Chapter 7
Oliver couldn't keep his attention on the lecture. His gaze continually kept being redirected toward the sky outside and his mind was meditatively blank -or so he'd like to think. But in reality, it was more that his mind was racing so fast that he simply was unable to distinguish one thought from another. Zoning out wasn't a problem to him; he was a genius after all, and from whatever little snippet of information that he managed to hear in those short moments of lucidity, he gathered it was material he already knew. It's just that he'd never blatantly acted so disinterested before because it seemed so inelegant. Zoning out was something his idiot brother would do. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly.
Perhaps it would have been more prudent to have gotten the tea instead of the milk, he thought.
Oliver shifted his position and tried to listen to the drone of the teacher once again.
"Another type of intermolecular interactions can arise when a polar molecule's electron cloud shifts and forms temporary positive and negative charges on opposite ends, creating a dipole -"
But before he knew it, his mind was already reeling. This time, he was able to focus on a string of thoughts all relating to their upcoming match. "I need to do a truncated form of my service motion to lessen the burden on my shoulder. Since Gene's stamina is also of concern, it would be best to end our points quickly. Yasuhara-san's play style requires him to gather enough information on his opponent, so making use of heavy top spins and high arcs would be best in order to buy him time. Takigawa-san is aggressive and would most likely intimidate the opponent easily, so his job is simply to make as much of his hits in as possible...
As he passed the time in this manner, he failed to notice that the teacher had already stopped his lecture and had now grouped people up to work on the worksheet he'd provided at the beginning of the class. Oliver tensed up and broke his thoughts when someone tapped his shoulder. He turned around and met the eyes of some girl he did not know the name of. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure if he'd ever seen her before.
"Davis-san? We were partnered up. Should we bring our chairs closer together?" she asked shyly.
"If it would help," he answered in a monotone.
She nodded and scooted her seat closer. The girl smiled at him and proceeded to ask questions regarding the worksheet. Her manner seemed stiff, as if she was deliberately trying to let him know that she was focused on the work, and Oliver thought it was a nice change of pace from the irritating antics their other female classmates usually did around him. Though, he supposes, most of them probably knew by now how cold and insensitive he was when it came to such things, and with Hara-san being around...
He started on the assignment.
The next twenty minutes passed by pleasantly in this manner. She stayed focused on the task at hand, asking intelligent questions he was not averse to answering. Truthfully, he was open to give a lending hand to people if they deserved it.
"Hina-chan, is my brother behaving?"
Oliver spared a glance at the girl across from him. As expected, the girl's demeanor suddenly changed and her focus on their work dissipated. He gave his brother a lazy look and resisted rolling his eyes when he saw that he was smiling brilliantly toward the girl. To his knowledge (and Gene's insistence), no girl had ever been able to resist it, so it wasn't at all surprising that the once behaved and collected girl lost her cool. Shame, she was doing so well.
"Gene-kun! Yes, he's been helping me. What brings you over?"
"Oh, I just have a few questions about the sheet. I'm too dumb to understand all this science-y stuff."
The girl tapped him playfully in the arm and exclaimed, "Oh nonsense! But you're so good in history and language and fine arts!"
"I just like those subjects, that's all. Science is not my forte."
"Heehee! Not mine, either."
"Lies," Gene grinned. "You're already way ahead of me on this worksheet. Seems like you've already got the handle on it."
She blushed deeply and giggled. "No, not at all. Your brother's been explaining it well."
Oliver decided to tune out their flirting and went back to working on his sheet, progressing much more quickly now that he didn't have her slowing him down.
Not that he minded, but he noted the way he was now being casually kept at a distance, being referred to merely as 'Gene's brother' when before she had been fine saying his name. With Gene's arrival, he'd been pushed out of the loop. It was a typical reaction, really. Whenever his better twin arrived, he, the stand-in twin, would always be quickly forgotten and therefore freed from having to conform to the tiresome social mores. It was quite impressive how Gene had managed to continually have this effect on people.
"Would it be okay with you if I borrowed Oliver for a minute?"
"Oh, of course! Go ahead!" she chirped. Oliver had never liked the way that segue was phrased; as if the pumpkin had any say whether or not Gene could interact with him.
"What is it?" he asked listlessly.
"Just a few questions about problem 8," Gene answered. He knelt down beside his brother and placed his chin on the table. "Show me how you solved it."
"Yasuhara-san is your partner. Why don't you ask him?"
