Tennis no Ojou-sama: A Prince of Tennis Fan Fiction

CHAPTER 119: No Reason To Feel Guilty

Class 1-2 was again dressed to kill as they assembled in front of the café's counter to listen to some encouraging words from their main manager, Ayase Mami. Kurumi was so impressed with Mami that she let the latter take over even though she is class president. Things wouldn't have gotten so smoothly if it weren't for Mami's meticulous planning.

Kurumi sniffed the sleeve of her costume and appreciated the brisk smell of the fresh fabric. Before their rehearsal started at the wrap-up of the first day of the festival, Ryouko's very own Licht arrived to take everyone's sweaty costumes to the dry cleaners. Jun's family runs a laundry shop as a side business and they agreed to take care of the costumes everyday until the play on Saturday. After all, they only had ample time to make one costume for everyone except for the main characters of the play who needed two to three outfits. They offered to pay but Jun's parents declined to take their money.

"It's the first time our son participated in such a large-scale school event... He's shyer than you think so please look after him. We'll gladly take care of the costumes as long as you don't replace him in the play," his mother said, sounding quite proud of her little Jun's small accomplishment.

"Mom..." Jun said in a complaining tone, quite embarrassed.

While it was Licht's duty to take the worn costumes to the laundry shop, Jun's father personally delivered the freshly-laundered and primly pressed costumes early in the morning afterwards.

As for the food needed for the café, before the sun even rose to light up silver lines to the puffy white clouds in the sky, all of the pastries and cakes had been baked to perfection, decorated prettily and delivered to their classroom by seven o'clock. A cousin of one of their class members owns a bakery and they contracted the shop to provide all their daily goods for the week with a friendly price. They even got a discount since a member of their family is with the class.

It was only after they were done with the preparations on the second day that Kurumi fully appreciated how well-thought everything is. Mami really utilized the resources of their class members extremely well. Kurumi didn't even think much of strategies that they can utilize to save up on the spending for their class booth and play.

Ayase Mami can be quite a great class rep material if she just weren't so lazy at schoolwork. Apparently, Mami can only show enthusiasm on things that interest her; too bad that schoolwork is not one of the things that can light a fire to her spirit.

"Yosh!" Mami said, placing her hands on both sides of her waist. "We did great yesterday and we'll do even better today! Konjou wo misero yo! (Show your willpower!)," she added in an enthusiastic tone, punching the air in a victory pose.

"Fight, fight, oh!" the class members chorused and imitated Mami's pose.

"Is this really a cultural fest or a sports fest? What's with the victory call?" Ryouko commented and smiled at the exuberance of her classmates.

"They're way too fired up for this, really..." Ryoma remarked beside her.

They looked at each other and averted their eyes almost immediately, feeling a bit awkward. After Ryoma took the trouble to take chamomile tea to Ryouko in the infirmary yesterday afternoon, the both of them felt a bit clumsy around the other. They haven't gotten over their fight yet but it seemed like they both lost the fire to continue the dispute. If only they know that they share that feeling mutually, they wouldn't have much trouble patching things up.

As soon as Class 1-2 was open for business, they got busy at the first minute. While Ryouko served a table that called her for designation, she watched Ryoma through the corner of her eye. She held firmly onto her self-promise about talking to Ryoma in private once they have free time. Thankfully, they both have the same schedule for the break.