A/N-Hey y'alls. I didn't think anyone would actually read the first chapter, but I got so many reviews! Thanks a ton!

Disclaimer-I don't own PoT.. yada yada.. Mr.Takeshi does.

Anyways, just wanted to say thank you. And to warn you that it will take me a while to upload new chapters, all thanks to school. Yea, it sux, but the damn teachers are like throwing books at us and my grades aren't doing too good either. Plus, I swim 5x a week..and (stupid asian parents) I get tutored by this wierd hippy lady. lol.

Afterwards

Chapter 2

"Shhhhh…" Kikumaru whispered.

"Yea, if you havn't noticed, he's undercover." Kaidoh hissed.

"WHOAA..wait a minute. Okay, breathe Sakuno, breathe." Sakuno took in a deep breath. "Alright, this must be a dream..I mean, I'm hallucinating, wait no..its the jet lag—.." Sakuno was cut off by Momo, who quickly covered her mouth.

"SHHHH…" everyone said and Ryoma just glared at her.

Quickly, Momo stuffed a rag in Sakuno's mouth and pushed her to Kawamura who picked Sakuno up, and ran her to the van. They were followed by Tezuka, who looked, well, he was expressionless, like always; Kaidoh, who seemed pissed for even bothering to come, but you could tell he was happy because now that Ryoma was back, he could play with Karupin. But of course, no body needed to know that. Momoshiro pushed Ryoma in a wheelchair, to make it look like Ryoma really was a helpless little old man and mainly to protect him from the reporters who were already suspicious when Sakuno said "Ryoma-kun"; Oishi, who as always, was very worried everyone would get run over by a car when they were crossing the street; Inui, who was carrying that notebook of his, and jotting down everyone's behaviors; and Fuji, with that mysterious I'm-planning-something grin on his face and closed eyes.

Finally, in the van Sakuno, tugged the rag out of her mouth and everyone let out a breath of relief. Then, all except Sakuno and Ryoma burst out laughing..even Tezuka and Kaidoh managed a little smile. Sakuno, being even more confused finally spoke up, "Ano.. do any of you know mind telling me what exactly is going on here?" she paused for a minute to figure out how she would ask her next question, "and Mr. Echizen, what are you doing back in Japan?"

Everyone burst out laughing again, but Ryoma just stared at Sakuno, "Thanks for the welcome back Ryuuzaki…" he said sarcastically.

"Well," Sakuno asked impatiently, she wanted answers now.

"Well, you see, when I came back to Japan, there were a bunch of reporters in my way and I didn't want to talk to them, so I called Momo for some help." Ryoma stopped, realizing Sakuno really wasn't listening. Instead, she was just staring at nothing, still shocked at how Ryoma had just…appeared.

"You okay?" Ryoma asked.

"What?" Sakuno snapped out of her trance, "Oh. Heh. I'm fine. Just a little airsick.."

The rest of the ride, Sakuno was silent. All the former regulars were chatting about everything that had happened in the five years Ryoma was gone. Sakuno was surprised at how the regulars adjusted with Ryoma's return so easily. They talked, almost as if he never left. Sakuno just sat there, reading her "Teen Vogue" magazine, pretending to be interested in it. She rarely looked up because if she did, she would make eye contact with Ryoma, who was constantly staring at her.

"Hey! I have an idea! Lets all go to Taka-san's place for dinner!!!" Kikumaru jumped around the van happily, literally.

"Yea, that would be a good idea." Kawamura said, scratching his head.

"Yay!! Then we can call it the 'Welcome Back O'chibi and Ryuuzaki' Party!" Kikumaru had a really excited look on his face, like a child going to a carnival.

"Ahem." Sakuno cleared her throat. "What if I don't want to go?"

"But you have to!" Kikumaru whined.

"Yeah, do it for Echizen." Momo teased.

Ryoma jerked a little.

"What if I don't want to?" Sakuno, a little irritated at Momo's comment, tried to stay calm from ripping his eyeballs out.

"Well, there is a 90 chance you really do want to go, and there is a 95.9 chance you don't want to go because Echizen is going to be there." Inui informed.

"Excuse me?!" Sakuno, now very irritated said. Back in Seigaku days, everyone knew she had a crush on Ryoma, but she was over him now. Way over him. She'd thought that they would've figured that out by now, but since they kept on persisting in teasing her, thinking she still liked Ryoma, Sakuno decided to tell them how she really felt, hopefully they'll remember this time.. "Well, here goes nothing,"

"Inui, when did your calculations start calculating human emotions?? Let me tell you buddy, I was over him years ago!" Sakuno pointed at Ryoma, then glared at the rest of the team. "In fact, why don't you all listen up because this goes for all of you.." Sakuno took in a deep breath, and finally let it out, "I HATE ECHIZEN RYOMA!!" she screamed it so loud that she swore the van had shook.

