Chapter 4: A New Change

Two days had went by since Ryoma left and Sakuno's routine had changed since then. She wasn't used to it yet but there was nothing she could do about it.

She doesn't go to the rooftop much anymore, she mainly ate lunch with Tomoka and sometimes also with the three trios. Still to this day, only Tomoka knows her real name. Saku was a nickname that was given by Tomoka, so Sakuno decided to give Ryoma her nickname instead.

No one knew she was mute, just like Ryoma, everyone thought Sakuno doesn't like to talk so it never occurred to them that she wasn't able to speak.

However, for a very observant guy like Inui and and a genius guy like Fuji, found out that Sakuno is mute and wasn't able to talk or make any kind of sounds. When they confronted her, she begged them to keep it a secret. Accepting her wishes, they promised to keep her secret.

Sakuno was cleaning her room when she saw the piece of paper on her nightstand by the bed. She went over to pick it up and hesitated. Should I call? I do miss hearing his voice. She went to the living room, picked up the phone and dialed.

Back in New York, the phone ranged. The butler went to pick it up. "Hello, this is Echizen's resident." Silence.

"Hello?" Still no reply.

The man was about to hang up when Ryoma hurry down the stairs and took the phone away from the man before he could hang it up.

"HELLO? Hello this is Ryoma Echizen!" Ryoma almost yelling at the phone receiver! "Hello?" The dial tone ended. Ryoma looked at the phone disappointed. He thought it was Sakuno calling but he guess it was just no one.

"Young master?"

"It was nothing." Ryoma walked off.

This is the second time it happened. Saku-chan, why haven't you called me? Do you really hated me for leaving that you don't want to talk to me? Urghh. With that last thought Ryoma went to play street tennis with his friend Kevin.

At first when a man answer the phone she was disappointed. She was hoping it was Ryoma who picked it up, then suddenly she heard Ryoma's voice. She badly wanted to say something but she couldn't. For some reason, hearing his voice made her felt more gloomier because she can only answer back with a silence. She hung up.

At least I get to hear his voice again.

It has been a long winter for Sakuno. Atobe and his father had been taking care of her since her grandmother's death.

There were a time when she was walking back from school without Atobe, the other students from a different school would pick on her because she is mute. She was often bullied whenever Atobe wasn't with her.

That day Sakuno got pushed around by a different middle school girls. She fell on the ground when Atobe walked by from a late class and saw the scene. "Sakuno-chan!" His worried cry startled the other girls, they ran for their life when Atobe came running toward Sakuno.

Sakuno got more bullied often now, which worried Atobe, so one day he gave her a whistle.

"Sakuno-chan, I don't know how long you're going to live but no matter where or what happened, you can use this whistle to call for me and I will definitely come to protect you." Atobe said, "For sure!"

Sakuno looked at the long silver metal then held it to her mouth, with one breath she blew into it. The sound came out in a high pitch noise. Sakuno glanced at Atobe and thought. . ..As time went by, being under their care had brought back the warm feeling of being in a family again.

Atobe took the whistle and wrapped it around her neck, letting it dangle like a necklace.

Uncle Kazuki-san wanted Sakuno to recover so he had been taking her to many hospital around the area to look for a best doctor for her.

Sakuno really wanted to share about her life with her Martian friend, so one day she thought about calling Ryoma just to hear to his voice again, but no matter how much she tried, she couldn't find the piece of paper with his phone number. Somehow she had manager to lose the paper or had misplaced it somewhere. She tried searching everywhere in the house but unsuccessful. It was nowhere to be found! When she knew she had definitely lost it, it was then that she realized she had lost another precious thing to her.

Frustrated and mad, she ran out of her room passing Atobe who was confused of her sudden reaction. He ran after her, calling her name repeatedly but Sakuno didn't stop. She kept on running. She wanted to go to that place, the place that only held a memory of him.

Not able to catch up with her, Atobe stopped and just watched Sakuno disappeared around the corner. He was confused, he didn't understand why or what caused her to be like this.

Running out of breath, Sakuno stopped. She had ran to the school ground where he had once attended. She didn't go to the rooftop but instead, she went to the tennis court. Standing by the tree where Ryoma had once shared a martian's music with her, she look at the sky and wanted to scream out to her grandmother's lucky star. She wanted to share her sorrow and pain with her but she couldn't.

Sakuno made her way to the cemetery where her grandmother was buried. She kneel before her grandmother's tombstone, wanting to cry out to her but decided not too. She didn't want her grandmother to worry. She wanted her grandmother to leave this world in peace and happy. She wanted to be strong for her.

Obaa-san, don't worry, I won't blame myself. I will be strong and be more happy and courageous than anyone else. I will be fine.

"Sakuno-chan," Atobe had searched everywhere for her and was glad to find her there at the cemetery. He figured she would showed up here. Kneeling next to Sakuno, Atobe touched her shoulder, "let's go home."

He didn't want to question Sakuno of what happened. Sakuno had went through many hardship of losing her family so he didn't want to put more burden on her. All he could do now is care for her and comfort her.

Looking at the tombstone one more time, Sakuno stood up and together they went home. It was that day that Sakuno had waved goodbye to her painful past, so that she can happily move on when that day come when she promised to return to that place, the place that she know she will meet that Martian friend again, the one who called himself the Martian in a cast. It will be then when he will see the happy, carefree, and the true Sakuno.

Author's note:

Yay, chapter 4 is up! ^_^

Thank you for those who had left reviews for this story. It had wonderfully gave me confident to continue.

to MissAnimelove: I'm very flatter, though surprisingly this is my first fanfiction =)