That Summer We Met
Rating: 13+
Character Pairing: Ryoma/Reader
Status: Completed
Summary: It was so unexpected that you couldn't imagine it going any other way. Just when you thought it was going to be one simple summer of experiencing some form of real life journalism, you find yourself in a foreign land, meeting new friends, and falling in love.
Character Pairing: Ryoma/Reader
Status: Completed
Summary: It was so unexpected that you couldn't imagine it going any other way. Just when you thought it was going to be one simple summer of experiencing some form of real life journalism, you find yourself in a foreign land, meeting new friends, and falling in love.
The Meeting
The clock displayed the time 6:09 when the door slammed shut, muffling your curses as you bolted out of the house. You were late for your appointment, damnit, and it was not the way you intended to spend your first day in Japan. A stream of profanity left your lips when you glanced at your phone to find that it was running out of batteries on your way to the subway – or so you hoped. You were up late yesterday designing your proposal for the interview and woke up two hours ago with drool on your laptop and five hundred pages of spaces.
As a result, you hadn't really had a chance to finish memorizing the map of Tokyo and the subways you were supposed to take. Your phone vibrated and you recognized the name of the director of the newspaper company from whom you were trying to seek employment. It was a long shot, really, for an exchange student from America to get a job at a Japanese newspaper, but you weren't going to waste time in America just learning about the educational system when you've got a dream job waiting at home with the Economist. You just needed credentials, that was it.
“[your name]-san? This is Uematsu Kenji, director of Tokyo Times.”
“Hi! Uematsu-san! It's a lovely morning, isn't it?”
You were quite fluent in Japanese as far as conversations went, but your literature skills have been polished over the past two years of immersing yourself in novels and newspaper and magazines to learn of what the urban culture was into and what traditions were still rigid in the country. Nonetheless, this was the voice of your possibly future boss and he didn't sound particularly happy.
“About our appointment...”
“Of course, I'm on my way there, right now!”
You weren't exactly late or anything since the meeting was to start at 7, but the subway systems were usually crowded enough that one had to catch the later one if one were just late for a second. In any case, if he was calling you this early, there was no way that this was a good morning call.
“Ah, [your name]-san. That won't be necessary. I suddenly found that I will be unavailable this morning.” When your heart fell, it was suddenly revived again when he said, “Consider this first task as your interview. There is a tennis match going on at Seishun Academy's high school team today at noon and my usual reporter is on an international story right now. So I was hoping you would cover this story for the sports page. Isn't that the school you were going to attend? If it works out, perhaps we can make a deal for you to cover all of the sports activities there in the future.”
Your heart skipped a beat. While you did not intend to go into sports reporting in the future, a chance like this did not happen to any high schooler, much less a foreigner. You were going to work for one of the most prestigious newspaper company in Tokyo! “Yes, please allow me to cover that story!”
Seishun Academy was a private school quite famous for its tennis team. Even as someone who would never find herself in a gym, you were quite versed in that knowledge but you also knew that Seishun Academy was one of the more prestigious private schools in the area of Tokyo that you were attending – after all, it had connections with your high school. Grades were the least of your problems, this exchange program was intended for you to pick and choose for your future.
While you've yet to attend your first class, since summer break was to end after this weekend passed, you didn't really have an exact layout on what the school would be like, but being the future journalist that you were, you had already studied up blueprints of the school, looked into yearbooks and read articles written by the school newspaper. You had been quite tempted to try and join the school newspaper but felt that it would be just like the one at your school and well, you were already editor once and it was time to go higher.
You were seated in the bleachers on one side of the court with your camera sitting on your lap with your video recorder in the other hand. Today, Seishun Academy would be playing against Hyotei Academy, their toughest rivals and you intended to interview all of the players as soon as the match was over. Now, you mused as you glanced around, if only there were some players for the pre-match interview. You looked at the list of players from both teams and decided to go down the list.
Supposedly, all of the players have been to the same school ever since their entering their respective middle schools and have been playing on the same team since. They were, in their own sense, all famous for their styles of tennis and have earned championships at some point in their lives. The youngest of the Seishun Academy team was your age. Ryoma Echizen came from America like yourself, except he wasn't just an exchange student, and have won the US open at the age of twelve. He was definitely going to be one of your interviews.
A loud group of cheers drew your attention to the other side of the court to a crowd of cheering girls surrounding... something. You came closer to find the team captain of Hyotei, you presumed. After some digging earlier, you learned that the team captain was a rich boy who had some complex with using the term “ore.” Whether he was cocky or not, you definitely wanted to know what was on his mind.
“Atobe Keigo?” Suddenly everyone turned your way. You sincerely hoped that it wasn't the American accent slipping through. You've inherited enough oriental features from your mother to pass as a legitimately 100% Asian person but sometimes, you knew, you had a tendency to slur an Irish accent whenever you were nervous.
He blinked, giving you a brief appraisal before asking, “Who are you?”
“I'm [last name], [first name]. I'm conducting a report for Tokyo Times on today's tennis match between Hyotei and your rival school, Seishun Academy. Do you mind if I ask you some questions?” You pulled out your notepad and poised your hand as if preparing to write. It was always good to be assumptive.
He laughed quite loudly before answering, “Of course! What do you wish to know about ore-sama?”
You coughed, hoping that he REALLY wasn't intending for this interview to be about himself. As a journalist, it put you in a hard position when it came to getting a decent answer. “Um, I understand that your team has been rivals with the opponent team ever since middle school. Now that you are in your senior year and in the midst of graduating, has it been any different between now and then?”
He gave that pompous laugh again before responding, “Of course! Seigaku will always be the losers! Ore-sama will take the victory for this game and everyone else agrees with ore-sama, right?”
You twitched, itching to remind him of the apparent losses that started to occur when Ryoma Echizen joined the team, but instead, asked another question: “Well, I can see that you will soon have your match so I won't take too long... this next question will be regarding your team: What are your goals for this coming semester? I take it summer break has given everyone the perfect opportunity to practice for the finish line this year?”
“You are merely stating the obvious, [last name]-san. Ore-sama's team is always at its top condition, and this year, we're taking hold of the trophy for the national high school tournament.” This time, he grinned and looked across the field at something... or someone, as you later figured when you followed his gaze to see a tall boy about his age wearing glasses. “When you interview Tezuka, remind him of what ore-sama has told you!”
And so next thing you know, you were standing in front of Tezuka Kunitmitsu, who was definitely a force not to be reckoned with. He was two years older than you and you had recognized him to be student body president with whom you spoke when you first transferred to the school. The principal thought that you weren't fluent in Japanese and couldn't find the person he decided was fluent in English to communicate with you so he sent down Kunimitsu who was working on his summer duties.
“[your name]-san, it's unusual to see you at a school event, I would think that you would be getting familiar with Tokyo,” he remarked when you walked up to him.
“I'm actually applying to Tokyo Times. The usual reporter is doing an international story right now so Uematsu-san asked me to cover this story,” you explained, “Right now I'm just running around doing a couple of interviews, do you mind if I ask you and your team a couple of questions?”
He nodded solemnly, “I see. I hope Shiba-san is in good health and you are very diligent. My teammates are warming up right now but you may interview them but please don't take too long.”
You smiled, pulling out your notepad and voice recorder, and started speaking, “It seems like Seishun Academy is similar to Hyotei Academy in that your team has remained the same since middle school. How do you keep it together like that? Have you thought about changes?”
Tezuka pushed up his glasses and responded promptly, “We have all worked hard on the team to get to where we are today. I welcome all changes that may come from those who try diligently to improve the team. My team members all have aspirations to thrive in tennis and therefore work hard every single day to do better than the day before.”
You nodded, jotting the answer down before asking, “What are you anticipating for today's match? I'm sure you were aware of Hyotei's Atobe Keigo's remarks but what I want to know is whether you guys have any special surprises in your arsenal from the summer break.”
“We have routinely practiced over the summer, improving all of our players' weaknesses and strengths to cover all of our bases. The goal for today is not just to win but to see the seeds of our results come to fruition.” You glanced up when the announcer came on to call the team captains to the registration center. “[your name]-san, it seems I am going to be busy. If you wish you interview my teammates, they will be stretching over by our school booth.”
After thanking him, you started towards the booth, going down your list as you talked to all the team members. From what you could tell, they were a colorful bunch. Shuichiro Oishi had greeted you with some strangely maternal warmth and answered all of your questions before directing you to Fuji Shusuke. The next thing you knew, you were back on the bleachers with all of our interviews five minutes before the match was starting. Unfortunately you couldn't interview Ryoma Echizen as you couldn't find him even though his teammates said he was practicing by the court.
You were really hoping to ask him about the US Open and well, school in general since it appeared that you two were in the same grade and you were dying to speak with someone who came from the same country you did. In any case, now that the match was going to start, you were resigned to settle and watch it as it came.
The camera started recording after the announcement and Oishi and Kikumaru were up for the first doubles match against Kabaji and Akutagawa. Kikumaru, the red-headed acrobatic player, waved furiously at you when he spotted your camera and grinned widely in your direction, much to the dismay of his double mate. You laughed and all that came to your mind was how interesting the match was going to be.
By the time the last match came around you were sure that despite all the sunburn—something that would definitely remind you to bring the sunblock next time—you would very much like to cover the sports page for Tokyo Times. There were moments when it felt like your heart would stop whenever either team delivered their special shots and for some of them, you couldn't even believe your eyes! Kaidoh Kaoru was one of them; he was a very interesting character. When you first interviewed him, he hadn't said much outside of one-worded answers and seemed way too serious for someone one year your senior. Nonetheless, he definitely caught your attention when he hit his ball out of the court only to find it swinging back onto the court at a very hard corner to anticipate.
As it turned out, Atobe Keigo wasn't all talk after all. Despite his pretty boy looks, he had some flashy moves up his sleeves as well. He was able to knock the ball out of the park for Inui with his hitting dead angles in a way that the genius could not even anticipate. Tezuka practically stood at the same place the entire time, tiring out Oshitari before he knew it was too late. Overall, you found your interest in tennis piqued when Fuji came to for his turn. He played double with Momoshiro and while you didn't think they were a natural match, they were definitely the winning team. Now this last match was supposed to be between Ryoma Echizen and a man named Kabaji.
You couldn’t decide whether or not you had to be surprised when they came onto the court. Kabaji was almost twice as tall as Echizen. Sure, you already knew what the guy looked like from what information you found on him on your smartphone while you made your way to the game, but it still surprised you that he looked so… harmless. Needless to say, the match was over sooner than one expected. While there was a bit of a drawback when Echizen struggled with Kabaji copying his moves, he soon found his ground and took advantage of that leverage to bring his team to their victory.
The students cheering for Seigaku screamed loudly and pushed their way onto the court to congratulate the team, leaving you struggling to breathe and stand properly. You held onto your recorder, making sure it didn’t somehow get lose in all of the chaos and pushed your way to the opposite direction. When you finally made it to the top of the hill, you grabbed your notepad and looked at the page you were going to dedicate to the guy, the list of questions that you had prepared for him were going to go unanswered because it didn’t look like the fans were going to finish any time soon.
Still you were determined to wait. At least, you thought while pulling out your smartphone, while you were waiting, you could do a bit more research on him so you could have a few handy questions up your sleeves in case the guy was as curt as the interviewers made him seem. After about twenty minutes, you looked up to see that the tennis court has cleared up relatively well and you could see Tezuka speaking with his team down there but Echizen was nowhere in sight. You jogged down to the court and stopped in front of the senior student, “Excuse me, Tezuka-san… it seems I have missed Echizen-san by a few minutes. Do you happen to know where I can find him?”
Tezuka pointed towards the train station and responded, “Echizen said he had to get home for dinner and feed his cat. As far as I know, he got here by train, so maybe if you go fast enough, you can catch him.”
You grinned and started off towards the train but not before replying, “Thank you, Tezuka-san! I’ll see you at school next week!”
From behind you, you can hear the teammates gathering and saying bye to you. As you made your way to the train station, you were disappointed to see the train leaving. You had missed him. The one interview that would have ensured your internship has gone by. Disappointed, you got on the train and sat down, trying to keep the tears from coming to your eyes. You didn’t cry easily because you had always tried your best and it somehow worked out, but this time, it seemed as though no matter what happened, nothing would work out.
You sniffed, unable to keep the tears from coming to your eyes, and almost jumped when something cold touched your cheek. You could barely stifle a gasp at the person standing before you. He looked awkward, sweaty, and slightly uncomfortable at the way you were staring at him and there didn’t seem to be anything appropriate for him to do except to shove his last Ponta in your face and say, “Mada mada dane.”
As a result, you hadn't really had a chance to finish memorizing the map of Tokyo and the subways you were supposed to take. Your phone vibrated and you recognized the name of the director of the newspaper company from whom you were trying to seek employment. It was a long shot, really, for an exchange student from America to get a job at a Japanese newspaper, but you weren't going to waste time in America just learning about the educational system when you've got a dream job waiting at home with the Economist. You just needed credentials, that was it.
“[your name]-san? This is Uematsu Kenji, director of Tokyo Times.”
“Hi! Uematsu-san! It's a lovely morning, isn't it?”
You were quite fluent in Japanese as far as conversations went, but your literature skills have been polished over the past two years of immersing yourself in novels and newspaper and magazines to learn of what the urban culture was into and what traditions were still rigid in the country. Nonetheless, this was the voice of your possibly future boss and he didn't sound particularly happy.
“About our appointment...”
“Of course, I'm on my way there, right now!”
You weren't exactly late or anything since the meeting was to start at 7, but the subway systems were usually crowded enough that one had to catch the later one if one were just late for a second. In any case, if he was calling you this early, there was no way that this was a good morning call.
“Ah, [your name]-san. That won't be necessary. I suddenly found that I will be unavailable this morning.” When your heart fell, it was suddenly revived again when he said, “Consider this first task as your interview. There is a tennis match going on at Seishun Academy's high school team today at noon and my usual reporter is on an international story right now. So I was hoping you would cover this story for the sports page. Isn't that the school you were going to attend? If it works out, perhaps we can make a deal for you to cover all of the sports activities there in the future.”
Your heart skipped a beat. While you did not intend to go into sports reporting in the future, a chance like this did not happen to any high schooler, much less a foreigner. You were going to work for one of the most prestigious newspaper company in Tokyo! “Yes, please allow me to cover that story!”
Seishun Academy was a private school quite famous for its tennis team. Even as someone who would never find herself in a gym, you were quite versed in that knowledge but you also knew that Seishun Academy was one of the more prestigious private schools in the area of Tokyo that you were attending – after all, it had connections with your high school. Grades were the least of your problems, this exchange program was intended for you to pick and choose for your future.
While you've yet to attend your first class, since summer break was to end after this weekend passed, you didn't really have an exact layout on what the school would be like, but being the future journalist that you were, you had already studied up blueprints of the school, looked into yearbooks and read articles written by the school newspaper. You had been quite tempted to try and join the school newspaper but felt that it would be just like the one at your school and well, you were already editor once and it was time to go higher.
You were seated in the bleachers on one side of the court with your camera sitting on your lap with your video recorder in the other hand. Today, Seishun Academy would be playing against Hyotei Academy, their toughest rivals and you intended to interview all of the players as soon as the match was over. Now, you mused as you glanced around, if only there were some players for the pre-match interview. You looked at the list of players from both teams and decided to go down the list.
Supposedly, all of the players have been to the same school ever since their entering their respective middle schools and have been playing on the same team since. They were, in their own sense, all famous for their styles of tennis and have earned championships at some point in their lives. The youngest of the Seishun Academy team was your age. Ryoma Echizen came from America like yourself, except he wasn't just an exchange student, and have won the US open at the age of twelve. He was definitely going to be one of your interviews.
A loud group of cheers drew your attention to the other side of the court to a crowd of cheering girls surrounding... something. You came closer to find the team captain of Hyotei, you presumed. After some digging earlier, you learned that the team captain was a rich boy who had some complex with using the term “ore.” Whether he was cocky or not, you definitely wanted to know what was on his mind.
“Atobe Keigo?” Suddenly everyone turned your way. You sincerely hoped that it wasn't the American accent slipping through. You've inherited enough oriental features from your mother to pass as a legitimately 100% Asian person but sometimes, you knew, you had a tendency to slur an Irish accent whenever you were nervous.
He blinked, giving you a brief appraisal before asking, “Who are you?”
“I'm [last name], [first name]. I'm conducting a report for Tokyo Times on today's tennis match between Hyotei and your rival school, Seishun Academy. Do you mind if I ask you some questions?” You pulled out your notepad and poised your hand as if preparing to write. It was always good to be assumptive.
He laughed quite loudly before answering, “Of course! What do you wish to know about ore-sama?”
You coughed, hoping that he REALLY wasn't intending for this interview to be about himself. As a journalist, it put you in a hard position when it came to getting a decent answer. “Um, I understand that your team has been rivals with the opponent team ever since middle school. Now that you are in your senior year and in the midst of graduating, has it been any different between now and then?”
He gave that pompous laugh again before responding, “Of course! Seigaku will always be the losers! Ore-sama will take the victory for this game and everyone else agrees with ore-sama, right?”
You twitched, itching to remind him of the apparent losses that started to occur when Ryoma Echizen joined the team, but instead, asked another question: “Well, I can see that you will soon have your match so I won't take too long... this next question will be regarding your team: What are your goals for this coming semester? I take it summer break has given everyone the perfect opportunity to practice for the finish line this year?”
“You are merely stating the obvious, [last name]-san. Ore-sama's team is always at its top condition, and this year, we're taking hold of the trophy for the national high school tournament.” This time, he grinned and looked across the field at something... or someone, as you later figured when you followed his gaze to see a tall boy about his age wearing glasses. “When you interview Tezuka, remind him of what ore-sama has told you!”
And so next thing you know, you were standing in front of Tezuka Kunitmitsu, who was definitely a force not to be reckoned with. He was two years older than you and you had recognized him to be student body president with whom you spoke when you first transferred to the school. The principal thought that you weren't fluent in Japanese and couldn't find the person he decided was fluent in English to communicate with you so he sent down Kunimitsu who was working on his summer duties.
“[your name]-san, it's unusual to see you at a school event, I would think that you would be getting familiar with Tokyo,” he remarked when you walked up to him.
“I'm actually applying to Tokyo Times. The usual reporter is doing an international story right now so Uematsu-san asked me to cover this story,” you explained, “Right now I'm just running around doing a couple of interviews, do you mind if I ask you and your team a couple of questions?”
He nodded solemnly, “I see. I hope Shiba-san is in good health and you are very diligent. My teammates are warming up right now but you may interview them but please don't take too long.”
You smiled, pulling out your notepad and voice recorder, and started speaking, “It seems like Seishun Academy is similar to Hyotei Academy in that your team has remained the same since middle school. How do you keep it together like that? Have you thought about changes?”
Tezuka pushed up his glasses and responded promptly, “We have all worked hard on the team to get to where we are today. I welcome all changes that may come from those who try diligently to improve the team. My team members all have aspirations to thrive in tennis and therefore work hard every single day to do better than the day before.”
You nodded, jotting the answer down before asking, “What are you anticipating for today's match? I'm sure you were aware of Hyotei's Atobe Keigo's remarks but what I want to know is whether you guys have any special surprises in your arsenal from the summer break.”
“We have routinely practiced over the summer, improving all of our players' weaknesses and strengths to cover all of our bases. The goal for today is not just to win but to see the seeds of our results come to fruition.” You glanced up when the announcer came on to call the team captains to the registration center. “[your name]-san, it seems I am going to be busy. If you wish you interview my teammates, they will be stretching over by our school booth.”
After thanking him, you started towards the booth, going down your list as you talked to all the team members. From what you could tell, they were a colorful bunch. Shuichiro Oishi had greeted you with some strangely maternal warmth and answered all of your questions before directing you to Fuji Shusuke. The next thing you knew, you were back on the bleachers with all of our interviews five minutes before the match was starting. Unfortunately you couldn't interview Ryoma Echizen as you couldn't find him even though his teammates said he was practicing by the court.
You were really hoping to ask him about the US Open and well, school in general since it appeared that you two were in the same grade and you were dying to speak with someone who came from the same country you did. In any case, now that the match was going to start, you were resigned to settle and watch it as it came.
The camera started recording after the announcement and Oishi and Kikumaru were up for the first doubles match against Kabaji and Akutagawa. Kikumaru, the red-headed acrobatic player, waved furiously at you when he spotted your camera and grinned widely in your direction, much to the dismay of his double mate. You laughed and all that came to your mind was how interesting the match was going to be.
By the time the last match came around you were sure that despite all the sunburn—something that would definitely remind you to bring the sunblock next time—you would very much like to cover the sports page for Tokyo Times. There were moments when it felt like your heart would stop whenever either team delivered their special shots and for some of them, you couldn't even believe your eyes! Kaidoh Kaoru was one of them; he was a very interesting character. When you first interviewed him, he hadn't said much outside of one-worded answers and seemed way too serious for someone one year your senior. Nonetheless, he definitely caught your attention when he hit his ball out of the court only to find it swinging back onto the court at a very hard corner to anticipate.
As it turned out, Atobe Keigo wasn't all talk after all. Despite his pretty boy looks, he had some flashy moves up his sleeves as well. He was able to knock the ball out of the park for Inui with his hitting dead angles in a way that the genius could not even anticipate. Tezuka practically stood at the same place the entire time, tiring out Oshitari before he knew it was too late. Overall, you found your interest in tennis piqued when Fuji came to for his turn. He played double with Momoshiro and while you didn't think they were a natural match, they were definitely the winning team. Now this last match was supposed to be between Ryoma Echizen and a man named Kabaji.
You couldn’t decide whether or not you had to be surprised when they came onto the court. Kabaji was almost twice as tall as Echizen. Sure, you already knew what the guy looked like from what information you found on him on your smartphone while you made your way to the game, but it still surprised you that he looked so… harmless. Needless to say, the match was over sooner than one expected. While there was a bit of a drawback when Echizen struggled with Kabaji copying his moves, he soon found his ground and took advantage of that leverage to bring his team to their victory.
