Part II: Why Love's such a pain
A/N: Hey, thanks for all the reviews! This is part II of "Why Love's such a pain..." And maybe this will have a happier ending. Just read it and you'll know! Please R & R.
Disclaimers: Slam Dunk doesn't belong to me.
ANSWERS TO REVIEWS:
ZL: Yup, here's the sequel! sorry for the long wait...
mistressKC: nope, i'm not a newbie on writing stories, but yeah, this was my first SD fic. hehe! thanks.
julie-tearjerky: yup, first SD fic, but not my first fic... hehe! thanks...
Chapter 1
Ayako was walking down the sidewalk to the arcade. She felt guilty. She knew Ryota was very hurt by what she had done. But why was she even so concerned about what he felt? He was just her friend, after all. There was no special relationship between them. Sure, she knew that he had had a crush on her for a long time.
She knew that before, he had spotted her and Hanamichi Sakuragi walking together, he had gone pretty hot headed. But that one had a good ending-it resulted to two new players, Miyagi and Mitsui. But this disaster was different. Was disaster even the right term? She was thinking more on catastrophe or crisis.
She'd even tried putting herself in Ryota's shoes to examine his feelings, and she felt hurt about it. The only problem was, why did he walk in at that exact moment, while she was kissing Kishi Yamamoto?
Kishi was a really cute guy she had just met. And she SORT OF had a crush on him.
So why did she care about Ryota's feelings so much? He wasn't exactly the cutest guy on campus, or whatever. He was just a basketball player she had befriended. Why did she care so much? She sighed as she continued on her way to the arcade.
MEANWHILE, IN THE GAME ARCADE.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Ryota Miyagi and his best friend Hisashi Mitsui were playing Time Crisis, the gun shooting game. He was there like Mitsui advised to forget Ayako and how much hurt she had caused him.
BANG! He shot the boss of the last level, and Mitsui, his partner, shot equally. "Good shot, Mitchy!" Miyagi said suddenly, congratulating his friend. "Thanks. You too, Miyagi!" Mitsui said.
Then Mitsui dealt another shot to the boss. GAME OVER flashed on the screen, and 100 tickets came zooming out of the machine. (A/N: Usually in the arcades I go to, Time Crisis doesn't give out tickets, but in this story it does.)
"Hi Mitchy! Hi Ryo-chin!" Sakuragi entered the arcade with Haruko Akagi. "What a lovely couple, don't you think, Miyagi?" Mitsui muttered. "Hey Hanamichi!" Ryota said.
Just then, Ayako entered. Miyagi saw this, turned away and clipped off the tickets. "Miyagi, won't you at least GREET her?" Mitsui hissed in his ear. Then there was a tap on Ryota's shoulder. Ryota turned around quickly just to bump into Ayako. "Well, hello Miyagi." Ayako said plainly.
"Hello. Excuse me, but I'm actually going to play now." Miyagi turned back to the game. "Ryota." Ayako touched his shoulder. "Can we talk privately-outside? I know you're done playing-you can't hide that from me." She pointed at the tickets behind him.
Mitsui, like the best friend he was, saved Miyagi from Ayako. "Hey, Miyagi, let's change the tickets for our collection!" said Mitsui, pulling his arm. Miyagi turned to face Ayako, giving Mitsui a grateful smile. "I'll talk to you later." He said icily.
Mitsui pulled Ryota to the counter. "Here," Mitsui shoved the tickets they've all won and placed them on the counter. The lady on the counter put the tickets in the chewing machine.
"1000 tickets... that is a lot. What did you do? Play Time Crisis 10 times?" the lady asked.
"Actually, that IS what we did." Said Mitsui.
"You must be kidding. The Gameboy is 500 tickets each. You can each get a Gameboy, you know." The lady said.
"We'd like the autographed ball by Patrick Ewing. 1000 tickets a ball, right?"
"Yes. Here you go." The lady handed the ball to them.
"Alright! We got Ewing's!" Mitsui pumped a fist in the air and opened his heavy gym bag. Inside were balls autographed by Michael Jordan and all the famous players. "Ewing's the last on our list." Mitsui exclaimed happily.
"We got everybody!" Ryota agreed.
"Oh my goodness! You won 1000 tickets for each of those?" the lady exclaimed.
"Yeah, that's how we earned the Time Crisis talent," Mitsui explained modestly.
"How many balls do you have?"
"10."
"OHMIGOSH! YOU PLAYED TIME CRISIS 10 TIMES???" The lady screamed and fainted.
"What did we do?" Ryota said to Mitsui. They both shrugged.
Some arcade staff picked the lady up and brought her in. They instructed a pretty girl to the counter to take over.
