Chapter 3 - The truth...hurts?
Over the past few days, Miyuki watched as Chris and Sawamura grew closer. The closer they got, the more disgruntled he became. He hadn't see Sawamura this happy before. It was now blatantly obvious to Miyuki that Chris and Sawamura had feelings for each other and he disliked that fact. Every time he thought about it, he would clench his fists in attempt to quell his anger.
'Maybe I should have made a move on Eijun...said something sooner...' feelings for Sawamura never occurred to him before, as it only came about after completely losing the pitcher. He had respected Chris and could see that the two couples were happy with each other, that was enough to make Miyuki content. 'As long as Eijun's happy...that's all that matters' he was willing to let Sawamura go.
He woke up earlier than usual and walked towards the bathroom, until he met Chris, who abruptly pulled him aside.
"Miyuki, we need to talk." Chris said.
Miyuki found it weird that Chris wanted to talk alone with him. 'Maybe he wants to tell me about his relationship with Eijun...' The thought crossed Miyuki's mind and it scared him, his chest was getting tighter and tighter as he anticipated what Chris had to talk about. If it were the case that Chris was officially announcing that he was going out with Sawamura, Miyuki would have lost the pitcher for good, the final nail on the coffin would be set.
Miyuki nervously followed the other catcher to the empty locker room. The rest of the baseball team was still sleeping since it was only a mere 4:30 am in the morning. As they stepped in, all was quiet except the sound of tree leaves rustling in the wind.
The two stood there in mere silence. This made Miyuki edgy, but he suddenly decided to break the ice.
"Chris-senpai, what's up?" a reluctant Miyuki asked.
Chris stood in silence.
"I should go set things up in the field if there's nothing much." Miyuki tried to weasel his way out of the conversation as he tried to avoid whatever Chris wanted to say, superficially about Sawamura and Chris' relationship.
"Miyuki..." Chris spoke in a stern and deep voice.
Miyuki froze in his tracts and slowly turn. He took a gulp as he readied himself for Chris' announcement.
"Yes..." he weakly whimpered, quite unlike his character.
"Eijun was crying about a week ago." Chris sternly said. It was as if he was holding his anger in.
Miyuki was caught off guard, he could never imagine the happy optimistic boy crying. "What? Why would he cry? Did something happen to him? Is he ok?" a string of questions flown out of his mouth as worry befell him.
"It was your fault." Chris immediately blamed Miyuki and rightly so.
Miyuki stood there baffled. 'My fault? What did I do?' His mouth went gaping open but no words came out. He was at a lost for words.
"Eijun saw you and Furuya in the field two weeks ago..." Chris kept his calm, choosing his words carefully. Chris wanted to hear Miyuki's side of the story before he made judgment. As mad as he was at the current moment, his collectiveness still gave Miyuki a chance.
"What? Furuya and I just practiced pitching. If Sawamura wanted to practice with me, I'd be glad to!" Miyuki waved his arms outwards as if he was ready to accept Sawamura's request at any moment. "He doesn't need to cry over that." Miyuki was animated in his response, he was surprised the pitcher cried over something so small. His reply however, was taken in the wrong way by the older catcher.
Chris couldn't take it anymore. He stepped closer to Miyuki, face a mere few inches away "Eijun saw you kissing Furuya, one on top another." Chris grated his teeth as the words seethed out his mouth.
Miyuki suddenly had a flashback of that night.
*Flashback*
A reluctant Furuya shot Miyuki a look of wanting to pitch more, but Miyuki ignored it. Furuya walked towards the locker room, while Miyuki ran up alongside him. Both were tired from the day's practice coupled with the late evening pitching session. Noting the pitcher's displeasure, Miyuki wrapped an arm around the pitcher's shoulders in attempt to cheer him up.
As Miyuki wrapped his arm around Furuya, his momentum carried both of them forward. Furuya and Miyuki were both tired and to their luck, Furuya had accidentally stepped into a small ditch enshrouded by the darkness.
"Waaaa" Furuya shouted as he felt his body tip over, but to his reflex, he found the nearest thing to grab hold of, which happened to be the tired catcher. Being relentless in attempt of saving himself from landing on the hard ground, he pulled Miyuki so that the catcher fell onto the ground first, the catcher's back made a hard impact against the ground.
Miyuki was dazed, laying on the ground after the impact. Not a couple seconds later, he felt two hands pressing against his chest and the crushing force of a body falling atop his, knocking the wind out of him. To his dismay, the pitcher had fallen on top of him.
Alas, all was topped off with Furuya and Miyuki's lips making contact.
Tired and recovering from the fall, they couldn't register what had happened immediately and stayed in that position for a good while.
When Miyuki's mind cleared, he realised that Furuya was kissing him. His eyes grew big as he quickly grabbed the pitcher by the shoulders and pushing him away.
