maihua jane sawamura happens to be a first year at Karasuno University after landing a volleyball scholarship, following in her big brother's shadow. her position as libero has opened up new opportunities while allowing her to get closer with the ol...
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maihua.jane.sawamura August 21
"I got it!" I yell, diving forward. The flat of my forearms comes in contact with the ball, sending it straight towards the setter. My best friend and roommate, Mya, barely moves to get under it aside from a quick shuffle of her feet, setting it nearly perfectly to our outside hitter. Consequentially, the ball flies off the blocker's arms and bounces out, earning us the final scrimmage point. To Coach Katsumi, that seemed to be a decent enough way to end practice. "Nice volley ladies!" She calls from the sidelines, waving her clipboard in a gesture of finality. "That'll be the last one for today. Bring it in." My eyes catch Mya giving me a smirk; her hand ascends high initiating a high five. I oblige before joining the circle of players now huddling around our coach. Katsumi tells the freshmen to shag balls and take down the net before leaving. After hearing this, the upperclassmen girls head towards the locker room while I work to complete my responsibilities and grab the closest stray ball. I free-throw it into the ball cart before turning on my heel with a squeak against the gym floor to find the next one that needs my guidance. "Maihua, can you check the hallways?" Raye, one of our right-side hitters, asks as she grabs the end of the net with both hands. I nod, grinning at her, and take off, singing under my breath as I run towards the back hallway. My eyes land on the only open door and instinctively I take a step towards it, lazily deciding that pushing a heavy door open would be too much work. My eyes scan the hallway once I step through the door. I spot one of our orange and white balls near the large gray exit door. My feet carry me toward it without a second thought. "Hey, is this yours?" A voice speaks from behind me. I jump and yelp in surprise at the sudden intrusion having thought I was alone. I wasn't exactly prepared for a foreign voice to interrupt me. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!" He calls apologetically, eyes wide. I feel my heart beating in my chest at the sudden burst of adrenaline, and my eyes scan over to the culprit. A short boy with a blonde tuft in his black hair stands at the other end of the hallway, holding another one of our practice balls in his hands. Oh, I know him. "Yeah, that's ours." I begin. "And it's okay, you didn't scare me!" I lie, opening my hands to catch the ball he has. A smirk crawls onto his lips and he lets out a small chuckle. "What was that little scream then?" He jokes. I can't help but smile back at him, rolling my eyes sarcastically. He throws the ball toward me, so I instinctively pass it up to myself before catching it. "Whatever. Thank you," I tell him kindly, chuckling slightly. I see his eyes scan over me for a few moments as if he's searching for a song he can't remember the name to. After his search comes up successfully, he begins speaking again. "Hey wait, you're the libero for the girls' team, aren't you?" He asks. I nod, placing the ball underneath my arm. My body shifts so my weight is pressed onto my left hip which juts out as I move to stand more comfortably, having a feeling that this conversation will continue for slightly longer than I anticipated. "Yeah, I'm Maihua," I tell him before adding "I'm Daichi's sister." "Daichi's sister?" He asks, scanning me over with a new set of eyes this time. "Oh yeah, I could see that. I'm Nishinoya! I'm the libero for the boys' team." He introduces. He's nearly three feet from me now. From the distance, I can tell he's still about five inches shorter than me. I can't help but smile again, remembering the fleeting moment we met at one of Daichi's tournaments. "I know, we've met before," I remind him, although I only came to the conclusion a few moments prior. His eyes widen and I can sense from his furrowed brows he's about to go on the defensive. "It was a couple of years ago though so I didn't expect you to remember me." "That's so rude of me! I can't believe myself." He slaps his hand to his forehead dramatically. I laugh at the theatrics the boy effortlessly incorporates into his character. "No seriously, don't worry about it, Nishinoya." I wave him off. "Are you guys practicing right now?" I ask, changing the subject, hoping to put his mind at ease. He shrugs. "Technically no, we ended practice thirty minutes ago but I'm practicing with some of the freshmen. I think they're going to be done pretty soon though-" "Noya!" A voice yells suddenly from behind him. Nishinoya turns around at the sound of his name coming forcefully from the mouth of one of his teammates. I peek around his shoulder at the raven-haired kid standing in the doorway. The light from the gym surrounds his lean figure, making his