First of all I have to make a brief announcement. I screwed up about Ryoma's and Sakuno's age in some places in previous chapters. They should be fifteen instead of sixteen. Sorry about that mistake.

Summary: Gomen nasai, onee-san. She knew her sister would be mad at her for this, but he might be the cure she needed.

Disclaimer: Author suffocated by exams.

Chapter 4: Sister's Keeper

'Ryuzaki-san, please come in.'

Sakuno heard the pleasant voice calling her name. She nodded in appreciation to the nurse, who smiled sadly in return. She could decipher that curve on her face exactly: poor girl, such a young age yet having such a disease. She was used to it already. Having been admitted into the hospital for a while, every doctor and nurse, when dealing with patients like her, wore the same expression. She couldn't be mad at them. She couldn't. She knew they were just concerned over her life, even if she hated pities from others.

The twin-braided slowly rose from her seat and looked at the white door. How many times she had entered that frame, she lost counts already. Ever since she accepted the news, the fifteen-year-old had become quite accustomed to this cold place. The air was always dead, and other people in pale green robes were quite oblivious to another's existence. After all, they were all sharing the same fate.

Sometimes the girl wondered what people would do if they knew she's dying in a short time. For now, only people from her family, Tomoka, and her cousin, Takeru, knew of the cruel truth. None of the senpai-tachi or other students in the school knew about it. It's not that she disliked them, but she would rather not embrace everyone's sudden over-concern and have them treated her as a fragile vase. No. She needed not pities.

She took a deep breath and took a last glimpse of the long hollow hallway before motioning to where the doctor had been waiting. Releasing a deep sigh, she entered the room.

Golden orbs stayed focus.

The idea of following a person never really came to his mind until now. He had been following Ryuzaki Sumire for a while. He had not planned to though, but he couldn't figure out a better way. Ryuzaki-sensei had been acting weird lately and he could add one to one. There had to be an explanation to the two Ryuzakis acting strange. But so far he could not find anything suspicious about his junior and senior high tennis coach. She was just doing the daily chores. Nothing special. He was about to give up. This is a stupid idea, he grumbled and decided to stop being a stalker. Instead, he left his sensei and entered a fast-food restaurant, hoping to get some food.

'Ryoma-san?'

His brain loaded for a second before turning towards the owner of the sweet, fresh voice.

'Sakura-san.' He greeted.

It was a young, pretty girl with short brown hair, which barely touched her shoulder. Her hazel eyes bored into his vision. She had a pretty pointed face and a slim, growing figure at the mere age of fourteen. Sakura was the vice-captain of the Seishun Academy's volleyball team, and probably the only female he knew now in his previous school. She was quite a famous player nationwide, and she managed to keep a good grade too. Very popular among the whole school, she was still single. Ryoma wondered why sometimes though. Boys simply adored her. He could tell by the drools on the floor when she passed by. Some people had said that she was the female version of Echizen Ryoma, who excelled in both sports and academic. Of course, what she did not have was the trademark arrogance that signified the fifteen-year-old. Her charm and maturity kept her a good reputation with everyone in school.

She was sitting with some other girls, who all looked at him, surprised. Ryoma recognized that they were all wearing Seigaku's uniform. Might be her teammates, the lad thought. 'What are you doing here?'

'Speak of the devil,' she grinned, pointing towards the table where she came from, and his cat-like eyes landed on the three girls sitting there. 'My friends and I are just talking about Seigaku's legendary tennis team.' By that, he knew she referred to the team led by Tezuka-buchou when he just entered Seigaku, the team that prevented Rikkai from achieving three consecutive Nationals titles. Ever since he joined Seishun Academy he had got a medal in each competition he participated in, including last year's 2nd runner-up as captain of the tennis team. When adding the facts that Tezuka had become a professional tennis player with Ryoma likely to follow suit, they became a living legend among schools in Japan.

