Hey, guys! Can you guys believe I updated within a month!? (I think) I know! I can't believe it either! I hope I'll be able to do this a lot more often, but no promises since school started... :( (Boo!)

Anyway, I hoped you guys will like this chapter, and thank you, THANK YOU so much for everyone who had reviewed! It really encourages me and reminds me, "Hey, I need to update, hello!?"

Alright, I think this is all I wanted to say so... I let you guys read the chapter and hope you guys will enjoy/love it! :D

The Next Day

Miyuki slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times to let her vision adjust to the light. However, instead of the light from the sun (which she usually viewed in them morning), she saw a pitch of darkness. Miyuki then slowly raised her head before it hit something from above to prevent it from going any further.

"What the…?" Miyuki asked herself as she grabbed the obstacle and realized it was someone's hand. "Ku…-san…?" It was then Miyuki realized she had slept on Shiraishi's lap the entire night. After the realization, Miyuki carefully slipped out from underneath Shiraishi to make sure she wouldn't disturb the young man's sleep.

"It's kind of cold for a summer day," Miyuki rubbed her arm for a bit. She looked around the room until she found a jacket hanging next to Shiraishi's tennis bag. "This will do. I hope Ku-san is okay with it. I'll just return it to him when he wakes up." Miyuki then put the jacket on her and went downstairs, of course, after placing the blanket she used for the night unto Shiraishi.

"Mm," Shiraishi slowly opened his eyes. "Sleeping like this was definitely not healthy." He lectured to himself as he stretched out his entire body. "Hm, eh, where's Yuki-chan? Yuki-chan?" He started to call out her name. He then began a one-man searched party looking for the missing blonde girl. Eventually he assumed that Miyuki had left the room and decided to look for the girl downstairs. "Yuki-chan?" Shiraishi asked as he slowly walked down the stairs.

"Ah, Ku-san, you're awake," Miyuki happily greeted the awaken boy. "I hope you don't mind me borrowing your jacket."

"No, it's perfectly fine, but… why are you dress like that?" Shiraishi questioned as he pointed to the apron she was currently wearing.

"Oh, this, I'm making breakfast," Miyuki grinned. "Your mom lets me borrow it. Don't worry, I asked your mom before she left if I can make breakfast and she said yes and showed me around the kitchen."

"But you didn't have to do it."

"Yes, I do. It's the least I can do for letting me stay for the night," Miyuki smiled. "Now, go get dress or something, breakfast wouldn't be ready for a while."

"Okay, but you're starting to sound just like my mom," Shiraishi joked.

"Okay, Ku-san, Yukari-chan, time for breakfast!" Miyuki called out after about 30 minutes of preparation.

"Coming!" Yukari yelled as she hastily ran down the stairs to make sure she would get the first pick for breakfast.

"Eh, where's Ku-san?" Miyuki asked as she brought in some plates onto the table.

"Ku-chan is probably just finishing up his health exercise," Yukari explained as she sat down ready to eat. "Oh, sweet, pancakes!"

"Health exercise?"

"Yeah, Ku-chan always does his special health exercise before he eats. He is just weird like that. Itadakimasu!" Yukari revealed as she started to grab some of the pancakes that Miyuki made. "Mm! This is really good! Did you make them? 'Cause mom can never make pancakes this good!"

"Thank you," Miyuki smiled. "I'm used to make meals for my family so I got some practice in."

"Yukari, what happen to waiting until everyone is at table to eat?" A voice asked with the sound of the footstep walking toward the duo.

"Ah, Ku-chan! Sorry, I couldn't help it. But it's not my fault that you take forever with your stupid health exercise," Yukari stuck her tongue out and then she took another bite of her pancake.

"It is not stupid. It's important. Health is the most important a person can do and take care of," Shiraishi explained his reason.

"Yeah, okay," Yukari looked away not really want to listen to her brother's lecture on health yet again.

"Alright," Miyuki laughed watching at the siblings' fight. "Come sit down, Ku-san, before the food gets cold… or before Yukari-chan eats it all."

"Haha, agreed," Shiraishi followed Miyuki's idea by sitting down to the table and started to grab some of the pancakes. "Oh, by the way, your aunt called yesterday. I told her you were staying at a friend's house for the night."

