JSWGAS Chapter 2

Kokonoe-sensei is a professional tennis player, twenty-five years old this year. In fact, his coach has already suggested that he consider matters related to retirement.

When Kokonoe Taka was born, he was still in the team and had another argument with his coach about this matter. Therefore, he completely forgot that his wife was suffering in the hospital. After arriving at the hospital the next day, he completely forgot about it. It wasn’t until after the New Year that the coach called again. Kokonoe-sensei put down the rattle he was using to amuse his son and went to the balcony.

The coach said that you are almost old enough, retire early and rest early, you still have a long way to go in life. Kokonoe-sensei closed the balcony door, lit a cigarette, took a fierce puff, and listened to the coach’s nagging without saying a word.

He said, “You won the second place in Wimbledon (Wimbledon Championships) last June, which is already a good result. But that’s why you have to retire at the height of your career…”

Kokonoe-sensei didn’t want to argue with him. He glanced back at his son on the other side of the glass window before asking, “Why are you in such a hurry? Before Wimbledon, didn’t we agree that it wouldn’t be too late to retire in two years?”

The coach on the other end of the phone was silent for a moment, and finally relented this time: “A genius player has appeared in Japan, who has never been defeated once, named Echizen Nanjirō. He will participate in the World Open this year…”

Kokonoe-sensei guessed, “You mean his competition will clash with mine?”

“Yes.” The coach sighed, “I only found out about this recently. He is really very strong, so the higher-ups mean to avoid domestic players clashing in foreign competitions… You know, watching competitions abroad will be seen by the audience as ‘internal strife’. No matter who wins the game, the impact will not be very good.”

Kokonoe-sensei understood what he meant. He had watched Echizen Nanjirō’s games. From a pure strength perspective, the other party was indeed better than him… No, much better. He was sure that Echizen Nanjirō would not hold back just because they were both Japanese. At that time, he would be greeted with boos.

His career would fall into a trough because of this, and he might never recover. Kokonoe-sensei had been in society for so many years and knew the unspoken rules well. The coach was right, this was also for his own good.

On the other end of the phone, the coach did not urge him. It wasn’t until Kokonoe-sensei asked again, “Besides me, what about other domestic players?”

The coach replied, “Several have already decided to retire this year when the schedule has not yet clashed with Echizen, and there are also some who are stubborn and insist on competing with him.”

He said a few names, some were good friends of Kokonoe-sensei, and some were people he had only heard of. Because of his enthusiastic personality, he had good interpersonal relationships. After hanging up the phone, he sent letters to his friends, and they all received positive answers.

Someone said: “Actually, I can still play for a few years, and your results this year are also good. But that guy came at the wrong time. If he had come two years later…”

Unfortunately, there were no ifs.

In addition to the initial love, sports competitions later involve money and fame, which is not as pure as it was at the beginning.

Kokonoe-sensei lit another cigarette, and the floor of the balcony was full of dirty and broken cigarette ashes. But he was no longer in the mood to think about how his wife would scold him for this.

Retire? Or not?

He finally returned to the room with a smoky smell, his eyes falling on his three-month-old son. He saw the past in this child, saw himself first touching tennis, and fell in love with it ever since. He used all his strength to pursue victory. He had talent and was willing to work hard; after graduating, he began to travel to various competitions. His tennis changed from simple wins and losses to something more complicated.

That thing made him breathless and unwilling. He actually had the idea of giving up for a long time. He knew very well that he was not a true genius, and his professional end was in these two years, the only difference was when it would end.

But when this day really came, he was not as calm as he had imagined. He didn’t want it to end here, didn’t want to end, wanted to continue standing on the field——

But he was afraid. He was afraid of losing, afraid that the bonus after losing would be less, and the camera would not choose him but the winner. This was a secular and real situation.

He looked blankly and thought of his wife again.

That night, in his wife’s arms, Kokonoe-sensei made up his mind. He told his wife the news that he was going to retire. Unlike what he had imagined, Kokonoe-fujin was just a little surprised, then breathed a sigh of relief and said that this would increase the opportunities for you, me, and the child to be together. She was smiling, her fingers were soft, and she did not look down on him because of it. But Kokonoe-sensei felt uncomfortable all over again.

Why don’t you care about it?

What is it? Kokonoe-sensei had a vague answer in his heart. This did not prevent him from feeling more lost and spending a considerable amount of time. During this time, Kokonoe-fujin had been supporting him, but her support only made Kokonoe-sensei feel uneasy and at a loss, and finally unknowingly developed the bad habit of alcoholism.

One afternoon a year later, Kokonoe-sensei sat slovenly on the sofa, aimlessly pressing the remote control to change channels. Kokonoe Taka sat next to him, curiously staring at the TV screen. Kokonoe-sensei smiled lazily and asked, “What’s so good about it?”

Kokonoe Taka was very smart, thanks to his maternal grandparents and paternal grandparents who came to see him frequently. The time when his elders came was the most honest time for Kokonoe-sensei. During this time, he would try his best to show a qualified and responsible father. In front of his wife, he would appear silent and stressed, occasionally burying himself in her arms and acting spoiled, so that her dissatisfaction would quickly disappear, and the two would continue to maintain the illusion of a happy family sweetly.

