"Five minute break, everybody!" Tezuka shouted, and everybody slumped to the ground, moaning and groaning over their aching body.

Ryoma walked out of the tennis courts too, rather weakly, wiping his sweat away.

"Ochibi, where are you going?" Eiji asked, but he got cut off halfway by Momoshiro.

"Look at his face; obviously he's going to see his girlfriend." He said, and the rest of the tennis club started giggling stupidly.

Ryoma rolled his eyes. "Shut up…" He said. His seniors were so childish, making such a big fuss over them meeting each other just for a few seconds. Though the situation was definitely better than the previous days, where they just gave him the weird stares because of the rumours. After that date with Sakuno, they seemed to either not believe in the rumours anymore, or they did not care about it anymore. It's great that everything is back to normal; his seniors acting childish and back to hugging him, and he could talk to Sakuno closely without arousing suspicion.

So that date was not actually very bad. But the next time they go on dates, Ryoma is going to hold on Sakuno's hands forever and never let it go; he was not going to let Sakuno get harassed by her crazy customers again. Suffering while working in the bar is bad enough, but being harassed out of work too? Ryoma is never going to let that happen again. The previous time he was too careless, and he punished himself greatly because of that, and had sworn to protect Sakuno forever. What happened that day was not going to repeat itself.

"Ryoma, your ponta." Sakuno's eyes lit up immediately when she saw Ryoma coming.

"Thanks." Ryoma muttered, as he grabbed the ponta from her.

"Grandma is getting better already." Sakuno said eagerly, happiness showing all over her face. "I earned enough money for that weird osmo-thingo treatment, and now grandma's all better already! She could stand up and walk like nothing's happened to her."

"Hn." Ryoma said, smiling inward to himself that he had made Sakuno this happy. "Glad that she's alright. Though you should really check on what treatments you're giving her, don't just follow what the doctor says."

Sakuno pouted. "Mou…I can't understand medical sciences at all…the names are all so hard to remember. But I'm sure the osmo-thingo is really good."

"If you say so." Ryoma shrugged, pulling Sakuno closer to give her a kiss. Somewhere behind the bush someone wolf-whistled. Che, nosy seniors…

Sakuno blushed, as she grabbed Ryoma's shirt shyly. "But I'm so happy, after your finals, there will be this last surgery, the last treatment of everything, and Grandma would be healed, and everything would be decided…" Her grip on Ryoma's shirt tightened. "But I'm kind of scared…the doctor says it's not a 100% chance of success…"

Ryoma caressed Sakuno's hair tenderly. "She'll be okay." He smoothed out her hair and kissed her on that spot in assurance. "I know it."

Sakuno nodded, but the worry and gloomy expression still stayed. Ryoma just stared at her, frowning, no idea what to say to calm her down. There is no surgery that is a confirmed 100% success, if it is higher than 80% it's already considered very high success rate. But telling Sakuno this would not get rid of the concerned and tired expression she's having. He just needs to wait one more week.

Just one more week, just one more, and Ryuuzaki-sensei would be healed completely, then everything would be back to normal. Sakuno could finally be cheerful again, and could finally, finally, get rid of that stupid job. Just one more week, after the finals. After the finals, after everything…

"I'm going to win…no, we are going to win the finals, and then fetch Ryuuzaki-sensei from the hospital." Ryoma said.

"Yeah, Seigaku is so going to take that trophy!" "Seigaku fight!" "Don't worry, Sakuno-chan, we will fight the opponent just like how Ryuuzaki-sensei is fighting now!" "And we will win!" "Yeah!" "We're going to make Ryuuzaki-sensei suuuuper proud of us!" "Yeah!"

Sakuno smiled shyly when all the seniors jump out from the bush, cheering and exclaiming. "Thank you, everyone…" She said, touched. Ryoma gently swiped her tears away from the corner of her eyes.

"We are all going to be fine."

Sakuno nodded happily, finally assured.

XxXxX

"What kind of job do you do that earn you so much money?" Carrie said casually, while counting the money.

"Hn." Ryoma said lazily, too tired to try and answer the question.

Carrie glanced at Ryoma. "Heard you have finals this week or something."

Silence. It means consent.

"It's amazing how you keep up with practice and your job and coming to this bar. But Sakura's grandmother is going to be okay soon, so you can finally end this tiring job." Carrie smiled at Ryoma after she counted finish the money. "Isn't that nice?"

Yeah, Sakuno's grandmother is going to be okay soon…Ryuuzaki-sensei would be okay. She would definitely be okay. Ryoma's stomach churned uncomfortably, when he thought that the success rate is not 100%. What if… Damn it, touchwood, Ryoma, don't think of such negative things! Ryuuzaki-sensei would definitely be okay, and everything would be back to normal. Everything!

Carrie raised her eyebrow, looking at Ryoma's confused expression. "What's with that expression? Hey if Sakuno quit this job, you must still come and visit me, k, I'll miss you greatly." She smiled sincerely.

Ryoma blinked, not sure whether to answer to that or not.

"Come on, at least say a 'maybe' or something."

Ryoma shrugged, and still refused to say anything. As if he's going to come back to this place, the place that destroyed his reputation, the place that made him got kicked out of his house! But he still mumbled a 'Hn' for politeness.

