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First impression should never be taken seriously. How many times had she overheard someone whispered 'never judge a book by its cover', and yet find societies everywhere tend to sway away from the idealist's concept?

Akemi could count the number of times this happened around her in one hand; and that's if they were depicted as dusts.

Countless

And despite knowing this, she couldn't stop herself from drafting a description of the young man who was currently seated opposite her in the Atobe's family dining room.

XXX

Akemi silently observed the undisputed successor to the Atobes' family business as he exchanged polite greetings with her parents. The way he carried himself, in conversation and body language, reminded her of a person born of nobility. Well-mannered and confident; those were the two words that popped up in her mind to describe him.

When it was her turn, she stepped forward with a warm smile. He gave a dazzling smile in return, gently took her right hand which she had readied for a simple handshake, only for him to turn it around so that he could lightly touch his lips on her knuckles.

At that point in time, her mind froze.

It reminded her of cheesy romantic movies and novels, where the main female lead would swoon at having the attention of the tall, dark and handsome main male lead.

No; she would never touch it even with a ten foot pole. The romance genre was something she never quite understood.

She was snapped out of her thoughts by a voice in front of her.

"It's nice to meet you, my fair lady," Atobe said, his glistening eyes meeting hers. Akemi was well aware that her hand was still in his custody. "May I have the pleasure of asking for your name?"

"Akemi" came the simple reply.

"A name befitting of a lovely lady such as yourself," he smile widened to a grin, displaying his pearly whites. There was a long pause, as if he was expecting something. The grip on her hand slackened, but it was so subtle she didn't feel any differences at all. Seconds passed; she wondered if the disbelief and horror that briefly flashed in those dark blue eyes were just her imagination.

"Thank you," she replied; the only logical response she could think of. "It's a pleasure to meet you too," she smiled brightly before adding hesitantly, "Can I have my hand back please?" Her request was immediately granted.

"Since we're done with introductions, why don't we move to the dining hall?" Mr Atobe suggested. Turning to his son, he said, "Why don't you get change, Keigo? I presume you have already showered at the academy?" The young Atobe nodded. "Very good; well then, shall we?"

Akemi cast a curious glance over her shoulder as they were led up the grand staircase. The old butler who had been standing at a respectful distance behind the Young Master was gently shaking his shoulders. She raised an eyebrow, wondering what had happened for the boy to be unresponsive; unbeknownst to her, a large part of his ego had shattered into a million pieces.

XXX

Their hosts had explained that since this dinner was between two families, of which the patriarchs were old friends, their family dining hall was being used instead of the overly large and extravagant one, they had walked past, which was more commonly used for formal and business functions.

But it's not like the family dining hall was lesser (apart from its size) in terms of grandeur.

The only difference was the atmosphere.

Warm and comfortable; these were the words Akemi used to describe the room, which like the rest of the manor, was furnished and decorated inspired by the Georgian Era. Perhaps that was why it exuded a home feeling; her old house in Scotland was Georgian too.

Upon seating herself at the table, a couple of maids filled their tumblers with water before politely enquiring for their drinks. It was no brainer the adults chose wine; Akemi herself asked for pineapple juice. As their requested drinks were given, the Young Master arrived with his shadow of a butler in tow, dressed in expensive dark grey suit with navy tie, and sat directly opposite to her.

Akemi was starting to wonder if he had a problem with communicating his thoughts through words. The Young Master narrowed his eyes in displeasure at her as one of the maids placed a glass of orange juice in front of him; but he was quick in hiding it behind a wide smile that (again) Akemi might have imagined it.

Food was soon served in three courses. The divine aroma and taste of the mixed European meals were enough to wipe the previous thoughts away from her mind. For the duration of the dinner, she was on cloud nine and blissfully ignorant to the buzzing conversations around her. She did of course add in a few bits here and there when the topic was about her, albeit in a distracted manner; which was how she had missed all the glares sent her way from the Young Master (discreetly of course).

"Did you enjoy your meal, Akemi-chan?" Mrs Atobe asked at the end of their meal, delicately placing the tea cup back on its saucer. "Your face is practically shining," she added with smile.

"Ah! Y-yes I loved it," Akemi chuckled sheepishly, embarrassed at getting caught. Truth be told, it was the best western food she had in years, not even the highly acclaimed restaurants in London could compete with this masterpiece.

