Oshitari predicted that Shishido would behave irrationally, the tensai had predicted it so accurately that he even factored in how hurt his shoulder would be when Shishido grabbed his collar and shoved him against the wall.
"You better explain and quick."
"Shishido-san!" Ootori tried to pry his senpai away from each other, "Calm down, please! Everyone is looking now."
"Che, who cares who's looking? I could smack those lame ass glasses off your face, Oshitari." Shishido released Oshitari and walked off to the lunch table. Atobe hadn't spoken to Oshitari the whole day about the subject, the only way Oshitari knew that Atobe was even interested was by the way Atobe kept staring whenever Oshitari looked at his captain.
If looks could kill... Oshitari dismissed that thought before it could grow morbid.
"She isn't really being abused, right?" Jirou asked with a frown.
Hiyoshi rolled his eyes, "Hitomi-senpai would never admit it. She'd rather gekokujo whoever hurt her by herself."
"Not true," Gakuto pointed at Oshitari, "Yuushi obviously knows."
"If she's getting hurt you better tell us now." Shishido reluctantly took a seat, but he made sure he was sitting across from Oshitari.
"Why should I? It's none of my business and it's none of yours." Oshitari asked, "She hasn't told me anything about being abused and if she had it's not my place to be telling you such things."
'I just happened to walk into it one day.' He added silently.
"You're a liar. Kabaji, tell him he's a liar." Shishido said.
Kabaji hesitated, and after a long glance at Oshitari he finally nodded, "Usu."
"That's enough," Atobe commanded, "Asking Oshitari is pointless, it's obvious that he and Hitomi are denying it. Move on from the matter."
"No way! Shishido, Jirou and I have been friends with her way longer than Yuushi, I don't get why he would know this and not us! Why didn't she tell us?" Gakuto argued.
Oshitari fiddled with his glasses, "That's a question you'll have to ask her. As for me, I don't intend on being a part of this conversation any longer."
"Fine. I'll go find her myself." Shishido glared at Oshitari and stood up, pocketing his hands in his pants and stalking out of the cafeteria.
"Shishido-san!" Ootori quickly followed.
Gakuto jumped out of his seat as well, "Wait up a minute!" He turned to Oshitari, "Yuushi, I know you shut your heart out during tennis, but if she's hurting man, I don't know why you wouldn't tell anyone."
"It's not my place to tell." Oshitari repeated.
Hitomi, meanwhile, was just exiting out of the bathroom when she heard her name being called. She turned her head to the sound of the voice.
"Hitomi-chan!" Suzuki was out of breath, "You're not answering your phone!"
"I left it at home, Suzuki-chan." Hitomi laughed at her forgetfulness cheerily; Suzuki could see through the facade.
Suzuki nodded, "I came to tell you that Oshitari-kun texted me and told me that Shishido-kun, Ootori-kun, and Gakuto-kun are coming to find you and ask you about your father."
"...of course they would," Hitomi frowned. She looked around the halls, and as fate would have it she saw the three tennis players headed her way, "Oh no."
"Hitomi-senpai!" Ootori called and waved out.
"Oi! You! Explain!" Shishido commanded.
Hitomi took Suzuki by the wrist and pulled her into the bathroom. She heard a pounding on the door.
"Come out and explain yourself!" Shishido barked.
Gakuto quizzically glanced at his friend, "Ano... If she's being abused, is it wise to bang on the door like that?"
"...Crap."
Ootori took hold of the situation and knocked lightly on the door, gently pushing it open so his soft voice could be heard, "Hitomi-senpai, hi. It's just us. We wanted to talk to you about what happened this morning, because we're very concerned and we want to support you. Whether it's because of what senpai are accusing your father of, or the dangerous matches you participate in, we'd like to help."
"H-he's very sweet." Suzuki told Hitomi.
And he always made it harder for Hitomi to hold her emotions in, Hitomi thought.
The three boys heard nothing from their side of the door, and Shishido became cranky again.
"Oi! Don't be rude! You told that jerk of a tensai but you didn't tell us! That's why I'm angry!"
"Shishido-san!"
"Come on, Tomi-chan, can we at least help?"
"Boys, please move away from the door."
They turned around, seeing first the teacher that was standing there, then the students behind her.
"Atobe?" Gakuto was surprised to see the rest of the regulars present.
"Ito-chan, it's Kobayashi-sensei. I'm coming in." The teacher knocked before entering.
"You told on us?!" Gakuto accused Atobe.
Atobe crossed his arms, "Ah~n? You and Shishido are crass in these matters. It clashes with Hitomi's own personality. And child abuse is a federal crime, ore-sama doesn't care if she admits it or not. If you'd looked you could see the truth in Oshitari's eyes."
Within minutes Kobayashi-sensei had opened the door, and patiently waited. After a few seconds she cleared her throat, and Hitomi reluctantly walked out. She held her head up high and looked in the opposite direction of her friends, well at the moment she felt that they truly weren't on her side. Kobayashi-sensei led Hitomi to what everyone assumed was the principal's office. Suzuki seemed to be more horrified at the event than Hitomi.
