AN: ok, as requested by Kenny, here is a longer chapter 2. Moreover, I hope that the other chapters after this will be longer, but only time will tell.

Well without further ado, here is chapter 2.

"talking"

'personal thoughts'

Challenges vs Consequences

Chapter 2

(Normal POV)

As Ryoma walked back to his hotel, his thoughts kept going back to that moment of the courts and who he thought he saw.

(Ryoma's POV)

'I must be seeing things; there's no way she can be here in America when I know I left her back in Japan, along with the rest of our sempais, and those annoying Ichinen Trio.'

~Flashback~

(Ryoma's POV)

"WHAT? You're LEAVING?" yelled Horio.

"Hn," was all I said as I took a drink of my Ponta.

"Why are you leaving, I mean you practically just got here?" asked Kachiro.

"Yeah, Ryoma-sama, why are you leaving? What do you not like it here in Japan anymore?" wailed the annoying, pig-tailed girl, whose name I can never seem to remember. 'What was her name again...Tony...Tomo...Tonya? Whatever.'

"He's leaving to compete in the US Open, right Ryoma-kun?" asked the quietest of the group, a certain girl with twin braids who always tries to show up for my games, Sakuno Ryuzaki.

"Hey, wait a minute. How would you know that Sakuno?" asked her friend (Tomo) while Horio shrieked,

"Is this true?"

"I know because I overheard Ryoma-kun talking about it with Grandma just before the Nationals started. Sorry for eavesdropping on your conversation Ryoma-kun." Sakuno apologized.

"Hn" was my response. 'Why was she apologizing? She didn't do anything wrong?'

No offense Sakuno, but I want to ask Ryuzaki-sensei herself. Maybe you heard wrong?" the pig-tailed girl (Tomo) said.

The others agreed and walked off to find the old hag, leaving me alone with Sakuno. I decided to go throw away my empty can of Ponta and Sakuno followed me. I could tell something was on her mind, but if she wasn't going to say what it was, then I wasn't going to ask.

"R-Ryoma-kun?" she stuttered. 'She seems to do that a lot. I wonder why?'

"Hn."

"Will you be ok in America? I mean you will be traveling to and staying in America on your own. Will you be safe on your own?" she asked with worry filling her eyes. It almost looked like she was about to cry. 'Why would she be crying? Is she honestly THAT worried about me?'

To answer her questions, I handed her my racket.

"Here, hold onto this. I will be back to get it after I win the US Open, so you had better take good care of it." I say in an annoyed voice.

When I turn to leave, I can see in my peripheral vision that she was smiling while she held my racket to her chest.

"Hai!" she says with enthusiasm and follows me out of the schoolyard.

~End of Flashback~

'I gave her my racket as a way to reassure her that I will be safe and that I will be coming back. So that she wouldn't worry so much and feel the need to make sure that, I was ok. Although, granted, I never thought she would have the guts, or the courage, to follow me; yet, I keep seeing her in places I know I shouldn't be seeing her at all.' (That is, if she really did stay behind?)

'The first place I thought I saw her was in the crowd at the airport when I first got here, and now I think I keep seeing her in the crowds that show up at my tennis matches. Why can't I seem to get her out of my head?'

'I mean, I left her my racket as a way of showing her that I would be coming back, but I only gave it to her in the first place because she looked so dang sad when she found out that I was leaving. That doesn't mean that I care about her or anything, she just looks better when she has a smile on her face than she does when she is on the verge of tears.'

'At any rate, with that to reassure her, she shouldn't have followed me here, right?...Nah, Sakuno would be too scared to get on an airplane and leave everything that she's ever known behind, just to follow me, no matter how much she may want to support me.'

(Normal POV)

Yet even with those thoughts settled, Ryoma still couldn't stop thinking about Sakuno; he was so caught-up in his own thoughts, that he failed to notice the shadow that was following him. If a passer-by saw the stranger's face, they would have thought it was an older version of the young boy he was following.

AN: sorry if Ryoma seems a bit OOC but I thinks sooooo CUTE to portray him as having doubts and ranting in his head, or to himself, sometimes XD

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it, now please read and review!