Disclaimer: POT will never become mine.

Author's Note: I don't think I will update "Beautiful Stranger" this week, so I put this up instead. This story came before "Beautiful Stranger" but ideas flew out of my mind when I was trying to finish this. Good thing that I came up with something again. But let me warn you, there is definitely OOC going on here. But I did that to make my story work, but I promise you, (and I hope) that it's worth it. So I hope you will enjoy reading this. Thank you in advance!

I'm with Kachiro, Katsuo and Horio who's been talking non-sense about his now 7 years of tennis experience and I've been thinking.

There's something going on. There's definitely a problem.

What is her problem to be exact? We've been dating since the end of junior high school and now that it is almost time for the graduation ceremony, she's practically ignoring me completely. I seldom see her act like his, close to none.

Who is this woman? Where is my sweet, understanding, supportive and loving girlfriend? Even though she's just 5 feet away from me and talking to her friends, I miss her.

While those thoughts run around my head, a hand landed on my back, smacking me, followed by someone who's practically cutting off my oxygen supply by hugging me tight. I looked at their direction and saw my whole former tennis club teammates and realized that the one who smacked me was Momo-senpai and Kikumaru-senpai is the one hugging me.

"S-senpai…c-can't…breathe." I manage to say while I struggle from his suffocating hug.

"Oops! I'm sorry ochibi! I'm just happy to see you again and in graduation too!" Kikumaru-senpai said too energetically. I guess he had too much sugar. Momo-senpai approached me and smack me again on my back saying, "Congratulations Echizen!". After that, my old teammates also congratulated me and the trio one-by-one, even Kaidoh-senpai who said it plaily and Tezuka-buchou who also reminded us to "not let our guard down".

Momo-senpai nudged me slightly and said, "It must feel special to graduate with your girlfriend eh? Young love, young love"

"Tch. Yeah right" I mumbled.

"Why ochibi? Is something wrong? Is something bothering you?" Kikumaru-senpai asked.

"I think it's the other way around." I whispered.

"What do you mean?" I didn't know that Kikumaru-senpai's hearing is that good too.

"Nothing" I said with my usual bored tone.

My girlfriend looked in my direction and waved. I smirked. Finally! She ran towards us and… ran past me. What? She greeted our senpais one-by-one. In return, our senpai congratulated her as well. After that, when I was about to say something, she excused herself from them and left. I was left there following here with my eyes.

All of my senpai looked at me looking at her.

"What happened?" Momo-senpai asked.

"There's a 97% chance that Ryuuzaki-san ignored Echizen" Inui-senpai said as he scribbled some notes probably about me and this incident.

Great! They have noticed too.

"What is going on with you two?" Momo-senpai asked and I sense a worried tone in his voice.

"Hmm, interesting" Fuji-senpai said as he caress his chin, still with that smirk of amusement plastered on his face.

"Did something happen between the two of you?" Oishi-senpai asked. I only shrugged as an answer

"Are you two in a fight?" Kawamura-senpai asked and I shake my head to answer him "no". There they go again minding my business.

"Did she say something?" Kikumaru-senpai asked.

"She hasn't talked to me since this morning!" I answered a bit irritated.

"Did YOU say something?" Fuji-senpai asked emphasizing on the word "you".

"No." I said plainly.

"That's it!" Momo-senpai said as he pounded his fist on his palm.

"What do you mean 'That's it!' Momo?" Kikumaru-senpai asked as he scratches his head showing his confusion.

"Because Echizen doesn't talk that much! Maybe Ryuuzaki-chan's tired of you being like that, so now she's giving you the 'cold shoulder' so that you can feel what she's feeling!" Momo-senpai said elaborating his idea.

"But Ryuuzaki-chan's so understanding. I don't think she can do that to ochibi. Besides, she knows that ochibi is already like that even before and still liked him because of that." Kikumaru-senpai retaliated as he grasped Momo-senpai's idea.

"That is true Eiji, but you do know that everyone has their limitations, right? I think even sweet Ryuuzaki-chan's is not exempted to that." Fuji-senpai said still, with his "sweet" smile that is full of sarcasm.

I felt instantly irritated as he addressed my girlfriend like that, like smash-the-tennis-ball-directly-to-his-face kind of irritation and at the same time, I felt a stab of guilt in my chest hearing their take on the current situation of my relationship. When did I start to let them meddle on my personal life? But is that really true? Is she getting tired of me being like this? But she loved me just the way I am even before, right? People around me beside my family in exception of my father and brother, annoys the hell out of me. But Sakuno's different. She doesn't annoy me. Instead, she's inspiring me. She inspires to be a better person. In my perspective, my attitude's worse before. I think I've already changed and I think everyone's going to agree with that, no? Being with her, I feel different. Good different. Even though I am still as quiet, I feel that I have changed.

