[For Seiichi Yukimura,
Falling in love with Rukawa Sakura is a praise of life.]
Seiichi Yukimura had a delicate and beautiful face since he was young,
But his personality was not as gentle as he appeared to be. In Rukawa Sakura's words,
He was black in his bones.
Wearing the skin of the "Son of God," he was an existence that took revenge on society.
From the first day he met Rukawa Sakura, he felt that this girl was different.
It was an indescribable feeling,
But he had a good impression of her.
This had never happened before.
Probably because he had never met such a person.
At that age,
Rukawa Sakura's heart could be said to be terrifyingly mature.
He could feel her "maturity."
Seiichi Yukimura looked at her gentle smile and knew,
She was different.
A person who faced everyone with a smile was either really kind or good at hiding their true self.
He, Seiichi Yukimura, was the latter.
And Rukawa Sakura was also the latter.
He believed.
He also knew.
They had the same aura.
They were childhood sweethearts and grew up together.
Inevitably,
He felt for her,
They had different feelings.
Seiichi Yukimura would do what he set his mind on.
Seiichi Yukimura would definitely get what he set his mind on.
He liked Rukawa Sakura.
He liked everything about her.
He thought that they could be together,
Because they had the purest feelings between them, and they could withstand the test of time.
In the summer of fifteen, he confessed to her.
She said yes.
He did not deny that he did it on purpose.
At that time, he was sick, depressed, and desperate. He used this to "blackmail" her.
If the surgery was successful, she would become his girlfriend.
Sanada was so angry for the first time,
Even though he was still sick, he still gave him a merciless punch.
He was despicable, but he never regretted it.
In order to get what he wanted, he had always done anything.
Seiichi Yukimura was born to win.
He had never lost before, so he would not allow himself to lose.
He had never thought that he would lose in love, and lose so miserably.
He had thought that Rukawa Sakura would never fall in love with him.
In fact, Rukawa Sakura was very cold-hearted. Other than the people she cared about, she would not do anything for anyone else.
It wasn't that she wasn't kind, she just didn't care.
He knew everything.
They were childhood sweethearts and had grown up together.
He knew everything.
But for Seiichi Yukimura, a missed opportunity was a missed opportunity.
He wasn't her other half.
He had no choice.
No matter how outstanding he was, what could he do? Feelings were something that he could not control.
Even though he had never lost a single match in his life, he still lost in terms of love.
A long time ago, she had said that he was the strongest, and Tezuka Kunimitsu was number one.
As a result, the strongest person lost to the strongest person.
It was as if this was a predetermined script, and there was no turning back.
There was no strongest person in this world.
However, Tezuka Kunimitsu could be number one.
He had that characteristic.
Even if he lost, he was still number one.
Seiichi Yukimura had never lost before, but this time, there was no way to turn it around.
From the very beginning, he had been at a disadvantage.
There was nothing wrong with liking someone.
There was nothing wrong with confessing.
What was wrong was that he shouldn't have been so dominant.
He had always been dominant.
But no one told him that he couldn't be dominant in love.
A relationship had to be equal.
From the moment he asked Rukawa Sakura to be his girlfriend, he had already lost.
He could wait, but he couldn't threaten her with surgery.
This was the first time in Seiichi Yukimura's life that he felt that he had made a mistake.
However, the outcome of failure was so … miserable.
He really couldn't afford the price of failure.
But he still had to pay for it.
In the first ten years of Seiichi Yukimura's life, he had never failed.
Only after this did he think that if he had failed before, it would have been good.
Only when he had failed could he know how to face Rukawa Sakura.
Only then could he know what it felt like to fail — and there were some prices that he couldn't afford after all.
However, Seiichi Yukimura was too dominant. He had never lost.
No one told him that the taste of failure was so terrible.
Seiichi Yukimura lost a battle that he couldn't lose in his life.
His opponent was Tezuka Kunimitsu, who had always been straightforward.
Seiichi Yukimura was extremely picky when it came to relationships.
He had a mental obsession with cleanliness.
This was a kind of illness.
He only asked others to do what they should do, but he didn't think carefully about what he should do.
Indeed, he had sacrificed a lot.
Because he loved Rukawa Sakura.
He loved her very much. He loved her so much that he was stubborn and paranoid.
The difference between Tezuka Kunimitsu and him was that Seiichi Yukimura took the initiative to ask the other party to sacrifice for him after discovering his feelings, hoping that they could have a complete relationship.
But after Tezuka Kunimitsu realized it, he just waited silently and didn't ask for anything.
Tezuka Kunimitsu was such a person.
You could hate his selflessness and his excessive integrity, but you couldn't deny his absolutely noble character.
Tezuka Kunimitsu didn't ask for anything. This had always been his character.
