Tennis no Ouji-sama © Konomi Takeshi, Shuheisha, Inc.


- Act XIX -
[ Love Letters]


After spending years not eating Japanese delicacies, Hikari couldn't refuse a sushi invitation. Her brother's friends decided to hold a little welcome party for her in Kawamura Sushi and along the way, Hikari had imagined herself eating the legendary chūtoro and it was said to be Kawamura Sushi's special dish.

She was expecting a peaceful lunch but it was nothing more than a mere wish when going out with them.

Every time there was sushi of a kind left, Kaoru and Takeshi would fight over it, only to have the sushi being eaten by Eiji in the end. Since Eiji was a senior, the two didn't have the guts to say anything against the red-haired man. Compared to all of them, Hikari found talking to Eiji the easiest because of his sunny personality and having the same taste in dance and music.

It had been a while since she ate with Shūsuke that she forgot how he loved spicy foods that he specially ordered wasabi maki. Hikari scrunched her nose when she saw him put two inside his mouth at the same time yet his face remained indifferent ("You want some, Hikari-chan? They are really good for your health especially if you have a cold.").

"Matcha?" she blinked as she glanced at the strangely coloured green tea before her. "Umm, are you sure it's Matcha, Inui-san?"

"It's my specially made Matcha,Hikari-chan. Matcha has proven to be the best companion for sushi so I especially made it for this occasion. Do you want to try?"

"Of course!" Hikari gratefully accepted the glass and said, "Thank you so mu—"

Her brother snatched the glass from her the same moment the rest screamed, "DON'T DRINK IT!"

"Don't drink anything made by Inui, Hikari."

"Eh, why?" Hikari blinked.

"Just don't."

"I'm hurt, Tezuka. It's a healthy drink. I'm pretty sure the composition is good to boost her immune system."

"She's perfectly fine without your drink."She didn't understand why everyone was so against Sadaharu's concoction but if they were really against it, she'd better play safe.

"It's your loss then." Suddenly, Sadaharu let out a painful groan that shocked her so much that she was holding onto her brother's arm when Sadaharu collapsed from his seat.

"W-what's wrong with him?! Should we call the ambulance?" However, everyone remained indifferent and calmly drank their tea.

"He's going to be okay," her brother flatly said.

"My, my… I'll get him some water," Shūichiro said.

"Hoi hoi,Hikari-chan. It's normal for Inui to get poisoned by his own concoction," Eiji assured with a cheeky grin.

"But…" Takashi curiously took Sadaharu's glass. "I swear I just refilled his glass with normal tea. How could he drink his own concoction?" Takashi scratched the side of his face while glancing at his friends.

Hikari's eyes flitted to the glass her brother was holding. "What is it, Hikari?" he calmly asked. She swore that her brother's glass was bamboo patterned while Sadaharu's was the dragon patterned, but her brother was now holding the dragon patterned glass.

"Uhm, your glass is…"

"You must always proceed with caution, Hikari. Remember that," he nonchalantly said before sipping his tea.

"Y-yeah. Okay…" Hikari sweat-dropped at this.

Despite being sharp-tongued, Ryoma was the one to understand her inadaptability to Japanese subjects because he spent his childhood in the US himself. She heard from her brother that Ryoma was the son of the legendary Japanese Tennis Samurai, EchizenNanjiro. But despite his relationship with such an influential person, Ryoma said nothing about his father and was more interested in gaming and tennis topics.

"Talking about growing up abroad, Atobe was also raised in England, right?"Eiji suddenly said. "It must be nice being able to speak English fluently since you were a kid. I'm really bad at it, nyaa…"

"You still have a long way to go, Eiji-senpai."

"I don't want to hear that from you, Ochibi!" Eiji chopped Ryoma's head.

"Say…" Hikari tapped her glass with her finger. "You've mentioned about this AtobeKeigo being severely narcissistic before, right? But how come I never see his face before?" She had the chance to, but letting it slip because he didn't like this Atobe Keigo.

"That's not possible, Hikari-chan. He even created a platform called Insightgram to share his posh lifestyle." Inui took his phone but squeezed his eyes and fixed his glasses not long after. "Hm? This is weird. I can't find his account. I'm pretty sure I'm following him."

"He owns that Insightgram?!" Hikari widened her eyes. "My gosh… He must have a lot of money."

"And Atobe Photoshop to edit photos so ugly people like us don't have to be so pathetic—that's his exact line," Takeshi sarcastically added. "But yeah, you're right, Inui-senpai. He's gone from Insightgram. That's weird. Oh, by the way, can I follow your Insightgram, Hikari-chan?"

