Towards the end of their second year, Makoto began receiving threats. It didn't take Sherlock Holmes to realise who's fan club it was coming from, the size of which seemingly grew at an exponential rate as Shishido grew taller and got better at tennis.

Up until now, Makoto had managed to largely ignore the threats. Scribbles on her desk and missing bits and pieces were forgettable compared to the pressure she felt from her upcoming audition for the Tokyo Symphony's Youth Summer Program. The program was usually only open to high schoolers, but her violin teacher had stuck a leg out for her and got her an audition.

The girls grew bolder and bolder with every attempt - it started with missing pencil cases and notebooks. Heck, they even stole her lunch. This one was more annoying than usual since Makoto hated being hungry but she made Shishido split his since this was indirectly his fault too - this ended up being the chicken wing incident. But now they had crossed the line - they had broken into her practice room and stolen her violin.

Makoto's blood boiled and a fire was lit in her. The petty games were over, this was an act of war and she was going to burn them to the ground. She scrunched up the note that was left in place of her violin and threw it in the trash as she stormed out to the battle ground. She was going to make them wish they had never stepped foot onto this earth.

Although she didn't really know how. She'd never thrown a punch in her life but she supposed that this was as good as time as any to find out if she could.

She made her way to the back of the music building where the note directed her, and there stood three students from another class. She recognised them of course. They cheered the loudest at Shishido's games and glared the hardest when she walked through the school hallways. She was pretty sure she heard them booing at her during one of her recitals one time. She usually payed them no attention, which now she realised might have been her downfall. Ignoring them was probably what made the threats grow more and more brazen.

"Hi," she said casually, standing a few feet in front of them and hands scrunched tightly inside her uniform pockets in rage. "I'm going to need that back."

"If you want you're precious little toy back, stay away from him!" one of the girls said.

Makoto had to consciously stop herself from cringing outwardly at the dialogue. All because that stupid, long-haired freak was a little good at a sport and now she found herself bargaining for her violin back from three girls she was pretty sure shared a single braincell.

"I'm curious what the point of this is for. Do you think that if I stop hanging around him, he'll magically turn around and start noticing you guys?" Makoto chuffed to herself for a moment. "That's where your delusion goes south. Nothing will change even if I'm not around. The only thing Ryou will ever see is that small yellow ball and whoever's standing on the other side of the court. If you guys were really his fans, you'd know that already."

"We know him better than anyone else!" Another of the three girls said as she threw the violin case onto the ground with all the force she could muster.

That split second felt like time had slowed to a stop to Makoto. Her heart stopped and every muscle in her body tensed as the sound of the case hitting the floor resonated through her entire body.

'YOOOO!' she yelled as she quickly ran to pick up her case, "that is so not cool. There is really no need to take it out on the instrument."

"Fine, we'll take it out on you instead!"

"Ack!" Makoto cried loudly as she struggled to cushion her landing whilst simultaneously attempting to prevent further harm to her violin. She felt a shooting pain from her wrist as she hit the floor.

Just around the other side of the building, Shishido heard the faintest sound of Makoto's cry. That sound awoke something instinctual in him. He dropped his racket, jumped over the net and sprinted as fast as he could in the direction of her voice.

"Where do you think you're going in the middle of practice?" Atobe yelled.

"She's in trouble," was all he could say.

"Hey!" Shishido shouted as he turned the corner to find Makoto lying on her side, clutching her wrist to her chest. "What's going on!?" anger and rage filling his entire being as he stomped over to the three girls hovering over her, breath slow and deep as if he was getting ready to breath fire. The other regulars quickly appeared behind him after hearing his unrestrained scream. A couple of them braced themselves to hold Shishido back. They were pretty sure he wouldn't hit a girl but he was also a wildcard when it came to Makoto.

'Shishido-sama!" they said, knees shaking like chihuahuas "this is…umm…" they managed to get out before quickly scurrying away.

