what tennis

◎Can't you come down? ◎

Ryuya Echizen is 13 years old.

He left the host family where he was temporarily staying—he hadn’t decided where to go yet, and he didn’t want to go back anyway—and wandered aimlessly on the streets of the United States.

The boy only had twenty dollars in change in his pocket, so he could only walk and was not eligible to take a taxi for the time being.

Walking and walking, I don't know why I went back to the orange orchard I used to frequent.

When he was younger, he often played tennis with his younger brother in the orange orchard; when he was tired, he would sit on the reef near the sea and enjoy the breeze.

There is an ore cave by the seaside of this orange orchard, where pink quartz stones can be picked up.

But the owner of the Orangery was very stingy, and if he found out that these two tennis-loving boys had sneaked in to play, he would be furious.

Feeling his hungry stomach, Echizen Ryuya climbed over the protective net of the orange orchard, carefully avoiding the wire at the top of the net, and climbed to the nearest branch.

He just wants to mess with free oranges.

Echizen Longya raised his hand to brush away the branches and leaves, one foot had already stepped on the tree trunk.

He stopped, and looked at the girl sitting on the branch of the orange tree behind the branches and leaves.

The girl was wearing blue denim overalls, a white round neck and short sleeves, and was holding a small fruit basket in her arms. Her soft black hair was braided into two ponytails and hung behind her shoulders.

Her eyes are round, with slightly drooping ends, bright and innocent and cute, like the eyes of a deer.

Echizen Ryuya struck first: "You stole oranges?"

"No!" The little girl retorted quickly, "Uncle asked me to come in and pick oranges for fun, so I didn't steal them!"

He nodded seriously: "Oh, I misunderstood you, I'm sorry."

He let go of his hand, and the branch that he had lifted up with his hand swayed and hung down.

The sunlight was rolled up by the dense leaves, like long cylindrical waffles. Echizen Ryuya could still hear the girl's voice across the small gaps.

"I saw you turning over from the outside of the guardrail, and that's why you stole the oranges."

Echizen Ryuya defended himself: "I will give the money."

The little girl didn't believe him very much: "You have no evidence!"

Between them is the dense orange foliage.

Echizen Ryuya thought for a while, then took out the twenty-dollar note from his jacket pocket, and handed it over.His hands ran through the foliage, and the thick edges of the leaves brushed against his wrist.

He couldn't see the face of the little girl opposite, but felt that she didn't take his money.

The little girl: "You should give the money to the owner of the garden, why should you give it to me?"

Echizen Ryuya: "...I'll give it to him when we meet next time."

He took his hand back again.When the twenty-dollar knife repeatedly passed through the leaves, it suffered a little damage, and the edge curled up slightly.

Little girl: "Then are you leaving?"

Echizen Ryuya: "I want to sit down for a while, how about you?"

The little girl was silent for a while, and said, "I also want to sit down for a while."

The two of them stopped talking for a moment, only the sound of the sea breeze blowing the leaves remained in their ears.

The temperature in summer is already hot, not to mention sitting on a tree, the sweet smell of the fruit tree will always attract all kinds of small bugs.

Echizen Longya slapped to death a mosquito lying on his calf sucking blood, and the short sleeves inside his coat were already a little wet with sweat.He glanced at the next door—at this moment, he heard applause clearly through the clump of leaves.

The neighbor was also bitten by mosquitoes.

The cicada began to sing again, the sound was long and piercing.

The little girl's voice was muffled: "Why don't you leave? You've been sitting for half an hour!"

Echizen Ryuya: "...Is it because you can't go down after climbing up?"

"..."

The other side didn't answer him, and there was a hint of embarrassment in the silence.

Echizen Longya once again stretched out his hand to brush away the branch between the two of them. The face of the little girl on the opposite side was flushed with heat, and there were two red, swollen mosquito bites on her left cheek.

Holding the fruit basket, she stared at Echizen Ryuya with wet eyes.

Echizen Longya said affirmatively, "You can't go down."

The little girl sniffed, angry and anxious: "My father will come to pick me up later! He will carry me down!"

When she got angry, she spoke with a little accent.It's Japanese, and the accent seems to be a bit like that of Osaka.

Echizen Longya stood up, clapped his hands, jumped down lightly in front of her, and landed firmly.After he landed, he stretched out his hand to the little girl: "Here, jump off, I'll follow you."

The little girl poked her head out and shook her lotus root-like calf: "Can you do it? Don't be a hero, I'm very heavy."

Echizen Longya sneered: "Just you? It's still far away—just jump."

Obviously the two are not familiar with each other.

But the little girl really danced.She was indeed very inexperienced, and she was still clinging to the fruit basket when she jumped off.

Fortunately, the distance was not too high, Echizen Ryuya caught her steadily, and before he could speak, his nose was hit by an orange that fell out of the fruit basket.

He let go of his hand, covered his nose and squatted down, his handsome face wrinkled into a ball.

Oranges tumbled in the sun, on the grass and the jagged rocks.

The little girl got up from the ground in a panic, clutching the handle of the fruit basket nervously with both hands: "Are you all right? Is your nose broken?"

Echizen Longya rubbed his nose depressedly, and said in a muffled voice, "It's not broken... Can't you say something nice?"

The little girl hesitated for a moment, then changed her words: "You don't need surgery on your nose, do you?"

Echizen Ryuya: "..."

Okay, the art of speaking is pretty good.

