Disclaimer: I do not own Haikyuu nor it's characters. All credit goes to Haruichi Furudate sensei.
"Ehhh~~Oikawa-san is not coming today?"
As one of the kids started to whine, the entire gym hall was immediately filled with voices of disappointing children.
"Now now, Oikawa-san is not feeling well today, we all need rest when we are sick, right?" The female coach of the Lil'Tykes Volleyball Suzuki hushed the kids. "Oikawa-san will not be with us today, but his teammate Iwaizumi-san is here, he is a good player too!"
The kids glanced up to the unfamiliar figure standing in front of them, many felt uneasy having this new guy who looked half as friendly as Oikawa-san to be one of their coaches today. Iwaizumi tried smiling, but that didn't seem to work very well so far.
It was currently spring break, a few days before their final year in high school began. Oikawa, who sometimes volunteer at the Lil'Tykes, decided that it was a good time to overworked himself and injured his knee. Iwaizumi had a hard time holding himself from kicking the ass of his injured friend. He ended up taking over his place to be the volunteer coach since Oikawa had made a promise to Suzuki earlier that he'd showed up today. Iwaizumi was also here to look after Oikawa's niece Takeru on his behalf.
There were roughly 20 kids in the gym, Iwaizumi and Suzuki each took half of them and started the practice. It didn't take long for the kids to warm up around him, and their admiration to Iwaizumi shot up after seeing him in action. Iwaizumi decided that he enjoyed coaching kids, it reminded him of the time when he first started to play.
When they were going to switch from spiking to receiving, one boy from his group insisted that he wanted to continue spiking. Jun, whom Oikawa had mentioned before Iwaizumi came, wasn't the most easy going kid in the club. The boy looked slightly younger than Takeru, probably 8-9 years old. He was one of the better players among the group, there was a possibility that his stubbornness was fueled by his confidence in his skills.
If this happened in his team, said trouble maker would receive scolding and possibly banned from the practice. But this wasn't Aoba Josai, and he was just a kid, so he decided to go with a milder approach. Iwaizumi frown and repeated his order seriously. Most people knew to stop pushing their luck when he has his stern mode on, but this kid was not most people.
"I don't care about receiving, I want to practice spiking." The boy challenged with his arm crossed. Iwaizumi's frown deepened and irritation started to rise in his chest. The fact that the older boy looked like a giant standing beside the kid didn't seem to matter at all. This boy did have guts, he would give him credit on that. Iwaizumi was no coward, but he never challenged an adult in this manner when he was his age.
Before the volunteer coach could say anything else, a soft voice interrupted.
"I am so sorry for the trouble."
Iwaizumi turned his head to find a familiar face approaching them. He knew her, her name is Hyuga Hana...ko? They were at the same grade in school, always walked into each other but never really talked much since they were never in the same class.
As their eyes met, she gave him an apologetic nod. The dark haired girl was the female teenage version of the boy, especially those identical big raven eyes, you didn't really need a DNA test to know that they were related. Hanako knelt down in front of the young boy, trying to make him apologized to Iwaizumi. Her voice was gentle but firm, yet the little boy just threw the ball away and ran out of the gym. Bowing apologetically, she exited the gym to chase after him.
Clueless on how he should react, Iwaizumi turned to Suzuki who was now at the other side of the gym. The woman gave him a don't mind him just continue with the others gesture. It seemed that everyone was more or less used to the boy's behavior.
He nodded to her and the class went on.
It wasn't until last few minutes of the practice that Hanako finally came back with the little boy. He never joined the practice nor did he come up to him to apologize, just sitting at the side of the gym looking like a grumpy little old man.
As the class ended, he bid goodbye with the other kids. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Hanako apologizing to Suzuki, who in returned reassured her that it was fine to bring the boy to the practice next week. After giving Suzuki and deep bow, she walked towards Iwaizumi.
"Hi...Iwaizumi-san? Sorry if I get your name wrong! I'm Hyuga Hanako." Uncertainty colored her voice when she spoke. Hanako looked like a bomb disposal person who was trying to decide what was the best way to approach him. Realizing that he has his resting stern face to blame, Iwaizumi attempted a smile.
"You got my name right, Hyuga-san." He reassured her. "You are from class 3?"
"Yes, I am." She replied. "I am very sorry for what my brother did today." Sighing softly, her eyes turned to the little boy who was now playing with her phone at the edge of the gym. The boy had refused to apologize.
"Jun rarely gets along with the others, but he had never behaved like this." Her eyes were fixed to the boy as she took a deep inhale. "My grandmother was the one who brought him here every week, my parents are both busy working, Jun spent most of his time after school with grandma."
Taking another deep breath, Hanako allowed herself a long pause before she spoke again. "She passed away a few weeks ago...and it had not been easy for my brother. "
Even though her eyes were dry, he could feel the weight of grief in her. The lost of their grandmother must have been hard for her too.
"Ah...I'm sorry to hear that." Not sure what else he could say, Iwaizumi shifted his eyes to boy.
Feeling a little guilty that she had turned the mood gloomy, Hanako forced a smile. "No worries, We'll get through it...Anyways, I hope you enjoyed your first-day coaching besides the little interrup..."
"Can we go home now?"
