16Tomoka slammed the cup of soda harshly onto the table, making Sakuno wince as she subconsciously clutched the napkin in her hand tighter.
"Are you telling me that you guys have been dating for a month, and he hasn't taken you out anywhere?"
"He's busy," Sakuno answered casually. She didn't understand what Tomoka was fuming about. "He has tournaments to compete in… so he needs to practice more this month."
"Well, if he knew he was gonna get busy, he shouldn't have gotten a girlfriend," Tomoka snapped. The girl took a huge bite out of her burger, and part of Sakuno was scared for Ryoma's sake if he ever talked to her face-to-face during this time—the burger looked destroyed.
"I mean, I knew about his busy schedule too, so I shouldn't be complaining about it," Sakuno tried to reason. "Dating someone takes two decisions, Tomo-chan."
"I mean, yeah, I guess. But if it's going to be like this…"
"What is it?"
"Then wouldn't you be happier somewhere else?"
Sakuno uncomfortably stirred her drink with a straw. Getting her love to be requited after all these years was enough to make her happy, but Tomoka obviously didn't share the sentiment. Sakuno wasn't a person who asked for much, but Tomoka made it sound like she had low standards.
"Ryoma-sama may be a hottie, but after seeing your interactions with him for a month, he is definitely not boyfriend material. All he does is walk you home! There's not a romantic bone in his body."
"It's not like I'm dissatisfied with that," Sakuno continued to argue. "You just don't know him well enough." Tomoka saw Sakuno's resilience and, dare she think of it, slight irritation from all the bashing on her boyfriend, so she let it go and sighed mentally before finishing the rest of her burger.
When lunch came the next day, Sakuno wasn't expecting Ryoma to suddenly come to her class with a light knock on the door edge. Of course, that was meant to catch her attention only, not half the class.
"Ryoma-kun?"
"Hey," he simply greeted as he weaved his way through the desks to reach her. Everyone knew they had been dating, credits to Tomoka's loud mouth and the buzz of the tennis team, but the news still needed more time to sink in. After all, Ryoma didn't seem like a person to date anything besides a tennis ball or a racquet.
Sakuno watched as Ryoma made himself at home with the desk in front of her and sat backwards on the chair. She couldn't help but crack a smile as he crossed his arms on her desk and laid his chin on them.
"What happened to the rooftop?"
"It might rain today," was all he said as he closed his eyes. Sakuno couldn't help but sift through his hair a bit with a hand. He didn't stop her as he reveled in her touch. "I don't want to get wet before practice."
"Says the guy who'd be willing to play in the rain all day," she giggled as she started to remember fond memories of middle school. Ryoma clicked his tongue before sitting back up.
"What are you having for lunch today?"
"The usual. Where's your lunch?"
"Stolen by Momo-senpai," he deadpanned. He obviously didn't look happy as the usual scowl formed across his face. "He skipped breakfast and didn't have lunch prepared."
"Ah, so you offered it to him."
"Did not."
Sakuno smiled as she watched her boyfriend's eye twitch in annoyance at her knowing look. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he grew up to become someone who looked out for others in that odd and eccentric way of his. The whole earth would have to burn for Echizen Ryoma to admit to his kind deeds. What a tsundere.
"Want to share half of my bento? I wouldn't want you to starve during practice today either. Ah, but you might want to avoid the egg… I think I might've accidentally gotten eggshells into it."
It was rare for Ryoma to smile, even a tiny crack, so when he laughed, Sakuno almost fell off her chair, along with everyone else in the classroom.
"Extra calcium," he cheekily said before grabbing her chopsticks, opening her bento box, and plopping a portion of the eggs into his mouth. He paused momentarily in his chewing when he felt said eggshells, much to Sakuno's slight embarrassment, but he nonetheless didn't comment on it any further.
"You can eat more than just, uh, eggshells," Sakuno said. She urged him to eat more of her lunch, but he shook his head after he plopped a final octopus sausage into his mouth.
"It's fine. A bite of your cooking should be enough for practice."
