They stood at the very top of the audience stand and watched the Seigaku-Shitenhouji match unfold. Rin draped himself over the hand rail with Kai beside him, cheering and hooting, whilst Kite and Chinen hung back a little.
When it was over and Seigaku's place in the finals was confirmed, Rin flipped himself around. "That was awesome. I hope they win the trophy."
Kai and Chinen grimaced. The corners of Kite's lips turned downwards. "Is that so?"
Kai and Chinen suddenly spotted a strange masked man in a brown robe selling ice-cream. They decided that they should go and get some.
"Get me a chocolate one," Rin told the pair before turning back to Kite. "Coz it'd make more sense, wouldn't it? I'm sure we could've at least made it to the semis if we'd drawn the right slot."
Kite could follow Rin's logic: 'we were defeated by the champions of the tournament' was better than 'we were defeated by a team who go knocked out in the next round.' But Rin's logic never was Kite's logic.
"It means nothing if we do not have victory, Hirakoba-kun."
They spent the next five seconds staring at each other, before Rin turned around again. He spotted the red and white trucker cap in no time. "Yuujirou! Get a chocolate one for Eishirou too!"
Kite sighed. He wished very hard that his team members were less noisy. And that Rin would share his view on the importance of victory.
He did want an ice-cream, though. Frivolous Rin may seem, he did have his way of neutralising the atmosphere whenever he wanted to.
"We were awesome, Eishirou," Rin leaned back against the rail. He held his hair back with a hand when the wind whipped it into his eyes. "Awesome."
Kite thought about brushing that mane of gold with his fingers.
Kai and Chinen returned, cradling small pots of ice-cream with the ends of their t-shirts. Three pots were white, one brown. Kai explained there was only one chocolate left. Rin shrugged and took a white one.
Kite took the remaining chocolate ice-cream and swapped it with Rin's when Rin was just about to tear the lid off.
"What-"
"If you lose again, Hirakoba-kun, it will be gouya ice-cream."
Rin grinned like a child and devoured his prize.