The Roof

AN: Here we go! This could be seen as another uneventful chapter I guess... But it is actually really significant in the storyline and I am implying lots with this chapter. It will be mentioned again later!

Plus, as you may have notices, introductory chapters are over and every chapter will have a proper title from now on! (Unlike the previous chapters, which I wrote to get the story going, ease myself into the process, and so on. They were mostly titled with numbers but now that I'm ready to progress the story, no more need. Thank you!)

It was the fifth lesson when Akari asked.

"Echizen, don't you have any friends? I mean, there're so many people who would die to hang out with you, but you're always alone."

"Friends? Well, Momo-senpai, Kikumaru- senpai…"

"No, not all your tennis senpais," Akari cut him short before he could continue. "They all have their own friends outside of tennis, you know. What about a… just a friend? No?'

Ryoma thought for a while. "No, not really."

"Who do you eat lunch with?"

"No one."

"How can you stand it?"

"Don't care." Ryoma replied. Akari stared at him- what a boy. She shrugged it off. It wasn't her place to meddle. After all, his being antisocial did not hinder his popularity at all.

That Friday, Ryoma had to stay back in class for missed homework, and was late for lunch. He took his lunch and started to make his way to the roof, when something caught his eye. It was a red ribbon on the floor. He picked it up- might as well, he thought.

He slid open the door to the classroom, and was greeted by the sight of Akari raising her voice to a couple of other girls. She snapped at them and stormed out through the door, knocking Ryoma aside without noticing him. He sensed the room grow quiet and all eyes train on him. He slid the door back closed, shrugging, and continued on his way to the roof.

Ryoma climbed to the top floor, where it was always deserted. He liked knowing a place no one else came to. Before he got to the roof door, however, he saw Akari in the hallway, pacing. He was startled at finding an edgy glare in her eyes.

Akari was in a mess. She had a fight with her best friend, Riko. Since she had stormed out first, she couldn't very well go back there to eat lunch. She was no wimp- she wasn't crying. It was just that social problems annoyed her so much, and she knew she would be alone for a while until they made up. It happened frequently to everyone in the class, with the possible exception of Echizen Ryoma, seeing that he didn't have friends to fight with in the first place.

"What are you doing here?" Ryoma couldn't help asking. The roof was supposed to be his own secret hideout.

"This is where I come after school when I want to be alone," Akari sighed with a distracted look. Why am I sharing this with Echizen?

"Che," Ryoma said with a slight scowl. He wasn't too happy at the thought that he had been sharing his alone spot with someone else all along. "This is where I come when I want to be alone." He thought about asking her what had happened, but decided he didn't really care and walked right past her. He pushed open the door to the roof, leaving Akari in the hall.

He sat down, opened his lunch box, and took a bite. Then he put his punch back down and got back up. Ryoma opened the door and leaned into the hall, where Akari was still standing.

"Asato, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said. Ryoma shrugged and was about to close the door again when she continued.

"I had a fight with my best friend and people took her side. Can't sit there for now."

Ryoma didn't understand how girls acted with their friends. Even more, he couldn't understand what slipped out of his mouth next.

"You can eat with me," he said.

Ryoma and Akari stood for a while in silence and surprise until Akari finally walked over and they went through the door together. She gave a bitter chuckle as she dropped down across from Ryoma.

"To think I'd ever be eating with you," she said. Ryoma, being a little too dense to make out the layers of meaning behind her words, just stayed quiet. They sat and ate in silence. Both of them looked up occasionally to look at the other, but they never did so at the same time. They finished their meal as a delicate breeze blew around them and Akari's soft brown hair floated around her, undone. Ryoma was reminded of the reason he had been looking for her in the first place.

"Ne, Asato, I found your ribbon," he said, tossing it over. She looked up and caught it in the last second, and they made eye contact for the first time that day.

Ryoma found himself looking into Akari's hazel eyes as she fixed the ribbon back into her hair.

"Thanks," she said, standing up.

Akari came to the roof again after school. She sat down. Somehow, it felt strange that Echizen Ryoma had been sitting in her very spot a few hours ago. Echizen Ryoma and his dark green hair.