"And she brought that?"

"Well, it turns out your aunt is an old friend of my mom, so yeah, she brought it," Shiraishi shrugged his shoulders as he took another bit of his pancakes.

"Huh, look at that, what a small world."

"By the way, Yuki-chan, awesome job with the pancakes."

"Thanks."

"Yuki-chan, I have to ask. Why are you wearing Ku-chan's tennis jacket?" Yukari asked pointing to Miyuki's current wearing jacket.

"Huh, oh, right!" Miyuki exclaimed remembering that she was still wearing Shiraishi's jacket. She then looked down and realized that she was indeed wearing not just any jacket, but Shiraishi's tennis jersey. "Why didn't you tell me I was wearing your jersey!" Miyuki lightly slapped Shiraishi at the arm.

"Hey, hey, you were the one who just took it without asking!"

"I thought it was just a regular jacket! I didn't know it was your jersey!" Miyuki complained. She knew how much the regulars love or obsess with their uniform. She remembered when she borrowed Kirihara's jersey without telling him, and how mad he was at her until she treated him some ramen.

"Haha, it's okay. I don't mind." Shiraishi laughed enjoying watching Miyuki having her panic episode. When he saw Miyuki started to take the jacket off, he stopped her, "You don't have to take it off. I'm not mad or anything."

"Yeah, but don't you need it for your practice?" Miyuki asked. She automatically assumed Shitenhoji was having practice since Rikkaidai had practice almost every single day.

"Nah, I'll probably just take it off as soon as practice starts anyway," Shiraishi shrugged his shoulders. "This way the jacket will at least be some use."

"Thanks, Ku-san."

"Ah, I should leave now," Shiraishi realized when he looked up at the clock. "Practice is going to start soon." Shiraishi then grabbed some last bites before looking at Miyuki. "Want to come and watch?"

"Who me?" Miyuki surprisingly pointed at herself.

"Yeah," Yukari smiled. "I got better things to do than to watch some sweaty guys running around."

"Hey, why do you have to make it sounded like that? You love tennis too," Shiraishi argued back.

"Yeah, but not just standing around doing nothing but watch you guys play," Yukari complained.

"Fine, just be good at home, okay?" Shiraishi said as he patted his sister's head.

"Okay!"

Shitenhoji's Front Gate

"This is a school…?" Miyuki stood amazingly in front of Shitenhoji's front gate. "This looks more like a temple than a school… Are you sure we're at the right place, Ku… Ku-san?" Miyuki started look left and right when she found the ash-haired boy wasn't standing next to her anymore. However, before she had a chance to actually search for the boy, Miyuki felt a gust of wind along with wording that were the following:

"No speed, no life!"

"Eh?" Miyuki turned around and happened to see a bleach-brown hair boy running toward the gate. The next thing she saw was that the boy tripped over a sign in front of the gate and ended up falling face first onto the ground.

"Um… Are you okay?" Miyuki said as she slowly approached the fainted boy. She then saw tennis balls started to spin around the young lad's head. "Guess not…"

"Hm, a new record," a new voice said who was standing next to the gate and holding a timer apparently to record the brown boy's speed.

"And you are…?" Miyuki asked as she continued to check on the injured boy.

"Zaizen Hikaru," the black-haired boy with severe piercing replied in a monotone. Deciding to be nice, he bounced back the question, "You?"

Before Miyuki had a chance to reveal her name, the 'trio' was interrupted by a certain catchphrase that everyone knew almost too well.

"Ah~ Ecstasy," Shiraishi shouted as he skipped past Miyuki and the head-down boy. However, he had 'miscalculated' the height and ended up hitting himself on the face with the gate.

"Ku-san!" Miyuki exclaimed.

"Ku-san…huh?" Zaizen thought remembering Koharu told them that the girl, who befriended their captain, called Shiraishi 'Ku-san.' "So you're Yuki-chan."

"How do you know my name?" Miyuki asked in surprise.

"Sempai-tachi talk about you…" Zaizen explained. "A lot…" When he saw Miyuki started to look distress by his comment, Zaizen continued, "Don't worry. They're all good stuff, at least the parts that I actually willing to pay attention to."

