[One-shot] How To Date An Older Man (Prince of Tennis)
Title: How To Date An Older Man
Characters: Chitose Miyuki, Tezuka Kunimitsu
Words/Rating: 4850+ words / G
Summary: Chitose Miyuki decides that unless she takes matters into her own hands, Tezuka Kunimitsu is never going to realize what he's missing. Pity she's decided to follow the advice of a dating website...
Beta(s): Thank you to tokyocentricity for checking my Miyuki, and to readerofasaph and thephoenixboy for beta-duties (and--more importantly--the incredible quantities of hand-holding and reassurance! ♥) Special thanks to mizukomidori and ontogenesis for listening to me ramble and providing useful reader-feedback.
Author's Notes: Originally written for subrosa_tennis Round Five and posted here. Steps adapted from Wikihow (why is there even a wiki how-to on this in the first place? O_o)
I. Call him no more than once a day.
The first day they had discussed her slice. The second day had been on how to improve service accuracy. Miyuki stared at the ceiling, trying to think of some other aspect of her tennis that she could ask for help about today. Definitely not doubles advice though--she'd seen what Thief-bro considered doubles. Well, no one could be that perfect a tennis player, right? Good singles players didn't have to be good at doubles. At least Thief-bro knew his strengths.
She turned her head towards her desk, looking for her clock. She could have sworn it had been at least three minutes since she'd last checked the time, but it still said 7:56 pm, like it had the last two times. Was it broken? No, the second hand was ticking. She grabbed her cellphone, checking the display. Still 7:56--no, now it was 7:57. Only three more minutes.
With a frustrated sigh, she flopped backwards to lie on her bed, cellphone clutched tightly to her chest. She glared at the bedside clock. Still 7:57 pm? Stupid time needed to move faster.
Would Thief-bro mind if she called earlier than she had for the last two days? It was only three minutes earlier, after all.
Flipping onto her stomach, Miyuki tried to remember what the dating website had said. Had there been anything about being predictable or working on a schedule? Sen-nii had mentioned Thief-bro being the sort of guy who was always organized. Okay, so Sen-nii had said 'anal' instead, but he'd just been jealous because Miyuki had said Thief-bro was a better student. Organized didn't mean a slavish devotion to time, did it? Thief-bro didn't seem like that sort of guy, but maybe Sen-nii had a point. If Thief-bro was that kind of guy, it would be better to find out now rather than later, because at least that way there wouldn't be any messy relationship to break up.
She made a sound of frustration. Lord, she was being just as stupid as those idiots in school, wasn't she? Maybe she wouldn't call him tonight. No more than once a day didn't mean she had to call once a day, right? Plus if she called at the same time every day, Thief-bro might get the wrong idea and think she was the anal one.
But if she didn't call, would he forget about her? Sure, he dropped by every month on his way to the rehabilitation clinic, but he always talked to Sen-nii instead...
"Stupid Sen-nii," Miyuki said, burying her face in the pillow. He knew Miyuki wanted to spend more time with Thief-bro--she'd told him! Why'd he always have to laugh and wink at her instead of letting her hang out with Thief-bro? Stupid Thief-bro, too. Stupider, even, because Sen-nii was pretty smart sometimes, and Miyuki had only said Thief-bro was a better student to annoy Sen-nii anyway. Besides, book smarts didn't mean street smarts, and Miyuki knew which was more important.
Not that it mattered in Thief-bro's case, since Miyuki had enough street smarts for both of them. Current stupidity aside. She groaned and buried her face deeper into the pillow.
Still... people who had good book smarts usually followed pretty tight schedules, didn't they? At least, the smart kids at school seemed to.
She sat up. If she wanted to train Thief-bro into expecting her to call at 8pm, maybe it was better to call at 8pm, or he'd be too busy to talk later. But maybe not eight on the dot, just to keep him on his toes. A minute or two early would do nicely. She flipped open the phone, scrolled until she got to Thief-bro's number, and hit "Call". Her eyes wandered to the clock just in time to see the numerals change to 8:00. Crap. If I call now he'll get the impression I'm anal because I called at the same time for the past week. Better wait five minutes, and maybe he'll--
She heard the click of the phone and Thief-bro's voice. "Chitose-san, good evening," he said. "You're very punctual."
He'd noticed! Was 'very punctual' just Thief-bro being polite when he really meant 'anal'? And here she'd been trying so hard not to give him that idea! "Thief-bro, I don't care what you think, I'm not anal!" She hung up, wondering if Thief-bro was convinced. Maybe she should have--
And then it dawned on her what she'd done.
"Stupid! You just hung up on him!" Geez, when had she become such an idiot? And she'd laughed at girls in school who'd been just as stupid. Exasperated, Miyuki was about to press "Redial" when she remembered the dating website and its Rule #1, highlighted in red and bolded to boot.
Call him no more than once a day.
Aghast, she stared at her cellphone, and then wailed, "But that didn't count!"
II. Be considerate of his time--don't monopolize it!
Her cellphone rang. Miyuki didn't have to look at the display to know it was Thief-bro. After what she'd just said, of course Thief-bro would be calling for an explanation, but what could Miyuki say? Sorry I hung up on you, but I thought you thought I was being anal for checking the clock and calling you at eight, not that I was, because I wasn't, I just picked up the phone to call you and realized it was eight but you picked up the phone before I could call at a different time. God, listen to her, she was definitely worse than the girls at school. Good thing no one was around to hear.
The ringing stopped. Crap--had Thief-bro hung up already? Miyuki grabbed her phone, flipping it open quickly. "Hello?"
"--se call... Chitose-san." Thief-bro sounded surprised. "Is something the matter?"
"No, of course not," Miyuki said. Think fast, girl... "I, er, just wanted to ask your schedule for tomorrow."
"Why do you want my schedule?"
"To see if you'd be free at this time, so I won't bother you by calling you when you're busy, of course!"
Thief-bro sounded concerned. "If there's something you need to discuss, we can talk now."
"We can and we will, but I still want your schedule for tomorrow," Miyuki said patiently. Boy, Thief-bro could be dense sometimes. "If I call while you're doing something, you'll be too busy to give me the next day's schedule clearly enough for me to write it down."
There was a pause. Then Thief-bro said slowly, "You want my schedule for tomorrow so you can confirm the best time to call for my schedule the day after."
"Yes!" Finally! Thief-bro was so slow sometimes.
Half a second later, it dawned on her just how wrong that sounded.
