And I am back in the US of A! I'm still feeling a little bittersweet, and I wish so much that I was still in Japan, but what can I do?
*Disclaimer: This may be slightly triggering to those who have stayed in mental hospitals, or any hospital.
"Good morning Megumi-chan! Didn't think you would show up today." Marui jumped in front of her.
She was quite surprised herself. Being a no-show was an option she almost took again, but Niou had kept his promise to wait for her. In sweats and a long sleeve, she stood next to the group of boys she was slowly growing used to. She felt Sanada's stare from a distance, but she chose to ignore it for the time being.
"Good morning everyone. Is it just Akaya missing again?" Yukimura came to ask. They all nodded, and mumbled about how nothing is new.
"Oh, you made it today. Great." He said with a smile. Megumi slightly dropped her head.
"I'm uh, I'm sorry for not coming yesterday." She said.
"Well I'm glad you acknowledge your wrongdoing. If you do that again, I'm going to have Sanada take care of it." He said sweetly. She gulped, starting to grow scared of him.
"It's fine," Niou said as he placed his hands on her shoulders, "I'll walk her here each time."
"That's great." Yukimura said.
Megumi looked at the two staring at each other. There was some sort of tension between them that was felt by everyone, but no one could pinpoint why. Before anyone was killed off by the awkward silence, Yanagi came in the small huddle.
"Okada-san, I need to ask you a few things, do you have a moment?" he asked.
"Yeah, sure." She replied calmly and slowly came out of Niou's grasp.
He led them slightly far away from the group and sat at a nearby bench.
"Um, are they always like that?"
"No, they just have different concerns for you." He said simply.
"But I barely know Yukimura-san."
"You've met him before. You probably just blocked it out."
Megumi stared at him, not having a single clue of what he was talking about. There was no way that she had actually met him before all of this. Yanagi was expressionless and fiddled through one of his notebooks. After sorting through three or four, he handed them all to her.
"Okay, these will explain basic rules, moves, names to remember, profiles of each player, and anything you need to know about being in the tennis team." He explained.
"All of this is necessary to be a manager?" she asked, lightly skimming through.
"You need more, but I'm thinking of giving these to you gradually to not overwhelm you."
"What more will I even need?" she mumbled. She heard him laugh quietly.
"You've been in a Rikkai team before, you should know."
Megumi tensed up as he finished his sentence. The world was suddenly spinning, and she had to blink a couple times to see straight. Yanagi was expressionless again and was reading through his own notes. She was too scared to ask how he knew or how much he knew, but she had to make sure no one else did.
"You can't-,"
"I won't tell anyone. And no one else knows, except Yukimura." He said.
"What? Why?" she asked, still incredibly confused by everything.
"You can ask him. I'm sure he won't mind."
'That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard.' She thought.
"You might not think it's a good idea, but it'll help clear up all your confusions." He said and walked away.
She stared at him, wondering how he was reading her mind. It was close to making her angry, but the curiosity of how he knew everything was more distracting. She thought that there was no way he could know anything about her since they had just met, and, admittedly, she had forgotten who he was. The thought of Yukimura passed by her, making her try to dig in to her past for a little bit. With her chin resting on her hands, she tried to dig deep, but her mind stopped her from going too far.
"Hey, are you okay?" someone asked. Megumi snapped out of her thoughts and looked up.
"Oh, s-sorry." She said and immediately stood up, seeing it was Yukimura.
"Don't be, you weren't doing anything wrong." He said and smiled. This time seemed more genuine than earlier.
"But could you get us some towels? We're going to start running soon."
She nodded and headed to the club room. She wanted to know so badly how he knew her, but nothing was coming up. There was no way she would have been able to forget a person with hair that blue, or an aura as strong as his.
'He doesn't dance does he? No, his body type doesn't fit dancer at all. Maybe he's seen me on stage? But I haven't done that in two years. Who the hell is this guy?' she continually thought.
"Hey, move Okada!" she heard someone yell, and jumped to her left right after.
She turned and saw Kirihara running for his life right past her, barging in to the club room. She quickened her pace see if he fell, but once she reached the door, he was running again. After watching him get a quick scolding from Sanada, she entered the club room herself for the towels.
