Chapter Nineteen.

Rivals can become good friends, too.

Hitouji and Koharu are grinning as they watch how Kenya has been hugging Yume for a while now. The other members are trying to ignore the scene while their coach is simply scratching his head.

"They shouldn't really be doing this in public," Hikaru utters to himself while he looks away from the two. He glances at his side where Koharu continues to chuckle.

"It's fine. They're cute together anyway... just like a couple," says Koharu.

"H-hey! W-what are you two doing?!" Fumiko shouts at Kenya and Yume, who immediately break apart after being called out. She notices the mad blushes on their faces and gets infuriated. Her eyebrows are already meeting at the center. She points a finger at them. "I-is there something going on between you two?!"

"N-nothing!" Yume suddenly replies as she shakes her head. This is the first time she has felt threatened by the aggravated look on the queen's face.

Fumiko frowns. "Kazuyoshi Yuki-sama... i-is it possible that the reason why you're not interested in me is because of..." She points to Kenya with tears on her eyes. "... him?!"

Even Kenya stands frozen, but his face flushes as red as a tomato. He has finally realized what he had just done.

Fumiko squeals like a little child and starts to cry. "Why?! Yuki-sama, how could you do this to me?"

Yume becomes a little panicky when the girl in front of her starts to sob. "I-I'm sorry! But I didn't really do anything. We're just close friends, so please do not cry!"

"Everyone can see how you two look at each other and just hugged. I don't think that's just a case of 'close friends.'" She cries harder and immediately runs away even before Yume consoles her.

Yume is frozen in shock. She immediately feels helpless and awkward with the burden of the current situation. Hikaru stands beside her and whistles teasingly. "So, this is how you reject girls, Kazuyoshi-senpai? This is kinda harsh." He glances at Kenya. "Since when did you two have a talk for this kind of setup? It's really believable. I almost thought you two were actually dating."

Hitouji snickers as he places a hand on Yume's shoulder. "Oh, that was a pretty good acting, wasn't it, Kazuyoshi-kun?"

"Oh? So that was acting all along?" Chitose laughs. "I almost thought of a second version of the Homo pair in this team."

As Kenya has been feeling quite embarrassed by his actions, he decides to get along with the waves of the storyline. "It was all acting." He nervously chuckles. "I'm never going to try and take the 'Homo pair' title from Koharu and Hitouji." He glances at Yume for a second. "A-and I'm straight!"

"Allegedly straight," Hikaru whispers to Yume. The latter bites her lower lip to stop a laugh.

Kenya immediately takes note of such a reaction and turns to his doubles partner. He is very much aware of how much the second year can be quite an 'annoying brat' as he calls his lowerclassman. "Oi, Zaizen! What did you just say?"

"Nothing," the lowerclassman flatly replies.

Shiraishi enters the scene. "Oi, oi! You guys!" The captain starts reprimanding his teammates.

Yume giggles at the scenario. Her laugh slowly dies down when she notices that Kenya has been taking glances at her. At the moment, it seems that the coffee-haired boy is not entirely focused with his captain's monologue. She catches his stare and they simply look at each other's eyes.

'Hmm... but what if Oshitari-san comes to know that I am a girl?' she thinks. She shrugs the idea away.


Fumiko sniffs away the last of her sobbing. She sits on a bench away from the crowd. Wiping her tears with the back of her hands, her teary eyes are not drying up. The view is still foggy.

"Looks like the little child really got lost."

To her shock and embarrassment, she looks up to see her fiance... with shorter hair. The queen frowns. "I didn't get lost. So screw you." She glares at the man. "And what happened to you? What's up with that bad hair decision?"

Atobe frowns and clicks his tongue. "It's none of your business." He recollects his cool. "Then, perhaps, the prince charming did not accept you as the princess?"

"T-that's not your business!" she stutters as what he said appears to have been the truth. "A-and th-that's not true! Who the hell told you that?"

"Liar." He approaches the bench and sits beside her.

"I-I'm not!" she insists as she rubs her eyes dry.

"Here." Atobe holds out a piece of handkerchief to which Fumiko stares at momentarily. "I highly doubt that your hands are far from being clean. You shouldn't just rub your eyes just like that or else they might get infected." A gentle smile is on her face.

Fumiko snatches the handkerchief and pats her eyes. "Who are you? My mom?"

Atobe chuckles. "Not your mom. Your fiance." He smirks. "I guess we're both losers then."

She blinks and puts her hands down. "Huh?" She looks at him. "Did you guys lose?"

"Thanks to you."

Fumiko looks down in sympathy. "That's not even my fault," she mumbles.

"Oi. What's that look? Are you trying to be sympathetic?" he asks with a sly smile.

"N-not that I care!" She looks away. "Well, the king can actually be defeated."

"And the queen can be turned down, too." He stands up. "Today's a tie." Atobe points to the white handkerchief on Fumiko's hands. "You better remove all your filth before giving that back." And leaves.

She sticks out a tongue at the sight of his back. But when he finally disappeared, she grips the handkerchief close to her chest. Tears fall down again on the clean, white cloth.


"Due to Ibu Shinji's forfeit, Shitenhouji's Tooyama Kintarou wins by default."

Yume blinks. "Kintarou-san really becomes wild when he plays tennis, doesn't he?"

"That's right," Gin replies.

"Why is it that people around me seems too addicted to tennis?" She scratches her head. "It's as if you guys dedicate your whole lives to tennis... and to the goal of being the best at it."

