a short and simple,
"No," by the ace.

"Huh? Are you sca----------"

"I don't like wasting energy just as the year is ending," the ace interrupted Goshiki.

"Pfft! Got turned down so easily," the team's main setter, Shirabu Kenjirou, commented as
the soon-to-be-ace hopeful was ticked off.

"Anyway, aren't you guys going to visit the shrine?" Kawanishi Taichi asked.

"The shrine, huh? Hmm... I'm thinking of going on later days to avoid the crowd."

"Well, I'm going."

The guys were divided.

"How about you, keigo?" Satori asked my dear cousin.

"I'm planning on sleeping. I'll head to the shrine first thing in the morning," he answered.
"How about you, Tendou-san?"

"Me? Hmm... I'm planning on going but around 4:00AM, maybe?" the redhead wasn't sure
about the time. "How about you, daki-chan?"

"The same as keigo. I'm pretty sleepy, afterall," I responded as I fought against my impeding
yawn.

Minutes later, I excused myself as I noticed how drowsy I was. I wanted to stay a whole lot
longer with the guys but I just can't help it anymore.

"I need my beddddd....." I internally groaned as I've reached my room.

Flopping on my front, the comfort of my bed welcomed me so warmly. The coziness made
me succumb into a deep slumber in no time.

A loud thud, accompanied by the sudden pain all over my body, made me snap out of my
dreamless sleep.

"Argh... Ah..." I groaned as I realized that I've fallen out of my bed. "Why didn't you catch me,
huh?" I absent-mindedly complained against the mascot plushie as I saw him peeking on the
edge of my bed.
I sluggishly got up and saw my bedside clock flashing 3:48AM. The date was 1st of January.

Letting out another groan, I went out of the room as I rubbed the back of my head. I went out
to use the toilet and as I was doing my business, I heard a faint noise that made me all
tingly.

"What the---------- The faucet?"

I was listening to the faint sound of it but how come the faucet turned on when I was
supposed to be all alone?

My gulp was audible and my skin hair was starting to stand up. After flushing, I slowly got out
of the cubicle, looking so warily around me, and found out that there was no faucet running.
However, the sound of it was still there.

Cowardly, I sprung out of the toilet and noticed that the lights of the boys' toilet was on, then
off and was turned on once again. Getting so spooked, I tried to ran my way back to the
safety of my room, but I was petrified, especially after the lights went off once again.

A figure went out of the boys' toilet and I was shaking uncontrollably, making me fall down
on the ground.

"Aaahhhh----------"

My scream was immediately muffled with two big hands.

"Ssh, ssh! Keep it down, daki-chan. It's me," he tried to calm me down and I was starting to
do just that when I recognized his familiar voice.

Taking his hands off me, still on his knees to look directly at me, I told him, "Satori, you
scared the shit out of me! I thought you were a ghost!"

He laughed at me. "Seriously? That's the first thing you say to me this year?I'm hurt, daki-
chan!"

"Well, I almost had a heart attack!" I retorted.

Offering his hand, the middle blocker asked, "Can you stand up?"

"Yeah," I replied as I took his hand.

As we both slowly got up, he grabbed my shoulder with his free hand to aid more support.
Leaning in, he blew on my ear and it brought shiver down to my spine.

"Satori!" I slightly hit him and he just laughed.

"Anyway, you going back to sleep?" he asked as we started walking the hallway.

"Nah. I'm too wide awake to go back to sleep right now, thanks to you," I told him.

"Then, wanna come with me?"

"Where?" I asked him and the redhead just raised his eyebrow. "Right... The shrine..." I
answered my own question.

"You'll come with me or not?"

Grinning widely, I happily responded, "Of course, I will!"

It took a while before we set out. The shrine was a bit far from the dorm but the two of us
decided to walk our way there. We were not in a rush. We leisurely took our time, feeling the
New Year breeze creeping on our skins.

Even before we reached the torii gate of the shrine, the volume of people was already
massive.

"Wow... So many people..." I said as I kept bumping over the crowd.

I noticed how the redhead wrapped his arm over my shoulder, pulling me closer to him as
we walked through the sea of people. Reaching the altar, we both made our respective
prayers. Afterwhich, we got our fortune told to us by drawing omikuji.

I gasped as I looked at my fortune. "Daikichi! Man, I should go and buy some lottery tickets!"
I was so happy that I got an excellent luck: the greatest blessing. "How 'bout you, Satori?"

"Wakatoshi-kun! Gimme back my Jump already!" I suddenly heard as I was walking in the
hallway, stopping to watch the redhead middle blocker as he was standing on the open door
of the ace's room.

"But I still haven't finished yet. I'm currently reading 'how to keep hair cottony soft',” I heard
Ushijima-san answered.

"You're reading the ads again?! As I've told you, you can just skip that and read the manga,
ya doof!"
I can't help but laugh at what I'm listening.

"Oh. Daki-chan, you're here!" Satori was still as lively as he can be.

“Yo, Satori!” I greeted him as I went beside him.

“daki-chan! Wakatoshi-kun won't give me back my Jump! It's nearly a week!” the redhead
whined.

“I told you, I still haven't finished yet,” Ushijima-san responded as I saw him sitting on his
bed.

“You don't have to read the advertisements, you know!”

“It won't hurt to read them."

"Oh my gosh, he's such a dork..." I thought as I giggled.

"He always does this," Satori told me. "Anyway, you're going tomorrow, right, Wakatoshi-
kun?"

"Yeah," the ace simply answered.

"Tomorrow? Where?" I asked, noticing that Ushijima-san continued reading the magazine.
"Since it was already announced that classes will be suspended tomorrow due to heavy
snow, we're planning on playing some volleyball at the gym," Satori replied. "daki-chan,
wanna come with us?"

"Eh? Can I?"

The redhead happily nodded. "You can bring c/n to play with us, too! It's not like an official
practice or a game so we're a bit short on players," he said. "Wakatoshi-kun! That won't be a
problem, right?"

"No, it won't," another short answer from the reading ace.

"I still have to ask Keigo, though," I told them.

"Great! I'll come with you," Satori said.

With that, the two of us headed towards c/n's room. As we were walking, I can't help but
notice that my heart was beating fast.

"Calm down, will you? Why are you so nervous, anyway?" I internally asked myself despite
knowing the answer. "It was just on the cheek! Just a friendly gesture like those in foreign
countries!"

"By the way, Daki-chan," those words brought me back to reality. "We were supposed to
have a new seating arrangement tomorrow during our homeroom," Satori said.

"Really? I guess it'll be fun to exchange seatmates once in a while," I can't help but stutter as
I averted my eyes, not looking directly at the redhead.
Noticing the faint blush I have, Satori told me, "I wanna end up sitting right next to you."

Failing to hide it any longer, the shade of pink on my face became so clear.

"Why? I-I-Is it because we can s-secretly talk about Jump series d-during classes?"

"Nope. I just wanna be there right beside you as much as possible, Daki," he told me as he
had that smile of his. "Besides, you like me that much. You said so yourself," he grinned.

I was burning red. "I didn't----------"

"You chose me over those two choices that I gave, remember?" he was talking about the
time when I got slight blisters from the ice rink.

"Satori, that was----------"

I was about to retort but I suddenly lose my footing. Before I even knew it, I was starting to
fall down the stairs. Thankfully, Satori was able to pull me hard into his body and held me so
firmly.

"Shit, Daki! Are you okay?" the redhead asked me, his eyes filled with worry.

It was a rush. I was panting as I was still processing what just happened.

"That's right... We were about to go d-downstairs to keigo's room..." I was finally able to
recall.

"That's right. You should pay more attention to where you are going or else you'll get hurt,"
he told me with a little mix of playfulness.

I chuckled in response. "Yeah, yeah, I will, Satori."

"But I don't mind being your knight in shining armor, Daki... Saving you from time to time..."

The way he spoke those words... The way he looked at me... The way he held me so
tightly... The way our faces were so near as he tucked some of my hair strands behind me
ear...

All I could do was softly say his name as my heart was pounding so hard, I bet he could feel
it against his chest.

"Daki... You don't know how much you look cute, especially when you blush like this..."

That's when I realized that I was actually as red as a tomato.

"Satori, thank you for saving me. We should get going," I said, not daring to look at him while
trying to break free from his arms but he was far too strong.

"Tell me, Daki..." he said as he put his fingers on my chin, making me look directly at his
magnetic dark red eyes. "Back then, would you have preferred it more if the kiss was on
your lips?" his voice was deep as he asked me.

It felt like I was gonna fall down on the abyss of his eyes and voice.

"And I wouldn't mind..."

Slowly, I nodded and softly whispered, "Yes..." as I didn't broke the eye contact that we
have.

Leaning in, Satori closed the distance between the two of us. Inch by inch, millisecond by
millisecond, it felt like forever before our lips touched...

Or so I thought...

Just before the moment of contact, I found myself sluggishly opening my eyes and saw the
familiar ceiling of my room.

"A dream, huh?"

Well, not really.

The recent discovery I learned about Ushijima-san's advertisement reading and the
upcoming play were all real. Keigo was even excited as it's been a while since he last played
volleyball. He was once a member of his middle school VBC, afterall.

However, the part where I nearly fell down the stairs and so on were just a dream.

"A very shoujo manga-like dream scenario..."

Groggily, I stretched out and started up my day.

After hours and hours of procrastinating, I finally decided to head out and go to the gym.
Snow was pouring down and I was shivering along the way.

Upon arrival, I could hear the ball smacking down the floor.

"Nice one, Ushijima-san!" I heard c/n complimented the ace as I entered the gym.

"Nice receive earlier," he complimented him back.

"Dammit!" I saw Goshiki as he was one the other side of the court.

The game went on.

"You're here, Reeis-san," Ohira-san was the only one who noticed that I arrived.

"Ohira-san, you're not playing?"

"Nope. I actually arrived here not too long ago and they were already playing to their hearts
content."

"Where are the others?" I asked as I realized that it was a 3-on-3 game between the
Ushijima-Semi-keigo team against the Tendou-Shirabu-Goshiki team.

"Couldn't make it because they already made plans."

"Ah... Is that so?"

I continued to watch the boys play, along with Ohira-san. As they were playing, I can't help
but be amazed by their strengths. Even keigo was actually able to keep up with them.

"Well, at least, he's trying to."

Rallies went on and on. The more I watch them play, the more I realized that my eyes were
actually trailing just a single player on the court. I watched him tease and provoke his
opponents and even his teammates. I watched him jumping around like a kid but blocking
the ball befitting to his title, namely the Guess Monster.

"Yay! I finally blocked another spike from you, Wakatoshi-kun!" he teased.

"I see," the ace was as stoic as ever.

I actually like seeing Satori like this. The expressions he's making as he plays volleyball
were filled with fun and happiness. It's so contagious, it's making me feel happy to see him
smile and laugh like that.

Time passed by and they finally called it a day. They were pretty tired but it was all worth it
for them.
While walking back to the dorms, there was still no end to the amount of snow falling to the
ground.

"Thanks for letting me play with you guys!" keigo told them.

"No problem! It was fun!" Satori happily responded. "Daki-chan, did you have fun?" he
suddenly asked me.

"Of course, I did!" I replied. "You guys were so cool, except for daki."

"What?!" my dear cousin reacted to my tease.

"They kept making these awesome spikes and blocks but yours were not flashy at all," I told
keigo.

"I dare you to say that again, Daki!" he told me as he sneakily made a snowball.

"Sure! I said, your moves were not flashy at----------"

My reflexes saved me from the incoming snowball courtesy of keigo.

"Hahaha... Missed!" I told him.

"Okay, now, you've done it!" a dark aura was surrounding Semi-san as he was the one who
actually got hit by the snowball that I dodged.

Because of this, all hell broke loose. We were having an intense snowball fight. Continuous
snowballs were pounding against our bodies, not wanting to take it easy on throwing them.

It was chaos! It was fun! One thing's for sure. Our hearts will definitely be pounding against
our chest after this vigorous fight that we have.

--------------------

"Daki, are you sure you're alright?" the manager of my workplace asked me.

"Yeah, I'm fine! Just a little tired from school but I'm fit to work, ma'am!" I responded.

Her eyebrow rose in question. "Your face is already red even though you haven't even
started to work."
"Busted..."

I wasn't actually feeling well but I just bore with it. I still went and attended school. I even
decided to go to work.

I just sighed. "How can I persuade you to change your mind, kageshi-san?" I asked my
manager, knowing that she won't let me work for today.

"You can't," she answered. "Besides, your boyfriend's already here to pick you up," she
suddenly told me as she pointed behind me.

"Eh?" I reacted as I turned around and saw my jump buddy.

"Oh, don't mind me. I'm just a stalker," Satori said as he grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"Yeah, I definitely noticed your reference, Satori..."

"Yeah, stalker, whatever,"kageshi-san waved it off. "Anyway, just go home and take a rest.
Come back here when you're finally feeling better, okay?" she told me.

"Okay..." I replied. Walking towards the redhead, I asked him, "You were following me?"

"Pretty much," he admitted. "Our new seating arrangement might've put me so far away from
you, but I noticed that something was off about you. I got worried."

My heart skipped a beat at his last three words.

"I'm fine. Just a little under the weather, that's all," I told him.

And then his forehead touched mine.

"Yup. Definitely hot, alright," he said, talking about my temperature.

"Gosh, our faces are so near!" I internally screamed as the blush either camouflaged to my
already red face or turned it to a deeper shade.

He then backed away and said, "Anyway, let's go back to the dorms, shall we?" and I just
nodded.

Snow was falling as we walked. We had to share my umbrella as the redhead forgot to bring
his. With Satori holding the umbrella as we continued walking, it can't be helped but we kept
grazing at each other's shoulder. Each contact would make my heart beat faster.

"Why am I so nervous? It's not like I never had any physical contact with him before..."

"Yeah. That includes the kiss on your cheek," my technical side of my brain reminded me
and I blushed.

I slowly looked at the middle blocker beside me to see if he saw me blushed and was caught
on fire as he caught me looking at him.

"You're so cute when you blush like that," he told me and I was as red as a tomato.
Minutes later, we have arrived at the dormitory and he took me to my room.

"Thank y----------"

"I'll be right back," he suddenly cut me off and ran.

With that, I flopped down on my bed. My body felt hot and heavy. My head felt like it's gonna
crack wide open. My eyelids felt so heavy, it wanted to shut off my eyes.

"Argh, I hate getting sick..." I groaned.

After few minutes of laying down, I realized that I was still wearing my outdoor clothes, so I
decided to change into my indoor ones.

"Daki-chan, I brought you some----------"

"Shit!" we both cursed at the same time as Satori went back out and closed the door while I
tried to cover my still exposed skin.

"Shit, he just saw me half-naked!" I was feeling so embarrassed.

Hurriedly, I finished changing clothes. I took a deep breath before saying, "You can come in
now, Satori..."

It took a few seconds before the door went open.

"I brought you some medicine and water. I also brought soup," I heard him say as my eyes
averted his gaze.

"Thank you, Satori... You shouldn't have----------"

"I want to spoil you, remember? Let me take care of you... At least for tonight..." I could hear
the seriousness behind his words.
I couldn't help but just nod. I looked at him and saw him smiling at me. I smiled back at him
as I sat down on my bed.

"Now then," he said as he sat down beside me. "Open wide, Daki-chan! Say 'aahhh'!" he
treated me like a toddler as he put a spoonful of soup in front of me.

"I'm not a kid, you know!" I told him.

"C'mon now! Here comes the choo-choo train!" he continued.

"Satori!" I slightly hit him and he just laughed. "I can eat it by myself."

"I know you can, but that's not an option, Daki-chan," he told me as he put the spoonful of
soup back to the bowl.

"Then what are the options?"

"To let me spoon feed you or to let me kiss feed you."

I was baffled at the second choice. "Wait... Kiss feed? Doesn't that mean... chewing the food
by the first person then letting the other person eat the chewed food?"

"Eewww... That's so gross, Satori!" I told him and his eyes widened at the realization.

"Oh shit, you're right! It is gross! I didn't thought this through!"

I laughed at his reaction.

"Or maybe I did," he added and my laughed died. "I'll actually do it if you want me to," he
said.

"Seriously?!"

He nodded. "Or maybe I added that option to force you into choosing the spoon feeding
option."

"Gosh, he's playing mind games!"

I tried to take the bowl of soup from him but he distanced it away where I can't reach it.

"We could do this all night or we could end up spilling it all over the bed," he told me.

"Argh, fine! Spoon feed!" I gave up.

"Yeheeyyy!!!!!" he was so happy as he once again put a spoonful of soup in front of me.

I playfully glared at him and ate. "This is so embarrassing..." I said after a couple of spoons.
"There's no need to be embarrassed. It's just the two of us, Daki."

And the door opened right after he said that.

"O... kay..." keigo reacted when he saw the redhead spoon feeding me.

"I'm sick!" I told him as I was feeling so abashed.

"I'm her personal nurse on duty," Satori said.

"I'm just here to ask something but... Nevermind. It's not that important, anyway," keigo said
and closed the door.

I was still flustered about what just happened but then Satori went back to saying "aahhh..."
and I just grabbed the bowl, along with the spoon to feed myself. He was amused as he
watched me ate while being playfully sulking.

Afterwhich, I took the medicine and settled down.

"Get some rest. Sleep tight," the redhead told me as he tucked me in.

"Thank you, Satori. Seriously," I smiled at him.

"No need to thank me. Afterall, I wanna take care of you, keigo ," he smiled back at me and
it made my heart skipped a beat. "By the way, I still have to give you one more medicine."

"Oh."

I was about to sit up when Satori leaned in and planted a soft kiss on my forehead.

It caught me by surprise. I don't know why but... It made me feel like... The kiss showed me
that... He really cares so much about me... Like the kiss that Satori's giving me now is
intimate... Much more intimate than the last one...

He stood back up. "That was a kisspirin," he tried to humor me.

Heat was creeping on my face as he turned around to leave.

"Wait, Satori!"

He stopped walking but didn't faced me back.

"C'mon now, Daki. Do it! Say it! Tell him! Ask him!" my internal thoughts kept telling me as I
tried to speak, but I couldn't find the right words. I just end up stuttering incomprehensible
words.

"You wanna tell me something?" he asked.

"Yes..." I was finally able to respond comprehensively.

With that, he finally turned and walked back towards me. Crouching on my bedside, he
asked, "What is it?"

Since actions speak louder than words, I leaned towards Satori and gave him a gentle kiss
on his cheek. I just hoped that I was able to convey how I deeply appreciate everything that
he's doing for me.

I was blushing hard and the redhead didn't moved for a second as I noticed that he was
actually blushing, too.

"So cute..." before I even knew it, I actually said it out loud and the middle blocker heard it so
clearly.

