Pok.
It was surprising how Ayukawa-sensei allowed her to say on the tennis courts long after school hours closed. Surely it must have been against the school rules, but perhaps the gym teacher decided to be lenient on her after seeing how determined Junko was. She just wanted to be away. Just far away from somewhere. From Asuka' shadow perhaps.
Pok.
Didn't you get the notice? She was jealous of Asuka! Ok? She admits it, no matter how it patethic it makes her. It was just that Asuka was stunning. She was perfect in everyway Junko could imagine. She could do no wrong it seemed. She was beautiful, smart, talented, and had a natural knack for duel monsters! She was even the queen of duel academia even though she was a first year!
Pok.
But Asuka was always nice. She never said any nasty to Junko or her friend Momoe and she always stuck up for them when people bullied them. She never let her fame get to her head either. She was modest and kind and gentle...not like the stereotypical Obelisk Blue.
Pok.
As Junko grew to know Asuka better as the days went by, it become more transparent to her that Asuka just didn't care. Asuka didn't want guys to like her. Asuka didn't want to be recognized as the duel queen. As a matter of fact, Asuka said she would gladly hand her title to somebody else! She just loved dueling and that was all there was to it.
Pok.
That just befuddled her. How could a teenage girl not care about guys? Especially the really hot ones?
Pok.
Junko was the exact opposite; she cared so much about guys and what they thought of her. She always took so much time to apply makeup in the morning and make sure her uniform looked neat and pretty so that the guys would notice her!
Pok.
Because the truth was…she had nothing else.
Pok.
Ok, so she had low self-esteem. But in reality, she had such little to offer. Sure, she was pretty…or she hoped she was pretty, but what good were looks alone? Her academics were barely mundane and she wasn't gifted with uncanny dueling talent that made her stand out from the rest of the crowd.
Pok.
No, scratch that. She sucked at dueling—royally! She could stand out in a crowd, but it was a in a bad way!
Pok.
Junko was so ordinary, so bland and mundane and paled so much in comparison when stuck next to Asuka. She was just background noise and always treated as such no matter how much she shouted on the sidelines. They didn't care. Who cared about a shrieking fangirl? She was a dime in a dozen...
Pok.
But don't get her wrong—Junko loved Asuka, she truly did. She looked up to her as her closest friend, perhaps a little less than Momoe, but they were three peas in a pod that could never be separated. She would have done anything to help Asuka if she was in trouble just like Asuka had done when she was kidnapped by SAL the monkey.
Pok.
It was just so depressing how she couldn't compare with Asuka. That was all. But it was nothing that could get in the way of their friendship. Honestly.
Pok.
Yet in the end it didn't matter. Junko realized that she was just another silly girl who dreamed of being that princess who was beautiful enough to one day marry a handsome knight in shining armor…like in those fairytales she read when she was a child.
Pok.
There was only one thing standing in the way.
Pok.
Fairytales weren't real.
BAM.
"Game, set, match."