Dear Readers,

Many thanks to those who have 'fav' and added the story to your alert list. I feel really happy that there are people who like it.

Happy Reading! ^^

Next day...7:35am

Hidden beneath the shade of his cap, Sanada's eyebrows were furrowed in a deep frown and his lips were pressed tightly in a flat line. He stood outside one of the tennis courts, arms crossed over his well-built chest as he silently observed the ongoing doubles match.

When it was over, Marui was all over the court whooping with joy as his doubles partner, Jackal, watched on with an exasperated look.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the court, the losing duo was deliberately taking their time in walking over to the exit.

"Don't be too harsh on them alright," smiled Yukimura, who had earlier joined him in watching the match. "Miyagi-sensei explicitly informed me that Niou and Yagyuu have a chemistry test tomorrow, and he didn't want them to miss out due to physical injuries."

One of Sanada's eyebrows twitched violently at those words. Losing was never an option to any of them, and those who failed to meet his expectation would get a scathing rebuke, but not before receiving a nice smack on the face courtesy of their fukubuchou. Their youngest member, Kirihara, was the most recent living testimony of his punishment, and those two were about to be his latest victims.

If a teacher asked, Sanada would relent.

But that didn't mean that they would be spared from his lecture.

"So, how did the date with Noda-san go?" asked Yukimura, out of the blue.

"It was not a date, Seiichi," amended Sanada, fighting the urge to grit his teeth in irritation. "You know that very well by now."

"Of course, but that doesn't stop me from spreading false rumours."

"You wouldn't do that."

"Try me."

Sanada gave up at that point, feeling his head was about to explode at any moment, and he had just the right people to vent on.

Yukimura's smile never left his face, even when Niou and Yagyuu stopped in front of them, waiting for the doom that was about to befall.

"TARUNDORU!" the fukubuchou barked, spits flying from his mouth. The pair visibly flinched under his menacing aura surrounding them. "What's wrong with you today!?"

"Nothing," Niou muttered indifferently, arms crossed behind his head. He ignored the fact that the anger was mostly directed at him. Since the weekend, he had been feeling restless during the practice match and his mind kept drifting off. Although he'd kept it in check, his odd behaviour did not escape Sanada's notice.

"The score was horrendous! You know the full basics of playing a tennis match, Niou, and concentrating in the game is one of them!"

Niou made a non commitment sound, and turned his head in another direction.

Yagyuu, for his part, was desperately praying for Niou to stop acting like a child, or the punishment would get even more severe than it already was, judging by the look on the fukubuchou's face. He tried to catch Yukimura's attention in every discrete manner possible, including tugging at his collar and pushing up his glasses.

It worked, but the only response he got from the buchou was a rather sadistic smile.

Yagyuu was doomed.

When their captain announced the end of the training session, Niou and Yagyuu –each sporting a perfect imprint of a hand on their face –departed the changing rooms together.

Neither spoke as they made their way towards the vending machine outside the library.

When it was his turn, Yagyuu inserted a coin and picked a drink.

"Sorry."

One of the clouds above the school moved away from the sun, filling the opened corridor with morning sunlight. Yagyuu's glasses glinted in the light as he stood back up with his drink in one hand.

It didn't take a question to know why Niou was apologising for.

"It doesn't bother me, Niou-kun," Yagyuu said dismissively, unscrewing the cap as they continued down the corridor.

"Really?" he said, instantly switching back to his laid-back personality. "'Cos everyone's going to stare at the highly respected class president for the entire day. What with the very red mark." His voice was filled with mirth. Leave it to the laid-back trickster to turn every situation from bad to worse. But Yagyuu was his best friend, and was not about to lose this argument.

"You're forgetting that I'm not the only one who has a red hand print on his cheek."

"I would like to think of that as a beacon for attracting attention."

"You know how Atobe-ish that sounds?"

"Pfft. That diva has nothing on me."

Yagyuu raised an inquisitive eyebrow at his friend, and was about to make another retort when they bumped into Miyagi-sensei at the main hallway. The two students quickly swept aside their petty argument and greeted their homeroom teacher.

"Yare yare. Look at the two of you," he tutted at the sight of their red marks. The two for their part looked flustered at being reprimanded. "How am I going to be a teacher when even your fukubuchou doesn't heed to my instructions."

Niou and Yagyuu blinked in confusion, their previous embarrassment gone. "What instruction?"

"Hmm?" said Miyagi-sensei, looking slightly startled at the question. He hadn't meant to say it out loud. The chemistry test that he told Yukimura was a surprise; well worth to see the shock on everyone's face and a tale to tell his wife over dinner tonight. "Ah, there's nothing to worry about!" he laughed boisterously in an attempt to hide the nervousness in his voice.

