Chapter Four: First Worries

"Good match." Kirihara said. Kirihara said with a kind smile.

"There's something different about you," Marui remarked casually.

He cocked an eyebrow. What was different about him? Kirihara didn't know what to say to that and instead, appeared confused.

The best response he could come up with was: "Things have been going well. That's all." He shrugged his shoulders, not finding this as big of a deal as Marui seemed to think.

"…well, in what?"

Kirihara didn't get the sudden interest in his personal life. It was actually creeping him out how interested his senpai was. But he couldn't help thinking about Hiyoshi. That was going well.

He remembered how they walked down empty sidewalk, hand-in-hand. Hardly anyone passed by so neither of them felt embarrassed to be showing affection out in public. They talked about whatever came to mind. It was relaxing and Kirihara got to know more about Hiyoshi.

"Just… everything," was Kirihara's response. And he knew it was bullshit.

Marui-senpai didn't say anything though and simply popped the green apple bubble he had blown up. When the silence between them got longer, he smiled and patted Kirihara's shoulder before walking off to meet with his Brazilian partner.

Again, Kirihara wondered what was going on with his senpai, only to shake his head and push the thought aside. It was probably nothing.

He strode over to his tennis bag and glanced around in case Sanada was watching. Well, the vice captain was engrossed in an intense "rally" with the captain, so the coast was clear.

He slipped his phone out and quickly checked his notifications.

Just a missed call from his mom and there was nothing else.

Where did he go wrong? The teen wanted to ask that question out loud, but he had an idea of what his seniors would say. They would ask what the hell he did this time.

But why hadn't Hiyoshi texted? They had each other's phone numbers long before the date; they already had their date. Wasn't this the part where couples did… whatever the fuck couples did? Like texting?

Before he could dwell on this any longer, Sanada shouted at him to get his ass back on the courts.

"Yikes…" Kirihara hastily zipped his phone back in his bag. "Hai, fukubuchou!"

When he hit the showers after practice, Kirihara hoped Hiyoshi was just busy with practice and school. That had to be why there was no contact, right? He thought back towards the end of their date. Hiyoshi's home was closer, so they walked to his doorstep. Kirihara remembered telling him to text him whenever now that they were a couple.

They were a couple. He strained against his self-doubt. They were a couple; it was official. They were.

He sighed as he turned the handle for the shower to turn off. Maybe he should call him. After all, Hiyoshi was the one who asked him out first. It was time Kirihara stepped up and made the first move, or rather, the follow-up.

"Akaya, you sighed," Renji stated in his usual matter-of-fact tone.

Quickly, he glanced around the lockers for anyone else and hoped it was just them. Kirihara really didn't want to deal with him; however, he responded back with, "So what?"

"Is there anything wrong?"

He was silent while he rubbed his curly hair with a towel. Over the years, Kirihara grew less and less… dense. Well, there was the hope. He became more aware of his seniors' antics since he was the kouhai, but he never could figure out Renji sometimes.

"How was your date? You never mentioned it after you asked." Renji started going on and on. "It's been exactly three weeks, ten hours, and 21 minutes as a matter of fact."

Okay, that was borderline creepy, except Kirihara knew he meant well. He did come to his mentor for advice after all.

"It went well." He tossed his towel into his bag.

"But?" His senpai asked after adding, "95% of the time, there always is a 'but' statement."

"But we haven't talked since then. But we are a couple now. …right? That's how it works? I didn't get any rejection or was told that we shouldn't see each other anymore."

"Did you do anything weird?"

Kirihara looked hurt for a moment. "What would I do that's weird?" Before his senpai could rattle off the list, he hastily added in, "Don't answer that."

He thought back to that night and how it started off awkward.

Hiyoshi was awkward, the complete opposite of himself. The guy was always so calm to the point it annoyed Kirihara back then. It was like that when they had their first tennis match together; Hiyoshi actually gave him a hard time even in Bloodshot Mode. The bastard could even smirk about it.

That made Kirihara smile to himself. Even before Hiyoshi asked him out, he had these little thoughts and feelings about him.

Back to recalling the first date though, where did that Hiyoshi go? Kirihara believed he fucked up somewhere, and he never knew when he fucked up until told so. No one was going to ever knew how scared he was when Hiyoshi said, "This isn't what I wanted." Well, Hiyoshi probably guessed that when he started babbling like an idiot.

"I did babble somewhat." Kirihara admitted half-heartedly. "Think that's a problem?"

His senpai shook his head. "Hardly. You babble all the time."

He couldn't tell if that was a compliment or an unfortunate fact; Renji was mysterious like that. Okay, if babbling wasn't the problem, then what was?

"If you're called cute, you can call them cute too. True or false?"

The motion of the data genius opening and then closing his mouth was enough for Kirihara to figure that was a bad thing. In his defense, he couldn't help it if Hiyoshi was blushing every so often. And he really was being cute.

