Chapter Word Count: 1,014

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Satoshi Ohno, or Oh-chan as called by his teammates, was a famous professional table tennis player in the capital of Japan, Tokyo. Satoshi filled the newspapers, the television and even the internet, with his superb skills in serving and winning all of his games. In other words, he was invincible.

 

In the last tournament that he had been in was a success as he had beaten Sho, one of his superiors in terms of the game. Sho Sakurai was inevitably famous just like Satoshi. Coming from Akihabara, Sho wanted to show the whole Japan that it wasn’t only famous for being the fashion capital of the country.

 

“I will not accept this defeat!” Sho had exclaimed. “We’ll have a rematch in the tournament in Chiba. I’ll prove to you that I’m not a loser.”

 

Satoshi could still hear the sound of his opponent’s voice as he won the tournament. He knew that he won but in his heart, he felt that it was a near miss.

 

Sitting on a chair in front of the dining table, he threw the magazine that he was reading, on the floor. “I am getting tired of this,” Satoshi sighed in defeat.

 

“Now, now,” Jun Matsumoto, his manager started, “You shouldn’t be like that. You, Satoshi Ohno, is now famous all over the country. You should be proud!”

 

As Jun said his words, he turned around and spun his hands as if pointing to everything that Satoshi had: great hall, huge house and widespread windows.

 

Satoshi stared out the large window in the dining room, out looking the green trees and the endless blue sky filled with light and fluffy clouds.

 

“I’m getting too old for this,” Satoshi said, “I think that I should retire and just become a coach instead.”

 

Jun just laughed from Satoshi’s remark, even knowing that the latter was serious.

~***~

“Yatta!” Masaki cheered, jumping up and down.

 

Masaki Aiba, was in high spirits as he eventually got into the team where Satoshi Ohno started as a rookie. He had been preparing for this event and finally, he was able to reach his dream to be a table tennis player and follow the footsteps of his idol. He was tall and lanky but his right hand and backspin serves were strikingly unbeatable.

 

He never missed a single pass and his opponents were a bit shocked especially when they just faced him. Everyone in his group aimed to learn his technique but Masaki mostly kept to himself and his best friend, Kazunari Ninomiya or Nino as Masaki called, a year younger than him.

 

“Look at this,” Nino said, showing the sports magazine that he just bought from the convenience store near his house.

 

On the cover of the magazine was Satoshi and inside it, as the cover indicated, was an exclusive interview. When Masaki saw what Nino was showing, he gleefully grabbed the magazine from his friend and immediately turned the pages to read about the interview of the person that he greatly admired.

~***~

Masaki was so serious in training that Nino barely talked with him the following day.

He practiced and perfected his as he was matched with one of the members from their group. His eyes flamingly showed determination and fierceness. His brown hair, bounced up and down as he returned the ball to his opponent, running left to right, and back and forth. Sweating like a pig, Masaki still looked strikingly handsome.

 

The whistle blew—the game has ended.

 

Tired and exhausted, Masaki slammed his whole torso onto the table tennis table and screamed at the top of his lungs, “Ah! I am so tired!”

 

All the members from the team laughed at Masaki’s remark.

 

They liked the way that Masaki showed his willpower to pursue his dream. When Masaki read from the magazine that Satoshi will be on the tournament in Chiba, he knew that he had to do everything that he can to join the singles match. And to do so, he must train hard to get the opportunity to meet his idol.

 

“Here you go,” Nino said, handing out cold bottled water to his friend.

 

 Dropping his racket on the table and standing up, Masaki took the bottled water and said, “Thanks, Nino.”

 

“No problem.”

 

“You know,” Masaki started, “I think that everything will be fine.”

 

Nino smiled and said, “You’re too happy-go-lucky to win the tournament but I’ll be cheering for you.”

~***~

Satoshi’s brown hair with hint of black streaks was bobbing up and down as he ran down the treadmill. His short but firm legs were moving gracefully as he exercised. With the tournament coming, he had to be in shape before he trained.

 

His training usually started with vigorous exercises for his stamina and flexibility. This was the first part of his training and he was getting hyped up as he was going to battle against Sho again Sho was pissed from losing from him that the latter demanded a rematch this coming fall in Chiba.

 

Jun was just sitting there in the corner, watching Satoshi’s every move. He knew that Satoshi was in a deep thought as he ran on the machine.

 

It was already late in the morning and Satoshi was still resolute in completing his training before the afternoon ends. He just took a swig from his bottled water and stopped the machine before going off of it. He got a towel from the stool beside the machine and wiped his face with it to remove his perspiration.

 

As Satoshi wiped off, Jun then reminded him, “You have an interview later at five.”

 

Satoshi sighed as he took off his shirt and wiped his torso. “I know.”

 

The pressure was killing Satoshi inside and didn’t know how to shout to the world that he was getting pissed with all the interviews that they ask of him. He knew that being a famous athlete invites reporters from all over the country but that didn’t stop him from getting irritated. He didn’t like the attention and he wanted to just relax before a match.

TBC

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A/N:

First ever fan fiction request! Yey! I was able to make it as an AU. I know that it would be difficult but I have a lot of non-AU fics already, I decided to choose AU instead since I think she wanted it. :)

 

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