AN: Can you imagine it? I actually managed to write 5 Chapters! haha! Just for the knowledge of those who hadn't read this fic before, (cuz I originally posted this earlier this year... February, I think.) I already finished the plot. I already planned all the important parts. So, I guarantee you that this fic will not be abandoned! Anyway, why don't you read the chapter, instead of reading about the nonsense (not) that I wrote here! haha! Enjoy! And Review while you're at it!

Chapter 5:

The next morning, Ryoma did not attend the tennis practice so he just went straight to the classroom, which was almost empty, except for the few people who usually come very early in the morning. Ryoma arrived earlier than usual and just decided to take a nap since there is nothing else better to do.

After a few more minutes, Sakuno finally arrived. She brought an extra bentou today and wanted to give it to Ryoma as a thank you gift for letting her eat dinner at their house yesterday and walking her home again. She approached her seat beside Ryoma and noticed that the boy was napping. She giggled silently to herself, watching the funny expression he makes while sleeping.

The morning came and went quickly. There was no quiz or special announcement. The day was just plain boring and Ryoma felt tired just thinking about how boring this day could be since there will be no tennis practice to look forward to. It was lunch time and he decided to go to the Sakura tree, where he usually eats with Sakuno.

He did not feel like eating lunch today, so he just laid down under the huge tree and took a nap. Sakuno was not there with him because she was doing an errand for the teacher. Their English teacher asked her to return some of the books to the library. He sighed quietly and thought of the happenings the other day. He remembered the looks from his team mates. He thought that they were looking at him with pity. But in reality, they were only worried about him. Him, being the dense person that he is, misinterpreted their reactions and thought that they were just looking at him with pitiful eyes. He wouldn't be surprised if they would be mocking him right now, thinking that he was such a show off even when he is really a weak boy.

While he was thinking, Sakuno arrived carrying two bento boxes. Ryoma didn't notice her approach as he was still preoccupied with his dark thoughts. Sakuno lightly patted his shoulders and Ryoma gave her a bored look.

"What?" Ryoma asked in a bored tone, closing his eyes and leaning against the tree.

"I brought lunch… As thanks for the dinner yesterday." Sakuno responded happily.

Ryoma looked at the lunch offered to him. Although he did not want to eat today, he could not resist the delicious looking food served in front of him. He reluctantly reached for it and muttered a "Thanks." to the smiling Sakuno.

They ate in silence and Sakuno tried to make Ryoma talk but, he is unusually more silent today. Although he does not really talk much, this silent treatment is really weird. Sakuno sighed and thought of something. She seemed to notice that Ryoma is really bored today. She remembered looking at his bored expression throughout the day. Then a thought came into her mind.

"Do you want to go to the music club today?" she asked suddenly.

Ryoma looked at her dumbly. Why would he want to go to the music club? Their club president specifically told them that they are not required to attend every day, but also said that they may come to their club room if ever they have the time. Since he did not have tennis practice in the afternoon, he would be having the rest of the day free. He certainly did not want to go home earlier and just be pestered by his annoying father. Finally, he decided that going to the music club was not such a bad idea.

"Sure… I don't mind." He said in a monotonous tone.

Sakuno smiled brightly at that. "I could go with you if you want." She offered.

"No need. You'll miss tennis practice."

"I don't mind."

"No. You should attend practice. You suck, so you should practice more.", he lightly teased.

Sakuno pouted a little. "Mou~. I don't suck that much."

"But you do suck." he said, smirking.

"Fine." She finally gave up.

