Ch 11

Haruna's POV

The next few days, Haruna was busy with the sports festival. She felt good as she practiced softball. Batting, catching, pitching. That all came naturally to Haruna. It also served as a welcome distraction from Yoh.

Just like last week, she hadn't seen or heard from Yoh at all this week. He had stopped responding to her texts or even going to lunch. The excuse he gave to the others was that he was too busy practicing basketball for the sports festival.

Haruna tried to shake off her thoughts of Yoh. Ever since Sunday, her mind kept replaying the small moments between her and Yoh. The way his hands had felt around her face, the way their eyes had connected for longer than necessary.

With these thoughts swirling around her head, the day of the match between Class 1-C and 3-B began.

Haruna looked around the field, eyeing the spectators. She spotted Fumi, who waved and cheered her name as she made a homerun. She waved back enthusiastically. Wow, my boyfriend came to cheer for me!

Despite having already spotted her boyfriend, her eyes continued their search, trying to find someone else in the crowd. Someone she hadn't seen in days. Someone she missed seeing. In the end,however, the search was futile.

Yoh never showed up to Haruna's game.

At the end of the game, Haruna's class lost. Badly. The girls from Class 1-C were not taking it great.

"I thought Haruna-chan was an ace pitcher in her softball team in middle school! What happened? Why did she throw so badly today?"

"I know that we are newbies, but I was so confident that Nagashima was going to help us win! What a disappointment…"

"Aww man, I really wanted those movie tickets! I wanted to take my boyfriend out to see his favorite movie!"

On and on, the girls from Class 1-C whispered amongst themselves until at last, Haruna couldn't take it anymore. She walked off the field, not stopping as both Mami and Fumi called her name, asking her to come back.

With tears in her eyes, she hid behind the back of the school building. There, she slid down, until she sat on the cold, hard ground. She then wrapped her arms around her legs and tried to breathe deeply, trying her hardest not to let her tears fall.

Yoh won't coach me anymore if I cry, Haruna thought. This made it even harder for Haruna to not cry seeing as Yoh wasn't even talking to her anymore. He didn't even come to the game.

The match had been horrible. The first pitch she threw was great. It was the pitch she had perfected after hours and hours of practicing. It was both accurate and had great speed.

All of the other pitches after that weren't. After that first pitch, Haruna had heard 2nd and 3rd year boys making fun of her. They called her throw "freaky" and "scary". They began to laugh and their laughter made Haruna extremely self- conscious. She began to throw the ball softly, so softly that the girls from class 3-B were able to easily hit the ball, racking up the score in their favor.

She hated herself at the moment for letting the boys' comments get to her. For bringing down her team. At this, Haruna surrendered. Tears began to roll down her eyes and Haruna had a hard time stopping them.

Yoh's POV

Yoh and his team were warming up for their match. It had been a few years since Yoh had played basketball but everything had come back easily for him as soon as he got his hands on a basketball again. He was good. Really good.

Once they had a water break, Yoh scanned the crowd hoping to see Haruna among them. He knew that he shouldn't be looking for her but he couldn't help it. He was curious about if her team won or not.

It was really hard for him to decide to not go watch her softball game today. He wanted to watch first hand her amazing softball skills. Most of all, he wanted to see her. After Sunday, his mind just wouldn't shut up about Haruna. It replayed the soft feeling of Haruna's face, the soft feeling of her hand brushing his cheek as she checked his bruise…

Talking about his bruise, his face heated up as he remembered Asami telling him how he and Haruna had fallen asleep in the movie theater and had "cuddled like bunnies". After the initial shock, Yoh had frantically asked his sister about Fumi's reaction to it.

"Fortunately for you, Fumi didn't really looked upset. He just frowned a little when I told him you and Haruna had texted all night."

"What?! We didn't text at all last night! Why did you lied to him?"

"I already told you, Yoh. I can help you break them up. You like Haruna, right? Ughh, I don't even know what you see in her, Yoh! She's so plain. But whatever. Help me break them up and you will be free to chase after her."

"You're insane, Asami! I am not going to help you! Why do you want them to break up so badly, anyways?"

At that, Asami had looked Yoh right in the eye and said "Fumi is supposed to be mine".

Yoh shook his head at the memory of his confrontation with his sister. Asami was one scary girl. Yoh had no idea that his sister liked Fumi at all. And now, Yoh feared for Haruna, who stood in his sister's way. I'll keep my eye on Asami from now on, Yoh thought.

Yoh saw Fumi, Mami, and Aosaka standing near the stands. No Haruna though.

Yoh glanced back at his team, who were still cooling down, before quickly heading over to the small group. He fist bumped Fumi and Aosaka, before directing his gaze to Mami.

"Hey, Takahashi-chan. Did you guys won your game? Where's Haruna by the way?"

Mami hesitated before answering. She turned to look at Fumi, who looked sad. Yoh's eyes widened at this, his mind beginning to race with worry.

"We lost," Mami finally answered. "Haruna's not really taking it well. She wanted some time alone."

At that moment, Yoh had an overwhelming urge to go see Haruna and check up on her. He knew something else must have happened to get Haruna that upset. However, his teammates were calling him back to the court. He bid goodbye to his friends, determined to go see Haruna after the game.