Chapter 10: Falling to Pieces
What am I gonna do when the best part of me was always you?
What am I supposed to say when I'm all choked up and you're OK?
I'm falling to pieces...I'm falling to pieces
Oh my God...Ryoma literally groaned about an hour later. This is horrible...
It was the second slow dance of the night, and he had just escaped another stampede of girls chasing after him for a dance and yelling "RYOMA-SAMA!" at the tops of their lungs. It was amazing that he could even hear their voices over the way-too-loud music, too.
Momoshiro had ditched him to go dance with Ann Tachibana (what a surprise), and Fuji...who knew where he was? Probably finding someone else to blackmail, Ryoma thought bitterly. He leaned out on the balcony, thoroughly regretting being forced out there by the upperclassmen.
Next time, just screw it. Chick flick or no chick flick, I'm not coming to any more of these stupid "social events".
Just as that thought crossed his mind, squeals and whistles erupted from inside the dance hall, even audible through the balcony window which Ryoma had purposely closed. In spite of himself, Ryoma's curiosity was piqued. After all, people do say that curiosity kills the cat.
He walked back inside to find the source of the ruckus. Squeezing and pushing through the crowd, he popped out into an open space, only to be stunned at the sight of the people who had just entered the room.
Tezuka, linking arms with a gorgeous girl Ryoma didn't recognize, walked slowly into the dance hall. Decked in a modest dress shirt and pants, the captain was as attractive as ever.
However, the spotlight was stolen tonight by his companion. Wearing a flowing gold maxi, flats, and dangling earrings shaped like golden leaves, that girl could have been the queen of all Seigaku for the night.
Yet, there was something familiar about her which Ryoma couldn't quite put his finger on.
Stepping slightly closer to get a better look, he looked the girl over. His gaze fell on the girl's shining chocolate-brown eyes, which were beautifully brought out by the pale gold of her dress. Those eyes...no way.
No. Way...Ryuzaki?
Ryoma could only gape in awe at his classmate's changed appearance. She cut her hair...he noticed. Sakuno's normally braided auburn hair was now half as long, curled to fall softly onto her shoulders like the waves of the sea. Words could not describe the surprise of Echizen Ryoma at that particular moment. It seemed that at that particular moment, he had suddenly realized how beautiful his classmate really was. Wait...what the hell am I thinking?
Unexpectedly, the DJ played another song, causing everyone to break out of their trance, and they all returned to dancing about. Well, that was an abrupt change of mood, he smirked. He went to go get a drink, and then sat down at a table nearby. I wonder what Ryuzaki's doing...
He looked over to where Sakuno was, and almost dropped his Ponta in shock.
Well, well, well. What do we have here? Fuji smiled when he saw how everyone was staring at Tezuka and Sakuno when they came in. There were a few wolf whistles, more than a few glares from Tezuka's evil fangirls, and a lot of smiles from Tomoka, An, Kimiko, and the rest of Sakuno's friends. And the best part? Ryoma's surprise at how beautiful Sakuno was suddenly looking. And finally he realizes that she's a girl, he smiled.
Fuji noticed Ryoma take a step towards Sakuno, but before Ryoma could open his mouth to call her name, Fuji whooshed in front of him and spun her away. He chuckled when he saw Ryoma's jaw drop to the floor, practically, as he spoke in hushed tones to Sakuno in the corner of the room.
"Konbanwa, Sakuno-chan. You look absolutely stunning."
"Th-thank you, Fuji-senpai." Sakuno smiled shyly, a dash of red coloring her high cheekbones. "You don't look so bad yourself."
Fuji stole a furtive glance at Ryoma, and taking care to see that Ryoma was watching them, asked, "May I have this dance?" He extended his hand out in a gentlemanly gesture.
Sakuno hesitated at first, biting her lip. But she nodded her head and took his hand. "S-sure."
Fuji led Sakuno to the middle of the dance floor, making sure that he was in Ryoma's line of vision. Rather tentatively, Sakuno placed her hands around his neck, and Fuji put his hands around her waist. As they began swaying to the music, Sakuno swallowed and stared straight ahead. A bit later, however, she relaxed and met his blue eyes.
