I have to say, Tezuka Koku’s little baby voice is just too adorable for the tennis club members to handle. Coming from families full of rough guys, they’ve never seen such a cute and shy kid before. Although his brother, Tezuka Kunimitsu, is particularly serious and proper, he’s their captain after all, so they have to be accommodating.
Moreover, the captain’s little brother is practically everyone’s little brother in the tennis club, and they are determined to protect him well~
Oishi Shuichiro, Kikumaru Eiji, Inui Sadaharu, Kawamura Takashi, Momoshiro Takeshi, and Kaido Kaoru all happily decided in their hearts that Tezuka Koku now has a whole bunch of big brothers without even knowing it.
Looking at little Koku, who greeted them and then quietly shrank back to Tezuka Kunimitsu’s side, Kawamura couldn’t help but think the kid was too small. Although he knew the captain’s family wouldn’t skimp on the kid’s meals, Kawamura Takashi still wanted to feed the little cutie, so he proactively suggested to Tezuka Kunimitsu, “Captain, since we’re recruiting new members today and Koku has met everyone, why don’t we celebrate with a gathering at my family’s sushi restaurant?”
“My treat!”
“Sounds great, I’ve been craving sushi.”
“Captain, please agree~”
Everyone raised their hands in agreement upon hearing Kawamura’s suggestion. They could all see Kawamura’s intention to feed little Koku, and since everyone had time today, a gathering with the tennis club sounded very nice.
“Alright, let’s have a gathering together,” Tezuka Kunimitsu agreed, knowing his teammates wanted to get closer to Koku, so he didn’t refuse the idea of eating together. However, he didn’t plan to let Kawamura pay. Every time the tennis club gathered, it was at Kawamura’s family’s sushi restaurant, and Kawamura’s uncle already gave them a big discount.
As the captain, he needed to know his limits, so he told Kawamura, “No need for you to treat this time, I’ll take care of it.”
“We’ll be troubling Kawamura’s uncle again.”
“It’s no trouble at all, my dad loves seeing the place full,” Kawamura Takashi thought about how his father always encouraged him to bring the tennis club members to their restaurant. But since the captain insisted on paying, Kawamura Takashi didn’t argue further. He knew that when his father saw Koku for the first time, he definitely wouldn’t charge them.
He decided to let the captain and his dad sort it out themselves, as he had already said what he needed to.
After arranging the tennis club’s gathering for the day, Tezuka Kunimitsu took Koku aside and handed him his spare racket.
“Koku, you can use my racket for today. After the gathering, I’ll take you to get your own custom racket, okay?”
“Okay.” Since he didn’t know much about tennis, Tezuka Koku didn’t really understand the differences between rackets. But he never intended to go against his brother’s arrangements, so he obediently took the racket his brother handed him and prepared to find Ryoma on the court to learn tennis.
However, before he could reach the door, he was stopped by Fuji Shusuke.
“Koku, I heard from Tezuka that you don’t know how to play tennis. How about letting big brother Fuji teach you?” Fuji had overheard Tezuka talking to Oishi and Kikumaru in the lounge, so he had already planned to personally teach Koku tennis.
As the captain of the tennis club, Tezuka couldn’t conveniently teach Koku in the club. But Fuji, who held no official position and was familiar with Koku, was the perfect choice to teach him.
However, Fuji was rejected by Koku, “No need, I’ve already found a teacher!”
Earlier, when he came to find his brother, Ryoma had already told Koku that if he didn’t know how to play tennis, Ryoma would be responsible for teaching him. So when Fuji asked, Koku’s first reaction was that he already had a teacher.
“Ryoma’s tennis is really good, he said he’d teach me.”
Ryoma?
Hearing this unfamiliar name, Fuji Shusuke’s eyes flashed with a hint of confusion. How come he didn’t know there was such a person in the tennis club? And from what Koku said, this person’s skills seemed quite good, otherwise, why would he be so confident about teaching Koku tennis?
But seeing that even Tezuka Kunimitsu didn’t object, Fuji Shusuke held back the words on the tip of his tongue, “I see, then big brother Fuji will look forward to seeing how Ryoma teaches Koku.”
“Yes, Koku will definitely learn well.” With Ryoma teaching, Koku was confident he could learn well.
But he didn’t know he was about to face his first challenge in learning tennis.
On the other side, Echizen Ryoma, who returned to the tennis court alone, was unsurprisingly surrounded by the Horio trio.
“Echizen, why did you come back alone? Where’s Tezuka?”
“Didn’t he come with you?”
The Horio trio was always curious about Tezuka Koku, being the younger brother of the club president, he must know many of the regulars in the tennis club!
They were hoping Koku would introduce them to the regulars.
“He went to get a racket.” Without intending to explain further, Echizen Ryoma made an excuse and planned to start practicing on his own.
Just as the Horio trio wanted to ask more questions, Tezuka Koku appeared at the entrance of the tennis court, followed by the regulars.
“Ryoma, I can’t go home with you tonight. My brother said we’re having a gathering with the tennis club brothers.”
While everyone’s attention was drawn to the regulars walking in, Tezuka Koku walked over to Echizen Ryoma and quietly said, “My brother said he’s taking me to eat delicious sushi, do you want to come?”
A gathering? Sushi?
Echizen Ryoma immediately knew it was a gathering arranged by Koku’s brother to introduce him, so he decisively declined, “I won’t go, I’m not familiar with everyone.”
“But if you want to eat sushi later, we can go together.”
“Okay!” Actually, Tezuka Koku wanted to invite Echizen Ryoma along because he wanted to introduce Ryoma to the tennis club brothers.
But he also thought Ryoma was right, everyone was unfamiliar, and suddenly bringing Ryoma along might scare him. So, thinking from Ryoma’s perspective, not wanting to scare him, Tezuka Koku didn’t say much after being rejected, just a bit disappointed as he made a promise with Echizen Ryoma to eat sushi together next time.
“Then Ryoma, remember to go eat sushi with me next time!”
“Okay.”
“And also, I told big brother Fuji that Ryoma will teach me tennis.”
“So Ryoma, you have to teach me well, so I can compete with big brother Fuji. I want to win matches too…”
“Okay.”
Facing Tezuka Koku, Echizen Ryoma always had endless patience. Hearing him say he wanted Ryoma to teach him tennis, Echizen Ryoma didn’t hesitate and agreed right away.
He had already planned to teach Koku tennis himself. Under his father’s guidance, he really didn’t think anyone in the tennis club understood tennis better than he did, and he didn’t want Koku learning from anyone else who wasn’t as skilled.
“Koku, just follow me, I’ll teach you.”