A/N: Hello! I'm bluerevolver, and I'm quite new here. I've read a bunch of fanfics that I was inspired to create one of my own. xD However, I didn't really know where I was going with this one. I just thought up this particular scene one day and just decided to write it. Originally, this was supposed to be a one-shot, but the length of this one-shot would be way too long, so I divided it into chapters. Um, hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these lovely characters. I wish I did though.
Ryuzaki Sakuno was on her way to Seishun Academy High. The day was picturesque with the bright sun, soft breeze, and chirping birds within the green trees. She could only smile at such a perfect day in April. Her mood only improved as she remembered all of her accomplishments this week, which involved reading for World History that was completed successfully without the habit of dozing off, her bento being made on time this morning (filled with her favorites), and the devotion to studying the night before for the English test that was today. Sakuno thought it rare that everything could fall into place nicely without any disturbances, but quickly shook off the thought and just decided to bask in what would seem to be a perfect day.
Upon reaching a streetlight and waiting for her chance to cross safely, a couple of girls chattered excitedly. Sakuno briefly glanced at them, concluding that they attended another high school. Their uniforms and features spoke it all. Chocolate eyes focused forward again, waiting for the signal to change.
"It was amazing!" chirped the shortest girl. "It's a shame that he's gone and disappeared again."
Her friend nodded. "He needs to stop doing that. But then again, it adds to his... 'aloof-ness'."
"Where do you think he is now?" asked another.
"Probably somewhere else in the states. I heard Echizen-sama likes to hang out near the beaches in California."
Sakuno momentarily froze. Echizen Ryoma? But of course, who ELSE on this blasted planet has the last name Echizen other than his family? She would also doubt that they would be talking about any of his family members. He's been showcasing himself constantly on the media with his commercials and tournaments anyhow. Meanwhile, what's with this crosswalk signal? Is it broken?
"How romantic. Maybe when I finally audition for modeling, I could get a chance to meet him," swooned the shortest girl.
"Yeah right. And then he could take you to the beach and have a romantic walk with you," laughed another.
Sakuno couldn't help but sigh, but kept a firm resolve that she will not concern herself over the missing Prince of Tennis. Ever since his permanent departure to America, Sakuno found no purpose in wishful thinking and therefore began to persuade herself that a chance with Ryoma just wasn't possible. His devotion to tennis was powerful to say the least and she would bite her tongue to keep herself from desiring something more than friendship with him. The senpai-tachi weren't agreeing with her, however, and every once in a while would tease her if she had ever contacted him or received any gifts from him. Sakuno would smile, a strained one at best, and deny that she had gotten anything from the tennis prodigy. It was true anyway, so she didn't have to feel guilty that she was lying to her senpai-tachi. Though a part of her wished she was lying, but that wish was quickly stomped on. This was good enough for her. She could watch his success and silently cheer him on like she did back in Seigaku. That, and she thought it impossible for Ryoma to even be that romantic with anyone other than his tennis racket.
Sakuno shook her head, seeing the people walking forward due to the change of the crosswalk signal. Silently reprimanding herself for not paying attention, she walked forward and tuned out the still-chattering girls. She was not going to let depressing thoughts ruin her well-earned day.
Once the towering structures of Seishun Academy High came into view, Sakuno found herself smiling again. This school was her obstacle and she was confident that she'd overcome it thanks to the preparation. The gate was wide open for its students, but the auburn-headed girl noticed something... Off.
In the middle of the school grounds, a large swarm of students were grouped and causing quite a ruckus. She barely had time to even raise an eyebrow when a loud squeals resonated throughout the campus.
"Echizen-sama!!!"
"Welcome back to Japan, Echizen-san!"
"Echizen-sama, will you please sign my notebook?!"
For the second time that day, Sakuno froze at the mention, or rather yells, of his name. It had to be a joke! Why was he here in Japan? Shouldn't he be off somewhere, Twist Serving a less important opponent in the face and rolling around in his money in his cozy mansion in America? Whether if this was a joke or not, Sakuno would just go on with her schedule. She worked too damn hard to build her walls against those forbidden feelings and will not succumb to it so easily. So, with that thought, she took a deep breath to calm herself and walked on, avoiding the giant mob of students.
Until Osakada Tomoka pulled her to the side.
"Sakuno!!" she screeched, trying to be heard. "Did you see Ryoma-sama yet?! He looks so han-"
"Tomo-chan," Sakuno interrupted, though equally loud. "We have to get to class. We don't have time for this."
