AN: Yes, I'm still alive. I can't believe I'm starting up this story again. Honestly, I loved this story but as I grew older (and more knowledgeable hopefully) over the years, I began really disliking Mimika. She was too perfect for me and it bothered me. Plus, I'm better at writing now (I hope again) so I'm giving this story another shot. I've completely changed the storyline, including my character's name, personality, and background. Just a note, please disregard the prequel "Summer of Memories," it no longer has any correlation to this version of the story now. But don't worry, I will definitely be rewriting that story too. I'm thinking about focusing on Mimika's (now Setsumi's) life at Hyotei in that story. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy. This chapter is a bit wordy but that's because I'm trying to give you guys a good description of how Setsumi is like now. Not entirely sure where I want this story to go yet, but I'm writing it for fun so I'll just make it up as I go. Can't believe I used to have 50 chapters in this story…wow. They were kind of crappy though so…hopefully this is better.

Chapter 1 – This Is Only The Beginning

The afternoon air wafted through the classroom's windows, along with a few fluttering pink petals from the Sakura tree outside. A new school year had just begun, but one particular student was already bored out of her mind from her teacher's lectures. She tried to stay attentive, or at least appear to stay attentive. Sometimes she'd answer her teacher's questions when no one else offered. Her teacher would give her praise and she would simply return back to her aloof state, staring out the windows at the pretty pink petals against a bright blue sky. The teacher would then let her have a "break" for her earlier participation and chose someone else to torture.

Fuji Setsumi was the younger sister of probably the biggest idol at her new school, Fuji Shusuke. She started going to Seigaku only yesterday, but she quickly realized that her brother had quite the popularity at school – more than he let on. Yuuta, her other older brother by one year, had tipped her off casually before her first day but she hadn't really paid mind to his warning. "Be careful, don't get mauled on the first day," he had said to her before their parents took him back to his school, St. Rudolph. She had quizzically shot him a look only to have it returned with a smirk and a pat on the head, much to her utter annoyance. Fuji Setsumi was the youngest of her siblings, but she did not like to be treated as the youngest in the least.

"Setsumi!" Her overly obnoxious classmate shouted to her as a tennis ball came flying in her direction. Osakada was her name. Setsumi didn't bother trying to remember her first name. She was too annoying of a person, in her tastes, for the two of them to get along. Setsumi simply grabbed her as a partner since she was nearby when the teacher prompted them all to find a partner for tennis doubles matches.

Gym was their last hour of the day before the school day was over. Tennis, ironically, was the sport of the day they were practicing. Her two brothers were big on tennis. In fact, she was sure that her eldest brother gained his popularity because he was a regular on the men's tennis team at her new school. For Setsumi, on the other hand, she preferred a simpler sport like running. It required very little thinking, just the basics of the human body's natural ability. She didn't need to mess with having a doubles partner or the annoyance of fighting face-to-face with an opponent across the tennis court. Running was an individual sport, mostly. The feeling of pure exhilaration as she leaves her opponents behind in the dust and crosses the finish line first was the only feeling she strived for. She loved running, even though most would consider it a boring sport.

"Oh my god, that was awesome!" The same classmate shouted at Setsumi.

Tennis on good days was fun, if her brothers weren't pestering her about the things she was doing wrong. Another reason why she never got into tennis, it had too many rules. She'd much rather run freely in the wind like some sappy movie scene.

Although she didn't care much for tennis, she (and her brothers) had to admit she had quite a knack for it, considering she's never honestly stood on an official tennis court and trained. It came easily to her, except for the rules of course. If she thought about tennis only as a sport where one chases after a neon yellow ball, she supposed there wasn't much of a difference from running. Only the goals were different. For running it was to come in first. For tennis it was to be the last person to have the ball drop on their side of the court, like a game of hot potato. Her brothers were a little annoyed at her far too simplistic description of tennis.

She was good at keeping the ball from dropping on her side. But that was it. She didn't have any flashy moves to aggressively steal points from her opponents. Endurance and decent eye-coordination, and a secret weapon – a quickness with her footwork that sent every middle-school tennis player gaping in awe – that was all she had. Her plan of action: to keep the ball from dropping on her side and wait until her opponents made a mistake or died from exhaustion. Setsumi never once won a tennis match however. But then again, her only opponents were her brothers who she thought were practically pros at their sport. And, she supposed that if she considered the doubles match to be official then she just added exactly one victory under her belt.

