Net Wang Li Haida Center Liu cut empty cicada

"Senior Liu, I'm going to play today. I'm so nervous for the first official match."

"Senior, I lost, the score is so ugly."

"I'm still playing itf in Tokyo tomorrow, is senior busy recently?"

"The next match is to play doubles with the Minister's partner. The Minister has won the wild card for the challenge."

"Senior's training today is super scary, so tiring."

"Senior, it's the offseason recently, isn't the school still on holiday!"

"I can finally rest hahahahahahahaha!"

Liu turned on his phone after school, and was bombarded by Kirihara's news again as expected.After the national competition that year, Kirihara began to send him messages continuously, read each one, and then replied seriously, and he persisted like this for more than two years.Occasionally he gave advice, sometimes it was comfort, and more often Kirihara wrote random things he thought were interesting as if he wanted to find someone to chat with, and then Liu replied to him what happened in school.

Life in high school was lackluster, and they also joined the tennis club, but after all, they didn't have much time and energy to devote to tennis.I go to and from school step by step every day, and sometimes several people get together to play a game.The relationship between the original main candidates and national champions of the tennis department is still very good, but they have begun to go in different directions, looking for a career and future that suits them.Yukimura would occasionally appear on the local tennis news, either because he got a wild card in a challenge or beat his opponent in a low-level event.He has racked up points point by point, recently claiming his first lower division title and 18 ATP points.Kirihara followed his seniors to the tennis school after the national competition in the third year of his country, and he has yet to win the competition.

Looking at the message from Qieyuan, Liu raised the corners of his lips a little, and then quickly typed a few words: Then you go back to China?Winter training?

It took a while for Kirihara's text messages to come back, probably because the boy on the other side of the ocean just woke up, and there were typos in the text messages.

I'm back, I'm going back in December.

The offseason is here, and Liu looks out of the window sideways. There are already signs of winter, and the tour also enters the rest period after November every year.Probably because of the theme of European and American players, the winter holidays let everyone go home for Christmas.It's just that Christmas is at the end of December, and most players have already started winter training to prepare for the new season.

Immediately afterwards, Kirihara sent another text message: "Senior, the Minister, Senior Toyama and I are back together. We are going back to school hahahahahahaha, when is the holiday, senior?"

"When are you coming back?"

"I'll be back in a few days."

"By the time you go back, we'll be on vacation."

"Okay Senior Liu!"

Toyama ran away with her boyfriend after the plane landed at Narita Airport, and only Yukimura and Kirihara returned to Kanagawa.When Yuan Zhengxuan lined up to welcome the former minister and the former group favorite during the lunch break, Liu felt that there was something wrong with the way Yukimura looked at him, a little teasing and a little irritable.

He glanced at Yukimura in confusion, thinking that his judgment might have dropped a lot because he hadn't seen his friend for a long time, and he couldn't even react to what Yukimura wanted to say for a while.

But he was soon attracted by other things, Kirihara carried his tennis bag and followed behind Yukimura, afraid that the seniors would walk up to him without seeing him, and kept waving.

"Senior Liu!"

"Tsk, I can see a senior." Marui shook his head, "Fortunately, I brought him into the tennis club back then."

"Finally it's out of my control." Yukimura spread his hands, "Come on, what interesting things happened to you when I was not here? Masaharu needless to say Bunta's three girlfriends, your military adviser told Akaya and then Akaya told me."

"Willow!" Marui jumped to his feet, "Why did you tell Kelphead such things!"

"Did he ask?" Liu imitated Yukimura and spread his hands.

"It goes without saying that Genichiro was rejected when he confessed to the girl. I also know about it. Well, Genichiro, you have grown up."

"Oh, I also know that Nioh rejected a dozen girls on Valentine's Day."

Liu suddenly felt a lot of resentful gazes piercing his body.

"So Lian Er, you only remember to care about other people's gossip, why don't you care about your own?" Finally, Yukimura brought the topic back to Liu, and Liu felt that the resentful eyes on his body instantly turned into curiosity.

Oh, the one from Sanada on the side is still a grudge.

Although the reunion is a very worthwhile celebration, the winter of the third year of high school will never be easy, and there is only more than a month left before the central exam in January.The main candidates who won three consecutive national championships did not spend too much time reminiscing about the past. Yukimura and Kirihara, who had no pressure to go to school or survive in the short term, were embarrassed to continue to disturb, and ran to the tennis court after chatting a few words.The remaining six continued to go back to the classroom to review their homework and prepare for the exam, or prepare materials for going abroad like Yagyu did.

"Are you going to tell your senior Liu?" Yukimura borrowed the key from the teacher in charge, opened the door of the tennis court, and put the tennis bag on the bench beside the court.Kirihara played dumb in front of his senior: "Ah? What?"

"Just pretend to be stupid, Chiya, do you think I'm blind?" Yukimura stretched out his finger and pressed on Kirihara's forehead, "I can't see it?"

"What are you looking at?" Kirihara muttered, opened his tennis bag and took out his racket, "Minister, are we going to play a game?"

"Alright." Yukimura nodded.Although it's the offseason, I can't slacken my practice. Besides, I have been with tennis for so many years, and I can't do without it.

The two walked to both sides of the court in silence, doing simple preparations.In the past two years, Yukimura and Kirihara have played many practice matches. They have played many times in tennis schools, clubs, and various competition venues.Yukimura still maintains the lead in head-to-head, but his winning percentage against Kirihara on clay is much lower.

The court in the high school is a standard hard court, and it has obviously not been maintained for a long time.Yukimura bounced on the baseline, pulled the ball out of his pocket and prepared to serve.In the dreary winter, soon there was only the sound of the ball touching the racket.

