CHAPTER SIX: AYAKO YAMAMOTO

(Makes her entrance)

As the hurried petite rambled through the clubhouse with four bentos in her grasp she sighed in relief with she reached a bench. Kintaro came rushing towards her with delight, mostly because of the food, followed by Kenya.

"Thanks Ri-chan sorry for the hassle." Kenya respectfully thanked as he hugged Rika. "You're the best!"

"You're welcome Kenya-kun, it wasn't a hassle at all." she laughed as she held him back before they let go.

Zaizen came out of the club house as he saw them embrace for a few seconds before letting go. Oddly he be came paranoid at the sight and shook his head to regain his thoughts. Kenya's hands freed her as Kintaro hugged her as well, then went towards him with his bento.

"Hey Zaizen. Here you go. Ri-chan made it for you." he smiled as he held onto his.

"Thanks. Senpai." he managed to give a slight grin and walked back in the club house with Kenya, to place the bento in their bags.

"I'll meet you outside, I gotta change." the now shirtless male spoke with his back turned on him.

"Alright then." he replied softly and walked out towards the courts.

Rika stood with the coach and began to talk about the up coming spring training. He mentioned Kintaro's talk about her cooking and asked if she'd come to help out with the training. Of course, she would go along with the other females, to train in the mountains and get a sight out of nature. She happily accepted to go with the others, especially because she'll be able to get some training out of it.

"Great, thanks for helping out." the coach ruffled her locks and went back to practice.

"Zaizen, good morning." she happily greeted the second year, who seemed out in thought. "Zaizen? Hello? You there?" she sighed and poked his cheek, for a couple of minutes, before he reacted.

"Rika…." he stared at her before she poked him again. "Stop poking me please."

"Oh, haha. Of course sorry to bother you." she smiled as she walked beside him. "Did you get my bento from Kenya-kun?"

Slowly the suffix ending '-kun' became attached to her when she spoke. So she ended up seemingly making it seem like their relationship was close, since he addresses her with '-chan'. Zaizen seemed a bit uncomfortable as they spoke and began to shorten his answers, he acted like this when they were strangers.

"Yea." he gave a soft and short reply as he held his racquet under his arm.

"Tell me if you like it, I could make you something else next time too." she generously stated to him while he just stared straight ahead.

"Okay." another short answer, making her feel uncomfortable and worried.

"Zaizen, are you okay?" she asked as she stood in front of him, making him startled.

"Yea, I am." he moved to the side while she did as well. "I seriously am, my head just hurts a little. Nothing more."

"Hmm. Okay then. I hope you feel better by the end of the day." she commented, being caring as always towards others. 'I wonder if that's what's really wrong…' she thought once more about him.

'I don't feel good…at all.' he mindlessly thought as he sighed and plugged his earphones in. 'A lot's been on my mind.' he continued to think as he played with Kenya.

As he faced Kenya, he felt a bit of annoyance, and tightened his grip on the handle before smashing the ball. He was beginning to become aggressive with the match, taking his stress out on the ball. Kenya didn't know what was on his mind but he knew something was wrong.

As lunch came about, Kenya and Kintaro were pleased, at Shitenhoji a group of females came to Rika's class. Oddly people knew who they were, expect a few expectations and males, and walked up to Rika. Politely -also being rude- as they spoke to her about Zaizen. They were cute, some wore heavy make-up, others were punks and some trouble makers.

"Excuse me, Rika from class 2-5. Am I correct?" an innocent young lady was facing the most admirable student, Rika Sumieru, of Shitenhoji. "I'm Ayako Yamamoto, from 1-6." the first year stated.

'S-She's so cute~ Gah! I can't, she's talking to me about Zaizen.' she thought as her normal expression, was quiet intimating for the first year. "Yes, I am. How may I help you?"

"Well, first of all. I just want to say that…..Zaizen-kun is mine. You can't take him from me." she announced as her followers remarked.

"Ahahaha!" she busted out laughing and blushing, "You're so cute~!" Rika stood up and looked down on the first year and stated, "You're so cute, ugh…I can't believe I just said that…Now everyone knows my weakness." she muttered while Inui was standing on a ladder and took down notes.

"Oh, so that's your weakness. I was wondering for quite some time now." Inui stated before he left, "I'm done collecting data."

"Th-That bastard.." she began to go off topic and felt a hand whip across her face.

"Don't look down on me, I'm not your ordinary first year!" she remarked as Rika sighed and rubbed her cheek.

"Sorry but I have too...Literally, you're short." she was blunt, taking her friend Hiroki's personality, and looked down. "Well good luck, anyways."

Her classmates watched Rika handle the situation quite maturely while the first year and her "gang" came walking out of the class room. The students walked up to Rika, encouraging for her to do her best to get Zaizen's love but she just laughed.

"Even if I do my best to gain his love, I can't reassure myself that I'll be the one he truly loves" she stated like a person who's been I so many relationships. "Besides I don't want to force him to have to choose who he loves. If he's going to hurt someone it should be me." she merely rubbed her cheek while the female students admired her, "It's bad enough to watch a first year try so hard to get her 'dream' guy."

Rika didn't want to deal with this love triangle and decided to let the blocks fall into place before it reaches game over. As her heart aches with a sound of heart break once again, having to close her relationship with the other teammates. She's been through this once, she can go through it again, without fighting. She'll close up her warm heart if she has too, even if that means she'll have to have the team hate her.

'I don't want to see anyone else hurt because of me…Not again. I-I don't want to see it again…' she felt her eyes tear up, "I need to get go outside for a bit." 'I've told myself to be strong, I've dealt with this before. Yet the situation may end up the same, departing with the ones I love. This sucks, and I've finally was able to talk to them comfortably, and now I might have to break up the bond…'

Of course, you need to add some drama if it's going to be a long love story. [Oh Sadaharu, you'd go to the extreme to collect data. Wouldn't you?] Sadly I didn't know what to do so I just made it right on the spot *sigh* REVIEW AND READ! Anyways...just yea..just read. *sigh* I hope my first story goes well with the ending :'D

This one of the shortest chapter in the story, many more ahead I suppose.