101 After Spring High

"It sure is getting colder now…"

Mahiru quietly spoke out as her breath slightly fogged up the air and she pulled up the zipper of her coat to keep the warmth of her body in.

"Winter is approaching so I guess we need to prepare for the season coming up."

A brisk yawn and a tired voice replied to Mahiru's words and Haruto waved his arms up in the air to get a quick stretch in.

They were currently walking to school and the strong memories of the Spring High Finals from yesterday was still fresh in their minds. 

"How is your body feeling?"

"A bit sore but It's nothing too bad."

"Really? This morning you didn't want to leave your bed even when I told you that breakfast was ready."

"....My bed was too tempting for me to leave.."

Mahiru let out a giggle after hearing Haruto's words and they continued to exchange words to try and keep themselves busy while they walked to school. 

Entering the area of the school they walked through the doors and after placing their shoes away, they began to see many people approaching them.

"Watanabe-san congrats on winning the finals!"

"Yeah man, I was there cheering you guys on and I felt goosebumps when I saw you guys playing!"

"Thank you."

Haruto smiled and thanked each of them which seemed to cause a bit of commotion since more people began to group up around them. Mahiru was by his side and wore a deep smile as she felt happy seeing everyone give their congratulations to him but her eyes stared intently at anyone who seemed to try and take advantage of the situation.

Despite his joy in hearing their congratulations, Haruto tried his best to keep them from inconveniencing the other people who were walking past them in the hallways. After a while in giving them his thanks they managed to reach Mahiru's classroom first.

"See you at lunch."

"Yeah, I'll see you then."

Hearing her words, Haruto leaned over and gave a quick kiss on her cheek and waved goodbye as he went his way towards his own homeroom.

A sweet smile graced her lips and as she turned around she was able to feel some stares reach her way. She ignored them and slowly walked to her desk where Yachi was sitting by and greeted her before seeing what she was doing.

As Mahiru was talking with Yachi, Haruto made his way towards his classroom and as he was about to open the door, he was able to hear Hinata's loud voice from within.

"Where are your nationals taking place?"

"Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium!!"

""Ohh!""

Surrounding Hinata's desk were a few of his classmates who were excitingly speaking with Hinata as he was telling them about their future trip to nationals.

"He's really getting excited huh."

"With his peabrain it was an obvious sign from the start."

Haruto chuckled as he sat down in his seat and noticed how Kageyama was finishing up some homework he had yet to finish. Haruto opened up his phone and decided to play on it for a bit before his homeroom teacher would start their class.

A few minutes went by and after hearing the bell ring, Haruto's homeroom teacher came in with a smile on his face.

"Good morning everyone and I had heard the special news about our volleyball team and I just want to say congratulations."

The three guys had a proud smile on their faces and began to laugh when he heard about Takeda's actions of bragging about the volleyball team to the rest of the teachers at the office.

"Oh and one more thing, our cultural festival is approaching so I would need the class's thoughts on what we should do."

Haruto's ears perked up as the idea of their cultural festival coming up made him a bit curious as he wanted to know what they would eventually choose. 

'Nationals are near the beginning of January so I guess this time is a bit of a break for me.'

He twirled the pencil in his hand as he thought about the time he had and began to plan out on how he should spend the months coming up. After a brief conversation about the cultural festival, the teacher began his lesson and the classroom turned silent as they did their best to pay attention.

***

"What do you think our class will choose?"

"Don't know, we still need ideas to choose from so I think the representatives our teacher assigned will handle it."

Haruto leaned against a table as he replied to Hinata who was trying his best to stand up straight. It was currently after school and they were doing some measurements as it was going to be used for a pamphlet showcasing the volleyball teams.

"Oh you guys are doing your cultural festival preparations already?"

"It's just in the planning phase right now."

Kiyoko who was measuring Hinata's height, quickly spoke out as she was able to hear the conversation between the two.

"Does your class have an idea on what they're doing?"

"So far the idea of a cafe or an art exhibition is the majority vote."

"Cafe or an exhibition huh…"

Haruto quietly mumbled as one of those ideas were ones where the most popular and their class might end up doing them.

"!64.2. You grew 1.4 cm."

"Did I really?!"

After hearing Kiyoko's words, Hinata's eyes brightened up as he bore a hole through the paper that had his new measured height.

Ignoring the excited Hinata, Haruto walked up to the device and patiently waited for Kiyoko to measure his height. 

"185.3cm (6'1)."

"Oh? I grew huh."

Haruto looked at the paper in his hands and noticed that he grew a few centimeters from the last time he checked.

'I guess exercising and eating some good food did their part.' Haruto smiled as he felt grateful to Mahiru and he suddenly turned around when he felt Hinata's dead eyes staring at him.

"You bastard, give me some of your height!!"

"How about.. No."

Haruto began to laugh loudly as he was chased by Hinata as he was going back towards the gymnasium. After a few minutes had come by, they had started to now check their spiking reach with each person getting a turn to mark the backboard.

Haruto was beside Mahiru who was documenting each score and as they were talking, the topic of the cultural festival came up.

"Us? We plan to do a maid cafe."

"A..maid cafe..?"

Haruto instantly began to imagine Mahiru wearing a maid outfit while also doing the actions he would see in the various anime Akane had showed him.

(Welcome.)

'Yeah that's too dangerous.'

Haruto frowned slightly as he would imagine all the guys who would see Mahiru wearing that outfit. As he was deep in his thoughts on what he should do to prepare for the upcoming festival, Mahiru slightly glanced at him as she noticed that he had suddenly turned silent.

She also turned silent as she could easily read his thoughts and quickly asked him a question.

"Do you hate maid outfits?"

"Hmm? No, I in fact love them." Haruto instantly responded by letting his true thoughts come out.

"I see… I will have to do my best then."

"...Just don't go overboard okay.."

Mahiru smiled sweetly as she slowly moved closer towards him and whispered a few words to him.

"When I get my outfit ready, you'll be the first one to see it so be ready."

"....."

"Alright, it's your turn to jump now!"

Pushing the speechless Haruto towards the chalk, she tried to place a coy look on her face but the feeling of heat rushing towards face made her a bit shy as she tried her best to play off the words she had just said.

Gaining a slight boost after getting the image of seeing his girlfriend in a maid outfit, Haruto did his jump and waited for each of the team to finish theirs. 

"Dammit just by a few centimeters too."

"It looks like I'll be getting some free snacks today."

Haruto smiled brightly as he compared the numbers between his and Kageyama's paper that had their vertical reach written down. 337cm was written down on Kageyama's paper while 341cm was written on Haruto's.

"...Which snack do you want..?"

"I'll take a pudding, thank you very much~." 

Kageyama scoffed after hearing his words but still decided to let it go since these types of bets were regular between them. 

Various other measurements continued to go by until Daichi finally asked Kiyoko if there was still more to be done.

"A group photo is what we need now."

"A photo huh.. Alright everyone come gath—-."

*Clank!

As Daichi was about to gather everyone up, a loud sound interrupted him and Takeda was seen breathing a bit heavily as he tried to catch his breath.

His eyes scanned the gym before he let it wander towards two individuals.

"Thank you for your hard work everyone. I have a huge announcement I would like to make as I have just been informed a few minutes ago."

Hearing his words, everyone in the gym felt intrigued and quietly listened to the next words that would come out of Takeda's mouth. 

"Watanabe and Kageyama, you have been invited to an All-Japan Youth Intensive Training Camp."

***

I hope you enjoyed it. Peacu.