"Hey," Daichi slapped my arm, breaking me from my trance. His eyes darted to where I had been staring across the gymnasium, to Coach Ukai and a girl standing next to him.

"Do you know her?" He asked quietly, curiously watching the scene with me now. The girl had a big grin across her face, chatting with Coach Ukai enthusiastically; there was a closeness between them that was hard to place.

"His daughter maybe?" Daichi suggested.

"Seriously?" I scoffed. "I think we would know by now if Coach had a daughter as pretty as her." Daichi nodded, his focus still on the mystery girl .

"Maybe a friend's girlfriend? Or a cousin? Maybe a niece?"

I shrugged at all his ideas, neither of us having any clue. We weren't the only ones who noticed her though; she'd caught the entire team's attention and not everybody kept quiet about.

"Yo, Coach!" Noya called across the gym as he and Tanaka sprinted down the squeaky hardwood floor. The rest of the team quietly followed, a circle gathering around Ukai and his guest.

"Who's the girl?" Noya asked, inching closer and closer to her. Tanaka was following the same routine, a scary look on his face as he glared at Ukai.

"Boys, boys," Ukai groaned, pushing them off of the girl. She giggled, clearly not particularly bothered by their affections. "This is my niece, (y/n). She just moved to Torono* from Tokyo and she doesn't have any friends." She slapped his arm, obviously a little offended.

"It's true!" He protested. "Anyways, she just graduated this past year, so don't be afraid to introduce yourselves after practice. She's off limits to dating though!"

(Y/n) flushed red, looking down at her feet. I couldn't help but admire how cute she was; her (h/c) hair somehow looked luminous even in the harsh fluorescent lighting, and the way she waved and then bowed to the team was too adorable.

"Nice to meet you all," She said, her voice sugary sweet but a little more mature than the girls I went to school with. The whole team bowed and welcomed her before returning to practice but I couldn't help and daydream as I ran laps next to Daichi and Asahi, who didn't even seem to notice I was on another planet in my head.

Why did she move to Torono? There's no big universities around here to go to. Does she live with her family still? Does she live by herself? Does she even go to university? Does she have a job? What does she like to do in her free time? Does she have a boyfriend...?

"...Yeah, she actually lives across the street from me. I've already met her like three times." Asahi laughed.

"You already know her?" I asked incredulously. Asahi looked down at me, surprised to see me rejoin them in the real world.

"Yeah, I helped her move in and my mom's already had her over for dinner twice. I had no idea she was related to Coach though." He said.

"Does she live with her parents?" I asked, trying to keep a cool exterior and not look like a complete stalker. Asahi gave me a suspicious look before answering.

"No, she lives all by herself. She's actually kind of like, famous I guess," He chuckled. "She's a writer. She's had articles in international newspapers and magazines. She's not a pop star or anything but in our standards she's definitely a bit of a celebrity."

The rest of practice went by quickly after our conversation, almost everyone trying to show off for (y/n). Once we were done and changed everybody had gathered around (y/n) again, me and Daichi joining in last. To both our surprise she was speaking fluent English with Takeda, better than the teacher himself. We caught bits and pieces of what she was saying but couldn't make out what the conversation was actually about.

"Hey, Sensei!" Tanaka yelled. "What're you guys even saying?"

Takeda and (y/n) stopped speaking in English, turning there attention to the team.

"I was actually born in America," (y/n) said, returning to Japanese. "My dad is from Japan but my mom is from the states. We lived there until I was fourteen but we moved to Tokyo for my mom's job and I lived there until now."

Her Japanese was as fluent as her English and I couldn't help but be captivated by her. The team bombarded her with questions from all sides, ranging from "Can you help me with my English homework?" to "Are you a spy from America?" She answered all the questions happily, giving all the boys her undivided attention, as if they were alone with her in the huge gym.

"Excuse me, Miss (y/n)," Daichi spoke up over our rowdy teammates.

"Oh my God, don't call me 'Miss'," She said, her face turning bright red. "Just call me (y/n), I'm hardly older than you."

"Okay, (y/n)," Daichi began again. "We're all going out for meat buns now, and we would be honored if you would join us." He fell into a deep bow, the rest of us following suit. She laughed loudly, standing from where she was sitting on the bench.

"I'd be glad to," She said, picking up a lanyard with an array of keys and key chains dangling off it. "I can fit... four of you with me if you don't wanna walk."

Hinata, Noya, and Tanaka literally jumped at the offer, darting out of the gym and into the parking lot. Daichi turned to me, his face serious.

