I

He did not see it coming. He had thought that she was just going to be a friend based on geography, given they had gone to the same Elementary school. But by the time he realized it, she had already invaded his world, and although too young to realize what it meant, perhaps he had already fallen in love with her.

He had probably started loving her even before she had started loving Karuta, and there had been times when he had hoped – prayed, even – now that they were in High school, that at least that could have been his advantage.

He had been wrong.

Come to think of it, Mashima Taichi had been wrong about a lot of things when it came to Ayase Chihaya. And he hated it and loved it at the same time that he had started to believe that she was probably the only living contradiction in his otherwise perfect life.

Taichi, as his friends back when they were young had pointed out, was perfect. Smart, athletic, popular and rich. By the time puberty had done its dirty job on him, the people around him started saying that he was smart, athletic, popular, rich and good-looking. They had said it to him so many times that by High school, he had actually started to believe them. Sure, he had always had the confidence back when he was younger; his mom made a lot of effort to mold him into the perfect little boy that he was, and it did good for his ego.

But it had been Chihaya who had hammered the humility into him and showed him that Mashima Taichi was not, at all, perfect.

She and Wataya Arata.

Oh, Arata.

He had come as some sniveling transfer student from Fukui, wearing ragged clothes and a heavy accent that Taichi had thought funny, simply because the other kids thought it was funny. Only Chihaya had thought that it wasn't. So much so she had risked being the class outcast with the sniveling transfer student. And even before Taichi had realized it, Arata had stolen her away from him without trying, dragging her into a world of cards and poems of a hundred star-crossed lovers that had come to be her first experience of a dream.

Because of Arata, Chihaya had found her place.

Because of Arata, Taichi had come face-to-face with a hundred self-proclaimed rivals.

And Arata… Arata was the hundred and first of those.

When Arata left for Fukui even before their last year at elementary school ended, Chihaya had been crushed. For whatever place she held Arata in her heart, Taichi did not know, but he was convinced that Chihaya thought Arata dear, and that Taichi had been utterly, utterly jealous about it.

At first he had thought that perhaps he was just a sore loser, that he did not like losing Chihaya's attention – or anyone else's, for that matter – to Arata. Arata was better at something he was not, and so he had tried to rationalize that he just hated losing because he was used to winning. There had also been times that Taichi tried to talk himself out of the bitterness and jealousy he had for Arata. After all, Taichi had everything, and Arata only had Karuta.

But Karuta was Chihaya's 'everything'.

And so where would that equation lead to, normally?

He had been afraid to admit it to himself, but more often than not, he was frightened of the fact that Arata was already beating him in a game that he wasn't even physically present in. The distance between Fukui and Tokyo was three hundred fifteen and a half kilometers. A hundred ninety six miles. Three and a half hours away by bullet train. Thirty-four minutes by plane.

But to Chihaya, he was just a hundred Karuta poems away. And to Chihaya, a hundred Karuta poems surpassed time, space and distance. Arata was anywhere a tatami mat was placed, and Arata was anywhere a deck of Karuta cards was present.

And Taichi was always a couple of steps behind Chihaya. On occasion, he was right in front of her. Most of the time he was sitting beside her.

Dammit.

She was the only one who could do this to him. He knew Chihaya was his greatest weakness. He was always better at playing when she was not around, and more often than not, he had tried to turn it to his advantage when she was off watching other matches that may interest her. He worried about what she thought, and panicked about winning faster when she was around so that she could hurry off and do what he thought she really wanted to do. Those situations resulted to terrible disasters, and usually ended up with him making a complete fool of himself.

And Chihaya would cry for his losses, but also cry for his victories, leaving him in anagrams. She was always such an honest, sweet girl, and her actions make him believe that she might actually care for him. No, that would be unfair to Chihaya; Taichi knew that she cared for him.

But with a hundred and one rivals surrounding them, Taichi honestly wanted to know where his place was among them.

They had but a year left of High school.

Only one more year.

And after that, Arata was coming to Tokyo.

Taichi's three-hundred-fifteen-and-a-half-kilometer advantage… The hundred-ninety-six-mile favoring circumstance... The three-and-a-half-hours-away-by-bullet-train leverage... The thirty-four-minutes-by-plane leeway… it would be gone in a year.

And he was scared to death of it.

And when he was scared, his mother's words would ring in his head like a gong.

Focus on contests that you can win.

Dammit.

"Taichi? You're not listening to me, are you?"

Taichi snapped his head up and found Chihaya peering up at him from her place on the tatami mat in their clubhouse. She was sprawled on her back, a slightly-crumpled piece of paper resting on her stomach. She did not look too happy that he was ignoring her.

"Sorry, what?" Taichi asked, scratching the back of his neck, feeling like an idiot that he had just spaced out on her.

Chihaya picked up the piece of paper with both hands and held it out at arms' length over her head. "I wanted to know if you're finished with the career assessment form Miyauchi-sensei passed out to us yesterday."

