"Oi Marui-sempai," Akaya called for the tenth time.

"I don't think he's listening." Jackal said carefully, eyeing on his teammate.

"You mean his mind is off somewhere we can't reach." Niou corrected him. "I mean, look at him! He looks more of an idiot than last time."

"Masaharu, mind your words." Hiroshi said sternly.

Marui didn't seem to hear what they're talking as his mind went off somewhere, blocking all of the sounds around him. He was in a daze, contemplating himself on whether he should ask or not and a small voice at the back on his head seemed to agree with him. He was dying to know what really happened but he didn't want to sound suspicious and to that, he continued to wander off inside his own world.

Akaya waved his right hand in front of the self-proclaimed genius' face and whistled. "He's not responding at all." He took out a pentel pen and removed the cover. "I'm going to write something on his face!" he said evilly.

"Hey that's a great idea, brat." Niou grinned, taking out a pen as well.

"What are you all doing there?" Renji asked as soon as he approached his teammates.

"Diabetes' mind is off somewhere in lala land." Niou said simply as he wrote something on Marui's face.

"Lala land?" Renji repeated, his eyebrows raised in disbelief.

"Yeah," Akaya agreed, writing something as well.

"Hey don't do that you two." Jackal told them. "You'll both be punished."

"At least we had fun." The two troublemakers said in unison.

Then, footsteps were heard and the Rikkai team, except Marui, turned around and saw Sanada and Seiichi walking together. The fukubuchou eyed on them and barked, "What are you all doing? Shouldn't you all be practicing?"

"Well you see," Jackal said slowly. "Marui's not himself today."

"Yeah that's right." Niou nodded. "We've been trying to get his attention but as you can tell that we failed. See it for yourself."

Sanada neared the redhead and his eyebrows were raised. "What did you do to his face?" he demanded.

"We can't help it." The trickster shrugged.

The Rikkai buchou approached Marui to see what Sanada saw. There, he stopped himself from chuckling. "You doodled his face with pentel pen?" he mused as he tried not to react.

"Yup!" Niou and Akaya saluted.

"Yukimura, don't encourage them." Sanada said sternly.

Marui jerked a bit when he heard the buchou's name and he shot up, gripping his shoulders tight and said seriously, "What did you do yesterday?!"

Seiichi blinked as their faces were close to each other and he couldn't fight it back and just let out a hearty laugh. "Ah gomen Bunta, I can't help it. Your face is ridiculous to look at." He chuckled.

Marui shot a confused look at him and stared at his other teammates, noticing Niou and Akaya trying not to laugh at something and even Yanagi and Yagyuu, who seemed to try to look monotone as usual. Jackal, being a good friend as always, said to him in a somewhat serious tone, "You should look at yourself."

"Eh?"

"Just…look at the mirror." He said carefully as he tried not to laugh.

Scratching the back of his head, he walked toward the club room and entered. In less than a minute, Marui was yelling, "WHAT HAPPENED TO MY FACE?!"

Niou and Akaya didn't take it any longer and laughed out really hard, clutching their stomach and rolled on the ground. "BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!" they guffawed.

"Bunta, remove the doodles from your face before practicing. I hope it's not permanent." Seiichi told him in a loud tone. "The others, 30 laps around the court."

"Hai!"

"Masaharu and Akaya, stand up now or I'll triple your laps." Seiichi added as he shot a look at the two.

"Yeah…" they said as they breathed for air, having enough of laughing.

"Damn, it took me almost half an hour to remove the lines. I'll get you next time Niou, Akaya." Marui growled as he walked in the hallway. He turned right and over a few feet stood Yukimura talking to one of the male students that looked like one of the buchou's classmates. I still haven't asked him about it, Marui said mentally as he watched him from afar. Much to his dislike, the buchou noticed him.

"What is it Bunta?" he asked as he approached him.

"Uhh…" he paused. "I…wanted to ask you about something." He said slowly.

"And what is it do you want to ask?" he asked tentatively.

"Well, I want to ask---" he stopped talking when someone tapped on his shoulder and responding, he turned around and his gaze met a girl's gaze. "What?"

"Umm…can we talk for a bit, Marui-san?" she said shyly.

"I'm busy talking to someone---" he tried to tell the girl but he was cut off by the person he's talking to.

"Ah it's okay. You should talk to her first, Bunta. Let's talk later, okay?" and with one wave, he walked away, leaving the two of them.

Man he escaped from me! I can't believe this, he groaned to himself. He knew for a fact that the girl's going to confess her feelings to him but he had no time for that kind of nonsense. "Let's talk at the rooftop quick." He said monotonously as he walked ahead of her.

When classes were over, Marui stuffed all of his things inside his bag and took off from the classroom, forgetting to wait Jackal. He sprinted toward the direction of the buchou's classroom, bumping into all sorts of students and not even bothering to say sorry. When he opened the door, he yelled, "Yukimura-buchou!"

