Chapter 3

Ten minutes before his alarm was even due to ring, Oliver jerked awake to a loud clatter. When he opened his eyes, he was painfully assaulted by his bright overhead fluorescent light, and to his right, Gene's string of curses before finishing it up with an unapologetic, 'whoops!' A mounting irritation bubbled up at the back of his head, knowing there was really no reason to him having been disturbed from his slumber other than the fact that his idiotic twin just wanted to pester him.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance and shut his eyes back with a scowl, pulling his blanket up to his chin and turned his body to face the wall.

"I've made it so my uniform is easily accessed, so there's really no reason for you to make such a goddamn mess in there. How do you even manage to go through your own set?" he grumbled, his voice still raspy from sleep.

Gene just waved him off flippantly and didn't even bother facing him. "Oh yeah, I'm also borrowing socks, Noll, k?"

"Go away."

Gene only laughed. Once he found what he was looking for, he folded the garments against his chest and sauntered cheerily toward the door. "Want me to shut the lights?"

"As if I can go back to bed again after all this."

"Okay, I'll leave them on then. I get to shower first today so you go help Luella with breakfast." Oliver rolled his eyes when Gene clicked his tongue at him and gave him a wink (the idiot had once told him it was deadly when used around girls). With a sigh he rolled out of bed and neatly folded up his blanket, figuring that waking up ten minutes early wasn't as bad as that one time his stupid brother disturbed him a full hour early.

Despite his irritation, he found himself unable to resist an amused smirk from gracing his lips. Eugene had always hated getting into fights with him, and their spat the night before had left both of them with a bad taste in their mouth. After practice they had walked home together in complete silence and never even spoke a word during dinner, which alarmed Martin and Luella. However, they left them to it, no doubt trusting he and Gene would eventually work it out between them as they always do. And they had been correct: their recent interaction was proof of that. Annoying him as usual had always been Gene's solution, his way of pushing disagreements past them and making peace without wasting words, and Oliver was glad for it. He really couldn't handle the idea of having to talk problems over and being all sappy about it.

-000-

As soon as lunch time started, Gene jumped up from his seat and stretched, groaning in pleasure as his joints popped in place, while Oliver and Yasuhara both stood up with more grace. Oliver told them to go on ahead as he planned to have a short chat with John and Sakauchi from the class next door, and since both Gene and Yasuhara were hungry and itching to get out of the stuffy classroom, they were more than eager to head out.

He followed out after them and branched off toward the classroom next door, unobtrusively poking his head in to search for his teammates. Seeing them engaged in conversation at the far corner, Oliver politely called out to the person nearest him.

"Excuse me, could you please call Brown-san and Sakauchi-san out here?"

The girl he spoke to blushed and nodded earnestly, obediently obliging his request, all the while he maintained the frozen smile on his face. She hung around for a few seconds longer after she brought his teammates out to meet him, but when it became apparent she wasn't receiving anything else after his curt thanks, collapsed dramatically back into her chair. Oliver had to fight hard to keep his eyes from rolling, and as soon as the three of them stepped out in the hallway, dropped his facade.

He immediately began talking to them about an interesting drill that he read about the night before, thinking it would be particularly useful for the duo. Ever enthusiastic, both John and Sakauchi agreed that it sounded good in theory and were looking forward to trying it during practice later that day. By the time they finished, there were only a few people littering the hallway and Oliver excused himself, making his way to meet up with Gene and Yasuhara.

When he got to the second floor, he happened to cross path with her again, although she still hadn't noticed him. He didn't know why his mind automatically decided to store away the fact that she came out of classroom 1-C, but figured his mind would soon discard such an inane factoid anyway and left it at that. The puzzling behavior she exhibited yesterday was still fresh in his mind, but he scoffed at the idea of him walking up to her in order to make small talk.

Unfortunately, his feet betrayed him and began moving on its own toward her and as soon as he realized it, he tried diverting his course, but it was too late. She had turned around and made eye contact, emitting some sound behind her throat that sounded like "Geh!" upon recognizing him, before finally making up her mind to meet him halfway. He had no other choice but to see through his mistake.

She fidgeted and looked at him with her huge eyes. "Oh, i-it's you..."

That's fear, he thought fleetingly. He stopped a few steps away, thinking his towering height (he was already pushing 176 cm) over her puny frame must be putting her ill at ease. Not knowing what to say, he decided with, "You're that girl who bumped into Yasuhara-san."