Osakada seemed to think, however, Setsumi to be some prodigy at tennis because she had just watched her doubles partner whack a ball over the net, earning them the point as well as the entire set game. Setsumi, on the other hand, really didn't think there was much to it. She simply aimed at the opening. Plus, her opponents were rather lacking compared to her brothers. Ryuzaki and Mizuno were their last names. Again, Setsumi didn't bother listening to their first names, much less remembering them when they their entire class did their introductions. She thought wryly to herself that they should be happy she could remember their last names in the very least.

Mizuno and Ryuzaki were both talking about joining the tennis team before they had played their one set game. It hadn't taken long for Setsumi and her partner, Okasada, to defeat them. Setsumi doubted Mizuno and Ryuzaki would make good tennis players, they were a bit too soft in her opinion. But maybe they had a secret aggressive side that they had yet to reveal to her during their casual tennis match. After all, from what she's seen from her eldest brother, usually soft-spoken people could turn aggressive if all the right buttons were pressed, or rather the wrong buttons. She drilled into her mind that she should never piss him terribly in the future.

Setsumi was a predominantly soft-spoken girl herself. She had a few friends but she had left them behind when she chose Seigaku for her junior high school since it was close to her house instead of Hyotei where she had gone for elementary school. Going to the same school as her brother would be fun, she had thought, only to find herself regretting that choice when all her teachers doted on her because she was the "star-student's" or "tennis prodigy's" younger sister. Now, she finally realizes why Yuuta transferred to St. Rudolph in the middle of his freshman year at Seigaku. He must've gone through what she was going through at the very moment. Setsumi wasn't like her brother though; she could handle herself. The comparisons people often made between herself and her brother bothered her very little. She was proud of her older brother for his accomplishments; he deserved the praise because he worked hard. And, if the comparisons got a little too out of hand, she'd politely say, "I may be Shusuke-ani's younger sister, but I am my own person with my own agenda and uniqueness. Please stop making comparisons." People would immediately stop making evaluations of her against her brother after that either because they felt guilty or they were terrified of the fake smile that spread across her face. Setsumi was Shusuke's young sister alright; they both had the frightening fake smile down pat.

Although Setsumi was a soft-spoken person, she was, at the same time, a head-strong girl with bold opinions. She wasn't afraid to speak her mind or withhold respect from people older than her if they did not earn it. Her glare was icy if she wanted it to be so and her temper was fiery if one angered her terribly. But most times, people described her to be "cool as a cucumber."

"You should join the tennis team, Setsumi-chan!" Okasada exclaimed as she flailed her borrowed tennis racket around in excitement. Setsumi wondered for a moment when they had gotten so friendly as to be on first name basis. Now she felt bad that she can't even remember Okasada's first name, not that she would use it anyways.

"I prefer running." Her voice carried fondly as she spoke about the sport she loved. Despite the loudness of the gym, the three freshmen had heard their classmate clearly.

"Aww, how boring." Okasada whined. "You're so good at tennis."

"Tomo-chan," Ryuzaki scolded her friend lightly.

"I'm only good because there's running involved," Setsumi responded. "But I get a lot of practice playing with my brothers."

"Eh? Your brothers play tennis?" Mizuno questioned, suddenly more interested in the three girls' talk. He took bit of a blow to his pride when he lost the match so quickly. A couple months' worth of hard training was under his belt. Of course, he knew that was barely anything next to the tennis regulars he's heard so much about; they've probably been playing tennis since they were very young. But, he still liked to try and beat them. Maybe not currently but maybe when he's a senior he can be a regular too. He had thought Fuji and Okasada were novices just like him, but when Okasada said she has never touched a racket in her life and Fuji said she's only played occasionally for fun, Mizuno had thought the match would be for his taking.

Playing doubles was a lot different from what he thought initially, especially since he was partnered with someone randomly. He had trouble coordinating with Ryuzaki since his own kind nature naturally held back to let Ryuzaki take the ball whenever they both went to chase after the neon, yellow thing. Ryuzaki mirrored his movements too, stopping abruptly to let him take the ball. This, obviously, ended up with the ball flying past between them. The following time, they both attempted to make changes, diving for the ball only to have their rackets clash against each other. Again, the ball flew past them.

