My Broken Promise, My Consequence
“Kuni-chan! Let’s go play! I borrowed my dad’s tennis racquet!” a little girl said to her friend.
“Alright! Let’s go!” a boy with streaked blonde hair responded.
“Kunimitsu! Bring back -chan before the sun goes down!”
“Yes, -basan!”
The two best friends ran towards the park and started practicing their serves and return against each other.
“Mou, Kuni-chan. Your serve’s so slow! It’s so easy to return it!” said as she hit the ball back to her friend.
“It’s because you get personal training from your dad! And he’s a pro!” Tezuka yelled back.
blushed. Ever since they were children, the two would be inseparable. She grew fond of her best friend but would never say anything about it fearing that everything would change.
“Let’s meet back here everyday at this time so we can help improve each other’s skills!” said excitedly.
Tezuka nodded.
“You promise, Kuni-chan?”
“I promise!”
~~~
“Tezuka-kun.”
The little boy turned around, “Oishi! How’s it going?”
Tezuka was walking with to their first class. They were both in the same homeroom which was great since they didn’t know many people on the first week of school.
“Ah! ! This is my friend, Oishi Syuichiroh,” Tezuka introduced.
“Nice to meet you, I’m ,” took out a hand.
“Nice to meet you,” Oishi replied as he shook her hand.
“ -chan, Oishi and I are planning to join the tennis team. You should join too. Well, on the girls team of course,” Tezuka said.
“I don’t think I’ll be good enough Kuni-chan,” replied.
“You play tennis too?” Oishi asked.
nodded.
“That’s so cool! We should all play! Ah! Let’s go to class before the teacher gives us tardiness!”
~~~
“Ah Oishi-kun!”
Oishi turned around and gave her a smile.
“Anou… do you know where Kuni-chan is?” asked.
Before Oishi could say anything Tezuka came running towards the two.
“Hey you two, the teacher made me stay to pick up some advanced homework,” he panted.
“That’s great Kuni-chan! I’m so proud of you!” exclaimed.
“ I can’t make it today. I need to go practice with Oishi after school,” Tezuka added.
frowned a little.
“You are more than welcome to come and practice with us though ,” said Tezuka.
“Iie… it’s ok… I’ll go and practice by myself…” looking down at her feet.
Tezuka looked at her.
“We have to practice or else Yamamoto buchou will get angry at us. We’ll see you later ,” Tezuka said as he and Oishi walked towards the exit.
“Bye…”
~~~
“Neh Kuni-chan? Are we still going to the park after to play?” asked with hopeful eyes.
“Hmmm… where is that sheet with the teacher’s suggestions…” Tezuka mumbled to himself.
“Kuni-chan?”
“I don’t have time right now. I need to finish this assignment and then I have to go for tennis practice with Oishi.”
“O… so you’re going to play with Oishi-kun…” said looking away.
“Sorry but Oishi’s waiting for me. I’ll catch you later!” Tezuka rushed off.
stared at her best friend’s back as she held back her tears.
~~~
After meeting Oishi, Tezuka’s been playing with him more than her. Even in class Tezuka seems to have lost interest in talking to her and would always sit with Oishi during lunch.
“Kuni-chan?”
Tezuka and Oishi were preoccupied with their work to have noticed walking up to them.
“ . Can we talk later? Oishi and I have some work to do,” Tezuka said as he continued to flip through his papers.
looked at Oishi who smiled back.
“Alright…” was all that could say as she walked away form the two.
~~~
It has been a month since Tezuka has played with. Still, she sat by the park and waited for him everyday, hoping to see his face and a racquet in his hand.
The two boys were walking home from tennis practice which passes the park.
looked up to see the two boys chatting happily. She gripped her racquet and glared at them.
The two boys stopped.
“ ? What are you doing in the park this late?” Tezuka asked.
’s eyes watered as she stood up with her racquet.
Tezuka’s face paled.
“O no… …”
“You broke your promise,” trembled.