A pout formed on Tomoka's face. "No one's even in class yet! The teacher won't even bother-"
"I'm going anyways."
Tomoka looked disappointingly at her best friend's retreating form. She wished that Sakuno hadn't enforced such a stupid theory in her head. If she wasn't love-stricken with him anymore, she could at least greet him as friends.
However, while the whole student population was preoccupied outside, Sakuno made her way to the classroom, finding it empty (not surprising) and navigated through the situated desks, bumping her hip into one and mentally cursing her clumsy behavior. Perhaps the gods thought it entertaining to bestow the gift of gravity-retardation upon this simple slip of a girl. Once her designated seat was within reach, she happily plopped herself down.
The sun shone upon her skin through the wide windows. Sakuno found herself glancing outside at the beautiful sky with little to no clouds littering it. A smile crept to her face while she laid her head upon her crossed arms and enjoyed the warmth of the sunshine.
"ALRIGHT, EVERYONE GET TO CLASS OR I'LL FORCE EACH STUDENT TO ATTEND AN ASSEMBLY DISCUSSING THE IMPORTANCE OF SCHOOL."
Sakuno groaned as the thunderous voice of her grandmother resounded throughout the school grounds. Ryuzaki Sumire continued her passion of coaching tennis and decided to apply for the high school her granddaughter was in. It was easier for them in terms of communication and transportation, and Sakuno had no problem with it. She loves her grandmother to death and found it reassuring that she had someone looking after her even after Seigaku.
Her ears picked up on the dying volume of the ruckus. At least her day can continue now that the students finally obeyed and started filing into the building. Her chocolate eyes wandered to the large mass of bodies entering the doors below. Suddenly, the thought of Ryoma possibly having the same class as she did entered her mind. Bolting upright, she quickly shook her head. It was nearly impossible for that to happen. There were nine other classrooms for sophomores, so it would be a one out of nine chance he'd get hers. A pleasant look bloomed on her face at the realization that her walls still had a chance relieved her and decided to get her materials out.
Noise started to fill the halls and students poured into the classroom, taking no note that Sakuno was even in the room. She didn't mind one bit. Let's see, where were her good sets of pencils...?
Once the teacher strolled in, he cleared his throat.
"Well, I'm sure you all have met Echizen Ryoma, so there will be no need for an introduction," he quipped, nodding his head to the student situated next to Sakuno, whose eyes looked as though they'd pop out of their sockets. Sakuno stopped her actions and whipped her head to the side.
Oh, the gods were cruel to her.
His hair was a shade darker of forest green than Sakuno remembered. It was still unruly, but it shaped his mature face. Amber cat eyes were more narrow and fit well with his handsome features. He took no notice of her as he stared straight ahead, wearing a stoic expression. At least she could spare herself the trouble that would bound to happen and remained silent and uninteresting as possible as to not draw attention from him.
The class period continued on in the same fashion until Ryoma found it necessary to take a nap throughout the teacher's lectures. Sakuno sighed at his careless-ness, getting deja vu from Seigaku, and continued to scribble down notes.
The lecture ended on a final note once the teacher commanded the students put their things away for the test. The auburn-haired girl debated on either waking up Ryoma or just leaving him be. Then again, he was always so damn good at this subject anyway so it wouldn't really matter. Fingering her lone braid draped over her shoulder (she ditched the twin braids), she just decided to let him be. Echizen had all the money in the world anyway. Sakuno didn't see a valid reason for him to be in high school in the first place. Japan no less. He could have just hired a smart, pretty American tutor and save himself the trouble of airplane fare and fangirls.
The teacher proceeded to pass out the tests while the students in the front row handed them to the rows behind. The female student in front of Ryoma tapped his arm, putting on a charming smile for his sleepy face.
"Here's your test, Echizen-sama. Good luck!" she winked and turned herself around.
Sakuno frowned. Why did he have to sit next to her? Why did she feel a little jealous when that girl winked at him when he was half-awake? Why were her walls slightly faltering? And damn it, why is the first question to this test looking foreign to her? She studied too hard for this, and she will get a decent if not excellent marking on it if she can help it. Determination overrode her brain and she began to deeply analyze the question, forcefully forgetting her surroundings and the famed boy who sat next to her.
Ryoma, on the other hand, was scratching his head and yawning absent-mindedly. He had no clue what was going on until he finally glanced at the paper in front of him.
An English test.
Piece of cake. He had already heard the lectures this teacher was droning on about, so he should at least get a good mark. All he needed was a pencil, which was in his nifty handbag, which would be laying on the floor next to his feet.
... Scratch that. "Should be."
His eyebrows furrowed until his expression became annoyed. Stupid fangirls. He just bought all of that recently too. Ah well, nothing he can do about it now. So he decided he would simply ask for a pencil from one of his peers. Cat eyes glanced to his right. It was a male student who looked so focused on his test that he might spontaneously combust if bothered in the slightest. He turned his attention to the girl in front, who handed him the test and openly flirted with him. That was a big no. Then he turned his head to the right. This student was also female, but looked less intimidating than the male student. It's probably because she's a girl with a single braid draped over her left shoulder, clasped with a flower clip. She also was considerate enough to even spare him the hassle fangirls normally wouldn't spare, so she has to be somewhat decent. Before Ryoma even lifted a finger, he noticed something oddly... Familiar about this girl. However, the time was ticking for the test, so he quickly shrugged it off and tapped her shoulder gently.
"Ne," he whispered, eyeing the extra pencil on her desk. "Can I borrow that?"
Because Sakuno momentarily forgot about the world in order to put forth her entire brain on this English test, she also forgot who sat next to her. Petite hands swiftly picked up the pencil and offered it to him with a sweet smile. Ryoma had to blink a few times at how fast her beaming face morphed into one of a horrified expression once he accepted the pencil. Did he do something wrong?
"Thanks," he hesitantly said.
Sakuno quickly turned her attention back to her unfinished test, seeing the questions turn foreign again and fighting the oncoming blush. "You're welcome."
She quickly grabbed her pencil again and started racking her brain for the answer she was just about to jot down. She needed a distraction for her jumbled brain! Somewhere in the depths of her mind, she prayed that Ryoma lacked a decent memory so that he did not remember her from the old days of Seigaku. The odds were in her favor since she was mostly quiet and reserved in her actions unlike Tomoka, so that somewhat reassured her.
While Sakuno was having her internal conflicts, Ryoma was also having a bit of his. Why was this girl so familiar? All of the females he had ever known or even glanced at were loud, obnoxious fangirls (excluding his mother and Nanako), so this feeling was a little bizarre. He lowered his eyes into his own paper, skimming through the questions in his head and answering them all silently. His pencil scribbled the answers down with ease.
Once he was finished, he scanned around and found the other students still working. Figures, he was always first to finish his English tests in Seigaku. Why should this be any different? Then again, he was raised in America for a good chunk of his life, so maybe he shouldn't be bragging so much. He stood up and started towards the teacher and handed in his paper with a bored expression.
"Too easy for you, Echizen?" asked the teacher in a sarcastic manner.
Ryoma merely shrugged. "Maybe just a little." He returned to his seat and found admiring and glaring looks pointed at him. He frowned in return. It wasn't like he had a choice on whether to stay in Japan or not. His eyes wandered over to the "decent" girl sitting next to him. She seemed really concentrated on this test as he observed her pencil tapping against her chin. How hard could this test really be? It was just coordinating and subordinating conjunctions with a little bit of prepositional phrases. His eyes landed on her paper, examining her answers. From what he could tell, she was doing quite well, save for the minor errors.
Sakuno didn't even notice his obvious staring at her paper as she set her pencil down and went over her answers. A few minor errors were fixed and she quickly relaxed, happy with how she had done. Now, all she had to do was stand up and turn it in...
Until a tap on her shoulder prevented her from doing so. Seeing it safe that Ryoma doesn't have even the slightest clue of who she is, she turned toward him a bit more confidently. Maybe he wanted to return the pencil. He could have it for all she cared.
His index finger tapped at the empty slot on the top of the sheet where it required a name. It suddenly occurred to her that Ryoma must've been looking at her paper. But why? He had finished before everyone else in the class as usual. And she was sure her answers weren't as good as his own, so why look? Sakuno fought back another blush of embarrassment and brought up her pencil.
"Th-Thank you," she stuttered. And damn it all to hell that she stuttered! She was infamous for it and she prayed to the cruel gods above that he didn't look into it.
Unfortunately for her, it did cause him to lift his eyebrows a fraction. THAT was also strangely familiar. "No problem," he said, trying to mask his suspicion. It was driving him to the point of irritation. WHO THE HECK IS THIS CHICK?
