Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own the plot, the characters, nor the awesomeness of PoT. I just own volume 1 of the manga that I bought yesterday! (I read the whole manga online and I just wanted to own a copy)

First off, THE FLIRTING STARTS! Whoohoo! Although no one gave me suggestions, which means you will have to read what an 8th grader considers flirting. (Not that Sakuno would be much better, in this story she's in 7th grade). And, this may sound stupid, I just learned that first years 7th grade, second years 8th grade and 3rd years 9th grade. I thought it went first years 6th, second years 7th, and 3rd years 8th, but the manga proved me wrong. Now, what I wanted to get to: THANK YOU TO ALL WHO REVIEWED, PUT THIS STORY ON FAVORITES, AND PUT THIS STORY ON ALERT! I will message all of you since putting it in the fanfic ruins my concentration so just be patient : (And I noticed I spelled Kadioh's name wrong last chapter and no one said anything…haha)

And now: The Art of Flirting: Chapter 3: Eiji.


Nervously, I looked through the fence into the guy's tennis courts. They were wrapping up like every day. The first years were picking up the balls, the non-regular second and third years were finishing up their games, and the regulars were finishing up a meeting with Tezuka-sempai. Then she saw him- his bright red hair pulled him out of the crowd. Plus, he was the only one screaming "Nyaa Ochibi!! Why do you have to be so mean!!" I had no idea what Ryoma-kun did, but I knew I didn't want to really find out. Nor did I have the time to find out- I had to put the plan into action. I clutched the fence, wanting this day to be over. I wanted to run away from the courts before any of them saw me, but I could feel Tomo-chan's glare. I knew I had to go through with this. I repeated in my head: eye contact, touch his arm, flirtatious smile, eye contact, touch his arm, flirtatious smile, laugh, eye contact, touch his arm…. Wait, what was the plan again? Oh no, Sakuno, do not go into a panic attack! Just calm down and you can remember…

Twenty minutes earlier:

"What's the plan Tomo-chan?" I asked nervously.

After being quiet for a few minutes, Tomo-chan spoke up,"Well, I decided one-on-one flirting would be best for you. So, everyday we will come to the tennis courts and flirt with each guy…"

"Every GUY?" I interrupted.

"Not EVERY guy, only the regulars. And maybe if some of the non-regular guys are hot, then sure, go flirt with them. But the whole point is to get Ryoma-kun extremely jealous. So try to flirt when he's near okay? Like laugh a lot, get his attention."

I gulped. I still wasn't sure if I could do this.

"Who should I go up to first?" I thought about the regulars. Inui, Kaidoh, Tezuka, Eiji, Oishi, Momoshiro, Fuji, Taka, and Ryoma…

"Hmm…definitely not Kaidoh, Tezuka, Inui, Taka, and, duh, Ryoma."

"Why not?" I asked, curious.

"Because this is your first time and those mentioned people, excluding Ryoma-sama, will not help you at all. And you should know why Ryoma-sama isn't included."

"But, then who's left?" I asked.

"Oishi, Momoshiro, Fuji and Eiji. They are definitely the most likely regulars who will help you out."

"So which one…" I started…

"I was getting to that!" she interrupted. "Anyway, let's narrow it down. Oishi's too much of a worrier. Momo will most likely tell Ryoma-sama what's going on. Fuji's mine and I rather you would not flirt with him first. So Eiji-sempai is the best choice!"


So now I was walking onto the courts, up to a certain red-haired, childish sempai. He was bouncing a ball on his racket, not really doing anything. Good, this was definitely an opening for me.

"O-Ohayo Eiji-sempai!" I stuttered. I was amazed that I didn't even faint this time!

"NYA!" Eiji-sempai exclaimed as he practically glomped me. "Ohayo Saku-chan! What are you doing here?"

"Oh, well, I, uh, always, uh, come to see these, uh, practices." Why couldn't I make a single sentence without stuttering?

"Oh, to see Ochibi-kun?" He teased in a singsong voice.

Make your move Sakuno! "I was actually here to see someone else…" I then touched Eiji-sempai's arm, moving down it in a zig-zag formation. Eiji-sempai seemed pretty shocked, and so was I. When did I get so brave and confident? I could feel Tomo-chan giving me a thumbs-up from her hiding place in the bushes.