She only knew that they were going to call Hitomi's father to discuss all this. And this would have never happened had Hitomi's so-called friends not interfered. Suzuki tried to punch the one who had acted the worst in all of this, but with how timid Suzuki usually was her hardest punch didn't even faze Shishido.
"B-baka!" She fumed, "The police are on their way!"
Shishido caught the second punch she threw, "Good! They'll arrest her dad!"
"No you idiot he's coming here now! She keeps saying he doesn't and they're gonna see if he's really dangerous!" Suzuki pulled her hand away and glared, "And he's loved by everyone he comes into contact with so there's no proof that he's aggressive. I asked for you to help her, not kill her!"
The girl ran away, to her classroom, and Jirou scratched the back of his head.
"I'll go ask Suzuki-chan what she means." He concluded.
Ootori agreed, "Shishido-san and I will go too."
"I'm not going."
"Shishido-san," Ootori pleaded, "You and Suzuki-chan are both Hitomi-senpai's friends. It would help more if you two actually got along, right?"
"The girl has hung around Hitomi enough to know that Hitomi is as stubborn as they get. If she doesn't want to involve us and she involves this dolt, and that lame chick, then I don't have anything to do with it." Shishido walked in the opposite direction.
Jirou frowned, and Gakuto looked torn between his sleepy friend and his grumpy friend; somewhere in between all of this Gakuto felt like he was trying to figure out which dwarf he would be from Snow White, and decided to push that miscellaneous thought to the back of his head and follow Jirou.
"Come on, Hiyoshi, we may as well ask some questions."
"Fine."
Oshitari turned to Atobe, "You never should have told."
"If you were as good a friend as she thought you were ore-sama wouldn't have needed to step in." Atobe gruffly replied before turning on his heel and walking away.
She couldn't stop fiddling around with her hands: folding them over her lap, grasping them for a quick prayer, putting them at her sides or playing with her hair. They wouldn't stop moving!
The bell for the end of class rang, and those involved in club activities were dismissed for the day to proceed to their club houses, wherever in the school that may be. Hitomi closed her eyes, squeezing them shut as she whispered a lone mantra to calm herself down.
"So we beat on," She whispered, "Boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
She repeated it again. And again. And again. It was all she could do to calm herself. The remake of the classic book was coming out in the near future, and Hitomi was delighted when Kamiko surprised her with a transcript of the film- Kamiko's friend in America had great connections. Since then Hitomi had been studying the film, the book, all of it as she imagined how the director would conduct the camera man to swivel from Jay Gatsby's face to the green light. Or would it be a cut scene? She immersed herself into this script because she connected with Jay Gatsby.
She wanted to live a life that went back to better than normal, that went back to a time of happiness and excluded her from loneliness.
She tried to go back.
"So we beat on-"
She kept pushing for this goal that eluded her every time she came closer to it.
"-boats against the current-"
She just wanted to live again.
"-borne back ceaselessly-"
She wanted to be loved like before.
"-into the past."
Her hands stopped shaking, and after taking in a deep breath she repeated the words one more time in her head, just to be sure she was calm. And with each word she slowly let out her breath, and opened her eyes with her head held high.
"Hitomi-chan, you'll be okay."
She was surprised to see Suzuki in front of her, behind the shy girl was Hiyoshi, Jirou and Ootori at her right and Gakuto and Oshitari at her left. Hitomi nodded.
"You were dismissed from class too?"
Suzuki smiled and nodded, trying her best not to look at Jirou, "Mm. Jirou-san-"
"-kun-" The cheery boy cut in momentarily.
"-kun," Suzuki corrected herself, "Asked Atobe-san if I could manage team functions and inventory. He agreed."
"That's great, Suzuki-chan." Hitomi didn't have the strength to even jump up and hug her best friend, no matter how much she wanted to, but her small smile was sincere enough for Suzuki to understand.
"You won't be so lonely at practices anymore, since I'll be there." Suzuki offered as a bright side.
At this Hitomi's smile grew a bit wider, "That would be great."
"Ya know, next time, just tell us when you need to sleep over. My parents won't mind... I think." Gakuto said.
"Mukahi, that's-"
"And even if Shishido-san doesn't act like it, Hitomi-senpai, he really cares about you. We're all just very worried." Ootori added.
"Really, it's not-"
"Just listen for once." Oshitari advised, interrupting her for the final time as Hitomi finally decided to let her friends finish.
"Ryou, come on." Gakuto jumped over to the boy with the cap, way far to Hitomi's left, and dragged Shishido to sit beside her.
Hitomi, like everyone else, patiently waited for Shishido, who looked reluctant to speak as he crossed his arms and leaned back into the bench.
He gave in after looking at Hitomi's hands folded in her lap, "Che, you're a lame-ass, you know that, right?"
"Shishido-san!"
