Chapter 53.

Kirihara spent the night at Tanaka's. Her father was never very happy when he or Miyagi spent the night, but when they agreed to sleep with the door open, he usually caved. Once Tanaka explained what was going on, her father understood and allowed Kirihara to spend the night.

Kirihara rolled onto his back, trying to get comfortable. His emergency overnight kit had a sleeping bag, which was probably the most uncomfortable thing in the world. Tanaka was sitting on her bed rebraiding her hair before going to bed.

"Akaya," she said, "I think someone is calling you."

Kirihara grabbed his phone off the floor. It was on silent, but the screen was blinking. He opened it, frowning when he saw An's name and number. He couldn't talk to her. He had basically admitted to still being in love with her to Tanaka. An was kind, even after they broke up. Sometimes he wished she was cruel so he could just forget about her. He let the call go to voice mail, not having the heart to decline it.

Tanaka was looking at him, her eyes puffy and tired. "Who was it? Your mom?"

"An." He had a million 'your mom' jokes in his mind, but didn't say any. Instead, he said, "I texted my mom and told her I'd be staying over earlier, remember?"

"Sorry, I forgot." She tied off her braid, and then set her hands into her lap. "Akaya, thank you. I know it's creepy being friends with a girl. We think differently and all, but I just couldn't trust any of my girl friends with this. You and Satoshi are –"

She stopped. Like my brothers.

"It's fine, Miho," he promised. "You're more of a sister to me than my real sister."

"How's she doing?" Tanaka asked. "Still a bitch?"

It was obvious she was trying to get her mind off of everything because she knew that Kirihara and his sister didn't get along. Kirihara talked, ignoring his phone when it rang again.

.

Kirihara took a shower the following morning, thankful his overnight kit included a school uniform. They would have to run by his apartment to get his school and tennis bags, but it was close to the train station so it wouldn't take too long.

He sat at Tanaka's dining table while she got ready, her mother cooking and her father reading the paper.

"How is she doing?" her mother asked as she flipped a pancake. She was under the impression that Kirihara was half American because of his eye color, and never baked a traditional Japanese breakfast when he spent the night. His grandmother had been American, and he ended up with her eyes, but he liked the pancakes so he didn't say anything.

"Alright, I guess," Kirihara said. "She's putting on a brave face. You know how she is."

Her mother nodded. "She's stubborn as anything."

Kirihara grinned when she set a plate of pancakes in front of him. "Thank you, Tanaka-san."

"No problem, Kirihara-kun." She smiled warmly at him.

Tanaka walked into the room, adjusting her skirt. She always wore a little makeup, but she seemed to be wearing more than usual to cover the dark circles and redness of her eyes.

"Good morning," she said, sitting down at the table. Her mother put a plate of pancakes in front of her, and she smiled. "Gotta love how my best friend is half-American."

Kirihara nudged her under the table because she knew that wasn't true. She laughed. Kirihara looked at her mom, noticing that her shoulders had relaxed.

.

The two headed to school together. Tanaka sat on the bleachers during Kirihara's morning practice reading through her script. She checked her phone from time to time. Kirihara wondered if she was waiting for a text from her boyfriend or one from Miyagi. Kirihara ignored Niou and Marui's snide remarks about her being his girlfriend.

After practice, the two headed to class. Tanaka's shoulders sunk when she spotted Miyagi's empty seat. Kirihara didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything. She fell asleep halfway through class; Kirihara made his notes extra neat so she could copy. She never slept in class. Kirihara wondered if she slept last night. From what he remembered, she was tossing and turning a lot.

During lunch, she turned her desk around and sighed. She pulled out a bag of cheetos and a grape soda. "Leftover from yesterday," she said when Kirihara raised his eyebrows. She turned the bag so it was facing him. "I have a rehearsal after school. Just a run through of the script. Do you have tennis?"

"Yeah," he answered, pulling a few cheetos out of the bag. "I just run all of practice now. What are they going to do, assign me more laps for not listening to their instructions?"

"They could make you stop."

"And if I refuse to stop? They'll assign me laps."

