"Perhaps they were right in putting love into books... Perhaps it could not live anywhere else."

~ William Faulkner; American short story writer and novelist; winner of the Nobel Prize of Literature in 1949; 1897-1962

"A truce to your volumes, your studies, give o'er; for books cannot teach you love's marvelous lore."

~ Hafiz of Persia

Between the Lines

    "Ah, this is such a hassle, such a hassle!" Momoshiro Takeshi muttered as he pedaled his bike on his way home. The afternoon light painted the world around him in a rather pretty shade of red, and normally Momoshiro would have noticed it, but not this time. His mind was on something else entirely.

It wasn't fair, really, or so Momoshiro kept on insisting to Ryoma during a break in tennis practice that afternoon. He had taken the test fair-and-square. There was no need to punish him for something that someone else did. But no, that was not the case. Since someone was stupid enough to cheat during Ikari-sensei's English exam yesterday, everyone in his class was getting punished because no one would admit to the crime. Their punishment: a five-page long book report, in English, on a novel that was written in English or translated into English and due next, next week – and no, the book could not be a Japanese one that had been translated into English.

Ryoma had shrugged in response, and said that it was a good idea. When Momoshiro demanded that he prove how it could be considered a good idea, Ryoma pointed out that it was easier to distinguish who had cheated in the exam and who had not by making them write a paper because it involved actual application of what they had learned in class, as opposed to copying off someone's test paper in order to fill in the blanks.

In the end, Momoshiro had conceded to what Ryoma had said, but that still didn't make him feel any better about the task that now lay before him. He wasn't really that bad at English, but neither was it his best subject. He would need help – professional help – in order to get through this as best as he could.

He grinned as an idea occurred to him. Short of asking one of his senpai for assistance, he knew that there was one more person he could turn to – and he knew she wouldn't turn him down. Still smiling to himself he turned left at the corner where he normally would have turned right, heading in the direction of the Bookshop.

The establishment was not a really famous one, located as it was in a quieter part of the city than what would normally be considered conducive for such a business. Still, it had a pretty good reputation with Tokyo's more discerning bibliophiles, because the shop stocked titles that could not be found so easily in the larger bookstores, and was known for friendly, personalized service.

He stopped his bike in front of the Bookshop, kicking down the stand and placing it so that it did not block the sidewalk. He turned, and pushed the door open, causing chimes to tinkle and announce his entry.

A middle-aged woman behind the counter chirped out a cheerful "Irrashaimase!" when he came in. He grinned at her. "Konnichiwa, Akigawa-san!"

The woman blinked, and then laughed. "Oh, it's you, Momoshiro-kun! Are you looking for -chan?"

Momoshiro nodded. "Hai. Is she here today?"

    "She's in the stockroom right now, taking care of the inventory. I'll go and call her for you." With that, the woman named Akigawa ducked under the counter, and headed towards the back of the bookshop.

    "Arigatou, Akigawa-san," Momoshiro called, and looked around. The bookshop had gradually undergone small changes since the time he had first seen it, which was when he was in first year, and he and had to work together on a history project. She was the daughter of a pair of professors who worked at Waseda University: her father, as far as he knew, taught Japanese Literature, while her mother taught International Literature in English. It was this common love for books that, he speculated, encouraged them to put up the Bookshop - and when grew up, she, too, inherited their love for books, along with their ability to read, write, and speak in both Japanese and English.

Just then, Akigawa emerged from another part of the shop, a young girl walking behind her. The minute the girl saw Momoshiro, she blinked, and grinned. "Ah, Momo-kun!"

Momoshiro grinned at the girl. "Konnichiwa, -chan."

    "Konnichiwa," the girl responded, her smile as cheerful as ever. "What brings you here? I thought you'd be on your way home after practice."

Momoshiro laughed sheepishly, and scratched his head. "Anou...you see...that's the thing, -chan. I need your help on something." With that, he launched into an explanation of his troubles, and concluded by saying that he would greatly appreciate her help in this, topping it all off with as pleading a look as he could muster.

smiled, and patted him on the shoulder. "Daijobou, Momo-kun. I'll do my best to help you. Now, would you let me take a look at your booklist?"

Momoshiro reached into the back pocket of his pants, and pulled out a small square of paper. He unfolded it, and handed it to , who looked over it with a scrutinizing look.

nodded thoughtfully, her eyes moving rapidly over the list, and then she smiled. "I think you should try reading The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: lots of action, adventure, and beautiful ladies in need of rescuing."

Momoshiro grinned. "Ah, arigatou, arigatou, -chan! You really saved my skin this time! Ne, how much does the book cost?"

laughed then, and Momoshiro could hear the embarrassment that was laced through it. "Anou...gomen nasai, Momo-kun, but we don't have a copy of that book yet. We're only going to get a new shipment on Monday." Suddenly, she brightened up, and said: "Ah, I have an idea: I'll just drop by the tennis courts on Monday after classes, and I'll give it to you then. Is that all right with you?"

    "Hai, that's perfect," Momoshiro replied with a smile. He hadn't been looking forward to starting reading the book this weekend, anyway, so that was just fine by him. He could get on it when he was feeling a bit more prepared to deal with it

---

Inui prided himself in having a pretty good memory. It was important, after all, especially when he was collecting data. Apart from knowing a good deal of information regarding those of his teammates from whom he could collect reliable information, he was also familiar with the faces that stopped by to watch their practices in the afternoons. There was always a crowd, after all, to watch them everyday: boys who admired the Regulars for their skill, and a gaggle of girls who were infatuated with the players themselves.

Today, however, he noticed someone different in the usual crowd: a girl, most likely a second-year or a first-year, given how he hadn't seen her face on the floor where the third-year classes were held. He didn't think that she was a fan girl, because she stood quite apart from the others, and seemed to be looking for someone, her eyes constantly skimming over Fuji and Oishi and Kikumaru, whom he knew probably enjoyed the most popularity amongst the girls in their school – unless, of course, he counted Tezuka.

His interest piqued, he shifted his stance slightly so that he could watch her more fully, taking note of her presence in his notebook. He felt that he knew her from somewhere, but he couldn't be too sure. Had he seen her at the District Preliminaries? He knew that more than a few girls from their school had turned up to watch, but he really couldn't remember much, since he had been too preoccupied with watching the matches against Gyokurin.

Soon enough, Ryuuzaki-sensei called them together, and announced the dismissal of practice for the day. Inui was a bit surprised, since practice ended a bit early, and when he asked Ryuuzaki-sensei, she said that she had something important to see to, and so had to leave early as well. He followed everyone into the locker room, changed, and then went outside, following Momoshiro and Ryoma, who had gone on ahead.

At that moment, Momoshiro looked up, and grinned, waving a hand as he did so. "Oi, oi, -chan!"

Inui raised an eyebrow slightly. -chan? He followed Momoshiro's gaze, and noticed that the strange girl he had been observing earlier was the one whom Momoshiro was referring to. Deciding that this was too good an opportunity to waste – especially since it provided him with information on Momoshiro that he did not have before – he moved a bit closer, making sure that neither Momoshiro nor Ryoma heard him.

    "Konnichiwa, Momo-kun," the girl said, a smile on her face as she approached. Inui noted down the fact that Momoshiro and this girl seemed very familiar with one another, since they called each other by nicknames. That, Inui observed, wasn't difficult to imagine with Momoshiro, since he insisted that everyone call him some form or variation of "Momo," but for the girl to allow him to call her by her given name indicated that they were quite close. 

Momoshiro grinned most cheerfully at her, indicating to Inui that he was very pleased to see her. "Konnichiwa, -chan. Ne, do you have the book?"

    "Hai." The girl – apparently named – reached into her bag, and pulled out a book, which she handed to Momoshiro. "There you go."

    "Ah, arigatou, arigatou, -chan!" Momoshiro exclaimed enthusiastically. "How much do I owe you?"

The girl laughed, and shook her head. "Iie, you owe me nothing. Think of it as a gift: my own little way of helping you out with your paper."

