Chapter 19: Decided is to Uncertain
Standard Disclaimer Applies.
-oOo-
Yagyuu Hiroshi was very intelligent, he was a straight A student who is the pride and joy of his parents. His imouto adored him and worshiped the ground he walked on. He was talented and easily learned new skills that he was truly interested in, he did after all quickly shifted from golf to tennis in a matter of weeks. Yagyuu was a fierce friend, who will fight for his friends with his own life and reputation at stake, just think of the countless times he helped cover for Niou. He was also a considerate senpai and trusted colleague, he always had one of the longest tolerance for Akaya's stubbornness and childishness, but not compared to Yanagi's of course. Most importantly, Yagyuu Hiroshi was a gentleman. He was type of guy who would pull the chair for you at the dinner table, the type of guy who would hold out his hand for you and assist you while getting off the bus. He was the type of guy who would buy you dozens of flowers and chocolates, he was the type of guy who remembers your tanjoubi, anniversary and any other important date that there could possibly exists; Yagyuu was the type to call you in the morning to greet you and call you again at night before he went to bed. Yagyuu Hiroshi was the type of guy who won't forcibly kiss you or touch you until you have given him consent to do so. Yagyuu Hiroshi was the perfect boyfriend. Nevertheless, despite everything that Yagyuu was, right now, Yagyuu Hiroshi was living with a broken heart.
"Please stay away from Mayumi."
Yukimura's words echoed in Yagyuu's ears as he stood in the middle of a crowded stadium where the opening ceremonies for the National Tournament were being held. He could not hear what the host was saying because his mind was afloat. It was good thing that they did not have any game scheduled today, because if they had he was certain he would fail his team, because whether in doubles or a singles player, he was definitely going to lose.
"Yaaaaaagyuu." The trickster tried to catch his attention.
"Hmn?" was the response without turning his head.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Betsuni." He lied.
"You do know, when we're not cosplaying, you are a very bad liar, right?" Niou tells his partner.
"Daijabou Niou-kun, I'm not thinking about anything in particular, just a bit overwhelmed." Yagyuu reasoned out.
"Hmn, this is your first time at the National tournament as a regular, demo, you don't have anything to be worried about." Niou patted the gentleman on his shoulder.
"Sou ka." He nodded and kept his face forward.
"Yukimura." Sanada called their buchou who was conversing with the Seigaku buchou that was lined up next to them.
"Hmn?" Yukimura turned his head towards his fukubuchou.
"Did you say something to Yagyuu?" Sanada asked without hesitation.
"What do you mean?" Yukimura asked a bit confused with the emperor's question.
"He seems a little out of it today." Sanada replied.
"Must be because it's his first time in the Nationals as a regular, last year he came only as a pre-regular reserve player." Yukimura assured the taller boy.
"I guess so." Sanada tried to convince himself that it was just that.
In the stands a certain purple haired girl was smiling and cheering for them, she was proud of the fact that the silver haired boy was standing at the center with the other players, he was proud of him, no matter what others say, no matter what reputation he has as a trickster, she was his man, nothing can change that. Or so she thought.
"Why are you staring at Yagyuu-kun?" a girl sitting beside her asked Mayumi.
"E?"
"I saw you, you were staring at Yagyuu-kun." The girl repeated.
"I was not." Mayumi denied.
"Stop messing around Suzuki-kun, or I'll tell Niou-kun." The girl threatened.
"Demo, I was not staring at Yagyuu-kun, it just so happened that he is standing in front of Niou-kun." Mayumi explained.
"You know, I liked you better when you didn't exist." The girl retaliated.
Mayumi was confused with what the girl said.
"You do know that we hate you right?" the girl added.
"E? Nande?"
"Stay away from Yagyuu-kun, you flirt." The girl threatened then left the seat.
Mayumi followed her with her eyes and whispered, "Demo, I was looking at Niou-kun, not Yagyuu-kun."
Marui noticed Mayumi to be looking at someone, someone other than Niou, and to his surprise, it was a girl that she was looking at. "Jackal, isn't that her?" Marui whispered to the half-Brazilian who was standing in front of him.
"E?" Jackal tried to look where Marui was pointing with his lips.
"The girl up there walking away, isn't that her?" Marui repeated.
Jackal's eyes widened, and nodded to Marui.
"She was seating next to Suzuki-kun a while ago, then she suddenly left." Marui added.
"Do you think Yagyuu noticed?" Jackal whispered back careful that the gentleman not hear what they were talking about since he was in hearing distance.
"I don't think so, Yagyuu's been zoning out since we met up at school this morning." Marui replied.
