Loneliness…

"Echizen?" Ryoma jumped and snapped his notebook shut. "Working on your writing thing already?"

"Momo…" the younger boy sighed; he needed privacy to work on his project, and as much as he enjoyed Momo's company, he didn't want him to read his work. He made a shooing gesture with his free hand, his notebook tightly shut in the other.

"Aaaw, Echizen, let me see. At least tell me which word you got" Ryoma just shook his head and made the shooing gesture again. "Well, I was talking to An-chan earlier and she said the Fudomine guys have to do this too, and they all told each other their words."

"Nothing to do with us, Momo-senpai…"

"Yes it is, they had the same pack of words as us! I only know what her brother and Kamio got so far, and if you won't tell me what you got, I'll assume you got a really awkward one like rhythm-boy did." The freshman paused and gave Momo a questioning look, urging him to continue. "Love"

When Momo said that, it was as if the atmosphere of the park had frozen, an awkward silence hanging over the two of them as both waited for the other to say something. That was not a word to be said in the other's company.

"Well, I didn't get it"

"Neither did I, I wonder who did? Maybe Eiji has it, it's the kind of thing he'd like to write about and he seemed pretty happy at what he got…" The older of the pair stopped talking when he noticed a boy with flaming red hair sat on a bench nearby, eating an ice cream in the same enthusiastic, incredibly messy manner Eiji did. Momo grinned and left, giving Ryoma the peace he had wanted.

Loneliness is just a shorter term for a lack of company. Sort of. Well, not really. Lack of company is something people get all the time, I like a lack of company sometimes, but loneliness…No, they're completely different. Loneliness isn't about having nobody with you, I used to get lonely a lot and I was always surrounded by people, and yet when I'm by myself, I'm not lonely. My head hurts.

He looked up from his notebook and saw Momo chatting to Eiji, the pair of them laughing loudly and poking each other. He also noticed that Momo now had an ice cream too, and knew all too well that today was one of those days when his violet eyed friend had left his wallet somewhere ridiculous like in the bathroom or in his underwear drawer.

Heh…they were always good at getting treats from Eiji, he really was a pushover when it came to things like that. Having an idea, Ryoma stood up, closed his notebook again and went to talk to Eiji for a while.

When Eiji had to leave, Ryoma took out his book and started scribbling down all he could remember.

Two older students I know are best friends, but they're in different classes so even they must feel lonely sometimes. They have other friends too, but they're probably tighter than my parents. Kikumaru-senpai says if you're truly close to someone, you can't be lonely because they're always with you in your heart. That doesn't make sense, once I left all of my friends behind and I'd never felt so lonely in my whole life. But I don't know if it was all of them or just one. Because even when I got back I felt lonely, until I found just one friend in particular.

"Have you ever felt lonely, Momo-senpai?" Ryoma mumbled out of the blue as the former rejoined him on his bench. He sat back and thought quietly for a while.

"Yes, yes I have"

"When?" Momo didn't respond, he just stayed quiet, looking up at the sky and thinking again. Ryoma didn't mind the silence, it wasn't awkward like before; it was calming. So calming, in fact, Ryoma had found himself quite lost in Momo's eyes for a second, the sunshine making them glitter amethyst. He winced as a sudden click from under the bench made him realise he had dropped his pen, about to reach through the planks of the bench to retrieve it, he froze. His companion had idly placed his hand on Ryoma's, Momo began to grin.

"Want to know when I stop being lonely?"

"Go ahead…"

"When I'm with you, shortstop" Momo chuckled, ruffled Ryoma's hair and left. Ryoma opened his mouth to speak, but instead smiled contentedly as his friend walked away.

I got back from America feeling like I was completely lost and on my own. I made my way to the tennis courts and Momo-senpai was there. He flashed me that usual stupid, cheesy grin and I knew from then on I would never be lonely again.