Rikkaidai's Newest Regular | A Prince of Tennis Fanfiction

His Doppelganger

Ryoma's POV:

After the last bell of the day rang, Kirihara immediately banged his head on his desk and sighed. Other students watched with mild interest, especially the girls.

"What is it now, Kirihara-senpai?" I asked, half curious and half annoyed. 

"The 1000 laps, of course!" Kirihara whined. People gaped. Then they thought of lunch and laughed. 

I blinked. Then I gave a kind smile. 

"I'll do some of it with you, if you want," I offered. Well, only 100, as that's my limit. Any more, and I'll suffer relapse from my diease and playing tennis will be only a dream. I thought bitterly.

Kirihara looked at me as if I was crazy, and gave me a tight hug. 

"THANK YOU, RYOMA-KUN, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!" Kirihara shrieked. 

I untangled myself from him and rolled my eyes, though slightly surprise when he used my first name.

"We're kind-of-ish best friends, so what did you expect?" I said.

Kirihara responded by grabbing my arm affectionately and pulling me out of the classroom and to the tennis courts.

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When we arrived at the tennis courts, the 3rd year regulars were already stretching and doing light warmups. Pulling out my tennis regular attire, I strolled into the almost packed changing room and gave a small growl of distaste. The boys seeing my regular uniform, immediately talking and stared. 

"Ah, Echizen-kun," a pretty looking 2nd year said finally, "The Regular's changing room is down that way."

And he pointed to the door on my right. My eyes travelled up his face, and I have a small gasp of surprise. Fuji-sempai...I thought miserably, trying to memorise the 3rd year's face. His peach coloured hair fell down elegantly on the sides of his head, and his eyes were so similar, only a shade darker than Fuji's. But before I could do anything, Kirihara bounced into the room and started to pull me towards the Regular's changing room.

"Come on, Ryo-kun!" Kirihara whined, "Buchou's being a meanie and I want to actually play a few matches before practice is over!"

"Wait! What's your name?" I quickly asked the 2nd year.

"Sora Amori," Amori answered softly, in a voice that could be easily mistaken for Fuji-sempai's. 

But before I could dwell on it any longer, Kirihara succeeded in pulling me along and Amori-sempai disappeared as the changing room door slammed shut. 

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When I changed my clothes, I saw Kirihara waiting for me outside. 

"Oh, arigato, Kirihara-senpai!" I said, grabbing my tennis equipment.

Kirihara flashed a genuine smile and resumed his usual cheerful drag-Echizen-around-because-he's-cute routine. 

"Late, as usual, Akaya-kun," Nio said with a friendlyish-predatory-smirk. "Well, good luck--haha, not--on your 1000 laps!"

I looked at Nio-senpai with widened eyes. I suppose Kirihara is as close to his teammates like I was to mine....Well, ex-teammates... I thought sadly, eyes moistening. Blinking rapidly to try to keep them away, I was annoyed at myself. I wasn't always an emotional person, after all. But...I wonder how they'll react when the second match in the Regionals come along......They'll probably think I'm a traitor, a rude little brat who's too cocky for his own good and too ignorant of everything.

A lone tear slid down my right cheek, much to my embarrassment. I quickly wiped the tear away, but not quickly enough.

"Echizen-kun?" a familiar soft voice said.

I turned around and saw Amori-senpai in front of me. His beautiful one-shade-darker-than-cerulean eyes were filled with concern and curiosity, and even though I knew he was only worried for me, my heart was shattered bit by bit just by looking at him. He was like Fuji-senpai, yet not. 

I have to stop looking at him! I thought in panic and frustration. I suddenly thought of the 1000 laps and turned towards Kirihara.

"Hey! Kirihara-senpai! Come on! I'm going to run 100 laps with you!" I said with fake cheerfulness.

Kirihara grinned.

"Ah, call me Akaya! We're best friends, no?" Kiri-no, Akaya said brightly. Ignoring Nio, he walked towards me. 

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Amori's slightly hurt expression, but forcefully compressed my own feeling of distress. The feeling of Fuji came back, yet the fact that Amori's not Fuji still chips away pieces of my heart. 

"Hai, A-Akaya-kun," I said, a small smile gracing my lips.