~ Mireille Guiliano

"There is hardly any activity, any enterprise, which is started out with such tremendous hopes and expectations, and yet which fails so regularly, as love."

~ Erich Fromm; German-born American social philosopher and psychoanalyst; 1900-1980

Expect the Unexpected

    "Ne, Mizu-chan, did you hear the news?"

Shishido Ryou tried to ignore the noise that his classmates were making. There was an exam on History that day, and the last thing he wanted to do was fail because of his negligence. While it was true that History was one of his best subjects, he believed that being good at something didn't mean that one had the right to slack off.

Ashikagi Mizuki, the girl being addressed, responded anyway: "Eh? What news, Suki-chan?"

Miraiwa Tatsuki's voice softened slightly, and in a conspiratorial whisper, she answered: "I heard that we're going to get a new classmate today!"

    "Hontou?"

    "Hai. It's going to be a girl, and I heard that she used to be from Rikkai Dai, and that she used to be on the girls' track team there. Rumor has it that she's one of the best."

Shishido blinked at that. This new student was a former member of Rikkai Dai's track team? She must be good then, he thought. He was very much aware of the high standards that the Kanagawa-based university set for its students, and while he had no particular interest in the achievements of any other of Hyoutei's teams apart from the one that he was in, the idea of having an athlete from a rival school transferring to their school was something that was cause for interest.

The door of the classroom slid open then, and Shishido looked up to see who had entered. It was their teacher, but there was a girl walking behind him.

    "Class, today you have a new classmate: . Her family just transferred from Kanagawa, so I hope that you will make her feel welcome."

The girl – – bowed politely to the class in greeting. "Good morning. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am , formerly of Rikkai Dai University."

The class chorused a greeting, before the teacher finally allowed her to sit down, indicating that she was to occupy the chair in front of Shishido.

Shishido watched her with a bit of interest, automatically tuning out the flurry of whispered exchanges that went on around him. She was rather tall for a girl, and the way that her uniform fit her suggested that she was an athlete. She did not look overly muscular; rather, she was built along long and lean lines: the build of a runner, and a fast one, at that.

Her name sounded familiar to him, he mused, watching the back of her head. ...Where had he heard that name before?

The scratch of chalk on blackboard, accompanied by the sound of the teacher's voice, reminded him that he ought to keep his mind focused on the task at hand, and he did just that. His speculations on the newcomer could wait. Besides, it would be better if he talked to the others about this and listened to what they had to say about it.

Ohtori blinked at his senpai. "A new student? And she's from Rikkai Dai?"

Shishido nodded. "Hai. She was one of the Regulars on the track team there."

    "She must be good, then," Ohtori murmured thoughtfully.

    "So you heard about her too, a~n?"

Ohtori glanced to the source of the carefully cultivated, bored-sounding drawl, and saw Atobe Keigo standing nearby, his self-confident smirk firmly in place, and looking as if he knew something that the others didn't.

    "Heard about whom?" Shishido's response was gruff, but Ohtori knew that his senpai meant no disrespect; it was just the way he talked.

Atobe sauntered over towards them. "That new girl: . She's the talk of the entire school."

    "So you've heard of her too, Atobe-buchou?" Ohtori inquired.

Atobe smirked, and ran a hand through his hair. "Of course I do. Ore-sama knows everyone worth knowing." He tilted his head slightly. "Ore-sama also knows for a fact that, even as we speak, she is currently at the track oval, trying out for the track team."

Ohtori glanced at Shishido, and it seemed as if the latter had just gotten this strange look in his eye that, Ohtori realized, was vague recognition. "Ne, Shishido-senpai, have you heard of her too?"

Shishido's eyes narrowed slightly. "I think I have... I just can't be sure when or where. Her name sounded familiar to me this morning, when the teacher announced it, but I don't know why."

Atobe chuckled again. "Of course she would be familiar to you." He turned around then, and it seemed as if he was heading away from the tennis courts. "Would you like to jog your memory, a~n, Shishido?"

Shishido nodded, and started walking after Atobe, Ohtori slightly behind him.

It did not take long for them to get to the track oval, where a small crowd had already gathered. Ohtori blinked, a bit surprised by the number of people present. "It's as if they're actually going to watch a track-and-field meet," he murmured. He glanced at his two senpai. "Is it really such a big deal that this is trying out for the team?"

    "It is," Atobe responded, and Ohtori noticed that his face was quite serious. He nodded towards the track oval, where a girl was talking to one of the coaches. "Does the name 'Quicksilver' mean anything to you?"

Ohtori blinked. He knew what the word meant, of course, but the way Atobe said it seemed to indicate that, in the context that he was using it, it was a nickname, an appellation of some sort given to a person.

Shishido's frown deepened. "It sounds so familiar... Why can't I seem to place it in the proper context?" He growled softly: annoyed, perhaps, at his inability to remember. "Gekidasa..."

    "Do you mean that the name 'Quicksilver' is a nickname that applies to ?" Ohtori ventured.

Atobe nodded slightly. "In a way, it is, but it is more than that, because in some ways, it is actually true." He smirked. "You are about to see why: watch."

