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

CHAPTER 134: Sweet Thoughts and Labels

It was early morning in front of Seishun Academy Junior High School and the students attending club activities have already arrived one by one on campus, calling out morning greetings to each other, their breaths swirling in mists in front of their flushed faces. The cold winter came at them very peacefully that day with barely no wind blowing but the temperature still cannot be underestimated. The students responded to this by bulking up as much as they could.

By the side of the gates, a dark-haired freshman boy has his back on the wall, dressed warmly in a long beige coat with the hood hung on his head, an off-white scarf wrapped around his neck peeking from the inside of the coat's collar and a pair of mahogany-colored knitted gloves snug on his hands. He looked so picture-perfect just standing there casually as if the cold doesn't bother him at all. Many girls took double takes to glance at him more than once. He had been quite famous because of the tennis club Seigaku and the national junior high championship but it was nothing in comparison to his current fame. He had become quite the school celebrity after the festival wrapped up. The gossips that circled around him and the rumored runaway princess of the freshmen department made it even worse.

Ryoma just let the gazes pass through him since he already became immune to people's staring after everything that happened. He focused on gazing down the lane closest to the Fujioka mansion that Ryouko usually takes on her way to school. A minute later, her silhouette became visible. The dark red cap and scarf adorning her petite figure clad in a cream-colored overcoat made her even more noticeable from the crowd.

Ryoma stood straight and waved a hand to her. Ryouko answered with a smile and approached him with larger steps.

"Did you wait here?" Ryouko asked, icy mists forming as she spoke.

Ryoma nodded in reply, taking her duffel bag.

"You shouldn't have... It's so cold out..." she told him, half-scolding.

Ryoma merely smiled. "It's okay... Let's go in. Most of the guys have already arrived," he answered.

"Where are your bags? Did you come to school empty-handed?" Ryouko asked as they walked side by side.

"I left them in the classroom yesterday..." Ryoma answered, not saying anything about actually forgetting about leaving his belongings. Fortunately, Ryouko did not question further.

Today is the day that Ryouko finally goes back to school after her two-day absence that followed her three and a half days of going 'missing'. Several of the students who had known her in the festival events and heard of the rumors flying around campus for the past few days stared and whispered as she and Ryoma walked towards the new Seigaku locker room.

Since they brought home the championship that year, the boys' tennis team were awarded with a renovated locker room much larger than the one they had before. The smaller locker room was turned into an equipment room for the sole use of the club. The school and Coach Ryuzaki did not inform them about it so everyone was pleasantly shocked at yesterday's afternoon practice when the room was formally opened. It turned out that the 'afternoon practice' wasn't meant for practice at all but for moving things around to and from the old locker room and the new one. Most of their equipment were also taken from the sports warehouses and moved to the old locker room.

The surprise for the tennis team did not stop there for they were also gifted an indoor tennis court. The school management had one of the unused old warehouse detached from the annex buildings renovated so that Seigaku could comfortably hold practice even during winter. The Seishun Tennis Gardens only had outdoor courts making it very hard to hold practices at that time of the year.

The administration hoped for the excellent performance of Seigaku to continue onwards and thus, they gave further motivation by providing new facilities. As Ryoma did not attend afternoon practice the day before, he was informed about the matter via text messages from Oishi and Tezuka.