Yelen's ramblings: Apologies in advance for the bad writing. I think I suck at first person narration…wait, I'm sorry, I suck at writing, period. Bleah. And um, pardon the stupid and unoriginal title; I didn't know what else to call this. Screw it!

Summary: Somebody has a crush on Miyagi! Who can it possibly be? MitRu on the side. On-going

One: The Note

When the first note arrived, it was a bright Saturday morning and I'd just spent about five hours in the Shohoku gym, wearing myself out in preparation for another one of those all-important basketball matches. To be honest, five hours of basketball was, even to an amazing athlete like myself, insane, and it also didn't help matters much that my beloved Aya-chan was sick on that day and hence couldn't join us. Needless to say, my silly team-mates – especially Hanamichi – teased me endlessly throughout practice. For example, I'd make a brilliant pass to Mitsui, and that dumbass Hanamichi would be like, "Nice pass, Ryota!" in this high-pitched voice, obviously trying against all odds to mimick Aya-chan.

Aya-chan, for crying out loud, AKA the amazing goddess to end all amazing goddessesAs if anyone could ever do that! Hanamichi sounded more like a straight guy trying to pass off as a transvestite than an actual woman – what an insult!

"Knock it off, Hanamichi," I growled as I dragged myself towards the locker room. Five hours and ten minutes later, Akagi had finally ended my – our – torture and called it a day. "You could never be half the human being that Aya-chan is, even if you dedicated your life to it. Quit dreaming, dude."

Hanamichi sniggered. "Ooh, Ryo-chin, getting agitated because she's not around? Bwahahahaha!" Here, he playfully slapped me on the back, using a bit too much force, so that it really hurt. "Don't worry, you have this genius for company! That should cure all your love sicks!"

"That hurt, you bozo," I said, glowering at him. "And since when was 'sicks' a word?"

"Are you questioning this genius' amazing intelligence?"

"No, he's pointing out your obvious mistake, idiot." Mitsui sauntered into the locker room, a towel slung around his neck, holding a bottle of water in one hand. He raised his free palm to me and I slapped it. High five.

"WHAT!"

"Zip it, do'ahou." Emerging from the shower dressed only in a pair of basketball shorts was Rukawa, who immediately stole a quick glance at Mitsui before going back to glaring at Hanamichi. "Your voice is noise to everybody's ears."

As Hanamichi and Rukawa got themselves tangled up in another one of their legendary brawls, Mitsui turned away from them and rolled his eyes. "How immature," he muttered. Simultaneously, he reached into his pocket, produced a piece of paper, and handed it to me.

"Dude, Sendoh asked me to pass this to you," he said. Seeing my puzzled look, he shrugged nonchalantly. "Don't ask me what this is; I haven't got a clue either. He said that some guy from Shoyo passed it to Fujima, who passed the note to him, who passed it to me to pass it to you, so..." Seeing my brief moment of hesitation, he added, "Quick, open it up. I wanna see what it is."

Frowning, I unfolded the piece of paper – it was a leaf out of a fancy letter-writing pad, one of those things you got from stationery shops that came in myriad of colours and grammatically-unsound corny phrases coined in the name of love/friendship/both, with childish-looking cartoon-ish drawings lining the borders of the paper. How interesting.

The content, however, was a lot more interesting. It was a handwritten note. The penmanship was rather neat: the person wrote in print, and his/her words were so straight that they looked as if they'd been written with a ruler underneath to prevent the words from slanting out of line. The effort put into the writing of the note was obvious at first glance; upon further reading though, there was no denying it. It read:

Dear Miyagi-sempai,

You are the greatest basketball player I've ever laid eyes on. I'm never taking my eyes off you! I couldn't stop thinking about you after I've seen the Shoyo match. You were mind-blowing and just unbelievable! Even when you were up against Fujima (FUJIMA, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!), you still held your own and you even beat him! You may not be as tall as some of the top players in Kanagawa, like Maki and Sendoh, but when it comes to skills, you make up for what you lack in the height department. You are so fast and swift that it's amazing! The plays you create, the passes that you make…oh, how I want to be you!

You know something? I admire you so much that I can't stop thinking about you. This has never happened to me before and I'm a little bit confused. I'd tell you who I am, but I'm too embarrassed and ashamed (of myself and my limited basketball skills) to face you. But I couldn't stand keeping my crush on you in any longer, so I decided to write this note, just so you know that there's someone out there who likes you more than you can possibly imagine. I think one day I'll let you know who I am…but for now, this will just have to do.

Love,
An admirer

"Oh, my, god," Mitsui breathed. He'd been reading over my shoulder the whole time. "You have an admirer."

"Who has an admirer?" Hanamichi stalked over to us, his tone demanding (as usual). "That is, besides this genius with millions of admirers all over the world. In fact, this genius has so many admirers that he has lost count! At the last count, it was – "

"Miyagi, Sakuragi," Mitsui interrupted Hanamichi's self-obsessive ramblings impatiently. "Miyagi has an admirer. Isn't that something? Who would've thought?"

I shot Mitsui a dirty look. "What the hell's that supposed to mean, wiseass?"

Before Mitsui could answer, Hanamichi let out his trademark and patented obnoxious laughter. "Nyahahaha! Ryo-chin has an admirer! Oh my, what would Ayako say? Nyahahahaha!"

At the sound of her name, my blood ran cold. A trillion what-ifs flooded my mind, the more notable amongst them being, 'what if Aya-chan finds out and thinks that I'm no longer interested in her? What if she thinks that I'm seeing someone else behind her back? Shit, what if she never talks to me again! My life would just end!"

