Chapter 30

To train his non-dominant hand, Tezuka began to play frequently in matches at various levels. Every time I thought he was watching old movies in his apartment in Munich, he would send me a picture of an unfamiliar hotel, telling me which unfamiliar city it was in, and that he had won another match.

Of course, I would also tell him about my recent events, such as how I was cornered at an intersection by the captain of the soccer team and then I threw him over my shoulder—trivial things that I could easily laugh about. But I knew he would lecture me like everyone else, so our casual conversation turned into—

"That's just how it is. Every day is either school or training."

"Student council affairs are quite demanding, but the atmosphere in the class is even worse. I'd rather have more meetings."

"Why is it scary? Okay, I know you got into university on a sports scholarship, but your friend is now a senior in high school."

"What's wrong? Just because I'm in the top three of my grade doesn't mean I can't worry about getting into university. That's so unfair of you to say that. If you're so capable, come back now and do a mock exam for Tokyo University with me."

"There's nothing we can do; this is the resentment of exam-oriented students. You and Yagyu both betrayed our national university faction, so it's only right that you listen to me."

"And if you have time, why don't you call your master a few times... Okay, I won't say anything more, don't hang up."

"You asked me what time it is here? Oh, it's almost midnight. I'll go to sleep after I finish this page of translation questions... Hey Guoguang, it's because you called that I didn't have time to finish the questions. What are you apologizing for? You don't even feel apologetic."

"Okay, I'll go to sleep. I won't stay up late. So what did you want to show me when you called in the first place?"

As I spoke, I exited the call and saw a photo he sent of a sunset at the beach. I turned around, opened the balcony door, took a picture of today's moon, and showed it to him, saying, "But I still think nothing can compare to this view of the Shonan coast."

He responded on the other end of the phone, and casually added, "The moonlight is beautiful." I immediately replied, "Of course, it's a full moon today."

Tezuka let out a muffled chuckle, which he tried his best to hide, but I heard it. However, I didn't point it out, but simply said "I know" twice, and then lay down on the tatami and obediently closed my eyes.

Later I realized that during my senior year of high school, it seemed to have become a habit for me to call Tezuka late at night from time to time. I could roughly guess when he would call, and I wouldn't deliberately wait next to the phone. It just so happened that I hadn't gone to sleep yet, and I hadn't finished what I was doing.

What's even stranger is that I dreamed a lot during that period, which was rare in my past life, almost an entirely new experience. Forget dreaming, I didn't even have insomnia; I could say I was going to sleep one minute and fall asleep the next. However, after a year, I returned to normal sleep habits, so I call this "exam preparation syndrome." This includes the inability to resist chatting with Tezuka about trivial things on the phone; I believe this was all due to anxiety changing me.

Most of my dreams aren't worth exploring. Sometimes I'm sinking in a bottomless sea, surrounded by silence, yet I can see someone reaching out to me. Sometimes I'm being slammed onto a judo mat by a familiar opponent, someone yelling at me how to counterattack, while my limbs remain motionless. Other times I fall into unfamiliar cities, places Tezuka has been, strolling leisurely through the streets and alleys, when suddenly I hear him calling my name, but when I turn around, there's nothing there.

I try my best not to notice these little changes in my life. After all, even when I'm deep in a dream, my biological clock still wakes me up on time, and the alarm clock on my desk always points to 5:30 without fail. If you ignore the extra vocabulary book in my hand, my morning run routine is no different from before, and my life is naturally no different as well.

Aside from no longer having time to challenge Nioh in the number reading game, I spent more and more of my breaks and lunch breaks on practice problems, and our competition remained at the point of my complete defeat last time.

Aside from no longer having time to meet Yagyu at the bookstore in front of Kamakura Station, he devoted all his time to preparing for studying abroad. I often saw him rushing to his family's car to go to his language class after club activities ended.

I tried my best to avoid the impact of these inevitable changes on me, tangling my chaotic thoughts into a ball of yarn and throwing it away where I couldn't see it. Then I kept myself busy with plenty of things to do—I started giving one-on-one extra training to the lower-grade students in the judo club, I started sorting out the historical issues that had piled up in the student council for several years, I started opening a brand new book of science competition questions, and I started rereading the book "Noctiluca" that I could already recite from memory.

During my senior year of high school, I finally learned how to use all the time I spent with my friends to spend alone. I realized that I used to think it didn't matter whether I had someone to chat with, because I could always find someone to talk to.

"So haven't you noticed that people around you tend to confess their feelings at this time?" Nan Nan asked me this question, looking at me as if I were an idiot.

That day, I went to Tokyo for a competition, and Nan Nan took some time to come and visit. She also brought her boyfriend, who had once sought advice from me on how to communicate in a long-distance relationship, and was the most beautiful girl in the Hyotei tennis team.

"No, Atobe is the one who is called 'One Flower'." Oshitari firmly rejected the title.

"Doesn't he call himself an 'Emperor'?" I asked, resting my chin on my hand as I looked at Nan Nan. She gave me that look that said, "Don't tell me I know that guy."

The topic has gone astray. After Nan Nan asked that question, I somewhat understood what she meant. A romantic partner has an absolute one-on-one relationship, unlike a friend. If you need to communicate, you can just find that person. You can naturally go to school together, eat together, go to tutoring classes together, go home together, and enjoy the pleasure that comes with intimacy. She added that although I can't fully understand this yet, I decided to respect the young people in their relationship.

"Okada-kun, you're about the same age as us, right?" Oshitari seemed a little unconvinced by my understanding, and hesitated before adding, "Yeah, Tezuka-kun doesn't really seem like our age either."

