Meaningless

Atobe Keigo Fanfic

It was a hot Sunday afternoon, but he doesn't seem to care at all. For him, the weather looks nice, and the wind feels cool. He closes his eyes as he feels the soft breeze blows past him gently. Inhaling a bit of this cool breeze, he then exhales with satisfaction and opened his eyes.

Standing by the entrance at the tennis court, he pulled out a piece of tennis racket and a yellow ball from his bag. He stretches his arms and did a bit of a brief warm-up. Now Atobe Keigo's all ready to play tennis.

He goes through inside the court with full familiarity of the place and positions himself in one of the courts. He's actually been coming in this place quite frequently, usually to have some practice of his own. Here, he can think quite peacefully being alone by himself, and in fact, it is here where he develops most of his techniques and practices his play styles. Sure he can have just played in one of their tennis courts, but he wants to be all alone. He'd rather play alone in a lonely court than play in a fancy court with guards or housemaids around him. He smirks slightly, upon remembering his Tannhausser serve.

Yes, alone, although right now he wouldn't seem to have what he wanted for. He's not all alone; in fact somebody's there; sitting on the stairs by the entrance; or maybe that person's standing by the bench; he doesn't know which, because he didn't even care to look at the person. There's nothing really wrong; all he needs to do is to just accept that he's in a public tennis court right now, and so he has to get on with it.

Atobe pants in exhaustion after a series of hitting the ball right at the exact, same spot for several minutes. He stopped for a moment, slowly regaining his lost energy. He then ran his hand through his greyish (or black?) hair and was about to start once again, when suddenly, the voice of the person with him suddenly spoke:

"Is tennis really fun to play?"

The voice came from a girl. It was a soft, innocent voice which can also be so haunting Atobe even seemed to hear her voice speak in his mind over and over again. For the first time, he turned to look at her.

What he saw was a pale-faced girl about his age wearing a cap which seems to have the main purpose of hiding her messy blonde hair with a bit of bangs on the side and partially covering her whole face. She's wearing a black hooded jacket and red chequered skirt, sitting there on one of the chairs at the audience's place while swaying her legs back and forth.

Atobe hesitated for a moment in answering; unsure whether he's really the one being asked. Well, of course she's talking to none other than him! They're the only ones here actually. Although what if she's with somebody else, and he just failed to notice it? Maybe she's asking someone else and just happened to look at him when she was asking it to the other person. Nevertheless, Atobe answered anyways.

"Yeah, it's fun, although not entirely"

The girl tilted her head a bit to the side and asked him once again:

"Then why are you playing it still if it isn't entirely fun to play then?"

"Well, I want to accomplish something great, and so even though it's not entirely fun, I have to play it"

"Oh, so you're doing something against your own free will?"

"No" Atobe gave her a thoughtful look; as if looking past this curious person and finding her real motives, "It's really fun playing it, but in order to beat your opponents and win the championship you first have to practice and train a lot to the extent of draining your energy and exhausting your body. That's why I say it's not ENTIRELY fun." He remarked.

"Doesn't look so fun to me" The stranger said, shrugging her shoulders.

Atobe gave out a smirk and looked at her. She really seemed to be curious about it, and she doesn't seem to know a lot about tennis. She has this stubbornness within her, sort of like his', actually.

Turning towards the girl to face her, Atobe asks, "Haven't you ever played tennis before?"

Her face looked thoughtful, and then she answered him after a few seconds, "Nope, I haven't"

"Wanna play?"

The girl looked slightly surprised at his sudden proposition and thought even harder. And then answered after a moment, "Um . . . I'd rather not engage myself with things that are not really fun, so it's okay; I won't play"

Atobe smiled lightly, "It's not really fun just sitting there either"

"I'm having enough fun just watching you here" She said, also smiling.

"Is it really fun just sitting there?"

"Yes it is" The girl answered back, a bit of uncertainty in her voice.

"Doesn't look so fun to me" Atobe said, obviously imitating what the girl had just said a while ago.

"Haven't you ever sat in the audience and watched someone else play before?"

"Nope, I haven't"

"Wanna sit down here?"

"I'd rather not do something that is not really fun"

"Hey—wait a minute! You're just turning the questions back to me..!"

Both of them stared at each other for a while and looked at each other's eyes. And then suddenly, the two of them broke into a sudden laughter.

"You're really funny!" The girl said in mid laughter.

"You're funnier." Atobe said smiling, as he dribbles the tennis ball on the ground with his racket.

"How long have you been going here anyway—um . . ?" The girl asked, not knowing his name and thinking of what to call him.

