Last: 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.

"Okay, okay, stop playing," Nakamura-sensei clapped her hands together loudly. Reiya lowered her violin and bow. "That," her teacher paused. "Was horrible!" The girl jolted. Nakamura-sensei was a very blunt person and was never afraid to express her opinion. Unfortunately, this was what made her such a good teacher.

"You played it all prettily, but there was no life in your playing! At. All. You can mellow down a bit in the Loure, but this is the Prelude! It's Bach's Partita! Not some emo Shostakovich music!"

"But I like Shostakovich..."

"Exactly my point!" Nakamura-sensei yelled. Reiya flinched at her loud voice.

"Baroque is such a drag though," she mumbled.

"Listen, this is Bach, he's like the fundamentals, you need his pieces to get anywhere in your music career. Do you play any sports?"

"Huh?" Reiya frowned at the random question.

"I said. Do. You. Play. Any. Sports?!" The girl jumped a little at her teacher's short temper.

"Um... I used to?"

"Why are you asking me?! Did you or did you not play any sports?!" Reiya flinched again. Wow. Nakamura-sensei was scary.

"Yes, I did."

"And did you like this sport?"

"I...yeah, I did."

"Then by the next lesson, you better have put the same passion into this piece or I swear to God...!"

Reiya stared down at the racket in her right hand. This is for music, she told herself. Because I need to get the feeling of tennis in mind if I want to put that in my piece. Right?

She got into a starting stance and swung the racket. It was heavier then she remembered, and she frowned. Her arms were really out of shape. I'll start with 100 swings since I haven't played in a long time, she decided.

Reiya gradually increased number of swings until she was able to reach 500 without collapsing at the end. On the third day, she tried playing the piece a second time. It didn't sound right. On the fourth day, she dug out white wristbands that weighed 5 kilograms each and put them on. And since she also happened find ones for her ankles that weighed 10 kilograms, she put those on too. On the sixth day, she deemed herself ready to touch a ball. It was...

Exhilarating.

Reiya had forgotten how much she had enjoyed the feeling of the worn grip of her racket in her hand, the tension she felt every time she hit the ball. Without meaning to, she started to smile. It was fun. But then it ended as she remembered why she had stopped playing tennis in the first place. She looked down at her hands and dropped her racket.

She never noticed the dark blue eyes observing her from his room on the second floor.

Reiya yawned as she climbed out of bed. She glanced at her clock, which showed that it was 4:30 a.m. Even though she was lazy, there was one thing that she did diligently. And that was her morning jog.

Reiya sluggishly got dressed in sweats and a gray hoodie, before going downstairs. It was quiet, and it seemed that none of her family was awake yet. She slipped outside and closed the door. Before starting her run, she bent down and stretched her legs, making sure that they were warmed up. Only then did she start jogging.

Reiya made her way through her usual course, crossing streets and running along a river. It was refreshing, and soon she was wide awake. Halfway through, she heard some footsteps behind her, but ignored it.

Too much trouble, she decided. However, when the person the footsteps belonged to caught up to her, she couldn't just ignore it any longer. Why? Because the person happened to be wearing the Rikkaidai regular uniform. And he also happened to be invading her personal space.

"Hey there."

"..." She turned her head away from the bright red headed boy and decided to temporarily become deaf.

"I haven't seen you around before. Are you new?"

"..." No.

"Can you even talk?"

"..." Maybe.

"My name's Marui Bunta. Who are you?'

"..." A nobody. The boy then decided to abandon trying to get her to answer him, but continued the one sided conversation.

"Man, I'm exhausted!" You sound plenty energetic enough. "See I have this captain; I'm in the tennis club by the way, and I swear he's a sadist; when Yanagi said that I needed to improve my stamina, he says it all nicely like, 'I'm sure he'll work on it. Right, Marui?' But his smile, and his eyes are so scary, its like he's telling me, 'You better do something about it or else.'"

Reiya couldn't resist. Her facial muscles twitched and she let out a snicker at the accurate description of her brother.

"Or else what?"

"So you can talk! And it's probably something like 'Or else I'll quadruple your training regime.' What's your name?"

"I'm Reiya," she said, purposely leaving out her last name.

"You look my age, and if you're from around here, you must go to Rikkai, right?"

"Yeah. Third year," she added before he could ask.

"You're in my year too! No way, why haven't I seen you before? I would definitely remember a cute girl like you." The girl shrugged. Marui was surprised to see that she hadn't shown even a hint of a blush at his comment. Most if his fangirls would be falling at his feet by now.

"Yoshi¹, I've decided. I like you!" said Marui, grinning. That caught her off guard.

"Haa²?"

"Let's become friends!" He then realized that they were approaching his house. "See you around then!"

.

.

.

"Weird guy," Reiya concluded.

¹Yoshi- alright, okay

²Haa- slang for "hai" which means "what" when used in a question, can also mean "yes"