Niou and Yagyuu snuck a glance at each other; feeling even more confused but did not dwell any deeper as Miyagi-sensei cleared his throat.

"Yagyuu-kun, can you come to the office with me? I need your help, and this old man doesn't have the strength and energy he used to have."

Yagyuu, always the polite student, nodded and followed their homeroom teacher down the corridor.

"See yas!" Niou shouted after his friend who waved back without turning. "Hmm… now what should I do?" he muttered to himself, climbing the stairs to the second floor. He had another twenty minutes to spare until their attendance period. He could just head to the rooftop for a nice rest before class starts, and was about to do just that when he spotted someone slightly ahead of him.

Niou froze in his steps; all previous thoughts of going to the rooftop flew out the window. There was the source of his dilemma, trudging along the corridor and looking slightly disheveled. He glanced frantically around him, but there was no one around the corridor other than them.

'Chance!' he smirked, retreating into the shadows in a similar fashion as a sinister villain from an action film.

XXX

8:06am

Akemi wanted nothing more than to slip back underneath her soft duvet, but that was not possible seeing as she was already in school. She had trouble getting back to sleep after getting startled by a loud crash outside her window, only to find it was just a stray cat on its night patrol around their neighbourhood. If it had been a upright walking cat burglar, Akemi would most likely flip out. It was close to four in the morning then, and by the time she gave up trying to sleep and left the house for school, her clock had another half an hour before it would go off.

When she had arrived at school, it was eerily quiet, saved for the morning traffic – and even then, it was no more than a dull buzzing to her ears.

She was not surprised. After all, no sane students would want to be at school this ridiculously early in the morning.

Her legs were tired from being dragged across the suburbs, and she had to climb that blasted stairs to get to her classroom. The corridor on the second floor was devoid of any souls when she had reached there, but for a brief moment, Akemi had a weird feeling that she was being watched. Reasoning that her half-awakened brain was messing with her, she shook it off and entered the classroom.

"Urgh, somebody…punch me," she groaned, dropping her bag on the floor and plopping into her seat. Luckily, the classroom was currently empty except for her, or her previous request might raise several eyebrows.

She scooted a bit closer to the desk so that she could rest her aching head on the slightly worn out surface. As she listened to the dull ticking of the wall clock, her mind wandered back to the dinner party at the Sanadas. At first, she had acted like the shy and awkward high school student, and it didn't help that the least person she wanted to be around in the same room was sitting next to her; but after a while she felt more comfortable around her neighbours and especially when she had (discreetly) apologised to Sanada for her outburst earlier that day. She had learnt that Sanada Genichiro was not the talkative type, which contrasted greatly with the rest of his family. If it weren't for the fact that he strongly resembled Mr Sanada (his father), she would have easily passed him as a family friend of some sort. Despite that, she found that the stoic vice-captain (despite his stony personalities) of her school's tennis team and his family likeable.

Sighing, she repositioned her head so that it was resting comfortably on her arms instead. Her eyelids were starting to droop, and she made no effort to keep them peeled open. Eventually, she succumbed to the comforting darkness of sleep.

Akemi did not know how long she had been asleep for, but by the time she was woken up by a gentle prod on the shoulder, there were already a couple of students in the classroom on cleaning duty.

She slowly raised her head and her eyes were met with Yagyuu, who stood in front of her with his hand slightly raised in an attempt to nudge her awake again.

"Yagyuu-san," she greeted with a weak smile, stifling a yawn. "Good morning."

"Good morning, Akemi-san," came the reply.

"Do you need something from me?" she asked politely, tilting her head a little while blinking the remaining sleep from her eyes.

"Ah yes. You left the classroom in a hurry last Friday before we could stop you -," Akemi laughed sheepishly as she was reminded of that incident. " –there is a field trip to the sea world in two weeks and all second year students are invited."

"Really?" she exclaimed in delight, straightening up in her chair and suddenly feeling rejuvenated at those words. So excited was she that Akemi failed to notice that one of the students, who had been sweeping nearby, was gaping shamelessly at the class president.

Yagyuu nodded an affirmative, prompting a happy gasp from her. He placed a piece of neatly folded paper on her desk, reached into his pocket for a pen and said, "You will need to sign here to say that you are going."

"Of course!" she said, accepting the offered pen with haste.

While she was busy scrawling her name on the paper, Yagyuu raised his head barely an inch at his target, catching the sunlight on his glasses. As if understanding what that glint meant, the poor student swallowed with difficulty before scurrying away to another corner to sweep.

"There you go!" said Akemi, returning the pen to Yagyuu. She would have done so with the paper, if it weren't for the fact that it was pressed down firmly under Yagyuu's hand.

