Disclaimer: I do not own Haikyuu!. It is property of Haruichi Furudate, Weekly Shonen Jump & Shueisha.

Chapter 1 – His name is Hinata Shōyō.

My name is Mogami Moeka, I'm 13 years old and am a 2nd Year at Yukigaoka Middle School. I'm currently a member of the Girls' Volleyball Club, and although I'm not a regular player who gets to take part in official matches, I still have fun every day at practice.

But lately, something's been bugging me.

There's… a boy who always practices spiking a ball against the wall in the corner of the gym our team uses, all on his own.

He's pretty small for a guy, but that's not the first thing I notice about him. It's his hair – a vibrant shock of orange.

So even though he's off in the corner it's pretty difficult to ignore him.

As far as I knew, our school didn't have a boys' volleyball team and if they did, well, wouldn't he be practicing with them?

I turned my attention away from the red-headed boy and approached my senpai, the vice-captain of our team, Hatsumi,

'Um, Senpai, I've been meaning to ask who the boy over there is? He's always been there, but I've never really thought to ask…' I asked her and she turned around to look at the boy too.

A girl in my year giggled, 'I had this theory, that maybe he's a ghost~' she said mischievously, brushing my bare arm lightly.

I shuddered, 'Cut it out, Micchan!' I whined at her. She knew I didn't like ghost stories…!

But judging from her giggles, she didn't seem to care, in fact, she liked that she was scaring me.

Hatsumi-senpai hummed, 'Oh, yeah. That's the boys' volleyball team's captain and only member, apparently,' she said with a small chuckle.

'Huh?! But how can you have a volleyball team with only one player? A team is composed of at least 6 people, plus a Libero, right?' Michiko asked, her brows rising towards her hairline.

'Yes, well, our faculty advisor mentioned it to us when he first came in last year. Apparently, even after hearing that there wasn't a boys volleyball club in our school, he was still adamant about making one. But nobody joined it last year - or this year either – so our coach felt bad about him practicing outside and let him use that corner to practice. The kid's never even played a match before, since he has no team-mates… Makes you wonder why he hasn't quit to join a different sports team yet!' Hatsumi-senpai explained and we listened intently.

Michiko hummed as if deep in thought, then gasped, adopting a eureka pose, 'Actually, I've seen him outside of practice too. He gets this guy from, I think it's the Basket Ball team to set the ball to him so he can practice spiking outside. And some other guy too sometimes, too!' she told us.

Hatsumi-senpai whistled, impressed, 'He might even work harder than some of the girls on our team! Too bad he still sucks, though.' She said, and I winced.

'He can't practice properly like that on his own. If only he had someone to practice consistently with…' I mumbled, feeling sympathetic towards the unnamed red-head.

Senpai hummed to herself, before a big smile adorned her face. She patted me roughly on the shoulder,

'Well, if you're so concerned over him, why don't you be his practice partner sometimes? I'm sure he could appreciate all the help he can get!' she said, and I jumped in surprise.

'Ehhh? B-But what about my own p-practice…?' I asked, flustered.

Michiko however, seemed to agree with senpai; 'You've been saying about how you wanted to try being a Setter right? You said Middle Blocker wasn't really for you.' She said, looking at me eagerly.

'I…!' before I could get another word out, Senpai swiveled me around against my will and gave me a good push.

I stumbled forward a few steps before regaining balance.

'For now, go introduce yourself to the guy and find out his name! Then, put forward the idea of helping him practice if things are going well! Don't worry, your senpai will cover for you for now,' Hatsumi-senpai said with a thumbs-up and a wink.

I hesitated, and I knew they could tell. After all, this was very sudden.

Didn't look like Michiko was going to let me get out of it though, as she gave me another light shove in the red-head's direction.

'Go on! Micchan will be silently cheering you on~' she said merrily. My cheeks turned a light pink, embarrassed.

