Enjoy this chapter!

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Rinko looked up at the building. Monosports School. Ryoma must be somewhere behind these buildings.

That boy…according to those rumours that they were spreading like wild-fire, he must be happily living with one of those lowly girls' house. Damn him, it's all because of Ryoma that she did not dare to look at anybody's eyes now. And the other day, Ms. Misako was boasting about the rumours so proudly, and acting so 'concerned', argh…it's so humiliating…

And so here she is, in front of Ryoma's supposed workplace. It had better be real because if she found out that he had been lying to her even about his workplace, she's totally going to faint of anger.

"Hey, where are you going?" "To give Ryoma a piece of my mind! Damn it I freaking hate that woman!" "Che, but you're the one that chased him out of the house." "Shut up you useless bum! I'm going to find Ryoma!" "What for? I thought you vowed not to care about him anymore?" "I'm not going to care about him, I'm just going to find him, that's all!"

That stupid pervert Nanjirou just had to stare at her with such disbelieving eyes. "If you miss him just say so…" He had whispered.

"I do not miss him!" She had shouted.

Yeah, she kind of missed him.

She missed the sound of him practicing with Nanjirou after school, the shuffling of his feet, the 'tok' sound the tennis ball always made. She missed the voice, no matter how tired or exhausted he would be, when Ryoma entered the house, shouting "I'm home!" She missed the way he fed Karupin, she missed the way he always got irritated when he found out that they had run out of Ponta. She missed the way she always had to remind him to do his schoolwork and not immerse himself all day with tennis practice. And she would miss his frustrated expression after that, clearly wanting to continue practicing…

Yeah, she missed his son a lot.

Well, to be more specific, she missed his old self. Even if Ryoma was her son, she would still not forgive Ryoma and let him into her house if he continued going to that Aging Bar.

She sighed. But even so, she was still his mother, and she could not sleep properly yesterday night, and probably never will if she did not see him for herself and ensure that he is alright.

So Ryoma had better not be lying when he told her that his workplace was here.

"Excuse me, boys." She called out to a group of running boys, about seven or eight years old, holding onto tennis rackets. "Could you tell me where does Echizen-sensei teach?"

They blinked in curiousity. "Eh, nee-san, you want to learn tennis from him?"

Before Rinko was able to reply, the group of boys broke out into a heated discussion.

"No, nee-san, don't go to him!" "Yeah! He's evil!" "He's really fierce!" "Yeah, I was under him once, and I was late for ten minutes, and he made me run twenty laps!" "He's cruel!" "He doesn't let us talk in practice!" "He made a girl cry before!" "Yeah, Haruhi, right? Nee-san, don't go to him, Haruhi did not practice what he told her to, then he scolded her till she cried!" "Yeah, it was horrible!" "But he did gave her a lollipop after that…"

Rinko stared at them, amused, as they continued complaining about Echizen-sensei. Strict and uptight, that was just so like him…

"So, he's not nice, isn't he?"

Rinko had expected a loud and unanimous "Yes!", but it did not come. Instead, the boys just started scratching their heads and fidgeting.

"No, nee-san, he's quite nice actually…" "Yeah, he would give us little sweets and would praise us when we did well." "Yeah, and he's really good at teaching." "I think he's the best among all the other coaches. I can understand him better." "And he's one of the few teachers that can appreciate our jokes too!" "Yeah! Though if we joked at inappropriate times he would give us harsh punishments…"

Rinko smiled at the change in attitude of the boys. A moment ago they were complaining about him, but now they were praising him? Maybe he was just too strict for his own good. "So, could you tell me where does he teach?"

The boys pointed in the direction of the east. "Court 5."

"Thanks."

The boys giggled slightly. "He brought his girlfriend along too." They commented, laughing cheekily. "So he's slightly nicer today."

Girlfriend? It couldn't be, he actually brought the much talked about girl over to his workplace? This is outrageous!

Rinko stood up straight suddenly, face glaring with lividness. Great, she's going to meet that girl, so today she is so going to beat the crap out of that damn girl that made Ryoma run away from home!

She walked hastily towards court 5, ignoring the weird stares from the boys behind her.

"Hey, why are you late? Run 50 laps now!" Ryoma's stern ordering voice was heard distinctly even when Rinko was still halfway there.

"Eh~ Come on Echizen-sensei, I had detention, I can't help it, blame it on my teacher!"

"I said 50 laps, didn't you hear me?"

The little boy groaned for a while, and looked at a certain girl sitting at the bench with puppy eyes. "Sakuno-chan, I had detention…"

"No asking Sakuno for help, run your 50 laps now!"

The girl, supposedly Sakuno, ran up to Ryoma with a towel. "Come on, Ryoma, he's only late for five minutes." She said, trying to help the boy, wiping the sweat off Ryoma's face. "Why do you need to punish him that harshly? He's already punished enough with a detention." Seeing Ryoma's unnerved expression, she added sweetly. "Come on…"

Ryoma rolled his eyes. "Whatever…" He said softly.

The girl smiled. She turned to the boy. "Alright then, Sam, just run 5 laps for warm-ups, okay?"

"Okay! Thanks Sakuno-chan!" Sam said happily, as he started running.