Sanada, who had hearing like a wild animal, noticed whispering behind their line and turned his head causing Marui and Jackal to stop discussing,. While Yanagi who could sense something was wrong, tried to look around for anything peculiar in the stands, he couldn't see anything suspicious, but he could feel something was out of place.
-oOo-
"So, Rokkaku is playing Higa right now?" Yanagi confirmed with Sanada as they were hanging around watching elimination games for the day.
"Aa, I heard Seigaku was there watching." Sanada replied.
"So you want us to go there and watch fukubuchou?" Akaya inquired.
"Iie, Yukimura said we should wait here while he finished something with the committee." Sanada replied.
"Could you excuse me for a while?" Yagyuu asked permission.
"Where are you going Yagyuu?" Sanada sternly asked the gentleman.
"I just need to go buy some water." Yagyuu gave as an excuse.
"Sou da, go ahead." Sanada gave permission.
"I'll go with you." Niou followed Yagyuu.
"Iie." Yagyuu refused and gave Niou a sharp gaze, something very unusual for the gentleman.
"Wow! Chill, fine, I'll stay." Niou replied and stepped back a little.
Yagyuu left without another word. The rest of the regulars were shocked with how the their teammate acted.
"Told you so." Marui told Jackal.
"Fine, I lose the bet." Jackal hands over a thousand yen bill to Marui.
"What is this?" Sanada questioned the betting game between the two.
"I told Jackal that Yagyuu was in a particularly bad mood because of the incident that happened the other day." Marui reasoned.
"What incident was that?" Yanagi questioned.
"Remember the professional tournament that took place in Tokyo a few days back?" Jackal asked the regulars.
"Sou da, Yagyuu said he was going to watch the final match right?" Niou remembers his best friend telling him something about that, but he didn't have enough money to buy a ticket so he didn't come with him to Tokyo to watch.
"Well, apparently Yagyuu ran into Seigaku's Kaidoh at the event." Marui continued.
"Don't tell me Yagyuu-senpai got in a fight with the Seigaku player?" Kirihara asked in disbelief.
"IIe," Jackal corrected, "They actually played an unofficial match as doubles partner and actually won, demo, when Yagyuu got back to Kanagawa something happened."
"What exactly happened?" Niou inquired, he was half pissed that all these happened and Yagyuu didn't bother to tell him.
"Yeah, what exactly happened?" Kirihara second.
"Jackal and I were walking home from the mall that day, we saw Yagyuu walking home from the train station so we wanted to greet him, demo—." Marui paused from dramatic effect.
"Demo?" Yanagi asked; excited to hear what was next.
"A girl came up to Yagyuu." Jackal continued.
"Nani?" Niou asked surprised.
"A girl?" Kirihara confirmed.
"I think she's in your section Yanagi." Marui pointed out.
"Which one?" Yanagi asked.
"The one with the dyed blonde hair, I was sure it was dyed because last year she had orange hair." Marui elaborated.
"Yamamoto-san?" Yanagi asked.
"That one! The one with dyed blonde hair, really big earrings and walks around with the girl with braces and wear too much make up." Marui furthered.
"Way to describe them Marui-senpai." Kirihara sarcastically commented at how Marui was describing the girls.
"Ah, Ito-san." Yanagi confirmed.
"So Yamamoto and Ito walked up to Yagyuu that day?" Sanada confirmed.
"IIe, just Yamamoto." Marui replied.
"Will you get your story straight Bunta!" Niou was getting pissed; he really wanted to know the point of the discussion.
"Fine, fine." Marui held his hand up a bit higher to guard for any suddenly movements from the trickster.
"Yamamoto-san came up to Yagyuu and we couldn't hear what they were talking about, but we we're certain she confessed to Yagyuu." Jackal continued.
"Nani?" Kirihara was shocked.
"Heh, she's not Yagyuu's type." Niou concluded.
"Exactly." Marui affirmed.
"So Yagyuu-senpai turned her down?" Kirihara confirmed.
"Of course he did." Niou answered.
"He did it gently though." Jackal emphasized.
"How did Yagyuu turn her down exactly?" Yanagi inquired.
"We don't have any idea." Marui replied.
"E?" Kirihara reacted.
"When Yamamoto started crying though, Yagyuu even took his handkerchief and handed it to the girl." Jackal explained.
"So very Yagyuu." Niou snickered.
"Yagyuu-senpai, kakoi." Kirihara said in admiration.
"As expected from the gentleman." Yanagi commented as well.
"Ano, sumimasen." Mayumi greeted the group.
"Ma-chan." Sanada acknowledged the girl.
