"Singles One will be reserved for you when we play in the final game," Oishi said to Tezuka's back. "You will come back and play, won't you?"
"Of course," Tezuka looked at Oishi and Ryuzaki-sensei one last time.
With that, he picked up his suitcase and tennis bag and walked through the gates, not looking back. No emotion of any kind was shown on his face, just a blank expression.
---
Still as polite as ever, he got to his seat on the plane ten minutes before the closing of gates. Not that the staff waitresses weren't eager to help.
The seat beside him was empty. He glanced at it, but did not think anymore about the empty seat, which would later cause him lots of trouble. Instead, he leaned back and closed his eyes. He remembered how shocked his teammates had looked when he announced that he was leaving for Germany for a long period of time. He was helpless to their emotions; the only thing he could do was to encourage them, which he did his best to.
He glanced at his watch. The plane should have taken off twenty minutes ago. He wondered what was taking them so long. Some other passengers were complaining too, talking about not being on time. Then, an announcement was made.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are sorry for the delay of the plane, but we were requested to wait as long as possible for someone. If by the end of ten minutes from now and she hasn't arrived, we will take off. Please bear with us for now. Thank you for your co-operation."
"Huh! A girl! So full of herself that she wants everyone to wait for her!" Someone behind Tezuka complained loudly. A few agreed.
Suddenly, there was a squeal, followed by a soft sorry. Tezuka felt someone tap on his shoulder. He looked up to face a staff waitress.
"Excuse me, sir, can you please let this lady in to her seat? Thank you," she smiled sweetly.
Tezuka stood up and moved out, while a young lady with a white cap on led herself in and sat down. "Thank you," she said to no one in particular.
She settled herself comfortably as Tezuka once again sat down. "What's your name?"
Tezuka was surprised at such a sudden question that he took a while to register what she said. Then he replied, "Tezuka."
"Tezuka what?"
"Tezuka Kunimitsu."
She held out her hand to him, "Yanagi Kenita. Nice to meet you, Kunimitsu."
He was yet surprised again by her straight forwardness as he reached for her hand. She even called him by his second name.
"Nice to meet you too, Yanagi-chan," he replied politely, shaking her hand lightly.
"Call me Kenita, and none of the –chan and –kun nonsense," she smiled slightly. "I'm the one who delayed everybody here, so I guess I should apologize."
Tezuka did not reply, but silently accepted her apology. It seemed like if he said something, she would say another. It'd probably be better if he did not say anything.
However, she continued, as the plane started to move. "I thought maybe I'd pretend to miss the plane and perhaps they'll let me off. Too bad they saw through my plan and made sure the plane did not take off without me safely inside."
She gave a small and soft laugh. Finally, she reached for her cap and took it off. Soft brown wavy hair flowed out from the cap, and finally, her golden eyes were completely visible. Her features were perfect, and there seemed to be a special shine coming from her entire being. Her teeth were white and shone when she smiled. It was as if the whole person was shining, lighting up the whole aircraft.
"What kind of sports did you take up?" she asked casually, taking out a sketchbook.
"Tennis," Tezuka replied nonchalantly. He did not bother to ask how she knew.
Kenita froze for a split second before opening her sketchbook. She flipped through it idly before finding a blank page. She turned her head and stared at Tezuka. He felt as if he was being examined. After a few minutes, she turned back to her sketchbook.
"I am leaving a tennis club behind for Germany too," she smiled. It was a genuine smile, not the one that dazzled. Not only was it genuine, it was sad. Her hand did not stop flying across the page. It was a little bit of drawing here and there. The face, the nose, eyes, ears and mouth. It was a person.
Tezuka ignored her drawing and settled for just staring at the back of the chair in front of him. "Why?"
Kenita smiled that genuine smile again. Tezuka somehow found that prettier than the dazzling smile.
"I loved tennis too much, and was thus forced off the team to treat my injury."
Somewhere in her tone, Tezuka heard a voice crying. He took a quick look at her eyes. Sorrow and longing were mixed as one.
Kenita tugged at his sleeve. "Look, I'll show you my teammates," she pointed a wonderfully sketched person. She smiled her bright smile. "This, Kunimitsu, is the captain. Yanagi Arita, my twin sister."
The person in the picture looked very much like Kenita. Except that she had extremely straight and long hair, which made her look even taller in the picture.
Kenita flipped to another page. "Marashi."
Another page, "Hanajima."
Another, "Shimaya."
"Kenrina."
"Tanya."
"Mingzashi."
"And our precocious darling, Rika. She is supposedly a first year but she skipped that and went straight to second year. She was top of her class for her examinations too."
Tezuka looked at each member carefully, and noticed thatmost of them had excellent body shapes, but did not look like sportsplayers or thatkind of thing.
"You draw very well."
"Thanks," she smiled and put her sketchbook back into her bag.
"You are going to Germany because…? It's not holiday in Japan." Boy, she was good at changing subjects.
"Same reason as you."
"Oh." She shut up.
The 'Belts On" sign was switched off, and almost immediately, a young girl of age around fourteen came and leaned over to Kenita.
"Can…can you please sign my book, please? I... I can't believe I am meeting you in person! I am a great fan of yours! To meet you here of all places! Do sign my book!"
Kenita put on a dazzling smile again and signed her book gracefully. The girl bounded off happily, giving a little squeal on the way back to her seat.
"I was a famous dancer," Kenita replied to Tezuka's unquestioning face. "Though not in Japan."
Tezuka just nodded. 'This isn't going to be a boring flight,' he thought meaningfully.
A/N: Hello, thanks for taking time to read this first chapter. I will have to bend a few rules in the story so please bear with me, unless you don't like 'rule-benders'. (Smiles) Also, there may be slight OOC for the boys as I still haven't completely figured out their personality yet. I'll try my best to stick to them though. If there's any things about the story you would like to correct, please do tell me! Though you must comfort me a bit after the whole 'lecture' so that I won't feel all bad and you know... Thank you!
Alternate-Mysteries