Note: The title was based on the song S-K-Y (Suki yo), where the story was initially inspired.
S-K-Y
How many days have passed? He could not recall anymore.
Every morning, in the same train, in the same position, that boy, probably of the same age, never failed to show up. He always positioned himself near the door while reading the book with the same cover. His blue hair always stood out from the crowd, and his long eyelashes made him looked like a girl. Added to that was his lithe physique, but undeniably of a male's - he always wore his small gakuran. For some reason, his expression never changed, despite being bumped or squeezed from the rush hours in the morning. In spite the repetition of the scenery of his train ride as that boy stood near his usual seat, that boy never failed to attract him.
Three years of high school had passed, and the bluehead had become the subject of his mornings. It was not even a surprise from his epiphany that he was actually infatuated, despite being a male himself. Or probably he really just wanted to talk to the bluehead, to know more about him and be friends. It was not that he never had a chance - every time he would try to initiate a conversation the boy would have escaped his sight or the boy could not seem to hear anything.
Today, he resolved himself to talk to the mysterious male. He decided to skip class (not that it did matter) and follow the bluehead from the train to the station where the boy got off.
As soon as he slid the card and walked right before the yellow lines, he already saw the lithe figure, holding the same book, the same bag and same composure.
People eventually flocked the station, being a rush hour and all, and he barely managed to get a space for himself. Since he was too preoccupied with the bluehead while businessmen and students alike were running inside each car, he could only place himself in the door.
He panted a little, a little out of breath from the previous battle for space. He decided to watch the scenery unfold from the transparent glass in the door, when the thought of the bluehead appeared in his mind.
"Where is he...?" he asked out loud, as he scanned the train car. He sighed in disappointment as he saw no blue hair, and admitted to the morning without seeing the boy.
Now that he thought about it, both of them usually ended up in the same car. He never really paid attention to the car number plastered outside, but with the repetition he could recall he and the boy usually rode the 11th car. Was this some sort of coincidence? He tried convincing himself it was just his imagination or that he remembered the numbers wrong.
He heard a sound of a book page being turned in his front and saw his subject of infatuation.
'Shit!' he thought, and he did not notice the rapid beating of his heart and the trembling of his feet. He was not actually prepared this, and he was never in this close proximity with the bluehead before.
Badump. Badump. This is it or never, Kagami Taiga! You can do it.
"U-uu-uumm…" he tried forming words, but his trembling voice never let out any coherent speech.
The boy in front of him did not pay him any attention either.
Cycles of heartbeat and chants of self-persuasion took most of his ride, until he heard the announcement of approaching station. He saw the boy getting off, as he clicked his tongue while resolving to get through his day with no regrets.
He went through the busy streets, and the enormous number of people walking the sidewalk almost made him lose sight of the bluehead. He noticed that the boy never removed his concentration on the same book he had been reading in the train, and he actually managed to dodge everyone trying to bump him in the road.
He's very skilled…in avoiding those people. Kagami thought, as he kept a good distance from the boy he was stalking.
After almost 15-minute walk from the station, he saw the bluehead approaching a school. The boy had walked pass through the gates, and Kagami read the sign "Teiko Grade School."
Huh? What the hell is he doing in a grade school?
Kagami clearly remembered that the boy wore uniform-like clothes, so he concluded he was going to school since it was weekday. But he never thought that the boy looked so old! But he did not look so young that he could fit in in a grade school.
Wait, wait, Taiga. That's a fraud. I never saw a grade school as tall as him.
But, neither did he see a school uniform similar to the ones being worn by the mysterious boy.
He did not realize standing up too long, until an adult male wearing a teacher's uniform approached him, "Kid, do you have any business here? Your little sister or brother needs you?"
"Huh…? Ah, no…" he answered, not finding any right words amidst his confusion.
"Then, go to your school. You're already late." And the teacher was about to go away, when Kagami ran up to him. "What?"
"I mean, ah, sensei, I saw someone going in here as tall as this." He positioned his hand right before his neck, indicating the bluehead's height. "And with white and light blue uniform. Is he a student here? I mean, it's a grade school…"
"Why would we have a student like that? If he's that tall and still a grade school, everyone in this school would have known it. And I don't recall anyone like that."
"Ah, okay…"
"Ah, well, this school used to have middle school department. Probably a graduate here? Anyway, I'm going." The male teacher entered the gates, and Kagami watched until he was out of sight.
Dejected, Kagami decided to eat his frustrations away with a nearby Maji Burger, which was actually just a block away from Teiko. He ordered his usual mountain of burger and sat in a spot he could still see the entrance of the said school.
"I still have tomorrow…" he said to himself while munching on his food. "I'll definitely talk to him, and also ask what he's doing on such a school. Well, he's probably a teacher's eldest child or graduate just like what that teacher said…"
Then, he heard something being sipped.
And, as he blinked his eyes away from the school gate, but in front of his table, the boy that had been occupying his mind was just drinking away his juice (probably).
