Kuroo watched as Y/n typed away at her laptop.
He noticed all the differences and changes to Y/ns appearance from two years ago.
Her hair was now a bit shorter and her skin had a bit more color.
She put her hair up in a bun as she fixed her jacket, rolling the sleeves.
"Y/n, is this one correct?" one of her groupmates, Michael, asked.
She looked away from her laptop screen and the corner of her lips lifted up.
Kuroo stared at her for a while, admiring her from afar.
She was at a cafe with who he assumed was her friends.
She seemed happier.
Different.
She was smiling.
"Uhh, you got this one right but you forgot the negative sign." she answered.
She looked a lot better from the last time he saw her.
Maybe she was better off without him.
Come to think of it, he never got to explain what had happened two years ago.
He only accompanied S/n to places and hung out with her, they never had an actual label until he broke up with Y/n, or when Y/n broke up with him.
S/n just took it the wrong way and assumed they had already started going out.
"I have to go, can you drop these files off at the campus later?" Y/n asks Annie, her groupmate.
"Sure. Where are you going though?" Annie asks, she's always been nosy for someone so smart.
She has probably spread the most rumors in campus in the history of Yale University itself. There weren't a lot of people getting accepted so most students in their department knew each other.
"I'm meeting a friend this afternoon, I'm done with my work." she answers before exiting the cafe and fixing her backpack.
Kuroo turned around casually, hiding his face.
He got the answer he needed.
She was doing well.
-2 years later-
Only four people in Japan had Y/n's current contact number and email address, that wasn't until her extremely annoying uncle bugged her mom to give it to him.
She's been receiving birthday and holiday cards ever since.
"Happy Birthday to my favorite niece. Stay out of trouble, kid." she read out loud.
She remembered how her last birthday in Japan went.
She got stood up.
It would be a lie to say that Y/n had moved on from the grief.
Denial sucked, anger made it worse.
She had to go to the gym at least four times a week to take it out on the poor punching bags.
Y/n punched as hard as she could and the punching bag swang to the opposite of her direction.
People were starting to stare at her, even the gym instructors were getting scared at how often she comes and how hard she punches.
She had a deadly aura around her.
"Stupid."
*PUNCH*
"Fucking."
*PUNCH*
"Papers."
"Hey there can I get y-"
Punching harder than she already was, wasn't the best idea. For the guy hitting on her, it certainly was one of the worst.
Poor guy just wanted her number, oh well.
She'd be lying if she said she didn't imagine the punching bag as Tokyo.
She just hated the place.
Except maybe for Miyagi.
Anger Management issues.
She's had them ever since she left Japan.
She often put up a friendly smile to her other thesis partners. She needed to establish connections in order to survive this completely different environment.
Y/n took a break and sat at a bench where she placed some of her stuff, drinking from the water bottle when her phone suddenly buzzed.
BF/N (Best friend's name)
Ey hoe, let's hang.
Y/N
Sup bitch, love problems?
BF/N
No, mom.
BF/N
Just bring pizza.
BF/N was a great friend to her, and she was just as great.
BF/N still doesn't know a lot about Y/n, she hasn't told them why she dreads going to Japan back so much.
After her shower, she immediately grabbed her keys and drove to her bestfriend's apartment.
"Open up, loser." she says while knocking impatiently at their door.
The door opens swiftly, with BF/N immediately grabbing the pizza box from her hand.
Y/n let herself in and plopped down on her friends desk chair.
"You wanna talk about it?" she asks.
"Yeah, I'm only comfortable discussing these kinds of things with you." her friend answers, munching on their first slice of pizza.
"Hm."
"It's just that, people tell you you can talk to them but they never actually listen to you." BF/N says.
"What's wrong Y/n?"
"Are you alright?"
"You can talk to me."
Kuroo's words echoed through her head as she heard her friend say those words.
"You're telling me this because you think I can listen?" she asks, confused.
"Yeah. It's just that I found out my boyfriend has been cheating on me with my fucking cousin." Her friend continues.
"The feck? That's absolute bullshit." she reacts immediately, angry.
"I know! I don't know if I should be sad or if I should rip both their throats out!"
"I say you do both." Y/n says, standing up to grab a slice of pizza.
"How are you still this calm?" Y/n asks.