"Hi. I'm Ayane Kishoubu. What can I do for you?" she asked politely.
"I'm Ryota Miyagi, and this is my best friend Hisashi Mitsui." Said Miyagi.
"Hey, Miyagi," Mitsui whispered, "You are over with Ayako right?"
"Yeah."
"You can DATE her!" Mitsui said, pointing at Ayane.
"Yeah! You are a great best friend, Mitchy!" Ryota said ecstatically, sharing a high-five with his friend. Suddenly he was not anymore in a bad mood.
Ayako stared at the two of them. They had done something to make the lady at the counter faint for sure. She had almost gone and scolded them, but she stopped herself just in time. Then suddenly a pretty girl walked to the counter and replaced the other lady. 'Ryota will definitely date her!' Ayako thought. She felt hurt and rejected. She could almost hear Ryota telling her in her mind, 'See, now you know how it feels.'
'I might as well stay single. Love is such a pain, after all. I feel as if I don't like it... after all, Kishi is still available... if I close down to myself, he'll look for another girl. I'll blow my one chance with him.' She thought quietly. After all, the incident at the hospital was something they both couldn't help. It was like a magnet drawing them together.
FLASHBACK...The elevator stopped at the third floor. Kishi, who was very worried, came to visit his grandmother. The doctors had informed him that she was almost run over by a truck, and suffered a heart attack.
Kishi had invited Ayako to come with him to visit his grandmother at the hospital where she was confined. They ran into Room 315. According to the lady at the front desk, she was first sent to the ER, but afterwards they transferred her into a normal hospital room. They burst through the doors. There were doctors surrounding the only bed in the room.
One of the doctors turned around to face them. She shook her head. "I'm sorry. You weren't able to make it."
"WHAT?" Kishi screamed and fought his way to his grandmother. Tears welled up in his eyes and Ayako approached him, putting her hand on his shoulder.
The doctors went out of the room, leaving Kishi and Ayako alone. "I'm sorry, Kishi." Ayako whispered. She was sorry. She really was.
"That's okay, Ayako." Kishi tried so hard to keep the tears from rolling down his cheeks. Then he finally said, "It's so painful. I don't want to cry... but I can't help it..."
"That's fine, Kishi... let all your emotions out." Ayako told him soothingly. "Thanks." He said quietly. "It's just that my grandmother is so important to me... when my parents died, she gladly accepted me. She raised me, and whenever I did anything bad, she never told me off. Instead she gave me her whole patience. I loved her more than anyone I've ever known." Kishi explained.
"I guess I have to leave you alone for a while..." Ayako said quietly. She turned to leave. But a hand reached across to her shoulder to stop her. "Stay, Ayako." Kishi said.
Ayako ended up staying and sympathizing with Kishi. "Thanks for staying with me. I thought you were going to say no." Kishi told her ruefully.
"I know. But I thought you wanted to be left alone in a moment like this."
"Yeah, most people would want it. But I really want you to stay with me." Kishi said shyly. A bright blush appeared on his cheeks. Ayako blushed too. She never thought that Kishi would like her in that way. But she was ready to accept it.
"You're the only one I have left, Ayako. I haven't got any friends, and now my grandmother's gone." He whispered. Without any more hesitation, he kissed her.
END OF FLASHBACK.
Ayako came back to reality. The memory was so fresh in her mind, so sweet to remember. Miyagi and Mitsui were high-fiving, and then they were going out the door. After the door closed, Ayako came to her senses. She remembered that she came just to explain to Miyagi! She headed out of the arcade as quickly as she could.
Ryota was talking to his best friend Hisashi Mitsui. "She's perfect, Miyagi!" Mitsui was saying.
Ryota put on his sunglasses. "Man, would you believe this heat?" he said. Mitsui put on his cap.
"Yeah, dude, you're right. Want to come to my place? We can both go swimming! I mean, it's hot and everything, you know," Mitsui suggested.
"Sure! But I'm going to have to stop by my house first. I've got to get my swimming stuff. Do I need to eat lunch before I get to your house?"
"Yeah. Or else you can have lunch at my house."
"Okay, I'll get my lunch and eat it at your house." Ryota said.
"Ok. Meet ya at my house in like, say... a half hour?"
"We got a deal."
Ryota was walking down the street to Mitsui's house, a little while later. He would have preferred a bike ride, but his mom wouldn't let him because his cousin had gone in an accident years ago 1.
He was rounding the corner of the street, whistling to himself. He knew Ayako's house was on this street. When suddenly... BUMP! There was someone rounding the corner just like Miyagi.