Sakuno was sure fire would spark with how fast she wrote her name down. Before she set down her pencil, her hand quickly swept up the paper and started for the teacher up front. She prayed that Ryoma wasn't looking when she wrote her name down. It wouldn't do if her walls were to falter again. Sakuno made her decision long ago, and she would stick with it, damn it!
Ryoma cursed to himself for being distracted when he had the chance to know her name. The only thing he caught was "Ryu" before she whisked her paper away. Ryu? He was sure he didn't know anyone with the last name Ryu. Damn, this was driving him crazy. Why does he even care? She could be another one of his annoying fangirls who's trying to play an innocent act to lure him into her ploy. Yeah, maybe that was it. Maybe he was just being jumpy for no reason. However, he still could not shake off the feeling that he's MET this Ryu-something something in the past. Yellow ochre eyes studied this girl who was coming back to her seat all-the-while messing with his mind.
She was a petite and pretty girl. Rich, auburn locks crowned her head and shaped her delicate face. A neat, lone braid clasped with a flower clip was brought to the front, making it past her collarbone. Her eyes were large and chocolate-colored, complimented by her fair skin and pink lips. It basically reminded Ryoma of sweets. Her body structure was a bit short. If Ryoma were to stand, he guessed the top of her head would reach the bottom of his chin. But that wasn't all to be said about her body structure. The school's uniform covered her curves nicely while the skirt part generously showed a lot of her shapely legs clad in black knee-high socks and shoes.
Ryoma snapped out of it once he realized that the other students were getting up and turning their papers in. A soft thump indicated that Ryu-something just took her seat. She began to pack up her things when he noticed that he still had her pencil.
"Here," he said, handing the pencil out to her. She turned, a shy smile on her face. "Thanks for letting me borrow it."
She nodded, taking the pencil and stuffing it away within the contents of her bag. Sakuno didn't know if she felt relieved or depressed. She was relieved that Ryoma hadn't shown any sign of remembering her, which meant that the walls she carefully built were still standing strong. However, it also saddened her that she had failed to imprint herself in his life for him to recognize her. She couldn't exactly blame him for that though. She couldn't bring herself to be the center of attention or to do or wear anything attractive. She liked being simple, and if Ryoma didn't approve of simple, then she would just have to deal with it.
Ryoma, on the other hand, was failing at shoving this Ryu-something something out of his mind. If she was making his thoughts go haywire, then she HAD to be someone important. Why he had such bad memory, he didn't know, but he blamed his father. He was always the source of his problems. Once he was done naming all of the obscenities he mentally could at his father, he thought up of a brilliant idea.
"Ne, what's your name?"
Okay, maybe not brilliant. It was more like slow, once he thought about it. Really, why couldn't he have asked that in the first place and save the unnecessary headache?
And for the third time that day, Sakuno froze. There should be a name for freezing up physically. How was she going to get out of this situation? It would be infinitely rude to brush him off and leave him there without an answer, but what good would it do if he knew her name? Would he remember her finally? Would she find out where she stood in his life? A big chunk of her mind told her to tell him. But the tiny chunk remaining reminded her of the possibility that the walls will fall. Looking anywhere but at him, she bit her lip in frustration at what to do.
Ryoma furrowed his brows. Why wasn't she answering? Usually girls would yell their names at him without even having to ask for it. Did she not hear him correctly? Maybe she hadn't. Then again, his quick eyes had a reaction from her after he asked his question. Growing impatient, he decided to ask again...
Until the bell decided to ring.
The two jerked up, finding students shuffling out of their seats. Sakuno found this as her chance to get away and quickly got up.
"Wait, you didn't-"
"I'm very sorry, Echizen-san. I have to go," she hurriedly interrupted. "Perhaps next time!"
And with that, Ryoma watched her scurry off. If he didn't know better, she was scurrying off FRANTICALLY. Almost as if she was trying to get away from him. That's weird. What was wrong with him that she had to literally scamper out of the classroom? And to not even tell him her name? Maybe he smelled funny. Taking a sniff of himself, he found that his sports cologne wasn't all THAT bad. Damn, girls sure are weird sometimes. That Ryu-something something was a prime example. Fine, if she didn't want him to know her name, then that was just peachy with him. He could live with not knowing this Ryu-something something for the rest of his life. And with that final thought, he stood up, gathered his things, and made his way out of the classroom.
A/N: Well, did you guys like it? Please let me know through a review if you'd like to know what happens next!Thanks for reading!