Chapter 4

Mai took a deep breath, desperately praying to pass the retake exam, even if only to escape having to spend extra time with the permanently grouchy Kana-sensei.

After spending the last two weeks studying hard, and now especially after that interaction with a certain narcissist during lunch time, her nerves felt shot and she just wanted to go get it over with, go home, and recuperate her energy. She looked forward to her weekend, of finally having a chance to do her chores, catching up on her shows, and spending some time with Keiko and Michiru, something they haven't done as much since starting high school. She grabbed her things and trudged out of the room along with her classmates.

Keiko hoisted her bag higher up on her shoulder as she turned to her friends and excitedly cried, "I heard there's this really cute cafe that opened up recently, nearby the park we used to go to!"

"The one that replaced the yogurt place?" Mai asked.

"Yeah, that one!"

Michiru was skeptical. "A cafe on that spot? But wasn't that place too small?"

"Yep. But they made some renovations and now there is an open-air patio up front. I heard it's this foreign fancy looking place now. We should go check it out!"

Both Mai and Michiru agreed to the idea.

The trio soon reached the bottom floor and parted near the walkway leading to the gym, making up their minds to meet up around lunch time for their outing the next day. The two wished her good luck before disappearing out of sight. Mai exited the building and briefly wondered if the tennis club would be right in the middle of practice right now.

"Eh?" she thought to herself. "Why did I suddenly think about the tennis club?" She shook her head. "I wonder if someone like me could even play? Oh well, I'll think about that later..."

She halted her tracks and let a group of boys jog past her. They were wearing the dark navy blue jersey that she knew now, belonged to the boys' tennis team. It looked like they were doing laps around the entire school ground, so the rest of the team must have either pulled ahead or were left behind. She did not recognize any of the boys, except the tall scrawny looking kid with cropped blonde hair and black-rimmed glasses. He was one of her classmates, Kashima, if her memory served her correctly, but she had never spoken a word to him before. Mai stored this information in her head and tentatively planned to speak with him the next time they see each other so she can ask a bit more about tennis.

"But right now I need to focus on the test. Then after that I can relax and enjoy myself... maybe finally watch that drama Keiko's been gushing about."

-00000-

His breathing was just slightly labored. Oliver noticed that once again, though it wasn't blatantly obvious, the ball conveniently landed at a spot a few steps away from him, always just within his reach. He narrowed his eyes and lobbed it back deep toward one corner of the baseline, forcing their opponent, Yasuhara, scrambling to his feet to get to it.

"Up, Gene! Move up to the net with me!" he ordered and the two of them ran up, but Oliver's knee injury put him a fraction of a second behind his brother, accidentally creating a small opening.

Yasuhara's eyes instantly zeroed in on the spot just off to the right of Oliver where a slight chink in their intimidating attack presented itself, but the well-placed shot had put him in a bad position. He was only able to reply to the attack using his much weaker backhand, and coupled with his slight hesitation, ended up feeding the ball cross-court straight to Gene, who eagerly eyed the ball like a cat waiting to pounce on its prey.

A nice clean hit promptly shot the ball back in a sick angle, too impossible for Yasuhara (or anybody, really) to save.

"And that's game, Yasu! Three-to-six, our win!" Gene gloated.

The poor boy had to pause for a bit to catch his breath. With a semi-forlorn sigh, Yasuhara ran up to his friends for the obligatory after-game handshake, before plopping down on the bench to grab a towel from his bag. He rubbed his head vigorously to dry off his sweaty hair.

"I just really can't take these 'two-v-one' matches you seem to love, Boss. I'm already at a disadvantage in a singles match. This is just cruelty."

Oliver rolled his eyes and set his racket down gently, grabbing a sports drink from his bag and after taking a gulp, replied in an accusatory way, "If you would just attack like you meant it, you'd have a better chance."

Yasuhara blinked. He only hesitated for a split second- had Oliver really noticed that?

"Wow. You're like... so godlike," he murmured with awe. A look of exasperation and mounting impatience was quickly forming in Oliver's demeanor that Yasuhara immediately apologized. "Sorry, but to be honest you did get me good there."