"Keigo. It's Keigo Atobe from Hyoutei Academy."

"Oh. Don't you have tennis courts in your school?"

"We do have, but I'd rather play alone, just like what I was actually doing now"

"Oh my, am I disturbing you, Keigo-kun?" The girl asked, with a strange mischievous smile.

"Not at all, actually, I think I'm getting tired of playing for a while, so I guess I'm gonna have to stop for now"

"So," the girl's smile gradually faded and was replaced by an expression of sadness, "you're leaving already?"

Atobe noticed this and asks, "Why?"

"Well, it's nothing really. It's just so boring out here sometimes I can't even take the boredom."

"I, too, hate boredom myself, you know"

"Really? You know, I've been planning to do this for a long time now. There's this neighbour of ours who died after taking this I don't know what kind of pill it was. Did you know what drove that man to kill himself?"

"Boredom?"

"Yes, boredom! So, last night, I was actually thinking about carrying off this plan of getting into our neighbour's house and getting g myself one of those deadly pills so I could try it on myself."

"Huh?"

"Yeah! It's supposed to be fun."

"But then, you're going to die, you know"

"Well, life's really boring out here. Maybe it'll be a lot enjoyable in the afterlife"

Atobe laughed loudly, "You really sound serious there"

"Of course I am! After all, to die is a great challenge; that's what my friend used to say. If you love challenges, then I suggest you do the same thing. I'm doing what brave people do; and my neighbour's just brave enough to face death himself!"

He smirked, "You're crazy"

"Hah hah! And you're really funny!"

"Are you always here?"

"Nope, not really. Actually, I only go here every schooldays, when I have time, not on weekends. It just happened that the people in our house are out going somewhere devil knows where so I have the free time to go here today, even though I'm not supposed to be here on Sundays." The girl answered back with a smile.

"Oh" Atobe thought for a moment. "So that's why you were looking for something fun to do"

"Yeah, and talking with someone about tennis just happened to be fun!" The girl remarked suddenly returning to her cheerful mood and smiling so sweetly.

"Heh" Atobe raised an eyebrow while smiling, "You call that fun?"

"Yeah, don't you think so?"

"Well, okay, I guess it is. It's not every day that I could talk to someone about meaningless things anyway, right?" He answered with a grin.

"Well, then I love meaningless talks, and doing meaningless things" She said, folding her arms in front.

"Oh, so you do love doing meaningless things after all"

"Yeah! Just like what I am doing right now; talking with you" She said, with her mischievous smile from earlier, and then suddenly bursting out, "HAH HAH! Yah! So meaningless it's not at all fun!"

Atobe smirked and laughed along with her.

Suddenly, the girl's phone beeped. It was a message.

Her expression once again returned to her former sadness, as she closes her phone, putting it back to her pocket, and sighs.

"What's the matter, um—?" Atobe asked, but not knowing what her name is yet.

"It's my . . . uhh . . . someone from our house, just telling me to go home already," She answers in sadness.

"Oh"

"Well, then, bye"

The girl stood from where she was sitting and descended the stairs going for the exit, which passes through where Atobe was standing, which means that she will be passing him when she walks on to the exit. As she was about to walk towards it, Atobe called on to her:

"Wait!"

She looked back instantly and looked at him, "Yes?"

"Tell me," Atobe grasped for words, uncertain of what to say, "Tell me your name"

She didn't answer quite instantly, as if there's a bit of hesitation in her, whether she'll tell him her name or what. She then answered him anyways.

"It's Mina. Mina Daidouji. I'm from Sakuragaoka Academy. 3rd year." Mina smiled at him, and offered out her hands in front to shake hands with him.

Atobe shook her hand and smirked, "So, it's you who would be leaving first after all"

She giggled softly and said, "You're right. It was me after all."

"So, you'll be here tomorrow?"

"Um, it's school day tomorrow, so I'm sure there'll be a lot of people here"

"So what?"

"Well, it won't be fun hanging out with a lot of people, you know"

Atobe smiled and let go of her hand, "It wouldn't matter, you'll be coming, won't you? So it wouldn't be that boring. Doing meaningless things are fun after all, right?"

Mina laughs and looks at him smiling, "Yeah, it's the funniest thing to do"

At that she waved her hand goodbye to him and walked on towards the exit. As she headed out, Atobe can't help but look at her back as she walks away, as she goes out the court, and finally as she fades from his view. He can't hold back a smile on his lips as he thinks about her, and the next day, when the two of them will once again meet.