"No, no, it's not that! I'm just trying to be considerate here because I don't want to end up monopolizing your time, so just co-operate, geez!"
Over the connection, she heard a choked sound that was muffled quickly. "Thief-bro! Are you okay?"
"Fine," he said, and cleared his throat. "Please excuse me, I need some water."
"Sure, but are you okay?"
"I'll be fine in a moment. Please excuse me."
III. Give him his guy-time.
Miyuki heard him put the phone down on the table--at least, she thought that was what the knocking sound was--and then a door opening and closing. She flopped on the bed again with a sigh and stared at the ceiling, listening to dead air.
Why was Thief-bro being so difficult anyway? Did he have a full day tomorrow? Or was he doing something private that he didn't want to share? Sen-nii sometimes told Miyuki to get out of his room and then locked the door, but that was just because he wanted to read those magazines she'd found under his bed that he made her swear never to mention to Mom. As if Mom didn't already know--Sen-nii never cleaned his own room, but someone did.
Did Thief-bro read those magazines too? Miyuki couldn't see him doing that, but maybe...
Over the line, she heard the door open and close, followed by a thunk that sounded like glass being set down. Had he brought in a glass of water? Or would Thief-bro drink tea? Then Thief-bro's voice came back on the line. "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting," he said.
"It's okay," she said. "Ne, Thief-bro, do you know this magazine called The Best?"
"The Best?" Thief-bro sounded confused. "Isn't that the music program that ended a long time ago?"
Maybe not, then. "Ask Sen-nii. It's a magazine, but I don't think it's about music," she said. "Not if the pictures are any indication."
"Pictures."
Thief-bro had this way of asking questions that sounded like sentences. Miyuki would bet he was frowning, but you could never really tell with Thief-bro unless you were looking closely. Still, she could tell the difference: the edges of his eyes moved up a little when he smiled. "Like I just told you, ask Sen-nii," Miyuki said. "Aren't you two friends? You talk so much whenever you come over." Girls in swimsuits weren't her thing. Give her Matsumoto Jun any day. Or Thief-bro, really, except Thief-bro didn't have the right sort of personality for that whole celebrity thing. Then again, some girls went for the stand-offish ones and the dumb ones.
Speaking of dumb ones...
What was she doing?
Thief-bro had better be the type to like dumb girls, because encouraging Thief-bro to start looking at girls in swimsuits was probably one of the stupidest things Miyuki had ever done, if not the stupidest. As if she didn't have enough issues being here in Kyuushuu while Thief-bro was in Tokyo, surrounded by fashionistas and other Tokyo girls who read fashion magazines, covered themselves in perfume, and wore cute little tops while asking Thief-bro for "help" with their homework.
On second thought, Thief-bro would probably go for the ones who did their homework and knew all the answers to the professors' questions. Considering Miyuki's luck, those girls were likely to be cute, smart, and know how to play tennis, too. Not as well as Miyuki did, but it wasn't as if Miyuki could hold her own against Thief-bro on a tennis court anyway, so that probably didn't matter. Tokyo girls like that would be girls Thief-bro could bring home to show his parents.
She sighed. God, she was such an idiot, faulting into the net with every serve. Wonderful, Chitose Miyuki. Absolutely brilliant. You're doing a great job of trying to get his attention. And talking way too much. Maybe she should just give up for the day. Or the week. "Look, if you're really busy tomorrow or if you have guy-things to do, it's okay. Just tell me when's a good time to call."
"Eight pm is fine, Chitose-san. Unless..."
Miyuki waited, but he didn't continue. "Unless what?"
"... I could call you instead."
"Oh." That might work out better, actually, since he was busier than she was. "... wait. Really?"
"Would eight pm continue to work for you?"
"That would be perfect," Miyuki said with a grin. The training was working already. Maybe that website was a reliable source of advice after all.
♥ ♥ ♥
The weather was nice and warm that weekend, and Miyuki stretched out on the bed, cellphone in hand as she scrolled through her list of favorite sites looking for the website with the dating guidelines. The first three guidelines had worked great, and it was time to read the rest of the how-to before Thief-bro came over like he'd said he was going to before his rehab. She'd gotten dressed up for the occasion in a nice lavender cotton top and cut-off jeans. Thief-bro liked lavender--he wore that color a lot. And in case he wanted to go to a cafe or something, Miyuki had even bought a cute little handbag that had caught her eye in the department store.
She was all set--all she needed now was a quick brush-up on the guidelines. Not that she hadn't read them ten times already, but it couldn't hurt to do it again. She clicked on the bookmark and waited for the page to download--cellphone webpages were so slow! Oh wait, there it was.
IV. Save the messing around until after you're married.
She laughed. Messing around? Thief-bro, mess around? Miyuki suspected if she ever wanted to do anything more than was polite, she'd have to bring up the subject instead, and somehow she didn't think Thief-bro liked that sort of thing in girls. Nope, she didn't have anything to fear on this end. Maybe her own impatience and curiousity, sure, but Miyuki had read all the dating advice columns in the magazines at the bookstore while standing in the aisles so the store assistants wouldn't see. She knew what was at stake here, and besides, dating wasn't just about being all lovey-dovey. Urgh, the way those girls at school carried on... Miyuki wasn't going to do anything stupid like that.
The doorbell rang, and she perked up. Was that Thief-bro already? He was a few hours too early--maybe he couldn't wait to see Miyuki any longer than necessary. Better not keep him waiting, but it wouldn't do to let him think she was too eager, either. "I've got it!" she called, trying her best not to run to the front door.
Behind her, Sen-nii's voice came from his bedroom. "Miyuki! I'll be down in a minute!"
"Like he's here to see you!" she called back, grinning to herself. Of course Thief-bro was here to talk to her! "Coming!"
She opened the door to see Thief-bro, neatly dressed as usual in a collared shirt and khakis. "Chitose-san," he said politely, nodding at her. "That's a very nice shirt."
He paused. Miyuki saw it--he was trying to be discreet, but his eyes were looking for something. She took in the tennis bag slung over his shoulder and the lack of any gifts in either of his hands. "Thief-bro," she said, pausing, suddenly uncertain. Wasn't he here to see her? The guidelines had worked--Thief-bro had called her every night at eight on the dot, and he apologized and rescheduled ahead of time if he wasn't going to. Thief-bro was the considerate sort who thought of everything, wasn't he? So why didn't he have a gift in hand when calling on the girl he was supposed to be dating?
"As usual, you're right on time, Tezuka."
Miyuki turned to stare at her brother, and then realized Sen-nii was wearing his tennis gear. "Where are you going?" she asked.