I miss her. I'm already missing her. I remember that time when I "ask" her to go out with me.

***Flashback***

It was also this time of the year. At our graduation in junior high, I can tell… I can tell that she's avoiding me, and I don't know why.

We have been friends for some time now. She's still the same. She watches my games and never missed any of it. She makes bentou for me occasionally. Many have said that she likes me and unlike what they have perceived me, I have noticed her. I'm not as dense as they think. I just masked my emotions greatly. But yes, as I've said, I noticed her. Do you think that those times that I have saved her was just coincidence? No it's not. I just want to be with her as much as possible without my stupid senpais being nosy. At least I have an excuse, right?

People inside the gym was looking intently and focused on our Principal as he says his closing remarks but not me. My eyes were only glued to her. That beautiful smile of hers has some comforting effect on me even if it's not directed at me. But I wonder why she hasn't spoken a word to me. Why is she avoiding me?

As the ceremony comes to an end, we all stand, bowed and cheered (well they did, I just stood there) for we have finished junior high school. Everyone's congratulating each other. I can see that everyone's happy. "Echizen-kun!" Kachiro shouted my name, calling me. I turned to look at his direction as he approached me. "Congratulations!"

"Hn." I replied with my usual tone.

"Ryuuzaki-chan says 'Congratulations' too", with that, he smiled and went to our other classmates. I am happy. But I will be happier if she congratulated me too, personally. What is wrong with her?

We all got back to our classroom to meet our homeroom teacher and thank him for everything for this school year. After that and a few more tears from my girl classmates (and a few boys), taking photos, hugs, the girls asking for the 2nd button of their crush, this annoys me the most, many have approached me for this but I don't care. I won't give it to anyone. So I just slumped in my desk and pretended to sleep.

My classmates then head out the classroom one-by-one to do more celebration with their family I guess, when I heard that loud-mouthed friend of Ryuuzaki saying her goodbye to her. When Ryuuzaki's friend left, I realized that we were the only people inside the classroom. She's just there's in her seat by the window, a hand cradled her chin, staring outside. I guess she didn't know that I was still there or she is still ignoring me. This is getting more and more frustrating. So I decided to talk to her first. I sighed, this is now or never.

"Ne, Ryuuzaki," she flinched as she heard me speak but didn't turn around to look at me instead, she lowered her head. "Why are you still here?" I said as gentle as possible.

"I-I'm waiting for Obaa-chan… she's uh, still in a meeting with the rest of the faculty."

"I see."

"How about you? Why are you still here, R-Ryoma-kun?"

"My mom's throwing a party at our house, not really into that. It's uh…too noisy. I'd rather be here where it's quiet."

"Ah, I see."

After a moment of silence, I spoke up again.

"May I ask you something?"

"What is it?" I put a hand behind my head to scratch it because I find this situation very awkward.

"A-anou…" I can't believe I stuttered. "Are you ignoring me?" as I said those words quickly, I noticed her head lowered even more.

"N-no."

"Then why haven't you said a single word to me since this morning?"

"I-I d-don't have anything to say."

"But then you sent Kachiro to congratulate me instead of doing it personally."

"I don't see the point of doing so."

"And why is that?"

"Because…I-I know that you're, t-that you're…" she trembles as she tries to reason out.

"What?"

"N-never mind. I-I'll go ahead, maybe Obaa-chan's meeting's finished by now." She stood up, her head still lowered and faced the door to go out. I followed her and hold her right wrist with my left hand, making her face me. I was surprised to see her watery eyes.

"I won't take that as an answer. Why Ryuuzaki?"

"Why do you care?" I was taken aback when she raised her voice. I never expected that from her. But I didn't let go of her wrist. "Why do you bother all of a sudden?" her head lowered again. "I-I expect you to ignore me, as always." My eyes landed from her lowered head to our hands as I feel something, her tears fell. "I-I already made my decision to forget what's in here…" she raised her free hand and brought it to her chest. "Because I-I know that, it's not going to work. Nothing's going to work. So why are you like that? You're making it hard for me to do so."

"Then don't!" I said more like a command than a request. She raised her head and I saw her tear stained cheeks with a tint of pink.

"Why are you saying that? It'll hurt more if you're like that, and…and I might not be able to do it!" she said as she tries to release her wrist from my grip.

"That's why I'm saying don't!" I ripped off my second button with my free hand, shifted my left hand from her wrist to the back of her hand and faced it upwards and placed it on her palm. She stared at the button and then looked at me with her eyes wide probably from shock. "Please don't do it, Ryuuzaki." This time, I was the one who lowered my head trying to cover my face somehow. "If I can give you what this button represents, I will do it, but this is the closest. Will you accept this and take care of this for me?" I looked up to see her still shocked expression. I am hoping that she can see a hopeful expression on my face since I am no good in making those.

"What will you do if I don't agree to that?" she sounded melancholy.

"I don't really know." I said truthfully and turned my head away. "I don't know how to deal with these kinds of things. I only focused on Tennis and my cat Karupin all this time." I chuckled at my own joke and saw her smile sadly at the same time. "This is the first time I felt frustrated that a certain girl won't talk to me or even congratulated me on graduation day!" I lowered my head again not because of embarrassment but because of fear. Fear of rejection from her. "What did you do to me?" I stopped talking when I felt a hand on my right cheek.

"I don't really know either. I didn't even know that I already caught your attention. I just know that you ignored everybody and I am not exempted to that, especially because I am a fan. I know how you are on your fans. I know how you find us annoying. But then I realized that this is not just admiration…" She smiled but still tearing up.

"I like you…"

I can't hold it anymore. I let go of her wrist, stepped forward, encircled my arms around her waist and rested my head on the crook of her neck. I've been wondering for some time now how this kind of interaction with her would feel like. I didn't know that being this close to her will make me happy. As I inhaled her scent and enjoyed the peaceful, quiet atmosphere that we are in, I feel her arms encircling me as well. That made me smile. I know that she knew I smiled because I felt her smile on her own. Then that means she's happy as well, right? We stayed like that for I don't know how long exactly. Occasionally, tighten my embrace on her because I just feel like doing so. I raise my head to look at her, "Does that mean that you accept the button?" I said with a genuine smile.

She shook her head as she said "No." with a smile. I felt my upturned lips go down with a hint of disappointment all over my face. "I accept the heart that represents it." My faded smile came back even brighter than the previous one as realization hit me. "I don't have a second button that I can give you, but I can entrust you my heart, it's up to you to accept it or crush i-" I silenced her by kissing her very briefly. Our lips only touched for a second but it sent shivers down my spine.

"There is no second option needed. The first one is enough for me."

***Flashback ends***

Is it happening again? Did she decide to forget me again? Is she going to break up with me? No, no, no, no, no! This can't be happening! She's too kind and patient to do that. Calm yourself Ryoma. But what if that's true? Is it possible for her to get fed up with my attitude? What am I thinking? Of course she's capable of that. She's still human. But I don't want to dwell on that. She likes me. I know for sure that she likes me.

But everything seems like a replay of what happened that day. If everything did go the way as that day, then I know how I will end this silent treatment.

When the ceremony ends inside the gym, my senpais come to me and congratulated me yet again. Momo-senpai asked me if there's any progress on the current situation that includes me and my girlfriend. When I said no, he told me that I should man up and talk to her right away. And I will.

Like that time, she was there in her seat, her left palm cradling her chin and the other settled in her desk while looking at the trees swaying outside the window. I know that she knows I'm there but then she made no move to acknowledge my presence. This is getting more and more frustrating! But I have to be calm. I have to know why she acts this way.

"Sakuno…"

"Yes?" I can sense iciness in her tone, irritated even.

"Is there something wrong?" I said staying at least 4 feet behind her.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, is there something wrong between us?" I said as I tried hard enough to hide my trembling voice. This is so unlike me. What are you doing to me Sakuno?

"Why do you ask?"

"What do you mean "why do I ask?"? You've been ignoring me since this morning!" I said a bit stronger than I have intended to deliver it.

"Really? I didn't notice." She said and a tinge of sleepiness can be heard with those words. Does she find this conversation boring? It's like our personalities have swapped.

"Is it my attitude? Are you sick of me being like this? I thought you like me for what I am…" I said as I lowered my head.

"Yes, I did" She said followed by a sigh. My head shot back up and looked at her. She said those words too bluntly. She stood up and looked at me. She's giving me this look as if she's disgusted or something. Her eyes pierce right through me. What happened to her kind chocolate-brown eyes?

"You DID? What do you mean 'you did'?" I stepped forward and tried to reach her. She turned around so that her back is facing me.

"That means, that's all in the past now. You were right, it is your attitude! I am sick of dealing with it." She took a step forward getting ready to leave the room. I hurried to her side and grabbed her hand. I ripped off my 2nd button and handed it to her. She looked down to her hands that cradled my button.

"Do you remember back in our senior year of junior high? I also gave my 2nd button to you. Many have asked for them to have it but I gave it to you. You know what this symbolizes, right? I still feel the same. No, in fact my feelings have changed. I do not like you anymore…I love you. Please have a little more faith in me, I promise you, if not completely, I'll try my hardest to change. From now on, I'll be the one who's going to adjust to your needs and wants. I will take care of you more. Just don't give up on me. Not now. Please." I said lowering my head. There's something flickering in my chest, FEAR. Fear of what she's going to do or say. I've never felt this scared before. This is scarier than our conversation on the day of graduation in junior high. I am trying my best to hold it in, the tears that wanted to escape from my eyes.