What…? When did he…?
He heard his fast heartbeat and he reflexively jumped out of his seat, effectively startling some people.
But the boy in front of him continued sipping the drink while looking outside.
Gulping, and internally doing his resolution, Kagami said, "Hey…"
No reaction. As if the boy did not hear him.
"Hey, this is my seat…" he tried sounding annoyed, but actually just wanted to start up some conversation.
The bluehead acted as if he heard nothing. He continued consuming his drink, and the louder sound of sip indicated that there was only a little of the drink left.
"Hey, do you fucking hear me?" Kagami snapped.
And the boy, doing his last sip, removed himself from his seat and went outside.
Kagami, both angry and puzzled, put away in his bag the remaining burgers, and tried stalking the boy once again.
What the hell was that?! Is he downright ignoring me?! Shit!
He walked briskly as he still followed the boy, who was actually a little too fast than he expected. He was not reading his book this time.
Despite Kagami's annoyance a while ago, he had calmed himself enough not to make enemies of the person he had wanted to talk the most.
Calm down! Calm down! Shit! I just want to be friends with him, and everything's becoming really weird.
He looked at the bluehead's back, and he realized how long he had been looking at the same figure, yet never get tired of it. He recalled that the first time he saw the boy was his first time riding a bullet train ever since they settled in Japan, and he had a strange aura that definitely made him interesting.
He watched the same boy, for an uncountable number of days, yet never able to even exchange a greeting. He had tried bumping him on purpose one time, but for some miracle, he was able to dodge him. A few more trials, and he had learned that the bluehead was an expert dodger.
As he pondered on his thoughts, he realized that he was walking an unknown road, away from the grade school.
They were approaching a…hospital?
Visiting a relative, maybe?
He saw the bluehead entering the automatically opening glass doors, already opened when a woman in wheelchair accompanied by a younger woman went outside.
He also followed the boy, but when he reached the lobby, there was no sight of him.
Huh…where did he go?
Kagami looked at all sides of the wide lobby, taking note of each person seated on the chairs, those standing up, or walking, and he saw no blue hair. He had asked the nurse stationed at the counter, and she apparently did not see anyone with blue hair passing by.
He continued walking briskly through the halls, hoping to see the mysterious boy, when he bumped into a man taller than him.
"Hey! Watch it out!" hissed the man, who was tan and wearing a suit.
"I'm very sorry." He said, bowing. The dark skinned man then entered a room, leaving Kagami on his own devices.
He heard something dark dropped on the floor. On the closer look, it was a wallet, opened up, with a picture of three people. Kagami picked it up, intending to return it to the man, until he had a closer look on the image.
This is … that boy!
In the picture, there were three people – a girl with pink hair in the middle, a dark skinned boy, which was probably the one he had bumped a while ago, and the boy he had been chasing since this morning.
Below each person, the names were printed with glitters and cutesy stuff, and the frame of the picture complemented the font. The girl was apparently Momoi Satsuki, the man Aomine Daiki, and…
Kuroko Tetsuya…
He held the picture tighter as he felt his heart skipped a beat.
It was a name that he had wanted to know for so long, and yet he smiled bitterly as he realized how strange his circumstances of meeting him through a picture.
He was about to knock the door of the room, written in it "Dr. Midorima Shintarou", when he heard the voice of the tanned man.
"Hey, Satsuki's asking me if you're going there today. Well, basically I'm here to drag your ass for her."
"Akashi had already instructed us to go. Just let me finish my shift today, I only have one patient left." The other voice, Kagami had thought of the said doctor, said.
"Good, now I'm going back. I still got to buy flowers and incenses with her."
"Yeah."
Feeling guilty for eavesdropping (anyway, he did not understand a single thing about it), he knocked the door, and the doctor said to come in.
Aomine tsked, annoyed. "Why you're still here?"
"Well, you dropped your wallet. Here."
"Ah…thanks. Sorry." The dark-skinned man scratched his head, embarrassed.
"And…I kinda saw the picture inside…" Kagami started, and he felt the piercing stare. "…and I kinda always see the other boy in the picture. Um…do you know where is he now?"
After some time, he felt that the intensity of the gaze became that of a confusion. He looked at the two adults in front of him, and saw puzzlement in their faces. Aomine was the first one to look at him, with a bitter smile in his face. "We were just about to go there. Won't you come with us, then?"
"We're here." Aomine announced.
That place, a very windy place, where he could hear the chirps of birds and see the expanse of the blue sky, turning orange minute by minute.
Then, Kagami recalled, why it was that he felt very odd around Kuroko. Or why Kuroko never noticed him. Or why he would enter a grade school. Or why he was so young in a picture where the other persons were already adult.
Why did he not notice such a strange thing? How come? Kagami continued asking himself.
As he looked at the piece of marble in the ground, he questioned his own sanity, his idiocy, and the cruelty of the world.