Mizuno thought he, by himself, would be enough to handle two inexperienced people. Okasada seemed to be a quick learner as he volleyed some tips to her. And, Fuji was amazing in her footwork and endurance, never breaking a sweat or breathing hard for the duration of their short match. Mizuno and Ryuzaki had made many mistakes due to just having started their tennis experience and Okasada made a lot too, which was expected. But Fuji had managed to make none. No outs or faulted serves.

He wasn't particularly upset with his lost. It was fun and it was a chance to make new friends with the common interest of tennis – something that he happened to treasure dearly even though he had only begun playing and studying it. But he made a mental note that he really needed to practice harder and more. Joining the school's tennis team would no doubt help. And, he made another note to not judge people by their appearance.

Setsumi was a decently pretty girl. Her hair was a bright golden color, different from her siblings and parents, and perhaps her most striking trait. She was teased as a young girl, lovingly albeit, by her siblings that she was adopted. Setsumi responded apathetically by grabbing a marker and paper and drawing out a Punnett Square showing how her parents brown haired alleles transferred to making her blonde. That had quickly shut them up and her family was left stunned, wondering how on earth the youngest Fuji knew about Punnett Squares. Later they would find out, she had peaked into her eldest sister's biology book. And, to add salt to their mistake in teasing her, Setsumi teased back with her own insult, "This only means I'm special and you're not." Setsumi was never teased again about her hair.

The rest of her physicality was average, not that Setsumi cared, although she wished she could grow taller just so she could tower over people. She thought it'd be fun, mostly convenient. She could see things if she stood in the back row and perhaps she wouldn't be treated as a "cute baby" so much by her eldest brother, Shusuke. They were only two years apart.

She had mauve colored eyes, the same as Yuuta. She used to be envious of Shusuke's bright baby blue eyes since they were her favorite color, but she eventually got over it. The only other trait that set her aside from the other girls in her class was her athletic body. She had the toned legs of a runner, Yuushi-senpai would tell her. Though, she was skeptical that it was a compliment. He had a weird fetish for girl's legs and she wasn't sure if he was saying that because he liked her legs or he didn't because they were too toned for a "pretty girl's." He was a strange one, Setsumi thought to herself and deliberately avoided him. It wasn't hard at all since he was the same age as Shusuke so she was never in the same school building as him. They only met twice at the Hyotei's school-wide music competition and he had commented on her legs passing her.

She had left Hyotei simply because it was too far from her house. It was still in the Tokyo district but it was entirely on the other side of the city. It was probably closer to Rikkadai than it was to her house. And that was in an entirely different prefecture – Kanagawa. But Rikkaidai is on the border of Kanagawa and the Tokyo metropolis, so there's that. Setsumi left Hyotei because she didn't want to have to wake up at 4am just to catch a train to Hyotei for 6am practices, nor did she want to wake her parents or sister up at that hour to drive her over to school. She had a few friends there at Hyotei but most had left to go to Rikkaidai which was the 22nd in a row champion school for track and field. They're also really good a tennis too, Setsumi noted for her brothers when she had gone on a tour of the school when she was still thinking about a prospective junior high school. Rikkaidai quickly left her decision table since it defeated the purpose of why she wanted to leave Hyotei – it was too far and she was really not an early-bird. Setsumi thought about going to St. Rudolph since it had dorms (it meant she could maximize the time she could sleep-in since the track would be right outside beneath her dorm room window). Yuuta quickly shot her down, banning her from going to his school even threatening that he would give her wet-willies everyday if she went there.

Seigaku it was.

The school didn't matter for Setsumi. All she wanted was a decently good academic school and a place where she could just run. It didn't matter to her if the team was bad or good. Again, she just wanted to run freely like in those sappy movie scenes.

"My brother is a regular on the tennis team here and my other brother is a regular on St. Rudolph's tennis team." Setsumi casually divulged the information.

"Woah what?" Okasada and Mizuno exclaimed at their classmate simultaneously. No wonder she was so good at tennis, they thought.

"But you're joining the track and field team?" Mizuno asked.

"Yes, but that's in the fall. I'm thinking about joining the art club for now."