The remaining students inside stared at him. "A-ano Marui-san," a male student called him slowly. "Yukimura-san left already. He said he's meeting his grandfather somewhere."

Marui twitched slightly. "Already?" he repeated. He got away from me! That's it, I'm determined to ask him no matter what!

The following day, Marui woke up really early and quickly changed to his uniform, ate his breakfast in lightning speed that surprised both of his twin younger brothers and parents, and went to school. As he jogged toward the school, he didn't notice a dozen of wavering eyes staring at him as though he was some kind of prey. When he finally arrived from school, he saw the Rikkai buchou was in front of him. "Yukimura-buch---" he called but soon stopped abruptly when he realized that a swarm of his fangirls charged at him.

"KYAAAAAA MARUI-SAMA OHAYOU!!" they said in unison.

Before he could even escape from them, he was surrounded. "H-hey! I'll deal with you all later! Yukimura-buchou!" He tried to fend them off but it was no use at all. Soon, he was engulfed by their worship for him.

The said person, Seiichi, who was walking leisurely towards the tennis courts, turned around to check whether someone called him name but only saw a group of female students surrounding someone or something. Shrugging, he continued to walk without a single knowledge that Marui tried to call him. "Yukimura," Sanada greeted, nodding at him once.

"Ah. Good morning, Genichirou." He said with a smile as he saw him, removing his earphones.

"Do you know where Marui is? Practice is about to start in 10 minutes." The fukubuchou said sternly.

The Rikkai buchou thought deeply and said finally, "Just now, I heard his voice call my name but I think I'm hearing things, don't you think?"

Sanada glanced at the mob of girls on one side of the school grounds and asked curiously, "What's happening over there?"

He took a swift look at the girls and shrugged. "I don't really know. Maybe it's something they find interesting for their liking." He guessed.

"I suppose. But needless to say, Marui must arrive here or he'll be running laps again."

"That's true." (A/N: lol poor Marui…)

"Damn fangirls…giving me a hard time." Marui grumbled, his eyes strained.

"Hey it's not them, it's us. We're just that great. Well, I'm way greater than you." Niou said casually as he sat opposite of him.

"Like I've give a damn about it." Marui retorted. I can't believe what's happening to me right now…am I really not allowed to ask him?! "So where' buchou right now?" he asked before taking a huge bite from his yakisoba bread.

"He'll be here any minute now. Kajimoto-sensei was talking to him for a quite a while." He told him as he winked at the passing female students who quickly blushed and squealed.

Well, he'd better come here fast or I might go myself crazy. "Lunch break's going to end soon if he doesn't come here." He said hastily.

"Oi Bunta," Jackal greeted him as he sat beside him, carrying with him were a can of cold coffee and curry bread. "I've been looking all over for you. What happened to you? You seemed rather strained."

Niou snorted. "He was blaming his fangirls for making him late for this morning's practice."

"Ah I see. It's not like it happens everyday, right? Maybe you're just unlucky today." He said simply before taking a sip from his drink.

"I'm not being unlucky." He growled.

"Who's being unlucky?" Akaya chirped as he arrived, plopping himself on a vacant seat with them.

"Marui." Niou said before the self-proclaimed genius could even say anything.

"Marui-sempai? Like he's ever been lucky in his entire life." The little demon snorted but earned a whack at the back of his head. "Hey that hurts!" he hissed.

"Who's being unlucky now?" Marui sneered.

"Why you---!"

"What's going on?" A strict familiar voice questioned them.

"Oi Sanada. And mura-buchou. Yo." Niou greeted. "Even you Hiroshi."

"Ah." The RIkkai buchou replied while the other two just nodded and sat down with the others. "Where's Renji?" he said inquiringly to them.

"I bet he's in the science room doing something creepy." Akaya piped up.

"I guess so." He noticed that a certain teammate was staring at him like there's something on his face and realized that it was no other than Marui. "Is there something wrong Bunta?" he asked kindly.

"Yeah…You bet I do." He muttered as he nodded slowly.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I wanted to know what you did two days a---" he stopped midway when he heard a student's voice rang across the cafeteria from the announcer.

"Marui Bunta, please proceed to the Principal's Office. I repeat, Marui Bunta, please proceed to the Principal's office immediately."

His teammates stared at him. "H-hey I didn't do anything bad!" he protested.

"Yeah, sure. Say all you want." Niou snorted.

He had the urge to strangle him on spot but managed to stop himself and stood up. "I'll ask you later, buchou." Turning away from them, he left the cafeteria with a smug look on his face.

"What's with his attitude? He seems upset or something." Jackal muttered.

"You think so? I thought he's having PMS." Niou said indifferently.

"Masaharu."

