Mirae could hear her grandmother speaking to her mother. She tried to focus on the sound of the batter lapping in the mixing bowl, but her ears had fixated on the distinct voices.

"Two teaspoons," she muttered, reading over the recipe. She measured out the sugar and added it to the mixture. Just then, her grandmother entered the kitchen.

"Morning Grandma."

"Good morning," she smiled. Mirae stopped the mixer and waited for her grandmother to check the texture of the cake mix.

"It's perfect." The wrinkles by her eyes deepened as she smiled. "But it is missing one ingredient."

Mirae hesitated. "I followed the recipe and measured everything. What's the extra ingredient? Won't it ruin the texture or the cooking time?"

Her grandmother reached for the spices cabinet and retrieved a small bottle of dried zest. "It's a mix of lemon and orange," she explained, "We add a small amount but this extra step makes the dessert so much more enjoyable and it adds a personal touch."

She added two pinches and folded it into the batter. Once done, she emptied it into a pan and placed it into the oven.

"Thirty-five minutes, right?"

Her grandmother nodded. Once they had set the timer, they moved to the kitchen table and sat down.

"Your mother called."

Mirae poured two cups of tea. "She's doing okay?"

"She's fine. She asked to speak to you, but I told her you were at a club activity."

"I do leave in a few minutes," Mirae mumbled, thanking her grandmother for the small white lie. "I'm not ready to talk to her."

"I know." Her grandmother wrapped her hands around the tea-cup and sighed. "What she did was selfish. You can take all the time you need."

Mirae drank the ginger tea, blinking back tears. "Thank you for letting me move in."

"We're family. Your mother and father might not believe that anymore but that doesn't change our bond. Family is important," her grandmother looked up, "Say, have you talked to Rina?"

Mirae looked at her phone where the unread message was sitting in her inbox. "No."

"It was cruel of them to separate you two and when you get older, you will disagree with their excuses. You can ignore your mother, but don't ignore her, okay?" Sensing her unease, Grandma Ando changed the topic. "How are you liking your new school?"

"It's fine. I don't like the attention."

Her Grandma muttered a small prayer and blew it towards her. "There," she smiled, "the superstitious evil eye will not hurt you."

Mirae blushed. She finished her cup of tea and then grabbed her bag. "I'll be home late. The club runs until the evening." She bid her grandmother bye and walked out of the house.

When Coach Ukai told Emiko that the boys had volleyball practice at six in the morning, she nearly fainted onto her grandmother.

"Don't be so dramatic."

"I should have been Tree number 2," she muttered in skepticism. "I will not come to school that early, Uncle Keishin. It takes fifteen minutes to get to school and my class starts at 9. If I was a crazy person then yes, I would wake up for morning practice."

"You're calling me a crazy person, aren't you?" he frowned.

"You and everyone else on that team. Grand-mama save me!"

Emiko hid behind her grandmother, dodging her Uncle's wailing arms.

"You can make an exception for her, can't you?" she grinned.

Ukai glared at them. "I'm your son."

"I'm her favourite granddaughter."

"You're her only granddaughter!"

"And who's fault is that, Keishin?"

Emiko smirked as her Grand-mama began a lecture on the merits of getting married. Her Uncle turned a violent shade of red and he slipped out of the house.

Emiko thanked her Grand-mama and with a determined look on her face, she promised "I will find him a good wife." Then, she walked over to the cabinet. She dug around the snacks until she found a granola bar and a juice box. "I'll be in my room," she called as she left the kitchen. At that moment, her Grand-papa came in with a basket of fresh vegetables.

"Oh no you don't," he placed the basket on the table and kissed his wife. He turned to Emiko and scolded her, "You haven't eaten breakfast."

She waved the granola bar and the juice box.

"That doesn't count," her Grand-mama chuckled. "I don't know how your mother did things but, in this house we always make and eat food together."

"To be honest up until I turned eight years old, I thought my nanny was my mom. So I guess you could say my birth mom didn't do much."

"Your nanny, Claire, right?"

"Yep."

Emiko's Grand-mama tried to contain her laugh, "Claire was African American, and you are Japanese. How did you come to that conclusion?"

Her Grand-papa shook his head as he reached for the fridge. "Keishin stocked up the pantry with cereals and snacks for you, but I think you'll enjoy our more traditional meals as well. It's also really easy to cook them too. You love baking so you'll learn cooking easily."

Emiko quickly washed her hands and stood by the counter, watching as her grandparents began to organize the ingredients.

"This is Nori," her Grand-papa explained. He pointed to the stack of thinly squared seaweed. "It's a little salty and crunchy, and we eat it with rice."

"We also enjoy Kobachi, which is a plate of vegetables. We can steam them or have them fresh." Her Grand-mama lifted the top of the rice cooker and portioned out the rice onto three plates.

