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Mada Mada Dane

9

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Kikumaru continued. "So, ochibi. Who do you think helped you the most?"

None of you. You're all a bunch of psychopaths. Ryoma didn't voice these thoughts aloud, he didn't want to die young.

"Uh…gee…that's a hard one. You all gave me the same amount of help," replied Ryoma vaguely. Yeah, no help at all.

"Aw, come on ochibi. Don't be shy, pick someone!"

"Alright. I pick…Kaidoh because his method was short and to the point." And involved the least humiliation.

Everyone turned their heads towards Kaidoh.

"Fshhhhht." Kaidoh shrugged. Despite his coolness outside, inside Kaidoh was writhing with embarrassment, shock and revulsion. I always knew Echizen was crazy. Just not this crazy.

The other team members however started arguing about who really helped Ryoma the most. Ryoma sighed. This is hopeless. Why don't I just ask Sakuno by myself. At least if she rejects me none of the other team members will know. Ryoma started to head back to the bench where Sakuno was.

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It turned out that Tomoka had left and Sakuno was sitting by herself. Good. That means more privacy.

"Ry….Ryoma-kun…y…you're back…" stuttered Sakuno. She inwardly winced. Isn't it obvious his back? Why do I keep stating the obvious? It's so humiliating. But what's he doing here? What does he want?

"Yeah. I'm back." Ryoma inwardly winced. Isn't it obvious I'm back? Why do I keep stating the obvious? It's so humiliating. What am I doing here? Does she know what I want?

"Uh, Ryoma-kun?"

"Yeah Sakuno-chan?"

Sakuno blinked. Did he just call me Sakuno-chan? Why would he do that?

Sakuno continued. "I-I want to ask you something."

"Go ahead." Ryoma said curiously. He had originally wanted to talk to her about something but that could wait. One could say he was still a bit nervous. Quite obviously his senpais hadn't helped him much.

"You don't have to answer," said Sakuno hurriedly. "But I was wondering um, you see, I received a . . . letter recently." Why am I asking him, I'm just going to humiliate myself.

"Yes?" Ryoma mumbled. He bent down to retie his shoelaces so he could hide the pink patches that were appearing on his cheeks.

Unknown to Ryoma, Sakuno also had her head down hoping to disappear into earth as soon as she said the next line.

"Was the letter from you?"

" . . . "

"Forget I said anything" Sakuno hurriedly got up and turned to leave. However, she was pulled back.

"Ryoma-kun?"

"Yeah, the letter was from me but uh, I had nothing to do with the context." Upon looking at Sakuno's crestfallen face he quickly corrected himself. "Sorry, that wasn't supposed to come out like that. I meant what the letter said but, yeah, the context was a little exaggerated but . . . I do like you." Once he said the last line, he quickly bent down to retie his shoelace again. However, this time it was Sakuno who pulled him up.

"I like you too" She said shyly. Ryoma's stunned look slowly turned into a smile.

As they walked back towards the tennis courts together. Sakuno started talking to Ryoma and to her pleasure, she wasn't stuttering.

"Ryoma-kun?"

"Yes?"

"It wasn't you who wrote the letter was it?" She asked.

"No way."

"Then what was going on?" She asked again, curiously.

"Oh, uh, you see. My senpais decided to assist me so I can be more comfortable talking to you." He said through gritted teeth. "Unfortunately, pretty much all of them failed."

"So all those times when I saw you doing weird things, and yes Ryoma-kun, I happened to have saw you through the shop window with Fuji-sempai. You were actually trying to get my attention?" Sakuno laughed quietly.

"Uh, yeah" Ryoma turned his head slightly to look in her direction.

Sakuno smiled gently at him. "Mada mada dane."

The end