Sen-nii picked up the tennis bag at the foot of the stairs. "Where does it look like I'm going?"
"But who're you playing with? Are you going to meet the guys? You didn't say anything about that."
Sen-nii raised his eyebrows. "In case you haven't noticed, that's Tezuka Kunimitsu at the door. Don't you wanna ask a question with a less obvious answer, kiddo?"
If Thief-bro was playing Sen-nii, then he'd change at the courts because it was polite not to walk around in tennis clothes. Miyuki turned towards Thief-bro, realising clothes would fit in that tennis bag easily. Thief-bro looked again at her clothes and said, "We can wait for you to change."
Miyuki blinked. "But you just said it was a nice shirt!"
Thief-bro blinked back at her and then looked at Sen-nii, who laughed. "If you want to play tennis in your brand-new shirt and get it all smelly and sweaty, I'm not going to stop you," Sen-nii said, shrugging. "Are you coming?"
V. Don't play games.
Miyuki hesitated. She wanted to spend time with Thief-bro, but Sen-nii was right about the smelly and sweaty part, and Miyuki definitely didn't want Thief-bro to remember her as smelly and sweaty. "No," she said reluctantly. "I'm not going to play with you."
"You aren't?" Thief-bro was looking at her now. Miyuki saw a furrow form on his forehead. "Are you all right?" he asked, looking back at her brother. "Perhaps we should--"
Sen-nii had lowered his bag. "Are you sick?" he asked. "I'm sorry--I didn't know. Is everything all right? If you're really sick, then I'm sure Tezuka won't mind skipping tennis today."
Tezuka nodded. "Next time, then."
VI. Older men expect you to behave like adults.
"No, I'm not sick! Don't change your plans for me," Miyuki said, smiling brightly at Thief-bro. "I just don't feel like tennis today, but I'll come cheer you on, so you'd better beat Sen-nii, okay?"
"Oy, oy, you're supposed to be cheering for me," she heard Sen-nii say as she fled up the stairs. Miyuki didn't bother answering that, instead heading up for her new handbag. She actually did want to play--Thief-bro was good, and every time they played, Miyuki learned new things--but there was no way she'd be able to change her mind now that she'd said what she'd said.
Stupid guidelines, stupid Sen-nii, stupid Thief-bro, and most of all, stupid Miyuki! She was smarter than this, and she knew it. Why did being around Thief-bro have to make her IQ drop at least twenty points?
♥ ♥ ♥
Normally, watching Thief-bro and Sen-nii play tennis was one of Miyuki's favorite activities. Today didn't bring her any satisfaction, though--instead of getting sucked into the game like she should have, she was restless and fidgety, and all she wanted to do was play tennis or talk to Thief-bro. Preferably the latter, because her shirt had begun sticking to her back after five minutes of sitting in the warm sun. It probably had a horrible sweat stain on it by now.
With a sigh of aggravation, she reached behind her to pull the shirt away from her back for the umpteenth time. If she'd known the stupid shirt would have gotten sticky like this, she'd have changed into tennis clothes and played, sweaty or not. Stupid shirt wasn't worth sitting on the bench and missing out on tennis. It wasn't having the desired effect on Thief-bro anyway--all Thief-bro had done since they'd gotten to the courts was play tennis with Sen-nii, and both of them were so into their tennis they weren't looking anywhere except each other. Miyuki didn't really care if Sen-nii was looking at her or not, since she lived with him, but Thief-bro only came to Kyuushuu once every few weeks!
"Hey, Miyuki, hand me my bottle, would you?"
Miyuki automatically reached for the bottle beside her and gave it to Sen-nii. Then she paused, empty hand in mid-air. "You're finished already?" she asked.
"Already?" Sen-nii exchanged a glance with Thief-bro, and then both of them looked at Miyuki. Thief-bro's forehead furrowed again--a tiny little bit, but Miyuki could tell since she'd spent so much time staring at Thief-bro's pictures.
Miyuki pulled away as Sen-nii squatted down in front of the bench and held the back of his hand up to her forehead. "I'm not sick, I said!"
"You aren't paying attention to the match, and you didn't even notice when I won the game with that new smash I was telling Tezuka about on the way here." Sen-nii frowned. "If you're not sick, what's wrong? Is it--" He cut himself off, glanced sideways at Thief-bro, and then lowered his voice. "Wait, is it that time of the month already?"
"No!" Miyuki stood and grabbed her handbag, avoiding both their eyes. "Geez, stop making weird guesses, okay? Maybe I'm just too hot. I'm going to get some juice. Go ahead and play, I'll be back later."
The juice machine was blissfully far from the court, and Miyuki stood before it, staring at the drink selection. Dammit, Chitose Miyuki, stop acting like a spoilt little girl.
"Chitose-san?"
She'd spun and taken a step backwards before she realized it was Thief-bro. "You startled me," she said, letting out a breath of air as she slumped back against the vending machine. "Stop doing that."
"Oh. I apologize."
It hadn't been his fault. "No, I'm sorry," she said with a sigh as she shook her head. "Don't mind me. I'm just being crabby." She backed away from the machine to give him some space. "Here, you go ahead, I haven't decided yet."
Miyuki scowled at herself as she listened to the ka-chink ka-chink of coins being fed to the machine. The prospect of getting into Thief-bro's good graces was looking more remote by the second, and whose fault was that anyway? She was supposed to be acting like an adult, and adults didn't flounce like she was doing now. At least she'd apologized to Thief-bro, but that didn't take away the fact that she was acting like a five-year-old.
"Chitose-san..."
She hadn't known it was possible for him to look that uncomfortable. Thief-bro's face was an open book if you knew how to read it, and Miyuki could see he was trying to make a decision. She gave him a wan smile. "You don't have to worry about hurting anyone's feelings here. Say it."
He looked away towards the courts. "If it's something you can't tell your brother, perhaps a discreet third party might be helpful. Is there something wrong?"
VII. Be honest with him as much as possible.
"Yes," she said, making a face. "My shirt is sticking to my back, and I'm tired of watching you two play."
The corner of Thief-bro's lip twitched. "Why didn't you change? I would have played you."
"Isn't it obvious? I didn't want to be all sweaty and sticky in front of you," she sighed.
"You've played tennis with us in the middle of summer." He frowned, looking somewhat confused.