Ohtori blinked, not quite comprehending what Atobe was trying to tell him, but he watched anyway. The girl who had been talking to the coach a while ago was now standing at the starting line, crouched forward in the usual fashion of runners. A flag was dropped, and she was off.

Ohtori watched her, holding his breath as she dashed across the pavement. A few scant moments later, she had crossed the one-hundred meter finish line, and it hardly looked as if she had broken into a sweat.

His eyes widened. He had never seen anyone run that fast before. "Sugoi..."

Shishido made a sound of recognition, before he murmured, "Now I remember her..."

Ohtori glanced at his senpai. "Who is she, then, Shishido-senpai?"

    "When we were in second year, there was this big fuss about a track star from Rikkai, who had beaten the fastest one-hundred meter dash speed record in the national junior high level," Shishido explained. "That person was ."

Atobe nodded. "She was given the nickname 'Quicksilver' while she was at Rikkai, because she was so fast. The nickname stuck, and she has been called that even outside of Rikkai."

Ohtori nodded thoughtfully, watching as the girl walked back to the coach, who showed her a stopwatch. She seemed to be nodding thoughtfully, and conferring with the coach about something.

Atobe smiled, seemingly pleased. "Well, people like , gifted and skilled as they are, are an asset to Hyoutei, regardless of what they do. What is important is that they are the best at it."

    "What are all of you doing all the way here?"

Ohtori looked over his shoulder, recognizing the Kansai inflection in the drawl that had spoken those words. "Oshitari-senpai?"

Oshitari Yuushi approached them then, his hands tucked casually into the pockets of his jacket, that smirk of his plastered firmly on his face. "What's all this commotion, Atobe?"

It seemed as if Atobe's smirk became crueler, more wicked, as he turned to face Oshitari. "Ah, Yuushi! We were just watching trying out for the track team."

Ohtori noticed a slight shift in Oshitari's face. It wasn't much, but it seemed as if he had gone a bit paler than usual, and his eyes had widened ever-so-slightly behind his glasses. " ?" Shishido nodded. "Hai. She just transferred from Rikkai to our school. She's in the same class as I am."

Oshitari nodded, and focused on , this time as she prepared for a longer run.

Ohtori didn't like making assumptions, but there was something about the way that Oshitari looked when Atobe mentioned 's name, that made him a bit curious. It was as if Oshitari knew – and not just by reputation.

It made him wonder: did Oshitari know on a personal level? It didn't seem possible, but who knew? He hardly knew anything about his senpai's life beyond school and tennis – then again, no one probably did.

Oshitari walked over to them, and stood beside Atobe. He was silent for a while, and then he said: "She has good form." He smirked. "And her legs are stunning."

Normally Atobe would have thrown some witticism or another in response to Oshitari's statement, as a way of putting Hyoutei's tensai in his place, but surprisingly, he didn't. Instead, Atobe replied: "Hmmm, so it would seem."

Ohtori blinked. What in the world was going on? As far as he could tell, Atobe knew something about Oshitari's connection to – presuming that there was a connection there to begin with – and that he did not disapprove of it.

As Atobe announced that they had to go back to the tennis courts for their own practice, Ohtori's thoughts continued to swirl through his mind. He looked at Oshitari's back as he and Atobe walked ahead of him and Shishido, conversing in low tones that he could not hear.

He sighed, and simply decided to give up. Since no one was going to tell him anything anyway, he might as well let the whole thing go.

The world had suddenly taken a turn for the stranger. He felt as if his life had transformed into a romantic comedy: Serendipity, most likely, only in this case it was rather one-sided since the Sara to his Jonathan didn't exactly reciprocate his feelings.

Or did she? It had been four years since they had last seen each other, since they had last spoken to one another. Four years ago, they had only been children – perhaps, at that time, the reason she had rejected him was because she was still too young to understand what he had been trying to tell her. They were both fourteen now. She should understand him now.

Oshitari Yuushi sighed as he wiped the sweat off his face with a towel. The way they met had been simple enough: he had been sitting on the beach at Kamakura, looking out towards Sagami Bay while waiting for his parents and older sister to come and get him, when a ball rolled up to his feet. He picked it up, and as he straightened, he found himself looking at the face of a girl.

He did not know precisely what made him crash straight into infatuation with her. Perhaps it had been the way that the dying afternoon light made her features seem to glow. Or maybe it was because her smile was so pretty – even if she was missing one of her front teeth. Whatever the case may have been, Oshitari knew, at ten years old, that this girl standing in front of him was very, very special to him.

They met quite often after that: his family was staying quite a while in Kamakura, while the girl – whose name, he learned after giving back her ball, was – was a resident of the city. They spent a lot of time together, since her house was just walking distance from the beach, and they often played together whenever Oshitari could find time to get away from his family. Sometimes, the two of them went to the stalls and shops that dotted the beachfront and the streets leading to the temples, and the days often faded into warm summer nights sticky with fruits dipped in syrup and lots of cotton candy.

