Chapter Twenty-Eight.

Catching up after almost a decade is more difficult than it seems.

She feels lucky to have close relatives living in Japan. She does not have to worry as much where to go when the going gets too tough for her. After graduating from Shitenhouji Middle School, Yume and Zaki moved to Tokyo with the Inui household as per Hirari's request.

The arrangement is that Hirari will be sending money to the Inuis as rent payment even though the latter initially declined the offer. Yukihara is always more than welcoming to accommodate her niece. After all, Yume is a part of the family and she has been spending her vacations with them for a large part of her childhood. In fact, Yume was able to form a close relationship with her cousin Sadaharu. After long discussions regarding the financial arrangements on Yume and Zaki's stay with the Inuis, Yukihara yielded to the ever-insistent and ever-dominant Hirari.

Hence, Yume is currently staying with the Inuis. And since she is under Yukihara's jurisdiction, she is compelled to "mend" a relationship with Sadaharu even though they have not fought at all in the past.

At the corner of the room is a bed with purple sheets and pillows. A distinctive yellow banana pillow lies on it. A cabinet is placed at the far corner facing the foot of the bed. The study table stands beside the bed.

She already has her pajamas on and brushed her teeth, already prepared for bedtime. Yume jumps onto the bed and digs her face into a pillow. A sigh escapes her lips. "I'm so tired… I want to slee~p..." She recalls the events throughout the day. From now on forward, Yume shall no longer be a Kazuyoshi Yuki. It feels good, but she still misses that side of her. She misses the memories made back at Osaka.

Someone knocks on her door. Yume does not bother to check on it since people in the house just come in and out of her room - not that she minds it anyway. She only locks her door whenever she is going to bed, whenever she is doing anything that she does not feel comfortable showing to people in the house, or simply whenever she does not feel like talking to people. Otherwise, the door is unlocked for people to barge in and talk.

The door opens without any introductions. Sadaharu enters her room. He looks at her lying on the bed and raises a brow. She seems too comfortable. "Are you already done with your studies, Yume-san?" he reminds her.

She lifts her head and turns towards the door. Sadaharu closes the door behind him. On his hand are a few books and a notebook and a pen is slid inside his pocket. "Uhm…" Yume glances at her closed bag on top of the desk at the other side of the room. "…I actually haven't started yet." She sits up and scratches her head.

"Can I sit down?" Sadaharu asks as he glances over at the study table.

"Sure." Yume immediately grabs her bag and places it on top of her bed to free the seat for her cousin. She takes out a notebook and a pen and lies again on the bed on her stomach. Her feet play and sway in the air.

Sadaharu approaches the study table and gently places his books and notebook on top. Upon taking a seat, he immediately opens his notebook and begins scanning the pages of his books.

Only the sounds of pages being flipped, Yume's soft humming, and Sadaharu's occasional tapping on the table can be heard in the room. This has already become a routine for them. Words exchanged are always minimized as much as possible. Even though Yukihara always requests both of them to do things together like when they were still very young, neither interacts as much with the other. They simply go on doing their own things even if they are stuck in the same room. Sometimes they stay in Yume's room while there are some times they stay in Sadaharu's room. Either way, both avoid interfering with each other's affairs.

Time has already passed for so long that they find it hard to reconnect with each other. At least, they think it will be very difficult as neither really attempted anything. They have different interests now.

A knock is heard again from the door. "I'll be coming in!" Zaki enters the room and looks at the cousins. He sighs. "You guys aren't even interacting at all," he observes.

Yume looks up at him while Sadaharu turns to see him. They simply nod in response.

"You do understand that the purpose of this whole exercise is to get you two to share an activity together, right?" The two simply nod. Zaki sighs. He places his fists on his hips. He breathes in to project his voice, "Yukihara-san will be so disappointed if she sees you two like this. She even thought that your relationship has been improving since we moved in, but-"

Zaki stops as he feels a presence lurking behind him. Yume blinks. Sadaharu gulps as he adjusts his glasses.

"Oh, Zaki…" Yukihara suddenly appears behind Zaki. "… don't worry about me. I'm not disappointed at all," she says with her usual smile but a seemingly dark aura surrounding her. She places a hand on Zaki's shoulder, which in turn made him shiver. Yukihara glares at the cousins.

Sadaharu and Yume immediately sit up straight out of fear. "W-we're n-n-not-" "Okaa-san, a-actually, w-w-we-" they both start stuttering and shaking at the terrorizing stare of the woman.

