Skimming though the crowd, Ongaku's eyes rest on a boy. His crimson hair shining in the sun. Her first instinct was that she wanted to talk to him, more than anything else at the moment.
Kohna look at herself in confusion. What am I thinking? I don't know him…much less…she thought, clenching her stomach. Unlike most people, it hit her straight in the face what this new sensation was.
The boy mingled through the crowd in his navy blue uniform. Traveling towards the school doors, she heard his soft singing carry on the wind. Kohna picked an autumn leaf out of her hair and looked at its crispy edges. She was one girl in a sea of others. She looked up at the leaves dancing and twirling around her. She had only so much time to take action towards the one she took a liking to. This new school year was going to be long…
As much as she'd try to shake it off, she couldn't get rid of this trailing feeling that was rousing its head every time she saw the sight of him. This is ridiculous…she thought to herself again, books in hand, walking toward a group of girls.
"Yeah! They don't have half bad looking guys on the tennis team this year, do they?"
"Yeah, but that one guy keeps trying to get a date with me…"
"Haha, hey, Ann-chan, isn't your brother the captain?" One of the girls asked an orange headed girl. A cute one, too, she had to admit.
"Yup!" Ann nodded, " I know everyone on the team!"
"Scuse me," Kohna found herself saying, "Uh,…Kamio-san is suppose to be on the team, right?" Her question was followed by a short silence, thus making her even more nervous. Perhaps I should've asked another time… I don't ever know these girls…
"Of course! You didn't know? He's like one of the best looking guys on the team," One of the girls said, "In fact, Ann, tell us more about him!"
"Oh, he likes music a lot and he's real good at tennis. He's the fastest tennis player I've ever seen." Kohna's spirits started lifting. Music. So Kamio liked music.
"Oh, but doesn't he already like you, Ann-chan? Oh well."
He does?... And as quickly as her spirit had lifted, it dropped back to earth.
Kamio entered the music store on his way home. His companion, Ibu, had already boarded a bus by the time Kamio could make it to the gates. Really, is that guy even aware that maybe the reason we hang out is because we're friends? He sighed and looked around the small store. It wasn't all too big, but it had posters covering the walls, CDs on the shelves, and iPods in the counter. It just felt like a sort of second home to him. He had known the family that worked there for a long time already and was always greeted with a happy welcome. A happy welcome…
The tennis player looked at the abandoned counter and at the door. The sign said it was open, and yet there was no one at the counter…Before his growing suspicion had time to fully develop, his attention was diverted to a new sound reoccurring through the halls behind the counter. A melody he recognized, but sounded so much different; So much prettier. Like a mouse drawn to cheese, the second year walked to and leaned over the counter. As much as he tried to open the curtains that separated him from the source of sound, his fingertips were only just out of reach. He stood on tip toes and tried once more. Who or what was this sound coming from? It sounded like it was coming from a living person, but as far as he knew; none of the owners owned such a voice. Who was it? Curiosity etched at his skin.
Ting
The singing stopped and was replaced by slow footsteps heading toward the counter. It took Kamio a second or two before he had realized he had rung the customer bell on the counter.
"Irashaimase! How can I-," Kamio was caught midway from retrieving his outstretched arm by a girl he had never seen before. She smelt like an autumn breeze and allowed himself to be engulfed in it. "Kamio-san? W-What are you doing here?"
"I'm a customer," Kamio bluntly said. Oh, nice one he sarcastically thought.
"O-Oh, of course! Sorry for the wait! Was there anything you wanted?" The girl hurriedly said.
"Um, no, no, I was just wondering-," And yet another realization had occurred to him, " Wait, were you the one just singing now?"
"Uh, well, um," The girl stuttered. Her head looked to the side for a second and nervously smiled at him, "Y-Yeah." Kamio was barely aware that the girl had even replied. This was very ridiculous. He had only known this girl for 5 seconds, of which he didn't know the name to, and was already lost in her. Though it was a nervous smile, it was a sweat one, nonetheless.
"Wow," the boy managed to finally say, "That was amazing! Do you take lessons? How long have you been singing?" His curiosity was taking over, as he spilled out more questions, not even giving the poor girl enough time to reply. "What kind of song was that? You like music? What kind?" When he realized he was scaring her, he took a short pause and a smile tugged at the side of his lips, "More importantly, what's your name?"
"Ongaku Kohna."
"…"
"Um, I've gotta go. I'll get my grandmother if you need anything."
"Wait, how do you know my name?"
"…"
"…"
"We're in the same class. I…I sit two seats behind you."
A slow sinking feeling settled in the boy's gut. Ongaku Kohna had known who he was, and yet Kamio hadn't even recognized the girl. He watched the girl disappear behind the curtain. Her barely heard footsteps reverberated through his head. And just like that, the autumn breeze had passed.
