Thanks so much for the reviews. :smiles: Heh...didnt want to let you guys wait for a long time so i finished this chapter early and decided to post it since I'm going to be busy for a while and prbably not be able to update so yea...on with the story!
Disclamer: wish i did own it though...
Chapter 3: Meeting an old Friend
Kaidoh was nearly done picking up the glass shards from the cup he had dropped a while ago when he got cut from a really sharp piece. Kaidoh stayed knelt for a while staring at the cut before he decided to go clean up. He was careful not to let Inui see the cut. He didn't need anyone to fuss over him about a cut. Kaidoh Kaoru didn't need anyone, not anymore anyway.
"I'm going to throw these away," said Kaidoh particularly to no one since Inui was spaced off somewhere.
Probably thinking of Toriumi.
As Kaidoh closed the door he could hear Inui say something but decided to ignore it. He really didn't care what his sempai was going to say now anyway. After he closed the door, he rested his head against the closed door for a while before remembering that he had a handful full of broken shards and to add to that, his hand was bleeding. He headed across the hallway to the bathroom. Once the door was closed and locked, Kaidoh threw away the pieces of glass and went to clean his hand at the sink. After a while, the water had turned into a shade of red which was from all of the blood that was coming from Kaidoh's hand. After what seemed like forever the blood seemed to stop flowing out so Kaidoh wrapped it up. When Kaidoh was done wrapping the injury he stared at it for a while and was about to go back to his room when he saw that the bandage that was at his cut was turning red really fast. Kaidoh let out a hiss and unwrapped it to wash the wound again. Kaidoh soon figured out that the cut was really deep. He was wondering how the shard could've cut so deep yet there was no pain.
/You're feeling too much pain somewhere else to even feel the pain in your hand,/ a voice in his head chided Kaidoh. He let out another hiss and thought about the turn of event that had just happened so fast.
Flashback
"I like Toriumi."
A loud smashing sound could be heard over the television downstairs in the living room. Kaidoh was just staring at the glass that was on the floor all shattered. The glass seemed so interesting and somehow Kaidoh wondered if this is what his heart looked like now.
Since the room was so silent, both could hear the running of footsteps up the stairs, stopping at his door, and knocking.
"Aniki are you…?"
"It's nothing, I just lost my grip."
"Oh…okay." Then his little brother closed the door and walked back downstairs. "It's okay! He was just clumsy again." Inui heard after Kaidoh's little brother closed the door. Inui knew that Kaidoh wasn't being clumsy. He knew it was something he had said to cause Kaidoh to lose his grip. Inui was getting worried. Kaidoh hadn't said a word since Inui told him about his crush. He's just shocked. Just let him recover,said a voice in Inui's head. Inui nodded. It was logical that Kaidoh would be shocked; in fact it would have been surprising if Kaidoh wasn't. Inui was so in deep thought that he didn't notice Kaidoh get up until he heard the door closed.
"Ah. Wait-"was all Inui could say before the door closed shut.
End of Flashback
Kaidoh was leaning against the bathroom door, convincing himself that it didn't matter who Inui liked. It was none of his business. It wasn't like Kaidoh was in love with his sempai anyway. He just thought that Inui was a friend, someone to train with, a doubles partner and that was all he was to Kaidoh; nothing more. Kaidoh repeated it again and again till he was actually convinced that it was true. It seemed to make him feel better so he left the bathroom and went back into his room again. On his way back he remembered that he had spilled his tea so he went to get a new cup and faintly remembered that Inui had finished his long ago so he was going to get him a new one too.
In the Kitchen
Kaidoh was sitting around the dinning table waiting for the tea to be ready. He thought about his English test. Studying mentally and trying to review what he had just looked through in his book help kept him in control over his emotions. It kept his mind off of Inui and what he had just said. Forgetting about the tea that he had just made, Kaidoh went past his family in the living room muttering to himself. His family just exchanged glances. They thought Kaidoh was studying too much and it was starting to get to him but they just ignored it and went back to watching the television.