Only in front of his children did Kokonoe-sensei indulge a little more. He always felt that children would not remember anything, and the appearance of smoking and drinking was reflected in those innocent eyes.

This time was also the case. It was only when he looked up to see what his son was so interested in that he saw a familiar figure on the screen.

It was a yellow-skinned face, slightly dark skin, sharp eyebrows and eyes, and a confident determination when he smiled, bathed in the lens of the camera.

“The champion is Echizen Nanjirō!”

“A once-in-a-century genius player!”

“Samurai Nanjirō from Japan!”

The acrid bitterness of the smoke began to flood Kokonoe-sensei’s nasal cavity again. He blinked twice, staring intently at the high-spirited man on the screen. In this year, he had not thought about it when he was drinking, had not thought about it when he was lying on his wife’s back, had not thought about it when he was teaching his son to speak, but now he remembered the cold wind and the window that day as if it were yesterday, and the phone call that cut off his professional future.

He sat up straight, put down the wine bottle, and still felt an unbearable prickling sensation. He suddenly cared about his image, only to find that he was wearing a crumpled shirt, his chin was unshaven, and one of his socks was missing. He felt embarrassed, annoyed, and self-deprecating.

Then he looked at the screen and at his son.

“Congratulations to Echizen Nanjirō from Japan for winning this year’s American Tennis Open!”

The commentator roared on the TV, while Kokonoe Taka turned his head to look at him in a daze, with a cute and ignorant look of a cub. He grabbed his bib and babbled vaguely. Kokonoe-sensei didn’t pay attention to what the child was saying at first. But with a flash of inspiration-like premonition, he walked to his son, squatted down, the competition on the TV behind his son ended, and turned into an animated ad of Ultraman fighting little monsters.

Kokonoe Taka didn’t seem to care much about Ultraman and the little monsters. He frowned bitterly and babbled for a long time. The first word this child said in his life was neither ‘dad’ nor ‘mom’, but an ambiguous “like”.

Kokonoe-sensei asked softly, “What do you like?”

The cub looked at him blankly and tilted his head. Kokonoe-sensei seemed to forget that Kokonoe Taka was only a little over one year old. He hurriedly flipped out the computer and quickly searched ‘tennis’ and ‘Echizen Nanjirō’ in the search bar.

After doing all this, he began to laugh at himself in his heart. He said to himself that your son is only a little over one year old, he doesn’t even know what ‘like’ is! Kokonoe-sensei lowered his shoulders in a gesture of giving up and was about to close the webpage when Kokonoe Taka had already chosen the answer.

He pointed to the picture of the yellow-orange ball and said again inarticulate “like”.

When Kokonoe-fujin returned home after buying groceries, she was surprised to find that her decadent husband had cleaned up the housework, shaved his beard cleanly, and carefully trimmed his hair. He was laughing and teasing the one-year-old cub with his tennis racket.

Seeing his wife, Kokonoe-sensei quickly got up and rushed to the door to hug her tightly. Kokonoe-fujin gently wrapped her arms around him and asked softly in her tall husband’s arms, “Husband?”

Kokonoe-sensei said, “Thank you, Chengzi, for bringing A Ying to my side.”

Kokonoe-fujin was surprised: “What are you talking about!” She tiptoed and looked over her husband’s shoulder at her son sitting on the living room carpet. The cub was focusing all his curiosity on the tennis racket in front of him, trying his best to pick up the racket.

That was the tennis racket her husband had been hiding for a year. Why did he suddenly take it out?

Such thoughts passed in an instant, and the woman’s sixth sense vibrated slightly, but finally quieted down because of her husband’s revitalized spirit.

The year after Kokonoe-sensei retired was a blank period, and now he finally had the energy to find a new job. Without hesitation, he decisively chose a coaching job at a tennis club, and then threw himself into it with great enthusiasm, and began to leave early and return late again.

Kokonoe-fujin did not tell her husband that she hated this. Since giving birth to Kokonoe Taka, she had begun to become unlike herself, becoming biased and sharp in some aspects. She was originally a violinist. After marrying Kokonoe-sensei, she gave up her job for the family and became a full-time housewife. After her husband started working again, she began to become suspicious, uneasy, and silent because of the shortened time she spent with her husband.

Most of her friends from her student days were not in Miyagi, and she couldn’t find anyone familiar to talk to; she also wanted to stay at home with her son all the time, so that she could greet Kokonoe-sensei as soon as he came home. This unspeakable feeling was noticed by the lady next door when she went out to water the flowers. The gentle and smiling neighbor was friendly and invited her to her house to taste the cookies she had just baked.

Kokonoe-fujin was persuaded, but when she thought of her son, she hesitated a little: “My son is still at home…”

The neighbor quickly said: “It doesn’t matter! It just so happens that my family also has a child of about the same age. You bring him over, so the two children can keep each other company.”

Kokonoe-fujin breathed a sigh of relief and turned around to hug the cub.