Having survived one week of glaring from every girl in the Ryoma Fanclub, which is practically three quarters of all girls in Seigaku Junior High, Sakuno was relieved to find the Christmas ball only one hour away. She gazed at herself in the mirror as she put on the final touches of makeup. The deep purple dress which her grandmother had sewed together from pieces in their costumes box fitted her perfectly. The rich velvety material was lined with shimmering lavender silk and silver droplets of glass trickled down her chest, making her gown glimmer like twilight. A string of rosy pearls lay at her throat and matcing earrings hang from her earlobes. Her waist-length hair was braided into a long plait intertwined with a silk lavender ribbon which formed great contrast with her chocolate coloured hair.
Sakuno laughed lightly at her reflection. Rapunzel...such a suitable character... Slowly, she stood up. Trying not to trip over the folds of her gown, she stepped down the staircase just as the doorbell pierced the silence.
Haha...here goes! Sakuno smiled nervously and turned the doorknob of the front door, meeting the deep eyes of Ryoma, who was obviously brutally forced into a prince costume by his family. His hair still messy from where his dad had probably grabbed to keep him still. However, despite his annoyed look and red marks on his neck, the midieval prince outfit suited him immensely. His height, which had increased greatly over the last two years, gave him an air of proudness and arrogance which matched with the deep purple cloak around his shoulders. Sakuno couldn't take her eyes off him. They stared at eachother for a few seconds, then finally, Ryoma sighed and offered her his arm. Sakuno smiled nervously and took it, feeling panic well up inside her when she felt the firm muscles underneath her fingers.
They did not speak at all during their walk to the school hall, where christmas decorations draped over every inch of the walls and ceiling. There was even a glowing Christmas tree standing in front of the main entrance. Hundreds of light bulbs twinkled between the leaves and the golden star at the top lit up the snow-covered school grounds with a warm yellow light. Sakuno gasped in delight and was just turning to see Ryoma's reaction when a huge group of girls stormed towards them, leaving behind a group of miserable-looking boys standing in the hall. Then, before Sakuno could even guess at what will happen, her arm felt like it was going to be ripped off Ryoma's arm as she was torn away from his side by thousands of other arms. She thought she heard a muffled yell from Ryoma before he was drowned in a sea of silk robes and clanking jewellery. Her ears were still buzzing with screams and shouts of "Ryoma-san!", "Echizen-kun!" and many other variations of his name when she escaped out of the crazy group of scrambling girls. She was hugely relieved to find fresh air after nearly being squeezed to the point of suffocation.
She smiled sadly at the group in from of her, Ryoma now completely invisible from sight. I see why it didn't matter to him who came to the ball with him...it's not like he would even be able to walk into the hall with her... She walked into the hall alone and immediately saw Momoshiro Takeshi standing behind the wine bar. She walked over curiously and laughed when she saw that he was sneaking pieces of cake inside his mouth from behind the counter.
"Yo, Sakuno-chan! Don't you look splendid today!" Momo-senpai caught sight of the girl and talked with his mouth still full of chocolate mud cake.
"Why are you here, Momo-senpai?" Sakuno asked with a smile.
"Me? Oh right...yeah...I volunteered to do the refreshments! Ahhh...how I wish to come back to Jr. High! So many fun things to do..." Then he seemed to suddenly realise that Sakuno was alone. "Where's Echizen?"
Sakuno blushed and asked "H-how did you know I came with-"
"Oooh, come on! Everyone knows that!" Momo-senpai laughed when he saw Sakuno blushing again to a deeper crimson than before. Then he noticed the girls swarming outside the hall and smiled knowingly. "As popular as always, is he? Without Tezuka and Fuji-senpai to compete with as well!" He chuckled but immediately stopped himself when he noticed Sakuno's sad expression. "Don't worry! His fanclub must stop strangling him sometime! Just go off and dance with some other guy and make him jealous!"
Sakuno giggled and thanked him. Then she walked over to where Tomoka and Horio was chatting, obviously enjoying eachother's company so much as to not notice that Ryoma had already arrived. And so the rest of the evening soon passed with many abandoned guys asking Sakuno to dance as their girlfriends join the queue of girls waiting and hoping for even half a dance with the "Prince of Tennis". Sakuno also ended up dancing with the guy which had asked her to the ball a week before, which she thought irony as she had danced with nearly all the guys in the hall save the guy who was her date for the night.
At eleven o'clock, after she had seen that Ryoma was still busy with his fanclub (she saw flashes of a green head bobbing among the crowd, and hearing gasps of joy whenever he swapped partners), she walked outside quietly to rest her sore feet and buzzing ears. The freezing wind cooled down her boiling blood in an instant, yet she had no desire to return to the hall where Ryoma will dance with every girl but her. Sakuno sat down by a pond which had frozen and was reflecting the bright lights leaking out from the hall.
The faint silvery moonlight shone upon the slim figure of Sakuno, making her lavender gown glimmer softly against her pale skin. Her long lashes drooped down as signs of tears moistened her eyes and slowly welled up until she had to blink them away. Sakuno had never felt so foolish. She grabbed a handful of glistening snow from the shrub nearby and let it crumble to powder in her palm, making her fingers grow pink from the cold.
"Hold this." A cool voice spoke beside her as something warm touched her hand.
"R-Ryoma-kun! What are you doing out here...?" Sakuno looked up in surprise and gratefully took the warm glass of sweetened tea from him.
"That's my question." He sat down beside her on the edge of the pond with his glass of green tea. Somehow he looked exhausted and clearly still recovering from an entire evening of continuous dancing.
"Errr...well...I-I'm tired and wanted to rest my feet-" at this she gestured to her red and slightly swollen ankel, "-but then I guess this is nothing compared to you." She smiled nervously.
"Yeah well...girls are troublesom...always torturing themselves and wearing high heels when they know they won't even be able to walk home by the end of the night." Ryoma smirked.
It took a while for Sakuno to realise he was talking about her and not of his fanclub. She sipped from the glass, trying to hide her embarrassment as the warm liquid slid down her throat.
Ryoma watched at her, slightly amused as he saw the faint blush creep onto her pale cheeks.
"...How did you even escape? Last time I looked there were still about twenty girls in line!" Sakuno broke the silence and eyed the girls in the hall, clearly still frantically searching for the boy beside her.
"Well...it wasn't hard. Just said something about getting them drinks then slipped away after I got some for myself." He laughed lightly as he remembered the ecstatic expression on their faces when they realised he was to get them drinks.
Sakuno laughed as well, a light twinkling sound like silver bells. Ryoma put down his enpty glass and slowly reached out his hand to hold Sakuno's which was not supporting the drinking glass, then he lifted it to his lips. Sakuno flushed a shade deeper than she had before and opened her mouth in shock, but no sound came out. Ryoma smirked and stood up just as a waltz sounded out from the hall.
"Would you give me the honour of this last waltz?" Still holding her hand in his, Ryoma asked calmly.
"E-err...y-yes, of course" Sakuno, too, stood up and giggled nervously when Ryoma gently pulled her closer to place his hand on her waist. She could hear blood pounding in her ears when Ryoma's peircing eyes locked onto hers and as he led her into a slow dance across the snow. He...saved the last dance for me...?
Sakuno's lips curved into a smile as she leaned in closer to whisper in his ear "...Happy Birthday, Ryoma-kun..." and laughed when she felt his whole body jolt. He squeezed her hand and she could almost see him smirk behind her back. "...Thanks."
Yet however hard Sakuno dreads the end of the waltz, as the last note faded, the pair broke apart.
"...Somehow I think we should go before anyone else sees us." Ryoma said in a low voice.
"That will be a good idea." Sakuno smiled when, once again, she saw girls wandering around the hall looking for "The Prince".
Ryoma grabbed her wrist and hurled her towards the gate, then rushed along the darkened streets. Fortunately they were deserted, for the pair would have roused quite much unwanted attention.
When they had finally stopped, it was just a few blocks away from Sakuno's home, and both of them were panting and laughing.
"...b-being famous sure is...difficult...haha..." Sakuno spluttered as she laughed till tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Well...I...didn't want to be...famous..." Ryoma panted. "I'd... rather be a normal tennis player who will only be noticed on courts..."
"What kind of courts? Law courts?" Sakuno laughed.
"Any kind of courts as long as I don't hear squealing everyday..." Ryoma sighed and smoothed his sweat-drenched hair.
"Here...your collar..." Sakuno stepped forward and reached out her hand to fix his coat collar.
"!" Ryoma stared down at Sakuno's thin fingers at an inch from his face with mild surprise, but did not object.
Snowflakes fell softly, soundlessly upon the two.
It seemed to symbolize the end of Christmas, yet also the beginning of a feeling so warm it cannot even be shattered by the bitter cold of winter.
