Finally, Chapter 2 is up!
Thanks a lot for the reviews…!
I'm very sorry for the delay…

I've finished writing the whole story even before I started typing chapter 1, it's just that…I'm kinda lazy when it comes to typing…
Finally, I finished typing this…actually, I paid my sister to do the typing…I write, she types…lol!

Sorry if my fic is simplistic...I'm trying to make better descriptions though...Gomen ne!

Disclaimer: I do not own SD or any of it's characters. They are rightfully owned by Inoue Takehiko.

Title: Snow in the flowing river

Summary: The boy and the girl stood there, dumbfounded. They looked at each other, puzzled. Suddenly the girl burst into laughter.

"The following week…"

The following week...
MONDAY

Youhei Mitou was walking towards Shohoku High. He just came from his house and was now donned in a casual attire. He noticed a girl standing right outside Shohoku. She was still in her uniform. But she wasn't a student of Shohoku High. The color of her skirt was dark blue and she was wearing a white blouse with a baby blue necktie. He recognized that uniform as the one from Tomigaoka Jr. High. As he came closer, he recognized her face. It was Yukime and he walked towards her.

"Sumimasen. Anou...are you waiting for someone?" he asked while saying 'Obviously she's waiting for Rukawa' in his head. But she did not give him a reply. She looked nervous.

"It's dangerous for someone, especially a girl, to be staying here outside alone. Someone might hurt you..." She did not speak nor did she look at him. She had ignored him completely.

"Why don't you come with me and wait inside" With that she took a few steps away from him. He couldn't understand why she'd move away. So, he entered the grounds of Shohoku, leaving the girl outside all by herself.

Youhei Mitou went inside the basketball gym. Rukawa Kaede was still in the middle of a practice game. The Freshmen vs the Sophomore-Senior alliance. He wanted to call Rukawa and tell him that his girlfriend was waiting for him outside. But then again, what if the couple had a fight and was in the 'not-talking-to-each-other' phase, he didn't want to get involved. Besides, Rukawa Kaede is a silent type of person, seceretive and not much is known about him. He's not the kind of guy who would brag to the world about his pretty girlfriend. He'd probably appreciate it if he wouldn't meddle into his affairs.

Akagi Haruko's POV

After the practice game, Rukawa Kaede immediately changed back into his school uniform.

'This is odd' Haruko thought. Rukawa Kaede was never one of those who would leave school at 6:00Pm. He would always stay until 7:00 or 7:30 PM. As Rukawa exited the gym, Haruko followed him.

"Rukawa-kun" she called. He stopped from his tracks and looked her. She hadn't expected that he would actually stop from his tracks and turn to her. She felt her cheeks blushing.

"Anou..I'm just wondering..." Rukawa Kaede continued to walk towards where his bicycle was parked, and Haruko followed him. Haruko wanted to ask him if he really does have a girlfriend. But she could not bring herself to ask that question.

"Why are you going home early?" she asked instead. Rukawa had already taken the lock from his bicycle and passed by her. He did not answer nor look at her this time. He just walked passed by her with his bicycle in his side.

She stayed there, standing. He ignored her completely. She looked at him as he drew nearer to the gate of Shohoku. She didn't want him to leave that day with her questions left unanswered. She started to run towards him. She had to ask him that question now.

He was already outside when she heard a voice coming from outside the school grounds. It was a girl, and it seemed that she was speaking to Rukawa Kaede. Rukawa and the girl were on the other side. Haruko could not make out what they were talking about. 'Could she be his girlfriend?' Haruko thought. She walked towards the steel gate but remained in the wall beside it. It was not her intention to eavesdrop but she wanted to make sure that she was really his girlfriend.

"I don't want you coming here, it dangerous for you to wait here alone." She heard him say.

"Mou...but I want to walk home with you."

"I have a bike, Yuki-chan" he said. There was silence.

"Fine, I'll walk with you." With that Haruko heard their footsteps. They were leaving. She stood there silently. "He's walking her home? She must be his girlfriend" a tear fell down her cheek. She stepped outside and saw both of them walking together. She looked at the girl. She had long jet black hair. Just like what Youhei Mitou described.

"Some guy just come up to me earlier…I kind of got scared especially when he told me to go inside the campus with him. But I just did what you told me. 'Don't talk to strangers', I just ignored him and he left. " That was the last thing Haruko heard from the girl. They disappeared from her view and she went back to the campus, suppressing the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes.

