Oh my gosh. I am SO SORRY! I intended to update this all two months ago...but yeah...apparently, my holiday just started yesterday so I stayed up a long time and finished this chapter. I've already done half of chapter 4 as well so...please be patient! Trust me, I know what it feels like when you're left hanging
I DO NOT OWN PRINCE OF TENNIS
Ryoma opened his eyes but quickly shut them again. Then he squinted and used his hand to shade his eyes, which were being invaded by piercing light. He stretched his arms out to pull the curtains together, blocking the sunlight. He groaned and blinked a few times. He looked at the ceiling and slowly breathed in and out.
Ryoma scowled and tiredly sat up on bed. He ruffled his hair and rubbed his eyes. Then he stared out the window sleepily. He effortlessly looked over to his clock and his eyes finally widened when he realized what time it was.
Crap! I'm going to be late! Ryoma immediately flung off his blanket and quickly got changed into his new uniform, which he found annoying with all the buttons to deal with.
After ten minutes of meddling with buttons, Ryoma finally stuffed his textbooks and stationary into his bag and gave one last look at his reflection in the mirror before dashing out of his room.
"Ah! Ohayo, Ryo-kun! Would you like some breakfast?" Rinko asked her son while frying a sunny-side egg up. Ryoma grabbed a piece of toast from his plate and held it towards the pan. Rinko smiled and placed the egg onto Ryoma's toast.
"I'm leaving!" Ryoma said as he ran out of the door.
"Have a great day!" Rinko said happily.
"Sakuno-chan! Ryoma-sama is coming to our school! How can you not be excited at all?" exclaimed Tomoka. Sakuno rolled her eyes and smiled sweetly.
"Tomoka-chan! You've known me for so long! I'm pretty sure you're more aware of the fact that I hate tennis than anyone else is, am I correct?" she said as Tomoka's angry face quickly dissolved and became silent. What more could she say? After all, the cause of Sakuno's parents' death was because of –
"KYA! It's ECHIZEN RYOMA-SAMA!" a series of shrieks and screams from a bunch of exited girls shattered Tomoka's dark thoughts. She and Sakuno both stood at the side of their school's front gate to see Echizen Ryoma be welcomed by his fan girls. Tomoka, of course also squealed as she immediately ran over to the club she had created to greet their idol
"OHAYO! RYOMA-SAMA! WELCOME TO SEIGAKU!" she shouted as she bounced up and down happily. The other members of Ryoma's fan club did the same. "Un…thanks…" Ryoma said, obviously used to all the commotion which he thought was absolutely normal. Sakuno laughed at Tomoka's enthusiasm and then proceeded towards the school's main building.
Sakuno slowly breathed in the air around her. How she had missed the presence of her school!
The Seigaku, comprising of 4 divisions – one for elementary, junior high, senior high, and university – held many precious memories that she could never find herself to forget, and neither would she ever want to forget.
Sakuno stopped in her tracks and closed her eyes. She carefully listened to her surroundings: friends greeting one another, laughter, the young gush of wind and birds chirping. The two corners of her mouth slowly bent into a small smile.
School was one of the few places Sakuno could ever find peace, making it her third favourite place to be at, next to her home. Of course, her first priority would definitely always be the t –
"Sakuno-chan!"
Sakuno's eyes shot open when she heard Tomoka's anxious and frightened voice. Sakuno turned around just in time to see Sasabe trying to reach out to her and Ryoma blocking him by standing in front of Sakuno and pointing his own tennis racket at Sasabe.
"Oi. What do you think you're doing?" Ryoma said. Silence engulfed everyone around them. Thousands of pairs of eyes were laid still on the three of them, not even daring to blink. Sasabe scowled.
"What's that gotta do with you, brat?" he questioned Ryoma annoyingly, obviously still not over the fact that this guy who was younger and smaller than him had won him in a tennis match. Ryoma remained emotionless.
"You lost in a bet to Ryuzaki. Learn to keep a promise," Ryoma replied calmly, still pointing his racket at Sasabe, not even flinching for a moment. Sasabe glared at Ryoma so hard Sakuno could have sworn she saw his veins starting the burst.
"Ano…you name…was it…Sakabe-kun? I'm sorry…but unlike Echizen-kun here…I have bad memory…but my bad memory only applies for the names of people I've made bets with. As for what the bets were about… I remember every single little detail like it's been printed on a piece of paper and read aloud. So shall we make a brief run-through of what happened yesterday…Sa – Sanake-kun?" Sakuno asked innocently. Sasabe immediately turned as red as a tomato.
"Hey! The name's SA – SA – BE! And there's no need to go over what happened – " he started, emphasizing every syllable in his name and wanting to stop Sakuno from repeating his failure yesterday, but instead got cut off by her.
"Yesterday morning, I bumped into Sasabe-kun," Sasabe smirked when he heard Sakuno finally get his name right, thinking that Sakuno might reconsider. However, he started to become red with embarrassment when he continued to listen to what Sakuno had to say. "And a little drama rose.
He offered to teach me tennis and started off by showing me how to hold the racket using the Western Style when he was really demonstrating the Eastern style. In comes Echizen-kun and he corrects Sanabe-kun and all that drama ends for a while, until Echizen-kun and Sakate-kun meet again at the tryouts to be become a Seigaku Tennis Regular and just so happen to face each other in the match."
Snickers and giggles could be heard from everywhere around them. People who knew Sakuno personally were well aware of the fact that Sakuno was getting Sasabe's name wrong so he would soon leave them alone. When they saw how humiliated Sasabe looked, they could not help but laugh even louder. Who told him to come and make such a commotion at the Academy? Next to tennis, what Sakuno hated the most was ANYONE who brought trouble or broke the peace at school.
