The Silence In The Dark (Prince of Tennis) ||REWRITE||

Chapter 23

The group eventually, after a lot of fussing about who would sit where, ordered and took the largest table in the boba shop toward the back of the seating area. Seiichi had called out that he was sitting beside Reichi, leaving one spot to his right open, which Sanada took after the other- mainly Akaya and Nio- argued over who would take the spot to Reichi's right. Seiichi brought Reichi's attention away from everyone to have a conversation, speaking in gentle and quiet voices to each other about school. Reichi sighed heavily at the topic, revealing he had to take more placement tests within the first few days of school.

"They don't know where I place in my classes, really... They put me in the first-year English class, and really I'm fluent in everything besides speaking the language..." He mumbled, taking a sip of his drink; he felt everyone's eyes move toward him, making him look up from his cup. Blinking at the group. "Yeah...?" It was Yanagi who bit the bullet after a moment of silence, already digging his notebook out to write. "Why is it you aren't proficient in speaking English, Reichi?" Reichi's eyes lit up at the question, giving the group a small, easy smile. "I focused more time on my Japanese than my English... I can speak it- obviously- but it just isn't... As good as my Japanese. I speak slowly in English still and stumble over words a lot still." His voice carried around the group; Akaya- who sat beside Seiichi, leaned forward to look around Seiichi and smile at Reichi. "You focused more time on Japanese than English?"

He nodded in response, leaning forward to meet Akaya's eyes. "Yeah, I knew I'd be coming back to Japan, whether it was when I was in my high school years or after. So I focused more on being able to fully speak Japanese over English. I had- and still do- have a vocal therapist... So it isn't too big of a deal.." His eyebrows scrunched a bit at a few different words, being able to see some mild hesitancy behind his speaking, but his expression smoothed out quickly as he continued speaking. Everyone seemed to relax the more he spoke, Renji writing down a few small notes about the boy before he noticed the boy's height and weight change, eyes slowly opening to look at Reichi fully.

"Reichi, may I ask for some updated numbers for my notes?" Reichi looked across the table to the brunette, nodding once. "Have tall are you now?" Reichi stopped, elbow resting on the table momentarily before he quickly moved it off, holding his chin in his hand as he thought. "170 centimeters, I don't remember the decimal point, sorry, Yanagi" Renji easily brushed it off, smiling lightly as his eyes closed again. "And weight, if you don't mind? You were 50 kilograms at 151 centimeters." He noted lightly; pencil posed to write beside his old number before Reichi's eyebrows scrunched a bit. "My last physical I was... 63 kilograms." (138 lbs), he said lightly, nodding a bit to himself before sitting up a bit straighter, looking over to his right, finally taking Sanada's figure in fully.

Then his eyes roamed a bit, taking everyone in slowly. "You've all... Grown..." Seiichi laughed to his left, his hand moving to cover his mouth. "Yes, I believe you're still the shortest, Reichi... How was the move? Did you and your family have an easy time getting settled back in?" Reichi huffed under his breath a bit, noticing the obvious topic change before rolling with it. "I guess... I dropped my dresser on my knee last week... Ryoma wanted to change rooms, his had too much sunlight, and I needed more sunlight for my cactus anyway... Besides that, we got moved in fairly fine." Jackal leaned forward a bit at the mention of an injury. "Is your knee okay? Is it bruised still? Have you been icing it?" Reichi's shoulders slowly slumped, slipping back into the routine of hearing them all and being near them all again. "Yeah... It's a bit scuffed still and bruised still... And yes, I have been. Thank you Jackal." He said quietly.

"I don't think I'll be able to join anyone during lunch this week... It'll be hectic with everyone trying to find their friends and places to sit, and I don't really want to deal with all of... That. And I have most of my placement... Tests during lunch... This week..." His voice, the more he spoke, was getting softer and softer, obviously quieter now than before. But nobody mentioned it, and none of them brought it up, a few moving to their own conversations once they gave Reichi reassurance that it was fine but come next week, if they didn't see him, they'd hunt him down. That was Nio and Bunta, but everyone- minus Yagyuu and Sanada- shared the sentiment. Reichi let a small laugh slip his lips, smiling with a small nod to everyone with a quiet mumble of a promise to be there at lunch next week.