Sakuno barely had time to say hello to Tomo-chan's mother before she was dragged upstairs by her best friend.
"T-Tomo-chan!" Sakuno protested as she stumbled over to the bed and flopped down. "What's wrong?"
Tomo-chan squared on her, hands on her hips. "Why didn't you tell me that you're dating Ryoma-sama?!"
"E-Eh?"
"Inui-senpai texted me earlier and said you were on a date with him!"
"I wasn't," Sakuno squeaked, "we were just watching a tennis match together."
"You don't have to lie!"
"I'm no-"
"I'm just upset you didn't tell me first! Why did you try and hide it from me?"
"I-"
"I mean, it was always obvious it would be you who dated him, not me. When we were in middle school I'd have gotten mad, but I'm an adult now and-"
"Tomo-chan!"
"Yes?"
"We're not dating!"
"But-"
"We just went to see some tennis together."
"It's Ryoma-sama though, he wouldn't do normal date things."
"He did play a tennis match-"
"Did you win?"
"He played against Takamura-buchou… not me," Sakuno added quietly.
"Oh, but-"
"Tomo-chan, I would tell you if we were dating," Sakuno snapped, then turned red and muttered, "sorry."
Tomo-chan looked rather deflated, "Inui-senpai seemed so sure though and I was happy because you've liked Ryoma-sama forever."
"When he left for America you told me to stop moping over him," Sakuno felt a bit bad for that, but it had hurt when Tomo-chan had said it. "I don't think Ryoma's noticed I like him though," she sighed, "or he doesn't care."
But Ryoma wasn't unnecessarily mean, he wouldn't lead her on if he knew that she liked him.
This didn't seem to damped Tomo-chan's hopes though.
"You're hanging out with him though," she said, sitting next to Sakuno on the bed, "you can get close to him and then he'll fall in love with you!"
"Yeah…" Sakuno agreed non-comitantly, a know growing in her stomach.
Maybe it could happen. All she had to do was be herself and be helpful and understanding and Ryoma could fall for her.
"Friends to lovers is the cutest!" Tomo-chan sighed happily, "it's so romantic…."
"It is," Sakuno agreed, her head lost in fantasies about Ryoma coming to realise his feelings for her.
"How did you end up hanging out?" Tomo-chan asked almost dreamily.
"He needs a girlfriend," Sakuno explained. She couldn't remember why, something about his dad.
Tomo-chan snapped out of her dreamland. "That's perfect!"
"I did suggest fake-dating, but he wants to find true love."
"You could be his true love!" Tomo-chan practically squealed, "we've just got to make him see it!"
"How?"
Tomo-chan thought for a while, "Put on the cutest outfit you have and go and visit him out the blue! He'll be so surprised by how happy he is to see you that he'll realise he's completely in love with you!"
Sakuno looked down at her clothes, "this is my cutest outfit."
Tomo-chan looked her up and down critically, "it's cute, but it lacks sex appeal."
"S-s-s-sex appeal?!" Sakuno squeaked.
"Yeah! We'll have to go shopping though… After school tomorrow? Are you free then?"
Sakuno nodded dumbly, her brain unable to get over 'sex appeal'. She was not going to be able to look at Ryoma at school tomorrow without turning red.
But Ryoma wasn't at school the next day.
Sakuno was quite relieved, having spent the previous night worrying about what she was going to be dressed in and having horrendous visions of turning up on Ryoma's doorstep in a bikini.
Tomo-chan felt Ryoma's absence was a bonus as, in her words, "you can nurse him back to health!"
Sakuno wasn't so sure about that and now had to worry about Tomo-chan forcing her into a nurses outfit.
"Sakuno!" Horio shouted, snapping her head out of the clouds. "Tezuka-buchou wants to talk to you."
"Me?"
"Yeah, dunno why."
Sakuno got to her feet and wlaked to the door where Tezuka was waiting for her.
"Have you see Echizen?" Tezuka asked.
Sakuno shook her head, "I think he's ill."
"He left our match very quickly," Tezuka said, "I thought he might be avoiding me," he admitted.
Sakuno nodded, suddenly feeling very awkward. Was Ryoma ill? Or was he trying to avoid Tezuka for some reason?
"I'm going to visit him later," Sakuno said, "to take over homework," she added quickly. "I'll tell him you were asking after him."
"Thank you," Tezuka said, inclining his head and walking away.
"What did he want?" Tomo-chan asked when Sakuno came back into the classroom.
"He wanted to know if Ryoma was is," Sakuno replied, "he thinks he might be avoiding him."
"Why would Ryoma-sama be avoiding Tezuka?"
"I don't know," Sakuno sighed. "He's probably just ill."
"He'll feel better once he sees you in your new sexy outfit," Tomo-chan said slyly and Sakuno wished she could melt into the floor.