"That's great to hear. I'll make sure the chef is notified; he'll be happy to know that our guests found his cooking excellent."

A cough from Mr Atobe brought their conversation to an end. He stood up and raised his wine glass in the air. "Let's put our glasses together in celebration of the Noda families move to Japan. May they find prosperity and eternal happiness in this country!"

"CHEERS!"

Akemi downed the rest of her pineapple juice and sat back down as did everyone. She was starting to feel a bit drowsy from all the warm food and wondered if this was the end the evening's programme when Mr Atobe announced that the adults would continue their previous conversations in the drawing room while the Young Master would take her for a tour around the manor.

It was then did the old butler introduce himself. Michael was a sixty-four year old chap originally from the county of Gloucestershire, spoke fluent Japanese (and of course, English), and had served the Atobe family for four decades. Tonight, his duty was to act as their chaperone; why they needed one in the first place when the manor was filled with maids and bodyguards no matter where they turned, it was lost on her.

Although at this moment, Akemi was glad for another company.

The Young Master did as he was told by his father and showed her around. She would have enjoyed the little tour, if it weren't for the fact that half her time was spent on catching up with his brisk pace. In fact, she had to run for a couple of times when she lost sight of him around a corner. Adding up to this odd behaviour, Akemi realised that apart from telling her what the rooms were, he mostly kept to himself, which largely contradicted to his earlier buoyant personality back at the grand foyer.

"Is your Young Master feeling unwell?" she whispered to Michael as they descended a flight of stairs. "He's not talking much at all."

Before the butler could reply, said Young Master abruptly stopped at the bottom of the staircase, prompting the other two to do the same.

"Unwell?" he muttered in a low tone, balling his hands into fists before spinning around on his heels with eyes ablaze. "Ore-sama thinks that you're the one who is unwell!" he screeched, pointing a finger at her.

"Huh?" Akemi uttered, blinking in puzzlement. He looked as if he had been suppressing anger for millennia if the steaming red face was any indication. Then she remembered something important. "Ore…" she muttered. "…sama?" 'Who on earth addresses himself in such a way?'

The incredulous look on her face must have offended him so much that he blasted off with another tirade, claiming that commoners do not understand the complexity of the upper class world and that even a squirrel would have treated 'ore-sama' with more respect than her.

"But alas!" Akemi openly gawked as he continued with the pompous display, wondering if the person right in front of her was real or she had somehow walked into a parallel universe. "It is blatantly obvious that this is simply due to your lack of social interaction with a person such as ore-sama!" He flashed a wide grin with fist on his chest.

Inwardly, Atobe was extremely pleased that his charm and charisma had finally brought senses back to the weird girl who was staring back at him with wide-eyes. 'It must be awe!' he smirked, but it was swiftly wiped off by her words.

"Can you please stop it?" Akemi said sighed exasperatedly, already worn out from chasing him around the large building. She touched her forehead, already feeling a headache coming. "I don't understand what you're trying to tell me, but I take it from your tone that I have done something to offend you." Her eyebrows scrunched up in an inquisitive frown. "How?"

"HOW!?" he echoed, now a picture of a mad scientist. Again, he pointed his finger at her, only it was shaking with anger.

'Is there an end to this?' she inwardly sighed, but soon perked up at an idea that popped up in her mind. "That's right…how?" she gasped dramatically, covering her forehead with the back of her hand. If he was going to act like a diva for the rest of the evening…well, two could play at that game. "What have I ever done to deserve your scorn?"

He fell right into her trap.

Atobe stormed up the staircase before halting at a couple of steps below her, looking positively livid. "Anyone would be honoured to be in the presence of ore-sama. And yet you, just stood there at the foyer without so much as a blink of an eye. Your ignorant ways around the society has brought forth this wrath upon your head, filthy witch!"

Her previous first impression of him as a well-mannered and respectful Young Master was promptly thrown into the fire at that precise moment when something snapped inside her. Akemi scoffed, crossed her arms and titled her head upwards to stare down at him with cold grin.

"Smelly bear"

He staggered back a step, stunned at the uncreative name that was spoken with a voice laced with poison. He shook his head fervently to clear his mind. "Y-you-you're an unwashed toilet seat!"

