Chapter 281: Prince of Tennis (1)
"What the heck is going on? Am I watching a professional tennis match?" Areum couldn’t believe her eyes as she watched the one-sided tennis beatdown.
THWACK
With incredible form only seen at professional tennis events, a boy with curly red hair gracefully jumped into the air with his right arm fully extending like a whip and hit the tennis ball that quickly flew across the net before twisting and bouncing in another direction so that his opponent couldn’t hit it.
As he landed lightly on his toes with cat-like grace, he adjusted the oversized sleeves of the blue track suit that had rolled down before turning to smile at her with an unbelievably handsome face.
"Miss Areum? The score?"
A soft, slightly accented voice called her name, and after meeting those brilliant green eyes, Areum fanned her overheating face before calling out the score.
"40-Love."
"Thank you."
Bounce bounce bounce bounce.
THWACK
With practiced ease, the same miraculous hit was performed with the contestant’s left hand, causing the ball to fly in the opposite direction after bouncing.
"That’s the game. Contestant Ariel wins 3 games in a row. Thank you both for a great game. Please shake hands." Areum led the contestants in a round of applause for the game that was over in less than 3 minutes.
"I don’t know why you’re thanking me. You made me play with a freaking professional. Ari, you should have told me you were good at tennis; I would have chosen you for my team." Mathew grumbled as he approached the net to shake Ari’s hand.
"You should have asked. Next time, don’t pick me last."
Giving Mathew a smug smile, Ari walked back to his team while swinging his racket playfully.
As he met his teammates’ eyes, he winked.
"Didn’t I say to respect me? I’ll bring our team that tennis victory."
They stared at him for several seconds before rushing him and surrounding him in a chaotic huddle, and began shouting.
"Beef beef beef beef beef!"
"Meat! Meat! Meat! Meat!"
"Beeeeeeeefffff!"
"Unlimited Beeefff!!!"
As they kept jostling him around while doing their strange cheer., Ari had to fight to keep his balance before he was unwillingly grabbed and tossed in the air like a beach ball.
Jamie even began passionately giving a speech.
"With his amazing serve, our path to tennis victory is clear. Boys, we dine on the finest beef tonight!"
"Tonight!"
"Beef!"
Ari: ಠ_ಠ
What the hell?
You all really see me as a beef shuttle?
"Please put me down and leave me out of your nonsense."
"Okay. That’s enough. Blue team, please calm down! Please put Contestant Ariel down!"
Areum couldn’t help but laugh at their rowdiness before remembering that she needed to be an impartial judge.
"Yellow Team and Red Team representatives, please come forward."
As Suzuki Rei and William stepped forward, Ari went to sit and sip from a water bottle before his next match while his team continued cheering.
Before long, Justin came to join him while staring at him and the racket with sparkling eyes.
"What?"
"You-you’re really good at tennis. More than good. You didn’t even move from your serving spot. And that was a slice serve, right?"
"Yep."
"Wow. How long did it take you to learn that? And with both hands? I could never perform it consistently."
"Dunno? Not that long. I’m pretty rusty, though. Haven’t touched a racket in years."
"If that’s rusty, then I’m just the dust left behind from the rust. Did you play any tournaments?"
"Hmmm, yeah. When I was younger? I’ve won a couple of U12 and U14 tournaments. I quit once I turned 14, though."
At his response, Justin looked absolutely scandalized, like he was about to shake Ari to his senses.
"You quit? Why? You were clearly good enough to maybe go professional! Do you know how crazy that is to win a tennis tournament? Why would you quit?"
As he thought about explaining the whole deal with his parents’ death and the events after it, where he didn’t have any money and had to be homeless, Ari decided to just gloss over it.
"Uh... I wanted to focus on school and couldn’t balance sports and academics. Besides, I wasn’t that good. I won on a fluke."
Plus, even if his parents hadn’t passed away, he had planned on quitting all the sports they had enrolled him in simply because of his aversion to the gym.
Talent could only take you so far without the physical strength to back it up.
And yet, somehow, here he was training harder than he had when he did a variety of sports.
Life was funny.
"Really. Hmm...that makes sense. You are the valedictorian for a reason. But still, why would you quit?? Huh? Why???? I was talented in tennis, do you think I would be a drama major? Or bother with school? Huh? Whyyy?? Even if it was a fluke, so what?"
Not in the mood to be nagged, Ari looked around for something to catch Justin’s attention before looking back at the court.
"Look, he’s pretty good at tennis, too. Go watch the game."
Ari pointed at William, who had jump-smashed the ball so hard that the recoil almost hit Suzuki Rei in the face.
"Oh wow, you’re right. There’s an actual rally happening, too."
Suitably distracted, Justin dashed off to watch the game closely, while Ari sighed in relief and played with the racket.
Honestly, it was of terrible quality, but it would be enough to get the job done.
With a relaxed mind and body, Ari prepared to watch the game before his eyes became cold as he watched William repeatedly smash the ball at Suzuki Rei’s body and face.
Suzuki Rei’s previously brightly colored yellow uniform now had several circular, dirty spots, while his cheek was slightly red from being hit by a ball."
THWACK!
Once again, the tennis ball smashed against Suzuki Rei’s leg.
"Contestant William, please be careful when hitting the ball."
Areum cautioned William, but he just smiled and gave an empty apology.
"Sorry, it was an accident. It’s been a while since I played tennis, so I can’t control my strength and aim well. I’ll try to be careful."
"Please be more than careful. If the ball hits contestant Suzuki Rei in the face again, I’ll have to disqualify you."
"Right. I’ll try to be careful."