"I'll stay with these guys, but you should go with her so she doesn't get lost and so the boys don't get out of hand. Sound good?"

I nodded at him and gave him my most innocent smile, my heart soaring as I fell into step with (y/n) while we walked out of the gym. The cool night air hit my warm skin and I took a deep breath before I began to speak.

"I'm Sugawara Koushi, by the way. It's great to meet you." I said. She looked at me, her (e/c) eyes almost sparkling; maybe they weren't quite sparkling but I couldn't deny the hint of magic hiding behind them.

"You too," she said, jingling her keys in her hands. "I'm so happy that you're all being so kind to me. Honestly I'm a little surprised; I thought you guys would be freaked out that I'm your coach's niece." She let out an awkward laugh, covering her mouth with her hand and looking away from me.

"My car is the little white one," She pointed to one of the only cars in the lot, hitting a button on her keys and unlocking it. Noya and Hinata raced for the passenger seat, unaware that I would be chaperoning them.

"Hey!" I called out, jogging over to them. "I'm coming along to make sure you don't give (y/n) any trouble. All of you are gonna be sitting in the back this time." They all groaned as they climbed in, Noya and Hinata arguing over who had to sit in the middle seat. Once we were finally buckled and ready to go, (y/n) started the car to be greeted with the radio blasting so loud all of us let out a yelp.

"Sorry sorry sorry!" She exclaimed as she turned the volume down. I glanced over at her and ended up staring; everything about her left me completely dumbstruck. The way she tucked her hair behind her ear, the way her fingernails were painted a bright shade of blue but the polish was a little chipped, the way she seemed so much older than me as she drove out of the parking lot, her eyes taking the same look I'd seen in my parents' before when they'd driven me before. I snapped my gaze away but my thoughts lingered on her. What was an apparently world famous writer doing here? How was she so established to be living on her own when she hadn't even been to university? How did she get her hair to fall so perfectly down her shoulders, and how did she get that little edge in her voice that could make me believe any word she spoke?

"Hey," She shook my shoulder, making me jump a bit.

"I don't know where I'm going actually," She let out another weird little laugh. "Which way is the place we're going?"

I directed her to the market (with a few accidental wrong turns) and once we parked the three boys in the back seat ran outside and joined the rest of the team who ended up beating us there. I opened the passenger door but stopped when I noticed (y/n)'s head slumped against the steering wheel.

"Are you okay?" I asked, tempted to place a hand on her shoulder. She turned her head to face me, an exhausted look on her face.

"Yeah," She sighed, a small smile playing on her lips. "It kinda hit me all at once just now. I'm away from my family and I'm hanging around with my weird uncle and his volleyball team of high schoolers and I have three articles due by tomorrow night and I haven't started any of them and I still have trouble speaking Japanese but I play along like I know what you guys are saying and today I was buying coffee and I said 'chinchilla*' instead of 'vani-"

"Hey," I said, keeping my voice soft as I managed to build up enough courage to place my hand on her shoulder. "Take a deep breath."

She closed her eyes and deeply inhaled, letting her breath go before opening her eyes again. She nodded, ready for me to go on.

"Give yourself a little more credit, huh? None of us even knew you weren't Japanese until you said so. Plus you're basically the coolest person any of us have ever met. It's not everyday around here that someone like you comes around," I stopped myself, afraid I might be crossing the line between friendly and creepy. "And give us some more credit too- we're definitely not city boys but we're not as bad as you might think." I grinned, pulling my hand away from her.

"That's not what I meant!" She said, holding her hands in front of her defensively. I laughed as I got out of the car, both of us walking towards the market side by side. Before we entered she nudged into me with her shoulder playfully, causing my cheeks to turn red in record time.

"Thanks for the pep talk, Koushi," She said, walking ahead of me. I practically fell over at her use of my first name, walking into the market looking like I'd ran a marathon with how furiously I was blushing.

Once we all got our meat buns we stepped outside to eat. (Y/n) was quick to leave though, thanking everyone for their hospitality and promising to visit again soon, then driving off.

I walked home with Daichi and Asahi as usual but something was different; the air felt a little cooler on my skin and the meat bun tasted a little better than usual. Everything seemed to be brighter and more vivid than it had on the hundreds of times we'd walked home since we were first years.

A thought crossed my mind before I plopped into bed- had I just been simply content before today? And how long exactly does this feeling last? I hoped the answer was "forever" before I drifted off to sleep.

*i looked up where haikyuu takes place and it said in torono town in the miyagi prefecture so im not just makin that up lmao

*idk japanese so i just used english words that sound the same ok