But then, two days before his family left, he got it into his ten-year-old brain that he ought to kiss her, to tell her how he felt – which was precisely what he did, in front of a whole group of her playmates.

The result was disastrous. She ran, ran all the way home, the jeers and laughter of her playmates trailing behind her, while cries of "Ew! -chan has cooties from the Kansai Nerd!" resounded in her wake. He tried to follow her, but his parents called him back. He tried going to her house the next day in order to apologize, but her mother told him that she had gone elsewhere. On the day that his family was supposed to leave to go back to Osaka, he waited on the beach, sitting on the exact same spot where he first met her, hoping against hope that she would come by and see him off.

But she never came.

    "Oi, Yuushi."

Oshitari looked up, and saw Atobe looking at him with a look that said: "You had better tell me what's on your mind." Oshitari sighed, and waved his hand. "It's nothing, Atobe."

    "Somehow, Ore-sama has difficulty believing that." Atobe moved closer, and his voice dropped in pitch to take on a rather conspiratorial tone. "I know just how long you've been keeping an eye on her," he said, dropping the royal "we" that he had been using up until then to refer to himself. "It's no use lying to me when I know how long you've been watching her."

Oshitari resisted the urge to swear. Atobe was right: he had been keeping an eye out on her, ever since he heard last year that a from Rikkai Dai had broken one of the track records on the national junior high level. After confirming that this was indeed the same he had met when he was ten years old, he kept a close watch on the progress that she made through the many track meets that she competed in.

It was only a few moments earlier, when he had seen her there, on the track, that everything came rushing right back to him. He thought that he had managed to put her out of his mind for the time being, but the mere sight of her was enough to shake him this way.

This could not have just been mere infatuation. It was impossible for anyone to nurse something as shallow as infatuation for more than four years. No, he thought as he stuffed his towel back into his bag. Whatever he felt for , it was more than just infatuation.

    "What are you going to do about it?"

Oshitari resisted the urge to groan. He had completely forgotten that he was still talking to Atobe. He glanced at his buchou, smirked, and shrugged. "What do you think I will do?"

    "Romance her, of course," Atobe replied. "You have liked her all this time, so there is no reason for you not to. The question, though, is how you are going to do it.

    "And why should I tell you about that?" Oshitari threw back. He zipped his bag closed. "However I choose to do it, though, it will be perfect, like something out of a movie."

Now Atobe frowned. "That is ambitious of you, Yuushi – too ambitious. There is a reason why romance like that stays on the movie screen, after all."

    "And why should it just stay there, if I can manage to replicate it in real life?" Oshitari pushed his glasses up his nose. "She is very much worth it, after all."

    "This is love that we are talking about here, Yuushi. No one can prepare for love."

    "I agree. No one can prepare for love: after all, I could never have prepared for the fact that she showed up here, in Hyoutei, of all places." He smirked. "But every other variable can be manipulated just so. I can plan out a romance, Atobe. It should not be too hard."

Atobe frowned, and turned, walking away as he did so. "Very well then, have it your way. One cannot prepare for love, Yuushi. Remember that. If you realize that too late, Ore-sama will not be blamed for your failure."

She purred as she stretched, smiling as she felt her toes curling in her shoes. It feels great to be running again, she thought, quite pleased with her performance that afternoon on the track. She was surprised to see the number of people who had come to see her run; she never really imagined that she was that popular outside of Kanagawa.

At the thought of Kanagawa, she sighed, and scuffed the toe of her shoe on the path that she was walking along. She was missing all her friends already, especially Marui Bunta, who had been her closest friend since she was a child. The two of them used to live a hop, skip, and a jump away from the beach at Kamakura, and they used to be part of a large group of children who played together during the afternoons. Though Bunta eventually went into tennis and she went into track, the two of them still maintained close contact with one another – a relationship that became firmer than ever when they realized that they were classmates upon entering junior high at Rikkai Dai.

She reached into her bag, and allowed her fingers to brush over her cell phone. They were always just a call away, she told herself. The entire tennis team had passed her cell phone around on the Friday afternoon before the weekend that her family moved out of Kanagawa for good and went to Tokyo, and all of them – Yukimura Seiichi and Sanada Genichirou, as well – crammed their numbers into her cell phone. "Call us!" was the message that they were getting across to her, and she had to admit: it was very sweet of them to do that.

Still, she did miss their physical presence, especially since the environment of Hyoutei was very different from how it was in Rikkai Dai. It was always as if the people here were competing in everything: from something as shallow as fashion, to something as important as grades. She liked competition, but really, sometimes she wanted to tell everyone to lighten up a little.

As she turned the corner and headed towards the gate, she noticed a small group of boys out of the corner of her eye. Normally this would not have attracted her attention – after all, Hyoutei was crammed with boys, and there were precious few girls around – but the fact that they seemed to be carrying tennis bags was something that gave cause for interest.

Had she, by some chance or other, managed to run into Hyoutei's famous tennis team? She hadn't been able to see them play against Rikkai last year, since she had to attend an important track meet at the same time that the finals for the Kanto Regional were taking place, but she had heard that this team was very, very good.