"The bell will ring soon. Let's go back." Ryoma said as he stood up and walked towards the building, Sakuno slowly following him.

~~~~hohohohoho~~~~

Ryoma sat at the back of the music room, staring at the loud mouthed president of the music club. The moment he entered the room, about 10 minutes ago, Ishikawa has been bugging him to be the representative for a competition that they would be participating. Although Ryoma bluntly rejected him, the guy was so persistent. He has been talking non-stop since he entered the club room and Ryoma was thinking that maybe going to the music club on this boring day was not a really great idea. He mentally accused Sakuno, who is not here, for getting him into this bothersome situation.

Ryoma loudly sighed and decided to talk, "Ishikawa-sempai, could you please shut up? That annoying voice of yours makes me dizzy."

"Wha-!" Ishikawa exclaimed. He then looked at Ryoma with a fake sad expression.

"But Ryoma-sama! You should definitely join that contest! We will surely win it if you participate!" he whined.

Ryoma raised his brows and looked at the loud president in the eye, giving him an annoyed look.

"No way." He said. He went to the back of the room and decided to just nap for a while before going home.

Ishikawa sighed loudly and looked at Ryoma's retreating form. He will surely not give up in persuading the stubborn first year to join the contest.

Sigh! "Why don't you play a song with me, Echizen-kun." He asked. Maybe playing a song could change his mind?

Ryoma, after much thought, just shrugged and nodded. He did not want to be doing nothing till it gets a bit later. He might as well play something.

"So what song?" Ryoma asked after getting the school owned cello from the glass cabinet at the back of the room.

"Secret!" Ishikawa said in a teasing voice, pointing his index finger out to Ryoma and doing a ridiculously idiotic and stupid looking pose.

A vein popped on Ryoma's head and he glared at the idiot looking senior.

"Are we playing or what?" he asked threateningly, pointing the end of the bow of his borrowed cello at his stupid sempai.

"Hehe! Just kidding! The song we will play is Secrets by One Republic." He said giving Ryoma a full grin.

Ryoma rolled his eyes and proceeded to read the music sheet that Ishikawa gave him. He was familiar with the song. And he was surprised that their seemingly idiot president knows an English song. He just shrugged it off and seated at his side after familiarizing with the notes.

"Ready?" asked Ishikawa, while holding his violin in place.

"Yeah…" Ryoma muttered.

Then they started the duet. It a pretty simple piece for Ryoma. And the sound was nice. Some of the other members were starting to hum along the song they were playing. It was a pretty good experience, Ryoma thought. He never played like this before. His audience before were only his parents. It felt nice listening to the voices harmonize with the sound of the violin and the cello. Hearing the sound of violin sing along with the tone of the cello felt new to him. He had always been playing solo pieces and sometimes he would play with the piano played by his mother.

After finishing the piece, a round of applause was given to them by their fellow club mates. Ishikawa bowed gracefully and thanked everyone, acting like he just finished a wonderful concert. Ryoma just went back to seating on one of the desks after returning the borrowed instrument to its original place. Some of the members approached him to his seat.

"Echizen-san! That was a nice song you played. You really are talented!" said a girl who looked like a second year. She was a brunette, short hair reaching only to the back of his neck and was pinned behind her ears.

"Yeah! You were awesome! I wish I could play like you! And you played beautifully as well the last time when we had our individual presentation!" exclaimed a black haired first year boy. He was bouncing up and down like a child.

"Yeah! I didn't expect that you were this good, Echizen-kun. You were always at one corner and not socializing with everybody." Said a tall guy, probably a second year. He wore glasses and had a messy reddish brown hair.

Ryoma stared at them blankly, wondering who the heck these people were and why they were talking to him. Did they not know that they should not be talking to strangers! And why did they know his name? Suspicious… he narrowed his eyes as he looked at them one by one.

"Will all of you pipe down? You're all too noisy. And I don't even know you people, so quit pestering me." Ryoma said in an irritated voice, turning his head towards the window and away from the trio.

The three of them looked at Ryoma disbelievingly. Didn't they introduce themselves the first time they attended club meeting? This guy sure has a bad memory.

Ryoma turned his head to them as they started introducing themselves to him.

"My name's Usui Seiko, second year." Said the brunette.

"I'm Yukimura Hideo, first year." Said the black haired one.

"And I'm Hayagawa Shouta, second year." Said the messy haired one.

Ryoma stared at them for a while with a bored expression. Then he yawns. A sweatdrop appeared behind their heads. Then Ryoma spoke.

"Ah…Sou. Echizen desu." He said. Too lazy to tell them of their first name and also forgetting that they already know his name.

"Well, nice to meet you, Echizen-san!" said the girl named Seiko while the other two looked at Ryoma with admiration.

"What?" Ryoma asked in an irritated voice after a couple of minutes. The three of them were still there beside him and were looking at him in a strange manner.

"Nothing! Hehe…" said Shouta. "You're not very sociable are you?" he added.

"Yeah. You're always sitting at one corner. And the person you only talk to is Sakuno-chan, from your class.", said Hideo.

Ryoma got up and headed for Ishikawa to ask for permission to leave early, seeing that there is nothing more interesting happening and also because of the people disturbing his peace.

"W-wait! Where are you going, Echizen-san?" asked Seiko as soon as Ryoma got up.

"Leaving. It's too noisy here." Ryoma muttered.

"Come on, man! You got to show us more of your music!" said Shouta, slinging his arms over the shoulders of the smaller boy, shuffling his hair a little.

"Yeah! Play one more piece, Echizen!" added Hideo, standing in front of Ryoma, blocking his way.

Sigh! Don't these people have something better to do? he shouted in his head. "Next time." he muttered.

"Yeah!" shouted Hideo, raising his arms in the air and doing a victory dance.

"Great! That'll be awesome!" said Shouta as he ruffled the hair of Ryoma, making it a lot more messy.

"Shut up, you two! Now let go of Echizen-san.", said Seiko in a calm voice, while sending a glare to the two pests that were still clinging to Ryoma.

Shouta immediately let go of the poor lad and Hideo quickly placed his hands on his mouth, effectively shutting himself up. Seiko nodded in appreciation.

"Ja.", said Ryoma as he walked out of the music room. Glad that was over. Ryoma thought as he got out of the room, walking on the empty hallways of the school.