"Konnichiwa Gen-kun, can I borrow Niou-kun for a while?" the girl asked permission.
"Aa." Sanada nodded.
"Dou shite?" Niou inquired.
"Iie, betsuni, I was kind of hungry so I was wondering if you wanted to go get something to eat, you don't have a game today right?" Mayumi asked the silverette.
Niou looks at Sanada before answering, and when the other boy nodded he gladly replied, "Sure." And the two left the rest of the group.
Marui and Jackal were exchanging suspicious glances that did not escape Sanada's eyes. "Dou shite Jackal, Marui?" the stern fukubuchou asked.
"We told you about Yamamoto-san confessing to Yagyuu right? Eto, this morning at the opening ceremony we saw Suzuki-kun looking at Yamamoto-san and was following with her with her eyes." Jackal replied.
"Did something happen between them?" Yanagi inquired.
"We didn't see anything; just that Suzuki had a troubled look on her face." Jackal replied.
Sanada followed Mayumi with his eyes, he was truly worried about his childhood friend, he was certain she would hide this from Niou so not to worry him.
"Demo, why would Yamamoto-san do anything to Suzuki-senpai? She confessed to Yagyuu-senpai right? And Suzuki-senpai is dating Niou-senpai, why would she be mad at Suzuki-senpai?" Kirihara wondered.
"I don't know, maybe she likes Niou as well." Marui speculated.
"Well, Yagyuu and Suzuki-kun are close as well; maybe she thought Suzuki-kun liked Yagyuu?" Jackal speculated as well.
"Nani? That's sick." Marui reacted.
"What's the commotion about?" Yukimura asked as he arrived holding a clipboard for their line up in the game against Murigaoka the following day.
"Yukimura." The regulars reacted surprised with the sudden appearance of their buchou.
"Where's Niou and Yagyuu?" Yukimura asked noting the two missing regulars.
"Yagyuu-kun bought something to drink, while Niou was fetched by your cousin to go eat." Yanagi replied.
"Sou ka, eto, it's almost lunch, so we all better get something to eat as well." Yukimura suggested.
Marui and Kirihara was of course very happy with their buchou's declaration.
"You all go on ahead, we'll follow you." Sanada declared surprising the others, including Yukimura, but no one dared to oppose the emperor, and Yukimura sensed there was something bothering his best friend so he stayed behind without a word.
"What's on your mind?" Yukimura asked the raven hair once the team was outside hearing distance.
"What did you say to Yagyuu?" Sanada asked the bluenette.
"Why do you keep on insisting that I told Yagyuu anything?" Yukimura replied a bit pissed.
"Because I know you did." Sanada sternly replied.
"And what if I didn't?" Yukimura added.
Sanada merely stared at Yukimura.
Yukimura stared back.
Sanada did not even flinch; he was determined to win this staring competition no matter what.
Yukimura could sense his best friend was dead serious; he was not winning this argument at any cost, "Fine." He gave up.
"Well?"
"I told him to stay away from Mayumi." Yukimura admitted.
"You what?" Sanada asked surprised.
"It was stupid I know, demo, I also told him to watch over her from a distance." Yukimura defended himself.
"That's stupid. And contradicting." Sanada fearlessly argued.
"I know." Yukimura admitted.
"Then why did you say that?" Sanada asked irritated.
"I don't know!" Yukimura was also getting pissed.
"You don't know? Since when did you go around talking to people without even thinking first?" Sanada began to scold his best friend.
"I regret saying that okay!" Yukimura argued.
"Well, you can't take it back now!" Sanada argued back.
"I know. It's just, Mayumi, she seemed so confused between Niou and Yagyuu." Yukimura explained.
"And this helps how?"
"Yagyuu was always there, lingering, he was always there catching her each time Niou let's go." Yukimura argued.
"Maybe because Yagyuu really loves her, that's why." Sanada raised his voice.
"I know! I know how Yagyuu feels about her! That's why I told Yagyuu to stay away. It's for him as well. Yagyuu is hurting Sanada, can't you see that?" Yukimura disputed.
"I know he's hurting. I know how Yagyuu feels! I've been there remember?" Sanada reminded his best friend.
"Sanada."
"I know how Yagyuu feels because I've been there before. We were young, love was not an option." Sanada was choking on his own saliva trying to hold back his emotions.
"This is still about Misumi isn't it?" Yukimura confirmed.
"Misu-chin was special to me, but she only saw me as a best friend, nothing more. I thought back then, it was because we were too young, maybe when we were older we could have a chance." Sanada poured out emotions that he had never told Yukimura before.
