A/N: Hm? Oh, hi there! Enjoy watching me trek cluelessly through KnB territory. I'm pretty sure I still have two papers to finish, three exams to prepare for, and a couple more reports to put together. I maybe have a general idea of the general direction I want to go with, but nothing too concrete. It's just, this one has been written for about a month or so already, and you can expect the next chapter in, like, a couple dozen years, OTL. Plot suggestions are most welcome!
" . . . Interview?"
The editor-in-chief winks and sends her a quick grin, one hand in front of his face in an apologetic gesture.
"Sorry, but we really need someone to cover it. The Hasegawa twins had to go to Hokkaido because of a family emergency, so the sports department is a little understaffed. I was planning on having you go take some pictures anyway, so you might as well do the interview, too. It'll probably be difficult because of Kasamatsu-san's condition, but I guess you can just stick to asking the coach for his comments. In end, the answers are all pretty generic anyway."
" . . . I am a photographer."
The editor-in-chief's grin strains a bit. "I really, really need you to do this, Nishino. I just need you to ask a couple of questions and Hasegawa-otouto will do the write-up. Record it on your phone or something, and we'll send it over to him through email. We're already running late on next week's issue. Pretty please?" He pulls out his last card for good measure. "I'll let you handle the photo montage for the cultural festival article—two double spreads, full color, free reign."
She is bought.
Chapter One | Autofocus
The sky is cutting into the earth again.
The hot red of the late afternoon sun bleeds into the horizon past the steel and glass corners of Kaijou's buildings. Flecks of orange and yellow reflect off of the mirror-like surfaces, drowning the vast sports complex in a warm light. Inside the gymnasium, the members of the basketball team race across the floors, shirts drenched in sweat as they go through their regular exercises.
"No team is perfect, and we still have a long way to go," the team's coach, a rather round man with slight stubble on his chin, says. "It's unfortunate that we weren't able to win at the Inter-High, but we're proud to have made it as far as we did. Now, we're focusing on building up our members' individual abilities more, and, of course, team play is also important. We've set our sights for the Winter Cup, and we're hoping our hard work will pay off."
"Thank you for your time, Coach Takeuchi." The black-haired girl lets down her phone, quickly tapping on the screen, saving the sound recording of his words. She smiles at him politely, "Would it be fine to ask for comments from the captain as well? And we'd be very grateful if you could allow for a few pictures of practice. Of course, if possible, we'd also like to get a picture of your excellent coaching in action."
" . . . I suppose it won't hurt," the coach relents a bit too easily. He turns to the group practicing rebounds by one of the hoops, barking out, "Kasamatsu! Get over here!"
The spiky-haired captain glances over to their coach and immediately stiffens. He manages to quickly pick up on what is wanted from him, and he turns sharply on his heel, grabbing a certain blonde first year by the back of his shirt.
"Ahh! Kasamatsu-senpai!" Kise complains, arms flailing as he is pulled down to his senior's level. His torso twists over Kasamatsu's iron grip, fighting to regain balance. "That hurts!"
"You're coming with me," Kasamatsu growls dangerously into his ear, dragging their whining ace across the floor as they head towards the gym's entrance, where their coach is standing next to the reporter from the school paper.
Their stocky coach arches an eyebrow in question but quickly dismisses the thought. "Ah, well. This is the captain, Kasamatsu Yukio, and our first year regular, Kise Ryouta, of the Generation of Miracles."
Free from his captain's clutches, Kise turns to face the girl standing in their company. She is quite small, but then again, compared to him, everyone is a bit on the short side. Her black hair is cut just past her shoulders in a straight and blunt line, and her bangs sweep off to one side of her forehead, pinned back by two sunflower hairclips. She wears the regular Kaijou girls' uniform—a pleated, dull gray skirt and the plain white blouse of the summer uniform. Around her neck hangs a very expensive-looking camera, much like the ones professional photographers he works with use, with just as big lenses and just as many other little attachments with functions he honestly has no clue of. She veers a bit more towards pretty than average, but still, her face is nothing spectacular.
"My name is Nishino Naruko," she introduces herself with a bow. Her tone of voice is professional and detached, but somehow welcoming all the same. She must have been quite good at her job, because her tone is perfectly matched with a certain kind of the professional reporters he talks to. His manager has warned him to be especially carefully with those types. "I'm from the school paper. I was wondering whether you have any comments on the team's performance in the recent Inter-High, especially in that last game against Touou Academy? Like, how did it affect the team's spirit and morale, and what do you plan to do from now on?"
"Guuh . . . " Kise's hands grab for his side, where Kasamatsu has painfully dug his fist. Turning his head to complain, Kise's words hitch at the back of his throat.
Kasamatsu is wide-eyed, sweating buckets, and stiff as a board, lips tightly pressed together as he stares at something just beyond the reporter's head. Belatedly, he realizes that the captain is not really twisting his fist into his side, but rather, it is shaking quite uncontrollably, along with the rest of his arm.
The most Kasamatsu has said to a girl is, 'Nn,' and, 'No.' Kobori-senpai's words from that last disaster of an outing they had rings solemnly in the back of his head.
Internally, Kise weeps. In this kind of situation, his captain's inability to speak to those of the female gender is just too pitiful. What if he's interviewed by a female for college entrance exams? Or in trying to get a job? How does his captain deal with waitresses and ladies staffing the cash registers at department stores and supermarkets? Does he just avoid the female ones and head straight to the male ones? How does he deal with his mother and other female family members? Surely, it can't be that bad as to be unable to talk with family members, but the entire idea of it is pathetic all the same.
