Summary: In high school, Momoshiro Takashi has spontaneously declared himself Kaidoh Kaoru's best friend and at the same time, his eternal rival. Inui Sadaharu is 'secretly' in love with Kaidoh but it seems that everyone knows except the one he loves. So what about Kaidoh? He's too busy dealing with his own problems – fan girls and classmates included.

Upside Down: 逆さまに
Chapter One
一

Kaidoh Kaoru yawned and stretched his hands. After stretching his limbs, he leaned forward and lazily propped his head in his hands. His last class had just ended and now everyone was noisily packing up their things.

A pack of giggling girls walked past Kaidoh's workstation and bid him farewell. Kaidoh gave them a small wave with his other hand and grunted in response. They left blushing slightly and giggling a little louder. Kaidoh rolled his eyes. Girls…

They were like that every single day. Every time he acknowledged them, they would either blush or giggle; or both. Ever since he entered Seishun Gakuen High, he, along with Momoshiro had climbed the ladder of popularity effortlessly…and unwillingly on his part. Fuji, Kikumaru, Oishi, Inui, and Tezuka were already at the top since they've been at the school for a year already. Kawamura wasn't far behind them even though he had given up tennis, he was still widely recognized.

The nine of them, including Echizen, who was grudgingly captain and still back in Seishun Gakuen Junior High, were known as a legend throughout the prefecture. Kaidoh let out a sigh. They broke down his social walls he painstakingly built up.

Well…maybe not all, but most of them anyway.

Even with the constant attention, it wasn't too bad, Kaidoh thought. It was nice to be liked and accepted, although he could do without his fan club. HIS FAN CLUB! He was here for one week and he had a fan club! Unbelievable!

He couldn't believe how fast-paced high school was. In one week, he got 6 confessions, 10 love letters, and two home-made bentos. Not only that, but he was now constantly teased by his senpais, like Kikumaru and Fuji. And then there was that idiot.

Kaidoh shifted his eyes to the guy sleeping next to him. With a bored look, he flicked Momoshiro's forehead. His eye twitch a bit but he remained asleep.

Growling, Kaidoh flicked his forehead once again. "Oi! Wake up, idiot!" That did it. Momoshiro finally woke up. Kaidoh lifted his head and proceeded to pack up his books while his friend stretched. Yes you heard right. His Friend.

"Class over already?" he slurred, rubbing his eyes.

Kaidoh only grunted in response, clasping his bag shut. He waved to the last girls leaving and got up.

"Where you goin'?"

Kaidoh had slung his bag over his shoulder and was almost out the door. He stopped and looked over his shoulder, only to see Momoshiro wiping the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. Kaidoh scowled. Disgusting.

"It's the first club meeting for freshmen today." He paused, raising an eyebrow. "You coming?"

Momoshiro grinned and roughly shoved everything into his bag and proceeded to catch up to Kaidoh.

Yes, as hard as it was to believe, Momoshiro Takashi was Kaidoh Kaoru's best friend. Not that he'll ever admit it out loud.

Even though Momoshiro carries the title of 'best friend of Kaidoh Kaoru' it didn't mean their meaningless banter, arguments, fights, and competitiveness had stopped. No, their banter and fights would never cease to exist, but they had slightly lessened. Slightly. The competitiveness was worst than ever, but it was what drove them to improve their tennis, so no one was complaining.

Kaidoh had no idea how that happened anyway. He vaguely remembered some of his classmates asking if he and Momoshiro were best friends. He was going to set them straight but the loud mouth had beat him to it and announced it to the whole room that yes, the title was taken by him. Pissed off, Kaidoh proceeded to deny it and tell Momoshiro off. The next thing they knew, they were in the Principal's office with wrinkled clothes and bed-head hair.

But Kaidoh could do nothing about it. The words were said and spread and they were just stuck with the title. Oh boy, lucky him.

"Did you hear? Tezuka-buchou is captain this year," Momoshiro said excitedly.

"Hn." He already knew this because Inui had already alerted him of this news over summer break.