Although he agreed verbally, William continued accidentally hitting Suzuki Rei with the ball while avoiding his face.
The pattern continued with William giving up points here and there, but anyone with eyes could see that he wasn’t trying hard and was toying with Suzuki Rei like a cat would a mouse.
Areum kept looking between Suzuki Rei, who was stubbornly trying to play despite clearly being outclassed, and the PD, hoping he would do something, but neither of them paid attention to her.
Finally, after a long, drawn-out 10 minutes with William losing games he really didn’t need to lose-
"That’s the game. Contestant William wins with a score of 3-2. Thank you both for a great game. Please shake hands." Areum led the contestants in a round of applause.
Despite looking very unwilling, Suzuki Rei shook hands with William, and as Ari whispered ’Status’, he watched as Suzuki Rei’s vocal stat went down a single point.
It seemed that the blonde, arrogant prick was at it again.
"Thank you to both of you. Please take a seat. The next match is Contestant Ariel for the blue team and contestant Leo for the green team. Both of you, please come forward, and let’s have a good, clean game."
"Go ahead, Ari!"
"Bring the blue team back another win!"
"Meat! Meat! Meat!"
With the strange cheers from his teammates sounding out behind him, Ari stepped onto the court with Leo, who looked at him nervously.
"Please go easy on me. Don’t use that crazy serve."
"You know I can’t do that. Good luck."
Ari laughed and tapped his racket against Leo’s before receiving the ball.
And just like with his match against Mathew, he won both his service games and didn’t allow Leo to score a single point.
"That’s the game. Once more, Contestant Ariel wins 3 games in a row. Thank you both for a great game. Please shake hands."
With a relieved sigh that no violence had happened this time around, Areum led the contestants in a round of applause.
Both Leo and Ari shook hands before Ari headed back to his team, where a staff member was waiting with a close-up camera.
"Contestant Ariel, in a surprising display of skill, you’ve easily won both of your tennis matches in record time. How do you feel about heading to the finals of the first game?"
"Pretty good," Ari replied simply.
Used to his short answers unless prompted, the staff member continued asking questions.
"Do you think you can beat William, who is the other finalist? There’s been a bit of tension between the two of you. Could you explain that? Additionally, you’ve had two matches to his one, and he’s shown quite the display of strength and speed. Are you tired? Are you worried?"
"I’m not tired and I’m not worried. In fact, I’m pretty confident in beating any contestant here in tennis, William included." Ari replied honestly since he wasn’t that impressed with the bully-like skill that William had shown.
He may not have played in years, but he hadn’t gotten so bad that he couldn’t win against a bunch of amateurs.
Especially somebody who thought it was fun to smash the ball at a contestant’s face and body.
Considering they were in an idol show that required good looks as well as a healthy body to dance, it was not only cruel, it bordered on the line of being evil.
And as for the question about the tension between the two of them, he ignored it.
Happy to hear the cocky words, the staff member moved closer in excitement.
"Oh? Confident words. Can you share the basis of your confidence?"
"Well, I’ve said it before, but I’m pretty good at anything once I put effort into it. And once upon a time, I used to put a decent amount of effort into tennis. When I was younger, my parents used to call me le petit prince du tennis. It means Little Prince of Tennis."
"Wow. That’s quite the bold claim. Well, we’re all looking forward to your match. I hope you can back those words up. Good luck."
"Thank you."
Taking a seat, Ari watched the battle for third place between Leo and Rei before getting up as Areum called his name.
"Contestant Ariel on the blue team and Contestant William for the red team, please step on the court."
The two individuals of differing color palettes stepped forward and stared at each other coldly.
Even the chattering of the contestants stopped as everyone felt the tension between them.
Ari just stared blankly ahead while waiting for Areum to give them the go-ahead to start, while William got upset at the fact that his opponent wasn’t taking him seriously.
In fact, Ari was yawning sleepily while barely gripping his racket, as if he couldn’t be bothered with William at all.
He even refused to shake his hand and just waved his racket from afar as a greeting.
It was disrespectful, mainly because he clearly knew tennis etiquette and had applied it to his earlier opponents.
"Fish boy. I hope you don’t think that gimmicky serve of yours will deliver you a win against me. Anyone can see that when it comes to returning and actually playing, you lack strength." William stared at Ari with a cocky smile on his face, trying to egg him on.
"Is that so?" Ari replied in a tone that was completely disinterested.
As for the nickname fish boy, he needed to be more creative than that to get a rise out of Ari.
"It is. Anyone with tennis experience can tell. In fact, I heard that you have the nickname Prince of Tennis? I’ll show you who the real prince between us is."
"Sure. Good luck. It’s all yours. Have at it. If you like, I can even let you win the first two games, Mr. Prince. At least that way I can work up a sweat." Ari replied in an amused tone, watching as William’s face slowly turned red.
It was surprisingly easy to rile the blonde boy up.
"Take this match seriously!"
"Why? I’m going to win anyway. There’s no incentive for me to take it seriously."
"You’re awfully confident about your win. What are you going to do if I win? Cry?"
"No at all. But let’s wager something to drive the stakes up. If you win, I’ll give you something you desperately want."
Ari watched as William’s face lit up with an excited smile.
"Anything?"
"Anything. Right after my loss, I’ll shake your hand and hand it over. Everyone can be a witness."
[I sincerely hope you’re not trying to use me as a stake in betting.]
[Have you forgotten what happened the last time?]
[I’ll take you out forever.]
Ari batted the blue transparent screen in front of his vision away while looking at William, who stared at him hungrily.
"And what do you want if you win? Money? You’re always talking about it."
"Nope. If you win, then quit the show." Ari said simply as the people around them gasped.