Disclaimer: The Prince of Tennis does not belong to me.
Chapter Twelve: A Sunday at the Café (Part Two)
Miyu's flashback while she was eating continued:
In the days that followed, she observed Sakuno with the regulars and came to realize that the regulars treated her differently from other girls.
She liked the boys because she spent so much time around them that they were like brothers to her and she had always thought they needed something other than tennis in their lives. Miyu thought that she now knew what it was that they needed. They needed a more gentle influence in their lives; someone for them to protect and to relax around.
Tennis at Rikkai Dai was always competitive and stressful. She knew very well that they could handle stress but she also knew that when they go into university, it would be a different situation even if they go on playing tennis.
They would have to think of their future and not all of them would choose to be professionals. They also needed some other memories of their high school because now that she thought about it. All of her brother's memories were centered on training, matches, more matches and much more training.
She thought that they really needed to get a life outside tennis and Sakuno may be the answer.
She may be shy and quiet but she was so caring to other people that it was very easy to warm to her. In short, she was a very motherly and more importantly, she was all feminine and that would definitely appeal to the rough and tough tennis players that she had known for so long.
She decided then and there to play matchmaker to her poor 'brothers'.
To be serious, she did not really care if Sakuno did not choose any of them; she just wanted them to have some softer influence in their lives and secretly, she also wanted to have a bit of fun and a chance to truly be friends with Sakuno.
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She was so sure of her scheme that she started to think about possible pairings with Sakuno.
From what she could see, Niou and Akaya both fight and argue a lot for Sakuno's attention. They did not do it in front of her though. She knew about their bickering because Yukimura and Yanagi had told her.
When Niou was with Sakuno, he was rough with his speech as if he did not really care if she talked to him or not, but he was always very gentle in his body language. The way he carried her in his arms; the way he helped her with her crutches; the way he made sure that there was nothing on the ground that might trip her.
She smiled inwardly to herself when she thought of one incident. Two boys were talking loudly along the corridor and they did not notice the petite girl as she hobbled slowly. They bumped into her and did not turn back to apologize but went on their merry way.
Sakuno lost her balance and would have fallen if Miyu had not been there. She would have yelled at the boys if not for the appearance of Niou round the corner.
He noticed them and immediately came round to help Sakuno. Of course he noticed that Miyu was fuming and would want to know why. Miyu told him and he did not say anything.
Later that day, Miyu heard from her friends in another class that there were two guys who were stripped naked and found hanging upside down in the big oak tree near the bicycle stands. They were bound from head to toe with ropes and looked much like a cocoon.
Everyone guessed who it was that had done the deed but no one spoke up and certainly the two poor chaps did not. Miyu had thought to herself, "Well done, Niou-senpai."
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Akaya was another strange one around Sakuno.
He did not just call her Sakuno. He insisted on calling her Saku-no-bunny. (It roughly translates into 'flower of bunny' because 'saku' in Japanese can mean 'blossom' and 'no' can mean 'of'.)
He also loved to pull her long braids. Sakuno tried to stop him every time and every time he would say, "Okay, Saku-no-bunny!" and pull on her braids again.
Miyu would have said that it was just Akaya being his usual self except for the carefree, almost happy expression on his face. It was not insolent or smirking or arrogant but pure joy.
Moreover, it was actually very mild teasing if one was talking about Akaya. He could hit a girl and not be remorseful. To him, the world revolved around Kirihara Akaya and that was it.
Besides Sakuno seemed to be happy when she was with Akaya because sometimes she would be worried after a difficult lesson of… say, mathematics, and nothing Miyu said could cheer her up totally.
Then Akaya would appear and start pulling on her braids and holding out carrot-shaped candy, saying, "Yo, Saku-no-bunny, do you want some carrots?" Sakuno would look exasperated and say, "Mou, Akaya-senpai, I am not a bunny and I don't want carrots."
He would go on teasing her and feeding her candy anyway. Pretty soon, Sakuno would forget all about her earlier worries and would be smiling again. Miyu was somewhat jealous of Akaya's ability to cheer up her friend but she was never one to dwell on things like these and as long as Sakuno was happy, she was happy.
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Sometimes during break, Sanada would pass by their classroom and he would always drop in to greet the two girls.
In the beginning, he would not stay long, just asking after Sakuno's ankle and Miyu's recent tennis progress. Then he started to come more often and stayed longer.
Miyu thought that the turning point in the interaction between Sanada and Sakuno was the time when Miyu was just popping to the toilet and Sakuno was alone. When she returned she saw some girls around Sakuno. From the nasty expressions on their faces, she could tell they were ganging on Sakuno.
She would have rushed in except Sanada was there already. He had said in his stern, arrogant baritone, "What are you doing to her?"
The girls backed off from his glare which Miyu knew to be most frightening. They said of course that they were only being friendly but since Sakuno's eyes were wet, no one believed them.
Sanada did not even bother to raise his voice, "Don't let me know that you have been bothering Sakuno again. I won't be so kind the next time." Miyu dropped out of sight as the group of girls ran out of the classroom, frightened by the Emperor's blatant threat.
She thought they had it easy because if Niou or Akaya had been there, they would have been in serious trouble. After they were gone, she peeked into the classroom again. It was now silent; no one dared to speak because they were all watching the drama. Miyu did not begrudge them because it was a sight to be remembered.
Sanada knelt in front of Sakuno, took out his handkerchief and gently dapped at Sakuno's tears. He was whispering something to her in a very quiet voice and Miyu did not hear what he said. She was so annoyed that she almost called out, "Speak up!"
Thankfully she did not because the next thing she knew, Sakuno was giggling at what Sanada had said.
The people in the room had eyes as wide as saucers now. Sanada was telling a joke to a first year girl! This was to be the latest gossip that day.
Miyu wanted so badly to go back to the room but she was wary of breaking the gentle, unfortunately not romantic, mood the two had between them. Therefore she hid until the bell rang and Sanada got up and left. Then she pretended she just returned from the toilet.
Luckily, innocent Sakuno did not think twice about telling her of Sanada's chivalry.
Miyu suspected that if she did not fear Sanada before, now she even found him to be friendly and kind while most people, if they dared, would have scoffed at her for thinking that.
From that incident on, Sanada would drop in more often and they would chat until he had to go.
Miyu was skeptical about whether he would have dropped in if there was only Miyu there but one did not ask the Emperor questions like that so she kept it to herself and instead used her eyes and ears, as well as her brain when he was around Sakuno.
Her patience paid off and she would see the stern lines of Sanada's face soften slightly and when they talked, they would not be talking about tennis only.
In fact, Sakuno would ramble on about a light subject that she had shared with Miyu earlier and was now sharing with Sanada, treating him with the same friendliness that she showed Miyu.
Miyu guessed that he discovered it was relaxing to be around Sakuno because she never demanded anything from him.
She was not after his brains, his skill with tennis or even his friendship, although Miyu was sure that Sakuno had already considered him a friend in her mind. She would be too humble to say that she was friends with the Emperor of course but Miyu could tell because Sakuno was very much at ease when they were together.