He stood up and disheveled my hair for a bit. "Good night, Daki..." he said as he smiled at
me.

"Good night, Satori..." I smiled back at him.

With that, the redhead finally left and all I could do was grab my pillow, holding it so tightly as
I squealed against it, muffling my high-pitched noise.

"Daki-chan!" my dear cousin sing-sung, teasing me with that grin of his.

"Stop that, keigo. It doesn't suit you," I told him, talking about the way he's calling me.

"Oh, I get it! You only want Tendou-san to call you that! I understand, Daki."

Blushing, I reasoned, "I-It's not like he's the only one who calls me that! Some of our
relatives call me that, too!"

"Yeah, yeah," he deadpanned. "Oh. Tendou-san!" he suddenly called as he stopped walking

and waved his hand.
"Satori?!" I was surprised as I hurriedly hid behind keigo.

But then my dear cousin's grin just grew wider and he laughed. "Got ya!"

I slightly hit him. "You idiot! You tricked me!"

"So..." I can clearly hear the amusement in his voice. "Why are you avoiding him, eh, Daki?"

My face reddened. "I-I wasn't!" I told him as I started walking once again.

Following me, keigo said, "You're not fooling me. You just hid behind me."

"Oh, did I?" I was being sarcastic.

"C'mon now, Daki. It's obvious that you like Tendou-san," that statement just lit my face on
fire.

I didn't respond. I didn't looked at keigo and just kept walking.

"Oh. Tendou-san!" I once again heard keigo called.

"keigo, you're not gonna fool me this time," I told him.

"Daki-chan!"
I jolted as I never thought the day would come when the sound of my own name from a
certain redhead would accelerate my heartbeat.

"Yo, Satori!" I stuttered as I saw him approaching.

"I brought some ice cream. You guys wanna eat with me?" the redhead asked.

"Ice cream~~~?" my eyes sparkled as my love for ice cream was as broad as daylight.

"Eating ice cream while the weather's still cold? Nah, I'll pass," keigo replied.

"Me, me! I wanna eat ice cream!" I raised my hand.

"Really?" the redhead beamed.

"You two can watch a movie as you eat ice cream," he suggested, a grin was noticeably
present on his face.

"Yeah, that's a great idea! Daki-chan, let's go watch at your room!" Satori said as he
suddenly grabbed me and dragged me.

"Eh?! Wait a sec, Satori!" I told him but he was deaf to my plead.

Before I even knew it, we've arrived in my room.

"Yay! A movie date with Daki-chan!" he beamed and I blushed at his choice of words.

"What do you wanna watch? Some horror? Action? Comedy?" I stammered as I cleaned the
room for a bit.

"How 'bout some romance?" I didn't expect that.

I turned to look at the middle blocker and saw him wearing his usual grin as he looked back
at me after grabbing the futon from my cabinet.

"I didn't know you were into that stuff," I told him.

"Not really," he admitted. "But if you wanna watch some romance movie, I wouldn't mind," he
smiled and my heart skipped a beat.

"Is that so? Then... Any recommendations?" I asked as I grabbed my laptop from my desk.

Satori gave me a movie title as he set up the futon. The movie came out several years ago
but the both of us still haven't seen it.

"Good thing I was able to grab a copy of this few days ago," I said as I put the laptop down
the vacant bed.

"Here ya go," the redhead told me as he passed me an ice cream container.

"Waahhh... It's my favorite flavor!" I exclaimed as I took it and sat right beside him.

"Really? Then I chose the right one! I guessed it right!" he said as if he had hit the jackpot of
the lottery.
And then I saw his ice cream flavor.

"He likes chocolate ice cream, huh?"

Minutes into the movie, we both were making fun at some scenes as we ate the ice creams.
We started making up some dubs over the characters' voices.

Midway into the movie, we started sharing each other's ice cream as we both found
ourselves cringing at some cheesy scenes.

Later on the movie, both of our eyes widened at the particular scene.

"Oh no... No, no, no, no, no..." my face was so hot at what we were watching, I ended up
using the mascot plushie to cover my eyes.

"Oh yes... Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes..." the redhead was amused at my reaction.

"Kill it, Satori!" I exclaimed.

"And stop all the fun? No way!" I could hear the high amount of tease being laced in his
voice.

"Satori!" I urged him as the voice coming out from the speaker was making me redder and
redder.

"Alright, alright!" he gave in and finally stopped the movie and closed my laptop. "There! I
finally killed the electronic beast, your Highness," he bowed as if like a knight.

"Oh, thank God," I released a sigh of relief.

I heard him chuckled. "You're not gonna finish the movie?"

"Nah. After that s---------- A-After that particular scene, I bet that the heroine will found out
that the protagonist actually have a disease and he's dying from it. She'll choose to stay but
he'll end up pushing her away, saying that she deserves to find someone who'll make her
happy and it wasn't him. They'll break up but the power of love will bring them back
together... only to break it once and for all as the protagonist will die, leaving the heroine and
their soon-to-be-born child behind."

"Oohhh... That's so sad, Daki-chan. Wait, you said you haven't seen the movie!"

"I haven't! I'm just following the usual imminent pattern that this kind of movie has. What I've
just said was just a guess, Satori."

"A guess, huh? Are you trying to take away from me the title of being the Guess Monster?"
he was grinning.

Grinning back, I responded, "Only one way to find out."

We searched the internet about the movie's summary. It turns out, I was right.

"Ha! I knew it! I guessed it right!" I exclaimed.

"Woah! Your Highness! You're the real deal!" Satori kneeled.

I laughed. "That's right, you peasant! Bow down before me!" I rode along with his
shenanigan.

"I will serve you with all my might. I will worship you always, Daki," those sentences coming
out from his mouth made blush.

I don't know why but... It felt like his playful tone was coated with seriousness, especially the
way his dark red eyes bore into my e/c ones. It made me feel like... he just released an
earnest vow... and my heart was pounding so hard against my chest.

That night, I couldn't sleep properly. I kept thinking about it. I kept asking myself whether he
meant it or not. I was making a big deal about it.

"C'mon now, go to sleep. Sleep, daki. You need to sleep," I told myself as I kept tossing
round and round on my bed until I was able to force myself to do just that.

The next day, school went on as usual. Classes just flew by one after another. After school, I
immediately went to do my part-time job. For today, I decided to do overtime. I stayed to
work until my workplace closed.

Around 10:00PM, I was finally able to walk back to the dorms. The streets were pretty quiet.
The only people I saw around me were a group of three men walking towards me and a
woman walking several feet in front of me. As I passed by the group of men who were being
loud, I noticed one more thing: they reek of alcohol. I just continued walking until...

"Hey, you!" one of them called out to me and before I even knew it, the three of them had me
trapped against the wall with a few feet of distance between us. "You have something of
mine, missy! Hand it over!" he demanded.

"Hand what over?" I was getting afraid as I didn't knew what he was talking about.

"His wallet, dammit! You stole it from him just now!" his friend responded.

"What?! I didn't do that!" I told them.

"Then who did, huh? Besides us, you were the only one walking here!" the other one
retorted.

"That's not true! There's a lady walking in fro----------" I was stopped as I no longer saw the
woman in her direction. Now, I really am alone with these three and they've wrongly accused
me of stealing the guy's wallet.
"Give it back!"

"Return it, unless you want something bad to happen to you!"

"Shit, I'm scared! I'm fucking scared!" I internally admitted as I tried my best to pull myself
together.

"I told you, I don't have it! I didn't stole it!" I even turned by pockets inside-out as proof to
them.

"Where is it, huh?!" he asked as they started to make a move towards me. "Where did you
hide my fucking wallet, you bitch?!"

And then we suddenly got interrupted by a song. I recognized the song that we were
hearing. It was an OST of an anime adaptation of a Shounen Jump series.

Looking at the direction of where the song was coming from, we saw a redhead walking
towards us as he was happily singing it. It didn't even seemed like he noticed what was
happening as he walked passed through us.

"Satori?" I called out.

"Oh. Daki-chan, you're here!" he responded as he stopped walking.

He was looking lively as if he hasn't read the current situation that he just stumbled. I looked
at the group of three loud and drunk men and they were clearly ticked off by the sudden
appearance of the middle blocker. It just added into their rage.

And with that, danger was imminent.

--------------------

"Satori?" I called out the redhead as he passed through us like he didn't even noticed what
was happening.

"Oh. Daki-chan, you're here!" he responded as he stopped walking.

"What are you----------"

"It was getting late and you were still not back. I got worried so I decided to look for you at
your workplace."

"I was on overtime so----------"

"Hey, hey! Who's this guy, huh?!" the two of us were suddenly cut off. "Just what the hell's
your deal?!"

"Why are you butting into people's business?!"

"Stay out of this, boy! This doesn't concerns you!"

The three loud and drunk men were certainly teed off by the middle blocker's sudden
interference.

"If Daki's involved, then it always concerns me," I could hear the seriousness in Satori's
voice.

"Huh? You mean this thief?" the guy accusing me of stealing his wallet (let him be named
Guy1) suddenly grabbed my arm as I winced at the force of his grip, the redhead squinting
his eyes at the guy's action. "What are you? Her accomplice?!"

"Well, you could say that," Satori responded as he pinched above the bridge of his nose.

One of them (Guy2) scoffed. "You can still run away, you know. We only want her. We don't
need to deal with you, too."
"Oh, c'mon. You guys are pushing me away! I wanna have some fun with the three drunken
false accusing idiots," I could see a vein popped up on Guy1's forehead as we heard that.

"Satori!" I can't believe he's actually provoking them and spiralling things out of control.

"You talk like you're asking for a beating, you cocky bastard," Guy1 said as he suddenly
pushed me away, making me fall into the ground with a loud thud, not able to see the glare
that the redhead was giving him.

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" the other one (Guy3) reacted as their fumes were now
concentrated against the redhead. "You're just some tall matchstick who's gonna break so
ea----------"

"Keep on breaking them. What, you say?" Satori suddenly started singing and stopped. "No,
certainly not their hearts. There's only one of them," he stated and the look in his eyes
became belligerent. "Their bones. Every. Single. One. Of. Them," the redhead's voice was
getting more malicious at each word.

Guy1 clicked his tongue. "Why you!!!!" he shouted as he threw out the first punch.

The three of them ganged up on Satori as they fought. I watched as they released punch
after punch, kick after kick, hitting each other with all their might.

"I wanna help him... I've gotta help him..." I mustered my courage to stand up as my body
was still shaking.

But then I saw the way Satori was fighting. He may be outnumbered and their attacks may
be hitting him, but he wasn't going down. He was hitting them back, dominating them as his
dark red eyes were glowing like a predator on a pitch black night.
"He might actually... slaughter them..."

He looked like a beast who was getting out of control.

"Stop..."

He looked like a ghoul being delighted as he beat the shit out of his opponents.

"Stop it..."

They were being outmatched. The group of three drunk men were wheezing as they started
to fall back, the damage already been done by the redhead.

"M-Monster!!!" one of them shouted as they retreated.

The redhead's glare at them was threatening. There was blood on his cutted lip and some
bruises all over his face.

"Satori... Satori..." I called him.

His head snapped towards me as his eyes were fierce. He was looking at me so grisly, it
scared me. If looks could kill, I could've been dead by now.

Realizing the way he looked at me, his eyes became anxious and he averted his gaze.
"Shit..." he whispered underneath his breath as he turned his hands into fists, his knuckles
turning into white.

He saw it --- the fear in her eyes. His childhood memories came back... All those times when
people were creeped out by him... Those times when they avoided him... Those times when
he was an outcast --- all alone... And now he frightened her... He terrified her... He freaked
her out...
"Because I'm a monster..."

"Satori..." I called him as he started to step back.

I reached out to him but he ran away. I tried to follow him but I was no match to his
athleticism.

Ever since that night, I haven't seen the redhead as much as I used to be. It's like he's been
so distant. I only see him during classes. Whenever we passed each other, I tried to call him
but then the cat would always got my tongue. I always end up swallowing my words and he'd
just avert his gaze as he continued walking.

"I don't like this... It stings..." I thought as I clenched on my chest.

I stopped walking and turned to him. "Satori," I called out and he stopped walking. "Satori,
I---------- I just---------- Can we... talk for a bit?" I asked.

He turned around to face me. "Of course we can," he answered and gave me a faint smile.

Outside the dorm, the two of us were sitting on a bench underneath the starry sky. The
cheerful child-like middle blocker was replaced by an awfully quiet one.

"I..." I started to break the deafening silence between us. "I wanna say thank you, Satori.
You saved me that night."

"It was no big deal, Daki-chan," the tone in his voice was clearly off.

And the silence returned. I was the one who wanted to talk to him but now, I don't know what
to say. I can't even find the right words.

"You know, it's getting late. We should probably head back inside----------"

I suddenly grabbed his hand as he stood up. Even without any words, he knew that I wanted
him to stay.

"Aren't you afraid of me?" he asked.

"You're my Jump buddy. Why would I be afraid of you?"

"Aw, c'mon," he said as he broke free from my hold. "That night, I knew you were afraid of
me. I saw fear in your eyes, Daki."

"Yeah," I admitted. "I'm not even gonna deny it..."

"I knew it... I really did scared you..." the tone in his voice was distressing.
"Just like the recent New Year's," the redhead didn't expect that. "Back then, you scared the
shit out of me, remember?" recalling the time when I thought there was a ghost inside the
dorm.

"But that was different! Back then, it was----------"

"Satori, please listen," I cutted him off as I stood up. I looked him in the eye and said, "I know
you. You protect. You even saved me, Satori... That night, you may have been enraged but I
knew it was because you didn't want them to hurt me... and that just shows how much you
care for me... I deeply appreciate it..."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. He couldn't believe how someone could give him
such a warm and sincere smile.

Before I even knew it, his arms wrapped around me.

"Satori----------"

"All my life, I was being feared by the people around me," he said. "They say I'm weird. They
say I'm creepy. They say that I'm a monster... I don't care if that's how the world sees me.
I've already accepted that they keep their distance because they're freaked out of me. But
when it comes to you..." he tightened his hold around me, "Daki, I don't want you to be
scared of me. I don't want you to leave me."

"He was frightened..."

I didn't like seeing him like this. My heart felt like it shattered. It actually hurts me. I want him
to be happy. I want to see him smile.

"Because I..."

"Satori..." I called out his name as I hugged him back, comforting him. "I'll never be scared of
you. You're so cool, you're such a great person and I trust you. I won't leave you. I'll be right
here with you, Satori."

Our embrace got even tighter before we loosened it to look at each other. He transferred one
of his hand to cup my cheek and kissed me on the lips.

It took me by surprise. I was having a mental breakdown. It was like a multiple pop up of an
internet browser problem that went like...

Daki has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

My face was as red as a tomato as he pulled back and gave me a smile.

"I like you, Daki..." It was affectionate and his dark red eyes looked at my e/c ones so
earnestly.
My heart skipped a beat before I smiled back at him. "I like you, too, Satori..."

Slowly, we pulled each other into another kiss. It was so surreal. The way Satori's lips
touched mine... how soft they were... how they taste like... I was lost in that wonderful
moment with him even though it only lasted for a few seconds.

As we pulled away, we stared into each other's eyes, our bodies still pressed. We both
smiled and stay like that for a little longer before going back into the dorm to get some rest.

---------------------

I walked towards the gym and smiled as I heard the familiar sounds of loud calls, squeaking
shoes and booming spikes/blocks. I entered and saw the boys currently playing a rally.
Despite having their game faces on, the enjoyment of playing volleyball was clearly visible.

"Especially this slouchy guy..." I thought as I watched the redhead.

At that time, I wasn't aware that he actually saw me from the corner of his eye.

Running and jumping, Satori spiked the ball but Kawanishi-kun was able to one-touch it.
Goshiki-kun received it and Shirabu-kun tossed it right back to the aspirant future ace.
Goshiki-kun's spike was deflected by Semi-san. Before I even knew it, I felt a small pang as
the deflected ball hit my forearm.

"Wakatoshi-kun!" the redhead ran towards the ball and passed it to the left-handed ace.

Ushijima-san's strong spike was able to pass through Kawanishi-kun's block as Goshiki-kun
failed to save the ball.

"Yay! Nice, Daki-chan!" Satori merrily high-fived me.

"Yehey!" I celebrated along with him.

"Ah... Sorry to burst your bubble but it's still our point," Shirabu-kun said. "Reeis-san's not
part of the game. She's not a player," he pointed out.

"Shirabu's right," Ushijima-san said, just realizing that he actually didn't have to spike the ball
earlier.

"Aww... I thought they wouldn't noticed..." I playfully pouted.

"Yup. Me either," Satori agreed and we both grinned at each other.

"Seriously..." Semi-san just sighed.

"Reeis-san! Wanna play with us?" Goshiki-kun asked lively.

"Nah. I'm just here to pick up Satori," I answered.

"Ah, I'm jealous! Must be nice to have a girlfriend, right, Tendou-san?" Kawanishi-kun
teased.

Satori happily nodded. "She's the best," he said as he looked at me, giving me a smile and I
blushed.

The boys already knew that we were in a relationship. It's nearly been a week since they
learned about it.
Several minutes and teasings later, the two of us were walking down the road. We headed
downtown and ate dinner.

"Daki-chan," Satori called my attention as we were busy eating ramen. "Say 'aahhh...' " he
gestured to feed me a sushi.

I held out my hand, gesturing him to wait for a sec as I hurriedly swallowed the ramen in my
mouth.

"Do I really have to----------"

I was cut off as he shoved the sushi into my mouth and I gave him a slight elbow.

"That was rude, you know," I told him as I was still chewing the sushi.

"So is talking with your mouth full, Daki-chan."

I just playfully rolled my eyes and he just laughed.

After storing food into our stomachs, we walked to the next block.

"So, Daki-chan," Satori started. "Are you ready for the battle?"

I gave him a grin. "Always ready," I replied as we finally arrived at our destination.

The place we went in was so neat and bright but it was a battlefield.
"Everyone! Welcome to the annual Eat-all-you-can Ice Cream Challenge!!" the announcer
started the show.

Participating pairs have their own table. As the announcer continued to speak, the two of us
sat down and I kept giggling due to failure of containing my excitement, not noticing the
redhead looking at me with amused eyes.

"Now then, whichever pair eats the most number of ice creams will be this year's winner! Are
you guys ready?!"

"Yeah!!!"

"3... 2... 1... Go!"

The most anticipated winter ice cream bonanza in town has started and I'm actually
participating on it with Satori. We didn't really cared that much about the cash prize and
coupons. We just wanted to eat ice cream to our hearts' content.

"My stomach always have space for ice cream!"

Minutes into the dessert-eating spree, pairs have started to pull out from the challenge. As
for me and the redhead, we were still going like a train.