"Oh? Well, I suppose that's better than a clogged loo, right?" she chortled behind her hand, setting off another explosive fit from Atobe.

Five minutes in, and their squabble took another turn for the worse.

The old butler, who had remained in a contemplative silence the entire time, had the right mind to break up the argument between the two bickering high school students before the whole house was alerted to this, and he would have to explain the whole situation to Mr and Mrs Atobe. Michael thought the Young Master would act more chivalrous towards a lady as it was instilled into his mind at a very early age. Why, he was the one who personally saw through his tutoring, and in just a fraction of second, everything had flown out the window.

"Keigo-sama? Akemi-sama?" He was about to step between them when ablur of brown furry object beat him to it.

It launched itself onto Atobe, who felt the wind was knocked out from him the instant it collided with his chest before falling onto his bottom with a loud thud. Fortunately for him, the impact wasn't strong enough to completely throw him down the stairs and tumble onto the marble floor below.

Akemi was disappointed it didn't happen though. She blinked in confusion before amusement took hold as the furry –no, hairy –animal covered his face with licks which he found excruciatingly ticklish.

"What? It's just a dog?" she said, quelling the jealousy at the thought of the dog's long hair was silkier than hers.

Brown eyes flicked to the Young Master who was laughing uncontrollably and trying without success to fend off the incoming licks. 'Hmph, so he has a weakness,' she mused gripping her chin; a plan starting to form but her train of thoughts were soon cut off by a distant sound. She shifted her gaze beyond Atobe and the huge ball of fur at the opened glass doors in pensive silence.

"B-beat! Stop it at once! Ore-sama commands you to s-st-sto-!" he broke off, as laughter escaped through his mouth. His vision was becoming blurred from the tears which stung his eyes; actually his lungs felt like they're on fire as well.

A polite cough sounded somewhere above him, and it took him a long while to realise that it was Michael.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but…" he informed, "…we still have a guest to entertain."

At that reminder, Atobe snapped his eyes to where said guest had been standing a few seconds ago.

"What the? Where did she go!?"

His butler simply gestured with a wave of his hand at something behind him.

He craned his head backwards enough without straining his neck just in time to see the unmistakable form of Akemi at the door that led to the back garden. Still weighed down by Beat who refused to stop his persistent show of affection for his master, he called out, "OI! Don't you dare walk out from an argument! This isn't over yet!"

Akemi paused at the door to give him a flat look over her shoulders. "I think by the time you're a soaked sponge, it still won't be over," she drawled. "So I asked myself why waste my time when my guide is out of commissioned by his own pet dog? So, if you'll excuse me," and with that, she stepped through the doors.

"Hey! You'll get lost out there! There are guard dogs all over the place!"

"Right now, I couldn't care less even if there are monsters hiding under rocks."

"OI!"

He finally managed to get Beat off him with a little help from Michael, but by the time he had gotten back up on his feet she had already disappeared into the shadows.

"DON'T DO AS YOU PLEASE AND LEAVE ORE-SAMA HERE!"

XXX

"So I did say I don't care…" Akemi muttered under her breath. She cautiously righted herself, but nearly fell over when one of the four vicious looking Doberman barked. "That was too close for comfort," she sighed wearily, leaning against the tree that was being used as a refuge.

Just a few minutes ago, she had been innocently strolling around the garden, looking for the source of the strange but familiar noise she heard back in the manor. It was very faint, thus giving her a hard time to pin-point the direction.

It was when she was momentarily distracted by the white roses during one of her short breaks that the four Dobermans decided to appear from the hedges behind her like hungry wolves. Well, that quickly set off a game of chase. She had taken a risk by clambering up a tree.

'Curse him and his jinx!' She glared down from the branch, which was fortunately too high for them to reach and thick enough to support her weight. The dogs really looked like they could easily shred her, and that's not before tossing her around like a plush toy. Have no one fed them?

Then it hit her.

She did not know where this silly idea came from, but Akemi was desperate, and that's enough of an excuse for what she had in mind.

The growls from the dogs intensified as she slowly moved one of her feet across the branch, reaching out to another one above her head for support. She should have taken off the Mary Jane shoes, but that was not possible without dropping to an early death (she's exaggerating), which meant that she had to move fraction by fraction. After what felt like years, she managed to a grab a hold onto one of the thinner branches, broke it from the main branch, before forcefully chucking the branch at the dogs.

