About Us
Chapter 10
By Miki
"I still think the only way is to get Atobe's phone," Gakuto grumbled, pausing in his complaints to take a loud slurp of his drink.
Oshitari snorted, not for the first time feeling as though this conversation was going around in circles. In part, he couldn't really blame Gakuto for his curiosity, but he suspected some of it was purely born out of a want to get back at Atobe for all the extra laps and punishments they'd endured over the past few weeks.
He had to admit that the more Atobe acted strangely, the more intriguing he found the whole thing. That, and supervising the first years while they dropped buckets and baskets of tennis balls all over the floor hadn't exactly been his idea of fun. He didn't want to get stuck with that duty again the next time a cleanup was due.
"What's so good about Atobe anyway?" Gakuto grumbled, playing with his Styrofoam cup.
Oshitari shook his head, following Gakuto into the sports mega-store they'd become so used to frequenting.
"I mean, seriously, do you think they even do stuff together?"
Oshitari stopped walking just in front of the sliding glass doors. "Do stuff?" he repeated, half amused.
Gakuto gave him a nonchalant look. "Yeah, you know… Things that adults do," he said vaguely, slurping his drink again.
It was some kind of berry and yoghurt concoction, and Oshitari was almost tempted to ask Gakuto if he could try just a little bit before it was all completely gone.
He gave Gakuto a bit of a sideways look at his words, and shook his head, stepping further into the shop before people could complain about the doorway being blocked.
"I don't know…" Oshitari answered slowly.
He hadn't actually thought that far ahead, though sitting at a restaurant table was about as much as he could imagine Yumiko and Atobe doing together, which made him think that any relationship between Yumiko and Atobe seemed just almost as unlikely to him as it was that tomorrow Gakuto would declare himself Shishido's best friend and start stalking him at lunchtime.
When he thought about the fact that Jirou had said something about Fuji Yumiko being twenty-four or thereabouts, and the fact that Atobe was only fourteen… the resulting mental images made his stomach turn in funny ways.
"They're not dating," he declared loudly, trying to convince himself of the fact, even though he still couldn't understand why else Atobe would be at Fuji's house, when they both knew that Fuji hadn't been there. "It's not as though she could be serious about him, could she?"
Gakuto kept sipping at his drink. "I don't know. I don't think Atobe could be serious about girls anyway. It's not like he has time, does he?"
Oshitari nodded his assent, the both of them suddenly changing their minds completely. "It's not like they have to be dating anyway, right?" Gakuto said, and Oshitari nodded again.
Neither of them could actually think up any other reason for Yumiko and Atobe to be seeing each other though, so they left the conversation hanging on an awkward thread as Oshitari examined the shoes on the wall and Gakuto slurped some more at his drink.
"What about these?" Oshitari picked up a pair of sneakers, checking the price on the sole of the shoes.
"Cheap," was Gakuto's reply, wrinkling his nose at the leather.
Oshitari smirked a little at the characteristic reply, watching as Gakuto picked up a pair of red Nikes, holding them out in front of him. He suspected it hadn't occurred in Gakuto's head that if he wore read sneakers, people might have trouble telling exactly when he was the right way up on court.
"Hey… Yuushi," Gakuto's voice interrupted his examination of another pair of sneakers.
Oshitari looked at sideways at him.
"What else are they doing though if they're not dating? I mean, Atobe even takes her phone calls when we're at practice, so he has to like her a bit, right? He even turned down Jirou for ice cream the other day, and I bet that was for her as well, don't you think?"
Oshitari sighed. He couldn't help but swing between insatiable curiosity and absolute apathy when it came to Atobe and Yuu-chan, but spending so much time with someone who seemed to think he couldn't rest until he reached the end of the case wasn't doing much for his mental health.
"I wonder if Atobe's seen her with her clothes off," Gakuto said suddenly, loud enough that Oshitari almost instinctively clapped his hand over his friend's mouth.
"She'd be pretty hot, don't you think?"
Oshitari looked around them hurriedly, hoping no one had heard. They were in the shoe section of the store and it wasn't as though it was crowded today. A couple of girls looked over at them, looking unimpressed.
Gakuto was thoughtful for a moment. "You know, Atobe was pretty damn happy the other week, wasn't he? I bet they did it already."
"She's…" Oshitari cleared his throat and tried to keep his voice low. "She probably…"
Somehow the words were just too embarrassing to say, so he looked sideways. "I guess there's a chance."
