[Net King] Pilgrim

Machida stood in front of the desk with his mobile phone in his hand, his brain was stunned for a few seconds.

When I came back to my senses, my first reaction was to hold the phone in front of my eyes and confirm the caller ID again.

Clear on the screen - Echizen Ryoma

……what's the situation?

She pressed the phone to her ear again with an inexplicable expression, and wanted to ask who the other party was, when a voice suddenly rang out from the other end of the phone: "Dad!" The voice was a little far away, but it was still full of anger.

Machida was slightly taken aback, and there was a burst of noise and voice intermittently coming through the receiver: "Aha~ I said, why did you come back so late today? It turned out that you were on a date... No wonder, you played ball and put your phone away." Put it next to me... Ahhh!!" There was a scream in the middle of speaking, and the phone was cut off within a few seconds.

The noise disappeared instantly without a trace.

Machida stood where he was, and listened to the regular busy tone in his ears for a while, before he roughly understood what happened just now.

It must be... a misunderstanding.

Thinking of the last scream was really scary, she was startled, and her heart was in her throat the next second.

Could it be a fight?

Just as he was hesitating whether to call and explain, the phone in his hand suddenly jumped up.

She was startled, looked at the name on the screen, and quickly answered.

As soon as I put it to my ear and was about to speak, I heard the other side speak first: "It's me."

Echizen Ryoma's voice was deliberately steady in a quiet environment.

Machida raised his ears, confirmed that there was no quarrel on the other end of the phone, and then heaved a sigh of relief.But still a little worried, couldn't help asking: "Are you okay?"

There seems to be a meal over there.

When she didn't hear the answer, she added, "If you need me to explain for you... just tell me that your family may have misunderstood something." And the misunderstanding was not small.

Hearing her worried tone, Echizen Ryoma frowned, feeling that she had completely missed the point.

He sighed silently, "Don't girls suffer more in this situation." Before she could speak, he added helplessly: "I'm fine."

He's really fine, it's that old man who's in trouble.Although the foot I stepped on him just now was not strong, it was still uncomfortable for him for a few days.

However, regarding the farce a few minutes ago, Echizen Ryoma thought about it, and then explained, "I just finished playing, and I didn't pay attention for a while, and the phone was taken away."

Hearing his tone was quite relaxed, most of Machida's uneasiness disappeared, "So that's the case." In fact, she was still somewhat worried, but since Echizen Ryoma said everything was fine, she didn't ask any more questions.

Thinking of him talking about playing ball, she wondered, "Are you still going out to play at this late hour?" As she spoke, she sat on the carpet by the bed, turned around and reached for the pillow on the bed.

"It's the court at home." After a pause, "There are lights."

Machida stopped as soon as he touched the corner of the pillow, and said in astonishment: "You still have a tennis court at home!?" She imagined, "A yard that can fit a court..."

What kind of success would that be...?

Echizen Ryoma heard her tone and felt that she was thinking too much, so he had to interrupt, "It's just a very ordinary place, my house is in a temple." He clamped the phone with his shoulder, took off his wrist guard and put it on the table in the room , then picked up the fuselage again, and sat on the floor leaning against the cabinet, "As for why I live in a monastery, I can't explain it clearly."

Machida pulled the pillow one by one, and couldn't help laughing.

He can't explain what it is...

"Then, the person you played with?"

"My dad."

Machida Kazaki said "Ah", then he was surprised, "Your father can also play tennis?"

"Well. He used to be a pro gamer."

"Eh...!?" She exclaimed in a low voice, as if surprised by the title, and the next second, the person on the other end of the phone smiled and asked her, "Are you so surprised?"

Machida immediately nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, and suddenly realized that Echizen Ryoma couldn't see, so he answered, "Yes." After thinking about it, "Maybe it's because... the career of an athlete is still quite far away from my life." .”

She lazily rested her head on the pillow in her arms. After a few seconds, she suddenly remembered something and sat up straight again unconsciously, "Then what you said before..."

"say what?"

"...You said, there is someone you want to beat in tennis, is it your father?"

Echizen Ryoma recalled what he said to her at the beach, and said frankly, "Yeah."

Leaning against the cabinet, he relaxed for no reason, "Actually, I played tennis at first to beat him, but slowly, I found that I still like tennis itself more than just beating him, so..."

"so?"

His voice was tinged with joy, and the cold voice was full of hot temperature, "So, he is only my goal now, not the whole meaning of my tennis, and after defeating him, I will not stop. "

Machida was stunned.

Even through the receiver, she could still imagine Echizen Ryoma's confident and proud appearance at this time, and feel the enthusiasm he couldn't conceal in his words when he talked about tennis. The kind of heartfelt happiness can infect others.

Her mood also became joyful at that moment, and even the mobile phone in her hand was a little hot, and for no reason, it burned her ears.

At that time, Machida suddenly discovered that no matter how inarticulate a person is, once he talks about the things he loves, he can't help but become talkative, especially someone like Echizen Ryoma who usually looks cold and occasionally dull. When he is happy, he is like a naughty child...cute?