    " , isn't it?"

stopped, and glanced over her shoulder at the person who had spoken: a boy with an aristocratic and arrogant air, smirking at her as if he ruled the world. She nodded as she shifted her backpack over her shoulders. "Hai, I am . Was there something you wanted...?" She trailed off, not knowing who this boy was.

He bowed to her. "Atobe Keigo: buchou of the Tennis Regulars." With that, he nodded at the other boys around him, whom she assumed were the Regulars he was talking about.

nodded, and responded with a soft "Hai," her gaze skimming over their faces. Most of them seemed vaguely familiar, as if she had seen them in some magazine or other that Bunta or Jackal or one of the others was reading. At length, however, she came upon a face that was more than familiar, and her eyes widened, before narrowing, as the boy's name popped out of her mouth: "Oshitari Yuushi."

Oshitari – for it was indeed he – smirked at her as he pushed his glasses further up his nose. "It's been a while, hasn't it, -chan?" felt her hackles rise at hearing that nickname. "Don't you dare use that name, Megane-aho."

He chuckled then, and it only made her temper rise to the rafters. "You learned to use 'aho' from me, -chan."

    "Who says I did? I lived in Kamakura; I could have learned it from any Kansai-speaking visitor who happened to be there."

    "But you only started using it when I called one of those bullies four years ago 'aho.' Do you remember that, -chan?"

frowned. Of course she remembered it. How could she have forgotten? A group of bigger and meaner kids had been trying to steal her cotton candy, but Oshitari – then only ten years old, and skinny and gawky and looking absolutely awkward and nerdy with his glasses – had stood up against them. Fortunately, the bullies' parents came over to collect them before they could cause any real trouble, and soon she and Oshitari were left in peace to share the cotton candy.

But that was four years ago. Things had changed – a lot of things had changed – and her previous childish hate of him had dissolved into mild dislike. However, as she had just learned today, he could easily provoke her ire just by calling her by her nickname.

And, damn it, when did he learn to talk like that?

She schooled her features back into a neutral expression as she responded: "Of course I remember that. I'm rather surprised that you still remember as well, Oshitari-san." She stepped back, and bowed politely and formally. "Now if you will excuse me, gentlemen, I have to get home before my parents start to worry."

She turned on her heel, and started walking towards the school gate, not even daring to look back. She could almost sense the way that they were talking about her and her dismissal of Oshitari, but at that moment she didn't really care one whit about what they were saying about her. They could talk all they wanted.

She continued walking down the street, not even once looking over her shoulder in order to look back. However, once she had rounded a corner, she stopped, and leaned against the nearby wall, pressing a hand to her cheek. She could remember it like it was yesterday: the scent of bubblegum-flavored cotton candy, the sweet stickiness of his lips as they made contact with her cheek.

She felt her heart twist slightly. Maybe it had been a mistake, avoiding him those last two days before he left. Maybe it was a mistake, talking to him like that after four years of not seeing him – four years spent wondering whether or not she would see him again.

But she shook her head, and composed herself as she started walking once again. He was different now: more confident in himself, more comfortable in his skin, and certainly more handsome than he ever was before. He could have any girl in Hyoutei – more than likely, they were already throwing themselves at his feet.

She sighed, and shook her head. They had both grown up. It was time to let childish things go.

Over the succeeding days, he watched her movements carefully, the way a skilled hunter watches its prey. He made sure that he watched her discreetly, of course, but there were times when he really, really could not help calling attention to her.

    "Ne, -chan," he drawled as she walked past him in the hall. She had just come in from morning practice, and it appeared that she had just taken a shower, because her skin look freshly scrubbed, and her hair was still a bit damp. "When did your hair get so long?"

She coolly raised an eyebrow at him. "And what's it to you?"

    "Nothing, really: just that it seems to frame your face so elegantly when you let it down."

She rolled her eyes, and walked past him, muttering something he didn't hear as she headed for her classroom.

    "Ne, Yuushi, maybe you should just give up," suggested Mukahi Gakuto as the two of them entered their classroom, and settled down in their seats. "She's not about to give in to your smooth-talking anytime soon. She's obviously not like the other girls who drop at your feet just because you said hello."

Oshitari raised an eyebrow at Gakuto. "I was not trying to smooth-talk her," he replied. "I know that she won't fall for that anyway."

Gakuto's eyes narrowed. "Then why the hell do you keep on trying to get her that way if you know that it won't work?"

    "I just want to gauge her reaction," he responded, smirking. "I also have Shishido watching her for me as well, so that I will know how she acts when I am not around."

    "Shishido?" Gakuto asked, his eyebrow going up in surprise. "How did you get him to do anything for you?"

Oshitari smirked wickedly. "He and I struck a deal: if he watched -chan for me, I would give him the information he wanted regarding a...certain member of the girls' softball team."

Gakuto frowned. "That's blackmail."

    "Hardly. I'd like to think of it as bartering."

Everything was coming together as planned, or so Oshitari liked to believe. Just a few more days, perhaps, and he would be able to make his first move. It did not surprise him that had befriended Shishido; Oshitari always knew that found it easier to make friends with boys than with girls. It was one of the things that he remembered from when they were children, and apparently it still held true today.