The students cheering for Seigaku screamed loudly and pushed their way onto the court to congratulate the team, leaving you struggling to breathe and stand properly. You held onto your recorder, making sure it didn’t somehow get lose in all of the chaos and pushed your way to the opposite direction. When you finally made it to the top of the hill, you grabbed your notepad and looked at the page you were going to dedicate to the guy, the list of questions that you had prepared for him were going to go unanswered because it didn’t look like the fans were going to finish any time soon.
Still you were determined to wait. At least, you thought while pulling out your smartphone, while you were waiting, you could do a bit more research on him so you could have a few handy questions up your sleeves in case the guy was as curt as the interviewers made him seem. After about twenty minutes, you looked up to see that the tennis court has cleared up relatively well and you could see Tezuka speaking with his team down there but Echizen was nowhere in sight. You jogged down to the court and stopped in front of the senior student, “Excuse me, Tezuka-san… it seems I have missed Echizen-san by a few minutes. Do you happen to know where I can find him?”
Tezuka pointed towards the train station and responded, “Echizen said he had to get home for dinner and feed his cat. As far as I know, he got here by train, so maybe if you go fast enough, you can catch him.”
You grinned and started off towards the train but not before replying, “Thank you, Tezuka-san! I’ll see you at school next week!”
From behind you, you can hear the teammates gathering and saying bye to you. As you made your way to the train station, you were disappointed to see the train leaving. You had missed him. The one interview that would have ensured your internship has gone by. Disappointed, you got on the train and sat down, trying to keep the tears from coming to your eyes. You didn’t cry easily because you had always tried your best and it somehow worked out, but this time, it seemed as though no matter what happened, nothing would work out.
You sniffed, unable to keep the tears from coming to your eyes, and almost jumped when something cold touched your cheek. You could barely stifle a gasp at the person standing before you. He looked awkward, sweaty, and slightly uncomfortable at the way you were staring at him and there didn’t seem to be anything appropriate for him to do except to shove his last Ponta in your face and say, “Mada mada dane.”
Picnic
When Seigaku’s annual picnic date was announced, you were formally requested by Uematsu to cover it and report on the students’ efforts to both beautify and unite the school on a summer day. You were excited, of course, having been sent on your very first assignment in spite of the lack of ideas you were able to brainstorm the night before. Sure you had the tennis team in mind because you had gotten to know them through the past two weeks. Echizen had saved your butt two weeks ago when you ran into him on the train after the match. No doubt it was a bad first impression that you presented to him, but he still agreed to the interview and managed to act normal upon finding out that you two had class together.
Aside from them, you weren’t really sure who else to interview. The program had several things going on at the same time and even then, you knew very little about the other clubs. The sun was just rising when you met Momoshiro on the way to campus. He was almost two heads taller than you and seemed to eat a lot too, you deduced from the bag of hamburgers he had hanging on his arm. “Good morning, Momoshiro-san.”
“Oh, hi, [last name]-san. You’re up early today, got an assignment?”
You nodded, “I’m covering the picnic today.”
“Oh! So it’s you who’ll be talking to everyone today,” he nodded, “Well, the guys and I will be by the café whenever you want to talk to us.”
“Thank you for telling me. I’m still learning about all the organizations available in Seigaku…” you smiled, scratching your head, “There is a lot more than I expected.”
“In that case, I can help you with them,” and as you two continued your way to school, he told you a brief summary about each and every one of them. When you heard a voice, you both stopped and saw Kikamaru jumping up and down, waving at you guys. You both greeted him back and waited for him to catch up to you before you filled him in on the conversation.
“Oh! [first name]-chan is covering the picnic today? I’ll walk you around and show you the different organizations! Oishi and I are part of the volleyball club so we’ll be going back and forth there too! I’m sure if you ask Oishi for some help, he can show you the cooking club as well.” With a pouty face, he continued, “He joined it last year in secret and didn’t tell me because he thought I would try to join and burn the school down.”
Momo laughed and retorted, “I don’t blame him!”
When you finally got to school, the campus already had a bunch of people running around prepping for the picnic that day. You smiled to the guys and said, “Thank you for your help! The organizations all sound so interesting that I’m going to try to talk to all of them if possible. I can’t believe it’s so busy already… I guess that means I have to get to work if I’m going to be able to talk to them all before the afternoon is over. I’ll see you guys later!”
About half an hour later, you were wiping away a bead of sweat from your forehead while crossing out another club on your list. You’ve talked to people from the knitting club, the film club, garden club, archery club, and finally the cooking club. Thankfully Oishi was the leader for that club so it saved on time getting to know the club and organization leader. Finally it was time to talk to the tennis club. You stared at the sun shining above and remembered how you weren’t really used to the heat, particularly in Japan. At least you lived in a cool area back in the states but here it was just beating down on you. When you got to the café area, you were told that the boys were taking their break to eat their food. Momo, who was finishing up his food as well as his club’s food, remarked that they were heading down to the court to get some practice in and that you’d have a better chance of catching Tezuka down there.
After laughing at his stuffed up face, you thanked him and headed towards the courts. In the distance you can see Fuji running towards the net before jerking his arm back and whipping the tennis ball out of the sight. As you got closer, you could see Oishi and Kikamaru doing some of their stretches while Inui jotted down some notes in his notebook. It seemed like Kaidoh had just gotten off the field since he was heading towards the changing room with a towel covering his head and a water bottle in his mouth. In any case, it seemed like Echizen was nowhere in sight.
You took a step down the stairs and felt the world grow lighter around you. You blinked, slightly off balanced, and shook your head. It must be the heat, you decided, it was probably best to find a shady place. You looked around and lo and behold, lying underneath a small tree was Echizen, fast asleep with his cap covering his face. You bit your lips, knowing that you might as well move onto the next group and save the tennis team for later, since they were taking their breaks after all. Then again, you thought as you gripped your bag, you needed that break as well.
You started towards the tree and Echizen, as though stirred awake by your presence coming near him, started to sit up, yawning groggily before stretching. He blinked when he saw you and said something but you couldn’t hear him as the world around you started to collapse you and before you fell unconscious, you carried with you the pain of your knees hitting the ground on the way down.
The sharp pain seemed to pierce your temple at the slightest movement and you were afraid to even think about opening your eyes. You kept still, listening to the sounds around you to figure out where you were. You can hear the slight creaking of metal against metal and the sound of unrecognizable whispering amongst the sound of cool air blowing loudly somewhere in the room. Your hand twitched and you found that the soft surface underneath you was a bed.
“She’s awake!” Kikamaru’s rang loudly next to you. You stifled a soft groan when you heard footsteps follow. “[first name]-chan, how are you feeling?”
You peeked at the entire tennis team standing by your bedside and smiled timidly at them, “Never better. Thank you, guys, for taking me to the…” you peered around, “clinic. What happened?”
“You passed out in the heat. Good thing Ochibi was around to make sure you were okay. We bandaged up your knee to keep from infection,” he grinned.
“We?” Oishi laughed, “He just sat there and talked while I bandaged your knee. Eiji-kun is really squeamish when it comes to blood.”
“Well… thank you,” you looked around, not able to find Echizen.
“[last name]-san, I understand that you want to be diligent with your duties but please, in the future, worry about yourself some more and don’t neglect yourself,” Tezuka reminded.
“That’s true. We’re still on our break so you should join us on our picnic,” Fuji invited you with a smile.
Blushing at your own clumsiness and carelessness, you nodded, “If you guys are okay with it.”
“Good! It’s settled. You’re going to sit here until we send Echizen to get you because we need to set up all the food!” Momo grinned, heading off towards the door. You opened your mouth to protest but before you could say anything, they were already out the door and your head spun when you tried to move.
Groaning, you lied back down and squeezed your eyes shut. Man you really hated heat strokes.
When you finally came to again, your head felt a lot better. You could see Echizen’s blurry back while he stood near the door with his tennis racquet in his hand and a ball bouncing up and down on the net. With his hat off, you can see his dark hair has almost reached the back of his neck. You yawned softly, drawing his attention. He turned around and muttered, “You’re awake. You shouldn’t have overworked yourself.”
You shook your head, “I know. I’m sorry we keep ending up in these situations.”
He handed you a glass of water and said, “They’re already eating.”
“You waited for me to wake up? I’m sorry you had to miss out on the food,” you frowned, moving towards the edge of the bed. He shrugged and you sent a small smile his way, “You can have part of my portion. Thanks.”
Echizen turned away and bent his head down, his hand going up as if to find his hat but then there was nothing there. So instead he cleared his throat and remarked. “Mada mada dane, people who just had a heat stroke should eat more.”
Was he blushing or something? Before you could even start to figure it out, he started towards the door and without a word, tossed a cap your way. When you realized what it was, he was already out the door.
Aside from them, you weren’t really sure who else to interview. The program had several things going on at the same time and even then, you knew very little about the other clubs. The sun was just rising when you met Momoshiro on the way to campus. He was almost two heads taller than you and seemed to eat a lot too, you deduced from the bag of hamburgers he had hanging on his arm. “Good morning, Momoshiro-san.”
“Oh, hi, [last name]-san. You’re up early today, got an assignment?”
You nodded, “I’m covering the picnic today.”
“Oh! So it’s you who’ll be talking to everyone today,” he nodded, “Well, the guys and I will be by the café whenever you want to talk to us.”
“Thank you for telling me. I’m still learning about all the organizations available in Seigaku…” you smiled, scratching your head, “There is a lot more than I expected.”
“In that case, I can help you with them,” and as you two continued your way to school, he told you a brief summary about each and every one of them. When you heard a voice, you both stopped and saw Kikamaru jumping up and down, waving at you guys. You both greeted him back and waited for him to catch up to you before you filled him in on the conversation.
“Oh! [first name]-chan is covering the picnic today? I’ll walk you around and show you the different organizations! Oishi and I are part of the volleyball club so we’ll be going back and forth there too! I’m sure if you ask Oishi for some help, he can show you the cooking club as well.” With a pouty face, he continued, “He joined it last year in secret and didn’t tell me because he thought I would try to join and burn the school down.”
Momo laughed and retorted, “I don’t blame him!”
When you finally got to school, the campus already had a bunch of people running around prepping for the picnic that day. You smiled to the guys and said, “Thank you for your help! The organizations all sound so interesting that I’m going to try to talk to all of them if possible. I can’t believe it’s so busy already… I guess that means I have to get to work if I’m going to be able to talk to them all before the afternoon is over. I’ll see you guys later!”
About half an hour later, you were wiping away a bead of sweat from your forehead while crossing out another club on your list. You’ve talked to people from the knitting club, the film club, garden club, archery club, and finally the cooking club. Thankfully Oishi was the leader for that club so it saved on time getting to know the club and organization leader. Finally it was time to talk to the tennis club. You stared at the sun shining above and remembered how you weren’t really used to the heat, particularly in Japan. At least you lived in a cool area back in the states but here it was just beating down on you. When you got to the café area, you were told that the boys were taking their break to eat their food. Momo, who was finishing up his food as well as his club’s food, remarked that they were heading down to the court to get some practice in and that you’d have a better chance of catching Tezuka down there.
After laughing at his stuffed up face, you thanked him and headed towards the courts. In the distance you can see Fuji running towards the net before jerking his arm back and whipping the tennis ball out of the sight. As you got closer, you could see Oishi and Kikamaru doing some of their stretches while Inui jotted down some notes in his notebook. It seemed like Kaidoh had just gotten off the field since he was heading towards the changing room with a towel covering his head and a water bottle in his mouth. In any case, it seemed like Echizen was nowhere in sight.
You took a step down the stairs and felt the world grow lighter around you. You blinked, slightly off balanced, and shook your head. It must be the heat, you decided, it was probably best to find a shady place. You looked around and lo and behold, lying underneath a small tree was Echizen, fast asleep with his cap covering his face. You bit your lips, knowing that you might as well move onto the next group and save the tennis team for later, since they were taking their breaks after all. Then again, you thought as you gripped your bag, you needed that break as well.
You started towards the tree and Echizen, as though stirred awake by your presence coming near him, started to sit up, yawning groggily before stretching. He blinked when he saw you and said something but you couldn’t hear him as the world around you started to collapse you and before you fell unconscious, you carried with you the pain of your knees hitting the ground on the way down.
The sharp pain seemed to pierce your temple at the slightest movement and you were afraid to even think about opening your eyes. You kept still, listening to the sounds around you to figure out where you were. You can hear the slight creaking of metal against metal and the sound of unrecognizable whispering amongst the sound of cool air blowing loudly somewhere in the room. Your hand twitched and you found that the soft surface underneath you was a bed.
“She’s awake!” Kikamaru’s rang loudly next to you. You stifled a soft groan when you heard footsteps follow. “[first name]-chan, how are you feeling?”
You peeked at the entire tennis team standing by your bedside and smiled timidly at them, “Never better. Thank you, guys, for taking me to the…” you peered around, “clinic. What happened?”
“You passed out in the heat. Good thing Ochibi was around to make sure you were okay. We bandaged up your knee to keep from infection,” he grinned.
“We?” Oishi laughed, “He just sat there and talked while I bandaged your knee. Eiji-kun is really squeamish when it comes to blood.”
“Well… thank you,” you looked around, not able to find Echizen.
“[last name]-san, I understand that you want to be diligent with your duties but please, in the future, worry about yourself some more and don’t neglect yourself,” Tezuka reminded.
“That’s true. We’re still on our break so you should join us on our picnic,” Fuji invited you with a smile.
Blushing at your own clumsiness and carelessness, you nodded, “If you guys are okay with it.”
“Good! It’s settled. You’re going to sit here until we send Echizen to get you because we need to set up all the food!” Momo grinned, heading off towards the door. You opened your mouth to protest but before you could say anything, they were already out the door and your head spun when you tried to move.
Groaning, you lied back down and squeezed your eyes shut. Man you really hated heat strokes.
When you finally came to again, your head felt a lot better. You could see Echizen’s blurry back while he stood near the door with his tennis racquet in his hand and a ball bouncing up and down on the net. With his hat off, you can see his dark hair has almost reached the back of his neck. You yawned softly, drawing his attention. He turned around and muttered, “You’re awake. You shouldn’t have overworked yourself.”
You shook your head, “I know. I’m sorry we keep ending up in these situations.”
He handed you a glass of water and said, “They’re already eating.”
“You waited for me to wake up? I’m sorry you had to miss out on the food,” you frowned, moving towards the edge of the bed. He shrugged and you sent a small smile his way, “You can have part of my portion. Thanks.”
Echizen turned away and bent his head down, his hand going up as if to find his hat but then there was nothing there. So instead he cleared his throat and remarked. “Mada mada dane, people who just had a heat stroke should eat more.”
Was he blushing or something? Before you could even start to figure it out, he started towards the door and without a word, tossed a cap your way. When you realized what it was, he was already out the door.
Lemonade Stand
You weren’t really sure how you ended sitting next to Ryoma Echizen at a lemonade stand during the tennis tournament except that one moment you were assigned to cover the tournament, the next, your boss found out he had time to cover it after all and that you should take the long deserved break you needed. So then you were left to wander around the tennis courts until you found him sitting there with a bored expression on his face and a huge band aid covering his wound from the game before.
“Why aren’t you by the court?” you asked, taking a seat next to him.
He scooted the chair over to give you more room by the table and shrugged, “I was getting angry.”
“I saw what happened—“
“I don’t need to go to the hospital,” he snapped, sending a glare your way.
You retorted with an equally antagonizing glare, “Wasn’t gonna ask. Why are you so snippy anyways?”
“I could have finished the game,” he mumbled, pulling his cap down.
“Sure you could have. You would have lost an eye and be finished forever, you want that?” When you heard him wince, you sat up straight and tried to see his expression, but he was looking away from you. “Is it hurting again? Let me see so I can change your band aid.”
“I’m fine. Stop touching me,” he pushed your hands away.
The two of you continued to argue and ignored Inui, who had just wandered up with a white thermos in his hand. He looked down at the table to see that Echizen had neglected to keep the table stocked with lemonade. By the time his thermos was empty, he had filled up at least ten small cups with a yellow liquid slightly resembling lemonade. He shrugged and wandered off.
At least fifteen minutes after he left, Sengoku Kiyosumi from Yamabuki High School wandered by, having consumed an unfortunately spicy snack too much for his taste buds to handle. He thought about nicely asking the arguing couple for a cup of lemonade and decided that five minutes before his match, he couldn’t afford to be late – especially since that Momoshiro mocked him about his looks. So quietly he grabbed one of the cups and when the liquid touched his lips, it was too late to react.
When the bitter taste slid down his throat, he shuddered and felt his bones grow weak. Oh well, no time to do anything now, he had to get to his match. At least, he thought while stifling the desire to vomit, his tongue wasn’t on fire from that spicy stuff anymore.
“Hold still!” you shrieked, pulling at his cap. Finally when you jerked it off his head, Echizen jumped out of the chair, revealing the thin stream of blood leaking out of the band aid, “You’re bleeding!”
Half an hour later, you had covered his eye with another band aid after cleaning his wound, just in time for the team to have finished. Momo skipped over holding the trophy and stuck his tongue out at his underclassman while chirping, “Look, Echizen! Looks like I was the one to play the winning match.”
“Che,” Echizen frowned, pulling his cap down before standing up, and responded, “I’m going home.”
Before anyone could say anything, he was off, leaving you and the guys to stare at the lemonade table. Who was supposed to be in charge of this anyways? Save for one cup with some leftover lemonade, no one even bought anything! You lifted a cup and almost drank it until Oishi hit the cup out of your hands. Before you could respond with a confused expression, he warned: “Don’t drink it! Inui’s drinks are poisonous!”
After the table was put up, you learned that out of all the guys on the tennis team, only Fuji could stomach Inui’s drinks, which were usually mixed with some powerful chemicals that were to enhance the performance of the players. Tezuka said that he could do so as well but you weren’t sure whether or not you should believe him when Fuji grinned at those words.
The guys walked with you until eventually there were only Momo and you left. As it turned out, he lived near your neighborhood. When you guys reached his house, he offered to walk you home but then, you figured when you glanced at your watch, there was still some daylight left for you to find your way home. So then you parted ways. A while after you went down the road towards your house, the sun went down and before long, you were left with the street lights to guide your way. Well, it was better than nothing. Back in the states, you could find your way back home in the dark – well, you had to anyways.
You jumped when you heard something fall by the alley and the sound of a cat crying. Maybe it was looking for food, you thought. Sure you loved animals, but you were not dumb enough to go into a dark alley by yourself. You continued to walk until you heard footsteps behind you. Then you sped up, and when the footsteps quickened, you sped up some more. You started to look back, but the next thing you know, you were falling forward and your knee hit the ground with a soft crunch. You cried out, clutching it painfully.
Well, you were going to die in Japan, kidnapped and raped and dumped in the back of a dark alley. Great!
“Mada mada dane. Your knee still hasn’t recovered yet. Why do you always get hurt?” Echizen’s voice came from behind you. You looked back to see him emerging from the darkness. He wasn’t wearing his cap or his usual athletic outfit. Instead he was in his pajamas and flipflops, his hair looked slightly damp from a shower. He was carrying in his arm a fuzzy dark thing that blinked at you and only when it meowed did you figure out that it was a cat.
You looked around. “What are you doing here?”
“I live nearby. Was taking a walk. Why are you just getting home now?” He glanced at his watch. “The tournament ended hours ago.”
You shrugged and started to stand up, “I was cleaning up with everyone.”
One step forward was all it took for you to freeze in pain. You bit your lips but Echizen had noticed the expression on your face already. “Can you walk?”
Somehow it seemed like you two keep on running into each other in these situations and you really wanted it to be different – at least so that neither you nor him needed to be wounded. So you tried to take another step but the pain shooting up your leg almost made you want to keel over. You shook your head and he sighed, setting his cat to the ground before he walked towards you and squatted down. “Get on. I’ll take you home before we take a look at that.”
The cat standing next to the two of you looked ready to jump on his back but he waited to see if you were going to get on. Instead of arguing, you climbed onto his back. As soon as you were able to get a hold of his shoulders, Echizen pulled your legs close to his waist, securing you on his back. In spite of his size, he stood up with ease and started to walking, giving a small whistle for his cat to follow. The puffy thing meowed before scampering along. You were almost too dazed to notice that you had arrived to his house though for some reason you thought he knew where you lived.
There you met Nanjiro Echizen, his father, and Nanako, his cousin, who both told you to stay for dinner. The older gentleman was not what you expected of a famous tennis player who had quit the sport for his family. Instead, he seemed rather… sleazy. “Ah, so you’re the reason why the kid decided to take a walk in the middle of the night.”
“Shut up, old man.” You blinked. Nanjiro’s eager eyes went from his son to you, trying to assess the relationship between the two of you but he the younger Echizen caught onto that and told his old man to go to sleep before coming out of the bathroom with a first aid kit. In five minutes, you were sitting on a chair, wincing as he patted your scraped knee with a piece of cotton ball.
“Consider it even,” he said after a while.
“For what?”
“Today.” He nodded his head, signaling for you to look at the small band aid that had replaced his big one.
You grinned and responded, “It’s fine. Thank you, Echizen-kun.”
About twenty minutes later, you were good to go. When you started towards the door, Nanako insisted for Echizen to take you home. So by the time he pulled around to the front on his bike, Echizen had his cap on and his cat sitting in the front basket. He started to shoo Karupin off so you could put your stuff there, but you told him it was okay for him to sit there. So then you got in the back seat, wincing slightly when you bumped your knee. Echizen told you to hold onto his waist and as soon as you obeyed, he was off.
After the last downhill before the right turn, the idea that Ryoma Echizen knew where you lived finally dawned on your mind. How did he know where you lived anyways? He glanced at you and asked, nodding ahead of him, “Turn right at this street, right?”
You confirmed it and then asked, “How did you know where I live?”
“You were walking home with me when you first interviewed me, remember? When I headed into the house, I saw you heading this way and I figured that if you didn’t live in my neighborhood, the only other residential area was in this neighborhood. Which house is it?” When you pointed to your house, he slowed down. “Do you live by yourself?”
When you got off the bike, you answered, “Just for the summer. It’s an exchange program.”
You glanced at Karupin, who seemed to have found a liking in your bag, and gave him a pat on the head before grabbing your bag. The conversation went on for a while, ending with the two of you agreeing that it was officially even between the two of you even though you both knew that you were neglecting to mention the time when he let you borrow his cap when you had a heat stroke. . “Thank you again, Echizen-kun.”
