Yay! A new chapter at a decent time! Thank you for all that are reading this, and a huge thanks to those who added me on their favorites/follows, and another huge thanks to the people that reviewed! You guys are amazing 3
Megumi stayed her usual self and kept quiet on the way home. There were a few exchanges between Niou and her, but she simply lost the energy to keep up with any conversation. He seemed to be more on the quieter side too, but she had assumed he was just tired from practice. His hair was sticking out of places, slouched heavier than earlier in the day, and spots of sweat cleaned out some dirt on his face. She started to daze out and tried to remember what Sanada had been yelling at her about. There was so much, and it had been a couple years since she was last yelled at like this. It was refreshing, but since she had no interest in what he was saying, she could barely take any information in. And Yukimura. She still couldn't remember who he was, or where she had seen him before. The rest of the team members' names were a lost cause to her at this point.
"Hey, you're gonna trip if you don't look where you're going." He said to her.
"What?" She woke up and refreshed her eyes.
"You've just been looking lost and confused so I figured you weren't paying attention to your surroundings."
"It's never been a problem before."
"Well, you never know when a kidnapper has its eyes on you. Or me." He stretched his back.
"Oh, kidnap me and take me to the house across from mine? What a crime." She scoffed. She saw him roll his eyes, and was confused about why he didn't retort. Brushing it off, they continued quietly until they reached home. She couldn't tell if there was something on his mind, or if he just didn't feel like talking. A way to ask wouldn't form in her head. She had forgotten how to simply take interest in anyone else's life.
'Selfish much?' she asked herself. A small sigh let out as they reached their homes. She turned to enter hers, but he stepped in front of her.
"Yes?" she asked, not knowing what he was up to. His eyes turned up, his response came out late.
"Oh, I'm not sure. I just wanted to see your face when you're not freaked out for once."
"What?" she wasn't sure what he was aiming for.
"Don't worry about it. I'll see you tomorrow." He pat her head and walked to his home. She turned her head in confusion.
"And I know I'm hot, but it'd be nice if you'd stop staring." He said loudly, without even turning to look at her.
"Be careful, Megumi," he pointed to the back of his head, "I've got eyes everywhere."
She was speechless, just realizing she'd just been staring at him the whole way home. Her face flushed red and she rushed inside. No one was home, so she went straight to her room. She had hoped Niou didn't think she didn't want to talk to him. While it hurt to admit, she had no idea about anything regarding tennis. She was the least qualified person to manage anything for that team. She pulled out her phone and searched "basic tennis rules". All search results were too long for her to read. She lay down and browsed her phone for a while longer. Her brothers had come home one by one, but she couldn't find a will to leave her bed and have a conversation. A knock came to her door and she still couldn't find it.
"Hey-! Are you alive?" one of them joked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She said loud enough for him to hear. He continued to knock obnoxiously, meaning she had to prove it. She opened the door to a sneering Satoshi.
"I'm fine." She repeated and tried to close the door.
"Come eat with us, dad's out for a few days this week." He said nicely while strongly gripping the door.
"I'm tired and not hungry." Which happened to be true this time.
"I don't care. I don't want you to die so," he started, but Megumi cut him off by walking past him before he finished.
"Woah it only took that much? What happened today?" he asked, putting his hands on her shoulders.
"Nothing, I just want you to stop talking to me." She shrugged them off. In the living room was everyone else sitting in front of the television watching baseball. Realizing watching that wouldn't help, Megumi took a seat at the table and took her phone out again. Kenichi walked over and sat in front of her.
"Hiroki should be coming by sometime this month." He said softly. Her face lifted up, making her excited. Being the oldest one of the five of them, he was her secret favorite, and hadn't seen him in half a year.
"That's exciting." She kept a small smile to herself.
"Only because he actually likes you. He's just going to yell at me when he sees me." Hiroshi, the youngest of the brothers said. Megumi sighed and wished it wasn't true.
"Doesn't matter. Megumi, can we talk for a second?" Kenichi asked. She shut her eyes, knowing what was coming. Talking about anything that had to do with her health was the last thing she wanted to do.
"It's about that boy, from the Niou family across the street." He said calmly. Her head shot up in surprise.
"What about him?" she asked immediately. The house fell silent except the commentary of the game. The response was too unexpected and oddly cheerful to them. Satoshi and Hiroshi stood up and surrounded Megumi's seat. She made eye contact with each of them, and they were all prepared with interrogation questions.
"How'd you meet him?"
"How long have you two been friends?"
"Do you guys walk home together now?"
"Is he following you?"
"Why him? He's lanky."
She couldn't tell which question came from who, or even the answer to most of them. She waited for them to yell everything out before she tried to say anything. She realized the doorbell had rung twice.
"Hey, I'm gonna get that." She said and tried to stand up.
"I'll do it!" Kenichi shouted and ran to the door. Megumi had some hope that it was Hiroki and he came earlier as a surprise.
