Fading Memories
Written by: SyrinxSilenus
04-07-2025
Ryosaku Stories
NO BETA READER!
Prologue:
It was just the beginning of spring when it happened. The moment was etched in her memory like the scar you forget to hide but never really forget. The cherry blossoms had just begun to fall, dancing gently with the wind, when he turned to her with his usual unreadable gaze and asked, as if he were offering a piece of candy, "Do you want to date me?"
There was no confession. No grand declaration of love. Just those six words.
Sakuno had been too stunned to speak. She blinked, heart pounding, her chopsticks frozen halfway to her mouth. Her breath caught in her throat, and she remembered the strange mix of joy and disbelief bubbling up inside her. She didn't ask why. She didn't dare. Because she'd been hopelessly, irrevocably in love with him for years. So she nodded, tears slipping down her cheeks, and whispered a trembling yes.
And just like that, they were together.
But nothing really changed.
Ryoma remained Ryoma—cool, distant, focused. He never once said he loved her. They walked to school together, shared quiet lunches, and on rare occasions, wandered through the city on quiet, uneventful dates. They barely held hands. He barely touched her. But Sakuno clung to every moment, every breath, every glance from him. She believed that being with him, even like this, was enough.
She should have known better.
Two years later, on the day of their high school graduation, he ended it. No reason. No emotion. Just a simple goodbye that shattered her world in one swift blow. She begged him for answers, but he turned away—so easily, so coldly—as if their years together had meant nothing.
And the very next day, his name was everywhere.
Echizen Ryoma spotted with American supermodel, Alexadra Jones—Japan's tennis prodigy scores off the court.
Something inside her cracked then. She remembered staring at the screen, her mind blank, her heart hollowing out like a shell. The silence in the room was louder than any sob.
That was the day she stopped asking questions.
And it was also the last day she ever saw, heard—or remembered—the name Echizen Ryoma again.
To be Continued…