121. Daily Life: Takeshi Momoshiro and Kaoru Kaido (Part 1)

By the riverside.

Beneath the overpass of a highway, a teenage boy with a ponytail was jogging. His chest rose and fell slightly, yet his breathing remained steady, maintaining a rhythmic cadence with every inhalation and exhalation.

"Hoo... hoo..."

*Tap, tap, tap.*

The sound of the boy's breathing blended with the rhythmic friction of his shoes against the ground. Dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and shorts with a towel draped around his neck, the jogger was none other than Ryo Shishido.

For him, even the weekend was no excuse to stop training. Furthermore, having suffered two consecutive losses in the recent intra-school tournament, which had cost him his spot among the regulars, he was determined to work twice as hard to win it back.

As his pace slowed to a halt, Shishido wiped the sweat from his brow and fell into deep thought, recalling his matches against Renji Yanagi and Naru Matsubara.

"I will be back..." he muttered to himself.

Hearing footsteps ahead, Shishido looked up and was surprised to see Naru Matsubara carrying a tennis bag.

Matsubara, who had taken this shortcut under the bridge to get to the street tennis courts, was equally surprised to see the drenched Shishido. "Shishido... what are you doing here?"

"Ah... just training," Shishido replied, glancing at his workout gear.

"I see." Matsubara nodded. It had to be said that Shishido was the most hardworking member of the tennis club. Matsubara had no idea how many shirts Shishido had already gone through today, nor was he particularly interested; he had other things to attend to.

As Matsubara turned to walk past him, Shishido started moving as well.

"Er..."

The two locked eyes, both detecting a hint of astonishment in the other's gaze. Clearly, neither had expected the other to be heading in the same direction. In the awkwardness of the moment, they both instinctively tried to move in the opposite direction, only to find themselves colliding once again in perfect, clumsy synchronization.

"!"

One such moment of eerie synchronization was enough. Having already felt embarrassed by the initial encounter, the fact that they had stumbled into each other again caused the easily irritated Matsubara to lose his cool. He stepped to the side, only to see Shishido mimic the movement.

Shishido was thinking the exact same thing as Matsubara. He couldn't understand why the boy would mirror his every move. A thought flashed through both their minds simultaneously: *He's imitating me. Is he doing this on purpose?!*

Gritting their teeth, they both sidestepped in the opposite direction. At this point, it was no longer about coincidence; it was a matter of that intangible yet very real sense of competitive spirit burning within them.

They both wanted to move away to shake the other off, but their intentions were identical. Soon, Matsubara and Shishido looked like a pair of ridiculous dancers at the riverside.

The back-and-forth lateral jumping left them feeling dizzy. Looking at the person mimicking his every move, Matsubara started to feel as if he were staring into a mirror.

*What the hell... is this some kind of curse?!*

Unable to take it anymore, the boy snapped. *Screw this, even if the road is wide, I’m not walking it anymore—you can have it all to yourself!*

With a shout, Matsubara turned and sprinted toward the road on the embankment. Coincidentally, Shishido had also reached his limit with the nonsensical shuffling, and he immediately bolted after him.

From the initial accidental spark of synchronization to the competitive urge to be different, and finally to this bizarre, unprovoked sprint, the whole display made them both seem a bit childish. Fortunately, no one else was passing by the river during their standoff.

Without a word, a spontaneous running race had begun. Matsubara didn't want it to be this way, but seeing Shishido mirror his movements had driven him to run. Now, he was single-mindedly focused on overtaking Shishido and leaving him in the dust.

Shishido felt the same way. He wouldn't have minded the unspoken rapport on another day, but not today—he absolutely had to beat him!

Driven by the desire to leave the other behind and out of sight, the fire in their hearts burned even brighter. With a simultaneous roar, Matsubara and Shishido pushed themselves to their absolute limit.

On the narrow road above the river, the two ran at blistering speeds, disappearing into the distance within seconds. Their spirited shouts echoed in the air, refusing to fade away.

Meanwhile, at the street tennis court where Matsubara had been heading, two young boys who looked to be in elementary school were arguing fiercely.

The boy with spiky hair pointed at the boy across from him, who was wearing a pale yellow bandana. "You looking for a fight, Viper?"

"Am I wrong, you monkey? Shishido-niisan is clearly the stronger one!" the boy in the bandana retorted, his voice deeper and louder than the other's.

"Tch! Matsubara-niisan is obviously better. His heavy serve isn't something just anyone can return!" the spiky-haired boy countered, refusing to back down.

"Momoshiro and Kaido are at it again..." Outside the court, a boy who looked about their age didn't seem surprised, just helplessly calm.

"The topic is different today, but arguing like that won't get them anywhere," the other boy replied with a shrug.

"Eh? Aren't they comparing who's better at tennis or who runs faster?"

"No, they're discussing Seishun Academy, the dark-horse school rising in the middle school tennis world." As he spoke, the boy pulled out a tennis magazine from under his arm and flipped through it. "It's this one."

The other boy looked at the content and read aloud, "Seishun Academy, the rising star of the middle school tennis world. Super-talented first-year students: Naru Matsubara... Ryo Shishido..."

"So the 'Matsubara-niisan' and 'Shishido-niisan' they're talking about are these two."

Hearing this, Momoshiro and Kaido both turned their gaze toward them. Momoshiro smiled proudly, revealing his white teeth as he held up a finger. "See? Matsubara-niisan is amazing. His heavy serve and no-spin serve are the definition of power and speed—no one else compares."

"Tch! Shishido-niisan's super-fast half-volley is nothing to sneeze at! Most importantly, he's a hard worker. That Matsubara guy looks like the type who doesn't like to put in the effort!" Kaido argued.

"Hmph, so what!" Momoshiro refused to give in, leaning his head forward.

"Ya-ro (Bastard)..." Kaido leaned in as well. Their faces were inches apart, practically touching. The air was thick with gunpowder, the tension so palpable that a fight could break out at any moment.