Running After You

Chapter 20: The Star

"What?" He couldn't believe his ears when she said she was actually a girl. Though Youta could certainly believe his eardrums were blown out from the noise and that his head was dizzy from the impact of a high velocity tennis ball sent straight to the face. "No, there's no way." He said after taking a moment to look at her and think.

"I really cannot believe the nerve of you." This did little to calm her, and why would it? As Chinemi stomped her way to him. "If this wasn't so expensive, I'd beat you with my racket!" The most surprising part to him in this moment wasn't her revealing who she really was, but rather that the girls around him were actually on her side.

"How do you not know who she is?" One of them said.

"What did she do to have you so rude to her?" Another spoke out.

"Wait a second, so you really are a girl?" He got back up on his feet and took another good look at her. "But, you're wearing the boy's tennis uniforms."

"There's no rule saying I have to wear a skirt." Again, he found the right words to get her more angry as the girl's face turned bright red. She looked like a volcano ready to erupt all over him. "I can't believe how utterly stupid you are. I thought some of the people here were already bad, but you might be the biggest idiot of them all."

"What's going on here?" Finally a coach made their arrival after hearing her scream as loud as she did. "Ah, you must be the sports manager." The woman gently put her arm around him and led the boy away from the crowd. The manner in which she did so was more akin to protecting him, as if he were about to be eaten by ravenous wolves.

Youta was taken somewhere more private as the coach told everyone to resume their practicing. She was someone who took the appearance of a tennis coach as one would expect. "You sure do know how to make a first impression." She said once they were alone. "I guess Mikimasa was right when he said you'd be the perfect person to rile her up.

"If he told me more about her, then things would've gone way smoother." Youta couldn't help but comment on how he had been essentially tricked by his teacher. It was no wonder why that man was laughing and such when he had made obvious statements revealing his ignorance. "Maybe you can tell me why I needed to be here in the first place?"

"Well, I'm sure you can already see that Chinemi is an... Interesting character." She said, putting it rather lightly. "I'm surprised you've never heard of her before. She's rather popular in school. Mikimasa wasn't kidding when he said you weren't part of the crowd."

"What's what supposed to mean?" He'd have to remember this to ask his teacher about it later. "Anyway, is it important I know who she is? I mean, I'm just a sports manager anyway. So all that matters is solving these problems and moving on."

"All business huh?" She giggled. "I guess this might work out after all." It was now time to explain what even was the reason for asking for his help. "Chinemi comes from a rich family background, so it's no surprise her sport of choice ended up being something like this. But it's kind of weird because she's not really what most people might expect from someone with her upbringing."

"We'll just call her, rough around the edges." He experienced first hand just how aggressive she could be. This girl was far from a delicate flower. She's be more akin to a Venus fly trap with that attitude.

"The worst part would be the mouth on that girl." She continued on. "Most would call it trash talking, but she's very harsh on her teammates. In fact, it's mostly targeted towards her allies instead of enemies."

"I would think that would create more enemies, but it seems like all the other girls kind of liked her." Youta originally believed himself to be the savior of the tennis team, but from the response he received. It looked like he had turned himself into public enemy number one. "Is that genuine or are they all pressured because of her family?"

"It's actually because they all greatly respect her. The money or power her family wields has no influence. She's a third year, so there's already respect for her as a senior, but more of it comes from her past success. She's been one of the finest players I've ever had the honor of coaching in my career." Her face beamed with pride, even though Youta could say she ended up creating a monster.

"Great, so we have someone who talks a big game and actually backs it up." He hoped with her beating the others, it was only because their team was weak and not because she was strong.

"The only reason this is all a problem is because the team is actually playing worse because of her. They all think she's the best, so they try to emulate her, but Chinemi is not some traditional player so it doesn't work if it's not her doing it. And if you ask me, she could also do with trying to tweak her game to improve. I've never seen someone with as much talent as her. If there's someone who could go pro, it's her, but the way she plays holds her back too much."

"You're not giving my clear goals here." Youta was not moved by her expression of praise towards Chinemi. "I don't know the first thing about tennis, so it's not like I can help there." That was his statement reason, and indeed there was truth in those words. However one could not simply ignore that this girl just drilled a ball into his face. So it wasn't as if he had any love towards her either. "But I'm good with attitude adjustments. So I'll take care of that and you can worry about being a coach."

"Great, I'll pull her aside so the two of you can properly introduce yourselves." She said, walking off. He already knew it was way too late for that and didn't even care. This girl was an absolute jerk and Youta had no plans on wishing to make friends with her. It was more important for him to fix this aspect of hers to quickly return to his life where he didn't know she existed. "Okay you two, it's time to talk." The coach returned with her. "Chinemi, you're all good with practice for the rest of the day. So don't worry about it."

"But coach-" She attempted to protest, but the woman quickly left before she was able to make her disdain known. "Ugh, looks like I really am stuck with you." Said Chinemi, her body language spoke all there needed to be said about her opinion of him.

"I can't say I'm happy to be with you." He admitted. "But it's clear you do need me to straighten you out."

"On what? My strict encouragement towards my fellow teammates?" It seemed she was fully self-aware of her problem. However the problem was that she thought it wasn't one. "We need to keep working on to beat everyone. And how does this help with that? Why am I wasting my precious time with a loser who looks like he spends all day after school on a couch wasting online videos?"

He crossed his arms and looked tough at her. However internally Youta couldn't help but be hit with disappointment that she had accurate about him. "I should be practicing, training my body. Not using oxygen just to talk to someone like you."

"You really have a way with words." He figured that rich background gave her better education than most, though it seemed wasted on someone so uncouth. "But you heard your coach, and it sounds like I have some taming of the shrew to take care of."

"Oh Shakespeare." She was unimpressed at his reference. "Acting like you read high literature, but I'll have you know I have read that story too. We'll see which one of us is the falcon, in this battle." Youta was surprised she knew enough of that story to make a reference of her own.

As he glared at her, it was evident she fit the role of Katherina well. Whether he could take over as Petruchio was an entirely different story, but Youta would not give up against her. At this point, it had nothing to do with his mission or the fate of the club should he fail. Winning against her was a matter of his personal pride.