"YOU!" she heard Keichi yell. She leaned to take a look at the door and it turned out to be none other than Masa. The two made eye contact and he gave a small wave. He was completely changed out of his tennis clothes, and was just wearing sweats and a simple long sleeve.
"Hey, sorry to bother you, but could I see Megumi for a bit?" he asked nonchalantly. Megumi saw smoke coming out of Kenichi's head as he was boiling with frustration.
"You're using her name without any honorifics? And you look sloppy as hell." he gritted through his teeth.
"If you have a problem with dropping those too early, you'll have to have that conversation with her first. She just calls me Masa and I'm a year above her. And as for the clothes, I'm not sure what I can say other than the fact that I'm just feeling a little lazy." He shrugged.
Megumi wished she could deny that she called him Masa since her father actually is strict about honorifics, but figured that conversation would come at another time.
"Oh, and to answer your questions from earlier," Niou started and cleared his throat, "we met on the roof of the school since she seemed to be having a bad day. I'm assuming you know what that means when it comes to Megumi. Oh, sorry, Megumi-san, and it was just two days ago that we met so about a day and a half that we'd been friends; in my opinion, probably not hers. We live across the street from each other and now that she's kind of becoming friends with my friends on the tennis team, it's not so weird that we walk home together. That answers the question of if I'm following her or not. And last but not least, she hasn't exactly 'chosen' me for anything, so me being lanky isn't that much of a problem."
The all the boys were silent as they took in everything he said and couldn't decide if they should be angry or not. Niou was standing with his hands in his pockets simply waiting for some kind of response. Megumi slowly stood up from her seat and walked to the door to meet him. She softly put her hand on Kenichi's.
"I'm going to let him in, okay? I'm fine." She said reassuringly, and he stepped away from the door. The three brothers grouped up and sat on the couch together, still not saying anything. Niou leaned closer to Megumi, making sure no one was watching them.
"So, is it okay to come in for a bit?" he whispered. Megumi nodded and closed the door behind him. Not knowing what room to head to, she led him to the kitchen which was a good enough distance for some privacy without letting him in her room. They both took a seat, and Megumi continuously kept an eye on her brothers. She turned her eyes to Niou who was looking in her direction as well.
"So, why are you here?" she asked suddenly, keeping her voice down.
"We didn't talk much on our way home today and I got bored." He plainly said. Megumi tilted her head and squinted her eyes.
"Why come here though? Don't you have homework or anything?"
"Homework can always be done before I go to sleep, so no need to worry about that right now. And I'm pretty tired of my siblings right now, so I thought I'd come hang out with you." He gave an honest smile. Megumi still couldn't comprehend it. She could feel the heat in her face that had been burning ever since he appeared by the door. There had to be a catch for this interaction, and she couldn't figure it out.
"Hey, I've got a question. Why are you still in your uniform?" he interrupted her thoughts.
"Hm?" she looked down at her clothes. She sighed as she didn't want to give the true answer.
"Not sure, I'm just feeling lazy too I guess. You look cleaner than earlier." She threw a new subject at him. He didn't seem to be thrown off by her answer and kept up with the conversation.
"Yeah, I showered and everything so all that tennis sweat is gone. Oh, that reminds me. I know tomorrow's Saturday, but we still have practice. Sunday too. You don't have to come, but it'd be cool if you do."
"It's more surprising when a Rikkai team doesn't practice weekends." She rolled her eyes.
"No, it's fucked up and it should be illegal." He argued. Megumi shrugged and didn't bother to argue back. She thought about the weekend practice and wondered if there would be any benefit for her going.
"But like I said, you don't have to if you don't want to. But weekends can be fun since Akaya gets yelled at a lot and you can watch Sanada's vein be close to popping."
"I saw that enough today and it was toward me. I feel like it'd be better for you guys that I just don't show up."
"Yeah you really don't know a thing about tennis." He laughed, and Megumi broke eye contact.
"But today was fun. Bunta and Yagyuu thought so too." He poked her shoulder. She looked at his finger and down her own arm to make sure nothing was visible.
"Okay, which one is pink hair again?" she asked and pulled her arm away.
"Pink is Yagyuu." He smiled.
"Oh okay." She said, unsure if he was telling the truth or not. She started noticing that her brothers had started to turn their heads every few seconds to watch them. Niou turned to look back at them, and back to Megumi.
"Are they okay?" he asked, looking honestly confused. Megumi wasn't sure how to properly answer since she didn't know if they were either. They've never blown up at her like this or even acted this strange about anything.
"Do you want to come over to my house? It might be less weird."
"No!" the three exclaimed. Megumi and Niou drew their head back in surprise.
"Okay, cool, maybe another time then." He rolled his eyes. Megumi felt bad that he was repeatedly getting yelled at, and wished her brothers would stop.