Miyuki'd thought she had been a little too obvious once or twice, but clearly she had been beating herself up for nothing. Thief-bro didn't get it, did he? Honesty or not, a girl had to draw the line at confessing to a boy outright if he was likely to say no. At the rate she was going, Miyuki was pretty sure she'd get nothing for her troubles but a sympathetic pat on the head. She had more pride than that. "You know, for an honors student, you're really not very bright," Miyuki said resignedly. It was difficult to hate Thief-bro for being an idiot if he was so adorable when he looked confused. "Why on earth did I have to like you anyway? Why couldn't I have gone for a guy who didn't need things spelled out for him?"
"Perhaps because you enjoy the challenge."
Wait a minute...
Miyuki blinked and stared at Thief-bro. She could have sworn his eyes had twinkled. Had he said what she thought he'd just said? Maybe it had just been her imagination. "Say that again."
"It can't be my outwardly expressive nature."
Miyuki's jaw dropped. There had definitely been a twinkle in his eyes this time. "You... you knew? And you let me make an idiot of myself in front of you anyway?" She scowled at him. "You know, sometimes you can be kind of an asshole." With that, she turned and began walking towards home.
"Chitose-san." Thief-bro was walking beside her now. "I'm sorry."
Thief-bro's brow was furrowed like it had been when Sen-nii had asked her if she was okay. Miyuki wanted to be mad at him, but she was more mad at herself. "Go play tennis with Sen-nii and let me sulk in peace," she said. She stalked off, and he didn't follow her this time.
♥ ♥ ♥
The bus had pulled up less than a minute after she'd gotten to the bus stop, so by the time Miyuki got home she was still angry at herself. All right, maybe she was slightly angry at Sen-nii and at Thief-bro because neither of them had stopped her from being an idiot, but Miyuki knew when she was being childish.
It didn't stop her from continuing to be childish, though. She tossed herself on her bed and lay there, staring sulkily at the ceiling. Great. Not only am I an obvious idiot, I'm an immature obvious idiot. Thief-bro would know what to do in situations like this, she was sure. He was dense, but Miyuki was sure he'd never behave like she was behaving now. Nor would Sen-nii, actually.
She closed her eyes and groaned. Both Thief-bro and Sen-nii were probably thinking about how childish she was being.
She fumbled for her phone, started the web browser, and then checked the list of links. Maybe the website had advice for immature idiots, like "How To Make A Love Potion" or "How To Pretend Nothing Ever Happened". Considering she'd done nothing right, advice from a website was better than no advice at all.
Tired and frustrated? Nothing going your way? Just want to throw a tantrum and break things? Check out "How To Control Your Temper!"
"No shit," she muttered, clicking on the link and skimming the page. She paused as a line caught her eye.
2. Realize that things can be handled well at all times; it's just a matter of what kind of attitude you put into it. Take deep breaths.
She took two deep breaths, holding them as she counted to ten, then letting go of each one slowly. She felt a little light-headed after that, but she read the line again, and then stared blankly at the ceiling.
What would Thief-bro do in her situation? Deal with it and move on, probably. Miyuki doubted he'd let anything get in the way of his tennis. Even Sen-nii spent forever on his tennis, and he'd told Miyuki it wasn't as much time as Thief-bro spent.
She flipped onto her stomach, burying her face into her pillow. What sort of attitude was she supposed to take in a situation like this? She was just a kid who didn't know any better and had resorted to stupid dating websites for useless advice.
... Oh.
God, it was so obvious she couldn't believe she hadn't seen it before. She didn't like to think of herself as a kid--even now, the thought of admitting to being one made her frown--but she was, wasn't she? She was fourteen, Thief-bro was nineteen, and boys matured a lot more slowly than girls did, so they might even be on the same page when it came to this sort of thing.
Even though Miyuki liked thinking about Thief-bro, it wasn't as if she was really into all that stupid kissy-kissy stuff. She knew what she wanted: Thief-bro's attention and time, and maybe lots of tennis matches with him if he'd play her. She would bet anything Thief-bro didn't have anything on his mind except being a good student and playing lots of tennis, either. Boys were simple that way, and Thief-bro was the kind of nice boy Miyuki would bet on not getting any clue until he was in the workplace.
Was dating really that important right now?
She didn't want any of those Tokyo office girls sinking their claws into Thief-bro, that was for sure. But maybe it would be better just to enjoy being young and to try and get as much time with Thief-bro as possible so that when he finally got a clue, Miyuki would be the first one he thought of. Then he wouldn't be tempted by idiotic city girls with too much makeup and too few tennis abilities.
"Chitose Miyuki," she said to the ceiling, "I can't believe how stupid you are. Now hurry up and fix things before you do something idiotic again."
And she knew just how to do that.
Quickly, she keyed an e-mail to Sen-nii--Don't leave, I went home to change, be there soon! As soon as she'd hit "send", she hopped off the bed, pulled on tennis clothes, and grabbed her tennis bag. If she could get the next bus, maybe they would still be there.
♥ ♥ ♥
When she arrived, slightly breathless, Thief-bro was the only one waiting. "He had something else to do," Thief-bro said when Miyuki looked around.
"But you're still here," she said. "Don't you have to go to the rehabilitation clinic?"
"Not for another two hours," he said matter-of-factly, as if that explained everything.
Miyuki stared at Thief-bro, who just sat there on the bench and looked back at her through those oval glasses of his. "Don't you have anything better to do than hang around empty tennis courts?"
"He said you were coming back, and I made a promise."
Thief-bro had promised, but he hadn't needed to stay today. Miyuki stared at him for another moment, then dropped her tennis bag, unzipping it quickly. "You were a jerk just now, so just for that, I get to serve," she said, pulling out her tennis racket. "Hurry up and get on the court!" Better get on with this before he changed his mind.
"Aa."
And a horrible conversationalist, she thought. Not that everyone didn't already know that about him. She bounced the ball behind the baseline, and then pointed her racket across the net. "Better get ready--I'm not going to take it easy on you!"
"Let's not get careless, then."
Miyuki squinted. From this distance, it was hard to tell if she had imagined Thief-bro's lips quirking ever so slightly. Well, it didn't matter. She was playing tennis with Thief-bro, and the only person he was looking at was her. Right now, that was all that mattered.
"Ready or not, here I come!"
She took a deep breath, tossed the ball, and served.
♥ ♥ ♥
Omake:
In the sidebar, a link caught Miyuki's eye: Girls, are you frustrated? Is he just not taking the hints? Is he drawing further away from you? Are you barking up the wrong tree? Click here for "How to tell if your crush is gay!"
Chewing thoughtfully on her lower lip, Miyuki stared at the link. No. No way.
