We're flying through time super fast with this one!

Chapter 10: Enter: Kise Ryouta!

After a relaxing week off for Golden Week, a handsome young blond walked through the halls of Teiko Junior High after school hours, dreading his upcoming remedial lessons. He entered the classroom with a beautiful smile but wanted anything but to be there. If it wasn't for his sister and her insistence at keeping up appearances, he would've spent the whole day scowling and not bothered to care about his public image at all, which probably would have ruined his budding career as a model, but hey that hadn't been his decision anyway.

The lessons were mind-numbingly boring on top of being stupidly difficult. How did he end up at this elite school anyway? He was sure at least half the students in that classroom were thinking the same thing.

There was one kid he spotted who he recognized from his class, a dark-skinned boy who didn't bother hiding the fact that he was asleep. Kise had never talked to him though, so he didn't bother sitting next to him. He wasn't surprised to see him there though.

When classes ended, Kise ended up trailing behind that guy from his homeroom. It wasn't like Kise was following him, Kise just happened to leave around the same time he did. At the gate, a cute girl with pink hair greeted the tanned boy. Kise recognized her as the girl who occasionally came to their classroom to pick the guy up for lunch. Out of all the girls in the school, she was certainly one of the better-looking ones. He wondered if they were dating, but then he thought that it was way too early into the school year for that to happen, and he had no business with them anyway, so he resolutely ignored them and walked over to the bright red sports car that was waiting down the street.

The tinted window rolled down, and his sister waved at him from the driver's seat, urging him to get in and hurry up or else they'll be late to the photo shoot. After the first magazine to feature a picture of him was printed, he'd been steadily gaining popularity. He was surprised how quickly he became known among the girls at school, though he definitely wasn't complaining.

Modeling was fun, at least for a while, but going in and out of the studio day in day out for a full week right after remedial lessons got boring really fast. He had to deal with it until remedial lessons were finished, which meant a month of suffering, but after that Kise would find something else to do, find an excuse to not go to so many interviews all the time. Sure, the interviews were potential jobs, but Kise was still in middle school, so give him a break.

So, the day after he finished midterms along with his supplementary exam—after telling his sister to let up on the photo shoots for a bit—Kise decided to try out some club activities. He started with the culture clubs, ones that didn't take too much effort to pick up, like flower arrangement and band. He convinced one of the girls to let him borrow her flute, but he quickly learned his lung capacity left much to be desired even if the instrument was relatively easy to play once he watched the upperclassmen practice for a bit.

He was nodding off during a tea ceremony meeting when the voices from outside the window suddenly spiked in volume. He leaned over to look down through the window he was seated beside. It looked like the baseball team was having a practice match between their players. Kise couldn't tell what happened to excite them so much, but it probably had something to do with that one guy with the bright orange hair currently speeding past the bases.

Kise watched them for a while longer. He wondered how they were able to hit those tiny balls with those thin bats, but honestly he wasn't that interested. Although, sports seemed more fun than sitting around fiddling with china.

The next day, Kise decided to try his hand at sports. He picked tennis first, mostly because the girls insisted he watch them sometime and he figured he might as well. He got the cover page for a popular fashion magazine that was published recently, so his popularity skyrocketed practically overnight. They let him practice with them for a bit, let him pick up the basic essentials, and then he moved over to the boy's court when he couldn't handle their squealing noises anymore.

He was being shown the proper footwork by an upperclassman when a high-pitched voice loudly announced, "Sorry I'm late! Thank you for having me!"

Kise looked over, expecting to see a small first-year girl wanting to apply as a manager, but who he saw instead was a tiny boy with fluffy orange hair, a bright smile, and who couldn't be taller than 150 centimeters. It wasn't just his height, there was no way that guy was out of elementary school with that face. Until Kise saw the guy in his uniform and not a plain T-shirt and shorts, he would refuse to believe this tiny kid was any older than 10.

Kise didn't listen to the kid's introduction. He asked the upperclassman he was working with to show him some more racket techniques and was busy copying that instead. And then, the upperclassmen decided to match him up against the smiley ginger as fellow newcomers and newbies. That was all fine and good, until about five minutes into the match when Kise had already won the first game.