Kirihara's fall had caused quite a mess in the room. Most of the chairs were on the floor, tennis balls were all over the place, and he left his locker wide open. She decided to take a quick look at what was in there, and it was as if three storms had taken place in it. There wasn't anything interesting, but it looked like he had thrown in a photo album of some sort before he ran off. She shrugged it off as she forgot that she had come in for towels. As her eyes directed toward the pile, she also noticed that Niou's locker was left slightly open. Her curiosity grew, and she wanted to look, but she knew it was a bad idea and a rude thing to do. She took the towels and left the room with too many lingering thoughts.
She dropped them by the bench, just in time as they had finished their laps. Yukimura was standing with his arms crossed and waiting for the freshman to finish up. She stared at him without even thinking it would come off as weird or creepy, and tried her hardest to jog her memory. It was starting to bother her so much that she was considering actually asking him.
"Is there something on my face?" he suddenly asked, causing her to jump.
"Huh? Oh, sorry no." she said and looked away from him.
"Is everything okay? You looked really… how should I say it, hmm… lost?" he approached her.
Megumi's heart was pounding with anxiety of whether she should ask or not. It almost came out, but she couldn't get herself to say it completely.
"I'm okay, thank you." She said quietly.
"Alright. I actually have a new favor to ask you."
"Oh, what is it?"
"I'm sure you saw, but since Akaya has a bad habit of not only being late, but ruining the club room when he is, I need the room tidied up. Usually we have a first year do it, but I'd like to keep them focused on practice. Do you mind cleaning for a little bit?"
Before she could even answer, he had walked away as though she had already agreed to it. Realizing she actually really didn't have a choice, she headed back to the Kirihara-struck room.
Looking at it again after not seeing it for a couple minutes made the room look worse. She didn't know where to start. She scanned the room and looked for the biggest pieces to pick up and reorganize. Niou's locker came to her sight again. Shaking her head, she went to grab the chairs and benches that had toppled over. A gust of dust flew in the air, showing that the room hadn't properly been cleaned in a very long time. Even their trophies and plaques had been collecting dust. She figured that could be a project of her own at some point. And she made a point to bring some air freshener for next time.
After a good hour, she was able to see the entire floor for the first time. She hoped that the way she organized things didn't get in the way or made things harder to find, but it was much cleaner than before. It had already turned 10:30 but it didn't sound like the boys were going to have a break anytime soon. She stared at Niou's locker for too long, and her feet brought her to it without thinking. Very slowly, she creaked it open, and it didn't seem like there was anything in there. She opened it all the way, and confetti flew in her face and a loud air horn blew loud enough for her brothers at home to hear. She raised her arms in fear, and jumped back, completely surprised. Looking around, there was nothing else coming, but in the locker was a sign that read, "Have fun cleaning again".
Megumi was growing furious at the prank but also at herself for believing that his locker would be safe to look in. She told herself she should've known better, and that even if there wasn't a prank, looking in someone's locker without permission is wrong, and sort of creepy. Obviously a horn that loud had to attract some people to see what was happening, but of course, the first walk in the room was Niou. He was snickering proudly at the outcome.
"I didn't think you'd actually look in someone's locker like that." He said as he pat her hair.
"Hey, you're messing it up." She ducked.
"I'm getting the confetti off of you. What were you looking for anyway?"
She didn't answer as Yukimura and Yanagi came in. They observed the mess calmly, because to them, it was just Niou being Niou.
"Well, Niou, you know the drill." Yukimura said and passed him the broom.
"Fine~. Hey Megu, there's another broom back there." He said and started sweeping.
Megumi went to find it, but Yukimura placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Okada's going to help out in the courts now. You're cleaning this up yourself." He said.
"What?" he furrowed his brows, looking slightly pissed.
"This is your mess, technically." Yanagi said.
"I don't mind cleaning it. I was the one who opened his locker without permission." Megumi said, just realizing she had just defended Niou.
"I appreciate the honesty, Megumi-chan, but these pranks by him are getting out of hand. And I think we actually could use your help in the courts." Yukimura said.
'Did he just call me Megumi-chan?' she thought, as it jolted something inside her.
There was a faint memory of that voice saying her name, but it was still itching her brain. Feeling slightly uncomfortable, she looked over at Niou, who had surprisingly a plain face as he was sweeping. But the energy in the room had definitely flipped and it was darker than ever.