Sakuno blushed at how casually romantic he was right in front of their fellow colleagues and hid her face into her table. She could already hear the rumors just flying through the hallways within ten minutes. Ryoma on the other hand didn't understand why Sakuno was acting the way she was and poked her on the head.
"I haven't seen this redness since middle school. What's gotten into you?"
"Mo, Ryoma-kun," she whined before she shot her head back up. She opened her mouth to rant about how he shouldn't kill her with his unexpected smiles and flirtatious comments, but the energy just seeped out of her as she realized how he wouldn't even understand anyway and simply smiled. "I love you."
"Oh?"
Ryoma didn't expect her to just blurt it out in a class setting, so the eyebrow raise was inevitable. However, it quickly got replaced with an amused sigh as he reached out a finger to draw random symbols on her arm.
"Hey, this Sunday."
"Hm?"
"Let's go somewhere," he said. Sakuno's breath hitched a bit when his finger traveled over to her hand, where he casually laced a few of his fingers with hers. "Practice has been a huge drag. We haven't really spent time together outside of lunch at school, hm?"
When Sakuno failed to respond, Ryoma raised their partially locked hands up and waved them in front of her face. "Knock knock?"
"Oh, yeah! Sunday. I should be free," Sakuno stammered.
"Why do you look so shocked?"
"I didn't—well—expect you to take me out on a date. Don't you have a tournament soon?"
"Why does everyone think tennis is the only thing on my mind?" Ryoma rolled his eyes, clearly getting tired of this outdated misconception. "Even you think I'm possessed or something, right?"
Sakuno blinked at him. "Possessed?"
He shook his head. "They say a spirit has taken over me for the past month. Strange—I don't think I'm doing anything different."
"You have a girlfriend now," Sakuno said. The phrase still felt strange to her; even she couldn't get used to the whole thing. "I think no one expected Echizen Ryoma to be a, uh…"
"Seventeen-year-old high schooler?" he scoffed. Sakuno smiled weakly when he glared at her because he knew that she was just like everyone else until a month ago. His eyes went over to check the time on his phone before he stood up and jerked a thumb over to the door. "Anyway, time's almost up. I should be heading back. As for Sunday, we'll just plan it later, hm?"
"Sounds great," Sakuno breathed, the idea of a date sounding extremely pleasant. "I'm down for anything."
"That just means I'm deciding," he mumbled grumpily, earning a giggle. She let out an "oof" when Ryoma patted her head affectionately. "Sorry for not having time recently."
"Oh, that's okay. I know how busy you are." This conversation reminded her of the one she had with Tomoka. "Can't help it."
"I'll make it up to you," he promised. This caused a flutter in her chest—this was a lot more than she expected from this relationship. It made her feel extremely funny. "Anyway, cya."
"Bye," she happily waved.
She watched curiously as the tennis star looked around the room momentarily. "Something the matter?"
Ryoma shook his head before he swooped down and gave her a quick peck on the lips.
"Love you too."
And he left.
Sakuno blinked at the space where Ryoma was just at before he left, and she could feel the stares of surprise just drowning her. Realizing what he just did, Sakuno rubbed her two hands down her face in embarrassment. PDA was not a common thing in Japan—his American-influenced ways did not match her pace nor their classmates at all. She made a note to discuss with him about it, but she doubted he would change his ways.
From across the room, she met eyes with Tomoka, who simply just stared at her, wide-eyed. Feeling victorious in some way, Sakuno stuck her tongue out at her best friend.
Her boyfriend was, indeed, more of a romantic than anyone here thought. Even to her.
Hey guys! So I didn't expect the responses I would get and the views I would get for this oneshot, so I just added in another chapter for you guys! Didn't expect this fandom to still be alive, so definitely caught me by surprise. I might be updating this fanfic as a slice-of-life romance kind of thing whenever I'm bored/on writer's block for my other works, so let me know if that's something you guys would want! Pontapair has been an ultimate favorite ship since I first watched it on TV when it aired! Glad to know fans of this ship are still out there c:
