Ch. 7 – The Best Birthday Ever
Another year had come and gone, and now Ryoma and Sakuno were in high school, once again reunited with all their senpais. It was just like the old days: Tezuka was buchou, Ryuuzaki Sumire was Coach, Momo ate burgers, Inui still made his juice, and Ryoma was still the prince of tennis.
Tennis may be, in fact, the only thing that Ryoma was good at, his teammates finally concluded. The Seigaku Regulars were tired of painfully watching Ryoma not doing anything to change the current status between him and Sakuno.
Sure, they were good friends now, but Ryoma had yet to do anything to go beyond that. It was obvious that both of them liked each other. Ryoma only showed his gentle side to Sakuno, and it was also only around Sakuno he would talk the most. He would walk her home every day after practice. Sometimes he would even buy her a burger on Fridays or treat her to Kawamura's sushi. As for Sakuno, well, the whole school knew that she had liked Ryoma since she was twelve!
"So, Echizen, what are you doing for your birthday tonight?" Momo asked as they were walking towards the locker room to change out of their practice clothes. Yes, it was Ryoma's fifteenth birthday today, and, yes, Tezuka-buchou made them practice today in the snow. Buchou made them shovel the snow off the courts everyday that winter so that they could still hold practice. Even though they had done it every day that winter, Ryoma was not very ecstatic that they had to shovel the snow off the courts on his birthday. And he also was not very ecstatic that Sakuno wasn't there to watch them practice—she's never missed one before!
"Hello?? Echizen, snap out of it!" Momo yelled at Ryoma to get him out of his daze.
"Hn? Oh, sorry, Momo-senpai," Ryoma answered, sounding a little depressed.
"What's up with you today, Echizen? It's your birthday today! You should be happy!" Momo exclaimed.
Fuji came in and said, "I think I might know why Echizen isn't in the best mood today."
"Ooh, Fuji knows? Please tell, nya!" Eiji bounced up and down.
Then Inui walked by with his notebook in hand, "According to my data, today is the first day that Sakuno has missed a practice."
"That is exactly it," Fuji affirmed it. "Looks like Echizen misses Sakuno-chan," he creepily smiled.
"Che, whatever," Ryoma commented. The Regulars looked at each other; they all knew that Ryoma was covering up his feelings for Sakuno once again.
"Why don't you just ask her out already?" Kaidoh asked him, surprising everybody that he was actually concerned about his kohai. "Everybody knows you two like each other."
"Saa, Kaidoh is right, Echizen. You better ask her fast, too, or Sakuno-chan might get tired of waiting and move on," Fuji told him.
"I'm leaving," Ryoma responded.
Ryoma walked out of the locker room and headed on his way home. As he was walking, he passed by the grocery store. He looked in the window and Sakuno with a bag in her arms. 'So this is where she was today,' he thought.
"Sakuno, is this why you weren't at practice today?" he asked, getting straight to the point.
"H-hai, Ryoma-kun. Gomen! I really wanted to go, but Obaa-chan told me that I had to get some groceries for her." Sakuno explained.
"Hn," he said. Ryoma was staring at her. Her long brown hair was down today. She had on a blue scarf and mittens. The cold, outside air had left her cheeks a rosy pink. Ryoma thought she looked adorable.
"R-Ryoma-kun, y-you're s-staring again," Sakuno stuttered and blushed.
"Hn," he smirked back at her. He really didn't care if Sakuno caught him staring at her; he only cared if it was his senpais that caught him.
Ryoma looked at the bag she was carrying and said, "Here, let me take that. I'll walk you home."
"A-Arigatou, Ryoma-kun."
When they reached Sakuno's house, she asked, "Ryoma-kun, would you like to come in for some hot chocolate?"
"Sure," he replied.
They walked into the kitchen, and Ryoma put the bag of groceries down on the counter while Sakuno started making the hot chocolate.
"Ne, Ryoma-kun, it's your birthday today isn't it?" Sakuno asked.
"Hn," he answered.
"Are you doing anything special for it?"
"No, my parents are having a Christmas Eve party at our house tonight, so they're pretty busy."
"Oh yeah, that's right. Obaa-chan is going to that party tonight."
After she said that, his interest sparked up. "Are you going with Ryuuzaki-sensei?" he asked, with a tint of hope in his voice.
"H-Hai," Sakuno blushed.
'Hn, my birthday may have finally gotten better,' Ryoma thought to himself.
Sakuno took her hot chocolate and went into the living room. Ryoma followed her as she turned the tv on. They both sat down on the couch and looked at the tv. Neither one of them were really watching, though. Both were trying to think of what to say to start a conversation up again.
Ryoma glanced over at Sakuno who was still "watching" the tv. She was blushing prettily again. 'Does Sakuno really like me?' he wondered. 'Of course she does, you baka! You know she only blushes when you're around!' his inner voice answered himself. 'And Kaidoh-senpai even said, "Everybody knows you two like each other." '
*Ring*Ring*
It was Sakuno's cell phone.
"Hello?" she answered. Ryoma could hear that it was a guy's voice on the other end. "Sorry, I can't play tennis with you tomorrow. I'm spending time with my obaa-chan for Christmas." The guy on the end talked again. "Ok, bye." She hung up the phone.