    "Hontou?!" Momoshiro laughed delightedly. "-chan, you're the best!"

    "Nya, Momo-chan, is that your girlfriend?"

Inui looked over his shoulder, and realized that Kikumaru Eiji and Oishi Syuichiroh had emerged from the locker room, Kikumaru grinning at Momoshiro while Oishi looked on.

    "She's not my girlfriend, Eiji-sempai!" Momoshiro protested. "She's just a good friend of mine, that's all!"

Kaidoh Kaoru, who was standing just behind the two seniors, snorted. "Typical for you to lie..."

    "Urusei, Mamushi!"

    "Fsssh..."

Inui turned his attention away from the two squabbling second-years, and instead chose to focus on the girl who was backing away, as if trying to disappear. He allowed himself to smirk as he flipped a page in his notebook. Yes, this was going to be very, very interesting...

---

couldn't help but laugh as Momoshiro and Kaidoh went at each other. She was quite familiar with the rivalry that existed between those two, but she didn't know that it was this bad. She was surprised that the others didn't seem to be worried about it at all.

She backed away slightly, and was about to turn so that she could start her walk to the gate, and then home from there, when a tall redheaded boy suddenly appeared in front of her, blue eyes sparkling with mirth and good cheer. The grin that he flashed in her direction was quite charming, and made her feel at ease almost immediately. "Hoi, hoi, there's no need to be rushing home!" He winked, and held out his hand. "I'm Kikumaru Eiji! What's your name?"

smiled slightly, and shook his hand. She knew who he was, of course: everyone in the school knew who the Regulars in the tennis team were, and she knew him because Momoshiro had pointed out his teammates to her when she went to watch him play at the District Preliminaries last week. " , second year."

Kikumaru grinned. "Nya? I didn't know that we had such cute kohai! Did you, Oishi?"

Another boy appeared beside the redhead: black-haired and green-eyed, with a rather unusual haircut. recognized him as Oishi Syuichiroh, who, aside from being a tennis player, was one of the most respected members of the Student Council.

    "Eiji, don't say that; you're embarrassing her," Oishi gently scolded Kikumaru, and then turned to her, smiling apologetically. "Gomen nasai, -san. Eiji can be very blunt sometimes. I'm Oishi Syuichiroh."

nodded, feeling quite shy around these senpai. She realized that she was surrounded by boys whom other girls would have killed to be so much as introduced to. Sure, she and Momoshiro were friends, but she had never once taken advantage of that friendship. If he introduced her to his teammates, then that was well and good. If he didn't, then that was perfectly fine as well.

However, this wasn't exactly how she had envisioned she would make their acquaintance.

    "Oishi! I was just telling the truth!" Kikumaru protested then. He turned to , and draped an arm around her, grinning as he did so. The gesture elicited a blush, since she was not used to such close contact – especially not where the Tennis Regulars were concerned.

Kikumaru smiled satisfactorily at her. "See? Look at how she's blushing! Ne, Oishi, don't you think she's kawaii?"

A soft voice chuckled then. "Saa, Eiji, I think you're embarrassing her."

tilted her head slightly to get a better look at the speaker, and saw blue eyes returning her gaze, before they disappeared behind smiling arches.

Kikumaru pouted as he let her go. "Mou, Fuji! You didn't have to be that mean about it..."

Fuji chuckled, and then faced her, bowing. "Konnichiwa. I'm Fuji Syusuke." He straightened, and smiled most charmingly at her. "Your name is , right?"

She nodded, and smiled as best as she could. "Hai."

    "Hmm... Are you Momo-chan's classmate, then?"

    "Ah, iie, I'm not. We used to be, when we were freshmen, but we got split up this year."

Fuji nodded thoughtfully. "I see..." He tilted his head, and his smile seemed to get a little predatory. "I think I remember you from somewhere... Were you at the District Preliminaries? I think I saw you in the bleachers. Were you there to watch Momo-chan?"

She couldn't help but blush under his scrutinizing gaze. "Ah...h-hai, I was there..."

Fuji's smile seemed to widen a bit more, and she could not help but feel a chill go up and down her spine at the way that he did so. "Ah, so it was you I saw..."

    "Momoshiro, Kaidoh, stop arguing or its thirty laps for the both of you."

Almost immediately, Momoshiro and Kaidoh stopped arguing, and Fuji turned around, his smile growing a bit more. "Saa, you came just in time, Tezuka."

felt all her blood turn to ice in her veins. She knew who he was, of course: Tezuka Kunimitsu, perhaps one of, if not the most, popular student in Seigaku, and the buchou of the Tennis Club.

Tezuka glanced at her then, and he nodded in acknowledgement of her presence, before turning back to Momoshiro and Kaidoh, who were apologizing to him for squabbling the way they did – or at least, Momoshiro was, because Kaidoh had already begun his laps around the court. She felt her heart twinge slightly in disappointment at the rather cold greeting, but she reminded herself that he didn't know who she was, and that she shouldn't expect any more than what she had already gotten from him.

She waited until she had Momoshiro's attention again, and then she said: "Ne, Momo-kun, I have to go. I need to go and see to the bookstore."

Momoshiro nodded, but gave her a somewhat worried look. "Why do you have to go to the bookstore? I thought you only went there during the weekends?"

    "I did, but not for this week: my parents are in Kyoto, and I have to run it while they're not around." She smiled, and bowed to everyone. "It was a pleasure meeting you." She straightened, and started walking away, waving to Momoshiro over her shoulder. "Ja ne!"

---

For some odd reason, the walk home seemed rather long and slow to him, a feeling he got when he knew that there was something that he had forgotten to do. It was not something that happened often, because he always made sure that he had already done whatever needed to be done before he left school, but strangely enough, it seemed as if some part of him was telling him to go back to school, because he had forgotten to do something.

He squeezed his eyes shut to clear his thoughts, before opening them again just as quickly to gaze upon a world tinted pink, gold, and crimson from the setting sun. No, he thought, he was quite sure that he hadn't forgotten anything. He had checked and double-checked his mental checklist of Things To Do, and he had missed nothing.

Why, then, did he get this niggling feeling that told him he had forgotten to do something very, very important.

    "Saa, another opportunity wasted."

Tezuka glanced at Fuji, who was currently walking alongside him down the street. He gave his teammate an inquiring look, and Fuji offered him a rather serious look, one that involved the slight opening of his eyes. "You didn't talk to her – again."

Tezuka frowned, remembering then what he had forgotten to do. He straightened his back, and looked forward down the street. "I didn't want to talk to her in front of everyone on the team, Fuji. It's distracting."

His infatuation with the second-year was a close and well-guarded secret, something he had mentioned only to Oishi and Fuji. It wasn't that his infatuation with a kohai was a bad thing: that, really, was hardly the point, and no one would question him if it were the truth. The fact was that it was a very sensitive topic to him, and he had no desire to go spreading word around and hence making matters all the more complicated, when they were already complicated enough – in his opinion, at any rate.

The infatuation had begun rather innocuously, during the vacation between his freshman and sophomore years at Seigaku. He had dropped by the Bookshop after Yamato-buchou had suggested that he go there if he wanted good books to read, and she was the first person he saw the minute he entered the store. She was standing in a little pool of sunlight that streamed in through the display windows, placing books on the shelves in front of her, and caught in profile like that, with her hair held away from her face with a headband, Tezuka thought that she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. He would have gone on staring at her had not the woman behind the counter called his attention, asking him – in a nice, friendly way – if there was anything he needed. When he finished talking to her and he turned around to see if the girl he had seen was still there, she was already gone.

When he went home that afternoon, Tezuka had assumed that he wouldn't see her again, the idea reinforced by the fact that, even when he went back to the shop the next three weekends, he didn't see her anymore. He assumed that that was that: he wouldn't see her again, and that he would forever regret not going up to her so that he could at least ask for her name.