"I was too lame not to tell." Hitomi managed to laugh, understanding her crass friend's hidden meaning of concern, "I'm sorry."
She turned to the rest of the team, "I really am. I never meant to keep something like this from you all, but I'll only admit to it on one condition."
"Yea? Great! What?" Jirou asked.
"You can't say anything to anyone." She pleaded, "I just want to finish this year, and I want to be able to finish it with all of you. The only way to do that is to keep this a secret. And if he knows other people know, or other people suspect, then it means more trouble. Please, please don't tell."
Jirou blinked, indecisive on whether or not he could agree to something like that, while Shishido made eye contact with Oshitari, then Ootori. Gakuto was the first to nod, followed by Hiyoshi, then Jirou, and once Ootori agreed Shishido had no hesitation. He sat up, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees.
"Before we agree," he said, looking through his hands and even through the ground- for he was thinking-, "...does he use his hands?"
Slowly, and unsurely, Hitomi nodded, "Just that, sometimes a few books and objects, but nothing too serious like a knife or a dangerous weapon."
"The minute it gets out of control I wanna be the first to know about it. One of us has to be the first to know about it, and I don't want it being just between you or this lame four eyed freak, got it? You tell us anything that happens."
"Thank you!" Hitomi lunged forward in relief and wrapped her arms around Shishido, who kept his smile to himself after seeing her wince.
"Watch yourself!"
After that impulsive move, Hitomi pulled back and nodded, smiling because she felt like a huge burden she'd been carrying had gotten so much lighter just with the support of her friends.
"S-sorry for the misunderstanding!" The principal's office door opened, and a sorry looking secretary quickly fled. Atobe and Kabaji, however, strode out at their own pace.
"Ah~n? Why aren't any of you ready for practice?" Atobe asked, "Ore-sama's team should always be punctual."
"Oh shut it, Atobe." Shishido snarled, "What's the deal with the principal?"
Atobe's brow raised. Shishido seemed grumpier than usual. Especially when, in the first few moments of this whole debacle, he was the one to agree with Atobe's decision to involve the police.
"They're not coming."
"And my father?" Hitomi asked, standing up out of confusion.
"Neither is he. Ore-sama only hopes that you can keep your promise, that way the police won't get involved."
Hitomi was almost joyful, in fact she was more than joyful. She couldn't stop the smile on her face from going down, but then she noticed what Atobe had said after, "...my promise?"
"To keep ore-sama and the team updated on these incidents. It's unbecoming to not follow through with them."
Atobe had heard all of that?! Hitomi turned to the rest of the group, and realized that they were just as bewildered at his knowledge as she. When she was about to reply she found herself staring at his back, as he'd already walked away.
"If none of you are ready in the next three minutes then ore-sama will assign you to the elliptical trainers for the next three hours, na, Kabaji?"
"Usu."
"Ah crap, gotta go!" Gakuto waved away. He sucked at ellipticals and he'd much rather play a practice match for exercise than stay on a stationary bike.
Jirou went along at the urging of Oshitari, because the blue haired tensai predicted that Jirou would have fallen asleep on the bench if they didn't leave any sooner.
"Ah, well if I'm going, then Suzuki-chan has to go to get familiar with managing the tennis club!" Jirou insisted, taking her by the wrist and bewildering her.
Hitomi laughed, and Ootori and Hiyoshi followed behind them with a polite and genuine smile.
Now Shishido was the only one left. He didn't bother getting up from his spot, and he didn't even bother to look at Hitomi. Instead, he looked out the window of the hallway, and leaned back.
"Don't think this means I like you, that'd be a lame way to confess."
"I guess it would." Hitomi agreed, chuckling at the fact that Shishido, despite the rough exterior, thought about romance.
He chuckled with her, "The thing is, I'm pretty sure I'm lame for not noticing after being your supposed friend for so long."
"Don't be, Ryou, I didn't want anyone to know." Hitomi earnestly looked at Shishido.
"I know you didn't. But that damned spoiled diva figured it out before we did, and that pisses me off. Friends protect each other, even Suzuki got that before me."
"Ryou, let's just say that, if I were Kamiko, I would have called you nii-chan a long time ago," she said, "And the fact that you were so close to me made me not want to tell you even more. Especially you. I didn't want anyone angry, and I thought you would be angry with me, of all people. Plus, if things got out of hand it would take more than Kabaji to pull you away from an incident."
"Damn straight. Just... Tell us next time, okay? I can't go around shoving Oshitari into walls every week." He stood up and pulled his backwards cap further down, and pocketed his hands.
Hitomi nodded and stood up with Shishido, "Did you really?"
"Hell yeah." The two began walking down the hall, towards the tennis court, "I threatened to punch him if he didn't tell me what was going on."
Hitomi felt more at ease like this, and happily went with the flow of the conversation, "He wouldn't have given in though."
"He didn't. Che, I never wanted to break glasses so bad in my life."
"Shishido!"
"What? It's true!"