"Be sure to win that match. If something good happens, everything that follows usually turns out to be good too."

"I won't lose that match." He said, determined. He had practiced so hard for it, nobody could defeat him now.

"That's the attitude!"

XxXxX

"Game and match, Seigaku's Echizen! Seigaku wins!"

"Yeah!" The group of students started cheering loudly. "We did it!"

The loud uproar made Ryoma's ears ringed uncomfortably. Ryoma wiped away his sweat, annoyed. Argh…after so many years of playing, he still couldn't get used to the volume… What's the use of cheering? They won, just feel happy about it, it's so uncivilised to express your happiness by shouting and screaming like some barbarian. They're the reason why there is so much noise pollution nowadays. Screaming so much, won't their throat hurt…?

"Ryoma! You did it! We did it!" Sakuno screamed happily, jumping on Ryoma, catching him on surprise. "Grandma would be so so so so so happy!" She laughed, hugging Ryoma tightly, eyes filled with tears of joy.

Ryoma blinked. His ears hurt, but he didn't mind one bit.

Maybe it's not such a bad thing cheering out loud like this.

XxXxX

"I am very proud of you all." Ryuuzaki-sensei said, holding up the trophy. The team clapped enthusiastically.

Ryuuzaki-sensei had been discharged, finally. The surgery went well, so Ryuuzaki-sensei rushed here as soon as possible. Sakuno was beaming brightly next to her, smiling as though it was the best day of her life. Well, it just might be the best day of her life, Ryoma thought as he smiled. The finals are over, and Ryuuzaki-sensei is completely healed so he didn't need to go work anymore, Ryoma is completely free now. Completely free, for Sakuno.

"It's all thanks to you guys, especially my granddaughter here." She continued, grabbing Sakuno and kissed her on her head. "I wouldn't have made it here without you."

"Mou, obaa-chan…" Sakuno pouted, blushing slightly. Ryoma felt a tickling sensation coming up from his lungs. Sakuno was so cute…He can't wait to ask her out after this practice… He had been noticing her all his life, but he never made the move. Now thinking about it, it had been because of Ryuuzaki-sensei's conditions that made him go close to Sakuno. In a way, he had to thank Ryuuzaki-sensei for this. Now that he was closer to Sakuno than he had ever dreamt of, he had to take this opportunity to ask her out. Gosh…thinking about this just made me want this practice to end real quick!

"And there's many more people I want to thank. Tezuka, for leading this team, Oishi, for supporting this team, my regulars, and everyone!" Everybody clapped.

But this was the first practice after a very long time that Ryuuzaki-sensei attended, and he already wants to end it. It's not good to lose your concentration like that! Ryoma chided himself. Sakuno's thing can be pushed till later, not yet…not yet…

Ryoma felt something struck him. If Ryuuzaki-sensei if alright now, that means Ryoma could not live with Sakuno anymore! Well, it's not bad going back to his house, but… Then it means that he really needs to ask Sakuno out! Argh, great. Now he couldn't get Sakuno out of his head…

"And I want to thank Ryoma especially."

Wait…what?

Ryoma snapped out of his thoughts, and looked at Ryuuzaki-sensei, who was smiling at him. Did he hear correctly, Ryuuzaki-sensei wanted to thank him…especially? Everyone else in the team looked back and started staring at Ryoma curiously, too.

"I want to thank you for constantly making money for Sakuno's pay rise, so that I could get out of hospital quickly." Ryuuzaki-sensei said.

Ryoma blinked. "Wha- How…how did you…"

"So, today, just for Ryoma, I'm giving him a break." She said, pushing her granddaughter forward. "Take Sakuno out for a date, I know that's what you want."

Ryoma blushed slightly. Damn it, since when did Ryuuzaki-sensei know about him working to pay Sakuno? Did mom tell her this? And since when did she know about him wanting a date…? Did he say his thoughts out loud again?

"R…Ryoma…" Sakuno stammered, blushing a deep crimson red in front of him.

The team started wolf-whistling. "Whoots! Go Ryoma!" "Kiss her!" "Make out!" "Oi, they're only fifteen." "Sorry." "Eh, sensei I want a break too!" "Yeah, I'm tired too!" "No way, the break is only for Ryoma!" "Eh!" "Run 50 laps now!" "EH?"

Sakuno and Ryoma stood there while watching the rest of the people running, running away from them.

"R…Ryoma…is it true…?" Sakuno asked softly when everyone is gone.

"Hn?"

"My…payrise…you worked for it?" Sakuno said, staring at Ryoma.

Ryoma hesitated before nodding his head. "Yeah. I kinda gave a 'tip' to Carrie…"

There was an awkward silence before Sakuno whispered. "Thank you." She leaned forward and hugged Ryoma.

"You're welcome." Ryoma said, and bent down to kiss her. "So, could we…go out again…like…tomorrow?"

Sakuno giggled. "I'll go out with you for the entire of my life." She said shyly.

Ryoma blinked. Then he smiled, feeling happiness rise up. He really wanted to shout and cheer out loud now. "Hn." He said simply, before pushing Sakuno to the wall and kissed her again, this time more ferociously.

XxXxX

End of Chapter/story! I don't know how to continue already, I am already at my wits' end… Oh well. If you have nay suggestion to improve this, since I think I did it quite badly, do say it!