That was why he was very much surprised to see her walking in the shade of the cherry blossom trees that lined the main pathway of Seishun Gakuen's campus when school started again. She was a freshman, and he was a sophomore; he heading to his classroom, and she to the gym to join the rest of the freshmen for their orientation. After that, he kept on seeing her around campus: in the library, at the computer lab, running around the track during her Physical Education classes. It was also during that time that he learned her name: .

But when he went to the bookshop, she was never there.

Last weekend was the start of the District Preliminaries, and he had stood at the side, watching calmly as his teammates played against Gyokurin. He wasn't really thinking he would have to step in and play, but nevertheless, it was good to be prepared. During the break that occurred when the players changed court, he happened to glance up to the bleachers where Seigaku students were cheering, and saw her sitting on the benches, leaning forward almost on the edge of her seat, her eyes focused intently on the game. He entertained the brief hope that she had come to watch him, but when she stood up and yelled Momoshiro's name, he realized that no, she had come for Momoshiro, and not for him.

In the split second between the moment their eyes met and the moment he glanced away, he really didn't know whether to feel depressed that she had come for someone else, or happy that she had come at all – even if she had come to cheer someone else.

Fuji's soft voice cut into his reverie. "You still should have talked to her. Should it matter that the others were there?"

Tezuka sighed, and gave Fuji a look. "It does matter. This is something I want to keep private, not something that I want the rest of the school to know, and you know that if I spoke to her in front of them, word will get out."

    "So?" Fuji shrugged. "To my mind, it would be better to talk to her, regardless of the situation or who is watching." His smile took on a rather wicked tilt. "After all, when the two of you become an item, the rest of the school will know anyway."

Tezuka restrained himself from snapping at Fuji, knowing that if he did so, he would be rising to the bait that Fuji was dangling right in front of him. He was going to do this his way, and that meant doing things discreetly. However, to do that, he would have to pay a visit to the bookshop.

He thought about his book collection at home. He was nearly finished with his latest Ed McBain novel: there was only one more chapter left to read, and he knew that he could finish it that very night. That meant he would have four days to check if the next one in the series was out, as well as tell his mother about his next purchase.

He smiled to himself, his mind made up. He had his excuse; all he had to do was wait – and hope.

---

    "-chan, are you sure you can handle that yourself?"

smiled at Midori, who was looking at her rather worriedly. "Hai, I'm just fine, Akigawa-san."

    "Maybe you should go and have some lunch first," Midori suggested as she glanced at the clock. "It's nearly twelve o' clock, after all."

nodded, but went back to shelving copies of Christopher Paolini's Eldest. "I will, but later. Let me just finish this box, at least." She pointed to the box at her feet, which was already half-empty.

Midori laughed, and shook her head. "Ah, you're just as stubborn as your mother. It's amazing that you haven't gotten in trouble yet for being so hard-headed."

laughed, and shrugged cheerfully. "I try to stay out of trouble as much as I can, Akigawa-san. No use of getting into it if it isn't worth it, ne?"

    "I see," Midori murmured. After a moment of silence, she spoke up again, and this time there was a clearly mischievous tone in her voice. "Ne, -chan, why don't you have a boyfriend yet?"

frowned, and gave Midori a look. "Akigawa-san, why are you asking that question? Are you planning to match-make me with someone?"

Midori laughed. "Iie. I was just curious, that's all." She winked. "It just makes me wonder why a young, smart, pretty girl like you doesn't have an entire horde of young men coming to break down her door."

    "I don't really know," replied with a shrug. A soft smile crossed her face as she spoke. "I guess that the boys don't really find me to be their type. If someone does, then I haven't met him yet."

Midori raised an eyebrow teasingly at him. "Or you could have already met him, but you do not know yet for sure that he is the one."

felt a small shiver travel up and down her spine. For some odd reason, Tezuka's face came to the forefront of her mind, but she shook her head to get rid of the image. It was downright impossible: Tezuka was one of the most popular boys at school, and he was a senpai, to boot. What sort of chance did she stand at getting his attention?

Just then, the chimes over the door tinkled to announce the entrance of a customer, and she glanced up just as she heard Midori greet the customer with her usual cheerful "Irrashaimase!" Shock tingled up and down her spine as she gazed upon a tall, handsome young man with brown hair, and dark eyes behind frameless oval glasses.

His name jumped out of her mouth without any conscious thought: "Tezuka-sempai!"

Tezuka looked at her, and bowed in greeting. "Konnichiwa, -san."

Midori gave her a look. "You know him, -chan?"

    "Hai," replied with a nod. "He's a third-year student at Seigaku, and Momo-kun's buchou in the Tennis Team." She looked at Tezuka, and smiled. "Is there anything I can help you with? My parents won't be coming back until tomorrow, so I'm in charge of the shop until then. I hope you don't mind."

Tezuka seemed to nod. "That's all right. Do you have a copy of Ed McBain's Fiddlers?"

blinked, and was quiet for a while, checking her mental memory bank if she had seen a copy of that book recently. "Ed McBain's Fiddlers? That would be an 87^th Precinct novel, wouldn't it?"

    "Hai," Tezuka responded. "It's his latest in the series – and his last, since he died recently."

nodded thoughtfully. "I know." She finally gave him a smile. "I'll go and check the back room for you, if you don't mind waiting..."

Tezuka shook his head. "I don't mind."

    "Arigatou gozaimasu. I'll be back as soon as I can."

walked to the back of the store, entering the storage room, and then leaned against the wall, pressing her hand against her chest. She had always known that Tezuka was compelling, but she had never imagined that he could be that compelling. Just from the way he looked at her, she would have willingly done anything that he asked her to.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. That's silly, she thought as she started leafing through the clipboard that contained the list of recently-arrived books. She knew that there really wasn't much to interest a boy like Tezuka Kunimitsu in her. She was just a sophomore, after all, and despite the fact that she was Momoshiro's friend, she wasn't really popular otherwise. She was just another girl, who ran a bookshop while her parents were away, and who could give pretty good advice about what books one should read.

She realized then that the copies of Fiddlers hadn't come in yet, but that they would come in tomorrow. She sighed, and walked out of the back room, approaching Tezuka with an apologetic look on her face. "Sumimasen, Tezuka-sempai, but we don't have a copy of the book yet. We should be receiving our copies tomorrow, though."

    "I see," Tezuka replied with a nod. He seemed to glance over her shoulder, and saw the books that she had been shelving. "What is Eldest about, if I may ask? I don't think I've heard of the author either."

smiled. "Eldest is written by Christopher Paolini, and is the second part of an ongoing trilogy. The first book, Eragon, was published when Paolini was only nineteen." She picked up one of the copies of Eldest. "It's about a young boy named Eragon, who unknowingly discovers a dragon egg, hatches it, and takes care of the dragon that comes out of it. He eventually becomes a Dragon Rider, and with his dragon, Saphira, they set themselves on the path towards becoming the heroes that their world needs. It's one of my favorite series, along with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings."

Tezuka's expression seemed to shift slightly. "You like fantasy novels?"

    "Hai," replied with a nod. She looked at him, and grinned. "You're not particularly fond of fantasy, are you?"

    "Iie. I prefer crime fiction."

    "Hence Ed McBain." gave him a somewhat appraising look. "Have you ever read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?"

A flicker of recognition passed through Tezuka's eyes. "He was the one who wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories, am I correct?"

    "Hai."

    "I've read The Hound of the Baskervilles, but I haven't read the others."

Just then, Midori cleared her throat, and glanced over at her to see the older woman smirking. "Ne, -chan, maybe you and your new friend would like to discuss your reading choices someplace else? You still haven't eaten lunch, after all."

blushed. "Akigawa-san!"

She noticed Tezuka shifting at the edge of her vision, as if he was weighing some decision or other, before he said: "With your permission, Akigawa-san, I will take -san out for lunch with me."

swiveled her head to look at Tezuka, stunned by his offer. What in the world was he doing? While some part of her was flattered and thrilled by the offer, at the same time she couldn't imagine why he was doing so.