TUESDAY

Ayako was not feeling well that day. Despite the warm weather, she had a cold. How could anyone catch a cold in a weather like this? she sighed. Today is not her day. She has a cold, her head aches like hell and she's late for the basketball team's practice. (She's on cleaning duty).

"Aaachoo!" she sneezed. She entered the gym. Her head still hurting like hell. She was pale and weak...she looked sick.

"Aya-chan", Ryota Miyagi called. "Are you alright? You look sick"

"I'm fine" she said.

"I think you should go home and rest" said Kogure.

"Yeah.You look pale" Mitsui added. "I...aacho" she sneezed again.

"Go home and rest Ayako-san" Sakuragi said, shoo-ing her away. Sakuragi smirked. Perhaps now he can escape his usual dribbling exercise.

"B-but..."

"Don't worry, we'll make sure Sakuragi does his dribbling exercise'" Ryota assured. 'Oh, crap' the red head thought.

"o-okay then…"

Ayako exited the gym and walked towards the gate. As she came closer to the gate, she heard voices from the other side.

"Leave me alone!" it was a girl's voice "Come on Miss." she heard a guy say

"Yeah. We won't hurt you" said another guy

Ayako ran towards the gate and exited the school grounds. 'Not now' She thought, she wasn't feeling well and she didn't want to get into a fight.

"HEY!" She shouted as loud as she can. They looked at her. There were four of them. Four gangsters harassing an innocent girl. Ayako looked at the girl and recognized the uniform she was wearing. It was the same uniform as what she wore when she was still in Junior high. She felt obliged to 'save' her fellow Tomigaokan.

The girl was standing there, frightened, clutching the bicycle beside her. Ayako took her fan and hit one of them. However, before she could hit the other guy with her fan, one of them pushed her, causing her to fall.

"You shouldn't be picking on women." The delinquents (and also Ayako) turned their heads to see where that voice came from. It was Rukawa Kaede.

One of them tried to punch Rukawa on the face but was able to dodge it. With his swift moves (lol), Rukawa punched the other guy on the stomach. The other three, seeing their comrade lying on the ground in fetal position, ran away.

Ayako helped herself to stand up. She then dusted her shirt. The frightened girl ran towards her savior, crying. She placed her arms around him, burying her face on his chest.

"I was so scared," the girl said, still crying.

"It's okay, they're gone now." he said, rubbing her back, trying to comfort her. The girl turned to Ayako. "Thank you by the way" she said, wipping the tears from her eyes.

"No big deal" Ayako answered. "I'll leave you two alone now." With that, Ayako left. 'That must be his girlfriend I've been hearing about her' she thought. 'Rukawa Kaede, she is quite a catch. Don't let her go'

WEDNESDAY

After what happened yesterday. Himawari Yukime received another stern lecturing from Rukawa Kaede. He didn't want her to be waiting outside for him, so she decided that if she was going to wait for him, she'd stay inside grounds of Shohoku. And that's exactly what she did.

At around 5:30 on that afternoon, Himawari Yuki-chan entered the school and waited for Rukawa Kaede just outside the gym, her bike parked right beside her.

Akagi Haruko could've sworn she saw someone peek through the gym doors. Curious, she went outside to see who it was. She was the acting manager for that day. Ayako went home early again because her cold had progressed into a fever. Ayako assigned her to do her tasks. Haruko looked outside and saw the girl called Yuki-chan standing outside, leaning against the wall.

"If you're waiting for someone from the team, you can wait for him inside" Haruko said, trying to sound as friendly as she can. She did not want this girl to see sadness in her eyes.

The girl looked at her and smiled. "Thank you very much" the girl said while bowing.

After basketball practice, Rukawa did not stay. Yuki and Rukawa rode their bicycles home together. After they had left, the rest of the basketball team began asking each other if that girl was Rukawa's girlfriend.

Since Youhei Mitou was there, he confirmed that she was the girl he saw with Rukawa in the sushi bar almost two weeks ago. The team concluded that she was the girlfriend they've been hearing a lot about (from rumors of course). However, they agreed never to tell anyone that she was "real" and not "fiction". Who knows what will happen to the girl if Rukawa's fan club found out about her existence. She seemed so nice and was also very pretty, they wouldn't want anyone (Rukawa's fan club for this matter) to harm her.