“ -san, it was entirely my fault! I made Tezuka-kun stay after school and--”
“I thought you were a good guy Oishi-kun. Now I know what’s going on. You want Kuni-chan to be your best friend. You didn’t want me in the picture so you keep taking him away from me!”
Tears were streaming from down her face. She couldn’t believe that Tezuka had broken his promise, again.
She brushed her tears away and glared at Tezuka.
“If you didn’t want to be friends anymore you could have just told me… then I wouldn’t have wasted my time on you!”
~~~
The next day Tezuka arrived in class to see Oishi already sitting at his seat.
“Ohayou Tezuka-kun! What’s up?”
“Anou… have you seen ? She’s usually early,” Tezuka asked as he looked at ’s seat.
“No I haven’t… Neh Tezuka-kun… are you guys going to be alright?” Oishi asked worriedly.
Tezuka sighed.
“I hope I didn’t lose her…”
~~~
It has been two years since the incident has happened and they were all in third year.
“ -chan!!!”
“ !!”
“Hmm? Eeep!”
fell forward as Jirou and Gakuto jumped her from behind.
“Itaaii…”
was on the floor with the two hyper active boys on her back.
“ -CHAAAAAAAAN!” Jirou squealed as he hugged her.
” !!” Gakuto yelled excitedly also hugging her.
had transferred to Hyotei after the incident in Seigaku. She has grown into a beautiful young lady. She has let her long red hair grow down to her chest and was neatly layered. She has grown taller too and joined the girls’ tennis team which helped her tone her body. She was also awarded position of captain. This made her a lot more popular especially around the guys.
Ever since she left Seigaku she has been more determined in doing her best in tennis. What drove her to work so hard was because of one person. Tezuka. Because of his betrayal, she is going to prove to everybody that by judging her looks, there will be consequences for underestimating her.
She has been especially close to Jirou and Gakuto since she attends the boy’s tournaments and practices to learn new techniques and different training methods.
“Arn~ what are you guys doing on ?”
The two boys looked behind them to see their captain hovering over them, twitching his eyebrow.
“Ah! Atobe! We just wanted to greet since she’s the only girl allowed to be this close to the tennis court! Plus we haven’t seen her for WEEKS because of the girls’ tournaments!” Gakuto explained.
“Mmm… smells nice…” Jirou mumbled as he lay on ’s back and sniffing her hair.
blushed and shoved both boys off her.
Atobe gave her a hand which she took gratefully.
“You guys should really stop doing that to her or else she’ll have to wear a cast and we won’t be able to see her legs,” Oshitari smirked.
“Hnn? She’s not interested in you Oshitari. She’s more interested in ore-sama’s prowess,” Atobe said as he brushed his hair with his hand.
scowled at both boys. She knew that a lot of guys were interested in asking her out. She also knew that Atobe and Oshitari have been interested in her the minute she joined the tennis club.
“Oi you two! You guys can stop with this stupidity. You know I won’t go out with EITHER one of you!” she growled.
“ -chaaaann…” Jirou yawned.
sighed.
“Let’s go Jirou-chan.”
walked away with Jirou right by her heels.
Gakuto glared at Oshitari and Atobe.
“You guys should really give up.”
Atobe and Oshitari raised an eyebrow at Gakuto then looked at each other.
“Hnn, this game’s too much fun to lose,” Oshitari murmured.
Atobe smirked.
Gakuto sighed. He knew it was useless to argue with his captain and his double’s partner.
“Just don’t do anything to embarrass or yourselves,” Gakuto said as he walked off.
~~~
was sitting and watching as Gakuto and Oshitari practice against Shishido and Ohtori. Jirou has already claimed her lap as his pillow and was sleeping soundly.
She was really concentrating on Oshitari’s Higuma Otoshi and Ohtori’s scud serve. Her goal was to make her own ultimate move just like those two. She was already developing one of her own but has not revealed it to anybody. The girls’ competition was too easy and it would be a waste to use her move against them. She was saving it for a special game.