Midori gave Tezuka an appraising look, before she smiled, and nodded. "You look like a trustworthy young man, so I think that -chan can go with you. -chan, be nice to him – though I don't think I need to tell you that." She waved towards the door. "Now, out you go: the both of you."

glanced at Tezuka, trying to read his expression – a difficult feat, considering that his face gave away no emotion whatsoever. However, he looked at her, and she swore she saw his mouth form a small smile.

He walked to the door, and held it open for her, that same smile growing slightly wider as he looked at her. "Well then, shall we?"

---

    "So you watch CSI?"

nodded at him, pausing to sip from a glass of water before she replied: "Hai, I do, but I prefer New York and Las Vegas over Miami. And you?"

    "I prefer Miami, but Las Vegas is interesting too. Grissom and Horatio are some of my favorite characters," Tezuka answered.

    "There's no denying Grissom's appeal: I like the way that he solves so many problems, or helps his co-workers solve them without making it too obvious that he is." She paused, contemplating the remaining pasta on her plate. "But I like Mac Taylor more than I like Horatio. Horatio is...too much like a cop for me, I suppose. Certainly, Mac Taylor is also very much a cop, but not to the same extent as Horatio."

Tezuka nodded, watching as she twirled her fork in her pasta as he contemplated on his next response. He and were currently seated in a café not that far from the bookshop, having some lunch while chatting. However, they didn't get a lot of eating done, because that meant they would have to pause in their conversation in order to put food in their mouths, and neither of them really wanted there to be a break in the conversation – not when it was so fascinating.

He was surprised to find that the two of them had several things in common – books and CSI were just two of them – but also had a lot of things that were different. He could tell that she was something of a romantic, even though she didn't say it outright, and was fascinated by things that defied logic and reason. He preferred the logical side of the world, feeling more comfortable in areas and aspects that he could easily explain.

Maybe that was why he was so uncomfortable with being in his current position: "dating" a kohai he had been interested in for slightly more than a year. This was unfamiliar territory, uncharted waters. While it was true that he got a lot of presents during Valentine's Day, and that girls had confessed to him before, he had never been in the position wherein he was the one who had something to confess, because as far as he knew, she knew nothing about his feelings for her.

    "Tezuka-sempai, daijobou ka?"

He blinked back to reality, and saw blinking at him with a concerned look on her face. He sat up straighter, trying to get back some semblance of control. "Hai, daijobou. I was just thinking about something." He fixed his gaze at her again, and then asked the question that had been running around in his mind for quite some time: "-san, may I ask you something?"

She laughed softly, and tilted her head in what he thought was a very charming angle. "Before I answer that, please call me -chan. It feels a bit...strange to hear a sempai call me -san." She blushed then, and looked away. "O-of course, only if you want to, Tezuka-sempai."

Tezuka felt a chuckle bubble up from his throat and out his mouth. She was allowing him to call her by her first name? He could almost see Fuji's triumphant smirk at the back of his mind. He smiled at , and said: "I'd be honored to call you that, -chan." He felt his smile grow broader when he noticed how the blush on her cheeks deepened. "Now then, may I ask you a question?"

    "Hai," she responded softly.

    "Why do you like fantasy novels?"

blinked momentarily at him, before she smiled, and responded: "Because sometimes, there is truth in even the most far-fetched of stories." She shifted in her chair, and gazed into her glass of water in a rather contemplative manner. "Sometimes, there are things – truths – that reality alone can't convey as clearly. That's why I like fantasy, because the stories in that genre remind me of some things that I can't seem to find in the real world anymore."

Tezuka raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

    "Happy endings – even if not all stories end that way." She laughed then, and looked at him, embarrassed. "You must think me a romantic sap for saying that."

He shook his head. "Hardly. I think that is the most honest answer I have heard in a while now."

She laughed, and the smile on her face when she looked at him was warm and cheerful. "Arigatou, Tezuka-sempai."

Tezuka smiled at her, and nodded. "You're welcome."

--- 

    "Ne, -chan, is that A Study in Scarlet?"

looked up at her classmate, Kiritsuki Junko, who was looking over her shoulder curiously. She smiled up in response to Junko's question. "Hai, it is."

    "Aren't you already finished reading that?" Junko asked as she took her seat beside . "I thought that you'd already read all the Sherlock Holmes novels."

nodded. "I have. I'm just lending this out to someone."

Junko gave her a surprised look. "Hontou? But you rarely lend your books out. Who are you lending it to?"

smiled, and waved her hand. "Just: someone."

    "Oh?" Junko's expression became cheeky. "Come on, tell me: who are you doing to lend it to?" She nudged . "Is it a boy you like? Come on, tell me!"

shook her head firmly. "Who I'm going to lend this to is a secret. I don't want to tell you about it."

    "Come on -chan!"

laughed, but shook her head. "No means no, Junko-chan. Gomen nasai, if I seem stubborn, but I really would like to keep this secret to myself."

Junko pouted. "You're not being fair."

was getting ready to argue the point further, but the teacher came in just then, and the conversation was cut off. sighed, and put the book in the compartment of her desk. There were still morning classes to deal with before she could give it to the person she was intending to lend it out to: Tezuka.

Junko had been right: rarely ever lent her books out to people. When she did, it was only for a day, and she kept close tabs on the ones holding her books. It wasn't that was selfish; it was just that she had lost so many books because she had lent them out to people and they hadn't bothered to return them. She had no plans for such things to happen anymore, and so she was very cautious about the people to whom she lent her books.

But when she found out from her parents, who had returned yesterday afternoon from their trip to Kyoto, that the shipment of Fiddlers was delayed by another week, she felt a bit bad for Tezuka. After all, she had promised him that he would get his copy on Monday, and she knew how annoying it was, to have to wait another week to read a book that one had been raring to get.

Hence, she had brought her copy of A Study in Scarlet, intending to lend it out to him in order to tide him over until the end of the week, when he could get his book. She knew that it was a rather poor substitute, but it was the best idea that she had. She would ask Momoshiro to give the book to his buchou later on, during lunch break.

Morning classes went by smoothly enough, and soon the bell rang to signal lunch. After asking Junko to watch over her things for a while, she walked out of the classroom, and spotted Momoshiro coming down the hallway. She waved her hand to get his attention. "Momo-kun!"

Momoshiro saw her, and grinned cheerfully as he approached. "Ne, -chan, arigatou for all the help you gave me! You really helped me out a lot."

blinked. "Eh? Nani?"

A piece of paper was suddenly right in front of her face, a big letter "A" encircled at the top-right corner of the front page. She looked up, and saw Momoshiro's smiling face over the top edge of the paper. "This is your paper?"

    "Hai," Momoshiro replied as he put the paper away. "As you can see, I got an A on it, and I have you to thank for that."

smiled. "I wasn't the one who wrote the paper."

    "True, but you were the one who told me what book I should read, and I'm really grateful for that." He winked. "The one you gave me was a bit hard to read, but it had a great story." With that done, he started jogging down the hallway, heading towards the cafeteria. "Ne, -chan, I'll talk to you some other time, okay? I have to get to the cafeteria before they run out of my favorite cake!"

    "O-oi! Momo-kun, chotto matte!"

She sighed as Momoshiro disappeared around the corner. She hadn't gotten to ask him for that favor. She glanced at the book in her hand. She'd have to go to the tennis courts later and hand it to Tezuka herself.

She shivered slightly at the thought, and smiled to herself. She was being ridiculous, and she knew it – even though she also wondered why she couldn't stop thinking them.

She shook her head, and walked into the classroom again to have her lunch.

---

Kikumaru liked the fact that he had very good eyesight. It was something that he was very proud of: something that he knew had helped pull him and Oishi out of a lot of troublesome situations in tennis. And right now, it was proving to be very helpful in more than just the color-recognition exercise that Inui had set up for them.

    "Nya, Oishi, isn't that the girl we met last week?"

Oishi glanced at him, his expression showing his puzzlement. "Nani? You mean ?"

