A Sweet Secret Love
by kawaii-witch181
"A discovery is an accident meeting of a prepared mind."
Chapter Three – Senpai~taichi
A week has passed since the fateful encounter of the tennis prince with the auburn girl. Of course, he tried to figure out how to find her body but it is always interrupted by his senpai-taichi. Not to mention their tennis practice every after school. He thought maybe he can ask someone but he didn't know anyone who knows a Ryuzaki Sakuno.
In other words, his attempts were all failed.
"Ne, Ryoma-kun. Let's visit the shopping mall! Can we, can we?" The said auburn girl cheerfully asked.
"Why?" Amber orbs questioned curiously.
"I heard the girls earlier talk about a shopping mall. They say it is fun there with those cool stuffs such as dresses, perfumes, mirrors, caps, flip flops..hmm..What else it have?.." Sakuno enumerated, counting her fingers in anticipation.
"Yadda."
"Ehh! Naze!"
"It's so noisy and crowded there."
Sakuno pouted. "Mou. Please, Ryoma-kun!"
Chocolate puppy eyes started to induce Ryoma. Those puppy eyes that Ryoma can't resist even if he tried to. He sighed.
"Fine. After my practice."
There's no point in refusing her if she's that cheerful. Besides, they haven't visited any place other than the Wcdonalds like the other day. He has been so preoccupied with tennis again, after all.
"Hai! Hai!"
Waiting for him after school as well as coming with him became a habit for the auburn girl. She would wait for him and sometimes just take a sit in the windowsill beside Ryoma's desk when his class is going on. The mirror will be taking its place under Ryoma's desk and will stay there until the classes are over. They would have a silent chat but will eventually stop if someone finds it odd on who's the tennis prince is talking to.
The same goes during tennis practice. If it's time for water break, she would give him a towel when no one's looking. If someone saw that, the tennis prince would just shrugged it away and tell them that it's just their imagination. The funny thing is, they would believe him eventually.
"Ne, Ryuzaki. It doesn't bother you even if it will take a long time to find your body?" Ryoma suddenly asked her.
"Hmmm...Maybe. Only a week has passed since I started to roam around the outside world. I haven't even visited the places I heard the other students talked about yet. So...maybe it really doesn't bother me at this moment. Besides, your busy during that week too, Ryoma-kun." Sakuno simply smiled.
He eyed her. Only a few people understand him about his obsession in tennis. And Ryuzaki Sakuno is certainly one of them. He somehow felt happy just by knowing that.
It's one of those normal afternoon tennis practices, with normal water breaks when someone fainted on the court and some can be found in front of the fountain. Either vomiting or just drinking the crystal clear & tasteless water.
And it's also one of those normal ones when the tennis prince can also be found in front of the fountain. Oh, don't worry. He didn't get the chance to drink Inui's concoctions. He's just thirsty and sweaty.
"I do wonder what Inui-senpai's juice taste like." Sakuno said.
"Trust me, you wouldn't wish to know." Ryoma replied.
Sakuno laughed. "Yeah, considering with those who fainted."
Meters away:
"~nya Momo! Look! Ochibi's talking to no one in particular again!" Eiji wailed.
"Sou. He looks like he has gone insane."
"Who's gone insane?" Oishi suddenly popped behind them.
"Ochibi/Echizen!"
Oishi's eyebrows knitted in confusion. "How?"
"Look!" The redhead pointed to Ryoma's direction.
Oishi dramatically gasped. "Ara! What trauma caused him this?" His face was plastered with too much worry.
"Let's talk to him!" Momo suggested.
"To whom?" Fuji also popped out of nowhere.
"FUJI!"
"Seventy-six percent it's about Echizen." Inui also popped behind them.
"INUI!"
They noticed that Taka, Kaidoh, and Tezuka-buchou also tagged along.
"Senpai-taichi would you stop that. You're really freaking me out."
"To whom will you talk to again?" Fuji asked his question again.
"Echizen."
"Why?" Taka asked.
"He's been talking to himself."
"And smiling by himself ~nya!"
"Fssshhh..Maybe...He's just tired."
"You call it tired when someone talks to himself for a week?"
"For a week?" Tezuka repeated. He's concerned too ya know.
"Hai, buchou. It's been going on for a week. From the time when I saw him waiting for someone by the school's gate. He told me the person he's waiting finally arrived. I got confused. There's no person in sight at that time. I swear!"
"Then let's talk to him!" Oishi said in a motherly tone. All of them agreed.
"Ochibi! Why!" Eiji began shaking his kouhai's shoulders.
"Eiji!" Oishi kept away the wailing redhead.
Ryoma just looked weirdly at them.
"We're here to ask you something, Echizen." Inui get straight to the point.
"What it is, senpai-taichi?"
"Fsssh..Why are you talking to yourself?"
"I'm not talking to myself."
"Yes you do, Ochibi!"
"For a week to be exact."
"Just tell us the reason, Echizen." Tezuka's voice became authoritative.
Ryoma began to walk away but Taka blocked his way.
"Just tell us, Echizen." he said.
"You won't believe me even if I told you." He reasoned.
"Try us." Fuji dared.
"You'll tell them?" Sakuno whispered.
"Yeah. I think they'll believe me. If I tell them, I'm sure they'll help me look for your body. It will be easier that way." Ryoma whispered back.
"He's doing it again!" Eiji said.
The tennis prince sighed. "Fine. I'll tell you."
"We're all ears on whatever problems you have, Echizen." Oishi assured.
"I don't have any problems."
"Then why are you talking to yourself." Kaidoh fsssh-ed.
"I wasn't talking to myself."
Odd looks were directed at him.
"Then to whom?" Inui questioned.
"Ryuzaki Sakuno." Ryoma simply replied.
"Who's that?" Fuji asked this time.
"She's a spirit. But definitely not a ghost because she knows she's not dead yet. I'm helping her find her body."
"A-A s-spirit?" Kaidoh repeated.
"Y-You're s-serious?"
"Of course I am, why wouldn't I? Senpai-taichi doesn't believe me, right?"
"We believe you, Echizen. But it's just so hard to b-believe. Especially when we can't even see her." Oishi replied.
Sakuno touched the pink flower at the edge of the mirror handle. Nothing happened.
"Eh. why? I'm sure this is the one I accidentally touched that time when the students finally saw me." She eyed the mirror curiously.
"Why is it not working? Mou. I really want to help Ryoma-kun."
With those feelings, she once again touched the mirror's pink flower. A bright white light suddenly appeared.
"Eh! A girl! There's a girl beside Ochibi!" Eiji blinked.
"She's floating!" Momo added.
"And transparent, too!" Taka also added.
Thud. Kaidoh fainted. Oishi-fukubuchou tried to catch the falling unconscious body of his kouhai but his partner clutched to him suddenly, resulting to Kaidoh's body falling down the ground. Tezuka's eyes widened slightly, though his glasses masked out his emotion. Beside him, Fuji's cerulean eyes can be seen. A look of shock is also visible. Inui began scribbling like there's no tomorrow, beads of sweat started to form on his face as well on his hands.
"Konnichiwa~!" Sakuno smiled & greeted them cheerfully.
.Tsuzuku (To be Continued).
A/N: Thanks for those who reviewed, have read, & listed A Sweet Secret Love to their alert list and favorites. Thank you very much~! I really appreciate it! It really made me happy when I checked them. I hope you'll stay with me until the very last chapter.
I wanna apologize if this chapter is so short. Hehe.. Chapter Three should be longer that this, I got lazy. lol. And i wanna put cliffies too. XD
Anyway, Leave a review, ne? ;D
Tenisu no Oujisama © Konomi Takeshi