Music to my ears - Zhuo Zhi

Chapter 1 - There's a Girl?

Tang Jiale has always been protective of his little sister (she is in fact older than him by 28 minutes, but Jiale isn't the type to adhere by technicalities), that was just the type of person he was.

Even though Zhihao annoyed Jiale to pieces sometimes, he loved her dearly, and would do anything to keep the smile on her face. He of course would never admit it to Zhihao's face.

If he could shield her from harm, he would probably jump to her defense, no conditions required.. for the most part.

That was why he never felt the need to introduce Zhihao, his twin sister, to the tennis team; he didn't want, or need, any unnecessary drama in his life. At least when it came to Zhihao.

While Jiale pretty much thrived on drama and gossip, he didn't want Zhihao to be the center of it due to his high school athlete fame, which would no doubt bring negative attention to her.

What if people befriended Zhihao, only using her status as a familial link to Jiale, to get close to the team, breaking his sister's heart in the process?

What if an opponent from another school - hopefully not one of Xing Yao's doubles partners - got close to Zhihao and started a relationship with her?

And what if, god forbid, Zhihao fell in love with one of his own teammates and then he broke her heart? Then Jiale would have to choose sides between his dear sister and treasured teammate.

While he knew that he couldn't 'protect' his baby sister forever, he didn't want her to experience, or for himself to experience for that matter, any preventable "what if"s... even though they were both now seniors at Yu Qing High School and were capable of making their own decisions.

It was inevitable, admittedly, that the team would eventually find out about Zhihao, but Jiale wanted to wait until after he graduated from his high school days to introduce her to them. That way she would be safe from people with ulterior motives, since high school problems would be below them.

Maybe his teammates would find out about her before that time, but if they didn't, then that was that. No harm done.

While Zhihao wanted to meet the close friends that her brother always spun tales about, she ultimately agreed with Jiale's decision, after a lengthy discussion. While Zhihao wasn't exactly socially inept, she wasn't exactly a social butterfly either, and didn't thrive like Jiale did in huge crowds.

So, Jiale has always been careful not to mention his sister around any of his teammates - except Dachi of course, because Dachi is Jiale's most trustworthy, best friend.

That turned out to be his greatest mistake.

~~~

After a much longer and arduous practice than usual that Siyang probably found joy in inflicting on the team, Tang Jiale was exhausted.

In fact, exhausted was an understatement.

He rested his eyes while he laid his head on the floor, desperately sending Dachi a telepathic message to bring him a drink, preferably a Gatorade (pink) if he could.

Unfortunately for him, Dachi was just as burnt out as Jiale was, so the two were pathetically sprawled across the tennis court together, immobile, along with everyone else (minus a few members who Jiale suspected to be nonhuman).