A/N: This is the third chapter minna-san! So, basically, I will zoom it to the part where they both meet again, the part which their parents legally announced their engagement. It will start to have those past scenes while I am writing the present. It's basically what happens in the past nine years, although, a bit of pieces to make it look like they reminisce. The past will be written in Italic, so that the readers will not get confused.
Thank you for the review, and please look forward to the next chapters also. XionNight, Straberry idol, and yuki0123 arigato gozaimashita! You guys are my inspiration, from now on.
Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis is not Eurie-sama's. Just saying!
Atobe Mansion. Kinomichi Hotaru looked down from the second floor's hallway to the first floor's big reception. Another party, she thought. But this time, she's happy for the reason of this party. It is her engagement. Her official engagement to Atobe Keigo, the heir of the Atobe Enterprise.
I've been waiting for so long, she thought. And while she stared down the reception full of tables with silky and lacy covers, and the long table in the platform where she and Atobe will going to sit later, Hotaru began to remember the past.
Hotaru learned that Atobe's family went to Europe. She tried to convinced her dad to go there too, but Kinomichi Enterprise is doing great in Japan and her father wanted to enrich or make the company grow more. Her mother, who was pregnant at that time with her little brother, doesn't have a time to listen to a whiny girl like her.
Missing Keigo and their games, Hotaru stayed at her tree house every vacation to play by herself. One day, she saw a sports show while watching in her room in the tree house and it features Atobe. How can she forget about him? He's her first love. He was playing tennis, and just like before, he's really great at it. He's the most handsome while paying tennis.
She decided that she will play tennis too. Her grandfather, who supports everything she do that will help her to make her body healthy, basically sports, agreed to her. So she started playing tennis, and because she's a natural athletic, she did good, but not good enough like Keigo. She's part of the tennis club and kendo club in elementary.
Then she learned that Atobe returned from Europe, and is now a middle school student at Hyotei Gakuen. She visits the school everyday just to see him.
One day, while trying to hide from the regulars, a guy so big went beside her and pick her up.
"Kabaji, ore-sama wants to know where you pick this girl?" That voice, she's never going to make mistake with that voice, not when he say 'ore-sama'.
"Usu," the guy called Kabaji said, and walk to the bushes where she was hiding before and put her down.
"So, someone's stalking me again?" Jiro said.
"No way, I think it's me," Oshitari said.
"Usu," Kabaji, a man with few words agreed.
"No, I think it is ore-sama. Right, little girl?" he asked Hotaru.
Hotaru stared at them. They are the regulars. Someone is drinking a ponta, a red bean soup, one is chewing a bubble gum. And Keigo's face is dangerously near her. She blushed.
"I-i..I am not, you arrogant brat," she yelled at his face and began to run away, but stopped because Kabaji's big body is blocking her way.
"Hotaru, go change already," a voice snapped her back from her reminisced. It was her father.
She nodded, "Hai, Oyaji." Her dad change too. Before, he's warm and approachable, but after her mother died when she was twelve years old he changed suddenly. Her brother, Ryo, is seven years younger than her and she make sure to take care of him.
She went to her guest room and three maids are already waiting for her to help her change and apply those 'itchy stuff' on her face.
She became a responsible onee-san and she tried her best to make Ryo's life interesting. Her tree house became theirs, her games with Keigo became her and her brother's games too. She put all her love to Ryo, all that she could give, and even the parts she should give to Keigo, because if she's going to try to push it in, she will going to explode.
She protected her brother from people who wants to hurt him, while letting him to experience his own fight and win. Most of all, she protected him from their father. She knew that her parents didn't love each other when they got married. And even though they were civil to each other, every time they were together, there's always a tension in the air. Suffocating, not only her parents, but her also.
Her grandfather, Kinomichi-jichan, is her father's dad. He owned a dojo and her mother became his student so that she can protect herself from danger. That's where she met Hotaru's dad, and they did something questionable. Their parents learned this and both parties decided to keep quiet about it, but then they learned that Kunana, Hotaru's mom, was pregnant of her. Kobayashi family would not let their daughter get pregnant with a bastard, so they force the two to marry.