It was then that their conversation got cut short. The school bell had rang, signifying that the school day was over. Setsumi let out a sigh. Two school days down, only 178 left. Mizuno bid goodbye to the girls and rushed off to grab his stuff so he could turn in his signup form for the boys' tennis team. Setsumi and the rest of the girls in her class piled into the girl's locker room to take showers and change out of their gym clothes back into their white and green school uniform. While Setsumi was buttoning up her white blouse, she heard Okasada and Ryuzaki talking. It wasn't she was eavesdropping more like she just happened to be next to them and she could hear them quite clearly.

"I heard Mizuno-kun say that he's going to turn in his signup sheet to the boy's tennis club afterschool. Let's go with him and check them out! I heard the regulars are all super-hot!" Okasada exclaimed with her usual excitement as she tugged on her best friend's arm like a young child.

Setsumi made a choking sound but luckily no one took notice of her. She heard all the regulars were super-hot? That meant her brother was included. Shusuke was good friends with all of the regulars, best friends with the ones in his grade and a caring (sometimes sadistic) upperclassmen to the two who were one year younger. Setsumi never really conversed with them or saw them much for that matter. She knew their names. Okay, only vaguely, she admitted to herself. Well enough that she could utter out their full names if given the time to think about it. She had their last names down pat since that was what they all called each other by. First names were the problem. It wasn't a huge problem since the times she would ever need to call them by their first names was never.

They frequented her house. But because of her school activities, chores, and other miscellaneous things, she didn't exactly ever sit in the same room as them and talked. She'd pass them in the living room, only dropping in to greet them before retreating into her bedroom to read, do homework, or play Mario Kart on her DS with Yuuta through the internet. They were her brother's friends and she respected that. Sometimes, she'd come down to grab a drink of water or some snacks and they'd comment how delicious the cookies she baked for them were. Sometimes she'd shyly tell them her thanks, other times she'd truthfully tell them it was Yumiko-nee who had baked them and thank them anyways. That was the relationship she had with them – passing greetings and them eating the snacks she prepared ahead of time to keep their guests full.

They were better than average looking, Setsumi would rate them as such. But none were physically attractive to her. The one named Kaidoh terrified her. Luckily, he and the other sophomore never came by much. Maybe only once or twice during the school year. Even then it was only so they could meet up and leave immediately afterwards once everyone gathered. Tezuka was intimidating too. He, Setsumi had a slight problem with. He was the one who came to their house the most, but only beating Eiji by a few. Her brother and he were apparently best friends. She mostly avoided him and Tezuka seemed to do the same, giving her short and stern greetings or the extremely rare question about running. That, she liked to talk about but Tezuka made her nervous. Perhaps one day she'd warm up to him and he would do the same with her.

"Sorry Tomo-chan, I have to go turn in my signup sheet too to the girls' tennis club." Ryuzaki said to her friend.

Okasada didn't miss a beat at the news. "I'll come with you and then we'll go afterwards!"

Ryuzaki agreed easily, seeing how she was most likely not going to be able to shake her off. "Okay."

It wasn't until the two girls had left the locker room did Setsumi snap out of her daze and realize that Shusuke had told her in the morning that he and most of the tennis club were going to a practice game with another school immediately afterschool. Thus, all boys' tennis club activities were canceled. Hurriedly, Setsumi finished getting dressed and ran towards the men's locker room. She had to tell her male classmate that there would be no club activities.

Setsumi had hoped to catch Mizuno before he left for the tennis courts, but her male classmates told her he had left five minutes ago as they exited the locker rooms. She quickly thanked them and rushed down a path towards the tennis courts. Only, she didn't exactly know where the tennis courts were. She guessed they were behind the school. They were pretty big, it couldn't be that hard to find. Right?

"Senpai, where are the tennis courts?" She stopped a random upperclassman walking towards her just to be safe.

"Oh, are you joining the girls' tennis team? The girls' tennis courts are that way," he grinned down at her and pointed in the direction behind her, where she had just come from.

"No, the boys'." She corrected him.

He tilted his head sideways at her, to show her his confusion. "They're down this path. Why do you want to go to the boys' tennis team? Are you perhaps looking to confess your love to someone there–" The older boy abruptly stopped his sentence when he noticed the blonde freshman had disappeared. He turned his body around and found that she was already walking down the path, following his directions to the boys' tennis courts.