She clicked on it anyway.
Characters: Chitose Miyuki, Tezuka Kunimitsu
Words/Rating: 4850+ words / G
Summary: Chitose Miyuki decides that unless she takes matters into her own hands, Tezuka Kunimitsu is never going to realize what he's missing. Pity she's decided to follow the advice of a dating website...
Beta(s): Thank you to tokyocentricity for checking my Miyuki, and to readerofasaph and thephoenixboy for beta-duties (and--more importantly--the incredible quantities of hand-holding and reassurance! ♥) Special thanks to mizukomidori and ontogenesis for listening to me ramble and providing useful reader-feedback.
Author's Notes: Originally written for subrosa_tennis Round Five and posted here. Steps adapted from Wikihow (why is there even a wiki how-to on this in the first place? O_o)
I. Call him no more than once a day.
The first day they had discussed her slice. The second day had been on how to improve service accuracy. Miyuki stared at the ceiling, trying to think of some other aspect of her tennis that she could ask for help about today. Definitely not doubles advice though--she'd seen what Thief-bro considered doubles. Well, no one could be that perfect a tennis player, right? Good singles players didn't have to be good at doubles. At least Thief-bro knew his strengths.
She turned her head towards her desk, looking for her clock. She could have sworn it had been at least three minutes since she'd last checked the time, but it still said 7:56 pm, like it had the last two times. Was it broken? No, the second hand was ticking. She grabbed her cellphone, checking the display. Still 7:56--no, now it was 7:57. Only three more minutes.
With a frustrated sigh, she flopped backwards to lie on her bed, cellphone clutched tightly to her chest. She glared at the bedside clock. Still 7:57 pm? Stupid time needed to move faster.
Would Thief-bro mind if she called earlier than she had for the last two days? It was only three minutes earlier, after all.
Flipping onto her stomach, Miyuki tried to remember what the dating website had said. Had there been anything about being predictable or working on a schedule? Sen-nii had mentioned Thief-bro being the sort of guy who was always organized. Okay, so Sen-nii had said 'anal' instead, but he'd just been jealous because Miyuki had said Thief-bro was a better student. Organized didn't mean a slavish devotion to time, did it? Thief-bro didn't seem like that sort of guy, but maybe Sen-nii had a point. If Thief-bro was that kind of guy, it would be better to find out now rather than later, because at least that way there wouldn't be any messy relationship to break up.
She made a sound of frustration. Lord, she was being just as stupid as those idiots in school, wasn't she? Maybe she wouldn't call him tonight. No more than once a day didn't mean she had to call once a day, right? Plus if she called at the same time every day, Thief-bro might get the wrong idea and think she was the anal one.
But if she didn't call, would he forget about her? Sure, he dropped by every month on his way to the rehabilitation clinic, but he always talked to Sen-nii instead...
"Stupid Sen-nii," Miyuki said, burying her face in the pillow. He knew Miyuki wanted to spend more time with Thief-bro--she'd told him! Why'd he always have to laugh and wink at her instead of letting her hang out with Thief-bro? Stupid Thief-bro, too. Stupider, even, because Sen-nii was pretty smart sometimes, and Miyuki had only said Thief-bro was a better student to annoy Sen-nii anyway. Besides, book smarts didn't mean street smarts, and Miyuki knew which was more important.
Not that it mattered in Thief-bro's case, since Miyuki had enough street smarts for both of them. Current stupidity aside. She groaned and buried her face deeper into the pillow.
Still... people who had good book smarts usually followed pretty tight schedules, didn't they? At least, the smart kids at school seemed to.
She sat up. If she wanted to train Thief-bro into expecting her to call at 8pm, maybe it was better to call at 8pm, or he'd be too busy to talk later. But maybe not eight on the dot, just to keep him on his toes. A minute or two early would do nicely. She flipped open the phone, scrolled until she got to Thief-bro's number, and hit "Call". Her eyes wandered to the clock just in time to see the numerals change to 8:00. Crap. If I call now he'll get the impression I'm anal because I called at the same time for the past week. Better wait five minutes, and maybe he'll--
She heard the click of the phone and Thief-bro's voice. "Chitose-san, good evening," he said. "You're very punctual."
He'd noticed! Was 'very punctual' just Thief-bro being polite when he really meant 'anal'? And here she'd been trying so hard not to give him that idea! "Thief-bro, I don't care what you think, I'm not anal!" She hung up, wondering if Thief-bro was convinced. Maybe she should have--
And then it dawned on her what she'd done.
"Stupid! You just hung up on him!" Geez, when had she become such an idiot? And she'd laughed at girls in school who'd been just as stupid. Exasperated, Miyuki was about to press "Redial" when she remembered the dating website and its Rule #1, highlighted in red and bolded to boot.
Call him no more than once a day.
Aghast, she stared at her cellphone, and then wailed, "But that didn't count!"
II. Be considerate of his time--don't monopolize it!
Her cellphone rang. Miyuki didn't have to look at the display to know it was Thief-bro. After what she'd just said, of course Thief-bro would be calling for an explanation, but what could Miyuki say? Sorry I hung up on you, but I thought you thought I was being anal for checking the clock and calling you at eight, not that I was, because I wasn't, I just picked up the phone to call you and realized it was eight but you picked up the phone before I could call at a different time. God, listen to her, she was definitely worse than the girls at school. Good thing no one was around to hear.
The ringing stopped. Crap--had Thief-bro hung up already? Miyuki grabbed her phone, flipping it open quickly. "Hello?"
"--se call... Chitose-san." Thief-bro sounded surprised. "Is something the matter?"
"No, of course not," Miyuki said. Think fast, girl... "I, er, just wanted to ask your schedule for tomorrow."
"Why do you want my schedule?"
"To see if you'd be free at this time, so I won't bother you by calling you when you're busy, of course!"
Thief-bro sounded concerned. "If there's something you need to discuss, we can talk now."
"We can and we will, but I still want your schedule for tomorrow," Miyuki said patiently. Boy, Thief-bro could be dense sometimes. "If I call while you're doing something, you'll be too busy to give me the next day's schedule clearly enough for me to write it down."
There was a pause. Then Thief-bro said slowly, "You want my schedule for tomorrow so you can confirm the best time to call for my schedule the day after."
"Yes!" Finally! Thief-bro was so slow sometimes.
Half a second later, it dawned on her just how wrong that sounded.
"No, no, it's not that! I'm just trying to be considerate here because I don't want to end up monopolizing your time, so just co-operate, geez!"
