I do not own Prince of Tennis. I do not care what you say. I do not know where I'm going with this. I do not think this chapter is better than the previous
Day 4 – Saturday
Dear Diary,
I'm so anxious. Obaa-chan just told me that he's going to coach me in tennis today. What should I do? I just know I'll embarrass myself again. Somehow, I'll slip up and make it seem like he's a bad coach. I hope I've improved. I don't want to make myself look that bad. What should I wear? Maybe I should wear my new pink outfit instead of the usual white one. Okay, so nothing really changes except for the color and the picture of the teddy bear, but it still matters, right? Should I make lunch for him too? But this isn't a date. What if he doesn't like it again? Maybe I shouldn't. But then, I'll seem like a bad student. What should I do?
-Ryuzaki Sakuno
Oishi held the phone in his right hand, his left index finger poised over the last number. He wondered why he had dialed in the first place. Doubts always got in the way and this was no exception. Maybe he shouldn't tell him over the phone… Well, he'll at least invite him over.
"Moshi moshi?" Eiji's loud voice called over the phone. Oishi was too stunned to speak and continued to stare at the numbers. "Moshi moshi? Is anyone there?" Eiji spoke again.
Oishi shook his head to get his mind focused and put the receiver to his ear. "Ah, Eiji?"
"Oishi! What's up?"
"Um…uh…can you come over…sometime today?"
There was silence, then Eiji's apologetic voice, "Gomen, Oishi. I already have something planned with Momo-chan."
"Oh, I see…" said the dark-haired boy and slowly put down the phone despite Eiji's voice still coming over it, "But Oishi… Eh? Oishi? Oishi!"
On the other side of the line, the jumpy boy took the phone off his ear and looked at it puzzled. "He hung up… Why couldn't he have waited a little longer? I was going to invite him with us. That meanie!"
"Oh well…" and he set the phone down again.
"Oyaji," Ryoma called, "why do I have to go coach her again?"
"Don't ask questions. Just go," Nanjirou waved a dismissive hand at him. He sat with his back facing his son.
"Didn't Ryuzaki-sensei ask you again?" Ryoma argued. He was fed up with his so-called dad. He never did anything himself and just sat there staring at exposed girls. It wasn't fair but he wouldn't give the monk the satisfaction of the knowledge that he was annoyed.
"Well, I'm busy. I have to sweep around the plants, change the soil, polish the bell, wash the floors, and a bunch of other things," he lied.
"Then you should've done it yesterday when you were looking at porn. You make Nanako do it anyway."
"It's not my fault. You don't do them."
"They're your responsibility. What kind of father makes their son do their work and a guest as a second resort?"
"Whatever. Just go."
"Yarou…" Ryoma muttered.
"Momo-chan! Where are we going!" Eiji complained, slumping as he walked, "I'm tired!"
"You wouldn't be so tired if you didn't complain so much, so shut up!" Momo yelled at the redhead, "Besides, we're almost there. Trust me; this arcade will be worth the walk. There's laser tag too."
"But we've been walking for hours!"
"Actually that was 30 minutes," said Momo, pointing at his wristwatch.
"Well, it seemed like hours."
The energetic duo walked in silence for about two minutes. Eiji started wishing he had gone to Oishi's house. Momo started wishing he hadn't invited this guy to go with him when the violet-eyed guy shouted, "Hey, isn't that Inui-senpai over there?"
"Eh! Where!" Eiji asked, glad for something to break the silence.
"Over there!" Momo pointed to a silhouette in the alley.
"Heh heh heh. Ii data," it said.
Eiji gasped, "It really is Inui! What is he doing here? Oi! Inui!" Both Momo and Eiji ran towards him.
The data man turned around to shush both of them, "Shh! They're going to hear you."
"Who?" Momo and Eiji whispered in unison.
"Echizen and Ryuzaki are on a date."
"Where! Where!" They shouted at once, forgetting to whisper or speak quietly.
Inui pointed to some public tennis courts around the corner. The figures of the capped boy and the braided girl were distinct against the other players. Ryoma sat on the blue bench, chin on hands, while Ryuzaki hit the yellow ball to a wall.
"They really are on a date!" Eiji couldn't fully believe it. Echizen on a date? For some reason, Echizen and date didn't really fit together.
Momo folded his arms and said proudly, "That Echizen. He's finally getting a move on. He's good at tennis, but when it comes to—"
"Shush! I can't hear them!" Eiji snapped at Momo.
To show that his remark had offended him, Momo gave his senpai a hard hit on the head.
"Itai!"
-----
"Hold your racket at the end. Widen your shoulders a bit." was the first thing they heard from Ryoma. The spying trio's heads dropped to indicate failure.
"Mou…Ryoma-kun," begged Sakuno.
"Bend your knees a little more," Ryoma instructed, ignoring the plea and making no effort to physically correct her form. He didn't feel like getting close. He added, "Hit the ball," when the girl swung hard and missed it by a large margin. "And your hair is too long," he had almost forgotten to say that.
The trio slunk downward.
"My hair has nothing to do with this!" Sakuno retorted. He ignored this as well.
"Didn't you improve at least a little since last time?"
The statement earned "Last time?" and various other remarks from Momo and Eiji.
"I'm sorry if I'm bothering you," Sakuno apologized, "This is a waste of your time, right?"
Damn right it is, he thought, but he said, "Hold your racket lower."
"Ah, hai!"
"Not that low."
"Hai…"
At this point, Momo, Eiji, and Inui had already dropped to the ground. COMPLETE FAILURE! Fed up with Ryoma's behavior, Eiji jumped up and screamed, "Ochibi! What do you think you're mmfm?" Inui had covered the energetic boy's mouth.
"Do not say a word." Inui had a particularly dark look on his face and his white glasses glinted in the sunlight while his face remained in the alley, adding to the effect. Eiji nodded curtly, sapphire eyes wide, not daring to breathe.
-----
I'm really glad Ryoma-kun came, but I wish he was a little less harsh. I practiced a lot and I know I have improved because my senpais told me. But then again, I may just seem small to him since he's so talented. But am I that bad that he won't even have a practice match with me? Sakuno wailed silently.
As if reading her mind, the boy suggested, "Why don't we have a practice match?"
Sakuno looked up, earth-colored eyes wide with shock. Had she said that out loud? No, she didn't think she did. But Ryoma-kun was always a sharp one. "Is that okay, Ryoma-kun?"
"It's fine." He felt he had to do something more than just sit there and order her around. Besides, he felt that she was getting annoyed at him and that bothered him.
"Arigatou! Sorry if I'm bothering you." He heaved a sigh of relief. That eager statement meant that everything was fine and she wasn't mad.
In response, he pulled down his cap in case his face was pink and said, "It's nothing." He didn't blush easy like her, but the burning in his cheeks told him that something had happened. Not to mention in the jump in his heart. Wait, what was this? He didn't like her. He didn't. He didn't!
He repeated those two words all the time he was lecturing her on all the mistakes she made during the match, but somehow he had a hard time convincing himself.
-----
"Ah, look! She's giving Ochibi something!" Eiji pointed at a small black box in Sakuno's hands.
"It looks like a bento," Inui observed.
Eiji exclaimed, "Oh, Inui, you were still here!" earning him a disapproving look from the tall manager.
A loud growl resounded from the alley behind Eiji. "Is there an animal in here?" he asked and looked around.
"Ah, no, Eiji-senpai. That was my stomach," Momo spoke up, "I'm going to McDonalds to get something to eat."
"Okay! Bye-bye!"
-----
"Ano…Ryoma-kun, I made lunch for us…" Sakuno handed him a bento and chopsticks.
"Ah, arigatou." Ryoma didn't really feel hungry, but he wasn't a rude person, so he took a bite. He hoped that she wouldn't snatch it away and run off mid-meal like that time when he taught two jerks whose names he couldn't remember a lesson, because it was scrumptious. He still remembered how he had looked away for one minute to comment on the guy with the bad form, only to find that the delicacy had disappeared. As a result, he had to eat Tomoka's lunch, which wasn't bad; it was better than what he could do, but he still preferred Sakuno's. He hung his head low that time to avoid what humiliation he could. He never found out why she took it away.
"Ano…how is it? Is it bad?" Sakuno cut the memory short.
"It's okay," he answered.
The girl seemed relieved. She was glad that he didn't push the box away or say "mada mada dane." She had practiced hard on her cooking skills since that embarrassing incident.
-----
Momo came back with an armful of burgers. Eiji and Inui stared at him disbelievingly and Inui scribbled something in his trusty green notebook.
"What?" Momo said innocently. The other two didn't say anything, but merely turned away.
Momo unwrapped the first burger and asked Inui between bites, "So how do you think it will go?"
"Probability that Ryuzaki likes Echizen, 100 percent. Probability that he returns those feelings, 62 percent. Probability of this date turning out romantically, however, is 0.02 percent. What do you think?"
"Um…that's…our Inui…" the violet-eyed boy said hesitantly.
A second loud growl interrupted their conversation. Inui immediately turned to look at Momo.
"Wasn't me this time." Momo waved his hands in denial.
Eiji rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "It was me," he admitted, eyeing the burgers in Momo's arms.
"Uh-uh. If you're hungry, go buy one yourself" Momo clung to his food tightly.
"But I don't want to miss any of it!" Eiji whined, "Come on, Momo-chan! You can't eat it all!" He lunged for the nearest one.
"Yes I can!" Momo shouted at the same time he jumped out of the cat's reach.
"Nya! Momo-chan's being mean!"
"Go buy some yourself!"
"Just one!"
"NO!"
Inui stood on the side and watched the noisy squabble. "Probability that this will go nowhere, 100 percent." The fighting boys ignored him and Inui went back to spying on the lovebirds.
-----
"Ah, it's 2:00. I'm sorry it passed your time," Sakuno apologized, "I hope you didn't have something important to do." Inui glared at the quarreling Momo and Eiji for distracting him from collecting data. They were leaving and he didn't fill up enough pages!
"No…" Ryoma assured her.
"Thank you for coming. Ano…it was fun. Sorry you had to coach someone this bad. Ano…I'll keep working hard. Sorry if I'm bothering you."
"Ne, can you stop saying sorry?" Ryoma was packing up his racket and paused to say that.
"Ah! Sorry! I mean…eto…uh…" She was at a loss for words. She didn't know what else to say except for sorry and now he was annoyed at her for saying sorry.
"It's okay," Ryoma slung his bag over his shoulder, "I'll see you at school." He walked away with his hands in his red and white jersey pockets.
Sakuno continued to stare at the direction Ryoma went off in long after he had vanished. Had he just said I'll see you at school? She didn't even know he knew they were in the same class. She smiled happily, feeling more confident in herself and she too, left with daydreams of the boy in her head.
-----
"Che, that was boring," Eiji stated, "I missed half of it because Momo wouldn't let me eat." Having fought for nearly half an hour, Eiji finally managed to wrestle a burger from him.
"Don't blame it on me. you could've just went and bought one yourself," Momo objected.
"But you had so much!"
"You know how much I eat!"
"Ahem," Inui cleared his throat.
"Eh? Inui? What is it?"
He replied darkly, "I couldn't take enough data because you two were fighting so loudly. What are you going to do about it?"
Momo and Eiji stopped glaring at one another. How do they react to this? Inui looked from Eiji to Momo. Then from Momo to Eiji. When neither responded, he walked away, mumbling to himself.
Only when Inui was a good distance away did Eiji say, "That was weird."
"Yeah…" Momo agreed.
"Ochibi is so dense. That baka!"
"That's right. He didn't even thank her for the lunch."
"Momo, all you think about is food."
"True."
"I think Ochibi likes Ryuzaki."
"Me too, but he's such an amateur. It's not good. Not good at all."
"Hoi, Momo, what did we come out to do again?"
"Who knows?"
"Oh well, let's go play a match!"
"Sure!"
Day 5 – Monday
Fuji looked at the two tickets in his hand. They were tickets for the jazz concert that Saturday. Fuji contemplated how he was going to convince Ryoma to go with him. Of course, they weren't going to be alone. His little brother, Yuuta and one other person would be there too. The tensai still remembered how he had "painstakingly convinced" Yuuta to take two of the tickets yesterday night.
"What are you giving me these for, aniki?" he had asked.
"They're for the concert of course," Fuji had answered as if that was the most obvious thing in Tokyo.
This seemed to have annoyed Yuuta a bit, for his voice grew in volume as he said, "That's not what I meant. Why don't you give them to someone else, like Tezuka?" The sapphire-eyed boy flinched. "I don't even like jazz."
Fuji laughed and said, "Don't you think you should spend more time with your brother?"
"Yeah, but…"
"Great! We'll meet you there 30 minutes before it starts at 6:30. The extra ticket is for your date." Fuji then sprinted away to avoid any further questions. He could see that Yuuta had more to say, for his mouth had opened slightly.
"Oi! Aniki!" Yuuta had called after him. He was going to ask what he meant by "we" but he decided he had more problems to worry about. Like whom he was going to bring.
Of course, Fuji couldn't use the same tactic on Ryoma, but then, he didn't think that Ryoma would be as reluctant as his brother. And it turned out he was right.
"Eh? Fuji-senpai? What's up?"
"Echizen, I hope you'll accept this and come on Saturday," Fuji prayed he would.
Ryoma took the ticket and looked at the cause and time. He didn't really enjoy jazz but that didn't matter. A free concert was a free concert away from oyaji. "Why me?"
"Well, I just thought we should spend more time together. Don't you think?"
Ryoma briefly wondered why Fuji-senpai didn't think he should spend more time with the other regulars, but pushed that thought away.
"Uh…sure…" was the reply and the chibi walked away, oblivious to the two brunettes behind the fountain spying on him.
Fuji heaved a sigh of relief and he too, walked away.
-----
"That cheat!" Tomoka exclaimed after the two regulars had disappeared.
"Ah! Tomo-chan, that's Fuji-senpai you're talking about!" Sakuno looked around to make sure no one had heard her best friend.
"Still, he doesn't have any right to steal Ryoma-sama away from you. Never!" Tomoka said with certainty.
Sakuno didn't really know what to say at this. "T-Tomo-chan, that's going too far. Ryoma-kun and I aren't…together." The last word was barely audible.
"Not yet, but you will be," Tomoka stated. She could feel her brain cells gathering the necessary components to the plan already.
"Tomo-chan…"