"Full dedication to the things he likes is the nature of being a person," he replies calmly.

"Hmm...?" She looks at Gin. "Ishida-san, will you still be playing tennis after you graduate in middle school? Or even after high school?"

"Probably." He takes his turn in asking a similar question. "Don't you have plans to play serious tennis in high school, Kazuyoshi-han? I think you may release your potential if you do so."

Yume scratches her head and sheepishly smiles. "If I'm ever going to enter a tennis club or any sports in high school, it will most likely be for leisure only. Not really for competitions and the like."

Kenya taps Gin's shoulder. "It's now our turn."

Gin nods and turns to Yume. "I'll be going for now, Kazuyoshi-han." Then, he picks up his tennis racket and walks to the courts.

Kenya, on the other hand, stands in front of her for a while as he looks at the ground. "Uhm..." he scratches his head. "Well then, I'm going to play now."

She is blushing and is also staring at the ground. "Do your best, Oshitari-san."

"Please cheer for me- I mean, for all of us. Will you, Kazuyoshi-kun?"

Watching from a distance are Koharu and Hitouji. The genius dataman snickers. "How cute~ They are like a couple – a husband saying goodbye to his wife-" he deliberately coughs. "-I mean, his spouse before taking off for work."

"That's right," Hitouji follows up. "Is this also a part of the acting, Kenya-ku~n? I'm feeling very threatened right now."

"Oi! That's not it!" Kenya embarassingly replies.

"Kenya~" the coach calls the attention of the coffee-haired boy. Osamu says teasingly, "There's no need to say goodbye to your husband... or wife for now. Kazuyoshi-kun will still be watching your games after all."

He flushes red. "That's not it!" He dashes to the courts since the match is about to start. Shiraishi places his face on his palms and sighs at the behavior of his teammate.

Yume turns to Koharu and Hitouji as they laugh. They approach her and she subconsciously pouts. "What was that, Konjiki-san and Hitouji-san?"

"You're too cute, Kazuyoshi-ku~n," says Koharu, "Too cute that our 'allegedly straight' speedstar may have fallen for you."

"T-that can't be!" she protests.

"But you're seriously cute when the two of you are together. Just like us, right, Yuu-kun?" He places an arm over the shoulder of his doubles partner.

"That's right, Koharu." Hitouji looks at her. "Besides, that wasn't acting anymore, right? In fact, there was no acting in the first place."

Yume frowns. "Geez, you guys... just stop, please," she says in submission. "That's not even true."

Hitouji leans to her ears and whispers, "I think you may want to tell the whole truth to Kenya before some other competition steps in."

She freezes and sheds some cold sweat.

They smile at her. "We kind of noticed it already, though. Don't worry. We haven't told anyone yet, and we do not intend to until you announce it yourself."

Koharu places a hand on her shoulder. "Whoever you really are, we still accept you as a friend."

"Wait, what did you notice?" she mumbles.


She witnesses the utter defeat of the opponents. Again due to the forfeit of the other team, Shitenhouji has won by default. The school's cheering squad becomes even louder when there is no need to. After all, the opponent does not even have a visible group of people cheering for the team of black jerseys.

"They're good," Yume mutters to herself.

"Senpai-tachi?" Hikaru confirms. He remains focused in the game without sparing her even a little glance. "Of course, they are."

She glances at her lowerclassman and turns back to the courts. No handshakes have been made. The losing doubles partners just simply walk towards their bench where a man waits to comfort them. "But I kinda feel bad for the other team... Fudoumine."

"This is the Nationals Tournament. A lot of people play here just to lose eventually. Not everyone can be a winner. That's just how it is."

"That's cold, Zaizen-san." She takes a deep breath. "What I mean is that Fudoumine must be feeling so bad that they lost two consecutive games just because of forfeiting. They weren't even able to take a point from Tooyama-san and from Oshitari-san and Ishida-san."

"Well, what happens just happens."

"There's not even one support group from the other team."

Another team suddenly arrives just outside the courts. The new team is wearing dark blue jerseys and are nearer to the opponents. This catches her attention.

"Seishun Gakuen, huh?" Hitouji says as he stares at the newcomers.

Yume blinks. "Seishun Gakuen? What kind of team are they?"

Koharu suddenly appears behind them. He readjusts his glasses with a smirk plastered on his face. "Seishun Gakuen. They defeated Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku from the Regional Tournament just this year. I believe they are now also trying to win the champion spot from Rikkai. They are a strong team overall. Moreover..." His serious face shifts to a shy expression. "... there are a lot of cute boys over there, too~"

"Koharu!" Hitouji smacks the head of his doubles partner with a paper fan that mysteriously appeared in his hand out of nowhere. "Are you cheating on me?! I'll kill you!"

Yume is looking away from the comedic scene, however. She stares at a man from Seishun Gakuen team. As Ishida and Kenya just got out of the courts, they notice the serious look she has on her face.

"Kazuyoshi-han, is there something wrong?"

A tall man with spiky hair stands on the other side of the court, also wearing a white and dark blue jersey. He has a stoic look on his face but is also seemingly reserved while his other teammates had worried looks when Fudoumine got defeated. With a notebook on one hand, he adjusts his rectangular glasses and turns to look at the Shitenhouji's bench. As the man continues to inspect Shitenhouji's team, he meets eyes with Yume.

"Uhm... I think I know someone from there." She blinks again.

~ End Chapter ~