1. soccer

Kariya had finished lunch. He went into the living room and saw Nagumo sprawled on the couch, watching the TV. "Ah, Kariya! Why don't you join me? It's the Holy Road finals!" the adult invited enthusiastically. The teenager shrugged and sat when Nagumo moved into a proper position to make space for him on the couch. "Raimon's up against Kidokawa and its hard to tell who's gonna win," Nagumo said to which Kariya scoffed. Frankly, he didn't care.

When he finally turned his eyes to the TV though, he choked on his own spit at a close up of a beautiful soccer player from Raimon with luscious pink hair. "What's a girl doing on their team?!" he blurted out and was grateful his compliment about the female's appearance was kept to himself. A loud laugh erupted from beside him and Kariya glared at Nagumo. "It's funny every single time!" he exclaimed. Kariya raised his eyebrows. "What's funny?"

"That's not a girl, Kariya. That's a boy!"

2. enrolling

The school year had just started but Kariya was already in the principal's office for getting into another fistfight—and at his first year of junior high too. Saying he was lucky to escape with only a bruise on the cheek would only annoy him. Hitomiko came; he was ushered out, the door closed behind him and the two adults started to converse about his behaviour.

Kariya still held his tongue, even when they were back at Sun Garden. He didn't felt like talking—there was no reason to talk. But then after dinner Hitomiko called for him and with a heavy heart he went to the office where she was waiting, as Nagumo told him.

When he arrived, silent still and stood in front her, she gave him very shocking news. "I'm going to enrol you into Raimon. You'll start this Monday. We'll fix up the papers tomorrow morning, since it's a weekend,"

In bed he found himself smirking. Raimon, the very same school where that boy he saw in the TV last year attended. And hopefully still did—after all, he didn't want to lose this chance to finally meet with the defender.

3. externally

The first time he saw him, Kariya instantly remembered the time from last year where he mistook him for a girl. It wasn't a pleasant experience as Nagumo kept on teasing him about it—"Hey, hey, how's your girlfriend doing? She still playing?"—for a couple of months. When he asked why Nagumo wouldn't stop, the adult replied with something about Kariya blushing upon first sight.

'All because of him,' he thought to himself as he observed Kirino from the corner of his eye. He didn't want to transfer schools again so he hatched up a plan to pretend to be nice, innocent and all those things but behind their backs—oh imagine the little devil he was going to be.

The only person who would ever suspect him was Kirino.

4. his trust

Please tell him he was dreaming. That one sentence caught him off guard. Did Kirino really trust him? After all the things he had made the senior go through?

"You're not a SEED, Kariya."

What a wonder it was. Kariya tried to make Kirino hate him but instead he got this in return. That, however, didn't mean he was going to trust the other defender so easily.

5. hesitance

But would it be that bad for him to trust the senior? Why was he so hesitant in accepting Kirino's offer of friendship in the first place? Kariya had no answers except for that tiny voice inside his head that said it wouldn't be a good idea to befriend the pink haired defender.

He thought about this problem too much, to the point his grades started to take a drastic fall.

6. his help

He couldn't believe it came to this. Here he was in the library, with Kirino as his tutor. The senior, when noticing Kariya's decreasing grades, volunteered to help him. At first Kariya was reluctant. It would be a misunderstanding if Kariya said he wasn't fond of the idea—he did want better grades—but the fact that the person who would be tutoring him was Kirino made his stomach twist and turn.

"You're supposed to do it like this,"

Kirino's voice rang in his ear. Kariya was sitting on the chair while Kirino stood behind him. He felt the senior bend down to point out his mistake and Kariya swore his heart stopped beating when he realized how close they were.

7. realizing

Kariya lay awake in his bed. He glanced at the paper in his hands. He had gotten a full score on the test that day—all thanks to Kirino. Kariya remembered all the tutoring sessions he had with Kirino and the distance between them that was always so small. He remembered how his heart beat increased in speed every time he'd accidentally catch a whiff of the strawberry scented shampoo Kirino used.

His face flushed, Kariya turned in his bed. He couldn't be. There was no way. Why would he fall for Kirino?

8. denial

No, he was definitely not gay. He did not feel attracted to Tenma, Tsurugi or any other guy for that matter. But when it came to Kirino, everything he had denied melted away. Kariya bit the tip of his pencil, suddenly finding himself in the same situation before the tutoring sessions started—unable to focus to the subject at hand.

He chewed and chewed and with each chew he kept telling himself that he was not in love with Kirino.

9. acceptance

Soon he realized it was futile to deny all of it. He was attracted to Kirino for some strange reason and felt his cheek burn every time the older one spoke to him.

It was worse when during practice that same day, Kirino had somehow tripped on his shoe and landed right on top of Kariya. The position they were in drove Kariya mad and he stuttered badly with a ridiculous red face when he tried to tell Kirino to get off of him.

It appeared like he had no choice but to accept his growing feelings for the senior.

10. effort

As with every love struck teenager, Kariya couldn't help but to wonder if Kirino returned his feelings. He made an effort to find out, but with every attempt he made it felt useless. Kirino still treated him the way he was treated when the older one still tutored him. Now Kariya even considered dropping his grades on purpose and hope that Kirino would offer to help him again. It seemed like a doable plan.

But he didn't have the guts to do so. What if Kirino really just saw him as a friend/junior and nothing more? That would certainly embarrass him.

11. missing

He strummed his guitar, alone in the music room. Kariya sighed loudly. He stared out the window next to him. For the past few days he felt… weird. There was an aching feeling inside his chest and once in a while he felt like crying—crying over things he didn't even know.