"Akaya, you're impossible. I don't get why you want to run. I like to run sometimes, just not when people tell me to. Like in gym, when we have to run timed things, I suddenly feel like my legs are dead. When I feel fat, I'm Flash."

"You should come to the gym with me and An sometime," he said. "You two were kind of close, right?"

"We talked about your hair," she said, grinning. "She's cool. Maybe I can tag along sometime. I'm out of shape. If I didn't have the metabolism of a tiger, I'd be dead."

"Skinny doesn't mean healthy."

"I know that. Don't lecture me." She popped a cheeto into her mouth. "I'll suffer death by cheetos if I want to."

He took the bag, holding it against his chest protectively. "Mine."

She laughed. Kirihara refused to give the bag back.

.

After school, Tanaka headed to rehearsal, agreeing to head over to the tennis courts when she was done. Kirihara changed for practice, and headed outside to start running.

He wasn't quite sure how many laps he ran, but he was certain he broke a record. Everyone else was playing practice matches but him. He ran until he felt his lungs burn, his heart break his ribs, his muscles melt. Only when he physically couldn't force his legs any farther did he stop.

He stumbled over to a bench where Oyama and Urayama were sitting. The two were facing each other, Oyama looking at Urayama's eye. "There's nothing in your eye," Oyama said.

Urayama pulled his eyelid back, leaning closer to Oyama. "I can feel it, Kenta. There's something there!"

"There's nothing there," Oyama said again. "You're becoming hysterical."

"I can feel it!"

"I'll poke your eye out if you don't shut up," Oyama said. He tried to sound serious, but he ended up grinning. Urayama dropped his hands into his lap, grinning along with his partner. Oyama wouldn't dare hurt Urayama. The tall boy went out of his way to make sure that no one hurt him.

Kirihara sat down, pressing his hands against his thighs. He wouldn't be able to run tomorrow. He would do crunches and pushups instead. He couldn't get Yanagi's voice out of his head – lactic acid and fermentation and alcohol. He never liked biology.

Oyama reached into his pocket, pulling out a jolly rancher. "Do you want one?" he asked, offering it to Kirihara.

Kirihara nodded, taking the candy from the first year. He still found it amusing that a guy like Oyama, who looked like he hated anything sweet, had a soft spot for candy. He always had something in his pocket so he could sneak something sugary during practice.

As Kirihara unwrapped the candy, he asked, "How're you guys doing on the third year stuff? Think you'll be able to join the regulars next challenges?"

Oyama shrugged and turned so he wasn't staring at his partner. His jolly rancher clanked against his teeth. "I guess we're getting better. We've been practicing with Marui-senpai and Jackal-senpai."

"Right, they're doing a new formation or something," Kirihara said. "Is it any good? Aren't they switching positions?"

Urayama nodded. He stuck a pink jolly rancher out of his lips, then sucked it back in. Kirihara wondered if Urayama should be given sugar. Oyama never seemed to worry about it.

"They're getting good," Urayama said. "You can come with us one day. You've been practicing a lot ever since your match with Buchou. Don't you want to practice with someone else?"

Kirihara twirled the plastic wrapped between his fingers as he sucked on the candy. "I'm working with An and my friends. Just going to the gym, building up the foundations and stuff."

Kirihara wasn't sure if they knew not to mention An or if they didn't pick up on it. Instead, Urayama said, "You'll beat 'em."

"Definitely," Kirihara replied with a smirk.

.

Tanaka showed up at the end of practice. She waited outside of the locker room, scrolling through the messages on her phone as she waited for Kirihara. She had a text her boyfriend, asking if she wanted to talk and something about him being sorry. She deleted the message. Part of her knew she would get back together with him, but she had to talk to Miyagi first. She needed to make sure things were okay between them.

Tanaka had moved to the Rikkaidai-area during her second year of junior high. Everyone already had their cliques, and no one seemed too keen on letting the average-looking, preppy, drama nerd into their group. Miyagi was her tour guide to the school, and the only one to talk to her. She met Kirihara through him – the boys had been friends since grade school.

The two of them became her first real friends at Rikkaidai. They were a little strange – okay, they were really strange – but so was she. She couldn't remember a single time when they weren't laughing for more than five minutes. They made her smile. They were practically her brothers.

