Characters: Tezuka and Kaidou :D

Summary: Tezuka’s relationship with Kaidou Kaoru through a pair of glasses. Written for a friend.

Notes: Not related to this story, but thank you to rabbit for leaving such a thoughtful review for 'Train Tracks'. 8) I couldn't reply to it as it's an anonymous review, but it really made my day.

Perfect Vision

By Miki

Tezuka wasn’t quite sure how it had happened that first morning.

It was a Monday morning, just like any other.

Tezuka had woken up feeling more tired than usual, and he’d accidentally tripped over an out-of-place paving stone on his way to school.

He’d been fixing his shoelace just outside Seigaku’s gates, when a shadow had passed across his fingers and foot, and he’d looked up to see Kaidou Kaoru staring down at him.

“Good morning, Buchou,” Kaidou said, and stood still.

“Good morning, Kaidou,” Tezuka said, and fixed his shoe for a moment longer, almost hoping Kaidou would go away.

It took him a moment to realise that Kaidou was, quite possibly, waiting for him.

The thought unnerved him, because he was more used to bumping into Fuji or Oishi at the gates and Kaidou wasn’t the sort of companion who’d talk to fill up the silence and make it more amiable to them both.

He stood up and adjusted the strap of his tennis bag on his shoulder, and then, because Kaidou was still staring at him, started walking.

“Kaidou,” he said, when Kaidou didn’t follow.

“Coming, Buchou.”

(S)

On Tuesday morning, Tezuka nearly fell out of his bed when he woke up.

He’d tossed and turned a lot during the night, and when he woke up, he found himself precariously perched right on the edge of his mattress.

He untangled his right foot from his quilt and then swivelled and sat on the edge of his bed carefully, blinking a bit until he picked up his glasses from his bedside table.

He slipped them on and found that the world was still fuzzy.

By the time he got to school, he was too tired and too focused on the fact that the vision in his right eye kept blurring to notice his team mate leaning against the wall.

“Good morning, Buchou.”

Tezuka spun quickly, surprised to hear a voice so close to him.

His heartbeat didn’t slow, even once he’d recognised the other boy and decided that meeting Kaidou here by accident wasn’t quite as bad as meeting Inui or Kikumaru, one of whom would talk his ear off about data and the other who would make loud incomprehensible noises which, sometimes, annoyed Tezuka to no end.

Kaidou was quiet enough as they walked through the gates and to the club house.

It did cross Tezuka’s mind to wonder why Kaidou wasn’t with Inui, and why he wasn’t jogging.

Didn’t he usually jog to morning practices?

When they got to the club house, Tezuka got half his answer.

Inui was waiting for Kaidou by the door, so as to catch him before he could see anyone else, Tezuka supposed.

He walked into the building and ignored the curiosity that nagged away at him.

He wasn’t the sort of person to listen to other people’s conversations, no matter how bland or interesting they were.

He didn’t even like to have to hear people talking behind him on the bus.

It made him feel as though he was somehow obligated to empathise with the plight of the girl who had lost her kitten and spent a whole night looking for it, or be angry at a boy who had studied for five whole minutes for a test, which he then failed and blamed his teacher for.

Kaidou and Inui’s business was not his to share.

(S)

On Wednesday morning, the world was blurry again.

Completely blurry when Tezuka covered his left eye and looked through his right, and only somewhat blurry when Tezuka covered his right eye and looked through his left.

His vision had been blurry since he was quite young, so the feeling that his view of the world was out of focus was not new.

The feeling that one eye was worse than the other was.

“Tezuka,” his mother said gently. “You don’t look very well. Should you see a doctor later today? Should I make an appointment for you?”

Tezuka didn’t move as her hand petted his head, tousling his hair.

The kitchen chair was hard against the backs of his legs.

“No thank you mother,” he answered stiffly, and swallowed the last of his rice.

He glanced at his watch on the way to school and realised he’d been in such a hurry to get out of the house that he was ten minutes earlier than usual.

He walked straight through the gates of the school, and it wasn’t until he was halfway to the club house that it occurred to him that he hadn’t seen Kaidou.

(S)

Oishi mentioned at lunch time, that Momoshiro and Kaidou had been arguing again that morning.

Tezuka hadn’t noticed, and he wondered why.

He feigned interest in his rice.

Inui would probably be proud of the fact that he had counted two hundred and seventeen grains of rice on the top layer of his serving.

