A sequel to Another Day in Jirou's Life. This one shows how Jirou pays Ryoma back.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Prince of Tennis. Or any of the characters :(

Another Encounter

"Uwaah! It's snowing!"
An orange-haired boy was looking outside the window. Just by looking at his face, you could see that he was excited. He got ready to go outside.

"Where are you going, Jirou-nii?" Jirou's younger sister asked after seeing him wearing his shoes.

"I don't know. Just outside." Jirou replied.

"Eh? You don't have a date?"

"Date? Why?"

"Because it's Christmas Eve today. Lot's of people go on a date today."

"Oh. Do you have a date?"

"Of course I have."

"Eh? Really?! With who?" Jirou asked surprised. He couldn't imagine his younger sister with another guy. That just looked to weird.

"What's with that reaction?"

"I just can't believe you have a date? So who is it?"

"That doesn't concern you."

"It does!"

"Huh?! Why?"

The two of them were suddenly talking louder to each other.

"Because I'm your brother! I won't allow just any guy to date you!"

"I don't care whether you allow it or not! I date whoever I want."

With an angry look his sister left the house. On her way to her date.

"Eh?" Jirou stood still and let the discussion sink in.

After a few seconds he decided to just let it for now and also went outside. The streets were completely white and it just continued to snow.

"Maybe I should've dressed warmer." Jirou said to himself.

He was starting to feel cold and decided to go into a shop and buy a warm drink. There were lots of people in the shop. And most of them were couples. After walking inside for a while he suddenly bumped into someone. He looked at the other person and immediately recognized him.

"Ah…it's you…" was the first thing that came out of him.

The other guy looked as if he got annoyed by his encounter with Jirou.

"Oh right! I still need to pay you back." Jirou then said. Ignoring the look of the other guy's face.

Jirou remembered their previous encounter where Jirou borrowed some money to buy the new limited edition flavour of pocky.

"Oh…yeah…" Ryoma said. He remember how annoying Jirou was, the last time he met him.

"I know! I'll buy you something to drink!"

"Whatever." Ryoma wanted to handle this situation as fast as he could. And didn't want to end up in a bad mood like last time. Not on his birthday.

Jirou went to buy the drinks. And Ryoma stayed behind and waited. He thought about leaving for a while, but somehow he couldn't. He remembered Jirou's desperate face, that made him unable to say 'no' last time. And ended up lending him his money. Just for a short while should be okay, Ryoma thought.
There was a long line, so it took a while before Jirou returned with the drinks.

"Sorry it took so long. Here's your drink."

Jirou gave Ryoma his drink and sat down. Neither of them said something. Jirou didn't know what to say and Ryoma just didn't feel like talking at all.
After a minute of complete silence, Jirou decided to just say something.

"You don't have a date, today?"

Ryoma almost spit his drink out. That question just came to suddenly.

"Why do you care?" Ryoma asked with an annoyed voice.

"Ah, I'm sorry. My younger sister said that lots of people go on a date, today."

"So what does that have to do with me?"

"Well, you look like the cool and popular type, so I thought there must have been lots of girls that would want to go on a date with you."

Popular type? Ryoma thought. He didn't think he was popular. There were some girls who asked if he had plans for today, though.

"Ah, so you don't have one?" Jirou asked just to make sure.

"No."

"But it's Christmas Eve. So, you must have plans for later, right?"

"Yes."

"Really? What're you going to do?"

These questions started to annoy Ryoma. Why was that guy asking such personal questions? It's not like they were friends or something. Ryoma looked at the time and then at his drink. There wasn't much left, so Ryoma decided to drink it fast and leave afterwards.
Jirou noticed Ryoma look at the time.

"I'm sorry. I'm holding you up right?"

Ryoma looked at Jirou and saw that he had a slightly sad face and started feel guilty for trying to leave as fast as he could.

"No, it's okay." Ryoma then replied.

"Really? If you have plans you should just go!" Jirou then said in a worried voice. He didn't want Ryoma to be late just because of him.

"It's okay." Ryoma said again.

"If you say so…"

It was quiet again, neither of them knew what to say. Jirou then looked outside and saw a couple walk by. The girl seemed familiar. After they passed, Jirou suddenly stood up.

Ryoma looked up at Jirou and saw him look outside. Ryoma tried to see what Jirou might be looking at, but there wasn't anything interesting. Only snow that kept falling and some couples.

"What's wrong?" He them asked.

"I think I just saw my younger sister with a boy." Jirou replied.

"Didn't she say that she was going on a date?"

"Eh? Well, yeah…but still…she's my sister…" Jirou was about to put on his jacket.

"If you go after her, she might hate you."

"Eh? No way!"

"Just leave her." Ryoma didn't know why he was trying to stop Jirou. It wasn't his business after all. And if Jirou left he could go too.

"But…" Jirou decided to listen to Ryoma and slowly sat again. He already got into a fight with her earlier and didn't want to make things worse.

"Echizen, what are you doing here?" Another boy suddenly appeared.

"Ah. Momo-senpai."

Momoshiro looked at Jirou. "You're Hyoutei's Akutagawa Jirou, right?"

"Yeah." Jirou said with a confused look on his face.

"I didn't know you were friends with him." Momoshiro then said to Ryoma.

"I'm not."

"Then why are you here together with him?"

"That's because I borrowed some money from him and I thought I could pay him back by buying a drink for him." Jirou answered.

"Really?"

"Why are you here, Momo-senpai?" Ryoma asked Momoshiro.

"I was looking for you. Everyone's waiting for you!"

"Waiting?"

"Yeah, so just come."

"Eh?"

Ryoma looked at Jirou. He still had a confused look on his face. Momoshiro notices too.

"You don't know?" Momoshiro then asked. "Today is Echizen's birthday."

"Eh?! Really?!" Jirou was surprised. He has no idea. And Ryoma didn't say anything about it either. "Happy birthday!"

He stood up and shook Ryoma's hand.

"You're going to have a party now?"

"Yeah."

"You want to come too?" Momoshiro asked.

"I can't." Jirou said. "I already made plans with some friends, later."

"Oh, Okay."

Momoshiro and Ryoma said goodbye to Jirou and left the shop.

Jirou looked at time and saw that it was already passed 3 pm.

"I guess I should go to."

And he, too, left the shop.