Was this what newbies were like? Were they really this bad? Or was Kise just that good? Then again, he was playing against a gradeschooler, so it wasn't really fair to compare them.

Although his opponent was beyond bad, the kid was connecting. Almost every ball Kise sent his way, the little guy would return them without a problem. It was the power behind his swing that screwed him over, always sending the ball flying. Probably because he was a baseball player, Kise thought. He was fairly certain this was the same guy he saw on the baseball field yesterday. He couldn't remember ever seeing anyone else with that kind of hair.

Even though Kise had already established he was leagues beyond this kid, Kise continued to play against him. There was just something about the way the boy moved, or maybe it was the fierce shine in those brown eyes or the little preemptive hops he did before the ball came into play. Whatever it was, it made Kise stay on the court for the next ball, repeating in his head the same question over and over again: why won't he stay down?

In the end, Kise called it quits first, sweating through his shirt and panting so much his lungs felt dry. Exhaustion, he found, was a horrible feeling. Even more than that though, the little guy was still raring to go. He was the actual definition of bouncy.

Dammit. Kise wiped his face off with his damp shirt, his eyes never leaving those orange curls. There were girls shrieking by the fence, but he could only concentrate on this icky feeling inside him. Dammit. Why did he feel so defeated? This feeling, Kise decided, was far worse than exhaustion.

The next day, Kise returned to the tennis club, but after a few minutes of warm-ups and still not seeing that familiar head of orange, he asked where the small kid from yesterday was.

"Oh, you mean Hinata?" answered one of the upperclassmen, laughing a little. "I heard from the other clubs that he only shows up once a week. But he's a fun guy, don't you think? Even if he's pretty bad, he's great for morale."

Other clubs? Was that guy copying Kise? What other clubs could someone that small be a part of? Kise shook his head. He wasn't interested in the little guy. It didn't matter what clubs Hinata joined because Kise was going to do his own thing. Still, without Hinata around, Kise didn't see any point being there, so he made up an excuse to leave practice early.

He took his things from the locker room and ruffled his hair that was already mussed up from changing too quickly. It was when he was passing by another gym that he heard it: a loud screech from a familiar voice followed by a slam. Kise peeked into the gym, finding very quickly what he was looking for and gawking at the scene. Hinata, small and completely dwarfed by everyone around him, had someone on the ground in front of him, holding their arm having evidently just thrown them over.

Kise stood at the entrance, jaws wide and limbs locked in shock as he watched Hinata and his opponent start up again, and Hinata flipping his much taller and bulkier opponent over his shoulder. Before Hinata could notice he was being watched, Kise power-walked away from the gym. There was no way Kise was trying karate. No way. His sister would kill him if he broke his back or ruined his face. Well, injury was a given when it came to sports, but still karate was way overboard.

The next week, Kise continued hopping through clubs, opting not to tell his sister about what he was doing and all the potential injuries he could sustain. It wasn't long before he heard about the small shorty again, though it was him who went looking for it.

He was pitching for the baseball club when they decided to take a break. It was then that Kise asked about Hinata. Just the mention of Hinata's name got everyone smiling. Even that one really self-absorbed third year had a genuine smile on his face once Kise saw past his mocking laughter.

"He really sucked at first," a fellow first-year said. Everybody else agreed. "Coach even told him to quit, but he kept coming back. He isn't a great pitcher, but he's getting better at hitting the ball. He isn't too strong though, so the ball doesn't go very far, but he's got some nice accuracy."

Remembering the scene from the karate club, Kise found it a little hard to believe that kid wasn't packing some major power people weren't aware of.

"Coach might even start using him as our pinch hitter in the next game."

"If Hinata shows up that is."

"Someone's gotta tell him about those if he's only going to come to practice once a week."

So Hinata wasn't good at baseball either. Then, could that mean that Kise was actually kind of amazing? Hinata went to practice once a week, but Kise was only around for a day and he could already play as part of the team no problem.

"Yo, Kise, how about you try hitting a few?"

After the fifth miss, Kise took back everything he said about Hinata not being good at baseball. He managed to nick one ball, ricocheting it into the foul zone, but other than that he couldn't get used to how fast the small ball came at him at all. Not even watching the regulars helped with how low their accuracy was. He gave up really quickly and chose not to think that he might have tried a few more times if Hinata were there.