There were other things, though, that no longer held true, such as the fact that she was apparently no longer adverse to having a relationship with a boy, or getting kissed by one. He had overheard her talking to some of her kohai on the track team about relationships, and had mentioned that, while she might not have liked the idea of kissing someone before, she certainly thought that it would be a rather nice thing now – if she had someone to kiss.

That information also meant that she had not yet been in a relationship. Oshitari smirked at the thought. It was just what he needed. As he gained more information, the better he could lay down the groundwork for his plans. He already had something in mind, but he needed some time to fully consolidate it. One more weekend was all he needed.

He smirked. He was going to remind that he was no longer the same kid that she knew four years ago, come hell or high water.

    "Ne, -senpai, what sort of training did you put your self through in order to run at that speed?"

laughed, and winked at Kaede Ritsuko, the girl who had asked the question. "Oh, I learned to run that fast because it was the only way I could avoid all those boys who were chasing me in Kanagawa."

Her teammates tittered and giggled, before Tazeiro Miki, the vice-captain of the track team, spoke up: "You must have been popular with the boys while you were in Kanagawa, ne, -chan?"

shrugged, grinning as she moved towards her locker, the other girls from the track team scattered all along the hallway as they, too, went to their lockers in order to pick up any necessary notebooks and such before they went home. "I think I was, but I have a feeling that they were just looking at my legs." As she spoke, she opened her locker, and came face-to-face with sunflowers tied together with yellow ribbon.

She blinked as she took them out. "Where did these come from?"

    "Eh? What's that?"

The rest of the track team crowded around her as she responded: "I found them in my locker."

All the girls suddenly started laughing. "Ne, minna, it looks like -senpai has an admirer!" Ritsuko chimed. "And sunflowers too! Aren't those you're favorite flowers, -senpai?

Miki giggled along. "And they are awfully hard to find at this time of year, being out of season."

glanced at her locker again, and found something wedged between two books. She reached over, and pulled out a small white envelope.

    "Ooh, a love letter," one of the girls teased, and stuck her tongue out in response as she opened the flap, and pulled out a note written on parchment paper with a fountain pen: For the lady who held my heart in her hand for the last four years.

scowled as she stuffed the note back into the envelope, not caring that she was wrinkling the paper. There was only one person who could say that she had "held his heart in her hand for four years."

    "Aho," she muttered under her breath. How dare he send her flowers? How dare he leave her a note – unsigned, at that – in her locker? Did he really think that she would not know that he was the one who had left the flowers? It was not like she had completely forgotten what he had done, after all.

Still, she felt her heart do a little flip when she read his note. So, all those years, she had been on his mind? She knew just how popular he was amongst the girls of Hyoutei; in the locker room, they used to go on and on and on about how cute he looked with his glasses, and how sexy his Kansai accent was when he was talking.

Now, rather guiltily, she had to admit to herself that, nerdy as he looked in his glasses four years ago, he did look rather cute. She also remembered – again, a bit guiltily – that she had actually liked his Kansai accent.

    "Ne, , what was on the note?" turned around, and realized, only then, that the others were looking at her expectantly: waiting for her to explain what had been in the note. She sighed. She really did not want to explain to them right now the whys and wherefores of her "relationship" with Oshitari Yuushi right now.

    "It was nothing," she replied with a wave of her hand, tucking the envelope in between the pages of her Math textbook. "You know, the usual: 'I like you, Anonymous.' Just that sort of thing, really: nothing too special."

The others frowned, disappointed. Obviously they had been expecting something a bit more than that.

Miki smiled at her then, and smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, -chan. You're bound to find out who it is soon enough." She winked. "Boys here can hardly keep a secret for long."

laughed, and thanked Miki for the reassurance, before she called out her leave to all the members, who called out their own goodbyes and farewells to her. She walked down the hallway, and kept on walking until she was outside, well away from prying eyes and ears.

With that done, she sighed, and leaned against a nearby tree as she pulled out the note, and read it again. She could not help but giggle, the thrill in her heart building up so that it made her feel giddy.

And then she remembered all the shower room and locker room talk, about how Oshitari had dated other girls before, and had left a string of broken hearts behind him as he did so. She frowned, and crumpled the note into a ball, tossing it and the sunflowers into a nearby trash bin on her way to the school gate.

Things had changed. He had changed. It was too much to think, too much to hope, that the Oshitari Yuushi she had imagined in her mind would be the same as the one in real life. She couldn't possibly want him even now, after learning just what sort of reputation he had.

Yet, even as she thought that, some part of her knew that she was just lying to herself.

Oshitari gritted his teeth in frustration as he walked to the tennis courts. It was not supposed to turn out like this.

All of his plans for romancing had failed, one by one, each after the other, like dominoes. First he gave her flowers: sunflowers, since he remembered her telling him four years ago that they were her favorite. He gave her three of those – never mind that they were so damn expensive during this time of year. That same afternoon, he found the sunflowers in a trash bin near the school gate.