He didn't understand what he was feeling. He tried to inquire Hikaru about it but the other guitarist said he was experiencing the same thing—maybe less as painful. He said to Kariya he felt like something was missing from him, like there was a hole in his heart and he didn't know how to fix it up. Whatever it was, Hikaru told him it must have been something to important so he wanted to try everything he could to find it again.

Kariya strummed again and hummed a melody. What Hikaru told him fitted Kariya's condition too. There was a hole in his heart, a really big hole. He knew the hole meant he was missing something. But the question was what?

A single teardrop rolled down his cheek and Kariya gasped, wiping it away immediately and thanking God he was alone in the room.

12. chance

A chance to finally return Kirino's favour to him appeared and Kariya took it immediately. His heart hurt a bit when he saw how desperate Kirino wanted to go with them. And Kariya didn't even care if he was among the chosen to go or not. That was why he faked a stomach ache and requested Kirino to replace him. It was a good thing both of them were defenders otherwise Daisuke wouldn't have approved.

The happy look on Kirino's face was enough for Kariya. Knowing he made the person he loved happy was a great feeling.

13. restrain

He couldn't keep it in much longer. Kariya knew if he kept on harbouring these unreturned feelings for the senior, some serious drama would happen. Besides, he was sure that Kirino liked Akane from the extra attention he was giving her.

That was why, day by day, he slowly started to grow apart from Kirino and forcefully restrained his own feelings from going wild.

14. graduation

It was spring again and the third years were graduating. That meant Shindou, Kirino, Kurama and the rest were leaving junior high for a much bigger challenge. Kariya was glad he decided to avoid the pink haired senior the past few months. If he had still been close to Kirino like when he was a first year, the departure would be very painful for him.

But he wasn't going to lie. He still loved Kirino deeply—in fact, separating himself from Kirino gave him the opposite effect. Instead of falling out of love like he had hoped, Kariya grew even more restless and wanted to be close to the senior even more than ever. So it still hurt.

It still hurt.

15. his request

The graduation event was being held in the hall. Like Kariya cared. He was asleep in his empty classroom for the whole ceremony. When he woke up he realized it was high time he went home. Kariya grabbed his bag and when he opened the door to his classroom he was immediately stopped by an arm blocking his way.

"I want to talk to you," Kirino said in a stern voice. Kariya looked into his eyes and could tell what the senior was thinking. 'I'm not letting you run away from me this time,'

Kariya gave in with a sigh.

He was brought to the back of the school, where the cherry blossom trees grew with great beauty—and all the way there, Kirino had held Kariya by his hand. It made the junior flustered from the warmth of his touch. He had to bite his tongue to keep himself from saying stupid things.

Under a shady cherry blossom tree, petals floated all around them and Kirino let go of Kariya—turning around to face him as he did. Kariya didn't dare run away and Kirino knew it too.

"What is it that you wanted to talk about?" Kariya asked, trying to hide his impatience in his tone. He bit his lower lip, feeling very nervous. He hadn't been alone with Kirino for a long time now and it felt awkward to do it again.

"I graduated," Kirino started.

"I can see that. Congratulations," Kariya responded, the urge to run growing stronger and stronger. He fought it by fidgeting with his fingers.

"What do you think I'm feeling right now?" asked Kirino.

Kariya, who all this time hadn't look at Kirino in the face at all, raised his eyebrows at the peculiar question. His stare at the tree behind Kirino faltered. "Happy…?" he answered hesitantly.

"No,"

"Then…?"

"Sad. I feel sad because I'll be leaving Raimon—and I'll be leaving you too,"

The sentence made him look up with wide eyes. Kariya stared at Kirino's face and he noticed that his eyes were watery with tears. Kariya gasped. Before he was able to form a proper response, Kirino held his hand again but pulled Kariya towards him and their lips met. Kirino's other hand held his cheek but Kariya didn't notice. All he noticed right now was how warm Kirino's lips were and how good it felt to kiss them. It didn't take him long to close his eyes and return the kiss, wrapping his other arm that wasn't being held by Kirino around his neck and pulled the senior closer, deepening the kiss. He loved it—he loved the sweetness of the kiss, he loved that this was how his first kiss went and he loved the fact it was Kirino that kissed him.

It took them a few moments later to pull away and even then they weren't that far from each other. Kirino rested his forehead on Kariya's and they both stared into each other's eyes, feeling the warm breath on each other's faces.

"I love you," Kirino started, slightly panting. "I love you, Kariya, I really do,"

Kariya found it hard to believe his own ears at first. But as the information slowly sunk in, he found tears rolling down his cheeks and Kariya had to wipe his eyes and sniff. Kirino panicked, thinking he had done the wrong thing by kissing the junior first but Kariya, who by then was sobbing, insisted that it wasn't because of that.

"All of this time, I've been waiting for you to say that to me! All of this time I thought it was a silly dream, to have you love me back—" Kariya sniffed here and had to wipe his eyes again, "—to have you kiss me and hold me!" he expressed, all of his emotions taking over him. He was so happy, so happy that the tears he was shedding were actually tears of happiness. He hugged Kirino, who was a fair height taller than him, and screamed into his shirt that he loved Kirino back.

The senior was stunned. Slowly he made Kariya look up into his face, wiping away some stray tears on his face. "Does this guarantee that I'll see you again in high school?" he asked. Kariya nodded quickly. He knew the high school that Kirino went to wasn't a great one—in fact it wasn't really far from Raimon either. But that didn't mean they could see each other every day. That was why Kariya was determined to get into the same high school as Kirino, just so they could spend each day with the other. Kirino softly smiled.

And they shared another kiss.