Ryoma sighed as he watched his student run. He wrapped his hands casually around Sakuno's waist. "Gosh you are spoiling them too much…"

The girl smiled as she continued wiping Ryoma's sweat.

Rinko glared at the scene. Oh gosh, the girl is so annoying… Rinko thought as she stared at them. Goodness me, the way Ryoma was holding onto her, they were so close! Rinko just could not imagine what they were doing every night…

Sakuno, huh? So it was her that made Ryoma rebel against her, that made Ryoma disobey his mother's words for the first time, that made Ryoma run away from home, and made her so worried about him, and made her lose her face in front of that damn Ms. Misako… It was all that annoying girl's fault!

That girl, she's going to get it…

She crept silently towards the courts, so that Ryoma would not notice her, but that annoying girl would. "Psst! Hey!" She whispered.

The auburn hair girl frowned as she seemed to hear something. She turned her head as she spotted Rinko. She looked around, and pointed to herself. "Me?" She seemed to say.

"Yes you! Come here!" Rinko whispered, irked, as she signaled Sakuno to follow her. Sakuno blinked in confusion and followed Rinko hesitantly.

"Erm, may I help you?" Sakuno asked, as she approached Rinko.

Rinko rolled her eyes. "Let's get straight to the point, shall we, so you don't need to act nice and all. Listen, I'm Ryoma's mother, and I'm asking you, no, I'm ordering you, to leave Ryoma now, Sakuno."

It took a while for Sakuno to digest what she said. And when she did, she gasped. "Y…you're…Ryoma's…mum?"

"Yes, I am Ryoma's mum." Rinko said, smiling slightly at Sakuno's shocked and frightened face. "Why? You scared now?" She threatened further.

"E…Echizen-san!" Sakuno exclaimed, almost shouting. "You've misunderstood Ryoma!"

Rinko blinked. Okay…this was not the kind of response she was expecting. She was expecting the girl to apologise, or at least get angry and call her to "F**k off, b*tch", or cry and run over to Ryoma for help, or laugh at her for her stupidity at her request. But shouting something like that so fervently…was not something she had in mind. So Rinko had no idea how to react to this sentence, and just stood there while Sakuno poured everything to her.

"It's like this, Echizen-san, Ryoma-kun was only going to the Aging Bar because of me! My grandmother is sick, and I need to earn money for her treatment, so I started working at the Aging bar because that place gives the highest salary for a part time worker. And in the Aging Bar, I'll get a double and a pay rise whenever I have a regular, and that's what Ryoma is doing; he's coming over loyally every week to become a regular of mine! We do nothing wrong, nothing…nothing that everyone was gossiping about! He's not addicted or anything, he's not a pervert! He's just coming over for 30 minutes every week to let me get a double so that my grandmother can be treated sooner, since my grandmother is his tennis coach after all…"

Sakuno said the whole chunk with one breath, so now she gasping for breath, and tears were circling in her eyes, ready to come out anytime soon.

Rinko stared at the girl, this time it was her that was given time to digest whatever that was said. "So…Ryoma did not become sick in his mind, he just wanted to help you."

Sakuno nodded her head. "Yeah…" She said.

So…all these times, she had misunderstood Ryoma all along. But why didn't Ryoma explain to her then? Guilt rushed into Rinko's heart, but she frowned, as she thought over it logically again. "Well, I still can't forgive Ryoma, or you." Rinko said. Sakuno blinked in surprise at Rinko.

"Well, firstly, just because of you, Ryoma's grades were deteriorating, Ryoma ran away from home and broke my heart, weird, disgusting rumours started to spread out that might as well ruin the rest of us Echizens' lives…And it's all you and your insensible and selfish means to earn as much money as possible. How am I going to forgive you? Huh? How great are you for Ryoma to do all those for you?" Rinko said harshly.

She watched as the pig-tailed girl broke into tears, sniffing hardly as she tried to apologise. "I…I'm…really…sorry…I didn't mean to…harm R…R…Ryoma like…that…"

Rinko sighed. "Don't cry that much." She said, taking out a tissue for her. Sakuno took the tissue and rubbed her puffy cheeks. Sakuno did look kind of cute, now that she thinks of it. The tight sports clothes she was wearing showed off her body curves perfectly, and her miniskirt traced her thighs nicely too. She's really pretty…

Knowing her son, she could roughly guess the reason why Ryoma did all that for her. Ryoma was just like his father, a man without words, doing everything for the girl despite whatever trouble it was causing him. Rinko smiled unknowingly as she continued thinking. Maybe she should not have been that harsh on Sakuno. It was not totally her fault, Ryoma probably did all those willingly.

"A…Anou…Echizen-san…so are you going to let Ryoma back to your house…?"

Rinko laughed a little. "It's alright, he can continue living at your house." He'll probably wish for that too.

Sakuno blinked. "Huh?"

"It's so troublesome taking care of him. So I'd rather count on you to take care of him. Make sure his grades are back to where it was." Rinko said, walking away.

Sakuno bowed. "Thank you, Echizen-san! I'd make sure to get him to study very hard everyday!"

Rinko smiled in reply. Sigh…in a way, it is assuring to have such a responsible daughter-in-law taking care of my son.

Now that she knows Ryoma is in safe hands, she can leave with no regrets.

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Alright, this chapter is a bit screwed since I rushed it out. Hope you enjoyed anyway!

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