Over the connection, she heard a choked sound that was muffled quickly. "Thief-bro! Are you okay?"
"Fine," he said, and cleared his throat. "Please excuse me, I need some water."
"Sure, but are you okay?"
"I'll be fine in a moment. Please excuse me."
III. Give him his guy-time.
Miyuki heard him put the phone down on the table--at least, she thought that was what the knocking sound was--and then a door opening and closing. She flopped on the bed again with a sigh and stared at the ceiling, listening to dead air.
Why was Thief-bro being so difficult anyway? Did he have a full day tomorrow? Or was he doing something private that he didn't want to share? Sen-nii sometimes told Miyuki to get out of his room and then locked the door, but that was just because he wanted to read those magazines she'd found under his bed that he made her swear never to mention to Mom. As if Mom didn't already know--Sen-nii never cleaned his own room, but someone did.
Did Thief-bro read those magazines too? Miyuki couldn't see him doing that, but maybe...
Over the line, she heard the door open and close, followed by a thunk that sounded like glass being set down. Had he brought in a glass of water? Or would Thief-bro drink tea? Then Thief-bro's voice came back on the line. "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting," he said.
"It's okay," she said. "Ne, Thief-bro, do you know this magazine called The Best?"
"The Best?" Thief-bro sounded confused. "Isn't that the music program that ended a long time ago?"
Maybe not, then. "Ask Sen-nii. It's a magazine, but I don't think it's about music," she said. "Not if the pictures are any indication."
"Pictures."
Thief-bro had this way of asking questions that sounded like sentences. Miyuki would bet he was frowning, but you could never really tell with Thief-bro unless you were looking closely. Still, she could tell the difference: the edges of his eyes moved up a little when he smiled. "Like I just told you, ask Sen-nii," Miyuki said. "Aren't you two friends? You talk so much whenever you come over." Girls in swimsuits weren't her thing. Give her Matsumoto Jun any day. Or Thief-bro, really, except Thief-bro didn't have the right sort of personality for that whole celebrity thing. Then again, some girls went for the stand-offish ones and the dumb ones.
Speaking of dumb ones...
What was she doing?
Thief-bro had better be the type to like dumb girls, because encouraging Thief-bro to start looking at girls in swimsuits was probably one of the stupidest things Miyuki had ever done, if not the stupidest. As if she didn't have enough issues being here in Kyuushuu while Thief-bro was in Tokyo, surrounded by fashionistas and other Tokyo girls who read fashion magazines, covered themselves in perfume, and wore cute little tops while asking Thief-bro for "help" with their homework.
On second thought, Thief-bro would probably go for the ones who did their homework and knew all the answers to the professors' questions. Considering Miyuki's luck, those girls were likely to be cute, smart, and know how to play tennis, too. Not as well as Miyuki did, but it wasn't as if Miyuki could hold her own against Thief-bro on a tennis court anyway, so that probably didn't matter. Tokyo girls like that would be girls Thief-bro could bring home to show his parents.
She sighed. God, she was such an idiot, faulting into the net with every serve. Wonderful, Chitose Miyuki. Absolutely brilliant. You're doing a great job of trying to get his attention. And talking way too much. Maybe she should just give up for the day. Or the week. "Look, if you're really busy tomorrow or if you have guy-things to do, it's okay. Just tell me when's a good time to call."
"Eight pm is fine, Chitose-san. Unless..."
Miyuki waited, but he didn't continue. "Unless what?"
"... I could call you instead."
"Oh." That might work out better, actually, since he was busier than she was. "... wait. Really?"
"Would eight pm continue to work for you?"
"That would be perfect," Miyuki said with a grin. The training was working already. Maybe that website was a reliable source of advice after all.
♥ ♥ ♥
The weather was nice and warm that weekend, and Miyuki stretched out on the bed, cellphone in hand as she scrolled through her list of favorite sites looking for the website with the dating guidelines. The first three guidelines had worked great, and it was time to read the rest of the how-to before Thief-bro came over like he'd said he was going to before his rehab. She'd gotten dressed up for the occasion in a nice lavender cotton top and cut-off jeans. Thief-bro liked lavender--he wore that color a lot. And in case he wanted to go to a cafe or something, Miyuki had even bought a cute little handbag that had caught her eye in the department store.
She was all set--all she needed now was a quick brush-up on the guidelines. Not that she hadn't read them ten times already, but it couldn't hurt to do it again. She clicked on the bookmark and waited for the page to download--cellphone webpages were so slow! Oh wait, there it was.
IV. Save the messing around until after you're married.
She laughed. Messing around? Thief-bro, mess around? Miyuki suspected if she ever wanted to do anything more than was polite, she'd have to bring up the subject instead, and somehow she didn't think Thief-bro liked that sort of thing in girls. Nope, she didn't have anything to fear on this end. Maybe her own impatience and curiousity, sure, but Miyuki had read all the dating advice columns in the magazines at the bookstore while standing in the aisles so the store assistants wouldn't see. She knew what was at stake here, and besides, dating wasn't just about being all lovey-dovey. Urgh, the way those girls at school carried on... Miyuki wasn't going to do anything stupid like that.
The doorbell rang, and she perked up. Was that Thief-bro already? He was a few hours too early--maybe he couldn't wait to see Miyuki any longer than necessary. Better not keep him waiting, but it wouldn't do to let him think she was too eager, either. "I've got it!" she called, trying her best not to run to the front door.
Behind her, Sen-nii's voice came from his bedroom. "Miyuki! I'll be down in a minute!"
"Like he's here to see you!" she called back, grinning to herself. Of course Thief-bro was here to talk to her! "Coming!"
She opened the door to see Thief-bro, neatly dressed as usual in a collared shirt and khakis. "Chitose-san," he said politely, nodding at her. "That's a very nice shirt."
He paused. Miyuki saw it--he was trying to be discreet, but his eyes were looking for something. She took in the tennis bag slung over his shoulder and the lack of any gifts in either of his hands. "Thief-bro," she said, pausing, suddenly uncertain. Wasn't he here to see her? The guidelines had worked--Thief-bro had called her every night at eight on the dot, and he apologized and rescheduled ahead of time if he wasn't going to. Thief-bro was the considerate sort who thought of everything, wasn't he? So why didn't he have a gift in hand when calling on the girl he was supposed to be dating?
"As usual, you're right on time, Tezuka."
Miyuki turned to stare at her brother, and then realized Sen-nii was wearing his tennis gear. "Where are you going?" she asked.
