Waiting for that Promise

The sound of his second alarm clock finally woke him up.

Groggily, he sat up from his bed. His pointy cat eyes squinted with sleepiness as he yawned. His room was given a somewhat cerulean glow due to his blue curtains blocking the morning sunlight. Standing up, he trudged towards the window to open it up, letting the sun shine on his place.

He yawned for the second time before finally making his way to the adjacent bathroom in his room to freshen up. After doing his morning rituals, he changed to his practice clothes. Grabbing his tennis bag, he finally got out of his room, smelling food.

“Ryuzaki must’ve cooked breakfast.” he thought, feeling quite good that he gets to eat a decent breakfast before setting out. He was stepping down the stairs when he heard the familiar voice of a friend.

“Are you finally awake, Ryoma?”

Kevin sat on the sofa, his azure eyes looking at him impatiently. He was also wearing his practice clothes with his own tennis bag rested beside him. At the small table in front was an opened box of japanese food take out. 

“What are you doing here?” the accusing tone of the tennis prince’s voice went unheard to the blond boy who only shook his head ever so slightly.

“Coach was getting mad on your late streak. I just had to fetch you so you actually arrive on time in practice.”

Hearing his friend’s reason, Ryoma only shrugged. It was true that he did came to practice late for almost two weeks now. He can’t deny that. Though he was a bit surprised that he sent out Kevin just to fetch him.

“What’s with the food?” he asked, standing near the small table.

“I haven’t had breakfast before I was asked to come here and I figured that you still haven’t had breakfast yourself too... so,” Kevin explained, “It doesn’t beat Ryuzaki’s cooking of course, but this ain’t bad too.”

He didn’t reply, though he flinched a bit when Kevin suddenly dropped her name.

“Oh. I remember it now...” a sudden pang hit him and he paid it no mind.

Ryoma settled on the couch too, peeking inside the box of food.

“How did you even get inside here? I don’t recall giving you my keys.” he commented, picking a set of chopsticks inside the package and helping himself to a tempura.

“Oh, that...” Kevin started, also picking at his own chopsticks, “Ryuzaki passed by earlier, wanting to surrender her keys to this house. But you’re still asleep, and I was already outside. She gave it to me.” with his other hand, he fished out a key and put it in the table.

“I see.” he said with feigned nonchalance, that didn’t escape his friend’s observation.

“How many weeks was it since Ryuzaki moved out?” Kevin asked, careful that he doesn’t sound too intrusive.

“I don’t know.” the prince of tennis simply shrugged with his aura of indifference.

Though in fact, he knew. He internally cursed at himself for waking up that day and thinking that it was just like one of those days when the clumsy girl was still around. He’s clearly mistaken.

It has been two weeks since Ryuzaki Sakuno moved out.

--------

The very next day, the prince of tennis found himself about to snooze in his seat. The professor’s lecture going in an ear and out in another. It was a slow day, just a little past the start of his second period for the day. He still had his third period class left before he can finally go to his afternoon training. He was trying his utter best to stifle his yawn.