Chapter Text
It wasn’t like you were an outgoing person. In fact, you were quite shy for most of your life. It was just… that being on the court, facing an opposition that you struggled against but knew you could defeat… something about it filled your heart with confidence. New people still intimidated you, and uncertain situations, too, but through the years you grew stronger yourself.
And now… now that was over.
And you were afraid.
“Honey, you’re going to be late!” Your mother called from downstairs.
“Late? Late to being early?” You rephrased, standing in front of your full length mirror. The uniform felt… loose. You were sure it wasn’t, just that it was something you had to grow into. Yeesh, how metaphorically cheesy could you manage to get?
“Just--- come on!” Her voice called to you again. With a roll of your eyes, you reached for your backpack and trotted down the stairs to the kitchen. Your mother was waiting for you, a small bento box clutched in her hands. “A good first day starts with a good meal!”
“Lunch isn’t exactly the start of the day…” You teased back, gently retrieving the food from her. The pattern was polka dots, pretty adorable if you had to be honest. “But thank you very much!”
“You’re welcome. Are you sure you’re going to be alright?” She reached forward to ruffle your hair slightly. You jokingly batted the hand away. “It’s a whole new school and I know how nervous you got the last time…”
“You don’t have to remind me. I think I nearly threw up just entering the gates.” Your voice was quiet, but your mother was quick to pick up on your words. She obviously was way more adjusted to your speech habits than anyone else. That being said they were subject to change rather often, especially after everything recently. “But I’ll be fine! Just have to power through the first day, right?”
“Mhm. So you do just that, okay? I’ll be home late tonight but I expect to hear all about it when I can. Have a good day!”
“You got it!” With an over dramatic thumbs up, you collected the rest of your things and headed out the door. The brisk air hit you suddenly, and you exhaled visibly. Everything was quiet. You certainly appreciated that, all things considered. There was no need for you to get too riled up before even getting there…
“I… I’m going to be fine.” You said to yourself under your breath. Your anxiety wasn’t the worst, really, but recently it had gotten kind of bad. Still, you were convinced your determination would win out in the end.
After everything that happened at your old school, you talked it over with your mother and managed to transfer for your second year. It was a big decision, but you felt like you made the right call in the end. There was something really uplifting about being somewhere no one knew you. However that just meant it was all the more terrifying as well.
One foot in front of the other, you had to remind yourself. This wasn’t something that’d matter too much in the long run, you just had to survive, right? Talk to some people, make friends, pass your classes, and survive.
It wasn’t all that long until you arrived at your new school: Karasuno.
A sigh of relief left you as you found yourself not too badly intimidated by the building itself. A good start. The grounds were mostly empty, it was still incredibly early to be arriving, but you had a tour scheduled and definitely wanted to know your way around better before classes started.
“Good morning! I’m Ittetsu Takeda, I’ll be showing you around the school today!” Takeda greeted you warmly after you arrived at the faculty office. You smiled in return, offering a small bow.
“Good morning! Thank you for showing me around.” You tried to be as polite as possible, but your voice definitely cracked there. The teacher seemed to not notice, however. Or at the very least he was kind enough not to react.
The tour was rather… in-depth. Or perhaps lengthy was the right term? Regardless it felt like it dragged on forever, despite so little time passing. Takeda-sensei had a lot to say about each location, but most notably, when the two of you stopped near the Volleyball gym.
“And here’s the second gymnasium! You’ll actually find me here a lot in the next week or so.” Everything out of his mouth came across chirpy and full of enthusiasm. It’d almost be exhausting if it weren’t actually charming. He seemed like a teacher who really cares.
“Really? N-no offense, but you don’t seem like the type to hang around the sports teams a lot…” That second part was muttered. Takeda let out a half-hearted laugh.
“I’m the faculty advisor for the Boy’s Volleyball club.” He quickly explained. You turned your head and looked towards the gymnasium, mouth slightly open. “They’re a really great group of kids, I just hope this year we get some great first-years this time around, too!”
Your heart briefly hurt just at the mention of the sport.
“ Hey… isn’t that them?”
“Who? Oh, them?”
You could feel their eyes on you as you walked through the hall.
“Yeah, they had to quit the Volleyball team, right?”
“After they were doing so well, too, huh? That really blows…”
“Are you alright?” Takeda furrowed his brows with concern.
“Huh? Oh! Yeah, sorry, Sensei, just… a little spaced out. Still not fully awake.” You supplied a nervous laugh to really sell the lie, but you thought there may have been a part of him that realized what you were doing.
“It’s no problem at all! We only have a little bit more to go, let’s keep going.”
“Right!”
The rest of the tour went on without much to note. Standard areas for a relatively standard Highschool. It was just nice to know your way around finally. At the end, Takeda showed you to your classroom. You were a second year now, and having come from a private school, you were actually placed in an advanced class: Class 4. Little did you know, that’d be your start for something wholly new. A fate chance to meeting people filled with the potential to change your life.
Or perhaps, you were just being cheesy again. You had a bit of a habit of doing that. Only in the safety of your own head, of course.
As class began, you found yourself growing increasingly nervous. You were absolutely 100% surrounded by strangers. Idiot, of course you knew that was going to happen… but it didn’t make the reality any less painful to face. As time drew on, it was soon your turn to introduce yourself to the class.
You stood, hands stiffly held to your sides. It was hard just to maintain eye level.
