The stream of steaming white milk trickled soundlessly from the carton into the measuring pot filled with dark liquid chocolate. Sakuno watched, fascinated by the strange shapes swirling on the surface as it bloomed and withered like a flower's fast-forwarded life cycle.
It was her habit to bring a small thermal filled with hot chocolate to school everyday during winter. To sip on the thick sweet fluid in the bone-shattering cold is always a soothing relief; no matter what had happened during the course of that day.
Sakuno slowly stirred the milk into the chocolate with a wooden spoon, lips curving into a faint smile as the darkness lightened to a warm creamy shade of mousse. Clockwise...anti-clockwise...clockwise...Sakuno counted softly to herself as the spoon sliced through the richness causing foamy waves to splash against the inside of the glass container.
Perhaps it was the complicated coffee machines at the cafe, Sakuno found herself much more in favour of making hot chocolate than any sort of coffee. Her skills of smoothly blending chocolate with milk had even exceeded all her colleagues (not that it was a skill worth bragging about), but that was partly because she always tried to avoid touching the complex machines - which obviously meant more time is spent making other drinks…such as hot chocolate..
Yes... Escaping from the reality...it's somewhat become a habit of mine recently...
I wasn't brave enough to confess my feelings to Ryoma-kun.
Because I know he would refuse.
I wasn't brave enough to accept the reality.
Because I know the harshness would crush me.
That's why I decided to give up, to move on.
To escape.
Troubled, she poured the hot liquid into a pink travel-sized thermal.
But is that...really the right choice...? Sakuno put the thermal into her school bag, wedged between her history book and pencil case, and quietly slipped outside into the cool morning air with her racquets slung over her shoulder.
Even now she didn't know for sure.
The roads were still thick with snow as Sakuno tramped through the shredded ice with some degree of difficulty. Greyness stained the sky with just a shimmer of gold emerging from the east. The icy breeze tugged at Sakuno's plait playfully, twiisting it around in a circular movement, making it gleam under the faint morning glow.
The Seigaku High Girls' Tennis Club tennis courts were deserted except for a few wet tennis balls forgotten by the first years yesterday and had to suffer the shower of morning frost. Sakuno wasn't surprised, the girls' tennis club was no where near as strict as the boys' so morning practices were only required three days a week and before tournaments.
Sakuno put down her tennis bag and took out her racquet, its silvery strings shone dazzlingly in the early sun, revealing the cuts and scratches on the edges of the tennis racket. I haven't improved all that much since four years ago...despite my grandmother being a tennis coach at one of the top tennis schools in Japan...it's almost beyond embarrassing...Sakuno sighed deeply and took out a tennis ball from her bag to begin practicing against the wall, her swift movements in time with the thudding of the ball, or rather the sloshing of the ball, for the outdoor tennis courts were also covered with a soft sheet of snow from last night's heavy fall.
Slosh.
This really doesn't feel right... somehow...
Slosh.
... Is it my knees?
Slosh.
...or is it-
"Your shoulders." A cold voice suddenly spoke out from the exterior of the courts. It struck the girl like a bolt of lightning. "They're still too wide."
Sakuno froze and missed the ball as it bounced back for the forth time. She spun around and caught sight of a boy's profile visible just outside the loops of wires, leaning against a tree with his arms cushioning his head. His eyes were closed and his expression looked bored, yet...somehow... shadowed with a faint wariness.
Ryoma.
"R-Ryoma-kun! Don't scare me like that!" Sakuno gasped and accused him without a second thought.
"…Oh, Sorry, sorry." Ryoma raised an eyebrow as he stuffed his hands into the pockets in his uniform trousers before walking off towards the main school building.
"Don't mind me." He did a wave - or rather, a flick of his hand - over his shoulder.
"Uh... Ryoma-kun! W-Wait a minute! I'm sorry..." Regret gripped Sakuno as she called out in panic. The last thing she wanted to see was Ryoma walking off offended by her own words.
Ryoma stopped in his tracks and glanced back. "...for?"
"Err... f-for offending you... by telling you not to creep up on me..." Sakuno's voice grew quieter, she hated herself for stuttering in front of Ryoma, but it had become quite a habit, thanks to the rare amount of attention he gives her.
"Are you an idiot?" Ryoma sighed and turned his eyes back to the pathway. "I'm not that pathetic."
As cold as always... A sad smiled touched her lips.
Although it has truly been a while since he last watched me practice...