"OW!"

Akemi blinked, scratching her head with her free hand in confusion. 'Since when do dogs yell like a human?'

"Are you out of your mind, you idiot!?"

'Ah, of course,' She returned to leaning against the safety of the trunk before lowering her gaze to the caster of this curse.

He stood amidst the Dobermans like he was their pack leader, one hand in his pocket while the other was massaging the angry spot between his narrowed eyes; the stick laid at his feet. Atobe was not amused.

"What are you trying to do? Blind me!?" he said, hotly.

"H-how am I supposed to know that you're stupid enough to walk into the target area?" she retorted, a blush forming on her cheeks.

Atobe scoffed. "Ore-sama thinks you're the one who is stupid here." "I beg your pardon!?" Akemi was seething now, the colour of her face matching the rose print. Atobe carried on indifferently, "Do you think playing fetch will get rid of them?" As if to emphasis his point (or he was sending some sort of alien brainwave), the Dobermans started to bark with renewed fervour. "They're not easily tamed, you know. Furthermore, you're a stranger in their territory!"

"I know that much!" Akemi snapped. In her anger, she broke off a whole bunch of twigs that were not as thick as the she had previously, but they would serve very well for her purpose. "Since they won't be good dogs and play, then you will replace them!"

"Harh? HEY!" He barely avoided a flying twig before a torrent of them came raining down on him. "Not the face!" he yelled, using his hands as shields.

"Well, I dislike it!"

"Stop this childish act right now, you crazy woman!"

She paused long enough for her to say in a smug voice, "You called me a child and woman in the same sentence? Hah! That's what I call contradicting yourself!" and resumed showering him with the twigs (poor tree). "I have unlimited resource here, you know?" she cackled; ironically, in a witch-like manner.

He counted to ten under his breath, but Atobe had quite enough of this gag before reaching four.

"Wh-what?" Akemi murmured; stunned to the point of freezing at the attempt to throw again. Her wide-eyes were locked on Atobe, who had one hand covering the lower half of his face, between the eyes that burned with concentration, and the other wrapped around twenty or so twigs in a tight grip. Not only had he dodged all her attacks, but he had managed to catch all of them! In one big hand!

"Hmph! Are you shocked?" He smirked at her expression, ego returning quick as a flash. He let his hand drop to his side. "You must be awed –"

"What kind of sorcery did you use?"

Now, on any other ordinary occasion, he would be gleaming with that holier-than-thou attitude at the way she was staring at him in a mixture of admiration and wonder. As it stood, Atobe could only let his lower jaw drop to the ground at that comment, feeling absolutely stumped.

"Are you a fairy? A wizard…Gandalf?" she gasped at that 'revelation'; one hand clenched over her heart.

For a split second, he had a mental image of himself as an old traveller with a long bushy beard that was as grey as his hair, a mole sparkling beneath a dark pointed hat, and a billowing cloak over his robes.

Cliché

"HAAAARH!?"

"It's the only logical conclusion," Akemi shrugged, giving him the 'what?-it's-so-obvious-that-you-can't-see-it?' look. "There's no way you could have pulled off that trick so easily," she waved at the bundle of sticks in his hand which trembled in an effort to control his raging emotions until her last words sank in.

At the snap of his fingers, the Dobermans obediently fell silent and retreated back into the foliage from whence they came.

"Ore-sama will tell you this first," Atobe started when the scratching sound of the guard dogs' paws were gone; his voice had regained the original calmness. He placed the twigs on a wooden bench (yes, it was there all the time) next to Akemi's tree, before dusting his suits for no apparent reason and looked up. There was something in his eyes which made him appear sincerely honest for what he was about to say. "There is no such thing as magic!" he shouted.

Akemi gasped dramatically in horror.

"Second! Ore-sama didn't use any dirty tricks! And third!" he paused to smirk. "Ore-sama had only used my 'Insight' to calculate where you would throw based on your movements! There was no need to use that technique what with my many excellent talents, but Ore-sama just felt like making a point so that you could -" He placed an outstretched index finger and thumb on his chin with a grin. "-be awed at the sight of my prowess!"