"Let's go." Yanagi said and walked out.
Megumi was almost forced out as Yukimura still had his hands on her shoulders. She looked behind her to just look at Niou for reassurance, but he wasn't looking up. He was just calmly putting the confetti away in a bag.
"I'm sorry that happened to you. I'm sure it was startling." Yukmura said as he let go of her.
"I should really be the one apologizing, I wasn't trying to take anything of his." She tried to explain herself.
"I know," he said while chuckling, "I'm sure you were just wondering his secrets were."
Megumi tilted her head, wondering if that actually was the reason. He continued to talk, but she couldn't focus on what he was saying.
"Yukimura-san, I'm sorry to interrupt, but what's your name again?" she asked without looking at him.
"Hm? You can't remember?" he smiled.
"It's Seiichi."
"Seiichi… thank you. Sorry." She mumbled.
"Don't be, and don't hesitate to call me that either." He said.
She knew she wouldn't be able to. He was too intimidating and borderline scary to call him such a friendly name.
"For now, you can just wait here. Maybe you could look over some of the notes that Yanagi gave you." He said and left her by the bench.
She sat but didn't open the notebooks. She just stared in to space, and tried to remember exactly how Yukimura sounded when he said her name. She started mumbling his name and trying to think back to even middle school times, which started to put her in a bad place mentally. She took a deep breath and decided to take a break from her own mystery.
The team was taking a break, but Kirihara seemed to be at his breaking point. Not only did he look hot and sweaty, but basically sunburned. His hair had also turned white and there was actual steam coming out of his body.
"Damn, I missed what caused him to become the devil." She heard above her.
Niou had placed his hand on her head and used her as support.
"What's happening to him?" she asked.
"He probably just lost to Sanada for the who knows how many times."
"Oh. Is he okay?"
"He'll chill out in a bit. Just don't get near him for now." He told her and walked away.
He was actually going against his advice and went to Kirihara. She decided to look at other people in the courts, since she wasn't too interested in what was happening to the two. Marui and Jackal were talking to each other, and Marui made eye contact with her. He gave a small wave and a wink, which made her blush and look down. She heard him laugh but she didn't want him to see her red face. She sighed, and looked up slowly, only to be hit with a sudden pang on her forehead.
"Megumi!" Niou shouted as she fell to the ground.
'What the hell just hit my face?' she wondered and tried to open her eyes.
Her left side was too painful to bear so she slightly opened her right, and saw a tennis racket in front of her. The surrounding had become ridiculously loud, and she heard a lot of footsteps coming toward her. Before she could get trampled, she tried to at least sit up.
"Hey, don't try to move." She heard Niou say as he lightly gripped her arm.
"Masa." She said as quietly as she could.
"Yeah?" he said almost just as quiet and got closer to her.
"Can you, oh my God am I bleeding?" she asked, since she tasted it in her mouth.
"Yeah. Akaya got out of control and he threw his racket without looking at where he was throwing it." He explained.
"Here's a clean towel to try to stop the bleeding for now." Jackal said.
"Thanks." Niou replied, and she immediately felt the pressure on her head.
"What the hell are you doing!?" she shouted in pain.
"I'm sorry, it's just to stop the bleeding. And guys, it's not stopping." He said as he pulled the towel away.
Since his arm was no longer on her, she used all the strength she had to really sit up.
"Hey, stay laying down." Marui told her, but she refused.
"I'm fine." She mumbled, even though the pain wasn't going away. Niou placed the towel on her again and she winced.
"This looks pretty bad, you need to go to a hospital." Jackal said.
She thoughtlessly pushed Niou away. The pain in her head was something she could no longer feel, and she started shaking her head.
"I am not going to the hospital. That is not happening." She said sternly.
"Megu, come on, your face won't stop bleeding."
"I don't care, I'm fucking fine, don't take me to the hospital." She said again.
She was starting to be able to see, and the team had concerned faces. That was the least of her worries as she started to remember the hospital. She knew that they would keep her for over two weeks, and she would be forced in to unwanted therapy, disgusting high calorie meals, and so many stupid crafts. But that wasn't the worst. She knew none of the doctors would believe a word of what she said about this incident. Even if all she needed was stitches, and even if this was all an accident, based on her history, they would declare this a suicidal attempt.