And as he rode off, you were pretty sure… maybe 80% sure that he said: “It’s Ryoma.”
“Why aren’t you by the court?” you asked, taking a seat next to him.
He scooted the chair over to give you more room by the table and shrugged, “I was getting angry.”
“I saw what happened—“
“I don’t need to go to the hospital,” he snapped, sending a glare your way.
You retorted with an equally antagonizing glare, “Wasn’t gonna ask. Why are you so snippy anyways?”
“I could have finished the game,” he mumbled, pulling his cap down.
“Sure you could have. You would have lost an eye and be finished forever, you want that?” When you heard him wince, you sat up straight and tried to see his expression, but he was looking away from you. “Is it hurting again? Let me see so I can change your band aid.”
“I’m fine. Stop touching me,” he pushed your hands away.
The two of you continued to argue and ignored Inui, who had just wandered up with a white thermos in his hand. He looked down at the table to see that Echizen had neglected to keep the table stocked with lemonade. By the time his thermos was empty, he had filled up at least ten small cups with a yellow liquid slightly resembling lemonade. He shrugged and wandered off.
At least fifteen minutes after he left, Sengoku Kiyosumi from Yamabuki High School wandered by, having consumed an unfortunately spicy snack too much for his taste buds to handle. He thought about nicely asking the arguing couple for a cup of lemonade and decided that five minutes before his match, he couldn’t afford to be late – especially since that Momoshiro mocked him about his looks. So quietly he grabbed one of the cups and when the liquid touched his lips, it was too late to react.
When the bitter taste slid down his throat, he shuddered and felt his bones grow weak. Oh well, no time to do anything now, he had to get to his match. At least, he thought while stifling the desire to vomit, his tongue wasn’t on fire from that spicy stuff anymore.
“Hold still!” you shrieked, pulling at his cap. Finally when you jerked it off his head, Echizen jumped out of the chair, revealing the thin stream of blood leaking out of the band aid, “You’re bleeding!”
Half an hour later, you had covered his eye with another band aid after cleaning his wound, just in time for the team to have finished. Momo skipped over holding the trophy and stuck his tongue out at his underclassman while chirping, “Look, Echizen! Looks like I was the one to play the winning match.”
“Che,” Echizen frowned, pulling his cap down before standing up, and responded, “I’m going home.”
Before anyone could say anything, he was off, leaving you and the guys to stare at the lemonade table. Who was supposed to be in charge of this anyways? Save for one cup with some leftover lemonade, no one even bought anything! You lifted a cup and almost drank it until Oishi hit the cup out of your hands. Before you could respond with a confused expression, he warned: “Don’t drink it! Inui’s drinks are poisonous!”
After the table was put up, you learned that out of all the guys on the tennis team, only Fuji could stomach Inui’s drinks, which were usually mixed with some powerful chemicals that were to enhance the performance of the players. Tezuka said that he could do so as well but you weren’t sure whether or not you should believe him when Fuji grinned at those words.
The guys walked with you until eventually there were only Momo and you left. As it turned out, he lived near your neighborhood. When you guys reached his house, he offered to walk you home but then, you figured when you glanced at your watch, there was still some daylight left for you to find your way home. So then you parted ways. A while after you went down the road towards your house, the sun went down and before long, you were left with the street lights to guide your way. Well, it was better than nothing. Back in the states, you could find your way back home in the dark – well, you had to anyways.
You jumped when you heard something fall by the alley and the sound of a cat crying. Maybe it was looking for food, you thought. Sure you loved animals, but you were not dumb enough to go into a dark alley by yourself. You continued to walk until you heard footsteps behind you. Then you sped up, and when the footsteps quickened, you sped up some more. You started to look back, but the next thing you know, you were falling forward and your knee hit the ground with a soft crunch. You cried out, clutching it painfully.
Well, you were going to die in Japan, kidnapped and raped and dumped in the back of a dark alley. Great!
“Mada mada dane. Your knee still hasn’t recovered yet. Why do you always get hurt?” Echizen’s voice came from behind you. You looked back to see him emerging from the darkness. He wasn’t wearing his cap or his usual athletic outfit. Instead he was in his pajamas and flipflops, his hair looked slightly damp from a shower. He was carrying in his arm a fuzzy dark thing that blinked at you and only when it meowed did you figure out that it was a cat.
You looked around. “What are you doing here?”
“I live nearby. Was taking a walk. Why are you just getting home now?” He glanced at his watch. “The tournament ended hours ago.”
You shrugged and started to stand up, “I was cleaning up with everyone.”
One step forward was all it took for you to freeze in pain. You bit your lips but Echizen had noticed the expression on your face already. “Can you walk?”
Somehow it seemed like you two keep on running into each other in these situations and you really wanted it to be different – at least so that neither you nor him needed to be wounded. So you tried to take another step but the pain shooting up your leg almost made you want to keel over. You shook your head and he sighed, setting his cat to the ground before he walked towards you and squatted down. “Get on. I’ll take you home before we take a look at that.”
The cat standing next to the two of you looked ready to jump on his back but he waited to see if you were going to get on. Instead of arguing, you climbed onto his back. As soon as you were able to get a hold of his shoulders, Echizen pulled your legs close to his waist, securing you on his back. In spite of his size, he stood up with ease and started to walking, giving a small whistle for his cat to follow. The puffy thing meowed before scampering along. You were almost too dazed to notice that you had arrived to his house though for some reason you thought he knew where you lived.
There you met Nanjiro Echizen, his father, and Nanako, his cousin, who both told you to stay for dinner. The older gentleman was not what you expected of a famous tennis player who had quit the sport for his family. Instead, he seemed rather… sleazy. “Ah, so you’re the reason why the kid decided to take a walk in the middle of the night.”
“Shut up, old man.” You blinked. Nanjiro’s eager eyes went from his son to you, trying to assess the relationship between the two of you but he the younger Echizen caught onto that and told his old man to go to sleep before coming out of the bathroom with a first aid kit. In five minutes, you were sitting on a chair, wincing as he patted your scraped knee with a piece of cotton ball.
“Consider it even,” he said after a while.
“For what?”
“Today.” He nodded his head, signaling for you to look at the small band aid that had replaced his big one.
You grinned and responded, “It’s fine. Thank you, Echizen-kun.”
About twenty minutes later, you were good to go. When you started towards the door, Nanako insisted for Echizen to take you home. So by the time he pulled around to the front on his bike, Echizen had his cap on and his cat sitting in the front basket. He started to shoo Karupin off so you could put your stuff there, but you told him it was okay for him to sit there. So then you got in the back seat, wincing slightly when you bumped your knee. Echizen told you to hold onto his waist and as soon as you obeyed, he was off.
After the last downhill before the right turn, the idea that Ryoma Echizen knew where you lived finally dawned on your mind. How did he know where you lived anyways? He glanced at you and asked, nodding ahead of him, “Turn right at this street, right?”
You confirmed it and then asked, “How did you know where I live?”
“You were walking home with me when you first interviewed me, remember? When I headed into the house, I saw you heading this way and I figured that if you didn’t live in my neighborhood, the only other residential area was in this neighborhood. Which house is it?” When you pointed to your house, he slowed down. “Do you live by yourself?”
When you got off the bike, you answered, “Just for the summer. It’s an exchange program.”
You glanced at Karupin, who seemed to have found a liking in your bag, and gave him a pat on the head before grabbing your bag. The conversation went on for a while, ending with the two of you agreeing that it was officially even between the two of you even though you both knew that you were neglecting to mention the time when he let you borrow his cap when you had a heat stroke. . “Thank you again, Echizen-kun.”
And as he rode off, you were pretty sure… maybe 80% sure that he said: “It’s Ryoma.”
Boredom
It couldn’t be that hard, right? Surely hitting the ball across the net wasn’t as hard as everyone made it out to be. You glanced around the room to see that it was indeed empty of the students in your science class. You were on cleaning duty and after seeing your Seigaku upperclassmen walk past the room with their tennis racquet, you started to wonder why they seemed to be practicing ALL THE TIME.
You picked up the chalk eraser and imagined it to be the tennis racquet – well, it was close enough, right? – before you swung back with both of your hands on the item and you let loose. Needless to say, what you hadn’t expected to happen was for the eraser to fly out of your hand, just in time for the door to open. It flew right past the face of the person just entering and right out of the hallway window. Your mouth dropped into the shape of a big O as you started to apologize profusely.
Ryoma Echizen blinked, figuring that part of the reason why you were becoming red was because you just threw the eraser out the window in the hallway, but he wasn’t unsure why you couldn’t meet his eyes. “Are you on cleaning duty today?”
He nodded, “I have to leave early for practice.”
“Oh, okay that’s fine,” you glanced around the room, “There’s not much to clean anyways so you can go ahead to practice. I heard you guys have something pretty big coming up.”
He shrugged and said, “If you say so.”
Just as he started to go, you called out to him, “Echizen-kun, er… Ryoma. If you are free sometimes, would you mind teaching me tennis?”
Oh. So THAT was why you were red. Ryoma flashed a small smile, amused at the both the realization and the way his name sounded on your lips. He never really cared if people referred to him by his last name or first name, especially since he came to Japan, but knowing that you were from America just like him, he realized you were probably more comfortable on a first name basis. He nodded and picked a tennis ball from his pocket to give to you. “We’re done with practice at five today. Is that good for you?”
You stared blankly at him, as if not processing what just happened, before finally responding with a smile, “Oh! Yes! I’ll be around. I need to talk to the school’s newspaper editor and after that I can come to the tennis field. Thank you!”
Ryoma reached for his cap and pulled it over his eyes before he left the room. When he arrived to the changing room, he had realized that he had left the room without saying anything to you.
You picked up the chalk eraser and imagined it to be the tennis racquet – well, it was close enough, right? – before you swung back with both of your hands on the item and you let loose. Needless to say, what you hadn’t expected to happen was for the eraser to fly out of your hand, just in time for the door to open. It flew right past the face of the person just entering and right out of the hallway window. Your mouth dropped into the shape of a big O as you started to apologize profusely.
Ryoma Echizen blinked, figuring that part of the reason why you were becoming red was because you just threw the eraser out the window in the hallway, but he wasn’t unsure why you couldn’t meet his eyes. “Are you on cleaning duty today?”
He nodded, “I have to leave early for practice.”
“Oh, okay that’s fine,” you glanced around the room, “There’s not much to clean anyways so you can go ahead to practice. I heard you guys have something pretty big coming up.”
He shrugged and said, “If you say so.”
Just as he started to go, you called out to him, “Echizen-kun, er… Ryoma. If you are free sometimes, would you mind teaching me tennis?”
Oh. So THAT was why you were red. Ryoma flashed a small smile, amused at the both the realization and the way his name sounded on your lips. He never really cared if people referred to him by his last name or first name, especially since he came to Japan, but knowing that you were from America just like him, he realized you were probably more comfortable on a first name basis. He nodded and picked a tennis ball from his pocket to give to you. “We’re done with practice at five today. Is that good for you?”
You stared blankly at him, as if not processing what just happened, before finally responding with a smile, “Oh! Yes! I’ll be around. I need to talk to the school’s newspaper editor and after that I can come to the tennis field. Thank you!”
Ryoma reached for his cap and pulled it over his eyes before he left the room. When he arrived to the changing room, he had realized that he had left the room without saying anything to you.
Summer School
Good god, could this man be any more boring? Your head was inches away from touching the desk and you could still follow the words that the English teacher was struggling to get out. It was almost unfathomable when you learned that you had to take ENGLISH as something you had to study for your exchange program. If you wanted to learn ENGLISH, you would have stayed back in the states! “[last name]-san, would you mind reading the next passage?”
You blinked, looking from the teacher and the back down to your book. Sure, it wouldn’t have been TOO bad to take an English class if you were reading something a tad more advanced. Reading Peter Pan was really the last thing you had in mind, especially for something in high school. Not that you didn’t like the story – you’ve simply read it a million times when you babysat your cousins. When you finished your passage in half the time it took for the teacher to read the first one, you sat back down, diverting your attention to the window. Surely now he’d think a little more about making you read the passage.
You caught sight of Ryoma, who was making his way across the courtyard with his tennis racquet clamped under his arm. His hat was in his hand while he was covering his mouth with one hand. Lucky, he must have just woken up, you deduced from his messy hair. Even though he had to train for tennis during the summer, at least he didn’t have to take a boring English class. He had to take Math, which was apparently his worst subject and that was how he came to be your cleaning duty partner last week. Speaking of last week, you smiled upon the memory. He had taught you how to hit the ball across the field and in spite of appearances, he was pretty patient with your lack of hand eye coordination. You also learned that he loved to tease people with that favorite phrase of his – “Mada mada dane.”
Not good enough.
You knew from watching his matches that hearing those words made his opponents go nuts, but somehow it just made you want to laugh and try better. When he had reminded you to call him by his first name, it took a lot of pressure off. You didn’t have a problem with honorifics but after a while, it does get kind of confusing when you run into siblings or family member. However people, even the guys on his tennis team, seemed to be really surprised when they hear you speak his first name without the honorific. If not for your background, they probably would have thought the two off you were going out. Suddenly you had an idea. As Ryoma got closer to the school, you looked over to the teacher, whose eyes were on the board, writing down some sentence.
Quietly you took out a sheet of paper and wrote something down on it. In the span of two minutes, it was written and the paper was folded into a paper airplane. When you glanced at the window again, it seemed like Ryoma was stopped by Momo, who was eating a hamburger. Could that guy never stop eating? He was so fit and healthy and yet he ate like a cow! The teacher glanced up to call on Ryuzaki before turning around towards the board. You took this chance to throw the paper airplane before returning your attention to the girl who had just timidly stood up to read her passage.
She was a strange one, you had to admit. You had a feeling that she had a bit of a crush towards Ryoma though you felt kind of bad because he did not want to reciprocate her feelings – something you had brought up when he walked home with you last week. Well, maybe it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that you two hadn’t become a little close, but it was probably because you both came from the states. You had only asked because you didn’t want to come between the two in case there WAS something between them. That aside, you could tell that she wasn’t really fond of you, but what could you do? You had tried to extend some courtesy towards her but she wasn’t very welcoming.
Your attention turned back to the window when you heard Momo guffawed and call out to you. Ryoma was shaking his head at you with a tiny smile on his face, after having read the note. You returned the wave and signaled to the note. Momo grinned and shouted, “We’ll see you at lunch!”
When you returned your attention to class, you were glad that no one paid attention to your little exchange. Your eyes met with the unhappy expression on Ryuzaki’s face and the smile dropped off your face. Quickly your eyes dropped to the book as the frown made its way to your lips. What was her problem?
After class you picked up your bento and started towards the tennis courts but you stopped when you heard your name being called. You turned around to see none other than Ryuzaki making her way towards you. She opened her mouth to say something but stopped. You raised an eyebrow and asked politely in Japanese, “Ryuzaki-san, is something wrong?”
“Are you going to the tennis court to see Echizen-kun?” she finally asked, her eyebrows furrowing.
“Yea.” You nodded, “Is there a problem?”
There was a really uncomfortable look on her face for a moment before it hardened. Suddenly she blurted, “I don’t think you should bother him anymore. Echizen-kun doesn’t like it when people bother him during practice. Besides,” she added shakily, “there’s a tournament coming up and I don’t think you want them to do poorly on it.”
Without another word, she ran off. Bother him? Was that what you were doing? Sometimes it was hard to read the guy because he was always so quiet but maybe he was just being polite. Slowly you made your way to the tennis court to see them practicing. They have been training hard. A small beep drew your attention to your phone. It was your boss, telling you about a new assignment he wanted you to cover. When you looked up, you saw Momo and Ryoma making their way towards you and you waved to them. “Ready for lunch?”
You shook your head, flashing a sheepish grin, “I can’t today. Sorry about that. Uematsu-san just texted me about an assignment, so I’ve got about twenty minutes to get to the location.”
“We can go with you,” Ryoma suggested.
You shook your head furiously, “It’s fine! Thanks! It’ll take an hour or two and then I’ll be back for the rest of the school day. Don’t worry about it! You guys should get to practice!”
Before the guys could say anything, you were already jogging towards the front gate. Momo frowned and glanced at his underclassman, “What’s up with her?”
You blinked, looking from the teacher and the back down to your book. Sure, it wouldn’t have been TOO bad to take an English class if you were reading something a tad more advanced. Reading Peter Pan was really the last thing you had in mind, especially for something in high school. Not that you didn’t like the story – you’ve simply read it a million times when you babysat your cousins. When you finished your passage in half the time it took for the teacher to read the first one, you sat back down, diverting your attention to the window. Surely now he’d think a little more about making you read the passage.
You caught sight of Ryoma, who was making his way across the courtyard with his tennis racquet clamped under his arm. His hat was in his hand while he was covering his mouth with one hand. Lucky, he must have just woken up, you deduced from his messy hair. Even though he had to train for tennis during the summer, at least he didn’t have to take a boring English class. He had to take Math, which was apparently his worst subject and that was how he came to be your cleaning duty partner last week. Speaking of last week, you smiled upon the memory. He had taught you how to hit the ball across the field and in spite of appearances, he was pretty patient with your lack of hand eye coordination. You also learned that he loved to tease people with that favorite phrase of his – “Mada mada dane.”
Not good enough.
You knew from watching his matches that hearing those words made his opponents go nuts, but somehow it just made you want to laugh and try better. When he had reminded you to call him by his first name, it took a lot of pressure off. You didn’t have a problem with honorifics but after a while, it does get kind of confusing when you run into siblings or family member. However people, even the guys on his tennis team, seemed to be really surprised when they hear you speak his first name without the honorific. If not for your background, they probably would have thought the two off you were going out. Suddenly you had an idea. As Ryoma got closer to the school, you looked over to the teacher, whose eyes were on the board, writing down some sentence.
Quietly you took out a sheet of paper and wrote something down on it. In the span of two minutes, it was written and the paper was folded into a paper airplane. When you glanced at the window again, it seemed like Ryoma was stopped by Momo, who was eating a hamburger. Could that guy never stop eating? He was so fit and healthy and yet he ate like a cow! The teacher glanced up to call on Ryuzaki before turning around towards the board. You took this chance to throw the paper airplane before returning your attention to the girl who had just timidly stood up to read her passage.
She was a strange one, you had to admit. You had a feeling that she had a bit of a crush towards Ryoma though you felt kind of bad because he did not want to reciprocate her feelings – something you had brought up when he walked home with you last week. Well, maybe it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that you two hadn’t become a little close, but it was probably because you both came from the states. You had only asked because you didn’t want to come between the two in case there WAS something between them. That aside, you could tell that she wasn’t really fond of you, but what could you do? You had tried to extend some courtesy towards her but she wasn’t very welcoming.
Your attention turned back to the window when you heard Momo guffawed and call out to you. Ryoma was shaking his head at you with a tiny smile on his face, after having read the note. You returned the wave and signaled to the note. Momo grinned and shouted, “We’ll see you at lunch!”
When you returned your attention to class, you were glad that no one paid attention to your little exchange. Your eyes met with the unhappy expression on Ryuzaki’s face and the smile dropped off your face. Quickly your eyes dropped to the book as the frown made its way to your lips. What was her problem?
After class you picked up your bento and started towards the tennis courts but you stopped when you heard your name being called. You turned around to see none other than Ryuzaki making her way towards you. She opened her mouth to say something but stopped. You raised an eyebrow and asked politely in Japanese, “Ryuzaki-san, is something wrong?”
“Are you going to the tennis court to see Echizen-kun?” she finally asked, her eyebrows furrowing.
“Yea.” You nodded, “Is there a problem?”
There was a really uncomfortable look on her face for a moment before it hardened. Suddenly she blurted, “I don’t think you should bother him anymore. Echizen-kun doesn’t like it when people bother him during practice. Besides,” she added shakily, “there’s a tournament coming up and I don’t think you want them to do poorly on it.”
Without another word, she ran off. Bother him? Was that what you were doing? Sometimes it was hard to read the guy because he was always so quiet but maybe he was just being polite. Slowly you made your way to the tennis court to see them practicing. They have been training hard. A small beep drew your attention to your phone. It was your boss, telling you about a new assignment he wanted you to cover. When you looked up, you saw Momo and Ryoma making their way towards you and you waved to them. “Ready for lunch?”
You shook your head, flashing a sheepish grin, “I can’t today. Sorry about that. Uematsu-san just texted me about an assignment, so I’ve got about twenty minutes to get to the location.”
“We can go with you,” Ryoma suggested.
You shook your head furiously, “It’s fine! Thanks! It’ll take an hour or two and then I’ll be back for the rest of the school day. Don’t worry about it! You guys should get to practice!”
Before the guys could say anything, you were already jogging towards the front gate. Momo frowned and glanced at his underclassman, “What’s up with her?”
Really Hot Weather
“Thank you for the interview, Fuji-san,” you smiled, closing your notepad as the upperclassman from St. Rudolph nodded.
There was a small blush on his face as he said your name, “[last name]-san, it seems like you are attending school with my brother so it is like we are acquainted. After the tournament, would you like to go out to dinner with the guys and I?”
You gave a polite smile before shaking your head, “That sounds lovely but I have a few assignments that have to be rushed tonight. Thank you for the invitation though.”
After taking a seat next to Fuji from your school, you greeted him and told him about the interview with his brother. It was strange to see his eyes opened for once and even stranger to see that they were bright blue. “You are going up against him, right?”
He nodded, “It’s been a while since we’ve played together. I guess this would be a good chance to see how he has improved.”
You directed your attention to the tennis court where Kaidoh Kaoru was going up against Atsushi Kisarazu. If you hadn’t known better, you would think that the two were evenly matched, but Kaidoh had a few tricks up his sleeves. Every morning when you walked to the newspaper office to talk to your boss, you would see him jogging by. A while later after you do your morning assignments and started heading to school, he was jogging by again, this time circling the park for the third time, and once you’ve arrived on campus, he was carrying his book bags into class. With a small glance at you, he hissed before making his way into his science class.
