Echizen's New Rival

Chapter 3: The New Border

"I'm home," Sakuno shouted lamely when she arrived at the receiving area of the house. She was still sad but figured that it was just like Ryoma to say that kind of insensitive thing so fretting more is just putting her self more to a life-filled misery. She sighed. She lost once again to loneliness.

-BAM-

"Ouch." Sakuno winced as she fell down the floor. She kept her eyes closed as the pain radiated from her shin to her knee and all she could do was to wait until it was over. When she opened her eyes again, she finally saw what caused her to tumble down. There was a large black bag- 2 of them actually that lay neatly neside their shoe cabinet. There were a couple of boxes that were also scattered on the floor. Confused, her brows knotted themselves as she tried to think if the offending boxes were there that morning before she left. 

"Grandma? Are you going somewhere?" she asked in a loud voice. She was still in the floor looking at the things that blocked the doorway, her mouth pouting at the unfamiliarity of the things she was seeing.

"I don't think she's going somewhere until tomorrow," a voice replied to her question. She perked up when she heard the voice that was vaguely familiar to her. The voice was male and the last time she heard one in their house was when his father was still living with them until both her parents went overseas for their work. She spun around and she can't believe that the voice belonged to the same guy that she met earlier that morning. He was squatted down the floor, looking at her with such gentle eyes while flashing that masculine smile that seemed to have robbed her of her breath for a second. 

"Are you hurt?" he asked. It took her a minute to process the question and when she finally did, she was just as clueless as ever. Her curiosity towards the meaning of his presence in the house won over the pain she felt awhile ago. When she didn't answer for some time, Rei suppressed his laugh but failed almost by a thread. He covered his mouth with the back of his hand and sighed. He did find her really cute, looking at him with such big and rounded eyes like a child.  

"Um, okay... I'll be living with you for some time," he started. "Those are my things and I apologize if it caused you to fall down. I didn't know where else to put them so, here…" he explained diligently, stretching his hand out at the same time to help her up. Sakuno blinked at the offered hand and immediately tried to block all thoughts that kept her down, thinking in the floor. She humbly accepted it and stood up with a bow of thanks.

"But i still don't understand," she said finally. She didn't look at him but instead tried her best to fix her gaze at her clothes, acting as if all the dust have plastered themselves on her skirt. In fact, she hoped there was a lot more on her clothes to avoid looking at the man in ftont of her. Of course, it wasn't enough embarassment to have someone kiss her in front of echizen, she had to fall clumsily in front of this guy at her very own house. Were things going to be this awkward from now on?

"Hmm.. But I thought your grandmother told you that I was coming?" he asked,  confused. He was sure he recieved a call from Sakuno's Gradmother that everything has been in order and that she already informed her grandaughter about the arrangements. "Did she forget?" he added.

"I'm sure I told her yesterday evening…" Coach Ryuzaki said. She flashed a smile together with a frown that seemed all natural to her. She was at the doorway, leaning at the wall, looking at what happened. Sakuno can almost see her somehow disappointed.

"She even nodded so I'm wondering how she can forget something important…" Sakuno thought about last night. Her thoughts were mostly of Ryoma and how she would like a grip tape that was almost the same as his. She wanted the same color, the same style and the same type. That was probably the time when her grandmother knocked and told her of the arrangements. She did remember nodding to her but to what arrangements she was pertaining to, she almost couldn't pick it out from her memory. She was probably that preoccupied about something else... just like most of her other nights.