Tezuka Kunimitsu could sacrifice a lot, and he would also pursue his goals, but he never forced himself.
If it was his, it was his. If it wasn't, he wouldn't force it.
All the sufferings in life were tests. Tezuka Kunimitsu faced them with an open mind and never gave up on himself.
Seiichi Yukimura was helpless against Tezuka Kunimitsu.
Rukawa Sakura was also helpless against Tezuka Kunimitsu.
Once this person set his mind on a path, he would walk it to the end.
So, he waited for Rukawa Sakura and guarded Rukawa Sakura.
But he never asked for anything in return.
Tezuka Kunimitsu was good to Rukawa Sakura, but Rukawa Sakura didn't necessarily need to be with him.
Being good to someone was Tezuka Kunimitsu's matter alone. He didn't need anything in return.
Seiichi Yukimura thought that he had won.
But he could only smile for a moment.
Life was an extremely long stage, full of variables, and no one could predict what would happen.
In the end, he lost.
He lost to Tezuka Kunimitsu.
When he realized that Tezuka Kunimitsu existed in Rukawa Sakura's problem, it was a little too late.
That person knew Rukawa Sakura before he did.
This was an indisputable fact.
Unless time could be turned back, there was no way to reverse it.
He wasn't the only one who liked Rukawa Sakura.
When Rukawa's grandfather passed away, apart from him and Sanada, Tezuka Kunimitsu was the first to arrive at the hospital.
The distance from Tokyo to Kanagawa wasn't far, but it was never close.
The fact that he was the first to arrive at Rukawa Sakura's side was enough to let Yukimura know how Tezuka Kunimitsu felt about Rukawa Sakura.
He wasn't the only one who wanted to be by Rukawa Sakura's side.
At Rukawa's grandfather's funeral, Seiichi Yukimura said to Tezuka Kunimitsu, "I'm looking forward to our match."
There had never been a match between the two of them.
This was indeed a pity.
As the top players in the country, they lacked a match.
However, the invisible competition had already begun.
"Then let's start here."
But Rukawa Sakura didn't give them a chance.
At the beginning of the fall semester of the third year, he and Tezuka Kunimitsu were in the U17 training camp, and Rukawa Sakura went to the United States.
It was very sudden, but looking at it carefully, she couldn't be blamed for being sudden.
Rukawa Sakura would always be with Kaede Rukawa.
No one could stop this, and no one could blame her.
Tezuka Kunimitsu left the U17 team and went to a tennis club in Germany.
Seiichi Yukimura stayed in Japan, in Tachikaidai.
The two of them were probably waiting.
But the difference between him and Tezuka Kunimitsu was that Tezuka Kunimitsu's waiting was a silent kind of waiting. No matter where he was, his heart was still with Rukawa Sakura.
He went out into the world, but his heart was still there, and it never left.
Seiichi Yukimura, on the other hand, stayed in the same place, but no one knew what he was waiting for.
Was it a person, or an outcome?
After waiting for time to pass, Tezuka Kunimitsu had already stepped onto the world stage and was ranked in the ATP, and Rukawa Sakura had already obtained a bachelor's degree from Harvard School of Fine Arts.
Only Seiichi Yukimura didn't fight for what he wanted, and he also forgot what he wanted to fight for.
Seiichi Yukimura didn't have a dream, and he didn't even have a goal. Only he didn't move forward.
Seiichi Yukimura was too stubborn, and he was already obsessed.
Rukawa Sakura didn't know what her future would be like. She didn't have a dream or a goal, but she was already moving ahead of her dreams and goals.
The person was on the road, or the heart was on the road.
There was always one that had to move forward.
Rukawa Sakura would always find something for herself to do.
She wouldn't stop.
In this regard, Yukimura didn't do better than her.
Tezuka Kunimitsu was the most successful one.
He entered the professional tennis world at 15, started to compete in the four Grand Slams at 16, and stood at the top at 18 with the championship trophy.
Seiichi Yukimura couldn't do it.
In this regard, he admired Tezuka Kunimitsu.
His heart was always on the road.
But at the same time, he kept a corner that didn't contradict himself. He would always stay for Rukawa Sakura.
One was a dream, and the other was love.
Tezuka Kunimitsu never asked for extravagant things, but he always persevered.
Love didn't know where it came from, but it went deeper.
Yukimura's heart only started to hurt when he saw this later.
Before he knew it, he had already fallen so deeply in love.
But the person she loved wasn't him.
Ask the world, no matter how talented you are, you can't hide your scars.
He was Seiichi Yukimura.
Seiichi Yukimura never regretted falling in love with Rukawa Sakura.
If he could do it again, he would still fall in love with her.
He might even fall in love with her earlier.
If that happened, Tezuka Kunimitsu would have nothing to do with him.
After all, he was a slow guy, wasn't he?