Sakuno sighed contently, as she flopped onto her soft, pink bed. She had finished packing away her clothes the day before, and had just hauled her suitcase downstairs. The brunette smiled, she was finally back in her hometown again, after somehow managing to survive the brutal training and schoolwork she had to endure at her old school.

Her eyes fluttered shut, reminiscing her past two years. It was difficult to keep up with the advanced courses, in addition to the harsh training regimens that came along with being a member of the elite tennis team. Thankfully, her cousins were regulars on the team and had helped her throughout the two years. Half-way through her first year, she managed to become a regular, all due to their efforts.

The young Ryuuzaki remembered all of the early mornings she spent jogging with Natsumi, which helped her build stamina, and all of the late afternoons, when she worked on her footwork, strategy, accuracy, and techniques with the aforementioned cousin. During the evenings, after dinner, she would be tutored by Fuyumi and finish her homework before going to sleep.

Sakuno chuckled at the memories of the twins' antics. In addition to their polar-opposite personalities, the girls shared nothing alike in physical appearance. Natsumi was fairly tan, while her younger twin had a paler complexion. Sakuno often found herself quite jealous of the older twin. Natsumi's hair was a cute strawberry-pink, which was cut short an inch or two right under her chin. Even though, the latter girl repeatedly claimed that she would kill for soft, long hair like the brunette's.

But despite their differences, the twins got along okay. "Okay" meaning occasional arguments and sarcastic comments here and there.

"Sakuno!"

The strained voice of Sumire snapped the young Ryuuzaki out of her musings. She hurriely ran downstairs. When she reached the end of the staircase and rounded the corner, she let out a sigh of relief, seeing that her grandmother was fine. She had been on a constant high alert ever since the elderly woman collapsed a few weeks ago, which was the reason that prompted her to return to Tokyo. The girl didn't want to lose another precious family member, especially not after the car accident that took her parents when she was little.

"Mou, Obaa-chan, don't scare me like that!"

Her grandmother merely chuckled.

"Gomen, Sakuno, you know how all the yelling I do at practices affects my voice. Anyway, Natsumi just called and asked if you wanted to go to the tennis courts tomorrow, I told her that you would and she said that she and her sister will drop by and pick you up at 1:30."

"Arigatou, Obaa-chan! Is there anything else?"

The Seigaku coach frowned, thinking hard.

"There was something else that I wanted to tell you, but I can't seem to remember what it was..."

Sumire sighed, frustrated, she didn't appreciate how fast her old age was catching up to her. Giving up, she finally said," Just remember that you're starting school next week."

Sakuno nodded,"Hai, Obaa-chan."

Turning around, she began heading back upstairs.

'Hmm...I wonder how the senpai-tachi have been doing.'

With that thought in mind, Sakuno prepared her tennis gear and planned her outfit for the next day.

That night, she had trouble sleeping, her thoughts often floating off to a particular boy wearing a Fila cap, who also happened to be half-way across the world, in America.

It was also at that moment, downstairs, Sumire remembered what she was going to say.

"Didn't Nanjiro say that his son was coming back from America?"


"Stop calling me that," Fuyumi said, annoyed," And get your things off of my bed."

The twins' bedroom wasn't very complicated. The rectangular room had a cream-colored wallpaper, with the entrance on the left wall and a wide window in the middle of the right wall. The twins each had their own bed, Fuyumi had the ocean-blue one on the window's left and Natsumi had the forest-green one on the window's right. Both had nightstands next to their beds. Near the foot of their beds was their shared closet, which was placed vertically in the middle of the floor plan, flush against Fuymi's side of the room, creating the illusion of there being two rooms. A large bookcase was placed left of the door, next to Fuyumi's desk, which was touching the backside of the closet. Natsumi's desk was to the right of the door, most of it pushed against the left wall. Finally, a big, fuzzy carpet was draped over half of the room's wooden floors, on the beds' side.

As Fuyumi walked over, she snatched the closest object off of her bed, which was an old trophy, and tossed it over to her sister, who was sitting on the floor, without looking.

The pink-haired girl nearly toppled over trying to save it. After successfully catching the golden trophy and examining it for scratches, she glared at her sister, who apathetically continued to clear off her bed.

She smirked, wiggling her eyebrows,"Oh? Doesn't wittle Yumi-chan miss her dear Prince Charming?"

The other twin froze, turned around, and looked at her older sister, clearly irritated.

"Are you an idiot, or were you just born stupid and ignorant?" she retorted calmly,"She was obviously a girl, not a boy. Plus, it's been a long time since we've met, she probably already forgot me."

Natsumi sweatdropped. More than a decade later and the dense baka still hasn't realized that her childhood friend was actually a guy. Or at least that's what she thought.

Originally, they used to live in Tokyo, but then, they had to move to England because of their parents' work. On the last day before they left, a brown-haired boy(or girl) had approached her, asking if he(or she) could talk to her sister. Natsumi sneakily watched the whole exchange between the two children behind a few bushes. The kid had picked a flower on his(or her) way to their house, and presented it to the then four-year-old Fuyumi, who gratefully accepted it with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Upon greater examination, the flower was a snowbell. For days, she watched her sister take care of it, and when the delicate flower finally withered, Fuyumi secretly cried with Natsumi comforting her.

"If you didn't miss him, then why do you insist on finishing high school in Japan? Clearly, it's not because of the education, because Shikoku is way better than this school, and it's not like we have any friends living here, so wh-WAH!"

Natsumi, thanks to her quick reflexes, managed to dodge a book aimed right for her face. A half-second later and she would have been knocked out cold by the flying projectile.

Fuyumi sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Just shut your trap for once and help me unpack. We're going to the tennis courts tomorrow with Sakuno-chan."

The pink-head merely grinned. She had just hit a nerve.

'Score! 15-love!' she thought to herself.


"Mada mada dane, senpai-tachi."

A pair of golden feline eyes raked across the premises of the airport terminal, searching for his family and maybe a certain group of tennis-playing upperclassmen. To no avail, the boy tsked, and was about to head the other way, when a pair of arms appeared out of nowhere and clamped onto him.

"Oi, Seishun, when are you bringing home a girlfri-itai, Rinko!"

"Okaeri, Ryoma!"

"Hey, Echizen!"

"Long time no see, Ochibi!"

"...Can't..breathe...Kiku...maru-senpai...Momo...sen...pai..."

"Eiji, Momo, let go! He can't breath!"

"Saa, welcome back, Echizen."

"Fssshhh..."

"What did you just say to me, Mamushi?!"

"I said nothing, Porcupine!"