"Sure, Momoshiro-san! Followed back!" Hikari tried to search the account herself but she didn't find it. "I've searched him because everyone in my school is talking about him but I didn't find his photo anywhere."Hikari sensed her brother's eyes on her so she pretended not to realise it. "I'm just… uhm, curious."

"Hmm… you're right. All his photos are mysteriously disappearing. Even the ones in my phone." Inui furrowed his brows.

"Good looking, rich, a national-level player, and very popular, huh?" Hikari sighed. "I kind of pity his girlfriend if he has one. It must be tough, especially if he has a lot of fans."

"I wouldn't mind letting myself being pampered with such an amount of money if I was a girl, you know?" Takeshi said before laughing.

"Momoshiro-san… Do you… want to be his mistress?" Hikari blurted.

Her simple question made the regulars snigger while Momoshiro flustered and said, "I said 'if', Hikari-chan! I said 'if'!"

"I admit he's a skilled player but his personality is a bit…" Shūsuke drifted off.

"You can't say 'a bit', Fuji-senpai! You can't! He tremendously loves himself and only himself!"

"Tremendously loves himself, huh?" Suddenly, her mind drifted to him. What the Seigaku regulars describe AtobeKeigo fitted him too much that she couldn't imagine someone else.

"And he's awfully misogynistic!" Takeshi added, "Did you remember how he rudely turned down all those girls when they gave him those cakes and chocolates! I'd take them all if I were him! All! I think he hates women."

"I agree fangirls can be a little annoying sometimes, but he made all those girls cry and coldly turned his back on them," Takashi said while refilling their tea. Hikari shook her head at this. There was no way he would treat her nicely if he hated women that much.

"Well, aren't you supposed to be glad if he isn't after women, Momochan-senpai? You have the chance to be his 'mistress'," Ryoma sniggered.

Hikari had to cover her face when she burst into laughter along with the others while Takeshi slung his arm around Ryoma's neck, pretending to choke him. "I'm not after men, bastard!"

But talking about fans reminded her of something she brought for them.

"Ah, I almost forgot. I brought something.' She dug into the bag she brought while her brother passed the second bag he helped her bring. She took out a stack of letters she had labeled and passed it to Shūsuke. "Here you go, Fujii-san… Your love letters. Hmm, this one is for you, Echizen-kun."

"My, my… This is a lot," Shūsuke said with a smile while scrutinising the stack.

"Just throw it away. I won't read it," Ryoma said while sipping his tea.

"My duty is to deliver this to you so I'd survive my school life, so take it!" Hikari pushed the letter to Ryoma. "And this is for Kikumaru-san, and you Momoshiro-san…"

"Oh, my! Should I reply to everything, nyaa?!"

"Wow! I didn't expect I'd get this much! Thank you, thank you!" Takeshilaughed in content. "But so sorry to disturb your school life, Hikari-chan! I'll use my charm so they won't bother you!" Takeshi put his arm around Hikari's shoulder and tapped it in assuring way, but upon her brother's glare, he quickly released her.

"I assure you, everyone gets their share. Here you go, Inui-san, Kaido-san, and Ōishi-san." She pushed three stacks for them, the highest pile belonged to Shūichirō. "They say they want a husband like you everyday, Ōishi-san."

Shūichirō scratched the back of his head while sheepishly laughed. "I'm glad they didn't say they want a 'mother' like me."

Kaoru made a small, "Fssh…" while receiving the letters in annoyance.

Contrary to what she thought, Sadaharu looked very pleased to get the letter. "Thank you for bringing me this, Hikari-chan. These are definitely beneficial for my data gathering."

Hikari raised a brow. "How so?"

"Take a look at this." Hikari widened her eyes when Sadaharu opened one of the letters and displayed the letter for everyone to see.

"H-hey! Don't do that! Someone whole-heartedly wrote that letter!"

"This is where you're wrong, Hikari-chan. Take a look at the letterings. Did you notice the perfect indentations, spacing, and most importantly—no slanting. Based on my data, these types of writing reveal how emotionless the writer was. It was 97.56% a tailored letter that is simply made to impress me because they need 'something' from me—probably my data. A love letter without emotions doesn't mean anything."

"You can see that much from a letter, huh?" Hikari played with her hair while scrutinising the letter.

"Indeed. You'd reveal much more than words. Even the shapes of each letter means something."

"I see…" Hikari pursed her lips and craned her head until she saw Takashi who was busy preparing tea for them. "And lastly…" Hikari chuckled and opened her own bag. "Kawamura-san, you must read this one." She passed a blue envelope to Takashi.

"Eh, I got one too?" Takashi pointed at himself with both eyes widened.

"Yeah. Only one but… please read it."