"Satori, say 'aahhh...' " I gestured and he immediately opened his mouth like a baby.

Feeding him with his favorite chocolate ice cream, I chuckled as I saw some of it smudged
around his mouth.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing," I told him as my grin towards the kid-like redhead in front of me was a wide as it
can be.

We continued eating ice cream, feeding each other from time to time until it became just a
plain mess.

"Satori, no!" I told him as he was about to feed me another spoonful of ice cream.
"Aw c'mon, Daki-chan! Don't be shy!" he told me along with that grin of his.

"I'm not being shy!"

"Then... 'Aahhh...' "

"No!" I squealed as he intentionally messed the ice cream all over my mouth. I just glared at
the laughing redhead.

Grabbing a spoonful, I messed the ice cream all over his face without any warning to take
revenge.

Satori licked some of the ice cream from his lips and it made me want to taste his mouth so
bad.

"Wait, what?!" I was caught off guard with my thoughts.

"Oh! Daki-chan's fighting back," he said, his eyes were full of playfulness as his grin grew
wide.

Grinning back, I told him, "I won't go down that easily, Satori."

Tossing table manners aside, we both grabbed ice cream by our hands and did a little food
fight in our table. We tried to smear the ice cream on each other's faces, laughing and
messing around as the people around us were not feeling our mischievousness.

Because of this, we were asked to stop and leave. We were out of the contest since we
were no longer eating to compete. We were playing around.

We laughed at the development of our day and decided to take a photo of our messy ice
cream-smeared face before cleaning up our faces and head back to the dormitory.

"It was so fun!" I exclaimed as we entered the dorm and walked through the hallway.

"It really was! Too bad we didn't win," Satori responded.

"Well, it's your fault for messing around, Satori."

"You messed around first, Daki-chan."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"No."

"Yes."
And we went on and on about it until we reached in front of my room laughing.

"Seriously, Satori. I had a great time," I told him as I grabbed the keys and opened the door.

The redhead grabbed my hand, telling me, "Whenever I'm with you, Daki, I always have a
great time," as he gave me a smile.

It made my heart fluttered and I couldn't help but smile back at him.

He cupped my cheek, his thumb touching my lips. I slightly parted them to call out his name
but in a blink of an eye, Satori's lips were already pressed against mine. I immediately gave
in to his soft, warm and gentle kiss.

"There were some ice cream smudge left on your lips," he reasoned as we parted.

Before he even knew it, I leaned into him and initiated another kiss. It was the same as
earlier but added with passion as I found my arms wrapping around his neck and his hands
on my waist.

"You don't have to create an alibi just to kiss me, Satori..." I whispered into his ear, letting
him know that I knew that there wasn't any smudge on my lips. I looked at him and smiled.

"You're right... I don't have to..." he said before crashing our lips once again.

This time, it was brimming with passion. As we moved into the room, our hands were busy
pulling into each other, not wanting to ever break this kiss. I gasped as my back pressed
against the recently shut door, giving Satori access to explore my mouth with his tongue.
The sweetness from the ice cream earlier was still evident in our mouths. Our bodies were
tightly pressed as the kiss became more intense, my hands were grabbing his hair as I
moaned at the sensation that he was giving me.

"Satori..." I breathed as the redhead trailed down kisses on my neck.

But then he stopped.

He looked at me with his red eyes which were darker than usual. His predatory stare has
captured me and I don't mind being his prey.

"Daki..." he called out my name and planted a kiss on my forehead. "I think I should go..."

"Eh?" I found myself dumbfounded, not knowing how to respond.

The redhead distanced himself as I moved away from the door.

"Satori..." I called out as he grabbed the doorknob, turning his head to face me.

"Stay..."
"Goodnight..." I stuttered, unable to say the single word that I wanted to tell him.

He gave me a small smile. "Goodnight, Daki..."

With that, Satori left me alone in my room and my knees buckled, making me sat on the floor
as my face heated like an oven and the beating of my heart all messed up.

---------------------

"Daki-chan! Valentine's day is only two days from now! You'll give me a chocolate, right? I'm
pretty sure it'll be handmade. Did you make one already?" I kept teasing f/n as we walked
down the school hallway.

"Satori, I don't know how to make chocolates," she told me.

"Eh?! Make one for me!" I was being stubborn, not believing what she have told me.

"No! Besides, I have shifts later and tomorrow. I don't have the time to make you one even if
I wanted to."

"Aww... Daki-chan, that's so mean! You don't even have time to make a chocolate for your
own boyfriend," I saw her blush at the last word that I uttered.

"It's not like that!" she stammered and I let out a chuckle.

"So cute..."

I lightly ruffled her hair. "I know, I know. I'm just messing with you," I assured her. "Anyway,
you're free on Valentine's, right?"
Daki merrily nodded. "That whole day, Satori, I'm all yours," she said and gave me a smile.

"She's all mine... God, I love the sound of that..."

"Just that day? How about tomorrow? How about the next days after that? Does that mean
that you're mine only on Valentine's?"

Her face reddened at my questions. "No! I mean----------I'm... your girlfriend so it's already a
given that I'm all yours, Satori... For as long as we have this kind of relationship..." her voice
was getting quieter as she averted her gaze but I heard it so clearly.

Daki never fails to make me all giddy inside and put a smile on my lips.

I pulled her and gave her a kiss on the forehead, making us stopped walking.

"Daki, you're so cute, you know that?" I said what's on my mind.

She hid her rosy face on my chest as she gave me a hug. "You're the one who's cute,
Satori," she told me and I couldn't help but chuckled as I hugged her back.

The day after that, I decided to give Daki a surprise visit on her workplace. I always pick her
up ever since that certain night but this time, I'm gonna be a customer.

"Or so I thought..."

"Satori?! What are you doing here?" she asked me as I was standing inside the 'employees
only' area of her workplace.
"Well... I wanted to eat here but there were too much people so I decided to lend you guys a
hand," I replied.

"Seriously?!"

"Your stalker-slash-boyfriend was kind enough to help us so I just let him. We need all the
manpower that we can get," the manager told me.

"Thanks for letting me work here temporarily,kageshi -san!" I told the female manager.

"Don't thank me yet. You still have work to do so chop-chop! You're in charge of serving the
orders and cleaning the tables," she gave me a task.

"Yes, ma'am!" I saluted her before heading out to do my duty.

The place was jam-packed with customers. Couples to be more specific. They were all on a
date, an advance celebration for tomorrow's Valentine's.

I was able to maneuver through the crowd as I deliver the dishes back and forth. That being
said, I was desperately holding back my drool. The customers kept ordering chocolate-
flavored foods and I was craving for all of them.

"Damn, I should've eaten first before deciding to help..."

"Satori!" amidst all the commotion around me, I heard my name being pellucidly called.
"Come here for a sec!" Daki told me as her hand gestured.
I did what I was told and gave her a grin. "What shall you acquire from me, Your Highness?"
I joked.

"Here," Daki said as she stuffed a chocolate munchkin in my mouth, her finger softly touched
my lips. "You're doing a great job, Satori," she praised me as she gave me a warm smile.

I grabbed her hand and licked the finger that had contact with my lips, making her gasp as
she blushed at my action.

"Satori----------"

"You should give me a reward, Daki," grinning as I told her, and kissed her hand before
resuming back to work.

I really love watching Daki blush. It makes her cuter that ever before. I just can't get enough
of teasing her, too. Aside from those, I also love the way I see her having fun. Even right
now, she's still having fun as she breaks a sweat.

"Her smile... is just so precious..." I thought as I saw Daki busy in the kitchen, seeing her
preparing a chocolate dish.

Minutes later, the number of customers finally subsided and Daki's shift was finally over.

"Thanks for working hard, Satori," she told me.

We were in the convenience store. The two of us were buying the latest edition of Shounen
Jump and she was eating pocky.

"Thanks for working so hard, too, Daki-chan!" I replied. "Now, where's my reward?"

She giggled as she finished chewing the stick. "What reward?"

"You know what I mean. We had a deal," I told her as I went closer.

She was blushing slightly as I grabbed a pocky stick from her opened box. I placed it in
between us, our mouths at both ends. Both of our eyes held each other as we slowly ate and
moved closer, pressing our bodies together until our lips touched. We started kissing as the
taste of pocky was still there.

"More..."

I wanted more as I pulled her by the waist and deepened the kiss, her arms around my neck
in response. I just couldn't get enough of her soft, sweet, plum lips, it's taste and how it was
amplified by the taste of the chocolate-dipped snack still lingering in our mouths.
"Two of my favorite flavors in one..."

"Oi, get a room, you two!" the storekeeper told us with a hint of playfulness in his voice.

It made us stop and brought back to the reality that we were not alone.

The walk back to the dorm was short yet warm as we held hands throughout the journey.
Daki invited me to have a cup of tea as a way of thanking me for helping earlier. Who was I
to decline?

Minutes upon staying in her room, our conversations were pretty random as usual, throwing
jokes one after another until we ended up reading Jump together. Before we even knew it, it
was already 1:23AM.

"So... It's getting late. I guess we should go to sleep now," I said as I noticed how she was
getting drowsy.

"Wait," she told me as she rummaged her bag. She took out a packed mini molten chocolate
lava cake.

My eyes widened. "Daki----------"

"Since it's already 14th of February, I want you to have this," she told me as she gave it to
me. "Happy Valentine's Day, Satori," she greeted me with such a warm smile.

"You made this?" I asked her.

She happily nodded. "I made it back at my workplace. I wanted to surprise you but then you
suddenly came and it became a bit of struggle to make this without you knowing about it."

I opened the packaging and realized that it was the chocolate dish that I saw Daki preparing
earlier.

I gave her a kiss before saying, "Thank you, Daki..."

"You're welcome," she responded with a smile.

"I'm so excited to eat my very first Valentine's chocolate!" I exclaimed as I grabbed the
disposable spoon.

"Aw c'mon. I'm pretty sure this is not your first one."

"It is!" I replied and started eating. "I never had anything like this before."

Her eyes widened for a second like she couldn't believe what she just heard.
It was true. I never received any Valentine's chocolate before. Only Wakatoshi-kun offers me
to give some of his chocolates in order for me to have some. Even though it's tempting, I just
have to turn down his generosity since it'll be rude to the girls who gave the chocolates to
him. I'm pretty sure he meant no disrespect. He was just being a good friend.

"Then, I'll make you some," I heard Daki said. "Anytime you feel like it, just tell me, Satori,
and I'll make some for you."

I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe how someone could be so kind-hearted like this... How
someone could have such an affectionate smile.

"I love you..."

Daki's face became as red as a tomato after I said those words. "Maybe I should keep
making you eat like this because----------"

"I'm being serious," I told her as I squeezed her hand, my dark red eyes staring at her
beautiful blue light ones. "I love you, Daki."

Her mouth gaped before it formed a lovely smile. "I love you, too, Satori..."

I can't help but smile back and kissed my cute Jump buddy slash beloved girlfriend once
again. The kiss became heated as it got longer. Our tongues were dancing, swirling around
in our mouths before moving downwards. I kissed her neck, nibbled against her soft skin and
earned a moan for my efforts.

"Satori..." she called out as one of my hands travelled from her waist up to her stomach,
slowly making it to her breast to give a gentle squeeze.

She gasped as I kneaded, feeling up her mound even with her shirt on. Her involuntary jerk
was telling me to touch more... to feel more... to do more...

"You're driving me crazy, Daki..." I whispered on her ear.

She moaned, "Satori..."

"God, I love the sound of that..."

My lips found their way back into hers, claiming her mouth over and over again as our hands
were all over ourselves, bodies melding to each other.

"More... More... I'm craving for Daki..."

I made sure to let her know what she was doing to my body. She pulled away as she
intensely moaned when I grinded myself to her, letting her feel how hard I was for her.

"Daki... Daki, tell me... Do you want this?" I asked her.

She whimpered in response. "Satori, I---------- Please... Please, I just----------"

"Yes or no?" I asked as I grinded once again, making Daki bite her lip before she released a
moan.

"Yes…"

"Yes..." that word escaped f/n's lips. "Satori, please... I want this... I want you..." she pleaded
to the redhead.

"Daki----------"

Just as Satori started to respond, he was hushed by Daki's lips. Her action made him sure
that she wanted this as much as he did. It was the invitation that he was seeking.

"Turn around," the middle blocker told her as their lips parted, panting for air.

Daki wasn't sure why she has to do that but she did what he asked of her. With her back in
front of him, Satori swiped her hair over her shoulder.

Leaning, the redhead asked, "Do you know what I'm gonna do to you, Daki?" making her
gasp as his warm breath reached her nape. "I'm gonna touch..." his hand creeped
underneath her shirt as she shivered against the contact, "...kiss..." his lips touched the base
of her neck as she bit her own, "...and taste every single inch of you, Daki..." she closed her
eyes as she released a moan when he nibbled on her sensitive flesh.

"S-Satori..." she called out his name as he slowly took off her shirt.

"You have no idea how much I want you... need you..." his voice was husky as her shirt
flopped on the floor.
Trailing kisses from her shoulders down to the expanse of her back, Satori moved to pull
down her pants.

Stepping out of them, Daki could feel the cold air of her room but it was nothing compared to
the heat that she was feeling.

Before she even knew it, the redhead turned her around, making her face him. She heard
him grunt as he saw her wearing only her black lacy lingerie.

"Stop staring at me like that!" Daki told him as she blushed out of embarrassment, not being
able to look directly in the eyes of the middle blocker.

Satori can't help but be mesmerized at the person in front of him. How could someone be so
damn cute and beautiful at the same time?

"There," that single word caught Daki's attention and that's when she realized that the
redhead had already taken off his shirt.

Her blue light eyes carefully scanned how gorgeous his body was. He was toned due to the
amount of time he played volleyball.

"And I wanna touch it..." she thought.

"Satori..." she called before giving him a small kiss.

After a mere second of pause, they found themselves devouring each other. Their tongues
were churning as they kissed so desperately.
Not realizing they were actually moving, Daki gasped as her back touched the wall with the
middle blocker pinning her.

"Satori..." she breathed as he kissed her jawline down to her neck.

She softly sighed as he left a trail of kisses over her shoulders after successfully taking her
bra off. One of his hands still pinned her against the wall as the other one travelled down to
give her breast a massage.

"A-Ahhh! Shit, Satori..." she was moaning as his mouth was busy licking and sucking her
nipple.

So immersed with his work, Satori let go of Daki's wrists to hold her waist tightly as the other
one continued on kneading her mound and pinching her nipple.

Feeling so good, all she could do was grab a fistful of his hair as she bit her lower lip so
hard.

But she wanted more... Needed more friction...

One of the middle blocker's knees was in between her legs and she used that opportunity to
satisfy herself. She moved her hips against the middle blocker's knee, making her still
clothed sex grind against him.

Satori could feel how wet she was even through his pants. He was already aching for her
and he wanted to take her then and there. Suddenly, Daki's knees buckled from all the
sensation and thankfully, he was able to catch her.

"Bed... Now..." his husky voice came out like a command.

He hoisted her, making Daki wrapped her legs around his waist and carried her to her bed.

As he gently laid her down, her head resting near the edge of the bed, Daki could clearly see
how those dark red eyes of his were filled with desire and lust. She doesn't know why but
she found herself being pulled even stronger by it, making her want to surrender herself to
him.

Kissing like there was no tomorrow, they looked at each other through their half-lid eyes.
Daki's hands travelled up and down his back to his tousled hair. One of Satori's hands was
busy sliding off her damp panties.

She shivered as his hand went between her thighs. She gasped as his fingers touched her
entrance, breaking their heated kiss.

"You're soaking wet already, Daki..." his voice was thick as he circled his fingers around her
entrance, making her whimper.

Satori licked off the juices on his fingers and f/n can't help but moan as she found his action
so sexy.

"Please, Satori..." she pleaded as she spread her legs.

Grinning at her bold move, he started working on pleasuring her down there.

"Nnnnn... A-Ah, shit... Fuck..." she kept moaning curses as the redhead's tongue was going
up and down her vulva and clit.

He doing it intensely. His tongue was tasting every single inch of her pussy but he wanted
more.

Before Daki even knew it, the middle blocker was able to change their positions. He was
now lying down while she was sitting on his face.

"Satori, this is----------"

Daki wasn't able to finish her sentence as she intensely moaned when his tongue entered
her. Gripping on the headboard like her life depended on it, good was an understatement to
what she was feeling. Sucking her clit from time to time, she was going crazy by how Satori
was increasing the pressure and speed of his actions. As her breathing and heartbeat
accelerates, she just couldn't take it anymore. She gave one last loud moan before reaching
her climax and squirted all over him.

He swallowed her seed and saw how spent she was when she finally got off him. He now
saw her lying on her back as her chest heaved and her eyes were covered with her arm.

"It's... I-It's not fair, you know..." she told him as she heard the unbuckling of his belt.
"What is?" the redhead asked as he finally stripped off his hard and aching member from the
binds of his pants and boxers.

"I... I just---------- I wanted to make you feel good, too..." her voice was barely audible but he
heard it clearly.

"Oh, Daki..." Satori said as he crawled on top of her. He cupped her cheek as she slowly
took off her arm to look at him and kissed her, making her taste herself through his mouth.
"You have no idea... how good you make me feel..." he murmured against her lips.

Daki gasped and groaned as Satori inserted a finger inside her, pumping it in and out of her.

"Satori---------- A-Ahhh!" she moaned as he added another finger.

Her moans were getting louder and louder as the redhead picked up his pace. He added one
last finger and Daki was going insane with his fingers going in and out of her.

"Oh, shit! S-Satori!" her back arched at the sensation as she desperately grabbed his back.

"You really have no idea... how good you make me feel... especially when I see you drown in
pleasure because of me, Daki..." he grunted.

She loudly moaned as she was nearing her climax once again. Suddenly, Satori pulled out
his fingers and replaced them with his full length in one swift thrust, making Daki close her
eyes as she screamed in pain and pleasure. It was tight... so tight...

"Satori..." she called out his name as she held on his back so tightly.

She felt him cupped her cheek and pleaded, "Daki... Daki, look at me..."

She slowly opened her eyes and saw how Satori had his predatory gleam on his dark red
eyes.

"Fuck! Shit, Satori... Ahhh..." Daki kept cursing as he started thrusting.

"Daki... Daki, do you have to be so fucking tight?" the middle blocker asked as he grabbed
her legs up on his shoulders, making her gasp.

"Satori... Ahhh! Oh shit, yes! Yes, right there, Satori! Oh God, yes!" she kept moaning loudly
as he thrusted himself deeper into her, arching her back even more.

Daku never felt anything like this before. She was writhing with arousal, desire, pleasure. It
was making her wild that her nails were starting to bore into his back as she kept moaning
his name like a prayer.