"Sorry, guess my face was kind of obvious," Miyuki laughed sheepishly realizing how concerned her face must have looked like.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter," Zaizen shrugged his shoulders barely caring for her response. "C'mon, I'll show you the court." As soon as he said that, Zaizen made a 180-degree turn and started to walk away, caring neither she was willing to follow him or not.

"Wait!" Miyuki shouted as she ran to catch up with the pierced boy. "What about them?" She pointed to the two unconscious boys.

"They know their places; besides, they will wake up soon enough," Zaizen explained. "They basically do this every day. Something about how you can't just walk in the gate, you need to have a special way to go."

"Okay."

Tennis Court

"Hikaru-chan, who is that adorable girl walking with you?" Koharu asked the second he saw the duo walked in the court together (sorry, I don't know what Koharu called Zaizen or most of the team, so I'm just going to guess or how they address each other XD).

"This is Hayashi Miyuki, the girl you're all talking about," Zaizen introduced the new girl.

"Nice to meet you all," Miyuki bowed greeting the rest of the team.

"Oi, Zaizen, you promise me that you would stay at the gate to time my speed. But when I woke up, you were nowhere near!" the bleach-hair boy shouted as he ran into the court angrily and Shiraishi slowly walked in the court with an animated water-drop due to his best friend's action.

"That's because sempai you were taking WAY too long to get up after you fainted," Zaizen plainly explained his reason of leaving.

"Just let it go, Kenya," Shiraishi sighed. "I'm sure Zaizen timed the thing anyway. He always does. Oh, there you are Yuki-chan. I was worried where you went. I've heard you were bad at direction."

"Yeah, Zaizen-kun brought me here," Miyuki smiled. "Ah, Yukimura-buchou must have told him… Didn't know he was a gossip…"

"Alright," Shiraishi laughed. "Then I guess you already meet the team."

"Well, kind of," Miyuki moved her head around for explanation. "None of them gave me their names yet, so we were halfway there, I guess."

"Alright then, I'll go first!" The bleach-hair boy raised his hand. "I'm Oshitari Kenya."

"Hey! That's not fair! I wanted to go first!" A red-haired boy exclaimed.

"Well, Kin-chan, you can go next," Shiraishi told the freshman.

"But!"

"Kin-chan…!"

"Okay! Okay! Just don't show me your poisonous hand…!" the red-hair exclaimed horrifying. "I'm Kintaro Toyama!"

"Poisonous hand…?" Miyuki asked herself in her head, but she decided not to ask to know the reason behind it. "Maybe later."

After that, each of the regulars gave their names (yes, even Kenjiro). When the introduction was out of the way, Shiraishi told Miyuki that practice was starting right away. Miyuki, in response, walked out of the court and stood on the other side of the fence to watch the team to practice.

"Alright, guys, take a 10 minute break," Shiraishi shouted after about an hour and half practice.

Yes - was the word that was mostly heard from the freshmen and the sophomores.

Soon after Shiraishi gave out those orders, the court was almost completely deserted. Most of the boys ran to the water fountain to refuel themselves. Some just went out and walked around the school to talk to their friends.

"You know the court is empty right?" a voice said behind Miyuki.

"Zaizen-kun."

"You're looking at the court like it's a book you just couldn't put down," Zaizen pointed out how focus Miyuki was looking at the court. However, in reality, halfway through the practice, Miyuki's mind started to drift toward the content of the letter, which she received yesterday.

"Ooh, that's because…" Miyuki panicked and started to left and right trying to think of an excuse to use as to why she was so zoned out.

"I'm thirsty," Zaizen suddenly said after a moment of silence interrupting the young lass' train of thought. "Want to get a drink with me?" He said as he scratched his hair.

"Um, yeah, sure," Miyuki's shocked face quickly changed into a smile.

"So what do you want?" Zaizen asked as both of them stood in front of the vending machine.

"Just water is fine for me, thanks."

"Okay," Zaizen said as he pushed the button indicating a water bottle.

"Ah, but you don't have to pay for it!" Miyuki exclaimed when she realized it was Zaizen's coin that was inside the machine at the moment.