Atobe saw how was watching intently to Oshitari’s play. He twitched and glared at Oshitari. As if feeling Atobe’s stare, Oshitari smirked as he did another Higuma Otoshi.
“Oshitari. Go take a break. It’s my turn,” Atobe commanded.
Oshitari rolled his eyes and took his seat on the bench. Gakuto yawned as he followed his partner.
“Jirou! I’ll be playing against you.”
“ZzzzZzz…”
smiled.
“Jirou-chan, wake up,” nudged the sleeping boy softly.
“Zzz… huh? Wha…?” Jirou whispered waking up confused.
“Atobe wants to play against you.”
“Hai hai…” Jirou yawned.
“Let’s see your special move, Atobe,” thought as she watched Atobe serve.
SMASH
watched in shock to see that the ball did not bounce when he served.
Atobe brushed his hair with his hand and looked at his fellow captain.
regained her composure and continued to observe him.
Atobe smiled. He felt good having somebody watching him that attentively, especially coming from .
“Wow! Atobe! Do it again!!!” Jirou yelled excitedly as he started to wake up from his nap.
Atobe smirked.
“Oy Atobe, don’t tire yourself neh?” Oshitari called out.
“Don’t tell me what to do Oshitari,” Atobe replied with a huff.
~~~
“ -chaaaaaann!”
was getting ready to leave class when Jirou suddenly woke up from his sleep. It’s not a surprise that the teacher has given up on waking up Jirou since every time she yells to wake him up, he either doesn’t hear her or goes right back to sleep.
“What is it Jirou-chan?”
“Are you coming to the all-school exhibition game?” he asked.
thought for a moment. There wasn’t practice scheduled for the girls and she didn’t really have any homework to do. Then she grimaced at the thought of spending the whole day with Atobe and Oshitari stalking her the whole time.
“ -CHAN!” Gakuto yelled.
“Uwah! Eeep!”
Gakuto jumped on ’s back where she toppled forward on to Jirou, who landed on the floor.
“Urk… …chan… Ga…ku...to!” Jirou struggled to breathe.
“You three are at it again?”
Shishido walked through the hallway to see the three on the floor, again.
“Here -senpai,” Ohtori held out his hand as Gakuto got off her.
“So are you coming tomorrow, ?” Gakuto asked.
Jirou gave her his cutest puppy dog eyes. Gakuto saw him doing it and followed his strategy.
sighed.
“Alright alright. But I’m only cheering for you two and Ohtori.”
Shishido scowled.
Ohtori slightly blushed.
“YAY!!!” Gakuto and Jirou cheered and hugged , causing her to fall backwards this time.
“Ahh! -senpai!”
sighed as Ohtori lifted Jirou and Shishido grabbing Gakuto.
“You guys get WAY too excited whenever she says yes to you guys,” Shishido mumbled.
~~~
It was the day of the game and was walking towards the tennis courts. She had on a pair of her tennis skirt and a hooded sweater with her hair tied up into a pony tail.
“ -chan!!!!”
“ -chaaaaaan!”
turned around to see the two boys speeding towards her. Her eyes widened. She didn’t have anywhere to run. She closed her eyes as she prepared for the impact.
“ -CHA- URF!”
“ —ACK!”
“You two should really stop doing that to or else she won’t be able to keep her beautiful figure, nah Kabaji?”
“Usu!”
opened her eyes. A huge body stood in front of her blocking the two boys.
Kabaji stood in front of her with the boys on the ground, swirl-eyed.
was for once grateful to hear Atobe’s voice. She turned to see him walking towards them with Shishido, Ohtori and Oshitari behind him.
“Itai… Kabaji! You dummy!” Gakuto yelled at the bigger boy.
“Hnn, you guys should have known that something like this would happen,” Oshitari replied.
“ -chan…” Jirou started yawning.
“Oy oy! Don’t start yawning!” Gakuto said.
“Jirou, we have to sign in with the officials, don’t even think of napping,” Atobe reminded the boy.
~~~
“He’s late again,” Oishi sighed as he looked at his watch for the umpteenth time.
