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"yamayamaaaaa!

"are you ready?" erena yelled as she ran up to the vending machine. "are you ready to be hit by the realization that plain milk sucks and that strawberry milk is infinitely awes- are you...okay?"

he had bags underneath his eyes, his scowl was a lot deeper than usual and his eyes empty. frustration radiated from him. he leaned against the vending machine, as if he was drained of energy. which he probably was.

"yeah," he nodded. "i'm perfectly fine."

"well, aren't you a big liar," erena tutted. "c'mon now, tell me why you stayed up so late last night. i know you have a proper reason, you're not the type to stay up till two am watching tiktoks."

he sighed. "you know i play volleyball, right?"

"of course," she nodded, recalling back all the times in junior high school when he looked so into the game of volleyball. kageyama was hailed as a genius, even better than oikawa. 

"well, i just got told i have a practice game tomorrow after school," kageyama explained. "usually i would've been eager to crush them, but it's...aoba johsai."

"oh."

everything clicked together. she knew that to kageyama, her elder brother was his biggest hurdle to overcome. kageyama wanted to be the best setter that oikawa currently was. 

"i knew i had to battle against them, but it's so soon, we haven't even started the prelims," kageyama continued. "oikawa-san is such a good player, it gives me chills every time. he excels in being a team player, which i..."

"yeah, i know," erena winced as she recalled the taunting nickname, 'king of the court'. she had been manager, so she had witnessed that moment in which nobody was there to spike kageyama's set. "but you're a genius. i know you have the skill to overcome this hurdle."

"how do you know?"

"i don't know," erena said, before placing both of her hands on his shoulders. she looked him in the eye, and gathered up all her determination.

"that's just what i believe, tobio."

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