"Why don't you watch where you're-"Miyagi was cut off. It was Ayako whom he bumped into. He looked away and started in the direction he was going.
"Wait! Stop!" Ayako shouted.
"What?" Miyagi said impatiently. He turned to face her. "You obviously don't need my time, so why don't you just mind your own business?" he shouted back.
"Ryota, this is my business!" she said, tears springing in her eyes. "So maybe I like him, but I want to patch things up with you! I mean, you're angry at me for something I did not commit!"
"But you like, kissed that guy in front of me. I thought you loved me!"
Ayako bit back her retort. He was right. Once she had admitted to him that she loved him. But that was way, way before and her feelings had somehow changed by then.
FLASHBACK
Ayako was studying in the library and Ryota came in. He settled down beside Ayako, feeling every single thump of his heart. He was so in love with Ayako. He didn't want to spoil his relationship with her, even if she was just his friend.
"Hey, Ayako. What are you doing out here so late?" he asked her.
Ayako looked up and gave him a small smile. "Hi, Miyagi. I was just studying for a really hard test tomorrow." She said.
"Maybe I can help you, if you want."
"No, I'm fine..."
Ryota put his bag on the floor and took a clean piece of paper from his bag. Quickly, he wrote something down, and he could tell that Ayako was watching his every single move out of the corner of her eye.
When he was done, he showed it to her, letting her read it in peace. "Dear Ayako, I can't help it anymore and I want to tell you that I love you. You're the very reason for which my heart beats. I hope that you'd say you love me too. I know throughout all we've been through together, you've sensed that I like you a lot. And I still do, until now. I hope that you have fallen for me too. But I know I can't decide your feelings for you. This is your decision... if you want to be with me... just tell me ok? Yours, Miyagi."
She was so touched by this letter and found that her heart was pumping in her chest as if she had been struck by lightning. 'Was I developing something for him too?' She thought.
"Miyagi... I don't know what to say." she managed. Did she love him or not? She couldn't even tell herself. "Would it be fair if I asked you to wait for my answer? Someday I'll give it to you. But not now." She said.
"Okay." He looked so disappointed, but managed a smile. "Thanks for your time, Ayako. See you around." He said.
END OF FLASHBACK...
She had not given him an answer yet.
But until now, whenever she thought of Miyagi, her heart beat faster by the minute. And she blushed around him often. When she saw Kishi, her heart never hammered like it did with Ryota. 'How I wish it were vice-versa!' she thought.
This was a really big mess. "I think you've given me the correct answer, all right." Miyagi said coldly. He walked away and left her in tears.
Mitsui sat on his chair, exhausted from shooting baskets a while ago. "Hisashi! Come on down to get your lunch!" his mom shouted from the stairs. "Oni-chan! 2" his sister shouted.
"Hai! I'm coming down." He replied.
"Hisashi, we're going out, so take care of yourself." His mom said, grabbing Aya, his little sister 3. He rolled his eyes. "Mom, of course I know how to take care of myself." He said.
"Yes," said his mom distractedly. "Aya, don't move too much!" she scolded her young daughter.
When they left the house, he closed the door, waiting for Miyagi to come.
Then, as he was about to take a bite of his mashed potato, the doorbell rang. Ding dong! 'Miyagi,' Mitsui thought. He opened the door and said, "Aha, you're late, Miyagi-"but he stopped because there was no one there. 'Weird.' He thought. He shut the door. Ding dong! It went again. "Miyagi-"But he was cut off. There was no one there again.
He shut the door once more. Ding dong!
"THIS IS THE LAST STRAW, MIYAGI!" He yelled and flung the door open.
"YAAGG!"
A vampire was staring at him, fangs bared. Then the person behind the mask took it off. "AHAHAHA! I GOT YOU, MITCHY!!" Shouted Hanamichi Sakuragi.
"GRR... I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, HANAMICHI!!!!" Mitsui growled, chasing after Sakuragi.
A while later, Miyagi arrived at Mitsui's house only to find the door open. 'Weird.' He thought.
Mitsui came back to his house 5 minutes later. He had such an exercise chasing after Sakuragi. "Miyagi! Phew! What a run." He said as soon as he entered. He explained what had happened, and they shared a laugh. "Come on, let's eat," Mitsui said.
A/N: That's all for now! There's still a continuation. I cut this down into two chapters cause it was getting really long already. Please review! And give me your comments, suggestions and stuff like that. Flames accepted too. See you!
NOTES:
1 That's not true, just made that up to fit in the story.
2 If I'm not mistaken, I think it means brother in Japanese. Correct me if I'm wrong!
3 I'm not sure if Mitsui really has a sister in the series. It was never mentioned so I just added to the story.