Authors note: I am note sure if Inui has any relatives or not but here he has an older sister. I am so sorry for not having had updated sooner, I just watched a baseball game on the television and was so hooked on it. Thank you for all the reviews! I hope the story gets more reviews soon! I will try my best to make the chapters as long as possible!
"You can drop me off here Fuji-sempai, it would be a hassle to come back up 23 floors just to get me to my room" Ryoma spoke.
He just nodded but didn't move away until he saw her safely inside. On the way to the hotel they had talked about the weirdest stuff really. Their topics were mostly about tennis and food, but then again, they still hadn't found common ground between the two of them. Yet. With that thought in mind, he walked peacefully away.
Ryoma on the other hand was in peace. She didn't know why, but talking to Fuji-sempai had been and sadistically challenging. He had tried making her talk about her personal life now and again but it was mostly (suspiciously) for blackmail. Oh well, she knew how to dodge weird-o questions like that.
She changed into simple jean shorts, a white tank top underneath a white polo with a loose belt on her waist, she had a few metal bracelets on each arm accompanied by a pure simple old ring on her left middle finger, and she had pulled her hair into a high ponytail. She grabbed her rubber shoes and professional camera and went off to work after feeding Karupin her favorite Salmon fish. She popped on one of the earplugs to her ipod when she had reached the elevator.
Her kind of work was easy really; she was a professional cameraman (woman) for a very well known modeling agency. How she came across this job was another story. It was a dare by one of her old friends to try out being a model, ironically enough she landed on the cover (The one Inui's sister read) but the cameramen couldn't work with her since she was either too bored or too sleepy. And so since she sucked so badly at truth or dare and ended up with dare again, she applied for the cameraman position instead, which was a lot more enjoyable really.
It wasn't that she needed the money, no, far from it since she had received a fortune after that "incident". She just needed something to do in her free time; she didn't care about her salary but that she enjoyed what she did. (A.k.a. not sleep though the whole thing) For once, her cocky smirk worked to her advantage. The models were so annoyed by it that they showed so much passion (hatred) during a shoot that it immediately became successful.
"Mada Mada Dane" She told the model in between the shoot. Annoying the poor girl more yet bringing up more beautiful photo's for a successful shoot. And since she got 250,000 yen (that's the number I got from researching on the net, not sure if it's real) for every shoot her bottomless pit was more than paid for.
Other than her annoying smirk and catch phrase, everyone was smitten by her exotic looks. Even though she ate most of the buffet on the table they didn't mind too much. As long as their little princess was satisfied.
"Echizen-san!" A co-worker yelled.
"Yeah?" She asked, yelling wasn't really something she liked so much.
"Thank you for all your hard work!" The co-worker yelled again
She smiled at her before simply replying, "Whatever, I need to sleep now".
She lied. Even after work she still wasn't sleepy. She couldn't help it; the Ponta was finally kicking in. She was walking around aimlessly in the late afternoon her camera dangled on her small neck; practice should be done by now unfortunately she had the itching feeling to play tennis.
Things were going her way for once as she heard the familiar sound of a quarrel along with the words of "doubles" and "tennis partner". She smiled to herself and began walking to the sound.
"Ah, Ponta-stealing-sempai, you're alive?" She asked the astounded Momo who was, strangely enough, healed.
"Barely! No thanks to you or Inui!" He yelled as if scolding the girl.
"Really? So when do you start repaying me for all the lost Ponta you drank, Ponta-stealing-sempai?" She asked with a smirk. She had thought him dead for at least 3 days…something must have happened.
"Isn't beating me and the others enough of a payment to you?" He yelled, horrified
"Nope, now buy me a Ponta" She commanded, nonchalant.
"Only if you play doubles with me" He demanded in return, She looks to the two guys she had ignored upon her arrival, they both looked irritated and angry.
"Doubles?" She asked with curiosity. She had played doubles before, but that was in America, she had learned that Japanese people took Tennis more seriously.
