Chapter 34: Unexpected

"Ugh… my head…" Sakuno groaned. The throbbing sensation in her head is too much for her to keep sleeping. She slowly sat up and found herself in Tomoka's bedroom. She had been to her apartment a couple of times to not recognize her aesthetic place, and that familiar perfume that her best friend loved to spray on everything but herself.

Sakuno noticed the sunrays that were peeking through the beige curtains, and she thought that it must be morning now and she heard the sizzling sound of something being fried in the kitchen. The smell of bacon and coffee enticed Sakuno to get up from the bed.

She didn't mind that she was barefoot, the wooden floors were not too cold to walk on, anyway.

"Tomo-chan?" she called as she walked over to the kitchen to find the said woman cooking, Sakuno was taken aback by how happy her best friend was moving. She had only seen her like that when Ryoma won in a tournament.

Tomoka turned around holding a cup of coffee and as she turned off the stove, she held it up to Sakuno.

"Good morning, Sakuno. Let's have breakfast," She had that unusual aura about her, something that has never manifested before. Sakuno wondered if anything happened while she was asleep. Nevertheless, she accepted the coffee and sat on one of the chairs.

"Good morning, Tomo-chan. Did something happen? You look happy,"

"I should ask you the same thing. Who was that handsome guy last night?" Tomoka sat beside her and began to eat her own food. Sakuno was about to grab some bacon, but she froze when flashbacks of last night came back to her.

That's right. Ken…

"He's my classmate in Culinary school. It was a coincidence that he was also there last night," Sakuno smiled to herself as she remembered Ken's kind gestures to her. He's undeniably a good friend and she hoped to see him at school, too.

"Well, just don't forget that you have a boyfriend. Not just a boyfriend, the boyfriend. So don't hook up with that guy, okay?" Tomoka was no fool. She has seen how mysterious and likable Ken was. Damn, if she was only single, she would have taken her chances with him.

She stuck out her tongue, cringing at herself for even thinking that.

"Are you crazy? I would never cheat on Ryoma-kun!" Sakuno blushed, she didn't even want to imagine what would happen if she had done that to him. "I love him…"

Tomoka smiled knowingly at her. Of course, having known Sakuno's crush for Ryoma ever since they were twelve, she knew that nothing could ever destroy their relationship. And knowing Ryoma, actually, no, she doesn't know him that well. But she was willing to bet that he's a one-woman man.

"Yeah, I know. Don't worry. Aren't you late for school?"

Sakuno flinched. She certainly didn't notice the time. She was supposed to have a class at eight, and right now it's seven-thirty. She's not even dressed for school and her face is a mess. So, Tomoka pointed to the bathroom.

"Use everything in there," then she pointed to her bedroom, "and wear anything in there."

"Thank you, Tomo-chan!" Sakuno dropped her bacon and coffee then ran into the bathroom to take a quick shower. Meanwhile, Tomoka just stared at her diamond ring as she wore the prettiest smile from last night. She was a bit disappointed that Sauno didn't notice it but there was no time to tell her all the details right now.

After fifteen minutes of washing and scrubbing, then hurrying to the bedroom and wearing the first thing she was able to pull out of Tomoka's dresser, Sakuno hastily ran out of the door, waving a hand at her best friend.

"Bye!" Tomoka waved her hand to her and continued to enjoy her breakfast when she heard the door reopen.

Sakuno was panting, and she was staring at her with wide eyes.

"-That… ring," she blinked.

Tomoka sighed and chuckled. She almost thought that Sakuno would have no second to spare for her.

"I said yes," she muttered, flashing that proud smirk. Sakuno covered her mouth to prevent a squeal from coming out or the neighbors will report them. Instead, she knew she was going to be late if she stayed, so she ran to Tomoka, kissed her on the cheek.

"Congratulations, Tomo-chan! We'll talk about it later, okay?" She didn't need to wait for her reply and ran as fast as she could and prayed that she could make it in time for her first class.

Finally alone, Tomoka walked over to her stereo and picked a song to play before she started to clean up the kitchen and go to school, as well. Her finger swiped the monitor and when she finally saw her favorite song, she hit play.

Fallin for You by Colbie Caillat started playing.

When she arrived at the classroom, Sakuno immediately set up her laptop and as the class started, someone sat beside her.