Gakuto eyed him. "Wouldn't that be illegal though?"
Oshitari rolled his eyes slightly, embarrassed. Personally, he was curious, but talking about it with Gakuto was making his skin crawl. There was something about the way Gakuto said things that just made the topic feel odd.
The girls were staring again, so he avoided meeting their eyes, trying to put a look of nonchalance back on his face again, but as he looked around the store, realising that it was just a little busier than it had been when they'd come in, his eyes fell back upon a familiar face.
He tilted his head slightly.
Gakuto was sucking a long sip of his drink when Oshitari banged his hand into his shoulder. "Gakuto, isn't that Fuji Syuusuke's brother?"
Gakuto looked up, expecting Oshitari to be wrong. They didn't really know Fuji's brother well, and chances were that Oshitari was just getting the wrong guy. After all, from what Gakuto could remember, the guy didn't actually look that much like Fuji Syuusuke or Yumiko. He was always frowning, for a start, and he had a weird scar on his head like he'd run into a wall.
Gakuto kept slurping on his drink until the boy turned around, just momentarily glancing their way. Then his hands froze holding his cup.
He forgot to swallow for a moment and all of a sudden, there was liquid going down the back of his throat, going down the wrong way.
He coughed, his eyes squeezing closed as he let go of his cup and tried to cover his mouth instead.
And by the time Oshitari had finished patting his back and he'd finished nearly dying, Fuji's younger brother was nowhere in sight.
Oshitari looked at the cup in his spare hand. He'd managed to catch it before it fell on the floor and they had to pay carpet cleaning bills, but that didn't make him feel much better about the fact that he was holding a cup covered in sticky blueberry and spit mess.
He'd wanted to try Gakuto's drink, but not in this manner.
Gakuto didn't even look slightly apologetic.
"What were you doing to my back, Yuushi?" he snapped loudly. "You think you hit me hard enough?"
A moment later, he dissolved into coughs again and Oshitari sighed. He pulled out a tissue from his pocket, watching as one of the staff ran over, looking concerned.
"I think he heard," Gakuto rasped out, still coughing.
Oshitari had a sinking feeling that Gakuto was right. He patted Gakuto's back a few more times until Gakuto started glaring at him because "damn it! That hurts, Yuushi!"
Oshitari had once heard that anyone who messed with Fuji's brother met with unfortunate circumstances, but he really hoped the same didn't apply to his sister as well.
(S)
"Yuuta, wait!"
"Yuuta!" Mizuki called out again, jogging to catch up to him. He managed to catch Yuuta's sleeve, yanking him back to face him as he caught his breath. "Where are you going? I thought you said you'd go shopping with me."
"Yeah? So what? You can still go shopping by yourself," Yuuta glared back.
His chest felt tight and his eyes dry and sore. He could feel the emotions beginning to rise in his chest, and before he knew it, he was sniffing, trying not to let his nose run.
Mizuki looked incensed, but Yuuta ignored the indignation on his face as he grabbed his manager's wrist and pulled him along the footpath.
"Sorry," he mumbled, trying not to look Mizuki in the face.
Mizuki snorted a little and Yuuta knew he was even more annoyed.
He swallowed against the tightness in his throat, telling himself he was being stupid. He was just being paranoid. It wasn't as though he'd even heard their whole conversation, was it? At least, he didn't think so…
But he'd heard enough.
He'd been wondering about Atobe; worrying and thinking about the same things over and over, and half of him wanted to believe he was just over-analysing and the other half was playing Gakuto's words on repeat.
Atobe… had a girlfriend.
Or at least… someone he liked.
Someone who wasn't Yuuta.
He wondered for a moment if they were wrong; if they were just gossiping or making things up, but then… Atobe was their captain. It wasn't as though Atobe was someone who happened to go to the same school as their friend's friend's sister's best friend's cousin or anything. Gakuto and Oshitari saw him nearly every day and they probably knew Atobe better than he did, Yuuta thought.
Then a moment later, he glanced at Mizuki and realised that it would be stupid if they didn't know their captain better than he did.
Yuuta wondered if he really knew anything about Atobe at all.
His heart lurched in his chest as Mizuki spoke.
"Here."
Mizuki held a packet of tissues out to Yuuta, avoiding meeting his eyes as Yuuta pushed them back at him.