His vision kept blurring though, so he wasn’t sure he hadn’t been counting the same grains over and over.

Oishi went on for another five minutes, before Tezuka thought to interrupt him and ask what the root of the problem had actually been.

“I don’t know,” Oishi sighed.

Tezuka jabbed his chopsticks into his rice.

His eye was itchy, but there was nothing he could do about it in front of Oishi, so he blinked and squeezed his eyes closed for a moment, hoping Oishi wouldn’t notice the movement.

He did.

“Tezuka?”

Tezuka looked back at him, ignoring the fact that his eye now seemed itchier and hotter than before.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes,” Tezuka answered, and put a mouthful of rice into his mouth.

(S)

On Thursday morning, Tezuka sat up and blinked.

His eye felt itchy and much hotter than it should have been.

He picked up his glasses from his bedside table and put them on.

Then he walked out of his room to the bathroom, and placed his hands on the edge of the sink, leaning towards the mirror.

His right eye was red and bloodshot.

He wondered if Kaidou would comment on it, or if he’d just say “Good morning, Buchou”.

(S)

Kaidou was there, standing against the wall with one foot on the ground and one against the wall.

Tezuka debated telling him it wasn’t very respectful to put his feet on the wall like that, but as he approached, Kaidou looked up quickly and saw him.

He pushed himself off the wall, straightened his jacket and walked over.

Tezuka checked his watch.

He was ten minutes earlier than usual again today.

He wondered what Kaidou was doing here at this time.

Was he meeting Inui?

“Good morning, Buchou,” Kaidou said.

“Good morning, Kaidou,” Tezuka said.

He wondered if Kaidou hadn’t noticed his eye through his glasses.

They walked through the gates and towards the club house.

Kaidou hissed a little.

“I think you have conjunctivitis, Buchou.”

Tezuka blinked.

“You should see a doctor. It’s contagious,” Kaidou hissed, and then walked so quickly away from him that Tezuka was stunned for a moment.

His legs ceased to move beneath him.

Was Kaidou running away from him?

Was his eye really that bad?

(S)

“It’s just conjunctivitis,” the nurse smiled at him.

Tezuka waited patiently as she rummaged through the infirmary’s cupboard.

“Ah, here they are,” she sighed, sounding relieved.

She pulled a white bottle from a little cardboard box and stood next to Tezuka.

“I’m just going to put some drops in, so just keep your eyes open, would you, Tezuka-kun?”

She gently tilted his head back and touched one hand to his forehead as she squeezed the bottle lightly in her other hand.

It stung when the first drop touched Tezuka’s right eye, and he blinked rapidly.

“Just one more,” she smiled, and squeezed the bottle again, this time holding Tezuka’s eye open.

“How long does it take for the drops to work?” he asked, when she’d packed away the box again.

“Oh, not more than an hour, I should think,” she smiled. “You’re lucky you don’t have it in both eyes, or I’d have to send you home. You should come back in a few hours though, since the drops don’t last throughout the day.”

Tezuka wondered if his eye would look better by afternoon practice.

(S)

Kikumaru yelled when he saw Tezuka’s eye.

“Oishi! Oishi! Have you seen Tezuka’s eye, nya? It’s horrible, nya!”

Oishi shot his doubles partner a reprimanding look.

Tezuka suspected Oishi would have liked to say something about his eye too, had he not been vice captain and a mother hen at heart.

“Oishi, have you seen Kaidou?” Tezuka asked, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Oishi shook his head, and the door of the club house opened.

Inui stepped in.

“Oh, your eye,” he said, and scribbled in his notebook.

(S)

Tezuka watched from the sidelines.

The first years were keeping more distance from him than they usually did, perhaps in part because Tezuka had one red eye, though he was also frowning more than usual.

He’d checked his eye in one of the bathroom mirrors at lunch time, and though it was less itchy, the colour was still just as red as it had been that morning.

The nurse had explained to him that the drops couldn’t stop the redness, as that was simply blood rushing to the infected area, and that the redness would continue until the infection was cured.

Tezuka watched Kaidou playing Kikumaru, and wondered why he hadn’t assigned himself to play Kaidou.

It would have given him an excuse to talk to the other boy.

When practice was over, Tezuka changed his clothes and looked around for him.

He wasn’t there.

Neither was Inui.