(In short, he was trying to impress her)

Atobe held his pose for the duration of the silence, allowing her time to recover from the amazement.

"I don't really understand what you mean by using your 'insight'?" She scratched her chin in thought, unmoved. "Do you like psychology?"

"This has nothing to do with what I like!" he snapped. 'What's wrong with this girl!?' He was just about to make another insult when he noticed a faint twitch of her facial muscles. Then it suddenly dawned on him.

He took a step forward. "Have you…"he mumbled tonelessly, but loud enough that she could hear, "…been acting stupid all this time?"

There was a snort.

"Of course," she replied without missing a beat. Her lips stretched into a triumphant smile. "I'm old enough to know wizards and magic don't exist in this world after all. You're so fun to tease," she added with a snigger.

"Tsch!" Hands in his pocket, Atobe turned around without another word and began to walk away.

Shocked by the sudden shift to a sombre atmosphere, she shifted back to an alert posture. "W-wait! Where are you going?" she stammered, panicking at the thought that he was leaving her alone with the Dobermans. Who knew how many more were out there?

"Back," he replied curtly without turning his head around. "To think ore-sama left the manor because ore-sama was wor –concerned –that you might get lost or hurt out here, thus creating more trouble…Ore-sama was wrong."

Akemi blinked, stunned by the unspoken kindness. 'All this time, he was worried about me?' A small smile formed on her lips, but it disappeared quickly when she realised that he really was going to leave her out here. "Hey! Come back! How can you leave a lady stuck in a tree without -!"

Startled by the sound of rustling and a feminine cry, Atobe spun on his heels just in time to see Akemi wobbling dangerously on the branch, before one of her feet gave way. Without a second thought, he rushed towards her with arms outstretched to catch her, but realised too late that he had misjudged the speed and distance.

XXX

"O-ouch…" Akemi sluggishly sat up, rubbing her back; feeling like she had left both heart and stomach back up on the tree. But apart from that, she felt fine. Her head was still here, she could move her limbs. Everything seemed okay, which didn't add up right. After all, she did fall off from a high place, and yet she was not writhing on the floor and crying in pain. Actually, was the ground supposed to be soft? She remembered there was the granite setts footpath.

"Geroffme," said a very familiar voice from below.

'Below?' She looked down, and immediately sprang back onto her two feet in shock, yelling an apology. Well, that explained why she did not break any bones; she had practically fallen on top of Atobe who had acted as a cushion for the fall.

"Damn it. Why do you always aim for the face?" He demanded although there was no malice in his voice, pushing himself upright to sit on the ground. "Are you alright? Any injuries?" he asked, wearing a glare that had a hint of worry.

Akemi silently shook her head in reply, feeling touched by the caring side he was showing.

"Good," he commented, shortly. Heaving himself to stand was more difficult than he would admit, but a sudden weight around his upper arm on the right helped ease him back onto his feet. He shifted his head around, and felt his stomach flipped over.

"There, you go," Akemi softly said, helping Atobe up by his arm. She watched him dust the dirt off his suit with a bright smile, in part with gratitude, and the other glad that they seemed to have inwardly forgiven each other for their little childish argument. With his head titled down and hidden in the shadow, Akemi noticed something off about his face, but wasn't sure. "Did you graze your cheeks?" she asked, starting to panic inside. "It looks really red."

His shoulders visibly jerked, pausing in the sweeping movement. "Nope, the light must be playing a trick on you," he replied, raising his head to show his perfectly fair face but avoided her gaze all the same.

Akemi saw no sign of the redness and shrugged it off, believing his words.

XXX

They walked in comfortable silence back to the manor via the rose garden; their footsteps in harmony.

Akemi preoccupied herself by fiddling with the soft petals of the white rose, which Atobe had simply plucked from one of the many hedges a while ago, wearing a small smile. She glanced at her watch and sighed inwardly; an hour had gone. Brown eyes flicked to her companion and back to the rose. This felt like the right moment to say what's in her heart. Before she could let herself have a chance of second thoughts, she took a deep breath and opened her mouth.

"Thank you-"

"Sorry-"

Both paused in their steps, gazing at one another in surprise when they realised that they had spoken at the same time.

"I'm sorry, you go first."

Again

"No, you go."

