Don't Regret

Chapter Seven

'How did it end up like this?' thought Sakuno as Amano-sensei, the doctor on duty, finished bandaging her ankle. Amano-sensei then interrupted her thoughts as she gave her instructions to stay off her feet as much as possible for the next two weeks for it was a bad sprain and if not allowed to heal fully, then later, it might come back to give her trouble.

Amano-sensei also told Sakuno to come each day to change bandages and tomorrow, she would give her a crutch. They were out of crutches in the meantime because of a delayed order that should arrive tomorrow.

While she was speaking to Sakuno, she was actually looking at Bunta and Niou. She knew both of them for Bunta sometimes came for medicine after eating too many cakes when there were cooking classes and a lot of girls would give their cakes to Bunta knowing he would accept them. Amano-sensei was also familiar with Niou, not personally but mostly through word-of-mouth from her patients who were at the wrong end of the Trickster's jokes.

Bunta and Niou could tell that Amano-sensei wanted them to take care of Sakuno and when she finished giving instructions to Sakuno, Bunta spoke up, "We'll take her home later and tomorrow, we'll come back with her to change the bandages and get the crutch, sensei."

Amano-sensei nodded; too tired after a long day to really say more even though she was a bit curious as to why Niou was with this girl when he never seemed to care about other people. It was not her problem though so she did not say anything and released the three.

Bunta and Niou started to argue whether who should carry Sakuno, when Sakuno, very stupidly I might add, tried to stand on her left foot, hold her right foot up. This was obviously a misguided attempt to show that she could walk or rather, hop, on her own. Sakuno thought that she really should be more independent and she also disliked arguments whether she was in it or not.

Noticing Sakuno's clumsy movements, Niou broke off mid-argument and again swept Sakuno off her feet. Sakuno squeaked and blushed seven shades of red because she was aware that Amano-sensei was looking on with an amused expression. Bunta stopped protesting against Niou picking Sakuno up when he noticed, just a split second later than Niou, what Sakuno was trying to do. He sighed and picked up her stuff.

The three turned to Amano-sensei and bowed politely, or in Niou and Sakuno's case, bobbed their heads, and they thanked her, "Arigatou-gozaimasu, Amano-sensei!"

Now that she was being carried and Niou and Bunta were bickering, Sakuno continued on her earlier, interrupted train of thoughts on this strange turn of events. To her, everything was normal up until she lost her way after practice while looking for a wall. It still felt pretty normal until she heard Niou-senpai's scream, then there was a rush to the san, they talked and now they seemed to be rushing again.

"Ano... Bunta-senpai, a-are we going to the tennis courts? Sakuno asked shyly.

Bunta smiled at her and answered gently, "Later, now we are going to the girls' changing rooms to get your bags. Do you need help changing your clothes?"

Niou smirked at this while Sakuno's eyes opened wide and her face turned an even deeper shade of crimson. Bunta noticed his mistake and quickly said, "No, I mean, uh... I mean, I don't mean that..."

He did not know what he was saying anyway, so embarrassed he was and so irritated at Niou's sniggering that he walked on faster, a faint blush covering his cheeks. Sakuno wanted to reassure him that she understood what he was trying to say but she was too shy to speak up at this moment so the three kept quiet while they made their way to the changing rooms.

In the end, they put Sakuno on one of the benches in the changing room and told her to yell when she finished changing. She found that she could only put on one shoe because the ankle that was injured was still quite swollen despite the bandages. She sighed, wrapped her shoe up and put it in her sports-bag with her tennis trainers. She thought, 'Now I feel like Cinderella... No, don't be silly, Sakuno, you are too plain anyway, be sensible!'

After mentally chastising herself, she raised her voice, "Uh... ano, Bunta-senpai, Niou-senpai. I... I..." Apparently she found it hard to voice the words 'finished changing'. Bunta and Niou heard her call and came in anyway.

They thought she looked very sweet in their school's uniform but neither wanted to embarrass her so they did not say anything other than, "Ready?" and "Let's go." Niou again picked Sakuno up. Bunta, by this time, had already given up arguing with Niou. He just shrugged and went after them, carrying Sakuno's bags.