Whelp, Ryo was hit with a triple whammy this week. It started off with his not-so-hot report card and the revelation of how far behind he has fallen in his classes. In fact, he has dozed of so much that Akira had initially thought he was skipping! That earned him yet another warning that he will be in loads of trouble if he doesn’t maintain his grades, especially since he got in through academic recommendation. Ugh, talk about pressure.
The second hit was when he fell sick after being careless with his health, which resulted falling to a summer cold. Then finally the universe punched him for the third time when he runs into his friends Shizuo and Hiroto. While they are all excitedly talking about their participation and crushing loss at the Inter-High tournament, Ryo finds himself in a very awkward position, and it only gets worse when they bring up the promise of facing each other in the doubles match. I mean really, there’s no easy way to tell them that he didn’t even make the regulars lineup, much less making the cut to even participate in the doubles at the moment. I don’t think embarrassing is the word for it, but it’s difficult and puts him in a tough spot because it’s something that’s hard to swallow.
But perhaps it would be fair to say it was actually a good thing that Ryo caught the cold. It forced him to stay home and catch up on his studies that he has neglected for too long, face his insecurity of being considered useless to the team as he is stuck on the bench. His performance is still not up to par of what is needed to be victorious, especially not in the face of a powerful team like Futaba.
All of these things needed to happen for Ryo understand he needed to change his mentality. And thanks to Rika’s words of wisdom, he realized that if he wants to achieve the goals of being able to play in the newbie tournament, become a stronger player who can help contribute wins for the team, and fulfill the promise of playing against Shizuo and Hiroto in the doubles, he needs to keep focused on his goals. And luckily for him, perseverance happens to be his strong point.
As for the team, unfortunately they did not win the tournament. As a team they finished at third. This caused Kento to just fall short of achieving the triple crown he has been working so hard to get.
But as it turns out, the reason why wining triple crown was so important to Kento was was actually because he asked Rika to go on a date with him if he won it. Oh my gosh, it had me in stitches from laughing so hard, especially since he had cried about the loss. Man Date would be so triggered if he knew!!!
Which leads me to the final point: Finally the boys are up to speed with Rika being Ryo’s sister. I truly felt embarrassed for him when the boys even thought she might be his girlfriend. Only Akira and Shouhei had the sense to know that couldn’t be the case. But it was pretty funny to see Shouhei being as spontaneous as he is to ask Rika if she could date him on the spot. Man Ryo is so done with everyone falling for his sister haha!
Next week we’re back to more training! I’m looking forward to how much Ryo has grown considering he had been finding momentum in the round-robin!
