Twenty year old Ryoma was driving his way over Taka's sushi bar, once again attending the Regulars' Annual New Year's Party. Every year Taka would open the sushi restaurant just for the Regulars so that it was only them and no other customers. Even though Ryoma never enjoyed these parties when he was younger in junior high, he grew to like them. Now, however, he enjoyed being around his former teammates.

He remembered last year's party clearly:

Everyone was sitting in a circle, sharing memories they had from junior high. Fuji put on his sadistic smile as he said, "I remember Sakuno-chan had the biggest crush on Echizen in junior high. Isn't that true, Sakuno-chan?"

Everybody looked at Sakuno to see her starting to blush. "A-Ano, w-well," she began.

Tomoka elbowed Sakuno lightly and said, "No use in denying it Sakuno! We all knew you liked him!"

Sakuno sighed in defeat and said, "H-Hai, I liked him."

"Do you still like him now, Sakuno-chan?" Fuji asked, sadistically teasing. Both Sakuno's and Ryoma's eyes widened.

"E-Eh?! A-Ano, I, a-ano," Sakuno started to get flustered.

"You're blushing, Sakuno-chan. Don't lie to us," Fuji warned.

"A-Ano…"

"You still like him, don't you?"

"Fuji-senpai!" Ryoma interrupted. "That's enough," he said as he pulled down his cap to hide his blush. Then he left the room to the kitchen. "Ryuuzaki," he called.

Sakuno slowly got up, afraid of the reason Ryoma wanted to talk to her in the kitchen.

Ryoma's back was facing the door, so he wasn't facing her when she walked in. "Ryuuzaki, do you like me?"

"Ah?! R-Ryoma-kun?" she stuttered.

"Do you like me?" he repeated patiently. He slowly turned around to face Sakuno. He saw her looking down at her shoes, blushing furiously.

He smirked and said, "I like you too."

Sakuno's head snapped up to look at him. Ryoma leaned forward, his face getting closer and closer to hers. At the last second, though, Ryoma turned to whisper in her ear, "Please wait for me, Sakuno. One year is all I'm asking. I promise I'll remember."

Ryoma pulled back to look Sakuno in the eyes. "Will you wait for me?"

Sakuno nodded, which Ryoma was relieved to see. He gave her a small smile and gave her a quick peck on the lips. "See you next year," Ryoma smirked and walked out of the kitchen, leaving Sakuno speechless.

Thinking of last year's scenario, he was getting nervous. Did Sakuno really wait for him? He never heard any news from his senpais about her going on any dates…so maybe she did wait for him. This was the first time he was going to see her since last year…what should he say?

Ryoma parked his shiny black car in front of Taka's restaurant. Taking a deep breath, he stepped out of the car, regaining his cool composure.

Right as he walked into the restaurant, Momo yelled, "Echizen's here!" All the Regulars flocked around him to see how he had been doing.

"O'chibi!" Eiji yelled excitedly.

"How was your trip back?" Taka politely asked.

"Have you been using that recipe I gave you for vitamin drinks?" Inui asked, curious if they worked.

Many more questions were bombarded at him, and once the Regulars were satisfied with his answers, they left one by one back onto the dance floor (which was made by pushing the dining tables all to one side of the room). Once they all left, Ryoma was finally able to take his jacket off. Underneath his jacket, he was wearing a white button-up shirt, which emphasized his emerald-green hair and golden eyes. Throwing his jacket on a nearby table, he scanned the room, searching for Sakuno. He finally spotted her in the far corner of the dance floor. She was wearing a short, black, strapless dress that fit snuggly around her body. She wore dangly diamond earrings and matching bracelets that seemed to reflect the sparkles off her eyes. Simply put, Sakuno looked good.

Making his way over to the dance floor to greet Sakuno, Horio started talking to him.

"Echizen! You may have the moves to beat me on the tennis court, but you can't face me on the dance floor! With my two years of dancing experience, I can show you how it's done! Dance off! Right here, right now," Horio declared, wanting to impress Ryoma with something that he could actually do well.

Not wanting to be rude to his former teammate, Ryoma slightly smiled and said, "How about later, Horio. I've still got to get my energy back from my flight." Ryoma patted him on the back and walked around him. Glancing back to where he saw Sakuno earlier, he noticed that she wasn't there anymore. Ryoma stayed at the center of the dance floor, turning around, trying to find Sakuno. Even though he was surrounded by so many of his good friends, the only one he actually wanted to talk to was Sakuno.