It was only later on that you learned he was a pretty nice guy. When you first saw each other on your first day going to work, you were pretty intimidated by his hissing and intense stare. Little did you know he was just trying to keep an eye on you so that you wouldn’t be kidnapped or picked on. Of course, he would never admit that. It was only Inui who had blurted it out without much remorse that helped you get over the fear for the guy.
“Mada mada dane,” Ryoma muttered, standing by the fence. His eyes were focused on the match, watching the movements of the two players as if noting the final result before it has even happened.
You have been avoiding him for a while now, unfortunately. Ever since that day when Ryuzaki made that comment about bothering him, you realized that you had been taking up a lot of his time, eating lunch, having him teach you tennis, and so on. He hadn’t said anything about it so you assumed that he was okay with it, perhaps relieved that you had stopped bothering him. The comment shouldn’t have bothered you, for god’s sakes! You were a reporter; you were supposed to make money on comments like those – confronting the people who said it and the individuals it involved. You didn’t understand why it felt like such a big deal to you but every time he was around, you started to feel self conscious and want to leave the room. It was such a shame too since you two had gotten along so well.
“What are you thinking, Ryoma-kun?”
“He forgot to rehydrate himself.”
Twenty minutes later, the game was set and done, going towards Kisarazu. Fuji’s expression got even more serious when he made eye contact with his brother from across the court. When Kaidoh came around, the upperclassman stood up and clapped him on the back, “Sorry about that, Kaidoh-kun. Maybe next time, right?”
Kaidoh responded with a hiss and added, “Win this one.”
You scooted over to make room for him, a bit relieved that you were getting closer to the shade. You were waiting for Tezuka or Ryoma to take the seat as they were the last to play doubles. Ryoma glanced over to the bleacher at you before turning away. Without a word he went up to Kaidoh and told him to scoot over, forcing you to scoot further into the shade. You were careful this time around, having brought a cap, but you really couldn’t stand the Japanese heat. You let out a visible sigh of relief when the coolness hit your head. Shade!
Fuji came back half an hour later with a water bottle, having won the game 6-3. He shook hands with his brother before making his way off the field. Tezuka clapped him on the back and gave him a nod before he made his way to the group. You smiled and offered your congratulations. At this time, Tezuka nodded to Ryoma, who was starting to get up. It was now or never, you decided. Quickly you stood up and called out his name, “Ryoma!”
He turned to you curiously, waiting to see what you were going to do. You blinked rapidly, noting all the stares that had turned your way, including the very unhappy glare from one Ryuzaki Sakuno, but you ignored it and smiled, “Good luck!”
Ryoma gave a small smile before pushing his hat firmly on his head and responded, “Mada mada dane.”
By the time the tournament was over, you had finished your last closing interviews. Ryoma and Tezuka had barely won the match when the sun reached its peak. The opposing team has really been practicing hard, you knew from your prior interviews with them. Both sides, in your opinion, were winners in their own way. They all walked off the court with a proud smile on their faces. You were packing up your notebook and recorder when you saw Sakuno making a beeline in your direction with her friends following closely. Her face was flushed and she was clearly unhappy.
“You are still bothering Echizen-kun,” she said as soon as she reached you.
You ignored her and continued to put your stuff into the bag. You honestly did not have the patience at the moment to bother with her. The sun was super high and you had been walking around talking to a bunch of sweaty tennis players who were either grumpy after having lost or super excited after having won. After this, you had to rush home to type up the assignment and email it to your boss in time for tomorrow’s story. You HONESTLY did not want to deal with her at the moment. The other girl standing beside her had sneered and said something to you but you didn’t hear what she was saying.
One of the guys was saying something but even when you tried to listen to him, you couldn’t hear him. Suddenly your vision was swimming before you with dots of black forming as your limbs start to feel weaker and weaker. Oh dear, you thought, another heat stroke. You were being bothered by a bunch of Ryoma’s fangirls and then you were going to pass out from the heat. From your right side where Sakuno and her group were standing, you heard her say something really loud and before you could respond, someone grabbed your shoulder and you fell back against Ryoma’s chest.
It was jarring, but suddenly the world became upright again. You couldn’t see his face because your cap was in the way, but there was a definite frown on his lips as he snapped, “Stop bothering her. Can’t you see she’s having a heat stroke?”
“Echizen-kun, I—“
“Go away.”
You blinked groggily, allowing him to lead you to a cooler spot. When you found yourself on a bench under a tree, you let out a loud sigh of relief before you took off your cap. The heat seemed to rise up off your matted hair and you relished the coolness. You decided to risk looking up at your savior, even though the last time you tried that, you almost wanted to pass out because the blood was rushing to your head. Luckily you didn’t have to when a cool bottle of water touched your cheek. Grateful, you accepted it, “Thanks.”
“People who can’t handle the sun shouldn’t be walking around in the heat,” he muttered, sitting down beside you.
“I had a cap.” You pouted, twisting the cap to close the empty bottle. “It’s just really hot today. Congratulations on winning, by the way.”
Ryoma remained silent, staring straight ahead of him to the spot where you guys had stood earlier. In spite of the blank look on his face, there was still a small frown on his lips. From the time you’ve spent talking to him, you knew that he wasn’t going to bring up the topic, but the irritation on his face was going to stay there until one of you confronted the issue and it seemed like it had to be you. Gingerly, you touched his arm and asked, “Something wrong?”
“With me? No.”
“With me then.”
“What do you think?”
“Are you talking about the thing with Ryuzaki earlier? It’s not a big deal.”
“You are actually scared of her?”
“No, I’m not. She just said something a while back that made me think, that’s all.”
“And what was it?”
“That maybe I was taking up a bit too much of your practice time.”
Ryoma’s frown deepened as he responded, “Well she has a point.”
Just when you were getting ready to argue, you stopped in your tracks. Did he just say what you thought he said? “I’m sorry, what?”
“But it’s very rude to skip out on lunch when you ask other people to join you.”
You grimaced, “Sorry about that. So are you still mad at me?”
“I was never mad.”
You didn’t know how to explain the disappointment rising inside of you, but somehow you managed to say, “That’s good.”
Ryoma pulled a tennis ball out of his pocket and started throwing it into the air to catch it. “You were taking up a lot of my practice time, but I didn’t mind. You’re easy to get along with.”
A small smile started to dance on your lips as you replied, “You think so?”
“Not all the time though,” he remarked quickly, referring to the times when you guys would start loudly disagreeing with each other over some random topic. That, you thought dryly, was surely what ripped the smile off your face, but then he continued, “At least you’re not one of those annoying girls always screaming and cheering loudly and being distracting at tennis matches.”
“Gee, thanks!” You couldn’t help but laugh, almost missing the tiny smile that was starting to appear on his lips.
“But then…” he paused, throwing the ball up in the air, “you’re still really a handful.”
Where was he going with this? You couldn’t really see his expression as he was looking up towards the sky, “I’ve seen you cry, fall, and it looks like you’re really susceptible to heat strokes. It may not seem like it now, but I’m pretty sure in the future, you’re going to make a lot of enemies with your job.” When he caught the ball, he summarized it by saying, “In short, you can really be a nuisance sometimes.”
“Alright, that’s enough!” you frowned, standing up a bit too quickly.
When you started to sway, his hand shot out, catching yours in a firm hold. You had no idea what to think, do, or say. Were you seriously holding hands with Ryoma Echizen in the middle of a tennis park? “But I don’t really mind it. So you shouldn’t let those other things bother you.”
There was a small blush on his face as he said your name, “[last name]-san, it seems like you are attending school with my brother so it is like we are acquainted. After the tournament, would you like to go out to dinner with the guys and I?”
You gave a polite smile before shaking your head, “That sounds lovely but I have a few assignments that have to be rushed tonight. Thank you for the invitation though.”
After taking a seat next to Fuji from your school, you greeted him and told him about the interview with his brother. It was strange to see his eyes opened for once and even stranger to see that they were bright blue. “You are going up against him, right?”
He nodded, “It’s been a while since we’ve played together. I guess this would be a good chance to see how he has improved.”
You directed your attention to the tennis court where Kaidoh Kaoru was going up against Atsushi Kisarazu. If you hadn’t known better, you would think that the two were evenly matched, but Kaidoh had a few tricks up his sleeves. Every morning when you walked to the newspaper office to talk to your boss, you would see him jogging by. A while later after you do your morning assignments and started heading to school, he was jogging by again, this time circling the park for the third time, and once you’ve arrived on campus, he was carrying his book bags into class. With a small glance at you, he hissed before making his way into his science class.
It was only later on that you learned he was a pretty nice guy. When you first saw each other on your first day going to work, you were pretty intimidated by his hissing and intense stare. Little did you know he was just trying to keep an eye on you so that you wouldn’t be kidnapped or picked on. Of course, he would never admit that. It was only Inui who had blurted it out without much remorse that helped you get over the fear for the guy.
“Mada mada dane,” Ryoma muttered, standing by the fence. His eyes were focused on the match, watching the movements of the two players as if noting the final result before it has even happened.
You have been avoiding him for a while now, unfortunately. Ever since that day when Ryuzaki made that comment about bothering him, you realized that you had been taking up a lot of his time, eating lunch, having him teach you tennis, and so on. He hadn’t said anything about it so you assumed that he was okay with it, perhaps relieved that you had stopped bothering him. The comment shouldn’t have bothered you, for god’s sakes! You were a reporter; you were supposed to make money on comments like those – confronting the people who said it and the individuals it involved. You didn’t understand why it felt like such a big deal to you but every time he was around, you started to feel self conscious and want to leave the room. It was such a shame too since you two had gotten along so well.
“What are you thinking, Ryoma-kun?”
“He forgot to rehydrate himself.”
Twenty minutes later, the game was set and done, going towards Kisarazu. Fuji’s expression got even more serious when he made eye contact with his brother from across the court. When Kaidoh came around, the upperclassman stood up and clapped him on the back, “Sorry about that, Kaidoh-kun. Maybe next time, right?”
Kaidoh responded with a hiss and added, “Win this one.”
You scooted over to make room for him, a bit relieved that you were getting closer to the shade. You were waiting for Tezuka or Ryoma to take the seat as they were the last to play doubles. Ryoma glanced over to the bleacher at you before turning away. Without a word he went up to Kaidoh and told him to scoot over, forcing you to scoot further into the shade. You were careful this time around, having brought a cap, but you really couldn’t stand the Japanese heat. You let out a visible sigh of relief when the coolness hit your head. Shade!
Fuji came back half an hour later with a water bottle, having won the game 6-3. He shook hands with his brother before making his way off the field. Tezuka clapped him on the back and gave him a nod before he made his way to the group. You smiled and offered your congratulations. At this time, Tezuka nodded to Ryoma, who was starting to get up. It was now or never, you decided. Quickly you stood up and called out his name, “Ryoma!”
He turned to you curiously, waiting to see what you were going to do. You blinked rapidly, noting all the stares that had turned your way, including the very unhappy glare from one Ryuzaki Sakuno, but you ignored it and smiled, “Good luck!”
Ryoma gave a small smile before pushing his hat firmly on his head and responded, “Mada mada dane.”
By the time the tournament was over, you had finished your last closing interviews. Ryoma and Tezuka had barely won the match when the sun reached its peak. The opposing team has really been practicing hard, you knew from your prior interviews with them. Both sides, in your opinion, were winners in their own way. They all walked off the court with a proud smile on their faces. You were packing up your notebook and recorder when you saw Sakuno making a beeline in your direction with her friends following closely. Her face was flushed and she was clearly unhappy.
“You are still bothering Echizen-kun,” she said as soon as she reached you.
You ignored her and continued to put your stuff into the bag. You honestly did not have the patience at the moment to bother with her. The sun was super high and you had been walking around talking to a bunch of sweaty tennis players who were either grumpy after having lost or super excited after having won. After this, you had to rush home to type up the assignment and email it to your boss in time for tomorrow’s story. You HONESTLY did not want to deal with her at the moment. The other girl standing beside her had sneered and said something to you but you didn’t hear what she was saying.
One of the guys was saying something but even when you tried to listen to him, you couldn’t hear him. Suddenly your vision was swimming before you with dots of black forming as your limbs start to feel weaker and weaker. Oh dear, you thought, another heat stroke. You were being bothered by a bunch of Ryoma’s fangirls and then you were going to pass out from the heat. From your right side where Sakuno and her group were standing, you heard her say something really loud and before you could respond, someone grabbed your shoulder and you fell back against Ryoma’s chest.
It was jarring, but suddenly the world became upright again. You couldn’t see his face because your cap was in the way, but there was a definite frown on his lips as he snapped, “Stop bothering her. Can’t you see she’s having a heat stroke?”
“Echizen-kun, I—“
“Go away.”
You blinked groggily, allowing him to lead you to a cooler spot. When you found yourself on a bench under a tree, you let out a loud sigh of relief before you took off your cap. The heat seemed to rise up off your matted hair and you relished the coolness. You decided to risk looking up at your savior, even though the last time you tried that, you almost wanted to pass out because the blood was rushing to your head. Luckily you didn’t have to when a cool bottle of water touched your cheek. Grateful, you accepted it, “Thanks.”
“People who can’t handle the sun shouldn’t be walking around in the heat,” he muttered, sitting down beside you.
“I had a cap.” You pouted, twisting the cap to close the empty bottle. “It’s just really hot today. Congratulations on winning, by the way.”
Ryoma remained silent, staring straight ahead of him to the spot where you guys had stood earlier. In spite of the blank look on his face, there was still a small frown on his lips. From the time you’ve spent talking to him, you knew that he wasn’t going to bring up the topic, but the irritation on his face was going to stay there until one of you confronted the issue and it seemed like it had to be you. Gingerly, you touched his arm and asked, “Something wrong?”
“With me? No.”
“With me then.”
“What do you think?”
“Are you talking about the thing with Ryuzaki earlier? It’s not a big deal.”
“You are actually scared of her?”
“No, I’m not. She just said something a while back that made me think, that’s all.”
“And what was it?”
“That maybe I was taking up a bit too much of your practice time.”
Ryoma’s frown deepened as he responded, “Well she has a point.”
Just when you were getting ready to argue, you stopped in your tracks. Did he just say what you thought he said? “I’m sorry, what?”
“But it’s very rude to skip out on lunch when you ask other people to join you.”
You grimaced, “Sorry about that. So are you still mad at me?”
“I was never mad.”
You didn’t know how to explain the disappointment rising inside of you, but somehow you managed to say, “That’s good.”
Ryoma pulled a tennis ball out of his pocket and started throwing it into the air to catch it. “You were taking up a lot of my practice time, but I didn’t mind. You’re easy to get along with.”
A small smile started to dance on your lips as you replied, “You think so?”
“Not all the time though,” he remarked quickly, referring to the times when you guys would start loudly disagreeing with each other over some random topic. That, you thought dryly, was surely what ripped the smile off your face, but then he continued, “At least you’re not one of those annoying girls always screaming and cheering loudly and being distracting at tennis matches.”
“Gee, thanks!” You couldn’t help but laugh, almost missing the tiny smile that was starting to appear on his lips.
“But then…” he paused, throwing the ball up in the air, “you’re still really a handful.”
Where was he going with this? You couldn’t really see his expression as he was looking up towards the sky, “I’ve seen you cry, fall, and it looks like you’re really susceptible to heat strokes. It may not seem like it now, but I’m pretty sure in the future, you’re going to make a lot of enemies with your job.” When he caught the ball, he summarized it by saying, “In short, you can really be a nuisance sometimes.”
“Alright, that’s enough!” you frowned, standing up a bit too quickly.
When you started to sway, his hand shot out, catching yours in a firm hold. You had no idea what to think, do, or say. Were you seriously holding hands with Ryoma Echizen in the middle of a tennis park? “But I don’t really mind it. So you shouldn’t let those other things bother you.”
Going to the Beach
When your cell phone alarm rang this morning, you were still stuffing your last outfit into the duffle bag and nibbling on a piece of bread that was slowly falling out of your mouth. It was time to go and you couldn’t find your notepad! You groaned in frustration before grabbing a new one from your bookshelf and darted out the door. This was not exactly the plans you had in mind for the weekend but it didn’t seem like you had anything else to do. Being the workaholic that you were, you almost managed to convince your boss to give you a couple of assignments for the upcoming three-day weekend when the school would be closed for a field trip.
You weren’t very eager to go for many reasons, but he didn’t have to know that. Needless to say, when he found out that the fieldtrip would take place on a nearby island that was holding a summer carnival, he wanted you to report on it. So for now, instead of reporting on a recent outbreak of hives due to some restaurant’s careless hygienic policy, you were going to report on some traveling carnival that happened to come to some island whose name you didn’t even know. Great!
So in the last twenty-four hours, you had to rush a fieldtrip form to the school’s office, beg them to take you in last minute and get you a bed, run back home to type up your last assignment AND do your homework, and eat dinner. Oh, sure you slept maybe three or four hours after running around to do some research on the island’s history and see what was so special about the carnival. In the middle of all that you fell asleep, only to wake up later and realize that you hadn’t packed at all for the weekend.
When you practically sprinted to the bus, you found yourself a seat at the back with a few empty chairs. Fun! At least you could now lie down and sleep during the trip. Much to your dismay, when you saw the tennis team come out of the school building with their own duffle bag, you realized that you were probably going to have to sleep sitting up. The guys greeted the bus driver upon getting on and made their way to the back. Tezuka nodded before taking his seat next to Fuji, “[last name]-san, I didn’t know you were going to be on this trip.”
“It was a little last minute. Uematsu-san suggested that I cover the carnival coming up,” you responded.
Suddenly Kikamaru chimed in, “Oh! The summer carnival is really fun! They only come once every ten years so we’re really lucky to catch them this year. There’s great food, games and toys, and even fireworks!”
You blinked. How was it that you managed to learn more from this guy than from all that reading last night? “I see, and what else?”
The conversation was interrupted when your eyes caught sight of Ryoma at the front of the bus. His eyes searched the seats but found that the only one available was next to you. Great. The reason why you didn’t particularly want to go was now here. He pulled his cap down on his head before making his way to the back of the bus and taking a seat next to you. Nervously, you greeted, “Good morning.”
“Morning.”
So it seemed like he was in the same talkative mood you were in. Instead of prodding, you continued to talk to Kikamaru, who had now moved behind you next to Momo, who was inhaling a couple of burgers (seriously! Someday he will probably get a heart attack!), “So why did you guys decide to go on the fieldtrip? Isn’t there a game coming up against Rikkaidai?”
“Sorta,” Momo responded, trying to chew on his food.
When he didn’t finish, Kikamaru continued, “We have a scrimmage coming up on the island with Fudomine, who also have their own fieldtrip there as well. We’ll be practicing with them for a while.”
Oishi added, “The islands near Hokkaido have land soft enough for agriculture, so it’s a good rest for our feet as we continue to practice for the game. Plus, to be away from the city for a while is always a good vacation, whether or not we’re practicing for tennis.”
“I see, and what—“ You stopped suddenly, feeling the weight that had fallen on your shoulder. Something dropped onto your lap and you saw that it was Ryoma’s white cap. Everyone peered over your shoulder to see the sleeping prince of tennis, completely unaware that their attention was now focused on him.
Inui nodded, pulling out his notebook to jot something down, “Ryoma-kun does seem to be tired lately. This morning when he was practicing, it seems that his twist serve has decreased in efficiency by 40%.”
Kaidoh shook his head, “He should have gotten more sleep, how is he going to practice when we get there?”
You noted the mischievous grin that was slowly appearing on the faces of the two demons siting behind you and you shot them a stern look, warning them against what they were thinking of doing. Just when you thought that it had no effect, Fuji opened his eyes, making the two sit back in their seat and obediently talked amongst themselves. Fuji smiled at you and said, “It looks like Ryoma is really tired today. He has been practicing a lot lately. I think it would be a good idea to let him sleep, but if you are uncomfortable with the set up, we can switch seats, [first name]-chan.”
“It’s okay, Fuji-kun,” you shook your head, returning the smile. “I don’t think we should wake him up either.”
He nodded and just like that, everything returned to normal and everyone started to talk to the person sitting next to them. You sat there stiffly, looking out the window as the bus started passing by buildings, streets, and houses. It was hard to believe that you haven’t talked to him for the past four days. You weren’t sure what to think about after the conversation that you two had at the tennis park, but part of you wondered if he might have liked you as more than just a friend. After the two of you walked home, you had awkwardly said goodbye before slamming your front door into his face.
For the next few days, you busied yourself with the assignments and studying, though you made an effort to keep saying hi to him because you didn’t want him to think that you were avoiding him. It was hard too, because you couldn’t stop your heart from pounding in your chest every time you saw him. You didn’t know what to say and you’d end up stumbling on everything you said to him. In the end, you guys didn’t say much to each other at all. Besides, it was hard to tell. Ryoma probably didn’t even like you that way. He was normally blunt and teasing with other people and you figured that if he did like you, he’d probably tell you. Maybe he just wanted to make you feel better about the thing with Sakuno Ryuzaki.
Your attention returned back to the bus when he let out a little snore. While stifling the desire to laugh, you settled back against the seat and allowed the relaxation to settle in your body, regardless of how bumpy the bus was. Eventually you would figure it out, you decided, for now, you were going to take advantage of that six hour trip.
“[your name], wake up,” Ryoma’s voice drifted in and out of your hearing. You shook your head, blinking slowly to get the sleep out of your eyes. “We’re here.”
You yawned softly, looking around to see that the bus was emptying into an empty parking lot. Even from where you were, you could still hear the ocean roar against the shores. He was standing over you with his bag over his shoulder as well as yours. Clumsily, you stood up and got in line when the rest of the team made way for you to get through and followed Ryoma off the bus. When you got off the bus, he gave you back your bag. You did a long stretch, smiling as you inhaled the salty air. It has been a while since you’ve been to the beach. Even though you lived by the ocean, you didn’t go out much.
“Alright guys,” the instructor was standing on a bench, calling everyone over. When you guys all gathered to his location, he continued, “What we’re going to do is this – Tezuka-kun’s going to lead you to the cabins and after that, you’ve got three hours until dinner. At dinner, we’re going to hand out the itinerary for the next three days so make sure you’re there!”