With the volleyball club, the topic of Hinata came into discussion without Kise bringing it up. Apparently Hinata hadn't filled out an application for them like he had for every other sports club, but from what the other clubs were saying about him, they were really interested to see how he would do in volleyball.

"Hey, Kise, you don't happen to know Hinata, do you? People have been saying that you're doing the same thing he is."

Kise let the ball he was playing with drop into his hands. Technically, he did know Hinata, but he didn't want to participate in their conversation, so he said, "No, I don't."

A first year sitting against the wall raised his hand. "Oh, he's in my class! I can ask if he'd be interested in volleyball, but he usually disappears whenever we have free time, so it might take awhile before I get the chance."

"We'll get all the first years on this. Anyone know where he disappears to?"

Kise already knew that Hinata was relatively popular among the sports clubs, but he hadn't realized just how extensive that popularity was. He didn't understand why though. From what he's heard, Hinata wasn't very good at any of the sports he participated in. Must be his personality then. Still, he's gotta have more than just an amiable personality to be so wanted. The weird thing was, although all the clubs want him, they weren't fighting over him.

It was when Kise was playing around with the soccer club that they met again. The soccer club had challenged him to a competition right when he arrived. Word got around that Kise didn't stay in clubs for long, but they all acknowledged his skill, so all the sports clubs agreed that if they could beat Kise, then Kise was theirs. If they couldn't, then Kise was still up for grabs. That was what Kise expected to happen to Hinata, too. Was it that Kise was better than Hinata and that's why the clubs were fighting over him and not Hinata? Somehow that thought didn't make Kise feel any better.

The soccer club decided on some inane juggling contest, which Kise won effortlessly. He let the ball roll away once he won, lamenting that recently it'd been too easy doing things, so easy that he found himself getting bored to the point where he didn't want to continue club hopping. He could find better entertainment in his own house, or maybe he should focus on modeling for a bit.

"Ahh," an upperclassman groaned, "if only Gouenji was here. Where has he been lately?"

"Eh? Practice started early? Sorry I'm late!" Hinata pranced onto the field all smiley and excited as Kise had come to know him.

The team shared a look, then something dark glinted in their eyes as they all grinned none-too-nicely. The upperclassmen took Hinata by his shoulders and pushed him towards Kise. "Hinata! We're counting on you!"

Hinata looked up at Kise with his big doe eyes. Being this close, Kise found Hinata to be smaller than he originally thought. Yeah, there was no way this guy was taller than 150 centimeters if he was even taller than 140.

Hinata's eyes lit up so bright that Kise instinctively took a step back. "Ah! I know you! You're on the tennis team!"

"Oh, uh..." Kist darts his eyes to the ground, finding it exceedingly difficult to meet Hinata's gaze for some reason. "
No, I'm actually not."

"Eh? But you were really good."

Kise tried not to be happy to hear that from him. He shook his head to clear away his thoughts and then asked, "What about you? What are you doing with the soccer club?"

"Akashi made me a schedule for when I should go to what club."

Akashi? Schedule? That didn't answer Kise's question at all.

"Hinata," called out one of the soccer club members, "we need you beat Kise so that he joins the soccer club. Can you do a one-on-one?"

"Huh? Why me?"

They cleared the field and stuck a ball between them, telling them that the first to five goals was the winner. Hinata did his stretches by the ball as they waited for the others to decide on a referee. "I dunno what's going on, but I'm glad I get to play against you again."

For whatever reason, that surprised Kise.

The second the whistle went off, Kise was taken aback by how fast Hinata was. The guy zoomed right by him with the ball before Kise could even take a single step forward. By the time Kise's mind caught up to him and he swerved on his heel to take a few running steps toward his goal, Hinata was already bringing his leg up to kick. The ball hit the edge of the goal, but it bounced into the net, earning one point for Hinata.

"Uwaa, his aim is as terrible as ever."

Kise turned his head just enough to hear what the soccer team was saying but not enough to be obvious that he was listening.

"At least he can dribble now. Though I do miss the times when he tripped over the ball."