At that time, Hotaru's dad was dating a girl he met before that fateful night, and they are very much in love with each other. When Kunana's parents showed him an ultimatum, and lots of threats, Takuya, Hotaru's dad, told Kunana to abort the child, but she refused. When Kinomichi-jichan approached dad and talked to him, dad reluctantly agreed with the marriage.
"Milady, you are done," one of the maid said.
"Thank you," she get up and looked at the mirror once then went out of the room. The room is a little bit stuffy for her, she need a fresh air.
She went at the back of the mansion and she saw a swing. She look at her dress then at the swing. She contorted her face in disgust, not because she think that it will stain her dress but because her dress is keeping her from enjoying herself.
She look at her environment and saw a little back porch with a coffee table and a chair. She pull the chair and sat down. She breathe the fresh air and close her eyes, putting a relax face, something she never done before. She didn't know that someone, a shadow, is observing her every move.
Engagement, Atobe Keigo taught. At the age of eighteen with a sixteen years old. His dad always do what he wanted. He's frustrated, really. It is a ridiculous to agree with this idea. If his mother was alive she would probably agree with him, but his father said that this engagement has been decided when he was still a kid.
Atobe's mom wouldn't like his baby boy to get married to some stranger like this girl, Kinomichi Hotaru, but Keigo does know the reason. His mom married his dad because of love, and would want a love marriage for his son. But, well, he doesn't care who he will marry someday, he expect someone to be perfect, a flawless wife, someone who can be with someone who is great like him.
He entered his room. His butler is waiting for him.
"Keigo-sama, please change into your suit,," he said.
"Hn"
He took off his jacket and t-shirt and throw it in the sofa inside the room. He got the three-piece suit from his butler's hands and put it in the walk in closet. He took off his pants and put a towel around himself before heading to the en suite beside the walk in closet. He took off the towel and his underwear and went underneath the shower. He turned the knob and cold water run through his body. He reached for the soap and ran it through his body as well.
He closed his eyes, his face upwards to the water coming from the shower. He stayed like that for a few minutes, then turn the shower off. He moved out from the shower and reached for the towel. He wiped his body with it then know it in his waist. He reached for another towel and began to dry his hair with it. He opened the door and took no notice of the butler waiting for him.
He went to the walk in closet and changed. He walk out from it and opened the sliding door that connected with the veranda. "Please leave me for a while," he said to the butler.
Without saying anything, the butler bowed to his master and walked out of the room.
Atobe breathe in the air. He looked at the sky. The sun is setting down in the west and he could see different colors it's making from his veranda. It's like a paint exploded in a canvas, red, orange, purple, yellow. It was an amazing sight.
He doesn't appreciate his surroundings so much, but once in a while, he sit here in his veranda and look at the horizon. It made him think like he was the king of the world. Now that he think about it, yeah, he always think that he's the king of the world.
His face became thoughtful suddenly. Sometimes he remembers something that he forget all of a sudden. He doesn't want to stress himself with it so he always push it back in his mind. He looked down and saw a girl in a navy blue dress. Hmmm, he think. He heard some of the guest arriving already but he doesn't know that someone will be having a rendezvous in the back of their mansion.
He observed the woman. He hair is up in the side and curled. It has a flower and little sequins in it. It was twirled a little like a bun but there are tendrils of her hair hanging. She stood with her back straight, and by the look of her, she was a woman of some sort. Then she was gone.
He stood and went to the door, opened it and look a t his back once more before going in and out of his room. Time for the show to start, he thought.
A/N: Minna-san this is it! Although they haven't met again yet, the next chapter, they are going to meet, promise! This story was dedicated for my mama, and papa. Thank you very much, parents. I love you.
Oh and Wolfgang04-neesama, thank you for being a great oneesama to me. Blood doesn't really have anything to do with a family, and you are like a sister to me.
Hint: On next chapter, their fateful meeting. (Guys, this is hard for me. I don't know how to make an emotionless doll, but I will see to it.) And who is the shadow who is observing her from a far? Definitely not Atobe, because he's in the veranda upstairs.
Thanks again, sign off. Eurielle