It was a good morning for me. No dreams about Atobe, Yuushi, or awkward situations involving Atobe and Yuushi. Getting up, I made myself some breakfast before getting to work on the things for the competition.
I filled up the forms in a matter of minutes and went to work trying to find a few good pieces to play in my library. Time flew quickly enough while I was practicing and I was startled by my phone ringing. The caller ID read Sakaki-sensei so I picked it up eager for more information.
"Are you going later?" Came his no nonsense voice from the other end.
"Of course. Why wouldn't I?"
He chuckled a bit. "Sorry, I forgot you weren't involved in the whole rivalry thing. Anyway, I was just checking up on you. Don't forget your papers. And you need to be there every week, remember? Wednesdays, Thursdays and – "
"Saturdays." I finished. Sometimes Sakaki-sensei reminded me of some kind of uncle. "I remember."
"Good, I'll see you at school on Monday."
"Likewise, sensei." Once I heard the sound of him disconnecting the line, I placed my cell back on the table and turned to look at the clock. I stretched my arms over my head.
Better start getting ready.
After an hour, I was sitting comfortably on the train, feeling incredibly lucky to have actually gotten a seat in the now crowded compartment. I guessed my current state of happiness was to make up for my day tomorrow with Atobe.
As I got off the train at my stop, I shuffled around in my bag for a piece of paper, hoping I didn't forget it or lose it somewhere. Sighing in relief once my hand closed around it, I brought it out and read the address to myself, looking around the street signs carefully.
I stopped and grinned as I stopped in front of the gate that read Seishun Gakuen. I replaced the paper in my bag and stepped through the gates.
I wandered around for a while, completely at a loss as to where I was supposed to go. There were barely any people around the front.
Thankfully, I came across the courts where a couple of teams were practicing. I looked around awkwardly until I spotted a cluster of tennis courts a few meters away. Smiling slightly to myself, I walked over to where a few people in tennis uniforms were standing, watching the current players on the courts.
I watched silently, mentally comparing them to the practice I observed yesterday. It would seem I was pretty obviously not from around here, because within a few minutes of me watching, a guy in uniform came up to me and got my attention.
"Umm, hello, is there something we can help you with?" I observed his motherly demeanor and strange hairstyle, kind of like…bald but with hair. It was just that flat.
Smiling, I nodded. "Actually, I was wondering where I could find Akazawa-sensei. I'm here to talk to him about something."
"Oh, I'll show you there. My name's Oishi, by the way. Oishi Shuuichiro." He extended his hand towards me amiably.
"Takashina Mai. Thanks."
He nodded and called to someone behind him. "Oi, Momo! I'm just going to the faculty room. I'll be back in a few minutes."
The guy he called Momo turned around to look at him, he caught my eye and waved, running over. He put his arm around Oishi in a headlock and grinned. "Oishi-senpai, is this your girlfriend?"
Inwardly, I groaned. I was tired of being people's girlfriend. Composing myself, I extended my hand towards him cordially, amused at the way Oishi was struggling to get out of the headlock while vehemently denying any sort of relationship with me. "Actually, we just met, I'm Takashina Mai."
Sheepishly, he released Oishi and took my hand. "Oh, sorry about the misunderstanding." I shrugged. "Momoshiro Takeshi. Where are you from, Takashina-san? I don't see you around here."
"I'm a third year at Hyotei Gakuen. I had some things to do here." At 'Hyotei Gakuen' the two of them exchanged a look and I remembered the long-standing rivalry of our schools' tennis clubs. "I'd love to talk to you guys but I urgently need to see Akazawa-sensei." It wouldn't do to be late for the meeting.
Oishi snapped to attention. "Of course, I'm sorry about that. Momo just tell them I'll be back in a while."
Momoshiro nodded and waved at me, grinning. I waved back as Oishi took me into the building.
"So, you're from Hyotei?" I nodded. "You know Atobe Keigo, then?" Unfortunately, I thought, nodding again. "You play tennis?"
Shaking my head, I laughed slightly. "I'm horrible at any type of sport, unfortunately."
"Oh," He smiled and nodded in understanding. In no time, he stopped in front of a room and knocked on the door curtly. "This is the place you were looking for, Akazawa-sensei should be around, if I'm not mistaken."
