[CONTENTID1] MIYAWAKI SAKURA [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2] 6TH HIT [/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]

 “YOU?!”

This can’t be happening. The last person I want to see right now would be that dog-looking girl who almost ran over me. Yet here she is, glaring at me like I was some sort of parasite to her. I didn’t back down from the glaring contest, so I glared back at her.

“Oh? What a coincidence.” The teacher said as he taps my back. “Please go to your seat so we can start this class already.”

“Yes sir.” Still feeling bitter, I marched all the way to the back of the classroom where I will be seating right next to the dog-looking girl.

You know what’s funny about the seats here at this room? It’s because each chair can be occupied by two students.

And can you guess what I would say next? Yes. I am seating right next to her.

I should’ve brought with me a chainsaw to cut this chair into two.

Yes that’s how much I hate her guts. I can’t stand sitting right next to her.

Oh well, it doesn’t matter anymore. I just dropped my things in the middle of our seat, creating a wall between us two. Don’t mind her for the day, Sakura. You will just stress yourself out.

“Let me introduce myself again.” The teacher fixes his clothes. “I am Kang Gary, your English teacher and also your homeroom teacher. And as for my announcement, it’s about our project for this semester.”

I heard series of groans from my newly classmates. I could tell that its something that they don’t want to do. Even my seatmate whose name is Yujin, was also letting out a sigh of frustration.

Do they really not want to do this? Because I also don’t want to. Hehe.

“Chill guys. This will not be the same as last year. I don’t want to see my students failing my subject again. This semester, I want you to find a pair and work on this project as a team.” That lightened the mood inside the room. “And please work hard on this project because this will be the only project that I will be giving this semester.”

That’s actually good, but at the same time, it could be bad in some ways. And I don’t want the bad thing to happen to me.

“So I want you to find your partner this instant.” All of a sudden, everyone started standing up from their seat, leaving me baffled for a moment back there. Hell, I don’t even know the people in this room! How am I supposed to even ask them to pair up with me??

And just like that, my prayers have been answered. “Ah. On another note,” he calls the attention of the class. “Since Sakura is still not new with our school, I would like to assign Yujin to be her partner for this project and also her tour guide.” I take it back. My prayers haven’t been fully answered.

How can the gods be so unfair to me? Have I done something harsh in my past life that I have to be paired up with this girl!?

As if her hearing was sharp enough to hear my soft groans, she also had her own share of frustration to vent out in the air.

“Sir! I don’t want to be paired with this big eyed freak!” Yujin shouted. “And I’m already paired with Hyunjin!”

 Tch! “As if I want to be paired with the likes of you, you dumb dog!” And another glaring competition has begun. Just because I’m new in this school doesn’t mean I would back down in this contest without a fight!

“I don’t know what happened between the two of you, but as much as possible, I would like you two to act professionally in this room.” Mr. Kang warned us nicely. “And while doing your project, please fix your relation with each other.”

Having no other choice, I went back sitting at our chair, feeling devastated at the sudden revelation of my partner.

Sigh..

~*~

“Oh? You’re here early? I thought that you would still be in school at this hour.”

“Just please let me play peacefully, Hye.”

She just let out a cheerful laugh and took the seat right beside me.

Right now, I am back here at this spacious tennis court along with my bestfriend, Kang Hyewon.

She was my previous classmate back at Second Academy, and she was the only one who I always hang out with other than my teammates. But all in all, I don’t like hanging out with my previous teammates.

We were both part of the tennis club and probably one of the most active members in our school – previous school I mean.

This has been our routine everytime we want to train longer than the allotted training time at school. And despite our skinny build – which has been the source of our criticism – We become different when we step inside the court.

“Why are you in your hoodie?” Hyewon curiously asks.

“Some just threw her food at me and I had nothing to change except my hoodie.”

“You could’ve worn your tennis uniform.”

“And waltz in that school? Are you crazy? That could’ve earned me a call from the director himself!”

And she bursts laughing her off. “Well, you’re not wrong.”

