You were so excited to finally meet the team Mr Ukai told you he coached at Karasuno. In Mr Ukai's opinion, you were apparently really good at strategizing, so he wanted you to teach his boys a thing or two. He also said he wanted to see you play after you told him you weren't good enough to go to tournaments. You were kind of nervous.
Recently, things weren't looking good for Karasuno based off of the news going around that you had heard. But you knew they could turn things around. You loved Karasuno. Reasonably so. Your father used to play there when he was younger, and your father was the reason you had gotten into volleyball. Now, volleyball was your life. Unfortunately, the girls' team at the school you went to was too small to enter tournaments, and lacked experience to provide the proper training you so craved.
So here you were. Your volleyball team probably wouldn't even notice that you weren't there. You knew this because sometimes you had decided to skip practice and go talk to Mr Ukai instead. You enjoyed your conversations, especially when he told you about this year's team and how he saw potential in them. You had heard a bit about them and their personalities.
Anyway, you now stood in front of three grey, cement steps leading up to a dark silver metal double door. Cautiously, you walked up and pulled the door on the right side. As you quietly stepped in, you were met with a shiny, yellow wooden floor. The walls were primarily orange with wooden bars and borders adorning them. Occasionally, there was a caged window through which light from outside shone in. You could see a volleyball net set up with a few stray balls scattered here and there, but more balls were contained within a blue basket next to the net.
But that wasn't what really caught your eye. You took note of a girl of average height with shoulder-length black hair wearing a white track suit. Now the boy standing next to her, he was what had piqued your attention. He had a shaved head with a widow's peak. He was of average height for a boy of his age with a lean but strong build. But that wasn't it. What he was doing was what really caught your attention. He was shouting way too loudly while spinning his shirt over his head. It seemed that he had won a point, considering the large smile on his face and the fist pump his left arm had formed. Quite the character from what you could tell.
At that moment, Mr Ukai caught notice of you standing awkwardly by the steel door. He smiled, waving in your direction.
"Y/N. Welcome," he walked up to you and shook your hand before turning back to the group of boys in the gymnasium, "Everyone! This is Y/N. She plays volleyball, and is excellent at strategizing in particular. I invited her to come watch a few practice sessions so she can help us and maybe get better too. Y/N, meet everyone."
Now everyone except for that boy who was celebrating surrounded you and Mr Ukai in a semi circle. You saw a boy with slightly thick eyebrows, light grey hair and hazel-brown eyes with a birthmark mole under his left eye. He was smiling gently at you.
"Hi, Y/N. It's great to meet you. My name is Sugawara," he extended his arm out to you. You took it.
"The pleasure's mine, Sugawara," you returned his smile. Next, a boy with short dark hair and dark brown eyes shook your hand warmly with both of his.
"I'm Daichi Sawamura. You can call me Daichi, Y/N," his voice was reassuring and kind. You liked him. You nodded at him. Then, a strong looking boy with brown hair styled as a bun behind his head and dark brown eyes matching his hair as well as his eyebrows approached you. There was a short scruff growing on his chin, giving him what you thought was a comfortable, masculine look. He took your hand, shaking it in a much more gentle manner than what you expected.
"Asahi Azumane," he announced. His name suited him. Next to him stood a boy only slightly taller than you. He had wild black hair, most of which was ruffled upwards. There was a tiny tuft of dirty blond hair falling over his forehead. His eyes were brown and slanted. Rather than shaking your hand, this boy simply stood with both of his hands perched on his waist and an amiable look on his face.
"I'm Nishinoya," his voice was drastically different to all the other boys you had met so far, "I'm the libero for Karasuno." He jerked a thumb up at his chest to clarify that he was proud of the position he played.
"It's nice to meet you, Nishinoya," you laughed at his enthusiasm, "I bet you could teach me a thing or two."
Next to Nishinoya was a boy slightly taller than him. He had unruly, orange hair and brown eyes. He seemed relatively skinny, but his smile radiated a cheerful and energetic personality. You assumed this was the Carrot Top Mr Ukai had told you about. According to Mr Ukai, this boy was loud and passionate when it came to volleyball, and his skills rarely faltered. He didn't shake your hand either.
"I'm Shōyō Hinata! Wow! Coach Ukai told us about you - it's so great to meet you!" Hinata was bubbly, to say the least. His smile was infectious, causing you to grin equally.
"It's an honour to meet all of you guys, Hinata. I've also been told about you, and I can't wait to see you in action!" you chuckled. His eyes widened.
"Woah! Coach Ukai told you about us? About me?!" his disbelief was evident.
"Yeah, he did. I hear you're pretty amazing, Hinata," you nodded.
"I'm amazing?! Coach Ukai says you're great! And you're so pretty!" Hinata was overly excited and you absolutely loved it.