Yukihara enters the room. Her devious smile fills the room with terror. Zaki slips out to escape the growing horror inside. "Hmm… so this one-hour-a-day-together-with-my-cousin arrangement is not working, huh?" she says, "I guess this means that we need to think of other ways to get you two closer."

Both gulp.

From the large pocket of her apron, Yukihara reaches for a thick, hardbound book with a light blue cover. No one knows how something that large in size is able to fit inside her apron pocket. On its front cover, a cut-out of 'Haru-chan's Childhood' is pasted. "Are you all ready for a short trip down the memory lane?" she says in her sweetest motherly tone.

"Oh, no…" Sadaharu holds his breath.


The night is young and the Oshitaris are already having their dinner. Joining them is Yuushi, who visited only to check up on his cousin. The blue-haired man is growing worried as his usually jolly cousin has not been contacting him for a few weeks now.

Yuushi walks to the dining room after failing to convince Kenya to join them to dinner that evening. Only Mariko, Souya and Shouta are present in the dinner table.

"So, how is he?" Oshitari Mariko, Kenya's mother, asks with a frown.

Yuushi shakes his head before sitting down to return to his meal. "I don't know if he's sleeping or what, but he wasn't even responding to anything I say."

Mariko sighs as she stares at the table. Frustrated, she chews her food and swallows it. She gently places her pair of chopsticks on top of her bowl. "He still isn't back to normal, huh?" Another sigh escapes her lips. "I don't even know anymore what my son particularly needs right now. He barely speaks to us, if he actually even talks to us." Mariko gloomily stares at her food.

Oshitari Souya, Kenya's father, also gives his comment, "Right. He always goes home early, but he goes straight to his room and locks himself up. I don't think he's even engaging in tennis anymore." He sighs. Souya looks at his wife Mariko and places a hand on her shoulder. "And it is not your fault, Sweetie. Never yours."

Mariko looks up to her husband and places a hand over his. "Thank you." She smiles weakly.

Even though he rarely agrees with his cousin's ideas or sometimes calls him an idiot, Yuushi enjoys talking with Kenya on the phone. He finds himself entertained with their petty conversations and competitive boastings about anything and everything they can boast about - no matter how insignificant. He loves the feeling of beating his cousin in every competition they have and winning all the time (self-declared). But most of all, Yuushi likes catching up with his cousin even though they had already spoken to each other previously. Overall, he misses the little chit chats with his cousin ever since Kenya has fallen into his own dark world.

Shouta pouts. "Nii-san does not play with me anymore." He looks at Yuushi. "He isn't playing his very loud music every weekend morning anymore. Nii-san doesn't even try to be annoying anymore."

Yuushi chuckles. "... even though he doesn't really have to try to be annoying, he always is annoying." He glances at his food. "And he has not yet taken his Speedy-chan back from me."

The little Shouta grumbles. "The only thing I've ever seen him doing is to read 'The Eighth Star' over and over again. He doesn't even let me borrow his manga."

"And that's another thing I am really worried about." Souya says, "Kenya has this growing obsession towards that manga. I've noticed him reading the same volume over and over again. There's not even a progress yet with the plot."

"That's... a real problem," Yuushi comments.

Mariko frowns as she holds Souya's hand. "Do you think we should get him to a psychiatrist or something?"

"What is his obsession with 'Eighth Star' even all about?"

Shouta shakes his head. "I remember watching its trailer on T.V. one time and Nii-san caught a glimpse of it." He blinks. "I think he has a crush with Mikata-chan. He's been staring at the cover of Volume Ten with Mikata-chan on a wedding dress."

"And Mikata-chan is a character in this Eighth Star?"

Shouta nods.


The sky is blue and covered by a few fluffy, white clouds that afternoon. Only the two of them are alone together at the rooftop since the teachers have been discouraging all students from staying at the rooftop. After all, the rooftop is an unsupervised area for the teachers who are busy with their own paper works.

Nevertheless, most students of Yamabuki High still choose to break words from the teachers. The area is quiet and relaxing enough for students who simply want to breathe a little air from the others.

"And so, my cousin was blushing the whole time," she explains as she munches on her sandwich. Sengoku attentively listens to her. "You see, Sadaharu-kun isn't really the type to talk excessively except on things about tennis and science, so I think it was really hard for him to voice himself out last night." Yume chuckles. "We were so pathetic. He was so pathetic. I really feel so bad for him."

"You 'felt bad' for him, yet you called him 'pathetic.'" Sengoku raises a brow.

"That's what I felt that he was feeling, at least."

He chuckles. "You're a weird one."