That same day he went home feeling hurt, which eventually transformed into annoyance. He had fully intended on giving up, but then he watched Alex & Emma with his sister, and he thought that maybe, just like Alex, he wasn't supposed to be tossing in the towel so easily. The only difference was, unlike Alex, Oshitari knew that the girl he wanted was .

So he didn't give up. He decided that he would apply another tactic: chocolates. He knew that she liked chocolates, second only to cotton candy, but since he had no access to cotton candy, he decided to go for her favorite chocolates. He left a large box in her locker, knowing that she would not be able to throw it away.

However, that afternoon, when he took the long way around and passed by the track oval on his way to the tennis courts, he caught sight of several of the girls' track team members eating the chocolates that he had given – and she was nowhere in sight.

That, really, was a bit too much.

    "Oi, Yuushi! Concentrate on your game!"

Oshitari blinked, and snapped back to attention upon hearing Atobe's voice yelling at him from somewhere near the bleachers. When he looked and saw the frown on his buchou's face, and he knew that he had to stop thinking about this.

His pride nettled at him for losing his concentration. He was one of the most focused players in Hyoutei, for heaven's sake, and here he was, allowing some girl to ruin his focus.

He gripped his racket harder, and pulled off a perfect Higuma Otoshi. He was a patient man, but he was also a proud one. There was only so much he could tolerate of being made a fool of, and he was drawing the line here and now.

His mind drifted back momentarily to that day when he first kissed her, and he felt his heart twinge, but he quickly let it go. There was nothing he could do about that now. She had not liked him then, and she did not like him now. There was no use wasting his time trying to play Buddha and persuading a mountain that would never, ever budge.

After all, even Buddha had more important things to do than move stubborn mountains.

slid into her chair, sighing as she prepared her things for the classes that lay ahead. The adrenaline was still rushing through her after her jog around the track oval, and she was feeling rather good.

However, her mind was drifting to the previous weekend, when an old friend of hers suddenly showed up...

She was walking down the street on her way home from the mall, when her cell phone started ringing. She pulled it out, and answered the call without even bothering to check the caller ID. "Moshi moshi?"

    " -chan!"

A smile split her face. "Bunta-kun! Why are you calling at this hour? I thought that you would be at tennis practice right now."

Marui Bunta's familiar laughter echoed back to her from the other end of the line. "I know, but I asked for a day off from Yukimura-buchou so that I could go and visit you in Tokyo."

She blinked. "Nani? You mean...you're here in Tokyo?"

    "Hai! In fact, I can already see you!"

looked around, trying to pinpoint his location, and finally, caught sight of a hand waving at her from a bench at the park across the street. When she looked, she saw Bunta smiling at her, his cheerful grin unchanged and still able to make her smile.

She crossed the street to get to him, and when she did, she threw her arms around him in a hug. "I've really, really missed you, Bunta-kun!"

Bunta laughed, and hugged her back. "Same here. You don't know how boring Rikkai's become now that you're gone." He wrinkled his nose. "Genichirou's getting stiff, you know? If it weren't for Jackal and Akaya-kun I think I would've died of boredom."

laughed, and sat down beside him, urging him to tell her about what was happening back in Kanagawa. The two of them had been friends practically forever, since they used to live on the same street in Kamakura when they were children, and had known each other even back then. Bunta had been really popular as a child, and because was his best friend, the two of them ruled over an entire group of children, holding court either at the local playground, or at the beach – the same beach where first met Oshitari Yuushi.

    "...and that's what we've been doing." Bunta concluded his storytelling with a bright smile as he looked at , popping a piece of gum into his mouth as he did so. "So: what about you?"

smiled slightly, and told him about how she had gotten into the track team, and how things were different in Rikkai when compared to Hyoutei – not that she minded really, it was all just a matter of getting used to how things were run.

And then she decided that she would tell him. "I... I met him again."

Bunta blinked as he blew a bubble, and sucked it back into his mouth before it got too big. "Him?"

    "Oshitari Yuushi. You know, the Kansai boy from four years ago?"

Bunta blinked again, and nodded his head slowly, a small smile crossing his face. "I knew he was at Hyoutei, but I didn't think that you would be bumping into him."

    "Hai," responded quietly. She inhaled, and gave Bunta a sad smile. "I still feel the same way about him, you know. Even after four years, I still feel the same way."

    "Then why don't you tell him?" Bunta asked gently, putting an arm around her shoulders.

She shook her head. "He's different now, Bunta-kun. I don't think he's the same, sweet boy I used to know at Kamakura. He's handsomer now, and cooler, and more popular." She giggled slightly. "And he doesn't look half-bad with his glasses."

Bunta chuckled softly. "But you always knew that, ne, -chan? That's why you liked to play with him when we were ten. I mean, there was a time when you stopped even playing with me."

laughed, and patted Bunta's knee. "I know, but... I really liked him then, Bunta-kun. He was funny, and smart, and even though he didn't look like much, he tried to protect me when you weren't around. That sort of thing kind of stays with you, you know?"

