Seesaw Game 2

by Minato Saiki

It's all because he said, "I love you."

It had been a sudden confession.

From the first sempai he had met from the tennis team.

They had been doing things together because he was friendly, good natured and didn't seem older.

One evening as they were going home like always after practice, when completely unexpected words came out of Momoshiro's mouth.

"I love you."

He had thought Momoshiro was talking about food or a popular song or something.

But he had been more surprised at the serious look Momoshiro had directed towards him than the actual words.

It was a common thing for a single phrase to change a relationship.

In this case, that had been the objective.

Ryoma absently thought about that as he carefully folded up the net which he had taken off the poles on the tennis court that sunset.

Their relationship hadn't really changed since that confession.

Momoshiro had not done anything after that, and Ryoma had interacted with him the same way he always did.

Probably no one around them noticed that something had happened between them.

But Ryoma knew.

The hand that touched him in jest. The tone of his voice when he spoke to him. The way he sometimes looked at him when they were alone. Those kinds of things had subtly changed.

Though it really was such a slight change probably Momoshiro himself didn't notice.

But, to his surprise, it wasn't unpleasant to Ryoma. It simply reconfirmed Momoshiro's feelings for him each time.

It was only a bother when people he didn't like or know pushed their feelings on him, but Momoshiro was neither.

On the contrary, he found that it was rather pleasant to be liked by someone he trusted to a degree.

But only if that person didn't seek the same feelings back.

And that was the situation they were in now.

Momoshiro's attitude towards Ryoma had certainly changed, if only slightly. But he didn't seek Ryoma to change.

He probably wanted that in his heart, but he didn't press Ryoma with his words or his attitude.

That was why the current situation was comfortable for Ryoma, even though it was accompanied by a little guilt.

But he knew that it wasn't going to continue forever.

Because then that confession would have been meaningless.

Ryoma knew well that Momoshiro was not someone that would be satisfied with just conveying his feelings.

He was a simple person, but that didn't mean he didn't think. He had been called surprisingly knave-like before.

He didn't seem discouraged by Ryoma's merciless words, and of course didn't seem to have given up either.

Perhaps he was assessing the situation, or was thinking about how to get Ryoma to look at him in that way.

In either case, Ryoma knew that it wasn't going to end like this.

He finished folding the net and left the court carrying it. When he opened the door to the club room, perfunctorily replying to the first years that addressed him, he saw that Momoshiro was waiting for him, sitting in his usual seat in the corner reading a magazine.

Most of the sempai had already left, and there were only several people remaining, including the Captain and Vice Captain.

Just as Ryoma finished changing, Momoshiro closed the magazine and called to him as he always did, "Echizen, let's go."

Replying quietly to him, Ryoma slung the tennis bag onto his shoulder and followed Momoshiro out of the club room.

As they headed for the bicycle racks chatting like they always did, Ryoma suddenly wondered why Momoshiro liked him.

He thought about how to he could ask that question.

To ask that felt dangerous, though he didn't know why.

"I'm hungry, want to get something to eat?"

Momoshiro, not knowing what was going through Ryoma's head, casually asked as he straddled the bicycle.

"Yeah."

Confirming that the voice he replied with was the same as always, he got on behind Momoshiro and put his hands on his shoulders.

"You aren't going to say treat me today?"

Ryoma couldn't see Momoshiro's face as he said that. But his tone of voice was clearly looking foward to the response.

He thought, You're quite composed, aren't you? But he didn't say that. Instead he said "I wouldn't mind if you treated me."

Momoshiro responded with a voice mixed with laughter, "Geez, you really are not cute."

In the end they decided they would each pay for their own food that day, but get one drink to share. They headed for their usual place. Of course Momoshiro paid for the drink.

"Here, Momo-sempai"

Ryoma, who had drank first, offered Momoshiro the large drink. Momoshiro, taking it, was about to put his lips to the straw when he suddenly looked up.

"This is an indirect kiss, isn't it?"

"What?"

"Hehe. Lucky me"

Momoshiro happily drank. Ryoma sighed in exasperation.

"You do that with other people too"

"Idiot. It's different with you"

"It's the same"

"It's different. It feels different when it's the person you like."

"...Aren't you embarrassed saying that?"

Watching Momoshiro's face slacken in happiness, Ryoma muttered to himself that he was not going share drinks with him anymore. But he knew he was still too easy going when he accepted the drink back from Momoshiro and drank from it.

But he didn't dislike seeing Momoshiro smile.

That was why he continued to do things with him even as he was exasperated with him.

Though there were times he wondered if this wasn't all part of Momoshiro's plan.

"I can't tell if he's calculating or not. I guess that's why he's called a knave."

Momoshiro could be elated like a little kid over something this simple, but there were times he looked like he was scheming something.

Which was the true Momoshiro? Or were they both?

When he sighed slightly, Momoshiro, who had been pushing the bicycle along a little ahead of him, turned around and asked what was the matter.

"Nothing. Can I drink it all?"

He then drank it all without waiting for a reply.

"...Don't ask if you're just going to do it."

Momoshiro scowled at the sound of the straw sucking up the last of the drink. But he still looked a bit happy.

Ryoma somehow felt vexed and handed him the cup with only ice in it.

Ryoma had no intention of becoming someone's.

But he didn't dislike this kind of game of strategy.

Momoshiro was probably well aware of Ryoma's personality.

Ryoma distantly wondered whether he would ever think of him in a special way.

It wasn't as though he disliked changing, but it wouldn't do to let Momoshiro think he had changed because of his words.

---That was why.

He won't ever tell Momoshiro that he had been moved even a little by his confession that time.