It's been a week since Hikari confessed to Kazuya, but he hasn't seen her since. For the first few days he made a semiconscious effort to scan the cafeteria and see if she's there, but she never was. After that, he just didn't think of it anymore, treating her confession as a fluke and an untimely occurrence.

It wasn't until later on, during training, that he saw the girl who confessed to him.

The whole team was lined up in front of the coach and staff. They were being rowdy while talking to each other, wondering why they didn't start training yet. Sawamura Eijun was shouting on and on about how they should all be preparing for the game tomorrow while Furuya Satoru was close to falling asleep. Tanba Koichiro and Takigawa Chris were discussing about ways to carefully speed up his recovery while Kazuya and Youichi were bantering like usual. It wasn't until Coach Katoaka spoke up that the boys went silent and listened.

"Boys, listen up! We have a new member joining us this year." Then coach coughed and stepped aside to reveal her. "This is Yamana Hikari, she will be our new manager and she will also be of help in training you guys."

Kazuya was still a bit surprised seeing her. Hikari did say she was going to become a manager for the baseball, but he just thought nothing of it. He thought that she was joking or something.

"Hey! Isn't she—" Youichi almost yelled until Kazuya covered his mouth. It will do more harm than good if Coach found out about the confession, if not totally useless.

"Shut up!" Kazuya hissed. Good thing nobody noticed Kuromachi's reaction since they were all focused on the new manager.

"Hey, she's pretty cute," Kazuya heard Isashiki Jun comment.

Masuko nodded his head in agreement. "Pretty cute indeed."

When Kazuya was finally able to set his eyes on her, he noticed that she was nervous. Like she was going to say something, but she couldn't find the right words. After a while, she lifted her head convincingly and finally chose to speak up.

"Thank you, kan-toku, but I really didn't need this kind of introduction." Hikari said humbly. She didn't expect that the coach would actually gather all the players just to introduce her. She gave a big preparatory sigh, faced the players of the team and bowed as she said, "Good morning everyone! I'm Yamana Hikari and I'll be joining the team as one of the managers! Please treat me well."

Everyone clapped. Some of the team members replied to her with a, "Please treat us well too!" and a, "You're really pretty, Yamana-san!" Hikari blushed at the latter.

Rei-san took a step forward and adjusted her glasses before speaking. "You all better treat her nicely, or you guys are dead! Not only will she help the managers with the maintenance, but she will also help Chris-kun with gathering data and some of your physical therapy."

"Why will she help with the data and physical therapy?" Haruichi wondered aloud.

"Good question." Rei-san smiled as if she was about to reveal a good secret. "Well, her family is a team of doctors, and they're also the ones supplying our club with medical supplies. And you can assume that she knows a thing or two about physical therapy since she is the one helping Chris-kun with some of your training menus."

"Chris-senpai! You know this girl?" one of the members asked.

Chris nodded nonchalantly. "Well, she's my cousin. I invited her to join us, thinking that she'd definitely be of use."

Everyone gave a timely, "Woah!" while Ryosuke, Shinji and Kazuya whistled as a sign that they were impressed. Now Kazuya understood why coach accepted her even though she was late. She'll really be an asset to the team.

"Heh, pretty interesting," Kazuya thought aloud. He realized that Hikari was looking at him as he said it. He gave her a smirk and she blushed in return. Only Youichi noticed this so he gave his friend an angry kick in the butt.

"Stop flirting with the manager!" He reprimanded half-jokingly, which Kazuya replied with a light chuckle.

"Now, everyone go back to your training stations!" The coach yelled, and everybody did as they were told.

When everyone left, Chris approached his cousin with the necessary data of the team. "Hikari, here are the profiles of our first-string players. Can you study them by tonight?"

"Yeah, sure thing." Hikari replied energetically.

"Well, you don't really have to memorize anything, just take note of the important details and tell me if you have any suggestions, okay?" Hikari nodded. "Oh, and kan-toku is asking if you're going to live in the dorm? He wants to make the necessary preparations as early as possible."

"Yeah, I've already requested for a room." Truth be told, her parents haven't totally agreed with the idea of her living in campus, but she was determined to do so anyways. "Am I the only manager who'll be staying in a dorm?"

Chris shook his head. "As far as I know, Yoshikawa Haruno-san is also living here. You should ask her about it."

"Okay," she nodded. "Should I go now or do you still need me for something?"

"Oh, um, one last thing," Chris said. "Please take care of the first years in the baseball team, especially Furuya and Sawamura."

"Huh?" Hikari was taken aback, hearing her cousin make a request like that doesn't happen often.

"You guys are batch mates, correct? I think Furuya is in your class too. Just take care of them and make sure they don't fail their subjects." Hikari noticed that Chris was a little bit embarrassed right now. "I won't be here for long so I'd like you to make sure they're alright."

"Aw, Chris-kun, it's so cute how you care so much about your underclassmen!" Hikari teased.

"Shh, don't start..." Chris ran his hand through his hair, frustrated.

"Okay, okay. I promise your precious kouhais won't fail." She laughed. "You really love baseball, don't you?"

Chris nodded seriously. "Almost as much as you loved basketball."

Her laugh stopped and her lips formed into a sad smile. "Yeah?"

Suddenly, the mood became awkward and for a while no one spoke. Chris put his arm around Hikari in attempt to lighten up the mood. "Before you mingle with the other managers, mind checking out the bullpen with me?"