Tezuka wondered how they could both have left so quickly.

Then he realised that Kawamura had left as well, and Kikumaru was already by the door, waiting for Oishi.

He frowned.

Momoshiro and Echizen were cracking jokes about hamburgers.

‘Momoshiro, do you know where I could find Kaidou?’ he considered asking, but then he imagined the look Momoshiro would give him, and decided not to.

The world was a little clearer when he walked home from school that day.

He stopped by the chemist, as the nurse had instructed, and found a bottle of eyedrops on the shelf.

(S)

When he woke up on Friday, the world was fuzzy again, but when he slipped on his glasses, it was completely clear.

“Good morning, Buchou,” Kaidou said, as Tezuka reached the school gates.

“Good morning, Kaidou,” Tezuka returned.

He pushed his glasses up his nose and glanced at Kaidou.

Had he noticed Tezuka’s eye was better?

They walked towards the club house, along what Tezuka had started to think of as ‘their usual route’.

It was fairly quiet, and Tezuka realised he hadn’t bumped into Fuji or Kikumaru or Inui or Kawamura by the gates for the past week.

He wondered again why Kaidou wasn’t with Inui.

Was he neglecting his training somehow?

No, that couldn’t be it.

Tezuka knew Kaidou ran with Inui after school, and they trained together in the park, but then… What had happened to training before school? Didn’t they do that together too?

“Your eye is better,” Kaidou said abruptly.

Tezuka blinked.

A part of him wondered if Kaidou was going to run off again now.

“Thank you, Kaidou,” Tezuka said, awkwardly.

Kaidou looked uncomfortable. “For what?” he questioned gruffly.

Tezuka wasn’t sure.

Kaidou had only told him the same thing both his mother and Oishi had told him.

They reached the courts and Oishi called out to Tezuka.

It seemed funny parting with Kaidou without speaking, but they didn’t speak much to each other when they were together anyway.

Tezuka wondered again why he had thanked Kaidou.

He’d been thinking about it the day before too.

Why had he wanted to thank Kaidou for something which he hadn’t gone out of his way to do, and which he could have thanked Oishi or his mother for?

He hoped Kaidou didn’t think he was being strange.

He hoped the other boy would promptly forget about it.

He hoped Kaidou would argue with Momoshiro, so Tezuka could make them both run laps and yell at them and give himself some excuse to be annoyed at the other boy.

Then he told himself off for being so stupid.

He ignored Inui when he followed him out to the courts and mumbled about his concentration levels seeming lower than usual, and when they played each other ten minutes later, Tezuka sent three aces past him before Inui could even return a ball to score a point.

Inui mumbled some more.

Tezuka thought he caught Kaidou’s name on Inui’s lips, and he sent another ace past Inui’s legs.

He wondered if Kaidou was watching him, but when he glanced that way, Kaidou was playing Oishi, just as he was supposed to be doing.

(S)

The weekend seemed to go slowly for Tezuka.

He woke up on Sunday morning, his head swimming and dizzy because he’d stayed up too late the night before, finishing his homework and re-reading parts of his English textbook.

His room seemed too bright somehow, and he could hear his mother chattering to someone.

Walking into the kitchen, his glasses in hand as he rubbed at his eyes, he found himself staring at Inui.

“Good morning, Tezuka.”

It took Tezuka a moment to get his mouth to work.

“Good morning, Inui.”

Tezuka wondered why Inui was staring at his pyjamas.

And then he realised he was wearing the ones with ducks on them, and cursed.

(S)

When Monday morning came, Tezuka approached the school gates with something akin to dread.

Kaidou wasn’t there.

He was on the courts, talking to Inui already.

Ryuuzaki-sensei was with Momoshiro and Echizen, and Kikumaru and Oishi were examining Kawamura’s hair with interest.

“Don’t worry, nya! Girls will still like you even if you’ve got grey hair!” Kikumaru declared loudly.

“Eiji!” Oishi scolded, “it’s only one, and no one will know if you don’t tell them.”

“Do you have grey hair down there as well?” Eiji asked.

Oishi and Kawamura turned bright red.

“No, he doesn’t,” Fuji smiled, appearing next to Kawamura and winking at Eiji. “Do you, Taka-san?”

Tezuka wondered why he felt like the odd one out.

He felt as though he should go back to bed and get up again, and if he did that, then maybe the world would go back to being fuzzy again.