Seeing her like this, experiencing how responsive she was against his touch firsthand, it was
all too much. It was way better than any of those wet fantasies that he'd dream of her.
"Only I can make you feel like this..." Daki heard him say in a low voice.

"Yes... Yes, Satori, only you... I'm all yours..." she told him.

Bending over, Satori reached for her face and kissed her so passionately. It muffled her loud
moans but it didn't stopped her from doing it.

As the intensity rises, her body started to tremble. Satori felt her walls contracting against
him. She was once again reaching orgasm and this time she wasn't alone as he felt his
member pulsating and it was driving him crazy.

Daiki was at her limit. Her body tensed as she broke free from the kiss and moaned out loud.
Satori didn't last much longer as he gave one final thrust before spilling his own seed on top
of her body, grunting.

As their hot breaths reached themselves, inhaling their each other's sighs, the two of them
started to come down from their high. Satori gave Daki a short sloppy kiss before realizing
that he made such a mess.

"Shit, I'm sorry, I---------- Luckily, I was able to pull out on time. I mean, it's not like I didn't
want to come inside you. Believe me, daki, I wanted to. I-It's just----------"

The redhead was interrupted by Daki's chuckle.

"What?" he asked.

She smiled and reached to cup his cheek. "Satori, you're so adorable."

His mouth gaped for a second before chuckling and put his hand on top of hers. "Now I'm
the adorable one?"

Daki nodded. "The sweetest, most lovable, most precious person in my life," she told him
and gave him a gentle kiss. "I love you, Satori," she said with a warm smile.

The redhead responded with another kiss. A deeper, heated kind of kiss.

"Satori, we just----------"

"I love you so much, Daki. So badly," he told her with all seriousness.

She gave him a smile. "Me, too..."

--------------------

Slowly opening my eyes, I groggily realized that there was something right in front of me.
"A chest?"

Steadily looking up, I saw a face of a certain redhead sleeping so soundly. That's when my
eyes widened upon realization.

"Satori!?!?!???!?"

My gaze slowly fell downwards and saw the both of us naked underneath the sheets of my
bed.

"That's right... W-We actually had sex last night..." my face grew hotter as I noticed the
soreness all over my body.

I wanted to hide myself out of embarrassment but I couldn't. Satori had his arm and leg
wrapped around me, sleeping like sloth on a branch.

"It's not like I minded..."

In his arms, it was so warm... His embrace was so cozy... It felt so right... so safe...

"Besides, this tall sloth is sleeping so quietly, he looks so adorable..." I can't help but smile
as my fingers gently brushed his hair to uncover his sleeping face and cupped his cheek.

"You're so cute, Satori... Handsome, too..." I whispered.

I didn't know if he heard me or not but the middle blocker stirred and his eyes slowly opened.
His still sleepy dark red eyes met my blue ones.
I suddenly found myself flustered. I didn't know what to say or what to do. But then, the
redhead blushed as his eyes widened, making me giggle at his reaction as I released his
cheek.

"Good morning, Satori..." I greeted him with a smile.

"Good morning to you, too, Daki..." he responded and gave me a kiss on my forehead.
"Now, go back to sleep..." he said as he nestled on my hair.

"Satori! It's already morning!"

"No, it's not," he countered, contradicting his earlier greet to me.

I took a look at the clock on the bedside table. "It's nearly 9:30am!"

He groaned and told me, "I don't wanna get up yet. Just lemme snuggle up with you for a
bit," his hold on me tightened a little and I blushed.

"What about the others? They must've been worried about you. Afterall, you didn't came
back to your room last night, Satori," I told him.

"Well, I did came on you, Daki," his witty reply made me as red as a tomato.

Even though I couldn't see it, I knew that the redhead was grinning widely. Because of that, I
gave him a slight smack on his chest and I heard him chuckled.
"I wanna hold my girlfriend for a little longer, Daki. Will you let me?" Satori asked and I can't
help but smile as a shade of pink creeped on my cheeks.

"Too bad. Only my boyfriend can hold me," I responded and he chuckled at my retort.

We stayed like that for a few more minutes. None of us spoke a single word. We just held
each other... Just enjoying the comfortness... Loving the way he softly breathes against my
hair... Getting intoxicated by his scent... Getting addicted to the rhythm of his heartbeat...

"I love you, Satori..." before I even knew it, those words escaped my lips.

"I love you, too, Daki... So much..." I heard him say before tightening his embrace for one
last time and released me from his arms. "So... Ah... Want me to buy you a morning after
pill?" he asked.

"Eh?"

"Well... We had a reckless sex out of nowhere. I mean, I was able to pull out but they say
that even pre-cum can---------- J-Just to be safe!" the redhead stammered.

"Yeah, I see what you mean... Thanks..." I also stuttered as I realized that he actually did
entered me raw.

He gave me a smile and sat up. "Do you also want me to grab you a breakfast? Perhaps a
bread or----------"

I gasped loudly, cutting him off.

"What is it?" he asked, looking at me with worry as I was already sitting up right behind him.

"Your back..." I answered as I pointed at his fully scratched back.

"Oh," he relaxed. "Don't worry about it. These scratches just prove how much I was hitting
the right spots, Daki," he told me with that widespread grin of his and winked.

My mouth gaped as I felt like I was being set on fire. I immediately covered myself
underneath the sheets to hide my embarrassment, making the middle blocker amused to his
heart's content.

At that time, I failed to notice how many territories have Satori marked all over my body...
and it was certainly a whole lot more than the scratches that I've left on his back.

---------------------

"Daki-chan!" Satori called me, waving his hand like a little kid.

"Yo, Satori! Ushijima-san!" I replied as the two of them just got back from changing their
sweaty clothes into fresh ones.

"Reeis," the ace simply noted my presence.

"Anyway, let's go! Wouldn't want the store to close before we arrive!" the middle blocker was
excited.

"The two of you don't need to come with me. I can buy a pair of new shoes on my own,"
Ushijima-san told us.
"Now, now, Wakatoshi-kun! Of course, we know you can! It's just that we want to be the
ones to see your new shoes first," Satori responded.

"And be the ones to choose it for you," I added and we both let out a small evil laugh.

Ushijima-san, on the other hand, was still as stoic as he can be.

Going downtown, it was pretty lively. Lights lit up the streets and people were everywhere.

"Woah! It's so cool!" my eyes sparkled as I saw a pair of sports shoes being displayed on a
certain sports store.

"Just like HIS shoes!!!" I exclaimed but I wasn't alone on that one, making both the redhead
and I chuckle at the development.

"Daki-chan, you think so, too?" Satori asked.

"Yeah! It gives off a similar vibe to HIS cool shoes!" I responded, comparing the displayed
shoes to the shoes of a certain Shounen Jump character.

"I know, right?! Makes me wanna buy it! Maybe I should buy it! Wait, do I even have enough
money to buy it?" he looked at the price and his eyes widened. "So expensive!!!" he
shouted. "I'll just stick to my regular kind of shoes, thank you very much!"

I laughed at Satori's blabbering as Ushijima-san kept on looking at various shoes quietly.

"How about you, Ushijima-san? Have you found a particular pair that you like?" I asked.

"No, not yet. I'm looking for long lasting, durable shoes," the ace simply answered.

I hummed in response. "What color?"

"It doesn't concerns me as long as it won't get damaged so easily," he replied.

"Then, you'll be fine even if it's pink, Wakatoshi-kun? A shiny shimmering pink pair of
shoes?" the redhead teased.

"I doubt that they sell that kind of shoes here, Tendou," he responded and we just chuckled.

Unfortunately for Ushijima-san, the store did sell shiny shimmering pink pair of shoes. It's
just that it's for women's, not men's.

After looking all throughout the store just to find the shoes which fits Ushijima-san's huge
feet, we finally found it. It was like everything went dark and the only spotlight on was on that
particular pair of shoes. Grabbing the shoes, I raised them up in the sky and Satori
immediately sang the background music when Rafiki held the young cub Simba up high for
all of the pridelands to see. While Ushijima-san was already used to our antics, the other
customers were looking at us like were a bunch of crazy people.

"This is it, Ushijima-san! I can feel it!" I told him as I gave him the pair of shoes and he
diligently tried them on.

"Woah! You really look great with those shoes on, Wakatoshi-kun!" Satori said.
The ace nodded. "It feels alright. It's not tight and is comfortable to wear."

"Great!" I was glad to hear it.

"Excuse me, mister! We'll be buying this one," the middle blocker said to the store owner
who happened to be the one behind the counter.

"Sure thing! That'll be xxxxx yen," he said.

"Eehhh??!?!?! Can't you make it a bit lower? How about student discount?" Satori was trying
to make a deal.

"There's no student discount here."

"Celebrity discount?"

The owner scoffed. "Who's the celebrity? You?"

"This guy over here, duh!" the redhead answered as he wrapped his arm over Ushijima-
san's shoulder. "He's one of the top 3 high school volleyball players in the country! A
national U-19 volleyball representative! He's none other than the super ace, Ushijima
Wakatoshi!!! Don't you know him?!"

"Tendou, there's no need for you to----------"

"Ushijima? You mean the one in Shiratorizawa?!" the owner asked.

"Yeah, yeah! The one and only!" the middle blocker was so proud of the ace.

The owner's mouth gaped and said, "My, my! We have such a strong athlete here. It's nice
to meet you, young man. Too bad you guys wasn't able to make it to the nationals."

"Yeah. Karasuno beat us fair and square, but next time, we'll win and take the
championship," Ushijima-san replied.
"Ah... Wakatoshi-kun, you do realize that next time, we'll be in college and we won't be on
Shiratorizawa by that time, right?" Satori asked and I felt a small pang in my chest.

It made me go back to the time when Karasuno beat them and I saw the redhead's back
more slouched than usual... to the time when he said that high school was the last time that
he'll play volleyball... It made me recall all those times when I saw him, the ace and the rest
of third years having fun whenever they play together but...

"Even if they did continue playing in college, they'll no longer be playing on the same side of
the court..."

"You're right. I forgot," I heard Ushijima-san said.

"Now, now! That doesn't change the fact that you'll shine even more and be a champion,
Wakatoshi-kun! You'll be pretty famous by then!" Satori told him. "You'll have interviews.
You'll be on TV. Just make sure to tell them that I'm your best friend, okay?" the middle
blocker was enthusiastic.

The ace simply nodded. "I will."

"When that happens, they'll be wondering where did a super ace like you get those
awesome and amazing pair of shoes! So, don't forget to tell them that you bought it here,
okay?"

Ushijima-san nodded once again, saying a short, "Okay."

Minutes later, Satori and I found ourselves walking along the sidewalk. Ushijima-san went
ahead to try the newly bought shoes while practicing some serves.

"Good job out there, Satori! You were able to make a great deal with the store owner," I told
him as I patted his shoulder.

"Well, who can't resist a good endorsement just for a discount?" he responded with his usual
grin. "Besides, it'll be a whole lot fun if Wakatoshi-kun agreed to have a standee of him in
front of the store!"

I chuckled at the idea. "That'll be so cool! We'll finally have a friend model! Now that I think
about it, I'm gonna take his autograph beforehand so that----------"

My mouth stopped talking as I felt myself starting to redden. Satori's hand was touching
mine, slowly clasping it as our fingers intertwine. I took a glance at my boyfriend who was
blushing slightly at his own actions. Smiling, I scooted closer to him as we continued to walk,
resting my head on his shoulder. The late winter/early spring breeze was nothing compared
to the warmth coming from him... It felt so right and natural...

"Say... Would you like to stop by for some warm choco?" I asked him.

"Nah. I'd prefer it if you were the one making it, Daki-chan," he answered.
"It'll be my treat," I told him and his eyes widened for a second.

"Well then, let's not waste our time here and hurry up!" he responded with a grin, picking up
the pace as he dragged me along with him.

Sitting down on a table outside the cafe, cup of warm choco in our hands, I told the middle
blocker, "I said it'll be my treat, Satori, not your treat."

"Well, what kind of boyfriend would I be if I just let my girlfriend spend her money on me?" he
replied with a smile. "Besides, I wanted to pay for it, Daki-chan."

"Aww... Didn't think you'd be such a gentleman, Satori!" I teased.

"I can also be rough, if you want me to, Daki," he teased back, amusement was written
across his face with that signature lopside grin of his.

Trying to hide the blush caused by my tainted mind, I responded, "And what does that make
you? A roughman?"

The redhead laughed. "Oh, Daki. Do you want me to be a roughman instead?" he asked with
an obvious mischief on the made up word.

I was pretty sure I failed at hiding my flushed self as I felt my face getting hotter.

"Well, how about a mix of... both?" I averted my eyes as I was stammering, my voice getting
quieter--- barely audible, to be more precise.

"Goddamit, did I seriously just say it out loud??!?!!!?!" my inner thoughts screamed as I was
drowned in the sea of embarrassment.

I failed to notice that Satori actually paused for a second as he did not expect that kind of
response from me. The redhead just found himself laughing at the situation.

"You really never fail to surprise me, Daki," he told me and I saw how candid he was on that
remark.

I always loved seeing him like this... Seeing his expressions so natural... so open... so
sincere and honest... It never fails to put a smile on my face.

Suddenly, I felt something falling down us. "Raindrops?" I asked.

He hummed in question, sticking out his hand as he looked up to the night sky. "You're right,
it's raining. Just a light drizzle, though," he said as I rummaged my bag.

"Here you go," I told him as I handed out an umbrella.

"Daki-chan, there's no need for----------"

"I know, I know. Just a light drizzle. But it might start to fall down harder," I insisted.

Taking the umbrella and opening it for us to share, the middle blocker told me, "We'll still get
wet if it does rain hard later on."

"Don't worry about it, Satori!" I told him while grinning widely. "I have another umbrella in my
bag!"

He raised one of his eyebrows. "You brought two umbrellas?"

"Yup! I thought it might rain and you won't be bringing your umbrella. I'm prepared, you
know!"

"Then, you didn't want to share an umbrella with me? I'm hurt, Daki-chan!" he told me.

"It's not like that! I-It's just that I didn't want you to get soaked in the rain and get sick," I
flusterly reasoned and he chuckled.

Smiling at me, he said, "Come here."

I did what he wanted, taking the chair to sit right beside him. "Satori, shouldn't we take
shelter?" I asked as I scooted even closer.

"I suppose so... but I wanna stay here with you for a bit longer, Daki..." he replied with a
smile.

Smiling back at him, I responded, "Yeah... Me, too..." as the both of us looked at the
spectacular reflection of lights due to the drizzle. We looked at the beautiful scene for a
while, enjoying the moment as we drank warm choco while sharing an umbrella underneath
the pouring rain.

--------------------

"Argh... I can't take it anymore!" the redhead loudly complained.

"Aw, c'mon now! It's just 2 more topics then we're done," I persuaded him to continue
studying.

"I don't wanna!" he whined. "Besides, the guys already left us to get some sleep," he said as
the third year volleyball club members were with us earlier. We were having a group study in
my room because tomorrow will be the last day of our exams.
A yawn escaped when I turned to look at the clock and saw that it was already pass 1:00AM.

I just heard the middle blocker release a small laugh.

"See? You're also getting sleepy, Daki-chan," Satori told me and leaned in, making me close
my eyes, and kissed my eyelids. "Rest your eyes. I don't want you to force yourself, Daki,"
he told me with all sincerity as he cupped my cheek.

"But----------"

"No buts!" he said and flicked my forehead, finding myself uttering a small 'ow' at his action.
"Deep down, I know you hate studying yet you already covered a lot of topics. I think that's
enough," he continued.

Satori was right. I have a strong sense of dislike towards studying but since it was the
exams, I have no choice but to study... to cram...

I sighed in defeat and told him, "Fine." I gave him a kiss on his cheek and his eyes widened
in surprise. "Thank you for looking out for me, Satori," I said with a smile.

He returned a smile and suddenly rested his head on my lap. Before I could even protest, he
told me, "Don't worry, Daki-chan. I'll get back up before your legs get numb."

I countered, "You're saying that yet you're already closing your eyes."

He let out a small laugh. "Can't help it. Your lap is way better than pillows," he said and
yawned.
"Satori, don't you dare sleep on me."

"I won't. Just... Just for a minute, lemme stay here..." his voice was starting to get quiet.

I can't help but notice that I'm actually smiling at the situation. I looked at him and before I
even knew it, I was starting to caress his hair.

He softly hummed at my touch. "Keep going, Daki-chan... It feels so nice..."

I chuckled. "Alright, but just for a minute. After that, I'll stop and you'll get up, okay?"

A smile formed on his lips and he gave me a small nod.

I let him rest on my lap as I continued to gently stroke his beautiful red hair. That's when I
realized that Satori was actually right.

"It really does feel so nice..."

I loved the way his hair felt against my hand... The way it loosened as my fingers combed his
soft strands... I also loved how he looked so comfortable on my lap... like he was so at
peace... It made me feel so light... making me gleam with warm fuzzies... like I'm so blessed
to have Satori here with me right now...

I didn't knew how much time passed but when I called out the redhead, he just simply
stirred.
"Satori, it would be a whole lot better if you continue sleeping on the bed," I softly told him
and he just replied with a light groan. "You know you're too heavy for me to carry. Please,
just stand up for a sec and just flop on the bed."

Like a kid, the middle blocker groggily did what I asked of him. I scooted beside him and
cover ourselves with a blanket. Similarly to what he does whenever we sleep together, I held
him in arms and gave a kiss on his forehead.

"Goodnight..." I whispered.

"Goodnight... Daki..." he whispered back as he also circled his arms around me.

Morning came and the last day of the gruelling exams has begun. I was able to breeze
through the first part of the exams. The cramming paid off but it was all short lived when I
started to have a mental block. I began panicking, silently cursing whenever I knew the
answers to the questions yet couldn't remember what they were.

Amidst the room of stressed students trying to answer and finish the exams, I saw the
redhead looking at me. He playfully grinned when our eyes met and carefully mouthed a
single word, trying not to get caught by the sensei.

"Relax."

Satori gave one last grin before going back to answering the exams. Just a single word from
him and it made me cool down. He didn't even say it out loud but I actually heard his voice
echoing in my ears.

Smiling at the easement that he'd given me, I was once again set to answer, finish and
conquer the exams with a calm set of mind.

Hours have passed and finally, the exams have ended.

"Yay! It's finally over!" the middle blocker beamed as we walked towards the school gate.

"Daki! Tendou-san!" the two of us suddenly heard.

"keigo! You going back to the dorms now?" Satori asked as my dear cousin decided to join
us as he responded with a nod.

"Finally, exams are over! I'm so excited for the spring vacation!" keigo happily said.

"Me, too!" I agreed even though that vacation just usually last for around four days.

