Chapter 1 - When We First Met

"I wanna be a catcher!"

The kid to my side waved his hand, trying to flag the coach's attention but caught mine instead. I kept watch of him from the corner of my eye.

He had a medium length brown hair covered by a dark blue hat that engulfed his entire head. His amber eyes hidden behind a pair of black frame glasses. He was definitely the smallest out of our teammates that he looked like he was drowning in his matching dark blue jersey. I tried to suppress a chuckle, and instead, a smile formed on my lips, thinking to myself, 'So cute and small, I wonder if he's younger than me.'

The coach's voice started to drown out, and all I could focus on was the boy. I was barely able to hold in my laugh as he kept hopping in place and raising his hand, struggling to speak up among the crowd.

"You kids don't really understand anything... Listen up, being a catcher is about-" The kid interrupted the coach. "Me! I wanna be..."

Everyone turned their backs and looked for the source of the voice. The boy stopped mid-sentence and repeated with a huge grin on his face, "I wanna be a catcher!" With his hand still raised.

'Why a catcher?' I thought the rest of the team seemed to whisper, a little doubtful for the tiny boy to be the team's catcher. I often noticed the kid playing around at the sandlot. Though I mostly assumed the older kids pushed him into being a catcher since no one wanted the position. 'No one was forcing it on you. You can play something different.' I thought as I gave him a look, questioning him of his choice.

The coach clapped his hands once, getting everyone's attention back. "Well, that settles it! Now, who wants to be a pitcher?" The coach asked. Most of the kids started raising their hands and shouting, "Me!" "I wanna be a pitcher!" "Pick me!"

I was a little taken back at the sudden shouting right at the start of the question. I browsed through the crowd, watching half the team jump and shout to be a pitcher. My resolve coming here started to dishearten. Just because I wanted the position doesn't mean no one else would. I didn't know if it was because I was nervous or stubborn. I refused to join in with their shouts. Without noticing it, my hands on my side gripped to a fist, squeezing it tighter and tighter.

I felt a sudden force on my arm. The kid to my right nudged me with his elbow. "Shouldn't you raise your hand too?" He whispered with a slight smirk plastered on his face. I gave him a displeased face as I rubbed my arm, trying to make the pain go away.

My eyebrows furrowed when I registered his question. "How-" I noticed fingernail markings on both my palms. 'Ah...' The boy was still staring at me, giving me a slight smirk. His smirk somehow irritated me. I shook my head at him, "If I did, I would be shouting right now." He laughed slightly, "Well, better start shouting then."

Before I could retort, the coach yelled over everyone, "Not everyone here can be a pitcher. We'll be rotating positions this week and see where you guys find yourself excelling in." "Yes, sir!" Everyone nodded at the coach before he dismissed us.

We bowed our heads as the coach took his leave first. The group started to disperse, and I followed right behind a couple of people heading to the dugout.

"Blondie." It came from the wanna-be catcher behind me. Even though he was probably younger than me, it was starting to become harder to act mature around him. I took a portion of my hair and pointed it to the sun. "I'm pretty sure my hair is light brown."

He chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. "Well, I didn't catch your name. I'm Miyuki Kazuya." It finally hit me that he was trying to start a conversation, "Mari Yana- ah." I froze on the spot, forgetting that introductions were different in Japan. "What's wrong?" Miyuki stopped in front of the dugout, looking back at me, confused. I shook my head and jogged my way to him, "Nothing, Nothing. I'm Mari Yanagi." I told him, stubborn to show any mistakes in front of the arrogant kid.

He started to laugh at me, "You're really weird, Yanagi." He said while he reached out his hand. I furrowed my eyebrows in annoyance and pouted, which earned me another burst of laughter. "And you're too overfamiliar, Miyuki-san." I snapped at him, shaking his hand. I could feel the blisters forming on his hands. He must've been practicing a lot.
Miyuki stopped laughing and just let out a smile. "You can call me Kazuya." I just nodded at him, "I guess you can call me Yanagi then." I let go of his hand.

We parted ways to start packing our things away. I hummed as I got to my bag, 'Wait… Won't Kazuya be his last name? Or is it…?' I pondered, only to realize Kazuya mistook my given name as Yanagi. I shrugged my shoulders, 'Not like it matters.' An open bag suddenly dropped on the bench right beside my stuff.

"Hey." Kazuya blurts out as he dropped the rest of his stuff on the bench. "If you don't want to be a pitcher, why do you have that?" He pointed at my shoulder and elbow ice wrap. I was speechless for a second, trying to find an excuse.

"I- Everyone should wear one after every practice," I replied, unsurely.

"Right." The sarcasm was overflowing on that one.

I finally finished packing and sat down on the bench. I let out a sigh before I stared at Kazuya in annoyance. "You know you're really arrogant for a guy I just met."

He let out a chuckle, "Thank you."

"It's not a compliment." I continued, "Plus, I don't wanna be a pitcher." I didn't understand why I couldn't be honest with him, but right now, I didn't want to let him win.