    "Hai." Kikumaru nodded in the direction of the chicken-wire fence that protected the spectators from any balls that might go whizzing out of bounds. "She's been standing there for a while now. It looks like she's looking for someone."

    "Maybe she's looking for Momo," Oishi said thoughtfully.

Kikumaru thought it over, and shrugged. It was logical, after all, when he thought about it. Momoshiro had told them quite often since last week just how much of a good friend was to him – in the midst of protesting that they weren't a couple, of course.

He couldn't help but chuckle at the thought. He thought that the scenario last week was the most adorable scenario he had ever witnessed: while Momoshiro actively protested that they weren't in a relationship, the girl was standing to the side, looking very uncomfortable with the whole situation. While Kikumaru thought she was the cutest thing in the world, blushing and looking around the way she did, he also knew that she was in something of a tight spot, so he tried his best to make her feel at ease. He knew that a lot of the kohai tended to be uncomfortable around their senpai, but Kikumaru believed that seniority was not an issue when it came to one's circle of friends.

He watched as Momoshiro emerged from the clubhouse, with Tezuka and Fuji walking just behind him. Momoshiro caught sight of , and jogged over to her, looking rather concerned. looked up at him, smiled reassuringly, and seemed to say something to Momoshiro that resulted in him giving her a puzzled look, before he pointed to Tezuka over his shoulder. And then, much to Kikumaru's surprise, he saw walk over to Tezuka, and start talking to him.

Kikumaru blinked once, and then twice, not believing what he was seeing. What in the whole wide world was doing with Tezuka? Did they know each other? Perhaps they had met somewhere before? Other questions of a similar sort spun through his mind in a whirlwind that refused to die down as he watched reach into her bag, and pull something out of it, which she then held out to Tezuka. Tezuka, on the other hand, looked down at the book, and seemed to nod before taking it. After he had done so, smiled, bowed, and then left.

Unable to contain his curiosity, he bounded up to Fuji and Tezuka, his eyes wide. "Nya, Buchou, what was -chan doing back there? What did she give you?"

Tezuka remained as silent as ever, but Fuji chuckled, and replied: "It's nothing, Eiji. She was just lending him one of her books."

Kikumaru blinked. "Nya? Lending one of her books?" Since when did Tezuka start borrowing books from ?

    "Hai," Fuji affirmed with a nod. His eyes opened, and there was no mistaking the wicked glint in his eye. "Sweet of her to do that, ne, Eiji?"

Kikumaru noticed Tezuka glaring at Fuji, and it made him wonder just what Fuji was on to. Was there something going on between Tezuka and that Fuji knew about but wasn't mentioning to anyone?

He gave Tezuka a wide-eyed, curious look, and asked: "Nya, Buchou, are you dating -chan or something?"

Kikumaru noticed a smirk grow on Fuji's face, and he realized that his best friend did know something about the situation between Tezuka and . Were they dating though? It was an interesting question, and Kikumaru made a mental note to ask Fuji later that day.

Fuji's smirk reshaped into something more docile when he spoke up and said: "Saa, I think Eiji has a point, Tezuka. Are you dating -san?"

    "Iie," Tezuka muttered. "I spoke to her last Saturday, when I went to the bookshop to buy a new novel."

Fuji tilted his head. "Hontou? The way the two of you were talking a while ago, I would think that there was something more that happened than just a casual chat."

Kikumaru snorted, but quickly stifled his laughter with his hand when Tezuka directed his glare at him instead of at Fuji.

The bespectacled boy inhaled, and then said: "You're going to run twenty laps: the both of you."

Kikumaru choked. "Nya, Buchou, that's not fair!"

Fuji clucked his tongue. "You are being very mean-spirited, Tezuka."

Tezuka's eyes flashed. "Go, before I decide to double it."

Fuji chuckled, and tapped Kikumaru on the shoulder. "Let's go, Eiji." He cast a sly look in Tezuka's direction. "Let's leave him to stew in his own juices for a while."

    "Fuji..."

Fuji laughed softly, and headed to the outside of the court, Kikumaru trailing behind him. As they started jogging their first lap around the court, Kikumaru gave Fuji a pleading look. "Nya, Fuji, won't you tell me what's going on? Is Buchou really dating -chan?"

Fuji's smile was placid and calm when he looked at Kikumaru: "I'm not quite sure what happened, because Tezuka has been very secretive about the events, but I can suppose that something very, very interesting occurred."

    "So you're saying that they went on a date?"

    "Iie. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that something happened."

Kikumaru gave him a look, but Fuji just kept in jogging. Kikumaru sighed, and just gave up. He'd bother Fuji later about it; right now, he just wanted to focus on counting his laps so he could get them over with as soon as possible and get back to the court.

---

He sighed as he took off his shoes, and placed them in the shoe rack in the small alcove next to the door. It had been another tiring day of practice for him, but that was just fine. It was just the start of the week, after all. It wasn't so bad yet. Besides, he had something to cheer him up the rest of the day.

At that, he smiled to himself as he got up and headed to the kitchen to greet his mother, his hand resting against his book bag. Inside was the copy of A Study in Scarlet that had lent him – her own personal copy, so she told him, which she was lending him for the week since the copies of Fiddlers that the bookshop was supposed to get hadn't arrived, and would not arrive until that weekend.

    "Ah, good to see that you're home, Mitsu," his mother, Ayana, said when she saw him walk into the kitchen. "How was school?"

Tezuka smiled at her as he kissed her on the cheek in greeting. "It was good, 'Kaa-san."

Ayana made a sound of assent, before asking: "Ah, did you get the book that you were hoping to buy? You said that the nice girl you met last weekend would get it for you."

Tezuka shook his head as he went to the refrigerator, glass in hand, to pour himself some water. "Iie, she wasn't able to. She said that the shipment wouldn't come in until this weekend."

    "Ah, I see." Ayana looked over her shoulder at him. "Well, it was nice of her to go to you and apologize herself, wasn't it?"

Tezuka nodded, and then gave his mother a small smile. "Actually, 'Kaa-san... She lent me one of her own books, to tide me over until the next weekend."

Ayana seemed to pause at that. When she looked at Tezuka again, there was a mischievous glint in her eye. "Hontou, Mitsu? What did she lend you?"

Tezuka reached into his bag, and showed 's book to his mother. "This one." He showed the cover to his mother, who nodded, smiling in amusement.

    "How very sweet of her to go out of her way like that," Ayana remarked as she reached over to take a closer look at the book. "You know, Mitsu, you didn't tell me her name."

    " ," he replied, taking the book back when his mother handed it back to him. "She's a second-year student at Seigaku."

    "Oh, so that's why she was able to talk to you so easily and lend this out to you as well." She paused, and then giggled quietly. "My, my, Mitsu, you're growing up so fast..."

Tezuka gave his mother a half-indignant, half-embarrassed look. " 'Kaa-san, really..."

Ayana laughed again, and flipped open the book to one of the pages, and then paused, before plucking out a small piece of paper, folded once down the middle to keep the contents hidden. "Mitsu, is this yours?"

Tezuka blinked upon seeing the paper, but took it anyway, unfolding it to see the contents. It was a note, quickly scribbled down, by the looks of it. It read thusly:

To Tezuka-senpai,

    By the time you find this note you will probably already be at home, reading this book – or at least, if Momo-kun remembered to give it to you. I'm really, really sorry, but the shipment for Fiddlers didn't come in this Sunday, and when 'Tou-san checked up with the distributors, they said that there had been a delay, and that we wouldn't get our shipment until next weekend.

    I know that I promised you I'd get you the book by today, so I feel quite awful that I wasn't able to keep that promise. I know how bad you must feel right now, being forced to wait for a book that you've been wanting to read, so I decided to lend you this one for the meantime. I don't think it's that good a substitute, but I think it will keep you preoccupied until we get the shipment this weekend. Don't worry; when the shipment does come I'll set aside a copy just for you, so you can come by the bookshop and pick it up whenever you want.

