Thump. Thump. Thump. A scrape as she sidesteps. "Too slow, Kaede-chan."
He grunts. "This time I'll win, oneesama."
Thump. Thump. She loses control of the ball for a moment- he grabs it, and makes a shot before she can stop him. It bounces off the rim, however- too hasty.
She half-smiles. "Sure about that, Momiji-chan?"
He glares. "Would it kill you to use one name for me consistently?"
She shrugs. "Very well. Kaeru-chan." What she does not say, but he understands anyway, is this: if Kaede-chan must object, I will inflict embarrassment on Kaede-chan.
He makes a small noise, but does not say anything else. They continue playing.
An hour, may be two, passes. They stop only because hunger and lethargy demands they do so. She has won by one point, barely.
They head to the ramen shop in comfortable silence.
For cousins who have not seen each other for three years, give or take a month, and who have not communicated since except in videotapes of their games, they do not in the least appear this way- rather, they look as though they have never been apart, ever. This is not unexpected. For years it had been this way- oneesama and Kaede-chan, or Kaeru-chan, or whatever nickname she has concocted to amuse herself, to embarrass him.
And they had grown up playing basketball. Or rather, she had grown up playing basketball, and when the tiny baby was big enough to hold the ball, and bounce it, why, she had decided to raise her 'little brother' on basketball as well.
But time, and age, drives them apart. She went to school first, and found a friend. And that created a gap between them. Even though she came home to look after him in lieu of his mother, they were not as close as they once were.
Then she moved away to Tokyo, at the age that she was to go to junior high, and the gap was widened. Seeing her less frequently, but hearing of her victories, and never beating her whenever he did see her, only drove him to work harder, so that when finally they met again, he could say, "I've gotten better, oneesama. This time, I'll beat you." But he never did; always, he forgot that she, too, would have improved in between.
Last of all, what widened their gap to a valley was her move to New York, when she was to go to high school. And he has worked harder and harder since then, for the chance that oneesama would say, "You're good enough. Come with me." Come with me, to America.
But he has lost this game. He no longer harbours any hope that he can beat her- that was given up long ago- but he's hoping that, somehow, the familiarity they once had can be recaptured, if only he is good enough.
She did not say it. She had only shrugged and given another half-smile, when they stopped, and tallied their points, and concluded that she was victorious.
At the ramen shop, they eat without conversation. She briefly considers questioning him about his love life, but dismisses it. If he is so indifferent to the attentions of his fan club, he is most likely not going to have any semblance of romance in his life. Or so she thinks.
"Do you like anyone, oneesama?" he asks, abruptly. She halts, chopsticks raised to her mouth.
"Yes." No hesitation, just a matter-of-fact tone. "Why are you asking?" she continues, after slurping down her ramen.
He shakes his head. Instead of answering, he asks, "Who? Kanako-sempai?"
She raises an eyebrow, looks him in the eye. "No. Why Kanako-chan, anyway?" The girl he mentions had been his senior in junior high, her best friend since grade school, her band mate since they had begun writing music. It's not farfetched, she admits to herself, to think that she and Kanako-chan might be in love; they've known each other so long, and Kanako-chan has had numerous boyfriends and girlfriends, as just about everyone in Tomigaoka must have rumoured among themselves.
"Because. Because you both- I mean- the two of you- how long have you known each other?"
"If the length of time two people have known each other is any indicator of romance between them, this conversation is developing very strange undercurrents, Kaeru-chan."
He coughs, and has to drink his tea to recover. "I didn't mean it like that."
"So what did you mean?" she asks impatiently. "Stop dancing around your problem, Kaeru-chan, and don't deny it's a problem you have, because neechan knows you. Is it a girl?"
"I'm not interested in girls." It's a whisper, barely heard. He goes on with his meal, as if his statement is nothing shocking, but she stops again, putting her chopsticks down this time, lips pursed.
He keeps his eyes on his rapidly emptying bowl, mechanically going through the motions of eating, while his 'big sister' looks him over with those unnerving blue eyes of hers, so unlike and yet like his own.
"Who is it, then?" she asks him, almost gently, at last. He looks up, startled; that wasn't what he had expected to come out of her mouth.
"Who is it?" she repeats, her voice losing any inflection, almost robotic. Her face is mask-like, her eyes boring into his. It's strange that she was so insistent on knowing, he thinks later, as if her life depended on his answer.
When he finally says his name, she drops the stone features, is visibly relieved. He could almost swear she had been holding her breath.