"Okay, that's enough from you, Ginger," Mr Ukai interrupted, "Y/N is like a daughter to me, so don't any of you go pining after her, okay?" It was kind of Mr Ukai to act as a father figure for you. Hinata looked as though he had started to panic.
"What?! I wasn't pining after her or anything like that, Coach!" Hinata scrambled for the right words to explain himself, "I just thought she was really pretty! I'm sorry!"
"It's really fine, Hinata," you put two hands out in a gesture of reassurance, "It's really sweet of you."
"I'm Kageyama," a boy with black hair cropped short, with a fringe that hung just above his dark blue eyes said. He shook your hand. "If you'll be around for a while, you'll get used to this dumbass."
"I see," you quietly responded. You guessed Kageyama was Hinata's friend, albeit his solemn demeanour. Then, an abnormally tall boy - the tallest out of all of them - came towards you. He had short blond hair, pale skin, thin eyebrows and golden-brown eyes. He didn't look too impressed or happy with anything, which you saw from the frown resting on his face. On the bridge of his nose sat a pair of black glasses. He didn't shake your hand, opting for a curt nod instead.
"Tsukishima," he simply declared. You nodded at him with a friendly smile.
"Nice to meet you Tsukishima," you tried being kind towards him. Next to Tsukishima was a boy with dark grayish-green hair with a flyaway piece of hair sticking up at the top. Freckles decorated his face, as well as a timid smile.
"Hi. Uh. I'm Tadashi Yamaguchi," he voice was soft. You smiled at him.
"Lovely to meet you, Yamaguchi," you made yourself seem approachable. After Yamaguchi, Mr Ukai introduced you to Hisashi Kinoshita, Chikara Ennoshita, Kazuhito Narita, Ittetsu Takeda and that girl in the white tracksuit from earlier (you learned her name was Kiyoko Shimizu). Kiyoko was very sweet but didn't talk much. She was very pretty, and Nishinoya told you that she was the Goddess of Karasuno High's volleyball team. She was the team's manager. You liked her.
The only person who you hadn't been introduced to was the shirtless boy who was celebrating earlier, who now appeared to be talking with Nishinoya. He was still shirtless.
"For God's sake, Tanaka, put your shirt back on and get over here," Mr Ukai commanded. Tanaka whipped around suddenly, placing both of his fists on his hips.
"What is it, Coach? Jealous of my sexy," the boy trailed off as his eyes met yours, "Sexy." He sounded desperate. You raised an eyebrow up. His voice was raucous and he seemed to be rather boisterous to you - Mr Ukai had spoken of this Tanaka before.
"Watch it," Mr Ukai warned Tanaka, "Y/N has put in her own time to come and see us, so it's pretty embarrassing for her first impression of you to be of this shirtless hooligan. So again, shirt."
Tanaka walked - or rather jogged hastily - towards you and Mr Ukai while simultaneously pulling his shirt over his head. By the time he made it to you, his hand was out for you to shake, a roguish smirk was plastered onto his face, and his shirt was on. Backwards. You took his hand with both of your eyebrows up to show how you were unimpressed with him thus far. But you couldn't help a small smile from appearing after this kid's antics.
"Hello, Tanaka. I'm going to pretend you didn't call me sexy before even greeting me so we can start over," you said as you shook his hand. He nodded eagerly.
"Smart, smart. Hi. Now that I've greeted you: you're really hot," he repeated in the same desperate tone.
"Tanaka," Mr Ukai cautioned him again.
"Okay, would you also like me to pretend that your shirt isn't on backwards?" you pointed at the collar. Tanaka's eyes widened. A pink blush settled on his cheeks.
"Wha - aha ha," he tugged at his collar, "Yes please." He muttered in a serious tone.
"Okay," you scrunched your nose as you said this, squinting your eyes. You and Mr Ukai watched as Tanaka shuffled back to Nishinoya with his head hung. He started sobbing into his shoulder as Nishinoya stroked his shaved head. You liked Tanaka.
"No, you're not allowed to date any of them," Mr Ukai randomly blurted.
"I - wha - aha ha," you involuntarily blushed, "I never," Mr Ukai cut you off.
"I know. But Tanaka has a way," he cocked his head to the side.
"What?! Why Tanaka?!" you looked at Mr Ukai. The blushing was not helping your case.
"Okay, boys, let's see those sets!" Mr Ukai completely ignored you, walking forwards and leaving you behind with Kiyoko. You looked over at her and smiled.
"Hi Kiyoko," you said. She gave you a small smile.
"He's never going to stop bothering you, you know," she offered you a heads up.
"Thanks for the warning. Heh," you scratched the back of your neck, turning your attention to the boys on the court. That Kageyama boy was setting the ball to each of the boys in turn. It was Tanaka's turn. He hit the ball expertly. He turned to you and Kiyoko.
"YOU SEE THAT, LADIES?! YEAH!" Tanaka ran up to Nishinoya and high fived him far too enthusiastically. This Tanaka guy was sure something.