Sincerely yours,

He chuckled softly, and folded the note again, tucking it into his pocket after he had done so. He found it quite thoughtful of her to write a note the way she did, apologizing for something that, in truth, really wasn't her fault to begin with. It showed a sweetness of character that, so he liked to believe, came up with everyone she dealt with. In a way, he found it very appealing, and not at all cloying or irritating, the way some girls could be.

    "Mitsu?"

Tezuka glanced up at his mother, and smiled at her as he took back the book that she was holding out to him. "I'll just be upstairs, 'Kaa-san," he murmured as he stood up and picked up his bag, A Study in Scarlet in one hand as he headed up the stairs.

Maybe if he read fast enough, he could finish Chapter One, at least, before he was called down for dinner.

---

Friday night slid in like a black cat on the prowl, and sighed contentedly. It had been a good week for her: she had passed that pop quiz in Mathematics with flying colors, and her History teacher had given her an A for her paper, which was about literature in the Heian Period. Apart from that, there were other, smaller things, such as the box of her favorite chocolates that Momoshiro had given her last Wednesday to thank her for helping him out with his paper, and the greetings that she now got from the members of the tennis club – including one normally-reticent Captain.

She couldn't help but smile at the thought. It had been two weeks since she and Tezuka had first started talking, and they were now well along on their friendship – or so she liked to think. They had met again that weekend at the bookshop, where she had given him the copy of Fiddlers that she had promised him, and he had returned her copy of A Study in Scarlet, saying that he hadn't been quite able to put it down and that was why he was able to finish it in a week. After that, he invited her to go the café again with him, and that was where they talked again about the books that they enjoyed reading, and she had agreed to lend him another one of her books, which she gave to him that Monday.

    "-chan? -chan, could I ask you something?"

looked up in response to her mother calling her name. "Hai, 'Kaa-san?"

Her mother gave her a somewhat confused look, brows furrowing slightly. "-chan, where did you put your copy of The Historian? I was planning to read it."

blinked, and grimaced. "Ah, gomen, 'Kaa-san, but I lent it out to someone earlier this week."

    "Oh?" The confused look did not leave her mother's face; instead, it became more pronounced. "But -chan, you rarely ever lend your books out to anyone... To whom did you lend it out to?"

blushed. "Um... A-a sempai at school..."

    "A sempai?" The older woman tilted her head, and moved over to sit on the couch next to her. "Which sempai is this, hm, -chan?"

felt her blush deepen. "Tezuka Kunimitsu."

    "Ah... I see..." Her mother chuckled softly. "So that would explain why you're reading this, then." Here, she tapped the book that was on the table: Pablo Neruda's One Hundred Love Sonnets. A little blue tassel peeked out from between the pages, indicating the page where had put her bookmark.

    "It's nothing like that, 'Kaa-san!" protested. "He and I are just friends; that's all."

    "Hontou? Then why are you reading Neruda's One Hundred Love Sonnets?"

    "This? It-it was just... I just thought that it was... That is-"

Her mother laughed softly, and embraced her. "-chan, it's alright. No need to be embarrassed about it to me, of all people. I'm your mother." She pulled back, and smiled when her mother's soothing hands stroked the errant strands of her hair away from her face. "Do you like this boy?"

    "Well..." cast a sidelong glance at the book on the table. "I think I do. Momo-kun says that he's very stern and that he can be quite scary, and I think that's the truth. But I like to think that he's really quite nice. And he's very intelligent too; I think he's the only other person aside from you and 'Tou-san and Junko-chan whom I can talk to about books and get really smart responses."

The older woman nodded, and then asked the question that had been dreading: "Does he like you?"

bowed her head. "I... I don't really know."

Her mother nodded, and then stood up. "Give it some time. You never know when he will come out and say that he likes you."

gave her mother a look. " 'Kaa-san, I don't even know if he likes me that way. What if we stay just friends?"

    "Then that is just as good, don't you think? But still, keep your hopes up." Her mother giggled. "Your father and I were the same: we were just 'friends' for several years until he slipped a note into one of the books I had lent him, and on the note he was asking if he could marry me!"

    " 'Kaa-san, we've only known each other for two weeks. I don't think I can expect a marriage proposal from him, can I?" asked dryly as she gave her mother a wry look.

The older woman laughed, and pinched her daughter's nose as she stood up. "Really, -chan, you're becoming very literal! It was just an example, you know." She headed towards the kitchen, but paused in the entryway, and smiled at . "Just remember, -chan: you can't learn everything from books."

blinked at her mother, wondering at the rather cryptic statement, but shook her head, and went back to reading while she waited for her mother to call her for dinner.

---

Time marched on as it usually did, and Seigaku kept on winning matches. After defeating Fudoumine at the finals of the District Preliminaries, their next challenge was the Tokyo Prefecturals, and their first game was against a school called Kamata.

Momoshiro glanced at the bleachers where Seigaku's supporters would be sitting, and grinned. Quite a lot of people had turned up that day, and he was glad to note that the person he had been hoping to see was there as well.

    "Oi, -chan!" he hollered, jogging over to where she was seated with her best friend, Kiritsuki Junko. "I'm really glad that you could make it today." He looked over at Junko, and winked. "Nice to see you here too, Kiritsuki-chan."

Junko laughed, and swatted him on the arm. "You know you can call me Junko-chan, Momo-kun."

grinned, and giggled. "You know, you two are so cute together. Ever considered getting together as a couple?"

Momoshiro blinked, and laughed aloud at 's statement, even as Junko blushed and protested loudly over the idea. The truth was, though, that Momoshiro had been quite interested in Kiritsuki Junko, and had talked about it more than once with . The only reason why he was laughing was to cover up the fact that what had said was true.

    "Hoi, hoi! You're here!"

Momoshiro looked up, and watched as Kikumaru bounded over, a bright smile on his face, while Oishi and Fuji walked behind him. He grinned at his senpai, and slid a glance at . "-chan decided to grace us with her presence today."

    "Momo-kun! Why are you being so mean to me?"

Momoshiro grinned, and winked. "Come on now, -chan, admit it: you rarely come to any of the matches – you didn't do that when we were freshmen."

    "I was helping my parents at the bookshop," protested. "And as for today, it's just because my parents said that I could have the day off, so: here I am."

Oishi laughed in a comforting manner. "Maa, maa, -chan. Either way, we're all glad that you're here to watch our games. We're really happy for the support."

Fuji smiled, and nodded. "Hai, -chan. We're glad that you could come." He looked off to one side, and Momoshiro noticed the way that his smile seemed to shift, as if to indicate that he knew something they didn't. "I have a feeling something will happen soon."

    "What are you all doing standing over there?"

Momoshiro stiffened upon hearing Tezuka's voice from behind the others, but before Seigaku's buchou could reprimand them further, Fuji spoke up: "Saa, Tezuka, look who's here." After saying so, he stepped aside to reveal sitting between Junko and Kikumaru.

Tezuka's eyes seemed to narrow slightly, but he turned, and nodded his head politely at . "I'm glad that you could come, -chan."

Momoshiro blinked. Did he just hear what Tezuka said right? Did he just add the "-chan" suffix to 's name? Just how familiar was Tezuka with ? He had heard from Kikumaru that Fuji had told him that there was a possibility that Tezuka knew outside of school, but how come hadn't acknowledged Tezuka until recently? It was something that had bugged him ever since he had learned about it.

smiled, and nodded back. "I'm glad to be here, Tezuka-sempai."

Tezuka nodded once, and almost seemed to smile before he turned, and started walking towards Coach Ryuuzaki. "Minna, let's go. We have games to win."

Fuji chuckled, and shook his head. "Tezuka's mind is always on business." He turned to , and smiled apologetically. "Pardon him, -chan; Tezuka can be like that."

laughed softly, and waved her hand. "It's okay. He's got a lot of important things on his mind."

    "That's true," Fuji replied, and there was just something in the way he said those words that made Momoshiro wonder about whether or not there was something going on with Tezuka and . Although he smiled when he said his see-you-laters to and Junko, his mind was on a different track entirely.

