Mirae Ando was not a fan of a few things. At the very top of her list was any insect or bug. She didn't believe in preserving creatures that resembled the horrors that belonged in nightmares. They were too fast for their size and multiplied at alarmingly unnatural rates. So, she had subscriptions to the best insect repellants and killing sprays in all of Asia.

Second, on her list was sharing a pool with any person. She found it disgusting to sit in any pool, lake, or pond where the water was not being cleaned or filtered. This hatred may have stemmed because she experienced something traumatic as a younger child when an ex-friend peed in the kiddy pool.

Third was chewing gum. If it was about having good breath, one could always eat a mint. Of course, the best way would be by brushing your teeth and flossing. But chewing gum was unnecessary for her. It was a wad of sugar that you chewed for a few minutes until the flavour left.

Emiko Suzuki was the opposite.

Bugs were cool. They could fly and jump, and they were the inspiration behind her favourite Marvel superheroes. Swimming was her favourite thing to do during hot summer days. She especially loved holding her breath for as long as she could while other people screamed as they thought she drowned herself. And chewing gum was one of her main food groups.

Now, the others didn't know what exactly happened as there was a sudden pop, a loud shriek, the sound of slapping and hitting, before Mirae ran off in tears. Emiko shrugged as she held the side of her red face.

"What did you do?" Ennoshita stammered as he ran towards her. "Did you put a bug on her? Did you spit on her while talking again? What did you do?"

"I am the victim," Emiko glared. "Do you see this? My face is bruised and I am hurting, making me the victim."

"Yeah Ennoshita, lay off she's the victim." Tanaka put himself between the two.

"A likely story," Tsukishima rolled his eyes as he walked away.

Shoji followed behind him and also rolled his eyes. "Yeah, a likely story."

"I'm going to hit him," Takita muttered. He was sitting under a tree and trying to cool down from practice. Yaotome grabbed his arm just as he prepared to stand up. "Let me go, 'Tome."

"Miss. Manager Yachi doesn't like fights."

"It was the gum, wasn't it?" Hinata asked. He was sitting a few steps away on the hill with Kenma and Lev. "Mirae doesn't like gum at all. She says it brings together two of the worst qualities of a person."

"What's that?"

"Chewing with your mouth open and excessive sugar intake."

Kenma snickered.

Emiko tried to defend herself, but their Captain was adamant that this attack was provoked. "So, in conclusion, you like Mirae better. Cool, that's cool. I'm leaving and I'm not going to tell you where I am going." She stomped away.

Mirae left the group of volleyball players, crying.

Emiko had run over to her, wanting to show her the bubble that she blew almost the size of a volleyball. When Mirae turned around it popped. The back of her head was covered in two pounds of raspberry scented gum.

She didn't have an exact destination in mind, so she aimlessly walked around the halls of the school. Tiring herself out, she sat down in the corner of the hallway.

"Are you okay?" a deep voice asked.

"Yes," she sighed looking up. "No."

Fukurodani's setter motioned towards her hair. "I know how to get rid of that."

"You're going to cut my hair, aren't you?" she frowned.

"No, we can use ice to freeze the gum and then pick it off."

They began to walk down the hallway towards the cafeteria. He glanced at her and asked, "How did you end up with gum in your hair?"

"Emiko- that's the other manager at Karasuno- craves so much attention that she does stupid things like this. It's like she doesn't even think. She just acts."

Akaashi nodded his head, a small smile lifting on his face. "I had an Emiko, but he graduated."

He held the door open for her and they entered the small kitchen in the cafeteria. Mirae jumped onto the counter and watched as Akaashi went towards the fridge.

"It seems like you miss him."

Akaashi froze. He turned to face her, his sapphire eyes shining, and he smiled sadly. "He was a spectacle in his struggles. His very existence a race to transform into the greatest hero to ever wander the desert planes of tragedies. I don't think another Bokuto-san exists in this universe. Or any universe. So yes, I do miss him."

"Wow, that was beautiful," Mirae sniffled, "who hurt you?"

