Disclaimer: I so very much wish I did, but I don't.

Chapter 23

He had spent the whole weekend alternately blaming himself and blaming her for the situation they were in. Today was the first time they would meet since last Friday; he stepped into class swamped in trepidation.

She was already at her seat, but she wasn't surrounded by the MMS, which was a conspicuous deviation from the usual routine.

He kept silent as he walked past her to his seat. She did not even glance at him.

She kept very quiet that day. When their classmates approached her, she smiled and asked to be left alone, pleading she was unwell but refusing a visit to the school nurse. A viable excuse, since she looked pale and drawn, as though she hadn't been resting properly. Ryoma didn't try to talk to her, not knowing what he could say, but he felt miserable when he saw her poor state of health.

They kept their lunch date with Horio and his girlfriend, but she didn't chat as usual to her friend, still giving the same excuses. While he was glad to see her eat, he had to work very hard to get food past the knot in his own throat.

She didn't go to the courts that day. Or the next. Or the following day.

Ryoma had hoped against hope that she would turn up during practice, so he could walk her home and try to salvage the situation on the way. He still wasn't convinced he was the only one in the wrong, what they needed to do was talk it out the way proper, mature adults do. He didn't think he needed to give in and bow to her since she had played a huge part in all their current problems.

Every day, she kept to herself whenever possible and didn't talk very much even when friends asked after her.

And she didn't say a single word to him.

It had been a week; she hadn't spoken to him for an entire week. They kept up with the lunch date, although by now, even her loud friend had figured out something was wrong. Lunch hours were spent in high tension, with both Horio and his girlfriend shooting accusing looks at him whenever they weren't studying Sakuno in concern.

He ignored them; he didn't need anyone else picking on his conscience, he did a good enough job himself.

Sunday, he spent morning hitting balls against the wall, then went for a walk in the afternoon, to get away from his baka Oyaji, and ended up outside the Ryuuzaki residence. He didn't dare knock, not only because he still didn't know what to tell her, but also because the Obaasan might not take kindly to anyone who made her granddaughter cry, not even one of her favorite Tennis Club ex-Buchous. Night fell and found him back in his room, concentrating on the fine lines in his ceiling.

This was not helping matters, her keeping quiet and him not facing the issue.

Did he have to apologize? Yes! An inner voice called out.

But why him? Didn't she have anything to do with the cause as well? But she didn't make rude comments on your morals!

Okay, so maybe he went a little overboard when he questioned her virtue, but she looked so reluctant to get rid of the MMS ….. But they were her classmates, her friends! They were supposed to be his classmates, his friends, too, if he bothered to get to know them.

Ryoma sighed wholeheartedly. Girls were just so much unwanted trouble. Naturally, Sakuno was too, perhaps even more than the average female.

Although he couldn't decide if she was more trouble now or two years back.

He recalled being tricked into giving her free tennis lessons, being forced to bring her to restring her racket, being teased by his senpai-tachi about her. But that was then.

This was now. Now, she was attracting too much attention from the guys in and around school. That had to be her fault! Why did she have to become so pretty? Where did she learn how to talk to people like that? All that had to be her fault.

He tried not to think that he liked her pretty, that he liked her less shy than before.

But he did, and on both counts.

He still held fondly the image of a younger Sakuno wearing his jersey and with her hair done in neat braids. But he also liked what he saw when he could look straight ahead during classes and watch her without reservations.

He thought he had feelings for the younger Sakuno, the two years she was gone, he often thought of her. Did he have feelings for the Sakuno now, too?

Mentally, he overlapped the two images of Sakuno. The younger one with braids, the older one with her hair blowing in the wind. The younger one was so shy, the older one was more confident. So thinking, he realized that Sakuno only improved on herself. If he thought he cared for the younger Sakuno, shouldn't he care for the new and improved version as well?

Perhaps he did. Yes, he did. There, he had admitted to himself that he liked Sakuno, whichever way she was. Now, all he had to do was get her to talk to him again.

He thought of a million ways to coax her out of her silence, then scratched those and thought of another million ways to get her to forgive him for accusing her of loose morals. He could tell her that he didn't mind even if she had loose morals, no, wait! That was only digging deeper into his own grave.

Maybe he could just, very simply, tell her "I'm sorry" and let her take that whichever way she wanted. That sounded easy and plausible.

Good. Now all he had to do was find a way to get her alone, because no way was Echizen Ryoma going to apologize to Ryuuzaki Sakuno in front of the school population.