Okay, okay, I know it's been like, what? Nearly half a year since I've actually updated this story? In all honestly, I am extremely sorry. I wanted to get finished with other things before I focused on this story (mainly my other Prince of Tennis story, Fortunate Misfortune) and now that those things have been taken care of, I can start focusing more on this story. Good news though! I am on summer break and have made a promise to myself that I will try to update AT LEAST three times before the end of summer! (Because we all know how lazy I am…) Well, enough of my apologies! If all of my readers are still out there, let's get this party started!
Chapter Begins
Birds chirped happily in their nests, a gentle breeze softly rustling their feathers enough to stir them awake from their late afternoon naps. The trees they sat in swayed slightly with the wind, soft green leaves gently falling from their branches only to dance down to earth. Clouds in the sky lazily crawled across the vast blue canvas, merging with their fluffy white companions every now and again to make a barely noticeable picture in the sky. All these things together could only mean one thing: spring was on its way.
"Eiji, slow down," a girl's voice yelled, her laugh following soon after, "I'm sure whatever you want to show me will still be there even if we decide to slow down."
Said boy shook his head, tugging on the girls hand some more as he lead her deeper into the park. "I told you, I want us to be the first ones there! Plus, it's getting a little late and you'll have to go soon!"
The girl pouted, glancing around the park in all directions as the boy continued to tug her on. "We're the only ones here! Of course we'll be the first ones if there isn't even anybody else in the park!" Making that little observation, the girl started to wonder why the park was so empty at this time. Back when she lived in this town it was almost always filled with couples aging from their early teens to young adults all the way to the elderly.
"There's a festival on the other side of town," the redheaded boy said, answering her unspoken question.
That comment only managed to push her deeper into confusion. "Then why are we at the park? Wouldn't you rather go to the festival and have fun?"
Eiji smiled to himself, finally stopping at his destination as he turned to face the ebony haired girl he had brought along with him. He squeezed at her hand that was still tightly intertwined with his own, watching as she continued to give him an adorable pouting face. He laughed at her expression, giving her one of his signature smiles as he finally decided to answer her. After all, the moment was just right.
"If I had taken you to the carnival, I wouldn't have been able to share this moment with you alone."
Just then, the sound of spraying water reached the girl's ears and she immediately turned to see where the noise was coming from. She gasped at the sight, putting her free hand to her gaping mouth. Just a few meters from where the pair of teens were standing was a fountain. The girl quickly noticed that the fountain that was once calm was now turned on at full power, making the underwater jets spurt forth, causing a beautiful array of colors as the last rays of sunshine gently bounced off the mist the fountain created.
"Wow," the girl breathed, turning to face her bouncy companion, "Eiji, it looks so pretty! I'm so glad my mom drove me down here so we could hang out again."
"I knew you would like it," the redhead boasted proudly, showing off how well he knew the girl by now, "Nya, too bad it has to end so soon…"
The girl nodded, shifting some of her dark locks of hair behind her ear. A few moments of silence passed between the two teens as each one of them stood still, watching the sight before them. It was only when the girl heard Eiji speak her name that she turned once more to look at him. She blushed noticing how close he was becoming, his face slowly making it way towards her own. Five inches, four inches, three inches, she could feel his breath, two inches, she wondered if he could hear her heart, one inch, this was it…
Wait. What was that ringing noise?
I woke up slowly, stretching my arms and shoulders first as I slowly sat up in bed. From my side I could hear my alarm clock's constant nagging, telling me that it was time to get up. Staring at it, I suddenly missed my mother and how she would always be the one to wake me up in the morning. The constant cries of a shrieking alarm clock could never replace my mother yelling at me to get out of bed. Almost instantly, I reached over, pressing a few buttons on its smooth plastic surface before it finally shut off, leaving me in utter silence. I blinked a few times, staring at the time on the clock, but not really comprehending what I was seeing. My mind was focused on other things. Things like my dream. Or should I consider it a memory?