"I'll make sure to give myself a little relaxation during those days. I'll submit myself to
laziness! No classes, no exams, no teachers!" keigo added.

"How about watching some movies or going to some amusement parks or anywhere? Invite
the girl you like," Satori was grinning, teasing an elbow to my cousin.

Keigo scoffed. "If only I have one, then I'd definitely ask her out," keigo replied. "Anyway,
how 'bout you guys? Now that the exams are done, what're you guys gonna do?"

"Hmm... I dunno..." I answered.

"I'll keep on taking f/n-chan out on dates!" the redhead merrily replied.

"Oohhh~~~ Dates, huh?" c/n teased me. "Well, I guess you guys want to spend more time
with each other now that graduation's just up ahead."

With that single sentence, I felt my heart cracked. The small shards created by the cracks
pricked me all over. Why? Because just as my dear cousin said, graduation's just up
ahead...

"And me and Satori are going to different universities..."

Just the thought of that made me unconsciously clench on my chest as it ached.

At that time, I failed to realize that Satori noticed my action. He was about to say something
but in the end, he wasn't able to.

It was already night and I just got back from taking a nice shower. I lie down on my bed at
stared at the ceiling for a while.

"God, why am I like this?" I asked myself as I turned on my side and saw the mascot plushie
that Satori gave me. "Tell me... Why do I feel so sad, mascot plushie? Yes, we may be going
on different unis but it's not like I'm not gonna see him again, right?" I was asking an advice
from a toy.

Without any warning, my phone rang on the bedside table and I got startled by it.

"Shit, Satori, I thought I was gonna have a heart attack!" I told him when I answered the call.

I heard him laugh on the other side of the phone. "Then, let me give you a CPR, Daki-chan,"
I knew he was widely grinning.

"Using your mouth with stinky breath? No thanks," I returned a joke and he once again
laughed.

"Aw, c'mon. You may say that I have a bad breath but whenever I kiss you, you always lose
your mind, Daki."

"I always lose my mind because it reeks so bad, Satori," I countered.

"Oh, is that so? Or maybe because I'm such a great kisser that you keep going crazy and
wild for me, Daki."

I felt like I was set ablaze because I found myself guilty at his words.

"No! Not at all!" I stuttered, revealing to the middle blocker that he won our little banter.

I heard him chuckled. "Tell me, are you getting ready for bed now?"
"Yeah. I'm actually lying down with mascot plushie right now," I told him.

"What?! Toss him over to the vacant bed! Toss him now!"

"What?! Why?!"

"No one can ever sleep beside you except me, Daki!" I heard him say and it made my heart
skipped a beat.

"What are you talking a----------"

"I can't believe you're having an affair with mascot plushie! Why? How could you do this to
me?!"

The redhead was being silly and I can't help but laugh at him. "Relax, Satori. He's just here
to look out for me just as you told him to do so, remember?"

He chuckled. "Glad to finally hear you laugh, Daki," he simply said and I was caught off
guard. "Say... Are you okay? Something's bothering you ever since we walked back here
with keigo, right?" he asked as his Guess Monster abilities were still as sharp as ever.

I faintly smiled. "It's alright, Satori. There's no need for you to worry about----------"

"I'm coming over," he simply stated.

"Eh? No, you don't have to. I'm fine, really. Besides, I'm going to sleep now. You should also
take some rest, Satori. We both stayed up late last night to study," I told him.

He was silent for a second before I heard him released a sigh. "Alright, then. Just know that
I'm always here for you, okay?"

He was being considerate and it put a small smile on my face. "Okay."

"I love you, Daki. Goodnight," those words made my heart swell in a good way.
"I love you, too, Satori. Goodnight."

And with that, our phone conversation ended. I put my phone back to the bedside table and I
once again found myself staring at the ceiling.

"It's alright... I'm alright..."

Graduation may be fast approaching but that doesn't mean that I can't create more
memories with Satori before going to different universities.

"...right?"
.

"That was so fun! Thanks for letting me toss to you even though I suck at it," I told Satori as
we were walking back to the dormitory from the gym.

Keigo asked Satori to give him some pointers about blocking and they forced me to help
them. When night time came, we decided to call it a day and my dear cousin hurriedly went
first as he forgot about his part-time job.

"No need to thank me, Daki-chan. Besides, you were so good at it! It was like you were a
true setter!"

"Hahaha... Very funny," I sarcastically replied and he just chuckled. "But seriously, Satori,
you were so cool. Are you actually someone who can try multiple possibilities and just go
back in time to choose the one that will give you best results?"

"Well, if I say yes..." the redhead carefully clasped his hand with mine. "Would you believe
me if I told you that this is the one where we'll live happily ever after together?"

I felt myself blushing so deeply at his words as I suddenly stopped walking to look at him.
Satori was looking back at me with his dark red eyes, staring intently as he waited for my
response.

I knew it was suppose to be intended for teasing but it was earnest at the same time. The
sincerity in his voice made me think that there was a tint of seriousness behind his words.

"And it makes me so... incredibly happy..."

I gave him a smile as I let go of his hand to hug him. I guess I caught him by surprise as I
heard a faint gasp coming from him.

"God, you're so cheesy, you never fail to make me blush, Satori..." I told him as I listened to
the sound of his heartbeat.

I felt his arms wrapped around me and replied, "I know how much you like extra cheese."

We both chuckled at his remark.

"Though, I didn't knew you're a fan of fairy tales, Satori. Those happily-ever-after things like
that."

"Oh, I do like them. I like them since they're the type of fantasies where an ugly monster can
be loved by a beautiful human being... And now that fantasy came true, Daki..." he looked at
me with a soft smile but those words stung me. He was implying that he was the monster
and I was the human.
"That's not true!" I told him as I broke free from his arms and his eyes widened. "Satori,
you're handsome and I love how tantalizing your red hair and red eyes are. Besides, you're
not a monster." I went close to him once again and cupped his cheeks with my hands as I
stared right into his eyes. "You're a human being just like me... My jump buddy... My
boyfriend..." a shade of pink scattered on my face as I can't believe that I actually
stammered on my last word.

But then the middle blocker chuckled before touching his lips softly against mine.

"Now you're making me blush, Daki..." he told me as our foreheads touched.

He was practically all red as our hands were on each other and we both just smiled.

It was warm within each other's arms but we both knew we can't stay like that for too long.
We were in the middle of street, afterall.

Letting go, Satori traced his hand on my arm, eyeing the red bracelet that he'd given me
during Christmas eve as he brushed it with his thumb.

"What's wrong?" I asked and his gaze fixated on me.

"Nothing," he answered with a smile as he cupped my cheek with his other hand. "Nothing at
all, Daki," the hand on my cheek travelled down, his fingers lightly tracing my jawline to my
neck.

I shivered against his touch. "Satori..."

He kissed the back of my hand and asked, "Let's go?"

I happily nodded and we continued our journey to the dorms. His warmth was still there as
we still hold hands... but it all began to cool down as days passed by.

"Eehhh?!?!??!!?!?" I shouted as I saw a post on social media while taking a break on my

workplace.

I hurriedly dialled a number to make a phone call.

"Satori~~" I sing-sung when he picked up the phone.

"Daki-chan? What is it?" he asked.

"I just saw a post online."

"And?"

"And it's about the upcoming ani-con and games convention here in Miyagi!"

"Really?!"

"Yeah, really! Isn't it great?!"

"That's so cool, Daki-chan!"

"Nee, nee. Let's go together, Satori."

"Sure! When is it?"

"This 14th."

"14th? Oh, okay. 14th, yeah sure."

"Great!" I was getting excited. "Say... Will you be able to pick me up later?" I asked.

"I'm sorry but I can't. I promised the guys that I'll play with them. You know how they always
end up playing late, right?" the redhead answered.

"Yeah, I understand. Have fun, okay?"

"Yeah, I will. Take care, Daki," he told me.

"Take care, Satori," I responded.

Our phone conversation ended and I just found myself taking a sigh.

"So... Will your stalker-slash-boyfriend come today?" my manager asked.

I shook my head. "He's playing volleyball with his clubmates right now."
"Again? You know, he hasn't been picking you up lately because of that sport. It makes me
feel like it's more important to him that you are, Reeis."

"Well, it's not like that..." I told her, though I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a bit down
because of it. "Besides, Satori loves volleyball so much. Of course, I can't deny him that."

"Heehhh..." hurikoshi-san just made that teasing noise.

Before I even knew it, my shift finally ended.

"Daki-chan!" my eyes widened as I heard my named being called out by a certain redhead.

"Satori? What are you doing here?" I asked as I went to him.

"I'm here to pick you up! By some miracle, the guys decided to wrap up early so here I am,"
he explained.

I didn't know how to respond. I was just standing there, looking at him as he smiled.

Grabbing my hands, he stared into my eyes and told me, "I'm sorry I haven't been picking
you up these last few days," seriousness was laced on his words.

I gave him a smile. "It's okay, Satori. I know how much you love volleyball."

"But I love you even more, Daki," he said as his hands tightened around my own and it made
my heart skipped a beat.

I couldn't help but just gave him a warm smile and placed a peck on his cheek. The middle
blocker smiled as we finally decided to walk back to the dorm.

"...Chan! Daki-chan!" I snapped out of my thoughts as I realized that the redhead was calling
my attention.

I was still in my room, lying on my bed with my phone on loudspeaker. Minutes ago, I was
staring on the blacked out screen of my phone until it lit up as my ringtone sang. Satori was
calling me and before I even knew it, I was spacing out while having this phone conversation
with him.

"Sorry, Satori... I dozed off for a bit..." I made an excuse.

"It's okay. I know you're tired and I shouldn't be keeping you up," I could hear the sincerity in
his voice.

"Satori, I..." I suddenly remembered what I just learned earlier... That Satori wasn't playing
with the VBC... Because of that, I ended up gulping before asking him, "Will you be able to...
pick me up tomorrow?"

I waited for his response. I wanted him to say "yes". I wanted him to pick me up like he used
to do.

"I miss him..."

"Daki-chan, I want to... but keigo's playing in a volleyball tournament tomorrow and I kinda
promised him that I'll watch," he replied and it hit me hard.

"So it's more or less the same alibi, huh?"

"But I could stop watching halfway to pick you up," he added and it caught me off guard. "It's
been a while since I last picked you up from your workplace. I missed doing that."

"Then how about I watch the tournament with you tomorrow?" before I even realized it, those
words already left my mouth.

"Eh? What about your part-time job?" the redhead responded, his voice was clearly
surprised.

"It's alright. I could send a message to hurikoshi-san about it.

"Are you sure? I mean, you don't have to come with me. I mean, it's not like I don't want you
to but... are you really sure about this?" he sounded like he was worried.

"Worried that I'll find out that his alibi wasn't real? That he's lying?" my mind asked.

"Yeah. It's not like I'll get scolded or anything like that," I told him. "So... What will it be?"

There was silence before I heard him hummed happily in agreement. "Let's do that! I'm sure
will be happy to see his cousin watching him play!"

Usually, I found myself smiling whenever he's happy but right now, all I feel is my stinging
heart and how it beats rapidly.

"I'm nervous..."

Nervous about what will happen... Will I caught him redhanded?... Will we fight?... Just...
what is it that he's hiding from me?...

And with that, morning came.

"Yay! We're here!" Satori exclaimed as we arrived at the public gymnasium where the
tournament was taking place.

It turns out, he wasn't lying about this at all. It was actually a community event where the
youth were encouraged to play sports. Keigo decided to enter with his friends. That's the
reason why he kept asking the middle blocker for some pointers on blocking.
Minutes later, we found a pretty good spot on the bleachers. A game was taking place but
not long after that, it ended. It was pretty much a sweep.

"Oh. Look, look! It's Keigo!" the redhead pointed as my cousin's team entered the court and
did some drills. "keigo! We're here!" he loudly called him as he waved his hands up in the
air.

Effectively, my dear cousin heard him. "Tendou-san!" his face lit up but then it dissipated
when he realized that the middle blocker wasn't alone. "Daki?! W-What are you doing
here?!"

I lightened up. "It's not fair that you only invited Satori to watch your game!"

"Well, I----------"

"We came all the way here to watch you lose on your knees, keigo!" Satori was trying to
provoke him.

He just scoffed. "Too bad, Tendou-san! You won't be able to see it!"

Before we even knew it, the game started. The game earlier and this one were actually
semifinal games, but unlike the earlier match, this wasn't a sweep. Points were gained
through gruelling rallies.

In the middle of the first set, Keigo was able to get a point off from his block.

"Nice block!" I reacted and then I realized that the redhead was actually looking at me with a
grin.

"Quite the supportive cousin, aren't you?" he teased.

"What's wrong with that?"

"Oh, nothing. Just wanted to let you know that I taught him that one," he was proud, talking
about the block that keigo made just a few seconds ago.

"Really? Well, you've been spending a lot of time teaching him how to block, Satori."
"Nah. I admit, I teach him from time to time, but these past few days, I was busy with
something else, Daki-chan..." he told me, averting his eyes as he kept what he was busy-ing
with as a blind item.

"Playing with the guys, right?" I tried to hide the bitterness as I asked.

"Yeah! Playing with the guys and stuff," he responded and I just felt the pang on my chest.

I knew he was lying. I knew he was lying but... why can't I just confront him about it? Why
am I letting myself be blinded, not knowing what my own boyfriend was secretly doing?

A loud whistle put a stop to my thoughts. That's when I realized that the first set has ended.
Keigo's team lost that one.

Satori groaned. "C'mon now, man! Are you planning on losing here?!"

I chuckled as I tried to push away my questions into the back of my mind. "Quite the
supportive mentor, aren't you?" I threw his tease right back.

"Well, what can I say? That boyo is a disciple of mine, afterall," he just grinned and we both
chuckled.

I tried to act as if everything was still as it was... like the redhead wasn't keeping something
from me and I didn't knew about him doing that... I was so immersed on trying to act normal
that I failed to notice that his dark red eyes were looking at me like he can see right through
me.

"Daki, I----------"

"Tendou-san?" a girl's voice interrupted what Satori was about to say.

The match ended in the second set and Keigo's team lost. However, they'll be fighting for
third place as they'll play another match this afternoon. Satori and I decided to eat lunch
nearby and then this non-blonde girl arrived.

"Familiar..."

"Oh. Nb-chan! You're here?!" the redhead responded.

"Tendou-san! Were you watching the tournament?" she was so lively.

The middle blocker happily nodded twice. "It's a shame keigo lost the match earlier. Well,
he's not as good as me so..."

"Seriously, cocky much?" the non-blonde girl teased and they both laughed. Then, she
realized that the redhead was not alone. "Oh... Hi, there!" she greeted me with a smile.
"Ah... Now I remember... She's the girl back at the kindergarten where I thought I saw
Satori..."

"Hi!" I stuttered.

"Daki-chan, this is isami-chan. She's Keigo's workmate," the middle blocker introduced her.
"isami-chan, I'd like you to meet Reeis Daki. She's my girlfriend," he said as he took a look at
me and smiled.

I couldn't help myself but blush even though the questions in my mind just increased.

I noticed nb covering her gasp with her hand. "Your Tendou-san's girlfriend?! Waahhh,
you're so cute, Reeis-san!" she was so high spirited as she held my hands.

"Ah... You, too!" I responded.

"Nee, nee~ How did you and Tendou-san met? Was it love at first sight? Did the world
seemed to stop and all you could see was him?" she asked as she excitedly moved my
hands up and down.

"No, that's not----------"

"Then, were you in a pinch and he helped you like a knight in the shining armor?"

"Well..." I suddenly remembered the time when I was accused of stealing a drunk guy's
wallet and Satori rescued me. "We're actually classmates, so..."

"Daki-chan's also my jump buddy," Satori told her.

"Jump buddy?" nb wondered.

I answered, "Satori and I have similar interest in Weekly Shounen Jump."

"And in men," he added and wiggled his eyebrows up and down as he grinned like a
cheshire cat.

"God, he remembers it like it was just last night," I thought as we laughed at his joke.

Not long after that, we went back to the public gymnasium to watch keigo play once again.
While waiting for the match to start, the three of us were having a great conversation. Isami's
cheerfulness makes her so easy to interact with. She's so joyful, radiant and bubbly. She's
also fun to talk to.

And then it hit me.

Yeah, isami was fun to talk to. She and Satori were having a blast. Of course, I was also
enjoying but it's not the same as the two of them.
"It's different..."

Like they're so close, having their own world while I was just there feeling... kinda left out...
There's something... I don't know what it was but whenever I look at them and see how they
shine together...

"I didn't like it..."

And then I was hit with another thought.

Just as I realized earlier, nb was the one who I saw at the kindergarten where I thought I saw
the redhead.

"But then, what if Satori was really there at that time?"

What if he was with isami? Why didn't he just tell me that he'd be there with her? If that's the
case, what were they doing there? Other than that, if she's really keigo's workmate, then
how did the two of them met? Was she there when Satori was teaching him some pointers
about blocking?

"Argh..." I internally groaned.

My mind's like an overloaded circuit with all these unanswered questions.

I once again took a glance at the two of them and they were still going at it with their stories
and jokes.

I admit it... My chest tightened... Seeing Satori being so happy, so close and familiar with
another girl with the same cheerful personality as he has... It pricked my heart...

I tore away my gaze, looking straight into the court in front of us. I was able to send a small
wave to keigo as he saw me before a whistle was blown, hinting the start of the match.

--------------------

Few days later, the day I've been waiting for has finally come.

"Yosh! Nothing's gonna stop me from having fun today!" I exclaimed and suddenly the door
on my room opened with the redhead yelling, "Yeah!!!"

Then there was silence.

"Shit, it's not the same!!!" my mind screamed as I realized that the clothes I'm wearing and
Satori's were not matching.

"Argh, we didn't match..." the middle blocker groaned.

"Eh? You mean----------"

"I was going to surprise you by matching what you were gonna wear, but I guessed wrong."

I gasped. "Me, too! I was doing the same thing."

It turns out, we both tried to guess what we were about to cosplay (just a simple one though,
like wearing the character's jacket or hat) and we both failed. We ended up cosplaying
characters from different series of Weekly Shounen Jump. As we were going to the venue of
the ani-con and games convention, we playfully argued about why we thought we were
gonna cosplay those characters.

"Well, I remember you saying that you like this character more than the protagonist!" Satori
told me.

"Of course, I like him! Just like my other favorite characters who are usually not the main
protagonist that ends up getting killed along the series or turns out to be an antagonist!" I
responded.

"That's why I was pretty sure you were gonna cosplay the character being shipped by this
one."
"Actually, I was about to, but then I suddenly remembered that you liked this series more, so
I decided to cosplay the character being shipped with your favorite character."

We both found ourselves groaning.