The door opened to reveal a well-groomed middle-aged man, about Sakaki-sensei's age, but he looked the complete opposite of said sensei's austere image. I hazarded that this was the guy I was looking for. It was, as revealed when he took one look at me and clapped me on the shoulder suddenly.
"You must be Takashina-san, Sakaki told me all about you! Oh, and Oishi as well, thank you for bringing her here but I need you for something else. Would you wait here for a few minutes while I talk to our guest?" He said jovially.
Oishi nodded politely and Akazawa-sensei took me inside the room, leading me to his desk. He handed me another set of papers. "Those are the rest of your forms." He started, "Now, I believe my friend Sakaki has told you the schedule of activities."
Nodding, I waited for him to continue. Sakaki-sensei told me his friend could mentor me on my piano-playing until the competition. When I asked why he couldn't do it himself, he reasoned that he didn't have enough time in his schedule with the tennis club and it would be easier with the school administration if someone else did it. I accepted it with no arguments; a new teacher would be fine if Sakaki-sensei suggested it. "I've heard good things about you, I hope we can bring out your potential. Sakaki-sensei said winning this was important to you." I nodded again, smiling. "Well, let's work hard. You're dismissed. I'll see you on Wednesday."
A bit winded by his brisk manner, I bowed politely and stepped out of the room, carefully stuffing the papers into my bag. Oishi was still waiting outside.
As I stepped out, Akazawa-sensei suddenly reappeared behind me with another package which he handed to Oishi. "Kindly give that to your captain, please. Tell him Ryuuzaki-sensei was unavailable so she asked me to receive it for her."
With a brisk nod, he closed the door behind him and Oishi and I started on our way out of the building. "Do you mind if I watch practice, Oishi-san?"
He looked shocked but he recovered quickly. "No, that would be great. As long as you don't intend on spying on us or something like that." He laughed.
"I wouldn't dare." I chuckled.
He led me out into the courts again and we chatted amiably. He seemed to notice something in the distance, "Come on, Takashina-san, I'll introduce you to our captain."
Somehow, I was excited to see Atobe's rival, as the gossip around school was quite interesting about them. "Tezuka, this is Takashina Mai-san, she's from Hyotei. Takashina-san, this is our captain, Tezuka Kunimitsu."
"Yoroshiku," I greeted, he nodded an acknowledgement. A man of few words, I figured. He was good-looking, kind of stiff, but he had the same lean body the rest of the regulars at Hyotei had with a face to match. He was Atobe's rival in more things than one, I laughed mentally.
"I hope you don't mind me hovering while you practice."
He shook his head, arms crossed. "Not at all, make yourself comfortable."
And I did. Oishi brought me around, introducing me to all the regulars. They all seemed pretty interested in talking to me after they found out I was from Hyotei and I knew about the tennis club. I was tempted to tell them there was no one from Hyotei that didn't know about the tennis club. This Fuji guy reminded me of Yuushi, strangely enough, probably because I could feel the conniving aura Yuushi had surrounding him as well. Echizen Ryoma, a first year, didn't hold back on telling me how he beat Atobe a while back and I listened intently for blackmail material. They also had their own Mukahi Gakuto, red hair and all the acrobatics, he was fun, Eiji. They all seemed nice enough, the guy who kept hissing and the other guy who kept calculating things to himself kind of freaked me out for a few minutes, but they were nice, too, once I got to talk to them. There was another third year who came in a little late and I overheard that he helps out at his family's sushi restaurant. Yum. I told Oishi about how I'd be around a few times a week and he didn't hesitate to invite me to watch practice whenever I was free. I didn't hesitate to accept the invitation; this tennis thing was growing on me, fast. And even if I didn't like it, I had Atobe to thank for that.
Tezuka was cool. He was surprisingly easy to be around despite his apparent lack of social interaction skills. And unsurprisingly, he was good. No wonder he was Atobe's rival (after Echizen, as Momohiro volunteered as said cat-eyed regular was telling me about their encounters). Atobe was an ass but he was good at what he did and he could back up his boastful statements with real talent which really just made him that much more annoying.
Remembering Atobe reminded me of our fake-date tomorrow and I checked my watch to see that it was late afternoon. The Seigaku guys were just lying around now, getting ready to go so I ambled over to Tezuka and Oishi(who turned out to be vice-captain).