"He still does that. But really, Gouenji helped him out a lot."

"Hinata doesn't show up to practice enough for Gouenji to really make a difference."

"I thought it was Akashi who was helping him. Hinata's always coming into our classroom asking to practice."

"Akashi?! Wow, talk about scary. I can't even ask Gouenji for a pass, and Hinata's buddy-buddy with both him and Akashi?"

Akashi again. Who was that? Now that he thought about it, wasn't the top scorer on the aptitude exam named Akashi? No, he shouldn't be thinking about that. He should be concentrating on Hinata. Kise wouldn't let him score so easily next time.

It took another two goals for Kise to score his first. He would have wondered why it took him so long to get the hang of soccer, but Hinata was already bouncing in place impatient to start the next round. The battles got longer the more Kise got used to having the ball between his feet. He broke away from Hinata to score his second goal, but right as he raised his leg to kick it in, Hinata came flying over his shoulder. He only saw it for an instant, but Kise remembered very clearly the brilliant amber of Hinata's eyes as he met Kise's gaze from his upside down position in the air.

Hinata twisted his body to land upright, but his feet didn't stick the landing and he ended up falling over right in front of Kise. Kise lowered his leg and just stared at Hinata as the small boy rolled around in the grass.

"Arg! I almost had that! Huh? You didn't score?"

He couldn't score a goal after witnessing that; it wouldn't feel right. Kise stared down at the ball by his feet, unsure as to what exactly he should be doing under Hinata's innocent eyes. He heard Hinata shuffle to his feet, but he only looked up when Hinata said his next line. "That's three for me, and two for you."

Kise made some kind of sound. He wasn't fully aware of what kind, but it must have seemed like he was trying to argue because Hinata shook his head and said, "I messed up. That was your point."

What was Kise supposed to say in this situation? Whatever he could have said, his mind didn't give him anything, so he let Hinata walk past him without another word.

The score became 4-4 faster than Kise realized. Even close to the end of their match, Kise still didn't feel like he was as good as he should have been by this point. Usually he could play as well as the regulars in a few minutes, but he just couldn't get it with soccer. Why was that?

He didn't figure it out until Hinata tried to do something crazy again for his last goal. They were fighting over the ball when one of them kicked it the wrong way and it went flying up. Kise started to run after it, but a shadow was suddenly blocking the sun from his eyes.

Instead of running after the ball, Hinata followed it into the air. His body spun so that he was practically horizontal with the ground, and then he stuck out his leg to slam the ball toward the goal. He slipped the landing and ended up on his knees, and the ball bashed into the metal edge of the goal and went off toward the club room, but once again Kise was stunned into silence.

Ah, the thought passed through Kise's head before he could stop it, this was why Kise couldn't get the hang of soccer as quickly as the other sports he had tried. Hinata was the only one he could base his movements on, but Hinata's actions, aside from not being as honed as the regulars, weren't easy to replicate. Or rather, they were impossible to replicate.

For the first time, Kise was acutely aware of the limitations of his body.

Hinata's whining sounded distant in Kise's ears. What was he thinking right now? What was running through Kise's mind? He certainly wasn't thinking that Hinata was cool just then. And he definitely wasn't thinking that he had just lost. The game was still on. Hinata missed. So then, why did Kise feel like he should be giving the point to him?

No… Kise wasn't that nice a person.

In the end, Kise won the match. Not without a struggle though, he will admit.

"That was awesome!" Hinata looked up at him with his sparkling eyes. Kise didn't think he'd ever get used to how vivid or big they were. "You're super awesome! It took me weeks to learn how to dribble, but you got it right away!"

Was he supposed to respond? A compliment. Kise was supposed to return the compliment. Although he knew that, the only thing to come out of his mouth was, "A-ah. Thanks."

Kise put his hand to the back of his neck, hoping his cheeks weren't as pink as he felt them to be. This was easier with girls. At least with them, Kise knew he could be as fake as they were. But being the focus of those big eyes, Kise knew his heart wouldn't be able to take lying to that face much less fake a smile.

