Lesson Number Four
AN: Another short chapter, where nothing much happens between Akari and Ryoma. Still, I hope I'm dropping enough hints of affection. Just wanted to write this out of my love for Fuji, but (have I mentioned this before?) I was too intimidated to use him as a main character because I was worried I wasn't a good enough writer to pull his character off. Fuji will still be making many entrances, and it is up to you to see what kind of a role he serves in the story. By the way, I compiled the first two chapters together because the first chapter was doing no good by itself. Sorry if this caused any confusion. Additionally, this is the last introductory chapter, so the last chapter you will see named with a boring number. Thank you!
For those of you who are bored with my AN, by all means skip this part and go on. From here will be my writer's babble. Thank you for reviews, they really power me along. School is very stressful these days. I'm asian, did you know? Korean at that. Korean education... *shudder* Not to be hateful with my own race, of course. Korea is amazing and you guys should all come visit. End of babbling for the day. I will try to update faster, I know my chapters are really short!
The lesson continued in this manner until the door to the classroom slid open.
"Saa, Echizen." There stood a slender, smiling figure. After greeting Akari with a nod- "Asato," he went on to talk.
"Sorry to be interrupting, but Tezuka said he wanted you to know as soon as possible. He has to visit Germany to look into future plans for a few days, which means I'll be singles 1 for the first matches of the upcoming tournament… And you'll be second."
"Okay." He replied, not showing a slight thrill he had from the feeling that he would be going against stronger players.
"It's very nice of you, Asato, to be trying to wrestle information into that boy's head- it can't be easy. His brain isn't quite wired for history."
"Tha-thank you?" Akari's answer ended up more like a question. Fuji had that presence in the room which just made everything harder to understand and more dangerous at the same time, and it just made you feel insecure.
"Senpai! It's just that I don't like history much!"
"But you seem to be having trouble," Fuji said with his kind smile.
"Che, a good senpai is supposed to help if there's trouble," Ryoma said. He was quite daring, the way he didn't hold back too much in front of upperclassmen.
"Hmm? How sweet of you to care. But don't cross the line," Fuji said dangerously, sending shivers down both the freshmen's backs.
"And Echizen?" Fuji asked over his shoulder before stepping out of the classroom.
"What?"
"Concentrate on history." Fuji said with a smile, then finally, he was gone. His cryptic messages was far from easy to decipher. While Ryoma simmered, Akari shuddered. It was true; Fuji-senpai was probably scarier than Tezuka-senpai.
"He terrifies the hell out of other first-years too." Ryoma muttered.
"…I could only imagine," Akari replied, still staring at the door where the tensai had been.
"Hey, can we get going with the lesson?" Ryoma said, agitated at the sudden attention directed towards his annoying senpai.
"Yeah, yeah. Jesus, you're such a brat to deal with."
"What?" Ryoma flared. The awkwardness of last class was gone and the bickering was back. After the 'I'll get up if you buy me a ponta' joke, any sweet feelings Akari had held for Echizen had melted. The way he looked when he was sleeping on the grass, that's what got me for a while. He's still annoying as hell, Akari thought. But he has really charming hair.
"Say, he must be really good if he's better than you, huh? I mean, you've won how many American junior championships?"
"Four," Ryoma replied, not knowing whether he should be feeling good for the recognition or angry at the fact that everyone thought Fuji was better than him at tennis. He probably was, but Ryoma was nowhere near ready to admit it. Ryoma was pushed to his furthest limit on the famous rainy day, but when he saw Fuji's icy eyes after the game, something let Ryoma know that Fuji had still not brought out all of what he held in store. I'll get him soon enough, dammit, he thought, gleam in his eyes.
E-echizen is pretty scary too, Akari thought, as she looked at the boy glaring at his history textbook as if he was about to burn a hole right through it.