"That's not even being weird," she protests.

"You can't just assume what other people are feeling," The orange-haired boy takes a sip from his juice box. He chuckles. "That kind of behavior might break your heart in the future." Sengoku gives her a wink.

She grunts. "Are you trying to imply something here?" Yume regrets that she told Sengoku about her previous relationships from her previous school.

"Nothing really." He smirks. "It's just that I find it absurd that you put meaning in Kenya-san's actions towards you in the past."

Yume rolls her eyes. "Fine. That was my wrong." She sighs.

He blinks. "…Oh, your cousin plays tennis?"

She nods. "Yeah, he does. When we were young, we used to play tennis together whenever Renji-kun couldn't play with him." Yume gazes at the clear sky and yawns. "Renji-kun was his doubles partner in the past. And they had the same tennis play. I still think that they still do have that same 'data tennis.'" Yume glances at his direction. "Never won a game against my cousin. Dude calculates everything."

"Data tennis, huh?" He rubs his chin.

"Come to think of it, his team was champion of last year's National Tournament… for middle schools, of course." Yume looks at Sengoku. "You happen to know Seishun Gakuen, right? I mean, you are a tennis player ever since middle school after all."

Sengoku smiles. "Yep. I do know them. Our team played them once." He looks at Yume and takes a guess, "Inui Sadaharu? Is he your cousin?"

She nods.

He chuckles. "Aahhh… I heard he was the third best player in their team back then before a cheeky first-year stole his spot as a regular player."

"R-really? Sadaharu-kun must be really good, then." Yume looks at the ground. "I mean, I never won a game from him since we were kids, but to know that he was really good is just..."

Sengoku nods. "But his dedication to data collection is really making him look a little creepy."

Yume stops to think for a moment. "Well…" She takes a deep breath. "… it is quite unsettling to have a cousin who have notes about other people in their notebooks. Call him a manager or something, but I think it's too much for a middle school tennis club member." She shakes her head. "I just grew fond of that habit of his anyway."

"Nothing is too much for someone who is fixated on winning."

She gazes again at the clouds. "Maybe you're right, too."

He raises a brow. "I've been thinking. Yume-chan, if you really want to reconnect with Inui-kun, why don't you use tennis to do that? After all, he likes playing tennis. You also like tennis. You used to play tennis together, right?"

Yume blinks multiple times. "I wouldn't win, but..." A smile gradually appears on her face. She looks at him. "Why did I not think of that?"


"Marui-ku~n!" Jirou enthusiastically jumps upon seeing his tennis idol from the farthest table inside the café as he waves a hand. Ever since the U-17 camp ended, he has grown closer to Marui and further realized the similarity of their interests. Both love sweets, tennis, video games, anime and manga. In effect, they have been meeting occasionally to talk about updates on their interests.

The redhead sighs as he hesitantly smiles. He feels a little embarrassed that his company has attracted attention from the other café goers. Nevertheless, Marui waves a hand to acknowledge the arrival of his friend.

Jirou approaches the table. "Marui-kun!" He takes his seat opposite the redhead.

"Jirou-kun," Marui greets the other. He reaches for something inside his bag. It is a thick book, covered with eye-catching neon colors. "Here, I'm finally done with this." The redhead hands it to Jirou. "Thanks!"

"So how did you find it?"

"The plot is really good, and the art style is fantastic. I just wish they release an anime adaptation. If they do, I'm definitely watching it!"

"Right~" Jirou's smile reaches the end of his cheeks. "I think I've fallen in love with the main character~ Mikata-chan beats her enemies like BLAAM! BOOM! KAPOW!" He rests his cheeks on the palm of his right hand as his right elbow is placed on top of the table. Jirou stares at the ceiling, his eyes half-open and sparkling.

Marui chuckles. "You know, I really thought that she would be your type. After all, she is sweet and gives out chocolates." He looks at the book once again. "I think she'd be my type, too, if only she was real."

"Right~ I wonder if there is any way that she could be real."

The redhead sighs at the sight of Jirou's hopelessness at his fantasy. "Of course, there's no way a Mikata-chan can actually exist. Besides, the setting of the story is in outer space."

Jirou sighs. "Right. But I still bet she's going to be cool." He blinks. "By the way, 'Eighth Star' is going to have an anime adaptation. I hope they get Mikata-chan a very good voice actress." He gazes at the ceiling. "I'm so excited."

Marui chuckles. "Sure." His eyes wander over the menu card on the table. "Anyway, aren't we going to order our food?"

~ End Chapter ~