Oishii, known to be the mother of the tennis club, do not mind one bit about his role at all. After all, he is a man who loves to care for others, no, he actually needs to have some sort of responsibilities weighing on his shoulder else he would find it difficult to breathe. Life without any responsibilities, is a life with no direction as well. This is why whenever it comes to the month of April, he would silently take it upon himself to be the sole pillar of the club. He had already knew since long time ago. He is not the mother hen for nothing. It might have been a new revelation for the club just a few weeks ago on that bus ride, but he had already realised it long time ago. it is as obvious as day to him, really. The way the captain's eyes simply went empty whenever the season begin to change. He had no idea what's causing this phenomenon but he know the least he could do is to simply support the club for the time period, until the captain snapped out of this annual mist.

And this is why he is out at 5am in the morning, on the way to the club room. It's time to submit the inventory list to the school council, and he could only trust himself to get it done. Shuddering away the thought of how disastrous it would be to have the others stucked in the same room counting the inventory together, he slowly make his way to school.

And that's when he spotted their newest regular on the floor, under a spoiled lamplight. His motherly instincts took over as he rush forward to the motionless body noticing just how thrashed up he looked.

His years of experience as a vice captain, the motherly hen of Seigaku tennis club, has not prepared him for this. Carrying the young boy in his arms, he was surprised by how light the body is.

"That's rather interesting for a tennis player of his calibre." He noted to himself.

He then slowly trot his way to school. This boy here needs a warm room and a shower.

-

Echzen woke up, again, in the tennis room. It's just a few days since he is in the tennis club and it seems like the club room is his respawn point.
He tried to get up, but a pounding headache is restricting his movement.

Just what had happened?

Suddenly, an assault of memory of what happened last night attacked him. It seems like he had another panic attack again.

He look around the room and saw his bag on the other side of the room. He slowly get up from his spot and tries to steady himself before walking towards his bag. His phone, still barely alive, is flooded with missed calls and texts.

"Ryoma, where are you now?"

"r u okay?"

Damn.

He felt his headache coming back again.

His fingers quickly moved across the screen to type a simple message to assure his guardian, before he throw his phone back into the bag again. Making other worrying for him is the last thing he wanted to do, yet it seems like that's the only thing he could do nowadays.

Detaching himself from his emotions - because really, he dont need to start another anxiety attack again over his uselessness. He calmly looked around the room and glance up at the clock. It's 6.30am. School is starting in 2 hours time. He then notices the state of disarray the room is in. Just as he was about to think out loud just who it was, his answer came in through the door.

"Ah Ryoma-kun, you are awake!"

He stared at the semi-bald vice captain for a bit.

"Hn."

"Do you wanna go take a shower? I manage to find a spare clothes in our club room."

"Hn." Echizen walked towards the vice captain and got the shirt from him.

"thank you." He whispered through his teeth, though it seemed like the vice captain managed to catch it.

The vice captain, he noticed, is a really gentle man. He has such a caring and gentle disposition to him, something rather rare to Echizen. F

Afterwards Echizen merely sat in the room and watch the vice captain at work. Oishii-senpai paid him no mind as he quietly do what he is doing. He will bring down a bunch of stuff, count them one by one, and then put them back into its places. He also threw some stuff out, and systematically reorganised the items, making the room much neater than it was before. his movements are like clockwork. Systematic, meticulous, precise, just like how he plays his tennis. When you have reached a certain level in tennis, you can really tell a lot about a person by how they move and how they play their game. Throughout the time whole time, he did not look like he was about to grill him or anything. he simply allow him to sit there and just watch him, without expecting anything from him at all. Echizen found himself enjoying the gentle presence of the vice-captain.

"What are you doing?" Echizen asked.

"Ah, I am doing the inventory list for the club. Do you want to help?"

Echizen leap up from his chair and walked towards him.

With Echizen pitching in to help, the inventory list was completed soon enough. Oisshi planned to spend two days completing the task, but it seems like he has no need for that anymore.

"thank you so much for your help, Echizen!" He smiled at the young boy as he was locking the club room.

"Hn."

They both walked quietly to their respective classes.

The questions have been lingering on Oishii's tongue since the dawn of the day, however Oishii knew better than that. His astute 6th sense have told him that whatever it is, the last thing Echizen needs now is questions. When he walked back to the club room, he saw the young boy awake, looking so confused. It is not a good idea at all to ask a confused person anything.

So he get back to work and gave the boy the space he needs. When Echizen finally spoke more than 1 word to him, his heart leaped a little in his chest. For some reason, Oishii has a soft spot for lost, confused things. It is in his nature to protect the weak after all, and having one more responsibilities added to his list of growing responsibilities isnt a burden to him at all.