She didn't want that to change.

She heard footsteps and looked up from her phone. Kirihara was standing in front of her, drops of water dripping from his wet hair. She reached out, pinching a curl between her fingers and pulled on it. It was sticky. "Mousse?" she asked.

He shrugged. "It helps the curls from frizzing."

"You're such a girl."

"I could say the same for you."

She rolled her eyes, hooking her arm with his. He usually wiggled out of her grip, something about not liking physical contact unless he initiated it, but he didn't this time. They walked to the school gate, Tanaka trying to get him to skip. He refused. He had to draw the line somewhere.

.

Two days later, and neither of them had heard from Miyagi. Kirihara knew Tanaka was still crying, but she didn't do it around him.

They were sprawled out on Tanaka's bedroom floor. The two had attempted their homework, but they both decided they weren't as smart as they thought. Miyagi was the smart one in their group.

An had stopped calling, deciding that maybe he would respond to a text. She was right. Kirihara sat with his back to Tanaka's bed, telling An that he read everything she wrote in her sarcastic-voice.

"I don't get this," Tanaka mumbled, tapping her pencil against her math book. "Where are all the numbers?"

"Hiding from all the letters," Kirihara replied.

She tossed her pencil at him. "Seriously, we have a test tomorrow. We're going to fail. The kids who sit next to me are dumb nerds. Life is not going to be kind to them."

Kirihara laughed softly, but was quickly distracted by a text from An. He needed to stop talking to her. He was going to do something stupid if they kept acting like they did. Tanaka kept telling him that he was holding hurting himself by talking to her. Kirihara didn't listen. There was nothing wrong with just liking her. As long as Momoshiro didn't find out, it was an innocent crush.

Tanaka's phone rang again. She stretched her arm out, digging through her bag to get it. She stared at the number, chucked a book at Kirihara to get his attention, and then picked up. "Satoshi?"

Miyagi laughed on the other end. "Yeah. That's my name. Are you ignoring me or is your doorbell not working? I've been pressing it for quite some time now."

Tanaka hung up, scrambling to her feet. Kirihara followed, texting An that a level-five situation had just occurred. He didn't know what a level-five situation was, but it sounded intense.

Tanaka opened the door to her apartment, flinging her arms around Miyagi. She instantly regretted it because he stiffened and didn't return her hug. She pulled back, gripping her arms in front of her chest.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I'm just glad you're okay."

"It's been a few days," he said with a forced smile, like he was pretended he wasn't dying inside. "What do you think happened? I mastered Jedi Mind Trick and took over the world? I'm not that good."

Kirihara leaned against the wall, waving once. Miyagi nodded in return. Tanaka shifted her weight from foot to foot and let her arms fall to her sides. She didn't know what to say. What was she supposed to say? What could she say?

Miyagi must have sensed her apprehension or maybe he didn't and she was just imagining it, but he started talking.

"I've been trying to think of a way to make this not awkward, but I can't. This is awkward as fuck. I don't want to talk about this ever again, so can we just start over?" He hesitated. "I'd really like it if we could."

"Yeah, we can start over." Tanaka held her hand out. With a straight, honest face, she said, "Hi, I'm Tanaka Miho. You can call me Miho. I like grape soda. And narwhales. I think they're the children of dolphins and unicorns."

Miyagi smiled and shook her hand. "I'm Miyagi. Call me Satoshi. I like dinosaurs. I also like dinosaur chicken nuggets. They're the staple of my rainy days."

"Nice to meet you, Satoshi," she said, still shaking his hand. She looked down at their hands, and then back at his face. "You can let go of my hand now."

"Worth a shot," he said, shrugging slightly. He pulled his hand back and put it in his pocket. He looked at Kirihara. "Who's the douche with the curly hair?"

"Satoshi, shut it. I will Jedi Mind Trick you into using my mousse," Kirihara snapped. Just then, An sent him a text asking if a level-five situation was the same as a code-magenta crisis. He laughed, making his response to Miyagi not nearly as threatening as he had meant.

Miyagi grinned. Tanaka bit her lip, but ended up laughing anyways.

Things would go back to normal, it was just take time.

That was the lie they told themselves.


A/N: :)