(S)

Tuesday morning started off with a thump when Tezuka fell out of his bed.

He wanted to swear for a moment as pain throbbed in his hip and the back of his head, but he didn’t say anything, and instead grit his teeth a little.

(S)

He inspected his eye.

He stared at his right eye, and then his left eye.

He noticed his eyelashes were short, and ran his finger along them.

They stuck out at an angle of ninety degrees from his eyelids.

They were straight.

Tezuka wondered why girls bothered to wear mascara, when it only made it more obvious that their eyelashes were straight and not curled.

He pushed his hair away from his face for a moment.

Then he pushed it back across his forehead and stared at himself through strands of hair.

He wondered if he could blame it all on those eye drops.

Inui would tell him there was a logical explanation for the way he was feeling.

But Tezuka was sure that if there was anyone he didn’t want to hear it from, it was Inui.

He sighed and turned on the tap, wetting his hands and splashing his face.

Then he patted his face dry with a towel and ventured downstairs to have breakfast.

(S)

He hesitated when he realised there was no one at the school gates.

Normally there might be someone else, since other clubs also had early morning training sessions, but today there was no one.

Kaidou wasn’t in sight.

Tezuka stopped and checked his watch, but he was fifteen minutes earlier than his usual time, and he wondered how it had happened.

Routine was the cornerstone of his life.

He didn’t like the thought that it was slowly but surely being disrupted by a boy who simply said “Good morning, Buchou” and then lapsed into silence.

For the sake of the one and a half minutes it took them to walk from the gate to the club house, Tezuka couldn’t justify the disruption of routine.

So he abandoned the idea of waiting for Kaidou and walked by himself.

When he reached the courts, Oishi and Kikumaru were already there.

He changed his clothes and opened the door to step out of the club house, when he suddenly found himself face to face with Kaidou, who was walking in.

Tezuka’s heart thumped in his chest; a kind of fast, off-pace thumping.

“Good morning Kaidou.”

“Good morning, Tezuka-buchou,” Kaidou said.

Neither of them moved.

Tezuka swallowed and cleared his throat.

The noise seemed to startle Kaidou, and he moved out of the way so Tezuka could exit first.

Tezuka noticed Kaidou’s cheeks were a little flushed, but he dismissed it as embarrassment.

Kaidou seemed to get embarrassed easily, and it was one of the few emotions Tezuka saw on his face, other than anger or irritation.

There was, of course, that look he gave Inui.

Tezuka wasn’t quite sure how to classify it.

Perhaps it was admiration or respect, or both.

He supposed Inui would have an answer.

Tezuka had no intention of asking him for it though.

Kaidou’s emotions were none of his business.

(S)

It was nearly two weeks later, on a Thursday night when Tezuka caught himself rushing to finish his maths homework, that he realised the rhythm of his mornings had changed.

They were no longer the usual routine of getting up, washing and dressing, eating breakfast and walking to school.

They’d become scrambled.

More like…

Getting up, looking in the mirror, eating, washing and dressing, walking to the gate and meeting Kaidou there.

The time they met at the gate had become earlier.

Tezuka had mentioned to Kaidou on Monday that he needed to meet Oishi and Ryuuzaki-sensei earlier from now on because they weren’t able to meet for as long after school anymore.

Kaidou hadn’t said anything except “what time, Buchou?”

Tezuka had told him, and on Tuesday morning, Kaidou was standing at the gates when Tezuka got there twenty minutes earlier.

(S)

“Did you ask Oishi yet if he was busy on Sunday?” his mother asked.

Tezuka shook his head.

It was Friday already, and he would have asked Oishi the day before, except that he already knew Oishi was busy doing something with Kikumaru.

Kawamura and Fuji were both doing something with their families.

Asking Echizen would have been awkward.

Momoshiro would be out of the question, of course.

Tezuka had wanted to ask Kaidou the day before, what he was doing on the weekend, but he was half afraid that the answer would be something to do with Inui.

He wondered if he was being stupid about it.

“I thought it would be nice if it was just us,” he said to his mother, so that she wasn’t surprised on Sunday if it turned out that it was just the two of them and his father.

He twisted his chopsticks in his rice.

‘Kaidou, are you doing anything this Sunday?’

No, that wouldn’t work.

‘Are you busy this Sunday, Kaidou?’

No, not that either.

