Torn
Kiyami: I got the idea to do this while writing Bottled Ships. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not
own the Prince of Tennis.
Ohtori had cried the most during the extravagant graduation ceremony for the seniors. They would move on to the high school. That included Shishido.
After it had ended Shishido and Ohtori ran off together. This certainly wasn't a permanent goodbye, but they would see less and less of each other. Ohtori hardly had any free time outside of music and tennis as it was. When he wasn't at tennis practice he was at his private lessons for the violin. Shishido wouldn't be at tennis practice anymore. He would be at the high school.
Their departure from the party was what got Ishikawa Yuka to notice them. Yuka to everyone at Hyotei seemed to be a pretty and sweet girl. Truthfully Yuka was not a wonderful person. If you got on her bad side then she would make sure you were broken.
She remembered the silvery haired boy from class…and the hat wearing senpai he was always with. She despised them. Ohtori Choutarou was the only boy in her romantic life to have turned her down. No one turned now Ishikawa Yuka. No one!
That was why a plan had formed in her devious mind as she stood by the table filled with food. The separation in schools would drive a wedge between their relationship. Yuka would make sure that she drove the wedge in their relationship deeper. Yuka wanted the couple to hate each other by the end of their school year. That would serve as rightful punishment for turning her down.
Ohtori and Shishido held hands as they walked. The loud noise from the party decreased in volume. They stopped by a tree and sat down together.
"Shishido-san, this is it." Ohtori sighed softly.
"Don't mind, Choutarou! We'll always meet after school for tennis, won't we?" Shishido smiled at the taller boy.
"Every day!" Ohtori returned the smile.
In the distance someone screamed Atobe's name. It was probably one of the younger fangirls.
"Shishido-san?"
"Yeah?"
"…Will you uh…find someone else?" Ohtori hesitantly asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Well we can't be a doubles pair anymore and well…we'll have a harder time being together." Ohtori bit his lip, unsure of what he wanted to mean.
"What are you talking about?" Shishido had no idea what Ohtori was trying to get to.
"If you want, you can find someone else. I won't mind at all if you do. I know that there are a lot of prettier people at the high school and—"
Shishido grabbed Ohtori's chin with his right hand. He silenced Ohtori with a kiss on his lips. A blush formed on Ohtori's cheeks as he returned the kiss. They pulled away after what seemed like eternity.
"Choutarou, you should know by now that I'll always stay true to you." Shishido ran his fingers through Ohtori's soft hair.
"Me too." Ohtori touched the silver ring around his middle finger. Shishido had one too on the same finger. They had bought one for each other while the regulars searched for a present to give to Sakaki. One could say the rings were promise rings.
I'll
always stay true to you…
The new school year started. Ohtori straightened his tie and proceeded with confidence. Classmates respected him for holding onto a regular's spot for so long, but he would remain a regular and nothing else. Hiyoshi was becoming the captain this year.
He entered his classroom, smiled at the other students in there, and sat down by the window. Class hadn't started yet so everyone was leisurely talking.
Ohtori stared out the window. The majority of his friends had been the tennis regulars and they were all at the high school. For Ohtori it was hard for him to make friends. He was shy and sometimes wary of whom he trusted. Some supposed friends had just befriended him for social status or to try and knock him off his regular position.
"Ohtori-kun?" He looked up to see a smiling girl standing by his desk.
"Ah, Ishikawa-san." He acknowledged the girl.
"Are you alright? You seem a little sad." She commented.
"I'm perfectly fine, thank you." Ohtori touched the ring around his finger. Yuka stared at it, but then the teacher came in.
"Ohtori-kun, would you like to try some of the cookies I made?" Yuka asked as she sat down next to Ohtori during lunch.
Ohtori smiled and politely accepted. "Thank you, Ishikawa-san." He took a bite and was assaulted by the sweet, maybe too sweet, strawberry taste.
"Please, call me Yuka." She giggled and casually placed her hand on Ohtori's.
Ohtori nodded, but his face was red. He felt nervous around Yuka. Was she flirting with him? She had asked him before about going out together, but he had rejected her. It was also a well-known fact that he was with Shishido after Gakuto blabbed.
"Ohtori-kun, do you mind if I ask you what's that ring for?" Yuka stared at the shiny silver ring.
"Oh, it's for a promise. A promise to him." Ohtori dreamily mumbled, suddenly thinking of Shishido and how much he missed the presence of his senpai.
"Oh, is that so?" Yuka muttered. Ohtori was too distracted to hear the bitterness in her voice, the pure acid.
Okigawa Sakura was Yuka's best friend and partner in crime. She was a year older than Yuka, which was the reason why Yuka had been at the graduation ceremony.
Sakura was a tall, willowy girl with shortly cut brown hair and big doe-like eyes. Her eyes deceived many into thinking she was an innocent girl. Guys were cautious of her though because she was notorious for breaking the hearts of many. She would charm the boy with her sweet words then crush their hearts in a cruel, merciless fashion. She was a heartbreaker.
It was no surprise when she had agreed to Yuka's cruel plan. Sakura never liked Ohtori with his sweet and innocent behavior. He sickened Sakura and the thought of watching the boy broken made Sakura smile. Boys like Ohtori didn't belong in Hyotei. They weren't meant to survive, but somehow Ohtori had.
This was why she was going through Shishido's locker at the moment. No one was in the hallways since class had just started, but she had asked to go to the restrooms.
