Chapter 1

Ryoma was still asleep in the middle of the night when his phone rang. He didn't notice it but his cat, Karupin, did. Karupin licked Ryoma's cheek to wake him up.

"What is it, Karupin? It's still midnight," Ryoma complained. He heard his cellphone vibrating. 'Who can this be? It's very late in the evening…' he thought.

He answered the phone, "Hello?" in a sleepy way. But at the other line, it hanged up. "What a bastard, disturbing sleepyheads in this time…" then he fell asleep again.

It was Sakuno at the other line. She can't sleep, she keeps thinking of Ryoma. She wanted to talk to him, but she's too shy and Ryoma's too aloof. And she found herself asleep with little tears in her eyes.

It was a warm Monday morning. The alarm clock rang when it stroked 6:00 am. Ryoma pushed the button of the alarm to stop it. He opened his eyes and he saw his room filled out with sunlight, 'Another day…' he thought.

He stood up from his bed and stretched his arms while yawning. He went to the washroom to brush his teeth and he dressed himself up. After dressing up his school uniform, he picked up his bag full of things with of course, tennis stuff, and went downstairs to eat.

"Ohayou," Nanako greeted. She served Ryoma breakfast.

"Ohayou…" Ryoma replied, still sleepy. He saw his breakfast, and he ate it. He was not yet finished eating when Momo arrived.

"Hoii! Echizen! Come out there now! We're going to school!" Momo shouted from outside Ryoma's house.

"Momo-senpai?! Why is he early today?!" he complained and quickly ran towards their gate leaving their house and took a bicycle ride with Momo.

"Why are you so early? I didn't even finish my breakfast," Ryoma complained at Momo's back.

"You should be used to it, baka," Momo shouted at Ryoma, paddling the bike so hard and fast and they arrived at Seigaku at no time.

It was still a same day from the previous ones, same activities that they're going to do, same faces will be seen, and same boring teachers to discuss lessons.

But of course, tennis club has their morning assembly everyday. So when Ryoma and Momo arrived, they quickly went to the tennis court.

"Why are you two late?!" Coach Ryuzaki shouted at the two. "Didn't I tell you already that we're adjusting the time of our morning assembly earlier!?"

"But, Sensei, I was absent last week," Ryoma explained to Coach Ryuzaki.

"Why? Didn't someone tell you about the new schedule?" Coach Ryuzaki asked still angry.

Ryoma shook his head. After all, he was telling the truth.

Flashback

"Ryoma, don't attend classes tomorrow," Nanjirou exclaimed.

"Why? It's Friday tomorrow, why can't we just go at Saturday?" Ryoma asked.

"We're going to America to visit my former rival when I was still in my glory days,"

"Do I really need to come with you?"

"Of course, you do. He has a son that has a same age like you do now, and he plays tennis as well, you can consider him, too, as your rival. Like father, like son!"

'A rival, eh?' Ryoma thought.

"Ok, then I'm going," Ryoma looked at his father and Nanjirou smirked.

They went to the airport to go to America by that time. It took many hours at the ride to arrive at America. Finally, they were in America.

Nanjirou saw ladies again with big breasts, his eyes dropped in excitement.

"I'm back in America! Where there are big-breasted ladies here, and beautiful, too!" Nanjirou exclaimed while jumping in happiness.

'Here he goes again,' Ryoma thought.

"Hey, old man, where is your rival you're saying?" Ryoma asked with his eyebrows raised.

"Oh, yeah," he said and stopped jumping. "Come on."

Few steps later, they arrived at a tennis clubhouse where Nanjirou's rival owns. Nanjirou saw his rival playing with his son.

"Hey!! Smith! Remember me?!" Nanjirou shouted from a distance.

Smith looked back where somebody is calling him then he saw Nanjirou waving at him, "Nanjirou!"

He ran towards Nanjirou leaving his son on the court. "Came to a visit?"

"Yes," Nanjirou nodded.

"Well, come in!"

They went to one of Smith's resthouse at the clubhouse as visitors.

"You're still doing great, my rival," emphasizing the word rival, Nanjirou provokes Smith.

"Hey, hey. No time to fight first," Smith refused Nanjirou's dare to have a fight. "I thought you brought your son?"