~~~~hohohohoho~~~~

He wandered for a bit, walking aimlessly around the campus of Seishun Gakuen. Occasionally stopping to observe his surroundings or look at something interesting. Tennis practice will not be over for about 40 more minutes so he figured he could go watch them train, since he has nothing better to do.

He walked towards the tennis court and sat on the bleachers on the side of the courts. He sat there looking at the regulars practice. They are now having drills to improve their footwork. They were alternately stepping on the spaces of a rope ladder in a very fast speed. Ryoma sighed heavily and was itching to join them practice. Oh how lucky were those people, not being hindered in playing the sport they really like. Ryoma felt jealous of them. They were all free to do whatever they want without worrying that your heart might "act up" again.

Ryoma clenched his fist as he sat there, watching how they performed their training. He noticed that Momo was not really doing a good job with it. He thought that it might be because of his previous injury. He smirked and told to no one in particular, "Mada mada dane."

Suddenly, Tezuka ordered them to do 25 laps around the court. The regulars kept whining and he threatened them that he would make them run more laps if they would not shut their loud mouths. They stiffened and proceeded to run the laps.

They were running around the court, most of them not noticing that Ryoma was there, observing them. Fuji, Oishi and Inui however, noticed him looking at them. They told the rest that Ryoma was there. Eiji jumped a bit and then immediately looked at him and when he finally spotted him he dashed towards him and gave him a bone crushing deathly hug. The rest of the regulars (except Tezuka, who was still left observing the rest of the team practice) followed him to the bleachers.

Ryoma struggles to be free of the too tight hug but to no avail, the hug of his hyperactive sempai was too much. Slowly his face turns purple because of too much hug. Oishi panicked and calmed down the acrobatic player.

"Eiji! Let go of Echizen, he is turning blue!" Oishi exclaimed.

"Oops! Gomen Ochibi!" Eiji said as he released the freshman rookie, leaving him slightly panting and cluching his heart lightly.

"You should stop doing that you know, sempai?" Ryoma said, giving him a glare after he recovered from the bone crushing hug.

"Mou~ Why so cranky, Ochibi? Are you okay? Do you feel sick? Are you having a fever? Oh my gosh! Oishi, what should we do? Do you want me to take you to the nurse? Am I talking too loud?" Eiji exclaimed, moving a little too much around them.

The rest of them sweatdropped. Oishi face palmed and sighed heavily. He placed his hand on Eiji's shoulder to calm him down.

"Calm down, Eiji. You know that Echizen might not be feeling well. You should not pressure him"

A vein popped on Ryoma's head. He looked down and letting his hair cover his expression. His eyes twitched and he clenched his fists. So that was what they were thinking… they think I could not handle myself and they think I'm sick and too ill to do anything… he thought darkly.