"Good morning, Ryuzaki-san," Ken waved a hand and smiled. Sakuno wasn't that surprised to see him anymore and she reciprocated the greeting.

"Good morning, Ken-kun," she replied.

That morning, as a preparation for the cookoff tomorrow, the class is instructed to finalize their recipe and submit it to the professor before the day ends. So, being the diligent one, Sakuno wasted no time to go over the recipes she invented in her laptop. It was going well, and she was motivated for tomorrow.

"Wow, you really know what you're doing," Ken muttered over her shoulders. She smiled; it was always energizing to know that someone is impressed by her effort.

"I worked on it for days. I want to give it my best so before I graduate, I'd have no regrets,"

"I hope you win, Ryuzaki-san," he encouraged her, pointing to a few errors in her grammar, but nonetheless, her document is solid, Ken thought.

Of course, wherever she went, there were bullies who just couldn't live without picking on her. Three girls approached her seat, and while Ken took over the laptop and corrected some of the parts himself, Sakuno looked up to the girls and mentally prepared herself for some verbal abuse.

"You better concede, Ryuzaki. You may have cheated your way to our level, but we'll see who's better tomorrow," the first girl, whose name is Kagome, said as she glared down at Sakuno.

Strangely, Sakuno felt like she was used to all of this. Having been bullied ever since she was little, those kinds of words eventually lost its threat. She ignored them and looked over to Ken who was busy reading her recipes. So, she just sighed heavily and decided to look at her phone.

Maybe I'll text Ryoma-kun and ask about his day.

But Kagome got annoyed at being ignored and she snatched the phone away from her hand. Sakuno was shocked at her action, and she knew that they would see her phone's wallpaper, which is Ryoma, a photo she snapped when they were in Brazil.

"Hey, give it back!" She stood up and tried to reach the girl's hand when she stretched it up, preventing Sakuno from getting her phone back. The two girls behind her laughed cheekily. At this point, the other students tried not to look at them, they acted like nothing was going on at the back. Sakuno expected this, but she wondered why Ken kept quiet and continued to look at her laptop.

"Look at this," Kagome stifled a laugh as she looked at Sakuno's phone. Sure enough, they were looking at Ryoma's photo as if they couldn't believe that she knew the prince personally.

"You think we don't know? The whole school knows what you've done, Ryuzaki. Echizen should have stayed with Honoka, but you had to ruin their image," Kagome laughed lightly. "But I guess you're made for each other. I mean, Ryoma Echizen had that look of a womanizer, so I wasn't even that surprised–"

The screeching of the chair echoed through the whole room. The students turned their heads to Sakuno's direction, and they saw how she glared menacingly at Kagome as she stood in front of her, they were only a few inches from each other.

"I won't have you badmouthing him," her voice trembled but held a strong tone in it. She tried to sound threatening, and Kagome stepped back, a bit surprised at her sudden change of attitude. Sakuno gripped her knuckles tightly until they turned white, and Kagome just grew more furious with the girl's fiery look.

"What's going on here?" They heard the professor's voice boom from the doorway. All of the students jumped from their seats. Kagome had no choice but to slam the phone on Sakuno's desk and return to her own seat. Meanwhile, Sakuno could feel her heart throbbing through her ribcage that it felt like it wanted to come out of her chest. Her legs felt like jelly, so she slowly sat down and breathed heavily.

It wasn't the first time she stood up against a bully, remember Sakurako? yeah, she did that. But now it was different. She had no friends, except for Ken.

Ken…

Sakuno glanced at the guy who only focused on the professor in front when he silently returned her laptop to her desk. She wondered why he didn't help her with Kagome, being a friend and all. But Sakuno dismissed the thought. She was quite satisfied with being able to almost defend herself from Kagome.

And of course, because she said a bad thing about Ryoma. That was the main reason her anger was fueled. She could have endured an hour of that, but hearing those lies about her boyfriend was unforgivable.

Sakuno realized that in order to survive in this life, she should find the strength to defend herself and protect the ones she cared about. She knew that she can't just accept all of their beatings and expect that nothing can hurt anymore. But still, with those rumors haunting her even until her twenties, Sakuno still cried alone in her apartment while she prepared for the competition tomorrow.