Why was it so awkward?
Truth be told, Kohna really did want Kamio to so happen to stop by her grandparent's music store. The girl's memory of the event rolled again and played over in her head to the point she had memorized every thought, expression, and word. She wish she could rewind and do it all over again. Why couldn't she have been a little more social? A little more confident?
The girl's eyes settled on the back of the head of a certain special red-head sitting two seats ahead. The scenario had played in her head. Why did she have to act so anti-social? Of course, it's not like she wasn't, she had to admit.
The red hair had turned, and for a split second, eyes inter-locked before Kohna cut it off along with her train of thought. That's right. This was why it was awkward. He had actually started noticing her, casting glances at her in the middle of class. Kohna would have to be on her best behavior at all times now. This was something that hadn't crossed her mind when she told him her name.
"Hey, hey, there she is!" Kamio said in a hushed voice. His companion, Ibu Shinji, shifted his head into the direction Kamio was pointing to. Peering from around the corner of a bookshelf, they spotted a girl walking at the other side of the library, books in hand. Her small build glided to the counter as she checked the books out. "Do you know her?"
"Ongaku Kohna, she sits two seats behind you," Ibu stated.
"Well, I know that already."
"Then why are you asking?"
"U-Uh, just wondering. Innocent curiosity."
Kamio blurted out his white lie. Yes, he was wondering about her for hours, everyday. He just wasn't ready to tell his companion the whole story; if he really liked her or not. At least, not until he figured it out himself.
"Irrashaimasu!" The chorus voice sung out as the glass door opened. Kohna sat on a small, yet comfortable, chair behind the corner. Her eyes hadn't wavered from the book set in front of her. The series of books she had checked out was much to her likening than she realized and had her shut off from the rest of the world; Taking on a different adventure and life than her own.
It was like facing a wave big enough to destroy you and your little town. Scary enough to be on par with living dead and chainsaw menaces. Impossible enough to make theories of dust bunnies and leprechauns seem real.
Something called love.
She couldn't handle it, and then, when she hadn't expected it, he said-
"Hey, what are you reading?"
Kohna slammed the book shut, "Nothing!" The girl flat-out panicked.
Kamio had to suppress a chuckle. Cute, very cute. He nervously smiled in accommodation. "Did you check that out of the library the other day?"
"Yup, how'd you know?"
"Uh, complete guess," the boy nervously said, scratching the back of his head. Like he was going to actually tell her he was stalking her. "So, what's it called?"
"Um, Orange Umbrellas. I don't think you'd like it. Anyway, you're into music, right? What bands do you like?" Kohna was keen on changing the topic.
"Well, there's AquaTimez, DragonAsh, Gackt, and a whole lot more. I could spend hours listing them all down. I heard Dragon Ash has a new single, you guys have it?"
"Nope, don't think so."
"Uh, oh…," Kamio had to kick himself mentally. Why'd he ask? He knew it wasn't coming out for a week.
"I think it comes out next week. We'll have it in by then."
Kamio kicked himself again. She also knew it wasn't for another week.
"You want to pre-order it? I'll, uh, I'll give you a discount," Kohna said, and started pondering why her cheeks were burning. Oh, come on! She knew she was embarrassed for offering a discount. She didn't even know if her grandparents' store offered discounts.
Being taken by surprise, Kamio stuttered, "Uh, s-sure. Thanks. How much will it cost?"
"With the discount, about 1,500 yen."
Kamio gave her the money, and she put it in the register. They paused for a moment. The moment grew longer until Kamio broke it, "Uh, sorry for keeping you. I'll be going." He hurriedly made his way out the door. Before he left he heard the girl calling after him,
"Ok! I'll give you it during class next week!"
Next week he told himself, we'll meet again next week. He felt excited.
Kohna fiddled with the CD in her hands. She had been looking for an opening to slip him the CD all day. If the teacher caught her though, it wouldn't turn out good. During lunch, he had been with his friends all that period. After school, he easily and very quickly darted to tennis practice. Was he challenging her? She thought. He KNOWS I've got his CD! It annoyed her, but she wasn't one to give into anger easily.
She was going to give him that CD, even if it meant she had to shove on nine meter high stilts, thrust herself through miles of mud and dirt, and climb over Tokyo tower and back again. Of course, hopefully it wouldn't come to that.
Kohna wandered onto the tennis scene. She quickly looked around the court and easily found his red hair shining hair gleaming in the sunshine.
"Rhythm ni," Kamio leaped in the air, hitting a particularly hard ball, "noruze!" The small neon green ball flew with amazing speed, and right past Ibu across the court.