"Hey, Megumi, I need you to really listen to me-," Niou started.
"No! You don't understand, Masa! The hospital, they-they," Megumi started to hyperventilate.
Memories of the doctors and nurses started to fill her, and also the other mentally ill patients she had met, where some were just unbearable for her. Also the other patients who were there because of physical illnesses, and seeing them die one by one, except for a certain person she suddenly remembered.
"Megumi-chan, don't worry. You'll be okay." Yukimura sat in front of her.
"Megumi-chan, I'm just going to ask you one last time, do you want me to take you to the hospital?"
She stared deep in to his eyes, where everything came back and everything made sense.
'It's Seiichi. He was sick, and he was supposed to die. We talked. He ate my meals for me sometimes. I snuck in his room when I couldn't sleep. Oh right, we got in so much trouble for that. It's…'
"Seiichi." She said out loud.
There was absolute silence at this point, and everyone was lost about what was happening between the two.
"N-no, I-I-I can't go to the hospital, you know that. And you're not there anymore, I can't b-be there alone." She managed to say.
"Okay. I won't take you there, but you need this cleaned up okay. I have a friend I can call." He said calmly and stood up.
"I'll be right back." He said to his team.
"What friend do you have that can fix this?" Marui asked.
"Atobe owes me a few favors."
Megumi lay calmly in this stranger's house, with Niou holding the towel on her head still. He hadn't said anything since she pushed him away. Yukimura was standing by the door, talking to a person she had never met. They seemed to know each other well, as their conversation was going pretty steadily. She winced as she felt a little bit more pressure on her cut.
"Hm? Oh, sorry." He mumbled.
She looked at him and just noticed how sad he actually looked. But what made her feel worse was that he was avoiding looking at her. She knew the way she acted was something he didn't know about her, but he didn't deserve to be yelled at like that.
"Is this the girl?" an older woman came in with a large bag.
"Yeah, what was her name?" the guy asked.
"Megumi." Niou and Yukimura said at the same time.
"Well alright. I'm Doctor Mimura, the family doctor for Atobe-kun here. I wish I could say you can all stay but even a professional needs some space and a decent amount of quiet. Megumi-chan, you can choose one person or no one." She said.
"Masa." She said without hesitation.
She felt the towel move a little, and looked at him. He wasn't smiling or smirking, or even looking angry. His face was absolutely blank.
"Oh, I think it's safe to say that you can remove the towel now." The doctor said.
"Really?" he asked to make sure.
She nodded and he did as he was told. He moved his face closer to see, and it made her embarrassed.
"Okay, you two boys heard her, I'll let you in once were done and she's comfortable." The doctor instructed.
"Are they a couple?" Atobe asked Yukimura.
"Who knows?" He shrugged and walked out the room.
"So, are you two a thing?" the doctor casually asked.
Megumi blushed and didn't answer.
"I wish we were, but I think it'll take time to convince her." Niou chuckled.
"Well, Megumi-chan, if I were to give you any advice, I would say that if you need to be convinced to date someone, they're not right for you." She pursed her lips.
The two laughed and she was growing more comfortable with her.
"So, I'm going to focus on just sewing that up. Have you had stitches before?"
"Uh, yeah, plenty." She said.
"That's not a great thing, but I'm glad you're not as freaked out as many people are. You two can talk to each other if you want, but just be careful as to not move your head too much."
The two were pretty quiet for a couple minutes. What Megumi had just realized is that Niou had taken her hand in his, and she didn't know how long it had been like that. She looked at the pair and felt a deep sense of calm for the first time in that day.
"Hey, Masa." She said, moving her eyes to look at him.
"Hey, Megu." He smiled gently.
"I'm sorry I acted that way earlier." She said, feeling embarrassed over and over again.
"Me too. I didn't know hospitals weren't your…favorite place to be."
"You didn't know. You shouldn't have to be sorry."
"I'm gonna start the needle now." The doctor interrupted.
Megumi took a deep breath while the doctor moved.
"Can I ask about you and Yukimura?" Niou said.
She was uncertain how to answer, since she didn't know how comfortable Yukimura was about this, and she didn't want him to know too much about her already.