A FEW SETS LATER
"Not. A. Word" She panted out, leaning on the much larger Momo, a can of Ponta in one of her hands as a girl they had met, Ann Tachibana, laughed at their predicament.
"I am sorry Echizen-san, you guys just really look funny!" She giggled in between as she gave Momo, another canned drink.
"Do not" He childishly replied after he gulped down another can.
"Ok. I admit, getting your buts whipped isn't a nice feeling but….smile!" She exclaimed clicking the button that made the camera flash brightly upon their sweaty faces and bodies, since Momo had taken off his shirt, and Ryoma had taken off her polo shirt.
They both scowled and made an attempt to grab the camera with their tired long limbs from the ever so energized Ann. They lost miserably. Ryoma scowled even more as she thought about the doubles match that had happened not a few minutes ago.
"Oh yeah, Echizen, did Buchou tell you about the Ranking tournaments tomorrow?" He asked, his breathing was calming down a little.
"I left early" She replied with a shake of her cute little head.
"Eh? He allowed you? Wah! That's unfair Buchou! Just because she's a-" He stopped as a loud growl came from Echizen.
"That was why he let me go early" She explained as her stomach roared once more, her sempai's stomach followed.
Ann ended up laughing and taking pictures of the blushing and hungry Momo with the hungry Echizen. This was actually the most fun she had the whole day! They ended up in the burger place she ate with Fuji-sempai a few hours' before, Ann still intent on taking their pictures, hmm, maybe photography was her real calling.
"Neh, Echizen-san, you're on the boys team?" Ann asked still nibbling on her first burger. The little girl nodded as she her mouth was still full. "Is that even allowed?" Same response.
Only then did she conclude that her new little friend didn't like talking while her other much larger friend talked too much. Sheesh, such opposites!
~~~~~~~~~A few hours later in Echizen's room~~~~~~~~~
"Karupin, do we have a book on how to play doubles?" Ryoma asked, looking around her large home.
The cat just purred before jumping on to a bookshelf, looking at the books there before dragging out a fairly large yellow book by his teeth and dropping it into Ryoma's waiting hands.
"Thanks!" Ryoma smiled cheerfully at the cat before said smile disappeared as she walked to the couch to read.
A few more hours of this and she was interrupted by a ringing of a cell phone. Did she even own a cell phone? How'd they get her number? She started destroying the room, throwing pillows off the couch, pulling up flowers from the vase and etc. Karupin just wondered how much of a genius her owner really was as the phone kept ringing from her bedroom.
"Ah! Found it!" Ryoma exclaimed, opening her phone.
"EXACTLY HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR YOU TO GET YOUR PHONE?" A familiar old voice huffed out loud, almost making our poor little heroine deaf
"I didn't even know I had a phone" She mumbled, rubbing her ear.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T KNOW YOU HAD A PHONE? IT'S BEEN SITTING THERE SINCE-
Grandmother, please, you're heart rate will go up again" Now a much more shy voice interrupted the other line. Ryoma nodded from her side, agreeing fully with the voice.
"Obaa-san, something wrong?" She asked, her tone bored.
"Ah, you were gone early with Fuji so you wouldn't know. Tezuka had announced the people who would be joining the ranking tournament tomorrow. You're part of the list"
"Heard it" She yawned, being awake was taking it's toll on her.
"Eh? From where?"
"Ponta-stealing-sempai told me when we played doubles a while ago" She answered, fighting off her droopy eyes.
"Momo? He's alive? Where did you see him?"
"In the street tennis courts"
"Well, wake up early tomorrow alright? Practice starts at 6, either that or-"
"I get it, my stupid, stinkin' baby pictures" She yawned once more. If this conversation went on, she wouldn't be able to continue.
"Good" Was the simple reply, before the line went blank, and so did Ryoma as she fell peacefully asleep on the red couch. Her ever so faithful cat dragging in her alarm clocks from the other room to the living room table, oh well, anywhere her master slept, she would follow.