Panache

Tennis was a man's game, not spick-and-span, but wily. Unlike contact sports where you stick it in places where the sun don't shine, you use child's play to do the job properly. The wonderful frustration on his opponents' faces made it all the more deserving, because it was a roundabout frustration, a frustration too slippery to harness into something more constructive than uncontrollable, desperate shots or enraged insults that embodied the extent of their—or was it his—self-degradation.

Cowardice was a word too strong for Kirihara—he preferred to refer to it as his personal panache.


Wrote this a long time ago. Don't fully agree with it now though. Cowardice isn't quite the right word… Stuck with writer's block, god forbid.

Miss writing in general. Would love anything constructive.