Hmm, can't blame him though, he's usually too busy to mind other people's business...
Hey, wait a minute...
Sakuno paused abruptly, her forgotten tennis ball lay soaking in a puddle of melted snow. She studied his clothes curiously.
"Er...Ryoma-kun... Don't you still have morning practice for the tennis club? Why do you already have your school uniform on? "Sakuno called with a frown.
"...Practice was about an hour ago." Ryoma's tone of voice slightly gave away the smirk on his face. "Your world is unfortunately a bit behind..."
As usual. he added silently in his mind.
"W-What? An hour ago?" Sakuno's eyes bulged as she hastily stuffed her racquet and tennis ball into her bag and ran to Ryoma's side, panting hard from trying to keep up with his brisk pace. "Aww...I was hoping I could be on time for once..."
Ryoma looked away so she wouldn't see the glowing amusement in his eyes.
The fresh snow which had fallen last night felt as soft as feathers under their feet. Sakuno was almost pained to see the shimmering whiteness ruined by two sets of footprints --- Ryoma's and her own. The naked branches of an oak tree creaked and groaned as if the playful fingers of the wind were trying to snap them without enough force.
She lifted up her hand to shadow her eyes from the brilliant streams of sunshine. The winter sun had always seemed, to Sakuno, as if it had been carefully enfolded within layers of tissue paper, as if it was too delicate to be exposed to the cold or it would shatter into a million pieces and leave the world in eternal darkness. Because its warm rays always seemed so weak and tender, like loving hands caressing a dearly loved treasure. Wisps of white clouds floated in a background of diluted aqua, like precious remains of cotton candy sweetening as each moment went by...
"...that was unusual...seeing you practise in the morning." Ryoma's voice was as calm as a lake on a windless night, and as cool as the rippling water in the lake.
Sakuno blushed and smiled a little, making a face in an attempt to hide her embarrassment.
"...just thought I needed it."
"...oh, you are aware of that?"
Sakuno flushed but retorted with a twinge of bitterness. "Having once been the coach, shouldn't you be saying encouraging things?"
Ryoma seemed mildly surprised at this remark, for he turned his head ever so slightly towards the girl walking beside him, and hesitated before replying "Why should I?"
Sakuno glared at him in disbelief. Yet as she saw no point in reasoning with the tennis star, for the instant she thought of a comeback Ryoma had stopped abruptly outside their classroom on the second floor.
"...Stay away from me."
The brief command stabbed mercilessly into the girl's heart, she must have heard it wrong.
"E-Eh?"
"Stay here until I've gone in first."
"Wha-?"
Silenced by a wave of Ryoma's hand, Sakuno watched in confusion as Ryoma silently moved up to their classroom door and closed his hand around the doorknob as carefully as possible, as if he was afraid to wake a ferocious beast from hibernation. The door creaked open, inch by inch, as a gap just big enough for an arm slowly opened in front of him.
At first Sakuno thought he was simply feeling ashamed at the idea of walking into a room with her.
However, as the gap in the doorway widened to a size which would have barely allowed a body through, but enough for people in the class to catch a full view of the door-opener, she soon realized it may not have been the case. For along with a chorus of ear-splitting screams, a frighteningly large group of young squealing girls stormed out of the classroom, shoving the metal door back with a loud bang.
Within seconds, the tall figure of Echizen Ryoma had completely vanished from view behind the flood of ecstatic high school girls and a net of arms holding cameras and cell phones above their heads.
Sakuno could only shake her head in disgust.
After mentally preparing for a brutal battle, she managed to fight her way past the growing wall of girls surrounding the Prince (although not without being close to the state of unconsciousness) and stumbled into the classroom in a worse condition than she would have had had she run around the tennis courts twenty times. She rubbed her arm and winced when she accidentally pressed a tender part of a bruise, a result of being knocked down by a rather muscular girl a split second before she broke through the doorway.
She flopped down onto her chair in a bad mood, and straightened her uniform as best as she could.
Glancing back at the classroom doorway, she thought she caught a blur of emerald hair behind several girls' pale long legs, although it probably was a trick of light, because the next second the baffled tennis star fell into his seat behind her, panting hard and cursing under his breath as he threw down his school bag onto the desk. Sakuno had to stifle a laugh when she saw how beaten he looked, but was taken by surprise when he lifted his piercing amber eyes to stare straight into her own.
"I thought I told you to wait until I've come in." Ryoma's tone was sharply edged with irritation.
