"Are you alright (Y/N)?" Seiko said as she noticed my hand against my chest.

"Yeah, it's nothing" I said as I put on a fake smile and turned to the two of them.

"So what brings you over here?" I asked them both.

"We were here to check up on you, the spring tournament is coming up you know" Seiko told me.

"Right..." I said.

We had won the nationals once again this month, the last tournament I'll ever have under this school will be in spring.

And I won't hesitate to win it again.

"Oh yeah, Tsumu said he'll be here with his team. I'm sorry but I have to excuse myself" I said as I still felt the pain in my chest and a tear started rolling down my eye but I quickly wiped it away.

"She saw Sakusa with Yuriko" I told Komori.

"How do you know?" he asked.

"I've been her best friend for years, I know when she's lying" I told him and he nodded.

"They're not dating... so maybe (Y/N) has a chance to confess" he said and I shook my head.

"She still has trauma, it'll take her a while before she's able to properly confess" I told him.

"Then the last decision will be hers, to hurt someone or to end up getting hurt herself" Komori said and we started walking around the place.

(Y/N)... don't hurt yourself too much... you're not that strong when it comes to love I thought in my head as I held on to Komori's hand.

"Tsumu!" I said and he turned to me.

"(N/N)!" he said as Kita sprayed disinfectant on him and Tsumu before they hugged me.

"Hello hello!" I said.

"Are you okay?" Tsumu asked me and I nodded.

"Just a bit busy, ya know?" I said with a fake smile on my face.

I heard Sakusa talking with Yuriko behind me and I quickly tensed up before hiding behind Tsumu.

"Hello Atsumu" he said.

"Hi omi-omi" Tsumu said.

"Hi Atsumu-kun" Yuriko said.

"I'm sorry but I don't know who you are, refrain from saying my first name please" I said and she pouted.

"But Kiyoomi called you Atsumu!" she complained.

"That's because me and him are 'f r i e n d s'" Tsumu said and the girl had shocked eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Sakusa asked him.

"(N/N) invited us" Osamu said as he stood next to Tsumu to hide me.

"Yeah, we're here on her invitation" Suna stood on the other side of Tsumu, the three third years hid me from Sakusa.

Sakusa looked deep in thought before nodding.

"Alright then, let's go Yuriko" he said as he and Yuriko left, Yuriko sticking her tongue out at the team as she walked away with Sakusa.

"Are you really sure you're okay?" Aran asked me and I nodded.

"Walk around, I'll talk with (N/N)" Kita said and everyone nodded before leaving.

"You know you can't lie to me" he said and I gave a sigh of defeat.

"I've liked Sakusa for nearly a year now... but I have trauma where I can't confess to a guy after my first crush and all" I started saying before explaining the whole thing as Kita nodded silently.

"So the problem is that you like him but you can't confess. You also have a fear that he is closer with Yuriko now and it hurts you?" he asked me for confirmation.

"This is the best advice I can give you (Y/N) but..." he said and I looked up to him.

"As much as you may want to love him and all... this is basically hurting you... and I don't want it to hurt you. You're already stressed enough with the student council and volleyball." He said, I gave it a quick thought before sighing.

"You're ri-" I told him before getting interrupted.

"However, if you think that you want Sakusa to be your partner, I'd suggest you confess to him. Only if you're ready to shoulder all of the responsibilities as well as managing time wisely for the two of you." He said.

"Remember, no matter what happens, I'll always be there for you" he added and I smiled.

"Do you want a hug?" he asked me and I nodded.

He started hugging me as I had a strong grip on his clothes and slowly started crying.

"You can cry all you want" he said as he caressed my hair.

"T-thanks" I said as I continued crying on his shoulder.

I was walking with Yuriko until I noticed a familiar (h/c) girl crying on someone's shoulder.

(Y/N)... It hurts... I thought to myself as Yuriko looked at me.

"What's wrong?" she asked me and followed her gaze to (Y/N).

"Do you want to check up on her?" she asked me and I hesitated for a few moments before nodding.

"Hello (Y/N)" Yuriko said and I saw (Y/N) tense up.

"Is everything okay with you?" I asked as (Y/N) stopped hugging the old captain from Inarizaki.

"She's alright" the white and black haired boy said as (Y/N) didn't look to my eyes at all.

"Then why is she crying?" Yuriko asked him.

"She's not crying, her eyes are just sweating"he told us.

"Mmm... alright then" I said and then walked away, (Y/N) ended up looking a the floor the entire time I was there.

"He's gone" Kita said and I gave a sigh of relief.

"Do you want to wash your face?" he asked me and I nodded.

He took me to the girls' bathroom and waited outside as I washed my face.

