Don't Regret

twenty-five

Meanwhile, on an earlier train, Ryoma was sitting alone. He was staring out the window, lost in memories.

He remembered Ryuzaki with her long braids and shy smile.

He remembered that day they were both on duty in class. They had to stay after school and note down everything that had happened in the class journal.

There were only the two of them in the classroom; everyone else had left.

Ryuzaki was doing the writing because her penmanship was neater. He was feeling sleepy and bored as he always did when he was not playing tennis. The next thing he knew was Ryuzaki shaking his arm and calling his name.

Apparently, he had fallen asleep and she had finished writing.

After waking him up, Ryuzaki had taken her hand off his arm, blushing like she always did around him.

Everyone thought he did not notice but he did.

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He noticed everything about her since they turned fifteen and was in the last year of junior high.

He knew that she had a crush on him but he never acted as if he cared because he hated being teased by the Seigaku regulars.

He always practiced with them, even when they went up to the senior section because he simply had no one who could compete with him in the junior section when he was in his last year.

He thought that they would always be like this; Ryuzaki and him.

He never thought that they would become a couple because even though he noticed her, he did not know what he felt about her.

It was too complicated and he disliked complicated things. Moreover, he was concentrating on his tennis. He was always concentrating on his tennis. He knew that she was aware of that and yet she still liked him.

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That afternoon, he must have been groggy with sleep; his mind still woozy; it must be that because he could not understand why he paid particular attention that day.

He could remember very clearly that he was paying more attention than usual, spending time just looking at her face, all pink and soft.

Her face was not too round and not too thin, just the right oval shape.

It looked sweet; she looked sweet. He remembered thinking if she tasted sweet too, he did not understand why he was thinking that, he thought that it must be because he did not have enough Ponta that day.

It must be the lack of sugar and the dimness of the classroom. It made everything rather hazy to him, even with his super eyesight.

He ignored the fact that even before that day, he had started to notice certain things about a girl's body, actually if he was more truthful, her body to be exact, not that he was worked up about it the way some boys would be. He just… noticed and then shrugged it off. It could not be that interesting if he could shrug it off.

Ryuzaki was not prettier than any other girl though her eyes did not glimmer with calculation like some of the other girls he saw looking at him; those he avoided like the plague. They gave him the unpleasant feeling that he was being stripped naked.