Preparation

Bringing a slight closure to the unexpected meeting between Haruto and Mahiru's father, Karasuno had been slowly transforming its atmosphere from the afterglow of their school advancing to Nationals to the spirit of an upcoming event formulating behind the scenes.

"So what are we going to choose?"

"".....""

A sudden silence echoed through Haruto's classroom as the representative who was chosen to organise their classroom's event for the festival, looked at his classmates urging for answers.

"We have a pretty nice budget given to us so we just need ideas to help lead us towards what we want our class to showcase."

The guy standing by the podium ruffled through the papers he received and nodded his head at the budget they got.

"A food stall is pretty much standard for a festival."

"What kind of food stall though? Many classes are opting for food stands since they're pretty popular so we need to find something that can make us shine above the rest."

"How about a cat cafe?"

"But I don't think our school can allow cats to stay inside the classroom?" The representative tilted his head hearing one of the ideas of his classmates.

"We can just have some of the girls dres—-"

"Denied."

"Gross."

"Disgusting."

"Trash."

Haruto who heard the vicious retorts from his classmates towards the guy who suggested the idea felt his eyes twitch hearing his bold response and thought that he was pretty gutsy to even say something like that.

"Haruto."

"Hmm?"

As Haruto was listening to the ideas being bounced around he heard a sharp voice call out to him and turned over to see Kageyama looking at him with an awkward face.

"What's wrong?"

"Umm…well.. t-the thing is…"

Kageyama began to mumble his words as he continued on with his sentence and Haruto just looked at him and urged him to continued.

"Does he need to go to the bathroom or something."

"I'm not too sure either."

Hinata who just finished saying his thoughts to the class leaned over on his desk and glanced at Kageyama as he was also getting curious to what he wanted to say.

"W-what should I do to—"

"How about a butler cafe."

"Ohh~ that sounds like a good idea!"

Kageyama who was about to speak, suddenly stopped when he heard the loud voices of his classmates beside him. 

"I think so too. We also have some pretty good faces that can help us generate good revenue…"

Leading off his sentence, the representative glanced at the area where Haruto's group was and everyone in the class also followed along.

Haruto just gave them a friendly smile while Kageyama tried to contain his stoic expression. Hinata on the other hand felt an embarrassed smile appear on his face as he overheard what his classmates were saying and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Watanabe will definitely earn us a lot…"

"There's also Kageyama-kun too, he usually has a scary expression but he generally has a handsome face."

"How about Hinata?"

"Meh, he might strike well with people who like the younger brother type or people who enjoy seeing bright orange things."

"That's true."

"I can hear you guys, you know."

Hinata's smiling expression suddenly turned sour when he heard his classmate's voices and began to argue with them, to which they had just ignored him.

"I guess it seems like we made a consensus on what we would do. Show a raise of hands if you want to do a butler cafe."

Hearing the words of the guy standing at the podium, many of the students began to raise their hands including Haruto, Hinata and Kageyama.

'Well it doesn't really matter to me.'

Haruto thought in his head that something like a butler cafe would be a fun thing to do for a small break after playing hard during the Spring High.

'I bet if Akane knew about this she would rush over here in a flash.'

Haruto began to silently chuckle as Akane was an avid fan of cosplay so knowing something like this would happen will definitely raise her interest by tenfold.

"As I was saying…"

"Oh right, what did you want to ask me?"

Hearing Kageyama's voice, Haruto placed his attention onto him and waited for him to continue.

"I-I want to confess…"

"....Ahem, I know that we're close and all but I would need to decline your confession since I have a loving girlfriend that I love very much."

"...You bastard, I didn't finish speaking yet.."

"Oh this wasn't a confession? Go on then."

Kageyama felt some veins pop out from his forehead as he clenched his fist tightly, seeing the innocent look Haruto was giving him. After thinking for a while to see if it was really the best choice to ask the person in front of him, Kageyama just spoke what was on his mind.

"...When do you think is the best time to confess…?"

"Ohh~ is the romance between the two of you finally going somewhere now."

Haruto's eyes widened at Kageyama's unexpected question and felt like it was rare of him to think more deeply on things other than volleyball for once.

"..Kanoka heard about the cultural festival we're having so she wanted to come visit. So I just wanted to know if this was a good time to confess to her.."

"Don't worry, let this master help guide this lost lamb."

Haruto suddenly placed his arm around Kageyama's shoulder and pulled him close to ask him about some other details on the issue. 

***

"Just enjoy the atmosphere and you will know when to do it naturally."

"I see."

After an intensive interrogation from Haruto and surprisingly Hinata, the three of them started to walk around to help gather some materials for their class.

Haruto just gave Kageyama some small tips as this type of problem was situational but it can still be guided well if the person who does it plans it out well.

'He's a genius setter so making plays is something he does best.'

Haruto decided to let Kageyama figure it out on his own and just help him whenever he asks for it.

"Ah it's you guys!"

"Did you already figure out what event your class is doing?"

Peeping their heads though the classroom window, Yachi and Mahiru greeted the three guys who were walking past their homeroom.

"Yeah we decided to do a butler cafe."

"A butler cafe huh… It looks like we're going to be facing off against each other."

Mahiru's eyes narrowed slightly when she heard the idea but quickly relaxed her face when she felt a tugging sensation on her cheeks.

"Woat arf you dowing."

"Nothing~"

Mahiru tried to peel her face away but was met with failure as Haruto continued to squish her cheeks despite escaping multiple times.

"Are you sure your cheeks are not made out of mochi?"

"Of course they're not."

Mahiru eventually resigned herself and waited for Haruto to have his fill before pulling her face away

"Woah! You guys have already started making your outfits."

"We actually had some outfits that were left over from last year so we just needed to take some measurements to readjust them and also add on any details we would have liked to put on."

After finishing their short greeting with each other, Haruto and Mahiru overheard the voices of Hinata and Yachi beside them. 

Yachi began to tell them how they were lucky to find out that they had some outfits from last year that they could use and didn't need to make some from scratch.

"But I feel a bit annoyed that I haven't grown all that much compared to last year…" Yachi secretly glanced down before giving out a sign after absently mumbling out her thoughts.

"I know right. Compared to these two I feel even shorter when I stand next to them." 

"Maybe it's just you shrinking instead."

"Don't try and scare me, I'm not falling for that."

Hinata retorted to Kageyama's words but Haruto was able to hear a small tremble in his voice as he tried to deny it. 

Yachi on the other hand felt a small rush go towards her cheeks as she had just realised where she was looking at but felt glad that Hinata was able to misunderstand what she meant.

Yachi secretly glanced at Mahiru who was beside her and looked at an area where she noticed Mahiru was blessed in.

'Apparently she said that she grew… how lucky..'

Letting out a sigh once again, Yachi shocked her head and decided that she should ask Mahiru what her secret was later when it was lunchtime.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know, I just felt a strange feeling of being complimented."

"Did something big happen earlier?"

"No, nothing that was noteworthy anyways..."

Haruto noticed how Mahiru suddenly looked around when they were talking with each other and decided to ask to find out what was wrong.

Mahiru began to think about it and her thoughts somehow led towards the moment where Yachi had to measure up her sizes for the outfits. 

Mahiru cheeks flushed a bit thinking about the moment but she just gave a small cough, proceeding to continue her conversation with Haruto who seemed to have forgotten why they were sent out of the classroom in the first place.

***

How did your guys Jingliu pulls go? Luckily I got her but I had to reach 85 pity… Anyways I hope you enjoyed it. Peacu.