Furuya also noticing what had happened, quickly scrambled up and off the catcher.
"Miyuki-senpai..." Furuya said in a monotonously quiet voice. "Let's never speak of this moment again." was all he said as he quickly marched away, as if nothing had happened. As Furuya walked away, he checked his hands out, and without a care for Miyuki. 'Good thing I didn't make direct contact with the hard ground. I didn't hurt my hand or anything...' Furuya mused as he disappeared from the field.
Miyuki still in disbelief started to curse the pitcher for pulling him down causing this entire ordeal. He vehemently rubbed his lips against his shirt, in attempt to get rid of any germs that the kiss had left.
'FUUURUUUYA!' Miyuki steamed. 'Great...now I lost my first kiss by accident...' he thought as his heart sank. '...And I wanted to save it for Eijun too...'
*End of Flashback*
"He saw me kissing Furuya?...Wha...Why would he cry over that?" Miyuki replied confused and oblivious to the fact that Sawamura had liked him. He had always thought it was a one sided love, seeing as how the pitcher would chastise him every minute he got.
Chris immediately grabbed Miyuki's collar "Did you know Eijun likes you? Hell, he still does even though he's with me. That night he cried for a good hour because of you. He wanted to confess to you that night too...why are you flaunting your relationship with Furuya out in public in the most obscene way?!" Chris raged at Miyuki. He didn't care whether his arguments or questions made sense. All he cared about was that Sawamura was hurt, and by none other than the one in front of him.
"Wai...wait..." Miyuki tried to calm Chris down. Hearing that Sawamura had feelings for him reignited the diminishing fire deep within him.
Chris raised a fist, ready to strike Miyuki when a loud shout echoed throughout the room "CHRIS-SENPAI". Miyuki had shouted at the top of his lungs to knock some sense back into Chris.
"Chris-senpai, please...please listen to me!" Miyuki pleaded.
Chris realised what he was doing and immediately let go of Miyuki's shirt and dropped his fist. He signaled Miyuki to continue.
Miyuki took this opportunity to quickly tell his part of the story, before Chris changed his mind. "What happened that night between Furuya and I was an accident. After it got dark, I called it quits and we headed towards the storage room. Furuya seemed depressed that I ended early, so I ran up to him..."
"Get on with it...stop it with the fillers..." Chris butted in.
"...so I ran up to him and threw my arm around his shoulders..." Miyuki noticed Chris clench his fists, but he continued, "...threw my arm around his shoulders to cheer him up, but I guess I pushed him, he was tired, I was tired, the ground was uneven and it was dark!" Miyuki didn't know how to explain the situation, so he decided to throw small phrases together.
"Anyways, he tripped on the uneven ground, but as he fell, he pulled me down as well. I don't know how it happened, but as we fell, I ended up at the bottom. Furuya fell on top of me and our lips touched! We had NO intention of kissing at all, I don't even like him...it was all an accident...please believe me Chris-senpai... " Miyuki blurted in a pleading manner everything that happened that night. He didn't want anyone to misunderstand, he especially didn't want Sawamura to misunderstand. "I would never do anything to hurt Eijun..." Miyuki said in the most caring voice, and with Sawamura's first name as well.
Chris stood there taking in all that information. He was speechless. He trusted Miyuki. Miyuki had no reason to lie and from the desperate tone of Miyuki's voice and explanation, he knew that Miyuki too liked Sawamura.
Chris was at a fork road, he had mixed feelings stirring deep within him. He wanted the best for the pitcher, as he too loved Sawamura. Although the pitcher had been acting happy and all with Chris these couple weeks, Chris could see through Sawamura, that he was hiding something, trying to bury something and that was Sawamura's feelings for Miyuki. With the new found information that Miyuki seems to like or even love the pitcher, coupled with Sawamura's ongoing attraction to Miyuki, the fork road that fell before him pointed towards letting Sawamura go and be with Miyuki. That was the best for the pitcher, the pitcher that Chris loved and cherished. The thought hurt Chris, it felt as if a dagger was stabbed into his heart and left there.
"Miyuki...do you love Eijun?" Chris was direct. He wanted to know and make sure his conclusions were correct.
Miyuki nodded his head up and down. Although he knew Sawamura and Chris were together at the current moment, he couldn't deny his love for the pitcher. He had finally figured it out, like a puzzle getting completed, only after seeing Chris and Sawamura go out. He was jealous of Chris, he even started to hate Chris and inwardly prayed for their break up. But all those emotions summed up to one thing, he had grown to love the pitcher. Ever since he saw Sawamura during the tryouts, he had a feeling of affinity with the teen.
"How much do you love him?"
Miyuki, still in his muse, subconsciously replied "Enough to wish for you two to break up..."
