-At Seishun Gakuen's canteen-

Takeshi searched around the canteen but there was no sign of the person he was looking for. Takeshi had gone to his classroom to find him but he was told that he had gone somewhere else to eat his bento. Takeshi was not about to give up as he was determined to find Kaidoh to have lunch together.

Takeshi bumped into Ryoma near the tennis court. "Take-nii, what are you doing carrying your bento and running around? Do you know that you look silly like that?"

"Urusai na! Tell me, have you seen Kaidoh around?"

"Eh… Now I see the picture…" Ryoma teased his second brother. "No I haven't seen him here but I think that I remember seeing an orange bandana under the huge sakura tree on my way…"

"Ok! Thanks man, I owe you one!" Takeshi jumped up and took off immediately.

Takeshi approached the sakura tree at the school's backyard silently.

'Sure I can see Kaidoh from here… but how do I get to him without scaring him away…' Takeshi thought.

Since no answer came into his mind, he decided to act like he was there by coincidence.

"Hey Kaidoh! Wow what a coincidence too see you here! Can I join you for lunch then?"

Kaidoh seemed unpleased to be found by Takeshi and though reluctant, he nodded to Takeshi's request. After Takeshi had suddenly confessed to him last year, he had been appearing in front of Kaidoh during all break times. No matter how Kaidoh tried to hide from him, he had always managed to find him. Sometimes Kaidoh wondered if Takeshi was stalking him…

"Oh gosh! What a cliché excuse… Takeshi is lousy at chasing!" Kikumaru whispered.

Practically all the Seigaku Regulars plus Ryoma were spying on Takeshi and Kaidoh behind the nearest school building. Kikumaru had chanced upon the anxious Takeshi talking to Ryoma a few minutes ago and got wind of what Takeshi was doing and immediately spread the news to his fellow Regulars. The only ones who were not present were Captain Shou and his brother, Ruki. They had always been unmoved by such gossips, which they deemed as meaningless.

Takeshi kept trying to give the ingredients in his bento to Kaidoh, who refused his offers profusely. But Takeshi continued pestering Kaidoh to the extent that Kaidoh's tolerance had reached the "red alert" level and ranted at him.

"Takeshi, can you just please stop trying to push all your food to me? I don't want ANY additions to my bento and I hope that I can finish my lunch in peace PLEASE!!! I am already trying my best to accommodate you coming to find me during lunch breaks all the time! Can you please stop acting so abnormally???"

Takeshi was shocked at Kaidoh's sudden outburst and agreed not to pester him. Being rejected by Kaidoh repeatedly made Takeshi gloomy and sad as he felt that all his efforts were futile. He felt so miserable that he was on the verge of crying and he kept his head down the whole time in order not to let Kaidoh feel weird or angry anymore.

"Awww… Poor Takeshi… Kaidoh's ranting must have hurt him a lot…" Kikumaru said in a low voice looked as if he felt sorry for Takeshi.

"Well, Kaidoh is straight and he has a hot temperament. Takeshi must be ready to go against all odds if his target is Kaidoh…" Oishi gave his piece of thought.

"Hey guys! Let's cheer for Takeshi! At least if he knows that he has our moral support, he will feel better and be stronger!" Kikumaru suggested.

"Kikumaru-senpai, don't you mean you just want to have fun seeing how they'll work out in the end?" Ryoma voiced out Eiji's real intentions which got him a heavy hit on his head.

"TAKESHI! GAMBATTE!" The Seigaku Regulars shouted and escaped from their hiding place.

Takeshi heard his friends' cheer and got hyped up. Kaidoh, on the other hand, was red with embarrassment and kept trying to find out exactly who were watching them but to no avail.

-At Club Practice-

Ryoma was approaching the tennis court to attend club practice and found a whole bunch of people surrounding the ranking board and the fellow first-years were discussing within themselves excitedly.

Just as Ryoma had finished changing and exited the changing room, he noticed a girl with a mole below her right eye and two ponytails from his class running towards him and wondered if she had any messages to pass to him.

"Ryoma-sama, CONGRATULATIONS! I knew that you have it in you!" Sakuno's friend exclaimed.

"Nani?" Ryoma had no clue about what this over-jovial girl, whom he only recognized as a classmate and was already addressing his as 'sama', was talking about.