With that, everyone dispersed. You followed the Seigaku tennis team captain to the cabins and found that you were sharing one with some girl named Osakada Tomoka. When you settled down on the bed, you had contemplated on whether or not you wanted to go run around and do some more work or just take another short nap. You were having such a nice one on the best though at times you almost couldn’t tell what was actually a dream and what wasn’t. Sometimes when you slipped back to consciousness, you would feel something shift against you and feel your forehead shifting against skin. Other times, you would feel like someone was holding your hand. And sometimes you just weren’t sure. If it was real then Ryoma… well, you laughed while shaking your head, that would be impossible.
But then the more you thought about it, the less you were able to sleep and well, the next thing you knew, you were wide awake. It must have been all just a dream. You glanced at your phone, noting that this was probably a good opportunity to talk to the people at the carnival for some pre-event interviews. So you changed into shorts and a tank top before you grabbed your bag and your new notebook and headed towards the door. Right when you opened the door, a girl who was no taller than yourself jumped. She was in the middle of opening the door while holding her own bag on her arm. You quickly apologized and moved out of the way. While she passed, you suddenly remembered that she was Ryuzaki’s friend. The girl was usually more outspoken than her shy, yet somewhat menacing, friend. She had two pig tails and frequently wore a huge band on her forehead that said “Ryoma-sama” because apparently she was the leader of the fan club dedicated to Ryoma.
You thought about ignoring her, figuring that you would only come back to the room to sleep, but the reporter in you was making it hard to ignore people. It was in your nature to notice body language, the environment, and the implications of all the forces acting in the environment that would make your story come alive. This, much to your dismay, was no exception. So you turned around and extended your hand, “I’m [your full name].”
She stared at it for a while before warily taking it and giving her name. You continued, “I know we haven’t gotten off to a good foot, but I think it’s worth a try.”
Osakada nodded and responded, “I guess we’ll just have to see.”
You smiled and headed towards the door again, “I’m going to the carnival to get a few interviews in and—“
When you realized that she just said your name, you blinked and turned around, waiting for her to say something. “About the other day… I’m sorry. I was the one who encouraged Sakuno to talk to you about Ryoma-sama because she has feelings for him. I didn’t realize that it would get out of hand.”
“I see… well, that’s all in the past now, right?”
Only when you got outside did you let out a sigh. So she did have feelings for him after all. Who were you to come barging in from America to get in the middle of it all? Not to mention, you were leaving in less than a month! You almost gasped, realizing that it was now the middle of July and you were a little under four weeks away from leaving. It felt just like yesterday when you were crying on the train because you couldn’t find Ryoma Echizen. Well, you were leaving him soon and there wasn’t much you could do about it.
You shook your head, determined to get such depressing thoughts out of your mind and started towards the location of the carnival. About two hours later, you had learned about all the activities that would be going on during the carnival and the names of all the people involved in making it happen. To say the least, it sounded really interesting and you were actually looking forward to the event. You had one hour left and instead of heading back to the cabins, you found yourself heading towards the sea. When you got towards the beach, you almost laughed when you saw Kikamaru’s red head bobbing while he made a giant leap in the sand and slammed the volleyball across the net.
“Kikamaru-sempai, Oishi-sempai!” you called to them when the game finished with their victory. The boys walked over to you and greeted you, asking about how your interviews went. You smiled and responded, “It was great. If you guys come with me tomorrow, I can show you where all the fun games are!”
“That sounds like a good plan, [your name]-chan,” Oishi grinned. “Do you want to play volleyball with us? We just won the court for five games. Everyone will be ready soon.”
“Ready?” you blinked and Kikamaru laughed and pointed towards the beach where the regulars of Seigaku were jogging along the shoreline. You let out a giggle when you saw everyone panting and breathing like crazy while Tezuka was just jogging like nothing was wrong. “I think I’ll just watch. You guys seem like professionals. I’ve never played before.”
“That’s all the more reason to play! We’ll teach you!” Kikamaru offered, pulling your arm.
When the guys all gathered, you divided into teams, grouped with Ryoma, Kikamaru, Tezuka, and Kaidoh while the rest of the guys – Oishi, Inui, Momo, Kawamaru, and Fuji. The guys seemed fairly comfortable with you being the handicap. After showing you some of the moves, they started to huddle. You guys finished your plans early and much to your surprise, you understood why Fuji’s enemies were scared of him when he had his eyes opened because he had them opened the ENTIRE time you played the games. Surely it was a tactic to render you useless because you were afraid to move anywhere near him.
You all played the first games with the other side coming out victorious by one point, but that was only because Kaidoh tried his little snake move – for the life of you, you could not remember what it was called – and it was immediately out of bounds. By the time the fifth match was over, you were proud to say that you were a sufficient server. You collapsed on the sand, having never sweated so much in your life before, and let out a laugh. No wonder boys loved sports so much – it was both so exhausting and fun.
Fuji came by, his eyes pleasantly closed, “That was very good, [your name]-chan. I see you’ve gotten over the fear of my eyes.” Needless you say, you had to stifle the desire to jump and shiver when he opened them again briefly to see your reaction.
Nervously, you laughed, “Oh it was nothing. Your eyes are rather pretty, in fact.”
“Mada mada dane, you need to grow another inch so you can actually hit the ball over the net without touching it,” Ryoma grunted, taking a seat near you. You laughed before throwing some sand at him, which he dodged.
“I thought I did pretty well,” you stuck out your tongue at him. You smiled inwardly. For a while there, it felt like everything got back to normal and you couldn’t have missed it any more.
“Yea, ochibi, she was awesome out there!” Kikamaru added, “What was with your twist serve? It didn’t even go over the net!”
“Che, this is volleyball, not a tennis ball. How was I supposed to know that it would make a difference?”
“You guys did well today, keep up your diligence for tomorrow when we do some real practice,” Tezuka nodded and glanced at his watch, “It’s almost time for dinner now so we’d better start heading back if we want to change into something cleaner.”
With that, you started back to camp. Once inside your cabin, you took a short shower and changed before going back to the main cabin where dinner would take place. Once you got there, you grabbed the itinerary and made your way towards the tennis team and for some reason, your heart dropped to your stomach when you saw Ryuzaki sitting down next to Ryoma. You blinked, answering Momo’s wave with your own before making your way over to sit next to him. “Oi, what took you so long? You’re just like Echizen! Everyone was starving!”
“I had to take a shower, you stinky pig!” you laughed.
In spite of Ryuzaki’s presence, you were still able to talk to Ryoma without much mishap. It seemed like your relationship wasn’t as fragile as you thought it was, after all. You guys joked back and forth, teasing the other members for not taking a shower. Even though she tried to get into the conversation, there wasn’t much traction. Everyone was used to the humor going on between the two of you and a third person just wouldn’t do the trick. When dinner was finished, you went with Fuji to throw away everyone’s trash. Much to your dismay, when you came back to the group, Ryoma and Ryuzaki were missing.
Your chest started to hurt. Was that why he started to act normal around you? Did he perhaps start to like her after all? “Ryoma-kun and Ryuzaki-san seemed to have gone off towards the pier when she asked to speak with him alone,” Inui noted. He studied you and that was when you tried your hardest not to show your emotions, but you couldn’t stop the helpless expression from appearing on your face. So he added, “[your name]-san, could it be that you feel some kind of affection towards Ryoma-kun?”
“Well, I… Ryoma is…” you bit your lips, unable to reply. You really did like him! There was no denying it. It was staring at you right in the face and it took you forever you acknowledge it. Well guess what? Now he was probably holding hands with Ryuzaki or even kissing her!
You jumped when someone touched your shoulder, you turned around and much to your surprise, it was Kawamura who said: “I think you should go see him, [your name]-san. There isn’t much to worry about. At first it wasn’t really obvious to us as to why he was around you a lot and I can bet you two cents that he probably didn’t have a clue either. But after what we saw on the bus this morning, we’re pretty sure that his heart is set on you.”
Kawamura was the last person you expected to offer you any advice, but he was probably the nicest person you knew. You smiled and nodded. He had a point. If anything, it was worth a try to go there and see for yourself if you had to give up on him. At least seeing him happy will help you get over him, knowing that he was at least having a good time. Besides, you thought as you made your way towards the pier, at least things will be back to normal.
You didn’t know how much longer you had to walk, but you were at least close enough to see Ryuzaki throw herself at Ryoma. He made no move to return the gesture and you couldn’t see his face. She backed away from him and seemed to have said something because his lips moved and she pushed him. Ryoma didn’t budge when she turned and walked off. Her eyes widened slightly as they landed on you and you could see the tears brimming in her eyes. Without a word, she pushed you aside as she walked past.
Did that just happen? You couldn’t believe your eyes. When you turned around, you saw Ryoma facing you, but you couldn’t see his eyes. It was hard to pinpoint the first time you thought this, but you hated it when you couldn’t see his golden eyes. He turned away from you to lean against his elbows against the railing and looked out towards the ocean, somewhat deep in thought. Your heart pounded against your chest and the only thing you really knew was you had to be standing right next to him.
Slowly you made your way towards him but he remained silent. If you didn’t know any better, you would have thought that he was ignoring you, but the rigidity of his shoulders said differently. They were shaking slightly from both the chilly ocean air and the anticipation of waiting for your next action. You came up to the railing and hooked your arm through his to intertwine your fingers together. When he reciprocated the action by tightening his grip, you let you a small inaudible sigh and rested your head on his shoulder, smiling when you felt them relax.
“Yay! Way to go, Ochibi!”
You weren’t very eager to go for many reasons, but he didn’t have to know that. Needless to say, when he found out that the fieldtrip would take place on a nearby island that was holding a summer carnival, he wanted you to report on it. So for now, instead of reporting on a recent outbreak of hives due to some restaurant’s careless hygienic policy, you were going to report on some traveling carnival that happened to come to some island whose name you didn’t even know. Great!
So in the last twenty-four hours, you had to rush a fieldtrip form to the school’s office, beg them to take you in last minute and get you a bed, run back home to type up your last assignment AND do your homework, and eat dinner. Oh, sure you slept maybe three or four hours after running around to do some research on the island’s history and see what was so special about the carnival. In the middle of all that you fell asleep, only to wake up later and realize that you hadn’t packed at all for the weekend.
When you practically sprinted to the bus, you found yourself a seat at the back with a few empty chairs. Fun! At least you could now lie down and sleep during the trip. Much to your dismay, when you saw the tennis team come out of the school building with their own duffle bag, you realized that you were probably going to have to sleep sitting up. The guys greeted the bus driver upon getting on and made their way to the back. Tezuka nodded before taking his seat next to Fuji, “[last name]-san, I didn’t know you were going to be on this trip.”
“It was a little last minute. Uematsu-san suggested that I cover the carnival coming up,” you responded.
Suddenly Kikamaru chimed in, “Oh! The summer carnival is really fun! They only come once every ten years so we’re really lucky to catch them this year. There’s great food, games and toys, and even fireworks!”
You blinked. How was it that you managed to learn more from this guy than from all that reading last night? “I see, and what else?”
The conversation was interrupted when your eyes caught sight of Ryoma at the front of the bus. His eyes searched the seats but found that the only one available was next to you. Great. The reason why you didn’t particularly want to go was now here. He pulled his cap down on his head before making his way to the back of the bus and taking a seat next to you. Nervously, you greeted, “Good morning.”
“Morning.”
So it seemed like he was in the same talkative mood you were in. Instead of prodding, you continued to talk to Kikamaru, who had now moved behind you next to Momo, who was inhaling a couple of burgers (seriously! Someday he will probably get a heart attack!), “So why did you guys decide to go on the fieldtrip? Isn’t there a game coming up against Rikkaidai?”
“Sorta,” Momo responded, trying to chew on his food.
When he didn’t finish, Kikamaru continued, “We have a scrimmage coming up on the island with Fudomine, who also have their own fieldtrip there as well. We’ll be practicing with them for a while.”
Oishi added, “The islands near Hokkaido have land soft enough for agriculture, so it’s a good rest for our feet as we continue to practice for the game. Plus, to be away from the city for a while is always a good vacation, whether or not we’re practicing for tennis.”
“I see, and what—“ You stopped suddenly, feeling the weight that had fallen on your shoulder. Something dropped onto your lap and you saw that it was Ryoma’s white cap. Everyone peered over your shoulder to see the sleeping prince of tennis, completely unaware that their attention was now focused on him.
Inui nodded, pulling out his notebook to jot something down, “Ryoma-kun does seem to be tired lately. This morning when he was practicing, it seems that his twist serve has decreased in efficiency by 40%.”
Kaidoh shook his head, “He should have gotten more sleep, how is he going to practice when we get there?”
You noted the mischievous grin that was slowly appearing on the faces of the two demons siting behind you and you shot them a stern look, warning them against what they were thinking of doing. Just when you thought that it had no effect, Fuji opened his eyes, making the two sit back in their seat and obediently talked amongst themselves. Fuji smiled at you and said, “It looks like Ryoma is really tired today. He has been practicing a lot lately. I think it would be a good idea to let him sleep, but if you are uncomfortable with the set up, we can switch seats, [first name]-chan.”
“It’s okay, Fuji-kun,” you shook your head, returning the smile. “I don’t think we should wake him up either.”
He nodded and just like that, everything returned to normal and everyone started to talk to the person sitting next to them. You sat there stiffly, looking out the window as the bus started passing by buildings, streets, and houses. It was hard to believe that you haven’t talked to him for the past four days. You weren’t sure what to think about after the conversation that you two had at the tennis park, but part of you wondered if he might have liked you as more than just a friend. After the two of you walked home, you had awkwardly said goodbye before slamming your front door into his face.
For the next few days, you busied yourself with the assignments and studying, though you made an effort to keep saying hi to him because you didn’t want him to think that you were avoiding him. It was hard too, because you couldn’t stop your heart from pounding in your chest every time you saw him. You didn’t know what to say and you’d end up stumbling on everything you said to him. In the end, you guys didn’t say much to each other at all. Besides, it was hard to tell. Ryoma probably didn’t even like you that way. He was normally blunt and teasing with other people and you figured that if he did like you, he’d probably tell you. Maybe he just wanted to make you feel better about the thing with Sakuno Ryuzaki.
Your attention returned back to the bus when he let out a little snore. While stifling the desire to laugh, you settled back against the seat and allowed the relaxation to settle in your body, regardless of how bumpy the bus was. Eventually you would figure it out, you decided, for now, you were going to take advantage of that six hour trip.
“[your name], wake up,” Ryoma’s voice drifted in and out of your hearing. You shook your head, blinking slowly to get the sleep out of your eyes. “We’re here.”
You yawned softly, looking around to see that the bus was emptying into an empty parking lot. Even from where you were, you could still hear the ocean roar against the shores. He was standing over you with his bag over his shoulder as well as yours. Clumsily, you stood up and got in line when the rest of the team made way for you to get through and followed Ryoma off the bus. When you got off the bus, he gave you back your bag. You did a long stretch, smiling as you inhaled the salty air. It has been a while since you’ve been to the beach. Even though you lived by the ocean, you didn’t go out much.
“Alright guys,” the instructor was standing on a bench, calling everyone over. When you guys all gathered to his location, he continued, “What we’re going to do is this – Tezuka-kun’s going to lead you to the cabins and after that, you’ve got three hours until dinner. At dinner, we’re going to hand out the itinerary for the next three days so make sure you’re there!”
With that, everyone dispersed. You followed the Seigaku tennis team captain to the cabins and found that you were sharing one with some girl named Osakada Tomoka. When you settled down on the bed, you had contemplated on whether or not you wanted to go run around and do some more work or just take another short nap. You were having such a nice one on the best though at times you almost couldn’t tell what was actually a dream and what wasn’t. Sometimes when you slipped back to consciousness, you would feel something shift against you and feel your forehead shifting against skin. Other times, you would feel like someone was holding your hand. And sometimes you just weren’t sure. If it was real then Ryoma… well, you laughed while shaking your head, that would be impossible.
But then the more you thought about it, the less you were able to sleep and well, the next thing you knew, you were wide awake. It must have been all just a dream. You glanced at your phone, noting that this was probably a good opportunity to talk to the people at the carnival for some pre-event interviews. So you changed into shorts and a tank top before you grabbed your bag and your new notebook and headed towards the door. Right when you opened the door, a girl who was no taller than yourself jumped. She was in the middle of opening the door while holding her own bag on her arm. You quickly apologized and moved out of the way. While she passed, you suddenly remembered that she was Ryuzaki’s friend. The girl was usually more outspoken than her shy, yet somewhat menacing, friend. She had two pig tails and frequently wore a huge band on her forehead that said “Ryoma-sama” because apparently she was the leader of the fan club dedicated to Ryoma.
You thought about ignoring her, figuring that you would only come back to the room to sleep, but the reporter in you was making it hard to ignore people. It was in your nature to notice body language, the environment, and the implications of all the forces acting in the environment that would make your story come alive. This, much to your dismay, was no exception. So you turned around and extended your hand, “I’m [your full name].”
She stared at it for a while before warily taking it and giving her name. You continued, “I know we haven’t gotten off to a good foot, but I think it’s worth a try.”
Osakada nodded and responded, “I guess we’ll just have to see.”
You smiled and headed towards the door again, “I’m going to the carnival to get a few interviews in and—“
When you realized that she just said your name, you blinked and turned around, waiting for her to say something. “About the other day… I’m sorry. I was the one who encouraged Sakuno to talk to you about Ryoma-sama because she has feelings for him. I didn’t realize that it would get out of hand.”
“I see… well, that’s all in the past now, right?”
Only when you got outside did you let out a sigh. So she did have feelings for him after all. Who were you to come barging in from America to get in the middle of it all? Not to mention, you were leaving in less than a month! You almost gasped, realizing that it was now the middle of July and you were a little under four weeks away from leaving. It felt just like yesterday when you were crying on the train because you couldn’t find Ryoma Echizen. Well, you were leaving him soon and there wasn’t much you could do about it.
You shook your head, determined to get such depressing thoughts out of your mind and started towards the location of the carnival. About two hours later, you had learned about all the activities that would be going on during the carnival and the names of all the people involved in making it happen. To say the least, it sounded really interesting and you were actually looking forward to the event. You had one hour left and instead of heading back to the cabins, you found yourself heading towards the sea. When you got towards the beach, you almost laughed when you saw Kikamaru’s red head bobbing while he made a giant leap in the sand and slammed the volleyball across the net.
“Kikamaru-sempai, Oishi-sempai!” you called to them when the game finished with their victory. The boys walked over to you and greeted you, asking about how your interviews went. You smiled and responded, “It was great. If you guys come with me tomorrow, I can show you where all the fun games are!”
“That sounds like a good plan, [your name]-chan,” Oishi grinned. “Do you want to play volleyball with us? We just won the court for five games. Everyone will be ready soon.”
“Ready?” you blinked and Kikamaru laughed and pointed towards the beach where the regulars of Seigaku were jogging along the shoreline. You let out a giggle when you saw everyone panting and breathing like crazy while Tezuka was just jogging like nothing was wrong. “I think I’ll just watch. You guys seem like professionals. I’ve never played before.”
“That’s all the more reason to play! We’ll teach you!” Kikamaru offered, pulling your arm.
When the guys all gathered, you divided into teams, grouped with Ryoma, Kikamaru, Tezuka, and Kaidoh while the rest of the guys – Oishi, Inui, Momo, Kawamaru, and Fuji. The guys seemed fairly comfortable with you being the handicap. After showing you some of the moves, they started to huddle. You guys finished your plans early and much to your surprise, you understood why Fuji’s enemies were scared of him when he had his eyes opened because he had them opened the ENTIRE time you played the games. Surely it was a tactic to render you useless because you were afraid to move anywhere near him.
You all played the first games with the other side coming out victorious by one point, but that was only because Kaidoh tried his little snake move – for the life of you, you could not remember what it was called – and it was immediately out of bounds. By the time the fifth match was over, you were proud to say that you were a sufficient server. You collapsed on the sand, having never sweated so much in your life before, and let out a laugh. No wonder boys loved sports so much – it was both so exhausting and fun.
Fuji came by, his eyes pleasantly closed, “That was very good, [your name]-chan. I see you’ve gotten over the fear of my eyes.” Needless you say, you had to stifle the desire to jump and shiver when he opened them again briefly to see your reaction.
Nervously, you laughed, “Oh it was nothing. Your eyes are rather pretty, in fact.”
“Mada mada dane, you need to grow another inch so you can actually hit the ball over the net without touching it,” Ryoma grunted, taking a seat near you. You laughed before throwing some sand at him, which he dodged.
“I thought I did pretty well,” you stuck out your tongue at him. You smiled inwardly. For a while there, it felt like everything got back to normal and you couldn’t have missed it any more.
“Yea, ochibi, she was awesome out there!” Kikamaru added, “What was with your twist serve? It didn’t even go over the net!”
“Che, this is volleyball, not a tennis ball. How was I supposed to know that it would make a difference?”
“You guys did well today, keep up your diligence for tomorrow when we do some real practice,” Tezuka nodded and glanced at his watch, “It’s almost time for dinner now so we’d better start heading back if we want to change into something cleaner.”
With that, you started back to camp. Once inside your cabin, you took a short shower and changed before going back to the main cabin where dinner would take place. Once you got there, you grabbed the itinerary and made your way towards the tennis team and for some reason, your heart dropped to your stomach when you saw Ryuzaki sitting down next to Ryoma. You blinked, answering Momo’s wave with your own before making your way over to sit next to him. “Oi, what took you so long? You’re just like Echizen! Everyone was starving!”
“I had to take a shower, you stinky pig!” you laughed.
In spite of Ryuzaki’s presence, you were still able to talk to Ryoma without much mishap. It seemed like your relationship wasn’t as fragile as you thought it was, after all. You guys joked back and forth, teasing the other members for not taking a shower. Even though she tried to get into the conversation, there wasn’t much traction. Everyone was used to the humor going on between the two of you and a third person just wouldn’t do the trick. When dinner was finished, you went with Fuji to throw away everyone’s trash. Much to your dismay, when you came back to the group, Ryoma and Ryuzaki were missing.
Your chest started to hurt. Was that why he started to act normal around you? Did he perhaps start to like her after all? “Ryoma-kun and Ryuzaki-san seemed to have gone off towards the pier when she asked to speak with him alone,” Inui noted. He studied you and that was when you tried your hardest not to show your emotions, but you couldn’t stop the helpless expression from appearing on your face. So he added, “[your name]-san, could it be that you feel some kind of affection towards Ryoma-kun?”