"Well, that's all then," he said, pocketing the pen and paper. "I'll just hand this in to Miyagi-sensei. He'll be please to know that everyone in his class is going." He turned around to leave. "Thank you and see you later, Akemi-san."

She watched him leave the classroom with a puzzled expression.

'Strange...he could have waited until attendance period to give it to Miyagi-sensei…unless it was really that urgent.'

XXX

'I haven't had such a brilliant plan in ages!' a certain silver-haired boy snickered, slipping a folded piece of paper through a slit on one of the many shoe lockers lining the main entrance. 'Noda Akemi…here's for the misery you've inflicted on me.'

He snickered again, sauntering back to his classroom whilst whistling an upbeat tune.

XXX

Afterschool

Akemi bit back a sigh as she bade goodbye to Hinata at the school's gate, but gave in as soon as she'd lost sight of her friend's figure in the sea of students. She glanced forlornly down the road that would take her home after an exhausting day at school. She had been looking forward to an afternoon nap…but…

She quickly turned around, before her mind had second thoughts.

'This had better be important,' she thought, huffing slightly in annoyance. She started to head back towards the school but veered away from the hallway's entrance, and walked down the footpath that would take her to where most of Rikkai's outdoor sports facilities were.

'The school sure invests a lot on their sports curriculum,' Akemi noted, glancing curiously around her. 'Sure hope I remember where the tennis courts are…'

Akemi had to admit, rather embarrassingly, she was quite renowned for having 'a rusty mental navigation system' in her head –as her father would put it. She had a knack of getting lost numerous times at places she didn't frequent. However thanks to modern technology, Akemi had nothing to worry about except when there was no signal –or worse –if her phone's battery died out. The former happened to her numerous times when she had been out walking in the Scottish Highlands. She had learnt since to carry a map and a GPS with her. Unfortunately for her, none of those aforementioned equipment were able to help her in this current predicament.

"Wish there is a map of the school grounds. It's like a maze here!" Akemi stomped her feet hard on the ground, feeling irritated that she had ultimately gotten herself lost. She spent a few moments racking her brain to remember if Hinata had taken her around this path before, but to no avail. "There should be signposts here and there to put people like us out of our misery!" she said with a tsk, glaring at a loose pebble at her feet.

It may sound crazy, but she had imagined that the pebble was taunting her…making nuisance noises and sticking out its imaginary tongue. She had it up here then and gave it a mighty (well as mighty as Akemi could get) kick. The poor target of her frustration flew a good few feet away from her.

Not realising what the pebble had hit, she sighed in defeat, having decided to ask the person who had requested her presence to 'rescue' her. Akemi turned around, but soon froze when she heard a groan behind her.

"OI!"

She jumped at the voice and wheeled around. A burly guy, still wearing his uniform –albeit in an after-school fashion –was pointing an accusing finger at her whilst rubbing the back of his head with his free hand.

"Why did you do that for, hur!?"

"Wh-what?" Akemi stuttered, startled at his fierce tone.

He didn't reply at first, as he bent down to picked up something from the ground and held it in front him. "You hit me with this!"

Akemi could only stare wide-eyed at the piece of lifeless pebble between his fingers as the guy continued ranting, "There's no one else around here, except us. Unless this pebble had a mind of its own, you were the one who chucked it at me!"

Her cheeks immediately turned deep red in a mixture of embarrassment and anger at the accusation, as her eyes flickered around the empty path. Seeing nobody around to save her skin, she inwardly cursed before putting out her hands in front of her. "Look, I'm really sorry. That was not done on purpose –honest!" she half-yelped at the end, when the guy growled menacingly. "It's only an itty bitty piece of rock!" Akemi soon regretted her words as he took a few steps forward with clenched fists, the volume of his growl seemingly increased as he swiftly reduced the amount of space between them.

She thought her life would end then and there. That was until-

"Are you a man or a mouse to threaten a lady with an intention to harm her?" asked a calm voice from behind Akemi, effectively stopping the guy on his feet.

She felt herself being gently pushed backwards as her class president stepped in front of her protectively. As the man in front of her was getting verbally abused by her would-be-attacker, Akemi was flabbergasted by Yagyuu's words. She had never heard a single soul from the current century spoke in this manner. 'Is he a character that had somehow escaped from the screens? Perhaps he's practising for a period drama?'

A cough blew her bubble of thoughts, making Akemi blinked, slightly confused for a few moments. She looked up at Yagyuu (he was a good several inches taller than her), and glanced around.

The rude guy was gone.

"Are you alright, Akemi-san?" he asked.

"Oh…ummm yes," came the response. "What happened? Sorry, my mind was elsewhere," she admitted sheepishly.

"That's ok. I merely pulled rank." When Akemi raised an eyebrow, he continued, "He's in the same year as us, but in a different class. Even if I'm not his class president, I still hold the right to report him to the discipline committee."