Hikari shook all the bad thoughts away and nodded enthusiastically. "Sure!"

When the two arrived, they found Eijun and Satoru, the two rookie pitchers, fighting over who gets to play catch with Miyuki. The infamous catcher, enthused by the attention, just let them. Meanwhile, beside them, was Tanba and Miyauchi who just did their own thing, not minding their kouhais at all. Chris decided to ignore them too, and just made his way to his fellow third years. Hikari followed him.

"Tanba, how's your chin?" Chris asked.

"It's okay, I guess," said the ace as he lightly touched the bandage near his left cheek. "Miyauchi still won't let me pitch past 80kph, though."

"That's to be expected. We have to make sure your wound completely heals before letting you pitch full throttle. Don't rush, okay?" Tanba nodded knowingly and started pitching again. "Oh, by the way, Hikari is going to be handling your training menus from now on."

Tanba looked at the girl beside Chris, assessing her. He wasn't glaring or anything, but Hikari still felt a little bit intimidated by him. Hikari thought that Tanba probably wanted Chris to handle his training, and he probably didn't trust her yet. So she was surprised when the ace bowed to her respectfully. "Please take care of me, then!"

"Tanba-senpai..." Hikari smiled, appreciating his kindness.

"Woah," someone interjected from behind. It was Kazuya. "The ace is actually going to let his kouhai boss him around! How nice." He laughed teasingly.

Hikari would have been offended, but she was confident in her skills, so it didn't really matter. She also reminded herself that if she were going to date him—or even befriend him—she'd have to get used to his tactlessness.

"Shut up, kid!" Tanba yelled, a hint of pink on his cheeks. "You're ten years too early to talk to me so casually."

"Yes sir!" The catcher said, still amused. He shifted his face towards Hikari and was even able to make eye-contact with her for a while. "Hi Hikari-chan!" Kazuya grinned cheekily.

"K-kazuya-senpai," she greeted back, nodded awkwardly at his direction. Her cousin eyed her quizzically, not knowing that the two already knew each other well enough to reach out to one another in a first name basis.

After a few seconds, Kazuya called out to Satoru, who was still arguing with Eijun. "Hey, monster rookie! Let's play catch." Kazuya punched his hand and his mitt together and bent down to position himself.

Satoru nodded and was about raise his foot when Eijun started shouting. "Hey, Miyuki Kazuya! What about me?!" The young pitcher yelled.

"That's Miyuki-senpai to you, idiot!" Seriously, what's with his lack of respect towards Kazuya? "And Chris-sempai has something else on mind for you, I think."

"Tanba-senpai, I'll go study your profile tonight and then we can start training tomorrow, okay?" Hikari smiled pleasantly.

"I have a profile?" Tanba asked in a whisper, which the manager replied with a nod. "Okay then. Tomorrow."

"Sawamura! Come here," Chris called out to the pitcher who was watching Kazuya and Satoru with a dark aura around him. Eijun broke from his evil stare at the two, nodded and huddled over. "Listen, Hikari going to watch over your training today, so don't be too troublesome, okay?"

Eijun almost complained, he'd rather have Chris watch over him any day. But then he remembered that she helped making his training scrolls so he just nodded.

"Chris-kun, how many players am I going to have to watch over?" Hikari asked, a little overwhelmed with the idea of how much work she'll have to do. She looked over her shoulder and got a quick glance at Kazuya. If she were to do a lot of work for different people, she'd wish at least Kazuya would be one of them.

"Just the freshmen and Tanba," Chris said. He saw Hikari's smile drop a little bit. "Why, did you have anyone else in mind?"

"Huh?" Hikari blushed as she thought of her favorite catcher. "N-no one! I," quick, Hikari, think. "I'll study the first stringers and I'll just tell you if I'm interested in training someone."

"Okay," Chris nodded. It was a perfectly logical plan. A plan that would work in her favor. All she had to do was study Kazuya's stats, see where his weak spots are and come up with a (logical) excuse to train him. Hikari mentally giggled. "So anyways," Chris leaned in forward and hushed his voice into a whisper. "We have a game tomorrow so make sure Sawamura doesn't tire himself too much."

"Okay," she smiled. Her cousin really did care for the loudmouthed boy. "Sawamura-kun, let's go?"

"Yes ma'am!" Eijun yelled energetically, and even bowed.

"Uh, Sawamura-kun, I'm not your senpai. You don't need to address me so formally."

"Yes ma'am!" He was still addressing her formally. Maybe it's because she is Chris' cousin. Oh well.

Hikari laughed. "Okay, okay. Let's go and get started."

It was a good first day for the new manager. She decided that joining the team wasn't a bad decision, and the players are interesting people. Hikari will definitely enjoy herself in the company of the baseball team. Maybe-as of right now-she's still much too far away from Kazuya, who is the a part of the reason why she accepted Chris' request to become a manager. Since they'll both be busy, they probably won't see each other often, despite being in the same team. But Hikari is convinced that this is how she'll get closer to him.

'Slowly but surely,' she told herself. 'There's no need to rush.'

I know, I know. This chapter didn't have much in it, but I hope you guys will stay with me. I'm trying to stay truthful to the real characteristics of the DnA people and blend them with my own. Swear there's going to be so much more to Hikari than you guys think. PLEASE REVIEW! They make me all happy and giddy inside. Thank you guys so much for reading. :] #teamKazuHika hihi

Oh, and for those who reviewed, especially those with tips, you guys rock! I took them into account and applied them haha. Much love!