"YOU. IDIOT."

Nishinoya turned around with a rather stupid look on his face, just in time for Kageyama to land a kick right into the libero's face. However, due to the guardian's quick relfexes, he managed to escape with a slight scratch.

"HEEEEYYY!! You're supposed to respect your elders!!" Nishinoya growled, holding up a fist to the taller yet younger ravenette. "What was that for?"

"How could you have gotten a suspension?!" the livid setter's eyes were aglow. "And over something so...so...so mindless!!"

Nishinoya gave a cringe of a smile. "Haha, well..."

[Flashback...]

"I double dare you."

"I am a man. Therefore...I accept your dare!!" Karasuno's male libero gave a thumbs up, grinning widely. "But you can't tell anybody else, Saru," he patted his friend's back. "Make sure you have those fifteen bucks ready."

His classmate just shook his head at the boy's antics. "Hey, if Misa-senpai catches you, you're going to die, you know that, right?"

"Just don't tell Tanaka then!" Nishinoya growled, kicking his shoes aside as he leapt into the air vent.

Of course, in Nishinoya's right sense of mind (when Sugawara and Daichi were there), he shouldn't have even entertained the thought of breaking into the girls' locker room just to shame Tanaka Misa. However, he had been double dared. And as a man, he had to follow up on his pride. After all, being recognized as a man was part of his pride as a man.

(Whatever twisted logic Nishinoya had, it made sense to him.)

So when Nishinoya found himself face to face with the Demon Cat of Karasuno, who was obviously livid, he knew that his life had shortened by a few years. Her eyes were gleaming, full of fury, as she pressed him against the lockers, but the coach happened to walk in just at that moment.

[END FLASHBACK.]

"Ah, yeah, so it went something like that," Nishinoya grinned, almost with pride.  "I'm a man of my word, you know?" he almost added defensively.

Kageyama just chose to stalk away before he disfigured the libero's face even more.  With no libero, we don't stand a chanc-  His eyes stopped on the lone figure balancing a volleyball on her head.

-

Kaoru sneezed, sending the ball flying from her head, but her quick reflexes caused her to balance it on her toe.  She looked around, noticing the king setter, who could have been boring holes into her soul the way he was staring, which was rather unnerving.  "Um...yes, Kageyama-san?" her golden eyes flickered up to meet his.

The setter was caught off guard and looked away, coughing.  "Ah, well, what are we going to do with Nishinoya?"

Kaoru tilted her head, giving a rather blank stare.  "I would not know."

So much for a conversation... Kageyama mentally berated to himself, then caught himself thinking that and turned bright red.  What am I doing?  Idiot, don't think like that!  What the hec-

Kaoru was startled when Kageyama suddenly started slapping his face.  "Are you...okay?" she cautiously asked, peering at him in a slightly concerned manner.

"Just fine," he mumbled, growling under his breath.

"No need to be so salty," she said more to herself than him as she watched him jog off.

However, as the "salty" king walked away, the short bright ball of sunshine bounced in, giving Sugawara-chan a cheerful wave.  "Yo!  Kaoru-san!"

The silver-haired girl returned his cheerful greeting with a small smile.  "Ah, you have a cowlick..." she motioned her finger to point at said culprit on his head.

"Huh?" 

Kaoru reached over, stretching up on her tiptoes to gently pat the cowlick down.  As she pulled back, she noticed the ginger's face was a shocking red, steam pouring out of his ears.  "Um...Shoyo?"

"A-Ah, it's nothinggg!!" He shot back, flailing as he pulled away.  However, he didn't get far before he bumped into the silver-haired setter.  "Ah, Sugawa-" Hinata paled before the twitching smile of his senpai.  "Uh..."

"A little too close to her~" Sugawara's smile was obviously forced as he glared at the crouching apologizing ginger.  "Hahaha~" he patted Hinata rather roughly.

Kaoru just stared at her cousin, deadpanning.  "Koushi-nii...honestly..."