'Hn.' When he made eye contact with the girls, they all blushed, turned around and giggled, whispering among themselves. Ryoma ignored the three school girls and continued his conversation with the standing figure. He was used to blushing girls around him anyway. Sakura glared at them, and the girls giggled more.

'Sakura-san, how's…your sister?'

He swore her face faltered for a split of second, but she remained calm. 'She's not feeling well, that's all.'

One thing Ryoma liked about her was that she was very mature for her own kind. She did not talk that much, and was very sensitive to people's emotions. In a way, she reminded Ryoma of Fuji, but not as sadistic and frightening as the tensai was. Instead, she could easily give others a warm feeling of acceptance or comfort. In a way, he knew he could trust her after the first time they met. That's the charisma she possessed.

One thing he did not like, though, was that she enjoyed avoiding questions. Again, she resembled Fuji so much. She was never the one to share her feelings openly, and was very careful with her choice of words. There was once when he tried to know what Sakuno's favourite desert was, so he could make one for their three-month anniversary. Her reply went by 'something edible'.

The green-haired looked at her without a blink, and she knew he wanted more answers. 'What?' She obviously knew something, but decided to play dumb.

The girls behind them rose from their seats. 'Sakura-chan,' one started, 'we'll be leaving now. You can call us later when you're done.' She winked at the brown-haired girl and gave her a knowing punch on the arm.

Sakura groaned and hissed impatiently, 'he's not my boyfriend.'

'I have both good news and bad news, Ryuzaki-san.'

'I'm prepared for any result.'

'Very brave of you.'

The grey-haired man in white robe adjusted his glasses while she gulped. She just made a terrible lie and the experienced doctor looked through it at a simple glance. But he decided to play along. After all, there was hardly anything more demanding from a father to tell a teenager that she would die soon.

'The medication seems to have some positive effects. The blood vessels connecting your heart and kidney are working more efficiently than before.'

Given a few years ago, a twelve years old Ryuzaki Sakuno would definitely jump out of joy. But even if she knew there was a glimpse of hope, she could not expect anything for the better good.

'…yet it doesn't seem to help your heart a lot.'

She knew he was hesitated to reveal the truth. And there it went. Her slightest hope vanished.

'I understand, Dr. Sawakita.'

'I will be completely honest with you, Ryuzaki-san.' He put down his glasses and put his hands on the table, clinging together. 'For the question in your mind, within ten days.'

She gulped yet again. She could be read too easily sometimes.

'I see.' That's it. No need to feel sad, Sakuno. You expected this a long time ago.

'We will have you admitted. We'll be monitoring your situation twenty-four hours a day. A nurse will be in-charge of taking care of you.'

'Dr. Sawakita, that won't be necessary. We both know what will still happen in the end.' She said plainly, trying to hide her fear.

'Ryuzaki-san,' he took a sip of his cup of coffee, 'please accept out treatment again. Last time you ran away during hospitalization –' Sakuno hid her face with her bangs, 'and resulted in herself fainting on the streets. If it was not for your cousin, who knew what would have happened?'

She was speechless. She wanted to say something to argue back, but she knew she couldn't because he was totally right. She had escaped from the hospital because she was terribly afraid: she was afraid of dying, of leaving everyone she loved behind. She thought people did not understand her situation and feeling. Why would they understand, anyway? 'I know how you feel' was a phrase easy to say but hard to comprehend.

'We want to try a new drug. It is still under investigation, but the result is generally positive. But of course, we will have to get your grandmother's and your consent first.'

The twin-braided girl nodded in apprehension. Sawakita forced a smile. He hated telling the youngsters this, but he had not much choices.

'Please follow me to your room. I'll introduce the nurse to you there. We will discuss more in the room.'

Ryoma rolled his eyes.

The girls just laughed and left the area. But unfortunately they knocked over Sakura's bag which was placed on one side of a chair. It flipped over and all the stuff rolled out.