"It wasn't just that point. Why haven't you been relentlessly attacking my side? You were purposefully aiming for the ball to land within my reach. Although as annoying as it is to admit, your precision, at least, is astounding. If you aimed to hit the ball wider or shorter, I would have had a hard time catching up to it. Always attack the weaker opponent. You know that."

Yasuhara deadpanned, "But you're hurt."

"Your point?"

"My point is that going after you in that state would just be plain cruel, and cruelty is not in my chivalrous nature."

Cue more eye-rolling from Oliver.

"Okay take it seriously next time, Yasu," Gene suddenly piped up, much to Oliver and Yasuhara's surprise. He insisted with a cocky, confident grin, "Really, hit the ball to wherever it makes tactful sense for you without regard to Noll. If he can't get it, I'll definitely be there to return. I need to work on my stamina so I can become more reliable for my partners."

Yasuhara whistled. "Way to be cool, Eugene-san."

"Your sarcasm is duly noted, Yasu-chan, but mark my words: I will run you to the ground."

"Say it again, this time with more feeling so I shiver in anticipation."

"Your sarcasm is duly noted, Yasu-chan, but mark my words: I will run you to the ground. How was that?"

Yasuhara clenched his fist in victory and gave him the a-okay sign.

Oliver groaned in disgust and frowned at this sickening banter. It was a miracle that the park was still empty at this time despite already being eleven in the morning on a Saturday, otherwise Oliver was sure their asinine behavior would have attracted unwanted attention.

He took the tennis balls out of his pocket and handed them off to Gene, hoping to put a stop their idiocy before it could annoy him further. "I'm going to head out a bit to buy something. You both can rally while I'm gone."

"Can you buy me something sweet to eat? There's a nice cafe just across the street."

"Would you care to share? It's only fair."

"Shut up, Yasu. Anyway peanut butter and banana crepe or something should be good."

Gene knelt down and started digging around his bag for his wallet. Oliver's eye twitched, feeling irrationally annoyed at how unkempt his brother's bag was, and eyed him disdainfully as he started handing him some bills.

Yasuhara casually draped an arm around Gene and chirped, "I'd sweetly ask you to spot me, but if I remember correctly you still owe me five bucks. I think crepe sounds good, too."

Gene groaned and handed Oliver more bills.

Yasuhara then turned to Oliver and offered, "How about Gene and I play a real singles match? That way you can rest completely and we can both work on our game stamina. I'll make pretty boy run all over the place so he won't have the energy to gloat further." He smirked as Gene glared up at him lazily behind his long lashes.

"You keep referring to me as 'pretty boy' in front of Noll, but you know we have the same face, right? It just doesn't really have the same effect."

"Do you have a problem being praised as 'pretty'? What other alias would you prefer, Eugene-san? Handsome? Hottie? Hunk?"

Gene placed a finger on his chin, pouting his lips as if deep in thought. With a playful laugh, he decided, "Let's settle with 'hunk'. I like that. Seems macho."

Oliver exhaled sharply in annoyance before turning on his heel, angrily muttering how he didn't care for any of their stupidities. He heard Gene whine about how much of a prude he was, while Yasuhara gave some witty quip, but he no longer paid them any heed as he slammed the gate behind him.

He neatly folded the cash in his hand and stuffed it in his own wallet, and then scanned the area. Across the street was the cafe Gene must have been speaking of. Truthfully Oliver had hoped to take a walk to the nearby convenience store to grab a can of cold tea, but figured if he was going to the cafe anyway, then he might as well just get his drink there. He absentmindedly massaged his aching forearm.

After looking both ways and ensuring there was no oncoming traffic, he crossed the street and headed for the small shop.

It was a small place, with only two sets of table inside; the rest of the seating area was outside in the patio. The menu was listed on a standing board right by the entrance, currently being studied intently by a girl. He saw that the menu was written entirely in English, with some of their more exotic dishes having French names. He waited for several minutes, giving her a polite amount of time to make a decision.

"Mot-tcha... mat-tchi-ato? Motcha matchi? What the heck does this mean? Ah, could this drink be matcha flavor? I wanted to try coffee though, is there matcha flavored coffee now? Why does this have to be in English?"

Hearing her getting nowhere with her decisions, Oliver's patience was quickly running thin. He leaned over behind her and asked politely, "Excuse me Miss, are you in line?"