'F-Fine, I'm going…!' I hissed out, and sighed, trying to regain my composure with light claps to my cheeks. Taking in a breath and breathing it out slowly to calm myself down, I set off towards the red-head's corner.

He didn't seem to have heard me coming, as he continued to toss the ball against the wall and then jump to clumsily hit it. After being spiked, it bounced off the wall and back past him and he began to turn, while I caught the ball for him.

'Oh…' he murmured, finally having noticed me.

I smiled and awkwardly wiggled my fingers at him as a sort of wave, 'Um, hey! Er, I noticed you're always playing over here, and…uhm,' I trailed off, wondering how I could continue speaking without inserting um's and er's everywhere.

While I floundered over my words, the boy spoke up,

'Y-Your club's faculty advisor said I was allowed to use this corner, so I'm not breaking any rules…! Please don't ask me to leave…!' he said, looking worried.

I widened my eyes, and waved my hands at him in denial, 'No, no! That's not what I came over to say!' I told him and he visibly relaxed, his tensed up shoulders slumping downwards again. I let out a breath, and smiled at him.

'I'll try again… My name's Mogami, Moeka. I'm a second year on the girls' team – I'm going for playing Setter this year since ours is graduating after this year. Um, I heard you were the boys' volleyball team..! Is that true? Th-that you're the only member?' I asked him.

He nodded exaggeratedly, looking passionate about this subject, 'That's right! I'm Hinata Shōyō, captain of the boys' volleyball club! Nice to meet you, Mogami-san!' he said, bowing his head slightly.

I hurriedly bowed in return.

'Um, I was going to ask what position you played, but… er, you're th-the only member…?' I trailed off awkwardly. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything at all… What if I hurt him somehow by saying that?

He didn't seem ruffled though.

He pointed to his chest, looking enthusiastic, 'I'm a Wing Spiker! I wanna be the Ace!' he said, then got shy all of a sudden, hunching over and rubbing the back of his head, 'But like you said… I'm the only member, so I can't play matches or really call myself any of those positions.' He added.

'Um, you're a second year, right? Maybe next year you'll get some first year members in?' I suggested.

He seemed to pick up at that, 'Yeah! I really hope some new people join next year! If we can get enough…! I really want to be able to play an official match next year!' he said.

'I hope you get some new people next year, too. Me too. I'd like to be a regular next year and play some official matches as well.' I agreed.

'You'll do it!' he said, confident. I blinked at him in surprise, and he continued, 'Sometimes I watch what you guys are doing, you know? You're pretty good, at least from what I can tell.' He said with a grin.

I blushed, 'I-I'm not that good!' I quickly denied his claim, and swallowed, 'B-But, um…' I paused, wondering how to word what I wanted to say.

Unfortunately, our little chat-time was up, as our Captain, Kaori finally joined us after finishing her meeting with her teacher that had delayed her, and saw me 'slacking off'.

'Mogami-san! Get over here! How're you gonna replace Hatsumi-san if you're off chatting up boys!?' she yelled at me and my face turned an even deeper shade of pink.

Hinata-kun had started blushing too, at Kaori-senpai's words.

Embarrassed at having been put on the spot, I bowed to Hinata quickly and said 'Let's talk again…!' in a hurried voice before returning the ball to him and rushing back to practice.

He caught it, not taking his eyes off my retreating form with still pink cheeks.

…

Returning to Michiko and our other players with rosy cheeks, I glared lightly at my classmate who wasn't holding back the amusement dancing in her eyes at all.

'So did you get his number~?' she asked teasingly and I slapped her roughly on the arm, to which she yelped. 'Okay, okay, sorry..! Did you at least get his name?' she appeased.

I sighed out lightly, trying to will the blood away from my pink cheeks somehow, and nodded, before replying;

'His name is Hinata Shōyō.'

And that's the first chapter! I hope you liked it. This is exciting - it's the first fan fiction I've written for over 6 years so I hope I did okay. I'll try to get another chapter written soon.