"Too late..." That's it. Those words provoked it. I closed my eyes, my tears, they now make their freely down my cheeks leaving warm, wet traces on my face. "So now if you'll excuse me, the faculty meeting is just brief, maybe obaa-chan's looking for me. And one more thing, let's end this whole relationship thing. Goodbye."

I opened my eyes wide. My vision slightly blurred from... tears? Here I am, slumped on my desk. My arms serve as my pillow. I bring my hand up to my face to feel that my cheeks are wet. It is indeed from tears. But, it's not real. It is not real. It is just a dream, a nightmare in my perspective. I sit up and look around. There she is, sitting in front of me. Her head buried in her folded arms. Our desks are joined together to form a larger space for our notebooks, books and some papers that are a bit scattered. I looked outside the window to be welcomed by different hues of orange and red as the sun descends from our view. The orange skies now tinted with shades of indigo.

Ah! Sakuno and I are working on our term paper for one of our subjects in college. We have different courses but we have this one subject that calls for us to have the same class. How long was I have been asleep? And what's with my dream?

It's getting late. "Sakuno…" I called my fiancée's name softly and started to shake her gently. Her head jolted up, getting startled by my action. She looked around and wiped her probably blurry vision.

"Ryoma…what time is it? I can't believe I fell asleep too." She said as she covers her mouth to conceal a yawn.

"It's already 15 to 7, and you snore too, you know?" I said as I place my chin in my crossed arms on my desk and I pouted a little bit to make my statement a bit more convincing.

"EH?" she screeched. "I do not!" she said defensively as she averted her gaze away from mine. I smirked at her reaction. I love seeing her react whenever I tease her. She started to pack away her things and compile the scattered papers and put it in a folder. She piled up the books that are present in our desk.

I chuckled. "No, you don't. Come here." I nodded my head in my direction.

"Why?" she stood up and took steps towards me. I pushed myself away from my desk to create space grabbed her hand and pull her to be seated in my lap her back facing me, I encircle my arms around her. "R-ryoma! What are you doing? This is PDA!" she tried to escape from my hold, trying to stand up. Instead of answering her, I rested my face on her back and tighten my embrace. She stayed in place and asked me, "What's going on?" she managed to free her arms from my hold and reached for my hands, making her looking like she's hugging my arms.

"I had a nightmare" I said plainly.

"When?"

"Just now"

"What's it about?" she said while she caresses my arms.

"About that time"

"What 'time'?" she sounded nervous.

"When you left me back in senior high…" I heard her soft gasp at my confession. "It's one of my old memories that I do not want to reminisce, you know."

"I'm sorry" she said guiltily.

"For what?" I propped up my chin on her back making her jump. I know that tickled her, but I did not let her go, I made her sit again on my lap and put my head on its place on her back earlier.

"For leaving you that time. I was foolish to do that. I knew I couldn't stand being away from you." I released her from my embrace and grab both her upper arms and twisted her to make her face me. I reach up to plant my lips on hers. I held her head in place to force her to look at me.

"You don't need to. I deserve that being the jerk I was before. Besides, I don't think I will realize my real feelings for you if you didn't do that. It's just that I'm afraid that it will happen again in the future." She smiled down at me, hold my right hand and leaned her face to my touch. I smiled too. Because that was the truth, I will never know her worth if she didn't do that that time. "But I still want to beat up my senpais for suggesting that to you." I said frowning.

"You already did. But I'm surprised by your tears that day. I didn't know I was that special to you." She giggled softly, enjoying her statement and I glared at her. But her face became serious again then said, "and that's the first time I heard you said you love me…"

"And that will never change…" I took her left hand and we looked at the white gold material with 3 small pieces of diamond on the center encircling her ring finger. She gazed at her hand lovingly. "One year left and you will be legally mine."

"I know. Time flies fast, eh?"

"Speaking of time, we need to hurry up and get you home or your grandma will worry. She's here for a visit, right?"

"AH! I forgot about that…mou, Ryoma! I'll put all the blame on you if grandma scolded us." She said as she stands up and grabbed her bag. SHOOT! I haven't packed my things. She walked out of the room as I hurriedly and carelessly put all my things inside my bag and run off to the halls to catch her. I matched her pace, grabbed her hand and entwined mine in her, and place a soft kiss on her cheek.

"You left me again." I smirked. She laughed heartily at my joke, and she halted to say something.

"I will never do that again."

"Promise?"

"I have already accepted the ring that signifies that I will, but yes, I promise... you know I love you!"

"Until we wear the same ring and in front of the altar saying our vows, then I will fully believe you." I joked. "I love you too."

How is it? Please leave comments/review. Thank you~! ^^