“Well, I… Ryoma is…” you bit your lips, unable to reply. You really did like him! There was no denying it. It was staring at you right in the face and it took you forever you acknowledge it. Well guess what? Now he was probably holding hands with Ryuzaki or even kissing her!
You jumped when someone touched your shoulder, you turned around and much to your surprise, it was Kawamura who said: “I think you should go see him, [your name]-san. There isn’t much to worry about. At first it wasn’t really obvious to us as to why he was around you a lot and I can bet you two cents that he probably didn’t have a clue either. But after what we saw on the bus this morning, we’re pretty sure that his heart is set on you.”
Kawamura was the last person you expected to offer you any advice, but he was probably the nicest person you knew. You smiled and nodded. He had a point. If anything, it was worth a try to go there and see for yourself if you had to give up on him. At least seeing him happy will help you get over him, knowing that he was at least having a good time. Besides, you thought as you made your way towards the pier, at least things will be back to normal.
You didn’t know how much longer you had to walk, but you were at least close enough to see Ryuzaki throw herself at Ryoma. He made no move to return the gesture and you couldn’t see his face. She backed away from him and seemed to have said something because his lips moved and she pushed him. Ryoma didn’t budge when she turned and walked off. Her eyes widened slightly as they landed on you and you could see the tears brimming in her eyes. Without a word, she pushed you aside as she walked past.
Did that just happen? You couldn’t believe your eyes. When you turned around, you saw Ryoma facing you, but you couldn’t see his eyes. It was hard to pinpoint the first time you thought this, but you hated it when you couldn’t see his golden eyes. He turned away from you to lean against his elbows against the railing and looked out towards the ocean, somewhat deep in thought. Your heart pounded against your chest and the only thing you really knew was you had to be standing right next to him.
Slowly you made your way towards him but he remained silent. If you didn’t know any better, you would have thought that he was ignoring you, but the rigidity of his shoulders said differently. They were shaking slightly from both the chilly ocean air and the anticipation of waiting for your next action. You came up to the railing and hooked your arm through his to intertwine your fingers together. When he reciprocated the action by tightening his grip, you let you a small inaudible sigh and rested your head on his shoulder, smiling when you felt them relax.
“Yay! Way to go, Ochibi!”
Night Time Summer Carnival
“And towards the far back they have the ferris wheel, but we can go on that later when the fireworks are getting ready to go off,” you paused in thought and continued, “No wait, we can’t do that. Later there will be a bunch of people trying to get in line for that, maybe we can start lining up early or something.”
“We can try that later,” Oishi nodded, grinning when Ryoma hid your intertwined hands behind him. “What do you guys think about the goldfish game first?”
Kikamaru chirped in agreement and you quickly lead the way with your new boyfriend in tow.
You hadn’t really thought to wear a yukata, especially with the whole tradition of not wearing anything underneath, but when you were walking around with Tomoka earlier, she had convinced you to buy one as a souvenir. So you thought, why not? You made quite a bit of money from working for Uematsu-san, who was actually a generous employer in spite knowing that you were going to move back to the states soon. After the two of you ran into Sakuno, she convinced you to wear it for the festival. Needless to say, you had gotten along with the two girls now after they heard the news about Ryoma and you getting together.
Even though they mourned the death of his single life, they still wanted to be his friends, even if he was holding hands with another girl. As it turned out, the two were rather sweet girls. Not to mentioned, after Sakuno ran back to her dorm, heartbroken and in tears, she said a cute guy had come up to comfort her. You could only smile when you learned about how quickly she got over Ryoma, but at least that was out of the way.
Fortunately for you, the girls all decided to wear yukatas. The carnival wasn’t always around and you there was nothing wrong with feeling nice once in a while. But when you came to meet up with the guys, they were actually rather surprised to see you dressed up completely different from your normal attire of shorts and a t-shirt. In fact, the amount of teasing you received was appalling.
Ryoma blinked in mid-sip of his Ponta at the sight of you standing there with a light blush on your face and a nervous smile. Your hair was tied up in a low bun with a flower pinned at your ear and you were wearing a dark yukata that made your pale skin glow like pearls. He swallowed the sip and smiled when he saw you wave.
So he started walking forward and right past you. You had blinked and called out his name, to which he grinned teasingly and replied, “Excuse me, miss, have you seen my girlfriend? She’s usually wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I think she started wearing sleeveless shirts recently, but that was only because I told her that her t-shirt tan was becoming worse.”
Your eyes widened and your mouth dropped into a big O before you started to playfully hit him. “Oh, you big troll! It’s me!”
To the team’s surprise, you were actually a good shot. They didn’t understand why you lacked the hand eye coordination go play tennis but managed to win the hardest prize from the air rifle game. Needless to say, after you won the giant panda from the game stand, you had given it away to a pair of brother and sister who were lost in the crowd. You stayed with them until their parents came running and crying for them and you handed the panda over. Then you went back and won a small bear for everyone on the team.
When all the games were played and worn out, you guys returned to the ramen stand. “That was fun, right?” you grinned, putting down your goldfish. You planned on letting it go later, or maybe giving it away. Or maybe you could give it to Ryoma before you went back home.
Your question earned you a nod from the guys and out of nowhere, you heard Kawamura’s voice call for the team. “Hey guys!” When you saw the girl he was holding hands with, you suddenly understood why he had went missing ever since the petting zoo. “Meet Emi, she’s my childhood friend. I can’t believe she moved here!”
The guys and you started to introduce yourselves and it wasn’t long before Inui had looked up from the list that he had made while you were describing the carnival yesterday. “Everyone, it looks like the fireworks are going to start soon, should we start finding a viewing place?”
“Oi, earlier when I was looking for the ramen stand, I found this awesome place that has the perfect angle for the fireworks,” Momo suggested.
“So that’s where you were, idiot,” Kaidoh hissed, “We were looking all over for you.”
Your upperclassman frowned and retorted, “Well, we had to eat, didn’t we? I was hungry!”
Ten minutes later, you all made your way through a small group of trees to a clearing that had the clear view of the ocean and the sky that the fireworks would soon be lighting up. Right on schedule, the first to come up to the sky was a bright white flower, filling the night with lights. Soon there were more, exploding the blackness with bright colors. Your fingers intertwined with Ryoma’s and he squeezed your hand, relaxing as you leaned into him.
While everyone’s eyes were on the sky, you grinned at him and asked, “It was fun today, right? I told you I knew where all the fun games were.”
He had a small smile dancing on his lips as he responded nonchalantly, “Yes, and now thanks to you I have no room left in my bag for snacks and food.”
Your lips formed a small frown for a second before your eyes lit up as the idea came to you: “Oh, but you can put them in my bag! We can put all the snacks and food into one bag and—“
Sure you had just started going out with Ryoma just yesterday. Sure you had great chemistry with each other. He loved to tease and make fun of you and you weren’t one to be afraid to tease him right back. Sure you guys complemented each other in almost every way you thought possible but never in a million years did you think that he was going to kiss you. It was so sudden that you had forgotten to breathe. You hadn’t even noticed that he had taken off his hat to cover the kiss from everyone’s site because the feeling of his lips on yours made your heart want to go off like the fireworks.
Ryoma pulled back with a small grin of his own, waiting to see what you would say since it seemed as though you had a response to everything – this was something he was learning just this morning when you were arguing with Kaidoh about why he should stop hissing and scaring every prospective girlfriend in sight. It was also just this morning that he realized he probably had a mean streak in him. It probably came from his brother or father. Then again, if that was true, then he has always had it, you just made it worse. For some reason, he loved to make fun of you – in good fun, of course – and he didn’t know how to make himself stop when it was almost addicting to see the mock indignation in your eyes turn into something else when you thought of a way to get back at him.
In spite of being sixteen years old, it was his first kiss and seeing from the look on your face, it seemed like you were in the same situation too. He half expected you to start blabbering and shyly avoid him or do something. Much to his surprise, the first thing out of your mouth was: “Mada mada dane.”
He let out a small chuckle and slipped his hat on your head, never mind that it messed up the bun that you were trying so hard to fix a while ago. Instead of trying to fix it again, you pulled out the small pin from its place and tucked it into your yukata. The fireworks were slowly dying down but right now, everyone was transfixed on the graceful dance of the lights from the new fireworks that the carnival had worked so hard on. They flitted across the sky in swirls, leaving a trail of bright smoke in their wake and together, they made this blend of many brilliant colors, mixing together.
Ryoma thought about how you didn’t really do much justice for the new fireworks from the way you were describing them this morning with your animated gestures. They were pretty cool, looking like fireflies in the sky or something. When he felt you tug on his sleeve, he glanced your way to see you holding the cap in your left hand the way he had been earlier and on your tiptoes. The next thing he knew, he felt your lips on his. It took him two full seconds to remember to return the gesture, but when he started to do so, you were starting to pull away.
If someone came up to him four years ago after he had won his US Open trophy and told him that he would eventually meet you, fall for you, kiss you and actually come to like it, he might have ‘mada mada dane’d them into oblivion. But now such a thing wasn’t so hard to believe, he decided when he pulled you closer to prolong the kiss.
Even in the dim lighting provided by the fireworks, he could see your flushed cheeks and swollen lips as you pulled away. Your hair was slightly messy from the wind and you were quietly gasping for air. Your eyes were as round as the moon, staring at him as though he were the only person left in the world and truth be told, he wasn’t sure if he remembered anyone else but you.
With a small smile on his lips, he finally asked, “Is that good enough yet?”
“We can try that later,” Oishi nodded, grinning when Ryoma hid your intertwined hands behind him. “What do you guys think about the goldfish game first?”
Kikamaru chirped in agreement and you quickly lead the way with your new boyfriend in tow.
You hadn’t really thought to wear a yukata, especially with the whole tradition of not wearing anything underneath, but when you were walking around with Tomoka earlier, she had convinced you to buy one as a souvenir. So you thought, why not? You made quite a bit of money from working for Uematsu-san, who was actually a generous employer in spite knowing that you were going to move back to the states soon. After the two of you ran into Sakuno, she convinced you to wear it for the festival. Needless to say, you had gotten along with the two girls now after they heard the news about Ryoma and you getting together.
Even though they mourned the death of his single life, they still wanted to be his friends, even if he was holding hands with another girl. As it turned out, the two were rather sweet girls. Not to mentioned, after Sakuno ran back to her dorm, heartbroken and in tears, she said a cute guy had come up to comfort her. You could only smile when you learned about how quickly she got over Ryoma, but at least that was out of the way.
Fortunately for you, the girls all decided to wear yukatas. The carnival wasn’t always around and you there was nothing wrong with feeling nice once in a while. But when you came to meet up with the guys, they were actually rather surprised to see you dressed up completely different from your normal attire of shorts and a t-shirt. In fact, the amount of teasing you received was appalling.
Ryoma blinked in mid-sip of his Ponta at the sight of you standing there with a light blush on your face and a nervous smile. Your hair was tied up in a low bun with a flower pinned at your ear and you were wearing a dark yukata that made your pale skin glow like pearls. He swallowed the sip and smiled when he saw you wave.
So he started walking forward and right past you. You had blinked and called out his name, to which he grinned teasingly and replied, “Excuse me, miss, have you seen my girlfriend? She’s usually wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I think she started wearing sleeveless shirts recently, but that was only because I told her that her t-shirt tan was becoming worse.”
Your eyes widened and your mouth dropped into a big O before you started to playfully hit him. “Oh, you big troll! It’s me!”
To the team’s surprise, you were actually a good shot. They didn’t understand why you lacked the hand eye coordination go play tennis but managed to win the hardest prize from the air rifle game. Needless to say, after you won the giant panda from the game stand, you had given it away to a pair of brother and sister who were lost in the crowd. You stayed with them until their parents came running and crying for them and you handed the panda over. Then you went back and won a small bear for everyone on the team.
When all the games were played and worn out, you guys returned to the ramen stand. “That was fun, right?” you grinned, putting down your goldfish. You planned on letting it go later, or maybe giving it away. Or maybe you could give it to Ryoma before you went back home.
Your question earned you a nod from the guys and out of nowhere, you heard Kawamura’s voice call for the team. “Hey guys!” When you saw the girl he was holding hands with, you suddenly understood why he had went missing ever since the petting zoo. “Meet Emi, she’s my childhood friend. I can’t believe she moved here!”
The guys and you started to introduce yourselves and it wasn’t long before Inui had looked up from the list that he had made while you were describing the carnival yesterday. “Everyone, it looks like the fireworks are going to start soon, should we start finding a viewing place?”
“Oi, earlier when I was looking for the ramen stand, I found this awesome place that has the perfect angle for the fireworks,” Momo suggested.
“So that’s where you were, idiot,” Kaidoh hissed, “We were looking all over for you.”
Your upperclassman frowned and retorted, “Well, we had to eat, didn’t we? I was hungry!”
Ten minutes later, you all made your way through a small group of trees to a clearing that had the clear view of the ocean and the sky that the fireworks would soon be lighting up. Right on schedule, the first to come up to the sky was a bright white flower, filling the night with lights. Soon there were more, exploding the blackness with bright colors. Your fingers intertwined with Ryoma’s and he squeezed your hand, relaxing as you leaned into him.
While everyone’s eyes were on the sky, you grinned at him and asked, “It was fun today, right? I told you I knew where all the fun games were.”
He had a small smile dancing on his lips as he responded nonchalantly, “Yes, and now thanks to you I have no room left in my bag for snacks and food.”
Your lips formed a small frown for a second before your eyes lit up as the idea came to you: “Oh, but you can put them in my bag! We can put all the snacks and food into one bag and—“
Sure you had just started going out with Ryoma just yesterday. Sure you had great chemistry with each other. He loved to tease and make fun of you and you weren’t one to be afraid to tease him right back. Sure you guys complemented each other in almost every way you thought possible but never in a million years did you think that he was going to kiss you. It was so sudden that you had forgotten to breathe. You hadn’t even noticed that he had taken off his hat to cover the kiss from everyone’s site because the feeling of his lips on yours made your heart want to go off like the fireworks.
Ryoma pulled back with a small grin of his own, waiting to see what you would say since it seemed as though you had a response to everything – this was something he was learning just this morning when you were arguing with Kaidoh about why he should stop hissing and scaring every prospective girlfriend in sight. It was also just this morning that he realized he probably had a mean streak in him. It probably came from his brother or father. Then again, if that was true, then he has always had it, you just made it worse. For some reason, he loved to make fun of you – in good fun, of course – and he didn’t know how to make himself stop when it was almost addicting to see the mock indignation in your eyes turn into something else when you thought of a way to get back at him.
In spite of being sixteen years old, it was his first kiss and seeing from the look on your face, it seemed like you were in the same situation too. He half expected you to start blabbering and shyly avoid him or do something. Much to his surprise, the first thing out of your mouth was: “Mada mada dane.”
He let out a small chuckle and slipped his hat on your head, never mind that it messed up the bun that you were trying so hard to fix a while ago. Instead of trying to fix it again, you pulled out the small pin from its place and tucked it into your yukata. The fireworks were slowly dying down but right now, everyone was transfixed on the graceful dance of the lights from the new fireworks that the carnival had worked so hard on. They flitted across the sky in swirls, leaving a trail of bright smoke in their wake and together, they made this blend of many brilliant colors, mixing together.
Ryoma thought about how you didn’t really do much justice for the new fireworks from the way you were describing them this morning with your animated gestures. They were pretty cool, looking like fireflies in the sky or something. When he felt you tug on his sleeve, he glanced your way to see you holding the cap in your left hand the way he had been earlier and on your tiptoes. The next thing he knew, he felt your lips on his. It took him two full seconds to remember to return the gesture, but when he started to do so, you were starting to pull away.
If someone came up to him four years ago after he had won his US Open trophy and told him that he would eventually meet you, fall for you, kiss you and actually come to like it, he might have ‘mada mada dane’d them into oblivion. But now such a thing wasn’t so hard to believe, he decided when he pulled you closer to prolong the kiss.
Even in the dim lighting provided by the fireworks, he could see your flushed cheeks and swollen lips as you pulled away. Your hair was slightly messy from the wind and you were quietly gasping for air. Your eyes were as round as the moon, staring at him as though he were the only person left in the world and truth be told, he wasn’t sure if he remembered anyone else but you.
With a small smile on his lips, he finally asked, “Is that good enough yet?”
Looking at the Stars
Your lips were probably bleeding from how hard you were biting them, but you didn’t care. In fact, you were livid at the moment at a particular boyfriend who had just said the most insensitive thing ever. You couldn’t decide whether or not it was his blank stare or the nonchalant way he was standing as he waited for you to say something. Instead of taking up his bait, you threw him the darkest glare you had in stash before heading off in the opposite direction, “Talk to me again when you’ve grow up, Ryoma.”
This was probably the worst fight you’ve ever had. You only have one week left in Japan and these days it felt like you couldn’t even bring up the situation without him acting like an ass about it. When you got back home, you found an email from your employer about a meeting that was going to take place later on today about the internship. He had said that he has been really pleased with your work and he would definitely put in a good word for you when you got back home.
You were working on your last and biggest assignment and today was the day you would be interviewing the new sushi restaurant Kawamura was opening up. You were meeting up with him in an hour to talk about the difficulty of his choice. Instead of going to college like the other regulars on his team, Kawamura was going to take over his family business and extend it to different branches. The first branch was opening up in Kyoto and because you couldn’t travel with him to Kyoto – not that you really wanted to spend the last week away from your boyfriend, no matter how difficult he was being – your upperclassman decided to help you out with an exclusive interview.
After packing some of your things, you emailed the original owners of the house who had leased it to you for the summer to tell them that the house was going to be good as new when they come back. You had taken good care of it and had some good memories there. A few days after you came home from the fieldtrip, you invited the Seigaku regulars over for dinner after they won their last game for the season. When the ringtone on your cell phone went off, you blinked, sort of surprised to see that it was your boss who was calling you. “Uematsu-san? What can I do for you?”
Later that day, long after the sun had set, anyone walking by the tennis court near Seigaku would have seen two high schoolers bouncing the ball back and forth. They were both breathing heavily, sweating like crazy, and incredibly exhausted. Interestingly enough, one of them was just a tad more exhausted than the other.
“Ochibi, you’re a bit slow today, aren’t you?” Eiji grinned as he batted the ball across the court.
Ryoma stretched and swatted it back, barely getting it inbounds. He opted not to respond and slammed his last shot back into the field but somehow it was deflected by his upperclassman, who bounced into a one-handed cartwheel and threw it right back. The ball flashed by him, touching the ground for a split second before it whipped and hit against the metal fence.
Eiji let out a loud whoop and jumped, “Yay! I win! 7-5!”
Ryoma let out a grunt before he made his way to the bench to open up his Ponta. Eiji skipped over and sat down next to him and chirped, “Thanks for playing with me. I think I’ve been going crazy these days ever since Tezuka told us to take a break from tennis. I didn’t realize that all that training he made us do was gonna grow on me.”
“I was getting bored too,” Ryoma commented.
Eiji blinked, “Why aren’t you out with [your name]-chan today? Isn’t she leaving in a week?”
“She had a few things to do,” he responded, but he knew that was no excuse. Usually, he would have just gone with you to make sure you didn’t get into any trouble, so he added quietly, “We got into a fight this morning.”
“Another one? What did you say to her?”
He frowned, “Why does it have to be me that said something? She was the one who was asking me if I wanted to break up with her.”
Who wanted to talk about something like that? A week ago, he was okay with the idea of spending the rest of the time with you, but as the days grew shorter, it was getting harder and harder for him to stay in a good mood, knowing that you would be leaving soon. And for you to bring up such a topic every day, it made him even madder.
“Well, it doesn’t matter who said what, you want to spend time with her before she leaves, right? Go call her right now! Whatever the problem is, just push it aside now and deal with it later!” Eiji rolled his eyes and gave him his phone.
Ryoma didn’t like it when his upperclassman was right, but this time, he didn’t argue. He started to dial your number and saw that it was ten at night. Were you still awake right now, he wondered? It was five rings before he hung up. He had called twice already and you weren’t picking up. Maybe you were still mad at him or something. Or maybe you weren’t home yet. His heart skipped a beat, if you weren’t home, where could you be?
In twenty minutes, he was walking by your house on the way back to his house and looked at the building to see that the lights weren’t on. Maybe you were sleeping, he decided. There was probably something big going on that made you decide to go to bed early and who was he to wake you up? Even though his mind was telling him no, he was still walking up to your door. After a few knocks and waiting for five minutes, he realized you weren’t home. Suddenly he started to worry about what might have happened to you. You weren’t known for your restraint when it came to pursuing an assignment.
“Ryoma? Were you looking for me?” your voice was coming from nearby and he turned around to see you pulling up on your bike with a curious expression on your face.
He frowned, “Why didn’t you pick up your phone?”
“I was in a meeting with Uematsu-san. It ran a little late and when everyone in the office learned that I was leaving in a bit, they all took some time out to say goodbye to me,” you explained, opening the door. He held the door opened while you locked the bike up on the railing. “Did something happen?”
“No,” he shook his head, watching you check your phone. He followed you into the house and saw that most of the effects that had taken over the house – the flowers, the stacks of books, and various little sculptures had disappeared. After all, they were your touches.
The two of you stood there awkwardly while you set your stuff down. Finally it was you who let out a deep breath and said the first words, “Look, Ryoma. About this morning—“
“I don’t want to talk about that,” he cut you off. When you opened your mouth to protest, he continued, “Can’t you just enjoy the rest of your time here without arguing with me all the time?”
You blinked, nodding slowly as if you were finally understanding what was going on, “Yea that sounds like a good idea.”
He extended his arms out and you walked into them, relishing the feeling of being there. You missed being there. You loved being with him because even after becoming his girlfriend, not much changed between the two of you except that now you could hug him and hold his hand. But then, the two of you were private with your affection and not many outside of the tennis team could really claim that they’ve seen you guys be intimate with each other.
You pulled back, flashing a small smile at him, but before you were able to open your mouth to speak, your stomach beat you to it with its growling. You laughed sheepishly before saying, “Sorry about that. I was just going to ask if you wanted to join me for dinner.”