Everyone was speechless, even Kikumaru. Sure, they knew Sakuno had changed, except for Ryoma, but they didn't know that she could scream like that.

Woah, Sakuno thought, That was some serious PMS-ing. But then she felt relieved to have finally screamed that to someone other than herself. Then, Sakuno found the courage to steal a glance at Ryoma. He was staring at her, he looked confused and shocked at the same time, but most of all, Sakuno saw that he seemed to look hurt from her words.

At this, Sakuno fainted, and all she remembered seeing were the pair of feline eyes, staring at her, asking her "Why.."

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Sakuno woke up in a dark room, on a bed with a warm towel on her head.

Ow.. she thought, rubbing her temples. Where am I?

Then Sakuno remembered. She remembered what had happened when she got off the airplane. Oh my god… Ryoma. She stepped off the bed and stood up to think for a minute. She told Ryoma she hated him, actually she told the whole team. Isn't that a good thing? After all those years, Sakuno finally got it out of her system, but why did she fell so full of regret? Then, she remembered her barriers. It had taken so long to get those 'built', so long to change herself; to move on. But now, now that she was faced with the real thing, she felt so helpless. She wanted to cry, but restrained herself from doing anything the old Sakuno would do.

Silently, Sakuno walked out of her bedroom and down the stairs. She found her self in the sushi restaurant. "Damn, I told them I didn't want to come." Sakuno looked around to see that everyone was asleep. "Probably drunk." Then Sakuno noticed that Tezuka was asleep too. "That's odd." she thought. Sakuno realized that there were only eight people in the room, and that one was missing, the one she wished she had never met.

Suddenly, Sakuno heard a toilet flush and prayed that it wasn't Ryoma, but when had Sakuno's prayers ever come true? Sakuno turned around and saw a pair feline eyes, staring at her.

"Ryoma…" she gasped, and felt like fainting again, actually she kinda wished she could faint again.

"Do you want to go for a walk or something?" He asked.

Sakuno snapped back to her normal self, "That'd be nice."

Ryoma walked past her through the door and Sakuno followed. As they came out, the warm summer breeze blew into Sakuno's face. It was dark, and Sakuno could see clouds in the sky, hiding the bright moon from her view. Then, Sakuno felt eyes staring at her, so she turned to see Ryoma's face, only a few inches away from her own. She backed away a little.

"You've changed.." he said, "A lot."

"Yeah? Glad you noticed." Sakuno replied carelessly.

Ryoma frowned a little. "Your cut your hair." He stated plainly.

Sakuno turned to him, "Yup."

Then, out of nowhere, Ryoma asked, "Why do you hate me?"

Sakuno froze at this. She didn't want to think about her feelings right now. But, considering the fact the Ryoma was waiting for an answer, she had to tell him. No matter how stupid it came out, she couldn't hide from him forever, now could she? Still, just for the fun of it, Sakuno decided to tell Ryoma in questions.

"Why do you hate me?" she asked.

Ryoma arched an eyebrow, "Huh?"

"Well, don't you hate me? I mean in Seigaku, it sure seemed like you did."

"It did?" Ryoma was playing dumb, asking stupid questions to get the interrogator aggravated. He did this all the time with reporters. But, Sakuno was different.

"And… what is that supposed to mean?" Sakuno asked. She didn't know if "it did?" mean he really hated her, or if he wasn't aware of what he was doing, or.. maybe, he li-, nah, that's impossible, she thought. And, why do I even care? I hate him. He broke my heart once and I'm not letting him do it again.

Ryoma was silent for a minute and finally spoke up, "I'm sorry" he murmured.

Sakuno stopped again. They had reached the entrance gates of Seigaku. "Sorry? For what?" but before Ryoma could answer, Sakuno pushed the gates open and walked in. She never thought she would actually come back to this place, not with all those painful memories. But, now that the memory was with her, in fact, standing only a few feet away from her, Sakuno found the courage to face them.

"I haven't been in here for so long…" she said, forgetting about her question earlier.

"Yeah, it hasn't changed." Ryoma said, then remembering Sakuno's question. "About your question earlier. I'm sorry…for hating you."

