The day of the competition finally arrived.
"After preparing for over half a year, the day of the competition is finally here!" Ran looked at the sea of people in the gymnasium, incredibly excited.
"Ran! You can do it!!" Sonoko started to cheer for Ran.
"Sonoko, it's just the beginning!" Shinichi said with his hands in his pockets, nonchalantly. "It's not too late to cheer when Ran gets to the finals. It's still too early now."
"Yeah, let's wait until the finals to cheer for you," Shiraishi E also felt it was too early.
"Alright! Then I'll fight my way to the finals first!" Ran said with full confidence. After saying goodbye to everyone, she went to line up to enter the venue.
"Okay, E! Let's find a place to sit!" Sonoko said, boldly taking Shiraishi E's hand and heading towards the spectator stands, picking a good spot to sit down. She muttered, "I wonder how long it will be before the competition starts!"
"Even when it starts, it's just the preliminaries, nothing much to see. Ran will definitely crush her way through!" Shiraishi E actually only wanted to watch the finals. If it weren't for Ran and Sonoko strongly insisting he come, he wouldn't have.
"That's true," Sonoko also believed Ran had the strength!
"Sonoko, have you participated in any tennis competitions?" Shiraishi E asked. "Do you want me to give you some special training too?" As the saying goes, it's not the scarcity but the inequality that causes discontent. He had spent all his time after school training with Ran recently and hadn't spent much time with Sonoko.
"I just play tennis to keep fit, I'm not thinking about competing!" Sonoko was happy to hear that Shiraishi E wanted to train with her, thinking he was being considerate.
Hearing that he didn't have to be a training partner, Shiraishi E said, "How about this, I'll take you to Tropical Land this weekend?"
"Yay, yay!!" Sonoko said with great joy.
"Huh? This weekend?" Shinichi chimed in from the side. "What a coincidence, I was planning to take Ran to Tropical Land too! How about we go together?"
"Eh? What a coincidence?" Sonoko started to tease, "If we go together, will we be interrupting your date?"
"It's not a date!" Shinichi repeatedly denied. "We're just going to have fun together!"
"..." Sonoko was speechless. "I say, Shinichi, you don't even get this?"
"Huh? Get what?" Shinichi looked at Sonoko with a puzzled and incredibly innocent expression.
Sonoko really wanted to say, "Don't you know something as obvious as Ran liking you?" But in the end, she held back. Something as important as a confession should be done by the person themselves. Besides, what if Shinichi didn't like Ran? Wouldn't she ruin their friendship? Although the possibility was small, Sonoko still considered it.
"Never mind, it's nothing." She decided not to say any more.
She had originally wanted to schedule her date to be separate from Ran and Shinichi's, but then she remembered Shinichi's track record of abandoning Ran mid-date. Sonoko immediately decided, "Alright, then let's all go together! The more, the merrier!"
As they chatted, the preliminary rounds of the competition ended. Ran, without any surprises, defeated numerous opponents and advanced to the top 100. The next day, she fought her way from the top 100 to the top 8. The third day was the official final tournament.
It was on the day of the finals that Shiraishi E saw Ran's mother in the audience—Eri Kisaki.
"So you're the Shiraishi-kun that Ran mentioned?" Eri Kisaki was wearing a purple work suit and black-rimmed glasses, exuding an indescribable cold and elegant aura.
Shiraishi E could see the hostility in her eyes and felt a little baffled. He remembered this was their first time meeting. Out of politeness, Shiraishi E still replied, "Yes, ma'am."
Eri Kisaki pushed up her glasses and said coolly, "A young hero indeed. Not even graduated from high school, and already learning to drink."
Hearing this, Shiraishi E finally understood why she had such a strong opinion of him. Ran must have complained to Eri about him drinking with Kogoro Mouri. In her eyes, he was just another delinquent. But then again... her judgment wasn't wrong. He really wasn't a model citizen.
"You're only seventeen, right? You still have three years until you're of legal drinking age." Eri Kisaki's voice carried the oppressive air of a lawyer. "Don't your parents have any objections?"
Hearing this, Shiraishi E was instantly wide awake.
One sentence to make someone else's wife feel guilty all day!
Shiraishi E said with a straight face, "They died in a car crash last month."
"Uh..." This one sentence made the words catch in Eri Kisaki's throat. She looked stunned, at a loss for what to say.
Yes! That's the expression... Shiraishi E felt a great sense of satisfaction. Then, he decisively said, "If there's nothing else, I'll be going."
With that, he turned and left without any hesitation.
"W-Wait!" Eri Kisaki was startled, wanting to apologize to him. However, she watched as he left without stopping. That departing figure... made Eri feel incredibly guilty and ashamed.
"What... what did I just say?" She thought back to the words she had just spoken and felt extremely annoyed. She had recklessly started pointing fingers and making comments without even knowing the truth. Regret, she was filled with regret now!!
Just then, Kogoro Mouri walked over. Seeing Eri, he asked strangely, "Huh? Where's that kid Shiraishi? He was just here, where did he go?"
Eri didn't dare to say that she had accidentally angered him away. She lowered her head and started counting ants on the ground, like a child who had done something wrong.
"Hmm, maybe he went to the restroom!" Kogoro Mouri muttered to himself. He hesitated for a moment, but considering Ran was competing, he eventually sat down next to Eri. If Ran saw them not sitting together, it might affect her mood, and if that affected her performance, he would be the one to blame.
Feeling a bit bored just sitting there, Kogoro Mouri reminded her, "Eri, when Shiraishi-kun comes back, you need to be nicer, you hear? He sacrificed his afternoons to train Ran. And a while ago, to ease Ran's nerves, he even took her to see a karate tournament. Tsk, it's a shame, I, as a father, am not as thoughtful as he is!" At this point, Kogoro Mouri felt a bit guilty.
But he didn't know that Eri, sitting next to him, felt even more guilty now after hearing these words.
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