"Hey! How rude! Can I at least know your name?" He shouted after her. He contemplated going after the girl but quickly decided not to. She was most definitely a freshman considering she didn't know where the tennis courts were. The older boy chuckled to himself, "She's a bit young for me. And besides, she's probably going to go confess to her love. Ah, young love. That guy must be so lucky. She's cute."

Setsumi had recognized the boy immediately after she stopped him, but it didn't seem he recognized her. His name was, she thought about it for a few moments, Momo-something. His name didn't quite stick with her, especially since she remembered everyone simply calling him Momo-chan as a nickname. Shrugging off the matter, Setsumi continued on her way without another thought. He was definitely flirting with her and she had to get away before things got super awkward.

"Mizuno-kun," she called to her classmate when she spotted him. He was talking with a friend it seemed, another boy in her gym class. He was shorter than Mizuno and had a bowl shaped cut. The two of them were dragging along a basket of tennis balls.

"Fuji-chan?" Mizuno quizzically called back her name. He didn't understand why she would be coming to find him.

"Okasada-chan said you were going to turn in your signup sheet, but all tennis club activities are canceled today because most of the members are away at another school for a practice game."

Setsumi was slightly upset that Mizuno already found out the information she intended to give him from another upperclassman. She was more upset that she had run over so urgently only to have it be in vain than her inability to save him the trouble of going to the tennis courts only to find no one there. As she was about to leave, Mizuno introduced his friend, Kato Kachiro, to her.

"Wow, your brother is a regular on the tennis team?" Kato stared at her in awe as if she was her brother himself. Setsumi sighed internally before nodding her head to indicate that he was correct even though the fact was just stated a few seconds ago by his friend, Mizuno. "Are you going to join the girls' tennis team?"

She felt like she might burst if another person asked if she was going to join the girls' tennis team.

"She doesn't play tennis, but she's still really good." Mizuno explained for her.

Setsumi shrugged off the compliment easily. It wasn't that she was particularly good, only that he was really inexperienced. Although she didn't play tennis regularly (or at all really), her athletic body that she kept year round from all her running allowed her to force decently powerful shots and keep up with balls that were sent onto her side of the court.

As she was about to leave again for home, two more freshman arrived – Horio Satoshi and Echizen Ryoma. Kato and Mizuno quickly introduced themselves while also telling them that the upperclassmen were away at a practice match at another school. They had stayed behind to practice for a few rounds since they were already changed and made the trek over. It was then when two tennis players of the club waltzed over.

The freshman, except Echizen and herself, were suckered into playing a "hit the can" game by two upperclassman. Setsumi didn't recognize the two so she deemed they weren't regulars. Echizen was still in his school uniform, watching boringly from the sidelines as the other three had changed into gym clothes and began serving tennis balls across the court in hopes of hitting a small can at the service line. Setsumi watched the three fail miserably. Why was she still watching?

As she turned to leave for the third time already, she was stopped when the upperclassmen told the trio that they owed them 5200 yen. They had purposely left out that their 10 tries costed 500 yen each in addition to the 200 yen trying fee. They then proceeded to bait Echizen to try. Indifferently, he served with extreme precision, hitting the top of the lid so that the can would spill over and reveal the rocks hidden inside. It was the rare occasion that Setsumi felt some anger bubble inside of her chest. A part of her wanted to leave the scene, letting them deal with it since it didn't concern her, but another part wanted to storm right up to the two upperclassman and give them a piece of her mind.

Before a fight could break out between Echizen and the upperclassmen, another tennis ball from across the courts rammed into the can hard, so hard that it practically bent the can beyond repair. She realized the guy responsible was the tennis club regular she had bumped into. Momo-something, she still couldn't remember his full name. Guess she didn't have all of her brother's friends' names down pat.

Okay, now she was really leaving. Nothing concerned her. Setsumi decided that she had a long, boring day at school and deserved to relax in front of a TV for an hour before starting on her homework. Sad to think she already had quite a bit of homework for the second day of school. Then she'd go for a run, come back, take a shower, eat dinner, finish the book she'd been reading, and turn in for the night.

"Hey you, you're the girl from before!" Unfortunately, she was stopped again. "I'm Momoshiro Takeshi, what's your name? Did you get to confess your love to–?"

