"Hah!"
Twack!
"Urgh!"
Twack!
"Hyaa!"
Twack!
"Score for Tsutoma! With both games ending twenty-one to zero, the victory goes to Tsutoma! Unlucky again, Pointless!"
Katsu Aikawa sat on the floor and took rapid, deep breaths, the sweat pouring like a waterfall off his forehead. He had lost. Again. He was expecting to, however. He was playing against the club's ace, after all. He wiped his forehead with his hand, and looked at it with disgust. It was as if he had just been in the shower. He never had the stamina to keep up with any of the players at all. He looked around the humongous badminton hall, that was also used as basketball and volleyball courts. There were six courts in total, two for each sport. The badminton team always covered the first two courts, which were the nearest to the door, making the room feel chilly most of the time, especially during the winter.
Right now, they were in luck. It was the very last day of Katsu's first year in high school, so there was a nice, cool summer breeze outside. Katsu put his hand on the floor to heave himself up, then grimaced in pain. Looking at his palm again, he could see a small splinter had been caught in the base of his palm. Despite having a janitor that regularly cleaned the courts, they always seemed dark and dirty. No life in it at all. The courts also had many chippings that had been kicked up or picked at over the years, hence the splinter.
Katsu trudged over to the open door, and pushed his body against the door, allowing the fresh summer air to wash over him. Right now, he felt just like the basketball nets in the school. Disheveled, broken, and nearly useless, hanging on by a tread. He was surprised that referees allowed basketball games to go ahead in the school at all. It was just so old and not in line with code at all.
Katsu watched on as the badminton ace, Tsutoma, got into another match. Katsu had a very basic appearance. He was about average height, around five foot eleven. He had short, black sleek hair, with a long fringe on the side of his head, and two or three larger strands in the middle of his forehead. The unusual thing about his hair was the small, grey tints that had begun forming in the roots, with some even showing on the surface. He always thought about dying it, but then again, Katsu thought there was a lot more ways to better spend what little money he had.
Katsu's eyes, despite having a bright blue glow that radiated hope, had terrible dark undertones around the under edge, as if he had put eyeshadow there, or got a black eye. He smelt his armpits, then reeled away in disgust. He smelled terrible, but it made sense. Badminton was a fast and draining sport.
He wore his badminton gear, which was just a plain, white t-shirt with a blue collar, that turned to gray around halfway around the neck. The cuffs on the shirt were the same dark blue color, and the shorts were simply plain black, dark as charcoal. His shoes were barely functioning as shoes anymore, as he could feel the sole slowly peeling off the main part of the shoe, which was matching the blue of the cuffs of the shirt and white laces. It was a simple uniform, yet effective at showing that he was part of the team.
The crest in the top left corner of the shirt was his school one. It was of a golden lion, facing left, roaring with his fangs out, and underneath was two badminton rackets crossed over one another. A cute little detail.
Just as Katsu began to lose himself in his own thoughts, a young woman came up to him. She had lovely straight, long brown hair, with cute hazelnut eyes to match. His facial features, such as her nose, came off as soft and fragile, but her face seemed determined, as if she had a goal she was striving for. Katsu had seen her around a few times, as she was also part of the badminton club after school. She wasn't good at it at all, but she was still better than Katsu. She was roughly five foot eight, although Katsu was always terrible at measurements and estimations, so he wasn't too sure. One thing was certain, however, that her weight was significantly lower than what it should have been. Katsu didn't want to sound rude for asking, but she looked like she never ate.
"Um," the woman began to speak, her voice betraying her look of determination. "Do you like people calling you Pointless?"
Katsu sighed in disappointment.
"Who dared you to talk to me? Those girls over there?" Katsu pointed behind the young woman, who turned her head slowly. A group of four young woman from the badminton team were giggling away, their hands over their mouths. Despite being awful at measurements, Katsu had good observation, but he just called it common sense. The young woman blushed, almost too ashamed to look back at him in the eyes.
"I…"
"Save it," Katsu snapped at her. "It was obvious. On the last day of the school year, people take chances. You and your 'friends' won't be seeing me for three months. You think I'll probably forget, and you can all go back to not acknowledging my existence for all of the next two years of school. It's fine. Go back and tell them you did it. You upset me or whatever you were aiming for," Katsu stated matter-of-factly, crossing his arms.
"I…Alright," the woman replied, still too ashamed to look at him.
"If you want to be the popular girl in school, you are going about it the wrong way. They are using you to get a laugh out of us, not just me. If you want to be popular and people actually like you, be nice to others, and stop faking who you are. Now, go away, please," Katsu told her, and she walked back to her group of friends, putting on a fake smile as they all laughed together. Katsu rolled his eyes.
Katsu was called 'Pointless' among his peers. That was because throughout the whole year, from September to May, Katsu had never scored a single point in any game in badminton. He had lost every game twenty-one to zero.
Every. Single. Game.
He felt like he was never getting better at it at all. However, it was his only way of escaping the house. He hated being there, and he hated being here, but just slightly less.
After the last games had been played, Katsu hung around with the rest of the group. He never really talked to anyone, and they never talked to him. He was just a leech in every conversation, listening to everyone talk about random topics like weather, or weekend plans. At least talking passed the time.
"Any plans for over the summer, Tsutoma?" one of the other players asked the club ace, who smiled at him warmly. Tsutoma Yamazaki was extremely good at badminton. He had lovely but strange turquoise colored hair which was long and slicked back down past his neck. His eyes beamed with a slight gold tint inside of his green eyes, like a shade of optimism and hope. The club probably would have been cancelled if it wasn't for Tsutoma's playing ability. Not a single player was on his level.
"I'm going to Spain with my girlfriend for a week or so in June. Heard it's a nice place, but it's hella expensive to get over there. Two planes and all," Tsutoma said with a smile. "Afterwards, I'm just going to train more. My last year of high school starts in September, and I want to win Nationals."
"You were so close this year, though! You got to the semifinals!" another person piped up.
"I know, which is why I have got to win next year. Never be satisfied with where you are. Always strive to be better," Tsutoma smiled, before walking towards the changing room with the rest of the group. Katsu followed behind slowly. When he got to the changing room, he got changed quietly in the corner, where no-one went over to disturb him. He put his badminton racket in his bag, and his sweaty clothes. He put on his spare clothes, and without saying anything, he left the dressing room and began his ten-minute walk home in silence. He had never walked home with anybody. He didn't have anybody to walk with. It wasn't because people hated him, it was because people just didn't care about him.
An elderly businessman, who was currently watching from afar, grinned in excitement.
He had found his player.