Chapter Seventeen.

It cannot be that hard to end a dispute with an old friend.

Her eyes slowly open at the beam of light seeping from the windows. The sun has risen once again and is seemingly peeking at her from the window. She grunts as she reaches for her phone. It is already around eight o'clock. Four unread messages are left on her phone.

First one is from Zaki. 'Please eat your breakfast well, and don't forget to stretch!'

She smiles faintly and types an enthusiastic reply, 'Roger that, Sir!'

The second mail is a photo. Unsurprisingly, it has come from Marui who has sent a photo of himself. He still has his bed hair, but the smile on his face seems so alive. 'Come watch me today, 'kay?'

Yume chuckles weakly and replies, 'Yes, yes! But that bed hair is really charming.'

Third one is quite a surprise. 'Dear, are you alright? Was my Hikaru-kun rude to you? Please eat well and have a great morning!' It is a message from Hikaru's mother.

"How did Haruna-san even get my number? Maybe through Zaizen-san?" Her neighbor must have been really fond of her. 'Yes, Haruna-san! I'm fine. Zaizen-san was nice to me yesterday. We even had dinner with the whole team last night.'

The last message comes from him. A pink tint of blush appears on her cheeks as she suddenly sits up. 'Yo, Kazuyoshi! Good morning. ^_^' A smile is plastered on her face when she noticed that Kenya sent the mail as early as six in the morning.

"Oh no. Oshitari-san, why?!" Yume pouted but her smile extended up to her cheekbones. She grabs a pillow and buries her face deep. Yume squeals in excitement. After she is already done venting out, she grabs her phone and reads the message over and over again. Her fingers become fidgety as she types a 'Good morning, Oshitari-san! ^ω^' as her response.

Yume jumps out of bed and finishes her morning rituals as soon as possible. Having promised that she will be watching Marui's games, she finishes everything as quickly as she can. She has even rushed on deciding what to wear. Yume simply grabs the plain blue T-shirt and sweatshirt that she has first laid her hands on. Before leaving the hotel room, she takes a glance at her phone. Disappointed that Kenya hasn't replied yet, Yume sighs and shoves it into her pocket. She plugs her earphones and stretches her arms as she steps out.


"Why, in heaven's name, am I here?" she asks herself.

Upon arriving at the Tokyo Arena, Yume immediately bumps into her childhood friends. Kabaji stands behind Atobe, and a guy with glasses and blue hair is beside her despised person. Everyone is momentarily shocked. Atobe, however, recovers shortly when a smirk appears on his face. Kabaji will seem to be stoic at the encounter, yet she knows that her friend is beyond delighted to see her. Yuushi, on the other hand, feels so much concerned upon recalling the previous scene at the balcony of Atobe's mansion.

"Out of all the people..." she mutters as a frown appears on her face. Yume is happy to see Kabaji but not the other guy.

"A-Atobe, I think it's best if we leave now," Yuushi whispers to his captain. Atobe, however, simply ignores Yuushi as he stares at the visibly annoyed look on Yume's face.

"We meet again." Atobe smirks. "I guess, it's time that we have a talk. I think you already know that you cannot escape..."

'...Sweat it out, shut your mouth. Free love on the streets but in the alley it ain't that cheap, now...'

"... a conversation with me. It'll eventually happen anyway. And I know you can't stay mad at me forever," he continues.

He seems to be saying a few words. Yume bites her lower lip to stop herself from grinning as she cannot flesh out the words coming from his mouth. Yuushi lightly taps the shoulder of his friend after noticing that there is something plugged into her ears.

'... I don't care what you think as long as it's about me. The best of us can find happiness in misery...'

"Even if you try to keep away, you know you'll still have thoughts about me." He tolerates the efforts made by Yuushi and glances at Kabaji. "Isn't that right, Kabaji?"

The young man goes not budge. Atobe does not appear to get irritated by this. He simply continues on to his point.

'... Said, I don't care what you think as long as it's about me. The best of us can find happiness in misery...'

"Everything's fine now. I'm not angry anymore, so we can become friends again. You-"

As the song she has been listening to goes into an interlude, she suddenly stops him. "Excuse me, but are you not done yet?" Yume smirks while she removes her earphones. "I hope you did not say something too important because I definitely did not hear you."

"Ahh... I was trying to tell you," Yuushi mutters to himself as he does a facepalm. Meanwhile, Atobe is taken aback by her revelation, frowns and turns pale.

"You can just repeat whatever you were saying a while ago," she continues.

Atobe clicks his tongue. "Y-you...!"

She points to her ears. "I had my earphones on. Didn't you notice?"

"Then, why didn't you say so earlier?" he asks in irritation.

"Ahh... I thought you were going to wait for me to remove those. But you still went on and talked."

Atobe frowns.

Yume suddenly bursts into laughter. "I'm sorry... This is just too funny for me not to laugh." She covers her face, trying to restrain herself from laughing even louder.

Atobe clicks his tongue once again. "Yuu-chan!" he exclaims, annoyed.

She takes a deep breath and looks at him. Yume bites her lips as an attempt to contain her laughter. She notices how visibly irritated he is and thinks that he must be really feeling ridiculed. "Oh?" A thought suddenly puts a stop to her laugh. Yume blinks and points a finger at her childhood friend. "Did you just call me 'Yuu-chan'?"

