Don't Regret

Thirty

At the entrance of the station, there was a scattered group of tall, well-built and very good-looking young men. Together with them was a tall girl who was also very good-looking.

They were waiting for their dear little friend; 'little' meaning that she was very small compared with this lot of half giants.

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Yukimura and Miyu had arrived at the station to see Niou, Sanada and Yagyuu already waiting. Soon, Bunta, Jackal, Akaya and Yanagi had arrived and they nodded to each other, then went off to wait on their own.

Yukimura was not surprised to see the whole team there and he started talking to Sanada about some problems with the practice timetables.

Miyu got bored of listening to them and went over to tease Bunta, who was standing with Jackal, who was pounding his back because Bunta had eaten too much takoyaki in one mouthful and was now choking.

Yagyuu was leaning against a nearby post and was reading a new mystery novel that he had found at the bookstore; he had been so busy lately with all the school work and tennis practices that he had not had much time to read and was glad to take the opportunity to relax a bit while waiting for his favorite chatting companion.

Actually she was his only chatting companion because he did not chat with the guys and his family was not the chatty type. He did not care to chat with the girls at school because they would be too busy cooing at him to listen or make intelligent replies.

Well, to be fair, the replies that Sakuno made were not academically intelligent but she did not coo at him and she actually listened and answered seriously which was all he had wanted.

Recently he had felt that was not enough but was not yet sure what more did he want. He had been too busy to think about it so for the time being, he just let that rest at the back of his mind.

He did not even think of talking to Miyu because she not only disliked reading but to him, she was always more 'gentleman' than 'lady', so most of the time, he treated her as he would his team-mates and that is with little words.

Yanagi was standing next to Yagyuu, scribbling down anything and everything that caught his attention.

It was more to keep up his note-taking skills rather than to serve any purpose. Besides, he never knew what interesting little piece of information he might find.

Akaya was standing some distance away, listening to music and glancing at the watch.

He had missed Sakuno because recent practices had been so tense that he longed for her relaxing presence. Besides, he reasoned to himself, she was his bunny, how come she was not by his side.

Akaya childishly did not want to bother going too far down that train of thought because he instinctively felt that it would not be a good idea just yet.

At least, not for Sakuno, because if he had really wanted her, he would be relentless and part of him understood that now was not the time for that.

Therefore he settled for her being his bunny and as long as nothing else happened, he would be contented in this situation for the time being.

Niou was wandering around seemingly bored and radiating an aura that said clearly, "Don't come near me."

He looked cool but inside, he was grinning madly at the potential fun he could have before Sakuno arrived.