And again

"I (ore-sama) insist!"

Feeling like it will never end

"Seriously, how stubborn can you be!?" Atobe shouted.

(Well, that didn't end up well)

"I can ask you the same question!" Akemi retorted back.

They were back at each other's throat at a blink of an eye. Five minutes in, Akemi relented first, but only because she was too tired from the day's event to argue for one more second; Atobe realised with a triumphant smirk. "You're as bad as them," she grumbled, shuddering when her mind automatically brought back the memory of yesterday. "Especially those two," she muttered under her breath.

"Who?" he asked curiously, noting the haunted looks in her eyes.

"The tennis regulars from my school," she replied, crossing her arms over her chest. "Well, specifically their captain and a silver dummy-head, who is unfortunately my classmate too. They drive me up the wall with their annoying antics. Are you alright, Keigo-san?" She added, puzzled at the distracted look on his face.

At the mere mention of his name, he snapped back into reality. It was the first time since the whole evening did he hear his own name uttered by her. He glanced at her worried expression, before turning to face the direction of the manor, remembering the defeat during the quarterfinals when they'd faced Seigaku as their opponents. He had requested/demanded Rikkai to have a friendly match with Hyotei; his excuse was that it would be a good training opportunity for Rikkai before facing Seigaku in the finals, but truthfully, he wanted to keep the his team's spirit high despite the loss. His plan had worked, despite losing to Rikkai. They would train even harder for the U-17 camp and beat them in every match.

"Ah," he replied with a nod. Judging by her words, Akemi was closer to the Rikkai's tennis regulars than normal students. As they resumed walking, he felt the urge to ask her but resisted the temptation.

"Say, Keigo-san," she started, bringing him out his thoughts. There was a long pause as she hesitated. "What do you think tennis is?"

To say that he was utterly confused was an understatement. 'Please tell me this is a joke.' "Umm, can you repeat that? Ore-sama have misheard something."

Akemi raised an eyebrow, but said nothing about it. "What do you think tennis is?"

He stopped, causing her to do the same. "Ore-sama apologise, but can you please rephrase that?" he sighed exasperatedly, massaging his head where he could feel a blooming headache.

She frowned, feeling her face flush in embarrassment. This was getting very difficult, but there was no other way round to relay it, and too late to turn back. "What is tennis?"

'She's not being serious. She's not being serious. She's not being serious. She's not being se-!'

Atobe immediately stopped repeating the same phrase in his mind when Akemi gave him an impatient glare. He slapped a hand on his forehead, taking several deep breaths to calm himself before clearing his throat. "Well, for starters, it is a sport which was widely believed to have originated from France-"

"I didn't ask for a history account of tennis," interrupted Akemi, briskly. "It is a sport and I am very familiar with how it is played, or so I thought…" Atobe leaned in a little, seeing the same haunted look returning to her eyes.

"Akemi?"

Her eyes snapped to Atobe in shock; like him, this was the first time the other party had uttered their real name.

A smirk played on his lips, understanding why the troubled expression. "Ore-sama gathered you rarely watch tennis tournaments." Akemi nodded with a frown. "That you have gone to one of Rikkai's practice sessions, and was baffled by what you've witnessed. It was something unusual, to the point of resembling a Sci-Fi movie."

"That's right. It made me believe they're actually aliens hiding under human skins ('She has wild imaginations,' Atobe thought, dryly). I mean, those were definitely not special effects," she said, recalling strange dark aura that Sanada had when he played against Yanagi, and a host of others. "Come to think of it, I remember seeing something similarly unusual in the Wimbledon matches years ago," she paused, "Unless all tennis players are aliens?"

Akemi suddenly felt a heavy weight on her shoulders where Atobe had placed his hands, effectively cutting off her line of thoughts. "Ore-sama assure you they are not. They're just ordinary humans," he asserted firmly, noting that she was actually being genuinely upfront.

"How would you know that?" She raised an eyebrow.

He smirked, releasing her shoulders. "The skills and techniques, honed through years of hard-work, displayed by tennis players are beyond the comprehension of outsiders such as yourself, thus what you saw made no sense to you whatsoever. However, even if you don't play the sport, you can understand the basic mechanisms behind each technique if you have good observation skills and an opened-mind."

