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


- Act XLVI -
[ The Challenge ]


Slurping her strawberry milkshake, Hikari glanced around the table, spending a second at each of the Seigaku regular members on that table. She could no longer express how dejected she was to see them appear at her school gate, all at once. Of course, after meeting Minako, Takashi excused himself and went with her, saying that he'd catch up with them later in WacDonald. The rest, however, didn't realise the effect they had caused simply by standing there.

Though she didn't know their intention at first, Hikari sprinted as fast as she could just so no one in her school noticed that they went there to get her. It appeared that her brother went with Shūichirō to the hospital for a second opinion regarding his injury.

"You haven't said why all of you have to come to get me."

"Ah, it's nothing nya! We're just afraid that the same occurrence like yesterday happened again!" Eiji said while scratching the back of his head.

"Y-yeah! Imagine what would happen if those arseholes from Hyotei came again!" Takeshi sheepishly said.

"Are you sure you don't want to eat anything else, Hikari-chan? You can't feel full with just a milkshake, can you? Here, have my fries."

"I'm not hungry, Fuji-san. Thanks for the offer."

"Are you still thinking about Atobe?"

If she could kill him with a blazing fire in her eyes, she would. But at least it worked its wonder to make Takeshi raise his hands in defeat.

"How did it begin anyway? You and that monkey king, I meant. We already warned you about him."

"Fssh…"

"True. How could you not react when we said his name?" Sadaharu fixed his glasses as he resumed writing things in his notebook.

Hikari wondered how many times she had to tell the same tale over and over again. When she finally did, they stared at her with disbelieving eyes, except for Sadaharu who kept writing on his note.

"In short, you rejected his confession, then he rejected you back in his disguise so you could accept his real being?" Sadaharu summarised her story while fixing his glasses. Hikari briefly nodded.

"How complicated nya…" Eiji said while scratching the back of his head.

"So he deliberately didn't tell his name to prevent you from letting it slip so Tezuka wouldn't find out?" Shūsuke rubbed his chin.

"As expected from Atobe. He thought about this thoroughly," Sadaharu remarked. "No wonder all his social media vanished coincidentally with Hikari's coming back to Japan. Even going as far as hacking everyone's phone so no one would have the record of his photo. He was 120% against you finding out about him."

"So this janitor you were talking about was him?" Hikari nodded to Ryoma's question. "How could you not realise it was one and the same person?"

"How could you tell? Their personalities were very different! The janitor was a true gentleman and very humble…" It still pained her chest whenever she reminisced about his backstory but even that was probably a made-up story to get her sympathy. "He was wearing a mask to cover the lower half of his face."

"Do you have his photo?" Sadaharu asked.

"Yeah, I probably still saved it. It was from when he played tennis with me." Hikari opened the gallery and showed it to them. "Didn't they look different?"

Sadaharu fixed his glasses position. "That's 120% Atobe when he used his Tannhauser Serve."

"It's Atobe."

"Atobe."

"Definitely Atobe."

They all said it without even the slightest doubt, making her want to cry.

"It's pretty obvious. How could you be so dense?" She flattened her eyes, mimicking Ryoma.

Hikari sighed in defeat. "Maybe I truly am stupid."

"Yes, you are. And your taste in men is so nasty. Monkey King—out of all people." She sometimes wondered how could she hold hanging out with Ryoma so long with his nasty way of talking.

Hikari bit her bottom lip as she rotated her milkshake glass. Was it right to overlook the good things he had done to her and label him as a bad man? Which one was his true self?

Hikari rested her head on the table. Again, she had no words to defend herself. It was the very first time she ever experienced such an intense love feeling that she was blinded from recognising anything else, even overlooking some things she was supposed to be curious about.

"It's seriously hard to imagine Atobe settling his heart on a woman with the way he usually treats his fangirls," Shūsuke said.

"Is it really that bad? I mean… how is he treating the women around him?" She sweat-dropped when they vigorously nodded.

"He didn't even spare a glance at them."

"He loudly rejects those who offered their handmade bentos."

"That was why we were pretty surprised to see him kissing you so passionately!" Takeshi blurted, only to have his mouth clamped by Kaoru and Eiji.

"M-moron!" Kaoru hissed.

Hikari widened her eyes in horror. "W-w-wait! What did you mean by 'kissing'?!" No one dared to look at her. Instead, they were nudging and rolling eyes one to another as if they were passing the duty of explaining to the others. "D-did you see us…" Hikari gulped. "…kissing?"

To her horror, they nodded.

She could feel the colours of her face fleeting away from her. Taking Sadaharu's empty tray, Hikari smacked her head twice before Shūsuke snatched it from her hand while Takashi held her wrists.

"H-hey! Stop it! What are you doing, Hikari-chan?!" Takashi said.

"Let me die! How could I live with such embarrassment!" She started to wail.