I yawned loudly, thinking about that day as I let the images play through my mind once more. That incident had happened years ago, back when I was still in my first year of high school. It had been five, maybe six months since I had seen Eiji after leaving Seigaku and I had finally convinced my mom to drive me down there so I could spend a day with him. It had been great. We spent the majority of the day catching up with each other and some other old friends like Oishi and Fuji, but at the end of the day, Eiji insisted on taking me somewhere before I had to leave for home. I smiled, my hand faintly caressing my lips as I remembered what happened after that.
A faint buzzing sound jolted me out of memory lane and I looked passed my alarm clock to let my eyes rest on my cell phone, its soft vibrations slowly making it inch towards the edge of my desk. I caught it in my hand before it could fall towards its doom, glancing at the caller ID.
"Fuji, why would you be calling so early?" I questioned the tensai, finally coaxing my legs to swing off the bed and onto the floor.
"Don't tell me you forgot already," the brunette chuckled on the other end of the line, "We have to go meet Takada-san today. I wanted to call to make sure you got up in time. After all, our meeting with him is in an hour."
I gasped, looking at my clock again to actually look at the time. "Oh my gosh, I almost forgot about that!"
Quickly jumping out of my bed, I ran to my open closet to look for a suitable outfit to wear to the meeting, wondering if it would be too informal to just go in jeans and a blouse. On the other end of the phone line, I could hear Fuji chuckling, his sadistic laugh causing a shudder to run down my spine. He had known I would forget about the meeting. I don't know how he knew, but I knew that he had known and that he had planned to call me an hour before our meeting, just so he could put me in this situation. He was definitely the same Fuji from my Seigaku years.
"Well now," he said, his chuckles finally dying down, "I guess I should leave you alone so you can get ready." With that, he said a quick goodbye as he hung up on his end.
Snapping my phone shut, I muttered some choice words about the tensai as I turned back to my closet, picking out the first outfit that my hands could grasp. Looking it over, I gave a curt nod of approval as I quickly made my way into my bathroom to take a shower and get ready as soon as possible.
Fuji's POV
It had been around forty minutes since I had called Tsuki on my cell phone, only to find that she hadn't gotten ready for our meeting yet. Hopefully she was ready by now, but it would definitely be a little interesting to see what would happen if she were late for this meeting. As for the meeting, I started to wonder what it was about. Obviously we had gotten the jobs otherwise Takada-san wouldn't have bothered arranging a meeting for us to come see him, but why did he want us to come together? Maybe we were going to get our first assignment today, Tsuki as a journalist and myself as the photographer. If that was the case, what would we be looking at today? It certainly wasn't going to be something big like a crime or big event; we are only rookies after all.
As I pondered on these ideas, I subconsciously found myself walking towards my destination, safely making it to the small office building I had had my interview at. I put on one of my famous smiles, noticing that the same secretary I had seen the last time was still seated at the front desk looking as bored as ever. I sat down in one of the waiting area's chairs, not bothering to ask her about my appointment as I knew full well that I was more than early. As I sat, I looked at the camera I had strapped loosely around my neck. I had bought it only a month and a half ago so, compared to my other cameras, it was relatively new. It had cost a lot of money, most of which I had sadly borrowed from my parents, which was why I was looking for a good job. I had to pay them back somehow, right?
"Fuji, I'm surprised you got here before I did."
I looked up towards the doorway, watching as Tsuki entered hastily, an over the shoulder bag in her arms. I was assuming it was full of things the typical journalist would need, seeing as she should've come to the same conclusion I had come to this morning.
"You forget that I live only a few blocks away from here, whereas you live a few miles away," I said, watching as she sat next to me, placing her bag on the seat on her other side before placing her hands in her lap, "I don't think even the fastest car on earth could get you here before me."
She chuckled lightly at my joke, putting a hand up to cover her mouth. "You never know. Maybe one day they'll create a teleport machine."
"Then I would teleport here myself, wouldn't I?"
She stared at me a bit dumbfounded for a while before playfully punching my arm, muttering something about me being a smart aleck. We both chuckled at our slightly childish conversation before it slowly died down into a comfortable silence. I glanced at the clock on the wall opposite to us, noticing that our meeting was supposed to start five minutes ago. Usually I wasn't one to be too nitpicky about meetings, as long as it wasn't my fault it started late, but I couldn't help but wonder why our future boss hadn't called us in yet.