Once their match finished, practice resumed as normal, meaning Kise should be on his way. He was going to leave, he swore he was, but then Hinata was in front of him again, eyes twinkling and cheeks flushed with exertion, "Hey, hey! What's your name?"

"K-Kise… Ryouta."

"Ryouta!"

Kise flinched back. He wanted to say something, yell at him for using his first name so suddenly and not adding any honorifics, but Hinata powered on. "Be my practice partner today?"

Say no, dammit. He had an interview soon. He really didn't have time. Besides, Kise won. He wasn't part of the soccer club. Say. No. "Sure."

Seeing Hinata's face light up and his exuberant cheering, Kise really couldn't feel bad about going against his better judgement. He chose not to think about what his sister will do to him once she realized he wasn't going to show up at the gates on time.

"There it is. Hinata's secret technique."

"And another one falls."

Kise looked questioningly at the group of soccer clubs members who spoke. They were upperclassmen, so Kise did his best to hold his tongue.

"Well, not really secret technique. That's just Hinata for you."

"It's always way more fun when he's around, isn't it?"

It took him a minute to realize they were talking to him and not just making comments. Kise didn't have anything to say, so he just nodded kind of dumbly.

It wasn't until they were well into practice that Kise understood what they meant. Everyone seemed lively, maybe more so than usual, Kise didn't know because he didn't know what their regular practices were like, but he did know that they were certainly more energetic than the other clubs he had been to. But, that couldn't be just due to Hinata's presence, could it?

Whatever it was, Kise found himself, surprisingly, having fun as well. They were doing simple things, like passing and dribbling drills, but having Hinata as his partner… Well, if Hinata hadn't been his partner Kise would have left long ago. He wouldn't even be here now if it weren't for Hinata. So, in a way, Kise was admitting that Hinata definitely made an impact on people. Kise liked to think he was special, but in this regard, he was just like everyone else.

"So, Kise, should I get you a club application form?"

In the following days, Kise took a break from club hopping. He spent the time sorting out his thoughts, mostly on what he thought about Hinata. Kise was better than Hinata. He knew that. All the clubs knew that. Then, what was it about Hinata that made it so hard to look down on him? What made him so hard to hate? Deep in his heart, Kise already knew the answer, but it just wouldn't come to him.

During lunch, there were more girls than usual swarming into his classroom. Maybe he shouldn't have told that interviewer when his birthday was, though he didn't really have a choice with his sister breathing down his neck the entire time. Getting so many presents wasn't so bad. Most of them were cookies or some kind of sweets. He let them pile on his desk after his bag was filled up.

"Ugh, not this again."

Kise sat up straighter in his chair to see the owner of the voice past all the girls surrounding his desk. It was that guy he saw at remedial lessons. He was glaring at the mob in the doorway but looked too afraid to actually try getting through.

It was none of Kise's business. Kise didn't know him, so he felt no obligation to help him. Out of the corner of his eye, Kise watched the guy go back to his seat and pick up his phone. He stopped paying attention after that.

He got lucky after school that day. Or maybe he should consider it unlucky. The day Kise decided to go back to club hopping, he went to the club that Hinata happened to be at that day.

"Ryou! Long time no see!"

Instinctively—instinctively?—Kise flinched. No one had ever called him that before, aside from his mother or sisters when they were being extra annoying, and then this kid who still looked like he was in grade school decided on his own it was okay to disrespect Kise like that? Kise wasn't going to let that fly.

"Are you joining the track team? The soccer club was really sad that you didn't fill out the application form. They told me to ask you to reconsider, but if you don't like soccer then I don't think it's nice forcing you to play."

The complaint died on Kise's tongue. Seriously, what was he supposed to do in the face of such purity? He always found himself uncertain when standing in front of Hinata. He didn't like it, Kise decided, but he didn't know what to do about it.

The upperclassmen of the track team, much like the soccer club, decided to put Kise up against Hinata for their competition. It was a simple 400-meter race. First to finish wins.

Kise had already seen how fast Hinata could be back when he was with the soccer club, so Kise was prepared. Or, that's what he thought. Hinata literally blasted onto the track and made it to the finish line before Kise got even halfway. Kise blamed it on his shock. He could've ran faster had he not been gawking.