"Yes, mother."

Marui went out of the Principal's Office with his face in a scowl expression. "Stupid Principal, making a damn conclusion that I was the one who's been stealing bloomers just because I have red hair…am I the only one with red hair?! Gahh It's pissing me off." He grumbled to himself as he walked.

"What? You're accused of stealing bloomers? I can't believe that you've done that Marui." Niou suddenly spoke as he appeared on his side, an evil smirk plastered on his face.

Marui paled. "W-what?! That's not true and you know it!"

"Yeah, I know but it'll be nice to spread a little rumour, don't ya think?" he chuckled evilly.

"Do that or I'll tell everyone about that thing---" Marui whispered to his ear.

Niou twitched a little and gave him an accusing finger. "You're going to die a painful death if you're going to do that." He said threateningly.

As they blackmailed each other, Akaya appeared from the left side of the hallway and saw them. He sweat dropped. "Weirdoes." Then, he heard the things they're saying and an idea sprang inside his evil demonic head. "That was quite interesting. Maybe I should ask Yanagi-sempai about it---" he stopped muttering as he realized two evil glares boring holes on him.

"You listened to us, huh?" they growled, looking really deadly.

Akaya sweat dropped. "It's not like I listened to you, I just overheard you---"

"Still the same." They said flatly, approaching to him slowly.

The junior ace backed away a little. Then, he sprinted off. "Waaahh Mura-buchou help me!" he whined.

"Come back here you brat!" the two seniors yelled as they chased him.

As they ran, Renji and Jackal saw them and didn't say anything else. Also, Yagyuu got a small glimpse at what's happening as he got out of the library and just let out a small sigh. "Immature." He muttered.

At the end of the day, Marui got tired. Really tired. When he and Niou finally captured Akaya, they dragged him toward the boy's C.R and planned to give him a good swirley for 'listening' to their talk until they were caught by one of their teachers. Because of that, the two tennis players were punished, whereas Akaya stuck his tongue at them and said taunting remarks at the same time. Also, Seiichi and Sanada heard this and punished them too by making them run laps. 300 laps to be precise.

It was pure hell for the self-proclaimed genius. "I hate this day…All I want is to ask a simple question to buchou and this is what I get?!" he groaned, kicking a rock nearby. He let out a frustrated sigh and continued to walk until he saw a familiar figure in front of him.

"Ah Bunta-kun, you finally got out of the club room. Good." Seiichi said softly, greeting him with a smile.

"Bu-buchou! Why are you still here?" He quickly asked.

"I waited for you, that's what." He said simply. "You said you're going to ask a question, right?" he reminded him.

"A-ah you remembered." He sweat dropped. I guess this is my chance to ask him. Then, he looked around quickly, his eyes narrowing.

The Rikkai Buchou stared at him weirdly. "What are you doing?" he said curiously.

"Checking if they're any distractions." He said simply. "Okay, there's none."

"So, what's the question?"

"What did you do two days ago?" he asked him.

"On a Sunday?" he blinked. "I was at the park."

"At the park?" he repeated. "That's…all?"

"Of course not. Apparently, I saw Ogawa-san there too because of her dog Ichiro and both of us decided to eat together at the ice cream parlour." He told him.

"Really?"

"Well, we also went to Yuigahama beach and pretty much that's it." He said. "Is that all you wanted to ask?"

"So you and Kaori-chan had a date?" he gaped.

"Date? No. It's not a date." He chuckled.

"Ah. Yeah. You're right, buchou." He laughed. "Well, that's all I'm going to ask. See you tomorrow buchou!" with one wave, he sprinted off, looking really happy.

The following afternoon after class, Marui was in spirits as he jogged toward the direction to his home but decided to take another route. "I'm going to visit Kaori-chan." He said happily. When he took a left turn, he was about to pass by a playground he always checked the sunset at that place so jerked his a bit to right and his eyes widened. "Kaori-chan…?" he said in an audible whisper.

There, at the playground was his childhood friend Kaori, standing. But, she wasn't alone. She was with Seiichi who was standing in front of her.

He felt something weird inside his chest but ignored it and decided to greet them but he stopped. Kaori, though not directly gazing at Seiichi's face, looked really happy as she accepted something from him. Seiichi, too, put up a gentle smile and said something that the redhead could not possibly hear. Just then, Kaori's cheeks blushed in a light shade of pink and giggled.

Marui stood there, not moving at all. This time, the foreign feeling inside engulfed him and one word only got out from his mouth. "Liar."

Sorry for the long wait! Nyaaahhh lots of things happened to me!

Hmmm…what do you think about this chapter? I mean, really. Ah well. Anything goes for me, huh? Well I believe you know what's going to happen in the next chapter, right? Good, good. Please review guys. Bit of an angst, really at the end. Sorry about that.