"Fuji Setsumi." She stated, watching in secret satisfaction when her last name was recognized by him. "And no, I didn't come to the tennis courts to confess my love to anyone. I was simply delivering a message."

"Wait, are you Fuji-senpai's younger sister?" Momoshiro asked, blinking in surprise, probably still unable to comprehend that he had been flirty with his teammate's sister. He completely disregarded what her last sentence was and started grinning at her. "Will you umpire the match between this guy and me?"

"I don't know anything about tennis?" She lied easily.

"But you played so well during gym," Mizuno blurted out. Setsumi immediately shot him a glare which caused him to jolt and attempt to hide behind his racket. Apparently, he couldn't read the situation.

Having been found out for lying and with another plea from Momoshiro, she slowly climbed up to sit in the umpire chair placed perpendicular to the net. "I should've gone home earlier," she grumbled to herself as she saw Momoshiro grin at her again. The two took a side and Momoshiro twirled his racket to determine who would serve first. The freshman next to her chair quizzically parroted to themselves Momoshiro and Echizen's exchange. Horio laughed at them and started explaining which Setsumi purposely tuned out. Tennis rules were too fancy.

Even though Momoshiro had won the service draw, he forfeited it over to the younger tennis player. Setsumi groaned in her mind while giving an eye roll that no one noticed, "Why couldn't he have done that in the first place?" The Twist Serve was what Momoshiro was going after, and he was excited to see it as soon as possible. Again, Setsumi heard the freshmen talk about the Twist Serve, mostly Horio explaining the skeletal workings of the serve. And again, Setsumi tuned them out. She didn't care; she just wanted to go home.

She definitely deserved to laze on her living room couch and watch all the TV she wanted when she got home. If she got home that day, because it was starting to look like it was never going to happen.

"Fault," she murmured when the freshman's serve grazed the net before landing on Momoshiro's side of the court.

Behind her, she heard Okasada's distinctive shrill voice cheer for Echizen, only to find that faulting wasn't a good thing. Hadn't they just played tennis not even an hour ago during gym? The basic rules had been explained by their teacher before they were all paired up and sent to play against each other. Even Setsumi found that the rules were a bit hard to forget since they were just the basics, but that was perhaps she already knew them beforehand. The rules that Setsumi really found annoying and difficult to keep track of were the strange ones. Like if the ball hits your body on your side of the court it is counted as your opponent's point. More complicated, if the ball hits you while you are backing up even though it was clearly going to land out, it is still your opponent's point. And, the really, really complicated rules about ball abuse point penalties.

They were staring at her, Setsumi realized, waiting for her to call the point. "15-love."

"You gotta shout!" Momoshiro was grinning at her again. He was definitely flirting with her.

Internally, she groaned at the sophomore. She was glad that they never got to see each other much when he came over to their house for the few minutes he always did. Their house was a common meet-up spot for her brother's friends and teammates.

She watched Momoshiro sprint up towards the net, reacting to Echizen's serve right after he hit the neon yellow ball. Momoshiro managed to connect his racket to the ball but it wasn't enough for him to earn the point. The ball rammed into the middle of the net and for a second Setsumi thought it might go straight through.

"30-love." Setsumi murmured out the point after the ball rolled to a stop on Momoshiro's side of the court.

No flirtatious comment was sent her way. Momoshiro was serious. A few words were exchanged behind her between the two reporters and her two classmates. Meanwhile, the trio of freshman boys beside her umpire chair simply gaped in awe. Setsumi didn't understand much about tennis; in fact, she wasn't sure if this Twist Serve they were talking about was like this super powered move. It looked like an ordinary serve to her. She didn't understand why everyone was consistently commenting that Echizen knowing the Twist Serve was amazing. All it took was some instructions and practice to master the Twist Serve, like any other serve or shot in tennis. It might be hard, but nothing unreachable with training. She really didn't understand tennis.

"Point," this time it was Echizen who called out to her. She hadn't realized she missed calling out another point again. He seemed a little annoyed with her.

Setsumi quickly figured out that Momoshiro won the point, considering his smirk and the ball was on Echizen's side of the court. "30-15."