"So..." Fuji smiled slyly, eyes twinkling with mischief. "Rumor has it that you and Tezuka are a..." his voice trailed off suggestively.
Sakuno looked at him, confused. "What, Fuji-senpai?"
Fuji whisked them closer to Ryoma's position near the wall, pointedly raising his voice as he said, "I heard you and Tezuka are a couple..." He grinned widely when he saw, from his peripheral vision, Ryoma tense up like Karupin does when his catnip is on the line.
Pleased with the results of his experiment, Fuji brought Sakuno back away from Ryoma into the center of the dance floor, where Sakuno shook her head good-humoredly and blushed slightly. "That's just a rumor, senpai. I do love him, but only as a brother. I am extremely grateful to him for all he has done for me and grandma."
The tensai smiled and nodded in understanding. "Actually, I knew that already."
Sakuno cocked her head to the side in confusion again. "Then why...?"
"Because I wanted to see a certain somebody over there," he jerked his chin in Ryoma's direction, "about to throw a fit of jealousy."
Sakuno turned, glimpsing Ryoma close to the refreshments table, simply leaning against the wall; but he was looking-at her. She looked back at Fuji, who noticed a slight flush of her cheeks. "I..I don't think he did, Fuji-senpai."
"Oh, but believe me, Sakuno-chan," Fuji grinned evilly. "He will be by the end of tonight."
As if on cue, he took Sakuno's hand and guided it to a new partner. In her shock, Sakuno only had the time to cry, "Wha-?" before being waltzed slowly away to a quieter section of the room. She looked at her new "captor," before considerably relaxing. "Tezuka-senpai!" she gasped in relief.
"Hello there, Sakuno-san." Tezuka gave her a rare smile, eliciting gasps of horror and glares of jealousy from his rabid fangirls. Sakuno shrank to hide from their view.
"Tezuka-senpai, your fangirls are scary..."
"Don't mind them." Tezuka replied brusquely, shuddering, to which Sakuno raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"It's a bit hard to do that when they're glaring at us all the time," she said, giggling a little.
"Like I said, don't mind them. They won't do anything to you while I'm here."
Unbeknownst to Sakuno, Ryoma had just walked by them; he happened to hear Tezuka's last sentence, and his countenance visibly darkened. Fuji noted this with satisfaction, and he continued to observe Tezuka's and Sakuno's dance.
Operation 'Make Echizen Jealous' is underway, he thought to himself. But we need to make him really freak out...how to do that? He looked around the room. Who does Echizen really hate?
After looking around for a bit, his eyes settled on one particularly annoying freshman.
Perfect.
Moving subtly over to his target, he nudged him gently in the ribs. "Hey, you want a dance with Sakuno-chan?"
He heard a nervous gulp, whether from fear of him or anticipation, he wasn't sure. "Fuji-senpai, is that really Ryuzaki?"
"Yes. I'll get you a dance with her in just a second." The third year's eyes could not have been any scarier. His target gulped again-this time, it was definitely from fear.
Fuji walked back onto the dance floor, smoothly gliding between and through the dancing couples, finally reaching Tezuka and Sakuno on the other side of the room. He tapped Tezuka on the shoulder; the captain turned to him questioningly. Fuji extended his hand out once again, and Tezuka looked at Sakuno for approval. Albeit a bit confusedly, she nodded in consent, and Tezuka gave her hand back to his friend.
"Hello again, Fuji-senpai!" Sakuno smiled politely, although still slightly confused.
Fuji grinned back at her and asked, "You came to this dance to meet new people, right?"
"Ano..."
"Of course you did!" Fuji beamed. And before Sakuno could protest, he spun her over in front of the freshman. It happened to be the same freshman whom Ryoma was talking to the other day, when Sakuno had tried to explain her happiness at seeing Tezuka. The one who happened to know her name, for some creepy reason she didn't want to know.
"OK...ummm..." Sakuno blushed and looked at her feet. She felt a bit better when she saw that the freshman was equally uncomfortable.
"Ano...so...you wanna dance?" he asked.