Sakuno, shocked, bent down to pick up a stone. She rubbed its smooth surface with her fingertips, and for that split second, she wanted to chuck it at Ryoma's face. "For hating me? Ha! Real funny Ryoma, I wouldn't have expected that from a tennis prince, especially you." And, having said that, she threw the rock at Ryoma's head, purposely missing it so she hit the tree behind him instead. Then, when Sakuno couldn't hold it in any longer, she out of the school, leaving Ryoma standing there, numb.

­­­

Ryoma was dumbfounded. He didn't know what he did wrong, or why Sakuno was so angry. He knew she meant to hit his face with that rock, but changed her mind. Still, Ryoma was confused as to why she would want to hurt him in the first place.

When Ryoma entered in through the gates of Seigaku, memories of the past flowed in to his mind. He remembered Sakuno was at every single one of his games, how she had always blushed and stuttered around him. Then he thought about the Sakuno now.

Ryoma sighed, "Boy, she really has changed, hasn't she?"

FLASHBACK

"Now you've really done it Echizen." Kaidoh hissed.

"What did I do?" Ryoma asked.

"You shouldn't be blaming him, I mean its our fault too. At least according to Ryuuzaki.." Oishi was worried, of course, but now that Sakuno had fainted, he was freaking out.

"Actually, it is O'chibi's fault!!" Kikumaru pointed at Ryoma. "He should've told Ryuuzaki his true feelings."

"What the hell…Kikumaru." Ryoma murmured.

"Tsk. Tsk." Momo said. "The only reason Ryuuzaki is like this is because you never told her that you liked her."

"I don't like her." Ryoma stated.

"Why, Echizen, we all know that you did, and still do." Fuji smiled.

"Okay, maybe I did and just don't remember, but that doesn't mean I still do." Ryoma admitted he liked her in the past, but he really didn't know whether or not he did or not. He didn't want to think about his past at the moment either, so he just assumed his sempais knew what they were talking about…

Fuji smiled again, like he had achieved something by having Ryoma admit a part of his feelings for Sakuno.

"Then explain why you never got a girlfriend in America…" Momoshiro said, "I read on the news that you got like 10 new confessions every week, and some of them were quite hott too. I'd totally go on a date with at least one of them, but you rejected them you dumbass. Unless… not that there's anything wrong with it, but are you by any chance gay?"

Ryoma glared at Momo. He knew he was just teasing him, but honestly, gay? If he had anything to say about it, they were the gay ones, not him.

"O'chibi can't be gay!! He has to like Ryuuzaki." Kikumaru shook the living day lights out of Ryoma. "She's done soo much for you, even if she says she hates you, shes just lying!! Shes changed soo much, and all because of O'chibi!" Kikumaru was screaming hysterically now.

Ryoma stood up, and moved away from Kikumaru, just to be safe. He looked at his teammates, who were currently in the restaurant eating sushi that Kawamura was serving. "My fault? What the hell did I do?"

"Echizen?" Kawamura finally decided to speak up. "I know this might not be much help, but I just wanted to tell you that Ryuuzaki didn't like you…" he paused because Fuji started to take a racket out of his bag and handed it to Kawamura. "What's th—BURRNING BABBYY!! RYUUZKI DIDN'T LIKE YOU, SHE LOVED YOU, YOU STUPID ASS HOLE!" then the racket slipped out of Kawamura's sweaty grip. "I-I- G-Gomen Echizen."

Ryoma just stood there, not knowing what to say. All of a sudden, he had an urge to throw-up again. "stupid jet.." he said cursing under his breath and ran to the bathroom.

END FLASHBACK

She had changed for him? But why? He never asked her to, though he had to admit, he liked it better that Ryuuzaki wasn't stuttering anymore. Ryoma replayed his memories of Ryuuzaki many times, and finally realized why she hated him so much. Ryoma realized how arrogant he was to her and how he ignored all of her good intentions. The deeper Ryoma searched, the more he began to understand. Back in Seigaku days, the reason why he felt so odd around Ryuuzaki was because he liked her. And now, she was in his life again, and he realized that he liked her again. But this time, now that he knew he liked her, she hated him.

"Baka.." he thought. "How come when I didn't know I liked her, she liked, no, loved me, and now that I know I like her, she hates my guts? Girls are so confusing" Ryoma layed down beside a tree and began drifting off to sleep, then suddenly woke up when a drop of water fell on to head. He looked up and saw that gray clouds began to cover the sky, and slowly, rain drizzled down, but got harder and harder, and soon, Ryoma was soaked from the water that was pouring down on to his body.

A/N- PLEASE REVIEW!!

and i hope you like this chapter.

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