She wiped away a few tears that fell on the keyboard, and her hand busied themselves writing down foreign ingredients and their components. She tried to distract herself from the events earlier.

Riiiiing!

She heard her phone in her bag. When she answered it, the only voice she ever wanted to hear came greeting her.

"Sakuno," Ryoma spoke in a low but comforting voice.

"R-Ryoma-kun," she didn't expect that he'd call her. He must be busy in America, having interviews and shoots.

Ryoma observed the tone of her voice. She spoke in a weak and tiny voice, one that he hadn't heard in a long time.

"What's wrong?"

"What? No, nothing's wrong,"

"Lying. What is it?"

Sakuno sat up straight. Did she even say anything for him to think that something happened? Sakuno made an effort to stop herself from telling him about it, but it was as if he knew all along.

Silence…

"Your voice gave you away," Ryoma said, noticing the confusion in the air. It's not the first time Sakuno fell quiet and every time, Ryoma would guess that she has a problem. Finally, he heard her sighed in defeat.

"You really know me well, Ryoma-kun…"

"So, what happened?"

"Nothing… it's just… I'm stressed about tomorrow," she decided to lie. It was partly true, of course. Sakuno stayed up late almost every day and prepared and prepared for the main event. She was beginning to feel burnt out.

"You need rest. Aren't you done with your preparations?"

"Almost… I just don't know if this is enough," she rested her chin on the coffee table as she stared at her laptop. Ken did a good job in correcting her grammar and misspelled English words. She was thankful for that.

"Go to sleep. You're going to do great tomorrow. I promise," Ryoma said with a reassuring tone. He only wished for her to calm down and let her guard down even just for tonight. It won't do her any good to get worked up before an important day.

"Okay, I will…" as if on cue, Sakuno yawned. She really only wanted to hear his voice, and now that she did, Sakuno could feel her body relax and forget about thoughts that troubled her. He's right, she's going to do her best tomorrow and even if she doesn't win, Sakuno would still be proud of herself.

"Goodnight," Sakuno heard Ryoma before she fell asleep on the table, her phone slipping off of her hand. Ryoma heard a soft thud and realized that Sakuno was now asleep. He chuckled before ending the call.

"Was that Sakuno-chan?"

Ryoma almost jumped on his seat when he heard Nanako's voice from the living room door. He threw a glare at her for eavesdropping at their call.

"Nosy," he mumbled before returning his gaze on the television.

"Ah, sorry!" The woman walked over to the sofa and sat beside him; a warm smile plastered on her face. Ryoma didn't look at her on purpose, he ignored Nanako's presence because he knew that she would only tease him about Sakuno. Ever since news about the two of them dating was revealed in the family, all of them seemed to be fixated on teasing him from morning to night, especially when he calls her.

"What do you want, Nanako-neechan?"

"Nothing… It's just… you look so different now," She gently ran a hand on his dark green hair, combing it away from his forehead. Ryoma didn't move, as much as he didn't want to admit it, combing his hair felt good.

Nanako chuckled.

"You're really like a cat, Ryoma-kun," she laughed softly. Ryoma chose to ignore her and tried his best to focus on ESPN.

After a while, Ryoga entered the living room and happily jumped on the sofa, landing beside the poor prince. Now he was in the middle of his brother and cousin. Ryoma just knew the incoming teasing from them.

"What…?" he didn't spare a glance at Ryoga, he just acknowledged his presence by asking in an annoyed tone. Although he wasn't that interested in anything his brother would say.

"Ryoma….kun!" Ryoga said his name with a flirty tone on purpose. It was time for their daily teasing and Ryoma knew he was going to have a headache again. He just hoped that his arm would heal overnight so he could leave this chaotic house.

"Ryoga, don't disturb Ryoma-kun. He's watching!" Nanako said.

"Oh, I just wanted to ask you about that hot girl from the fan meet! She was really pretty! Did you two hooked up? Is that why you met up with her?" Ryoga sighed as he imagined Kaoru and her beautiful face. Nanako's ears perked up and turned her head to the two.

"What? Who's this girl? Ryoma, I won't have you cheating on Sakuno-chan. Turn off the television and tell me!" She tried to grab the remote from Ryoma's hand, but he was quicker, he stretched his hand up to prevent Nanako from taking it away from him.