Shishido's lock was fairly easy to pick. It was a simple key lock that Sakura managed to unlock within a minute. Finding what she was looking for was even easier. It was the first day of school so Shishido's locker was empty and neat.
Quickly she grabbed the bento box and closed the locker door. She put the lock back on and sneaked away from Shishido's locker. It was all apart of her plan.
"Damn it! I could have sworn I brought my lunch this morning!" Shishido angrily cursed. Lunch was the only thing he was looking forward to today besides meeting Ohtori after school.
"First day of school and you're already forgetting things? Quite disappointing, naa Kabaji?" Atobe commented.
"Usu." Kabaji was busy putting away Atobe's books into the locker.
"Shut up, Atobe." Shishido muttered. He closed his locker and walked off.
All alone, perfect. Sakura thought to herself when she saw Shishido moving through the hallway. She straightened out her uniform and smoothed down her hair.
"Shishido-kun! Shishido-kun!" She shouted while running up to him.
"What?" Shishido snapped.
Sakura purposely made herself hesitate. She widened her big eyes and made herself seem hurt.
"I-I…I just wanted to know if you wanted to have some of my lunch." Sakura lowered her head.
Shishido sighed and his facial expression softened. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you like that."
"It's alright! Well, would you like some?" Sakura brightened and flashed Shishido a smile. She held up her bento.
"Sure." Shishido was amazed at the coincidence. This was lucky. The day he forgets his lunch a girl comes and offers to share her's.
He didn't think was too odd. After all people knew that Shishido was off limits. He had a deep relationship with Ohtori. It was common knowledge, but Shishido was ignorant of the gossiping world. He didn't know the reputation Sakura had. Even if he had heard it, there were about a million Sakura's at school.
Finally school was over. Shishido happily grabbed his tennis stuff so he could get right to the courts after changing. Tennis club didn't start until next week so he had a whole week of free time before he would return to the life of an ichinen.
"Shishido-kun!" Sakura shouted. She ran to catch up with Shishido.
"Okigawa?" Shishido paused to allow her to catch up.
"There! I found you. I was really hoping if I could ask you a favor."
"What type of favor?" Shishido moved anxiously. He wanted to go see Ohtori.
"Well, I know you were a regular last year and I was wondering if you would help me. None of the other tennis players want to help. It won't take that long. I just need help with my smashes." Sakura smiled hopefully.
Shishido hesitated. What about Ohtori? She did give him half of her lunch. He owed her for that. "…Fine, only for a little bit."
Ohtori was walking towards the doors to leave Hyotei. He was heading towards the tennis courts to play a game with Shishido. Maybe they could even go to that—
CRASH!
Suddenly Ohtori found himself on the ground with a pile of books and papers surrounding him. Nearly was the familiar girl, Yuka.
"Ow…" Ohtori muttered while sitting up. He rubbed his head.
"Ohtori-kun! I'm so sorry!" Yuka shrieked and started to get the books off of Ohtori.
"It's alright, it's alright." Ohtori reassured. He got off the ground and helped Yuka to her feet.
"I didn't see you! I'm so sorry! I'm so clumsy!" Yuka muttered and began to pick up her papers.
Ohtori began to gather the books onto one pile. Most of them were books on pianos and music. He smiled as he opened up one book and looked at the notes. He could imagine the sweet tune the music was.
"Yuka, do you play the piano too?" Ohtori asked.
"Y-yes, but I'm not very good. I'm just learning how to play." Yuka shoved the sheets of music back into a blue folder.
"Where are you taking these?" Ohtori didn't want another accident like this to happen.
"I'm bringing these home. I was taking them to my bicycle." Yuka picked up her four books and the thick folder full of paper.
"I have time, I can help you carry these." Ohtori smiled while grabbing the books from Yuka.
"Thank you, Ohtori-kun. You're too kind."
"You almost did it this time!" Shishido shouted out encouragingly. He lobbed a ball again. "Try again!"
Sakura made a half-hearted attempt to smash. She missed the ball. "I can't do it Shishido-kun!" Okigawa sounded disappointed.
"Just a couple more tries!" Shishido lobbed another time.
Ohtori approached the tennis courts and heard the rhythmic beats. Someone must be playing.
Ohtori's heart stopped when he saw who was playing. He looked down and saw Shishido playing with some pretty girl. Had he gone on? Shishido promised though! All sorts of questions arose in his head.
"Ohtori-kun…What's wrong?" Yuka asked innocently while walking her bike next to him.
"Oh…Nothing. I just remembered that I don't have to do anything today. I'll walk you home." Ohtori sounded disappointed. He assumed that girl was Shishido's new tennis friend. Next thing they'd be a doubles pair together. Maybe Shishido had forgotten.
He shook his head. Was he questioning Shishido's loyalty? Was he jealous enough to think that Shishido was already with someone else? Ohtori turned and opened his mouth to shout out to Shishido.
CRASH!
"Whoops, my fault." Yuka said with a laugh. Purposely she made her bicycle fall to distract Ohtori.
"Here, let me get that for you." Ohtori knelt by Yuka's side and picked up the books and papers again.
"You're too kind." Yuka giggled.
Ohtori blushed while picking up the bicycle off the ground. "L-let's go…"
Maybe it was best not to disturb Shishido. He seemed to be enjoying himself. He seemed to be enjoying helping that girl.
Shishido paused for a moment to look around for Ohtori. Where was he? He was never late for a scheduled game.
Kiyami: End of chapter one. This is a hard story to write.
