Hidden Plays

33: Though there was never a 'right' moment

Satomi stayed there to watch the remainder of the match, but she sat at the very top where no one could see her. There was no one up there to acknowledge her presence and she was grateful for that.

She didn't need the Hyotei team asking why her eyes were bloodshot, or the Rokkaku boy and his girlfriend staring at her, or anything. She felt comfortable in her current nature, alone with the sound of tennis balls hitting the racquet in the background. It was almost perfect.

But she was watching the match progress.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Echizen won, Satomi left as soon as the results were final. She sat on a bench waiting for her chauffeur to pick her up.

Satomi looked at the paper, not knowing what to do with it. She couldn't sneak it into Yukimura's bag.

She saw the Rikkaidai team come out when she was on the phone.

Her chauffeur soon said that he was arriving in a moment. She stood up from the bench and grabbed her bag.

"Satomi-san, wait." A voice said. She knew it was Yukimura's right away. She knew what to do. She purposely didn't turn around and pretended like she dropped the note, and jeaded off. When Yukimura walked up, she was already walking away. He noticed that she had dropped the note. As he went to pick it up he noticed that it was from her.

'Dear Sei-chan,
You did your best. Don't beat yourself over a loss. Have fun with tennis, okay? A lot of us can't have that fun. I want the best for you. I would tell you my life story, but you'd get bored too easily. There's really not much I have to say, well in a note, but this is just until we see each other again. -Y.S (T)'

As he read it he imagined it was her voice reading it. He headed back to his team tucking the note away.

Instead of going straight home he heard rumors about a training facility created by Katashi Yoshida himself for the purpose of training Tomi and Nori under the public eyes, but Nori was now at a different training facility, so now only Tomi used it. It was a normal size building and there were different groups of sports reporters there. The security was tight. He told the guards he was a friend of Tomi's.

They called Tomi and Yukimura said his name. There was a pause.

"I need someone to bring the wall down between the reporters area and the courts. Have him enter through the left entrance onto court 2." Tomi said. The guards informed the other guards and everything was put into place as Yukimura was escorted to the side entrance. He noticed a wall coming down between the reporters glass area on either side of the court while he stepped onto the court. Satomi was hitting with a ball machine.

"What are you doing here?" She asked not stopping.

"I want to talk." Yukimura said.

"Right now is not the best time to talk." She said hitting the last ball before going to turn to machine off.

"There is never a right time with you!" Yukimura said slightly agitated now.

"I'm sorry, I pushed all my problems to you, it's time for me to take my own problems back and solve them myself. Now that I'm actually going to the professional league, competition will be harder, I must live up to my name." Satomi said taking her mask and hat off. Then she wiped her sweat.

"That's what you told me. Have fun playing tennis? What about you?" Yukimura questioned.

"The fun in tennis disappeared as soon as my father trained me like I was the number 2 rank trying to beat the number 1. He told me second place means that you lost. He told me I always had to be number 1. Since he stopped playing he was obsessed about tennis, even to the point he neglected my mother for it. When my talent was discovered he pushed everything off to a side to train me. My parents got divorced since my father favored me and neglected my own mother and brother. When fighting for custody he only fought for me, not my brother. I was a doll, instead of dressing me up, he made me perfect my every move. Fun is just a term and nothing more now." Satomi said as she started using the hopper to pick up the ball.

Yukimura stopped talking.

"Let's play." He said, shocking Satomi.

"Huh? You just finished your match. You're tired." Satomi said. Yukimura got out his racquet and grabbed two balls as he tossed Satomi her racquet after she picked up all the balls.

"I don't want you to use any techniques on me. No Assassin stuff or that new technique that every reporter is talking about. Just the basics." Yukimura said. Satomi nodded and grabbed her racquet and headed to the other side. Yukimura did a normal serve, Satomi received it normally.

Further into the game it was more competitive, but they still only used the basic skills.

For once when playing tennis, a smile was clear and bright on Satomi's face, and her smile brought a smile to Seiichi's face.

As soon as the match was over both of them sat on the bench on Seiichi's side of the court.

"That was new." Satomi said, a smile bright and clear on her face.

Seiichi gave a smile of his own.

"You were able to show who you truly were. It was beautiful." Seiichi said. Satomi flushed red, a blush covering her nose and cheeks.

She looked up at him to see him smiling down at her.

"Sei-kun~ Stop it. You're making me embarrassed, and I am Tomi!! I never get embarrassed!!" Satomi whined.

"I'm simply stating the truth." Seiichi said. Satomi 'hmph'ed. He had a small laugh before putting an arm around her shoulder and pulling her in. This startled Satomi, but she wasn't complaining. Being in his arms felt...
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nice...

Yukimura looked down at her when she leaned into his embrace.

"Satomi-chan?" Yukimura asked.

"Yes?" Satomi answered softly.

"Can I ask you a question?" He asked.

"You just did." She said. He sighed, but still smiled.

"You know what I mean." Seiichi said.

"Go ahead." She said.

(Sorry I found this to be too adorable!!)
Until next chapter readers!
Find out what Yuki has to say next chapter.