"It's fine, here," He said as he handed her the water bottle. "It only costs 100 yen."

"Thank you." Miyuki expressed her gratitude as she received the water bottle.

After both of them got their wanted drinks, they ended up sitting down at a bench. Throughout the entire time, Miyuki stared down at her drink.

"You know that drink is not running way, right?" Zaizen asked before taking a mouthful of his green tea.

"Huh," Miyuki raised her head in surprise since her mind was so distance from the real world. "Oh yeah, I know. I was just thinking something, that's all."

Zaizen responded to her answer with a simple nod of understanding. "So what's wrong?" Zaizen asked sensing the tension she was oozing out.

"What?" Miyuki was shocked that a boy she had just known suddenly asked a question like that. "Not… Nothing is wrong. I'm just tire, that's all. It was a long train ride, after all" She gave him a fake smile to try to cover up her real emotion (haha, this reminded me the song called 'Real Emotion' by Koda Kumi, if you haven't heard it before, you should, it's awesome! It was used in the opening of Final Fantasy X-2).

"You know…" Zaizen looked up at the sky mindlessly. "Sometimes it's easier to talk about your problem with someone you don't know. That way they wouldn't judge you or anything like that."

Miyuki looked at Zaizen in the eye surprised by the boy's comment. "So… you don't mind me babbling about my problem?"

"If it'll stop you from making that annoying face of yours that you kept making," Zaizen somewhat annoyingly said.

"Sorry, didn't know that bug you. Well," Miyuki took a deep breath before continuing since she's not used to spilling her feeling out to anyone beside Nanami or sometimes Kirihara. She then gave the entire story of how yesterday when she arrived at Osaka she found the letter from her mom and the content of the letter. "And well, yeah…" As she finished her story, Miyuki lowered her head and started to cry slowly (which she tried to hide from Zaizen).

"Well, you have one idiot father," Zaizen simply blunted out this comment as soon as Miyuki was finished with her story. When Miyuki gave him the 'how could you say that' look, he continued, "To give up a wonderful family like this, yeah, he is stupid."

"But…"

"You're fine," Zaizen said as he patted Miyuki's head. "It's like what your mom said it's not your fault; it's your dad's." While Zaizen was finishing his speech, Miyuki buried her head against his shoulders. "And besides, you're not alone, you have…"

"Us!" Kenya couldn't take it anymore and shouted while running out of the bushes.

"Ah, Kenya, you blew our cover!" Shiraishi exclaimed trying to grab his classmate as the rest of the regulars also walked out of the bushes.

"Hikaru-chan, you are so sweet~!" Koharu jumped trying to give Zaizen a big, 'loving' hug, but only to have the young lad pushed his sempai away.

"That's gross, sempai," Zaizen coldly said.

"Hikaru-chan, you're so mean~ You let Yuki-chan hug you!"

"That's different."

"How?"

"It was used for comfort."

"But he's right, you have us, Yuki-chan," Kenya smiled. "And your friends, of course."

"Nya, Yuki-chan, don't be sad anymore, okay," Kintaro asked the girl while giving her a concerned look. (the team was able to keep Kintaro quit while hiding, due to Shiraishi's threat of using his poisonous hand on the freshman)

"Thank you, Kin-chan," Miyuki gave him a small smile. "I'm fine. Thanks to you guys," Miyuki said as she grabbed Kintaro and Kenya and gave them a side hug, which caused Kenya to blush and paste a huge grin on Kintaro's face.

"Yuki-chan," Shiraishi said as he walked up to the blonde-haired girl, who, in return, looked up to meet him eye to eye. "You remember the question you asked yesterday? I'm sorry for not answering you, but I have the answer now: you're definitely not unlovable. You are definitely loved… by us."

"Ku-san," Miyuki gave him one of the gentlest smiles. "Thank you," She ran up to him and gave him a front hug. "Man, you guys got me all emotional," Miyuki laughed as she wiped away the tears from her eyes, which caused the team to laugh as well. "Just go back to practice."

"Alright, meet you back in the court then, Yuki-chan."

"Mm," Miyuki nodded.