Akaashi smiled. He looked for a Ziplock bag in the drawers and then filled it with ice. He walked over to where she sat on the counter and held the ice bag against her head.

"He's struggling quite a bit now that he's an adult. Like last week I found out that he almost set the entire dorm on fire because he tried to microwave aluminum foil."

They both started to laugh. Akaashi set the bag of ice down and began to pick the gum from her hair almost effortlessly.

After an intense day of training and penalty laps, Kageyama was hungry. He made his way to the cafeteria and when he opened the door, he faltered and slammed it open. What he was seeing was impossible.

Mirae was sitting on the countertop and resting her head against Akaashi's chest. He was brushing his hand down her hair.

At the sound of the door hitting the wall, Akaashi turned around and Mirae poked her head from behind him.

"Kageyama," she furrowed her brows, "what are you doing here?"

"H-Hinata... Tsukishima... Sho-shoji... which one?" He looked up and pointed to the setter, "Akaashi-san I did not expect this from you."

"What are you talking about?" Mirae hopped off the counter. She ran her hands down her hair and smiled. "You're my saviour Akaashi-san, thanks! Here, I'll throw out the ice bag before it all melts."

He handed her the bag and cleaned the gum off the counter with a napkin.

"Oh," Kageyama's face turned a light pink. He recalled hearing about Mirae and Emiko's little fight.

After washing her hands, Mirae turned around. "What are you doing here Kageyama?"

"We've got extra practice later on, so I wanted to eat something."

Mirae blinked. "How much extra practice?"

"Lots."

"Okay. Get a snack and if you can find Mako or Miyanoshita, ask them to get snacks for everyone. I have to find Emiko."

Both boys watched as she sprinted out of the room, mumbling.

Once she was gone, Akaashi turned to Kageyama. "Please don't be offended Kageyama-kun, but you need to learn how to talk to girls."

He wanted to defend himself but then he thought of the many instances where he accidentally sent a girl away crying, his most recent victim Akira.

"Akaashi-san," he muttered, "can you teach me?"

Takita realized how unusually slow he was walking next to Emiko. She was marching quite fast, her breathing already laboured. He wanted to ask her where she was running away to, but he couldn't get a word in under her angry grumbles.

Then, they stopped. Standing before them was an enraged Mirae.

"You!" She pointed an accusatory finger at Emiko. "Did you know about the extra practice?"

"What extra practice?" She turned to Takita, "Did you know about the extra practice?"

He shook his head. "No one tells me anything."

"Well, apparently there's extra practice that no one told us about and I haven't included the extra calories they'll burn in their nutritional log. These poor boys are in a calorie deficit!"

"There's no time to lose, we have to hurry. You figure out how much more they need to eat and I'll make a meal plan."

Emiko and Mirae began to sprint down the hallway. Takita scratched the back of his neck and wondered, "Should I tell Shoji about this?"

"Should you tell me about what?"

"Don't sneak up on people like that," he rolled his eyes and turned around. Shoji was glaring at him. "I was talking about Emiko and Mirae. Their friendship seems a little..."

"Toxic?"

"I'd say deviant, but toxic works too."

"I know what you mean," Shoji grumbled. "They're constantly fighting but they never resolve their issues. One second they're throwing passive-aggressive comments and the next they're laughing. It weirds me out."

Takita nodded. He and Shoji began to walk down the hallway and towards the cafeteria. It was the only room with the best A/C so they chose a table and sat down.

"You going to practice?" Shoji asked.

"Later. We've played eight sets in a row, I'm exhausted."

"Didn't you play in only three of them? With an hour break in between each one?"

Takita lifted his head off the table and glared. "Shut-up. Middle blockers move around more than anyone else."

Shoji scoffed. "Say that to Nishinoya and Kageyama. I dare you."

"As if you did anything. Didn't all your spikes get stuffed or received?"

"Shut-up."

"You shut-up."

"No you shut-up."

"We always lose when you're on the court. Coincidence? I think not."

Shoji raised his fist and reached over the table grabbing Takita by his shirt. "Say that again you coward."

"You, always, lose, us, points- hit me and I'll choke you."