The two turned to look at the boy behind them and met his knowing grin. Gene turned to Noll and answered, "He didn't want to share. And because we were also both wondering what got you so affected earlier. Right after lunch, you seemed a bit agitated."
Oliver frowned. He'd been going over the childish spat he had unintentionally been dragged into with the Taniyama girl and was trying to understand how she had managed to provoke him. Had he really been that affected by it?
He chose not to answer his twin and instead changed the direction of their conversation and began explaining the solution to the worksheet problem.
-000-
"What?" Michiru exclaimed, halting in her tracks and grabbing Mai by the shoulders. The trio had been walking side by side, heading towards the tennis courts in order to watch the upcoming match that was scheduled to start in a half hour.
Michiri continued to shake her, "So you're saying that you literally bumped into some guy when running up the stairs (-by the way, why on Earth would you even do that? It's dangerous!). Then ran into him again the next day outside your classroom. Then you met this same guy at the cafe last Saturday and he teased you. Then met up with him again and he ended up making you depressed about school. Then met up with him again during lunch today and pissed you off because he refused to lend you some spare change?"
"Yes. Please stop shaking me, Michiru!"
But her friend didn't stop. "You've been having extensive interactions with some guy from school for the past week and you haven't said a word to us?!"
"Yes. But I am now!" Thankfully, Keiko pried Michiru's hands off her, but Keiko looked just as surprised.
Keiko mused, "It sounds like something out of a romantic comedy! Well so who is this guy?"
"I don't know."
Michiru pressed, "Is he in our year, or upper-classman?"
"I... don't know."
Her two friends sighed in aggravation and asked in unison, "Well what do you know?"
Mai sighed. "Err, just that he's part of the tennis team and that he's an asshole, rude, and incredibly mean, and annoying." Then, sullenly, she also confessed, "He's also kind of handsome, too, I guess. Looks kind of exotic. And he knows it so he's quite narcissistic about it. In fact, I've dubbed him Naru because of it."
Keiko placed a hand on her chin and tried to think of ways to be helpful, whereas in contrast, the boisterous Michiru simply crossed her arms and grinned impishly at Mai's confession. "'Exotic? So you like the mysterious, handsome, bad boy type, huh!"
Mai rolled her eyes and cried exasperatedly, "I do not like him, Michiru! Were you even listening? How could I like someone so mean and off-putting like that! I just conceded that he has a handsome face."
They had arrived at their destination, but the boys team was huddled around their coach in the farther lower courts, possibly going over their tactics for the matches. The opposing team were doing the same thing on the other side of the fence. The three watched silently for a few minutes as the SPR team finished up began to disperse. Then, finally noticing the presence of the water fountain ahead of her, Mai sauntered up to it, gathering her hair up and bunching it up to the side of her face and leaned down to take a much needed drink. She had been so thirsty since lunch time. She had the narcissist to thank for that.
"I only personally know of Bou-san and Lin-san, but I've heard from others that they have several foreigners on the team," Keiko offered helpfully, resuming their previous conversation. "Chika-chan has a crush on one of them. Brown-san. Apparently he is the handsome blonde guy from Australia and he's an upperclassman? I think it's that guy over there. Is it him?"
Mai wiped her mouth and shook her head. "No, that guy looks like a decent human being. And Naru's exotic looks comes from his long lashes and really blue eyes, but he doesn't look like a foreigner..."
"Hafu[1]?" the three of them blurted in unison.
Before she could say anything else, she suddenly stiffened. In front of her, slowly approaching, was the very man himself. Mai clenched her fists and tried to still the bubbling annoyance rising up from her chest. She tried to warn her friends with a hiss, but they didn't hear her as he chose that moment to speak up.
"Excuse me, may I squeeze in to use the fountain behind you ladies?" He smiled at them beautifully.
Both Keiko and Michiru melted under his gaze (and truthfully Mai would have, too, if she didn't know his true nature). She frowned and spat, "Why are you smiling like that? It's creepy!" Somewhere in the back of her mind though, she had to admit she was lying about it being creepy. The smile was actually very handsome.
The boy looked taken aback. "Pardon?"
She harrumphed. "Pretending to be a nice guy when others are present, are you?"
He laughed softly, albeit uncertainly. "Sorry, I really have no idea what you mean by that? Have we met?"
That was it! She stomped her foot angrily. "You are absolutely irritating! Earlier you were adamant that we're strangers (even though we're technically not, even though I have no idea what your name is), and now you're pretending you don't even remember me at all? You're really a world class jerk!" she cried indignantly.
