She lifted her head from the desk and yawned as the bell rang. Distinctly, she could hear the teacher yelling out the homework and trying to be heard over the rowdy students.

"Hey, Takami-chan." Blinking, the girl slowly turned to meet the grinning face of another. She observed her carefully. Kurosaki Ayako. Moderately popular, and a pretty, outgoing girl with numerous friends. Unlike her.

But it can't be helped, she mused. It's fine this way.

"...mi-chan? Reiya-chan?" Reiya blinked once and tilted up her glasses up to rub slightly hazy eyes.

"Yes?"

"Mou~ were you even listening to me?"

"Sorry, Ayako-san. I zoned out a little." Ayako sighed, throwing her hands up dramatically.

"How do you manage to never get caught sleeping by the teacher? And how many times have I told you that it's just Aya?"

"Okay, Aya-san." Ayako shook her head despairingly.

"Why do I even bother? Anyway, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to go to the tennis courts with me; Maki-chan is too busy." After freezing up at the word "tennis," she then replied nonchalantly.

"The tennis courts? Why?" Reiya decided not to comment on the fact Ayako was unintentionally calling her a replacement for her best friend. The girl was the only who actually bothered to socialize with her. That's not to say that Reiya couldn't hold a civil conversation with a classmate, but it never went farther than "Pretty good," whether it was about their day or their grade.

"To see the regulars!" Ayako exclaimed, eyes shining starrily. "They're so cool!" Ah. One of the faults of her only friend. She was a fangirl. Reiya tilted her head.

"Really?" Ayako gaped at her, as if she had committed some sort of personal insult towards her.

"Okay, you are so coming with me!" The other girl slumped on her desk.

"Do I have to?"

"Yes!" Without further ado, Ayako grasped Reiya's collar and proceeded to drag her in the general direction of the courts while she hung limply. For such a thin and feminine looking girl, she sure was strong. People stared as they watched a girl pulling a seemingly corpse-like body.

.

.

.

"Aya-san? I'll walk." The said girl dropped her promptly. Reiya winced and rubbed her head.

"Good. My arms were getting tired." A sweat drop formed on Reiya's head.

Was her personality always like this?

After reaching the tennis courts, Ayako almost squealed as she caught sight of a familiar group of eight. She broke into a faster walk as they approached. On the other hand, Reiya stopped when she noticed him. Ayako continued to move ahead, while she stood there, frozen. The girl finally noticed that she wasn't following her, and called out behind her.

"Hurry up, Reiya-chan!" Reiya dragged her feet reluctantly. Her sharp eyes caught the slight tensing of the navy blue haired captain's shoulders when he heard her name, and she quickly dived behind the group of fangirls gathered around the courts as he turned. After a few moments, she peeked out and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw him looking in the opposite direction.

"Look!" exclaimed Aya, grabbing her attention. "It's them." Reiya raised an eyebrow as she directed her gaze to the isolated group who seemed to be dominating most of the courts. She watched as sweat dripped down their faces, and the utter look of concentration each of them had. She... missed this, yet she refused to acknowledge it.

No, she thought. I will never play tennis again.

But even as she looked on, she couldn't deny the pang of longing she felt. Reiya turned away. Ayako was too engrossed in watching the regulars, and took no notice.

She continued walking with a blank look on her face. Finally, Reiya sighed, sucked in a deep breath, and exhaled.

Alright, she thought. No more thoughts about tennis. Let's think about music. I have a violin solo I have to learn by Friday.

After quitting tennis, Reiya had turned to other activities, more specifically, music. She threw herself into learning many instruments until she settled on her favorite three. The piano, violin, and flute.

She arrived home and gazed at the black gates. Reiya pushed them open and slipped in. She walked to her house languidly. It was quiet. And peaceful. Just the way she liked it. And tennis was the opposite of that.

I don't like tennis, Reiya told herself resolutely.

And she really wanted to believe that she didn't. Reiya opened the door, and when she reached her room, she immediately went inside and collapsed face first onto her bed. She was tired, mentally exhausted. Reiya turned over onto her back when a strange urge came over her, and she got up and went over to her closet. Opening it, she smoothly shifted her hanging clothes to the side, revealing a tennis bag behind.

It wouldn't hurt, right? To hold it one more time.

Reiya tentatively reached out and unzipped the black bag, pushing her left hand inside to feel the worn grip of her racket. It had remained unchanged since three years ago. Sparks of memories rushed through her at the thought. Rather unpleasant memories from the incident three years ago. She quickly released the racket, feeling nauseous.

It's been a long day, Reiya told herself. Let's go to sleep and just forget about this. And she did just that. Well the sleeping part, not the forgetting part.

A crouched figure on the other side.

Unseeing eyes that darted around uselessly.

I could see his battered body as I approached the net. I stood there with cold, expressionless eyes. I could hear the whispers of the crowd as they talked about what they had witnessed, more specifically, me.

Suddenly, something snapped inside of me and my façade crumbled into a face of horror. What had I done? I hopped over the net and rushed over to the boy. The dark blue eyes so similar to my own seemed to glare at me accusingly.

"I'm sorry!" I sobbed, even though I knew he could not see or hear me. "I didn't mean to- I'm so sorry!" He reached up to touch my arm, looking confused, and I felt slightly relieved to see that he was starting regain feeling.

Then he was being pried away from my arms, and I watched as they carried him away, just sitting there, not fully registering what had happened. I looked down at my hands and flinched when I saw red, smeared from the scrapes on his body. From the balls that I had hit.

"No," I whispered. "I-I didn't mean for this to happen... I just- I just wanted to-" Be recognized. For my existence to be acknowledged. Excuses, excuses, my conscience seemed to say.

"No!" I screamed. "This- this isn't what I wanted!"

Reiya woke up with a start, panting heavily and sweat rolling down her body. She sat up and looked out her window. It was dark and the moon was out. She buried her face into her hands as tears started slide down her cheeks.