"We should've just cosplay that series since it's our common ground. I mean, we both liked
the same character and ship from that series," I said.

"Yup. Next time, we'll get our couple ship right, Daki-chan," he told me with a smile.

"Next time, huh?"

Next time, we won't be attending the same universities. Maybe by then, the questions on my
mind that I keep putting aside will finally be answered.

"Or maybe..."

A sick feeling in the pit of my stomach suddenly occured as that thought crossed my mind.

"Daki-chan?" I heard the redhead called. I looked up to him and saw him worried about me.
"What's wrong?"

"Nothing..." I answered as I shook my head to get rid of my thoughts.

As I said earlier, nothing's gonna stop me from having fun today. Nothing. And I'm
determined to do just that.
I gave him the biggest smile that I could manage. "Let's enjoy ourselves today, Satori!" I tried
to lift up the mood.

The middle blocker happily nodded. "Let's have some fun!" he responded as I failed to notice
how his dark red eyes bore like they can see right through me earlier.

Arriving at the venue, the place was alive. It was full of people.

"Wow! I've never been to a convention before. I never knew it would have so many people," I
said as I was starting to get excited.

Satori chuckled. "Me, too. It's my first time and I'm glad I get to experience this with you," he
said with a smile.

I admit, I can't help but smile back at him whenever he does this. It makes my heart flutter
and I know there's a shade of pink on my cheeks.

"Now then, Daki-chan," he started and grasped my hand with his. "Let's go!"

I merrily nodded and replied, "Let's go, Satori!"

The two of us were skipping as we swing our hands together. We just arrived but we already
caught some of the attention of the people around us.

Throughout the day, we were having fun. We visited one booth to another, took pictures with
various cosplayers, bought some merchandise, etc. It was like the place where we could just
be ourselves.

"Well, we're always ourselves. We don't pretty much care about the people around us," my
mind had a point.
But today... Today's full of amusement. All the worries I had were gone. I felt like I was flying,
my feet barely touching the ground. The joy and fun I felt was out in the open like a flower at
full bloom.

"And all of this won't be possible without this tall matchstick..." I thought as I looked at the
redhead, my smile was as wide as it can be.

"What?" he asked with one of his eyebrows raised up.

"Thank you, Satori... For making time and going here with me..." I told him and his eyes
widened for a second.

"Well, it's been a while since we last go on a date. Besides... I'll always have time for you,
Daki..."

"Not recently..." I whispered underneath my breath without knowing.

Suddenly, all the questions and worries I had came back in just a click of the fingers. The
mood instantly turned to 180 degrees.

The redhead heard it clearly and sighed. "Daki..." he called out as he held my hands. He
looked at me straight in the eyes, seriousness was written on his face. "Daki, I'm sorry I
haven't been spending time with you these days. "

"And you spent those times playing, teaching keigo and eventually meeting nb in the
process, right?" there was bitterness was in my voice.

"Wait... Are you getting jealous?" he asked like he can't believe that this is happening.

"Should I be jealous, Satori?" I asked him back as I slowly slid away my hands but his grip
just tightened.

"Of course not," he immediately answered. "isami-chan's just a friend. I just met her through
keigo."

"But the two of you seems so close for someone whom you just recently met," there was a
hint of scorn.

"Look... Daki, you're the one I love. Not her," he told me straightforward.

"It's like you both shared something that I don't know. You shine brightly together and I just
can't help but think that you two have---------- Maybe I'm just being paranoid..." I said and
looked on the ground while he was just silent.

Satori transferred his hand to cup my cheek while the thumb of his other hand gently
brushed my knuckles. I looked up to him and his dark red eyes were sincerely staring into
my e/c ones. He then planted a soft kiss on my forehead.
His actions were trying to reassure me, even without words.

"And it's actually working..."

"Tendou-san! Reeis-san! You guys are here!" we suddenly heard a familiar voice and it was
no other than nb.

Just as my uneasiness was starting to disappear, it came back without any hesitation.

"isami-chan, what are you doing here?" the redhead asked.

"I live around here. Since there was an ani-con nearby, I couldn't just let it pass by," she was
so enthusiastic.

That's when we realize that nb was cosplaying like us, and she and Satori were matching
their character's ship.

"Woah! What of the odds!" she exclaimed and I was being sullen by the fact that they ended
up matching. "Anyway, since you guys are here, wanna roam around together?"

"Ah... Well----------"

"Actually, we already did that. We were about to get going since the sun is starting to set,"
Satori told her.

"Oh... Oh! Oh, okay!" she replied as she glowed so brightly. "I know I shouldn't be getting in
your way but Tendou-san, can you come here for a second?"

"Ah, yeah. Sure," the middle blocker responded and did what she asked.

Satori leaned down and nb whispered something on his ear. The redhead grinned and
whispered something back at her. It made her giggle and she lightly smacked his shoulder.

To be honest, I was soaking wet with jealousy, especially after what I just saw. I was
drenched. No... Drowning, to be more specific. It looked like they were flirting... right in front
of me.

"Okay... Shit, being jealous is making me such a bad person."

Nb was such a cheerful, friendly, easy-going, bright-as-sunshine type of girl and I'm getting
worked up because it looked like my boyfriend was too close with her in such a short time.

"But isn't that natural because of her vibrant personality?"

"Anyway, we should get going," Satori snapped me out of my thoughts as he made his way
towards me.

"Alright! I guess, see you guys when I see you!" isami told us with a big smile.
"Yeah..." I responded and we took our leave.

"Daki-chan~ Wanna stop by somewhere?" Satori was being lively.

"Satori, I... I just---------- How do I say this?" I didn't know where to start.

"Is it because of earlier?" he asked and I nodded in response. "You got jealous?" he asked
and I nodded once again. "Daki-----------"

"I just can't help it," I cut him off. "You two look great together."

"Well, before we even reached this kind of relationship, the guys already thought that you
were my girlfriend, so I think we are the ones who look great together," the redhead argued.

"You both shine and you guys are in sync."

"In sync?"

"Like earlier! You were whispering to each other and I was... well... left out... Like you guys
were hiding a secret..."

He didn't respond.

I stopped walking and he followed my action. I mustered courage to look at him straight into
his eyes and ask, "During the times when you won't pick me up from my workplace... Do you
see her?"

--------------------

The day I've been waiting for has finally come and it was supposed to be perfect.

"No... I wanted it to be perfect..."

But then, the world has other plans.

"During the times when you won't pick me up from my workplace... Do you see her?" Daki
asked as her e/c eyes intently stared at my dark red ones, desperately looking for answers.
"Sadness..." The tone in her voice... The way she looked at me...

I opened my mouth to speak but before my voice could come out, I stopped and pursed my
lips as I avoided her gaze.

"I can't take it..." I thought as I clenched my hands into fists, trying to find a way to cushion
the impact of my answer but failed.

I looked back at her to give her the answer that she was seeking.

"Yes..."

And there it was... Her reaction...

I hated how I saw her eyes widened. I hated how they looked like they're gonna burst tears
any second. I hated how she looked disappointed in me... like she felt...

"So it really was you..." she said with a faint smile.

Without any warning, she started to fast-walk towards the dormitory and I followed her.

"Daki----------"

"Lemme warn you, Satori. My jealousy added with what you just admitted is making me lose
my cool."
"It's not what you think," I told her.

"Then what am I thinking? C'mon, tell me, Guess Monster-san," her sardonic remark on my
title was trying to hide her pained self.

"You're thinking that I'm cheating on you, which is not the case."

She scoffed. "I'm just heating up with jealousy, that's all. Though, I'd be lying if I said that
that thought actually didn't cross my mind."

"Daki, I---------- The reason why I see nb-chan is----------"

"Is because you spend time teaching keigo while she visits him, right? That's what you were
gonna say, wasn't it?" I could her the bitterness in her words. Before I could even respond,
she released, "Don't kid with me, Satori!"

With that, I grabbed her arm, making her stop on her tracks and face me.

"I want you listen to me," I said.

"No! You listen to me," she told me as she broke herself free from my hold, frustration was
all over her face. "You think I didn't knew about your fake alibis? You think I didn't knew that
you were lying to me?" those words were stinging me. "Satori, I saw you! I knew it was your
beautiful red..."

"Please, Daki----------"
"Nb was at the kindergarten... and you were with her, right?" the delivery of those words was
stabbing me. "Well, you already admitted that you see her whenever you won't pick me up,
so the answer to that question is already a given," I heard her say and she continued her
way to the dorms.

"Daki... Daki, please... Hear me out," I pleaded to her but she didn't respond. "Please,
lemme explain."

I tailed her, continuing to call her out as I noticed how hard she was clenching her fists. Daki
didn't respond a single word... didn't even looked back at me for a second... It was like one
of those movies where a ghost was calling out to his loved one but she can't see nor hear
him... like I was nothing...

Not long after that, we arrived at the dormitory. She was busy grabbing the keys to open up
her room.

"Please, Daki, even just for a minute," my throat was already dry as I still didn't stopped my
request.

"Not right now, Satori," she finally snapped as she turned to look at me. "Not right now..."
she told me and opened the door.

"Daki, I'm----------" before I could even finish it, she went inside her room and shut the door. I
knocked, no, banged the door several times while asking, "Please... Please, I---------- Let's
talk, Daki."

It went on for a few minutes. Other Shiratorizawa students who were residing on the dorms
with us were looking at me like I was a bully who was forcing someone to open up her door
against her will.

Maybe that was the case... Maybe I was trying to talk to Daki even if I had to do it by force...

"Tch..." I clicked my tongue and clenched my teeth. I rested my back to the wall just beside
the door and slowly slid down to sit on the floor, wondering about what I should do now.
Releasing a sigh, I looked up to the ceiling and closed my eyes.

"Why?"
And then I suddenly remembered a sound of a whistle... The whistle where my competitive
volleyball journey ended... It was at that time when I said goodbye to my paradise.

Whenever I play volleyball the way the coaches wanted it, it always takes away the fun. But
if I play it the way I wanted it to be, it gives me great satisfaction but they end up not liking it.
It was pretty obvious that I'm not cut out to please what the coaches wanted, so I decided to
quit playing after high school. Though I was already prepared for it, I'd be lying if I said that I
wasn't sad when it finally happened.

But late at night on that seemingly gloomy day, I saw this one girl who was shining brightly
as she held a magazine up in the air. Before I even knew it, I was running, drawn by her
light... No... Drawn by the light of the latest edition of Shounen Jump, to be more precise. At
that time, I finally found myself a Jump Buddy

"A cute Jump buddy..." I smiled to myself as I continued to reminisce.

Teasing her was always fun. She'd easily get flustered and her face turns as red as a tomato
whenever she'd blush. It doubled her cuteness, to be honest.

But to be more honest, I just love it whenever she smiles. She's a pretty lively person
herself. She never failed to spread her contagious smile into me. Even the smallest gestures
she'd do were all giving me warm feelings.

I wanted to get to know her better... I was interested about her... I like her and I fell in love
with her...

I wanna be right there beside her... To take care of her... To protect her... To even just see
her face lit up with her warm smile and hear her sweet voice... I just----------

"I wanted to make her happy... But right now, I'm hurting her..."

I ran my fingers back and forth through my hair, dishevelling it in the process and released a
deep sigh.

"You fucking idiot..." I cursed to myself and brought my knees close to my chest, arms
crossed above them as I hid my face.

"Oi, Tendou!" I heard a familiar voice. It was Semi's. "What are you doing over----------" The
setter's sentence was cut off. Someone probably stopped him. Probably Reon.

Even so, I didn't tore away my gaze to determine whether my guess was right or wrong. I
just didn't mind them.

Before I even knew it, I was still on the same position as I was earlier. I didn't knew how
much time have passed when I heard footsteps walking towards me. They stopped right in
front of me. I decided to move, bringing my head up to see who it was.
"Wakatoshi-kun..." I said his name while the ace just gently placed a paper bag on the floor
and left without a word.

Curious about the contents inside the paper bag, I took it and looked inside. There were
bentos and drinks. There was also a small note and it read:

For Tendou and Reeis, eat.

I recognized the handwriting and it was owned by none other than the one who just dropped
by. Maybe Wakatoshi-kun was the one who was with Semi earlier or maybe the setter told
the ace about this. Maybe they asked him to buy us some bentos or maybe he himself
bought them for us. One thing's for sure... I just can't help but smile at it.

I looked at the door right beside me. After a minute, before I could even stand up to give her
the bento and drink, I suddenly heard a noise and a thud right behind the wall that I was
resting.

"Daki?! Daki, are you okay?!" I was on all fours, my face near the door. I banged on it thrice
and told her, "Daki, I know you don't wanna talk to me but please, please just answer me to
know that you're fine." There wasn't a respond and I was starting to get more worried.
"Daki----------"

"The bedside table just fell down when I reached for it to pull myself up," she finally
answered.

My eyes widened upon realizing that she was sitting on the floor, her back against the wall
right behind me, and as she pulled herself up using the bedside table but it became
unbalanced and it fell down.

"Are you hurt?" I asked.

"By the bedside table? Nope," she answered and my heart stung by the underlying meaning
of her words.

"Daki, I----------" There were a lot of things that I wanted to say but I didn't know where to
start or what words to use. "W-Wakatoshi-kun wanted to have you this bento and drink..."

There was silence... No response... She didn't want to talk to me, afterall... But few seconds
later, I heard the doorknob twisting and the door to her room finally opened.

--------------------

"It's quiet..."
I found myself still sitting on the floor with my back on the wall. After seconds... minutes...
maybe an hour or so... I finally sorted out myself and just as I was about to stand up, the
bedside table where I decided to place my hand to pull myself up just came crashing down
the floor, along with my clock and other stuff on it.

"Daki?!" my eyes widened upon hearing that. "Daki, are you okay?!"

"What is he doing here? Don't tell me... After all this time, he didn't left? Was he... waiting for
me to come out?"

I heard Satori banged the door thrice before telling me, "Daki, I know you don't wanna talk to
me but please, please just answer me to know that you're fine."

Just hearing how worried his voice was... It's making me feel like... like----------

"God, I feel so terrible right now..."

"Daki----------"

"The bedside table just fell down when I reached for it to pull myself up," I told him, trying to
hold my awful self.

"Are you hurt?" the redhead asked.

"By the bedside table? Nope," my voice came out dry and it made me feel even worse.

I was stupid... So fucking stupid... I feel so bad at what I did earlier... I overreacted, dammit,
and I shouldn't have done that... I shouldn't have... And I should've at least... calm down and
let Satori explain himself...
"Daki, I---------- Wakatoshi-kun wanted to have you this bento and drink..." I heard him say
and I didn't know what to do.

Should I open it? It would be pretty rude to Ushijima-san if I turn it down. But... I don't want
him to see me... Not after what I did...

Before I even realized it, my hand was reaching for the doorknob, trembling as I turned it. I
was only able to open the door a little, just enough for the meal to slip in.

"Here you go..." he stuttered as he slipped the bento and drink between the gap.

I took it quietly, still leaving the door ajar as I once again rested my back on the wall and
started eating the bento.

And there it was... That deafening silence... I'm usually just fine with this lack of noise, but
being this silent with Satori who's just on the other side of the wall behind me... It's not fine...

"You know..." the middle blocker started, breaking the silence. "I never thought I'd actually
find someone who shares the same interest as I did with regards to Jump... But then when I
was down low, I met her... My Jump Buddy..."

Those last three words made me stop from whatever I was doing.

"Before I even knew it, I fell in love with her and I was glad when I learned that she loves me
back... And with that, I wanted to show her how much she means to me... To let her know
how much I appreciate everything that she have done for me, may it be big or small... I
wanted to make her happy... To see her gorgeous smile... But then I end up hurting her in
the process..."
"Satori..." I whispered his name in the air as I heard the significant amount of affection that
he has for me. "Satori, I---------- I'm sor----------"

"Daki, I wanna see you," his voice was firm, absolute to what he desired, and then it
softened when he asked, "Will you please let me?"

"I couldn't... I just couldn't take it anymore..."

Standing up, I went and stopped in front of the door for a moment before slowly opening it
wide to see the redhead standing on the doorstep with his disheveled hair.

"Satori----------"

"I'm sorry, Daki," he said as he bowed. "I'm sorry, I lied to you."

"No... Satori, please..." I said as I held his hands, making his dark red eyes focus on me. "I
should be the one asking sorry to you..." I told him. "I overreacted... I know you wouldn't
cheat on me but... I was.... getting so jealous with nb... ever since I learned it was her at the
kindergarten where I saw you... and that you've hidden it from me..."

"Daki..." Satori said as he stared directly into my blue light eyes. "I was at the kindergarten
because I was working part-time there."

"What?"

"I asked keigo's help to get me into a temporary part-time job and he offered to give me his
shift at the kindergarten if I teach him some pointers about blocking. That's how I met isami-
chan," he told me.

"But... Why? You didn't have to keep your part-time job secret, you know. You even know
mine."

"Well... Ah..." I noticed the tiny blush forming on his cheeks as he averted his eyes from me.
"It's because I... wanted today to be... special for you..."
"Special? You mean our date?" I asked and he nodded. "You really don't have to do
anything special, Satori... As long as you're with me... to spend time together... it's already
enough..." I told him but he shook his head.

"Today's supposed to be your special day... It's 14th..." he said.

"Yeah, it's four----------"

With my eyes widened, I abruptly stopped talking when I realized what today actually is. It's
14th... March 14th... White Day...

"I'm supposed to give you something in return for the chocolate molten lava cake that you've
given me during Valentines... That's why I kept my part-time job a secret... To surprise you,
Daki..." he told me.

"Satori, I----------"

"But I had to lie... And in the process, it created doubts... misunderstandings... jealousy..."
the redhead continued. "I ended up hurting you, Daki. I'm sorry."

And there I was... Dumbfounded...

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry. Satori, I'm so sorry, I thought you were---------- I was---------- God,
I'm the biggest idiot in the entire universe," I muttered as I crouched down, silently wishing
that the ground would just open up and eat me.

"Daki..."

"Satori, I'm so sorry..." I continued to apologize.

The middle blocker crouched down and cupped my cheek. "It's alright..." he told me with a
smile. "It's my fault for lying in the first place."

"But I----------"

I was cutted off when his lips touched mine for a split second. His action stunned me.

"I love you, Daki," he told me and I just can't help but adore how sincere it sounded.

"Even if I overreact at times?" I asked him and he nodded. "Even if I'm the biggest idiot in the
entire universe?"

He then flashed his signature grin. "Even if you're the biggest idiot in the entire multiverse,
I'd still love you."

His sappy words made me chuckle. "No one in the right mind would say those words,
Satori."
"Well, consider yourself lucky 'cuz I'm crazy for you," he wittily responded with a wink.

"You idiot..." I told him, accompanied with a light smack, and he chuckled.