silhouette elongated throughout the hallway. "Oh, hey Kageyama. What's up?" "Why'd you quit on us?" The boy asks, although not allowing Nishinoya to respond before adding, "To talk to some girl?" with little hesitation. Noya glances at me almost sympathetically at the harsh-sounding string of words before turning to look back at his teammate. An amused smile crosses my face, finding it funny that this upperclassman is being berated by a much-taller-than-him freshman. "Shut up Kageyama. I was talking to Daichi's sister for a second while I was getting a drink. Calm your ass down." He rolls his eyes, winking at me smugly. Even from the slight distance, I can see Kageyama's eyebrows shoot up slightly at Noya's explanation of me but his face returns to its stoic state after just a moment. "I'm Maihua," I smile at the rude boy in the door hoping to pull some redeeming words from him. His eyes subtly look me up and down quickly before he returns his eyes on the short libero. I can tell by his attempt to cover his interest with indifference that he's trying to be nonchalant but I can't help but cling on to the small, almost unnoticeable action. "Whatever, I guess we're done anyway." Kageyama speaks, retreating back into the gym without saying anything else. Nishinoya shrugs the boy's impoliteness off as he turns back to me. "He's always like that. Don't take it personally," Noya smiles. I shrug right back, barely bothered by his unfriendly, although slightly attractive, teammate. "Is Daichi's still here?" I ask him, changing the subject so he knows that I wasn't giving the previous exchange a second thought. "Nah, he left like fifteen minutes ago with Sugawara." "Oh, damn I was meaning to talk to him about Labor Day weekend. I guess I'll have to call him." My mouth speaks out loud although he definitely didn't need to know that piece of information. "Anyways, thanks for the ball!" I tell my new... not new... acquaintance? My lips part as I give him another genuine smile. He smiles back immediately and I feel my cheeks heat at how cute and sweet he is. "It was really nice to meet you, Maihua!" He tells me, backing up towards the boys' gym. "Again." "Yeah, you too!" He smiles, "See you around," and ducks back into the gym. I quickly grab the other ball that had made its way into the hallway and start walking back to the girls' arena as the dark orange doors shut behind Nishinoya. I let out a content sigh before going back to singing another song. "Took you long enough! What were you doing out there?" Mya asks. She zips up her Karasuno jacket while she looks at me expectantly. "Sorry, I was talking to a kid from the boys' team," I tell her. She raises a dark eyebrow interestedly. "He was cute." "Lucky! I should have gone with you. Which kid was it? I think I know all their names and positions." Mya immediately perks up. I throw the ball into the cart about five feet away before reaching down and grabbing my water bottle. "Nishinoya. He's the libero." I explain. She throws her head back and groans, obviously recognizing the name. "If I wasn't 6'0 I would absolutely go after him. He's so cute with his little blonde hair." She pouts, pinching her fingers together near her bangs as a gesture to his unique hairstyle. While she's talking, I begin towards the locker room to grab my bag. She follows although she already has her belongings strapped around her shoulders. I smirk, "He is, isn't he." I shove my volleyball shoes that I had just pulled from my feet into my bag. "So which of the boys has caught your eye this season?" I ask her, knowing she loves to talk about the opposite sex. I can't say I didn't enjoy partaking in this kind of conversation or at least listening to her as she talked about it. I have a boyfriend, but it's not a bad thing to just hear about the menu. "Well I don't know much about the freshmen, but you already know the man I'm the most interested in..." She blushes at her confession, her eyes rolling back at the thought of his name. I smile, shaking my head at her knowingly. "You guys had one conversation and you're already set on Asahi? You know, he's a total softie. I think you'd bring him out of his shell." I tell her. She raises her eyebrows at me as she often does and fist pumps the air. "I mean, you know, with you being an obnoxious hard ass and all." I laugh at my own joke after seeing the effectiveness of the light insult clear on her face. She crosses her arms over her chest and leans back against the lockers. "I forget that you can always get the inside scoop from Daichi. Has he told you anything about the freshmen?" "Not really. Now that we're both busy with volleyball and with classes starting next week, it's hard to make time to talk about stuff like that." Usually, Daichi and I talk every day or at least text but it's usually just to check up. She seemed disappointed by that and made me promise to tell her about any updates I hear from my older brother. What she didn't know was that I was excited to hear about a certain rude freshman for myself.