"Hmmmm. So you threatened him?"

"Nope. I merely warned him."

"I don't see a difference between the two, but I'm not going to argue at this moment. Thanks for helping me out." She bowed deeply. "Usually I will avoid confrontations, but I was already ill-tempered before he started accusing me for assaulting him."

"You're welcome," replied Yagyuu; his voice not hiding his curiosity. It would break his gentleman code if he did not pursue the matter…plus he was her class president. "May I ask, Akemi-san…why were you in a bad mood? If you do not wish to tell me, then I understand your need for privacy," he added reluctantly seeing Akemi lowering her eyes to the ground and biting the side of her lips. He could clearly see that she was fighting inside her mind.

There was long stretch of silence as she pondered his question, but decided on telling half the truth.

"I got lost," she muttered with an almost-faint blush. Akemi dared to face him again, just to see his reaction. She could not see his eyes as they were hidden by the glare of light hitting his glasses. The rest of his features were neutral. Whether or not he was dying from laughter inside or his mind had put her on the list of 'loony', she did not want to know.

"That's unfortunate." The words seemed to have placed a huge weight on her chest, but it was soon lifted up when he spoke again. "You're new here, so it is not unexpected that you might get lost in the school grounds. For that, I must apologise."

"What for?" Akemi asked, curiously.

"I should have drawn a map for you."

Akemi smiled gratefully. "Thank you, but you don't have to apologise. Don't blame yourself for this small matter."

"B-but you almost got-"

"That was probably just my bad luck," she interjected smoothly, putting her hands out like it would settle the matter. When Yagyuu still looked doubtful, she hastily added, "There is a place I need to go. I'm meeting a friend there and, as I've heard from an anonymous source, he isn't a particularly patient person at times. So if I don't get there as soon as possible…"

Alerted by the urgency in her voice, Yagyuu shoved all worries and suggested that he would accompany her to her destination –to which Akemi was extremely grateful for.

"So where would this place be?" he asked, guiding her out from the path between the two basketball courts.

Akemi sighed in exhaustion, hoping that she could get this over with quickly and head back home for a very deserving nap.

"The tennis courts."

XXX

Akemi tried not to get the previous confrontation to get into her head. It was not the whole experience that had left her completely shaken. On the contrary, she was rather put out that the rude guy accused her without good evidence. A part of her mind was roaring with revenge, but the other - the more rational voice - was reminding her how childish it all sounded and that it was only a small matter.

'So drop it already, Akemi' she kept repeating the words in her head as she followed Yagyuu quietly to the tennis courts. 'The sooner I get this over with, the sooner I can go home and roll myself up into a sushi roll and sleep –even though it's a in the middle of a hot summer.'

The moment she saw the silhouette of the guy she wanted to see, Akemi quickly muttered a thank you to Yagyuu and marched into the tennis courts. When she was about a couple of feet away, one of his team mates spotted her and tapped on his shoulder and pointed in her direction.

Trying not to feel underwhelmed by the number of ridiculously tall people, Akemi came to a stop before him.

"What is it you want to see me for, Genichiro-san?" she asked, politely.

Behind Sanada, two vaguely familiar guys ('Is one of them a girl? But that's not possible' thought Akemi) raised an eyebrow; one of them who looked rather feminine was smiling in amusement as though finding something rather interesting in her question. The others – a bubbly redhead, a boy with a mop of messy black hair, and a bald (natural or shave - she assumed it's the latter) guy – were not very subtle in keeping their mirth hidden.

She glanced at Sanada, who seemed to be struggling to refrain from transforming into a human megaphone right in front of them…although that would be interesting to watch.

But alas, it was the slightly feminine-looking friend of his who spoke.

"Actually, it was I who wanted to speak to you, Noda-san."

Akemi was able to keep her eyes from popping out in disbelief. She had expected a feminine voice to match those near-feminine looks, but it was just the same as the boys around his age who she had met.

Eh, never judge a book by its cover.

She cast him a puzzling look, but nodded for him to continue.

"Allow me to introduce myself first," he said, just as Yagyuu appeared behind Akemi. He nodded in acknowledgement at her class president. "I am Yukimura Seiichi. Captain of Rikkai High's tennis club."

He held out his hand which Akemi reluctantly shook.

"Welcome aboard to the team, manageress Noda Akemi."

2nd year high school student of the most prestigious school in Kanagawa Prefecture; daughter of two respectable parents; owner of two house pets; friend to those who accepted her as one; a fellow human being of the world population; a small part that made up Earth's constituents; a tiny speck of dust in the vast universe – Noda Akemi understood words alone could be powerful enough to rip the world apart.

Right now, hers was being tipped over like a giant hourglass - and that's just the tip of the iceberg.