"Ah, you guys really have nothing better to do!" he growled at them with growing irritation. Nanako kept reaching for the remote, and soon Ryoga joined in on the fun, just because!

"Come on, chibisuke! Tell us what happened!" His older brother exclaimed excitedly. Ryoma observed the contrast between Nanako and Ryoga's expression. Ryoga looked intrigued and happy, while Nanako looked angry. He knew full well that the whole family likes Sakuno as his girlfriend. But most of the time, they were too invested in their relationship.

Just like now.

"Nothing," he replied.

"And tell me why your arm is even more fractured than before?!"

"Ryoma-kun, cheating is a sin!"

The sound from the television and Nanako and Ryoga's voices were drowned out in the background. Ryoma's mind unwillingly played back the events after the fan meet where he met up with Kaoru, his childhood friend.

The cold sweat from the can of Ponta sent shivers on Kaoru's cheek. She crouched down beside the wall filled with graffiti. When she looked up, Ryoma was holding the drink close to her face as he drank his own Ponta. He stood there calmly, waiting for her to accept the can.

The fan meet was concluded at about six in the evening, and that was the time he had set for them to meet at a secluded park, where no one goes, to avoid the media from seeing him in public. Kaou waited patiently until the time came.

"This is where we used to play, right?" Ryoma eyed the familiar surroundings. He knew well that his memory was right, he just wanted to confirm it with her.

"Yeah. Those times were the best," she smiled, "I had the best childhood with you, Ryoma."

The boy glanced at her and saw the sincere expression on her face. Ryoma was convinced that she was indeed telling the truth. Earlier, he doubted that she was only fooling him, but his memory attested.

"I didn't realize then that you were going to be this famous. I thought I'd never see you again. It was luck that it led me to your fan meet,"

"Ah, I see," he doesn't really know how to respond to those kinds of compliments. If she was going to ask him, he, too, felt glad to meet someone from his past, when everything was fresh, innocent, without a hint of pressure and expectations. Just pure childhood bliss.

He let himself smile, putting his guard down a little, to express the feeling he's experiencing right now. Kaoru watched him, her eyes scanning every part of his face, his cat-like eyes, pointed nose, dark green hair that was covered by his hat, and his lips.

She unknowingly traced his lips with her finger, surprising him with her boldness. But she didn't stop, she decided to go for it.

Ryoma's eyes widened as Kaoru gently pulled his shirt closer to her, leaving them with no distance in between. His heart pounded loudly against his chest, and a trickle of sweat ran down his temples. Nervousness engulfed his body as she moved closer until their lips were almost touching.

"I wasn't able to forget about you, Ryoma," he felt her hot breath against his skin. He knew that this is a dangerous situation and he wanted to step away, but his body wouldn't listen to him and his brain was somewhat malfunctioning. But he thanked the heavens when he found strength to say something.

"I… have a girlfriend," he mumbled awkwardly, averting his eyes from her. Even though he has always rejected girls in his teens, Ryoma really doesn't know what words to tell a woman without offending her. So far, this is the best he could do. Hopefully, it works.

However, Kaoru's lips formed a smirk.

"So what? You cheated on Honoka with some Japanese girl. It's not a big deal, I'm better than her, prettier, sexier… Someone you can flaunt without hiding in public. Just leave the ugly one and pick me."

Kaoru carressed Ryoma's cheek, feeling the warmth as his jaw tightened. Her expression softened as she recalled Ryoma's pitiful hiatus.

"You must have endured a lot having to deal with paparazzi all those years. But don't worry, I can help you heal."

With her lips parted slightly, she leaned in for a kiss. As she began to close her eyes, thinking that she had successfully conned Ryoma, she heard a loud thud just beside her head. Her ears were ringing, and the impact that broke the wall sent small debris to her face.

When Kaoru opened her eyes, she saw that Ryoma had punched the wall that she was leaning on, barely missing her face. The cast on his arm crumbled, and revealed his recovering arm full of old scratches. He didn't care if he shattered his arm, his vision darkened and with a split second, he felt the urge to break a jaw right then and there.

Kaoru glanced at his face. His hair covered a part of his eyes but she could see how menacingly he stared at her, as if he was going to kill her with that look.

"Ah, I missed," he mumbled before he removed his hand from the wall, the plaster falling from it. Blood spewed from his knuckles but he didn't seem to feel it.