Sen-nii picked up the tennis bag at the foot of the stairs. "Where does it look like I'm going?"
"But who're you playing with? Are you going to meet the guys? You didn't say anything about that."
Sen-nii raised his eyebrows. "In case you haven't noticed, that's Tezuka Kunimitsu at the door. Don't you wanna ask a question with a less obvious answer, kiddo?"
If Thief-bro was playing Sen-nii, then he'd change at the courts because it was polite not to walk around in tennis clothes. Miyuki turned towards Thief-bro, realising clothes would fit in that tennis bag easily. Thief-bro looked again at her clothes and said, "We can wait for you to change."
Miyuki blinked. "But you just said it was a nice shirt!"
Thief-bro blinked back at her and then looked at Sen-nii, who laughed. "If you want to play tennis in your brand-new shirt and get it all smelly and sweaty, I'm not going to stop you," Sen-nii said, shrugging. "Are you coming?"
V. Don't play games.
Miyuki hesitated. She wanted to spend time with Thief-bro, but Sen-nii was right about the smelly and sweaty part, and Miyuki definitely didn't want Thief-bro to remember her as smelly and sweaty. "No," she said reluctantly. "I'm not going to play with you."
"You aren't?" Thief-bro was looking at her now. Miyuki saw a furrow form on his forehead. "Are you all right?" he asked, looking back at her brother. "Perhaps we should--"
Sen-nii had lowered his bag. "Are you sick?" he asked. "I'm sorry--I didn't know. Is everything all right? If you're really sick, then I'm sure Tezuka won't mind skipping tennis today."
Tezuka nodded. "Next time, then."
VI. Older men expect you to behave like adults.
"No, I'm not sick! Don't change your plans for me," Miyuki said, smiling brightly at Thief-bro. "I just don't feel like tennis today, but I'll come cheer you on, so you'd better beat Sen-nii, okay?"
"Oy, oy, you're supposed to be cheering for me," she heard Sen-nii say as she fled up the stairs. Miyuki didn't bother answering that, instead heading up for her new handbag. She actually did want to play--Thief-bro was good, and every time they played, Miyuki learned new things--but there was no way she'd be able to change her mind now that she'd said what she'd said.
Stupid guidelines, stupid Sen-nii, stupid Thief-bro, and most of all, stupid Miyuki! She was smarter than this, and she knew it. Why did being around Thief-bro have to make her IQ drop at least twenty points?
♥ ♥ ♥
Normally, watching Thief-bro and Sen-nii play tennis was one of Miyuki's favorite activities. Today didn't bring her any satisfaction, though--instead of getting sucked into the game like she should have, she was restless and fidgety, and all she wanted to do was play tennis or talk to Thief-bro. Preferably the latter, because her shirt had begun sticking to her back after five minutes of sitting in the warm sun. It probably had a horrible sweat stain on it by now.
With a sigh of aggravation, she reached behind her to pull the shirt away from her back for the umpteenth time. If she'd known the stupid shirt would have gotten sticky like this, she'd have changed into tennis clothes and played, sweaty or not. Stupid shirt wasn't worth sitting on the bench and missing out on tennis. It wasn't having the desired effect on Thief-bro anyway--all Thief-bro had done since they'd gotten to the courts was play tennis with Sen-nii, and both of them were so into their tennis they weren't looking anywhere except each other. Miyuki didn't really care if Sen-nii was looking at her or not, since she lived with him, but Thief-bro only came to Kyuushuu once every few weeks!
"Hey, Miyuki, hand me my bottle, would you?"
Miyuki automatically reached for the bottle beside her and gave it to Sen-nii. Then she paused, empty hand in mid-air. "You're finished already?" she asked.
"Already?" Sen-nii exchanged a glance with Thief-bro, and then both of them looked at Miyuki. Thief-bro's forehead furrowed again--a tiny little bit, but Miyuki could tell since she'd spent so much time staring at Thief-bro's pictures.
Miyuki pulled away as Sen-nii squatted down in front of the bench and held the back of his hand up to her forehead. "I'm not sick, I said!"
"You aren't paying attention to the match, and you didn't even notice when I won the game with that new smash I was telling Tezuka about on the way here." Sen-nii frowned. "If you're not sick, what's wrong? Is it--" He cut himself off, glanced sideways at Thief-bro, and then lowered his voice. "Wait, is it that time of the month already?"
"No!" Miyuki stood and grabbed her handbag, avoiding both their eyes. "Geez, stop making weird guesses, okay? Maybe I'm just too hot. I'm going to get some juice. Go ahead and play, I'll be back later."
The juice machine was blissfully far from the court, and Miyuki stood before it, staring at the drink selection. Dammit, Chitose Miyuki, stop acting like a spoilt little girl.
"Chitose-san?"
She'd spun and taken a step backwards before she realized it was Thief-bro. "You startled me," she said, letting out a breath of air as she slumped back against the vending machine. "Stop doing that."
"Oh. I apologize."
It hadn't been his fault. "No, I'm sorry," she said with a sigh as she shook her head. "Don't mind me. I'm just being crabby." She backed away from the machine to give him some space. "Here, you go ahead, I haven't decided yet."
Miyuki scowled at herself as she listened to the ka-chink ka-chink of coins being fed to the machine. The prospect of getting into Thief-bro's good graces was looking more remote by the second, and whose fault was that anyway? She was supposed to be acting like an adult, and adults didn't flounce like she was doing now. At least she'd apologized to Thief-bro, but that didn't take away the fact that she was acting like a five-year-old.
"Chitose-san..."
She hadn't known it was possible for him to look that uncomfortable. Thief-bro's face was an open book if you knew how to read it, and Miyuki could see he was trying to make a decision. She gave him a wan smile. "You don't have to worry about hurting anyone's feelings here. Say it."
He looked away towards the courts. "If it's something you can't tell your brother, perhaps a discreet third party might be helpful. Is there something wrong?"
VII. Be honest with him as much as possible.
"Yes," she said, making a face. "My shirt is sticking to my back, and I'm tired of watching you two play."
The corner of Thief-bro's lip twitched. "Why didn't you change? I would have played you."
"Isn't it obvious? I didn't want to be all sweaty and sticky in front of you," she sighed.
"You've played tennis with us in the middle of summer." He frowned, looking somewhat confused.