"Yo, earth to Ryo-chin!" It was only when Hanamichi stuck his face in mine that I was jolted from my brief bout of indescribable fear. "Bwahahahaha! Look at him, he's all flustered! This is hilarious!"

I narrowed my eyes at the infuriating red head, resisting the urge that gripped me like a vice to pummel him to pulp. "Thanks a lot, pal. Now I know who to go to in times of desperation for help."

"So who do you think it's from?" Mitsui asked, ignoring Hanamichi's indications of a rebuttal. When I shrugged, flabbergasted, he asked again, "Male or female?"

I widened my eyes. "I didn't even consider the possibility that it could be a male!"

Mitsui stared at me. "You're kidding," he said, and it was a statement, not a question. "You seriously need to get out more."

"What the hell?" I protested. "Dude, I'm loyal to one person and that's Aya-chan! What would she think if I went around frolicking with some guy? I'm not like you, you know!"

"Yeah, you and Rukawa," Hanamichi interjected, sniggering. "What the hell do you see in that sly rat face anyway? He's such a boring dude. His hobby is sleeping! How more boring can you get? People like this genius here have real hobbies, unlike that fox!" Hanamichi patted Mitsui on the shoulder. "Bad taste, Mitchy. Bad taste!"

Mitsui rolled his eyes in exasperation and glared at Hanamichi. "So what is he, a rat or a fox?"

"Both," Hanamichi retorted. "He's such an amazing guy that he's two animals at once. What a catch, Mitchy!"

Suddenly, Hanamichi stumbled forward, almost crashing into me; thankfully, he regained his balance in time, or else I'd be squashed like a tiny ant against the floor – definitely not fun. I looked behind Hanamichi and saw Rukawa's smothering gaze, bent on reducing the red-head to nothing but ash.

"You stupid, lousy fox!" Hanamichi yelled, his fists balled by his sides. "How dare you kick this genius from behind? That's it, you're asking for it!"

"Shut up, do'ahou." With that, Rukawa turned away from Hanamichi and left the locker room – but not without first stuffing a piece of paper into Mitsui's hand. Mitsui glanced at it, digested the words on the piece of paper, and smiled stupidly to himself. God, it was positively making me sick.

"Right, so back to me," I said, waving a hand in Mitsui's face. He looked up at me, his saccharine smile still plastered on his face; his left eyebrow was slightly raised, as if to ask, 'what about?'

"My stupid love note, you idiot!" I shouted. Now I was the one who was exasperated. "We were talking about it before Hanamichi here – " I pointed an accusatory finger at the indignant redhead – "interrupted us with his nonsense, again, and before you morphed into a swooning 13-year-old schoolgirl all thanks to something Rukawa wrote to you. Is that how you guys communicate anyway? Through note-writing? How Stone Age-esque! I mean, normal people talk, for crying out loud!"

Mitsui glowered at me. "Are you still asking for my take on your anonymous love letter? Besides, Rukawa and I do talk, but because the things we say to each other are so private, we don't talk to each other in front of you guys; it'll only cheapen the deep, profound connection that we share. Okay?"

"More like Rukawa is not a normal person," Hanamichi piped up. He snickered. "Real great catch, Mitchy!"

"Shut up, you idiot!" Mitsui retorted hotly. "You're just jealous because you can't even get your beloved Haruko to pass you love notes. How pathetic!"

"What did you say!"

"You heard me, genius!"

I threw up my hands in frustration; they were so freaking infuriating! I couldn't decide who was worse: Mitsui or Hanamichi. Mitsui because he was – and still is – so utterly self-involved, or Hanamichi because he was – and still is – so obnoxious and idiotic that he couldn't stop taking digs at Mitsui's precious Rukawa, which only prompted the older boy to retaliate with more retorts, until they'd almost completely forgotten about my predilection. Great friends they were!

"Okay, whatever, all right?" I said. "We've got a more serious issue on our hands. I'm the one with a real problem here, remember?"

Hanamichi finally stopped glaring at Mitsui and turned his attention back to me. "Sorry Ryo-chin. From now, you have the genius' full attention."

"Yeah, sorry, Miya," Mitsui added, but not without shooting one last glare at Hanamichi. "Right, so like I was saying, it could be a guy for all you know, but that's not really your fault or anything since you weren't the one who made the first move. I mean, if some guy has a crush on you, Ayako can't possibly hold it against you, right? It's not like you can help it or anything."

I nodded. Mitsui had finally said something sensible, hence putting my fears at ease. "So you think it could be a guy?"

"Definitely. It could very well be a girl too."

I groaned. "That helps a whole damn lot, Mitsui. That's like saying…you know, in a basket of oranges and apples, you could very well pick out an apple or an orange if you picked out a fruit at random. Ugh, what a mess. I hate getting anonymous love notes."

"Want me to help you find out who it is?" Mitsui asked with a glint in his eyes.

I considered it for a while. Did I even want to know who this wacko was? Even if I did, what difference would it make? My heart already belonged to (and still belongs to) Aya-chan; finding out the identity of my "admirer" wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference.

But then again, my curiosity was piqued. Who didn't like to be liked? Who didn't desire to be desired? And when you found out that someone out there liked and maybe even desired you, the fun and flattery were only complete if you knew who that person was.

"Oh, what the hell," I said finally. I cracked a small smile. "Why not?"

"Can I join in?" Hanamichi asked hopefully.

Mitsui and I looked at each other, then at him. A second later, the two of us said in unison, "No."

And that was how I, with Mitsui's help, embarked on a mission to uncover the identity of my secret admirer.

to be continued

More ramblings: I couldn't resist putting MitRu in there so uh, bear with me. And in my humble opinion, no SD fic is complete without Mitsui in it, hence the pointless dialogue. Bwahaha. Uh, yeah.