Chapter 1 – I'm Home!

As I stood in front of the house that had been my childhood home, I felt a wave of nostalgia wash over me. Various memories of leaving early in the morning to go to school, or coming home late at night after hanging out with friends flashed through my mind, drilling into my head the realization that I had finally arrived back home. Despite the 3 years that I had been gone, my house still looked exactly how it was before I left for Tokyo.

"Yuna?" My mother's voice pierced through my thoughts and I turned my head back towards her. She was holding one of the many boxes that we had brought back with us from Tokyo. Seeing that she was fumbling with the box while trying to get her house keys out, I went over and took the box from her.

"You should have opened the door before trying to carry this," I lightly scolded her. This was one of the reasons why I was glad that we had come back to Miyagi. Even though my mother could be super efficient at her job when she needed to get things done, her clumsiness and inability to function properly in her daily life left me constantly worried for her wellbeing. Now that we were back home and reunited with my father, I felt much more at ease.

"Where's Dad, anyways? I thought he said he would be here when we arrived." Due to his job obligations, my father had stayed in Miyagi during the time that my mom, my brother and I had temporarily moved to Tokyo. My mother's three-year relocation contract for her job had just finished, and so I decided to move back to Miyagi with her. My older brother, however, was about to enter his last year of high school and refused to leave, adamant about staying in Tokyo so he could "bring his volleyball team to victory", as he put it.

"He said he had a few last minute things to sort out at the office but he should be here any minute," Mom said, checking the time on her phone before walking and unlocking our front door. I followed her inside, still carrying the box, and took in the familiar view of our home.

"We're home!" Mom's voice echoed through the quiet house.

I put down the box, closed my eyes, and smiled.

We're home.

"I'm going to call Big Bro to let him know we've arrived!" I called out to my parents who were currently downstairs sorting out the last few boxes. My dad, who had arrived just minutes earlier, gave me a shout of acknowledgement while my mom reminded me to tell my brother to eat the food she had prepared for him before we had left. My brother was now living alone in our Tokyo apartment, and my mom had endless worries about him being able to take care of himself. I sat down on my bed and took out my phone, scrolling through my contact list until I found the name that I was looking for.

Pressing call and putting my phone on speaker, I placed it on my table and began to sort through the suitcase of clothes that I brought with me. I'm going to have to go out and buy some more clothes, I pouted. I had decided to leave half of my clothes at our Tokyo house for when we would go back to visit my brother, leaving me with a limited number of clothing choices.

"What's up?" My older brother's voice came through the speaker.

"Hey! Mom and I made it, just letting you know," I grabbed one of my shirts and put it on a clothes hanger before hanging it up in my closet.

"Oh? You guys didn't get pulled over by the police because of Mom's precarious driving?" He joked.

I rolled my eyes as I grabbed another shirt. "Yeah, actually our car was towed and we had to walk all the way to Miyagi holding our belongings," I replied sarcastically. I heard him chuckle over the phone and continued, "Anyways, Mom told me to remind you to eat that food she left for you in the fridge."

"Yeah, okay. Tell her not to worry about me too much, I'm a third-year now, I can handle myself." I could practically see him puffing out his chest with pride.

"No promises, we both know she'll probably worry anyways," I laughed, shaking my head.

I heard another voice over the other end of the phone and my brother's voice saying a few words in reply.

" 'Kay I gotta go, it's almost time for practice."

"Okay! Tell the guys I said hi!"

"Alright, talk to you later. Remember to make friends in school, you loner!"

"Bye!"

I plopped myself on my bed and stared up at the ceiling. I hadn't actually thought about how my school life would be before coming back here. Sure I had grown up here and used to have many friends, but I had left in the middle of middle school to move to Tokyo. My old friends had gone to different high schools and despite our efforts to keep in touch, I hadn't talked to a lot of them in a while. I was also entering this school in second year, when everyone would have made groups of friends already back in first year. Great, I'm going to be the new kid in class again.

Well, I did have one friend that I had consistently kept in contact with while I was away. We were neighbours and he was my best friend with whom I had grown up with. I looked at the time on my phone, he should be in school right now, I thought. I decided that I would have to go over next door when he came home and confront him about his recent behaviour. These past few days he hadn't seemed like his usual cheerful self and I could tell that this wasn't simply one of those times where his volleyball practices weren't going well.

I sighed, Why were all the guys around me infatuated with the same sport? I mean, I had also played volleyball, since I was forced to practice with my brother when he got into it, but it seemed like everyone in my life was a volleyball fanatic. My thoughts shifted to yet another volleyball player. That person played volleyball too. He loved volleyball, he lived volleyball, that's why I had to –

The ringing of the doorbell broke me out of my thoughts.

I got up from my bed and headed downstairs, wondering who it could be. I reached for the doorknob and turned it, opening the door slowly.

A familiar head of spiky black hair came into view, coupled with a tuft of bright orange hair right in the center of it. Below it was a set of eyes that seemed to burn with determination along with a fierce smirk that I had learned to associated with that of my best friend.

"Noya!?"

Author's Note:

Hello! Although this chapter might have seemed quite boring without any of the boys making an appearance (except at the end), I felt like this introductory chapter was quite needed in establishing who Yuna is. There is a reason as to why I haven't mentioned her last name yet as I thought it would give away who her older brother is, hehe. As cruel as it may be, I would like to keep you guys guessing a big longer. Another important figure in Yuna-chan's life was also mentioned, but he's going to be revealed later too!

Anyways, I've tried to make her background as logical as it may be but if you have any questions, feel free to ask! I wanted to keep a sense of vagueness about each of her relationships until more details are given, but I can understand that it might be confusing in the beginning.