The boy looked genuinely confused, yet despite the girl's growing irritation and impudence, he stayed patient. "I'm really sorry. It seems I've done something...?"
Keiko and Michiru blinked at their friend's rudeness. Then, looking over the boy again, they realized that one: he was handsome, two: he had long lashes, three: he had bright blue eyes, and four: looked Japanese. This must be the guy she's been meeting up with. But one thing was off - he didn't seem to be rude at all. They prudently decided that the best course of action for them was to step away and leave the two to deal with their issues.
"I see Bou-san over there! Let's go, Keiko!"
"Catch you later, Mai!"
And the two sped off.
Mai crossed her arms, half wanting to walk away from him forever, half wanting to vent her pent up frustrations. Now that her friends left, she was also curious to see if he'd finally drop his disgusting princely facade. "They're gone now so you can go back to being your normal asshole self," she spat.
"I don't think I've ever done anything to you to be considered an asshole," he answered mildly. This whole scenario was really beginning to confuse him, but it was also quite amusing. He had never come across someone with such spunk. All the girls he'd interacted with so far had been either mild mannered, or highly enamored with his charms. Could he really have done wrong on the girl? "What have I done to receive such ire from you?"
"As if you don't know!" When he raised a brow, she sighed in exasperation. "I have never met anyone who managed to make me so angry as you do. And I've only met you last week!" She walked up to him and glared. "Do you know how badly I needed that drink? I had a test to take and needed to calm myself down with a nice, tasty drink, but no. I had to meet you during lunch! Would it have killed you to be nice that one time? If I fail that test, it's all on you."
Finally, it clicked. But before Gene could reply, a sharp voice cut through to halt their conversation.
"I don't recommend you spending much time together, given that both of you might just make each other more idiotic than you already are." Gene turned and saw his brother inside the courts, speaking to them through the net fence and clutching an unopened can of tennis balls in his hand. Oliver eyed the two of them with disdain before shrugging his shoulders. "Gene, hurry up. We need to warm up." And with that, he walked away.
Mai's eyes widened. She looked back and forth between the guy who just left and the boy standing in front of her, both having identical faces, and gaped. There was no doubt that the rude newcomer was the narcissist she knew. So who was the person she'd been yelling at for the past few minutes? Her face heated up in shame.
"Jeez, that brat. Always insulting people," Gene muttered. He shook his head and addressed the girl in front of him. "I think you must have confused me for my brother. No worries, it's easy to confuse us. Identical twins and all."
"I- I'm so sorry!" she gasped out and bent her head very low. "I had no idea! I've been yelling at you so rudely and-"
Gene laughed and stopped her. "No, no, it's quite alright."
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!"
"Really, it's alright. Hey wait..." Gene paused, recalling a memory. "You... were you the one who came by the tennis courts the other day and kicked the bucket of balls?"
Mai didn't know she could turn even redder. The blood rushing to her head was already making her quite dizzy. "I... didn't know people saw that..."
"It was you! Hah! That is funny. What has my idiot brother been doing to make you so mad?"
"W-well, he's just said some really rude things..."
"Ah, yes, he's got quite the sharp tongue." Choosing to change gears, he held out his hand. "Sorry, I'm Eugene Davis. Nice to meet you."
"Y-yoo-jin D-devis-u-san" she struggled to pronounce.
Instead of correcting her accent, he simply nodded and elaborated, "Yep. British."
"So they are hafu!" she thought to herself. Recovering her stupor, she responded by shaking his hand and giving a short, polite bow, "I'm Taniyama Mai. Nice to meet you. Sorry again for... you know, yelling at you. I must have seemed like a total lunatic to you."
He laughed and admitted, "Honestly it was quite shocking. But I was more seriously considering I'd done something mean to you without meaning to." Then noticing Mai's stunned expression, he asked with concern, "What's the matter?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing. It's just that... it's weird to see you laugh. I mean, it's weird to associate your face with laughter, since Naru is usually so morose."
Gene raised his brow. "He actually let you call him that?"
Mai covered her mouth in mortification, but after processing his comment, she grinned. "So other people gave him that nickname too, huh? So he really is a narcissist!"
"Huh?" Once again, Gene was lost.
"Naru is short for narcissist, right?"
The boy burst out laughing. "That's gold! That is fitting, isn't it?" When Mai tilted her head in confusion at his outburst, he explained, "I had thought you called him Noll."
"No-ru? Is that his real name?"