Both eyes turned to the boy who happened to cut into the conversation. He was now standing by the doorway with his arm crossed, looking so ready to get out of this place. After knowing his story, his little tantrum no longer irritated Iwaizumi. The boy had just been through a major change in his life. Losing someone so dear to him, he must be struggling to find a way to deal with his feelings, his cockiness was just a way he reacted to his uncertainty.
"Jun, do you like spiking?" Iwaizumi voiced the question out of the blue.
"Who doesn't like to spike?" The boy stared at Iwaizumi as if he had asked the dumpiest question in the world.
"How about receive?" Not bothered by his comment, Iwaizumi continued to prompt.
"You don't score by receiving, and it doesn't look cool."
"But if you could receive a super spike that no one thought would be possible, don't you think that would be very cool?"
"If someone can receive your spike, it means that your spike isn't good enough."
"Jun! That's enough!" Hanako couldn't stand anymore. She felt bad that her brother was going through such a tough time and there was nothing she could do. But his past experience didn't give him permission to treat others horribly. "That's it, we are going home." She would have to think of a way to speak to him when they were home.
But instead of being offended, Iwaizumi just laugh, which earned himself a confused look from the girl. This kid reminded the volleyball player so much of himself when he was that age. He couldn't help but always dragged through the receiving part of the practice when they were in the kids club, and would do nothing but spike when he was practicing alone with Oikawa. It was until his first defeat in the middle school that he started paying attention to his receive.
"Hyuga-san, can you pass the ball to me?" Iwaizumi threw a ball to Hanako. Still confused, Hanako caught the ball with her brows raised. "Make it closer to the net, I wanna spike."
"Errr...ok."
Hanako had no idea what Iwaizumi was up to, but she threw the ball to him nonetheless. She was nothing close to a player, but had some experience playing during the PE class. The ball went towards somewhere near the net. In the blink of an eye, Iwaizumi took a few steps forward and slammed the ball heavily onto the other side of the court. At that moment, the sound of the ball hitting the ground was the only sound in the room. Her mouth was wide opened with surprise, so was her brother.
The only players she'd seen were her classmate at school and the kids at the Lil'Tykes. They were actually pretty good, but nothing she had seen matched up to the strength and skill that was presented to her at the moment. She wondered if every volleyball player in her school could do this well.
"Teach me! I want to spike like that!"
Jun was shocked.
There was a spark in his eyes, a mixture of excitement and determination. Iwaizumi didn't get to spike a lot during the class, the few demonstrations that he showed the kids were nothing close to the one he did a moment ago.
"How about receive?"
"Why should I practice recei..."
This time it was Iwaizumi who cut him off.
"My spikes are pretty good, but in many matches, it had been received countless time. And I had also received many similar, if not stronger spikes from the other teams."
Jun, who was usually impatient with grown up's lecturing, gave Iwaizumi his full attention. Hanako was surprised with the shift of his attitude.
"You know what is one of the most satisfying feelings in a volleyball game?" Iwaizumi walked towards Jun with a ball in his hand. "It is when everyone thinks that the spike is impossible to receive, but you did it."
Iwaizumi knelt in front of Jun, allowing the boy to look straight into his eyes. He smiled as he passed him the ball. The boy grabbed it with both of his hands.
"Imagine that one day you can stop my spike, wouldn't that be cool?"
Iwaizumi's smile turned into a boyish grin. The evening sunlight shown from the high window into the gym, covering the boys with the soft and warm orange glow. Jun looked down to the ball in his hand, he was silent. Hanako couldn't put a word on it, but she could feel that something in him was changing.
"If you come back next week, you can practice how to spike and receive, you'll need to learn how to block too, and also how to work with other kids. These are all very important if you want to play in a game."
Iwaizumi ruffled the boy's hair as he stood up. He reminded him to put his jacket on before heading out to avoid catching a cold. But the boy just continued standing there, a few moments had passed until he finally spoke again.
"Are you coming back next week?"
Surprised by his question, Iwaizumi shook his head but smile.
"I will not make it next week." The school would be starting soon and they usually had club activity on Thursday afternoon. Besides, he never really thought of volunteering regularly. He was now a third-year student, there were certainly other things that he needed to prioritize if he planned to furthered his education. "You'll have Suzuki and probably other new coa..."
"Can you come next week? Can you?"
"Jun-chan..." Hanako started, not wanting her brother to trouble others.
"Please...I will do every practice, I will practice my receive, block, and work with other kids...can you come? "
Jun looked up to Iwaizumi with his huge dark eyes and a tiny pout. Iwaizumi's thought of his grandmother again. He let out a quiet sigh and smile. Oh well, he guessed he would just have to burn more midnight oil. Worst case scenario, being forced to spend more time studying with Trashikawa. His childhood best friend was annoying but he'd saved him from failing the tests, multiple times. That should work.
He promised Jun that he could meet him on Wednesday after school in the gym, the kid beamed. Hanako thanked him and was planning to bring him some snacks when they were back in school again.
When he told Oiwaka about the incident that night, his friend was beyond shock. If Oikawa didn't know better, the new volleyball captain would say that he was lying. Iwaizumi barked out laughing.
He had a feeling that this would be a great year.