"And how does hitting your head with a food tray kill you?" Ryoma lazily remarked.

"Shut up, Echizen! Be a little sensitive, will ya?!" Takeshi shouted.

"You have no right to talk, Momoshiro! You were the one who said unnecessary things to begin with!" Kaoru snarled.

"H-hey, it's okay. 98% of couples are doing that."

"That was definitely not a public-consumption scene, Inui-san! I'm… I'm…" She buried her face in her palms, and couldn't express how embarrassing it was, having not only her brother but other people witness them kissing like that.

"What's going on here?"

Her mind was completely blanked out the moment she recognised the voice. Craning her head up, she saw the very Atobe Keigo, standing right in front of her in all his glory. His Hyotei's teammates were behind him lining up to purchase their food until they spotted the Seigaku regulars around her. Takeshi, along with Ryoma and Kaoru rose from their seats as if it would intimidate him.

Now that she paid better attention to his appearance, it crushed her heart to see him lose so much weight since the last time she saw him. Though he still looked handsome, his eyes looked very tired because of the vague dark circles around them.

"Which one of you dares to make my queen cry?"

"It's you! Who else!?" she screamed without realising that the Seigaku boys were saying the same thing with her in unison.

"Hn. It's glorious to know that you still have me in your mind." He smirked but Hikari knew it was a forced one.

"Don't be so full of yourself and leave me alone!"

"I will. After talking to you." He shoved his hand into his pocket and took out a key, placing it on the table before pushing it to her front.

"What is this?"

"Key to the court. Everything in that manor belongs to you, including the court." She swore she must be looking very silly when her jaw dropped. It was dead silence until Takeshi broke the silence.

"Are you giving your girlfriend a manor?! I can't even buy myself a room!"

"On second thought. It's a shame if you turn him down, Hikari-chan."

"Inui! Are you going to betray Tezuka?!" Eiji pointed an accusing finger at Sadaharu.

"I'm not his girlfriend!" she screamed. "And no! I don't want this! No matter what you do, I'll never return to your place!"

"You will."

"Don't be so certain! We're already over! Which part of that you didn't understand?!"

"Because I'm not giving up." She widened her eyes upon the persistence in his tone. "Not now, not forever…"

"You're not pulling that line from one of those stupid soap operas, are you?" Ryoma mercilessly ruined the mood.

"Ahn? Didn't see you there, Echizen. What's with your small presence? Or have you gotten smaller day by day?" He smirked while saying this.

"It's your head that is getting bigger and bigger with the passing day, you Monkey King. You'd better be careful if you don't want to suffer a hard fall from your throne."

"Heh. A shrimp like you would never shake ore-sama from my mighty throne."

"I wouldn't be so confident if I were you."

"Uhm… Is he always like this?" she whispered to Takeshi.

"He's always like that to everyone he meets, Hikari-chan!" Takeshi whispered back.

The way he talked to the others was so different that Hikari was dumbfounded to see his sarcastic exchange with Ryoma. She couldn't believe that he was the same person that had always spoken gently and raised her spirit every time she felt down.

Which was the real him?

"Anyway, what are you doing with my queen?" He then stared at each of the Seigaku regulars as if he was communicating through their eyes. "I see. I'll take her home then, you folks can go home now."

"We're here because we don't want to leave her with you, arsehole! Don't think about doing things the way you want just because our captain isn't here!"

"Or what will you do, Momoshiro?" He cockily smirked. "How about this, let's have a match. The loser will have to do whatever the winner wants."

"Oh, sure! Why not?" Once again, dead silence fell into the restaurant when Hikari retorted.

"Ahn? I'm not challenging you, my queen."

"This should be between me and you, Atobe Keigo. Let's settle this once and for all. I'll do whatever you want if you win!"

"Oi, Hikari—" Hikari raised her hand to stop Takeshi from talking.

"But leave me forever if I win. Don't even bother to show yourself before me because I don't want to see you anymore." She crossed her arms and gracefully crossed her ankles, raising her chin. "Do I have a deal?"

He smirked wider. Hikari responded with the same expression. What he didn't know was that she wouldn't challenge him in a game where he'd 100% win.


AN: Long time no see, everyone! I hope I'm not making you mad for not updating for so long.

Truthfully, I've been through the hardest time in my life. Never in my wildest imagination that I'd go through what I've been through the past months. What was making it worst is that I have to go through those bad moments while staying normal while working as if nothing happened that I have to bottled everything up to myself.

It is so hard to get back to both drawing and writing moods that I've been so unproductive these past months so here I am pushing myself to update today. I know that no one is pressuring me to update but honestly, both drawing and writing are my sweet escapade. For a moment, I can feel myself escaping reality. Readers' feedbacks are so rewarding and every time I received positive feedbacks such as reviews, votes, and comments, I feel like at least I make you feel good by reading my stories.

Thank you for making me feel like continuing this story. =)

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!