Ch1 The Incident in Shonan Sweets
Rikkai Private Affiliated High School—a glorious spring afternoon greeted its students as they proceeded to their respective clubs on their second club meetings. The afternoon seemed to fly by so fast, with the whole student body quite absorbed in their own things.
The ever-famous men's tennis team is no exception to this. The school bell already finished ringing a while back, indicating that today's school activities are over. It was exactly this reason that the tennis club room was suddenly filled with shouts from one of their new members.
"Yabe! It's already this late?" echoed the panicked voice of a certain Marui Bunta as he quickly changed to his school uniform long after club activities were over. He was deeply concentrated into watching his senpais' practice games, he completely lost track of time. All throughout the matches, all he wanted was to play at least one game with them, however, since he and his Rikkai Junior High teammates are still in their first year in high school, unofficial matches between the newcomers and the current regulars are not yet allowed, that is, until roughly two weeks have passed and they've finally become regulars, or until summer arrives. Until then, he and the rest of the new tennis club members are to be in charge with picking up balls and cleaning up after club activities are over.
"Marui-kun, what's the hurry? You're not ditching cleanup, are you?" Jackal Kuwahara, who was right beside him, asked him as soon as he noticed the anxiety in his doubles partner.
"I've got to be someplace else, and fast. My cream puffs-chan is waiting for me. Thanks for covering up for me Jackal, shikuyoro!" the volley specialist replied with a curved, mockingly evil smile on his features as he ran out of the locker rooms.
"O-oi, why me?" the half-Brazilian shouted after the redhead, as always, confused as to why all Marui's dirty work have to be passed on to him.
From behind him comes a small chuckle, and, curious as to who it was, he turned around to realize it was Yukimura, with Dataman Yanagi right behind him.
"He doesn't change, does he?" the blue-haired teen asked him, smiling like he always does.
"Apparently, there's still a need for him to overdose on sweets," Yanagi interjected with a sigh, taking down what he just said in his ever-trusted notebook.
"Either that, or he's really planning on ditching cleanup," Yukimura told his fellow teammates, with which, Yanagi agreed with a nod and Jackal simply scowled.
Marui's cellphone watch read 5:40pm. Five forty… Only twenty minutes left before Shonan Sweets Shop closes. Usually by this time, his favorite cream puffs are already out-of-stock, he'd be lucky to even find one box of it in the counter.
"Kuso! At this rate, I wouldn't be able to make it in time…" the redhead muttered, internally cursing himself for not being able to properly keep track of time and running as fast as he can, he could have fallen over several times. For the last few days, it has been an action of his to visit his favorite sweets shop for the pleasure of it. Ever since they got back from the U-17 Camp a week ago, he swore he would make up for the lost time of not being able to eat his favorite pastry for a whole week. His anxiety grew worse when, as he comes nearer to the store, he realized that apart from the saleslady, there was nobody there anymore.
Nonononononononononono! ohplease ohplease let there be one more box waiting for me , he thought, and if he could have known better, he'd actually be praying to the God of Good Luck right about now.
He was right across the street and was about to get to his destination if the stop light didn't turn red at that moment, forcing him to wait (im)patiently in his place, chewing on his apple-flavored gum like he never did before.
As soon as the pedestrian light turned green, Marui quickly dashed off towards the other side of the street, hastily opening the glass door of the shop, shocking even the unsuspecting saleslady. By the time he got there, he's already breathing heavily, but even before he got a breather, he rapidly went over to where his favorite cream puffs are displayed, hoping of all hopes at least one box is still there.
As if by magic, his weary face lit up with glee to the sight of the peach-colored box patiently waiting for him. Whoa! Just one more box! Lucky!
It was there, only a few inches away from his slender fingers, only a few minutes away from tasting his guilty obsession. He was reaching for it as if time was starting to slow down, giving him a moment of glorious bliss. Just as his hands came in contact with the piece of cardboard container, another hand came in contact with it, surprising both Marui and the owner of that other hand.
Both looked up to glare at the other, not giving in to the bitter thought of letting go of the pastry box. Purple orbs met green, and if this went on any longer, without exaggeration, a huge fire might start any minute. Marui's opponent for the sweets was a girl about his age, a bit shorter than he was, with wide menacing apple green eyes and dark brown, shoulder-length wavy hair, wearing the uniform he recognized as Rikkai High's. Her long dark green sleeves are rolled up to her elbows, giving her the image of a not-so-girly girl. She was looking at him with a glare that would kill anyone if those eyes were daggers and would give nightmares to innocent little kids.
"Back off from the cream puffs, buster. I was here first!" she declared, with a hint of command in her high-pitched voice.
The puzzled Marui raised an eyebrow at his adversary, quite annoyed by her cheeky personality, "E-eh? What the…? Clearly I arrived here before you did."