He chuckled and responded, “Depends on what you have.”
In twenty minutes, you were both sharing a bowl of soup on the back porch, enjoying the chirping of the crickets and fireflies drifting around in the backyard, you rested your head on his shoulder and let you a small yawn. When he told you to go to bed, you said that you could stay awake for a little more but in spite of that, the two of you were asleep in a matter of minutes.
Ryoma woke up two hours later with a painful ache in his upper body. He groaned, sitting up slowly so that his back was away from being pressed against the porch railing. Much to his surprise, he found that he couldn’t move anywhere as you were fast asleep with your head on his lap. He blushed, torn between waking you up and letting you stay that way. When he was going to raise his hand to shake your shoulder, he found that it was already in your grasp as you were so comfortably settled to sleep.
Ten more minutes then, he decided, leaning back against the railing. It was always a tedious day when you guys fight but it never felt better when the two of you made up. He was really going to miss this when you leave. It felt like he was being rushed, as the days went by, because you guys weren’t able to spend time together. The thought of you going away was imminent and he knew that he would eventually have to deal with it and let you go. There was no other way. Sure his mother lived in the states but he still had school here and he trained with his team during the summer and the rest of the year so there was virtually no chance for him to go see you.
Then there was your situation with your job. You had talked about how you were probably going straight into reporting after high school with no regards towards college. No one cared about who had a degree when they were all stuck in the same war zone, you often joked. Then again, he mused, he wasn’t sure he could handle the thought of you being away to foreign places that will eventually be dangerous. It wasn’t like he could go with you to those places. Even without the thought of the future, there was no doubt that you would probably be working for that newspaper company you wanted to work for during the next summer.
Even with that, there seemed to be no other way to make it work. He had scoffed at the idea of emails and letters and phone calls by telling you he thought they were stupid, but truthfully, he would rather see your face than anything. His attention snapped back when he felt you stir. You sat up, blinking sleepily as you let go of his hand and apologized for sleeping on him. As the two of you went back into the house and he helped you clean the dishes, you asked him, “Do you want me to walk you back home?”
He laughed, realizing that you probably would never change, and shook his head before grabbing your face between his two hands and planting a soft kiss on your lips. “Goodnight. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
You smiled, waving at him as he left your front door, and just when you went back into the room, you remembered what it was that you forgot to tell him. When you ran back out, he was already out of sight.
This was probably the worst fight you’ve ever had. You only have one week left in Japan and these days it felt like you couldn’t even bring up the situation without him acting like an ass about it. When you got back home, you found an email from your employer about a meeting that was going to take place later on today about the internship. He had said that he has been really pleased with your work and he would definitely put in a good word for you when you got back home.
You were working on your last and biggest assignment and today was the day you would be interviewing the new sushi restaurant Kawamura was opening up. You were meeting up with him in an hour to talk about the difficulty of his choice. Instead of going to college like the other regulars on his team, Kawamura was going to take over his family business and extend it to different branches. The first branch was opening up in Kyoto and because you couldn’t travel with him to Kyoto – not that you really wanted to spend the last week away from your boyfriend, no matter how difficult he was being – your upperclassman decided to help you out with an exclusive interview.
After packing some of your things, you emailed the original owners of the house who had leased it to you for the summer to tell them that the house was going to be good as new when they come back. You had taken good care of it and had some good memories there. A few days after you came home from the fieldtrip, you invited the Seigaku regulars over for dinner after they won their last game for the season. When the ringtone on your cell phone went off, you blinked, sort of surprised to see that it was your boss who was calling you. “Uematsu-san? What can I do for you?”
Later that day, long after the sun had set, anyone walking by the tennis court near Seigaku would have seen two high schoolers bouncing the ball back and forth. They were both breathing heavily, sweating like crazy, and incredibly exhausted. Interestingly enough, one of them was just a tad more exhausted than the other.
“Ochibi, you’re a bit slow today, aren’t you?” Eiji grinned as he batted the ball across the court.
Ryoma stretched and swatted it back, barely getting it inbounds. He opted not to respond and slammed his last shot back into the field but somehow it was deflected by his upperclassman, who bounced into a one-handed cartwheel and threw it right back. The ball flashed by him, touching the ground for a split second before it whipped and hit against the metal fence.
Eiji let out a loud whoop and jumped, “Yay! I win! 7-5!”
Ryoma let out a grunt before he made his way to the bench to open up his Ponta. Eiji skipped over and sat down next to him and chirped, “Thanks for playing with me. I think I’ve been going crazy these days ever since Tezuka told us to take a break from tennis. I didn’t realize that all that training he made us do was gonna grow on me.”
“I was getting bored too,” Ryoma commented.
Eiji blinked, “Why aren’t you out with [your name]-chan today? Isn’t she leaving in a week?”
“She had a few things to do,” he responded, but he knew that was no excuse. Usually, he would have just gone with you to make sure you didn’t get into any trouble, so he added quietly, “We got into a fight this morning.”
“Another one? What did you say to her?”
He frowned, “Why does it have to be me that said something? She was the one who was asking me if I wanted to break up with her.”
Who wanted to talk about something like that? A week ago, he was okay with the idea of spending the rest of the time with you, but as the days grew shorter, it was getting harder and harder for him to stay in a good mood, knowing that you would be leaving soon. And for you to bring up such a topic every day, it made him even madder.
“Well, it doesn’t matter who said what, you want to spend time with her before she leaves, right? Go call her right now! Whatever the problem is, just push it aside now and deal with it later!” Eiji rolled his eyes and gave him his phone.
Ryoma didn’t like it when his upperclassman was right, but this time, he didn’t argue. He started to dial your number and saw that it was ten at night. Were you still awake right now, he wondered? It was five rings before he hung up. He had called twice already and you weren’t picking up. Maybe you were still mad at him or something. Or maybe you weren’t home yet. His heart skipped a beat, if you weren’t home, where could you be?
In twenty minutes, he was walking by your house on the way back to his house and looked at the building to see that the lights weren’t on. Maybe you were sleeping, he decided. There was probably something big going on that made you decide to go to bed early and who was he to wake you up? Even though his mind was telling him no, he was still walking up to your door. After a few knocks and waiting for five minutes, he realized you weren’t home. Suddenly he started to worry about what might have happened to you. You weren’t known for your restraint when it came to pursuing an assignment.
“Ryoma? Were you looking for me?” your voice was coming from nearby and he turned around to see you pulling up on your bike with a curious expression on your face.
He frowned, “Why didn’t you pick up your phone?”
“I was in a meeting with Uematsu-san. It ran a little late and when everyone in the office learned that I was leaving in a bit, they all took some time out to say goodbye to me,” you explained, opening the door. He held the door opened while you locked the bike up on the railing. “Did something happen?”
“No,” he shook his head, watching you check your phone. He followed you into the house and saw that most of the effects that had taken over the house – the flowers, the stacks of books, and various little sculptures had disappeared. After all, they were your touches.
The two of you stood there awkwardly while you set your stuff down. Finally it was you who let out a deep breath and said the first words, “Look, Ryoma. About this morning—“
“I don’t want to talk about that,” he cut you off. When you opened your mouth to protest, he continued, “Can’t you just enjoy the rest of your time here without arguing with me all the time?”
You blinked, nodding slowly as if you were finally understanding what was going on, “Yea that sounds like a good idea.”
He extended his arms out and you walked into them, relishing the feeling of being there. You missed being there. You loved being with him because even after becoming his girlfriend, not much changed between the two of you except that now you could hug him and hold his hand. But then, the two of you were private with your affection and not many outside of the tennis team could really claim that they’ve seen you guys be intimate with each other.
You pulled back, flashing a small smile at him, but before you were able to open your mouth to speak, your stomach beat you to it with its growling. You laughed sheepishly before saying, “Sorry about that. I was just going to ask if you wanted to join me for dinner.”
He chuckled and responded, “Depends on what you have.”
In twenty minutes, you were both sharing a bowl of soup on the back porch, enjoying the chirping of the crickets and fireflies drifting around in the backyard, you rested your head on his shoulder and let you a small yawn. When he told you to go to bed, you said that you could stay awake for a little more but in spite of that, the two of you were asleep in a matter of minutes.
Ryoma woke up two hours later with a painful ache in his upper body. He groaned, sitting up slowly so that his back was away from being pressed against the porch railing. Much to his surprise, he found that he couldn’t move anywhere as you were fast asleep with your head on his lap. He blushed, torn between waking you up and letting you stay that way. When he was going to raise his hand to shake your shoulder, he found that it was already in your grasp as you were so comfortably settled to sleep.
Ten more minutes then, he decided, leaning back against the railing. It was always a tedious day when you guys fight but it never felt better when the two of you made up. He was really going to miss this when you leave. It felt like he was being rushed, as the days went by, because you guys weren’t able to spend time together. The thought of you going away was imminent and he knew that he would eventually have to deal with it and let you go. There was no other way. Sure his mother lived in the states but he still had school here and he trained with his team during the summer and the rest of the year so there was virtually no chance for him to go see you.
Then there was your situation with your job. You had talked about how you were probably going straight into reporting after high school with no regards towards college. No one cared about who had a degree when they were all stuck in the same war zone, you often joked. Then again, he mused, he wasn’t sure he could handle the thought of you being away to foreign places that will eventually be dangerous. It wasn’t like he could go with you to those places. Even without the thought of the future, there was no doubt that you would probably be working for that newspaper company you wanted to work for during the next summer.
Even with that, there seemed to be no other way to make it work. He had scoffed at the idea of emails and letters and phone calls by telling you he thought they were stupid, but truthfully, he would rather see your face than anything. His attention snapped back when he felt you stir. You sat up, blinking sleepily as you let go of his hand and apologized for sleeping on him. As the two of you went back into the house and he helped you clean the dishes, you asked him, “Do you want me to walk you back home?”
He laughed, realizing that you probably would never change, and shook his head before grabbing your face between his two hands and planting a soft kiss on your lips. “Goodnight. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
You smiled, waving at him as he left your front door, and just when you went back into the room, you remembered what it was that you forgot to tell him. When you ran back out, he was already out of sight.
Saying Goodbye
Much to your dismay, for the rest of the week, you weren’t able to tell Ryoma the good news. Eventually, it was like the chance never came because you didn’t want to risk bringing up another fight. Your upperclassmen on the tennis team wanted to make sure you were leaving with plenty of good memories after they learned that you had submitted your letter of resignation to your boss. So they planned a road trip – something that was probably Momo and Eiji’s idea when the two of them realized that they had to get back to training in a month. Not to mention, Momo’s interest was piqued when he heard Fuji mentioning something about a new famous sushi restaurant that was going to open up in Osaka.
So the rest of the week was spent traveling around the region, with Osaka being the final destination before you would eventually fly back to town and spend the day packing up and greeting the old house owners and then boarding the plan. You had gone to many places and took a ton of pictures, making note of the interesting historical facts and trivia that came with them. Needless to say, even though the boys were glad to be relieved of their tennis training regiment, they still brought their racquets with them for when some unique occasions came up that required them to defend their honor with a tennis match.
You all made sure to drop by Kyoto to see Kawamura’s grand opening and try his sushi – which was absolutely delicious – and along the way, you somehow got addicted to Ponta. After your boyfriend gave you a sip when the boys decided it would be funny to see you eat a wasabi-covered sushi, you fell in love with the drink and the magical quality that had saved your mouth from being burnt by such spicy food.
You all had fun, of course, taking random pictures on Fuji’s digital camera whenever he let you all used it. Most of the shots taken were of Momo stuffing his face, Tezuka’s stern expression whenever he tried to decide whether or not to buy something, and Oishi drawing something. It was hard to catch your boyfriend off guard, you had realized. There was something about him not liking pictures because when he was younger, he had been hounded by a model agency for the pictures his mom used to show off to everyone so he avoided every camera he could find.
The only times you were able to take any picture with him was after a long bout of throwing things back and forth until he was finally too frustrated to keep his guard up and you were able to snap a shot of him with a frown. Or when he was sleeping. The entire team agreed that such pictures should never be shown to him lest he start to find the team creepier than you guys admittedly were. Sometimes he wasn’t sure whether or not he should be happy that you fit in so well with his teammates.
Of course, then there was yesterday, you grinned, holding the newly developed photos in your hand. Yesterday was the day when you all stopped by the island where Ryoma and you had gotten together. The plan was to catch a couple of fish and camp out for the night before you guys set off for Osaka. Fuji said he needed to go to develop the photos from his camera and you volunteered to go with him while the guys went fishing. You went with him to the local photography shop and selected the pictures that were going to be printed out in an hour. After that you thanked the photographer and started heading out, only to be stopped by a cry of surprise. You blinked, turning around to see the guy’s eyes lit up as he shouted, “Wait! It’s you!”
“Me?” you pointed to yourself and glanced at Fuji, who had a confused expression on his face as well.
“Wait! I have something for you!” he said before rushing to the back.
When he came out, he was holding a photo, “I took this a while back while walking towards the beach. I didn’t get to see your faces and normally I would ask for permission but it was such a perfect picture that I didn’t want to pass up the chance. Anyway, you two looked really happy and if anything, I thought you might like this picture.”
A small smile started to appear on your face as soon as you realized what it was. Ryoma’s and your backs were facing the camera as you guys were slightly hunched over the railing of the pier. The light from the nearby lamp was just right, illuminating your face as you smiled at him. It was hard to tell that your arm was hooked around this, but you knew that your fingers were intertwined at that time. The best part of the picture was, you decided, seeing Ryoma’s face looking at yours with his own soft smile. It wasn’t teasing, mischievous, or even sarcastic. It was a simple and gentle smile that he rarely showed to anyone else but you.
“This is beautiful,” you said after a while, “How much—“
“Nothing,” he smiled, “Pictures like these are hard to come by. When the lighting is just right, moments like these are impossible to quantify. So just do this old man a favor and keep it somewhere safe. I’m just glad that I’ve seen something like this once in my life.”
When you said nothing, Fuji nudged you and nodded, “You should take it, [your name]-chan.”
You responded with a nod and thanked him before heading out again. When you met up with the guys, you showed Ryoma the picture, who had murmured something about being off guard that day and told you to keep it when you asked him if he had wanted it. If you hadn’t known better, you would have thought that he was being insensitive again, not caring for mementos but you hadn’t missed the warm look that passed his eyes when he stared at the picture. So you had laughed and kissed him on the cheek before tucking the picture away.
As it had turned out, at least everyone (except Momo) had caught something edible. You guys grilled the fish and ate it with soysauce. Needless to say, even after the meal was done, everyone was still hungry, so you all went to the restaurant by the ocean to eat. Ryoma and you had visited the pier again later that night and looked out towards the ocean once more. Nothing was said between the two of you. There was just the comfortable silence of standing next to him and listening to the waves crash against each other.
The next morning you met up with the group again, only to find them huddled together to look at the pictures that Fuji had picked up after they were finished developing. There were plenty of memories, to say the least. Most of them were funny because of the unsuspecting victims. For once, you all learned what Inui was writing in his notebook and it seemed to be the name of a certain girl who used to have an intense crush on Ryoma. You had giggled and made a note to clue her in on it when you got back. Tezuka apparently liked to be very comfortable in his duck slippers, something apparently only you didn’t know because you’ve never seen him in anything other than his exercise clothes.
Then there was another one that you immediately asked to keep when you recognized what it was. There were several pictures of you and Ryoma sitting next to each other, very much asleep. It was when you were on the fieldtrip. You blinked, not sure whether or not you should be impressed that he managed to keep a camera hidden from YOU, the reporter, or shocked that he took a picture of something like this. There was another one of Ryoma with his eyes barely opened while he pulled you closer to him while you were sleeping so you could put your head on his shoulder. Then another one with him sleeping with his head on top of yours while he held your hand. You laughed inwardly, incredibly happy that those vague memories you had on the bus were not dreams after all. Well, you figured, Fuji did have a good future in tabloids.
Even though you had asked to keep these shots, it was Ryoma who had beaten you to the punch by taking the pictures out of everyone’s reach and stuffing them inside his pocket. When the boys realized what had happened, they started to chase him and make fun of him, leaving Fuji and you to look at the rest of the pictures. About five minutes later, you saw him jogging across the shore out of everyone’s reach saying “Mada mada dane” until he somehow tripped on a pile of seaweed.
Even though you were feeling a bit seasick, Ryoma had somehow managed to take a nap on the bumpy ferry trip to Osaka. You had asked him if you could have the pictures – thinking that he had taken them out of embarrassment when his team members saw him in that state of unconsciousness – your boyfriend simply pulled his hat down and said, “No, they’re mine.”
You opened your mouth to argue but then closed it when you saw the light blush on his face. Without another word, you grinned and let him go back to sleep. While in Osaka, Fuji had mysteriously left the group for ten minutes, somehow giving you guys the right to sneak after and follow him. Needless to say, the lady friend he was meeting with was not happy to find that he had brought his friends along with him after he finally decided to see her after so long.
Of course, Ryoma and you were resistant to the idea of invading the upperclassman’s privacy… well, Ryoma was anyways. You were quickly convinced that it was for his safety that you all made sure Fuji would be safe after Oishi jokingly told you about a certain play that required a certain Seigaku regular to dress up like a girl. Thanks to Momo, you were able to try most if not all of the ice cream flavors available there, even the rose! Before you knew it, you were on the road back to Ryoma’s house.
You had received a call earlier that day saying that the house owners would be back on the day you come back to town so you were more than happy to give them back their homes. Fortunately, Ryoma offered you a night to stay in the guest bedroom and that would be where you’d stay until the day after to go to the airport. You grinned at the boys as they finally started breathing after Ryoma and you got out of the car, “It was really fun, guys, thank you!”
“Well, try to come back and see us sometimes, okay?” Momo said, resisting the urge to cry.
Eiji joined in, but he was already in tears, blubbering something about you keeping the Ochibi in line so he wouldn’t pick on his upperclassmen. Oishi laughed and shook your hand, adding, “It was really nice to get to know you, [your name]-chan.”
“You’ve been a very diligent person with both your dedication and determination for your job, [your name]-san, I wish you the best of luck for all of your future endeavors,” Tezuka nodded from the front passenger seat. You laughed, joined by everyone else who thought it was pretty hilarious how he could stay so sober after yesterday when he had drank an entire cup of sake.
“[your name]-chan, it is unfortunate that you are leaving when I’ve found out so late after meeting you that you can withstand the sports drink I make,” Inui started, pushing his glasses up, “If it’s alright, I want to keep correspondence with you on future updates I make with the drink and perhaps you can offer some tips on the taste. It seems that you and I are very compatible note takers.”
“That would be great, Inui-sempai,” you said. When you looked around for Fuji, you found him standing beside you, digging in his bag for something, “Is something wrong, Fuji-sempai? Did you forget something?”
“Ah, no, I wanted to give you this,” he said, handing you an envelope. “It’s a present from Ryoma and I. Well, it would be best if you waited until you were at least on the plane. It’s a shame we can’t take you to the airport tomorrow, otherwise I would just wait to give it to you then.”
“No, it’s completely alright, you guys have school, so just take care, okay?” you smiled, “When you visit Takamura-sempai again in Kyoto, say hi to him for me, okay?”
With that, everyone went home. Ryoma accompanied you to meet the old couple who owned the house. You gave them back their keys and gave them a present you bought from the trip before heading back to your boyfriend’s house. The walk back to Ryoma’s house was in silence but that was because you were deep in thought. “I wonder what’s in the envelope.”
“You can’t look at it yet,” he said, grabbing your bag before you could even protest.
“I wasn’t going to,” you responded, “Why are you guys being so mysterious?”
“If you look at it now, you will ruin the surprise,” he remarked, opening the door for you. When he stepped into the house, he shouted, “We’re home!”
“[your name]-chan!” Nanjiro Echizen came bounding out from his room, “You’re home! Did you have a good trip?”
You grinned, reaching for your bag, “Yes, and I bought something for you and Nanako-chan. Where is she?”
“She’s out with her boyfriend,” he mumbled, “Left me hungry all day.”
“I’m glad she did, because I got you these!” you exclaimed, pulling out several bags of snacks. “It’s not much, but they’re delicacies from all the towns we went to. Some of them are candy but most of them are food. I think you’ll like them, ya?”
The rest of the afternoon went by quickly when Nanako came home to find that you were already making dinner while the two Echizens were in the back with their tennis match. She joined you in the kitchen after finding her gift on the table and thanked you before she started helping you with dinner. “I’m glad you had a good time.”
“Yea, thanks! We took a ton of pictures. Fuji is emailing them to me after he gets them uploaded onto his computer,” you responded.
“So,” she started slowly, “What are you and Ryoma-kun thinking of doing about this long distance thing?”
You let out a slow sigh, “Well… I’m not sure yet. I had some news to tell him and originally I thought it was going to be good news, but during the trip, he seems to have to come to terms with the idea of us not seeing each other again so I’m not sure if it’ll be good news anymore.”
She blinked, “What? What do you mean?”
By the time you finished explaining to her, the two men had come into the house, hungry and sweaty. Nanjiro was whining about a tennis ball a certain teenager had bounced off his head when he was being a sore loser about a point that was barely out of bounds. You laughed and joined them for your last dinner in Japan. It was delicious and when you had finished, Nanako had insisted on Ryoma taking you for a walk to digest the food – of course, she had also pulled you aside to tell you that this would be the perfect opportunity to tell him what you had just told her.
You guys had walked in silence towards the park, your fingers intertwined. This was it, you realized. Tomorrow was a school day for the guys and while it was disappointing, you insisted that the guys go back to school instead of taking you to the airport since it was then the start of a new semester and they had to start training. Besides, you would probably burst into tears before leaving if you had to look back to see them waving at you. You had become such good friends with them.
“What are you thinking about?” Ryoma asked when you guys arrived at a bench.
“How I need to ask Nanako-chan for the taxi number for tomorrow,” you lied. “What about you?”
“About what happens after you get on that plane tomorrow,” he responded bluntly.
“Oh yea?” you murmured, waiting for his elaboration.
“I don’t want to break up with you,” he said.
“Ryoma—“
“I don’t expect you to wait for me, but I don’t see myself looking for anyone else,” he continued, squeezing your hand. “But… I understand if you want to keep your options open.”
