Even worse, Sakuno thought as she glanced sideways and caught Ryoma stir in his morning nap. …here I am, stuck next to the person who really should take full responsibility for this 'bloody' business…
She carefully shifted to a crouching position, trying to be as soundless as possible, in fear of waking the resting tennis idol and facing the awkwardness which would surely follow. Her eyes stole several glances at his sleeping face, preparing to shoot at the first signs of waking.
His face is so peaceful...yet I wonder how many disasters have already resulted from it. she thought with a pounding heart as her eyes glued reluctantly to his handsome features, with a charming trace of childishness still remaining in the smooth eyebrows and the head of emerald green hair now nestling in the materials of what was obviously an extremely crumpled Regular jacket.
Any thoughts regarding the attack and the wound had completely vanished as she continued to longingly take in all the details of his face, knowing that she would probably not have another chance at doing so without further injuries.
The time seemed to have frozen, even after a single drop of blood dribbled from her soaked handkerchief and onto Ryoma's arm, causing his eyes to fly open in alert.
She snapped out of her trance and, clumsily, attempted to scramble up before he saw-
But a second too late.
His well-trained hand grabbed her wrist before she could even move a muscle and, even in his drowsy state, she could not shake off the fingers clasped firmly around her pale skin. That was the only time Ryoma's powerful grip frightened her, and made her wish he hadn't done all those grip training after all. Her mind was in turmoil as she witnessed the fogginess in his golden eyes fade away and the piercing light bore into her own, then slowly widened as recognition seeped into them.
"…Ryuzaki? What the-?" Ryoma let out a low grunt as he withdrew his hand and rubbed them in his eyes to polish his groggy brain.
"Uh…n-nothing, sorry for interrupting your break, bye!" Sakuno shot up and mumbled a hurried apology as she backed away from his side and towards the bushes. She had plenty of time to run. However, when she saw that his razor-sharp eyes had focused on the gleaming droplet of red liquid on his arm, she knew a successful escape would be as difficult as a mouse crawling into the mouth of a cat.
The pair of slightly alarmed yellow eyes snapped up to study her face and abruptly spotted the stained handkerchief pressed to her cheek which she was desperately trying to cover up with her hand. Her feet felt as if they had been glued onto the ground. She could not even flinch.
The torturous silence that she had anticipated lasted for nearly ten seconds. Yet she neither felt relieved or glad when he finally reacted, an intense dread was what she felt.
As usual, he stood up and walked towards her. Proud strides with hands in his pockets. What was different was his gaze which was fixed upon her face, there was neither the familiar arrogance or belligerence, but a darkness which she could not interpret. It was with that strange look that he reached out a hand to peel the clinging cotton from the cut, although with surprising gentleness. She could feel blood oozing out from the wound again as he examined it. The fluid trickled down the hollows of her cheek and dripped off the tip of her chin, dotting the snow with blurry blobs of crimson.
"…What happened?" He asked calmly as he fished out a tattered piece of tissue from his shorts pocket and offered it to her.
The caring gesture took her by surprise, though not unpleasantly.
She took the wrinkled piece of white fiber with gratitude, although it was futile in terms of stopping the blood flow, as the thin material was saturated almost the instant it touched the injury.
"Please, it's no big deal-" She began hastily.
"What happened?" Half demanding, his tone rang with cold steel.
She hesitated before answering, but finally surrendered to the insistent light burning within those brilliant blazing eyes.
"I-uh-kind of overslept and as I was running past a building site I scraped my cheek on a nail…it's nothing, really, quite stupid to recall-" Sakuno laughed nervously, her overly cheerful voice shook as she took a few steps back. But he stopped her, quite easily, with just four words spoken in a clear emotionless voice:
"You're a bad liar."
Sakuno felt beads of sweat form on her forehead as Ryoma's piercing eyes scorched her face.
"Tell me the truth." He changed tactics as his voice lowered into a whisper and almost sounded like rustling leaves by her ear. She gulped nervously and took a deep breath.
It's no use pretending... is that what he's trying to tell me?
Her eyes closed as she slowly nodded.
"Fine… you'd probably find out anyway. Five girls came to me at the girls tennis club changing rooms and threatened that if-" Here she swallowed with difficulty and opened her eyes to connect her gaze with his. "-if I don't stay away from someone, they'd 'leave a mark' on me, as a warning to that person's other female supporters." She stopped when she witnessed his honey-coloured eyes clouding over with… could it be anger?
He did not need to ask to know that someone was himself.
"…and you refused?"
"…I did… b-but I did evoke them first-" She started again but was soon shunned to silence by the cold glint in Ryoma's eyes as they flashed with dark fury.