Takashi was about to open it, but when Eiji and Takeshi peered in from his back, he ran into the back of the restaurant. Hikari hopefully glanced at the door he went in, smiling when he came out with a face as red as a boiled lobster.

"W-who is this woman, Hikari-chan?"

"Ah, she is—" Hikari glanced to the entrance when Mr. Kawamura welcomed a guest and widened her eyes to see the sender of the very letter came in. "K-Komatsu-senpai!" Takashi quickly glanced into the tall-stature woman.

"Ah, Hikari-chan! You're here too?"KomatsuMinako fixed her light brown hair as she bowed at Mr. Kawamura. Minako was the captain of the karate club in her school, who became close to Hikari because they were handling the food stand organizations for the upcoming Charity Festival in their school.

Hikari animatedly drew a square on the air before pointing at Takashi, who had his mouth gaped open, his hand holding the letter. It took Minako a few seconds before the realisation eventually downed on her, blushing really hard when she recognised the letter Takashi was holding.

"Uhm, K-Komatsu-san…" Takashi stuttered when he approached her, scratching the back of his head. Minako clamped her mouth and quickly exited the restaurant.

"W-wait! Please don't leave!" Takashi shouted as he chased after Minako.

And that was how Takashi's love journey began.

She never knew that a love letter could be that powerful.

"I should start working as a Cupid. Isn't it nice to be able to connect two people that are meant to be together?" Hikari rested her face on both of her palms as she watched the two shyly chatting on the other table.

"With zero love experience?"Hikari glared at Ryoma.

"Look who's talking!"

"Nah, he's not exactly zero, Hikari-chan! He has one in school, you know? He has! They're just too shy to make it official! I'd call her his semi-girlfriend!" Takeshi said with a laugh.

"Shut up."Ryoma looked away.

"Oh, I want to see what kind of girl she is!" Takeshi took out his phone in one swift moment and displayed a photo of a beautiful and sweet-looking girl wearing her hair in long pigtails, posing with another girl in twintails, both were wearing cheerleader uniform and cutely raising pompoms.

"The pigtails one."

"Wow! She looks… sweet and kind. Are you sure she can handle someone like him?" Takeshi laughed at her comment.

"You think so too, right! Me too!" Takeshi raised a high five for her so she did the same to him. "But this brat is actually softening up every time he's around her, you know? He turns konyaku every time she cheers for him."

"You talk too much, Momochan-senpai. Take a look at the mirror yourself." Suddenly, Takeshi froze and deeply sighed.

"Uhm, are you alright, Momoshiro-san?"

"I'm not alright every time I'm thinking about it…"

It appeared that Takeshi liked a girl named Tachibana An, who couldn't choose between Takeshi and a man named Kamio Akira from Fudomine. She practiced tennis a lot with Takeshi that they often meet for a practice match. But she did the same with Akira.

Hikari rolled her eyes when she sensed the similarity of the story with none other than…

Herself.

Widening her eyes, she replayed her daily activities in her head, seeing how often she came to the manor to see him while seeing the janitor in Hyotei.

"I always hate a capricious girl like that. Make up your mind, will ya? Don't stand in between two men just because you can't make up your mind."

Hikari put her hands on her chest while guiltily looking at the distressed Takeshi.

"Don't talk about her like that, Echizen… I don't like being hung like this but… I don't want her to go out with me out of pity so…" He shrugged. "I'll just wait until she makes up her mind."

Somehow, she saw him and not Takeshi at that moment.

"I'm sorry!" Hikari blurted while bowing at him.

"Why are you apologising, Hikari-chan?" Takeshi laughed and waved his hand in 'it's alright' gesture. "I'm okay, you know? I'm okay."

That was the moment when Hikari realised how similar her position was with Tachibana An and how she potentially hurt someone with her indecisiveness. Delving into her feelings, she realised that the reason she still met him even after she refused him was the fact that she did have feelings for him while at the same time liked another person.

None of the things Ryoma and Takeshi were talking about downed into her hearing sense now that she was drowned in her own thoughts and dilemma.

That she didn't realise the pair of eyes that sharply scrutinised her…


AN: I can't help but putting that Insightgram and Atobe Photoshop joke because somehow the name is soo Atobe and probably the things he's going to launch for real for his personal interest. LOL!

Poor Hikari has torn apart between one person (Damn Atobe! XD). Now that she realises that her feeling is divided, what do you think will happen next?

Favorite, follow, and most importantly—review are gold for me! As I mentioned in the previous chapter, the story is also posted in Wattpad. Since the site allows me to post videos and images, I might be able to pamper your eyes there. Check my account in ReikaNanatsuki!

Thank you for reading and have a nice day!