He was starting to feel hopeless, when he finally spotted Sakuno sitting in a booth in the back of the restaurant. Making his way over to her, he quickly thought of what he should say to her. Hi, Sakuno. You look good tonight. So, how have you been? No, Ryoma, that's stupid. C'mon, you can do better than this, Ryoma thought to himself.

When Ryoma was five feet away from her, Taka brought out two huge trays of sushi and yelled out, "Food's ready!"

Everybody ran towards Taka, pulling Ryoma along the way.

"Echizen, we need to have our sushi-eating contest!" Momo exclaimed.

Knowing that this was Momo's favorite tradition of the New Year's Party, Ryoma didn't have the heart to decline.

"You're on, Momo-senpai."

Ten minutes later, Momo had a bulging stomach and complained, "I don't know how you do it, Echizen. You beat me again this year! " Momo glanced over at Ryoma, who still looked as lean as he was before he started eating all that sushi.

"Mada mada dane, Momo-senpai," he smirked.

After everyone finished eating, they all helped Taka with cleaning up the dishes so they would have enough room to party again.

Everyone clustered up in a circle, conversing with one another, all caught up in a New Year's Eve hype. Ryoma looked up and saw Sakuno walking out of the kitchen from returning her dishes. He decided that the third time's the charm, and this time he'll be able to talk to Sakuno.

Ryoma pushed his way through the crowd to meet her. As Sakuno was walking, she started to fall forward from tripping over Fuji's foot, which was susupiciously placed instantly in front of her before her fall. Ryoma quickly caught her before she hit the ground, but Fuji, noticing that Ryoma was a little off-balance, tripped Ryoma from behind with his foot, causing Ryoma to fall as well.

Not wanting Sakuno to hit the ground, Ryoma slipped his right arm around Sakuno's small waist and pulled her as close to him as he could while he caught their fall with his left arm. But because he was falling down, and he was pulling Sakuno upward, their lips accidentally touched.

"G-Gomen, Ryuuzaki," Ryoma apologized once he regained his balance. He helped Sakuno get up and both blushed furiously.

"Echizen," Fuji teased, "you're supposed to wait 'til midnight to kiss someone on New Year's Eve. You can't be going getting a head start."

Ryoma blushed again and scratched the back of his head due to embarrassment. Then he glared at him once he realized that Fuji made Sakuno trip on purpose. "Fuji-senpai," he angrily spat out, "if make even the littlest effort to trip Ryuuzaki again, I'll—"

"Echizen," Fuji interrupted, "your girl already walked away. You might want to find her again."

Ryoma looked back to where Sakuno used to be standing and realized that Fuji was right. Tomoka had pulled Sakuno over to the t.v. to watch Tomoka's favorite band singing.

Ryoma sighed. Why was this so difficult to talk to Sakuno? Every time he made an effort to talk to her, something always got in his way and prevented him from doing so.

"Hey, everybody!" Tomoka screamed to catch everybody's attention. "The countdown is starting on t.v.!"

The team made their way over to the t.v. to watch the countdown—there were five minutes left 'til midnight.

Glancing around the room, Ryoma caught a glimpse of Sakuno walking towards the stairs for the rooftop entrance.

Curious, Ryoma secretly slipped away from the team and followed Sakuno silently up to the roof. Once he reached the top, he leaned against the doorframe and watched Sakuno stare at the sparkling stars in the sky. She's so beautiful, he thought as Sakuno's hair started to lightly blow in the wind.

Feeling the wind blow through his own hair, Ryoma immediately knew the words to say to her.

He silently made his way up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.

"Eep! R-Ryoma-kun, you scared me," Sakuno jumped.

"Gomen," he apologized, still holding onto her. He nuzzled his head in her hair and rested on her shoulder.

Sakuno blushed at Ryoma's actions. Not used to physical touch, Ryoma felt her stiffen. He decided it was time for him to say something to relieve her tenseness.

"Do you remember what I promised?" he whispered in her ear.

Sakuno nodded her head "yes," slowly.

Then he gently turned Sakuno around to face him. "Do you still like me?" he asked, nervous for her answer.

"H-Hai, Ryoma-kun," she blushed, looking down at her feet.

Placing his finger under her chin, he lifted her face up to look at him. "Good," he said.

They both could hear their former teammates scream the countdown from inside the restaurant.

"5."

Ryoma wrapped his right arm around Sakuno's waist and brought her closer.

"4."

He placed his left hand around the nape of her neck.

"3."

Leaning down slowly,

"2."

Ryoma quietly said, "Happy New Year, Ryuuzaki."

"1!"

And Ryoma kissed Sakuno slowly under the stars.