Oishi Syuchiroh

1. He took up tennis at his family's insistence.

In an attempt to integrate him socially his family had done a small amount of research and created a list of activities they wanted him to join. He'd narrowed down the broad list quickly, and had wanted to cross tennis off too, but his parents insisted he take up a sport because it would be healthy, and so he'd reluctantly agreed. He had no idea that the initial practice he had trudged unwillingly to would affect the rest of his life so drastically.

2. He worried so much because he had to be.

He was the older brother to a sister with congenital muscular dystrophy. She was different – obviously – and a lot of people (in particular young kids) didn't do 'different' very well. He took her to the park just down the block one afternoon when she was young, barely two (and he himself barely five), and he'd been having a lovely time trying to sort out the words in a new book he'd gotten (for he was an avid reader, despite is age) when he'd heard the wild yelps and squeals of pain. Looking up he found Saiko in the grass where he'd left her, surrounded by boys older than both of them, probably grade-school-aged. One had her small arm caught in his hand, and though she tried to escape struggling was futile – not only was she a lot smaller than them to begin with, she couldn't even walk properly to begin with as her limbs didn't function normally. 'Freak,' one of them had spat out, and it had taken Oishi a lot of stone throwing and help from Sato-kun who lived next door before they could get her.

This occurrence had repeated itself over and over and over again, the "over" in the repetitive sentence and the quarter notes in the cello part of Pachelbel's Canon in D: it was the same situation no matter where she went, and while she'd grown up into a fine young lady who knew how to send a comeback that would send the opponent stumbling she would never have the ability to pack a physical punch. And, when in her kind of situation, that – quite unfortunately – was what really mattered.

3. He had been painfully shy as a child.

And without any real reason for this, either. He just never got along well with others – because they never tried to get along well with him. Oishi sat like the good boy he was, listening and following along with the teacher's instructions. He was perfect in that aspect. But the moment someone tried to talk to him, whether it be boy or girl, student or teacher, Oishi stammered a response that wasn't at all related, and went beet red from his neck to the tips of his ears.

4. Eiji had scared him at first.

The boy was a ball of energy, flitting here and jutting there without a care in the world. He was hyper and over the top and couldn't do anything half-way. No, with Eiji it was all or nothing, a concept that scared Oishi right out of his skin. The boy had practically latched onto him when they first met, and while Oishi was a friendly person he wasn't a touchy-feely person such as Eiji was. The number of panic attacks the acrobat had nearly caused them in their earlier years from all sorts of things (from doing downright dangerous things to interrupting in Oishi's life in little ways that bugged him for no reason other than the fact that they deviated from the norm) totaled up to a decent sum, but Oishi never regretted it.

5. His first kiss was with the hyperactive redhead he called his best friend

They had been in their second year of high school, hanging out after the last match of the first round of Kantou. It hadn't been particularly hard, and they had won, but there was a strange feeling lingering between them because there had been a moment there during the match – a moment where Eiji fell a bit more lopsided than usual and Oishi missed a return – and their connection had broken and it had honestly scared Oishi more than anything in the past few years. They had recovered fine as a pair, but that night – alone in Eiji's room, all of the other Kikumaru siblings off at college or having moved on with their lives and any other members asleep – Eiji curled up near him. He pressed their bodies flat, nose touching and deep blue eyes looking into Oishi's green ones. They carried the simple message of reassurance, the confidence that he was still there, and that nothing was wrong. Then their lips met. It was for the briefest of moments, but as Eiji pulled back there was trust in his eyes that went further than anything Oishi had ever felt and slowly, carefully, with more fumbling than either of them would have liked, they kissed again.

6. Tezuka's injuries were his initial reason for entertaining medical school.

True, his uncle practiced medicine, but Oishi had never considered himself going into it until he'd spent more time around both his friend and his uncle. It wasn't until he had seen first hand what being in sports rehabilitation could do for a person – for the athlete, of course, but also for the attending physician who got to watch the honest glee spread across their patient's face when giving him the OK to train again – that Oishi considered he might go into the field in the future. And when he did, years later, knowing that he's helped someone recuperate so they can live their life to the fullest again and experience all of the thrills in their sport just as he used to do, it left him so fulfilled that even the years of school and the major debts he had piled up couldn't bring him down.

