Matsudaira Koutarou
Like how Harada is a friend to Tatsuya, Koutarou was Kazuya's best friend. Koutarou is Meisei's catcher and was so in tune with Kazuya's pitches that when Tatsuya came along to "replace" his brother, Koutarou hated it and even insisted that Tatsuya should just go back to the boxing club.
Koutarou didn't like Tatsuya at first. He even nicknamed Tatsuya "baka aniki," meaning 'idiot brother' and would tell Tatsuya that he is only a copy of his brother and is worthless.
Koutarou couldn't bear it when Kazuya died and he hated how Tatsuya was so casual about everything (though of course, Tatsuya wasn't like that at all). When Tatsuya found a withered lei in his locker (which used to be Kazuya's), he threw it on the floor and wondered why there was such thrash in his locker. Koutarou tried to punch him after he did that but Tatsuya punched him instead. Why would Koutarou care so much about a lei that was already dying anyway? Tatsuya later finds out that it was Kazuya's lei that Minami made for him. Tatsuya realizes then why Koutarou was so mad...
Later, Tatsuya finds Koutarou in the baseball field crying, holding a picture of himself and Kazuya together. Tatsuya provokes him by taking the picture saying that it was very creepy when a man cries over a pitcure of a couple of guys. With this statement, Koutarou punches him.
See, what I like about Adachi-sensei is that... he never tells us what the characters are thinking in Touch. He only gives us what's there. What the characters say and what they do. Though Adachi may not explain why Tatsuya went out of his way to provoke Koutarou, we are made to reach our own conclusions. We are made to realize for ourselves why Tatsuya did what he did. And in my opinion? Tatsuya did that because he knew he deserved to be punched and he wanted Koutarou to finally let out his feelings and aggression towards Kazuya's death. I think in someway, Koutarou knew that also. Koutarou told Tatsuya after Koutarou punched him, that Kazuya really loved Minami. But why would he say that to Tatsuya? Here again, we are made to think about it for ourselves. You see, a few days before Kazuya died, Koutarou overheard Minami and Tatsuya's conversation in the street about the *kiss they shared. Koutarou heard Minami tell Tatsuya that she'll always remember her first kiss because it was from him, from the one she loves. When Koutarou heard this he felt really bad for Kazuya... maybe Tacchan realized this too and felt bad about it as well.
After that incident, Koutarou started to conform to Tatsuya being with the baseball club although there's still that uneasiness there. Koutarou knew however that Tatsuya was serious about baseball after all when he saw Tatsuya secretly practicing his pitches during his lunch hour.
They got used to each other slowly. I think the start of Tatsuya's and Koutarou's friendship really happened on one rainy day. On that day, Koutarou asked Tatsuya to hand him his uniform jacket from the other side of the window. Tatsuya, without knowing there was anything in the pockets threw it for Koutarou to catch... but of course, the 500 yen coin that was inside the pocket fell out and it rolled down the sewer. Koutarou felt so depressed because that 500 yen was his life savings and it was supposed to be spent for meat buns. So, even in the rain, he was trying to get that yen out of the sewers. Because it was raining, Koutarou fell ill. Because Koutarou wasn't at practice, the whole team can tell that Tatsuya wasn't the same pitcher when Koutarou wasn't around. Because Koutarou was ill, Coach Nishio told Tatsuya to see if Koutarou was ok...
Why me? asked Tatsuya.
Koutarou really was sick and very hungry and he begged his mom to buy him meat buns... Ah those meat buns... His mother of course, does what his son wants like any mother would do...
And of course... Tatsuya never fails to be the nice guy even though he's always so nonchalant about it...
Mrs. Matsudaira: When I went out of the door there stood a young boy... when he saw my face he gave me the sack of buns without saying a word and then just headed off. Unsociable that boy.
Is he your friend? his mother asks... Koutarou, after devouring some of the meat buns, finds something else hidden underneath. It was a 500 yen coin... Koutarou answers his mother...
Yes... he says.
Awww...
Koutarou realized then that Tatsuya wasn't so bad after all and he also realized that Tatsuya wasn't the "baka aniki" or just the copy of Kazuya anymore. When they were getting ready to play at Koshien, Tatsuya was still very uncomfortable about the fact that everyone might still be thinking about him being Kazuya's shadow, and that they didn't really see "him" they only saw Kazuya. Koutarou told him that wasn't true at all. Koutarou told Tatsuya that it was because of him, not Kazuya that they were even at Koshien at all. It was because of Tatsuya that they were trying their best. Because Tatsuya gave them that fighting spirit to go all the way.
