Prince Of Tennis Fan Fiction ❯ Singing Juices: A Tenipuri Musical ❯ A Decision Is Made: Part 1 ( Chapter 10 )

AN: I hope I'm right. In Japan don't they have five regular days of school (Mon. - Fri.) and then a half day on Sat. and no school on Sunday? If that's not true then they do in my universe. And I know I said there'd be only two more chapters left, but this chapter got a little long so it's gonna be another two-parter.

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Chapter #10: A Decision Is Made: Part 1

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Oishi entered the school that morning, head down, and immediately headed for the tennis courts. It may have been Saturday, but they still had morning practice before school.

He'd been thinking about what Fuji had said the other day and had come to a decision. He would give Eiji his chance. It had been a hard decision, made with lots of nail-biting and pacing, locking himself in his room and doing some serious fretting, but he'd done it. He was ready to give this gay-thing a try.

But how to tell Eiji that?

Did he just go up to Eiji and say `Okay' and that was it? Should he say something else? Should he be romantic? Maybe apologize? He didn't really think there was anything to apologize for.

Eiji would just have to be okay with a simple `Let's do this thing.' Because, hey, at least Oishi was saying yes. Eiji should be happy with that, right?

But maybe he'd already given up. Maybe Eiji didn't care anymore. Fuji had said he was getting tired of waiting. Maybe Eiji had already moved on and Oishi was just going to embarrass himself.

Oh God. What if . . . what if Eiji already had a new boyfriend?

Oishi abruptly stopped walking in the middle of the path, eyes wide, struck by this new possibility. Because what if?

Oishi couldn't say anything if Eiji already had a boyfriend!

It took him a moment but finally he shook his head, shaking the idea off, and started walking again.

No, that was just silly. Eiji hadn't had the time to get a new boyfriend. It had been almost a whole day since they'd last talked, but no one could get another boyfriend that quickly, right? Right?

Right. Tightening his grip on his tennis bag, Oishi nodded to himself with a small frown, feeling somewhat assured.

Arriving at the clubhouse, Oishi closed the door behind him and looked around. Nobody was there, but he hadn't expected them to be. As vice-captain, he had to get to the courts a little early in order to help Tezuka get everything set up. Occasionally when he arrived he would find Tezuka changing, but that was occasionally.

Setting his bag down on the floor, Oishi went over to his locker and fiddled with the lock. Getting out his practice clothes, it took him maybe five minutes to finish changing. Done, he went out onto the courts to meet up with Tezuka and begin his duties for the day. He didn't see Eiji until maybe twenty minutes later when the other boy walked onto the courts, chattering away at Fuji. Stopping in place, Oishi stared at Eiji from across the courts, his nervousness coming back to him with a force.

He didn't know what to do. Should he approach now? Should he wait? What if Eiji didn't want to be bothered? What if Eiji never wanted to be bothered? Maybe Eiji didn't have a new boyfriend but he could still easily be angry with him.

Finally Oishi decided to approach. Let Eiji be angry with him for the moment, what Oishi had to say would hopefully fix everything.

“Eiji,” Oishi said, walking up to the other boy.

Eiji broke off his conversation with Fuji to turn to Oishi. “Oishi?” he asked, looking somewhat surprised. “You're actually talking to me again?”

“Yeah, um . . .” Oishi rubbed the back of his neck nervously, looking down at his feet. He didn't know quite what to say—he hadn't quite gotten that far in the planning process before deciding to wing it—and he couldn't quite just say what he wanted to with Fuji standing right there, watching his every move. “I was wondering . . . um . . .”

Eiji looked curious and tilted his head. “You were wondering?”

“Um. Yeah. I was wondering . . .” Scratching the area behind his ear one last time, Oishi looked up at Eiji hesitantly. “Do you think we could talk? Not right now,” Oishi hurried to put in, “Sometime later. But definitely talk.”

Eiji blinked. “About what?”

“About, you know . . .” Looking uncomfortable, more than aware of Fuji's presence by their side, Oishi gave Eiji a significant look. ”things.”

Eiji's eyes widened in understanding and he exchanged a look with Fuji, seeming nervous. Fuji nodded, smiling encouragingly, and Eiji shook his head, eyes wide. Fuji nodded again, smiling and gesturing for him to go on, and Eiji hesitated. Fuji made another patient `go on' gesture and finally Eiji nodded, seeming to steel himself as he took a breath, and then turned back to Oishi with a smile, looking more confident. “Sure,” he said brightly, “Is after school okay?”

Oishi let out his breath, relieved, and smiled slightly. “Yeah, that'd be great.” And he was about to end the conversation and walk away, thankful for it to be done, when Tezuka approached.

“Fuji.”

Eyes closed, Fuji smiled. “Yes?”

Tezuka did not look happy. Come to think of it, Oishi thought, Tezuka had been looking particularly angry all morning. Reaching out, Tezuka grabbed Fuji's arm and yanked him forward. “Come with me,” he commanded and started to drag Fuji away, not waiting for an answer. Fuji waved back at Oishi and Eiji happily as he was dragged off.

Those two gone, Eiji and Oishi were left alone and turned to stare at each other.

“Um . . .” Eiji began, looking uncomfortable, “So . . .” But then he fell silent. There was an awkward pause.

“I think I still have some things to do before practice,” Oishi finally said into the silence, sticking his thumb in the direction of the tennis courts. “So I should probably get to that.”

“Yeah!” Eiji said and nodded his head enthusiastically. “And I'm just gonna go . . .” Eiji trailed off, looking uncertain, before making a vague gesture in the direction of the benches, “. . . over there . . .”
“Okay,” Oishi said, nodding, “So I'll see you later?”

“Yeah! After school. Meet me at my locker.”

Oishi nodded again and walked off, knowing that he would have to interact with Eiji during the practice itself, but ignoring that for the moment

 

 

Tezuka dragged Fuji over into a corner, supposedly out of the rest of the club's sight. Letting go of Fuji's arm, Tezuka immediately turned on the other boy, demanding, “What did you do to my family?”

“Your family?” Fuji asked, tilting his head and blinking as though he didn't understand why Tezuka was asking him this.

“Yes. What did you do to them?”

“I didn't do anything to them,” Fuji tried, smiling.

Tezuka did not look amused by Fuji's attempts to pretend ignorance. “Fuji.”

And Fuji still smiled as he allowed Tezuka this win, just to be nice. “Well . . . I may have spoken to them for a moment.”

Tezuka felt his jaw clench in anger. “What did you do?”

“It was only for a moment,” Fuji protested mildly, visibly unconcerned with facing Tezuka's wrath. “I couldn't have done too much damage.”

“What did you do?” Tezuka demanded again.

“I merely expressed my displeasure with how they have been treating you,” Fuji said lightly then frowned in displeasure as he remembered. “I don't know why they were so upset. I was more than polite.”

“Fuji,” Tezuka said, still more than angry, “They're petrified. My grandparents won't even look at me.”

“Really?” Fuji asked, trying to look surprised by this.

“Yes,” Tezuka said bluntly.

“Well, I don't have a clue why,” Fuji said, “Maybe something happened after I left.”

Tezuka closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he tried to dredge up the patience to deal with his boyfriend. Finally, he opened his eyes and turned back to Fuji. “How did you even know how they treat me?” he demanded, “Who told you?”

Fuji simply smiled mysteriously. “No one told me. I have my ways.”

And, knowing that he would never get an answer out of Fuji when he smiled like that, Tezuka scowled. But, getting his anger under better control, he ordered, “You are coming with me after school to fix whatever you did.”

“I'm afraid I already have plans.” Fuji was actually going to put his plans for the others into action today after school. It seemed like Eiji and Oishi were going to be okay, but that still left Inui and Kaidoh and Momo and Ryoma to deal with. Everything would be settled by the time school started again next week.

“Cancel them.”

“They aren't exactly the kind of plans that can be canceled,” Fuji said.

“I don't care. Cancel them. You did this. You are going to fix it.” And that, to Tezuka, was that. He turned and left, going back to getting everything ready for practice.

Watching him leave, Fuji frowned. This was not good. Now what was he going to do? The others weren't going to get together by themselves.

He probably should have waited to go through with his plans for Tezuka's family. It had just seemed like such a good opportunity. Tezuka had been out of the house and distracted. That didn't often happen at a time when Fuji could take advantage of it.

Still . . . it had been fun. Remembering the looks on their faces, Fuji smiled and looked particularly evil. He didn't regret a thing.

