It All Started With a Bet

The Listening

Hye! I am back! I am sorry for the long delay but I am back and in the moid to write again. This is the continuation of the chapter as I promised. I hope you like this domo... :)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Prince of Tennis and never ever will.

Chapter 24: The Listening

Chapter Summary: The last thing that she wanted to happen was to be alone with him.

'Can I let the trees do the talking?
Can I let the ground do the walking?
Can I let the sky fill what's missing?
Can I let my mouth do the listening, the listening...'

The Listening ~ Lights

It had been a week since that revelation happened. Things were starting to change between them. She would see him like before and as for him, he tried to remain neutral. Honoka stopped bugging them as if she already accepted the fact that she and Ryoma would never be together. The girl was still aloof and everytime to two talked, she could sense an awkward aura between them.

It became intensed when she was involved in the conversation.

His teammates started to support him again, especially his best buddy, Momoshiro. Ryoma was still kind of introvert and wouldn't initiate a conversation to them that much. Things around him and Fuji were... silent. They only stared and nodded at each other, nothing came next after that. She already talked to Fuji after the revelation. She let all her feelings to him. That she could only love him as a friend.

Fuji being the understandable one, accepted that. He only wished that they would remain the same just like before... no awkward feelings, that they could still practice together and so on. Everything seemed to fine now.

Except for one.

She couldn't get the real condition she and Ryoma had.

Just like everyone else, they seemed to go back to the way they were before.

Saturday:

"Sakuno!"

She looked behind when she saw Tomoka running towards her direction. Turning around, she waited for her best friend to reach her, "Doushita no, Tomo-chan? You don't have to run off like that."

Tomoka rested her hands to her knees and waited for her breath to come back before she spoke to her, "The result."

"E?" She cocked her head to her side, trying to understand what she was saying.

Her best friend stood up and grabbed her to her shoulders, "The result for your art submission has been decided!"

"What?" Her eyes widened when Tomoka said that. Her heart started to pound really hard as well.

"Come on!"

She didn't have the chance to speak when Tomoka pulled her away from the court. All she could think was her work.

Later on:

They didn't wait long when the teacher asked them to come in the faculty room. She wasn't surprised when her grandmother was there along with her art teacher and the other expected sponsors. The teachers let Tomoka in as well, much to her best friend's astonishment. Looking around, she found her painting sitting at the corner of the room. As she looked at it, she thought that the painting was actually alive. The painting felt like real in her eyes. She never noticed that before and it was weird that she missed that part.

"You've seen it too, haven't you?"

Looking away from her canvass, she stared at the sponsor who was also looking at her painting.