Disclaimer: Copyright goes to Konomi-sensei. The song was all property of Jonas Brothers and of the record label. The rest is solely from my imagination.
LOVEBUG
Zaizen Hikaru was acting quite a little different these past few months, especially when Fridays came to his realization. He was unusually quiet and rarely noticed his funny seniors during their doubles' rally, which was a little weird for the entire tennis club. He was acting weird. He was serious and was determined to beat the hell out of his seniors. He was trying his best to get along with the cheesy jokes of his colleagues. But, their captain noticed this change of behaviour whenever they were spectators watching their practices.
But their coach, Osamu Watanabe had noticed a further more reason why their lone sophomore was acting out of his character. He had perceived that the main cause of the bizarre changes was because of a girl – whom he observed to be watching their team ever since Zaizen joined their club.
"You are stalking her again." The lenient coach tapped the sophomore's shoulder while looking at the brunette girl sitting under the tree near the tennis courts. Zaizen was startled and rolled his eyes.
"None of your business, Osamu-san." He walked away from his coach, and grabbed a racket. He started hitting tennis balls to the wall.
"You know what, you can easily approach her. I heard from my fellow teachers that Cho Harumi is a very friendly person." Osamu replied as he lazily sat on the bench.
"Cho Harumi?" Zaizen looked at the older man with a puzzled stare.
"Cho Harumi, Second year. Member of our school's orchestra and music club. She is also one of the members of the Kansai Junior Philharmonic Orchestra. She plays the cello, but she also excels in playing the piano and the violin. She likes cats, rabbits and reads a lot of romance novels. Her favourite piano piece was Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6, but also like covering other musician's songs. And, her favourite color is purple and…"
"AHHH! Stop that! You are being so nosy!" The sophomore jumped out from the hands of his senior, Koharu Konjiki, who was bombarding him with so much information about the girl of his dreams.
Zaizen was about to walk out of the courts when their captain, Shiraishi Kuranosuke placed an arm around him and pointed the girl of his dreams sitting in the bench, sharing her bento of takoyaki with no other than, Kintarou Tooyama.
"How come…?!" The dark-haired sophomore looked at their captain with such amusement and at the same time, surprise.
"If you let Koharu finished his speech, you would know that Cho Harumi is good friends with our hyper rookie because Kin-chan reminded her of his late younger brother." Shiraishi said in a sad but informative form.
Zaizen looked at his captain with a shocking stare. He never thought that behind the sunny smile of the brunette girl was a sister longing for her brother. He breathed deeply and walked away from Shiraishi, swinging his racket and continued to what he was previously doing.
"She is probably sad." Zaizen thought to himself. Without him noticing, his teammates were now surrounding him as if he was the prey ready to be devour.
"ZAIZEN HIKARU IS IN LOVE!" Koharu and Yuuji screamed in the courts as they dance in couple-y way. The two continued teasing the sophomore, circling around him. Zaizen tried to escape from his sempais but he knows but the teasing would just continue.
"It's lovebug! Ah, Ecstasy!~" Shiraishi teased along.
Zaizen shook his head. He just wished that his sempais would just be ordinary tennis players, not bizzare, flashy ones.
Cho Harumi carefully placed her homemade onigiri on her bento and delicately placed some little decorations before covering it. She smiled after seeing how satisfying and mouth-watering her bento was. Kintarou asked her to make two bentos for today because their coach was going to give them a rigid training for the Nationals. She placed it in her bag and slung it in her shoulders.
Before leaving the house, Harumi took a last look of herself in the mirror. She had noticed the dark circles in her eyes that made her disappointed. She slept late last night because of her Chemistry assignment. Her lab partner was useless, so she made the lab report all by herself. She ran her slim fingers to her hair and gave herself an encouraging smile. Then, she bid her farewell to her parents who were happily sipping a cup of hot chocolate that she made earlier.
Harumi arrived earlier than she expected. She saw that the tennis club members were still having their training. She sat on the benches near the court. At the moment that Kintarou saw her, the freshmen gave her a huge smile and morning greeting that made her heart flutter. She responded it with a smile.
But her heart fluttered even more when the dark-haired sophomore walked beside the jumpy kid and waved at her naively. She slightly bowed her head to acknowledge his greeting.