 

 

To Eiji, practice was awkward and tense, Eiji unable to stop shooting Oishi these nervous looks. School seemed to drag by minute by agonizing minute. And after school practice wasn't that much better. Finally practice ended and the Regulars were free to go. Everyone changed silently. Eiji was usually the one at the heart of all the chaos in the changing room and today he was a little preoccupied by curiosity and nerves.

Finally Oishi was finished changing and he turned to Eiji. “You ready to go?”

Eiji nodded and turned to grab his tennis bag from where it sat on the bench. “Yeah. I'm ready.”

Oishi nodded and grabbed his own bag, turning to leave the clubhouse. He and Eiji were quiet as they made their way out the door and out of the school, walking in tense silence as they walked into town, not really watching where they were going. Finally Eiji couldn't stand the silence anymore and decided he would get the talk started. They had already walked more then a good ways away from the school and still nobody had said anything.

“So . . .” Eiji began, clearly nervous. He looked over at Oishi. “What'd you want to talk to me about?”

“Uh. Yeah,” Oishi said, looking down at the ground as he walked, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably. How did he say this? “Um . . .” Nothing coming to mind, Oishi trailed off into silence.

“You said we could talk about us getting together,” Eiji said leadingly and then waited for Oishi to contribute his own thoughts to the conversation. When Oishi merely said, “Yeah. Um,” again and continued rubbing the back of his neck, Eiji continued, “Did you make a decision?”

“Yeah. I, uh . . . I mean . . .” Oishi was clearly too nervous to actually say anything useful, but Eiji was starting to get the picture. Oishi didn't seem like he was the type of nervous where he was turning Eiji down. He seemed the type of nervous where he was saying yes. As Oishi continued along the “Yeah. Um. I mean . . .” vein, Eiji slowly began to smile.

In the background, music began to play and Eiji reached out to grab Oishi by the shoulder, pulling the other boy to a stop. Oishi silenced and turned to look at Eiji as Eiji began to sing. “I bet you're nervous, well so am I,” Eiji sang, smiling as he let go of Oishi's shoulder, “There's something going on we can't deny. I'm wanting you so, it takes my breath awaaaaaaaaaa-aaaay,”

Oishi's eyes widened and he looked this way and that quickly, noticing all of the other people on the street. They were in the middle of the business district and this was no place for Eiji to burst into song. There was nowhere that they could hide.

“Conversation is for the birds,” Eiji continued, still smiling, “You're wasting time trying to find the woooords. I know, I know, what you're trying to saaaaaaaaa-aaaay. And if you ask me oo-once,” Eiji held up one finger and shook it in Oishi's face, “and you ask me nii-ice, baby you don't have to ask me twice,” holding up two fingers, “No matter what you wa-ant. Once you ask me nii-ice, baby you don't have to ask me twice.” Eiji smiled and shook his head, “Oh noo-oo”

People were starting to notice and had started to form a curious circle around them on the sidewalk. Oishi looked around them frantically and sweated. This was embarrassing. But what could he do? Hopefully Eiji didn't do anything too embarrassing. Singing was one thing but dragging Oishi into it was another.

“I'm really trying to be polite,” Eiji sang then sidled up closer to Oishi, “Don't be afraid `cause baby I don't bite. Come on, come on,” getting in close, Eiji crooked his finger in a `come on, come on' gesture, “this could take all niiiiiiiiii-iiiight. And if you ask me oo-once,” holding up that one finger and shaking it in Oishi's face, “and you ask me nii-ice, baby you don't have to ask me twice,” holding up two fingers, “No matter what you waa-ant. Once you ask me nii-ii-iice, baby you don't have to ask me twice. You don't have to ask me twi-iice.”

The music changed, slowing down, and Eiji stood back, grabbing Oishi's hands and pulling him in closer. Oishi tried to get away but Eiji's grip was scary-strong. “You know twice is too much, once is enough. I've got the answers if you've got the stuuuu-uuuff.”

The music went back to its original speed and Eiji let go of Oishi's hands to dance around the circle formed by the onlookers. Hoping nobody would notice him in the corner, Oishi backed out of Eiji's way and cringed for his friend, knowing Eiji was going to be so embarrassed when he came back to himself.