"I'm not stupid." He turned around and seemed to be quite restless as he paced away from her and then stopped abruptly, as if he had suddenly came up with an explanation for this incident. He ran his fingers through his dark messy hair in a thoughtful manner, but finally decided to turn back and, to Sakuno's surprise, reached for her hand to drop a paper-thin object onto her open palm.
"Better get your cheek treated." The words were simple and coldly spoken, but were edged with an almost unnoticeable quiver, giving away the speaker's crumbling coolness.
At that, Echizen Ryoma disappeared into the shadows of the trees, leaving nothing behind but a trail of muddy footprints in the slushy snow, and the item in Sakuno's hand.
She lowered her eyes to find, with a electrifying jolt of astonishment, a smooth piece of bandage glowing in the faint light on the flesh of her unsteady hands. At that moment she thought there could not be anything else as beautiful as that old flimsy piece of rubbery plaster in that dull shade of orange.
Her face broke into a teary smile as warmth spread over her body. Her fingers curled around the bandaid as she held it tightly against her heart
The majestic school bell signaling the beginning of classes echoed in the vibrating air, yet she didn't seem to have heard it, even as the chilly wind nipped at her bare neck and hissed into her ear drums seconds after the last note of the bells had faded.
The first three periods had gone agonizingly slow, having to suffer both suspicious and curious stares from her classmates and people in the corridor. Even the irritating English teacher picked on her even more than usual-she didn't think it was possible but obviously it was- by dropping nasty comments here and there regarding the white gauze over her wound as "a cover for her passionate encounters with men."
So by the time the lunch bell sounded, she was exhausted from trying to appear cool and controlled under all the unnecessary attention. The feeling of discomfort was so great that she had nearly reached the point of forgetting about her birthday altogether, and wanted to run straight home to curl up in her room and weep. But unfortunately that was not to be the case, for even after school, she had to endure another three hours of coffee-making and customer service at the Snow Cottage.
She sighed heavily and buried her head in her arms on top of the desk as she waited for her friend Tomoka to join her for lunch. Yet when she overheard snippets of a conversation in front of her involving "Echizen", her ears pricked up and couldn't help but eavesdrop, just a little.
"…Hey have you heard about this? Echizen said he wanted to stop his Fan Club, like actually banning it from his sight!"
"What!? You can't be serious! What sane person wouldn't want his own fans and supporters?"
"I know, but it can't be wrong, I heard it from the Club President herself…what's her name again? Err…Osakada someone..."
Tomo-chan... Sakuno's heart gave a jolt of panic... what's going on??
"When did this happen?"
"Oh…I think he went to see her at interval… in quite a hurry, so I've heard…unusual for Echizen, eh?"
"But why all of a sudden? I mean, I'm sure he's been sick of all those girls for a while now…"
"Good point… I don't think he said why, you know, just said he wanted to stop the fan club from running and 'getting in his way', to be exact…"
"He does seem to be pretty serious about it then-"
Sakuno shot up from her seat, giving the two guys deep in conversation a fright as the chair scraped the porcelain tiles with a loud screech. Rushing out of the classroom, her eyes darted from side to side as she looked for the Echizen Ryoma Fan Club President, whom she soon spotted heading down the corridor towards herself.
"Tomo-chan!" Sakuno skidded to a stop in front of her friend, and her question in mind was soon confirmed by the sight of Tomoka's face, which was lined with evident streaks of tear marks and nail marks where she had clearly pinched herself in hope of bringing herself back into reality.
"Sakuno!!!" Tomoka wailed and burst into tears as she flung her arms around Sakuno in despair. "I-I am ruined! What should I do?? What has happened?? Why why why why…"
"C-Calm down, Tomo-chan…" Sakuno frowned at her friend's bad state of distress, and laid both her hands on the later's shoulders to give them a gentle shake. "What happened?"
Tomoka bit her lip as her eyes shone with tears and she touched her forehead in a dramatic gesticulation of fainting. "Ryoma-sama…Ryoma-sama wanted to stop the Fanclub from ever running again…it's terrible…he just looked at me with those gorgeous golden eyes and said 'I want it stopped'." Tomoka lowered her voice in an imitation of Ryoma.
Sakuno sank into a frantic feeling of panic. What if it's because of me? No…it can't be…he can't possibly have sacrificed his fans for a girl he ignores half the time…but- A familiar chorus of screams and admiring sighs down the corridor ripped her from her thoughts just in time to see a corner of a white cap disappear behind the classroom door which was slammed into the face of the troop of loud angry girls who had obviously heard the dreadful news.
Even better. Sakuno rubbed her palms together and, after sending an apologetic look at Tomoka, sprinted back down towards the classroom and shoved her way through the gaping group of fans in front of the metal door.