Tezuka remained silent as he kept a look out for the tardy player.
“That’s Echizen for you. Always late at tournaments,” Momoshiro said as he put both arms behind his head.
“Did you try calling him Oishi?” Taka asked.
Oishi sighed again.
“Maybe he’s lost. I don’t think I told him where we were meeting. Momo and Taka-san go that way. Inui, Kaidoh go towards the gates. Tezuka, Eiji and I will go that way. Let’s meet back here in ten minutes.”
“Hai!”
~~~
Tezuka and Oishi were walking behind Kikumaru who has sprinted ahead and was yelling out Echizen’s nick name.
“Ochibi!!! Where are you?!”
“Eiji, I think he’s going to run away from you if you keep yelling like that,” Oishi said.
“But we need to find him before we get disqualified!!! Ochi- hey! It’s Hyotei!” Kikumaru abruptly stopping.
Tezuka and Oishi turned to see their opponent. In the middle of the Hyotei circle stood a girl who looked very familiar.
Tezuka’s eyes widened.
“ …”
looked up to see the three Seigaku students.
“Kunimitsu…” she whispered and immediately scowled when she saw Oishi standing beside him.
“Ahh… hey….” Oishi sweat dropped.
Oshitari noticed
’s face and turned
back to Tezuka, who looked a little pale.
“Seigaku,” Gakuto growled.
“Hmm? knows Tezuka?” Atobe looked at her with his eyebrow raised.
“Che, she’s better off without them,” Shishido grunted.
glared at the opposing players and turned around.
“Let’s go Jirou-chan,”
“Hai hai…” Jirou slowly responded.
Both the Hyotei boys and the Seigaku players watched as and Jirou walked away from them.
“I don’t think -chan is ready to see us…” Oishi sadly said to Tezuka.
“You don’t have the right
to call her by her first name,” Atobe said as he turned around to look at him.
“Hnn. She doesn’t seem to be happy to see you, Tezuka,” Oshitari commented.
Just as Oishi was going to defend his friend, the late player suddenly appeared.
“Gomen buchou. I was helping an old lady cross the—monkey king and his gang?” Echizen looked from Tezuka to Atobe.
“Let’s go Echizen,” Tezuka commanded.
Atobe smirked and Oshitari.
“There’re more players in this game, nah Oshitari?”
Oshitari smirked back and pushed his glasses up.
~~~
“I think I’m going to be sick.”
Oishi looked at Tezuka as he held both his hands against the wall. Kikumaru and Echizen had already regrouped with the others and were warming up.
“Tezuka…” Oishi trailing off.
He didn’t know what to say to him.
After seeing his old friend that he had fallen for with the Hyotei players, Tezuka felt like hurling ever since he started walking away from Atobe and his team.
“A sip of my new concoction would be of great ease for you, Tezuka.”
The two looked up to see Inui holding up his water bottle. Oishi sweat dropped knowing that his water bottle almost NEVER contains water.
Tezuka was getting a huge headache. He glared at Inui.
“Go and warm up with the others Inui. Tezuka’s not in the mood right now,” Oishi warned the evil chemist.
Inui whipped out his worn out green notebook.
“There’s a 68.7% chance that Tezuka’s upset because he bumped into Hyotei and a 74.6% chance that somebody from his past has come back to his life. Ii data…” Inui mumbled and scribbled.
Tezuka twitched.
“Oishi! Let’s go practice!” Kikumaru called out.
Oishi sighed and looked sympathetically to Tezuka.
“Let’s go Inui.”
Tezuka was finally left alone. He closed his eyes and sat against the wall. He opened his eyes again and sighed. Their game wasn’t starting for another hour. He stood up and started to walk towards the Hyotei courts.
~~~
“Game and match, Hyotei. 6 games to 3.”
Oshitari and Gakuto has just finished their game. Oshitari looked around to see where was. Gakuto noticed that his partner was searching for her. He also saw that she was missing and sighed.
“Stupid Jirou. Making her miss our game,” Gakuto grumbled.