"Yeah, do you think we'll be able to get on the team? I mean, I know there's that one rule that freshmen aren't allowed to –"

Kaidoh sighed when he realized Momoshiro was going to yap all the way to the courts. Which was on the other side of the building. Great.

Kaidoh's mind drifted back to Inui. Out of everyone, he had missed Inui the most. Not only was he his doubles partner, but also his first real friend. Inui wasn't afraid of him, unlike his peers, but befriended him because Kaidoh was simply Kaidoh. And Kaidoh was happy for that. He figured that Inui had most likely went though the same loneliness as Kaidoh had. He wasn't stupid. He hears more than his senpais give him credit for. He is aware of how Inui's peers think of him. He was unusually tall, really creepy, and a dork.

But it wasn't his fault. His senpai was a very kind and considering person, if you look past his labels. What his peers were saying about him was wrong.

Okay, so his senpai was tall; he was creepy (Kaidoh blames the opaque glasses); and he's technically a dork. A scientific dork to be exact. But if you get past all those, he's just a normal person. Just kind of weird.

And creepy.

And scares the shit out of Kaidoh sometimes but hey, Kaidoh deserved it probably.

Wait.

Since when did Kaidoh deserve to drink those foul, disgusting, potentially dangerous, weird bugs infested nutrient drinks?! His senpai only pushed them on them for his own amusement. Kaidoh highly doubted they would help.

" – but I think we'll beat them. I mean we are the legendary ace tennis players that won even the Nationals."

Kaidoh broke out of his thoughts and raised an eyebrow at Momoshiro. "Getting cocky, are we?"

Momoshiro smirked at him. "I deserved to." Kaidoh smirked back. "We'll see about that when our senpais beat the crap out of you for saying that."

Momoshiro huffed. "I'd like to see them try. Besides, I have you to back me up."

Kaidoh snorted. "No thanks." They pushed open the doors and Kaidoh squinted, eyes adjusting to the sunlight.

"Some best friend you are," muttered Momoshiro under his breath. Kaidoh only smirked.

"Anyway, I can't wait for the inter-school tournament to begin. After we get back on the team, it'll be like the good old days, with Tezuka leading us again." And there's his stupid cheerful mood again.

Kaidoh rubbed his nose. He couldn't deny that it would be awesome for the whole team to be whole again. Kaidoh really missed playing doubles with Inui.

He could remember, after the third years graduated, Tezuka had appointed him as their new captain. Momoshiro was whining, of course, but was prominently shut upped when Tezuka said he lacked the self-disciple and leadership skills to lead Seigaku to the Nationals again. And he was right, for Kaidoh had lead Seigaku to the Nationals. They didn't win, but they got fairly close, losing to Rikkaidai in the semi-finals.

Maybe leading Seigaku to the Nationals was an added bonus to his instant popularity. Apparently tennis was a major sport here, along with baseball and basketball.

They stopped walking and Momoshiro nudged Kaidoh in the ribs. Kaidoh batted his arm away and glared at him. "What?" Kaidoh asked irritably.

"Oi, it's Inui-senpai," Momoshiro said, pointing to someone crouching a few feet a head of them.

They were silent for a few seconds, observing the figure ahead of them. Then suddenly something dawned upon both of them.

Momoshiro opened his mouth. "You don't think…" They both looked at each other with dread and slowly started backing off.

They were able to turn and run for it, if not for someone calling their names.

"Momoshiro…Kaidoh?" The two boys froze in their tracks and painfully slowly, turned around.

They spotted Inui ahead of them, glasses glinting and waving to them. Sighing loudly, they put up a forced smile and walked up to Inui.

As they got closer, Kaidoh's forced smile slowly started to fall from his face. He noticed that Inui replaced his (hideous) opaque glasses with a nice and stylish frame, showing off his stunning green eyes to the world.