"Sure..." Sakuno slipped her hands around his neck, and he put his hands around her waist. They began swaying slowly.
"What's your name?" Sakuno timidly asked her partner.
"Oh, sorry, I'm Horio Satoshi."
Sakuno nodded. What else could she say? Thankfully, Horio asked her a question before she had to think of a conversation-starter, and soon they were conversing freely, much to her relief. This is actually kind of fun, she thought with a smile.
Oh. My. God. You have got to be kidding me. Ryoma grabbed a nearby table, digging his fingernails into the wood to resist the urge to storm over and punch Horio in the face. What's wrong with her? Why is she dancing with...with...that?
This has to stop. Right now.
Without thinking, he stormed over to where they were dancing and grabbed Sakuno by the arm. Pulling her away from the astonished and enraged Horio, he dragged her to the other end of the room.
"Ryuzaki, what are you doing? Why are you dancing with that idiot?" He thrust a furious finger in Horio's direction.
Stunned into silence, Sakuno was fighting a battle with herself. Why does he even care? Is he jealous? The thought made her heart beat rapidly, but her rational mind scolded her. No, no more dreaming about him. You've moved on, he doesn't care about you.She looked away, refusing to meet his eyes. "It's none of your business. Let go."
His grip tightened. "No."
"Let. Go." Sakuno hoped she sounded colder than she felt. Her skin was burning where Ryoma was gripping her arm, and her cheeks felt like they were on fire. By this time, a small crowd had gathered around the two, and while Ryoma seemed to care little for the spectators, Sakuno felt extremely self-conscious.
"No," Ryoma replied again stubbornly, and Sakuno finally snapped.
"I said, let go already!" she flung her hand away from the boy's grip, accidentally slapping her hand straight into his cheek and leaving a blunt red mark on Ryoma's face. She gasped when she realized what she had done, reaching out to apologize, but Ryoma backed away distrustingly.
"Sorry! I didn't mean to-"
"Whatever." Ryoma waved off her apology and walked away.
Deja vu much? Why does he always act like I'm the one who did everything wrong? Sakuno thought angrily. I knew not to expect anything from that baka. Whatever.She walked back over to Horio. "Sorry about that."
"No problem."
Meanwhile, Ryoma felt even more angry than he did a few minutes ago, but for some reason, he felt quite miserable, too. What's wrong with me? She just slapped me, but for some reason I'm not mad at her, though I should be.
Suddenly, the image of Sakuno dancing with the idiot Horio loomed in his mind again (or more like he saw them dancing right in front of him), and he decided that he couldn't take it anymore.
That's it. This night could not get any worse. I'm leaving.
He stood up and ran to the door, only to be suddenly pulled back by two pairs of strong hands, much to his surprise.
And, I was wrong."Whaa..." Ryoma turned around, only to find Fuji and Momoshiro smirking at him. "Senpai-tachi?"
"We need to talk." Fuji said, his voice grave but his eyes smiling.
"No way in hell am I staying here another minute. Leave me alone."
"No, Echizen, we really need to talk." said Fuji.
Angry beyond belief, Ryoma vented out all of his rage on Fuji. "I've done more than enough for you guys! You forced me to come to this stupid dance against my will and I stayed here for three hours. This is ridiculous. I'm leaving."
Momoshiro smirked. "You think this dance is ridiculous? Are you sure that'swhy you're leaving?"
Ryoma stiffened. "I don't want to talk about it."
Before Momoshiro could say something else stupid and make Ryoma leave, Fuji cut in. "No, Echizen, this is too important. We need to talk to you. Tell you what, if you listen to me now, for the next three weeks, every time you get laps, I'll run them for you."
Ryoma thought for a minute. As much as he didn't want to listen again, the idea of not running laps for the next three weeks was pretty tempting. And even better? He could get revenge on Fuji for everything he did tonight, starting with the blackmail. Oh, yeah. Fuji's going to run about a thousand laps by the time I'm done with him.
"Fine, what do you want?"
"Not here. Outside." Momoshiro pointed towards the door.
"Fine." Ryoma said again, following Fuji and Momoshiro outside. Much to his surprise, Inui was there too.