She hesitated as her guilt unwillingly grew, but was surprised at the steadiness of her own voice when she replied.
"Well, at the rate you were moving, I couldn't have come in safely 'til spring." As if her sealed rebellion spirit had finally been awakened, her retort was followed by an annoyed glare.
Ryoma lifted an eyebrow at this unexpected burst of temper from a normally shy girl, but shrugged as he broke their eye contact.
"You could've waited for a bit longer."
"Oh, so now I have to obey the Prince as well, do I?"
"You don't know how brutal some of them are."
"Hmph... since when has the almighty Prince worried about me?" Sakuno shot back scornfully. She heard what she suspected to be a snort as the boy in front of her lowered his head into his folded arms on the desk.
"Please don't overrate yourself," his voice was muffled through his uniform, but Sakuno could still detect the iciness in his tone, "you don't deserve that."
Silence.
Sakuno flushed as shock, anger, and a thousand other emotions rushed through her veins in one great explosion. She whipped her head back to the front of the classroom.
How does he always stab people where it hurts the most?
Why does he do it when he knows it only pains others?
But the scariest thing is…
I don't know if I l hate it, or love it.
Even when it's used against me.
Calmness was slipping away; she could feel it, feel the emotions wash over her in gigantic tumultuous waves.
Even as she closed her eyes she could feel tears threatening to tumble out from under her eyelids, and her heart ached when she heard the boy's breathing gradually slowing to a rhythmic rustle in his shirt.
Sakuno handed the English paper back to the teacher with a heavy sigh.
There is no way I can get better at this weird language. she thought, followed with another troubled sigh. She glanced in Ryoma's direction as she had casually (she hoped) done a few times during the test, and wasn't surprised to find him asleep - again - for he had handed the test in nearly forty minutes ago, forty minutes ahead of everyone else in the class.
Sakuno shook her head to force the Ryoma-kun-is-so-good-at-everything thought out of her mind, and returned to her desk to take out her packed lunch. She heard a yawn sounding from behind her and caught sight of Ryoma standing up drowsily and swinging his tennis bag over his shoulder as he strolled out of the classroom, without so much as a glance in her direction.
It almost seemed like he was avoiding her eyes.
But why?
He had no reason to.
She took a deep breath and lightly slapped her own cheeks to prevent further thoughts about him.
Stop this nonsense.
He doesn't care the slightest about me.
And now...he's going to another lunchtime tennis practice, no doubt. Sakuno predicted as his tall figure disappeared down the corridor, then followed soon afterwards by various groups of squealing girls giggling and murmuring about something to do with "Echizen-senpai". ...and, as usual, watched by his whole Fanclub. She was quite certain of that prediction.
Her rectangular lunchbox was filled to the rim with mouth-watering delicacies.
Roasted sausages were carved into tiny octopuses which seemed to have been caught crawling across the field of rice that glistened like smoothed shards of milky white pearls. In the opposite corner there were neatly cut vegetables, the perfect orange cubes of carrots were scattered among the bush of green like early chrysanthemums. In a small plate of silver tinfoil lay rolled fried eggs, with a coat of creamy yellow dotted with bursts of white stars.
The irresistible sight of her lunchbox attracted many envious looks as Sakuno picked at its colourful contents with her dainty chopsticks.
No appetite.
Despite her anger, she could not ignore the guilt seeping through from the depth of her conscience. She knew Ryoma meant well by telling her to "stay away from him", yet she had not only ignored his warning - and gotten hurt as a result - but also offended him afterwards when he warned her again.
Her mind became restless as she remembered Ryoma's cool attitude after the ambush and the slightly taken back expression after her retort to his perfectly normal question. Sighing, she placed the lid back on her lunch box, the food forgotten and barely touched.
It's not like I don't know his coldness.
I do know.
I know it all too well.
...that's why I shouldn't be worked up over one little insult.
She laughed quietly at herself and shook her head.
God, I am hopeless...
My heart is as soft as cream.
After all these hesitation...
... it seems like apologizing is the only choice after all.
Having made up her mind, Sakuno pulled out her pink thermal container and hugged it to her chest as she quietly slipped out into the blistering cold.
A/N: Thank You for all of those stunning people who reviewed this story... I am encouraged! BURNING (Kawamura style) Sorry this chapter was a bit slow... but all the drama is yet to come...(chuckle) I'll do my best to update as soon as possible :)
Please enjoy and tell me what you think!