Kise Ryouta worries for Kasamatsu Yukio's future.
From the corner of his eye, he can spot the other three regulars stopping practice altogether and instead opting to watch them with blatant curiosity. And slowly but surely, the rest of the basketball team's members are also opting to watch the exchange instead of practicing.
The coach is glaring at him now, too. His eyes scream, "Say something! Don't make her write an article about how the basketball team is full of awkward idiots (even though it really is)!"
Internally, Kise weeps. Just because he is also a model doesn't mean he is an expert at dealing with the press. After that crushing defeat at the hands of Aominecchi, even he is feeling a little down. He has no pretty words ready to dish out for situations like this.
The reporter girl, Nishino Naruko, blinks and tilts her head, holding out a sleek black phone in a black leather case. On the screen, he sees a big red circle and a timer running below it. She waits patiently for his answer as Kasamatsu digs his fist into his side again.
"Oww—umm . . . well, that match against Aominecchi was really exhilarating. It's unfortunate that we weren't able to win, but . . . uh, we'll definitely get them back at the Winter Cup, maybe. Right now, uh, let's see—we're all focusing on training and preparing for the next tournament so that we can, um, bring pride and glory to the school, yeah." Kise stumbles over his pointless and barely-answering-the-question reply. He is glad that the reporter seems like a nice, polite girl, instead of some voracious Hollywood-star-hunting-paparazzi-wannabe. She simply smiles tentatively at them as her gaze flicks over to where Kasamatsu's fist is digging so hard into his side that he is practically punching his liver now.
When she realizes that he has no more words to say, she brings down the hand holding on to the phone and nods. She thanks them a bit too kindly as she taps away on her phone, slipping it back into her pocket. Coach Takeuchi dismisses both captain and ace with a dirty look as he steps forward to exchange a few more words with the reporter girl.
"What the hell was that?" Kasamatsu hisses, knocking a fist over the back of the blonde's head. "That was the stupidest reply you could've given! Hayakawa could've said something with more substance and nobody understands half of what he says!"
"I'm sorry~" Kise whines. "It was the best I could come up with on the spot."
"Idiot," the the third-year sighs. Kise thinks that he's being let off easily this time because even Kasamatsu acknowledges his own uselessness in the situation. The captain scratches the back of his head tiredly. "Whatever. She's probably going to hang around to take pictures. You can at least make the team look good at that, right?"
Kasamatsu's tone is dry as he arches a single, challenging eyebrow at Kise.
The blonde huffs, pumping a fist to his chest. "Leave it to me."
Kasamatsu simply shakes his head. "Just . . . keep her away from Moriyama. She might get annoyed by him and write a bad article on us. I don't want a repeat of what happened with that other reporter last year."
Curious, Kise arches an eyebrow, waiting for his captain to continue. But Kasamatsu says no more and simply gives him an expectant look.
Kise sighs. It is a story for another time then (or he could get it from Hayakawa or Kobori after practice). "You can count on me, senpai~"
Reporter girl loiters around the edge of the court, taking photographs of random things as she adjusts the settings of her camera to best fit with the lighting and scenery of the gym. After a few minutes, she starts wandering around and taking pictures of members as they go through their exercises. Kise finds himself a bit impressed by how she moves much like a real professional photographer—moving around to get different angles, squatting low, stepping up some of the benches for a bird's eye view a couple of times, often fiddling with her camera. At first, the members tensed when she came close, but soon enough, it was like they didn't even notice her.
Uwaah~ She's like Kurokocchi~ he finds himself thinking, lips quirking up at the thought. Even Kasamatsu-senpai is barking out orders like usual even though she was standing just a few feet behind him. She flits around quietly for the most part, though she seems to linger around the group that's playing a mini-game a bit longer than in others.
It takes a while, but she eventually reaches where he is doing some shooting drills with a few others. She hangs back a bit behind the post, crouching down with the camera angled up towards the hoop.
"Nakamura-senpai," he calls out to the glasses-wearing shooting guard. Nakamura glances over his way and throws the ball into his open hands, and Kise drives forward powerfully before executing an impressive dunk.
The familiar flash and click reach his eyes, and his mouth pulls into an automatic grin. He hangs from the basket a bit before nimbly landing back on the floor.
Reporter girl lowers the camera from her face and looks at him with a raised eyebrow. Kise keeps the grin on his face as her eyes glance down to check the picture she had taken.
"Did you get it?" he asks amiably as he steps toward her crouched form. "If not, I could it again."
" . . . I got it," she replies smoothly as she stands up, holding the camera up to her face again.
Almost by instinct, Kise's inner model takes over, and he strikes a pose and puts on his face just in time for the shutter to click and the flash to burst.
She has that same look with the raised eyebrow on her face when she lowers the camera again. She sighs, smiling slightly at him while shaking her head before walking away.
"Ehh? You're going already?"
She glances at him over her shoulder, raising the camera slightly. The curve of her mouth looks more like a smirk than a smile, and there is something oddly overpowering about the gleam in her eyes. "I think I have enough pictures."
She walks toward Coach Takeuchi to announce her departure. Kise feels a weight over his shoulders and a fist digging into his left temple.
"You rascal!" Moriyama growls as he grinds his fist into the side of Kise's head for a noogie. "The least you could've done was get her number for me!"
"Ow ow ow! Moriyama-senpai! It hurts~~~!"