The Prince(ss) Of Tennis

The zhuo brothers

Aifang wasn't expecting she'd encounter the very person she accidentally shoved into a flower bed yesterday. But ironically, he stood right before her. Geez, talk about bad luck.
- "Zhuo Zhi, what a coincidence!!!" she swiftly hid the book behind her back in fear of embarrassment, not wanting anyone to think she's pathetic for reading and believing in such books. He simply chuckled - "good to see you too"
Aifang stared blankly at the mysterious boy besides Zhuo Zhi, waiting to be introduced.
- "ah, excuse my rudeness, this is my younger brother Zhuo Yu" he revealed - "Yu, this is liu aifang, Chen liqin and mu" Zhuo Yu smiled gently.
The trio greeted him each in their own way, liqin waved, aifang heartily welcomed him - "nice to meet you" while mu said "senior, I didn't know you had a younger brother" Zhuo Yu had a change of expression, implying that he was offended by mu's remark but he said nothing.
- "aifang and mu are in the tennis club and liqin is my classmate" Zhuo Zhi clarified to a confused Zhuo Yu.
- "oh I see" he muttered in a low voice.
- "we're going to have ice cream, you should come with us" liqin was making a funny face at aifang, and aifang quickly got the hint.
- "yes, you should come with us, as an apology for yesterday, it's my treat"
Zhuo Yu, who was silently observing the whole time, finally spoke up in a small voice - "what happened yesterday??" He looked from Zhou Zhi to aifang.
- "how about this, I'll tell you if you come with us" aifang suggested.
He looked to his older brother and answered on behalf of them both - "sure, if you insist"

This party of 5 set out for the ice cream store. Her friends wanted to order cone ice cream, but aifang being the rich kid as she was insisted on buying them sundaes, and she wouldn't take no for an answer. After placing their orders, they found a vacant table facing a large window.
- "so you shoved him in a flower bed!!" An amused Zhuo Yu chortled.
Aifang lifted her hands up - "I swear it was an accident"
- "it did happen, I witnessed it with my own eyes" liqin added.
- "I'm sorry about your uniform" she apologized for the umpteenth time.
- "no worries, as you can see it's all clean now" Zhuo Zhi chuckled.
Having been seated right across from Zhuo Yu, aifang tuned out the rest of the party, and started a conversation with him.
- "can I ask, what grade are you in?" Aifang had never seen him at school so far, heck she was surprised that Zhuo Zhi had a sibling at all. He took a bite of his sundae and answered - "11th grade, what about you?"
- "same" she continued - "you don't go to our school right? I've never seen you before"
- "no, I go to Guo Zi high"
Her eyes flickered to his tennis bag, he noticed - "I'm in Guo Zi's tennis club"
Aifang thought that he must be a great player - "that's amazing, I'm not a permanent player yet, but I look forward to meeting you on the court soon"
- "likewise, I hope you make to the team" his face cracked into a genial smile.

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Liqin jumped into conclusions, questioning aifang's motives in wanting to be friends with Zhuo Yu. However, aifang assured her that she absolutely had no ulterior motives. She simply wanted to befriend him because of his good-naturedness and easy-going character. Not because she had a crush on him or anything like that. How could she possibly love 2 people at the same time?? It was absurd of liqin, to make such an assumption, despite knowing how aifang felt about siyang. Her heart belonged to siyang, and siyang alone. Aifang giggled to herself at liqin's silliness, when her phone rang on the way home. The screen read 'HE XINGLONG'. She was confused, why would he xinglong call her of all people, they weren't that close. She decided to answer the call.
- "hello"
- "hello senior, is something wrong?"
- "no, I was calling to ask if you wanted to have a match with me"
- "WHAT?!!" She wondered if she heard him correctly "but why?"
- "it's the qualifying tomorrow remember? Let's warm-up"
- "oh alright"

The match was about to begin, xinglong pointed his racket in her direction and bellowed "BURNING!!" Causing aifang to be started. - "oh boy, I'll never get used to this"
Aifang had no idea how she got herself into this match. But he politely asked, and she thought it would be rude to refuse. But why did he pick her out of all his teammates? Who were miles better than her, she wondered to herself. It was so random, and so out of the blue. Doubts and anxious thoughts began to creep into her head. She shut her eyes - "now is not the time aifang, this isn't an official match, just try to have fun"
She cracked her eyes open again. Xinglong served and a rally began. His playing style was aggressive, but aifang made every effort to return all his balls. She applied extra speed to her returns. They went on until they were both panting and out of breath.
- "let's just stop here" he proposed, and aifang readily agreed. She was starting to feel a twinge of pain in her wrist, and didn't want to step into the qualifying with an injury.
- "you were amazing, you even managed to hold up against my aggressive returns till the end" he chugged down some water, then continued - "to be honest, I have no doubt at all that you'll join our team"
Aifang was grinning from ear to ear like an idiot - "thanks for having a match with me, it really helped boost my morale"
He beamed back at her - "anytime, and good luck for tomorrow, if you make to the team, I'll treat you to free roast geese"
- "I'll look forward to it"

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