Bitter

Chinemi couldn't believe it. Youta still showed up to her practice despite everything that happened before. She had to drop everything and talk to him before continuing.

"What are you doing here?" She asked without a hint of the anger she showed him before. Without saying it, she hoped he'd be able to pick up that she didn't actually hate him.

"You made a formal request that I be here." He said in the tone of a person dead inside. "I'm just here to do my job, so go ahead and do whatever it was you wanted me to see." She had never heard someone so dejected before. It was as if she was talking to a completely different person.

"Follow me then." It was obvious to her he was upset with her. Chinemi wouldn't be surprised if he even thought she hated him. Yet even though she wanted to clear up what she said, the girl found herself hesitating once more.

It didn't matter how well one thought they knew her, there was one thing she was most aware of that would be considered a fault of hers. This being the inability to give proper apologies. As someone who was a bit more on the arrogant side and had never had to worry about being on the bad side of other students growing up. There had been few opportunities for her to learn and understand this aspect of life. So now she was stuck between her own apprehension and his now poor attitude.

"I guess here's a good spot." When they returned to her spot for practice for the day. He settled for leaning against the fence behind her to get an okay few of her playing. The coach noticed something off about him, but upon asking he only responded with a simple "I'm fine."

Nothing else was brought up despite the concern as he wasn't her responsibility and there were all the other members of the tennis team to attend to. Such as Chinemi herself as she began with a serve now under his watchful eye. The added pressure continued to build, but at least she was able to make a proper serve unlike before.

Her partner easily returned it, where she engaged in some proper tennis play. However her speed was much slower, her strikes less powerful, and even that sense of grace, even though she had little before, was gone.

All of which culminated into her losing out on the point as she missed the ball. It bounced to the back, hitting the fence before settling next to Youta.

"That looked terrible." He didn't attempt to hold back on his harsh words in critiquing her performance. Youta picked up the ball and examined it, as if pretending to try and find if it was the fault of the ball instead of hers.

"…" While under most circumstances Chinemi would respond in kind. She didn't say a single word to him as she didn't wish to turn their time together into another arguing match. Doing anything to further harm their relationship would be detrimental when she finally did get to the point of saying a simple 'I'm sorry' to him.

Instead of responding to him, she instead took another ball began practice once more. Though now that he was talking to her, the boy began getting into her head, affecting the play. She could no longer concentrate on the ball as she swung her racket wildly.

"Have you been slacking off since the last time I saw you?" He couldn't stop himself from making snide comments. "When I first met you, those were the types of things you'd yell at others for." She sighed and closed her eyes, not turning to look at him.

"What's going on with you today?" Her coach asked. "Are you feeling unwell?"

"I… think I need to go to the nurse." She couldn't tell the truth, so Chinemi came up with an excuse to get herself away for a little while. "Sorry, I'll be right back." Without waiting for permission, she began heading back into the school.

"Take your time and rest." Her coach said, being understanding about the situation. "Sorry Youta, I guess she must've eaten a bad lunch or something." The woman tried to explain to him. "The past few days, she's been working real hard and listening for once. Not to mention whatever you did really convinced her to stop giving the rest of the team a hard time."

"She's really been like that?" It was easy for him to forget why he was here in the first place with everything going on. But she did have a reason for wanting him back to see her again after all. "Unfortunately she's not here, so there's no reason for me to stick around right now."

"Always welcome here anytime though." Said the coach. "And speaking as a teacher, not coach, are you sure you're alright? You both seem a bit tense today."

"Just dumb teenager stuff." He didn't want to talk about his problems to someone he barely knew. Sure, the coach was kind, but he hadn't developed any trust with her.

"That's kind of my job to take care of." She laughed. "But if you don't want to talk to me, that's fine. Can't force you to do that." He was about leave after she said that, when the woman continued on. "However since you're the sports manager, I'd like to make a request that you check on my star player and make sure she's alright." She gave him a wink, clearly indicating what she really wanted from this arrangement.

"It is my job after all." She wanted him to talk to Chinemi and take care of whatever problems they had with each other. At this point, Youta still hadn't been feeling great about wanting to be in the same area as her, but he still had a job to do.

He left the tennis courts and headed inside the school. Getting to the nurse's office was of no trouble, but Youta had doubts she'd even be in there. He knew she wasn't actually sick, so it's not like she needed to be there.

When he peeked his head in the room at first, it appeared empty. Not even a nurse was around to be accepting students. However he noticed the privacy sheet to one of the beds was active, which would indicate a student was in there. Considering the circumstances, he took the risk and took another peek to see who was inside.

To his surprise, or lack thereof, Chinemi did indeed decide to take advantage of the empty nurse room. With the ability to hide away from the world, it was evident she had chosen to lay down and cry into the pillow. "Is crying something you do a lot?"

"Ahh!" Him speaking up caught her by surprise as she turned over to face him. When he saw her face, Youta knew he was to blame for her being in this state. Even if she didn't seem like someone who would be burying their face to cover their tears. "What are you doing here? Still going to give me a hard time?"

"Your coach wanted me to check on you." He told the truth, but it was only a convenient excuse for him to show up here to talk to her alone. "I was probably the reason why you were having a tough time out there. So I should be apologizing for that. I was being petty."

"Of course you even apologize first." She muttered to herself, looking down in disappointment. "I'm so pathetic."

"That doesn't sound like you." He looked at her confused. "Just earlier, you acted all high and mighty against me."

"I didn't mean any of what I said." She finally was able to muster up the courage to tell him the truth. "It was all just for show so everyone would get off our backs. I meant to tell you back when we were alone, but I froze when I saw you like that. After that, I realized I messed up bad, so I've been trying to say… I'm…" She tried to say the important words, but they were hard for someone who never had to apologize in her life. "I'm sorry, is that enough?"

"I do wish you told me back then." He breathed a sigh of relief as that weight was lifted off his shoulders. "But apology accepted."

"I have other reasons for not saying anything back then besides my own pride." She defended herself. "There was that one girl who was just looking at us. I didn't want anyone hearing me admit that I was lying. That would just get the rumors flying again."

"Huh? You saw her?" He couldn't believe his ears. There was someone who noticed Takame's presence when that girl wasn't trying to get anyone's attention.

"Yeah?" With her tears all dried up, Chinemi's face was replaced with a look at him as if he was crazy. "She was just standing right there, why wouldn't I be able to see her?"

"It's not important." He cracked a smile. "At the risk of sounding like I'm going a bit too far… Friends?" He put out a hand, hoping she'd accept his offer.

"Well, having you as an acquaintance hasn't been all bad…" She looked back and forth, as if worried someone would witness their conversation. "But yes, friends." Chinemi accepted his hand as they exchanged a proper handshake.