Yagyuu Hiroshi had always been the reserved one. Always watching from the corner and speaking only if it's necessary. Although he'd had no problems dealing with people and social gatherings, he had always preferred being alone and independent. Often times he would open a novel pretending to be engrossed in a story when in reality it was a cover to prevent people from talking to him. And during this peaceful time by himself he thought and thought and thought until there was nothing else he could think about except the deafening silence that has started to bother him. Most of the times it drove people away leaving him to his contentment, but then, there were days when Masaharu would come breaking the serenity.
It wasn't all bad being friends with the resident trickster. He made his life less boring but it had become awfully noisy too. It was both good and bad, Hiroshi thought. It was bad that Masaharu was slowly but intricately changing him or perhaps it was only him who sees this (maybe because they were the things only he knows about himself) and good because he was able to do the same to his new found friend.
Being friends with the boy who was sent to the principal at least three times a day was sure to taint your good boy reputation. It was true for Marui Bunta who never had anything to do with his pranks except for the occasional playing dumb about the whereabouts the silver haired boy. But for the gentleman, it wasn't the case. Only the tennis regulars know that it was him who provides the materials for the execution of the trick and him who thinks of about a third of the mischief. No one could ever point a finger on him solely because he was Yayuu Hiroshi and Yagyuu Hiroshi was a courteous and responsible student. Besides, no one could ever prove him guilty, well, maybe Yanagi could. He wouldn't though. He would never sell out his teammate. And maybe because he was tad bit afraid for his bulks and volumes of notebooks containing all the data he had gathered since he was eight that was safely hidden under his bed in a vault with an eight digit lock. He knew he could never make a mistake around the trickster when he saw a note in between the notebooks one day while doing his weekly routine of cleaning and such. 'Found it,' it had said. It was fairly easy to recognize to whom the script had belonged.
All in all, Yagyuu concluded that middle school after meeting Niou has never been boring.
And then middle school had to end. On their Graduation day, all of them met under the cherry tree near the club house. Since everyone was going to Rikkai High, they were all thinking the same thought, 'We'll stay together.'
Well, almost everyone was thinking that. Yagyuu was thinking: I'd stay with you until it's time to go.
And so life stayed the way it used to be with school and tennis practice. They all quickly made it to the high school tennis's top and everyone was amazed at how well Yagyuu could play singles surpassing his own mentor. He'd been offered to play singles but refuses every time.
"I prefer having someone to turn to in a match." He once told Niou when the latter confronted him asto why he wouldn't accept the offer. The silver haired petenshi smirked and said, "I guess I've made it into your heart." Then, he turned away and everything went the way it was. Occasionally the seven of them would go and cross to the middle school division and check up on the new buchou, Kirihara.
The year came and went; as their second year of high school peaked around the corner, Yagyuu knew it was time to go. He had known for quite a while – ever since he got that letter from his Aunt in Paris just before freshman year ended.
One summer day he texted everyone from the middle school regulars and challenged them all in a match. He was quickly beaten by the three demons but surpassed Marui and Jackal. Kirihara defeated him by a scrape. When it was Niou's turn, he was fully exhausted. The score was 4-2 with Niou in the lead when Yukimura stopped the match. Somewhere during his second service trickles of rain startedvto fall and so, the court was getting slippery.
"Next time," his partner said. He didn't nod nor shook his head. Instead, he packed his racket and said goodbye.
"Adieu." He said one final time.
No one heard of Yagyuu Hiroshi the following day...
Or the following weeks...
And months passed they'd completely lost contact with him.