My life continued on as usual a while. School was a struggle as I slowly attempted to drag up my grades. Most of my time was spent studying, but I still wasn't getting the grades I needed in order to succeed. My friends continued to cheer me on though, especially Yui and Oikawa. Speaking of the latter, I've spent almost every Monday with him and Takeru, besides a day I was sick and another where I had a big exam on that Tuesday. Usually Mondays are everyone's least favorite day of the week, but for me, they quickly became the best. Every Monday turned into a crazy adventure at the park, a debate where to eat at, or teaching the kids more volleyball.

The kids were really fun to teach. They were enthusiastic and absolutely hilarious sometimes. Itsumi is now able to hold her own against all the other boys, especially her brother, and Ibuki was giving his all to stay ahead of her. We would play three on three games a lot for fun. Of course Oikawa and I were made to have weird handicaps like needing to play on our knees so we would be on equal playing ground with the kids and for their entertainment to watch us struggle.

The time that I spent on my Monday afternoons was the most fun I've had in a long time.

As the weeks pass, the next volleyball tournament approaches. Now it's only two weeks away, and the Karasuno teams are starting to feel a bit antsy. So antsy and even when I stopped the usually confident libero, Nishinoya, he seemed excited yet nervous.

"You should swing by practice sometime," he tells me. "Knowing that your rooting for us would really boost some of the guys' confidence and not just your brother's."

"Yeah, I might, but I'm busy today," I tell him. "Maybe another day."

"Studying?" he asks me. "Asahi-san mentioned that's all you've been doing after you quit the team."

"Uh... yeah," I lie, weakly.

There's also the fact that I still haven't mentioned who I've been hanging out with on Monday's. My mom gets home from work after I get home, and Asahi not only gets home late as well, but volleyball is the only thing on his mind. No one has really seemed to care what I do after school. I also have just not mentioned it since I know all the boys on the Karasuno team kinda hate Oikawa's guts. At first I understood why, but these past months getting to know him, I see past the cocky and flirty volleyball star. He still is very narcissistic and flirty some of the time, but he's also very kind to me. He's patient when working with the kids, and he's very passionate about the things he loves, which is mostly just volleyball. Oikawa is also a goofball who never fails to make me laugh, and he has become a very dear friend to me.

As I sit with Yui at lunch at our desks I see my phone buzz and light up on my desk. Both Yui and I look at it to see that I got a text message from "Dorkykawa."

"Ooh, what does your prince charming want?" she asks, reaching for my phone.

"Oh, no you don't," I growl, snatching it up before she could take it. She just grins at me and eats another piece of chicken.

"Well what did he want?" Yui demands, her mouth full.

I open my phone and look at the message

"Guess I'm going to the gym today," I say. "I think Oikawa is in one of his moods and is only thinking about practicing even though he needs to watch Takeru. It's been happening more often since the tournament is almost here."

"You sound like a girlfriend taking care of her high maintenance boyfriend," Yui comments.

I sigh. "He's not my boyfriend," I tell her. "He's just a friend that I'm concerned about since he's been getting worked up a lot over this tournament."

"Uh huh," she says, her eyebrows raised, a smirk stretching across her face.

"Don't you dare look at me like that," I tell her with a glare.

***

I enter the volleyball courts at the gym, hearing the squeak of shoes on the wood floor. I see a group of adults playing a game on the closer court. On the farther court Oikawa stands at the serving line, Takeru off to the side trying to keep a ball up in the air by bumping and setting it.

Oikawa tosses the ball up, runs up to the line, leaps, and hits the ball with all his might. The ball flies over the net at incredible speed, but lands out of bounds. He grits his teeth, and serves again. The ball hits the net this time making him more frustrated.

Takeru notices me, and I motion for him to come over to me.

"How long has he been at it?" I ask the boy.

"Since we got here, and that was about a half an hour ago," he tells me.

I frown and bite the inside of my cheek.

"Why? What's wrong?" Takeru tilts his head to the side in confusion.

"He might hurt himself if he pushes himself too hard," I mumble as I watch the setter retrieve the volleyballs he's already served. Although he is wearing a white knee brace, I can see him slightly limping as he walks across the court. Just as I thought. "This isn't good."