“I'm really trying to set you wise,” Eiji finally finished his dance and came back face to Oishi. “I see the question burning in your eyes. Go on try it. You might be surpriiiiiiiiiiiii-iiised. So come on ask me oo-once,” holding up one finger and doing a full-body shake “baby ask me nii-ice, you don't, you don't have to ask me twice,” holding up two fingers, “No matter what you waa-ant. Once you ask me nii-ice, baby you don't have to ask me twi-ice. Oooh, ask me once, come on ask me niii-ii-ice,” Eiji stood back and sang with his whole body, “Baby you don't have to ask me, baby you don't have to ask me, baby you don't have to ask me twice.” Finally Eiji stopped and the crowd of onlookers burst into applause.

“Woo!” Someone screamed their approval.

Standing frozen, Eiji's eyes shot around the circle of onlookers and his face burned.

Still trying to hide in the corner, Oishi looked embarrassed for the both of them. “Are you done?”

Stiff in embarrassment, Eiji slowly nodded.

“Good,” Oishi said then reached out to grab Eiji's arm. “Let's go.” And, keeping his head down, Oishi led the way out of the circle, trying to push his way past people. The crowd kept cheering, crowding in on them and not letting them leave. “Eiji, help!” Being crowded in, Oishi shouted back at his friend, snapping Eiji out of his embarrassed frozen state, and together they worked to get out of the circle. Finally, after a seemingly long fight, they were successful and they ran the rest of the way down the street, trying to get away.

 

 

Momo watched Eiji and Oishi leave the clubhouse curiously. They were acting so serious and he had to wonder what was going on. Finally he gave up trying to guess and turned to Ryoma. He was trying to work up the nerve to ask Ryoma to hang out with him after practice, but it was taking a while. He'd come to a realization the night before. His need for an answer was pushing Ryoma away, exactly what he didn't want to happen. So he had decided to just give up. It hurt knowing that he would never have Ryoma the way he wanted to have him when he was so close, but he wanted Ryoma to stick around more than he wanted Ryoma to say yes so he would give up. So now he was going to try to get everything back to the way it used to be, with them as friends and nothing more.

“You wanna do something?” Momo asked, looking almost nervous. “I won't be annoying, I swear.”

Ryoma turned to him and adjusted his cap on his head, looking up at Momo to seemingly judge the older boy's sincerity with his eyes.

“I swear,” Momo repeated, really trying to look sincere.

Apparently getting his answer, Ryoma looked away and shrugged indifferently. “Whatever.”

“Great!” Momo beamed. “How about the burger shop?”

Ryoma made a face and shook his head as he reached down for his tennis bag. “With the singing?” Throwing his bag over his shoulder, he looked back at Momo and started for the door.

“I haven't sung anything since Thursday,” Momo said, following him out of the clubhouse. “I think it might be over. Inui-senpai did say that the effects might go away on their own.”

Ryoma obviously didn't quite trust that and glanced back at Momo dubiously.

“Oh, come on,” Momo said, trying to get Ryoma to agree as they made their way out to where Momo had parked his bike. “When was the last time you sang anything?”

Ryoma shrugged uncomfortably and carefully turned away. “Thursday.”

“See?” Momo said, his point proven, and then, to sweeten the deal, added, “I'll even pay.”

At that Ryoma glanced back up at Momo, clearly starting to come around.

But, seeing that Ryoma still needed some convincing, Momo continued, “And if you do sing you can blame it all on me, okay?”

Ryoma narrowed his eyes at Momo with a serious frown then looked away, obviously thinking this through deeply, weighing the pros and cons. He did want some burgers. He hadn't had any all week. Finally, he shrugged and turned back to Momo, saying again, “Whatever.”

“Great!” Momo smiled, translating that as an okay and looking excited. Getting to where he had parked his bike, he leaned over to unlock it from the bike rack. “I don't know about you, but I've been craving burgers like hell this whole week. I don't remember a time I've gone so long without one. I seriously think I'm going into withdrawal here. I just didn't wanna go when I could break into song in the middle of the place, you know? That would be so embarrassing and I don't think I'd ever be able to go back there which would suck `cause I like that place.” Finally getting his bike unlocked, Momo stood and turned to Ryoma. “So are we walking or do you wanna ride?”

“Let's walk.”

Momo shrugged. “Sure. Whatever.”