Fuji noticed the change in the mood of Ryoma and became concerned.

"Are you okay, Echizen?" he asked as he tapped the shorter boy's shoulder lightly. It was a gesture of concern. But suddenly, Ryoma grabbed his hand and threw it aside.

"Why wouldn't I be? You all think that I am weak now? Just because of what you saw yesterday?" he said in a slightly angered voice. He tried to calm himself down. Being angry is not something the doctor advised to prevent his heart from acting up. He took a deep breath and stared at his sempais.

"What are you talking about, Echizen?" asked a slightly worried Momo. He did not expect that Ryoma would act this way. He always thought that the boy was an arrogant brat but also an incredibly good tennis player.

"What I'm saying is that you all act as if you pity me? That look in your eyes says so…" he said as he looked away. That look was similar to the ones that I always receive from all those people from the hospital back in America. They did not understand anything and just thought that I was a pitiful weak boy. He added in his mind.

"Echizen, we don't pity you. We were all worried because you suddenly collapsed during our last practice. We just want you to know that you should rest so that you would feel better." Taka explained calmly. This caught Ryoma's attention. He looked at them questioningly. Most of them thought that the look Ryoma was giving them was not right. It was as if he could not figure out how he should react. It was like this situation was so new to him. To them, being worried for a friend is just natural when they don't feel alright. Fuji however, somehow noticed the kind of look the Ryoma showed them, and it made him a little bit sad for the young rookie.

It was true that Ryoma didn't get what they were implying. It was like they were worried about him. All the people who knew about him being sickly looked at him pitifully. Maybe it was because they knew that back then when his condition was a lot worse and he almost could not do anything. Those people knew about his sickness and thought that it was such a waste that a child with so much potential to be not so healthy. Most of the people he meets tell him that because of his sickness, he would not live a long life and he would be sick most of his life. The only people whom he knew that did not feel pity for him was his parents, his cousin and maybe some others.

He expected that the rest of the regulars would feel pity for him or would just mock him, saying that he was just pretending to be a good player when in truth, he really is weak. He looked at them again; he wondered what they felt that they now knew that he is sick.

"You're worried?" he finally asked.

"Of course! Friends worry about each other!" answered Eiji enthusiastically.

"Oh." Ryoma muttered. Finally it hit him. They were real friends and just like what they said, friends worry and look out for each other. He looked at them with a blank face and nodded his appreciation.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning for practice, Echizen." Tezuka suddenly said, appearing from behind Kaidoh, who just fssh-ed and looked away. Ryoma looked a bit taken aback by the captain's words. He just nodded and muttered a small 'yes' in reply.

After more minutes of pestering, courtesy by his sempais, he finally got tired and stood up. He insisted that he wanted to go home already and that he did not want any more of their bothersome-slash-amusing (though he would not admit it verbally) company.

After Ryoma left, Tezuka reminded the rest of the regulars about their still on-going practice and the 50 laps they ought to do because of slacking off. All of them just rushed back to the courts and continued their practice. Tezuka rubbed his aching head and thought of his sugar-high teammates and their, sometimes, idiocy.

~~~~hohohohoho~~~~

Ryoma walked silently and was lost in thought. He was kind of, sort of glad that his teammates did not feel pity for him. However, it was still bothersome having them worry like that. It was almost as bad as how his mother acts whenever he gets sick. Now he felt like he could trust them and this made him even more thrilled to play with them in the upcoming tournament. With guys like them on the same team, he wouldn't mind any other things other people tell him.

Unknown to Ryoma, a certain senior called his house and informed Rinko about a musical competition that would be held soon. He told Rinko that he wanted to make Ryoma join the contest along with some others, but because of his stubbornness, he wouldn't let the senior enter him into the competition. Rinko on the other hand, felt ecstatic. She said that she would love to see his son enter another type of contest aside from tennis and gave permission to the senior to register his name already for the contest.

Ryoma felt a chill and shuddered a little. He felt that it was a bad omen. He scowled at the thought and just brushed it off as he was welcomed by and overly happy Rinko as he went inside their home.

AN: Hey! How was the chapter? Please leave reviews!