The can of Ponta fell from Kaoru's hand and the juice oozed on the floor. Her legs wobbled and soon, she dropped to the floor with the spilled Ponta.

Ryoma drank his beverage and when he finished, he dumped the can on the trash bin with accuracy.

"Another crazy fan," he said in annoyance while he stretched his neck from side to side. Kaoru was frozen in her place, and Ryoma stood there, completely cold and dark.

Noticing that the girl had no strength to speak, he continued.

"You might as well just beg for money. You didn't have to seduce me, we were friends, after all."

It was true that they were childhood friends. Ryoma remembered the drawing well, and how they used to play at the playground a lot. Ryoma knew her and that they were very good friends. There was even a time when he adored her.

However, he couldn't forgive her for speaking about Sakuno like that.

Not her.

To have the audacity to throw away what they had and even use it against him, well if she can do that, Ryoma could, too. After all, he's gotten pretty good at forgetting people and memories, and he can do it without remorse.

Kaoru felt her blood boiling through her body. Those words from him offended her but it was true that it was her intention to seduce him for his fortune. Now that her plan was foiled, she only wanted to escape.

Ryoma started to walk away, but Kaoru wasn't going to let him leave without hearing from her.

"You're not that great, Ryoma Echizen! Women will only want you for your fortune and your looks, but you are trash without those things, without tennis!"

Her voice made him stop for a moment, but then he whipped up his bloody hand and without missing a beat, raised his middle finger as he walked away.

"What a jerk!" Kaoru could only sit there and watch his retreating back, completely unbothered by her pitiful look.

At last, the day of the cookoff came. The school's conference room was filled with people who were excited to taste the students' original recipes. They each held a score pad and upon buying a certain dish from a participant, they would then grade it and put it in the voting box. The winner of the competition will be based on the guests' scores and the number of sales the participants will have by the end of the day.

Inside Sakuno's booth, she was busy arranging the foods she made in order, so that when a buyer comes, they can easily choose from one of her dishes. She was especially excited today since this will be the day that she'll debut her original creations.

She was minding her own business when Kagome and her group walked over to her. They eyed the food curiously. One of her minions flipped through the pages of Sakuno's recipe booklet with a surprised look. Sakuno only rolled her eyes, she expected them to harass her again.

"Hey, Kagome. This recipe looks familiar!"

"Huh?" Sakuno turned her head to the woman, her eyebrows raised. She wondered what tactic they plan to do now. Kagome looked over to her friend's shoulder and she was equally surprised as them.

"Well, well! Ryuzaki here must have stolen my idea!" Kagome snatched the booklet in a careless way that made Sakuno try to swipe it away from her hands, but she was too tall for her.

"What are you talking about? Give that back!" she yelled, but Kagome only raised her hands higher.

"What a cheat!" the other girls gasped in unison. Sakuno knew that they were fooling her, for all of the booklet's contents were her idea, and no one had ever seen those.

"Good thing I was the first one to submit my recipes to the professor," Kagome smirked, her face darkened as she stared into Sakuno's eyes, seemingly intimidating her. Sakuno instantly knew that they were the ones who stole from her, and they submitted it so that the professor would think that it was their original work.

It was the perfect plan.

Sakuno was dumbfounded. She couldn't understand how they managed to steal her documents when all of it was safely stored in her laptop all along–

Her eyes widened at the sudden realization of what had actually transpired.

She ignored the women in front of her and walked out of her booth. She walked around the room, her eyes darted from person to person, trying to find that familiar face. She grew nervous to think that what she suspected might actually be true. Her chocolate brown eyes scanned thousands of people, and when her leg started to give up, the man that she seeked appeared in front of her.

"Ken…kun," she muttered. Her voice was soft, but he heard it anyway. It even seemed like while she was searching for him, he wanted to be found.

There was something in his eyes that Sakuno found eerie. Even though she was visibly frustrated, Ken only appeared to be calm in a cold way. His smile was strange, but Sakuno was not fazed. Her growing anger was stronger than fear.

"Ryuzaki," he uttered.

"You… it was you," she didn't care if people looked at them curiously as they passed by. She didn't care, the crowd's noise was drowned out by her cloudy mind.

"Yes," he answered with confidence in his voice. He didn't need to pretend that he was genuinely being her friend anymore.