The upperclassmen went easy on him and let him have a rematch, calling that first one a warm-up. They wanted to make it best out of three, but Kise convinced them that once was good enough. He didn't think his lungs would hold out if it was three times around the track. That being said, he invited others to join the race, giving them a better chance at winning (not that Hinata himself wasn't already more than enough) but also allowing Kise to watch someone he can actually copy.

Hinata was starting in front of him this time, so Kise didn't have to be overly conscious of anything at his back. Kise could use the other track members in front of him to copy. The people behind him didn't matter.

This time, Kise felt like he was keeping up with Hinata better. He took what he could from the track members in front of him before passing them so that only Hinata was ahead of him. It was fine if Kise lost, Kise told himself, some people were naturally faster than others. Track wasn't even a real sport, so it was fine if he lost. Kise was still better. He knew he was making excuses by this point.

When he managed to get side by side with Hinata, Kise thought he might actually win this. He glanced over at the redhead and smirked rather smugly, but the smile fell as soon as he saw Hinata's wide grin. Despite his harsh breathing as he pushed his legs to go faster, Hinata had a big smile on his face as his eyes—those incandescent, luminous eyes—looked only at the path ahead of him. Kise felt his breath catch when those eyes were suddenly on him, drowning him in their sweet, chocolatey hue. Somehow, Hinata's grin grew, and he said to Kise through all his panting, "I won't lose."

Unwillingly, Kise felt his lips split into a toothy grin. He lowered his hips and pushed his legs harder. "Neither will I!"

Hinata did the same, and Kise came to the sudden realization that Hinata hadn't been trying until then. Hinata crossed the finish line with his arms up and hollering. Kise jogged the last stretch, trying to conserve as much energy as he could to at least be responsive when people spoke to him after he ran. He put his hands on his knees and leaned down to gasp in air, but oddly, Kise didn't seem to mind that he lost. In fact, this feeling that he couldn't put a name to, made him want to run even more. He was beyond exhausted, but if Hinata was with him, he felt like he could run another ten laps.

As he watched Hinata be mobbed and congratulated by the track team, something clicked within him that made Kise go, Oh. Somewhere along the way, or maybe right from the start, Kise had come to respect Hinata. That was why Kise couldn't look down on him, why Kise couldn't hate him, why Kise couldn't believe himself to be superior. It was because Hinata was incomparable. Kise had been trying to compare himself to someone not of this world, and now that he realized that, he felt so much lighter.

If being honest with himself felt like this, then maybe he should do it more often.

He looked up when a hand came into his field of vision. Hinata stood smiling down at him, towel around his neck and sunlight hitting his face just right to make his hair glow and his eyes shine an iridescent amber. He was the picture of the sun.

Kise sighed to steady his breathing, then he stood up straight to take Hinata's hand in a firm handshake. He met those eyes with his own that were steady and determined for the first time. "I won't lose next time."

Hinata's eyes glimmered and he nodded.

"Alright, guys," the track team captain called out as he clapped his hands, "time for practice to start. Kise, we'll get you an application form. Glad you could join us!"

"You don't have to join if you don't want to," Hinata said to him.

Kise considered it for a moment, but then he shook his head. "It's fine. I lost fair and square."

Hinata tilted his head. "I don't really get it, but that means we can run together some more, right?"

He probably hadn't heard of the competition the sports clubs had over Kise, but that was fine, he didn't need to know. Kise would prefer it if he didn't. So, Kise just smiled at him, feeling much more at ease. "Yeah, that's exactly what it means."

Hinata hopped away cheering. Before he could get too far though, Kise called him back over. "What's your name? I never got your full name."

"Hinata Shouyou, Class 1-5!" Hinata spread his arms, looking very much like the little kid Kise had initially believed him to be.

"Hinata… Shouyou…" Kise murmured the name, finding it very fitting. If Hinata was going to call him 'Ryou', then Kise should return the favor by calling him 'Shou', but the nickname wouldn't come out of Kise mouth. Usually he would add '-cchi' to the names of people he liked, but 'Shoucchi' didn't sound right.

"Hinatacchi," Kise eventually said even though it felt really inadequate. He saw Hinata jolt and thought maybe the nickname wasn't so bad after all.