Akemi touched the side of her face with one hand, making a thoughtful sound as she digested his words. It made sense now. The last time she had watched a tennis tournament on telly was about two years ago and had forgotten most of it. His words made her even more curious about the sport than she was about to admit. She silently contemplated on watching the afternoon practice next week, when something hit her.

"How do you know all these?" she asked slowly, dreading his answer.

"Ore-sama has been playing tennis since attending primary school in England, currently brilliant captain of Hyotei High's tennis club for two years straight, and a national level tennis player to boot," he gestured at himself with a thumb, one hand rested on his hip, and teeth glinting in the light from the cast iron lamp post behind her.

She sighed inwardly. Fate must be cruel to introduce the weirdest, headache-inducing mixture of characters in the form of tennis players to her.

"Alright, alright. I get it; you and the rest of them are not sickly green aliens," she mumbled sheepishly, going back to playing with the rose petals, thus ending this conversation.

His smirk widened at the corner of his lips, noting her scarlet cheeks; obviously self-conscious of her belief. He shook his head, turned around and gestured wordlessly for her to continue their trek back to the manor. She complied, and fell in steps beside him. Pocketing his hands, he raised his head to the full moon hanging above the manor like a beacon, relishing the gentle breeze on his face.

Just as they exited from the rose garden, Atobe was suddenly jerked backwards by a hand on one of his sleeves. The movement nearly sent him falling over on his back if he was not quick enough to react.

"Wh-what was that for!?" he snapped, wheeling around to Akemi who immediately released her hold. He blinked, realising that she was staring uncertainly at something to their left with a deep frown. Atobe followed her gaze, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. He was about to ask if she was feeling alright when Akemi abruptly turned around to face him.

"Did you hear that?" she whispered briskly, cupping her right ear. Her heart beat excitedly, certain of her theory.

"Hear what?" asked Atobe, exasperated. He just wanted to go back in. It was starting to get hot out here, and the suit was doing no good to alleviate this problem.

"Here"

He nearly jumped out of skin at the sudden contact when Akemi placed her other hand around the back of his ear. 'Too close!' he screamed in his mind, noting the almost non-existent distance between them. "O-oi, A-"

"Shhh!" she placed a finger on her lips, balancing herself carefully on her toes due to the height difference. Akemi frowned in concentration, tilting her head slightly to left.

With her eyes over her shoulder, she had missed the subtle hint of red on his cheeks which disappeared as soon as it came when he heard something echoed for a moment in the air. He recognised the sound immediately, and realised that she must have as well, if the gasp was of any indication. He studied the girl in front of him. Though it was slightly hidden in the shadow, the reminiscing expression Akemi wore was obvious to him.

"Come on," Atobe mumbled, removing her hand from his head.

XXX

Turned out, the source of the strange sound Akemi had been hearing came from the stables.

She was all in jitters when he led her through the doors. There were about twenty or so horses of various breeds in their individual box stalls.

Atobe left her to her own devices as he made his way towards the stall where his favourite steed, a large grey named Winchester, was tucking into some hay. At the sound of his footsteps, the grey horse perked his ears up and walked towards the doors to greet his master who had opened the door to let him out. He patted his steed on the neck, allowing his hair to be nuzzled.

Akemi must have noticed Winchester, for she soon appeared out of nowhere beside him, fussing over the grey horse. Retrieving the bridle from its hook on the wall outside the stall, Atobe realised with amusement that horses must be one of her favourite animals.

She stepped aside to let him slip the bridle on.

After making sure that it was comfortably secured for Winchester, he grabbed the reins and turned around. "Have you ridden before?" he enquired.

"I have six years of experience," she nodded. Understanding where this was going, she felt her heart dropped in disappointment. "Umm, I can't ride in this dress. Even if you have a side-saddle, I still can't. Never learnt side-saddle riding," she added briskly, pointing at herself.

"No? Well, that's too bad," he grunted, heaving himself onto Winchester with practised ease.

Before Atobe could allow her to protest, he grabbed one of her hands and hoisted a screaming Akemi up, as if she weighted only like feathers, and set her in front of him with both her legs on one side. He quickly looped an arm around her waist and set Winchester off for a canter.

She instantly grabbed hold onto Atobe around the neck for dear life, letting off a cry of astonishment. The stable corridors swept past them, and they were soon out from the stables and into the opened air.