"Why?" she tried desperately to control her shaking voice. The last thing she wants is to appear vulnerable in front of an enemy. She can't let them win.

"Well… Kagome was not much of a talented person, so in order to help her… I got close to the best student in school," he chuckled, "...you're too easy, Ryuzaki. That's your fault. You caused your own downfall."

His words sent daggers to her heart. She admits to herself that she's gullible, naive, stupid… but even so, she couldn't accept the fact that her good naturedness has been used against her.

It's not fair.

"Maybe that's why everyone takes advantage of you, like that Echizen guy. Well, given your dirty past, I thought I can seduce you–"

Ken couldn't continue what he was going to say as he felt a hot and stinging sensation on his cheek. It wasn't a powerful slap, it didn't send him flying, but it was painful enough that his eyes watered from the impact and his ear was ringing.

Sakuno's mind blacked out from the overwhelming emotion she felt and before she knew it, her hand moved on its own, and with calculated angle and speed, she slapped Ken's cheek with all of her might.

The people passing by had long stopped walking and observed them. After the slap that echoed through the whole room, a few gasped in shock, while others murmured, unable to stop themselves from gossiping.

"Sorry," her bangs hid her eyes, forming a shadow on her face as she continued, "...I don't fancy you."

Ken blinked at Sakuno's sudden boldness. She had the reputation of being a soft spoken and shy woman in their college, but when she looked straight into his eyes with nothing but a rather amused look on her face, Ken wondered how different she acted from when they first met.

She was truly mysterious.

"Go ahead and use my recipes and try to pull it off," she turned around and with every step she took away from him, her brunette locks bobbed on her shoulders.

As she walked back to her booth, Kagome and the others were long gone. It gave her time to keep herself collected at once. Her recipes being stolen were not much of a big deal anymore. Being the most passive person in the world, Sakuno only took it as a challenge, because she knew that it would let her grow, and would make her a stronger person to win over her opponents even when in the face of crisis.

She thought of how the prince would do his best even when he was at a disadvantage. Sakuno reminded herself of all of Ryoma's encouragements and she held onto him for inspiration. And more importantly, she wanted to make her grandmother proud in heaven.

So, she got started to work on a new set of recipe booklets. There was only an hour before the cookoff started but she was confident that she would prevail.

However, when the competition started, all of those feelings faded in Sakuno's heart. She was there in the middle of the stage, unable to believe the sight that was happening in front of her.

Kagome really did use her stolen recipes while she had invented a new one. As the day continued, their sales were tied to a hundred and seventy-eight. Sakuno knew the rules. The greater the sales, the closer you win. So, she prayed with all her might that someone would at least buy one more from her so she could save face.

However, she watched helplessly as Ken made his way to Kagome's stall and soon bought another dish from her. He wrote his vote on his notepad before handing it over.

"So…" she heard Kagome say, "...I guess we know who's going to win."

Sakuno's face soured. She usually would ignore those kinds of taunting and would focus on her own thing, but today she felt quite different. Suddenly, she wanted to fight back and hurt her feelings, as she always did with her. Honestly, though, she hadn't had much experience at clapping back at enemies, that was Ryoma's thing that she never learned. But still, she felt annoyed.

"You only got this far because you stole my recipes," she retorted, and it earned a glare from Kagome.

"You're an idiot, Ryuzaki. You must be dreaming if you think you can do anything at this point,"

"Plankton," Sakuno rolled her eyes at her.

"What does that even mean?" Kagome flips her hair and decides to ignore Sakuno since she seems to be going insane now. Kagome thinks that she couldn't accept her impending defeat and that she's spouting nonsense.

But when she turned around and faced the crowd, Kagome's eyes widened. All of a sudden she couldn't hear the comeback Sakuno was saying and only had eyes for the person in front of Sakuno's stall. While the woman was busy sticking out her tongue towards Kagome, the person chuckled, a familiar sound that Sakuno knew too well and hadn't heard in a long time.

"Nice SpongeBob reference," he said as he took out his wallet and handed money to Sakuno, then he grabbed one of her dishes without another word. Sakuno, on the other hand, was shocked at seeing him there, of all places. Actually, everyone in the room was shocked.

"R-Ryoma-kun?!"

To be continued.

Next: Hard launching the relationship!