The walk to the burger shop was somewhat quiet, Momo for once unable to think of things to talk about. He didn't want to be annoying, after all. But things got better once they actually reached their destination. Momo challenged Ryoma to an eating contest and the two proceeded to stuff their faces with large quantities of burgers and fries, snarking at each other between bites. It almost seemed like everything was back to normal.

Their eating contest beginning to wind down, both feeling too full to take another bite, Momo lay collapsed across the table and Ryoma people-watched, slowly sipping his milkshake.

“Ugh,” Momo groaned, voice muffled as he had his face against the tabletop, “I feel sick.”

Turning back to him, Ryoma smirked. “I feel fine. You must just be too delicate for real eating.”

“I'll show you delicate,” Momo grumbled under his breath, face still pressed against the tabletop.

“What was that?” Ryoma asked, pretending he hadn't heard.

Momo slowly pulled himself up to a sit and blinked at the menu board. “I think I'm gonna go get another burger.”

“Are you sure?” Ryoma asked mockingly. “You don't think you're too delicate for that? Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself.”

Looking thoughtful and ignoring him, Momo patted his stomach and nodded to himself. “I think I have room for one more.”

“Fine,” Ryoma said scornfully, “But when you throw up, aim away from me.”

So Momo got his burger and came back to the table where he sat and began to slowly make his way through it, forcing it bite by bite down his throat. Ryoma shook his head at his idiocy and sipped his milkshake. For a moment they were silent.

Ryoma found himself watching Momo force the burger down his throat. Momo really had been good on his word. He hadn't been annoying this whole time. He hadn't even brought up the subject of the decision. It had been like nothing had ever happened.

It was weird but Ryoma almost wanted Momo to bring it up. It just felt wrong to go on like nothing had changed, like nothing was happening. They shouldn't be able to joke and rip at each other like everything was fine when everything was not fine. Plus if Momo brought up the decision then Ryoma could get angry. And being angry gave him an excuse to be away from Momo where he wouldn't have to deal with the things being with Momo made him feel. Because he could go back and forth as much as he wanted to when he was alone in his bedroom, it was when he was alone with Momo that things got confusing.

He wanted to say yes, to give it a try, but he didn't want to ruin their friendship by going into anything too fast when he wasn't sure if he really felt anything. He wanted to say yes because he thought he felt something, but he didn't want to get into anything that he didn't fully understand. He wanted to say yes because he knew being with Momo made him happy, but he didn't know if that was because they were friends or because Ryoma actually loved him back. He wanted to say yes, but he wasn't sure how a relationship would affect the rest of the things in his life.

He just wanted to say yes, but he couldn't without knowing more.

Almost done with his burger, Momo finally looked up and noticed Ryoma watching him. “What?” he asked.

Ryoma looked away. “Nothing.”

“No really,” Momo said, putting down his burger and getting serious. He didn't like the look on Ryoma's face. “What?”

Maybe if Momo wasn't going to bring it up and ruin the whole afternoon, Ryoma could. Ryoma carefully kept his eyes averted as he said, “You haven't mentioned it.”

Immediately knowing what `it' Ryoma was talking about, Momo blinked. “Well, yeah. I thought you didn't want me to.”

“I don't,” Ryoma said quickly.

“Right,” Momo said with a blink, not understanding what the problem was then, “Then everything's good.”

“Yeah,” Ryoma said, watching his surroundings and not Momo, “Everything's good.”

“Good,” Momo said and went back to his burger. They were silent as he finished it quickly and then sipped his soda.

“I just thought you might bring it up,” Ryoma said, faking nonchalant.

“Echizen,” Momo said, regarding Ryoma seriously as he put his soda down, “Do you want me to bring it up?”

“No.”

“Okay then. I won't.” Momo went back to his soda.

They were silent for another moment then Ryoma turned to him and said, “You were so impatient the other day and now you're just fine with it?”

“Well . . .” Momo blinked. “Yeah . . .” he said slowly.

“Just like that?” Ryoma asked intently. “Just like that and you're fine with it?”

“Echizen . . .” Momo said, looking confused. “Do you want me to not be fine with it?”

“No,” Ryoma said, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away uncomfortably, “I'm just . . . You're not usually so easy. It's weird. Stop it.”

“I just figured you'd tell me when you had your answer.”

Ryoma turned to look at him, obviously not believing a word he said.

“What?” Momo asked defensively, “I can be considerate.”