'Ah damnit!' She cursed. All the papers, folders and books in her bag were originally arranged neatly. Now she had to arrange them all again. She knelt on the ground and started to collect her stuff. Her friends were helpless sometimes. It's not the first time Ryoma and her talked in public, but every time it would result in having the bright caption 'Ryuzaki Sakura is going out with the tennis star Echizen Ryoma' on a random notice board on the corridor. She sighed and wondered what Ryoma had suffered through his three years in junior high.

'Get up.' He ordered and pulled her to a standing position.

What?' She blinked in surprise as Ryoma bent down to assemble her things. Although she was quite in friendly terms with him, he never really offered to do anything for her.

'You should be more aware of people around you when you wore a skirt.' Oh, that rang a bell. Her face flushed and gave a death glare to the people, males in particular, who peeked in her direction. She fixed her school skirt and tidied her uniform. By that time he had finished getting her materials. 'Arigato, for both,' she whispered. He nodded in response. 'Well, I have to go now. See you next time, Ryoma-san.' She bowed politely and walked out of the restaurant.

Ryoma watched as the younger girl's shadow grew out of sight. He sighed. Each movement of her body actually accorded with her older sister. Her appearance, her frown, her occasional oblivion…he suspired deeply. At least he got something useful by helping her. The tennis prodigy reached for his pocket and took out a card, which he slipped into his trousers when Sakura was too busy blushing. He had noticed it when the said girl just knelt down.

The front of the card was nothing special. Dr. Sawakita Tenma. Cardiologist. East General Hospital. Contact number…

It was the name on the back that attracted his attention beforehand. On it, Sakura's handwriting was crystal clear: Onee-san, 5pm, 14th December.

Outside the restaurant, Sakura exhaled deeply. She knew that her sister kept her disease a secret from him, and she was determined not to expose any details to the boy, as much as she hated the idea.

Well, she had been keeping their relationship private already, though frankly speaking. Whenever her schoolmates cheered for her blossoming love with the renowned tennis prince, she could only deny without saying that he was occupied already. She knew they kept their relationship unknown to others, and she promised not to tell anyone about it (Sakuno needed not to tell her about them; Sakura just deduced it herself; Ryoma was quite impressed and Sakuno just blushed).

She had witnessed from the window that day, watching the cold lad break down while listening to her sister's constant weeping throughout the night. She remembered feeling nauseous that night: she hated seeing people fight, especially when one was whom she loved most and the other she respected and admired.

She gave one last look back at the restaurant. She knew perfectly the reason why he helped her back then. Yet she did not intervene. She just caught sight of him sneaking that card into his pocket from her shoulder. It was an innocent act.

Gomen nasai, onee-san. She knew her sister would be mad at her for this, but he might be the cure she needed.

What the hell did this mean? Obviously it had something to do with Sakuno, Sakura's sister. But a cardiologist? He had never heard her mention any hereditary disease in her family, and she did not seem to have any problem when they were going out. It had always been fine. Thousands of connections came to his mind, and he swallowed uncomfortably. It couldn't be…

He scanned the card again. 14th December…it was today. 5pm…it was now.

His determined golden orbs came to life. Maybe he could get his answer this time, even though it might not be something he would like to hear.

-End of Chapter 4

Okay, I know some of you probably are hating me now for making the story too long and still not much Ryosaku moment…there will be some in the next chapter, I guarantee that. I did not think of adding a new character (i.e. Sakura) until I was half-way through the story. But I think she will begin to play a role in this story. And if you're wondering about the Ryoma-Sakura relationship…I won't comment on that, because I have yet to develop more of her character. As I said, I added her into the story out of the blue.

So how do you find this chapter, overall? Please do read and review, so as to let me know what you want more/less, or just how you're feeling about the story so far. I'll do another chapter of this after I finish the last chapter of Dear Cousin, which I believe will be posted here in a week or so (sorry, but I have two exams next week).

So again, please R&R. Until next time, hope you enjoy this.