I make my way around the adults game in progress and reach Oikawa as he sets up to serve another ball. "What do you think you're doing?" I ask him.

"What do you mean? I'm practicing," he huffs as he serves the ball, finally getting it in bounds.

"You need to take a break," I tell him.

"I can't," he mutters.

"You have to," I respond.

"I don't see any reason to," he says, clearly annoyed that I'm bothering him. I'm not giving up though. He could injure himself worse if he keeps this up.

"You're limping," I deadpan.

"So?" he defends.

"Oikawa, you could get seriously hurt if you keep this up!" I tell him, raising my voice.

"I'm fine, I know my limit!" he seethes in an equally loud tone. "I don't need you telling me what I can and can't do!"

Some of the adults from the other court have now started to notice our tense discussion, and Takeru stands behind me, still confused at what's going on.

He bounces the ball and sets up to serve again. I step in front of him and take the ball. "Hey!" he exclaims as I grab his arm and start pulling him to the door.

"Takeru-kun, wait here," I tell the boy over my shoulder. "I need to speak with your uncle for a minute."

I drag the protesting male out into the vacant hallway.

"What the hell do you want," Oikawa asks, coldly. I look up at him and he stands in front of me, arms crossed and an icy stare across his face. I've never seen him like this. Gone is his cheerful grin, the light in his eyes, and his flippant attitude. Now I have seen him upset a few times in the past and have needed to give him a lot of attention to cheer him up again, but never have I seen him angry.

I sigh. "Look I know you're stressed due to the tournament coming up, but that doesn't give you an excuse to push yourself so much that you hurt yourself," I tell him calmly.

"Like I told you, I'm fine," he huffs. "Can I go back now?" He starts to turn, but I grab his arms.

"Are you seriously going to go back in there and injure your knee so you won't be able to play at all?" I demand.

"I'm not going to hurt my knee," he replies. "I'm walking fine."

"I know you're not," I tell him. "I know you better than that because you're just like me."

He scoffs. "How so?" he asks with his eyebrows raised in a challenge.

"There's something we want more than anything in the world, and we feel like it's just out of our reach. Everytime we think we've got it, it disappears just as we try to grasp it," I tell him. "For you, it's to go to the nationals. For me, it's to get into a pre-med program at one of the top schools for oncology. I know what it's like to push myself over my limit. I've gotten sick from staying up studying and not getting enough sleep. I overwork myself to exhaustion in attempt to get perfect grades. I've learned that overdoing it makes the problem worse. I don't want to see you hurt yourself now and not being able to play later."

Oikawa isn't looking at me, his jaw clenched. "Oikawa, please don't hurt yourself," I say, softly. "Please. I can help you."

He still doesn't meet my eyes, but his expression turns from anger to sadness. Please tell me I've gotten through to him.

"Oikawa," I whisper.

Still no glance.

"Oikawa, please just look at me," I say.

He continues to ignore me and I sigh and take a deep breath.

I reach up to touch his cheek to get him to look at me. "Tooru-kun," I say, softly.

The use of his given name makes him turn his head and in turn, press his cheek to my hand. I leave my hand there and hold his face as he looks at me with sadness in his eyes.

"It's my last chance," he tells me, quietly. "My last shot at beating Shiratorizawa and going to the nationals. I can't- I have to get better."

"And you have been," I reply. "You've been working so hard. You've gotten so much better. I know it."

He sighs as he closes his eyes, pressing his cheek into my hand more. "The things that I want most are always the things that are just out of my reach," he murmurs.

My heart aches for him and I pull him down into an embrace. This shocks him for a second, but he soon wraps his arms around my back, pulling me tighter to him. He lets out a sigh and buries his face into my neck, making my stomach feel like it's doing backflips. We stand there for a minute until he lets out a breathy laugh.

"What's so funny, Tooru-kun?" I ask him, pulling away to look at him.

"I think that's just what I needed," he tells me with a small smile. "How do you always know the perfect thing to say to cheer me up?"

"I don't," I shrug. "I kinda just say what's on my mind."

"Well keep doing that then," he says. "Come on. I think we both deserve some ice cream."

I can tell I got through to him, but there's something artificial about his smile again. It's the smile he puts on to talk to his fans and people he's not close too, and I don't like it.

***