"Ahh, so he is called Yasuhara-san?"

He didn't reply but instead continued on with his even tone, "You bumped into him because you were running up the stairs at full speed. I hope you are aware of how stupid that, knowing there's a blind corner at the top?"

The girl sighed and looked away, muttering with some hint of annoyance, "Yeah, I know. You called me an idiot then." When he didn't respond, she let out a fake cough. "Anyway, uhm, you never let me thank you properly for that one time-or apologize- I'm not quite sure which exactly you needed from me," she stated, her voice steadily gaining confidence, "I'm not sure which one you want from me, but I at least want to thank you. I figure I would have gotten quite hurt if it weren't for you. So before you run away again, I just want to clearly thanks, alright?"

Oliver clenched his jaw on one side, curiosity definitely piqued. What had happened? Her previous fear was obviously gone now as she was being quite feisty at the moment.

He found her attitude perplexing. When he saved her he had completely operated by instinct, then suddenly pushed her shaken form away after realizing what he had done. Based on previous experience, he believed the act would somehow make the girl think of him as her savior and attach herself to him in the future, so he decided to cut that short. Seeing her at the courts yesterday made him think the girl really did end up falling for him and he was ready to shut her down completely, but she had just simply walked away not saying anything. Curiously enough, meeting her by chance today she had looked at him and said 'geh'. That was the sound of disgust, wasn't it? Then she was afraid of him and responded to him shyly, then she was friendly, then she got annoyed, then now she was thankful- but not the bashful kind of thankful as he expected. She was haughty. A crease formed on his forehead.

How did this girl's mind operate?

Mai clasped her hands behind her back, hiding her fidgeting fingers out of sight. He was unabashedly staring her down, which flustered her, and it didn't help that he was looking all too hauntingly handsome with his dark grey uniform, neatly pressed, buttoned all the way up to his neck in a very proper and posh way, which complimented his raven hair and piercingly blue eyes. For a few moments, she lost her composure and looked away. But then when he wouldn't read the atmosphere, she became irritated and decided to meet his gaze with a stern look of her own.

Eventually Oliver realized that he didn't particularly like her confidence right now.

"I was aware of you watching me yesterday," he said, voice laced with just a hint of amusement. The blush that quickly took over her face was exactly the response he wanted, but he could have done without her silent imitation of a feeding fish. He cocked his head to the side, "At first I thought you might have been a spy from another school trying to see what our team was up to-" though of course this was a lie since he had known it was her from the very beginning, "-but I realized my mistake. It's unlikely someone like you could be entrusted with recon." He watched in amusement as she balled up her tiny fists and practically smoked in anger.

"Someone like me?" she tried to repeat calmly. Mai clenched her fists. She was going to show him how someone like her could shut his arrogant mouth. However, remembering that she did owe him one, she decided she'd let this slide. She took a deep breath and plastered on a smile. "Yeah, I just happened to stop by and stayed to check out what was going on. I was curious since a number of people had told me our tennis team is actually really strong. I haven't really watched anyone play tennis before so I have no reference point, but you looked really cool and strong yesterday. That's great, isn't it? You get to be handsome and sporty."

She mentally rejoiced when she saw he was slightly thrown off by what she said. Apparently talking back to him in a friendly manner comes as a surprise to him. Just how much of an asshole was the guy usually?

Oliver stared at her blankly and asked with an air of nonchalance, "You think I'm handsome and sporty?"

Mai twitched, taken aback, turning a dark shade of red and stammered, "W-well, you're definitely sporty I think, since your reflex was really fast when you grabbed me, and well... you do play in a strong team. And everyone in my class says you're handsome, so that must be true." It angered her that the more flustered she became, the more composed he got. He was definitely smirking at her now.

"...Is that so?" He looked her over, up and down. "Then you have good taste." He turned around and walked away without any other word.

Mai was left there standing, eyes bugged out as she watched him disappear behind a corner, completely stunned at his smugness.

So what, he just decided he'd saunter up to her, corner her into having a conversation, practically beg to be complimented, and then act like it's no big deal as if him being handsome and sporty are just simple, hard truths?

She most definitely didn't want anything further to do with him if she could help it. Nope, she most definitely didn't need to get acquainted with such a narcissistic asshole in her life.