Tennis no Ojou-sama: A Prince of Tennis Fan Fiction

CHAPTER 135: Formal Dating

However, tailing the two proved to be a lot more tedious than Mami and Miyako thought. For starters, Ryouko and Ryoma became aware halfway that they were being followed.

Ryoma was in no mood to confront whoever it is that was following him for he has more important things to prioritize. He made an attempt to lose the person by zigzagging though several alleys in town without slowing his pace. As the streets are frozen over, Mami was unable to keep up and ended up slipping on an icy sidewalk and hitting her behind hard. Fortunately, Shuu was also following her in an attempt to keep her from causing trouble.

It can be said that Mami asked for this karma to backfire on her and Shuu gave her a harsh scolding as he helped her get up. With this unfortunte situation, Ayase Mami was unable to continue her mission and Ryoma was able to drop home for a bit to change clothes and grab his tennis racket.

As she was being carried on piggyback by the grumbling Shuu, Mami wished that Miyako had better luck with Ryouko.

On the other hand, Miyako indeed had better luck because Ryouko didn't particularly mind being followed. She saw Miyako's reflection off the rearview mirror of a parked car and ruled her as harmless. There would be plenty of opportunities to lose her nosy friend so she went home firsthand to drop off her things and bring her personal racket.

Miyako stayed by the gates and waited for Ryouko to go out but it wasn't until fifteen minutes later when she noticed that Ryouko is oddly taking too long. "Maybe Mami-chan thought wrong and Ryouko-chan isn't planning on meeting Echizen-kun all along? In this case, I'll freeze in here waiting for nothing!" she thought, rubbing her hands together.

Suddenly, Miyako heard someone going out of the gates and she concealed herself before peeking out. She screamed out loud when she suddenly came face to face with Ryouko's red-headed cousin Ichidou.

"Licht told me there's someone suspicious lurking by the gates and I came all the way here to check. What a waste of time. It's just one of Ryouko's classmates..." Ichidou said, narrowing his emerald eyes at Miyako.

"Please! Can you not appear out of nowhere like that? You almost gave me a heart attack!" Miyako exclaimed, one hand on her chest.

"It's your fault for acting so sneaky. You must be up to something for you to be so surprised. What are you doing here anyway?" Ichidou said, rearranging the scarf around his neck.

Miyako was hesitant at first and she considered lying. "I... Well, I just..." she stammered and gave a sigh of surrender. She's no good at making up good excuses so she might as well just tell the truth. "I'm waiting for Ryouko-chan to come out..." she fessed up.

"She already did though..." Ichidou suddenly said.

"Eh?" Miyako replied in a surprised tone. "But I've been here all this time. How come I never saw her go out?" She stepped closer to Ichidou and peered at his face, her eyes demanding answers.

Ichidou leaned backwards and gave Miyako's forehead a quick flick to get her to back away. "Too close..." he said.

Miyako realized that her actions were improper and quickly pulled herself together. "Sorry about that... I was just... overly-excited..." she said and cleared her throat.

Ichidou raised an eyebrow at the gal with the shortish caramel-colored hair. It wasn't the first time he saw her but he remembered her to be a little more demure than this particular girl in front of him. Anyways, he should probably just answer so she'll go home. "Ryouko told us she has something to do and took the exit by the back garden... I did think it was strange for her to use the back exit... So it was to lose the person tailing her..." he answered matter-of-factly.