That would explain the two girls he overheard yesterday talking about how 'handsome' and 'dreamy' Inui was. At first when Kaidoh heard that, he had a 'what-the-fuck' look on his face. The word 'Inui' just didn't fit with handsome and dreamy, numbers maybe, but not dreamy. Now Kaidoh wasn't thinking his senpai was ugly or anything. He just thought of Inui as average. Who knew he had such hidden beauty underneath? Kaidoh felt a blush rising but willed it away. The last thing he needed was to be acting like a school girl around his senpai.

"Hello Inui-senpai," they chorused. Inui greeted them and flashed him a brilliant smile. "And how are you guys?"

As Momoshiro starting talking, Kaidoh took this time to observe his senpai. Now that he was up close and person, he could definitely agree with those girls. His senpai really did look handsome. Must've been the work of puberty. NOT that Kaidoh was checking him out or anything, because he definitely wasn't gay. He was 100 percent straight. He was just…observing.

Kaidoh couldn't believe how much Inui had changed his image. It wasn't like he didn't see him a bit in the year that they were apart. It was nothing like that. They met up once a week to train together and sometimes work on their doubles game as Inui waited for Kaidoh and Momoshiro to catch up to them in high school. They hung out numerous times over the summer too, watching movies, tennis games, going out to eat, things friends do.

But then there was that one month before summer vacation ended. His senpai had told Kaidoh that he was off on some vacation/business trip with his parents to the U.S. and would return a few days before school would start. So this is the first time Kaidoh has seen Inui in about a month. Maybe a month and a half, he wasn't sure.

Besides the glasses, Inui's hair was a bit longer too. It had grown out twice the length it was in middle school, but it was still spiky, in a sexy way. And then there was Inui's body. Kaidoh figured Inui had worked out a bit in the U.S. because he did not have that kind of body when he left Japan.

Inui was wearing the Regular's uniform, which fit almost snuggly to his body, showing off his nice, strong looking arms. And there were his legs too. Damn, muscles were appearing everywhere. He didn't look like the lanky boy he did in junior high but he also didn't look like those huge body builders with muscles popping out of everywhere. If Kaidoh had to decide, Inui's body was more subtle with his muscles. It was there, just not obvious. In short, it was a body worth drooling for.

Not that Kaidoh would be drooling over it, because he was a boy and boys don't drool over other boys' bodies.

Suddenly, Kaidoh was slightly tempted to run his hands over Inui's body –

Wait…that's inappropriate. He wasn't gay. He wasn't gay. He wasn't gay. He couldn't be! Mentally slapping himself, he shook his head to get rid of all the inappropriate thoughts. Damn puberty.

His two companions looked at him quizzically. Kaidoh looked up and realized that he must've looked really silly. Inui shot him a gentle smile before ruffling his hair.

Kaidoh cocked his head to the side curiously as Inui slowly ran his hand down his face before quickly retracting it.

There was an awkward silence between the three as Inui watched Kaidoh; Momoshiro watched both of them and Kaidoh avoided looking at everyone. Then his eyes caught sight of a tiny jar sitting next to Inui's foot.

"What's that?" Kaidoh asked, pointing to the jar. Both Momoshiro and Inui looked down. Inui grinned and looked back up at his two kouhai.

"Do you really want to know?" he asked slyly.

The two stood there as they felt a sense of dread creep into their bodies. Glancing at each other, they both silently agreed. "NO!" They shouted and split, running around Inui to the courts behind him.

"And we don't want whatever those things are going in either!" Momoshiro shouted over his shoulder.

Inui chuckled a bit before picking up the jar and smoothly putting it into his shorts' pockets.

FAQs:

Why are you rewriting Upside Down?
Because there are some things I've decided to include into the story that would make a better understanding of the sequel. Yes people, there WILL be a sequel. This version will be very different from the original, but I will try to tie in some stuff from the old one into this new one too. Also, I must admit it. I was just losing interest and I really though the original was crap. Hopefully this one will be better.

Are your other OCs going to appear in this one too?
Of course. They won't have as big as a part as the original and they're most likely going to be supporting characters. This version is most likely going to center around the regulars the most. Especially Kaidoh, Momoshiro, and Inui, of course.

What's the timeframe of the whole story?
It'll be set in Kaidoh's high school years.