Miyuki'd thought she had been a little too obvious once or twice, but clearly she had been beating herself up for nothing. Thief-bro didn't get it, did he? Honesty or not, a girl had to draw the line at confessing to a boy outright if he was likely to say no. At the rate she was going, Miyuki was pretty sure she'd get nothing for her troubles but a sympathetic pat on the head. She had more pride than that. "You know, for an honors student, you're really not very bright," Miyuki said resignedly. It was difficult to hate Thief-bro for being an idiot if he was so adorable when he looked confused. "Why on earth did I have to like you anyway? Why couldn't I have gone for a guy who didn't need things spelled out for him?"
"Perhaps because you enjoy the challenge."
Wait a minute...
Miyuki blinked and stared at Thief-bro. She could have sworn his eyes had twinkled. Had he said what she thought he'd just said? Maybe it had just been her imagination. "Say that again."
"It can't be my outwardly expressive nature."
Miyuki's jaw dropped. There had definitely been a twinkle in his eyes this time. "You... you knew? And you let me make an idiot of myself in front of you anyway?" She scowled at him. "You know, sometimes you can be kind of an asshole." With that, she turned and began walking towards home.
"Chitose-san." Thief-bro was walking beside her now. "I'm sorry."
Thief-bro's brow was furrowed like it had been when Sen-nii had asked her if she was okay. Miyuki wanted to be mad at him, but she was more mad at herself. "Go play tennis with Sen-nii and let me sulk in peace," she said. She stalked off, and he didn't follow her this time.
♥ ♥ ♥
The bus had pulled up less than a minute after she'd gotten to the bus stop, so by the time Miyuki got home she was still angry at herself. All right, maybe she was slightly angry at Sen-nii and at Thief-bro because neither of them had stopped her from being an idiot, but Miyuki knew when she was being childish.
It didn't stop her from continuing to be childish, though. She tossed herself on her bed and lay there, staring sulkily at the ceiling. Great. Not only am I an obvious idiot, I'm an immature obvious idiot. Thief-bro would know what to do in situations like this, she was sure. He was dense, but Miyuki was sure he'd never behave like she was behaving now. Nor would Sen-nii, actually.
She closed her eyes and groaned. Both Thief-bro and Sen-nii were probably thinking about how childish she was being.
She fumbled for her phone, started the web browser, and then checked the list of links. Maybe the website had advice for immature idiots, like "How To Make A Love Potion" or "How To Pretend Nothing Ever Happened". Considering she'd done nothing right, advice from a website was better than no advice at all.
Tired and frustrated? Nothing going your way? Just want to throw a tantrum and break things? Check out "How To Control Your Temper!"
"No shit," she muttered, clicking on the link and skimming the page. She paused as a line caught her eye.
2. Realize that things can be handled well at all times; it's just a matter of what kind of attitude you put into it. Take deep breaths.
She took two deep breaths, holding them as she counted to ten, then letting go of each one slowly. She felt a little light-headed after that, but she read the line again, and then stared blankly at the ceiling.
What would Thief-bro do in her situation? Deal with it and move on, probably. Miyuki doubted he'd let anything get in the way of his tennis. Even Sen-nii spent forever on his tennis, and he'd told Miyuki it wasn't as much time as Thief-bro spent.
She flipped onto her stomach, burying her face into her pillow. What sort of attitude was she supposed to take in a situation like this? She was just a kid who didn't know any better and had resorted to stupid dating websites for useless advice.
... Oh.
God, it was so obvious she couldn't believe she hadn't seen it before. She didn't like to think of herself as a kid--even now, the thought of admitting to being one made her frown--but she was, wasn't she? She was fourteen, Thief-bro was nineteen, and boys matured a lot more slowly than girls did, so they might even be on the same page when it came to this sort of thing.
Even though Miyuki liked thinking about Thief-bro, it wasn't as if she was really into all that stupid kissy-kissy stuff. She knew what she wanted: Thief-bro's attention and time, and maybe lots of tennis matches with him if he'd play her. She would bet anything Thief-bro didn't have anything on his mind except being a good student and playing lots of tennis, either. Boys were simple that way, and Thief-bro was the kind of nice boy Miyuki would bet on not getting any clue until he was in the workplace.
Was dating really that important right now?
She didn't want any of those Tokyo office girls sinking their claws into Thief-bro, that was for sure. But maybe it would be better just to enjoy being young and to try and get as much time with Thief-bro as possible so that when he finally got a clue, Miyuki would be the first one he thought of. Then he wouldn't be tempted by idiotic city girls with too much makeup and too few tennis abilities.
"Chitose Miyuki," she said to the ceiling, "I can't believe how stupid you are. Now hurry up and fix things before you do something idiotic again."
And she knew just how to do that.
Quickly, she keyed an e-mail to Sen-nii--Don't leave, I went home to change, be there soon! As soon as she'd hit "send", she hopped off the bed, pulled on tennis clothes, and grabbed her tennis bag. If she could get the next bus, maybe they would still be there.
♥ ♥ ♥
When she arrived, slightly breathless, Thief-bro was the only one waiting. "He had something else to do," Thief-bro said when Miyuki looked around.
"But you're still here," she said. "Don't you have to go to the rehabilitation clinic?"
"Not for another two hours," he said matter-of-factly, as if that explained everything.
Miyuki stared at Thief-bro, who just sat there on the bench and looked back at her through those oval glasses of his. "Don't you have anything better to do than hang around empty tennis courts?"
"He said you were coming back, and I made a promise."
Thief-bro had promised, but he hadn't needed to stay today. Miyuki stared at him for another moment, then dropped her tennis bag, unzipping it quickly. "You were a jerk just now, so just for that, I get to serve," she said, pulling out her tennis racket. "Hurry up and get on the court!" Better get on with this before he changed his mind.
"Aa."
And a horrible conversationalist, she thought. Not that everyone didn't already know that about him. She bounced the ball behind the baseline, and then pointed her racket across the net. "Better get ready--I'm not going to take it easy on you!"
"Let's not get careless, then."
Miyuki squinted. From this distance, it was hard to tell if she had imagined Thief-bro's lips quirking ever so slightly. Well, it didn't matter. She was playing tennis with Thief-bro, and the only person he was looking at was her. Right now, that was all that mattered.
"Ready or not, here I come!"
She took a deep breath, tossed the ball, and served.
♥ ♥ ♥
Omake:
In the sidebar, a link caught Miyuki's eye: Girls, are you frustrated? Is he just not taking the hints? Is he drawing further away from you? Are you barking up the wrong tree? Click here for "How to tell if your crush is gay!"
Chewing thoughtfully on her lower lip, Miyuki stared at the link. No. No way.
She clicked on it anyway.