"Sanada."
"Ma-chan, she knew, she knew how I felt for her sister; Ma-chan supported me in her own way. She kept making efforts to get Misu-chin to get closer to me. That's why when Misu-chin died—." Sanada stopped and began to walk away from his best friend.
Yukimura grabbed the taller boy's arm, "Sanada."
Sanada stops and sighs, "Everyday, I'm so afraid that Niou would hurt Ma-chan, every day, I watch her from a distance. Because I don't want her to be hurt, I wanted to protect Ma-chan, because she did that for me, with Misu-chin. When you told me not to involve myself with her relationship with Niou when it was going through some rough patch I listened to you, because I respected you as her cousin. But you, interfering like this Yukimura, I never thought."
"Gomen Sanada."
"With Yagyuu watching after her, somehow I felt a bit relieved, I felt like someone was keeping her at watch when I was not, when I couldn't. Because even if I trust Niou, I'm still afraid he would hurt Ma-chan." Sanada admitted.
"So, it's true then, you prefer Yagyuu for Mayumi." Yukimura stated.
"It doesn't matter who I prefer, Ma-chan chose Niou, she loves Niou. It is not my place to interfere who she loves and who she doesn't." Sanada loosens himself from Yukimura's grip.
"Have you ever thought that maybe Yagyuu would also be hurt if he kept doing that?" Yukimura asked the emperor who was walking away.
"Don't you think the choice of being hurt and not is up to Yagyuu to decide?" Sanada left as a hanging question before finally walking away from the demigod.
I know Sanada. I've been regretting it since I said those words to Yagyuu, so stop rubbing it in. Yukimura thought to himself as he watched his best friend walk away.
-oOo-
"Game and match Rikkadai Fuzoku six games to love. Rikkaidai proceeds to the quarter finals." The referee announced at the end of the match between Rikkadai and Murigaoka.
"Omedetou Niou-kun!" Mayumi gladly greeted the silverette as he walked over after shaking hand with the opponent.
"Arigato Suzuki-kun." Niou replied gladly.
"Omedetou Yagyuu-kun." The girl also greeted the bespectacled boy who passed behind Niou.
"Ah, hai, arigato." Yagyuu hesitantly replied trying the avert the girl's eyes and walking straight to the bench to pack his things. "Stay away…" Yukimura's words kept lingering in his mind.
"Are? Is Yagyuu-kun mad at me?" Mayumi asked his boyfriend.
"Iie, he's just not feeling well, something happened that must have shaken him." Niou explained remembering Marui and Jackal's story about the confession to Yagyuu.
"E? Did something bad happen to Yagyuu-kun lately?" Mayumi inquired further.
"Well, apparently Yamamoto-san confessed to him a few days back." Niou whispered in Mayumi's ears.
"E?" Mayumi remembers the girl who was angry with her during the opening ceremony telling her to stay away from Yagyuu. I think she was Yamamoto-san.
"But, apparently Yagyuu turned her down. Gently, as expected from Yagyuu." Niou continued.
So that's why she was mad at me. Demo, I was truthfully looking at Niou-kun and not Yagyuu-kun at that time. Mayumi thought.
"Let me get my bag and we'll go get something to eat okay?" Niou told the girl with a smile.
"Aa, iiyo." Mayumi replied half-heartedly. She began searching the crowd for any sign of Yamamoto, but thankfully, she was not around that day.
"Sanada." Yukimura called his best friend who was still not speaking to him.
Sanada turned towards Yukimura but said nothing.
"Are you still mad?" Yukimura asked.
Sanada shook his head and placed his tennis bag on his shoulder, "Let's go get something to eat, we still have another game this afternoon."
"Yagyuu want to come with us and get something to eat?" Marui offered the ginger head after seeing Niou was leaving with Mayumi for lunch.
"Aa. Sure, arigato Marui-kun." The gentleman accepted the offer and walked on with Marui, Jackal and Akaya with Yanagi trailing behind them, despite the tightening sensation in his chest Yagyuu couldn't help but glance over at the two who were holding hands and happily walking, "Stay away… - Watch her from a distance." Yukimura's contradicting words repeated itself in Yagyuu's head. Seeing Niou and Mayumi being all sweet and lovey made his heart ache, but Yukimura's words made his head hurt as well. Right now, Yagyuu, was so confused.
-oOo-
So don't worry about Yamamoto, I promise she won't have anything to do with Niou and Suzuki, she's just a passing whim on this author's brain. As for Yagyuu, we'll just see where this depressive mood will take him, and what the other Rikkai boys will do next.
Thanks for reading minna!