"Now then... Shall we?" he asked as he reached out his hand.

I gladly took it and we both stood up on our feet. Without realizing it, I was staring at the
middle blocker in front of me. Satori was so tall... His mesmerizing dark red eyes matched
his beautiful red hair perfectly...

"You're so handsome, you know that?" I told him and his face was telling me that I caught
him off guard.

He let out a soft chuckle and replied, "And you are beautiful yourself, Daki," pinching my
cheek lightly. "But do you know what will make you even more beautiful?" the redhead asked
and I shook my head in response.

He reached for his pocket, took out a small thin square package and gave it for me to open. I
untied its knots and gasped when I saw its content. It was a simple red pendant necklace.

"Satori, it's---------- This is so beautiful... You shouldn't have..." I told him as I couldn't believe
what he was giving to me.

The redhead smiled as he gestured me to give him the necklace and for me to turn around. I
followed him and my heart was racing against my chest as Satori's fingers brushed against
my skin while gently putting the necklace on me. After locking its hook, the middle blocker
kissed my nape, sending shivers down to my spine.

"Satori..." I breathed as I felt his arms wrapped around me from behind.

He loosened up his hold to let me turn to face him. With that, I had my arms around his neck,
his around my waist.

"Thank you, Satori... You really shouldn't have done this..." I told him with a smile.

"I want to..." the redhead responded as he smiled back. "Besides... I wanna see you wearing
nothing but that necklace, Daki."

His remarks set my face on fire. "Idiot..." I told him as I playfully smacked his chest and he
let out a chuckle.

"Right, right... We're both idiots..."

-------------------
"While the beautiful Belle hurriedly went to the location of the Beast, the prideful Gaston
kicked the Beast down on the floor," nb narrated on the sidelines.

"Ha! It's over, Beast! Belle is mine!" keigo declared and then stabbed Satori with his sword-
shaped cardboard.

"No!" I shouted as the kids on the kindergarten gasped at the scene that we portrayed.

Satori groaned against his made-up beast mask as he dropped on the floor.

I hastily went to his side and told keigo, "How could you, Gaston?! He is not a bad person!
He doesn't bring any harm!"

"Yeah! He's a very nice bear!" we heard a little girl reacted as the kids continued to watch.

"He's not a bear! He's a lion!" the other kid tried to correct her and we were trying our best to
hold back our chuckles.

"This ferocious Beast has controlled your mind! Wake up, Belle!" keigo monologued as he
yanked me up only to push me down to the floor, making our little audiences gasp once
again.

True to his character, the redhead roared as he stood back up and attacked keigo. While
having their fighting scene, the kids were actually cheering him on. Also, I dunno if it was just
in my head but I was pretty sure that there was a kid who yelled, "Kick his ass!"

Anyway, Satori finally got the upper hand and he was about to kill keigo with his cardboard
claws but then I screamed, "No!" He stopped as c/n had this terrified look on his face.
"Don't be the beast that he thinks you are!" I delivered my line and the middle blocker slowly
lets go of my dear cousin.

"Leave! And don't you dare come back!" the glare that Satori had was clearly visible even
with his made-up beast mask.

"Eep!" keigo lets out an uncontrolled yelp and he shakingly took his exit.

The redhead, then, fell into his knees before flopping in the floor.

"No!" I said as I went and cradled him in my arms. "No, Beast! Please, don't die on me!" I
monologued.

"You... came back..." the middle blocker said.

"Yes... Please... Please, don't leave me... I love you, Sato---------- I mean, Beast!"

Even with the mask, I could see the the middle blocker's smirk through his eyes when I
slipped out his name. "At least, I... I got to see you one last... time..." he said and closed his
eyes, playing unconscious.

"No! He can't die! He's the main character!" I heard one of the kids reacted and as if on cue,
Satori started to shake.

"What's happening?" the kids wondered while I stood up, giving the redhead some room to
continue what he was doing.
After shaking, he opened his eyes and sat up to dramatically take off his made-up claws and
mask.

"Ah... Well... At least he tried to..."

As Satori was supposed to do that, the mask got stuck on his face, making him struggle to
take it off. We could actually hear him muttering some words as he stood up and ran around.
He threw away all the supposedly "dramatic effect" and just went full force with "comically"
trying to get the mask off his face.

I must say, his impromptu comedic stint worked as he got the audience's laughter. Even I
couldn't held back my chuckles.

After letting out some laughs, he was finally able to take it off as he let out a gasp and threw
away the mask. The kids were like die-hard fans as they spat to catch the prop.

"Yes, I've got it!" one of them declared.

With that, I took a breath before I delivered my line once again. "Beast? I-Is that... you?"

"Yes... Yes, my love. I have finally been broken free from my curse," the redhead
monologued.

We ran into each other's arms and succumbed into the warmth of our embrace.

"The Beast has finally returned back into being the Prince. Free from the curse, things have
become peaceful and the two lived happily ever after. The end," nb ended our short rendition
of a famous fairy tale.

The kids at the kindergarten clapped as the four of us thanked and bowed to them.

"Do another one! Do another one!" there were some of them who wanted for something
more.
With that, Satori patted their heads and told them, "Sorry guys but we can't. Today's actually
my last day here, so----------"

"Eehhh???? Are you leaving us, Satori-nii-chan?"

"Don't go! We'll miss you!"

"Aw... I'll miss you guys, too!" he responded and then crouched down. "Don't worry. I'll visit
here from time to time, okay?" he told them with a smile and the kids clung on to him. It was
their way of telling him to stay.

"Onee-chan," one of them lightly tugged my shirt. "Will you come and visit us, too?"

"Yeah, yeah. Will you?"

My eyes widened at their question. It was actually my first time visiting the kindergarten and I
just met these kids today and yet...

"They want me to... come back?"

I was taken aback at first but I couldn't help but smile at these sweet, adorable children.

"Of course, I will! I'll even bring some snack for you guys!" I told them.

"Yay! Snacks!"

"Free food!"

"Now then!" nb's voice caught all our attentions. "I know it's sad but we're gonna send
Tendou-san and l/n-san off now. It's time to say goodbye," she told the children.

"Eehhh..."

"Already?"

"But I don't wanna say goodbye."

The kids were whining but keigo told them, "Goodbyes bring new hellos. Besides, they said
that they'll visit, remember?"

"Oh yeah!"

"Alright, then!"

"Thank you for taking care of us! Bye-bye!" the kids bid us farewell.

"See you guys later!" Satori said as I said, "Bye-bye!"

"Come visit us, okay?"

"Of course!" the redhead responded.

"Don't forget the snacks!"

"I won't!" I replied with a smile and the both of us left the kindergarten.

Now walking on the sidewalk, I told the middle blocker, "They've really gotten attached to
you in just a short time."

"Well, they've gotten attached to you way faster than they did with me, Daki-chan," he
responded with a grin.

"Yeah right," I was being sarcastic and he just chuckled. "I was actually surprised that they
wanted me to come and visit them. I mean, I'm not that great with kids, so..."

"You say that, but I actually think you'll gonna be a great mother."

"Eh?" I stopped dead on my tracks and the middle blocker followed my action.

With a Cheshire grin, he asked, "Wanna be the mother of my children, Daki?"

And then Daki.exe stopped working.

"OMIGAADDD, WHAATTT?!?!?!??!?!!" I internally screamed as my face felt so hot due to

the fact that it was raging with a wildfire of blush.

I was trying to respond to him but all I could do was let out some incoherent words while the
redhead was still wearing that wide grin on his face.

"heeee?? What are you saying all of the sudden? You're just saying things out of nowhere...
Want me to send you off to the moon or something?!" I told him.

Satori laughed at my reaction. "Well, I think you're actually great with kids. Thus, making me
think that you'll be a great mother someday... A great mother to my future children..." the
middle blocker was not letting the redness on my face subside.

"There you go again! I'm seriously gonna send you off to outer space if you won't stop,
Satori," I told him before continuing to walk.

He whined like the kids back at the kindergarten as he followed my pace. "Daki-chan, you
meenie!"

I laughed at the redhead beside me. "And I'll be a whole lot meaner if we don't stop dilly-
dallying and end up being unable to buy the latest edition of this week's Shounen Jump."
"We, Daki-chan," Satori said. "We will be a whole lot meaner if we can't buy the Jump," he
corrected and grinned.

I grinned back at him, saying, "That I couldn't agree more."

And with that the two of us ran towards the convenience store to buy the weekly magazine.

We panted... laughed... teased... Things were pretty much the same. They're still the same
as the early spring breeze hit us... It's warmth served as the countdown towards the near
end of our school year…

"Guys, guys!" our class representative called our attention as he was standing behind the
teacher's desk. "Graduation's just two weeks away and before we even knew it, we'll be
going our separate ways. Is there anything you guys wanna do while we're high school
students?" he asked.

With that, the students were active on giving out some of their suggestions. Some wanted to
go camping. Some wanted to go out of town... Going on a trip. The class was being lively at
the class rep's motion... but I just can't help but feel a bit blue about it...

"It's already ending, huh?" I thought to myself as I released a sigh, not noticing a pair of dark
red eyes looking at me from the other side of the classroom.

Later that day, I was cleaning up a table at my workplace when our manager called out to
me.

"Reeis, do you have any plans for this weekend?" she asked.

"This weekend? No... I don't think so," I answered as I picked up the dishes and started
bring it to the dishwasher. "Why did you ask, hurikoshi-san?"

"Well, I'm just thinking you might wanna spend your last few weekends as a high school
student out having fun! Not killing it by working your ass off here all the time," she told me
and it made me chuckle.
"You know, you're the only manager that I know who doesn't want her employee to 'work her
ass off', hurikoshi-san. You're so kind."

"Ha!" she scoffed. "Don't get me wrong, Reeis. I do want my employees to work their asses
off. Just not every single time," she had a smirk on her face. "Besides, I'm feeling so
generous right now."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, really," she responded.

And then we heard the bell on the door rang as it opened.

"Welcome to the---------" I stopped as I realized who it was. "Satori!"

"Yo!" he greeted back.

"Oh, look. Your boyfriend's already here to pick you up," hurikoshi-san teased me with her
playful grin.

"And I'm quite early!" the redhead merrily added as he walked towards me.

His arm suddenly wrapped around my waist and he pulled me in for a short kiss, taking me
by surprise.

"Ayiieee~~~" I heard some my co-workers react at his actions.

"Satori, I'm still working," I told him as I was being bashful with all the pair of eyes watching
us.

"No, you're not, Reeis. You're already done for today," hurikoshi-san said.

"Eh?"

"I'm letting you off early so spend it wisely, okay?" she told me and gave us a wink before
leaving us.

"But, Hurikoshi-san, I----------" before I could even finish my sentence, she was long gone. I
sighed and turned to look at the middle blocker. "Wait for me for a sec, okay?"

"Okay!" he responded and I went to grab my things.

After a minute, I finally got out of my workplace and saw the redhead patiently waiting for
me.

He gave me such a smile and I couldn't help but smile back at him.

Before we even knew it, we were in an indoor batting cage, swinging bats as we tried to hit
the balls that were flying fast towards us.

"So..." Satori started talking as we were both hitting the balls on our respective cages. "What
do you think?" he asked.
"Think about what?" I asked back as I didn't got what he meant.

"About earlier... When the class rep asked what do we want to do before the school ends."

"Oh, that... In the end, the class wasn't able to agree on a single outcome, right?"

"Yup," he responded and was able to hit the ball perfectly. "So... What do you think about it?
What do you wanna do, daki"-chan?"

I was about to swing my bat but I was stopped on my tracks, making the ball hit the cage as
it just went straight through.

"Well, what do you wanna do, Satori?" I asked the him back.

"Hmm... Nah... You didn't tell me yours so I won't tell mine," he told me along with his grin.

I grinned back. "Then, how about a match? Whoever hits the ball first wins."

"What's at stake?" my proposal piqued the redhead's interest.

"The loser will have to tell what he/she wants to do and will also have to do what the winner
wants to do. Deal?"

"Deal! Rock-paper-scissors?" he asked.

"Rock-paper-scissors," I responded.

At first, we both threw scissors. The next round, I still threw scissors while he threw rock.

"Yay, I go first!" the middle blocker beamed like a kid.

He, then, took his position and got himself ready. Just before the ball shot off, I made some
silly moves, making him miss the timing of his swing.

"Yes!" I said out loud.

"Hey, that's not fair, Daki-chan! You distracted me!" Satori whined.

"Well, we never agreed to have no distractions while playing, right?" I sarcastically told him
as he playfully made a face.
I positioned myself to hit the ball but then the redhead made some silly faces that made me
laugh out loud, making me unable to swing the bat at all.

"Hahaha... Two can play that game, Daki-chan!" he told me with a grin.

"Oh, it's on now, Satori!" I responded.

For several rounds, we kept distracting each other. We kept failing at hitting the ball.

As the baseball shot fast from the launcher, Satori swung but it was just below the ball's
trajectory.

"Argh, I still missed!" he said.

I took my stance. The ball went flying and I swung my bat. A ping resonated throughout the
batting cage as the bat made contact with the ball.

"Nooo!!!!!" I shouted.

"What's wrong, Daki-chan? You've hit it."

"It wasn't a hit, Satori. It was a foul ball! I swung too late!" I told him as I rewinded how the
ball deflected backwards because of my late swing.

"I know, I know. But still, the bat hit the ball! You won!"

"Really?"

"Wait, I shouldn't have admitted my defeat," Satori told me as I raised my eyebrow. "That
way, we'd still be playing and I might've won it instead of----------"

I lightly elbowed his gut and we just ended up laughing out of nowhere.

Now walking back to the dormitory, we were eating some fresh hot tasty croquet.

"Sooo?????"

"So... I... I wanted to play on a volleyball match... Just one last time with the guys... That's
what I wanted to do before graduating," the redhead told me with a faint smile.

"Satori..." I felt a small pang on my chest as I looked at the middle blocker. I could see and
hear it in his voice... How much he loves volleyball... How much he loves his teammates...

"So... What did you wanna do, Daki-chan?" he asked me with his playful tone.

"Me? Hmm... It's a secret!"

"What?! Aw, c'mon! I told you mine."

"Yeah, and that's part of our deal. Remember, you still have to do what I wanna do, Satori."

"But how would I do that if you won't tell me what it is?" he asked and I just chuckled at him.
"Aw, Daki-chan!" he whined loudly like a child.

"Don't worry, Satori. You'll know what is this coming weekend," I said as I've decided to
follow what m/n-san said. To spend my remaining weekends as a high school student out
having fun. "Until then, keep speculating," I told him and saw him grin as soon as I've said
the last word.

"Oh, Daki-chan. I'm gonna guess it before the weekend comes. I'm the Guess Monster,
afterall."

Later that night as we walked in the dorm hallways...

"Onsen?" I asked.

"Hmm... That'll be nice but nah," Daki answered.

"Travel to Tokyo?"

"Nope."

"Okinawa?"

"Nuh uh."

"Out of the country?"

"Wow, does it look like I have enough money to do that, Satori?"

"I dunno. Maybe you have a lot of secret money stashed somewhere," I grinned.

"Or maybe I have given them all to the people," she grinned back.

"Oohhh... Daki-chan is such a good person!" I said and she just chuckled at me.

Reaching the door of her room, I looked at the ceiling to think.

"Aha! I know what you wanna do, Daki-chan!" I beamed.

"Oya? You guessed it already?" she asked as she grabbed her keys.

I merrily nodded at her. "You wanna go out on an unforgettable date with me!"

She sarcastically gasped. "A date! It's not like we don't go out on dates often, Satori. Try
again."

"Hmm... A date on the amusement park!"

"Seriously? You still think it's a date?" she gave me a mischievous smile before opening up
the door.
"Well, we've never went to the amusement park for a date before," I reasoned and I heard
her chuckle.

"Well, you do have a point about that," she responded as we went inside.

"So... I'm guessing that I guessed it right?" I asked her with an intentional redundance.

"Hmm... Did you?" she was grinning at me as she sat on her bed.

"Aw, c'mon, Daki-chan! You've been such a tease!" I whined as I lay my head on her comfy
lap.

"But you're so much of a teaser compared to me, Satori," she told me and I let out a small
chuckle.

Daki started to caress the strands of my redhair with her ever so delicate fingers. It was such
a quiet gesture. It made me close my eyes as I succumb myself into this peaceful setting.

"You know... It just occurred to me that we never played hide and seek when we mess
around," I uttered.

"There you go again, saying things out of nowhere," she replied with a small chuckle.
"What? You wanna play hide and seek with me right now?"

I shook my head. "On second thought, I'd never want to play that game with you, Daki-
chan."

"Eh? Why?"
"Because I'm afraid that I can no longer find such a one-in-a-million girl."

I felt her movements stopped. Because of this, I slowly opened my eyes and saw her bright
tomato-like red face.

I gave her a smile and reached out my hand to cup her cheek. Daki responded with such a
warm smile in return as she looked down on me. She looked a whole lot prettier whenever
she smiles like that.

"I love the view..." I whispered underneath my breath.

"The view of my breasts?" she teased as they were within my field of vision.

"That and your beautiful smile, Daki..." I told her.

"Satori..." she called out my name as she leaned into my touch. Her smile was as sweet as
nectar, accompanied with her bright rosy cheeks.

It was like it was just the two of us in the entire world... and I wouldn't mind to stay in this
moment forever...

"But seriously, I need to know what it is, Daki-chan," I suddenly decided to drop whatever
mood we had.

"Eh?" she found herself dumbfounded.

Without any warning, I started tickling Daki on her sides, making her fall down on her bed. I
took that advantage to get on top of her and continue my assault all over her ticklish parts.

"Satori, stop! This is----------" Daki couldn't finish her sentences as she keep laughing her
heart out while squirming.

"Now, now, Daki-chan. Tell me what you wanted to do or else I won't stop," I told her.

"No!" she responded. "I swear I'm gonna----------"

"Gonna what? You'll gonna kick me out to the outer space?" I teased as she squeaked.

"Alright, alright! Just s-stop it already!" she surrendered and I couldn't help but let out a small
laugh. "Geez, that was such a foul play, Satori!" she told me as I stopped tickling her.

"Can't help it. I just wanna know that badly," I told her with a grin. I moved, leaning in as I
propped my elbows to support myself... Our faces just inches away from each other... "Tell
me, Daki... Tell me what you want to do... and I'll do whatever it takes for it to happen..." I
told her as I locked my gaze on her dazzling blue light eyes.

I noticed the shade of pink creeping on her face right after I said those words. As for me...
Well... I did mean it though... Every single bit of it...

Daki averted her eyes briefly before finding my dark red ones once again. With a smile, she
cupped my cheek. "Okay, I give up. I'll tell you what it is."

