DisclaimerPlease refer to the Prologue.
CHAPTER ONE
When dealing with Momoshirou Takeshi, there are things that one must be aware of.
One, he is walking power house. In fact, he probably has more power than one-third of the third years combined together. Not surprising, as he was Seigaku Tennis Club's power player. Rumour has it that he had killed one of his opponents in a tournament not long ago.
Two, he is notorious for his temper. Despite his easy-going nature, he could – and would – blow up at anything that happened to rub him off the wrong way.
Three, his best friend goes by the name of Echizen Ryoma. They did almost everything together; they went out together, went to school together, ride home together… Simply put, they were as close as best friends could be.
Handling one thing at a time is relatively easy, but when these three things collide…
It's disaster waiting to happen.
Tezuka sighed for the nth time that week. It has been almost two weeks since Echizen left the club and as expected, his best friend was taking it the hardest. It shouldn't be a problem since Momoshirou didn't really do anything to harm anyone but it is.
Horio got his nod of approval and the training was halted. The boastful first year ran up, grabbed the cone and threw it in the junkyard next to the clubroom where a dozen of other damaged cones lay, waiting eagerly for their would-be companions. At least three-quarters of them had deep dents in their sides and the rest had holes burnt into them.
A sulking Momoshirou shouldn't have been a problem, but it is because the second year power player was costing the club a lot of perfectly good cones.
Taking a deep breathe, Tezuka yelled, "Momoshirou! 30 laps around the grounds! You are suspended from using the racket for a week!" Gasps were shared throughout the courts but nobody dared to question the captain.
Nobody except the regular in question. "But why?!" The look on Momo's face would have been comical if not for the weight of the situation.
Tezuka was unmoving. "You need to learn to keep your temper and power in check." He explained simply. Momo was going to argue again when tap on the shoulder stopped him. Turning around, an open-eyed Fuji was pointing to the pile of damage he had created in the past two weeks. Momo grudgingly accepted the punishment and went to do his laps.
Actually, Tezuka would think as he walks home later that day, Momoshirou has a perfectly good reason to sulk. Despite what Echizen had initially said, they hadn't met him around the campus. Which was strange in itself, because no matter how big the campus grounds were, they weren't so huge that they absolutely had no chance of not meeting each other for two weeks straight. Even when the others had asked Horio if he had seen Echizen in class, the first year had said that right after classes end for lunch or for the day, the ex-regular would disappear as quickly as the wind. He then went on to brag about how he could be faster if he wanted to, but nobody was paying attention.
Not meeting each other around campus… Dashing off right after dismissal…
'Going to his house but not finding his person…' Tezuka thought warily, 'it's as if he's deliberately avoiding us. No, that can't be…'
Suddenly, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. A pair of familiar golden eyes stood out from the dark corner. He couldn't help but widen his eyes. The pair of eyes spotted him looking in its direction and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
'Echizen!' Doing a very irresponsible thing for the first time in years, Tezuka ran towards the direction he had seen the eyes. However, when he arrived at his destination, he saw no one.
'Why… ?' He came up with a previously unthinkable conclusion. '… He's avoiding us deliberately.' Now that he has gotten that out of the way, the next question was why.
That's the most difficult question to answer.
When he went back to the courts, he saw that everyone has stopped practicing. It was only then that he realised that he had run off without a word in the middle of practice. "What are you doing? Go back to practice!" Almost everyone snapped into action.
Almost.
Fuji's blue eyes pierced into his brown ones. "What happened?" It has been a long time since Tezuka has heard his best friend use such a serious tone. "Nothing. Go back to practice." The stoic captain replied.
Fuji didn't look like he believed him. They entered a staring match, of which Tezuka backed down and sighed. There was no hiding from the sadistic genius. If he wanted to, he could drag the truth out of the toughest man with just a glare.
"I think I saw Echizen."
The calm and collected sadist's eyes snapped open again. "What?"
"I saw Echizen. He was watching the practice but he disappeared when he saw me staring at him." Tezuka took a breathe. "I don't know why, but he's avoiding us." He admitted.
"Is that so?" Fuji's eyes were closed again, but there was no mistaking the aura surrounding him. Tezuka suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for the freshman.
If that was him he saw.
End of Chapter One
Authoress' NotesYour eyes are not playing tricks on you. It's really (a little) longer!