Egao no Riyuu
By: rennomiya
Tomorrow is her birthday. Her 16th birthday to be exact.
Her lips curved into a sad smile.
This was going to be the last day of her freedom.
Nevertheless, she opened the door to her house with optimism. She smiled at the bright blue sky and the nice weather it brought. She practically skipped her way to school.
Echizen Ryoma yawned sleepily as he tried to suppress his urge to sleep. It was lunchtime but unfortunately, his naptime would have to wait until Momo-senpai arrives in his classroom to deliver his lunch. His idiotic senpai had lost a bet to him yesterday and he promised to buy him lunch the next day. And so, he dully stared at his classroom door for a certain spiky haired senpai to come barging in with his lunch.
After he waited for another five minutes that seemed three hours for him, his eyes involuntarily rolled towards his classmates who were eating their own lunches, doodling on their blackboard, or just simply chatting with each other. As he gazed down at each and one of them, his amber orbs stopped on a giggling pigtailed girl. She was talking with a bunch of their female classmates while eating her bento.
He observed her more. Her eyes were gleaming with delight. In fact, he had noticed, she looked overly happy since the day started. She was overly happy in a way that it looked like she was forcing herself to be so. And it appeared that none of the students in class 1-1 had noticed her odd mood. Not even her best friend who had known her since the beginning of time. He didn't know if she had a problem or she was truly happy. Well, if her best friend hadn't noticed her strange behavior, then it may mean that he was just being too observant or assuming. Maybe Ryuzaki was just genuinely happy that day.
Yes, that's right. Nothing's probably wrong with her. Maybe he was just too bored.
His train of thoughts was interrupted when the class's door slid opened. The other students present in the room all shot their heads towards that direction. There, standing on the doorframe with a bunch of different bread delights wrapped on his muscular arms, was none other than the person he had been waiting for three hou—five minutes, Momo-senpai. The idiot.
Momoshiro Takeshi panted heavily before he dragged his feet towards Ryoma's desk, where the prince was sitting. Momo lackadaisically dropped the packets of bread on his table and took another chair in front of his desk and positioned it across his table. He sat down informally and began opening one packet of yakisoba bread.
"Argh, the line in the cafeteria was as packed as ever," he complained lazily as he munched his bread.
Ryoma rolled his eyes and took one pack of curry bread and opened it. "You should've known that the cafeteria's crowded during lunchtime," he chewed on his bread, "You should've come earlier, baka."
Momo narrowed his brows. "Shut up brat! I've already bought you lunch so stop complaining!"
"Yeah, you bought me lunch. But you made me wait for three hours," shot back the underclassman with another bite from his curry bread that was already half-way finished.
Momo gulped down the last remains of his yakisoba bread and moved to take another one. "Three hours? It was only five minutes."
"It felt like three hours," Ryoma monotonously replied and took another packet.
"Just be thankful that I treated you, you ungrateful brat."
Before Ryoma could continue their usual verbal fights, a sweet and cheerful voice interrupted them. "Whoa, you've bought a lot of bread senpai." Her tone was full of innocence and enjoyment.
Ryoma and Momo looked at Ryuzaki Sakuno who was standing beside the table that separates the two of them. Momo grinned when he saw his favorite female kouhai. "Hi there, my cute and favorite kouhai!"
Ryoma glared at him for his lack of informality.
Sakuno smiled gleefully at him. "Hello to you too, my favorite senpai," she cheerfully greeted back.
Ryoma almost choked if not for his immediate response before his throat betrays him. He incredulously stared at Sakuno, unable to know how to react at her atypical gestures and words. She sounded so out of character! The clumsy Ryuuzaki he knew would never greet their senpai that way. What's next? Call Tezuka-buchou the most adorable senpai she has? If this was the customary girl, she would've blushed at senpai's remark and nod in a timid manner.
Momo and the other freshmen in the room didn't seem to notice her uncharacteristic behavior. Momo just grinned at her and patted her head like a loving big brother.
Ryoma unbelievably stared at his classmates and Sakuno. At first he thought that he was just being delusional that she was exaggeratingly happy since the start of the day because it looked as if he was the only one who had noticed, but now, he knows that he was not being delusional. Instead, it was everyone else who were being delusional. How could they not notice she was being weird?