Gene blinked. "You don't know his name?" When she shook her head, he tipped his head and said with a tone of amusement in his voice, "You don't even know his name and he's managed to piss you off this much? I truly don't understand this weird... relationship between you."
Mai huffed and crossed her arms. "There's no relationship between us. We just have mutual distaste for each other, I suppose."
The boy stored away this new development in his mind and planned to share every bit with Yasuhara at the next opportunity. "My brother's name is Oliver. Noll is a nickname that not many know of. Only a very few people close to him call him that."
"Oh. You're right. No-ru sounds really similar to Na-ru. I should probably not call him that anymore then," she said thoughtfully.
Their conversation was interrupted once again when someone called out to Gene, letting him know that warm-ups were starting. He bit his lip and reached for the fountain behind her to take a quick sip of water, then placed a gentle hand on her shoulder as he carefully wiped the side of his mouth with the other and said, "Why don't you stay and watch the game? I'd like to talk with you more after the match." Mai blushed deeply as he gave her another smoldering smile.
"Y-yes, I was planning to anyway. Good luck on your match and I'll be waiting then."
He nodded cheerfully and ran toward the rest of his team to join them on their quick warm up drills. Mai watched him as he found his spot beside his grumpy twin and wondered what he said in his brother's ear that earned him such an icy glare. Then with a deep breath, she turned her head to find where her friends had run off to and found them sitting together at the spectator bench placed by the court side. They opened their mouths to say something before she even fully reached them, but Mai decided to beat them to the punch and began explaining the whole situation. Satisfied with the answer, the three dropped their conversation and focused on the activity in front of them. By this point, several other students have come by to support their team as well.
The teams were allowed ten minutes of warm up. Once the time was up, the rest of the team split away from the group and exited the courts, leaving only the regulars to face off each other during the introductions. Mai caught Kashima's eyes and waved cheerfully, which the stoic boy did not return, but he at least made his way quietly toward her and sat down beside her. She introduced him briefly to Keiko and Michiru, who, like her, already knew him by name but had not officially spoken to in person. He politely returned their greetings.
"Will the captains from each school please step up?" the coach called out.
The three girls gasped as one of the twins stepped up. Beside her, Michiru asked if that was Gene or Oliver, and Mai would also have been wondering along with her if it weren't for the fact that the twin narrowed his eyes intimidatingly when the third year captain from the opposing team commented offhandedly that he thought he was only a second year student.
He answered curtly, "I am. What of it?" And immediately Mai knew it had to be the narcissist.
The rival captain became flustered and mumbled that he meant nothing by it, just that he was surprised. But Oliver had already moved on past the conversation and held out his hand for the customary handshake. The two then turned and took turns to announce their team's lineup.
"Singles 1: Matsuyama Toshiro." The Furudachi captain himself stepped up and obviously expected to shake hands with Oliver again, but was surprised when Oliver ignored him and looked to the side toward his much taller teammate.
"Singles 1: Lin Koujo," Oliver said in reply as Lin stepped up to shake the hand of his opponent. The two stepped back to their position in line.
Matsuyama recovered. "Singles 2: Yoshino Rin."
"Singles 2: Takigawa Houshou." Again, a friendly handshake was exchanged and the same happened for every introduction thereafter.
"Singles 3: Igarashi Mitsuki."
"Singles 3: Yasuhara Osamu."
"Doubles 1: Akifumi Yoshimi. Minami Reimi."
"Doubles 1: Eugene Davis," here Eugene stepped up, passing the tennis racket he was holding in his right hand to his left in order to free it for the handshake. "Oliver Davis," and Oliver himself stepped up to exchange their greetings with their opponents.
Michiru clapped silently and said excitedly in a whisper, "Cool! Twinsies playing together!" Mai ignored her.
"Doubles 2: Dazai Katsuki. Kunikida Taizo."
"Doubles 2: John Brown. Sakauchi Tomoaki."
With the introductions complete, Oliver turned to their opponents and explained, "Our school only has four courts available at the moment so based on the drawing earlier, the singles 2 match will sit out until either singles 1 or 3 finishes up. Singles 1 and 3 will be held in courts 1 and 2, while doubles 1 and 2 will be held in courts 3 and 4."
At this, both SPR and Furudachi teams bowed their heads and shouted in unison, "Let's do our best!" before splitting up into their courts.
Mai fidgeted anxiously in her seat, excited for the match to start.
[1] Hafu: mix Japanese/foreign