"Shinobu," I deliberately omitted the honorific, "who exactly is giving you this misunderstanding? You and Atobe, how could you think that Kunimitsu and I are dating?"

He leaned back slightly, trying to use the reflection from his glasses to hide his glance at Katakura Minami. Before he could answer, I interrupted, "I know it wasn't Minami who said it."

"Are you interrogating me?" Shinobu frowned subconsciously.

Nan Nan seemed to have no intention of helping at all. She elegantly picked up her teacup, took a sip, and left me and her boyfriend almost arguing over someone who wasn't even there and wasn't my boyfriend.

"I thought you were a smart man, Okada," Shinobu said, abandoning his superfluous politeness. "After all, you could tell at a glance today that Princess Minami and I didn't come from Hyotei."

I looked up at him.

A slight smile appeared on Oshitari's poker face. He gently pushed up his glasses and continued, "Tezuka is Atobe's friend, I'm Atobe's friend, and you're Tezuka's friend. Think about it."

Given Tezuka Kunimitsu's status in their social circle, he wasn't exactly the center of attention, but anything related to him easily became newsworthy. Last year, when Atobe went to London with his father for the company's anniversary celebration, he took some time to watch the Wimbledon finals and ran into Tezuka in the stands. After the match, the two old friends, who hadn't seen each other in a long time, chatted all night until he saw Tezuka off on the train back to Munich.

At that moment, the phone on the coffee table lit up, and the photo on the lock screen instantly caught Atobe's attention. At first glance, it was nothing special, just a sunset at the beach, but Atobe's sharp eyes spotted an inconspicuous figure in the corner of the picture, which was clearly a girl's back.

This wouldn't seem surprising to anyone, but when Atobe thought the protagonist was Tezuka, he couldn't help but be curious and casually asked him a question. To his surprise, the other party answered decisively.

"You know her too, it's Sanae." Tezuka's undisguised manner led Atobe to assume that their relationship must have been public for a long time, and so this misunderstanding spread to the country.

That evening, I hitched a ride back to Fujisawa with Nanan's family. She knew I was still pondering Oshitari's tongue-twisting hint, so she ruffled my hair and said, "Don't think that Atobe is the culprit."

"Hmm?" I tilted my head and looked at her.

"Your Guoguang friends are the root of all evil." She emphasized the word "friends," then laughed twice and reached out to open the car door for me.

"I'm not that stupid." I muttered to myself, pursing my lips as the car drove further and further away. The bustling scene of the ramen shop behind me made me feel irritated. I slung the backpack I was carrying over my shoulder, sighed deeply, and walked towards the beach alone.

The seaside promenade is a great place for a stroll after the weather warms up. Rikkai University and Kaijo University are both nearby, and since it happened to be Wednesday, the promenade was full of students in school uniforms, most of whom looked tired after finishing their tutoring sessions.

At times like this, I would straddle the railing and sit there leisurely, enjoying the sea breeze, completely forgetting that I still had the exam paper in my bag that I hadn't finished because I had taken leave.

A warm feeling came from my shoulder. I was stunned for a moment. I first grabbed the school uniform jacket before turning my head. Liu Sheng nodded slightly as if to greet me, and then sat down on the railing in the same way as me.

"It's been a few days since we last saw each other?" I suddenly asked.

"Six days," Yagyu replied without hesitation.

"It's only been six days." I reached out and wrapped my clothes tighter around myself. It felt like it had been a long time since I had spoken to him.

"Did the match go smoothly today?" I felt his gaze.

"You won easily," I chuckled, then paused. "You knew I had a match today?"

He nodded and said in a light tone, "The girl sitting next to you said that I was thinking of having lunch with you today."

"What a pity, we missed it." I nudged his elbow.

"Yes, that's a real pity," he agreed.

"Yagyu," I called his name, "I was wondering, if I hadn't borrowed that selected works of Edgar Allan Poe from you, would we still be friends?"

The sudden question clearly caught Yagyu off guard. He didn't know that I had been attacked from both sides by Princess Minami and Oshitari during the day, nor did he know that the mess I thought I had thrown far away had rolled back into my life.

"No," Yagyu said after a long pause, "at least from my perspective, it has nothing to do with that book."

"What does that have to do with?" I asked, puzzled. "I think everyone needs someone to talk to in their lives, but I can't just say that you, Yagyu, are simply someone I can talk to."

"What kind of person do you think I am?" he asked the question back, as he often did in the past.

I shook the hair that was sticking to my face, thought seriously for several seconds, and solemnly replied, "I don't know."

A fleeting, unreadable expression crossed his eyes, before he chuckled softly, "This kind of trouble isn't for Chairman Okada."

"I think so too," I laughed along. "It's getting late, your driver must have been waiting a long time." I jumped off the railing and handed him my coat.

Liu Sheng took the clothes, put his arms around me, and draped the coat over my shoulders. He looked down at me and said, "You should wear this back; it's getting windy."

As we got closer, I could only see the lower half of his face when I looked up. His warm breath as he spoke lightly touched my forehead. I replied, "I'll find time for you tomorrow."

He picked up the bag that was still on the ground and walked towards the car, but stopped and turned back after taking only a few steps: "Sanae."

I looked up.

"We're friends now, aren't we?" Yagyu smiled.

"Of course, good friend." Like in an American teen movie, I poked my chest and pointed at him.

The car door closed, and Liu Sheng leaned back in his seat, looking slightly annoyed. He deliberately bumped the back of his head twice, gritting his teeth and muttering to himself, "Friend, friend, who wants to be friends with you..."