"Inui-senpai, what are you doing here?"
"Knocking some sense into the head of the prince of denseness." said Momoshiro cheekily.
"Oh, you're one to talk-"
"Echizen," Inui said firmly. "That's no way to talk to your senpai. All right, based on what we've seen of you tonight, there is a 97.7% chance you were jealous-"
"Nope. Definitely 100%." said Momoshiro.
"Anyway," said Inui, glaring at Momoshiro, "we have all reached a conclusion. You have a crush on Ryuzaki-chan."
Wait.
Hold on a sec.
WHAAAAT?
Ryoma's shock was so loud in his thoughts that he wondered if his senpais could hear it.
"I know this may seem like a lot to process-" began Fuji.
"No duh."
"So you're not denying it?" Momoshiro asked, slightly surprised but grinning nonetheless.
"What? Of course I deny it! Girls are so weird! I couldn't even like a girl if I tried!"
"Coming from a person who knows nothing about girls..." whispered Momoshiro to himself.
"As if you're the world's expert on females, Momoshiro," Fuji smiled.
"Hey!"
"Anyway," Inui continued, silencing Momoshiro with a glare, "that's where you're wrong, Echizen." Inui stated clearly. "Didn't you feel like you wanted to poke Fuji's eyes out when you saw him dancing with her?"
Ryoma's silence told Inui exactly what he wanted to know.
"And didn't seeing Sakuno dancing with Tezuka make you wonder if they were a couple?" Inui continued.
Still no response, but his eyes narrowed. Fuji noted this with a smile.
"And Horio...well...I don't think I need to remind you of that."
"You don't." Ryoma replied through gritted teeth.
"And don't you think Ryuzaki looked absolutely amazing tonight?" Momoshiro asked with a grin.
His question was once again met with silence; instead, Ryoma pulled his cap down to cover his face...
A blush, perhaps?Inui grinned. "Well?"
Ryoma stared at the ground, the tables, the building-anything to avoid meeting their gazes. "But what does it matter? She hates me now."
"No way. That girl couldn't hate you if she tried." Fuji smiled, and for the first time that night, Ryoma's anger towards him began to abate slightly, though he still resolved to make Fuji run laps for the blackmail at least.
"I wouldn't bet on it. She actually slapped me today." This was met with a temporary silence, but Inui cleared his throat and spoke.
"Echizen, based on Ryuzaki's behavior in the past, it is 98.7% likely that it was an accident. Even if she is still angry with you for missing the date, she still would not have slapped you on purpose."
"You don't understand. She's...changed." Ryoma said, his expression unreadable. "I never knew she could get that angry. And as for her shots to my face...whoa."
"If anything, I think that she just thinks you don't care about her, Echizen." Fuji said. "You're just going to have to show her she's wrong."
"I don't know." Ryoma said, his voice strained with uneasiness, his eyes showing a hint of sadness. "I don't think I can, what with her being with Tezuka-buchou and all."
All three senpais, even Inui, shared a secret smile.
"Can you at least try?" Fuji finally asked, but Ryoma didn't appear to hear him.
"I'm leaving. See you guys at practice." Before they could call him back, he turned and sprinted towards his mother's car.
"Good data," said Inui, taking out his notebook with a grin. Fuji rolled his eyes.
"'Operation: Make Echizen Get a Clue' is complete!" Momoshiro said happily, giving Fuji a high-five. "That was the hardest part. I feel accomplished now!"
"This is coming from someone who did nothing to help. All you did was flirt with Tachibana Ann all night." Fuji smiled.
"Senpai!" A reddening Momoshiro aimed a punch at Fuji's shoulder, but the tensai's quick reflexes had him out of the way with seconds to spare.
"Either way," said Inui gravely, "we still need to convince Sakuno-chan not to give up." Fuji shook his head.
"No, I don't think that's necessary. If we can get Echizen to confess that will be good enough."
"Save that for later. We've done enough for one day. Let's go back inside." said Momoshiro. "I wanna say bye to Tachibana's little sister."
"Of course you do." Fuji smiled and rolled his eyes. "Jaa ne, Inui."
"See you."