"You don't have to if you don't want to. I was just confused at the courts. He seemed to know you really well."
"It's kind of hard to say. Wait, Doctor Mimura, I have to ask, if I say anything regarding my medical history… ouch, I kind of felt that one."
"I know, it's what happens when you make me lose focus." She said in a strictly.
"Sorry," she whispered
"I met him after my first attempt. I was a second year in middle school and he was a third. We were both in the hospital for our own reasons." She started.
"And I honestly don't know how I forgot him. But whenever I was allowed out of my… ward, I guess, we would always talk. I knew that he was waiting for his surgery, and I was being forced through a lot of different kinds of therapy. I was weighted all the time, I had to talk about so much in group that I wasn't comfortable with, and they would have me try different medications. Seiichi, on the other hand, didn't have anyone to talk to. The nurses were nice and had some conversations but they would never answer his question of how his body was doing. He just had a big cloud above him, and he was just waiting for the inevitable storm. We would be each other's escape from everything that was wrong with us."
Niou didn't give vocal responses, but it was very clear he was listening. His grip on her hand tightened and loosened while she was talking.
"Okay, I'm done! Do you want me to call the boys in?" the doctor asked.
"Umm… not just yet." Megumi said.
"Okay. Maybe you don't need to convince her of anything." She winked at Niou before leaving the room.
He slightly rolled his eyes and moved his focus back to Megumi.
"So did you guys date or anything?" he asked.
"Oh that's funny." She quietly laughed.
He went along with it, but still seemed uncomfortable about something.
"I'm sorry if I said too much."
"No, it's not that. I just seriously had no idea you guys knew each other. Does that mean that we might've seen you when we visited him in the hospital?"
"Oh, definitely not. We had different visiting hours and I wasn't exactly allowed to roam around the place."
"That must've sucked. Does the cut still hurt?" he asked, moving his face close.
"A little bit. Oh, right, how did we get here? I feel like I passed out at one point or something." She said.
Niou laughed.
"Not exactly passed out, but you fell asleep. We were all pretty worried, but it was kind of funny. You missed out on a fun helicopter ride."
Megumi looked at him as if he was telling the dumbest joke in the world.
"A helicopter? How the hell was I asleep on a helicopter?" she started to sit up.
"I was practicing my hypnosis." He looked deeply in to her eyes.
She mentally questioned him, looking away and sitting in deep thought. She knew that she was a ridiculously light sleeper, and any sound or movement would wake her up. Niou started laughing.
"I'm kidding, you passed out. Did you actually think losing that much blood from your face was gonna be okay?" he kept laughing.
"Oh, I hate you so much!" she pushed him and laughed along.
"Hey, that's the second time you've pushed me today." He said.
"Hey, this is my house, I'm coming in." a guy boomed and walked in the door.
"Oh, you seem to be doing a lot better." Yukimura said.
"I think you were unconscious when he picked us up, but this is Atobe. He's the tennis captain of Hyotei." He introduced him.
"Yeah, I didn't think you wouldn't know me, but I guess I'll have to forgive you for the fact that you were a victim of Kirihara's outbursts." Atobe rolled his eyes.
'Wow, stuck up much?' she thought.
"Well, thank you for everything. The doctor is really nice." She said to him as nicely as possible.
"Sure. There's a car ready to take you guys wherever you need to go. If you want, the helicopter is available too." He offered.
"I think we'll be okay. Are you able to stand up Megumi-chan?" he asked her.
"Um, yeah, I think so." She said and tried to get to her feet.
Yukimura stood in front of her with his hands out, lending her support.
"Looks like we've switched places from before." He chuckled as she took his hands.
"Oh, right." She said quietly.
She started to remember the times that he would need help standing up, or they would secretly try rehabilitation exercises in his room when no one was around. And, even though she didn't want to, she started to remember the reason why she forgot him.
"Are you okay?" Yukimura asked her.
She nodded quietly, and dropped her hands. Her walking was unsteady, but she didn't care as she walked toward the door, where Niou was waiting.
"You good?" he whispered.
"Just fine." She lied through her teeth, and had Atobe lead them to the car in silence.
I hope you all liked this one~! Let me know what you think please!