“H-Hello.” Rough start, but you managed from there, giving your name next. “I… just transferred here from Aoba Johsai. I hope we can get along!” You sputtered a bit at the end part, but no one seemed hung up on that aspect of your introduction. Instead, they seemed much more focused on the school you transferred from.
“Aoba Johsai? Isn’t that a private school?”
“What the hell are they doing here then?”
Ouch. Should have thought about that. Of course it’d just come across weird that you went from a private school like Aoba Johsai to a school like Karasuno. But they didn’t need to know your reasoning. Why’d it matter to them anyway?
You shook away the thoughts; They weren’t all that important right then. Instead, you chose to focus on the class ahead of you.
And, when that was over, you focused on the two guys trying to get your attention.
“H-Huh?” You whipped around in response to your name. The guy who sat behind you waved sheepishly, his friend (you assumed) was standing next to him.
“Sorry, sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. I’m Chikara Ennoshita. I just wanted to say welcome to Karasuno.” He smiled warmly, tired eyes focused on you. There was a solid moment where you had no idea what to say.
“Th-Thank you!” You immediately stood, clearly more taken aback than a normal person would have been. “I actually really… appreciate that.” You laughed nervously, rubbing at the back of your head. Ennoshita stood as well.
“You seemed pretty nervous, are you doing alright now?”
“Uh, y-yeah. For sure. I think…” Now that sure sounded confident. “I mean! It’s not like I’m that nervous I just---” You were about to ramble and you were acutely aware of it. “New environments are scary for anyone, right? A-And this is definitely new, I mean, I went to Aoba Johsai before--- not that I’m trying to brag or anything!” You mentally smacked yourself for that.
“... I’m going to take it that you’re still pretty nervous.” Ennoshita remarked.
“That obvious, huh?” You tried to play it off as a joke, hoping he didn’t already hate you. Honestly YOU already hated yourself. Ennoshita was just about to respond when you noticed a black jacket on his desk. You turned your head at an angle to read the white font.
… It was a Volleyball jacket. Then he…
“You’re on the Boy’s Volleyball Team?” The sentence came rushing out of your mouth before the awkward talk could continue.
“Huh? Oh, yeah. Me and---” He went to gesture to his friend, but he had actually already left. “... Narita…” He narrowed his already down-turned eyes at the nothingness behind him.
“He ditched you…?”
With a sigh and a shake of the head, Ennoshita turned back to you. “Probably didn’t want to be too late to the first day of practice.”
“Ah, that’d make sense. I know I wouldn’t want to be late either.”
“You seemed… pretty excited just a second ago. You a fan of Volleyball?” His smile was as gentle as before, but this time you felt the pang in your heart again.
“I… used to play.” You noticed his eyebrows raise a bit as his mouth turned downward.
“Really? That’s cool. You should try to come to our games sometime then.” He paused for a moment, placing his hand on his desk. “We’re… not all that great, but we’re not bad either.”
“You’ll be getting new members now, though, right?”
Ennoshita looked confused for a moment. You decided that meant you should elaborate a little.
“So… you can still be great.”
“... We can still be great, huh?” There was a very distinct hint of amusement in his repeating your words. You weren’t sure exactly why he repeated them at all, but maybe he liked the way you said it.
“Yeah. I don’t really think it’s all that good for you guys to hold onto how you were seen. It’s more important to carry on, right? Create a new image.” It was your turn to smile gently, trying your best to come across as genuine as you felt.
“You’re right.” His hand went for his club jacket, and then he reached for his bag. “I’m sure Daichi and the others have greatness in store for them. I have to get going to practice, but I’ll… see you around. Bye!”
With that, Ennoshita headed off, leaving you to stand in quiet thought.
You noted how he quickly dismissed himself in that last statement.
It felt like things were finally fitting into place for you. School life at Karasuno was becoming second nature and your classes weren’t too impossibly hard, although some things came easier to you than others. Ennoshita was luckily always right behind you to help; That dude just seemed to have everything down.
Well everything but his own self-confidence.
You often asked about the previous day’s practice, but he usually just explained how well his other teammates were doing. You decided it was best to let it go. However, one day, your persistent interest in the club’s activities paid off.
“Huh? You want me to come to practice?” You repeated back to him. Ennoshita seemed more nervous when you didn’t just say ‘yes’.
“I mean, you always want to know how it went and I’m just one perspective, so I thought, maybe you’d like to see it for yourself, if you’re not… busy?” He really trailed off at the end, seeming more unsure the longer you didn’t answer.
“I…” Now it was your turn to seem unsure. On one hand, you would love to see the team, but on the other…
“There you go again!” Ennoshita’s voice startled you.
“H-HUH?!”
“You’re a pretty relaxed person once you get to know someone, but for some reason Volleyball makes you get all passive again.” Shit, were you that easy to read just from a week or so of knowing him? “I’m not looking to dig into your personal life, but the way I see it you still love Volleyball, right?”
Of course you did. You loved it with all that you could.
“Yeah.”
“Then come to practice. I know you really do want to be on the court again. Or am I going to have to make you?” His eyes narrowed, sending a chill down your spine. He really could be scary when he wanted to.
“F-Fine! But just this once. I don’t want to get in your guy’s way.”
“There we go!” Ennoshita smiled brightly, already leading you out of the classroom.
Maybe… just maybe. This would be good for you. It’d been half a year since you stood near a court… it was time. You couldn’t keep hiding from something you once cared so much for.