[9]

Ryoma Echizen

"Ryoma-kun!" Katsuo called, he, Kachiro and Horio began walking up to me. It was the end of class before lunch and I was walking down the hall towards the back door to meet Tsukiko when they cam up to me.

"Hn?" I turned over to them just as they arrived.

"Say Echizen, have you begun writing your song yet?" Horio asked. My song? Song? Since when? As I racked my brain for something to hit me , I stared blankly out the window towards the lunch area, that's weird...Tsukiko wasn't there yet.

"Ryoma-kun?" someone called. I snapped back into reality just in time to see a girl walking towards me. She had flowing pitch black hair and emerald green eyes. Her height was a well 3 inches taller than Tsukiko and passed my shoulder.

"Um...can I help you?" I asked half-heartedly.

"You don't remember me?" she asked, her expression half teasing , half hurt.

"Ah! Meyumi-chan!" Horio cheered from behind me.

"Horio-kun, Ohaiyo!"

Meyumi-chan? In a way, the name sounded farmiliar but at the same time, not exactly. Truth be said, I'm not very good with names or people at all in general. Where was Tsukiko anyways? See whenever I think of something like that, Tsukiko pops up. Well then again, she pops up regardless what I'm thinking about at all.

"Sorry, I gotta go." I said, and headed towards the exit.

"Ryoma-kun!" the same presence continued to follow me until we were outside.

"What's the matter, Meyumi-chan?" I asked, trying not to sound impatient or annoyed. She stepped in front of me and took my hand. I didn't want to seem rude so I kept it there. She looked up at me, her eyes confident.

"Ryoma-kun, I like you a lot. I always have. I know that I've told you several times in the past. But won't you give me a chance? I promise I will love you and only you."

I stood there, slightly shocked but not enough to cover my priorities at the moment.

"I'm sorry Meyumi-chan, but there's someone waiting for me right now and she means the world to me." I said, taking my hand back. I began walking off to where Tsukiko would've been waiting by now.

"Middle school..." I stopped and hesitantly turned myself so that I was facing her. "Ever since middle school I've been in love with you." I didn't answer her for a while . Too many thoughts were going through my head at the same time.

Why now? Why was she telling me this now. It wasn't her I wanted to see right now, but Tsukiko.

"I'm sorry, I can' t be with you. There's someone I already..."

"Ryoma?" I turned around to find Tsukiko standing behind me staring at me questioningly.

"Tsukiko! What're you doing here? I thought you'd be at the hill by now." I asked. I didn't n out the way I wanted it to, instead of being a question, it sounded more like an accusion.

"Should I not be here?" she asked, her eyes were distant and full of pain. A different type of pain, not the usualy type I'd see when I teased her usually.

"No. No, what I meant was I thought you'd be at the hill by now."

"Oh..." Her eyes flashed briefly to the girl beside me. "I was actually...I was just gonna tell you that I would be eating lunch with Eiji-senpai and Syuusuke today..."

I felt a slight pang in my heart as she said that. It could've been jealousy., most likely was but I never knew it would've hurt like this. All through my life, I really only read about this feeling in books. A feeling in which was merely described as I did now.

But the more intuitive part of me told myself that it wasn't merely jealousy but the fact that her answer was in fact a result of my actions. It hurt me but I agreed. Maybe she had more stuff goin on in her mind. Maybe I just needa clear mine.

"Alright, I'll see you after school then. I don't feel like going to practice today. So we'll go out tonight alright?" I finalled said. She simply nodded and walked back into the school.

"How much are you honestly giving up for her?" Meyumi asked. I truly had to remind myself to refrain from slapping her.

"I'm willing to give up my life for her." I said simply before making my way back into the school and climbing the stairs to the roof top.

"ARGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed as the door closed behind me. My knees then buckled from beneathe me as I caught breath, breathing deeply and heavily to fill up my rib cage.

Why did I come back? I knew this would happen. Maybe I should've warned her, here in Japan, there were a lot of girls that faught....over me. After the first encounter with Tomoka-chan, she must've been more confident than she should've been. But then again, it's partially my fault. I should be the one taking responsibility of my fan club.

I gripped my hair in frustration. Tsukiko just 's not right for them to hurt her like that. It's not right for me to hurt her like that.

As I made my way down the stairs in attempt to find her, she wasn't anywhere. Fuji-senpai and Kikumaru-senpai usually eat lunch in the same area in the cafeteria but neither of them were there when I got there.

Walking away, my instincts told me to check outside. Fuji-senpai and Oishi-senpai were playing tennis in one of the courts but Tsukiko was no where in sight.

"Fuji-senpai, have you seen Tsukiko?" I asked. He seemed thoughtful as he returned the ball with a forehand, his movements were sharper than middle school, yet still graceful like always.

"Um...I think she and Eiji went on a walk or something. Is something the matter?" He asked in an expectant tone.

"No, I'm just looking for her. I think she has my lunch." I lied. With that I walked off.

Rounding the corner to the front, I noticed a farmiliar set of red hair paired with that of light brown. The same shade of .light brown that I've been holding for months.

"Tsukiko?" I wondered aloud. Well maybe it's a different shade of light brown. Maybe but unlikely. Only to be confirmed when she turned around to look at me. Her eyes were a light shade of red as she took me in, crying.

She then hesitantly took a step behind Eiji-senpai as if she was...scared...of me?

"Tsukiko-chan..." Eiji mumbled and turned to look at me... or rather glare. "Echizen, I'm not very tolerant of this so I'm just gonna go right out and say it. Why is Tsukiko-chan crying?" His voice was angered.

"Eiji-senpai," Tsukiko protested, tugging at his arm.

"Ryoma Echizen you listen to me. If I see another tear escape her eyes I don't care what you think your reasons are, if I ever see her cry again, you aren't going to be living a very happy life." I twitched as the scene returned into my head. She was crying because of me.

"Tsukiko....I...." I took a step towards her and she inched towards me but Eiji stepped in between us.

"Eiji-senpai!~" she whined, her voice full of frustration and her eyes had returned back to the normal colour.

"Tsukiko, listen. I'm sorry. You know I love you don't you?"

She pushed past Eiji and ran towards me. In a mere instant, I felt my legs disappear beneathe me a thump onto the ground. I relaxed as I allowed her weight to sink through me and gravity to pull his both down as I rested my head on her hair.

"It hurts you know..." She mumbled into my chest, "It hurts when you look at other girls. So swear that you won't do it again. Ryoma, only look at me."

"I promise."

"I love you." She whispered into my chest.

"Only you."

Note: Sorry I wasn't able to update last week. Unfortunately, I have greater priorties, (I really wish I could do this all day) but honestly, I'm not doing very well in school, I'm expected to practice much more than I really am during my weekdays and my weekends are packed with piano work and theory. It's my first year of highschool so honestly, I don't know how my teachers are marking and I'm scared of FLUNKING. So sorry about last week. But on the brighter side, happy Thanksgiving to everybody that's reading this or celebrating this weekend (for instance, I know U.S. is actually sometime in November but hey, I'm Canadian.) And yesturday was Wu Zun's birthday (Taiwanese Boyband Fahrenheit obsessed.) So YAY. Anyways, I'm off school tomorrow for Thanksgiving, I'm in the process of writing chapter 10 and thank God I have a day off for that. Any who, thanks for reading and supporting. MSG me, favourite this, favourite me, do what ever you like and please stay tuned for the next chap (officially coming out....A.S.A.P. YAY)

=3 Thanks again. --Bonnie