Momo offered Sakuno a packet of bread, which she accepted without hesitation. On normal situations, she would refuse his offer shyly AND she wouldn't even be there talking to them.
"Thank you, senpai!" she stated and opened that packet of brownie. She ate it happily and even offered to share it with Ryoma and Momo.
Ryoma refused, mentally feeling uncomfortable with her displays of oddity. Momo, on the other hand, accepted her offer and pinched an appropriate amount of brownie from her hand.
Ryuzaki was really becoming strangely suspicious.
Afternoon practice was over and it was time to go home. Ryoma was walking his way home alone, which was a rare thing since he mostly spends that time of the day with Momo-senpai and Kikumaru-senpai eating burgers and tricking the latter to treat them since he was the oldest. Either that or engaging in a street tennis game with some random players in their usual street tennis courts.
Ryoma heard his stomach grumble, obviously telling him that it was empty and needed refill. He mentally groaned. He didn't have the adequate amount of money to buy himself anything. He had brought just enough money for a transportation ticket, and nothing else.
Ugh.
If only Momo-senpai didn't have to go on a date with the short-haired girl from Fudomine and if only his other senpais weren't too meddlesome to spy on the Dunk Smash expert's date. Then, he would've leeched some money from any of them for some food before going home.
He should've just spied with them so that he could get free food.
"Ryoma-kun!"
He heard a distant yet familiar voice calling his name from behind. He stopped and slightly turned his head around. He found himself looking at a female figure running towards him joyfully while waving an excited arm around. She stopped when she was close enough to him and smiled cheerfully. "I never expected to see you here! Usually, you hang out with the other regulars at this time!"
Ryoma continued on staring silently at her.
"It's kinda weird but I guess it's a good turn of events! I mean, this is a rare moment! The last time we bumped into each other like this was the time when you first got your tennis regular's jersey three years ago. Do you remember?" she happily exclaimed, still with the same excessive delight coming from her.
Ryoma nodded a little and remained silent. She didn't stutter even once during her monologue.
"Wow! Can you believe it? It had already been three years since we first met! And who would've thought we'd be classmates here in Seishun High School! Anyway, I'm really glad that you and the old tennis team regulars are back for more action!" she punched the air excitedly, "That was the best High School Nationals I have ever watched! Everyone had gotten extremely better! And can you imagine? We're turning sophomores in the next two months! I feel exci—"
GRUMBLE
She stopped talking when she heard her companion's stomach. The two were silent at first but after that, the girl immediately went into a fits of laughter.
Ryoma glared at her and her weirdness. Damn her strangeness. He lowered the brim of his cap as he tried to hide the embarrassment caused by his stomach. Damn his hungry stomach. "Shut up."
Sakuno's laughter faded, much to his relief. She wiped some tears that formed on her eyes due to laughing. She gradually straightened up and smiled at him with that weird smile of hers. "I can hear that you're hungry," she held back a laugh.
He glared at her again. He turned to walk away. "None of your business."
"Hey wait," she called as she skipped towards his side, "I know of a great place that sells good ramen. Have you tasted one before?"
Ryoma's brows narrowed. "Of course I know what ramen tastes like. I'm not an idiot."
She smiled. "Oh, I'm not implying that you're an idiot. I just thought that you haven't eaten one since you were born in America."
She was telling him what she wants to and what she thinks. This Ryuzaki was really starting to bother him. "I've been here for three years," he understatedly said.
She let out a cheeky smile. "Oh, but have you tasted the best ramen in the world?"
She was telling him that she's knows a place where they sell the best ramen in the world. He smirked at her and told her in a challenging way, "What if the ramen there isn't as good as you claim to be? What will I do to you?"
Her eyes looked at him with confusion at first before she understood and smiled sweetly. "I'll transfer to another school."
If that was the case, then he inwardly wished that the ramen place she mentioned really sells good-tasting ramen. Then again, it was just their normal playful bets. It wasn't like she was really going away.
He smirked. "Okay. Take me there. But it's your treat." He didn't have money anyway. So screw the ungentlemanly way he was acting. He'll just make it up to her discreetly some other time.