"I guess that's it right there." The teen started packing up before it got too late. They had been talking here for a while.

"Akaya," Renji called out to him before Kirihara reached the door. "It's becoming evident that I'm not an expert in romance. Also, I'm not your partner. Take this into 25% consideration: It would be practical to ask if you're uncertain."

"Why didn't I think of that?" Kirihara broke out into a smile. "That should be easy."

No, no, this wasn't easy at all. Sending one fucking text was the hardest thing he had done by far, much harder than learning English grammar.

"Hey

(・・)

was the first date that bad?"

His first draft was done and ready to be sent. Pressing the send button would get this issue out of the way, except… he couldn't press it.

He had been lying on the couch in the living room, TV on and feet on the armrest. His late night show hardly registered his attention because this text was way more important. Maybe the question was too forward although that was Kirihara's purpose. There could be other ways to word this, so Hiyoshi wouldn't get mad at him.

"Maybe if I do it like this…" He tapped his fingers against the keyboard until his message now read: "Hey, we are dating, right?" But then, his finger found the back space button and he erased it all except the greeting. "Okay… how about…"

"Are you watching TV or not?" His older sister stood over him, hands on her hips.

"It's on, so obviously," Kirihara said with a snort.

"Uh huh…" She seemed to leave until her hand snatched up his phone. Quickly, Ayane moved to the other side of the room before her brother could take the phone back. "Who's 'Mushroom Head'?"

"No one," he immediately responded and dove at her.

They ended up on the floor, and they began to wrestle. Height was in the older sister's favor in which she had her arm stretched out, phone in hand, while her free arm fought back her grappling brother.

There was a devious smirk on her face, only one that Ayane could pull off. "Is she important?"

Kirihara lunged forward so all of his weight was on top of his sister. "Not a girl," he growled out.

Making another desperate attempt for the phone, he succeeded this time and rolled off of Ayane. His breath was ragged. His sister always put up a fight even though he would eventually win.

"True, I wouldn't nickname a girl a stupid nickname like that," agreed Ayane after she sat up. "But that's something you would come up with. So what's her name?"

He snapped, "There is no girl. Now leave me alone."

Kirihara got back on his feet and moved away from the pest of a sister. While keeping a cautious, glaring eye on her, he looked at his phone screen and wanted to tackle her down again.

The text ("Hey, what's up? ヾ(＾∇＾)") had been sent.

"Shit…" He said under his breath.

Before he could type in a "My bad, my sister is an idiot," a response popped up. Kirihara's heart leapt out of glee and then sunk from dread. The conversation had been initiated; Hiyoshi had to be expecting a reply.

And with that, he dashed up the stairs while thinking of how to respond to the message: "Tired. Atobe's increased training again."

Kirihara could practically hear his annoyed sigh and felt himself smirk. After throwing himself onto the bed, he quickly texted back.

"Sooooo pretty busy, huh? (・・；)"

"Of course, we have school to worry about too."

Response after response, they updated each other on whatever was going on at school and tennis. Kirihara soon realized that Hiyoshi took care in sending messages with the correct kanji and didn't allow for grammar or spelling mistakes. He noticed that the teen didn't use emoticons either. Niou said to use them because it would make him look cool, except Hiyoshi wasn't the type to try and be cool. And it worked for Hiyoshi.

It was as though Hiyoshi was actually talking to him through the small bright screen. He could hear every sigh and grunt along with imagining those eye rolls and head shakes. No emoticons needed.

He still didn't know if they were actually together though. Well, the conversation should be enough reassurance, right? Hiyoshi was surprisingly a fast replier. He didn't take hours like Sanada who (as rumor had it) wasn't good with cellphones nor like Renji who always had to write out long ass messages.

Time was running out for him after he checked the clock. His heart pounded at the thought of receiving rejection, but Kirihara needed to know.

"Quick question"

"What?"

"We're boyfriends now, right?"

It was the first time Hiyoshi didn't respond within a couple of minutes. Kirihara started panicking and didn't know what to do. Maybe the first date wasn't as good as he thought it was.

"You idiot, of course, we are."

Red instantly flushed into the teen's cheeks and he grinned like the idiot Hiyoshi fondly called him. He wanted to play this off coolly though. No way his boyfriend was going to know how worried he actually was.

"(´꒳`)

Just wanted to see you say it."

The following weekend, Kirihara waited in front of the theater for his boyfriend to arrive. He hummed his favorite song while nodding his head to the beat of it.

When Hiyoshi walked up to him, he punched the humming teen hard in the arm.

Kirihara yelped and before he could get in a word of protest, Hiyoshi took his hand and dragged him into the building.

"That was for asking that stupid question."

The pain in his arm disappeared almost immediately when Kirihara caught the blush on his partner's cheeks. No, he didn't mind getting punched after all.