He comes into the same realization. He blinks.

She smiles as she plugs her earphones again. "I know, you little brat. Don't you think a conversation is quite inconvenient as of now? After all, you have a tournament to win today." Yume starts walking away. He has been struck quiet by the turn of events and remains speechless.

"Good luck to you, Mune-chan! You, too, Kei-chan!" she shouts as she walks farther away. "And to you, dude with glasses!"

"A-Atobe...?" Yuushi watches the girl disappear from sight.

The captain looks at Kabaji and notes that his friend seems really happy. He smiles. "Let's go, Yuushi. We still have a team to defeat."


Loud cheers come from outside the court in action. Kirihara stands on one court with a proud smile. The ball has just fallen into the opponent's court. With a face of defeat, his opponent is lying on the ground and punches the ground.

"Game set! Won by Rikkai Dai Fuzoku's Kirihara Akaya. Six games to love."

"Always win, Rikkai Dai! Let's go, let's go, Rikkai Dai!"

Yume whistles and claps in amazement. She stands just outside the fence of the court at the side where Rikkai Dai tennis team's bench is. While the other regulars are sitting or standing near their recently recovered captain, Marui stands by the metallic fence away from them to keep her company.

"And that's our little kouhai," he says.

"Well, he sure has skills to boast," she replies, "No wonder his cockiness is also way over the top."

He chuckles. "Akaya's always like that in court. He has that attitude whoever his opponent is. But outside, he's just a clueless little brat. Still, we have to train him to become the next captain of Rikkais Dai's tennis club."

"That's adorable." Yume stares at the court scene when the two players shook hands before leaving the court. She smiles upon staring at the second year boy. "You should also train your kouhai to use a comb once in a while. His hair seems pretty messy."

He blinks. Then, laughs. "No, let's leave it like that. His seaweed hair is his charm point after all."

"Doubles 2. Rikkai Dai's Yagyuu - Niou pair versus Kabuto's Minamihata - Yoshida pair." The referee announces the next match. The attention goes to the two pairs who steps into the court and shakes hands.

"Yagyuu and Niou, huh?" she mutters to herself. "Hey, Bunta-san, which one is Yagyuu-san? And which one is Niou-san?" Yume asks.

"The cool guy with glasses is Yagyuu Hiroshi while the other annoying long-haired guy is our trickster Niou Masaharu," Marui replies.

She points to Marui's teammates. "So that one is Yagyuu-san and the other is Niou-san, right?"

He chuckles. "Don't be too concerned with their appearance. Their pair is very complicated."

"Ehh...? What do you mean?"

"This two plays a lot in the court. Yagyuu may not look like it, but whenever he plays doubles with Niou there will be a lot of tricks in the court."

"I'm still confused."

"There are times when Yagyuu dresses up like Niou and Niou dresses up like Yagyuu. They basically play while pretending to be the other one. When the opponents get used to their moves, they switch back to their own play styles. In the end, they confuse their opponents."

"Is that not against rules? Actually, is that even possible?" Yume raises a brow as she watches the game.

"Deceit and outwitting your opponents is a strategy in tennis."

"Is that so?" Yume chuckles. "I thought tennis is just a simple game. I didn't really think that it is far more complicated than hitting balls."

Marui laughs. "Well, amateurs and simpletons only look at tennis that way. Professionals and true tennis fans, of course, see the game in a more superior view," he teases.

"Did you just implicitly call me a simpleton?"

"I was not the one who said that." He chuckles.

She grunts as a response. "You're addiction to tennis does not make you far more superior to me." Yume shrugs off the conversation. "Anyway, I'll be off to grab some drinks."

"Oh, really? Let me come with you."

"Don't you have a match today? Singles 1, right?" she raises a brow.

He smirks. "It's not like I will be able to play today. Even before Doubles 1, our team will already be winning."

"Ohh... you're really confident, aren't you?"

"Rikkai Dai will not, in any way, lose against any team," he replies, "especially when our captain is back again. We're off to get our third consecutive win in the Nationals Tournament."

Marui and Yume walk to the nearest vending machine. After punching in some buttons, a pack of strawberry milk falls down into the take-out port. She grabs the box and shakes it before piercing with a straw.

After taking a sip, Yume bursts out laughing. "That's so rude, Bunta-san. Talking about other people's embarassing moments. Tell me more."

Still chuckling, Marui rubs his chin as he thinks of other stories to tell. "Ah! I remember that time during the Christmas break. Akaya, Jackal and I went to a shopping mall. And there was this guy dressing up as Santa Claus."

"Oh wait." Yume gasps. "Don't tell me, Kirihara-san still believes in Santa Claus?!"

He bursts out laughing. "He was so starstruck because he thought the guy was real."

She laughs along with him. "Did none of you ever tell him that Santa Claus is not real?"

"You know, that's not even the worse part. Apparently, a Santa Claus festival was being held at the mall, so there's a lot of Santa Claus. He thought that Santa Claus has this ninja-like ability to multiply!"

"That's so stupid!"

While the two are laughing loudly, an interruption has come to step in. "Kazuyoshi-kun?"

~ End Chapter ~