"S-Saku-chan? What's up with you?" For the first time, I heard Eiji-sempai stutter. Then, he dropped his voice to a whisper, "You know I don't like…girls." I felt ashamed. I knew the topic of romance made Eiji-sempai nervous ever since he realized his true feelings.

It was right then and there that I lost all confidence. "G-gomen Eiji-sempai! I didn't mean to make you feel sad! I didn't even want to flirt with you! I just wanted to understand Ryoma-kun." Tears welling up in my eyes, I fell into the arms of my sempai. I looked up at him, thinking I was going to see a look of hate, but instead a small smile played on his lips.

"I'm confused. You're flirting with me to get near Ochibi?" I, feeling much better as I now knew I didn't hurt Eiji-sempai's feelings, told him the plan.


Only a few meters away, Momoshiro and Ryoma sat on a bench, watching the scene that had just been mentioned. Ryoma blinked a few times, astonished. Did she just hug Eiji-sempai? The shy girl who was always near that loud mouth had hugged someone? Not to mention touch his arm! Ryoma pulled his hat over his face so Momo-sempai wouldn't see the glare he was sending at Eiji.

Momo-sempai poked him. "Yo, Echizen! You're girlfriends hooking up with Eiji!" Although the sempai was joking, Ryoma could feel his anger rising. He didn't even know why. Sakuno was just another freshman girl in his class. Wait, did he just call her Sakuno? Ugh, he thought, emotions are so annoying. He turned his attention back to the 'couple'. Eiji-sempai was kneeling down, tying his shoe, while looking up at Sak—oh, whatever—Sakuno. Wait…was he…? No freaking way! 'EIJI-SEMPAI STOP STARING AT SAKUNO-CHAN'S BOOBS!' Of course, he screamed that in his head because Ryoma never showed emotions. Nor did he say the word boobs. Nor did he call Sakuno 'Sakuno-chan'. He felt Momo-sempai poke him again.

"Feeling jealous Echizen?" the sempai teased again

"Hn." As said before, Ryoma was the master of showing no emotion. Plus, he was pretty sure they were just talking and Eiji-sempai had only looked at her boobs by accident. Plus, wasn't he into guys, like Oishi? The whole situation was confusing to Ryoma, who had a bored look on his face. That's it. They were just talking. But why, Ryoma asked himself, did he feel like he wanted to kill Eiji-sempai?


I waved goodbye to Eiji-sempai, feeling accomplished. "Sayonara Eiji-sempai!"

"Sayonara Saku-chan!" he waved back. Walking through the gate and off the tennis courts, I was immediately glomped by Tomo-chan.

"How did you do it? Did you see Ryoma-sama's face? Sure, it had no emotion, but he was glaring daggers at Eiji-sempai! He was so jealous! How did you do it Saku-chan?" Wow, Tomo-chan surely could ask a lot of questions…

"Uh…well…I didn't exactly flirt with Eiji-sempai…"

"WHAT?" Tomo-chan interrupted, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN? YOU DIDN'T FOLLOW THE PLAN? STUPID SAKUNO-CHAN, WHAT DID YOU DO THEN? TALK ABOUT PONIES?!" She was waving her hands to add the effect that I was stupid or something. Or maybe she was just spazzing. Either way, her voice was giving me a headache.

"Uh..eep…well…maybe I should just explain what happened…" I said, trying to calm down my spazzing best friend. "You see, at first I did the plan, you know, flirt with him. But then…he got sad because…he thought I liked him. I felt bad, and…well…" I stopped for a second…Tomo-chan was not going to like what happened next…

"WELL? WHAT HAPPENED?!" I sighed as I retold what had happened ten minutes prior…

Ten minutes ago

"So, Tomo-chan made up this plan to see if Ryoma-kun likes me or not. She said flirting with you guys was the only way I could see if Ryoma-kun became jealous or not. So me, not being able to say no, agreed. Then we went on Wikipedia and searched 'flirting' and the website told me to touch the person's arm, which I just did." I stopped, catching my breath, "I guess you think I'm a loser…" I started to walk away, only to be stopped by Eiji-sempai.