Sakuno beamed happily and grabbed his hand. She began running blissfully running towards wherever that noodle shop was, dragging Ryoma with her, unaware of her bold move.
Ryoma decided to ignore her exaggerated happiness for a while.
Surprisingly, she didn't get lost.
They arrived in front of a shop that looked similar with Kawamura-senpai's sushi shop, except it was named 'Sakata Noodles' instead of 'Kawamura Sushi'. Sakuno smiled at him without letting go of his hand. "Sakata-san is one of grandma's friends. We used to go here for ramen when I was little. They also sell some sushi here," she raised a free forefinger up to her lips and said in a whisper-like tone, "But not as good as Kawamura-senpai's, but that's only our secret."
She was really being out of character especially after she winked at him as she whispered the last words at him. He just nodded slightly.
"Let's go," she cheerfully said and slid the paper doors open.
"Welcome!" shouted whoever the person was inside.
"Hello there, Sakata-jii-san!" Sakuno greeted with a huge smile. She let go of Ryoma's hand to shake her hands with the middle-aged owner of the shop, Sakata Junichi.
Sakata-san's pair of eyes was suddenly filled with a mix of nostalgia and enchantment as he saw and recognized his good friend, Sumire's, granddaughter, Sakuno. He shook her hand with a toothy grin as he greeted the young Ryuzaki. "It's been a while since I last saw you, Sakuno-chan! How's your grandma these days? Still strong and stubborn I suppose?"
Sakuno giggled. "Yes, she's still strong… and no denial, stubborn," she said as Sakata led her towards the counter and offered her a seat.
It was only when Ryoma cleared his throat did the two finally remembered him.
"Oh, Sakata-jii-san, this is one of grandma's tennis students, Echizen Ryoma," she introduced as she stood up and held an introducing arm pointing to Ryoma. "Ryoma-kun, this is one of grandma's best friends, Sakata Junichi-san."
Ryoma put a hand on the brim of his cap and bowed his head a little. "Uissu," he greeted.
He sweatdropped when he noticed that the eldest man in the group was staring at him intently. He avoided his old and wrinkled eyes awkwardly and decided to be interested in the flourished floors instead.
Sakuno let out a forced smile when she saw how closely Sakata-san observes Ryoma. She laughed halfheartedly to gain Sakata's attention and to save Ryoma from his awkward position. "What's the matter, jii-chan?"
Sakata puts his forefinger and thumb under his chin in a thoughtful manner. "If this is Sumire's student, then it means that you two are schoolmates…" he deduced.
Sakuno nodded. "Yes, in fact, he's my classmate."
Her intention of making Sakata stop looking at Ryoma intently was turned around when the old man glared at Ryoma instead. "He's your classmate huh," he knowingly said, mentally sending Ryoma some warnings. The tennis prince just avoided his eyes even more, quite confused as to why the old man was being too intent with him.
Then, Sakata turned his heels around and walked back behind the counter. "Anyway Sakuno-chan, what will you have?"
Sakuno sighed in relief after the old man's intense look with Ryoma finally ceased. She sat down on the chair the owner offered and gestured Ryoma to sit next to her. Ryoma uncomfortably sat down next to her, avoiding Sakata's general direction.
Sakuno turned her head to Sakata with a happy smile. "Two orders of your special ramen please!"
Sakata shouted a cheerful "HAIIIIII!" before he turned to do the two's ramen. "You don't have to pay for your meal, Sakuno-chan. It's on the house!" he said while preparing their ramen. "But the boy's got to pay though," he added with a glint in his eyes as he looked at Ryoma, who gulped nervously and pretended to look somewhere else. "He's going to pay double for his meal," he added.
"Well that's all right," Sakuno said, "I'm treating him. So if you give my share of meal for free but want Ryoma-kun to pay double for his meal, then it's the same. I'm still going to pay for two bills."
Sakata stared at her disbelievingly. Then he glared at Ryoma, who looked as if he found the door of his shop interesting. "How could you let a girl buy you food? Don't you have shame, boy?"
Sakuno was about to defend her classmate when the door shot open again. "Tadaima…" the person in the door said uninterestedly. She smiled when she recognized who the person was. "Ah! Kei-chan!"