Nanjirou's scary looked became dull then he called out Ryoma, "Ryoma! Smith is finding you!"

Ryoma comes out from the washroom and faced Smith.

"Ah, he really looks like his father," Smith said smiling while staring at Ryoma.

"He's Ryoma Echizen," Nanjirou said proudly introducing his son. "The next tennis champion in the history, who'd continue my unfinished battles."

"And here's my son," Smith pointed out his son. "Kevin Smith, the rival of the champion."

Kevin glared at Ryoma and Ryoma glared at Kevin as well. They're glaring at each other, like real rivals already.

"Shake hands!" Smith and Nanjirou said at the same time.

They were surprised when they saw Kevin and Ryoma glaring at each other.

"Hey, hey," Nanjirou smirked. "Looks like we really have some rivals here!"

"Yeah," Smith agreed.

End of flashback

"Then why were you absent in the first place?" Coach Ryuzaki lifted her eyebrow.

"We went to America," Ryoma said while his bangs covered his eyes. "Me and my dad need to."

Coach Ryuzaki nodded. It made Ryoma sigh.

"And you, Momo?" Coach Ryuzaki shouted out.

Momo gulped.

"Why are you late?" Coach Ryuzaki asked in a high tone.

"I woke up late," Momo explained, still smiling.

"20 laps around the court!" Tezuka shouted. "For being late."

Momo ran around the court 20 times. And soon, the practices have begun.

While the team does this, Sakuno secretly stares at Ryoma while practicing, hitting some balls, everything. She looks at him really carefully. 'Why am I here? Just because of Ryoma?' she thought.

Later on, at lunch time, tennis club didn't have a practice because of a test after the period after lunch. Ryoma went to the rooftop of the school to rest. Sakuno went there as well, but she didn't know Ryoma was there.

Ryoma was at one bench, asleep, with a Manga on his face. Sakuno saw this boy without knowing it was Ryoma.

"Hey," Sakuno said like she was pissed off. "Why are you here? Wake up!"

Ryoma took away the Manga on his face and sat up, "You don't want me here? Then, I'll go down."

Sakuno turned really red when she saw it was Ryoma, "Gomen, I didn't know it was you."

Ryoma stood up and went to the door and opened it, "I think you really don't want me here." He went downstairs and just slept outside below a big-shaded tree.

'You fool! You should have asked questions nicely!' Sakuno thought, hating herself on what she did. "I thought it was already my chance…"

Many times, she keeps on failing to have a conversation with Ryoma.

Fuji, Eiji, Momo, and for the first time, with Ryoma, they ate together at a fast food chain. They ordered burgers. Of course, Momo has his own menu, 50 burgers in one order.

"Wait a sec," Ryoma excused. "I'll just wash my hands."

When he was on the way to the washing area, a girl bumped her and this caused the spilling of the softdrink on Ryoma. The girl was Sakuno.

"Sorry," Ryoma said.

"No, I'm sorry," Sakuno blushed in embarrassment.

Ryoma just looked at Sakuno. Then Sakuno said, "I always get you in trouble, Ryoma, I'm sorry."

"So, you're the girl at school?" Ryoma asked.

"Yes," Sakuno blushed. "Sorry, really, really, sorry."

Ryoma held Sakuno's hand and they went to the counter. Sakuno blushed when he saw Ryoma holding his hands like he'll never let her go. Ryoma ordered another food for Sakuno from the one he spilled out.

"Why did you buy me another?" Sakuno asked while blushing.

"It was my fault," Ryoma explained. "So I owe you one."

"But-" Sakuno was cutted off by Ryoma. Ryoma said, "No buts. Just have it, and, I'm really sorry."

Sakuno can't believe that Ryoma was this nice to others.

When Ryoma went back at their table together with his senpais, the 3 teased Ryoma on what just happened.

"Nice one, Ryoma," Fuji said with of course, his perpetually closed eyes.

"You're too young!" Eiji and Momo said at the same time. This made Ryoma annoyed.

"What's with that?" Ryoma said raising his eyebrows. "I just bought her another meal because it was my fault for spilling out her meal. I just did the right thing!"

At the other side, Sakuno again stares at Ryoma on what he did. She saw how Ryoma was teased by his senpais.

'You are really a good person, Ryoma,' Sakuno thought.