Chris chuckled a couple of times, which snapped Miyuki out of his muse. Realising what he had said, he vehemently apologised.
"Miyuki, go confess to Eijun..." Chris decided this was the best for the pitcher, it tore his heart to say it, but he knew that if he were to continue dating Sawamura, Sawamura would forever think about Miyuki both consciously and subconsciously. As much as he loved the pitcher, he wanted the pitcher to not have any regrets, to live a life of happiness without second thoughts.
Miyuki stared at Chris, baffled. "What are you saying?"
"Go confess your feelings to Eijun. He loves you, he still thinks about you even though we're together, I've lost..." The last few words hurt Chris as it came out his mouth.
Miyuki retorted, "No...Sawamura's happy with you, I've never seen him smile like that before. This past week, he's been in his happiest mood since he came here. He's happy with you, no one else can give him that happiness." He too wanted Sawamura to be happy and he saw the pitcher being happiest when around Chris. On top of everything, Miyuki had already hurt Sawamura once already, he felt unworthy of being together with the pitcher.
From there, the two catchers started to argue, like kids, saying the other was the better choice.
Sawamura had woke up early that morning, he had a great sleep and was refreshed. 'Talking to Chris about all my problems really helped yesterday night!' he thought as he walked out his dorm room while tossing a baseball up and down as he made his way towards the locker rooms. Once outside, he heard two individuals bickering. 'Chris...Miyuki...' The two names crossed Eijun's mind as made his way through the entrance. The two were busy shouting at each other that they didn't realise Sawamura was there.
"You take Sawamura!" Miyuki shouted at Chris.
"No, he wants you." retorted the older teen.
"Like hell he does, he's happier with you! Don't push him onto me." Miyuki force the words out of his mouth.
"Then you don't know him well enough. He thinks about you all the time!" Chris fully knowing that this was what the pitcher felt.
"Stop it with the lies, I don't want him, he's all yours!" Miyuki shouted even louder.
"You take him, I was just with him to keep him company, there's nothing between us." Chris pulled out a blatant lie.
"And you think I have something going on with him?! HA you must be dreaming." Miyuki retorted.
Both the catchers saw that the other was the better choice for Sawamura, the one who'd give Sawamura the most happiness.
Sawamura just stood there watching the two. Each statement stabbed him like an arrow hitting the bull's-eye, the heart. He bit his bottom lips as tears glazed his eyes and found its way down his cheeks. His arms went limp, dropping the baseball, which rolled in front of the two catchers.
The two catchers stared at the ball, then towards the doorway, and they knew their wrong. There stood, the pitcher, watery eyes staring at them, lips trembling from the hateful words they threw out. His left hand was clutching his right arm, squeezing it with all his might. Sniffs could be heard coming from the frail looking boy. He was like a beaten dog, all helpless and in pain.
The two stepped forward with their arms up, as if they were reaching out to Sawamura, but the pitcher took a step back.
"DON'T TOUCH ME" he shouted in a coarse voice as he choked back his sobs.
"Eijun..." Chris called out. But Sawamura wouldn't let him finish.
"Heh...heh..' He started to laugh with sobs breaking out more frequently. His head was tilted downwards, causing his bangs to cover his eyes.
The two catchers stared at each other with a worried expression.
"Sawamura...no Eijun...we can explain..." Miyuki attempted.
Sawamura looked up to make eye contact with the two. His eyes were red, puffy and stained with tears.
"Heh...so this is how it is." Sawamura quickly clasped his mouth with his hand as he broke out crying. His breathing heightened and sniffs became more frequent.
"Why?...WHY?...Is this game fun?!...I guess I'm...I'm just...a toy..." he forced the words out in attempt to overcome the cries of pain. Tears blurred his vision as he started to lose more of his composure in front of the two catchers. He was breaking down and fast.
The two catchers were stunned, they were frozen in their positions as if Sawamura had paralysed them.
"That's right...just...just play with my feelings...THROW ME AWAY AFTER YOU'RE DONE, WHO CARES ABOUT THE IDIOT EIJUN." he yelled with despair in an pained tone. With that said, he broke out bawling.
"I...I should just...go die...that would make...your decision much easier...wouldn't it?" the words came out in between his sobs. He slowly backed out of the room, but tripped over the threshold.
"Ha, look at me...I'm such an idiot...can't even leave without preserving any dignity..." Sawamura kept his gaze averted from the two, he quickly shuffled off the ground while his hands rubbed the tears away from his eyes and sprinted away.
Chris and Miyuki both snapped out of their trance, fully realising what they had done, they started chasing after the pitcher.
A/N: Sucks for Sawamura...always being in the wrong place at the wrong time, only to misunderstand the situation :( That's life!~
Will upload Chapter 4 in a couple days (still need to make some revisions).