In a best-of-three set, Yukimura lost the first set, and then secured three match points from Kirihara to win the second set.Kirihara made a mistake in the first game of the deciding set. Yukimura seized the opportunity to break serve, and then won the game smoothly.

"Did you get distracted?" After the practice match, Yukimura walked to the net and looked at his junior with his hands on the net.Kirihara puffed out his mouth, not knowing what he was talking about, and then suddenly said: "Minister, how much is our current head-to-head relationship?"

"How do I know." Yukimura laughed, "Didn't you find a small notebook to remember it some time ago?"

"Hey, it would be great if Senior Liu was here." Kirihara muttered, and Yukimura on the opposite side looked dumbfounded.

He promised that if Qieyuan didn't take the initiative to find Liu to confess when he came back this time, he would personally help Qieyuan pierce that layer of window paper.The conscience of heaven and earth, the whole online school knows that Kirihara Chi also has a senior he likes very much in Japan, and the two of them exchange news every day, but they don't tell the truth.Kirihara was ridiculed more than once by his companions who came and went, sometimes even the opponent on the opposite side after a hopeful match would come to greet him with a confession.

Yukimura felt that he couldn't afford to lose face, even if he was beaten to death, he would not admit that the boy who had just lost the game from blushing to pointy ears because of emotional problems was his junior.

"Okay, your senior Liu will probably be out of school too, you go find him yourself." Yukimura picked up Kirihara's collar through the net, "I'll go to Genichiro to catch up on the old days."

In fact, it is to learn more about how Sanada was rejected by his crush, and to tease Faxiao by the way, and then share the wonderful moments of Sanada with another Faxiao.

"Senior Liu." After school, Liu packed up his things and prepared to go home. When he went out, he saw Qieyuan waiting on the steps of the teaching building, holding his chin and waiting for him.

"Chiye? I thought you and Jingshi went to the club." Liu walked to the junior, "It's cold in winter, don't sit on the ground."

Kirihara stood up on his hands, shaking the dust on his clothes: "The minister went to find the deputy minister, and I'm here to find senior."

"Are you at home these days?" Liu nodded, stretching out his hand to press Kirihara's shoulder like before.Kirihara is almost as tall as him now, so this kind of movement is rather awkward.

"Should go to the club to find a coach to train."

"Well, I'll take you back."

Maybe it was because he sent Kirihara home too many times before, Liu said this sentence almost subconsciously.He paused, considering whether to take it back, after all, Kirihara is not the kid who jumped on the school gate now.

But Kirihara quickly responded: "Okay."

Along the way, Kirihara chatted endlessly as before, from training in the tennis school to gossip about American boys in the next dormitory, and even walked and danced like in junior high school.Walking beside him, Liu was always worried that Qieyuan would stumble and fall on the way.

After all, some people can break their knees and bid farewell to the game after taking a bath for their children. Liu thinks it is better to be careful.

When approaching Kirihara's house, Kirihara became quiet, and his steps were much smaller than before.He carefully turned his face to look at Liu, and Liu just happened to look over.

Then Kirihara quickly looked away, and the tips of his ears turned red.He grasped the bag strap with one hand, sticky sweat dripping from the glove.Kirihara suddenly misses the talcum powder in his bag, wishing he could sprinkle half a bottle right away.

Turning the corner was Kirihara's house, and the boy stopped suddenly.Liu followed the junior's movements and stopped, looking at Kirihara in confusion.Kirihara took a deep breath, feeling that he was not so nervous even in his first official ITF match.

So he didn't say anything, and continued to walk forward, but the left hand that was hanging down was carefully put on Liu's hand.Not only the tips of the ears were red, but even the neck was red.

This time it was Willow who stopped.He glanced at the clasped hands, then smiled a very gentle smile.It's a pity that Kirihara, who was blushing, hung his head and didn't see the expression of the senior, but could only hear his own rapid heartbeat.

Liu pulled out his hand and gently rubbed the top of Kirihara's head.Due to Kirihara's height, this movement is not very smooth now.

"I'm home soon, it's cold in winter, so hurry up and go in."

Qieyuan raised his head and saw Liu's back.

The author has something to say:

I think my emotional line is a bit abrupt. . . . .The timeline is the winter of 15, and the one where the child was bathed and injured was a real event in 16, this is just a joke.

Because I couldn’t write for more than two years in the middle, I don’t know much about how the online school operates. Anyway, Kirihara and Yukimura are in the United States most of the time every year, and Xiao Qie rushed to send messages to Liu every day whenever he had something to do.

The reason why I didn’t show the relationship line until now is because I think it’s too sinful to write about their love in junior high school. . .

Low-ranked players are under great pressure to survive. According to statistics, only the top 100 players in the world can be self-sufficient.They have no sponsorship, everything depends on a very small bonus.The prize money is so low that the first round of the ATP Challenge is less than a thousand dollars, and the players who can participate in the Challenge are generally ranked not too bad, at least around 500.This seems like a good amount of money but at the same time you have to pay for the team (sometimes sharing a team with other players), airfare, board and lodging, clothes, rackets and racket strings, and miscellaneous expenses.Once injured, treatment or even surgery is required, and the medical expenses abroad are really terribly high.

There are about 1000 to [-] players registered now. The top players are indeed very glamorous and fly around with private jets, but the low-ranked players have a hard life.In fact, I think people who can play on tour are geniuses, and they have an extraordinary love for this sport. I admire them very much.

Xiao Qie and Yukimura here, Xiao Qie has not yet ranked, but Yukimura is regarded as a rising star in the eyes of sponsors, so although the ranking is very low, there are sponsorships and the like, which is not particularly difficult.