7. Tezuka leaving to train without first telling him was on his list of "Top Five Most Painful Emotional Moments."

There were very few people in the world Oishi was truly close to – though by his later years of junior high he was popular with a number of students and on a friendly basis with a large portion of the grade – but Tezuka Kunimitsu was one of them. They weren't friends in the traditional 'share-secrets-hang-out-gossip' kind of way everyone else seemed to be, but they shared key values in life and a simple philosophy – hard work will get you where you need to be – and they'd had a very successful friendship of their own, unique kind from the moment they'd met. So when one of his best friend's had gone off half way across the world without any timeline of when or if he was coming back – and he hadn't even bothered to tell Oishi he was going? – well… as far as Oishi was concerned, he had every right to be upset.

That was the one and only time he truly blew up at Tezuka, full-force rage coursing through him. The action left an emotional wound that took years to scar over, because it confirmed everything he feared about himself – that he wasn't worth being with – and it was something that, years later, Oishi never fully forgave Tezuka for.

8. He was widely cultured in a variety of activities because of his sister.

His parents wanted her to blend – because what parent didn't? – and they'd sent Oishi along with her to all sorts of classes so that there would be someone around who understood her disability. (And, he had later realized, perhaps to try and help him bloom socially as well.) He'd been taken to a number of classes, and over time had learned the basics of swimming, ballet, jazz music composition, cello, origami, scrap booking, how to make five different simple recipes, knitting, and crocheting. Not a bad arrangement, if he did say so himself.

9. He had a serious problem with panic disorder.

He wasn't an agoraphobic, and he didn't have obsessive compulsive disorder as so many people liked to claim. People thought that because they had heard of these they were the only disorders out there that caused him to freeze up, mind reeling in anxiety. The first time it had happened was in his first year of middle school, the day his seniors had smashed a tennis racket against Tezuka's arm and the other youth said he was going to quit. This was Tezuka – one of his only friends at the time – and the thought of him being left alone in a crowd of strange people attempting to fit in was terrifying. His chest had tightened painfully, breath coming in shallow pants that had nothing to do with the drills he was performing, and it'd taken all of his effort to squeak out a 'may I please go to the water fountains, Yamato-buchou?' He'd collapsed against them, knees giving way and scraping across the harsh concrete.

When Eiji had found him, his scrapes had been bleeding sluggishly, but the pounding of blood in his ears as his heart rate overpowered him had kept Oishi from noticing. Eiji seemed to understand this and he waited – even though it meant extra laps after practice – until Oishi had recovered and was coherent again.

Though neither he nor the acrobat had known what had happened to him at the time, a few more occurrences and a trip to the school nurse cleared everything up.

10. Eiji helped him through it.

The redhead had helped explain to Oishi's parents exactly what it was the school nurse had told them, chatting happily as Oishi hyperventilated on the couch. He held his friend's hand when he waited in the office for his first appointment with a psychologist. He reminded him to take his medication and always kept a spare prescription with him after Oishi had had his first panic attack because he was afraid of forgetting his medicine for panic attacks. He let Oishi call him at any time of day (including the middle of the night more than once) and if Oishi was feeling particularly anxious Eiji had absolutely no problem hopping right over. They lived a good five minute walk, but if the boy sprinted it was two and though Oishi's bedroom was on the second floor Eiji was bouncy enough and flexible enough that he had mastered climbing the drainpipe his second time over. When anything that could even possibly interfere came up Eiji dropped whatever he was doing to attend to his best friend; though most people didn't know it, the only way Oishi had gotten through his temporary term as captain in junior high was with a lot of string pulling and other proverbial acrobatics from the redhead, and a whole lot of late-night massages.

Even years later Eiji never hesitated to come over – a drive across Tokyo, at the least – when Oishi needed anything, whether it be advice or a hug or simply someone to drown his sorrows with at the nearest bar.