The first thing she saw was the slumped figure of Ryoma in his seat and the white cap which he had lowered over his eyes to block out the ridiculous sight of eager female faces flattened against the planes of the classroom windows. She walked up to him and heavily placed her hands onto the edge of his desk to make her presence known.
He glanced up; although his look was cool Sakuno noticed the deep shadow of wariness hovering over the bright glowing eyes.
"Is it true that you don't want your Fanclub anymore?"
"Correction, I've never wanted a Fanclub."
"But you did tell Tomo-chan to stop running the club?"
He shrugged casually as his eyes shifted to the gangs of whining girls outside in the narrow corridor. "So?"
"If you're doing this because of what happened this morning, I don't want your pity-"
"Who said you could keep it?"
"...I'm being perfectly serious-"
"You weren't being serious when you said "I evoked them first" this morning... you are in no situation to lecture me."
"I wasn't lying! I could've agreed to their deal and nothing would have happened!"
"...And if you did, I'd have cut you myself."
Her eyes narrowed as she glanced down at him. As far as she could see, there was not a single hint of hesitation in his voice.
Does that mean... he would not forgive her if she never talks to him again?
Impossible.
"-I've wanted to get rid of that useless club for ages anyway."
"But to take away their right to support you is unfair on them."
"They can still do that without being in a club."
"But-"
"It isn't fair for people to get hurt for pathetic reasons either." He paused and sighed with deep frustration. "Especially not you-"
Although unwilling, Sakuno distinctly felt her heart skipping a beat.
"-as it would mean that the old hag is going to skin me alive for a crime I didn't commit," Ryoma finished but took no notice of the faint blush on Sakuno's face. His eyes paused on the white bandage on her wounded cheek. "… Been to the Health Centre?"
She touched her cheek self-consciously, "Yeah…" then seemed to have suddenly remembered something as she dug her hand into her skirt pocket.
"Uh…I didn't use it, but thanks anyway…" She sighed softly and held out her hand to the boy in front of her.
Ryoma stared down at the untouched bandage in mild surprise but smirked lightly and turned away from her.
"Keep it." He hesitated, and then added in a barely audible mumble "… it's your birthday anyway."
"…W-What did you say?" Sakuno was stunned into silence, and only just managed to choke out her doubt after a few seconds of blankness.
The only answer she received was a long view of Echizen Ryoma's scalp and the twitch in his cheek muscle which indicated yet another smirk.
She sank into her own seat a couple of paces away and felt her spirit soar, as if it has been given a pair of angel wings.
He knows my birthday.
He not only knows, but remembers when it is.
Behind her, Ryoma's smirk slowly softened into a real smile as he caught her carefully tucking the plaster into her pocket as if it was a valuable jewel.
The Snow Cottage was already bustling with customers and waiters when Sakuno stepped through the doorway. The welcoming sound of cups clinking with saucers blended in with the quiet murmurs of conversation as people enjoyed the opportunity to catch up on a late afternoon chat.
Sakuno hastily slipped on a fresh white apron and had barely reached the counter before a hand clasped around her wrist and hurled her towards the coffee machines. Her head snapped back in alarm but, with a great leap of her heart, caught sight of Akito's boyish grin over her shoulder, although it faded quickly when his sharp gaze swept over her cheek.
"Ryuzaki! What happened!?"
Sakuno displayed what she hoped to be the most assuring smile before replying: "Nothing really, I fell over… you know how clumsy I can be!" Yet another unrealistic lie.
Rubbing her palms together in a manner of determination, she turned away from Akito's suspicious eyes. "What do you want me to do today?"
"Er…If you don't mind, can you manage the drinks section?" A warm smile returned to his face, even though the anxiety was still clear in his tender brown eyes.
"Sure thing-" Sakuno answered cheerfully and was just reaching up for the tins of coffee powder when she froze at the touch of a finger on her cheek.
Akito's finger was light and gentle as it stroked the bandage.
"Don't overwork, go rest if you are tired." His tone was both affectionate and worried.
"I-I'm fine, really," She murmured, touched by his sensitivity.
He smiled and dropped his hand as he turned away towards the front counter. Yet before she could calm her racing heartbeat, he cast back a single sentence which sent her mind roaring with excitement.
"Check your locker before leaving."
A/N: Happy Chinese New Year to everyone! I apologize once again for my slow update... (although there are people who are slower than me... coughcough) I've been busy eating :) ( --lame excuse) Thanks again for your support and I look forward to receiving more feedback about my stories, be it negative or positive...OO Nevertheless, the most important thing is for people to enjoy reading my fics as I enjoy sharing them! So take your time to get into the mood... settle down with a cup of tea and some chocolate biscuits, perhaps they would make you savour the story more carefully...