The newly-arrived boy raised his head slightly to look at the person who called his name. He grinned as he identified who that person was. "Sakuno-chan!" he called and excitingly rushed towards her. "You haven't been here for a while!"
She gave him a nice smile. "Yes, it's been a while, Kei-chan!"
She noticed Ryoma's look and she immediately introduced Kei to him. "Ryoma-kun, this is Sakata Keitaro. He's the owner's son. We used to play together as children," then she turned to Kei, "Kei-chan, this is Ryoma-kun, a classmate."
Ryoma didn't know if he needs to be polite with this boy or not, seeing that he was close with Ryuzaki. He just 'hn-ed' at him.
Kei looked at him. He observed him from head to toe, just like what his father did a few minutes ago, much to Ryoma's dismay (again).
"Ryoma…" Kei's brows narrowed as he took the tennis prince's appearance once more. Then he sulked in a corner. "He's too good-looking… I lost…" he said dejectedly.
Ryoma confusedly looked at him. What was he talking about?
His gaze towards the sulking Kei in a corner was disrupted when the owner dropped a bowl of ramen in front of him in an angry manner. "Order's up," he said as a vein was twitching on his forehead.
"Ah… thanks…" he mumbled, ignoring Junichi's intense glare at him, and split his chopsticks in half.
Meanwhile, Junichi-jii-san dropped Sakuno's bowl of ramen gently in front of her while giving her a nice smile. "Order's up Sakuno-chan!"
He inwardly glared at the Sakata father-and-son duo. They were too biased, he thought. He concluded that the two had formed a nice relationship with the Ryuzakis for them to act that coldly towards him.
"What's wrong Kei-chan?" Sakuno worriedly asked after she muttered her thanks to Junichi for the ramen. "What do you mean you lost?"
Kei stood up with his shoulders drooped. He weakly approached Sakuno with a depressed aura and said, "Why'd you have to have such a good-looking boyfriend? Why can't it be me?"
Ryoma would have spitted out his ramen if he still hadn't put some in his mouth. They thought that he and Ryuzaki were going out!
He expected Sakuno to blush and stutter in front of them as she tries to deny their indictment. So, he was secretly surprised when she did neither. She, instead, laughed at their accusation and explained to them that they were not in that kind of relationship.
The Sakata duo sighed in relief upon hearing so, which made Ryoma irritated at them.
After clearing the misunderstandings, Sakuno proceeded on splitting her chopsticks in half and taking a fishcake to taste it. She munched at it as she let nostalgia fill her senses. The Sakatas' ramen still hasn't changed taste. It was reminiscing having to taste the same flavor she used to love when she was little. She was glad the taste didn't change. She looked at the father and smiled. "It's still good as always."
The father-son duo smiled back.
She turned to her right to look at Ryoma who was slurping his noodles. She looked at him expectantly, remembering their bet. "So, how was it?"
Ryoma actually liked the taste and she proved her words when she told him about this place earlier. But since he never actually complimented anyone ever in his life, he just merely stated, in what she believed to be his own way of complimenting, "Edible enough."
She smiled, knowing what he meant by those while Sakata Junichi and Kei glared at him. "That's his way of complimenting, don't worry," she reassured.
The Sakatas could not do anything but believe her.
After another fifteen minutes, the two was finally finished eating. Ryoma had filled his empty stomach, and Sakuno contently stared at his empty bowl. She took out her wallet from her pocket and dropped some bills on the counter. "Here's our pay, jii-san!"
Kei looked at Sakuno, then to her bills, then to her wallet, and finally to Ryoma. "You're not treating her?" he hissed.
Ryoma simply avoided his gaze, which is turning out to be his approaching habit towards the Sakatas.
Junichi turned down her payment as he shook his head. "It's okay Sakuno-chan. It's on the house." He took the bills and shoved it to Sakuno.
"Eh? But you said that Ryoma-kun has to pay double for his meal," she whined as she tried to force back the bills to the owner.
Junichi looked at Sakuno, then to Ryoma and finally to his son, Kei. He sighed in defeat. "Why do you look better with Ryoma than with my son?" he said sadly after he compared how Sakuno would look like with Ryoma and how she would look like with Kei. And much to his dismay, Sakuno looked good with Ryoma rather than his son.