He glanced at his buchou. Just what in the world was going on?

---

He crossed his arms a bit more tightly than usual, so as to mask the shiver that traveled through his body. He cast a discreet sideways glance at the bleachers, and managed to look just in time to see laugh at something that her companion, Kiritsuki Junko, had just said. He forced a blush down from his cheeks, and focused back on the court, where the Doubles Two team of Kawamura Takashi and Momoshiro Takeshi were currently playing against the Kamata Doubles Two team of Murata and Yagi.

Her presence puzzled him. While he felt that she was there for Momoshiro, as she usually was, a small part of him hoped that, now that she knew him and – dare he say it? – liked him, she had come also to cheer him on.

Tezuka allowed himself to smile slightly. No one said that hoping was such a bad thing.

Beside him, Fuji chuckled, and murmured: "If you keep smiling any more, Tezuka, people might begin to see, and wonder, too."

Tezuka glanced at Fuji, one eyebrow raised. "And why are you so suddenly concerned over the image that I project to the rest of the world?"

    "Because you're going to give yourself away," Fuji explained, and looked at Tezuka with his eyes open and that trademark smile of his on his face. "I know you like her, but have you told her yet?"

    "Of course I have. She is my friend, after all."

Fuji sighed. "I don't think you understand what I mean, Tezuka. Have you told her that you like her?"

Tezuka opened his mouth to say that he had, but he caught himself in time. He looked away. "Iie, I haven't." He was suddenly intrigued by the fact that the Kamata Doubles Two pair hadn't, as yet, managed to score anything against Kawamura and Momoshiro.

    "Ah," Fuji murmured, focusing on the game as well. "I suggest that you do something soon. Considering how she has been growing steadily closer with the other Regulars, it would not surprise me if someone who was a little more forthright than you decided that he would make a move."

Tezuka did not like the sound of that. He turned, and glared at Fuji. "And just what are you trying to imply, Fuji?"

Fuji chuckled, and shrugged. "Nothing, really: I just think that you need to remember that you are not the only one who sees -chan. We all have eyes, after all."

    "Fuji-"

    "Eiji seems to have gotten rather close to her," Fuji remarked, seemingly in an off-handed manner. He smiled, as if to himself. "Well, I suppose that shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Eiji is such an affable person, after all, and he is very easy to get along with. He's told me often enough how cute he thinks she is – and I will admit, she is quite cute." He looked at Tezuka, and his smile was one that even Tezuka found thoroughly unnerving. "What are you going to do, Tezuka?"

Tezuka clenced his jaw, and focused on the game, which seemed to be running down to its last few moments. Though the Kamata Doubles Two pair had managed to get a couple of points off Kawamura and Momoshiro, they had not managed to win a single game at all. It looked like this was going to be a classic, open-and-shut, six-games-to-love match.

When it was time for the Doubles One teams to go head-to-head, he couldn't help but narrow his eyes at Kikumaru when he saw the red-headed player look over his shoulder, and wave at someone in the bleachers. He didn't need to look to know just whom he was waving at.

He discreetly shook his head. Why was he getting envious, to begin with? Kikumaru was like that with almost everyone – after all, a non-affectionate Kikumaru was an abnormal or perhaps very ill Kikumaru.

But that didn't do anything at all to soothe his jealousy.

As expected, the Golden Pair wiped the court with Kamata's Yamamoto-Yano pair, and then it was time for the Singles Three matches to begin. As soon as Kikumaru was off the court, the first thing he did was bound over to , and give her a blow-by-blow account of the game from his perspective. He didn't know if understood tennis enough to comprehend what Kikumaru was talking about, but he suspected that, in the end, it didn't matter: Kikumaru's effervescence overrode everything else.

Why didn't he know if she knew tennis? Maybe because they were too busy discussing other things besides tennis to talk about it. Not that he minded, but it just seemed rather odd that he had never once discussed tennis with .

He also found the realization extremely exhilarating.

The Singles Three and Singles Two matches were quickly over, and then it was his turn to play. As he unzipped his jacket and draped it over the backrest of the bench he had previously been sitting in, he snuck another glance at . He realized, with a mild start, that she was watching him, and that her cheeks had suddenly become slightly pink. He wondered at that. Was it because of the heat? Or was it because of something else?

Fuji, who had been sitting nearby since the end of the Singles Three match, smiled serenely as he sipped from his bottle of water. "She lives nearby, you know. I have a feeling that she just walked here from her home."

Tezuka raised an eyebrow at Fuji, and was about to ask just what exactly Fuji meant by that statement, when he heard the referee call out his name, asking him to come to the court so that the match could begin. He sighed quietly, and picked up his racket, shooting once last glance at before he focused on the business at hand.

---

    "Six games to love! Seishun Gakuen wins!"

blinked out of her awe-induced daze when the referee called out the score of the Singles One match. She had never, ever seen tennis played like that before. She had known that it could be a graceful, elegant sport, but the way Tezuka played it lifted it, in her eyes, from a sport into sheer, high art.

She watched as he returned to the bench, wiping the sweat off his brow with a towel that he plucked out of his tennis bag. She had just seen a whole new side to Tezuka, the one that inspired awe and amazement in everyone who saw him on the court. Although his face remained as still as ever, there was that gleam in his eye that indicated how much he enjoyed playing the sport.

It was only then that she realized that, in all the conversations that they had had in the past, they had never once talked about tennis. It should have been the most obvious thing to talk about, but it never got brought up. Instead, they talked about books, and lately, poetry, and anything and everything else. They just didn't talk about tennis.

Seeing him play, though, was a sharp reminder to her of who he was, and where his passions lay. It had been so easy to think of him as the boy she knew, the one who sat across from her at the café, drinking tea and chuckling along with her whenever the occasion called for it while they talked about what they had read over the previous week. It was easy to think of him as the boy she exchanged books with – the same boy that she had grown to like in a more romantic way over the past few weeks.

But then this game reminded her that his only focus at the moment was tennis and schoolwork. His focus was devoted mostly – if not solely – to those two things.

It hurt to realize that, in the end, she really wasn't a part of the equation of his life.

    "Nya, -chan, why do you look so sad?"

looked up, and blinked at Kikumaru. "Ah, Eiji-sempai!" She smiled, and shook her head, attempting to make herself look more cheerful. "I was just thinking about something, that's all."

Kikumaru grinned, and placed a hand affectionately on her head. "You shouldn't be so sad! We just won, after all!"

laughed, and nodded. It didn't take very long for Kikumaru's cheerful mood to catch on to her; his laughter was very infectious. "I know that, Eiji-sempai. Congratulations to all of you."

She heard a soft, familiar chuckle, and when she looked up she saw Fuji standing just behind Kikumaru. "I do have to admit, it was a good game," he remarked. "They put up a very good fight."

    "But you hardly looked as if there was any struggle to begin with," said. "Tezuka-sempai especially... He made it look as if he was just practicing."

Fuji chuckled again. "Well, that may be true, but he was quite serious out there. I don't think I've seen him that serious in a while..." He looked at . "Maybe he was trying to impress someone..."

blinked at Fuji, feeling that he was trying to imply that Tezuka had been trying to impress her, but somehow, she didn't believe it. Why would Tezuka have to impress anyone, least of all her? "Fuji-sempai, I don't think I understand what you're talking about."

Fuji smiled, and shrugged. "How do you understand it, -chan?" His eyes opened then, a seam of cerulean blue peeking from between his lashes. "You might be surprised that your first guess is very close to the truth."

    "Nya, stop saying such scary things, Fuji!" Kikumaru scolded. "You're my best friend so I'm used to you being like that, but -chan might not be!"

laughed, though a little uneasily, and then checked her watch. She sighed, and looked up at the late afternoon sky. She had promised her parents that she would go home as soon as the match was over, and she knew that she now had to keep her end of that promise. She smiled at Fuji and Kikumaru, and stood up. "Gomen nasai, sempai, but I have to go now. I promised my parents that I would go home as soon as everything was over."