"Good. That's good," she says, smiling now, a real, honest-to-goodness smile, wide as wide as wide can be, not like her half-smiles before. It unnerves him, a little- she rarely smiles that way, at least when something involves him. It's a smile that says, hey, I know something great, and I'm trusting you to go along with what I'm going to do with that something great. And whatever she is going to do, or might do, is nothing good.
"…oneesama, please stop smiling," he says a few minutes later, when it shows no sign of disappearing. She blinks, touches her face, stops.
"Sorry about that," she says, as they walk out of the shop, back to the court. "But it's just so cute to think of you actually liking a guy who talks up a storm, sings (badly) about himself, challenges you all the time, is basically the complete opposite of you, and oh my, I could just go onnn and onnn about this, do you know?"
He gives her the evil eye.
"Oh, don't look at me like that, Kaeru-chan, I can't help liking shounen-ai manga."
He just continues his glaring. "Don't tell me you've actually-"
"Not really, no. Neechan has honestly never considered Kaede-chan liking anyone before." She laughs, softly. "I think I haven't ridded myself of the image of you as a child. Here you've grown up, but in my mind, I still see the Kaede-chan who only comes up to my shoulder." She reaches up to ruffle his hair, in an uncharacteristically affectionate physical gesture (as opposed to the verbal affection she deals out, when she speaks to him), and they walk on, in, as always, silence.
At an intersection, he impulsively takes a left instead of the right that will lead them back to the court. She is momentarily disorientated by his change in direction, but shrugs and follows, assuming he has something in mind.
Eventually they come to the beach and he sits down on the pier, his legs dangling over the edge. She sits down beside him, adopting a Lotus position. When the lack of explanation for this excursion and the lack of conversation continue for a while, she extracts an MP3 player from her bag and attaches one earbud to her ear, the other to his, and selects a song that she is sure will start him gabbing away.
He plucks the earbud out of his ear, a slight frown appearing. "The Pokemon theme song?"
"Describes you exactly." She doesn't mention that it's also the ringtone for his calls and messages on her cell phone- not that he ever sends any, so it's unlikely that he'll find out.
He rolls his eyes, and remains silent. She continues listening to her music, still using only one earbud.
Eventually he says, plaintively, "Do you think it runs in the family?"
"What does?"
"Being unlucky in love?"
"I'm not following you here." She doesn't object to his statement, and they are cousins, after all.
"Everyone in our family who's married was matchmade."
"Speak for yourself- my parents got married just fine without any matchmaker helping them."
He knows what she's not saying, and asks her outright. "Who do you like, oneesama?"
She doesn't smile, not exactly. It's the look of someone resigned to fate, an optimist becoming a pessimist; it's a look that says, this is what I have left, and I'll make do with it. She says the name.
He snorts, incredulous. "How do you even know him? You were homeschooled in Tokyo, weren't you?"
"Please credit neechan with the sense to have found friends in Tokyo, okay?" She unfolds herself from the Lotus position, bends over to touch her forehead to her knees, curled in a foetal position, leaning against him. "It's not that I didn't try. I tried, I tried for so damn long…" Uncomfortable- it's rare that she drops a curse into her words- he wraps his arm around her shoulder, awkwardly. She blinks back tears, sniffs, and they both stare out at the bright and shining, never-ending sea, one thinking of red hair and brown eyes and a ridiculously charming cackle, the other of black, spiky hair and blue eyes and a permanent smile.
Eventually, he speaks, hesitantly. "Maybe… maybe someday, oneesama…"
She half-smiles, again. "Maybe, Kaede-chan."
"Really?"
"What do you mean, really?"
"Hah?"
"Eh?"
"What are you talking about, oneesama?"
"What are you talking about, Kaede-chan?"
"I'm talking about me coming to America."
"I'm talking about the possibility of actually being with our… you know."
They replay each other's words, consider the conversation in silence. She speaks first.
"No."
He is indignant. "I'm more than good enough now, oneesama."
"But is Shohoku?" she asks him, looking him straight in the eye.
"I don't understand, oneesama." He doesn't, and his confusion shows.
"You're going to abandon them? Him? For me?" She is shaking her head. "I didn't have a choice, both times. If I had my way, I'd have stayed with him. I wouldn't have gone to America, if I had a choice."
He is at a loss for words.
She adds, as an afterthought, "Shohoku is teaching you things that neechan cannot. Don't let them down; repay them for their hard work on you."
He contemplates her words, and eventually nods, to show his understanding.
They stay on the pier until the sun has set.
Fin
Notes:
Momiji and Kaede both mean maple.
Kaeru means frog.
Oneesama and neechan both mean big sister; however, his usage indicates his respect, while her usage to refer to herself indicates affection.