As if on cue, the door behind the reception desk slammed open, seeming as if it was ready to rip off its hinges. As the door slowly stopped bouncing against the wall it had made contact with, Takada-san decided that was his cue to make his appearance. Stepping out of his office, he gave a heart laugh turned to face somebody else. That's when I noticed another man emerging from the small room, a smile on his facial features as he spoke to Takada-san. I paid little attention to their conversation, seeing as it wasn't any of my business since I didn't know the man. I watched as he walked away from Takada-san, bidding the rotund man a farewell as he walked out the front door.
"Ah, Fuji-san, Amagumo-san, I'm glad you two came," Takada-san said as he walked towards us, stopping a few footfalls short of where we were sitting, "I'm sorry that our meeting is starting late. I was just talking with an old friend of mine. Please, step into my office."
We both nodded and got up from our seats, passing by the balding older male. Stepping through the doorframe, I quickly glanced around the room and saw two armchairs before a wooden desk. Behind the desk was a big spinning, leather chair.
"Have a seat, have a seat," Takada-san said as he entered behind us, closing his office's door, "Now I'm sure that you've figured out that you both have been hired, yes?"
"Yes sir," Tsuki said, smiling as she sat down in one of the plush armchairs. I nodded in response, following after her as I sat in the other armchair.
Takada-san smiled at us, nodding in satisfaction, "Good, well then, let's just cut to the chase and discuss your first assignment, shall we?"
Eiji's POV
"Have a nice day, come again," I said excitedly as I watched another pet owner walk out with her cute pet cat.
I sighed heavily after the elderly woman had left, glancing at the clock behind me. It had only been an hour since I had arrived at work and I had another four hours to go before I could take my break. Looking over at the book I had sitting next to the cash register, I picked it up, deciding that reading it would be better than doing nothing, even if it was one of the history books I had to study. Picking up the heavy book, I flipped to the page I had left off on and began reading. I was only a few sentences in when the bell at the front of the store rang, signaling that a new customer had arrived.
"Hi Eiji," a sweet voice said.
Looking up, I noticed the familiar honey blonde female by the name of Yuko. She was standing in front of the counter, her hands on her hips as she smiled at me with her full lips covered heavily in shiny pink lip gloss. I looked her up and down, my eyes drinking in her appearance; soft blonde hair curled slightly to give it a cute, bouncy look, that same fluffy coat she wore the day we went to that one café with what seemed to be an extremely tight tank top underneath, showing off her womanly curves. Sitting up in my seat slightly, I could see she was wearing a denim mini-skirt with legging that went down to mid-calf. I wondered slightly to myself how she could wear such thin clothing on a cold winter's day.
Her soft laugh quickly brought me back as I stopped staring at her figure and returned my gaze to her eyes. "Ah, Yuko-san, what are you doing here?"
I watched her smirk. "I told you not to bother with the honorifics Eiji," she said, shaking her head from side to side with a smile on her face, "Anyways, I came here to see you. Do you want to go out for something to eat? We could study together some more."
I blushed lightly, hoping she couldn't see. Boy was she straightforward or what? "Ah, well, I don't have a break for a few hours. Maybe we can get something to eat during lunch?"
I watched her smile before she leaned in close to my face, placing a short, sweet kiss on my left cheek. This time I could literally feel the blood rush to my face as I looked at her with widening eyes. She merely giggled, giving me a wink as she walked towards the front door.
"See you for lunch, Eiji."
With that said, she turned and walked out the door, leaving me still sitting at my seat, red in the face with embarrassment. As she walked away, I couldn't help but stare at her retreating figure until I couldn't see her any longer. What was this feeling I was starting to get?
Chapter Ends
Gasp! When are Tsuki and Eiji finally going to meet! What is the feeling Eiji gets around Yuko? What kind of 'first assignment' is Takada-san giving Fuji and Tsuki at the moment? All this and more in the next chapter of Rematch in the Game of Love!