Shoji growled as he dropped back down in his seat. He stared out the window, avoiding Takita's face in his peripheral vision. They sat in silence for a few minutes, Takita was busy texting someone on his phone and Shoji was trying to stop himself from wrestling him.

"Say," Takita kicked him from under the table, "how do you celebrate a one month anniversary?"

Shoji's face scrunched up. "What in the world makes you think I would know?"

"You're right," Takita blinked, "as though a cave-man would ever have knowledge about things like this. Forget I asked."

Another few seconds passed.

"I'm not a cave-man."

"Right."

"I'm not!"

"Then help me out here man!" Takita groaned as he pushed his phone onto the table for Shoji to see. On the screen, he had pulled up an article on how to celebrate anniversaries, but it didn't seem to offer much help. "We're underage so I can't do half the things on there! Plus, I'm not rich so that cancels out the other half!"

"Are one-month anniversaries real?"

"Apparently."

Shoji clicked his tongue. He closed the webpage and started a new google search. "Well, what does she like?"

Takita blinked. "I don't know."

"You've been dating her for one month and you don't know what she likes?"

"Stop laughing."

"No, I won't, because this is hilarious. I don't even know our managers that well but I could probably tell you five things each one of them likes."

"Fine, I dare you to list five things."

Shoji rolled his eyes and pushed his phone back to him. "Shut-up. It was a figure of speech. Anyway, if it's a one-month anniversary then it's not a serious relationship right?"

"Of course it's a serious relationship!" Takita snapped. He was rather offended. "I like her. She likes me. I don't want her to break up with me so it's serious! That's why I'm freaking out about the one month anniversary. I don't want to mess up."

Shoji let out a low whistle. He leaned back with his arms behind his neck. "You're whipped."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Are too. Mirae was telling me about this T.V. drama she watches where the guy and the girl are in a relationship and the guy starts freaking out about their one year anniversary because he wants it to be perfect. You remind me of the guy, only, you're freaking out about a one month anniversary instead of a one year."

"Yua Loves Eichii, right? Emiko told me that show sucks."

"Mirae says it doesn't. And you're still whipped."

Takita cursed under his breath. "What am I going to do?"

"Just get her a teddy bear and some chocolate. Girls love that cliché stuff."

"Why didn't I think of that?" Takita frowned.

"Because you're an idiot."

"Shut-up."

"You shut-up."

"No, you shut-up-"

"Um, guys?" 'Tome poked his head into the cafeteria. "Ennoshita says its time for our next game."

Surprising both of them, Coach Ukai had Shoji and Takita play in their game against Ubugawa. What was more surprising was that they won their game 25:22. Both boys had an unnecessary amount of aggression pent up and volleyball became the outlet for it.

As soon as the game was done, they bolted.

"Where did he go?"

Ennoshita looked up and saw Tsukishima glaring as he scanned the gym. "Um, Tsukishima are you okay?"

"No, where is he? He has to train, I told him to stay back."

"Takita and Shoji just left," Tadashi pointed to the door. "I saw them on my way in."

A dark shadow crossed Tsukishima's face and he stalked outside.

"What's wrong with Tsukki?" Tadashi asked.

"I think he's seeing a bit of his own personality in them. Do you remember how quickly he'd leave after group training was complete last year? Well, now Shoji, Takita, and 'Tome are doing the same and he's finding it rather annoying."

Tadashi smiled. He remembered last year quite well, and he was more than thankful for the way the third years had encouraged Tsukishima to fight for himself on the court. Tadashi turned to Ennoshita.

"Whenever the managers are around, our first years seem to get along with everyone. And they play really well too. I was thinking that we should ask the girls to help with individual practice."

"That sounds great," Ennoshita complimented. "It'll boost their morale, knowing how much Mirae, Yachi and Emiko baby them. Maybe they'll finally come out of their shells. Say, Tadashi, could you ask Yachi to watch over 'Tome tonight? I think Nishinoya's going to practice with him."

"I'll practice with them too," he nodded. If 'Tome was going to practice receives, then he could send a few jump floats his way.

|Note|

Do the managers baby their first years?

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