“Mah, as long as she misses Atobe’s game, I won’t be as upset,” Oshitari said.
~~~
stared off into space as she gently rubbed Jirou’s soft curls. Jirou purred as he slept. She was sitting against a tree where the shade was with Jirou sleeping, again. She was thinking about the encounter with the Seigaku buchou. She smirked as she thought about how good he looked in his jersey.
“Kyah! Tori-chan! Do you think we’ll see Tezuka-san play today?”
“Of course! I was practicing with him last night and he said that he’s going to be playing today!”
“That’s Tori-chan for you! Always taking advantage of being the captain of the girls tennis team to get close to Tezuka-san.”
snapped out of her trance and looked to her right to see a group of girls slowly walking around the tennis courts. She narrowed her eyes at the girls.
“ …”
turned to her left to see Tezuka standing in front of her.
The group of girls gasped to see Tezuka talking to the Hyotei student.
’s eyes softened.
Seeing Tezuka by himself was a relief.
It was great to see his face. He had grown a lot since first year. She smiled.
Then her eyes flickered with anger and looked away.
Tezuka sighed. He took a seat beside and stared at Jirou. She was still petting Jirou and was avoiding eye contact.
“ …”
“What do you want?” she asked coldly.
Tezuka looked away. He stared straight at the group of Seigaku girls. They all blushed and quickly rushed off.
“I see that you have your own fan club.”
Tezuka remained silent.
“I also heard that you helped some girls play tennis,” said as she fought back tears.
Tezuka looked at her again.
’s body tensed. She was feeling awkward to have him stare at her. She has never felt that before and didn’t know how to act around him.
Jirou seemed to have felt tighten up as he slowly opened his eyes.
“ -chan… what’s wrong?” Jirou asked with a yawn. He blinked his eyes. He blinked them again. He shot up and looked at Tezuka.
“Ji-jirou-chan? What’s wrong?” asked in confusion.
Jirou blinked again. He fell onto ’s lap again and fell asleep.
sweat dropped as Jirou snored softly.
“It seems that you’ve made new friends,” Tezuka responded to ’s comment.
glared at him from the side.
“Hnn? Tezuka? You’re not with your team? Shouldn’t you be warming up for your game?” Oshitari asked as he approached the three.
“Kabaji. Get Jirou off . His game’s next,” Atobe directed.
“Usu.”
“O wait Kabaji! Let me at least wake him up!” quickly opposing to the bigger kohai.
Kabaji didn’t seem to hear her as he lifted Jirou off her lap.
“ZzzZ… Huh? Wha… what?!? !!!” Jirou cried out.
immediately jumped up in panic and followed Kabaji as she tried to ask him to release the frightened Jirou.
“You know Tezuka, you let her slip out of your fingers. But, you can still join our game, except you won’t have an advantage,” Atobe said as he fingered his hair.
“Even if you guys have a past, there is slim chance of you meeting with her since she goes to our school,” Oshitari added as he watched Tezuka’s reaction.
Tezuka got up from his seat, bowed and left.
“Hnn… this is getting even more interesting.”
Atobe looked at Oshitari.
“Oshitari.”
Oshitari glanced at Atobe.
“Can’t let him beat us.”
~~~
had left after getting Jirou off of Kabaji. She didn’t want to take the chance of bumping into Tezuka again. She glared at the ground as she thought of the boy that took her best friend away. A tear fell from her face as she slowly walked home. She stopped as she stared at the Hyotei tennis courts. She wiped away her tears and put on a determined face.
“I don’t need him. I’ll prove to everybody that I can be the best without any help.”
~~~
Shishido and Ohtori were walking towards the school to practice. It was after dinner and the sun had already set. The school’s tennis courts were still open until 11 at night.
“Hahaha! Yea and the teacher didn’t even know!” Shishido laughed.
Ohtori chuckled. He stopped as he heard tennis balls hitting the ground.
“Shishido-senpai. There wasn’t a practice scheduled for today right?”
Shishido shrugged.