"NYA! You are so not a loser Saku-chan! Besides…did you just realize you said like a paragraph without stuttering?" Same old Eiji-sempai. His smiling face turned into a mischievous grin. "And now that I know Ochibi's involved with this, I'm happy to help! Ochibi-kun and Ochibi-chan would make a great couple!" He then glomped me again. "So," he continued, "I'm going to bend down and 'tie my shoe' but I'm going to look up at a certain…area." I realized what he was talking about- my barely A-cup boobs.

"E-E-Eiji-sempai!!" I blushed deeply.

"Hey, hey, remember I'm not into girls! I'm just pretending to make Ochibi-kun jealous!" He winked, and we went through with the plan.


"Well," I stopped for more breath, "then we just talked about life, tennis, you know." Tomo-chan had an unreadable look on her face. She was in a thinking pose, opening her mouth as if to say something and then closing it again, as if she was in disagreement. Finally, she exclaimed, "Oh, Saku-chan, this is perfect! We now have Eiji-sempai's help! This is going so, so well! Great job Saku-chan! Ryoma-sama will be falling for you in no time!" I smiled as Tomo-chan and I walked home, her complimenting me. Yay me, I didn't screw something up for once! Now if I could just stop talking to myself…


In the guy's tennis locker room, Seigaku's regulars were drying themselves off from their after-practice showers. All was calm in the room, everyone's thoughts on different things. Suddenly, a loud 'NYAA' interrupted their peaceful thoughts and Eiji bounced into the room. He had never felt so happy- he was going to be a matchmaker!

"Why are you so happy Eiji?" asked his doubles partner, Oishi.

Although Eiji really wanted to scream out 'Ochibi-kun and Saku-chan sitting in a tree, and so forth' he decided to be calm and asked, "Is Ochibi-kun in the room?"

"No," answered Momo, "He left early, looking pissed."

Eiji's smile widened as he screamed, "OCHIBI-LUN AND SAKU-CHAN SITTING IN A TREE, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES MARRIAGE, THEN" before Eiji could finish his rhyme, Oishi stopped him saying, "Please, Eiji, spare us the singing and explain why Ryoma and Sakuno would be together anyway."

Eiji began to talk about Sakuno-chan and his conversation, slightly bouncing up and down in the process. Oishi, Momo, Kadioh, Inui and Fuji crowded around him, listening intently. Tezuka was sitting on a bench, pretending not to care, but in truth he was listening in. Taka was behind everyone else, shyly listening to the acrobatic's tale.

Once he was done, everyone entered in their comments.

"That's very interesting," Fuji obsevered; thinking of ways to torture the young prodigy, "I'm in."

"Me too," Inui exclaimed, his glasses giving off a mischievous glint, "Since you say Echizen got jealous today, there is a 78.49 this plan will work. I would love to make the percentage higher…"

"Fsshh…" breathed Kadioh, probably saying 'I'm in too'.

"Echizen's got a girl friend!" Momo laughed, "I'm definitely in."

"But won't Echizen get extremely stressed? Isn't that bad for his health?" Oishi, the mother figure of the team, worried.

"Oh stop worrying, nyaa!" Eiji said, hugging his doubles partner. What he could say? Eiji likes to hug.

"Well I guess I'm in." Oishi gave in.

"What about you Taka-san?" Fuji asked the shy sempai.

"Well…I don't know…" Fuji gave Taka-san his racket, "OH YEAH! I'M SO IN! BURNING!"

"NYA! YAY! How about you Tezuka?"

"Hn." The stoic captain replied.

"I'll take that as a yes!" Eiji began to prance around the room, "Ochibi-kun and Ochibi-chan, Ochibi-kun and Ochibi-chan!" Unbeknownst to Eiji, Tezuka cracked a smile- this was going to be rather interesting…


A/N: So that's the way the chapters will be like: Sakuno flirting, Ryoma's reaction, aftermath, and the Sempais. Sorry for the short flirting of like two sentences, I'll do better next time.

Japanese used:

Ohayo- I'm pretty sure it's a greeting that may mean good morning, but in this pretense I'm just using it as hello.

Gomen- Sorry

I know like 3 words in Japanese, minus the 'kun' and 'chan' and 'sempai'. So if you have a good Japanese site, please tell. REVIEWS ARE LOVELY, ALERTS ARE AWESOME, AND PUTTING THIS STORY UNDER YOUR FAVORITES MAKES ME SO HAPPY!