"I don't… Why would I need those?" he scowled.
They walked the rest of the way back to the dorms without talking to each other.
Tears stung at Yuuta's eyes.
He blinked them back.
(S)
Mizuki wasn't quite sure what had set Yuuta off.
He'd only really heard the last few lines of Gakuto and Oshitari's conversation since his interest in a pair of sneakers had gone from feigned to genuine when he'd discovered they were limited editions and just happened to come in pink as well. Only Gakuto's loud voice had caught his attention, and by then, Yuuta was practically dragging him out of the shop, barely giving him enough time to put the shoe back on the shelf before someone tried to accuse them of shoplifting.
He sat back on his bed, crossing one leg over the other and rotating his foot one way and then the other. His body felt tense and his thoughts kept returning to Yuuta no matter how he tried to think of other things. His training plans for the next week sat neglected on the floor, and he sat up and stared down at them.
Yuuta's was unfinished.
Mizuki felt distinctly discontent and he pursed his lips as he bent over to pick it up, retrieving his pencil and immediately drawing up changes.
There was no satisfaction to be found in tweaking Akazawa's, Atsushi's or Yanagisawa's plans any further though, and there was only so much time Mizuki could spend thinking about Yuuta before he decided things had to be done. Atobe was clearly distracting Yuuta and though Mizuki had thought Yuuta would be able to settle things himself, it clearly wasn't happening.
Yuuta wasn't exactly what Mizuki would call a 'people person' after all.
At times like these, he thought, it took someone with obvious charm, wit, skill and planning to work these sorts of problems through. And if that failed, there was always the option of divesting oneself of the problem entirely. Clearly, it was a job only Mizuki could do.
(S)
Akazawa didn't exactly look impressed.
Atsushi sipped on his lemonade.
Yanagisawa tried not to fidget.
And Mizuki tried to ignore the fact that he'd called an emergency meeting and now that he was looking at the three boys in front of him, he had no idea what had prompted him to think this would be even remotely useful, given that the three of them were looking at him with expressions almost stupid enough to rival Momoshiro of Seigaku and Atsushi was… slurping.
Didn't he have any manners?
For crying out loud! Yuuta was bad enough lately, but did Mizuki have to be surrounded by idiots? He shot Atsushi a look, which only ceased his slurping for two seconds before he started again.
"So why are we here, da ne?" Yanagisawa questioned, and Atsushi's slurping continued.
"Are you sure you need us all here to discuss Yuuta?" Akazawa asked, giving Mizuki the distinct impression that he thought this was a waste of time.
The look on his face was almost disapproving too, and for a moment Mizuki faltered in his reply. "Of course," he said, once he'd worked out what his plan of attack would be. Maybe he was overreacting, but Yuuta was Yuuta, and Mizuki didn't think it was beyond his call of duty as his manager to call meetings like these. Besides, when he looked at the teddy bears on Akazawa's pyjamas and the ducks on Atsushi's, he almost thought it was worth it for the entertainment value alone.
His own clothes were freshly washed and ironed and smelt of lavender, just as they should.
"The point is," he started, pulling his whiteboard closer and uncapping his pen, "as you're all aware, Yuuta hasn't quite been himself lately."
Atsushi thought that was stating the obvious.
The reaction wasn't quite the one that Mizuki had wanted, though he had to admit it wasn't exactly an earth-shattering statement. He paused. Then he wiped off the text on his whiteboard and pulled out a blue pen – he owned whiteboard markers in every colour of the rainbow, of course, for colour coordination – and drew a figure in blue on one side of the board.
Then, deciding its head wasn't big enough, he scribbled a larger poof of hair on its head and drew a dot under one eye.
"This is specimen A," he pointed out tersely, "aka Atobe Kei-"
"That's Atobe?" Yanagisawa blurted out loudly. "What does Atobe have to do with this, da ne? I thought this was about Yuuta da ne."
Mizuki gave him a smug look. Now this was a little more like it.
He pulled out a brown marker and drew Yuuta on the other side of the board, making sure to draw his hair appropriately and draw a frown on his face.
"Mizuki," Akazawa interrupted, putting his hand to his temple. "I'm not sure that this is going to be beneficial to either Yuuta or us so… Don't you think it would be better for Yuuta to just work things out himself?"
Mizuki gave him an irritated look. "He's had his chance to work things out himself," he snapped.