Taichi blinked owlishly at the paper, on which he could vaguely see 'QUEEN' written in Chihaya's hasty handwriting. He could not help but laugh at the way Chihaya still hadn't changed.

It was so funny he could cry. "Yeah. I already handed it back yesterday."

Chihaya gasped, scrambling on all fours and crawling towards Taichi so suddenly that he had to back away from her. "What?! You…! I mean, you've decided what you're going to do after high school? What did you write down? Why didn't you tell me?! Are you going to college?"

Taichi, overwhelmed at her sudden barrage of questions, laughed weakly as he kept his eyes low on the tatami mat, where Chihaya had completely crumpled her assessment form in a tight ball and had it clutched in one hand, forgotten. "Yeah, kind of…"

Chihaya grinned, sitting back on her haunches. "I was thinking of coming back here. To teach, you know. Ka – "

"Karuta, right?" Taichi finished for her, grabbing her wrist and making her release the assessment-form-turned-ball.

"Yeah!" she said, giggling. "I mean, we have to keep the club alive, and I have a feeling that doing that would take a lot of effort, since, you know, we still don't have a lot of members. And we only have a year left! So, I thought that if I become a teacher here… "

Taichi stared at her blandly, sighing, as he tried to straighten out the wrinkles of the form against the tatami mat. "Chihaya."

"Yeah?"

"You need a degree on education to be a teacher."

Chihaya's smile froze on her face, and she blinked several times. "Wait, what?"

"If you want to come back to teach kids, you need a degree. That said, you need to go to college and earn a degree."

The smile slid off her face completely. After a few seconds, her jaw dropped in horror. "Really?!"

Taichi sighed again, rubbing his forehead with a thumb in exasperation. "You're kidding me, right?"

"B-b-but…! But I need to get into a college before I get a degree. I need to pass an entrance exam first!" That was probably the time when reality started to sink in. She ran a hand through her hair in a frenzy. Then, as if suddenly hit by a good idea, she grabbed Taichi's forearm excitedly. "I know! You said you're going to college, right, Taichi? I'm going where you're going! Then we can study together for the entrance exams! It'll be like practicing Karuta together!"

Taichi was not impressed. "I'm going to Tokyo University," he said flatly.

Chihaya's excited expression dissolved once again. Tokyo University's entrance exams were well known to be murderously high standard. Taichi was expecting Chihaya to burst out crying then and there, and so he was completely surprised when her eyes widened and Taichi could practically see stars twinkling in them.

Taichi winced. "What is it?"

Chihaya's chin dimpled, almost to the verge of breaking out the water works. "Arata said he's also planning to attend Tokyo U," she whispered, and the hands gripping Taichi's forearm tightened into a death grip.

Taichi did not say anything.

That was because he already knew Arata's plan.

Taichi's mother had already been convinced at sending Taichi to America to study in Harvard. They had the money, and Taichi had the smarts.

But…

The distance between Massachusetts and Tokyo was ten-thousand eight-hundred and fourteen kilometers. Six thousand, seven-hundred and nineteen miles. Thirteen hours, fifty-six minutes away by plane.

And Arata would be here.

And Taichi would be there.

And they had Karuta together.

And Taichi and Chihaya would have nothing.

And that scared him to pieces.

And when he was scared, his mother's words would ring in his head like a gong.

Focus on contests that you can win.

Taichi closed his eyes, breathed in deep.

Like hell I will, mother.

Chihaya suddenly had her arms around him, hugging him shamelessly, because Chihaya was simply just like that. "I-I'll do my best. I'll study hard. And after a year, it would be just like back in elementary. You and me and Arata. And we'll be a team again, Taichi! Just like old times!"

It took a while before Taichi could get over the shock of her sudden invasion of his personal space, but he relaxed in her embrace, and he patted her head gingerly.

"Yeah. Just like old times," he agreed.

He knew that he did not have the talent at Karuta, and that Arata was simply one of those who were born with the gift of being great at it.

But he had never really loved Karuta the way Arata loved it, or the way Chihaya loved it.

It was simply because Chihaya loved it that he had started with the game anyway. He won in matches because he hated losing, but not because he was especially drawn to Karuta per se.

And he knew that this was his advantage.

If Arata loved Karuta enough to be unbeatable in it, then Taichi knew that he loved Chihaya enough to win her over.

One day.

Someday.

Maybe.

Even if he had a hundred and one rivals standing in his way.

He rested his chin on Chihaya's shoulder, breathing in her strawberry-scented shampoo mixed with the faint smell of the tatami mats beneath them. "I can't wait."

A/N: I started watching Chihayafuru a few months back, and I don't know what it is that has kept me interested on a game that I know I would never fully understand even if I tried. But this anime was one of the reasons I regretted not having a passion for something when I was younger. I feel for Taichi. I really do. One of these days, I'd like to see him and Chihaya together, not because I love Arata any less, but because I think Taichi deserves a break, and that they look absolutely look good together.

This is my first story on this fandom, and this is meant to be a oneshot, but if I find an inspiration to write another chapter for it, I just might. But who knows?

Thanks for reading!