XXX

The summer night was quiet, saved for the occasional thud of hooves that were muffled by the soft grass as the horse trotted slowly along the edge of a forest.

Atobe relaxed his grip on the reins, but kept a firm hold around the slim waist. Aware that his passenger was unusually silent and motionless, he glanced down, only to find Akemi had fallen asleep with her arms wrapped loosely around his waist and her head nestled against his shoulder.

He sighed exasperatedly, wondering what had gone through his head when he thought that 'kidnapping' her (in Akemi's own words, because now he thought of it, he must have looked like a movie villain back then) for a ride around the back of his estate was a good idea. His neck really stung where she had tried suffocating him to death by clinging onto it like a lifeline.

He recalled what happened earlier. When Akemi had finally calmed down enough to listen to his apology, she had refused to speak him, preferring to sulk until she caved in to slumber.

'Tsch! What a child,' he remarked, dryly.

Glancing at his watch, he noted that it was getting really late and their parents were probably bringing their conversations to an end soon, he directed Winchester back to the stables. When Akemi suddenly stirred in her sleep, he felt his stomach flipped over again. Reasoning that it must have something to do with him eating more than usual during the dinner (since he lost quite a bit of energy in the friendly match with Rikkai), he hastened Winchester's pace.

XXX

"Thanks again for coming, Ken," Mr Atobe said, shaking hands with Akemi's father. "You're more than welcome to visit often. Ah, of course that invitation does extend to your wife and daughter. I must say that she must have had a wonderful time with Keigo, seeing how tired she is to have fallen asleep," he added with a chuckle.

"Well, that girl can sleep through the day," Mr Noda laughed boisterously.

Atobe felt his cheeks burning slightly at the mere reminder of the ride; he hadn't exactly told them how it had happened.

After returning Winchester back to the terrified stable-boy with a sharp, warning glare, he had slipped back into the manor carrying a certain someone bridal style, entered the music room where he gently placed Akemi on a plush armchair that sat right next to a grand piano.

Hopefully, when Michael (who had been alerted to the real situation via his handphone) came in with their parents in tow, it had looked like she had fallen asleep whilst listening to him play.

He gave the peaceful face and the white rose resting in her lap another glance before they were obscured by the limousine's door.

The Atobe family waved goodbye to the departing vehicle. When it turned down the driveway, Mr Atobe drowsily announced that he would turn in for the night. Mrs Atobe made to follow her husband, but not before leaning close to Atobe's ears. "You will tell me what happened between the two of you. Okay?" she whispered, giving him a wink.

Atobe gapped unashamedly at the retreating form of his mother, lost for words.

XXX

(Monday afternoon…after school)

"Ara, you surprised me," Yukimura said, beaming.

Akemi paused to look at him with an arched eyebrow; hands on hips. She squinted her eyes against the sunlight; their bright yellow kits didn't help. "How? By my existence in this world?"

"Which is quite unfortunate -!" Niou cut off abruptly with a yelp, bouncing on one foot, whilst holding the other.

"Ehh…looks like I have miscalculated the possibility again. Based on your reaction last Friday, I thought it would be highly unlikely that you will come again; if ever."

"That's true!" Marui exclaimed. "You looked as if you had seen a ghost!"

"Well, it is very likely she has never seen tennis matches like that," Yagyuu suggested, pushing his glasses. "It is understandable."

"Which is why it doesn't explain why you're here today, Akemi-senpai," Kirihara said, "An ordinary human being would have needed at least a week of rest to recover from that."

"That isn't a nice thing to say about your senpai, Akaya," chided Jackal. The first year mumbled an apology.

"What changed your mind?" Sanada asked curiously, adjusting his cap.

A wide grin appeared on her face, confusing them. "That's a secret!"

update (16/11/2013)Forgot to add that, based on one of the websites I've came across, one of the meanings of white rose is 'new beginning', which fits their current situation very well ;p

Well, it was longer than I'd expected, but I'm quite pleased with it though. I hope it clearly shows the dynamics between Akemi and Atobe, which is different from Niou and Yukimura. Despite his diva personality, Akemi found a new respect towards him when he had shown her kindness. Plus, he became the reason she's starting to observe Rikkai's practice sessions.