Echizen Ryuya took his hand away and rubbed his nosebleed.He wiped it roughly with the sleeve of his coat a few times, but he could feel that the blood hadn't been wiped off, and it had probably spread on his face, making him look even more horrified.

"Do you want to use this?"

The little girl took out a light blue handkerchief from her overalls pocket and handed it to Echizen Ryuya.

Echizen Longya waved his hand casually: "No, I can't see my face, it will only get more and more ugly."

The little girl immediately patted her chest to reassure: "I'll wipe it for you, it must be very clean—is that okay?"

"You just caught me, and I smashed your nose to bleed. If you don't do something, I will be very upset."

She looked at Echizen Ryuya sincerely.

Echizen Longya had no choice but to put down his hands and raised his head: "Yes."

The little girl approached him and carefully wiped off the blood on his face with a handkerchief.She moved very lightly, as if she was afraid of hurting him, her eyes were focused on Echizen Ryuya.

Then it started getting closer and closer.

Echizen Longya reached out and pushed the little girl's face: "It's too close."

The little girl came to her senses and stuck out her tongue: "I'm sorry, it's easy to ignore the sense of distance when I focus... Well, it's been wiped clean!"

She put her hands on her hips and nodded in satisfaction.

Echizen Ryuya touched his face, amused and helpless.The little girl sat down beside him, picked out one of the few oranges in the fruit basket and handed it to Echizen Longya: "Please eat oranges."

He took the orange, wiped it casually on his coat, and opened his mouth to take a bite.

"Oh? Don't you peel the skin?"

Echizen Ryuya was puzzled: "Do you want to peel the oranges?"

The two looked at each other in blank dismay, the little girl felt suspicious of her own common sense because of Echizen Ryuya's overconfident questioning.She looked down at the orange in her hand, and then at the orange in Echizen Ryuya's hand: "If you don't peel it, won't it... taste strange? That is, the smell of the orange peel will mix with the smell of the orange."

Echizen Ryuya: "But it's really delicious to eat like this."

After speaking, he took another bite of the orange.

The little girl picked up an orange hesitantly, and looked at him again—then she wiped the orange on her clothes, and lowered her head to bite.

The mouth was open, the teeth had already touched the orange peel, and the little girl looked at him cautiously again.

Her round and harmless eyes seemed to be saying to Echizen Ryuya: It's too late to stop me now!Tell me now that you're joking—it's still too late!

I will really believe your nonsense!

Echizen Ryuya did not speak.The little girl bit down with one bite.

In an instant, the juice splashed everywhere, and she covered her eyes that were splashed by the orange peel juice: "Eyes, eyes——"

Echizen Ryuya couldn't hold back and laughed out loud.

Holding the bitten orange, the little girl came to a conclusion angrily: "So you still have to peel the orange, otherwise you will be like me."

She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, her eye sockets were red and her eyelashes were moist.Opening her eyes, she saw Echizen Longya holding her stomach and laughing beside her. The little girl was very angry and wronged: "You did it on purpose!"

Echizen Longya rubbed his sour face, and defended himself: "Although it's funny... But I really didn't do it on purpose. If you don't believe me, look, I've always eaten oranges like this."

In front of the little girl, he took the broken orange in her palm and took a bite.Echizen Ryuya easily bit the orange that the little girl failed to bite open just now.

He just wanted to show the idiot how to eat an orange, and he had no other thoughts when he ate it.And the person watching obviously didn't have that muscle. After Echizen Ryuya took a bite, she showed a suspicious expression.

There were calls from other people in the distance.

The little girl stood up holding the fruit basket: "I'm leaving! My father and the others are here to look for me—how about you?"

Echizen Ryuya tossed a new orange, lowered his eyes lazily: "I'm leaving too."

If he stayed any longer, he might be discovered by the owner of the garden. Echizen Longya didn't want to be chased away by the owner's dog anymore.

The little girl waved to him: "Goodbye!"

Echizen Ryuya waved his hand perfunctorily: "See you again"

After he waved his hand, the little girl was still standing there, looking at him eagerly.

Echizen Ryuya touched his still sore nose: "My name is Echizen Ryuya."

The little girl crooked her eyes and smiled brightly: "My name is Xidao Zhen."

"Long Ya, will you come to play tomorrow too?"

She started calling Echizen Ryuya's name familiarly, skipping the step of calling her last name.

Echizen Ryuya raised his hand and touched the brim of his baseball cap: "Well, let me think about it."

Mari Nishijima eagerly added: "Come and play, I'll treat you to oranges!"

She seems to have misunderstood me.

I'm not really short of that tangerine either.

Echizen Longya put down his hand and smiled lightly: "Okay, I'll come here to play with you tomorrow. But you can't tell other people about me, otherwise I won't come to play with you."

Mari Nishijima nodded again and again: "Okay——"

"You must come tomorrow, I will wait for you!"

Echizen Ryuya.

"Are you coming tomorrow?"

Walking out of the supermarket, Mari Nishijima asked Echizen Ryuya sideways.

Echizen Longya lowered his eyes, and the corners of his mouth curled up with a smile: "I want to come, because I only bought one day's worth of vegetables today."

Mari Nishijima, who has no experience in grocery shopping, asked, "Can't I buy more vegetables for a few days?"

Echizen Ryuya: "The vegetables are not fresh if left overnight."

Mari Nishijima suddenly realized: "It's like this."

"Then wait for me when you go grocery shopping next time."

-Complete-