Title: Happily Ever After

Summary: "It wasn't supposed to go like this, I was only supposed to help them fall in love with each other, I wasn't supposed to be the one to fall in love with her…" Marui POV

Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to Keisuke Cloudberry, only the bunny.

Credits to my math book. Although I don't know what the connection is between angst and numbers, I still owe this fic to it. Ah…oh well, hooray for problem solvings!

Pretending…

She had straight brown hair that was always clipped neatly with a heart-shaped pin. She had deep blue eyes that were always glinting with enthusiasm and blithe. She had this really cheery voice that could really lift your spirits high up. She was cute. And she had this really beautiful smile that even I, the great tensai, can't stop staring at.

Yes, her. She's Tachibana Ann: feisty and spunky, yet intelligent and pretty, and also currently Kirihara Akaya, my kouhai's love interest . . .Or so my best friend Niou said.

She had just transferred here in Rikkai, and if I'm not mistaken, about two months ago. She and her family just moved in Kanagawa and are starting fresh off. And since their family had more knowledge about this school than the other schools like Jyousei or Kurosawa, they decided to enter her here. She's currently in her first year in high school, a freshman.

Eventually, we became friends, together with Niou, Akaya and the other regulars too. It's such a wonder what tennis could do to you, that was what brought all of us together anyway. And that's how we got close to her too. She had a lot of things to talk about, especially about the sport, on what street tennis was like, how Fudoumine was better than us (And that actually made me snort), and a lot of other things related to her tennis life. She was really fun to be with, to be honest. She always had a positive attitude. And it was a little contagious. She even joins us in our daily pranks on the math teacher.

As the weeks passed, we came to notice Akaya's feelings for the girl. And that, as always, made Niou go gung-ho. The boy actually had a crush on her ever since junior high! Hah, and he kept on denying it even though the shade of red was visible on his cheeks every time he talked or fought with her. That was then Niou and I started to pull pranks on them like pushing Akaya towards her direction, causing him to bump into her, putting cuffs on their hands and throwing the key away and messing with their stuff and putting love letters on their bags. But it wasn't just plain pranks; we did it to bring them closer to each other, and of course it was successful. They've gotten a lot closer after we locked them inside the janitor's closet for almost half a day. But I wasn't really sure what happened in there. Hmm, that reminds me that Niou has a video of that. I'll go ask him later.

And as more weeks passed by, I came to notice my own feelings for her. I don't really know why I feel anxious whenever she's near me but I just did. I must've grown to like her much more than just friends, and it was annoying me to death. Now I have to suffer, I can't enjoy the pranks anymore because my own feeling were in the way. But I had to pretend or else Niou will find out. Agh, I hate him when he finds out secrets about me. He'd go crazy and torment me again and again. Curse him.

I find myself now, sitting alone on the bench, watching her talk with her friends. I smirked, if Niou caught me staring at her, I don't what he'll think of. I took one last glance at her before I turn away, and noticed that she winked at me. I quivered and immediately faced the opposite direction, effectively hiding the small shade of pink I knew that was visible on my face. I then slapped my forehead. Great, she must've caught me staring. I sighed exasperatedly. If not Niou, it'll be Ann herself who'll catch me. Great.

I turned and looked at her again, and found her busying herself by bickering with Akaya, whom had just arrived from one of his classes. And I've yet to notice that a small frown formed on my face. Arrgh. I took a stick of gum out of my pockets and ate it, chewing firmly on it then blowing it afterwards. What the hell is wrong with me? I am not supposed to be sad, and I won't even think that I'm jealous. Stupid mood swings. Now I'm staring at her again, lame. I have to stop this.

Uh oh. Niou is coming. I can see that spiky bleached hair of his and that awful smirk on his face. I quickly stood up and smirked myself, then called out to the two first years.

"Hey Akaya! Flirting with Ann-chan again?" I shouted at them, and it earned me a smirk of approval from the trickster. The two started fighting again, and this time, they've caught the other people's attention as well. I continued on sneering at them.

'Just do it Marui Bunta…Bear with it…Pretend…'