His eyes softened the moment he kneeled down to help her. "Hey," said gently as he helped to prop her up. She had a few scratches up her leg from taking a dive into the gravel, but his main concern was the hand she was clutching to her chest. "What's wrong? Where does it hurt?"

"My wrist," she managed to say through her tears. Shishido knew those tears weren't just out of the immediate pain she was feeling - it was fear. To a normal person, an injured wrist meant a few weeks in a cast. To a tennis player and violinist, an injured wrist could mean the end.

"I'm taking her to the hospital," Shishido said to the rest of the team behind him as he picked her up.

"Ryou," her voice shook as she continued to cradle her hand as if it were an injured baby bird, "I'm scared." Tears began uncontrollable rolling down her face as she began hyperventilating. He knew exactly what she was thinking - what if she couldn't play the violin anymore?

He held her closer, "It'll be okay," he prayed.

"Oshitari," Atobe said, "do you remember the faces and names of the girls who did this."

"Of course. Third years in class D. I will report them to the school immediately." Oshitaru replied as he picked up Makoto's violin case. "I'll return this on the way."

"This behaviour will not be tolerated at my school. Have them expelled. This kind of humiliating conduct is not acceptable at Hyotei."

Both Makoto and Shishido held their breaths has the school doctor examined the x-ray of Makoto's hand. "It's almost impressive that you managed to twist your ankle, get all these scratches up your leg and break a wrist all at once."

"I had help," Makoto stated dryly.

"I advise you to go to the school to report what happened. Bullying is an issue that the school takes extremely seriously."

"Doc, how long until she can play again?" Shishido asked.

"She'll need to wait until her hand has healed completely before she can play. If you play any earlier, you may risk permanent damage," he stated.

"But she has a really important audition coming up." Shishido said. He felt a hand on his arm and looked down at her blank eyes staring at her wrist.

"Don't. He said two months," she said with as must conviction as she could muster. "I know the consequences of a permanently injured hand."

"I'm really sorry, Kinomoto-san. However, the risk of permanent damage to your wrist is too high for me to recommend any shorter time. Especially with it being your left hand."

"I understand," she mumbled as the doctor left.

"Makoto…" was all that Shishido could mumble as he sat on the side of her bed. He knew how hard she had been preparing for this audition. He internally berated himself - all her efforts were flushed down the toilet because he couldn't control his own stupid fan club.

She leaned forward and pressed her forehead onto his shoulder. This was the first time one of them had intentionally broken their unspoken no-intimate-touching ban. He raised his arm to wrap around her and bring her close. "I'm sorry," he whispered into her ear, "this is all my fault.

"Don't be sorry," she looked up at him and smiled meekly. "It's not your fault those girls are deluded by your looks." She looked up and smiled. "Need to get that handsome face under control," she pinched his cheek weakly.

Shishido's apologetic expression didn't change as he gently took her hand off his face and place his forehead against hers. "I'm sorry," he reiterated.

They were interrupted by a cough. At the door stood Oshitari with Makoto's violin case.

"I believe this is yours, Kinomoto-san." He said as he walked over and place the case on her lap.

She opened it with one hand to check if it had been damaged. With a deep sigh of relief that the case seemed to have adequately done its job, Makoto proceeded to close it and handed it to Shishido.

"Ryou, can you hold onto it until the two months are up?" She gave him the case. "I don't trust myself to resist the temptation of playing."

After a moment of hesitation, Shishido took the violin from her. "Yeah, sure." He replied.

"I reported this incident to the school already. They'll definitely be suffering the harsh consequences of injuring the left hand of the top violinist in the school. They've committed a crime punishable by death," Oshitari gave a small smile.

"Thanks," Makoto replied and gave a weak smile.

"And about your audition for the Tokyo Symphony program. I bumped into the head music teacher talking to the school's doctor on the way here. He says he'll give them a call and explain the situation and see if they can postpone your audition to next year. It should be okay as long as you don't get worse," she said teasingly.