Your heart skipped a beat and you couldn’t stop the smile from appearing on your face, “I don’t see myself looking for anyone else either, Ryoma. I’ve been meaning to tell you this a while back but the chance never came up.”
He looked over at you, waiting for you to continue. “After I talked to Uematsu-san last week, he said he had written a letter of recommendation for me to The Economist’s US branch. You remember? The newspaper I’ve always wanted to work for.” He nodded and you continued, “Well, they looked into some of my work after his recommendation and were really pleased with my style, so they asked me to continue coming here during the summer until I graduate so I can be trained to run their Japanese branch.”
Ryoma looked blankly at you, as if not understanding what he had just heard. “What?”
You laughed and squeezed his hand, “I’m coming back next year, Ryoma.”
“That’s… that’s great,” he finally responded, a smile growing on his face. You returned the smile and allowed his arms to close around you. You wrapped your arm around his waist and waited after a while before you start to pull away. Much to your surprise, his hold stayed firm. “I’m so happy that you’re coming back.”
“Me too,” you murmured softly, relaxing in his embrace.
Was it possible to love someone this early in the relationship? Something had changed inside of you in regards to your feelings towards him. Your feelings towards him have changed, in fact. It wasn’t quite like and it definitely wasn’t platonic. When you thought about leaving him, your heart ached, but it would skip a beat every time he came into the room. When you guys would kiss, sometimes it was like the gentle brush of a petal and sometimes a violent thunderstorm, especially when you were making up for a fight.
You left quietly the next morning as your flight was pretty early. Ryoma was still sleeping when you were calling for your cab at 3 in the morning and instead of waiting inside so that the cab will honk for you to come out and wake everyone up, you waited by the front door. The sky was still dark out when you were shaken out of your thoughts by the front door opening. Ryoma stood there in his pajamas, slightly out of breath and relieved to see you. “You’re still here.”
With a small smile, you nodded and said, “Yea, the cab hasn’t arrived yet.”
He took a seat next to you and the two of you melted into a comfortable silence once again. You wanted to tell him to go back to sleep so he can be awake for practice, but part of you were being selfish and wanted to spend your last few hours in Japan being with him. You rested your head on his shoulder, relishing the warmth that came from having his arm around your shoulder. When the cab arrived, neither of you had felt too much of a hurry to get up, but even so, you stood up and let out a soft sigh. How to say goodbye? Even if it was only temporary?
“I’ll miss you,” you murmured, your voice cracking a little.
Ryoma grunted and pulled you close. “Don’t cry. It’s not like you’re going to stop hearing from me for a year.”
You nodded, laughing, “Of course not.”
You guys slowly pulled away and said your goodbyes, kisses cut short when your phone beeped to remind you that your plane was leaving in two hours and that you should probably be at the airport right then. When the cab started pulling away, you looked away from the back mirror, not wanting to see Ryoma’s figure grow smaller and smaller as you got further and further away. Would it ever get easier, you wondered?
“My, he’s very handsome,” said a lady who just tucked her stuff away in the compartment and took her seat next to you. “Is he a model?”
You smiled and nodded, “Thank you, he’s my boyfriend. Ryoma doesn’t really like to take pictures. A friend of mine and he made this as a present for me.”
She looked up thoughtfully and remarked, “He looks really comfortable in that picture there, smiling and all that. He must really love you.”
“You think so?” you murmured, unable to take your eyes off the picture. Ryoma was standing there with that gentle smile on his face and the warm look on his face. Instead of his t-shirt and athletic shorts, he was wearing what he had worn while you guys were in Osaka. The only time you guys had been apart at that time was when Momo had persuaded you to go off to try this ice cream shop that had exotic flower flavors. You had felt kind of bad at the time, after taking so long to persuade him to come with you but he had refused so adamantly.
“Say, he looks really familiar, where do I know him?” the lady mumbled. “Is he famous?”
You blinked, “I guess… Ryoma Echizen?”
She bit her lips for a while before her eyes brightened, “Oh! Him! Isn’t he the kid who won the US Open four years ago? You’re going out with him? How nice!”
You laughed, a little embarrassed that you had forgotten that little achievement of his. Ryoma had never really mentioned it during the time that you were in Japan and the only time you brought it up was during the first interview in a question regarding whether or not he has learned anything useful from the tournament that will aid him in his future tennis career – to which he responded with a “no” followed by an awkward silence until you asked him to elaborate.
“Yea, not a lot of people watch the US Open,” you remarked, thinking inwardly that it would probably be a good idea for you to take a look at the one from four years ago when you arrive home.
She giggled girlishly, “Yes, well, my boyfriend usually takes part in it. Come to think of it, I think if I mention that kid’s name, he would probably remember him.”
“Oh really? Who is your boyfriend?” you blinked.
“Roger Federer, I think that was the first time in four tournaments that he had lost… to a twelve-year-old, for that matter. I think he was rather glad that your boyfriend didn’t play in this one,” she laughed. “I would have come to see him play, but I had a couple of things to do in Japan.”
You bit your lips, almost unable to keep your smile in, “That’s funny… I guess I’m glad that he didn’t play in this one either, because if he did, we probably wouldn’t meet.”
You looked out the window, still holding the picture in your hand. The sun was barely rising over the peak of Mt. Fuji and by now, the regulars at Seigaku were probably training for their first game of the season. Summer was over for now but as far as seasons went, you were glad that it would come around again.
So the rest of the week was spent traveling around the region, with Osaka being the final destination before you would eventually fly back to town and spend the day packing up and greeting the old house owners and then boarding the plan. You had gone to many places and took a ton of pictures, making note of the interesting historical facts and trivia that came with them. Needless to say, even though the boys were glad to be relieved of their tennis training regiment, they still brought their racquets with them for when some unique occasions came up that required them to defend their honor with a tennis match.
You all made sure to drop by Kyoto to see Kawamura’s grand opening and try his sushi – which was absolutely delicious – and along the way, you somehow got addicted to Ponta. After your boyfriend gave you a sip when the boys decided it would be funny to see you eat a wasabi-covered sushi, you fell in love with the drink and the magical quality that had saved your mouth from being burnt by such spicy food.
You all had fun, of course, taking random pictures on Fuji’s digital camera whenever he let you all used it. Most of the shots taken were of Momo stuffing his face, Tezuka’s stern expression whenever he tried to decide whether or not to buy something, and Oishi drawing something. It was hard to catch your boyfriend off guard, you had realized. There was something about him not liking pictures because when he was younger, he had been hounded by a model agency for the pictures his mom used to show off to everyone so he avoided every camera he could find.
The only times you were able to take any picture with him was after a long bout of throwing things back and forth until he was finally too frustrated to keep his guard up and you were able to snap a shot of him with a frown. Or when he was sleeping. The entire team agreed that such pictures should never be shown to him lest he start to find the team creepier than you guys admittedly were. Sometimes he wasn’t sure whether or not he should be happy that you fit in so well with his teammates.
Of course, then there was yesterday, you grinned, holding the newly developed photos in your hand. Yesterday was the day when you all stopped by the island where Ryoma and you had gotten together. The plan was to catch a couple of fish and camp out for the night before you guys set off for Osaka. Fuji said he needed to go to develop the photos from his camera and you volunteered to go with him while the guys went fishing. You went with him to the local photography shop and selected the pictures that were going to be printed out in an hour. After that you thanked the photographer and started heading out, only to be stopped by a cry of surprise. You blinked, turning around to see the guy’s eyes lit up as he shouted, “Wait! It’s you!”
“Me?” you pointed to yourself and glanced at Fuji, who had a confused expression on his face as well.
“Wait! I have something for you!” he said before rushing to the back.
When he came out, he was holding a photo, “I took this a while back while walking towards the beach. I didn’t get to see your faces and normally I would ask for permission but it was such a perfect picture that I didn’t want to pass up the chance. Anyway, you two looked really happy and if anything, I thought you might like this picture.”
A small smile started to appear on your face as soon as you realized what it was. Ryoma’s and your backs were facing the camera as you guys were slightly hunched over the railing of the pier. The light from the nearby lamp was just right, illuminating your face as you smiled at him. It was hard to tell that your arm was hooked around this, but you knew that your fingers were intertwined at that time. The best part of the picture was, you decided, seeing Ryoma’s face looking at yours with his own soft smile. It wasn’t teasing, mischievous, or even sarcastic. It was a simple and gentle smile that he rarely showed to anyone else but you.
“This is beautiful,” you said after a while, “How much—“
“Nothing,” he smiled, “Pictures like these are hard to come by. When the lighting is just right, moments like these are impossible to quantify. So just do this old man a favor and keep it somewhere safe. I’m just glad that I’ve seen something like this once in my life.”
When you said nothing, Fuji nudged you and nodded, “You should take it, [your name]-chan.”
You responded with a nod and thanked him before heading out again. When you met up with the guys, you showed Ryoma the picture, who had murmured something about being off guard that day and told you to keep it when you asked him if he had wanted it. If you hadn’t known better, you would have thought that he was being insensitive again, not caring for mementos but you hadn’t missed the warm look that passed his eyes when he stared at the picture. So you had laughed and kissed him on the cheek before tucking the picture away.
As it had turned out, at least everyone (except Momo) had caught something edible. You guys grilled the fish and ate it with soysauce. Needless to say, even after the meal was done, everyone was still hungry, so you all went to the restaurant by the ocean to eat. Ryoma and you had visited the pier again later that night and looked out towards the ocean once more. Nothing was said between the two of you. There was just the comfortable silence of standing next to him and listening to the waves crash against each other.
The next morning you met up with the group again, only to find them huddled together to look at the pictures that Fuji had picked up after they were finished developing. There were plenty of memories, to say the least. Most of them were funny because of the unsuspecting victims. For once, you all learned what Inui was writing in his notebook and it seemed to be the name of a certain girl who used to have an intense crush on Ryoma. You had giggled and made a note to clue her in on it when you got back. Tezuka apparently liked to be very comfortable in his duck slippers, something apparently only you didn’t know because you’ve never seen him in anything other than his exercise clothes.
Then there was another one that you immediately asked to keep when you recognized what it was. There were several pictures of you and Ryoma sitting next to each other, very much asleep. It was when you were on the fieldtrip. You blinked, not sure whether or not you should be impressed that he managed to keep a camera hidden from YOU, the reporter, or shocked that he took a picture of something like this. There was another one of Ryoma with his eyes barely opened while he pulled you closer to him while you were sleeping so you could put your head on his shoulder. Then another one with him sleeping with his head on top of yours while he held your hand. You laughed inwardly, incredibly happy that those vague memories you had on the bus were not dreams after all. Well, you figured, Fuji did have a good future in tabloids.
Even though you had asked to keep these shots, it was Ryoma who had beaten you to the punch by taking the pictures out of everyone’s reach and stuffing them inside his pocket. When the boys realized what had happened, they started to chase him and make fun of him, leaving Fuji and you to look at the rest of the pictures. About five minutes later, you saw him jogging across the shore out of everyone’s reach saying “Mada mada dane” until he somehow tripped on a pile of seaweed.
Even though you were feeling a bit seasick, Ryoma had somehow managed to take a nap on the bumpy ferry trip to Osaka. You had asked him if you could have the pictures – thinking that he had taken them out of embarrassment when his team members saw him in that state of unconsciousness – your boyfriend simply pulled his hat down and said, “No, they’re mine.”
You opened your mouth to argue but then closed it when you saw the light blush on his face. Without another word, you grinned and let him go back to sleep. While in Osaka, Fuji had mysteriously left the group for ten minutes, somehow giving you guys the right to sneak after and follow him. Needless to say, the lady friend he was meeting with was not happy to find that he had brought his friends along with him after he finally decided to see her after so long.
Of course, Ryoma and you were resistant to the idea of invading the upperclassman’s privacy… well, Ryoma was anyways. You were quickly convinced that it was for his safety that you all made sure Fuji would be safe after Oishi jokingly told you about a certain play that required a certain Seigaku regular to dress up like a girl. Thanks to Momo, you were able to try most if not all of the ice cream flavors available there, even the rose! Before you knew it, you were on the road back to Ryoma’s house.
You had received a call earlier that day saying that the house owners would be back on the day you come back to town so you were more than happy to give them back their homes. Fortunately, Ryoma offered you a night to stay in the guest bedroom and that would be where you’d stay until the day after to go to the airport. You grinned at the boys as they finally started breathing after Ryoma and you got out of the car, “It was really fun, guys, thank you!”
“Well, try to come back and see us sometimes, okay?” Momo said, resisting the urge to cry.
Eiji joined in, but he was already in tears, blubbering something about you keeping the Ochibi in line so he wouldn’t pick on his upperclassmen. Oishi laughed and shook your hand, adding, “It was really nice to get to know you, [your name]-chan.”
“You’ve been a very diligent person with both your dedication and determination for your job, [your name]-san, I wish you the best of luck for all of your future endeavors,” Tezuka nodded from the front passenger seat. You laughed, joined by everyone else who thought it was pretty hilarious how he could stay so sober after yesterday when he had drank an entire cup of sake.
“[your name]-chan, it is unfortunate that you are leaving when I’ve found out so late after meeting you that you can withstand the sports drink I make,” Inui started, pushing his glasses up, “If it’s alright, I want to keep correspondence with you on future updates I make with the drink and perhaps you can offer some tips on the taste. It seems that you and I are very compatible note takers.”
“That would be great, Inui-sempai,” you said. When you looked around for Fuji, you found him standing beside you, digging in his bag for something, “Is something wrong, Fuji-sempai? Did you forget something?”
“Ah, no, I wanted to give you this,” he said, handing you an envelope. “It’s a present from Ryoma and I. Well, it would be best if you waited until you were at least on the plane. It’s a shame we can’t take you to the airport tomorrow, otherwise I would just wait to give it to you then.”
“No, it’s completely alright, you guys have school, so just take care, okay?” you smiled, “When you visit Takamura-sempai again in Kyoto, say hi to him for me, okay?”
With that, everyone went home. Ryoma accompanied you to meet the old couple who owned the house. You gave them back their keys and gave them a present you bought from the trip before heading back to your boyfriend’s house. The walk back to Ryoma’s house was in silence but that was because you were deep in thought. “I wonder what’s in the envelope.”
“You can’t look at it yet,” he said, grabbing your bag before you could even protest.
“I wasn’t going to,” you responded, “Why are you guys being so mysterious?”
“If you look at it now, you will ruin the surprise,” he remarked, opening the door for you. When he stepped into the house, he shouted, “We’re home!”
“[your name]-chan!” Nanjiro Echizen came bounding out from his room, “You’re home! Did you have a good trip?”
You grinned, reaching for your bag, “Yes, and I bought something for you and Nanako-chan. Where is she?”
“She’s out with her boyfriend,” he mumbled, “Left me hungry all day.”
“I’m glad she did, because I got you these!” you exclaimed, pulling out several bags of snacks. “It’s not much, but they’re delicacies from all the towns we went to. Some of them are candy but most of them are food. I think you’ll like them, ya?”
The rest of the afternoon went by quickly when Nanako came home to find that you were already making dinner while the two Echizens were in the back with their tennis match. She joined you in the kitchen after finding her gift on the table and thanked you before she started helping you with dinner. “I’m glad you had a good time.”
“Yea, thanks! We took a ton of pictures. Fuji is emailing them to me after he gets them uploaded onto his computer,” you responded.
“So,” she started slowly, “What are you and Ryoma-kun thinking of doing about this long distance thing?”
You let out a slow sigh, “Well… I’m not sure yet. I had some news to tell him and originally I thought it was going to be good news, but during the trip, he seems to have to come to terms with the idea of us not seeing each other again so I’m not sure if it’ll be good news anymore.”
She blinked, “What? What do you mean?”
By the time you finished explaining to her, the two men had come into the house, hungry and sweaty. Nanjiro was whining about a tennis ball a certain teenager had bounced off his head when he was being a sore loser about a point that was barely out of bounds. You laughed and joined them for your last dinner in Japan. It was delicious and when you had finished, Nanako had insisted on Ryoma taking you for a walk to digest the food – of course, she had also pulled you aside to tell you that this would be the perfect opportunity to tell him what you had just told her.
You guys had walked in silence towards the park, your fingers intertwined. This was it, you realized. Tomorrow was a school day for the guys and while it was disappointing, you insisted that the guys go back to school instead of taking you to the airport since it was then the start of a new semester and they had to start training. Besides, you would probably burst into tears before leaving if you had to look back to see them waving at you. You had become such good friends with them.
“What are you thinking about?” Ryoma asked when you guys arrived at a bench.
“How I need to ask Nanako-chan for the taxi number for tomorrow,” you lied. “What about you?”
“About what happens after you get on that plane tomorrow,” he responded bluntly.
“Oh yea?” you murmured, waiting for his elaboration.
“I don’t want to break up with you,” he said.
“Ryoma—“
“I don’t expect you to wait for me, but I don’t see myself looking for anyone else,” he continued, squeezing your hand. “But… I understand if you want to keep your options open.”
Your heart skipped a beat and you couldn’t stop the smile from appearing on your face, “I don’t see myself looking for anyone else either, Ryoma. I’ve been meaning to tell you this a while back but the chance never came up.”
He looked over at you, waiting for you to continue. “After I talked to Uematsu-san last week, he said he had written a letter of recommendation for me to The Economist’s US branch. You remember? The newspaper I’ve always wanted to work for.” He nodded and you continued, “Well, they looked into some of my work after his recommendation and were really pleased with my style, so they asked me to continue coming here during the summer until I graduate so I can be trained to run their Japanese branch.”
Ryoma looked blankly at you, as if not understanding what he had just heard. “What?”
You laughed and squeezed his hand, “I’m coming back next year, Ryoma.”
“That’s… that’s great,” he finally responded, a smile growing on his face. You returned the smile and allowed his arms to close around you. You wrapped your arm around his waist and waited after a while before you start to pull away. Much to your surprise, his hold stayed firm. “I’m so happy that you’re coming back.”
“Me too,” you murmured softly, relaxing in his embrace.
Was it possible to love someone this early in the relationship? Something had changed inside of you in regards to your feelings towards him. Your feelings towards him have changed, in fact. It wasn’t quite like and it definitely wasn’t platonic. When you thought about leaving him, your heart ached, but it would skip a beat every time he came into the room. When you guys would kiss, sometimes it was like the gentle brush of a petal and sometimes a violent thunderstorm, especially when you were making up for a fight.
You left quietly the next morning as your flight was pretty early. Ryoma was still sleeping when you were calling for your cab at 3 in the morning and instead of waiting inside so that the cab will honk for you to come out and wake everyone up, you waited by the front door. The sky was still dark out when you were shaken out of your thoughts by the front door opening. Ryoma stood there in his pajamas, slightly out of breath and relieved to see you. “You’re still here.”
With a small smile, you nodded and said, “Yea, the cab hasn’t arrived yet.”
He took a seat next to you and the two of you melted into a comfortable silence once again. You wanted to tell him to go back to sleep so he can be awake for practice, but part of you were being selfish and wanted to spend your last few hours in Japan being with him. You rested your head on his shoulder, relishing the warmth that came from having his arm around your shoulder. When the cab arrived, neither of you had felt too much of a hurry to get up, but even so, you stood up and let out a soft sigh. How to say goodbye? Even if it was only temporary?
“I’ll miss you,” you murmured, your voice cracking a little.
Ryoma grunted and pulled you close. “Don’t cry. It’s not like you’re going to stop hearing from me for a year.”
You nodded, laughing, “Of course not.”
You guys slowly pulled away and said your goodbyes, kisses cut short when your phone beeped to remind you that your plane was leaving in two hours and that you should probably be at the airport right then. When the cab started pulling away, you looked away from the back mirror, not wanting to see Ryoma’s figure grow smaller and smaller as you got further and further away. Would it ever get easier, you wondered?
“My, he’s very handsome,” said a lady who just tucked her stuff away in the compartment and took her seat next to you. “Is he a model?”
You smiled and nodded, “Thank you, he’s my boyfriend. Ryoma doesn’t really like to take pictures. A friend of mine and he made this as a present for me.”
She looked up thoughtfully and remarked, “He looks really comfortable in that picture there, smiling and all that. He must really love you.”
“You think so?” you murmured, unable to take your eyes off the picture. Ryoma was standing there with that gentle smile on his face and the warm look on his face. Instead of his t-shirt and athletic shorts, he was wearing what he had worn while you guys were in Osaka. The only time you guys had been apart at that time was when Momo had persuaded you to go off to try this ice cream shop that had exotic flower flavors. You had felt kind of bad at the time, after taking so long to persuade him to come with you but he had refused so adamantly.
“Say, he looks really familiar, where do I know him?” the lady mumbled. “Is he famous?”
You blinked, “I guess… Ryoma Echizen?”
She bit her lips for a while before her eyes brightened, “Oh! Him! Isn’t he the kid who won the US Open four years ago? You’re going out with him? How nice!”
You laughed, a little embarrassed that you had forgotten that little achievement of his. Ryoma had never really mentioned it during the time that you were in Japan and the only time you brought it up was during the first interview in a question regarding whether or not he has learned anything useful from the tournament that will aid him in his future tennis career – to which he responded with a “no” followed by an awkward silence until you asked him to elaborate.
“Yea, not a lot of people watch the US Open,” you remarked, thinking inwardly that it would probably be a good idea for you to take a look at the one from four years ago when you arrive home.
She giggled girlishly, “Yes, well, my boyfriend usually takes part in it. Come to think of it, I think if I mention that kid’s name, he would probably remember him.”
“Oh really? Who is your boyfriend?” you blinked.
“Roger Federer, I think that was the first time in four tournaments that he had lost… to a twelve-year-old, for that matter. I think he was rather glad that your boyfriend didn’t play in this one,” she laughed. “I would have come to see him play, but I had a couple of things to do in Japan.”
You bit your lips, almost unable to keep your smile in, “That’s funny… I guess I’m glad that he didn’t play in this one either, because if he did, we probably wouldn’t meet.”
You looked out the window, still holding the picture in your hand. The sun was barely rising over the peak of Mt. Fuji and by now, the regulars at Seigaku were probably training for their first game of the season. Summer was over for now but as far as seasons went, you were glad that it would come around again.