Fuji looked at her inquiringly. "Are you going to walk home?"

    "Hai. My house isn't that far from here, so I just walked all the way from there to here."

    "I'll walk you home!" Kikumaru declared. "It's starting to get late, and it's not a good idea for a pretty girl like you to be walking alone."

laughed, trying to keep as much of the embarrassment she felt out of her voice. "Ah... Well...arigatou for the offer, Eiji-sempai, but really, it's not necessary."

    "It is," Fuji responded, his voice as soft as ever. He smiled slightly at . "The world isn't as safe as it used to be, -chan."

    "I know that... Demo... Junko-chan-"

    "Momo-kun has already taken care of that," Fuji responded with a smile, and nodded towards the exit. When looked, she saw that Junko and Momoshiro were already leaving together, the two of them laughing about something that one or the other must have said.

sighed, and rolled her eyes. Leave it to Momoshiro and Junko to leave her high and dry. She would forgive them for leaving her like that if they got together by next week, but if they didn't, then she could make life very miserable for the both of them.

    "-chan? Daijobou ka?"

snapped back to reality, and looked up at Kikumaru's concerned face, and Fuji's still-smiling one. She laughed, and nodded. "Hai, daijobou. I was just thinking about something."

Kikumaru nodded, and grinned. "So, shall I walk you home?"

    "Kikumaru."

saw how quickly Kikumaru stiffened, and when she looked over his shoulder, she saw Tezuka standing there, looking as stern as ever, his jacket zipped up partway and his tennis bag on his shoulder.

She watched, rather fascinated, as he approached. The way that the light of the sunset streaked through his brown hair and seemed to tinge it with soft auburn, and the way that it tinged his normally pale skin with a muted golden glow made him seem all the more handsome than he already was.

felt heat rise to her cheeks so fast that even she was startled, and she looked away from him, praying that the sunset would mask the blush, make it seem like some trick of the light.

Kikumaru laughed uneasily then, making look back at them to watch what was going on. She saw Kikumaru turn to face his buchou. "Hai, Buchou?"

    "I'll take -chan home. Her house is on my way, anyway."

Kikumaru blinked, looking confused. "Demo, Buchou, isn't your house on the other-"

    "The honour is yours if you want it, Tezuka," Fuji cut in smoothly, a rather unnerving smile on his face as he continued: "Just make sure that she gets home in one piece."

Tezuka raised his eyebrow, as if asking Fuji what he meant by that, but Fuji just chuckled, and grasped Kikumaru's elbow, leading him away from them. When they were far away enough, he looked back at , and this time, a smile softened the expression on his face. "Shall we go now, -chan?"

smiled, and nodded her assent, picking up the small bag that she had brought with her to hold her cell phone and her wallet. The two of them walked towards the gate of the tennis garden, and out of it, in silence – a silence that remained even when they were already relatively far away, walking down the sidewalk towards the general direction of 's house, which was just a few blocks away from where her family's bookshop was located.

This was unusual, and knew it. Normally, when it was the two of them, they would be talking and chatting about something or other – a new book, perhaps, or the latest episode of CSI or that new show, Numb3rs. By now, they would both be smiling and talking, one or the other trying to get a point across that the other might or might not accept. Theories and counter-theories ought to have been flying back and forth by now, a verbal rally, as it were, and all of it being done in the spirit of good fun.

Yet here they were, silent, as if everything that they could say or talk about had already been discussed before, and there was no use talking about anything anymore.

She inhaled, steeling herself to break the silence. She turned her head towards him, and blinked when she caught him looking at her. There was a gleam in his eyes that spoke of something, but she didn't know what. She blinked at him. "Tezuka-sempai? Is something the matter?"

He blinked once, and then turned away, shaking his head. "Iie, -chan, it was nothing." There was a brief pause, and then he asked: "Were you going to say something?"

nodded, and then softly replied: "I was just going to say that you were wonderful out there. I had heard before that you were an exceptional player, but I hadn't gotten to see you play until today."

Again, there was a softening in his expression, and he smiled as he nodded his head. "Arigatou gozaimasu, -chan. That is very kind of you to say so."

    "You know, I just realized recently that we never really talked about tennis," remarked, trying to keep the conversation flowing if only to get rid of the silence, which had begun to become rather uncomfortable. "I always thought that that would be one of the first things we'd talk about, when I imagined talking to you."

Tezuka's head seemed to swivel in her direction. "Imagined talking to me?"

realized, only then, what sort of a huge blunder she had made, and paused, feeling the sting of blood in her cheeks as it all rushed away from her extremities to color her skin. But since she had already gone on and started making a fool of herself, she decided that she might as well finish the job and get it over with, so that they could move on to something a lot less embarrassing.

    "I always kept hearing from Momo-kun just how smart you were, and sometimes it made me wonder what it would be like to talk to you – at least, before you and I actually got acquainted." She laughed, and waved a hand. "It's just a strange fascination on my part, I suppose. Some people think that I lead a wonderful life, but really, I think that it can be rather lonely too. Not a lot of people have the same priorities as I do: Junko-chan is one, and you are another, as I have learnt, and am still learning.

    "But you're more than that. You're not just someone smart whom I can talk to. You can do so many wonderful things, Tezuka-sempai, things that I can only dream of accomplishing, and I-"

She stopped dead in the middle of her sentence when she felt a warm hand close over her own. At the contact, she looked up, wide-eyed, at Tezuka, who was gazing down at her from his rather considerable height. There was something in his expression that told her there was something important that he wanted to say, and he wanted to tell her now, before they got anywhere near her house.

Tezuka inhaled, closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was smiling, too, a rather nostalgic expression on his face. "I guess you really did not see me, then."

blinked. Where had that come from? "Nani?"

Tezuka looked around, and then led her towards a nearby bench, located just within a small park – not too far from the sidewalk, but not too close to it either. As they sat down, he sighed, and his gaze became distant. "During the vacation before your entrance into junior high, do you remember a time when a boy came into the bookstore while you were shelving books?"

shook her head. She didn't remember, but she knew just as much who that boy was supposed to be. "It was you, wasn't it?"

    "Hai." He looked away, and much to her surprise, a faint hint of pink colored the apples of his cheeks. "I thought that you were the prettiest girl I had ever seen. When I came back the next weekend, though, you weren't there. Every time I came back, you weren't there, either."

    "I was in Kamakura halfway through the vacation," murmured, remembering that particular time. "My family was visiting my grandmother, and we came back three days before school started."

Tezuka nodded thoughtfully, and fell quiet. Once again, awkward silence settled in between the two of them, but at length, Tezuka shifted, leaned over towards , and whispered:

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way. (1)

shivered, but laughed – softly, nervously. "Pablo Neruda, Sonnet Seventeen." She turned her head slightly, so that she was looking into Tezuka's dark brown eyes, but not looking at them either. She could feel her cheeks burning, and she made no effort to disguise it. "Hontou, Tezuka-sempai?"

She felt, and not just heard, Tezuka chuckling in her ear, followed by his hand cupping her cheek to turn her face towards his. "Just 'Tezuka' is enough from now on, ," he murmured, and a fraction of a second later his lips brushed over hers – seeking, gentle, urging her to accept what he had told her, because although he had used another person's words to convey what he felt, the emotions behind them were very genuine, and very sincere.

laughed softly, and threw her arms around Tezuka's neck, the words of a poem also passing through her mind as he returned her embrace:

Every beginning
is only a sequel, after all,
and the book of events
is always open halfway through. (2)

---

    "Nya... That's so sweet! Ne, Fuji?"

    "Mmm. I agree with you, Eiji."

    "... Do you think Tezuka will get mad at us if he finds out that we technically set this afternoon up?"

    "Iie, I don't think so. He'll be too happy to care."

    "I hope you're right, Fuji..."

    "Oh, trust me. I am."
 

fin.
Kage
11.November.2005

NOTES: