Chapter 8
The raven-haired boy locked his eyes on Sendoh, who returned the look with equal amount of animosity.
The Guntai stared at them, excitement and confusion sweeping them away.
When the volume of hatred became too great for the atmosphere to handle, the porcupine head sighed deeply to prepare himself, but there seemed to be a restrained amusement playing on Rukawa's face.
'His eyes they were.' Sendoh nodded towards Rukawa's direction.
'Right you are.' came Rukawa's reply.
The Guntai continued to stare at them as though the two were in a movie scene. Youhei was the first one to recover,
'You-wait, all along we thought this was Rukawa Kaede's diary. It's only reasonable because we got hold of it on the rooftop. Shohoku's rooftop.'
'Shohoku's rooftop you say? All I know is that I brought it here two weeks ago. As I have mentioned, I used to keep it inside my pink boxers. I was to give it to Mitsui-sempai at the end of the practice but-' Sendoh couldn't continue,
'ARE YOU NUTS?' The Guntai exclaimed in unison.
'You have the guts to actually let him read this? I wouldn't even show this to my psychiatrist if it meant regaining sanity even if he swore on his silence!' Youhei said disbelievingly.
'Well, I'm not gonna give it to him just like that; I do have a sense of romance, I have plans...' the Ryonan ace tried to explain in defense.
Rukawa seemed to grow more and more amused as the seconds ticked. He took his chance to speak,
'Do'aho. He drinks every day from my jug. You go and top that.' was all he could say.
Sendoh couldn't help but clench his fist in rage. 'We'll see about that, you stalking sonuvabitch.' And before he could add another insult, the freshman turned to his heels, slumped his bag on his shoulder and left.
'Was that Kaede Rukawa just now?' Noma asked as though he had just woken up.
'This whole thing is planting grass all over my brain. Can you, like, explain further?' Ookuso turned to Sendoh.
'OK. You have just witnessed Rukawa's desire to tear me apart. I'm not entirely sure about this but I suspect that Rukawa learned about the diary's existence and my plans about confessing to Mitsui, so he stole it. And while he was reading it on that rooftop he must have left it out of carelessness, I mean, you know him. What I'm scared of is that he's probably also planning on stealing my plans.'
'When you say 'steal my plans' do you mean in the sense that he'd use your strategies of declaring your love for Mitchy? And when I say 'declaration of love', you don't mean in the sense that you'd give Mitchy your diary? Or do you?' Noma asked as though trying to knock some sense on a very stupid individual.
'Well, if you have anything to suggest I'd be willing to listen.'
The night reached its darkest summit and Sendoh would never have thought he'd stay long after dark. Surprisingly he found the Guntai's company somehow easing.
'I know Rukawa's always been competitive but I never thought he'd be competitive in a cruel or evil manner.' Takamiya observed.
'There's just no two ways about it. I couldn't have left my diary; I was checking on it every minute, I mean every minute. I may not be altogether correct in my accusation but... who else could've had any motive?'
'Yes, I'm sure you're right. What happened just now pretty much confirmed it all. Rukawa stole that diary.' Noma said seriously before adding, 'What are you gonna do about it?'
They didn't know how much time went by while waiting for the hedgehog to answer. For all they knew, it might have been 30 seconds, minutes maybe.
'Well, how about this, let us read the rest of the diary and criticize it and make fun of it, and then we'll decide if we'll help you. Sounds good, ne?' Takamiya suggested.
'Why are you all ganging up against me? First, there's Rukawa and now-'
'OK. We were just kidding. We'll help you win Mitsui.'
'...OK. Thanks. Hey, it's getting late. I'll be going now. And may I have my diary back?' Sendoh asked. He bit his lower lip and held out his hands to receive what was rightfully his.
The Guntai exchanged a variety of looks. In time, after what seemed like an hour, they handed the diary back to Sendoh.
'Thanks. Really kind of you guys. And, I'll sure be facing Rukawa someday and be confronted by this rivalry, I mean, the off-court one. But if it so happens that Sempai chooses him, I, I-'
'He won't choose him, we'll see to that'
'Thanks again'
-TBC-
A/N: Pardon me for the grammatical errors