Sakuno looked up at Ryoma, wondering what he was going to make her do as punishment for being late.
"Because you were late," Ryoma started, "you won't be practicing with me today; you'll be hitting against the wall."
"B-But, Ryoma-kun! That's n-not a very g-good p-practice!" Sakuno complained. Ryoma only smirked at her.
"Well, don't be late next time, Ryuuzaki," he said.
"Mou!"
"Well, go get started," he said, bored already.
Sakuno walked over to where the wall was and started to warm-up. First she practiced her forehands, then her backhands. She hit the ball one hundred times consecutively on each stroke. Ryoma watched her, amazed that this girl who sucked at tennis five years ago could actually keep the ball in play now. He watched her form, which had improved tremendously. "Eh, not bad," he admitted.
"Ryoma-kun, d-do I really have to hit against the wall? It's so boring!" Sakuno pouted, pulling a sad face on him. Well, Sakuno wasn't even trying to pull a sad face—she was just innocently asking Ryoma an honest question. Her eyebrows were raised above her hopeful eyes. She wore a slight frown, and strands of her hair framed her face.
'Dang,' Ryoma thought upon seeing her "sad face," 'this girl can really get what she wants.'
"I'll teach you something new…but you're still hitting against the wall," he told her, not wanting to give in completely to the girl.
"Okay," Sakuno compromised.
"I want you to learn the slice shot. It's a shot that adds underspin to the ball to keep it low," he explained in an authoritative teaching voice.
"You need to bend your knees and stay low throughout the entire shot. Start with your racket up high, carve underneath the ball, and end up with your racket low, like this," he said and demonstrated what he was talking about. "Got it?" he asked.
"H-Hai," Sakuno responded. She turned back to the wall and tried hitting with slice. The first shot she hit, the ball went flying up in the air.
"Keep low throughout the shot. That will help to not send the ball flying upwards," Ryoma critiqued her.
Sakuno blushed at the fact that Ryoma saw her embarrassing hit. She wanted to show him how much she improved over the years, not show how much she could make herself look like an idiot.
She kept trying again and again, with only a little success. Ryoma, however, noticed the look of determination in her eyes. Sakuno was working hard. She was even biting her lip from concentrating so hard, which, Ryoma thought, made her look too dang appealing. 'Was she always this alluring when she was determined?' he wondered. 'How did I not notice her before?'
"You're carving the ball too dramatically. Try lessening that up a bit," he coached her again, enjoying watching her determined face.
Sakuno lessened the carve, but the ball went straight down and hit the ground instead of the wall.
"Here," Ryoma said, walking up to her, "let me help you." He stood behind Sakuno and placed his hands on top of hers. Ryoma felt Sakuno stiffen at the contact, and she blushed. "What? Are you shy, Ryuuzaki?" he smirked, teasing her.
"N-No!" she denied, unconvincingly.
Then he guided her motion by holding onto her hands.
"R-Ryoma-kun, h-how a-about you just take my r-racket and sh-show me?" Sakuno stuttered.
He smirked again, seeing how shy Sakuno still was. He remembered back when they were twelve that she was always shy around him; he liked that he could still make Sakuno stutter, even though it had been five years since the last time they've seen each other.
"Show you? You know, Ryuuzaki, most girls would kill to have this kind of close attention from me," he said seductively in her ear.
Sakuno blushed harder. "W-Well, I'm n-not most g-girls!" she countered.
"And how are you not like most girls?" he asked her, enjoying seeing Sakuno flustered.
"I-I'm not like m-most girls in that I d-don't l-like you anymore, R-Ryoma-kun!" she blurted out without thinking. Then she covered her mouth after she realized what she just said.
Ryoma smirked at her. "You don't like me anymore? I don't think that's true, Ryuuzaki. You still stutter and blush constantly when I'm around, and, as I recall, you always used to do that when you liked me five years ago. So, are you positive you don't like me anymore, Ryuuzaki?"
"I-I'm p-positive," she still stuttered.
"Maybe I can change your mind," he breathed in her hear.
"I'm n-not changing m-my mind," Sakuno said weakly.
"Mada mada dane, Ryuuzaki. We'll see about that." Ryoma let go of her arms and stared into her eyes. Sakuno saw a gleam go through them. The expression in his eyes looked just like they did five years ago when Sakuno saw that Ryoma was determined to win a tennis match. Sakuno gasped, knowing that whenever Ryoma had that dangerous gleam in his eyes, he would never lose. Her eyes widened as she then realized that no matter how hard she tried not to like him, Ryoma was determined to win. And Echizen Ryoma always wins.