THURSDAY

Mitsui Hisashi entered the boy's locker room. It was time for basketball practice again and he couldn't wait. Rukawa's girlfriend would probably be waiting for him again. It was simply unbelievable. The cold-hearted Rukawa kaede,.has a girlfriend? It can't be right. But what they witnessed yesterday, both of them riding their bikes home together and the girl waiting for him, was proof enough for them to believe that she IS his girlfriend. He wasn't alone in the boy's locker room. Someone had come in first. He saw Rukawa Kaede changing into his basketball outfit.

As Mitsui changed into his basketball attire, he heard something ring.

'Where's that ring coming from?' he wondered . After a couple of rings, he saw Rukawa get a black object from her his bag. Rukawa looked at the screen before walking away towards the wall and answering the call. Hisashi Mitsui did not intended to eavesdrop, but it wasn't his fault if he could still hear Rukawa despite his low volumed voice.

"Hey Yuki-chan" He heard him say

"What?...Tokyo?...I though you weren't given permission?..."

"Isn't Otori's birthday on-"

"Oh..it's a pool party"

"Must you go?" Mitsui could see him frown.

"Okay, I will…"

"…feed Pikachu at seven, got it"

"Take care…''

"Oh yeah don't talk to strangers…"

"Bye"

'Looks like she won't be around today' Mitsui thought as he tied his shoes.

FRIDAY

"You're here early" Haruko said as she approached Yuki who was trying her hair into a ponytail. "It's barely four o'clock"

Despite the jealousy she felt, Haruko did not want to have an enemy. She was nice towards Yuki and she wanted to be friends with her. How could she hate Yuki? She seems very…friendly.

Yuki wasn't wearing her usual Junior High School girl unifrom. She was wearing a white knee-length shorts (Rukawa forbade her to wear above the knee shorts), a printed dark-blue shirt and flip flops to finish her look.

"I was absent in class today and I just returned from Tokyo" Yuki was holding a bag which contained the clothings she were wearing the day before. There was also a digital camera placed around her neck as if it were a necklace. "Let's go inside" Haruko said.

Yuki sat on a chair. She looked at the guys who were running and hopping back and forth from one corner of the court to another. Some were shooting balls into the basket while one was doing dribbling exercises and was whining about why he was still stuck doing it. She smiled.

"Okay team, take five" said the scary-looking guy who looked very much like an angry untamed gorilla. Honestly, she was scared of him, he looked as if he was going to devour someone. But Ayako assured her that he was harmless.

"Where did you sleep last night?" Yuki turned and saw Rukawa Kaede talking to her.

"I stayed overnight at Otori's place..it was getting late. I was supposed to catch the first train to Kanagawa but I wasn't able to wake up early...and I missed school."

Rukawa crossed his arms and looked at her, she thought was going to hear another lecturing from him, but she was surprise when he said nothing. After all, she slept over a guy's house, even though Otori's her bestfriend and would never do something to her, he is still a guy.

"By the way, you wanna see the pictures from Otori-san's pool party? Yuki turned on her digital camera and began scanning through the gadget and showed the images to the boy standing next to her.

Rukawa Kaede frowned. He did not want to see Yuki wearing a swimsuit. At least it was a one-piece swimwear, unlike the other girls behind her who were wearing bikinis. Yuki pressed the "down" button and showed him more pictures. Yuki stopped at a particular image.

''That's me with Otori", Yuki pointed at the guy sitting beside her in the picture. Rukawa Kaede looked at her, puzzled.

'This Otori you've been speaking a lot about... is a guy?" the black-haired fox asked.

"Is that why you were quiet earlier, you thought Otori-san's a girl?" Yuki gave out a laugh. Rukawa Kaede was just about to talk (another stern lecturing) when the red-haired Sakuragi Hanamichi interrupted.

"Oi Kitsune!" Sakuragi called.

"What is it now, baka?"

"This girl..." the red-head continued "has been coming inside here for days and you haven't even introduced her to us."

"It's very ungentlemanly of you."Ryota added. Wait... Is ungentlemanly even a word?

"Rukawa, we're your team mates" Mitsui started. "And as your team mates…"

"You should've properly introduced your girlfriend to us" Sakuragi finished the sentence for him.

The boy and the girl stood there, dumbfounded. They looked at each other, puzzled. Suddenly the girl burst into laughter while the boy let out a sigh.

"What's so funny?" a confused Sakuragi asked.

"You tell them "Rukawa said to the girl before walking away, leaving them.