"You're normally unbothered about these types of things, how come you reacted so quickly?" BF/N asks, putting the pressure on her.
Y/n sighs, remembering all the things that happened four years ago. She felt her blood boil.
Two weeks after leaving Japan, she quickly forgot about the denial stage and somehow shifted to the anger stage just as fast.
Unfortunately, she hasn't moved on from the anger stage in the span of four long years.
BF/N scanned her expression and dropped the pizza slice they had already bitten on straight back in the box, making Y/n cringe in disgust.
"No way!" BF/N exclaims, knowing exactly why Y/n was all frustrated.
"Tell me all about it." she said.
"I thought we were talking about you. Don't put this on me, stupid." Y/n defensively says.
"Stop with the Japanese. And besides, you've been listening to me rant for the past four years, it's my turn." BF/N says.
"Aren't you sad?" Y/n asks them, laying down on her friends bed and staring at the ceiling.
"Shouldn't I be happy that I lost a cheater in my life?" BF/N aks, smiling.
"You'll still see them in family reunions." Y/n says to her, making
BF/N's eyes roll.
"Stop putting it back on me. Tell me all about what happened."
Silence filled the room.
"Sorry, are you uncomfortable? You don't have t-"
"No, it's fine. I'll tell you." Y/n says, looking up and down the ceiling.
...
"Does your sister know?" BF/N asks, concerned.
"I hope so." Y/n replies.
"Part of me wants her to be guilty and part of me doesn't want her to be lied to." Y/n says.
"I mean, I saw it coming. I knew he was gonna fall for her eventually." she added.
BF/N looked at her while tilting their head to the right side, clearly confused.
"I thought you didn't like your sister.." BF/N says.
"Doesn't mean that I don't care." Y/n answers.
She stared at the last slice of pizza but didn't grab it, knowing that BF/N would surely eat it.
The both of them stared at the ceiling, probably thinking of their life choices.
"What was the name of that guy again?" BF/N asked.
"Kuroo." Y/n answered blankly before standing up and grabbing a soda can frim BF/N's mini fridge.
"How did he look like?" BF/N asked, munching on the last slice of pizza before standing up to give Y/n a curious look.
"Hm. Tall, dark hair, hazel eyes." she answers, sounding like she's describing a man that stole her purse.
BF/N stood up in surprise, eyes widening.
"No. fucking. way." their voice sounding muffled due to having too much food in their mouth.
"What?"
"And don't talk when your mouth is full, you're spitting all over the place." Y/n says.
"Remember that girl from your department, Annie?" she asked.
"Well, two years ago..." she hesitated.
"Annie said a guy with raven hair asked if she knew where you were going! And he said to not tell you that you were looking for him!" BF/n continued talking, her voice still muffled.
"She probably forgot about it considering that she didn't spread a rumor." BF/n reassured.
"I know plenty of guys with dark hair, no way that was Kuroo." Y/n denies, though she still thought of it as a possibility.
"Here." BF/N pulls out their phone, going through their contacts to find Annie's number. They continued looking for the picture the girl had sent her.
BF/N turns her phone to Y/ns direction.
"This him?" BF/N asked.
"Y-yeah." Y/n confirmed.
"Is he stalking me?!" Y/n overthinked.
"Wow, jeez. 'Cause you're so pretty." BF/N sarcastically said and laughed.
The thing is, Kuroo comes to Connecticut once every year to check on her.
A little creepy?
Yes, gotta admit.
As much as Kuroo loved S/n, part of him can't help but care for Y/n, the L/n whose heart he chose to break in exchange for another.
Of course Kuroo felt guilty, how could he not?
For the past four years, Kuroo was scared to tell S/n what had happened between him and her sister.
Because he would lose them both.
...
Kuroo fixed his tie while looking at his office mirror.
Then turning around to see an alert on his laptop.
'1 new unopened mail'
He got curious, he thought he had wrapped up all his work for that day.
At first he thought it was just Lev bugging him, but his thought was immediately replaced once he saw the email address that sent him mail.
He took a deep breath before opening it, hands shaking minimally.
From: y/n_l/n@gmail.com
To: tetsuruokuroo@gmail.com
Kuroo's eyes widened when he saw the picture of him attached to the email, it was taken two years ago when he asked about Y/n.
"Gee, stalker much?"