Then what would he do if Kaidou said ‘yes’?

He’d just stand there and look stupid.

Maybe it wasn’t that he wouldn’t know what to do if Kaidou said ‘yes’.

Maybe it was that if Kaidou said ‘no’, he wouldn’t know what to say.

(S)

Kaidou wasn’t there when Tezuka reached the gates.

He checked his watch, which told him he was running three minutes early, and sure enough, a minute later, Kaidou was walking up to him and saying “good morning, Tezuka-buchou.”

“Good morning, Kaidou,” Tezuka returned.

Kaidou looked relaxed, the corners of his mouth turned up a little in an ‘almost smile’.

Whether it was because he’d had a particularly pleasing run that morning, or because he’d had a good night’s rest, Tezuka wasn’t sure.

Kaidou’s ‘almost smiles’ were increasingly making Tezuka feel funny, because he’d only ever seen them directed at Inui before.

He wasn’t entirely sure what to do when Kaidou gave him that look, because he felt like he ought to say something, but nothing ever came to his lips.

It made him feel nervous, and on the spot, so he usually tried to say something else whenever it happened.

He tossed up whether to talk about the programme he’d watched on TV last night or the fact that he’d seen a cat on his walk to school this morning.

He didn’t think Kaidou liked other people to know he had a soft spot for cats, so he decided to go with the TV show.

“Did you watch the programme about Mount Fuji last night, Kaidou?”

Kaidou was slow to respond.

“I didn’t,” he finally answered.

Tezuka felt disappointed and annoyed at the same time.

He should have gone with the cat.

“I was busy doing my homework, so I recorded it,” Kaidou explained.

“Oh,” Tezuka said, and felt a little better. “I did my homework afterwards.”

Then he felt annoyed again.

He should have talked about Mount Fuji instead. Of course Kaidou didn’t want to hear about his homework.

“I’d like to climb Mount Fuji one day.”

It took Tezuka a moment to realise the words had come from Kaidou’s mouth and not his own.

“You would?” he questioned. “The climbing season is pretty short though, and not for a few months.”

Kaidou nodded. “I thought it would be something to enjoy with my parents.”

Tezuka adjusted his glasses.

He felt hot inside.

His heart was beating offbeat again.

Thump.

Thump thump.

Thump.

He cleared his throat as they had nearly reached the courts.

Kaidou stopped walking when he did, and looked at him from under some stray pieces of hair that covered his eyes.

Tezuka didn’t think his hair had been that long a few weeks ago, but he couldn’t remember.

He probably hadn’t ever even looked at Kaidou this close-up before either.

He thought about that as his mouth moved, and he thought about what he’d do if Kaidou told him he couldn’t go, or what he’d say if Kaidou told him he could go.

He thought about the fact that Kikumaru’s yells were within earshot and the fact that he could hear Oishi walking towards them and calling out his name.

He thought about the fact that it took them nearly three minutes now to walk their route, though they could easily do it in one and a half without rushing.

He thought about the fact that sometimes it was the first thing he thought of when he woke up and put on his glasses.

He thought about thinking about Kaidou when he was looking at himself in the mirror and wondering if anyone else noticed the way his hair was so troublesome, or the way his eyelashes were too straight and weren’t long enough.

Kaidou’s eyelashes were long, Tezuka had noticed.

His heart kept thumping offbeat.

Thump thump.

“I’m going climbing with my parents on Sunday,” he began.

Thump.

“Not Mount Fuji, of course,” he rushed to explain, aware that his mouth wasn’t used to speaking quite so fast and that the syllables came out a little stuck together. “But if you’d like, you can come with us.”

Thump thump.

Kaidou looked away.

He tugged at the strap of his bag.

“Actually…”

Thump thump.

“If you don’t mind-” Kaidou began.

Tezuka swallowed down the wave of disappointment in his throat.

“Don’t worry about it if you’re busy,” he interrupted. “It was just a thought.”

“No, I’m not busy!”

Tezuka paused awkwardly, uncertainly.

“Oh, then… But you can’t come?”

Kaidou hissed.

The blush was back on his face again, staining his cheeks a bright pink.

“I was going to ask… I wanted…”

Kaidou hissed again, and Tezuka waited.

He was caught between impatience with Kaidou and annoyance at himself again.

Kaidou fingered the strap of his bag for a moment before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a ticket.