She listened to him on the phone talking about his childhood life on the West Coast, and of course the conversation mostly revolved around tennis, such as when he first picked up a racket, when he was played around by his father in the name of playing tennis , Even when he and his brother were "picking" the fruit by playing ball in the orange grove...

"You have another brother?" She interrupted curiously.

"Well, I heard from my father that he was the elder brother raised by the family. We lived together for several years when we were young." Echizen Ryoma couldn't help but twitched his lips when he remembered the game on the Sakura Fubuki cruise ship, "Later, he left home to pursue Dreaming."

"Oh, that's it." Machida suddenly felt a little admiration, "It looks very handsome."

There was a moment of silence over there, and the voice was muffled, "...how handsome."

His voice was a little fuzzy, and Machida didn't pay much attention to it, and remembered another thing, "Then Echizen, you like playing tennis so much, but I heard that you didn't go to the finals of the US Open, why?"

She forgot who she heard it from, and only remembered that after the national competition, the name Echizen Ryoma appeared so frequently in the grades that everyone knew it, and she could hear one or two people talking about him wherever she went.

Echizen Ryoma switched hands to listen to the phone, "There is no particular reason, but I just haven't figured out how to go after winning the game." He never doubted his enthusiasm for tennis, but he never thought about whether he would play tennis in the future. He will develop tennis as a career, and the people around him more or less acquiesce that he will continue on this path, but do you want to do this?

He needs to stop and think.

Machida suddenly smiled, "Echizen, you are so confident." Adjusting his tone, he asked, "Haven't you thought about what will happen if you lose?"

"I won't lose."

She was startled, speechless.

After a few seconds, she heard his voice rise a bit, repeating, "I won't lose."

In the silence, Echizen Ryoma's voice sounded low and sweet.

Machida couldn't help but curled the corners of his lips, and was about to speak, when he suddenly heard what seemed like cat meowing through the receiver.

"Huh?" She was a little surprised, "It seems that there is a meowing sound, did I hear it wrong?"

Echizen Ryoma held the phone in one hand and a cat teaser in the other, looking at the little guy lying in front of him in a good mood, "You heard me right, it's my cat."

"Do you have a cat?" Machida was surprised.After thinking about it, why does his house have everything...?

"Well, it's a Himalayan cat. It's been raised for many years."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a meowing sound from the phone, with a bit of coquettishness and intimacy.

Just listening to its voice, Machida could not help feeling soft, and immediately felt that Echizen Ryoma's house had hidden a terrific treasure, and asked with a smile, "What's its name?"

"Carubin." Echizen Ryoma put away the cat teaser, reached out and rubbed Karubin's chin, and then pulled off its ears. Seeing that it narrowed its eyes in displeasure, showing a hint of warning, he laughed unconsciously .

As if seeing his master's deliberate teasing, Karubin gritted his teeth and meowed reluctantly, raised his paw and rushed towards him.

Then Machida heard Echizen Ryoma's clear laughter mixed with meowing, and it was transmitted along the telephone line in a crooked manner.

After a while, his tone changed, "I seem to have messed with it..." He took the phone away, and grabbed its restless paw with the other hand, "Sorry Machida, I might...have to hang up first gone."

Machida smiled from ear to ear at this end, "It's okay, you can go and apologize to it." She could completely imagine his helpless and struggling look at this time.

After hanging up the phone, she still couldn't help laughing.

She never knew that Echizen Ryoma, who was arrogant and competitive on the tennis court, was subdued by a cat in private.

Thinking of the unfinished business before answering the phone, Machida put the phone on the bed and got up to get the clothes basket.

After returning to the room a few minutes later, she casually pressed the switch of the bedroom light when closing the door.In the dark room, only a few strands of white moonlight came in through the gap between the curtains, hitting her bedside.

She walked over and was about to turn on the floor lamp when she caught a glimpse of the mobile phone on the bed and vibrated twice sullenly.

Machida went to get his phone suspiciously, and knelt down on the carpet beside the bed.

It's an email message, and it doesn't look small.

She clicked in curiously, and when the information was loaded, a photo popped up unexpectedly.

Machida was taken aback for a moment, and then smiled with surprise.

In the photo, the chubby cat was lying on the soft bunk, staring at the camera with a strange expression, and its blue eyes were like clear glass, unblinking.

"Your name is Karubin?" She squinted her eyes and stared at the photo for a long time, then turned to the bottom of the email and saw a line of words.

"I didn't know it was so difficult before."

Machida was overjoyed for a moment, and when he thought of those clear eyes, he couldn't help being envious and jealous of Echizen Ryoma.

After thinking about it, I replied to an email.

-

Echizen Ryoma was negotiating with the cat when he received the mail.

He stood by the bed, looking at the guy who was lying in the middle of the bed and didn't intend to move at all, feeling a little frustrated in his heart.

The mobile phone on the table vibrated twice, he turned his head to look, and opened the new email.

His eyes fell on that short sentence, he was stunned for a moment, and the corner of his mouth curved in the next second.

Withdrawing his gaze, he continued to negotiate with the cat.

Perhaps because he noticed some changes in his master's attitude, Karubin, who was lying on the bed, was full of question marks, and no longer stood firm. He jumped on the table and used his paws to grab the phone.

The screen lit up.

"Then you now know how much it likes you."