“What happened to `If I don't bug you constantly then you won't think about it and you need to think about it'?”

“I didn't say that!” Momo protested.

“Maybe not word for word but yeah, you said it.”

“Well maybe I changed my mind,” Momo tried. “I'm sure you can . . .” he got a weird look on his face, “think things through by yourself . . .”

Ryoma was unimpressed. “You can't even say it without looking like you're lying.”

“Well, I'm sorry, okay?” Momo said defensively. “But you know you won't think about it without someone hounding you.”

“Then why did you give up?” And that really was what was bothering Ryoma. Because had he given up? It kind of felt like he had.

“I . . .” Momo looked uncomfortable and looked anywhere but at Ryoma.

“Momo-senpai,” Ryoma said before Momo could feed him some fake line, looking at the older boy intently.

“I . . .” Momo obviously wanted to lie, to make some joke to make things not so serious. He took one look at Ryoma's serious face and gave up. “Fine,” he finally said, sounding a little angry, “I gave up because I didn't want you to leave and waiting for an answer was only pushing you away.” That said, he looked down at his lap, feeling almost ashamed.

“So you gave up,” Ryoma repeated flatly, feeling a little let down. “Obviously you must not want me that badly.”

“What?” Hearing this, Momo's head snapped up and he stared. “No!”

“Well if you just gave up,” Ryoma said, it all seeming very clear to him.

“No!” Momo repeated. “No. I . . .” he looked around the burger shop furtively; making sure no one was listening. Seeing no one, he turned back to Ryoma. “I love you,” he said seriously but quietly, “And God knows I want you. I just . . .” he trailed off uncomfortably before saying with a self-deprecating smile, “I just don't want you to leave.”

Ryoma felt his heart wrench at the look on Momo's face. Was that love? He snorted and looked away, not quite comfortable with whatever he was feeling. “I'm not gonna leave, you idiot.”

“Well it felt like you were,” Momo said, sitting back with a frown. “You kept ignoring me. And that one time you wouldn't even look at me.”

“That's because I was embarrassed,” Ryoma snapped before he could tell himself to shut up, glaring at Momo. Then, hearing what he'd just admitted to, he began to blush a little and quickly looked away again.

Momo blinked. “Embarrassed? What were you embarrassed about?”

Ryoma seemed to scrunch down a little in his seat, still keeping his eyes carefully on the tabletop. But he still answered the question. “Me and Kikumaru-senpai were talking about,” Ryoma couldn't believe he was actually going to say this, “things and you know . . .”

“Things?” Momo asked blankly, not understanding.

“Yeah. Things,” Ryoma said as if that explained it all.

Momo still looked blank. “What things?”

“You know,” Ryoma said, turning to Momo and saying with embarrassed emphasis, “Things.”

“What things?” Momo asked again, starting to sound frustrated.

“Sex!” Ryoma snapped maybe a little too loudly, “I was gonna ask him about sex, okay?” Ryoma said defensively, glaring at Momo with a blush high on his cheeks.

“Oh,” Momo said, eyes going wide, not quite sure he was glad he asked. “Those things.”

“I was curious,” Ryoma tried to explain himself just in case Momo got the wrong idea, “And I figured if we'd ever get together I'd have to, you know, do stuff.” Thinking this and remembering some of his more vivid dreams, Momo blushed. “And I wanted to know what exactly kind of stuff I'd have to do,” Ryoma continued, either ignoring the blush or just not noticing. “And I figured it was either ask Kikumaru-senpai or Fuji-senpai and you know Fuji-senpai would make it all perverted. It was embarrassing enough that I even had to ask.”

“Oh, okay,” Momo said, still blushing a little, “That makes sense, I guess.”

“Yeah,” Ryoma said, still keeping his eyes down on the table top. There was a moment of silence, both of them not quite comfortable with where the conversation had gone.

Finally, Momo turned back to Ryoma. “But . . . but you know that I wouldn't force you to do . . . those things . . . until you were ready, right?”

Ryoma still looked uncomfortable, blushing. “Yeah, I know.” He looked around the burger shop, only that much more embarrassed to know they were talking about private things in such a public place. “Can we not talk about this here?”

Momo agreed with his opinion on this place. “Yeah,” he said, nodding with wide eyes. “Let's not.”

Ryoma looked relieved and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. “Thank God.”