Youthful Days (Book 1)

41. Boy with Love

Another shock of lightning ripped through the charcoal skies, abruptly fragmenting his trance. The whip of thunder that followed jarred Ryoma awake. He flinched once and retracted his hand.

"Is there something on my face?" asked Ayuna.

"No." Ryoma plucked a leaf from her front locks. "Just this. Probably from before."

"Oh, thank you."

When she looked away, Ryoma surreptitiously breathed a sigh of relief, grateful to the thunderstorm for saving him from making a grave mistake. Diverting the subject, he said, "Why don't you tell me about your day—and whether or not there's a cursed badminton racket?"

This made Ayuna laugh out loud. "Fortunately, there's no such thing."

While the storm raged on, they talked about the tennis team's grueling training, deconstructed their past and future opponents, and then moved on to sharing the trivial details of their daily lives. Hours seemed to have passed without either of them noticing as they talked about everything and nothing, until their voices melded with the melodious pounding of the rain.

Their conversation would have continued if it weren't for the sound of footsteps coming from the corridor. Stopping mid-sentence, Ayuna's ears perked up. "Do you hear that?"

Ryoma listened: the sounds of people shuffling down the hall were growing closer. Immediately following it was Kikumaru Eiji's penetrating voice. "I wonder where the exit is... Do you know, Momo?"

"Like heck I do!" came Momoshiro's gruff reply. "This is the first year's building! Do I look like a freshman to you?"

"Yeah, but you were a freshman a year ago!"

"But so were you, Eiji-senpai—two years ago!"

As their chatters grew louder, Ayuna's eyes lit up.

"It's the regulars!" she exclaimed, hauling Ryoma out from under the bench. "We have to get them to help!"

Ryoma reluctantly slogged after Ayuna, who darted towards the door and slammed her palms against it. "Hello? Senpais? Can you hear me?"

"Momo—did you hear that?!" said Eiji in alarm. "The girl's voice?"

"Eiji-senpai, it's Ayuna!" Knowing she'd caught their attention, Ayuna continued hollering, "Please help!"

"It's Ayuna," came Fuji's voice. Ensuing it was a flurry of footsteps until they were right by the door. The knob jiggled from the outside several times before an exasperated exhale came, "It's locked. Inui, any idea how to get it open?"

"I believe you need the room key..."

"Move aside all of you," coach Ryuzaki's voice sliced through the commotions. "I've got a master key right here."

With a soft clatter, the door swung open, flooding the room with rays of fluorescent light.

Ayuna stumbled several steps back. The first to rush into the room was Fuji, his profile illuminated silver by flashlights. Squinting, Ryoma saw that the people trailing after him were Inui, Eiji, Momoshiro and the coach.

"What on earth are you doing here?" Fuji demanded when he reached Ayuna, taking her hands in his and brows knitted with worry. That was when he took notice of Ryoma standing by her side. "And with...Echizen?"

Pressing his cap low, Ryoma replied, "We were cleaning up."

"Ah, Echizen, could this be your detention?!" Momoshiro snorted once before bursting into uncontrollable guffaws. "You're being disciplined by your classmate?! This is too funny!"

"I wouldn't be here in the first place if it weren't because of you," he grumbled.

"So I see," Fuji said blandly, his eyes never wavering from Ayuna. "How did you both end up stuck in the lab?"

"All thanks to the storm," she said bashfully and briefly recapped the unlucky happenings of this afternoon. Next to her, Ryoma saw visible relief flooding Fuji's taut expressions.

"Now that we have everybody here, it's best for us to keep going." Coach Ryuzaki cut through the recount with a clap of her hands. "I doubt the school security will be too happy to see us wander around the building during a blackout."

"I'm all ready to get going," urged Momoshiro, a hand on his stomach. "I'm starving! I can practically feel my stomach chewing up the other organs!"

"Ugh, Momo, that's disgusting!" Eiji wrinkled his nose. "No one needs to know!"

Fuji's attention seemed to be centered on Ayuna throughout their entire exchange. Tenderly, he brushed away wet forelocks out of her eyes. "Let's get you home before you catch a cold. It's been a long day for all of us."

"Please do." Ayuna stifled a yawn. "I'm exhausted."

Before leaving, Fuji unzipped his jacket and draped it over Ayuna's shoulders, deftly slipping off Ryoma's soggy jersey in the process. With a dazzling smile, he handed it over to the younger boy and advised, "I think you'd better launder this, Ryoma. Otherwise, you might just get sick yourself."

"Thanks for the reminder, senpai," answered Ryoma coolly.

Their eyes met for a moment, with Fuji's revealing a glint of authority. "No, thank you for taking care of my girlfriend." Tearing his eyes away, he looped an arm around Ayuna protectively and ushered her out.

There was a serrated edge to his voice, impossible to miss. That was when Ryoma knew Fuji saw a part of him that he never knew existed until moments ago. If it hadn't been for Fuji's latent warning, he would've continued to stay in denial.

Now, however, Ryoma was forced to acknowledge that he wanted to be the one at Ayuna's side. Yet his wish was a lost cause: it was too little too late—he had already lost her to Fuji Shuusuke long ago.

Before leaving, Ayuna paused briefly and beamed at Ryoma with wholehearted gratitude. "Thank you, for everything."

Ryoma nodded, trying to ignore the dull ache in his chest.

He stalled in the vacant room for another few seconds before following the group out. Behind him came the crisp click of the lock, muffling the sounds of rain against the glass windows and the sonorous rumbles of the storm.

Turning around, he saw that the door closed on the magic that had him temporarily entranced. 

***

A/N: Yes, I borrowed the BTS song title for this. For some reason, when that song came out, I immediately thought about this chapter, so here it is.

Thank you for reading~