    "Then why'd you run away when he kissed you on the cheek?" Bunta asked, again using that same, gentle tone that he used whenever she was feeling bad. "It couldn't have been that bad."

sighed, and lowered her gaze to her lap. "I was...shy...back then," she replied softly. "I didn't really know what to do. I mean, what would you have done if I kissed you on the cheek back then?"

He blinked innocently. "I don't know... Kissed you right back?"

She frowned. "That's not what I meant, Bunta-kun."

    "All right, all right, I concede," Bunta responded, and hugged her. " -chan, you just have to tell him that you like him. Okay, so maybe he could've gotten a bigger ego: I noticed that much when we played against them during the Kantou Regionals last year. But if he still feels the same way about you, then I bet that everything will be all right."

smiled, and nodded. "Hai."

Class slid by a little more slowly than usual, which found more annoying than normal, but at the same time, she wanted to let class stretch out just a bit longer, because she didn't want to do what she had promised Bunta she would do: tell Oshitari that she liked him.

At last, the bell signaling the end of class rang, and she stood up, putting her things together as quickly as she could. She wanted to get to Oshitari before he met up with any of his friends from the tennis team, hence making him inaccessible.

She slung her bag over her shoulder, and walked out of her classroom, looking around as she did so. At length, she found him: walking out of his classroom, presumably on his way to the cafeteria.

She inhaled, steeling her courage, and walked up to him, tapping him on the shoulder. "Anou...excuse me."

Oshitari turned, and seemed to blink, but soon his eyes took on the sheen of ice chips, and she felt a cold trickle of fear run down her back. "Hai?"

    "Could I...talk to you for a moment? In private?"

Oshitari seemed to tilt his head slightly, and then a small smirk curled on his lips, but she didn't really like the way that he did so. "All right."

The two of them walked off to a more secluded area: the small space that led off to the fire exit. The noise of the corridor gradually faded away as they walked, until it was nothing more than a dull drone in the background.

Oshitari leaned against the nearby wall, looking as cool as could be, as if this was nothing more than a minor diversion to the order of his day. "Well? What did you want to tell me, -san?" wondered at the coldness of his words, and then she realized that, perhaps, he had found out about what she had done to the flowers and the chocolates.

She sighed. "I guess you found out about the flowers and the chocolates."

Oshitari tilted his head back. "Well, it's not that difficult. After all, you threw the sunflowers in the trash bin near the school gate, and your teammates on the track team were sharing the chocolates when I passed by. It was easy enough to see."

could not help but wince at the coldness in his voice. "I...apologize about that."

    "Don't you think it's a little too late to be apologizing about that?"

glanced up at him. "Yuushi-kun-"

    "Don't call me that."

She looked up, stunned. She didn't know that he could be this cruel, this cold. She was right: he had changed, and the boy she had known was gone. "Nani?"

He looked at her from where he was standing: cold, unemotional. "You told me before that I couldn't call you -chan anymore. I think it's fair that you don't call me Yuushi-kun anymore, either. And as for your apology, very well then, I accept. They were just flowers and chocolates, after all."

    "It's not just that," said then, thinking that she didn't talk now; she wouldn't be able to get another chance again. "I...I want to apologize for what happened four years ago. I didn't mean to run away."

    "Hontou?" Oshitari drawled. "Then why did you?"

    "I was shy. I didn't know what to do when you kissed me."

    "You were shy? Or you were just afraid that your reputation would be ruined if you actually allowed the Kansai Nerd to get away with kissing you?"

felt her blood run cold. "But I never-"

    "Don't lie to me, ," Oshitari hissed, and the way he said her name was like a stake driven into her heart. "I know what the others thought of me. I was the nerd, the stranger, the one who didn't belong. You were the only one who was genuinely nice to me, and I thought that you appreciated me for who I was. I thought you liked me back." His eyes narrowed. "Apparently, I was wrong."

    "You're not wrong!" threw back, desperate. Didn't he see it? "I do like you, Yuushi! I always have, even back then. I just-" She inhaled, feeling her throat starting to close up. "I just...didn't know how to tell you. You've changed so much, after all, and you've got that playboy reputation. You're not the same boy I used to know."

Oshitari shook his head. "Well, either way, it's too late." He moved away from the wall, heading for the exit that led into the corridor. As he did so, he stopped just beside , and said: "I had always hoped that you hadn't changed. I had always hoped that you'd stay the same sweet -chan I always loved. I guess I should have known that that wouldn't happen. That sort of thing only happens in movies, anyway."

had always wondered if it was possible for someone to hurt another person simply by saying a few words. "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me," so went the old adage.

But now, as Oshitari's footsteps faded away, she realized that it was a lie. Sticks and stones could certainly break bones, but the pain that resulted from breaking a bone could not compare to the pain that resulted from a shattered heart.

Oshitari ignored the twinge of his heart as he walked away from . Somehow, this felt like that scene at the jewelry auction in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days: in particular, the part where Andie and Benjamin were having that argument while singing – only this time, he and hadn't sung anything at all, and he had walked out on her after having the last word.

He had hoped that things would still be the same as they were four years ago. He had hoped that she hadn't changed. Apparently, he was wrong.

