Tennis no Ouji-sama © Konomi Takeshi, Shuheisha, Inc.
- Act XLVIII -
[Kunimitsu POV – Stepmother]
"Don't let your guard down."
It had become the main principal of his life and he kept saying it over and over to many people around him. But Kunimitsu realise how he let his guard down too much recently, especially since his sister coming home. And Atobe Keigo, being a master of Insight, smartly used the gap of his weakness to turn things to his own favour.
Only one day, he decided to check his injury, Keigo already made his way to his sister. They eventually involved in a stupid match, resulting in Hikari's lost and her having to do whatever Keigo wanted. To his surprise, his condition wasn't too bad at all. It was great even.
"They're my top-tier securities and they will guard your sister 24/7 from now on. My condition for her is that she has no right to complain or refuse this arrangement."
But then again, it had to be according to the way Keigo liked.
"Thank you for the offer, Atobe. But we don't want to burden you with our matters."
"Unfortunately, I won against her in a match and she has to accept my condition. I'm not here to ask for your permission or such because this arrangement is to be effective immediately. I want to tell this directly to you because you're her brother. That aside, I'm doing this for myself too. It'll ease my mind if they're watching over her."
"My family is aware of the case. It has reached my grandfather's desk also and he has assigned secret police to watch her so we don't really—"
"I've told you that my tea was spiked before our match, haven't I?" Kunimitsu furrowed his brows. "You do know how tight the security around me, did you? They've breached that far without getting caught, Tezuka. They watched me to the point that they even know things that were supposed to be my secret with Hikari. Will you still take this matter lightly?"
"…Does this have something to do with the underground tennis business?"
Keigo shut his eyes. "Who knows? But if they can target Hikari, there's a chance that they might be targeting you too." He sipped his tea and placed his cup down, staring at it momentarily.
"I can take care of myself just fine. I'm just worried about Hikari."
"And so do I." Their eyes were fixated on each other. He could see the glint of firmness and seriousness in Keigo's eyes.
Kunimitsu crossed his arms, nodding. "Alright. For my sister's sake, I accept the arrangement. I appreciate this. But…" He glanced at another map below Keigo's hand. "I believe that's not all you wanted to say, correct?"
"Indeed." Keigo rested his back on his chair and had his entwined hands on his belly. "I want to court your sister, Tezuka. And you're going to approve us."
Very, very upfront…
"Have you no shame asking me this?"
"Not at all. It's never wrong to fight for someone you love, isn't it?" Kunimitsu didn't answer as the statement hit him right into his chest.
"Why my sister, Atobe?"
Keigo chortled. "Ahn? Don't be cocky, Tezuka. This isn't because she is your sister." Keigo glanced to the window café which gave them a view of a beautiful park across the street. "I've fallen for her even before I knew about it…"
"How did you two meet?" He already heard about it from Hikari but he was interested to hear it from Keigo's point of view as well.
"Once upon a spring, she danced in the abandoned court in my manor…" Keigo shifted his position so he would rest his face on his palm, eyes still on the park. Keigo always cockily smirked and never had that goofy smile he presently wore.
"Your court, of all the places…"
Keigo chuckled. "It's such a small world, isn't it?"
Indeed.
"I'm sorry that she invaded your property."
"I wouldn't even let the ghosts invade my property but..." Keigo's eyes wandered somewhere. His lips let out a small smile he had never seen before. "Have you in your entire life, ever seen something so beautiful that you couldn't get your head over it? I tried to talk to her but she was so scared of me because she thought that I was a vampire. She ended up leaving one of her shoes." Keigo chuckled at the story. "Thus, I went all the way to find my Cinderella…"
Kunimitsu could easily pinpoint when that happened. It happened the same day she arrived in Japan when he caught her sneaking out, losing the shoe he gave her.
"She let her guard down too much. She has lost many shoes because of it." His father even had a dedicated shelf in his room just to save that one shoe Hikari could no longer wear because she lost the other pair for his amusement.
"You can't blame her. She has Cinderella's feet after all…" There was deep emotion in Keigo's smile but he still had his eyes on the park. "Those beautiful perfect feet that are capable of doing the most enchanting dance I've ever seen."
"I changed my mind, Onii-chan! I love my feet! They're perfect for me!"
Then Kunimitsu realised where she got all that love and confidence in the past months. She was so much in love and it was the kind of love that pushed her to her best.
"But to get my Cinderella back, I must take care of the stepmother first." Keigo pushed the map to his front—the very same map he received from coach Sumire.
"So I'm the stepmother?"
Keigo faintly smiled, obviously very amused by his own statement. "Before the summer vacation is over, you better use this chance to heal your shoulder. Don't worry about the fee. I'll take care of it."
"Are you planning to take me out of the picture to get her back?" How Kunimitsu wished he didn't say that because the way Keigo lifted his eyebrow and smirked, it seemed that he didn't realise it until Kunimitsu gave him the idea.
"No, of course not," Keigo quickly said. "Whatever bothers her bothers me too. That aside, what's fun about tennis without someone like you around."
"I appreciate your generosity, Atobe. But I can't leave now. Not at the moment." He was about to push the map back to Keigo when Keigo held the map in place.
"Don't be stubborn and just accept the offer, Tezuka. If she's the one you're worried about, you can leave her to me."
"Exactly the reason I can't, Atobe. I'm impressed that you still have the guts to ask me to after what you've done. If you want to play around, choose someone else and leave my sister be."
"I love her, Tezuka!" Keigo stated without falter. "I love her so much and I have no shame to admit it!"
"I love you, Mitsu! I'm not ashamed to admit it!"
A tinge of pain spread from his core at the memory. She said it three years ago but the very sentence still haunted him every night. Simply because he never had the courage to express himself…
"I might've done horrendous things to you two but that doesn't mean I'm not capable of protecting her! Stop using her as your shield of reasoning and heal that damn shoulder!"
"Stop…" Kunimitsu pressed his tone. "I'm saying this again, Atobe. Stop using my injury as a reason to get her. You've done enough."
Though Keigo seemed to be taken aback by his words at first, he recovered soon enough with eyes glinted with strong resolve. "Do you want to know how serious I am with her?" Before Kunimitsu could answer, Keigo rose from his chair and down to his knees. Suddenly, all the eyes in the café were on them and Kunimitsu didn't even have the chance to comprehend what was happening.
"What are you do—"
"Forgive me." Keigo lowered his head, his hands were shaking as it seemed that it took his all to be in that position. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused to you and your family… I've done all of that because… all I want is to be with her and I don't want you to be in the way. Forgive me, Tezuka…"
Who would expect Keigo to actually take off his crown and go as far as kneeling to a 'commoner' like him to apologise?
All of this, to be with her…
He raised from his chair and grabbed Keigo by his arm, pulling him until he rose from his previous position. "You're forgiven, Atobe." But before Keigo could say anything, he continued, "But I still refuse the offer, Atobe. This is my final answer." Before he left their table, he shifted his gaze at Keigo again. "Another thing. I'll make this clear, Atobe. Just because your securities are around her, doesn't mean you can."
Keigo furrowed his brows and twitched his lips.
He believed that Keigo truly loved his sister. He believed that because he knew the kind of eyes Keigo was showing to him. But Keigo was wrong about one thing, and that was using his sister as his reasoning not to go to Germany. After what had happened, he couldn't just go far away to Germany knowing the possible danger lurking around his sister.
She was his current priority.
It wasn't the right moment to be selfish.
Later that night, he was washing the dishes after dinner when his phone was ringing. Kunimitsu quickly wiped his hands, widening his eyes upon seeing the number displayed on the screen. It was an unregistered number but seeing the country code, the caller would probably be none other than her. With quick steps, he climbed the stairs and went into his room.
"Hello…"
"Yo, Mitsu. How are you doing?"
Was hearing her voice always had this calming effect? They were exchanging letters and online messages all the time in the past but it had been a while since they were talking on the phone.
"I'm fine. How are y—"
"Don't lie, yeah? I've heard what happened from Shūsuke. Clearly, you're not okay. How could you go so far for your team? Have you ever thought about yourself?"
He sighed. "Imagawa… Will you always cut me before I'm finished talking?"
"That can't be helped, right? You always stop halfway whenever you're talking to me so I can't help but blitz you." He could imagine her animatedly drawing lightning on the air as she said it. Never did she know the reason why he always stopped halfway through when he was talking to her.
"Never mind. How are you doing?"
"I've asked you the first time so you'll answer me first, yeah? How's your shoulder?"
"It's fine."
"I see. You'd better come here to check your injury then." He sighed at her response.
"That's not what I—"
She chuckled. "You can't fool me, Mitsu. You can say 'hn' and I can tell what do you want to say, yeah?" He couldn't deny because she was right about that. "It must be painful for you not to be able to play tennis."
Kunimitsu sat on his bed and lowered his gaze down to the ground. "Hn."