When she turned around she let out "Gwa!" in a yelp of surprise and they both froze.

Oliver narrowed his eyes and echoed in his head, "'Gwa'? Why did the girl keep making ridiculous guttural noises like an animal?"

Then out loud he commented dryly, "Oh, it's you."

Mai couldn't believe it. Why did the boy keep showing up everywhere? It was her day off, for crying out loud! And why did he sound so condescending when he said, 'Oh, it's you'?

"W-what are you doing here?" she sputtered.

He sighed noisily and ignored her inane question, thinking that he didn't have much energy to spare in addressing something so simple.

He was about to change the topic when the girl suddenly blurted out, "Maybe you should ice it? Your elbow, I mean," gesturing to his right arm.

Oliver immediately let go of his arm and placed both his hands in either of his pockets. Earlier when she surprised him, he had inadvertently clutched his elbow harder than he intended, which made his eye twitch slightly from the sudden sharp pain. Had she seen that? If so, then she was pretty observant. Choosing to deflect the question, he instead responded by poking her with, "Are you really that bad in English?"

She glared at him in irritation, her past failure and recent English exam first and foremost in her mind, and she retorted sharply, "Excuse me, please just mind your own business. And why do you always seem to pop up everywhere now, anyway? Are you stalking me?"

Oliver raised a brow, completely taken aback by this outburst. "Stalking you? Why in the world would you think I'd even be interested in you to consider that?"

His completely honest and blunt delivery just flustered Mai even more. Then to answer her question, he just simply pointed to the courts behind him with his thumb.

To Mai's surprise, she understood his wordless action to mean that he had been practicing in the nearby courts for some time and now that he's hungry, he's come to the nearby cafe to replenish his energy. She formed an 'o' with her mouth and nodded.

Then just to make sure he didn't misunderstand anything, she emphasized, "I'm not trying to stalk you either, just for your information. I got here before my friends did so I'm trying to order a drink while I wait." She was annoyed, though not surprised, that he didn't seem to even be listening to her now.

Before she could say anything else, he said slowly, enunciating each syllable properly, "Marble mocha macchiato."

When she gave him a dazed look, he sighed and explained curtly, "The words you butchered before. I would say I thought it was hilarious, but I don't have a warped sense of humor-" here Mai courageously interjected a quiet 'if at all', which caused him to glare at her but he continued on, "It's an espresso drink. Not matcha." Then he just simply walked away from her and headed toward the counter.

Mai rolled her eyes and heard him order tea and several crepe varieties, and she was struck by the thought of how he didn't really look like the sweet-type at all. She almost laughed at her pun as she watched him walk away without saying anything to her after receiving his order. Then she went up to the counter and ordered, the foreign words rolling off her tongue awkwardly, but at least she was sure she pronounced them properly.

-000-

Oliver waited for the point to finish before he reentered the courts. He walked over to their bench and set the boxes down, sipping his iced Earl Grey tea while watching Gene and Yasuhara walk up to him with weary expressions. After a gulp of his drink, he scoffed inwardly in distaste. He had asked for it to be unsweetened, knowing that these type of places usually pile on the syrup, but the tea by itself really wasn't high quality at all. It was- crudely put- total shit, and for four bucks, definitely criminal.

"Did you already finish the game?" he asked the two of them.

His brother answered quickly, "It's only changeover, but I'm really hungry now. Can we eat first?"

"Eugene-san, are you just trying to run away from our match? That's not very macho at all," Yasuhara teased, placing a hand on Gene's shoulder and studying him with a glint on his glasses.

The boy scoffed and slapped his friend's hand away. "Yasu, score's only one-to-two, you don't get to be smug about it. We still have a long way to go so don't act like you've already won, you ass. We've been playing nonstop since nine and I run a lot more than you, so I'm beat. Let me eat."

"Changeovers are only 90 seconds you know. Will you cheat and still eat?"

"Yasu!"

"Well don't force it, you can always forfeit."

"Yasuhara!"

Oliver blocked out the rest of their banter and instead found himself looking over to a spot across the street, where a certain auburn-haired girl was chatting animatedly with who he figured were the friends she spoke of.