Grand-papa gave her an assortment of fresh vegetables and asked her to begin cutting them into a salad. She worked quickly.

"I've never cut a white radish in my life," she confessed, glaring at the two slices. One was as thick as a cookie and the other as thin as paper. "I was given cash so I could buy takeout."

"No wonder you're so tiny," Grand-mama laughed. "But now that we have you here, we'll teach you everything."

"Good." Emiko placed the bowls on the table and then sat down with her grandparents. She followed their actions as they gave a thanks for the food. She reached for a slice of the Nori and dipped it into the soy sauce. She couldn't believe that she had lasted so long on chicken nuggets and fries.

"Well?" Grand-papa waited for her reaction.

"I want to make it from scratch." She reached for the pickled cucumbers. "This too. I want to know how to cook all our food."

Her grandparents smiled at her fondly as she began to shovel the food into her mouth.

Mirae was tying her shoelaces when she felt someone breathing down her neck. She nearly jumped out of her skin and she turned around.

"Um, Hinata?" Yachi giggled, "what are you doing?"

He pushed a volleyball towards Mirae and grinned. "Will you throw me a toss?"

"Didn't Coach say to wrap up morning practice? Class starts soon."

"You'll start getting used to this," Yachi explained to her. "Usually we have to drag Hinata out of the gym. His practice goes on forever."

Mirae felt an odd sense of respect towards him. She accepted the volleyball. "Just let me stretch first."

Yachi waved to Tsukki and Tadashi who joined her on the bench. "Good practice," she praised. "Did you two train during summer break?"

"A little," Tsukki said, "with my brother's team."

"I went to the city gym and played there."

"Oh," Yachi tilted her head, "Is that why you couldn't hang out much during the summer break?"

Tsukki smirked as he nudged Tadashi, "Extra practice, huh? I could tell your receives have gotten better."

Tadashi blushed. "My only weapon is my serves. If I want to be a regular, I need to show that I can do more."

Mirae dribbled the ball, feeling it slap against her palm. She felt the tingles run up her arm and down her back. She looked up and saw Hinata's eyes shining. He was jumping on the spot, watching the volleyball's movements as it bounced against the ground.

With her back to the net, Mirae threw the ball in the air and then positioned her hands. Her pointer fingers and her thumbs parallel, one ball's width apart. She felt the volleyball press against her finger pads and she sent it to Hinata who was waiting for an underhand receive at the back corner.

He bumped it up.

"Moron," Kageyama grumbled from the sidelines. "It's too short."

Tsukki nodded his head. "She'll have to set it underhand."

Mirae lurched forward and lunged. As the volleyball began to drop, she positioned her arms for an overhand set. She bent over backwards, feeling the ball roll into the space between her thumbs and fingers and she set the ball high in front of the net. Hinata ran in and spiked it across the court.

"Gwah! That was awesome! That was so cool!"

Mirae brushed the loose strands of hair behind her ear and blushed. "I should've gotten underneath it faster. Sorry."

"What are you talking about? That was a crazy good set! It's my fault for receiving it too short."

Mirae shook her head. "You're an interesting person, Hinata."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I know spikers who would get really irritated if a set wasn't done properly."

"That wasn't your fault. My receive was too short." Hinata ran over and retrieved the ball. "I'm trying to get better. I know there's a lot to practice and I have to make up for starting later than everyone else."

"But receives aren't something you can learn in a month or two."

"Will you help me?" he asked. "Will you toss for me?"

Mirae caught the ball that he threw and looked down at it. It fit in her hands perfectly and she missed the sensation of the material slamming against her skin. She looked over at Hinata. He was watching her anxiously, his hands curled into fists.

Kageyama inched towards the bench. He was still trying to comprehend how Mirae had set that ball backwards from the position of a lunge.

"She said she hasn't played in over a year now."

He turned to Tsukki, his eyes widening. "No way."

"What, you think she's lying?"

"There's no way that you're that good after being out of practice for that long."

"Maybe its natural talent," Tadashi offered. "She did say that she only played a few games."

"She could have been practicing alone."

"Even Miya-san doesn't do his sets like that. Hinata's practicing with her, I should watch them." He handed Yachi his water bottle and ran onto the court.

"I wonder," Tsukki began, "if she was like the King."

Tadashi and Yachi shared a look. "You think her team did something to her?"

"Maybe," he stood up, "the little white lies are beginning to snowball. I'll be going now."

As he left the gym, Tsukki threw one last look over his shoulder. For the first time since he had met her, it seemed that the dark cloud surrounding Mirae had lifted.

|Note|

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Also, does Mirae's setting remind you of anyone??

Don't forget to vote!

|End Note|