'So some guy wanted to play tennis with her tomorrow? On Christmas of all days! Who was that and how did they get her number?' Ryoma was starting to get jealous.
"Who was that?" Ryoma asked.
"Hm? Oh that was Horio. He called because he wanted to play tennis tomorrow."
"Does he call you a lot?"
"A-Ano, I guess. He calls me three times a week."
"What for?" Ryoma demanded. He was getting irritated with some guy calling Sakuno three times a week without his knowing.
"A-Ano, he calls for d-different things each time," Sakuno started stuttering because she felt Ryoma was getting angry.
"Like?" Ryoma really wanted to know.
"L-like t-to play tennis, or g-go to the movies, or a-ask a question about our homework."
Ryoma was really angry. How could Horio do this to him? Everybody knows that Sakuno was supposed to be his. It was like some unwritten law that the whole school knew about.
"Do you go with him when he asks?" Ryoma got back to the interrogating questions.
"N-No, I u-usually don't."
"Good."
"W-What?"
"I said good. "
It was silent for a few moments. Sakuno just sat there blushing, while Ryoma tried to calm himself down.
"Just don't answer the phone anymore when he calls," he said when he was somewhat calm.
"B-But Ryoma-kun, that is mean! Horio-kun is our friend!"
"I don't care. Just don't answer," Ryoma fumed, getting upset again.
"O-Okay, Ryoma-kun."
Ryoma sighed and thought back to earlier that day about what Fuji said. "You better ask her fast, too, or Sakuno-chan might get tired of waiting and move on."
'Hn, I guess it's now or never. Especially since other guys like Horio are starting to notice her, too,' he thought nervously. He really had no idea how to go about asking a girl to be his girlfriend. 'I should've listened more to Oyaji,' he thought.
"Sakuno," he started. "What do people think of us?"
"What do you mean, Ryoma-kun?"
"I mean," he sighed. This was going to be harder to get out than what he thought. "What do you other people think of us when they see us together?"
"People know we're good friends."
"Is that it?" he hoped it wasn't.
"W-Well, n-no…" Sakuno paused, trying to decide if she should tell Ryoma more. "Horio-kun is never happy when he sees us together."
"Che," he remarked. Well Ryoma was not very happy with Horio right now either.
"And," Sakuno continued. She looked a little nervous for what she was going to say next. "A-And a lot of y-your f-fangirls get upset with m-me when they s-see me with you."
"Why is that?" he asked. He was completely oblivious about his fangirls.
"A-Ano, they think that I'm d-distracting y-you f-from n-noticing them," she shyly said.
'Oh,' he thought, 'so that was the reason why he was completely oblivious to his fangirls. Sakuno really was distracting him from them.' The truth was that he never noticed other girls; he only saw Sakuno. "Well," he whispered, getting a little nervous himself, "what if what they said were true?"
"W-What do you m-mean Ryoma-kun?" she asked, confused.
"What if what they said about you distracting me from them was true?" he asked, but this time with more detail. He saw her blush, and he knew she finally caught on to what he was saying. Too nervous to stay to hear her response, he quickly said, "You can tell me what you think when you come over to the party tonight." He stood up to leave, but before he left, he took off his hat and put it on Sakuno's head. "Ja," he waved as he opened the door.
Once he left, Sakuno whispered to herself with her eyes shining brightly, "Really, Ryoma-kun? Is what you said true?" Then she smiled to herself and blushed while she thought, 'Ryoma-kun wants me to be his girlfriend!'
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Guests were starting to arrive at Ryoma's house for the Christmas party. Everytime somebody would knock on the door, Ryoma would jump and his eyes would get wide.
"Heh, Ryoma, what's gotten into you tonight, eh? You jump five feet high every time somebody knocks on the door," his father commented to him.
Another knock on the door, and Nanjiroh answered it. "Welcome, Ryuuzaki. So glad you could make it." After hearing the name "Ryuuzaki," Ryoma ran to the door. His eyes dropped when he didn't see Sakuno by her side. "Well, come on in, Sumire. It is too cold outside," Nanjiroh politely said to his guest.
After Sumire walked in, Ryoma saw that Sakuno was hidden behind her grandmother. She was looking down at her feet, with a blush on her face. His heart stopped beating for awhile, afraid of what she was going to say. Then she looked up at him and smiled shyly. It was then he noticed that Sakuno was wearing his hat, and he smiled warmly at her.
"Sakuno," he happily said.
Upon hearing that there was another guest at the door, Nanjiroh quickly turned around to see who was there. He saw a cute, young girl wearing his son's favorite hat. "Ah! My boy, you are finally growing up!!!" he yelled. "Rinko, our son has a girlfriend! Finally, he has taken an interest and carried on the Echizen pride!"
Ryoma, however, paid no attention to his father's teasing. He was only staring at Sakuno, thinking how cute she looked wearing his hat. Ryoma walked past his father, smiled gently at Sakuno, and grabbed her hand, leading her inside the house.
Ryoma showed her around the house, the whole time holding her hand. People stared at them with their jaws dropped open, surprised that Ryoma was actually holding hands with a girl, but he didn't care because he just got the best birthday present ever.