Sakuno confusedly look at him while Kei blushed and yelled at his father. "Stop embarrassing me!"
Ryoma sighed.
Then he smirked.
At least Ryuzaki had nice friends outside of school. Well, at least if they weren't too obsessed with her.
"Our family actually has a lot of other family friends other than the Sakatas," Sakuno, once more, happily stated as she basically skipped on the sidewalk with him. The sun was no longer visible as the stars and moon found their way on the dark skies. The only lights that supplied the city were coming from streetlights and posts that lined up straightly into the distance.
It actually looked like a bunch of fireflies from afar. Especially if the lights from the buildings and shops and some cars passing by around them were added to the scenery.
It was a nice view, Ryoma thought as he listened to her ramblings.
And a nice scene.
"My grandma has a lot of friends, and because of her, I get to be friends with them as well! I'm really happy that she's my grandma! Oh, I'm really happy for my mom and dad too! They are pretty nice…"
The two kept on walking. The other one was talking one-sidedly while the other one was attentively listening. It was until they had to separate ways that he had to speak.
"This is my turn, Ryoma-kun," she said, "I'm glad that I get to spend after-class with you! It's a pretty rare thing that I almost could still not believe it!" She gave him another big smile and gestured to turn around and walk away.
"Wait," he said. He remembered about his thoughts and observations that she was being odd today among all days he knew her. He decided to tell her about it before she goes away. "You're too strangely happy today. Unlike the usual Ryuzaki."
Sakuno stopped on her tracks. Her mouth faintly opened with slight surprise about his statement. Then, her lips closed to form a thin straight line. She turned around to face him with a genuine smile. One that was just right and real unlike her smiles the whole day.
"Wow…" she said gently, "I never thought you of all people would see that."
Ryoma raised a confused brow.
She chuckled; again, it was real and just right. "I mean… even Tomo-chan didn't notice. Not even the Sakatas that know me since I was small. I thought I could get away with it." She looked at the skies sadly. Her eyes softened into a regretful one.
"What do you mean?" He really didn't know what she was talking about. Maybe she really has a problem but doesn't want to show it to anyone.
"I'm… engaged," she explained.
Ryoma's eyes widened for a fraction. But it was as fast as it came. He turned his back on her and lowered the brim of his cap to hide any expression he had from her. He did not see that one coming. Of all the reasons she can tell him, why was it that one?
She smiled weakly. "I know it's kind of fictional and it only happens in primetime dramas but it's true. I told you that we have a lot of family friends. One of them was running an affluent business. The owner is good friends with my dad. And even before I was born or even existed, they already planned my engagement with the owner's son. It's to strengthen our families' bonds. Dad said that my fiancé was nice and brought up well."
He continued on listening.
"Kei-chan knows him too… but I actually had never met my fiancé before," she added. Inwardly, she didn't know why she was telling him the whole story. But at the back of her mind, she knows that Ryoma would want to hear it in full details. Though she had no idea why. Maybe it was just her imagination.
"You don't know him but you're marrying him someday," Ryoma said in a cold, monotonous way. He didn't know why but his chest suddenly felt uneasy.
Sakuno nodded softly.
"Tell your dad that you don't like that arrangement," he said in another cold, demanding tone. Actually, it was him who wanted to tell her dad about his dislike about that stupid arrangement. Who in the world still gets arranged marriages nowadays?
"My dad said that I'll fall in love with him anyway. They've already decided," she said forlornly, and then she looked up to the back of his head and smiled, "And besides, I'm doing this for my family. And my fiancé's family also expects a lot from me. They believed that I can bring honor to their family's name."
Ryoma involuntarily gritted his teeth. "So you accepted?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes. In fact, I'm meeting him tomorrow."
Ryoma clenched his fists.
The once perfect scenery became dull as Ryoma tried to let everything sink in.
Ryuzaki was taken.
To be continued.
A/N: I'm desperately trying to get my writing skills to improve. And yes, it was a bit clichéd (no, actually, it was really cliché) but I hope you take some time to read and criticize my version of a plot like this. And I don't think the Sakatas will appear again. Leave a review ^^ Egao no Riyuu means 'the reason for a smile'.
Prince of Tennis © Konomi Takeshi.