Kaidoh planned to ignore the fact that Inui just told him that he liked Toriumi, which really irked him. His jealously meter was about to burst if he had to listen to Inui say something about Toriumi when he went back to his room. Kaidoh ignored that he was extremely jealous of Toriumi and instead tried to forget that he and Inui had just had that conversation and went back to studying mentally in his head again. It was working really well. Kaidoh calm downed by a lot and was even able to smile.
All that went down the drain the minute Kaidoh walked into his room to find Inui talking to Toriumi on his cell. Had it not been for Kaidoh's little brother reminding him of the tea he forgot he would have lost all control and burst right then and there. Kaidoh was going to go back downstairs to retrieve the tea and try to work on his self control a little more.
"I'll be right back with the tea sempai," muttered Kaidoh.
"Ah, wait Kaidoh, there's no need," said Inui as he was getting off his phone. "It's getting late and I should be going."
"Okay. I'll walk you out."
Inui bid goodbye and thanked Kaidoh's family then left. Kaidoh had never felt so relieved that his sempai had finally left. He trudged upstairs, closed the door to his room and pushed away his books since he knew he wasn't going to get any studying done at this rate. He just simply fell on to his bed and starred at the ceiling for what seemed like forever until he fell asleep.
The next day Kaidoh went to school only to hear about the dance that was coming up everywhere. He was about to explode and tell everyone to shut up about the dance until the teacher came in and settled down the class. Kaidoh's self control was really wavering these days. Another thing that went around was that Inui was now dating Toriumi. Kaidoh figured that he must have confessed to her today.
Kaidoh nearly exploded over a hundred times today and when he didn't think the day could get any worse, it did. He got irritated every time he saw Inui and Toriumi walking around holding hands and giggling. It wasn't like he followed them everywhere; no, Kaidoh wasn't the kind of guy to do that but everywhere he went, Inui and Toriumi were the ones that would magically appear. Even when he went to the secluded part of the school campus -which was behind the school with a big lake and very nice scenery- he ended up seeing Inui and Toriumi again. The one place that Kaidoh went to get peace and quiet and he ended up seeing the two people he didn't want to see at the moment. Kaidoh spent the rest of his break inside his classroom occasionally talking to Arai about tennis club practice or just tennis.
Kaidoh had amazingly passed his English test and was in a better mood when he went to practice. He did get into a couple of fights with Momoshiro and had to run laps for it but besides that, everything went alright.
On his way home Kaidoh was in deep thought again. He was hardly noticing where he was walking until he bumped into someone and fell back.
"Ah. Gomen, I wasn't paying attention," said the stranger and lend a hand to help Kaidoh up. Kaidoh politely accepted the hand, got up and brushed the dirt of his closed before he actually looked up to see who he had walked into but when he did his eyes went wide and he couldn't believe who it was.
"Sojiroh? Sojiroh Kei?"
"It really is you, Kaoru? Oh wow. I didn't think I would find you already," exclaimed Kei.
"When did you get back? How come you didn't tell me? How long are you staying?"
"Well I just got back last night and I was about to call you after I unpacked but I was really tired. You wouldn't believe how much stuff we have. I spent hours just on my stuff and I didn't even think I had that much stuff," said Kei. The guy was practically shining with joy.
"Unpacked…?" Kaidoh was confused. People usually don't have that much stuff when they visit or even on vacations. He made it sound like they had moved- /Wait- he didn't answer how long they were going to stay…does this mean…/
Sojiroh started laughing at the expression that was on Kaidoh's face.
"So you finally figured it out huh?" Sojiroh said while trying to catch his breathe from laughing so much. All Kaidoh could do was stare at his best friend as he stood there laughing. Kaidoh couldn't help but smile at his friend. It's been a long time since they've seen each other. Almost 4 years now. Kaidoh could remember clearly the day when Kei had to move away. It broke Kaidoh's heart. They were closer than brothers. They grew up together, went to school together, played tennis together, and even lived next to each other. They were inseparable, that is until Sojiroh's father got a job transfer and everyone had to move with him.