He just grinned at me, "Let's form a battery at least once! Then you can decide." I sighed. He wasn't going to let it go.

"Sure." I finally agreed to it. With that, I stood up and decided to head out. I turned back my head and told him, "I'll meet you here tomorrow after school then."

He just grinned and nodded until he realized I was about to leave, "Wait!"

I didn't want to. I threw a hand over my shoulder, waving goodbye. I wanted to go home and start practicing already. I wasn't going to tell him, but I was excited to finally have someone catch my throws ever since I've arrived in Japan.

My love for baseball started at five years old, playing in the backyard with my dad and older brother. My parents enrolled me in the local Minor League after school after throwing a tantrum over it. Even moving to Japan for my dad's work wasn't gonna stop me from playing.

Though I couldn't join the school right away because it was almost the end of their first term with a couple of weeks left since it was apparently too late. The school agreed that I would transfer after the summer vacation. For the rest of July, I've been at my backyard practicing my pitches and swinging my bat.

Sometimes I would explore my neighbourhood, and I would go to the park or sandlot. That's where I first spotted Kazuya and his friends laughing and playing, though I mostly watched them from the side. A part of me always wanted to go up and join them, but it was difficult to. I just hoped every time I came by that they would invite me to play with them.

I stopped in my tracks to gaze up at the sky and smiled, 'I made my first friend today.'

"Miyuki Kazuya… hehe," I said out loud to myself, letting out a small giggle. I started to wonder how playing baseball with him would be.

"Gross. Don't say my name like that."

A shriek escaped from my mouth, and my heart was beating out of my chest. I whipped my head and body around and brought both my hands up to fists.

It was Kazuya. He suddenly appeared right behind me, slightly out of breath. He looked like he sprinted all this way to catch up to me. He was speechless at first, bringing his hands up to defend himself. We both froze. After a couple of seconds passed, he suddenly burst out of laughter at my reaction. "What was that?" He managed to ask in between laughter while pointing at me.

I ignored his question and tried to recollect myself. "Are you following me?"

Kazuya wiped the tears off his face and grinned, saying, "I shouldn't have after hearing you say my name like that." He pretended to shiver, which caused me to turn red from embarrassment.

"Say, did you fall for me?" He said teasingly. My blush grew a darker shade of red. I didn't know how to retort back. The only thing I could do was walk away from him.

He burst out of laughter. "I'm not into guys, Yanagi." He told me, trying to catch up. I suddenly stopped to gawk at him. He's been making mistakes about me the whole day, 'Are kids his age usually this… dense?' I wondered if the boy was just not bright or if I needed a great deal of work in my social skills. I decided it had to be the former.

"Hey, you don't need any help in school, do you?" I asked him, concerned. Kazuya was thrown off from the question, "No, I'm pretty smart, you know." I scoffed at him with that comment. 'Find out by yourself then.' I thought, disregarding the fact it was probably my fault to start with.

"Are you even in school, Yanagi? I haven't seen you at all." He continued. "No, I just came from America. I'm going to start elementary three after the summer vacation, though." I replied as I paid attention straight ahead of me. "Eh, we're in the same grade then." I stared right beside me in shock. The brat who was at least a foot and a half shorter than me was the same age as I was. "No way! You're eight years old too?!" I asked him in disbelief.

He pointed at himself, slightly baffled. "Yeah?" He answered me, unsurely. "You're so tiny that I thought you were younger than me," I told him truthfully, laughing at the end. He snorted at me, "Maybe you're the abnormal one." We continued walking, saying our remarks at one another until we finally died down to a comfortable silence.

I took a peek at Kazuya from the corner of my eyes. He was humming while taking small steps with both his hands crossed and placed at the back of his neck to support his head leaning back. I smiled at how laid-back he was being. Though my smile turned sour when he caught me staring, he made the same sour face.

"Creep, stop smiling at me like that. I know I'm good-looking, but I'm still not into guys." I gave him such an irritated look and snapped, "I was just wondering if you were secretly a girl!" He laughed and said, "Girls can't be in a boys' baseball league, you know. Maybe you're the one that's going to need help in school."

I was about to question him when he stopped in front of a large property. I looked around the area. There was a factory that read 'Miyuki Steels' right beside a two-story house. I realized that this might be Kazuya's stop.

"I didn't know you lived near me," I told him while I gaped at their property, forgetting what I was about to ask him beforehand. "Why would I tell you? So, you could stalk me?" He asked me teasingly. I wonder to myself why even bother asking him questions.

"No, gross, I live right there." I pointed a couple of houses down from his. He smirked and said, "I guess you're going to see more of me then," I smiled back at him, "I'm not into guys, Kazuya." I told him mockingly as I walked away from him. He chuckled, "See you tomorrow!" I heard him shout. I threw a wave behind me.

'He's kind of like a chihuahua, he's cute to look at, but he's kind of scary to talk to.' I laughed at the thought. My mind began to wander off, thinking about tomorrow.

I felt my right hand twitched, itching my way home to practice.