"I'll be going back, now. Thanks for letting me stay. And thanks for the offer; I'll come by next week."
Oishi smiled widely. "It was nothing."
"It was nice meeting you."
"You, too." Tezuka nodded.
Momoshiro and Eiji shouted their own good-byes as I left.
Now, I sighed. Let the first fake-date begin.
I was not eager to get out of bed when my alarm clock rang at around seven 'o' clock. But I got up anyway; I wasn't the type to back out on my word.
Never the type to really take long dressing up, I was on my way to the train station within a few minutes. I'd never thought Atobe actually took the train. I mean, I always just saw him being chauffeured around the place. I sat down on a bench in front of the station entrance and waited a record number of 23 seconds before he showed up in front of me. He was dressed simply but classily in a tucked out blue Oxford, a pair of khakis and some really expensive looking shoes, a black jacket was slung over one shoulder. He looked pretty good, he and Yuushi appeared to pull anything off.
I looked at my watch, 8:00. "Eager?" I teased.
"Ore-sama is never late. Ore-sama will not let you change that." He stated coolly, seemingly oblivious to all the female heads he was turning. I got up and waited.
He ushered me towards the opposite direction from the station entrance and I spotted a sleek black limo parked by the road. Figures, as if you could count on him to actually ride the train, I smiled to myself, he looked at me and raised his eyebrow, I shook my head and he, eyebrow still raised suspiciously, turned away from me to open the car door, motioning for me to get in.
Once he shut the door, he gave his driver and address in the Ginza district and then turned towards me. "You clean up well. Ore-sama thought you were the hoodie and jeans type of girl."
Smiling sardonically at him, I looked down at my denim shorts and three-piece top. "I am on occasion. Sorry to disappoint. Likewise, I have nothing to say to you. I'm sure you know how you look."
"Well, if we're thinking the same thing, ore-sama believes you think ore-sama looks pretty hot." He drawled amusedly.
I sighed exasperatedly and socked him in the shoulder. "Hot enough to burn yourself, hopefully. Very painfully."
There was silence for a few minutes while I was simmering in annoyance against the plush leather seats. I glared at the divider that was up between us and the driver.
"Ore-sama meant only the best with what ore-sama said earlier." He said suddenly, smirking.
It was hard to take anything he said seriously if he was always smirking. "That you think you look hot?" I feigned ignorance to his meaning. "I hope the best means you drowning in a river, Narcissus."
He rolled his eyes. "Humorous. You know what ore-sama means, you do look good, you know." His tone was honest enough, my first time hearing it actually.
I smiled cautiously. "Thanks, I guess. Is this the part where I compliment you?"
He smirked again, "Nope, this is the part where you get out of the car." I turned and saw that the car had stopped already. Atobe was already walking around the car to pull open my door. He did say the other day that he was a gentleman, no matter how hard it was to believe.
The sidewalks and stores were packed with people as expected of a Sunday morning. Atobe leaned in to the car to talk to his driver before the car drove off, leaving us in the middle of Ginza.
"What now?" I asked, honestly curious as to how the day was going to go. It was only 8:40.
"We're in the Ginza shopping district. We shop." He stated taking off down one street.
"I don't shop much." I said honestly, looking at a jewelry display through a window. "At least not clothes or shoes, I buy a lot of pastries, though. Spend most of my free time in different patisseries."
"Once again, it is a wonder how you eat so much." I glared at him. "But we could look for some good ones, take a few pictures, ore-sama needs them for ore-sama's parents."
Patisserie hunting didn't sound so bad, I grinned. "What else, though?" We talked as weaved through the throngs of people.
"Ore-sama has dinner reservations but ore-sama decided to let you pick where to eat lunch." He explained. I was sure he picked some place unnecessarily expensive for dinner. "As long as were not having the pastries for lunch. They're okay as snacks but they don't do as meals."
"Yeah, yeah." I said dismissively. "You can't survive on pastries, sports boy."
He glared at my newfound nickname.
By eleven 'o'clock, I had dragged him into a total of six patisseries, two bread shops and a candy store. The stamina from working out was showing as he carried the boxes easily – and wrestled them away from me whenever I bought something. He laughed when he asked me where my stamina came from and I answered that it came from constantly going around buying sweets coupled with sugar rush.