The game ensued afterwards. Smugly, Momoshiro returned the Twist Serve with more ease this time around. A rally actually started which made Setsumi groan. She was enjoying the quickness of the points; they were all mostly service aces. If the rally continued then that would only mean she couldn't go home quite as fast.

Maybe I should trade spots with one of the freshmen, Setsumi pondered her options. The game wasn't getting any more interesting for her and she seriously didn't want to stick around for an extra hour just so the two could finish a match.

Her eyes dully followed the movements of Momoshiro. He was favoring his left foot for some reason. Thinking about it, Setsumi realized there must be some reason why Momoshiro was still around when the regulars were away at another school for a practice game. He was a regular the last time she checked, which was a week ago when all the regulars met up at her house again. Ah, he must have injured his ankle, Setsumi deduced.

"Time-out, I need to go home. So bye," Setsumi said easily and without permission got off the umpire stand. She hadn't interrupted them when they were still rallying obviously; she knew better than to do that. After Momoshiro had fallen, from a cramp in his leg no doubt, Setsumi decided to stop the match, both for herself and the injured sophomore.

"Hey!" Momoshiro exclaimed to her in shock.

Okasada complained in the background but Setsumi paid no mind.

"You don't mind do you, Echizen-kun?" Setsumi asked the boy who was her age. She didn't really care about his opinion. She would've left anyways, but it was slightly more polite to ask than just running off without another word.

"No," he responded, already walking off the courts to put away his tennis racket.

Setsumi turned her attention to Momoshiro. "You should ice your ankle. Don't push yourself too hard when it's not fully healed yet. It'll ruin your career." It was not a scold, but Momoshiro somehow felt like he was being scolded. By an underclassman no less. She had cut him off before he could even mutter out any words and started walking out of the tennis area promptly after finishing what she wanted to say.

He had so many questions for her. Like how she knew he was injured. And, if she had a boyfriend.

Well in any case, this was definitely going to be an interesting school year with all the new freshies.

XXX

"I'm back," Setsumi murmured out a greeting when she entered her house. Dropping her school bag beside her on the ground, she bent down to take off her street shoes and change into her cute bunny slippers. That was when she realized several pairs of shoes were not so neatly placed on their doormat. Coupled with the chattering and laughter she heard coming from the living room, she knew her brothers were having his tennis friends over again. They must've finished their practice game and returned back to their house to chill.

"Welcome back, Sesumimi-chan!" She jolted in fright when a red-head suddenly emerged from her living room and tackled her in a hug. "I'm so glad we now go to the same school! We can have lunches together and you can come watch me play tennis! And, if you have anyone who is being mean to you at school just tell your Eiji-Niichan, he'll beat them up for you!"

He waddled side to side with Setsumi in his arms. Uncomfortably, Setsumi tried to pry her brother's friend, Eiji, away from herself. He only gave a whine and hugged her tighter. Giving limited options, she reached up and pinched him on the elbow.

Eiji and she were the closest out of all of Shusuke's friends. It helped that Eiji was the youngest of four children in his family too. And, it helped that he had an older brother who used to participate in track and field so he could understand not only his own sport but hers as well which she appreciated. (Not that there was anything particularly complicated about running).

"Ouch!" Eiji released her immediately. He pouted at her which she responded silently with a smug look. The red-head then gaped at her before tattle-tailing to her brother. "Fujiko-chan, your sister is being mean to me again."

"Welcome back Mimi-chan," her eldest brother stuck his head into the hallway to greet her. "How was school?"

"Fine," she shrugged. "I'm going out for a run."

"Let me come with you!" Eiji exclaimed, trying to butt into their conversation after being ignored by the Fuji siblings.

"Only if you can keep up," teased the youngest Fuji.

Eiji gaped at her again before flailing his arms and crying, "See Fujiko-chan! She's being mean to me!"

Shusuke merely gave a chuckle at the scene before him.

AN: Hello, me again! So, you might not like Setsumi now because of her apathetic nature, but that's kind of the point. Don't worry, she will get cuter in the future. Hahahaha. I'd love it if you could leave me a review it'll really be encouraging! And I also would love it if you could give me story ideas! And I know my writing is still a working progress. Update from when I first started this story…or rather when I first wrote on , I write a lot of research papers now so creatively I'm lacking quite a bit. But it's a way for me to unwind from all those boring research papers. Thanks for reading!