    "You could have been a bit less cold with that dismissal, Yuushi."

Oshitari frowned, and glanced to the right, where Atobe was leaning against a locker. "She's not the same girl I knew, Atobe," he said then. "She's not the same -chan that I remember."

    "And neither are you the same boy she remembers. She said as much, didn't she?"

Oshitari looked at Atobe with as level a gaze as he could muster. "What are you trying to say, Atobe?"

Atobe smirked as he peeled himself from the wall to stand in front of Oshitari. "What Ore-sama is trying to say is that you are not the same person she knew when she was ten, but then again, Yuushi, neither are you. A lot of things can change in four years. You can't expect her to stay the same person that she was when she was ten now, can you?"

Oshitari frowned. "You might be right, but she has gotten crueler."

    "And so have you."

    "I'm not cruel."

    "Hontou?" Atobe tilted his head slightly. "Why don't you keep quiet for a few minutes and pay close attention?"

Oshitari blinked. What was Atobe trying to get to? Nevertheless, he fell quiet, and listened.

As the silence settled in all around them, Oshitari's ears began to pick up a different sound, one that was clearly unlike the pattering of footsteps and soft drone of conversation that echoed to them down the now-empty hallway. He focused his hearing, trying to pick it up, and when he did, he felt his heart plummet from his chest to his stomach.

was crying.

    "You see?" Atobe said then. "How can you not call yourself cruel when you are the cause of your lady love's distress?"

Oshitari looked away. Deep down in his heart, he knew that he had said what he did because he thought that she didn't care for him anymore, that she had been talking in the past-tense, as it were. He was wrong: she had been telling him the truth, and now he had broken her heart.

And he realized then, that no matter what he may have said, he still genuinely cared for her.

Once more, Atobe's voice broke in on his thoughts. "Do you still care for her, Yuushi?"

Oshitari nodded, unable to get any words out at the moment.

    "And do you want her back?"

Oshitari glared at Atobe. "What are you trying to get at?"

Atobe smirked, and shrugged. "Nothing much: just a suggestion on how you can make all of this up to her."

Oshitari raised an eyebrow, and straightened up. "I'm listening."

felt as if it was the longest day in her life. She had gone to training after classes as usual, in spite of the fact that she really didn't feel like it. Emotional upheavals and broken hearts weren't, after all, satisfactory excuses for missing training – something that she had learned while she was still studying at Rikkai. Some of the kohai pointed out her lack of her usual vivacity, but she smiled and brushed it off, telling them that it was nothing, that it was just the result of having sat through an extremely difficult Math test.

She didn't tell them, of course, that the reason for her being so down was because of the argument that she had with Oshitari Yuushi. Fact of the matter was: she didn't want anyone to know about anything – not even her past connection to him. She just wanted to forget that it ever happened, and she hoped that, by treating this situation as if it had never happened to begin with, then she would be able to eventually forget about all of it.

Her heart hitched then, and she swallowed against the lump in her throat. It was too difficult, too painful, to even think of forgetting him, not when he left quite an impression on her heart – and had left just as large a hole in it.

But, as always, she told herself that it was for the best. There was nothing she could do now: he no longer cared for her, and she had helped that along. Whatever feelings for each other that she might have salvaged were now destroyed and gone.

There was nothing she could do, and that was what hurt her the most.

She walked past the front gate of Hyoutei, and she noticed just then how pretty the sunset was, even in such an urban setting. She smiled slightly, remembering how the waters of Sagami Bay would reflect that particular shade of pink, and before her would stretch an entire sea of cotton candy.

She remembered how he had laughed, and said that he wished he could turn the sea into cotton candy, because cotton candy made her smile, and he liked it when she smiled.

    "Oi."

She froze in her steps, and turned, slowly, slowly, not really wanting to face him, not now. "Hai?"

Oshitari approached her, his tennis bag slung over one shoulder, looking confident with an almost nonchalant manner to him. "Are you going home?"

nodded, already feeling her throat close up. "Hai." It didn't have to be this way, did it? It didn't have to hurt so much.

He came up to her until he was standing just a foot away. "I...suppose that I owe you an apology."

blinked, and looked up at him, confused. "Nani?"

He smiled at her then, and for a brief moment, it was as if he was ten years old again. "We got off on the wrong foot," he said then. "As I said, you have changed, and so have I, as you pointed out." He lifted his hand, and he was holding a small plastic bag filled with cotton candy.

She could not help but laugh, even though the lump in her throat threatened to spill out of her eyes as tears. "Bubblegum cotton candy...my favorite."

    "I know. I remembered." His eyes were kind as they looked down at her. "Truce?"

    "Hai," she murmured, taking the cotton candy from his hand. "Truce."

He smiled then, and he leaned forward, lightly brushing his lips against her cheek. His lips felt warm, and he seemed to smell of mints and something else.

She felt, rather than saw, his smirk, as he whispered: "You're not going to run away, are you?"

She laughed, and shook her head, allowing him to take her hand in his as the two of them walked down the street. "Iie. I don't think I ever could."

fin.
Kage
15.September.2005