Flashback
Two boys, around the age of 8 could be seen sitting next to each other on the swings at the park near sunset. Sojiroh was going to leave soon and he and Kaidoh were saying their goodbyes. Kaidoh, using all of his self control, tried not to cry because boys didn't cry. Sojiroh on the other hand had always worn his emotions on his sleeve. He was sitting there and tears could be seen rolling down his cheek and he tried to keep them in but in the end, he had just given up and let it all out. They were just sitting there, enjoying the last moment they had with their best friend before they would part and not see each other for God knew how long. There was a long drawn out silence due to the fact that neither wanted to say their goodbyes. It was all silent until Sojiroh's sister came and told him that they were leaving. They got up from their swings and trudged back to their house when Sojiroh just stopped walking.
"Kei…?"
"Promise me you won't forget me," said Kei as he stuck his pinky out.
"If you promise to visit," said Kaidoh in returned and reached out to link their pinkies together.
Kei nodded. "Pinky swear." He gave a smile and they both walked back to their houses.
End of Flashback
It was silent around them as the two old friends reunited again and remembering about the promise made long ago. So deep in thought, neither had noticed that they had walked to the park they once knew so well when they were little yet they were still silent as they sat down on the bench since the swings had gotten small for them. After a while, Sojiroh was the first to break the silence.
"So…how have you been? Are you still playing tennis?" Sojiroh asked as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. When had it been this hard to talk to Kaoru?he asked himself.
"It's going okay but lately its getting harder and harder to keep myself in control," said Kaidoh looking down, remembering how lousy this week had been.
"Kaoru…you know you can tell me anything right?" Sojiroh sensed that there was something that must really be bothering his friend.
"Yeah, I know. Don't worry, its nothing," said Kaidoh still looking down. Sojiroh knew it wasn't just nothing or else it wouldn't have affected his friend like this, this much. He let out a silent sigh. He knew it was a matter of time before Kaidoh would crack and tell him everything but for now he wouldn't push it but instead switched to a different topic.
"You busy now? Want to play some tennis before dinner?" At the sound of tennis Kaidoh lifted his head and was smiling. Tennis had that kind of effect of these guys.
"Sure."
2 hours later
As the sun set, two figures could be seen, lying flat on the floor, exhausted from the exciting game they had just played. Neither could move and just stayed there for a while staring up at the sky until Kaidoh remembered that he had some homework he had yet to finish so he really did need to get home. There was still the training he had after dinner too. Kaidoh thought for a while. He wasn't really expecting Inui to show up now that he had a girlfriend even just when Toriumi showed up he stopped coming less and less to the training sessions so Kaidoh had accepted it and trained alone. Now that Sojiroh was back, Kaidoh figured it would be nice to have a partner to train with and they could do some more catching up too.
"Kei."
"Hmm?"
"After dinner I usually go training by the bridge. Want to join me?"
"Sure!"
After that, they laid there for another minute or so until one of them actually got up and had to walk to the other side to pull the other to get up. They went back home and went their separate ways after Kaidoh had explained to Sojiroh how to get to the park near the bridge.
Kaidoh was practically glowing (well as much as he would show on the outside anyways) by the time he came home. He told his family of his old friend coming back and they were so thrilled that they were going to call Sojiroh's parents so that they could come over for dinner sometime this week. Kaidoh was really glad that he and Sojiroh were going to meet at the park later that he finished all his homework faster than usual, ate his dinner super fast and raced back upstairs and got his tennis bag and left the house.
Sojiroh arrived the same time Kaidoh did and it seemed that he couldn't wait either. They ended up laughing at each other for being so silly. That evening, training went by really fast no matter how much they didn't want it to. They did the usual training that Kaidoh did and he made a mental note to talk to Inui about making a menu for Sojiroh too. They talked about school, tennis, family, friends, tennis, things that had been going around, and more tennis. Kaidoh talked about Seigaku, and their tennis team since Sojiroh was going to attend that school starting tomorrow. Kaidoh explained to him about everyone on the team and didn't even feel any anger or jealously although did feel a slight pain in his chest when he started talking about Inui and Toriumi even though he talked less about them that the others. He had said only a couple words about them and warned Sojiroh about the dreaded Inui juice. Sojiroh had suspected that something was up because Kaidoh had said that he and Inui were doubles partners yet he knew him the less out of everyone. He would have to look into it.
Soon it was getting too dark to see so they packed up their things and headed home again for the second time that day.
Well...? how was it?Dont forget to review!:smiles: Oh yeah! the next chapter might be up next week...hopefully...