"Right before the match, Satane-kun challenged me to a bet which was if he could beat Echizen-kun in the match they were about to have, I would have to go on a date with him. And the condition if he lost to Echizen-kun was that Sasake-kun would have to stay away from me. This condition was set by Echizen-kun which made sense since it wouldn't have been nice for him to be just used as a betting tool, am I right, everyone?" Sakuno asked as she looked at everyone around her. Nods followed wherever her sight went and Sakuno smiled as a thank you.
"And just as I had predicted…Samate-kun got pissed off because he was simply no match for Echizen-kun's extraordinary tennis skills and gave up halfway through the match. That ended the match, with Echizen-kun claiming his victory, which meant that Salase-kun would have to go with the condition set and stay away from me," Sakuno stopped and turned around to face Sasabe. Then her brows furrowed and it almost looked like she was apologizing to him and about to cry, like she had done something wrong but had no idea where she was at fault. Tomoka stifled a laugh as she witnessed Sasabe gulp when he felt his own face grow warm. Who would be able to keep a relaxed composure when Ryuzaki Sakuno was looking so cute and innocent?
Tomoka quickly scanned her surroundings. Of course, none of the girls seemed to be affected…or were they and just not showing it? Clearly Tomoka could see that Echizen Ryoma was as still as stone, racket still held up and pointing at Sasabe, observing every move Sakuno made. The Seigaku Tennis Regulars who just so happened to pass by after morning practice and stopped to cool down and watch the free show offered were also snickering. Even the team captain, Tezuka was showing a small smile. Tomoka also smiled when the thought of these big guys cornering Sasabe flashed through her mind.
"S-saBAKA-kun…was the c-condition Echizen-kun and I set un-unclear?" Sakuno asked. Tomoka had to laugh out loud at this one and shared a few glances with the smirking tennis regulars who also knew the hidden meaning behind this sentence: the real show was just about to start.
Sakuno had always taught her to act different from usual in front of others since it might save your life someday. But it was the total opposite for Sakuno. While the Sakuno everyone knew was the dangerous and daring girl who liked to play with fire, she was actually a shy and timid girl who only acted liked this to protect herself. But it did not seem work this way for her.
Ryuzaki Sakuno's inborn shy nature was what always saved her.
This was because people who did not know of this side of Sakuno were always shocked and without ever realizing they were being fooled all along would end up stalking Sakuno and soon get caught by the Seigaku Tennis Regulars and then have a friendly conversation with them before being dragged to meet the principle of the school they went to and suspended for a week.
"YES! Ah…I mean NO! Ah, don't cry Sakuno! T-this…this isn't like you! I guess…I'll just take my leave. J-just…DON'T CRY!" Sasabe said as he quickly turned on his heels and ran away. Sakuno sighed and looked at her watch.
"Tomo-chan! Hurry! We're going to be late!" Sakuno said. Tomoka immediately ran towards Sakuno and together, they walked towards the main building. Just as Ryoma was about to call out to Sakuno, she stopped in her tracks. Ryoma watched as she said something that caught Tomoka off guard.
Tomoka glanced at Ryoma and he raised an eyebrow.
They wouldn't happen to be talking about me, would they? He asked himself.
Tomoka looked back at Sakuno and said something that made Sakuno laugh. Sakuno replied gently, like she was assuring Tomoka about something the latter wasn't so sure about. Finally, Tomoka shrugged, as if giving in and walked towards Ryoma together with Sakuno.
"Echizen-kun? Do you know where your classroom is?" Sakuno asked with a smile on her face.
The more I look at that smile, the more fake I think it is… Ryoma thought.
"Huh? Oh, not really…" he said. Tomoka and Sakuno exchanged a glance. Then Tomoka sucked in her breath and exhaled loudly.
"We'll take you there…and if you'd like, we'll take you on a tour around the school during lunch break. We'll find you so you won't get lost anywhere," she said. Even if she didn't try to show it, Ryoma could sense she was worried.
"I wouldn't be bothering you?" Ryoma asked, obviously directing the question to Sakuno.
"Of course not! We don't have anything to do yet since it's just the first week so we're still pretty free! So, we'll see you later then, Echizen-kun?" Sakuno asked.
"Hn."
"I'll take that as a yes. Then, we'll find you at lunch! See you," Sakuno said and then turned around to walk towards the school.
"Ryoma-sama…" Tomoka said. Ryoma shifted his glance to the girl with pig-tails.
"Umm…it's rare for Sakuno to do something for you…I think she actually might have taken a liking for you…so…please, for everyone's sake, do you think…you could help Sakuno?" she asked pleadingly.
"What do you mean, help her? Isn't she perfectly fine? And why do you think she likes me? She obviously uses that sarcastic attitude when talking to me just as she does with everyone else," Ryoma replied emotionlessly. Tomoka sighed.
"You'll understand soon…Sakuno…she's known as the "Fallen Angel" in our school. You'll find out about it sometime later. But please! Promise me you'll help her! You're the only one who can!" Tomoka said.
"Tomo-chan!" Sakuno called out. Tomoka turned around and gave Sakuno a wave.
"Please…I'm begging you…I don't want to see her fall down more than she already has…" Tomoka begged. Ryoma was still confused but at the same time, he was curious. Why would Sakuno be called the "Fallen Angel"?
"Hn."
Tomoka sighed.
"Fine."
Tomoka's eyes lit up.
"Thank you!" she said and with that, she left him alone, standing in the middle of the school ground, still holding his racket with many questions unanswered.
"At least…I'll try…" he whispered.