"Mmmm. Not bad Kamio, much better than normal. You're improving very quickly," Ibu was saying more to himself than to anyone else, "This is quite abnormal. What could possibly be motivating you? Perhaps that last match with that Kaidou Kaoru from Seigaku. You did loose pretty bad…"
"Just serve Ibu!" Kamio hollered at him. He DID NOT have to be reminded of his loss. Ibu tossed the ball in the air.
"So impatient…you think Kamio would try to act cooler in front of Ongaku-san watching from the sideline…" He hit the green fuzz ball quickly.
Kamio's head immediately twisted his head toward the direction of the school, "Wha-!?"
WHAM!
"Oh my goodness!" Kohna dashed from her watching spot behind the fence and onto the courts. Straight toward the now injured Kamio on the ground. She fell to her knees next to him and held her hands out, ready to help. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. It just stings a bit," Kamio looked up at her, blood dripping down the side of his face.
"You look horrible!" For a split second Kamio thought she meant his looks. Like "What and ugly face you have!" Of course, she couldn't possibly mean for it to come across like that.
"What happened here?" Tachibana Kippei, captain to the Fudomine tennis team, asked. His real question was "What's this girl doing here?"
"Uh, I just wasn't paying attention, that's all," Kamio said, half glaring at Ibu. A cheap trick. Very cheap. Ibu merely stared him down, face un-readable.
"Then you should bandage that up and then come back to practice. It's not that serious, right?"
Tachibana's little sister came running up and a very quickly evaluated the scene- and the girl fussing over his wound. "Nii-san, don't you think Kamio-kun should have the rest of the day off after he takes care of his scratch. He has been working pretty hard lately, ne?" Ann sent a wink to the older boy. He didn't quite know what she meant by the wink, but she had a point- Kamio had been training exceptionally hard lately.
"Alright, you don't have to come back for practice Kamio. Rest up though," he added warningly, "I expect to see you in top condition tomorrow."
"Thanks, Tachibana-san" Kamio said gratefully. Hearing this, Kohna helped Kamio up like he had fractured his skull-not just scratched it. Kamio did nothing to shake her off though.
Kohna put protective arms around Kamio's waist, in case he fell down, of course. The two made their way across the courts and into the school, leaving the rest of the tennis team with questions.
"Ann," Tachibana asked his sister, " What was that about?"
"Oh wouldn't you like know?" Ann teased her way back to the bench.
"There," Ongaku pressed a band-aid on Kamio's head, "How's that?"
"Fine, thanks."
"Mm-hm"
"Well, I've got to go get my things." Kamio said as the girl followed him back out of the empty nurse's office, "So, uh, you were watching our practice?"
"Yup. You're pretty fast."
"Haha, thanks. Was there any, uh, particular reason you came to watch?" As soon as this left his mouth, it hit Kamio.
"Well," Kohna said perhaps a bit let-down, "I thought you'd like to get your CD, nothing big."
Kamio could've hit himself right there and then and he would've if it didn't make him look any more stupid than he already was. He could feel his cheeks warming up. Quickly turning his head away from packing his bag, he said,
"O-oh, sorry, I forgot. I'd love to have it." Ongaku dug her hands in her bag, carefully pulling out the item she had been burning to get rid of all day.
"Here you go," she handed it to him. A silence fell over the two as the boy looked at the CD nervously. He kind of just glanced over it, or at least made it look like he was. What was he suppose to say? How could he say something casual that insured him another encounter with her? Well, he always did go to her music store…
"W-well," Kohna stuttered, "If that's it, I've got to-,"
"You want to come over and listen to it with me?" Kamio interrupted. He had hoped the disbelieving look from this sudden outburst hadn't been noticed by the girl in front of him. What came after this left him in even more disbelief.
"Sure!"
Sure!? Is THAT what I said? That sounded like I had a mouse stuck in my throat or something! He must think I'm weird for making that sound like I was expecting that or something!
Ongaku Kohna had followed the object of her affection all the way to his house-and without a hitch what so ever! In fact, they had talked all the way there. It was a very good "data gathering" time as one glasses wearing, Seigaku member would say. And now, Kohna was sitting on the edge of his bed, in his own room, in his own house while he took a quick shower.
She could tell he really liked music-heck, ANYONE could tell he liked music by looking at his room. CD's stacked upon CD's, posters of bands posted on any given part of the wall, and various music themed magazines littering the floor with titles like "America's Music Now" and "Today's Top Charts". Kamio walked in when she was midway reading through an article entitled "What Does it Take to Make a Killer Band?"