After finishing our warm-ups, we did a singles match with five sets. Yes. You read it right. Five sets. Well to be completely honest, five sets is too short for us. Tennis has a different kind of scoring from other sports, so that’s why instead of doing three sets, we chose five.

As the game progresses, I was really surprised that Hyewon is keeping up with me. She’s consistently hitting everything back to me with those skinny arms of hers, and she’s moving faster than before.

When I rallied the ball back to the edge just near the line, Hyewon ran to it and hit it back, killing the speed of the ball resulting it to drop near the net.

I didn’t catch it on time and I almost fell on the floor. Good thing I have great balance so I ended up hugging the net.

That was the last set of the game and I lost the last set to Hyewon. Wow...

“Jeez Hye, when did you learn to drop the ball like that?”

“I’ve been working my all this time.” Flexing her skinny biceps at me, “I can’t be the only one getting left behind.”

And I could see the result of her so called ‘working my all this time’ coming to light. She moves differently now, and those powerful hits? It felt heavy when I tried hitting it back to her side! I couldn’t even hit it to where I want it to be!

“I still can’t believe you transferred schools…” I could hear the disappointment in her voice as she said those words.

“Hye… you know why I had to.” Although in the back of my mind, I didn’t want to do it…

“I know.. I know.. It’s just that – Ugh!” I jolted in surprise when she threw her racket on the bench. “I can’t ing forgive her! I mean, how could she do that to you!?”

And without warning, I could clearly see her eyes started gushing out the tears that she has been holding back. But the more she wipe the tears away, it just kept coming back to her big time to the point that she had to drop on the rough floor.

I felt bad and just walked slowly beside her, hugging her softly in my arms until I can no longer hear her sobbing. We were both drowning in sweat, but that didn’t stop me from calming her down. She needs this. I need this.

“I-I’m sorry for acting like that…” Hyewon said as she wipes the remaining tears from her cheeks.

“It’s fine… it’s my fault anyways that I ended up like this.”

“NO IT’S NOT YOURS! THAT IS TO BLAME AT! NOT YOU!” She cups my face in between her not so smooth hands. “SO DON’T YOU DARE BLAME YOURSELF. OKAY?”

I let out a soft chuckle. This is the Hyewon I know. I held her hands that were still cupping my small face, still had that smile that could melt the earth.’s biggest glutton. “Yes Boss~”

Today has been a rough one and instead of playing another round, we fixed our things and left the tennis court and bought ourselves something to eat.

We went to the nearest and probably one of our favorite stalls that sells good and healthy food. It was a good stress reliever for the both of us after coming from playing tennis.

And just like any other gluttons, Hyewon filled her plate with lots of food. She almost got scolded for it because the plate almost overflowed. And we almost got kicked out if it weren’t for the owner. Kudos to the owner!

“You could’ve gone another round if you’re that hungry, you know?”

“I dislike the thought of standing again in that long long loooooong line.” She whines.

By the time we already finished eating, it was already night time and I had to take Hyewon back to their home. And that would take a lot of walking since Sakura didn’t bring the car with her.

What’s more, she lives the opposite direction to where my house is.

“You don’t have to walk me back, Kkura-ya. I can manage.” She said.

But… “Are you sure? We both know that you have the worst sense of direction.” She scowls at me.

“I’m trying to change. Don’t pressure me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. So,” she forces me to turn around, giving me a slight push. “Go home and take a rest. I know you are tired, judging from the way you were earlier at the court.”

She was not wrong about that. “Sigh.. Fine. But please call me if something goes wrong.”

She pulls out her phone and raised it in front of me. “Will do.”

As she turns her back from me, slowly walking away while waving the back of her hands at me, I too turned around and started walking the path towards home.

I checked the time in my phone, but what greeted me was a text message coming from my father. My happy mood had turned sour and felt like it went to the trash that was just right beside me.

How come I didn’t feel my phone vibrating earlier?

Oh right. I placed it in silent mode. Stupid.

“Where are you?”

“On my way home. Why?”

“Did you go to school today?”

“Why do you care?”

“You think I do? I don’t have time for petty thoughts.”

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