"Now, now, don't go underestimating me, Oshitari-kun." She gave one of her cheeky smiles. "Really though, thank you so much. I owe you one."

"How about a date?" He gave a sly smile. Shishido suddenly felt a wave of panic wash over him. "My violin teacher is performing at the symphony this weekend, and I've got two tickets to see her."

Shishido glared at Oshitari with the hatred of a thousand jealous teenaged, emotionally-repressed boys.

"Sure," Makoto agreed. Shishido's eyes widened. "It's been a long time since I've seen her perform."

"Perfect, she's actually excited to see you again. She gave me the tickets and told me to seduce you into coming to the concert," Oshitari explained.

"It looks like she chose the right student for this mission then, didn't she?"

"You flatter me," Oshitari said.

They were purposely teasing Shishido. For some reason, he had always felt uncomfortable with the fact that Oshitari and Choutaro could play the violin. To Oshitari, it was clear that Shishido was jealous. Makoto on the other hand just thought that Shishido was annoyed that he was the most musically inept person she'd ever met in her life.

Oshitari was right - Shishido was jealous. He was jealous that Oshitari and Choutaro could enter Makoto's world. A world that he could simply never enter. Sure, he went to whatever concerts she performed at or wanted to go see, but the most he was ever able to do was listen to the music. If he was going to be honest, most of the time he spent trying not to fall asleep until it was Makoto's turn to perform. Unlike Makoto or Choutaro or Oshitari, he couldn't truly appreciate what he was listening to. And he felt it whenever Choutaro or Oshitari were around her.

"I'll pick you up Saturday at 6 then. We'll go to dinner before the concert?" Oshitari asked and she nodded. "There's a nice place outside the concert hall."

Now that crossed the line. Saturdays were Shishido-Makoto friendship days. Everyone knew that Saturdays after tennis/violin practice they always went out to see a movie or go to the park before they ate dinner and spent the rest of the night inside watching television or studying.

"Oi," Shishido said, "are you doing this on purpose, Oshitari."

Oshitari feign innocence. "Whatever are you on about? All I'm doing is asking Makoto-san to have dinner and go to a concert with me. Of course, she'll have to dress nice. You know the dress code for concerts."

"Yeah Ryou. It's just a date." She joined in and wore a teasing smile.

DATE. That word resonated throughout Shishido's body. He knew they were just joking, after all their friendship was purely intellectual. Still, Shishido couldn't stop feeling that something was eating away at his chest.

"We should head back to training." Oshitari said, giving his friend a comforting pat on the back. It was almost as if to say, 'I'm just kidding, I'm not going to steal her from you.'

Shishido's shoulders relaxed. "I'll come see you after practice," Shishido said.

"I'll be here. After all, it's not like I can run away," she said in a sarcastic tone, looking at her twisted ankle and bruised leg. Shishido forced a smile.

"What class were those girls in?" Shishido asked after the two boys left the room and were standing in the hallway.

His entire body was tensed and shaking from not being able to contain his anger.

"What are you going to do, Shishido?" Oshitari asked, "Go beat up a few girls?"

"WHAT CLASS?" He raised his voice and grabbed Oshitari by the shirt. The blue-haired boy stood his ground, not giving him the answer he wanted. "What class," voice now trembling.

Oshitari continued his silence as he stared into his teammate's desperation-filled eyes. Seeing that Oshitari wasn't going too give in, Shishido let go of his teammate.

"You and I both know that it's best if you don't know," Oshitari said. "I know you're not going to go pick a fight with your fanclub, but I'm not going to take any chances with how angry you are."

Shishido turned around and punched a hole in the wall of the hallway.

"Shit," he said. His fists were shaking into the wall.

Oshitari raised his hand and placed it on Shishido's forearm. "Restrain yourself. Atobe will not be please to find out you've injured your hand because you can't control your anger."