"Ayame-chan, I can't believe you got the time wrong about when the practice starts!" A girl with bright orange hair whined in a high-pitch voice.

"I was not my fault! Someone must have change the time without telling me!" The girl with dark brown hair and blue eyes, who apparently is called Ayame, argued. "Anyway, we are here now and we still get to see Shiraishi-sama practice! So quit your whining, Harumi!"

"Yes, Ayame-chan! But please don't forget Kenya-san too!" Harumi quickly froze her body like a soldier does to salute to his captain. "Hey, Ayame-chan, who is that? Did you call another member to cheer with us?"

"No, me alone is enough to give Shiraishi-sama as much energy he needs!" Ayame proudly hit her chest.

"Then who is that?" Harumi asked pointing to the girl with blonde braided hair from the front of her head to the back standing close to the fence watching the tennis team with a grin on her face enjoying herself.

"Who…!? Who in the world is that!?" Ayame angrily clutched her fist disbelieving her eyes that there was someone else watching 'her' dear Shiraishi practice. "And… What in the world is she wearing?" She pointed to the yellow, green jacket the girl was currently wearing.

"It… it looks like a regular's jersey!" Harumi exclaimed soon realizing the jacket.

"No really! Now, come on, we got some unwanted pest here that we need to kill," Ayame said in a cold-deadly manner. "Excuse me, miss."

"Yes," Miyuki greeted both of them with a smile.

"Who do you think you are?"

"Eh?" Miyuki was surprised by the sudden question.

"To just come here and steal a regular's jersey, you don't know your place, do you?" Ayame continued.

"Oh, no, please, don't tell me, it's Kamie-sempai all over again…" Miyuki sighed in her head. She was hoping to avoid this kind of people during her trip in Osaka. But guess, as long as she is friends with regulars of any tennis team, she will always meet people like this.

"Whose jacket is that anyway?" Ayame asked as she hastily grabbed Miyuki by the collar of the jacket to see the owner of that jacket's name. When she saw the knitted name on the collar of the jersey, she was beyond disbelief. "Sh… Shir… Shiraishi-sama…?"

"Oi, Yuki-chan," a voice suddenly cried out making Ayame lose her grip on Miyuki.

"Zaizen-kun."

"Come here for a sec," Zaizen waved his hand to show her that he wanted her to be by his side.

"O… kay," Miyuki confusingly followed his order and started to walk into the court. As she was walking by, everyone basically dropped everything they were doing and was wondering why the second-year decided to call in the blonde girl in the middle of the practice. "So what do you need me for?" Miyuki asked when she finally was standing a few step away from Zaizen.

Before giving her an answer, Zaizen began looking the area left and right. When he found what he was looking for, Zaizen replied, "Go sit on that bench." Zaizen pointed to a bench close to them.

"But why?"

"Just do it," Zaizen then grabbed her wrist and basically forced her to sit and stay on the bench.

"Zaizen, why…?" Shiraishi confusingly questioned in his head. He was surprised by this sudden action from the guy who seemed to be uninterested to anything to actually order or maybe even care for a person, none the less a person he had just met. Shiraishi's eyes then started to scan around the area to see if there was anything that would have caused Zaizen to act this way. He continued to look around until something, or someone, caught his attention. "Oh no… It's Ayame-san… She's one of the craziest people I have ever met… Wait, don't tell me, Zaizen actually called Yuki-chan over to save her from Ayame-san…?" Shiraishi questioned himself since he knew how dangerous Ayame is if she knew a girl was friend with the regulars (or more specifically – him). He then diverted his eyes toward Zaizen, who was currently playing a rally with his often double player, Kenya. "Ah~ Ecstasy, guess Zaizen has a side of him that no one knew about."

I hoped you guys like it :) And just saying for Shitenhoji, I only mostly like Shiraishi, Kenya, and Zaizen, so the story will mostly be occupied by them, not with the other regulars (sorry) and I just don't think I can write how Koharu and Yuuji would act so I might not put them in as much either...

Please review to tell me if I was (at least close) to characters' attitudes. (I always feel like I have trouble making characters' personalities...)

One last thing: have an AWESOME Labor Day weekend! :D