"You need to calm down" I mumbled to myself as I looked at my reflection in the mirror.

"I've liked Kiyoomi for over 6 months now, but am I really ready to have a relationship?" I asked and then dried my face with a paper towel that was in my small bag.

"It's true that Kiyoomi and I have spent a lot of time with each other, but I'm as busy as ever right now." I told myself, putting the paper towel back in my bag.

If he really liked me, he'd find it fine with my busy schedule, right...?

I went back outside and started being my usual self, Kita was smiling at me as we started walking back to his team.

"Say (N/N)" Kita said as if he remembered something.

"Who was your first crush?" He asked me and it took me a while to process the whole thing.

"Akaashi Keiji..." I said.

"The third year setter of Fūkurodani?" he asked me and I nodded.

"Wow, must have been pretty harsh" he said and I nodded.

"I wouldn't say that I'm okay when I'm actually not okay" I told him.

"(N/N)!" Tsumu said and I waved at him.

"Are you feeling better?" Samu asked me and I nodded.

"That's only because Kita is a good friend who lets me rant on and on" I said.

"Oh, it's already this late. We better start heading back if we wan to make it to the restaurant" Kita said as he looked at his watch.

"It's been an honour to be invited by you (N/N), but I'm afraid that we must take our leave" he told me and I nodded.

"The festival was really great!" Tsumu said.

"The food was good" Samu told me and I giggled.

"Thanks" I said.

"Keep up the good work" Akagi told me and I nodded.

"Next time come with us" Suna said.

"Thanks a lot for coming!" I said as I waved at the team and soon, they left.

"I'm going to make myself busy from now on" I said as I started to walk back and bumped into someone.

I looked up to see Sakusa.

Just my luck...

I looked away as I saw him stretch out his hand towards me, I ended up taking it since I didn't want to touch the floor.

I got up and took the dust off my clothes and started walking away.

"(Y/N)" I heard Sakusa say and completely stopped walking.

"What is it?" I asked him, trying to seem as if I was fine even though I was not. I looked at his eyes, it seemed as if his eyes did not look at me the way they looked at me before.

It started changing once he started hanging around with Yuriko.

It makes my heart hurt if I am honest, whenever I see you with Yuriko... it hurts whenever I breathe and you're in my line of sight with Yuriko. But... it's good that you have found someone that you love and loves you back. I thought to myself.

"Are you sure you're okay? It didn't seem like it earlier when you were with the old Captain of Inarizaki." He said.

"Yeah, just that something happened and he was letting me rant to him. That's all." I said, looking at the time and realising I needed to get back.

"Sorry but I have to go back now." I said, bowed politely at him and started sprinting back to my stall.

I walked to the bathroom and recalled the exchange that just happened.

She seems different nowadays. I told myself, then I started to think about how she was crying on Inarizaki's old captain's shoulder.

I wonder what that rant was about. I added as I made sure to clean my hands, scrub for twenty seconds, rinse for ten seconds. I thought to myself as I counted the seconds that went past and then dried my hands.

Yuriko had left around ten minutes ago because she had an appointment so now I'm by myself.

I walked out to see Seiko and Komori talking with (Y/N).

I called out to Komori who turned to me and (Y/N) excused herself from the two before walking in the opposite direction where I was coming from.

"Why did she leave?" I asked the two and they exchanged looks for a brief second.

"She still has a duty as the president of the student council that everything is in place, she was asking us if everything was alright before going back outside" Seiko said and Komori gave her an agreeing nod.

"I'm going home then" I said and left the festival that took weeks for the student council to set up.

I took a deep sigh and I felt my phone ring. Hoping that it was from (Y/N), I took it out of my pocket and saw that it was from Yuriko instead.

"Hello?" I said, a bit disappointed.

"When's the next time that you're free?" she asked me.

"That'd be around the December holidays and in March" I told her and I heard the noise of a pen being moved against a paper.

"Alright then, want to meet up?" Yuriko said.

"Sure" I told her with a small smile appearing on my face.

"Cool, bye Kiyoomi!" she said.

"Bye Tatiana" I said and then she hanged up.

I took out out my phone, 11pm.

The festival lasted until 8pm but I had to stay behind to thank everyone who took part in the preparation of it.

I took a bath to which I didn't do anything.

I just sat in the water and stayed there for at least thirty minutes.

"Are you okay?" my dad asked me as he was outside of the bathroom.

"Yeah" I said. "Just need to think a lot of things through" I told my father.

"Hey..." he said. "What decision did you decide to make?" he asked me.

"I've decided to..." I said hesitantly before gathering my confidence to say it.

"Hold on a bit longer" I ended the sentence.

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