She placed her hand in her heart. She can feel her heartbeat thumping faster than the usual. She kept a crossed finger, hoping that the sophomore will talk to her, or probably take a bite in her bento. All of the sudden, an idea came to her head. Why did Kintarou asked for two bentos anyway? Did the kid mention who will he share the other bento?
The morning training finished one hour before the first class starts and Kintarou, throwing other things aside, hurriedly went to Harumi to get his bento. Harumi offered the freshmen cold bottled water and a towel that she brought herself.
"Neh, Harumi-neechan… do you still have a spare bottled water? I think we ran out of one." Kintarou asked.
"Of course, I do." She carefully pulled out bottled water from her bento bag and gave it to the freshmen, but before Kintarou had his hands to it, another hand got it from Harumi's grasp.
Harumi looked at the person who suddenly grabbed the bottled water from her hands. She was staring at the dark-haired sophomore in surprise as he gulped in every single drop of liquid inside the container. After that, he gave the empty bottle to her. The sophomore smiled and sat beside her.
"You didn't mind if I drank everything." A smirk came out of the dark-haired sophomore's face.
Harumi just shook her head. She really didn't mind. She was actually happy that finally this guy was taking notice of her.
"Zaizen Hikaru, second year. I heard you are friendly." Zaizen handed out his hand for a hand shake.
"Ah, Cho Harumi… a second year also – oh, and not really that friendly." She extended her and responded to the hand shake that Zaizen offered. She was about to speak when Kintarou started whining about the bottled water was now empty and it was all because Zaizen drank all of it.
"Stop whining. I am thirsty." Zaizen shrugged his shoulders.
Harumi smiled. She looked at Kintarou and reassured the rookie that she will get him another one.
"Am I a little weird to you?" Zaizen asked Harumi while they were walking on their way home. The brunette girl stared at him in a puzzled expression. She titled her head in inquiry of what does his question mean. "My senpais told me that I am weird whenever you are around, and you are causing it."
"What I mean, was… am I a little different to you?" he asked it nervously.
The brunette girl pouted her lips and began thinking deeply. After a few seconds, she looked at Zaizen with fiery but sunny disposition coming out of her eyes. "Sort of, I think."
"Ha? I think my teammates are weirder than me." He put his hands over his head as they crossed the street. Zaizen noticed Harumi's fingers clutching at the hem of his shirt. He looked at her with a questioning remark.
"I am sorry. I am actually afraid in crossing the street. It reminded me of my dead brother." She sadly muttered. "I'll try my best not to do that again."
All of the sudden, Zaizen held her hand and hooked it in his arm. He escorted the girl all the way to the other side of the street without any sound coming out from them. He felt his knees were getting weak, but he didn't mind. He didn't want Harumi to feel unsafe while walking her home. He didn't want Harumi to be sad.
"Now, that was weird." Harumi remarked as she slowly pulled away her hand from Zaizen's arm. She slightly bowed down her head and she felt her cheeks blushing.
"I wouldn't mind if you call me weird." Zaizen replied.
"I wouldn't mind either. And, no… your teammates are not weird. They were exceptional." She chuckled.
"Ha? Exceptional?"
"Your teammates are different and unique. They are free from the shackles of society. They just let go of themselves, and I like that." She explained. "If I were you, just go with the flow and be yourself."
"…Even if it is because of a lovebug?" Zaizen asked nervously.
"Lovebug?" Harumi asked quizzically. Then she thoughtfully smiled.
"Yes, I wouldn't mind. I might have a lovebug too." She said with confidence.
Then, Zaizen was taken back when Harumi gave him a light peck on his cheek as they continued walking in the streets of Kansai. He probably wouldn't mind acting weird now or seeing himself with his teammates, as long as this girl wouldn't mind. She hooked her hand to his arm again and smiled to herself.
"I just had butterflies in my stomach." Zaizen responded.
"Get used to it. I'll help you with it." Harumi winked at him.
Sorry, if this is quite short. Out of the blue, I had decided to write a one-shot about Zaizen. It was suppposed to be Shiraishi's, but something distracted me invisibly and told me that it would be Zaizen's one-shot fic. Anyways, this is still part of my one-shot song fic project. All inspired from Jonas Brother's 'Lovebug'. AND, Reviews were greatly appreciated - and please do!