Akazawa didn't really like the way Mizuki was going about dealing with the issue, but Mizuki did have a point in some respects. Allowing Yuuta to simply mope and take his mood swings out of his team mates wasn't exactly conducive to training. He wasn't sure how far Mizuki was going to explain things to Yanagisawa and Atsushi, but he trusted Mizuki to know where to draw the line. There were things that were meant to be private, after all.
"Okay," Mizuki huffed, finishing drawing on Yutua's shorts – one couldn't have his stick figure naked after all. Not when Atobe was on the other side of the board.
Atsushi removed his mouth from his straw. "So… what does Atobe have to do with Yuuta?" he questioned.
Mizuki faltered a little. He hadn't considered the possibility that he'd have to explain everything to Atsushi. He suspected Akazawa knew the gist of the situation and Yanagisawa ought to at least have a clue, but it was true he'd called Atsushi in with Yanagisawa without stopping to think about whether Yuuta would have told him anything or not.
Yuuta was pretty private when it came to matters like this, so chances were that only Mizuki really knew the whole story.
Or rather, as much of it as Yuuta was willing to tell anyone else.
He wondered if he ought to have formulated his plan just a little more thoroughly before calling the meeting – contingency planning being rather a lot harder when he didn't really know where Atsushi and Yanagisawa stood on this.
"Does Yuuta know Atobe well, da ne?" Yanagisawa asked.
Atsushi turned to him, giving him an odd look. "Yuuta and… Atobe Keigo?"
Yanagisawa nodded his head, feeling privileged. "Yup da ne. Yuuta's even been to his house, da ne. But what do you think they actually do with each other, da ne?"
Mizuki twitched.
"It's kind of weird, isn't it, da ne? I mean, they didn't know each other before, did they? If Yuuta's been to Atobe's house, that must mean they're pretty friendly, da ne?"
Mizuki didn't even stop to ask Yanagisawa how he knew all of that. "Well, yes," he snapped. "You have to be pretty friendly with someone to want to snog him," he frowned.
He felt a lot better having said that, and the silence in the room was more conducive to coherent thought than the sound of Atsushi slurping at his drink, so he returned to his thoughts of how to get Atsushi, Yanagisawa and Akazawa to help Yuuta without making their meddling seem obvious.
Atsushi was a trustworthy boy. He was sure Yuuta wouldn't mind if he had half a clue about what was going on, even if Mizuki himself wasn't perfectly clear on everything. That Yuuta and Atobe both suffered from stubbornness and stupidity was clear enough, but as for the rest of it…
Mizuki wondered if Akazawa had any suggestions and looked up at him.
He blinked at the silence, wondering why Yanagisawa was so quiet. What had he been saying before anyway?
Mizuki had already forgotten what they'd been saying two minutes before, though Yanagisawa had been talking about how Yuuta had gone to Atobe's house, hadn't he?
And then Mizuki had said…
He curled a strand of hair around his finger, trying to recall exactly what he'd said.
Oh.
Oh.
Shit.
He glanced at Akazawa once more, but the expression on his face only confirmed the sinking feeling in Mizuki's stomach.
"A-Atobe and Yuu-Yuuta?" Yanagisawa asked, being the first to break the silence.
He looked shell shocked. Atsushi looked surprised for a moment too, but then he ducked his head so Mizuki couldn't read his expression.
"Are you sure, da ne? I mean… That's not… They're both…"
Atsushi played with his straw for a moment. "And?" he questioned, tilting his head a little in curiosity.
Yanagisawa swallowed hard. "Well, isn't it kind of…" He trailed off, looking around.
Mizuki wondered if that meant the meeting was a wrap.
When Yanagisawa spoke again five minutes later, Mizuki decided that yes, he'd had enough of them for the moment and he'd have to call them to meet again once he'd really thought things through. He couldn't help but feel annoyed at himself for not having anticipated that things would turn out this way without a lack of planning. He couldn't remember the last time he'd conducted any sort of meeting at all without at least having mapped things out first, but lately when it came to Yuuta, he was just… not quite himself.
"Yuuta and Atobe, da ne."
Silence reigned.
"Atobe has grey hair, da ne. I wonder if he's grey all over, da ne."
Atsushi snorted and took a slurp of his drink. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
"I bet Yuuta knows, da ne."
Mizuki twitched. He rather hoped Yuuta didn't.
.tbc.