Standard Disclaimer applies. Nothing belongs to me. ;-;
I could NOT come up with a decent title. So here it is...
Tennis is the Bane of My Existence
Ryuzaki Sakuno's first crush hit her suddenly and powerfully, leaving her dazed and bewildered.
But it couldn't be helped. Ryoma was such a beautiful boy.
He was confident, lips drawn in a perpetual smirk, with startling gold eyes that reminded her of a cat. She couldn't keep from being attracted to him, but at the same time she knew her crush was doomed even before it began. After all, Ryoma only needed, only wanted, tennis.
Even so, she couldn't stop hoping-maybe someday he'll look my way. And she kept waiting, waiting, hoping, dreaming… But the more time she spent with him, spent watching him, the more she fell into despair. The more she understood that romance was very, very low on his priorities, that he would never, ever think of her as anything more than the coach's clumsy granddaughter, with hair way too long for tennis.
Ryuzaki Sakuno hated tennis. She hated how it took all the attention from the one she wanted to notice her most. But it was her only link to him. So she desperately practiced, trying to get closer to her prince. It didn't matter if he was critiquing her technique or making another comment about her hair-because he was paying attention to her. Sakuno almost felt she lived for those moments, face flushed with embarrassment but happy all the same, because at least for one moment, one instant, Echizen Ryoma was thinking about her.
…Despite her loathing for the sport, Sakuno could not imagine a Ryoma without tennis. The two terms were connected, intertwined, inseparable. What would he be like, she wondered? Would he be like every other boy? What was it that every other boy did? Ogle girls? No, Ryoma was simply not Ryoma without tennis.
…
…would there ever be room for anything else in his life? Room for her?
It wasn't as if Sakuno was the only girl who was attracted to him. Heck, the boy had his own fanclub. But was it strange for Sakuno to think of herself as different from all those other girls? Surely their hearts didn't do flip-flops at a single glance at him, didn't twinge painfully at the mere thought of him. Did those other girls ever wonder if he would ever spare them a second thought, too? Did their chests ever swell with pride while watching him play tennis, did it contract at the thought of him never thinking of them the same way?
…Did they love him?
Sakuno loved him. She knew she did. What else could this feeling be, like a hand gently squeezing her heart when ever she heard his name, whenever she thought of him, whenever she saw him. Why else would it hurt so much, when she imagined life without him? Yes, Sakuno was hopelessly, irreversibly, head over heels in love. And she hated that fact almost more than she hated tennis.
He was just so bright. So unattainable. So high above her she might as well be the earth and he the heavens. He had wings to reach the sky with, and she was stuck on the ground. Look at me she wanted to scream, I'm right here. I love you I loveyouIloveyouIloveyou. Look at me.
…But he never did.