"You can't do that. I know that serving a spot for your team was important but your future is far more important, yeah? Just come here to Germany and fix that shoulder. There's a good facility here."
"I've heard about it."
"Then come! What are you waiting for?! Ah! I get it! It's about Hikari-chan, yeah?" He didn't answer. "For God's sake, Mitsu! She's a woman now! Give her a room to explore herself, will you? How long are you going to babysit her?"
"I don't babysit her."
"Hah! Don't tell me that! Should I remind you about the hundred missed calls you've made to my phone when she forgot to tell you about her recital and you couldn't contact her?!" Kunimitsu rolled his eyes. "Anyway, talking about the girls who made a false statement regarding her… I've toasted them already."
Kunimitsu rolled his eyes. "Imagawa. I've told you many times that you can't get things done by viole—"
"I didn't slap or punch them, yeah?" Again, she cut him. "No violence! Just let them know that I wasn't called Kanto's Lightning Spear for nothing." She proudly laughed, making him smile a little. "Thanks to them, I've lost a partner to hang out with during holidays! I told them that there was no way Hikari-chan did what they accused her of and forced information out of them. But hey… they said something weird, you know…"
"What is it?"
"They said they were asked to lie about Hikari-chan, yeah?" Kunimitsu widened his eyes. "They were given a large sum of money if they did what they were told. The communication method was done by e-mail. I've tried to mail the address they mentioned but it wasn't a registered e-mail."
The whirl of discomfort was growing in his stomach. Hikari was clearly targeted and he didn't want to imagine that it was done by the same person. He had told his family about Hikari's assault and they decided not to mention it in front of her due to her recent condition.
"You know, all this made me think that someone was doing things on purpose to force Hikari-chan to go home." He narrowed his eyes at this. "Mitsu. I've heard that your father is going to be promoted to head of the judge and is going to handle the tax corruption done by a diet member for his first case. Do you think this is somewhat… connected?"
"I don't know. Honestly, I think it might have something to do with me… But if it happened all the way in Germany…"
"What? What happened?" Her tone was insisting.
He pushed his glasses with his ring finger. "I'm just talking to myself. Don't worry about it."
"Oh, come on! I was the one who looked after Hikari-chan in Germany! Don't you think I have the right to know?!"
"I want you to focus on your next match, Imagawa. You can't lose your focus. Thank you for what you've done for my sister."
There was silence for a few seconds. Clearly, she was thinking about making him talk. "Tell me about it after my match, yeah? I'll call you again, Mitsu. Save this number, yeah?"
"Hn. What happened to the other one?"
"A freak found that number because I accidentally left my phone in the locker room and kept terrorising me. My manager was afraid that they might hack into my phone so I have to change everything, even my e-mail. So annoying…"
"You've let your guard down. I've told you many times to —"
"Yes, Ojī-san!" He frowned at the call while she was laughing at the other side. "Thank you for worrying about me, Mitsu. I'll keep my guard up all the time, yeah?"
"Hn."
"It's nice to finally talk with you like this, yeah? I want to do the mountain climbing with you again. What mountain should we conquer next?"
"I wonder…" He smiled at the phone. "Let's do Matterhorn again next time."
"Ah? You've done that twice, yeah?"
"We stopped middleway because you had a fever, remember?"
She chuckled. "Fine. I can't wait for it. I miss you, Mitsu!"
"I…" Kunimitsu tightened his lips at this, clenching his fist even tighter. "Anyway, I… haven't congratulated you for winning the ITF Junior Circuit."
"I want my flower, Mitsu. Come here and congratulate me in person so you can fix that damn shoulder at the same time, yeah?"
Demanding as always…
"I can't leave Japan." She groaned on the other side of the phone. "But still… Congratulations, Imagawa."
"Won't you at least call me by my given name?" she playfully asked in Germany.
He faintly smiled. "Congratulations, Erika… Don't let your guard down on your next match."
"I'll toast my opponents alive, Mitsu."
AN: So there you meet Kunimitsu's love interest—Imagawa Erika [今川瑛里華]. The key concept behind her creation is 'thunder' as she's known as Kanto's Lightning Spear in tennis. You can see that she's always cutting Kunimitsu before he finishes talking because she's impatient and always strikes with her own opinion—like a lightning. XD
Imagawa is taken from a Japanese samurai's name—Imagawa Yoshimoto. For her given name, I want to pick something that works between Japan and Germany because she's half-Japanese, half-Germany. Erika is also a Germany name and I love the kanji in her name. Perfect~
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Thank you for reading and have a nice day!