"Hey, I hate to be a dick, but are they why you don't have friends?" he said. Her eyes grew large in embarrassment and surprise at the question. It was something she never thought of, and she began to grow angry.
"What did you just ask me?" she said quietly, not wanting to look at him.
"I don't know-,"
"Exactly, you don't know anything about me. So stop asking these personal things as if we're friends. Just stop." She scoffed.
"Yeah, only two days of knowing her?" Kenichi stood up and walked toward her. Megumi got up herself and stood in front of him.
"You, Hiroshi and Satoshi. Get out. I don't want you around me right now." She looked at him dead in the eye.
"Why? I'm trying to help you." He said and tried to hug her. She pushed him away and took a deep breath.
"Just please. Leave me alone right now." She said. Satoshi pulled Kenichi away, and the three went to their rooms. She held her head, not knowing why she suddenly blew up. Pacing around to try to calm down, she bumped in to Niou, who she had somehow forgotten was there. She lifted her head to look at him, and hung it immediately after. She didn't want him to see her cry today, so she held her head down.
"Hey, I'm sorry I said that. I uh, I didn't know that would happen." He said quietly. She shook her head, feeling horrible for what had just happened.
"Um, it's… it's okay." She said and held her tears in. After blinking a couple times to make sure nothing fell out, she held her head back up. He was smiling softly and placed his hand on her hair.
"I'll leave now, I know you're going to tell me that you need to be alone too."
"Yeah. Sorry my brothers were kind of crazy though. It's probably the reason why I don't have any guy friends." She said.
"Well now you've got at least six, so they'll have to get used to it." He said excitedly. He pulled his phone out and handed it to her.
"Just put your number in so that next time, I can give you a heads up of when I'm coming over, and so I can annoy you even if I'm not with you."
Megumi stared at the phone for too long. After taking it in her own hand, she pulled her own phone out. It had been years since she had been asked for her phone number, so she actually forgot what it was.
"How many prank calls from you should I expect?" she asked.
"Hmm… I'm thinking two a week for now." He said. Megumi sighed, and had mixed feelings of the moment. She had just assumed that it was for emergency or tennis reasons that he needed the number, in order to not grow attached.
"Anyway, I'll get going. Like I said, you don't have to come tomorrow, but you should. It'll be fun, and it'll keep you from dying." He started patting her hair.
"Oh shut up and go home." She ducked away. He laughed as he walked to the door.
"I'll miss you~." He said, and she closed the door on him to get him out. She used the back of her hands to cool her face down, and took deep breaths. She knew for sure that was a pure joke.
She looked around the house and realized her brothers were still in their rooms. She was still too jittery from before to go apologize to them, so she went to her room. Her phone buzzed out of nowhere, causing her to fling out of her hands in surprise. It landed on the floor, and she crouched down to see what the notification was for. It was a message from an unknown number. She turned the phone to silent, since she had work to do and she knew how long it would take.
The cabinet with her night clothes had been decorated with her drawings of when she was younger than seven. She took a look at each one of herself, wondering where her always smiling self went. With a sigh, she pulled out a few clothes, and lay them on her bed. She closed the curtains and made sure the door was locked. She drew a breath and pulled her shirt and skirt off. Before reaching for the clothes to switch in to, she turned to look at herself in just underwear. Red, tan, white, and blue lines ran all throughout her arms, belly, ribs and thighs. She nicked at a few scabs and burn marks, as some happened to only be a few days old. She turned to look at her back that was bare, and reminded herself of what her skin originally looked like. Then she noticed the small bulges by the band of her underwear and bra and saw the marks of her trying to cut them off. She tugged at them and wondered why they never disappeared. She looked at her pale face, wishing her own reflection would stop making her cry, but rather explain why she always does. She bit her lip and finally turned away to put her clothes on.
After lying in bed in silence for a while, she remembered that there was a message that came for her. She grabbed her phone from the floor and saw that she had new messages from five new numbers.
"Hey! It's Marui Bunta! Niou gave me your phone number, so here's mine! Talk to me any time!"
"Hello, I'm Yagyuu Hiroshi, Niou-kun's friend and teammate. He happened to give me your phone number and I thought you should know that it was given to me by him. If you ever need anything, never hesitate to ask. –Yagyuu."
"Hey, it's Jackal. Do you know Niou's passing your number around to us? Just thought you might want to know… good luck."
"Niou gave me your number. Do you understand the third problem on the math homework? Oh, this is Kirihara btw."
Megumi was overwhelmed at the count of people messaging her. She wasn't sure if it was too late to reply so she left the messages alone. After scrolling through each one again, there was one she realized she hadn't opened.
"It's kind of rude for you to slam the door in my face, but I guess I deserve that much for today. Stay alive~. –Niou." She read that message over and over, growing warm.
'It wasn't just for tennis.' She thought and a small smile grew on her face.