"Don't you want to sit down?" He asked as we were walking out of the sixth patisserie.
"Why? Are you tired?" I raised an eyebrow at him teasingly. He scoffed.
"Ore-sama thought you might want to actually eat one of things you bought, but if not, that's fine."
I was getting hungry and I didn't really mind eating dessert before the actual lunch but I really wanted to take some of them home. "One box, then, or two. But where are we going to sit?"
"Do you still have it in you to walk to Hibiya Park or are you tired?" He said mockingly, motioning to the street behind us.
I stuck my tongue out at him. "I'm never too tired to eat, Atobe."
He chuckled and I hit him in the stomach before he could say his usual 'I can't believe you eat so much' that he had bombarded me with every two shops.
It was true, though, I was never too tired to eat sweets so by the time we got to the park, I simply took the boxes from him, settled them on a bench and plopped down next to it. He stared at me expectantly.
I looked up at him innocently. "Make room," he deadpanned. I looked at the bench I was on. It could comfortably sit two people but my bag of food easily took up the space next to me.
"Find your own seat, my food needs to be comfortable," I said, amusement clear in my voice, annoyance clear in his.
"In other words, you expect ore-sama to drag a metal bench ten meters just to sit down?" He drawled.
My eyebrow never failed to rise at almost anything he said. "No, in other words, I was thinking you could sit on the floor." I stared at him incredulously.
He looked thoughtful for a moment. "We're going somewhere tonight; ore-sama can't get dirty. Ore-sama will sit on the floor some other time. For now, just move over a bit."
I looked up at him defiantly before he suddenly squeezed himself next to me on the bench. "Cheater," I gasped indignantly. The next few minutes were spent nudging each other and trying to make the other one move over, after one particularly hard shove on my part because, really, Atobe was a hell lot stronger than me, he stood up and settled himself on the armrest of the bench. He glared at me.
"Ore-sama will get that seat, just wait for it."
I snorted. "Yeah, once I get up to leave." I didn't bother waiting for a reply before shoving a pastry box into his face. "Here, this is my favorite shop. It's really good."
He took it from me and inspected the box, "Henri Charpentier? Ore-sama's mother buys ore-sama some pastries there sometimes but ore-sama doesn't think ore-sama's ever eaten this."
I swallowed a bite thickly before I answered him. "Try it, it's really good. My mom brought me there before too, I never stopped coming back." He nodded and turned back to my food.
"Told you ore-sama would get a seat." He said, suddenly and my head snapped to the side to see him sitting next to me on the bench, the bag of pastries nestled under the bench.
"That's not fair," I whined. "You said my seat."
"No, ore-sama said 'that' seat, ore-sama did not specify which seat 'that' was." He said matter-of-factly, taking a bite from a profiterole he got from the box. "This is pretty good."
Getting an idea, I stuffed the rest of my food down my throat before turning to him. "Finish the box."
"Ore-sama would rather not."
"Come on, I dare you. It's just food." When the going gets tough, play on a man's pride. This worked twice as well 'cause this man's got a lot of pride.
He looked down at the box. "Why?"
"Just because," I chimed.
He looked at me icily. "What kind of guy responds to 'just because'?"
"Your kind of guy, I'm hoping."
"Your hopes are effectively crushed then."
"So you're backing out of my challenge. I already finished my box, see." I showed him my empty box and he grimaced. I knew that face. "Don't say it, Atobe."
He shrugged and faced the box again. "Fine."
I grinned at him like a cat that got the cream – cream puff actually. "Great."
It was fun watching him eat all that food. Somewhere along I actually thought to myself that he looked cute. It looked like he had never eaten that many sweets in his life. Once he was done, he took the empty boxes and placed them in the trash can behind him, all the while glaring at me.
"What's for lunch?" He asked, the calmest expression possible on his face.
"Fast food," I told him with a wink. I wondered just how much his diet could take.
He glared harder. "She's trying to kill ore-sama," I heard him mutter under his breath, I smirked. I told him I wasn't deaf.
"Slowly, Atobe, slowly," I said in a sing-song voice. He looked like he was resisting the urge to throw the bench at me.
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