"Maybe so, but you were just staring at the box this whole time weren't you?" the girl asked him, "I thought you wouldn't get it so I did instead, which clearly makes it my cream puffs box"
"No, this is my cream puffs-chan!" the redhead declared, albeit there was endearment in his voice when he said the word chan.
At this, the girl raised a brow in confusion, seeing as Marui had a strange way of calling his favorite pastry, "'Chan? You're a weird person," she told him.
In comeback, Marui shouted, "And you're utterly persistent. Let go of the box!"
"No, you let go," she commanded, pulling the box to her side.
"No, you do!" he declaimed, proceeding to do what the other did.
It was a long struggle; if their words were big heavy rocks, the shop could have collapsed under the weight. Finally, after a few minutes of exchanged 'insults,' the saleslady approached them in an attempt to knock off the argument.
"Uhm, excuse me… are you going to buy that?" she gently said, fiddling on the hem of her apron nervously.
"Hell yeah, I would," the two frustrated individuals shouted in unison, walked past the saleslady, placed the same amount of money on the counter with a loud bang and left the now deserted sweets shop, both refusing to let go of the cream puffs box.
"Ah… thanks for the tip… I guess…" the weirded-out shop attendant, who was rooted to that spot, said after them.
"I said let go of the box!"
"No! I paid for it so it's mine!"
A long way from Shonan Sweets, and the argument on the unsuspecting cream puffs box never ceased between Marui and the Rikkai girl he's arguing with.
"No, we both paid for it, which makes us both the owners," the volley specialist informed his tomboyish 'companion'.
"Why would I even share with someone I don't even know?" the persistent girl asked in agitation.
It was at this moment that Marui felt like giving up the struggle, as the auburn-head is already getting in his nerves by the minute. He halted in the middle of the street, sighed and told her, "Mou, are you really this stubborn?"
Surprised by the sudden question, she replied, "When it comes to competition, yes I am," without letting her guard down, still tugging on the peach-colored box of cream puffs.
"Let go of the box or I'm gonna haunt you forever," she warned him.
"That doesn't even make any sense!" Marui declared, "Hora, let's just end this by dividing the contents evenly among ourselves."
For a while, both parties were silent, as if trying to read the other's next move. When nothing happened, the girl finally said with a scowl, "As if I have any other choice, do I?"
Damn, this girl… Marui muttered under his breath, mentally cursing the way his day is progressing for the worse. The two individuals decided to stop by the park—that place where the view of the sunset can be seen in its full glory—to divide the contents of the cream puffs to the two of them. Somehow, to the redhead, this is the only way to resolve their sudden dilemma. Carefully, so that the box wouldn't tear apart, Marui opened the box, and to his surprise, his companion reacted violently on this.
"What the heck?"
"What's your problem now?" Marui asked with a frown.
"It only has five pieces!" the girl shouted at him.
A pause… Marui didn't know how to react to this. Is he just about to laugh at that stupid comment, or is he going to snap at the unknowing stranger for not being able to notice the obvious?
"You didn't know?" he simply asked her, trying his best not to twitch.
"I agreed coz I thought it would contain an even number…" the strange girl told him with a pout which, in one way or another, freaked Marui out.
Is she even from around here?
At the girl's comment, the redhead briefly lost his composure. So far, this is the weirdest thing that ever happened to him today… no, this week. He met a random stranger who happens to be a weird tomboyish Rikkai student he swore he never saw before (probably a transfer student), who refuses to give up his precious cream puffs-chan just because she claims she "paid for it," and is currently complaining on how the box only contained five pieces. Lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice the girl was already sneaking away with three pieces of cream puffs in hand. By the time he noticed this, she was already standing up, going on her merry way…
"H-hey, what are you doing? No fair, give that back!" Marui shouted, feeling utterly betrayed and cheated.
"Warui na Cotton Candy Head-kun!" was her carefree answer, before she skipped away feeling victorious…
"Sneaky little… O-oi, come back here! Give me back my cream puffs-chan!" he shouted back, and was about to run after the girl when he stopped halfway, thinking that what just happened was indeed a pointless argument.
With a 'defeated' sigh, he looked at the box in his hands, pouting as he did, and grabbed a piece, "At least I still have two left…" chomping off of the piece, he added, "I swear, I'm gonna find that punk no matter what…"
And so, with that, Marui's day ended abruptly. However, a new battle (lol, battle) has just began...
Ch1Extra: "Marui's Afterthoughts"
Marui: (to himself) I wish those cream puffs would just run back to me… (teardrops)
A/N: Here it is, Chapter 1... It's not much, but it'll do :D
Vocab box:
*Yabe - an alternate way of saying "yabai," meaning "this is bad"
*Kuso - "damn it!"
*Mou - roughly translated as "Oh, come on!"
*Hora - roughly translated as "look here" or "you see"
*Warui na - an alternate way of saying "sorry" or "too bad"
...
Lots of love (L-O-L),
-ecstatic endeavor-
:D