And thus began Youta's attempts to get this girl to be more respectful of those around her. Over the next few days, not much actually worked. Not that he was surprised given her poor attitude, but he was hopeful because of prior successes. None of those past experiences seemed to be helping him as he got stuck with her, so the boy knew he needed to try something else out.
Inspired by their initial conversation, he decided to try out some more atypical methods in breaking her. Such as telling the coach Chinemi was no longer allowed to practice with the rest of the team until he said so. As well as him working on isolating her away from the others. At worst, at least her mouth wouldn't get in anyone's head anymore.
However she was still a feisty girl and continued to take care of her workout routine despite being alone in practice. So he came up with the idea of telling the coach to suspend her to keep her away from the courts during practice time.
Again she persevered and began using the tennis courts when practice was not in session. Which was during the early morning before school started. Chinemi believed she had won against him, but Youta was not easily defeated as he would also go to school early to sit back against the fence to watch her practice on her own. This battle between the pair would take its toll on their physical and mental health as they went well outside of their comfort zones.
All for the sake of not losing out to the other.
As playing tennis on one's own made it difficult to practice certain concepts. There was not much for Chinemi to do other than work on her serves, then also working on returning with the help of a machine which shot balls in her direction. While she did all this, there was nothing else for Youta to do other than sit and watch her in complete boredom. He had no clue why people were interested in tennis. All it looked like to him was just people hitting a ball back and forth.
"Can I ask you something, Mifune?" There was also one other aspect to her game which began to drill itself into his head from having to hear it all the time. "Do you have to do all that moaning when you hit the ball?"
"A novice like you wouldn't understand." She replied, then tossed the ball up and slammed it hard over the net. Lately it seemed those serves she hit were getting harder and harder. Much harder than the one she launched at him the other day. "You call yourself a sports manager, yet you're more akin to a drunkard watching football in a bar."
Her words also became much harsher too. The reason being a mix of her inability to say anything to her teammates, but also that her growing ire directed at him boiled inside.
She then continued her practice, where it sounded as if those moans became louder as if to spite him. It wasn't only that it annoyed him, that was a problem. Youta also couldn't get why her moans had to sound so… Lewd for lack of a better word. If his eyes were closed and he thought he wasn't on a tennis court, then it would sound like she was doing something completely different.
This wasn't even something that he could fantasize with, as her boyish appearance kept causing him to nearly forget she was actually a girl. Not that he would want to fantasize anything about her anyway… "So why are you even bothering to come watch me then?" She spoke up again.
"What do you mean?" He asked. "I'm the sports manager, isn't it obvious why?"
"And what does that have to do with pestering me all the while I practice outside of school?" She responded. "I doubt the club's considered active when school's off. Not to mention I'm not considered a member of the tennis team thanks to your efforts. So it's not as if you need to worry on what I'm doing off-hours."
"After everything I've done, it seems par for the course." He thought about all the tutoring he got stuck with doing over the past couple weeks. None of that had anything to do with athletics outside of concerns of eligibility. "Besides, don't you recall the story of Petruchio? Do you think he ate when he found fault with the food? Do you think he slept while making all that racket?"
"I guess you did a little more than read that story." She murmured as she hit the ball once more on a serve. It flew across the court hard enough that it would've been considered out of bounds as it stuck itself into the fencing. Where it ended up also happened to reveal to the pair a grown man standing, staring back at them. "W-what are you doing here?" She asked, breaking a sweat.
"Who's that?" He said, confused, as Youta stood up. All he could tell about the man was he seemed stern, somewhat angry, and was quite fancy given the suit.
"Just shut up." She refused to give him an answer as she slowly walked up to the man.
"So this is where you've been going, wasting your time in the morning?" The stranger spoke to her with familiarity that Youta had only heard whenever his mom scolded him.
"Father, it's been complicated with my tennis practice lately." She answered with a level respect he had heard before from the girl. Of course, her calling this man her father answered the why part for him.
"That's hardly worth skipping out on learning the ways of cooking breakfast." It was an odd thing for him to think was considered more important than tennis. "And I've even heard from the staff you haven't been keeping up with your extra reading and instead have been napping during those sessions."
"Like I said before, things have gotten complicated with tennis lately. So it's just been causing me to make adjustments." She responded.
"And you playing tennis has been a complete waste of time, as far as I'm concerned. Someone like you could never make a living off it, so what's the point." Youta couldn't believe what he was hearing. This hardly seemed like the type of conversation he should be hearing.
When the man glanced on over to the boy as he just watched them, he simply returned to giving her own daughter harsh words. He didn't even care that someone else could see this. "Your skills are pitiful. Now you're a third year without any championship trophies. The only thing you were able to muster up in two years is being the best on your sorry team."
"Wow…" He couldn't help but react to this discouragement. This was much farther than anyone should go with their child. Now he got an idea of where she got her silver tongue from. Yet despite all her bullying towards him and everyone. Even Youta felt bad for her to have to hear this from her own father.
"Not that it's going to mean anything once you graduate." He finally went to finish his monologue to her. "After that, you're not going to find a way to continuing your so-called tennis dreams. Whats better if that you realize that sooner, quit, and begin making more productive changes if you actually want to take over the company one day." She didn't even respond as he turned around and walked away to a limo waiting for him.
For one long minute, neither of them moved or said anything after the verbal lashing she received. Youta realized at some point it would have to be him to break them out of his awkward aura as he walked over to her to speak. Not in any mocking manner after all she had said to him, but instead of kindness.
"Parents are pretty rough, huh?" He said, trying to relate to her. While there was the social and financial gap, and he would never say his mom was that mean. At least they were still both teenagers.
"Ahem." She cleared her throat, finally saying something after their long silence. "I'm going to use the restroom." Chinemi began walking towards the nearest one inside the school. "You better not be a pervert and follow me there of all places." Those harsh words actually gave him relief in seeing that exchange didn't change her.
"Fine." He watched as she walked away. Once out of view, the boy decided to lay out on a bench to get some well needed rest. All that waking up early in the morning had taken its toll as he laid out and took some deep breaths, drifting off to sleep.