He held it out to Tezuka in both his hands, and Tezuka took it from him, holding it up to read the small printed text.

It was for two for a movie screening on Sunday afternoon.

“What’s this, Kaidou?” Tezuka asked, though he knew perfectly what he was holding in his hands.

What he really wanted to know was why Kaidou was giving it to him.

There was a crunch from behind him, and he turned his head to see Oishi standing there awkwardly.

He looked caught between shock and embarrassment.

Tezuka turned back around quickly.

“I thought maybe… I thought you said you liked that actor, so if you wanted to go together…” Kaidou mumbled.

He looked like he wanted to run away again, but Tezuka wasn’t about to let him.

He coughed a little.

He wasn’t practised in organising outings with people.

They heard the sound of Oishi’s footsteps retreating, and a moment later there came a loud yell in Kikumaru’s voice. “Buchou’s doing what?”

Tezuka wondered if he should take a leaf from Kikumaru’s book and just tell Kaidou what it was that he wanted to say, but the words were too embarrassing and his mouth wouldn’t move to say them.

He pocketed the ticket.

“I do…” he said, and then, because that didn’t seem like a good enough answer, he added “I’ll be outside the theatre at ten then.”

“Thank you, Buchou.”

Kaidou didn’t say anything about the fact that they both knew the movie didn’t start until two.

(S)

When Momoshiro and Kaidou argued at training that afternoon, Tezuka pursed his lips and stared at them both for a few minutes before a voice next to his ear said “Saa, Tezuka, you wouldn’t be thinking of giving preferential treatment, would you?”

Tezuka gave Momoshiro and Kaidou twenty laps each.

Fuji got forty.

Tezuka didn’t think that was preferential treatment at all.

(S)

Tezuka’s parents stood and leaned against the railing of the lookout.

The sun was setting over Tokyo, and the bright oranges and pinks of the sky were almost surreal.

“So what did Kunimitsu say he was doing?” Kuniharu ventured.

“Going out with a friend,” Ayana answered, smiling a little. “I was sure he’d wanted to climb with us for weeks, but he told me something had suddenly come up on Friday.”

Kuniharu straightened his back and stretched.

“He’s missing a great view, you know.”

Ayana nodded, but she’d seen the look on her son’s face when he’d left the house that morning, and she was sure that he was having fun whatever he was doing right now.

(S)

“I’m sorry I took up the time you were going to spend with your parents,” Kaidou apologised, almost stiffly.

Tezuka shook his head.

“My parents will probably go again next weekend anyway,” he answered. “Your ticket was only valid for today.”

Kaidou didn’t respond.

Tezuka didn’t have any experience with dating.

He didn’t think he and Kaidou were dating anyway.

Though he wouldn’t have minded if they were.

Did today count as a date?

He was pretty sure that was how Kaidou had intended it, but he wasn’t entirely sure.

Kaidou’s house was almost in sight.

Maybe he could ask Kaidou tomorrow.

“We could go climbing next Sunday,” he suggested.

Kaidou was silent for a moment.

Then he nodded.

“I’d like that.”

Tezuka thought of going home, and he thought about the fact that his mother would probably greet him to tell him how he’d missed a good climb and how good the view had been.

She loved the view from the lookout, Tezuka knew.

But a part of him wanted to tell her how good the view was from here too.

The ‘almost smile’ on Kaidou’s face made Tezuka feel awkward and pleased and embarrassed all at once.

He cleared his throat.

“Then, I’ll see you… tomorrow.”

Kaidou nodded.

“Then, tomorrow, Tezuka-buchou.”

(S)

When Tezuka woke up the next morning, he reached for his glasses before he’d sat up, and blinked as his vision came into focus.

He thought of Kaidou waiting for him at the school gates and didn’t even waste a minute in front of the bathroom mirror.

The sky was overcast as he walked, and dampness hung in the air as though any moment it might rain.

He saw Kaidou coming from the opposite direction, and wondered whether he should walk more quickly or more slowly.

His feet seemed to want to go faster though, and he thought Kaidou looked as though he sped up as well.

In the end, he met Kaidou right in front of the gates.

“Good morning, Tezuka-buchou.”

“Good morning Kaidou.”

They walked to the courts together; hands almost close enough to touch, an ‘almost smile’ on Kaidou’s face.

Tezuka thought his vision had never been more perfect.

.fin.