Sometimes you can find your love from the most unexpected places. The person you fall in love with may be someone you've never thought you'd have anything to do with. But as faith has its own ways of doing things you never know what will happen next. Perhaps all you need is a little push. For Ayako that little push happened to be a rather painful smack from Ohtori Choutarou's famous scud serve. In fact, it was a very painful smack, powerful enough to knock her out. Imagine it yourself. How would you feel if a tennis ball hit you in the face 200 km/h? Trust me, it hurts. In this particular case it wasn't sure who got hurt more badly, the one in the receiving end of the ball or the one who had actually hit the ball. Ohtori Choutarou had been doing his special serve in frustration, hitting the balls angrily and without bothering to look where they ended up. Upon hearing a pained yelp and a thud he turned to see what was going on. What he saw was a girl lying flat on her back on the ground with a huge red mark on her forehead. He also saw the cause for her current state, lying next to book that had flown out of the girl's hand: a bright yellow tennis ball. Now, as we all know, Ohtori is a kind, gentle person who wouldn't hurt a fly. And there, at his feet, was a girl, knocked out because of him. He did not like it. He nearly freaked out.

"O-oi! Are you allright? Hey!" he shouted as he dived to his knees and peered at her. When she didn't move he bent a little closer as if thinking that if he looked close enough he could see that she was only playing and was actually okay. But to his disappointment it appeared that she really was uncouncious. And it was his fault. "What should I do?"

If you think that Ohtori is the prince of this story you think wrong. That's because despite the fact that Ohtori would make a wonderful prince, the nicest, the most charming one, it is painfully obvious who holds his interest and it's not some unknown, stupid girl who walks around getting hit in the head with a scud serve.

"Oi, Choutarou! What're you doing?" Behold, here comes the reason Ohtori can not be the prince. It's in a form of an average sized boy, with a cap and a bad temper.

"Shishido-san!" Ohtori exlaimed with relief. "I…she…I hit-"

Shishido bent down to look at the girl on the ground. "Whoa! What happened to her?"

Ohtori bit his lip in embarrassment. "I…accidently hit her with the scud serve. I didn't mean to!"

"The scud serve?" Shishido blinked at that. Then he chuckled. "That must've been a sight!"

"Shishido-san! You shouldn't say such a thing. What if she's really badly hurt?" the younger boy said with a worried expression.

Shishido smiled at him. Ohtori was the one that brought out his soft side. "In any case we should bring her to the nurse and…"

Let's leave the boys for a while and think over the question: Who is the prince of this story? It's not Ohtori or Shishido, that much is clear. It's not Echizen Ryoma either. He has spent enough time as a prince, it's time for others to have their chance. By now you must've realised it's someone from Hyotei since Ohtori and Shishido are involved in the early stage of this story. So which one? Here's a hint. He would definitely not agree on being a prince. He would say that it's an insult against him to call him that. Anyone with eyes (and even the ones who don't have them) could easily tell that he's more like a king, or better even, a god. That's what he would say. Guessed yet? If not it's time to take cover and hide 'cause this prince (yes, we will call him prince no matter how much he would like to be a god) will order Kabaji to beat you to a bulp and Kabaji will most likely say 'usu'. Now, enough with this talk and let's give the Prince Charming a warm welcome for he is about to enter the scene.

As princes go Atobe was certainly fitting as far as looks were concerned. When it came to his personality, however, well...that's a different story. Sure, he had charisma, he had leadership skills but if you ask someone who doesn't like him and/or isn't afraid of him that someone will describe him in another light. In a rather, should we say, unflattering one. Perhaps he would call Atobe-sama bossy, arrogant, selfish or even lower himself to using such words as pighead or something similar. But the shadow that this person would throw on Hyotei's most adored boy would easily be driven away by Atobe's own, shining excistance. So perhaps he was vain and arrogant but, and he himself would be the first person to confirm this, he had every reason to be. With dashing good looks, mind as sharp as a razorblade and awesome athletic ability as well as natural taste and skill for leadership and a shit load of money…need one say more? And if that isn't enough to assure everyone of Atobe-sama's superiority…well, it was a widely known fact that every year on February 14th he armed himself (or rather Kabaji) with an extra bag or two, just so he could carry his chocolate around. Atobe didn't bother himself with false modesty, he understood that people loved him (what's there not to love?) and he readily took each and every one of the little packages with pink hearts on them. Here he showed a sense of equality like a true sovereign: he didn't make any difference between beutiful and ugly, man and woman or rich and poor (not that Hyotei really had many poor people, only the ones that got in with the help of some kind of a stipend). All of them he took and gave Kabaji to put in the bags reserved for that purpose. If the chocolate was bigger than usual he graciously gave a little nod (for he was very fond of chocolate), if it was his favourite label he could even give a tiny smile. Of course it went without saying that he would not give anything to anyone on White Day. With this little paragraph describing Atobe Keigo-sama's personality and his position in school in mind, let's go on with the story.

"Should I carry her there now, Shishido-san? Perhaps we should try to wake her up first?" Ohtori said while gazing at the knocked out girl.

"Yeah, we could try that", Shishido agreed and was about to shake the girl when a new voice came from behind them.

"Shishido, Ohtori, what are you doing and who is that girl? She's not supposed to be on the courts."