"Ryoma-sama, you're going to compete in the ranking competition with the senpais!!! Sakuno and I will cheer you on!" the hyperactive girl broke the good news to him.

Ryoma did not express any of his feelings but just lowered his cap and smirked. As he headed towards the tennis court, he passed by Sakuno who was trying to improve her form. Sakuno realized Roma's presence and stopped her practice.

"Ano… Ryoma-kun, Con… Congratulations for being in the Ranking Tournament! The senpais are tough, so… be careful…" Sakuno congratulated Ryoma in a rather shy tone.

"You bend your knees too much…" Ryoma suddenly spoke while using his racket to poke Sakuno's knee.

"Huh?"

"Don't flick your wrist like that, you open your shoulders too wide and your hair is too long. You should cut it…" Ryoma advised Sakuno as he walked away.

"Wh… What does my hair got to do with my form?!" Sakuno blushed and retorted Ryoma's comments but she was actually delighted that Ryoma had talked to her.

"A-block has Shou-senpai and Syuichiroh-senpai. B-block has Ruki-senpai and Kawamura-senpai. C-block has Ruki-senpai and Takeshi-senpai. D-block has Kaidoh-senpai, Dentai-senpai and Ryoma. This ranking tournament is going to be exciting!" Horio told Kato and Katsuo.

"Heh… Ryoma-kun is in the ranking tournament! How cool is that!" said Kato, who was already starting to see Ryoma as his "idol".

"Ryoma won't stand a chance to win against the Regulars! You saw their smash practice the other day, didn't you? No matter what kind of balls were hit towards them, they could hit the balls back into the basket easily." Horio said with much confidence.

"But when Syuichiroh-senpai hit one of the balls too hard and it flew to Ryoma's court, Ryoma hit it back into the basket easily as well!" Katsuo argued.

"Hey, that's Ryoma heading towards us! RYOMA!" Kato detected Ryoma and called out loud to him.

"Ryoma-kun, be sure to beat the senpais and earn glory for the first years!" Kato cheered him on.

"Ff-ssssshhhhh!" A hiss came out from behind a stretch of bush in front of where the first-years were standing and it scared them, except Ryoma.

They turned and noticed a familiar orange bandana behind the bush and just as they thought, Kaidoh, the owner of the orange bandana rose from behind the bush and glared at them.

"Aren't you first-years supposed to be warming up?"

Horio, Kato and Katsuo got intimidated by Kaidoh and ran off after apologizing. Ryoma stared at Kaidoh for a while before walking away while saying that he was scary in a rather calm tone.

The ranking tournament had started. There were many girls, most of them were in their third year, crowding at the court where Shou was having his match. Although Shou was well-known to be a strict and serious captain, he was very famous with the girls for his gentleness and courteousness. More importantly, he was a beauty himself and an intelligent one too. Shou's beautiful features, especially his big and bright eyes, and his slender figure had mesmerized many girls and over the years, they had built a huge Shou fan club amongst themselves.

On the other court, there were many first-years cheering for Ryoma with Tomoko (the hyperactive girl from Ryoma's class) being the loudest. So far, Ryoma had won his matches easily and the same goes for the Regulars.

The first half of the ranking tournament for the day had finished and everyone was given a short break. Ruki had offered to take over Syuichiroh's duty of recording the scores. When Syuichiroh asked how he fared, Ruki casually replied that he had won easily as usual and went on to discuss about Ryoma's performance.

"That first-year's got skill… I see that he has a perfect score so far."

"Yeah, he sure is good. Don't underestimate him or you'll get it." Syuichiroh warned him.

"I see that you are backing up your own nephew to intimidate me huh. It's a pity I'm not going to be matched against him so soon because I'll definitely crush that egoism of his. He's got a perfect score for now but he's going to have trouble with his next opponent, isn't he?" Ruki smirked.

"Ff-sssshhhhhh!"

"Ah, I see that the ochiibi's next opponent is already geared up and is in his battle mode, huh." Ruki gave his remark as he turned and saw Kaidoh, who was slouching and swaying his body and hands slightly.

It was finally the time for Kaidoh and Ryoma's match.

"One set match. Tezuka Ryoma VS Kaidoh Kaoru! Tezuka Ryoma to serve!"