Sakuragi, Miyagi, and Mitsui exchanged confused looks. The girl was still laughing hysterically in front of them, which caused the rest of the people inside the gym to look at their direction.

Finally the girl stopped laughing and took a deep breathe, she was still smiling though.

"I'm sorry for laughing out loud" she said, trying to control herself from laughing hysterically.

"It's just that I found it very funny that all of you think that I'm Rukawa Kaede's girlfriend" she said, emphasizing the last three words.

"So you're not his girlfriend?" Ryota asked, scratching his head.

"Sorry to disappoint you guys but yes I'm not his girlfriend" she smiled. Sakuragi's jaws dropped.

"If you're not his girlfriend," Mitsui started "then..." but before he could finish, Yuki interrupted.

"Watshi wa Himawari Yukime desu," said the girl bowing respectfully at them. "I am Rukawa Kaede's younger sister." she continued.

A moment of silence passed before any of them was able to respond.

"WHAT?" The three shouted in perfect unison.

"You're that jerk's younger sister?" Sakuragi asked, twitching. The girl nodded and smiled.

"You...don't look alike..." Miyagi pointed out.

"True. They say I look more like our mother, but if you've noticed our eyes are both blue." she answered.

"But you don't have the same last name..." Mitsui argued but before Yuki could give him an answer, captain Akagi called on everyone to resume practicing.

"Who would've thought that Rukawa Kaede had a younger sister?" Ayako and a now grateful Haruko approached Yuki and started asking questions, which she happily answered.

She told them that their parents are divorced and she's been using her mom's last name since then. They divorced when she was only five and her brother was seven. Soon after the divorce was finalized they went to America and stayed there for 6 years before returning to Japan. However, they(Yuki and her mother)stayed in Tokyo for a couple of years before returning to Kanagawa. Not like Tokyo was very far, it was just located in a neighboring prefecture. She also told them that she just transferred to Tomigaoka Jr. High on that school year. She's a third-year student of that said institution. She had always wanted to go to the schools where her brother studied and Shohoku was number one on her list on where she would like to study in high school. She also told them that she and her brother lived in an apartment all by themselves. Their father lives with their grandfather in his house (they all lived there too before the divorce) and that their mother is currently staying with their other grandfather in his house. Since both houses were far from any school. Their father rented an apartment for her brother which was near Tomigaoka and Shohoku. When she transferred to Tomigaoka that year she lived with his brother in his 2-bed apartment, which is now theirs.

Yuki told them a LOT about them but make sure she didn't divulge anything personal about her brother. It was still his personal life and it wouldn't be right if she told them that her brother's fate would probably be similar to their father's, trapped in an arranged marriage. She also didn't tell them about their parents' marriage being arranged, they'd probably laugh. Yuki took a deep breathe. It was already 6:38. They have had very long conversation. Then her cellphone started to ring. She took it from her pocket and looked at the screen. Her mom was calling, she answered it quickly.

"Oi Kaede-niichan!" She called to her brother who was still on the court practicing improving his shooting skills. The black-haired Kitsune approached his beaming sister.

"What is it?" he asked in his usual low-toned voice.

"Mom's waiting outside. We'll be eating at grandpa's"

"You go ahead. I'll just eat at home... "

"Mom says grandpa wants us to stay over for the weekend."

"I'll just stay at home."

"Mou...Oniisan..." The girl whined and looked at him with puppy dog eyes. It irritated him.

"Fine, I'll go.", he finally surrendered, sighing in defeat. The girl would keep bugging him if her were to say 'no' to her.

He went inside the boy's locker room and changed into his school uniform. He walked with his sister towards Shohoku's gate onto their mother who was outside the school grounds, waiting right inside her car.

The End

Author's blah-blah:

So…how was it? Sorry if Rukawa was a bit OOC...

To ze reviewer:You guessed right….Yuki is Kaede's sister, are you psychic? Lol

I MIGHT make a sequel to this fic… well it depends on my mood and if I have a lot of spare time…it's back to school here in the Philippines and I don't really have the luxury of time….

I've been seeing a lot of Choutaro Otori for almost a month now due to excessive obsession with Prince of Tennis…while I was writing this, Otori kinda popped into my mind and before I knew it, I was putting him in this fic….I'm not even sure if I spelled his name right…I just kinda borrowed him for this fic...

Disclaimer: I do not own SD, nor do I own Choutaro Otori.

Read and Review!

A million thanks!

Jhin-koi Aokawa