"Sorry for making you wait. My mom presses really hard on the shower after practice thing," he said, halfway done with drying his hair and sitting next to the girl. Kohna quickly noticed his figure sitting a little questionably close to her. Maybe it was just her imagination. He was wearing nice clothes though; it was nice to see him out of uniform.
"Oh, I don't mind waiting. I was just looking through your magazines," she replied, gesturing at the magazine she had put down.
"I see. Well," Kamio leaned back, reaching for his disc player and popping the new CD in, " the suspense is killing me! I need to know what kind of songs are on here!" After cleaning off one of his headphones quickly, he handed it to her. She reached for it, and for a brief moment their fingers touched. She acted like she hadn't noticed. Kamio hit the play button, and a tune started.
They sat in silence, immersed in the songs, before one of them spoke.
"Hey, what were you singing that day?" Kamio asked, eyes averted to the wall in front of them.
"Oh, uh, just a song."
"I've heard it somewhere, but I don't quite remember it."
"Oh, it's just a song I like singing sometimes when the stores quite."
"Why weren't you singing the second day I came in?"
"I didn't want you to hear." What!? Did I just say that!? Kohna couldn't imagine why she had blurted that out to him. That WAS NOT for his ears. It's true though, she didn't want him walking in on her singing again. It was embarrassing, so she checked out a book instead. If she recalled, that still turned out embarrassing…
"Huh? Why not?" He asked, now looking at her.
"Well, uh, it's kind of…," she couldn't get out of this one. She sighed, "it's kind of embarrassing." Kamio stared for a moment, then a look of understanding swept over his face as he reverted his eyes to the wall again.
"Alright, I'll forgive you…if…"
"I-if?" She didn't like the sound of that.
"…if you sing that song again for me."
"What!?" She looked up in bewilderment. Wasn't he just listening to her?
"Well, I mean, just this once?" he asked, looking again at the now standing figure.
"B-but, why!?"
"I just want to hear it again. Look, I'll even turn around so you don't get stage fright," and he swung himself around, away from her.
"Oh, come on! That doesn't really help…"
"I won't ever forgive you, then!" then Kamio thought better and added, "What are you afraid of? You have a pretty voice…"
That must've done the trick.
"A-alright. Don't laugh, ok? I'm not that serious about singing, a-and I haven't had any special classes or anything."
"Ok, I promise not to laugh."
This was it or never. Kohna took in a deep breath. This was as good a time as ever-she hoped it was at least.
What came next was beautiful. He had to admit, he did overhear her a bit the first time they met, but this was much better without any curtain blocking the way or any pesky bell interrupting mid-way.
"Saigo no kisu wa tabako no flavor ga shita Ashita no imagoro ni wa You are always gonna be my love Tachidomaru jikan ga Ashita no imagoro niwa You will always be inside my heart You are always gonna be my love
Nigakute setsunai kaori
Anata wa doko ni irundarou
Dare wo omotterundarou
Itsuka darekato mata koi ni ochitemo
I'll remember to love you taught me how
You are always gonna be the one
Ima wa mada kanashii love song
Atarashi uta utaeru made
Ugoki dasouto shiteru
Wasureta kunai kotobakari
Watashi wa kitto naiteru
Anatawo omotterundarou
Itsumo anata dake no basho ga aru kara
I hope that I have a place
in your heart too
Now and forever you are still the one
Ima wa mada kanashii love song
Atarashii uta utaeru made
Itsuka darekato mata koi ni ochitemo
I'll remember to love you taught me how
You are always gonna be the one
Mada kanashii love song
Now and forever
Kohna's cheeks flushed. Despite what Kamio had said earlier, he had turned his head to watch throughout the last verse or so.
"That wasn't the song you sang earlier…" and again, Kamio's realization kicked in after the words left his lips- and the way she was looking at him confirmed it.
She watched as Kamio's face turned a shade of pink, and she knew the message had gotten across to him. All she could do was stare at him, terrified, as he left his bed and made his way over to her. He now hovered only inches in front of her, his red hair half hiding his face, eyes intent on her.
Kohna almost melted in Kamio's arms as he hugged her.
In her ear, he whispered,
"Me too."
A/C: Hope you all enjoyed my debut story, announcing me a new writer to the Prince of Tennis Dream Novel site, DOPAMINE. (Go take a look at it!) So, don't point fingers if you've already read it there. Also, this is the finished product to my Milk at Midnight fanfic I decided to scrap. Oh, yeah, I know that the song doesn't fit it too well, but I figured it would get the idea across.
Disclaimer: I do not own the bands/singer AquaTimez, Dragon Ash, or Gackt. Nor do I own Hikaru Utada's song First Love. I also don't own Konomi Takeshi's Prince of Tennis or characters. Heck, I don't even own the OC used in this story.