She gave me a short kiss before we sat up on the bed. Reaching out her hand, Daki
grabbed mascot plushie.
"Ah... Well... Your guess is not that far off from what I wanted to do, Satori..." she started.
"You see... M/n-san told me to spend my last weekend out having fun... That's why I... I
thought... it'll be nice to... you know..." she was trying to hide her embarrassed self, playing
with the plushie to ease her bashfulness.

"To?" I asked as I can't help but think of how cute she looks right now.

"To... To... go out and have fun at the amusement park..." she said.

"Yay! So my guess was right, afterall!" I celebrated.

"Well... Not really... I mean, the real reason behind it is what I really wanted to do before
graduating..." she rained on my parade.

"Which is?" I asked, curious about what f/n was going to answer.

"I---------- Before graduation, I want to... c-create more memories with you..." her voice was
barely audible... but I heard clearly... "A whole lot of new and fun ones... Special ones, too..."
she added.

I was pretty sure that my eyes widened with what she saying to me. I just... couldn't believe
it... Am I hearing her words right?

"Satori?" Daki's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing... It's just---------- Daki, you really----------" I couldn't find the words to say. Because
of this, I just grabbed Daki and pulled her into a tight embrace, an uncontrollable smile
painted across my face. "You just made me fall in love with you even more, Daki..." I
whispered and I slowly felt her arms wrap around me, hugging me back as tightly as I did.

We stayed like that for a little longer... Without speaking a single word... We were just
there... basking in each other's warmth... and how it felt so right...

"YEHEEYYY!!!!!" we celebrated as soon as we got off the bus, our arms raised high up to
the sky.

The weekend has come and after a moderately sleepy journey, we have finally arrived at the
amusement park.

"Wow! This place is huge!" Daki said in awe as we entered and saw some of the lively
attractions all around us.

"Daki-chan, look!" I nudged her as I was pointing with my free hand while she kept taking
pictures.

She stopped to look at where I was pointing and her jaw dropped to the floor at what she
saw. "SATORI, I WANNA RIDE THAT NOW!" she exclaimed.

"ME, TOO!" I responded and we both grinned at each other like idiots.

And with that, we rode a freefall ride. As we slowly ascended towards the top, I turned to
look at my Jump buddy. She had this big smile on her face, unable to contain her own
excitement as she kept giggling. For me, it was contagious, making me smile without even
thinking about it. When the ride finally dropped, we both screamed on the top of our lungs as
we felt like our souls were left on top of the air while our bodies were rapidly falling down to
the ground.
"Aaahhhh!!! Haahhh..." Daki breathed when our feet finally touched the ground.

"That was so cool!" I said as we got off the ride. "So... What do you wanna ride next, Daki-
chan?" I asked.

"Hmm..." she hummed, casually touching her chin as she looked up like she was a detective
who was thinking so hard to solve a case.

Before we even knew it, we were going all around the amusement park. We were riding
anything and everything that we passed by, be it a swing carousel, bump cars, to spinning
top rides, pendulum rides and so on.

"Man..." I breathed. "It was so dumb to ride the rollercoaster when the stomach's full," I said
as I felt like throwing up my consumed lunch not so long ago.

"You were the one who said to eat first," she told me as she put an arm over her stomach,
heading towards a nearby bench.

Following her, I playfully debated, "And you were the one who said to ride the rollercoaster."

"Hey! If you didn't asked me what to ride, then we wouldn't be in this situation right now,
Satori!"

I just laughed at her reaction. "So... Since our stomachs are still having their revolution," I
started and Daki chuckled at my word choice, "Wanna watch some of their performances?" I
asked as I recalled that the park's mascots will have some sort of a mini concert at the park
square.

"Yeah sure!" Daki happily answered with the brightest smile.

We went and watched their performances. The mascots were funny and kinda cute. After
their show, we decided to take some pictures with them before finding ourselves conquering
rides once again. I would turn to look at Daki from time to time. Despite all the deafening
screams whenever we're in a ride, I always seem to find myself riding it alone with just
Daki... especially whenever I see how much she's having fun.

"Having the time of your life, Daki-chan?" I asked her when we finally decided to take a
breather, enjoying the slow pace of the ferris wheel as it goes up.

She gave me a wide smile. "You bet! I'm so glad I get to be here with you, Satori."

I couldn't help but smile back as we were sitting across each other. Nearly reaching the
highest peak, I asked, "Say... Have you heard an urban legend about ferris wheels?"

"Oh please, do tell," I was able to pique her interest.

"Well..." I started, making the carriage swing a bit as I slowly moved to sit right beside Daki.
"They say that if couples kiss while on top of the ferris wheel, they'll end up together
forever."

I watched as Daki stopped for a second and then chuckled. "Oh, Satori. I thought you'd tell
me something else. That urban legend of yours is so popular on shoujo mangas, you know."

"Well... Wanna test it out?"

"Eh?"

Before she could really protest, I pressed my lips on hers. She stiffened for a second,
surprised at my action, before finally relaxing as she gave in into the kiss. Daki's lips were so
soft that I couldn't help but brush my tongue on her bottom lip, wanting to get more of her
taste. She let out a small whimper as her mouth flew open, welcoming my tongue. Her
hands were circling around my neck as our kiss got deeper.

"Satori..." Daki breathed as we broke free from each other.

I smiled at her before giving her tiny pecks all over her face, making her giggle her heart out.

Suddenly, her phone rang on her pocket. It made us stop, noticing that the we were now
slowly descending from the top as Daki grabbed her phone to answer the call.

"Hello?" she asked. Her brows then furrowed, saying, "Wait a sec, hurikoshi-san, I can't hear
you clearly with all the noise." Daki looked at me, her face was asking me for help as she
held out her phone after several taps. "Ah, hurikoshi-san, I've put you on loudspeaker," she
told her.

"Why the heck would you put me on loudspe----------"

"Yo, hurikoshi-san! Seems like the place you're at right now is pretty rowdy," I cut her off.

"Oh, it's the boyfriend. How delightful," the tone on her voice was sardonic. "Anyway... As I
was saying, Reeis, there's an emergency and I need your help."

"Emergency? What kind of emergency?" Daki asked.

"You see, we're paid to hold a class party right now. The client wanted to hold it on their
school grounds and they already gave us their number of students and I was confident
enough to accept the job even without your help. That's why I let you go out and have your
little date," hurikoshi-san said.

"Lemme guess," I interjected. "The number of students increased quite a lot and it was too
late to prepare for the additional ones."

"Bingo! It was a last minute change by the client. Instead of it being a party for a class
section, it became a party for their entire year level and that's what the ruckus on my
background was all about," Hurikoshi responded and heard her sigh. "Listen, Daki... I know I
gave you this weekend to have fun and I'm actually feeling bad asking for your help
but----------"

"No, no. It's alright, Hurikoshi-san. I understand," Daki told her.

She looked at me, silently asking for some sort of a permission. I knew what she wanted. I
know just how compassionate she is... and that's one of the traits that I love about her.

I gave her a nod, accompanied with a smile and her face brightened up.

"I'll help you guys out," Daki said to m/n-san as she reached for my hand and gently
squeezing it.
"Great! Bring your boyfriend, too. We'll need all the manpower that we can get," Hurikoshi
suddenly said.

We were caught off guard with what she just said but we then realized that it was just like
what happened on Valentines day. In the end, we both agreed to help out.

Minutes later, we found ourselves getting off the bus at the nearest bus stop from the
address that hurikoshi-san sent. We then walked as it was just few blocks away.

"Satori, I... I'm so sorry for cutting our date short..." Daki told me.

I gave her a smile. "It's alright. It's no big deal."

"Thank you... for understanding... and for coming here with me..." she quietly told me as we
reached our destination.

Music could be heard from outside the venue, which was a school gym. Daki opened the
door and I could hear the sound blaring out of the gym.

"hurikoshi-san, we're finally here," I heard Daki said as she went inside.

Following her, I was about to step in inside went everything suddenly went dark.

"What the----------"

The lights were all turned off and the deafening music became a deafening silence. Without
any warning, all of the lights were turned back on at the same time... and then I saw it...

"You guys..."

The Shiratorizawa Academy boys volleyball club was right in front of me. All of my
teammates were present in the line up, wearing their respective jerseys.

"Hurry up and get changed, you idiot. We have a match to play," Semi told me with a grin as
he tossed me my own jersey.

And that's when I realized what was going on.

I turned to look at Daki who was smiling this whole time. "What are you waiting for, Satori? If
you're not playing, then I'll be your sub!" she told me.

"How?" was all I could ask to her.

"Daki asked if we could play one last match and we were okay with it," Wakatoshi answered.

"And we had to trick your roommate into letting us go over your stuff to find your uniform and
shoes," Semi continued.
"Also, I had to ask for Hurikoshi-san's help in order for it to work," Daki added.

Her manager chuckled. "You owe me big time, Reeis! I had to get permission for using the
gym and all the things for the music and lights."

"Why?" I suddenly found myself capable of asking just a single word.

"Because that's I wanna do before graduating," Daki replied. "To create more memories with
you. New and fun ones. Special ones, too," she repeated what she had told me a few days
ago. "If what you've wanted will finally come true, then that exact moment will never be
forgotten. It'll become a special memory..." she told me. "And since you wanted to play one
last match with the guys, I thought it'll be----------"

Daki wasn't able to finish her sentence as I just went and hugged her tightly in my arms.

In just a short period of time, she was able to create and execute this surprise effectively.
The amount of thought that she had put into this was unbelievable. It was---------- This was
definitely special...

"You don't know how much you have made me so happy," I said to her. "You have given me
one last time to be in my paradise, Daki..."

"Then you better make the most out of it, Satori..." she responded while hugging me back.

Even though my teammates were teasing us, we stayed in each other's arms for a second
longer. After that, I went to get changed and when I came back, our opponents have finally
arrived. Daki was on the sidelines along with Hurikoshi-san.

"I'll win this match for you," I told her.

She gave me a grin. "You better be. I don't wanna waste all of my cheering just for you guys
to lose," she teased and I gave Daki one short kiss before finally heading out into the court
to play.

--------------------

Satori grunted, wheezed as he slowly slid down into my room floor. "Argh, dammit!" he said
while taking a look on his phone. "Why?! Just when I thought I wasn't being a burden
anymore..."

"Don't say something like that!" I said as I kneeled beside him while I was also taking a peek
at my phone. "You're not a burden! You're... You're my hero!"
"Hero, huh?" he was in defeat. "Nah... I'm a failure... A failure who's broke. A failure who just
wanted to dream about a normal life. A failure who couldn't do that because I was killed and
my pet became my heart! Just as I was finally livin' a good life like a damn dream... Now I'm
wide awake! I'm just a failure who's gonna die, finally die once and for all!" he snapped and
then coughed before hissing as he held into his side.

"Hey, hey... Your bleeding get worse if you do that. Just lay down, okay?" I softly told him as
I applied pressure to his would-be wound.

He weakly scoffed. "You know... I really thought---------- I considered myself as one of

them... A one true member... For a minute there, I----------" The redhead bitterly laughed and
released a deep sigh. "As if someone like me can sway the odds into our favor... Just by
using this ice cream spoon..." he held out his hand as if he was really holding that small
piece of wood. "How laughably pre---------- pre... ah... prescriptions?" I couldn't help but
chuckle at his mistake as he brought his face near his phone to read the word correctly. "Ah!
Presumptuous!" he beamed when he finally read the word right and then went back into his
glum character. "How laughably presumptuous of myself..."

I cleared my throat as I stopped myself from laughing. "But the tides did turn because of
you," I said. "You gave them a mouthful of fireworks. You blasted all of them!"

The middle blocker let out a small laugh. "The thing is... I wasn't really able to blast them
with a mouthful of fireworks... That was just for the pre-show..."

"Just the----------"

I wasn't able to finishing delivering my dialogue as Satori suddenly sat up and sealed my
mouth with his lips. I was surprised at his move but it didn't took me long to go with the flow.
I moved to straddle him, putting my phone aside before my arms wrapped around his neck
as I gave in to his cheeky kiss.

"That right there was still part of the pre-show, Daki. Want me to give you a taste of the main
one?" he playfully asked while flashing his signature grin to me.
"This wasn't on the script, Satori," I told him and his grin just grew wider.

"You mean the script we made after reading the latest edition of Jump? Yeah, I think we can
scrap that and just wing it, if ya know what I mean," he said and wiggled his brows.

The redhead making that action made me chuckle. "You know, it's actually late at night now
and we still have a big day tomorrow. We should probably get some sleep and rest."

"But I wanna stay up with you for a bit longer, Daki-chan," he whined like a kid.

"Yeah, but you kept saying that for the past couple of hours already."

"Well, I just wanna spend all the remaining time together with my girlfriend and make it
count. What's so wrong with that?"

His words made me stop. The tone in his voice... The way he looked at me... At that time, I
knew he wasn't joking around. The middle blocker really did wanted to make every single
second count with me... and my heart swells... happy at his endearing thought...

"Oh, Satori..." I said and gave my dear boyfriend a smile as I cupped his cheek. "Of course,
there's nothing wrong with that... But it's important to take care of our health, too. We need to
take some rest," I softly reminded him and he pouted. "I don't want you to get groggy and
sick on me, okay? I definitely don't want that to happen," I added as I squished his cheeks
with both of my hands.
He then grabbed both of my wrists and placed my hands on my cheeks before overlapping
them with his and squished back my cheeks. "Okay, okay, geez! But on one condition."

"What is it?" I asked, although the way it came out was gibberish since he still continued
squishing before finally having his fill a few seconds later.

"One last time, lemme hold you tonight, Daki..." Satori looked at me straight into my eyes,
his dark red orbs filled with such sentiment.

The way he looked... The way he said those words... It stabbed me, leaving me with a sharp
pang... It hurts...

"No."

Just a single two-letter word was more than enough for the middle blocker to freeze with his
eyes fully wide.

With a loud thud, I tackled him down as I wrapped my arms around him.

"Ow... What the----------"

"Satori, I---------- Of course, you can hold me. Just... Just don't let it be the last time..." I told
him as I tightened my clasp. My face was buried into his hoody, too embarrassed for him to
see. "It's not like we're not gonna see each other again..." my voice came out low.

Slowly, I felt Satori's arms snaked around my waist, pulling me even closer than we already
were. "I'll come visit you... and we'll go out on dates to various new places..."

"And we'll read new editions of Shounen Jump, too..." I added.

"That's right... We surely will..." he agreed as one of his hands moved, his long fingers gently
stroke the strands of my white hair.

The moment was so tranquil... so peaceful... As my head still rested on his chest, I fell to the
rhythm of his own heartbeat... like it was a steady metronome... slowly drifting me into the
land of dreams...

Before I even knew it, it was already morning... and I found myself laying no longer on the
floor but on my bed with the middle blocker. Satori was still sleeping though, his arms still
holding onto me. It was such a nice way to wake up. I leisurely looked at the adorable
sleeping form of the Guess Monster for a few more minutes before finally deciding to wake
him up. With that, we went our separate ways to prepare for the day.

"So... I take it you slept late," keigo teased right after I yawned my biggest yawn of the day.
The two of us were heading towards the school the graduation ceremony.

"Yeah. Satori kept me up so late," I answered and my dear cousin grinned so widely.
"Yeah, I bet Tendou-san did," he said with such a "lenny face" look.

And then it hit me. "Oh my gosh, not like that!" I told him while my face was getting hot.

"Heehhh~~~" he rubbed his tease on me.

"Anyway..." I tried to change the subject. "Will you be able to survive your last remaining
year without me?"

Keigo scoffed. "Of course, I will! I'm not a little kid, ya know!"

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"I'm older than you."

"Just by a mere year."

"And that's why you'll always be my kid cousin," I retorted.

He just sighed. "Yeah, yeah," he deadpanned as we finally arrived at our destination.

A lot of students were gathering along with the faculty and staff of the school.

"So... See ya later, keigo!" I said.

"Yeah. See ya!" he smiled and we both went our ways to find our seats.

It wasn't long before the ceremony started. It went on the usual road. We received our
diplomas, listened to various long speeches, and after benchwarming to the fullest, it was
finally over.

"Daki-chan!" that was the first thing that I've heard right after the ceremony.

"Yo, Satori!" I responded with a big smile as the redhead merrily made his way to me.

"I can't believe you look cuter with that flower pinned on your jacket," he pointed out the
additional piece on my uniform.

"Well, right back at you! You look more handsome with that pinned flower," I responded and
he just grinned. "Anyway, where are the others?" I asked the middle blocker where his fellow
club members were.

"I dunno 'bout the other guys but as for Wakatoshi-kun..." he gestured to the back.

I looked and saw how the former captain of the boys volleyball club was surrounded with
lower classmen. Mostly with girls giving him a bunch of flowers.
"He's quite popular with the ladies, as you can see," the redhead said.

"Yeah... Well, he's the ace, afterall..." I replied as we watched Ushijima-san for several
seconds more.

"Daki..." I heard Satori softly calling out my name. He was smiling at me as he reached out
his hand, a button resting on his palm.

My eyes widened in surprise. "Don't tell me----------"

"It's my second button... and it's all yours..." he said.

This moment... was so special to me... It was like a scene on those shoujo mangas. Sakura
blossoms were swaying, falling down on us... and Satori was looking at me so sincerely. My
heart raced as I blushed at his simple yet heartfelt gesture.

I smiled back at him as I took the button. "Thank you, Satori... I'll definitely treasure this..." I
told him.

"You better be----------"

Satori was stopped when I suddenly gave him a hug. Almost instantly, he did the same to
me.

"I love you..." I told him.

"I love you, too..." he responded before pressing his lips into mine to share a short tender
kiss.

"Now then... Shall we?" I asked while grinning, holding my phone and got myself ready to
take some pictures.

"We shall," the redhead answered as he grinned back.

The two of us took several photos, not just ours, but also with the rest of the team. Of
course, we had Keigo to join us. It was a bit of a ruckus but it was lively.

Looking back, most of my high school days were not like this. It was just... bland in some
way... But then it brightened up when my Jump buddy found me. Then I also came to meet
new people and became friends with them. Before I even knew it, my Jump buddy became
my boyfriend and I was---------- I was just so happy... My last year as a high school student
was just so active... It was so fun... But it wouldn't have happened if Satori and I didn't
meet... officially meet...

"And I'm so fortunate that we actually did..." I thought as I smiled to the middle blocker.
Now, we're turning into new chapters of our lives as we graduate. Sure, we're going our
separate ways to different universities, but... I'm sure it's gonna be alright... It's gonna be
fine...

"We're still together..." our hands intertwined.

And no matter what tomorrow holds, may it be easy or tough, bring it. We'll tackle it with
smiles and hopes as we reach to achieve our dreams.

---End---

--------------------