“It’s probably somebody just playing on the courts. Let’s go see who it is.”
The two walked towards the court to see a girl bouncing a ball.
“ -senpai?” Ohtori said.
was panting and sweating a lot. She glared at the opposite court. The two boys watched as she threw another ball up into the air and served it.
Shishido and Ohtori watched in awe.
Ohtori dropped his racquet.
“Wa-was tha-that…” he pointed at the ball.
Shishido gulped.
“Atobe’s Tanhauser serve.”
~~~
“Tezuka-san! Am I doing this right?”
Tezuka looked up. He was helping the girls’ tennis team because the girl’s tennis coach had to go on meetings the whole month. He has been to their practices and was familiar to every girl in the team. Today was the exhibition game for them and they arrived at the courts an hour early.
He nodded and returned to checking the list of orders for the team. The whole boys’ team was actually there too. Oishi was helping a few of the second years with their approach and Fuji was helping a few girls with their footwork. Taka was helping with serves while Inui analyzed the girls. Momo and Kaidoh were arguing on who can teach better. Kikumaru was jumping around as a few girls giggled with glee while Echizen was trying to teach Sakuno how to serve properly.
Tori grinned as she stood beside Tezuka. A few girls’ teams were watching the two jealously as they walked to their courts. Seigaku was the only school that had brought their boys team. Or so they thought.
All eyes were on the Hyotei girls’ team. They were not alone. Atobe and the rest of the team were with them. was leading the team. Somehow Atobe had convinced the coach to let him take responsible for the team.
She completely ignored the Seigaku team as she continued to walk towards the officials table.
Tezuka watched as Atobe and Oshitari walked on each side of . She didn’t even glance at him. She had a cold look on her face that he has never seen before. He shook his head and went back to his work.
~~~
The Hyotei girls’ team was chatting and was warming up. Atobe watched as stretched by herself. She had a dark aura around her. She was definitely not herself today.
“Gakuto…” Jirou said softly as he kept his eyes on .
Gakuto stared.
They both knew that she is not in the mood for their silliness. Her face showed a cold and monotone look.
She looked at her fellow regulars.
“Let’s go,” she said icily.
The girls shivered at her look and her voice.
Oshitari and Atobe both raised their eyebrows.
Shishido and Ohtori glanced at each other.
Gakuto had a worried face on and Jirou wasn’t close to sleepy.
Today was definitely going to be different than any other days.
~~~
“Tezuka, who are the girls playing next?” Oishi asked.
Tezuka looked at the sheet.
The Seigaku girls were doing well. They have defeated most of the teams but were close to losing most of them. All of their games had to go to singles 2 or singles 1.
“We’re playing against Mirichiba Middle School. Let’s get the girls to practice their serves. We can’t let our guards down.”
~~~
“Game and match, Hyotei. 6 games to 2.”
Atobe was quite impressed that the girls were doing well in the tournament. He glanced at to see that her face hasn’t change since this morning.
Gakuto and Jirou were quiet the whole time as they watched each match.
Oshitari noticed the silent duo. He sighed as he turned his head to Atobe.
Atobe nodded. They both knew that this was not the time to make stupid comments.
“Kaede. That was awful. You should have been able to finish that game within ten minutes. Go do some laps,” ordered.
“Ha-hai buchou!”
looked at the sheet of competitors. She saw that Seigaku was going to be their final opponent.
She frowned and crumpled the paper. She took her racquet and started to walk away.
“Where are you going? Your team’s going to need some guidance right now,” Atobe said.
stopped.
She gave Atobe a look that made his face grow pale. He has never seen her face this serious before.
She looked at her teammates.
“I need to practice by myself for a while. I’ll be back in half an hour. Meanwhile, you guys can rest a little. When I come back we can do some practice games.”
“Hai!”
walked off.
Jirou and Gakuto immediately followed their friend.
Atobe sighed.
“This is personal for ,” Oshitari said.
Atobe nodded.
~~~
“ …” Gakuto mumbled as returning the balls from a machine.