"Oi, Kuroko. It's been a while !"
The voice he heard sounded familiar to him. That voice. That was him, for sure. He turned around, hoping to see that radiant smile he missed during past years. Ogiwara's smile.
Kuroko was really confused at the moment. Indeed, he didn't talk to him for so long that he didn't know what to begin with. "Hello" ? Maybe.. He had a lot question to ask his friend. His first friend.
Yes ; we can say that Ogiwara was the one that changed Kuroko's life. With him, he learnt to play basketball. And more than everything, he learnt to love basketball. He always asked himself, "What if I didn't meet him ?" Maybe he wouldn't have trained that much, met Aomine, found his own basketball style, and finally found his new family in Seirin ? Nevertheless, a lot of things happened in Teiko.
The two friends started to talk. Talk about their current lives. Kuroko looked at Shigehiro gently. He didn't change. Same smile, same eyes, same character. Afterwards, he gathered his courage and finally asked : "Ogiwara-kun, do you still play basketball ?"
That question was haunting him.. He was afraid of the answer, he may didn't want to know it at all. "I heard that you quit.. from one of your friends..", he added.
"Yup, that's true !" He smiled. "I guess I wasn't fit for this sport." He said it while laughing, but Tetsuya could sense an ounce of pain in his words.
"But, you loved basketball more than anyone else ! I.."
Ogiwara's smiling face turned into a pale, expressionless face. All his memories from middle school where coming back to him, and he suddenly felt tears in his eyes trying to flow on his cheeks. Sure, he loved basketball. But that Generation of Miracles were at another level. Nobody could win against them. That's what he thought.
But from almost everywhere, he heard about Seirin's victories against Shutoku, Touou.. And remembered of his 'meeting' with Akashi. He was especially marked by him, since he was the one that didn't allowed him to see Kuroko that day. He remembered the expression of his eyes. His coldness, and -
"Ogiwara-kun, I'm sorry... I shouldn't have asked this. Don't cry.." All this time, Kuroko has been feeling guilty about everything. Thinking it was his fault. Thinking that he broke his friend's heart. He was about to shed tears. "How awful I am," he whispered, so that Ogiwara didn't hear him.
"But, you know.. that's not as if I forgot how to play !" He stood up and smiled. Kuroko's face quickly lit up. As they weren't far from it, they headed towards a surrounding court.
"Finally. That's the one-on-one I waited for. Show me how much you've improved !" Ogiwara said. His expression changed really fast. Indeed, it looked like his radiant smile came back. It was a true smile, and a true laughter, that weren't hiding a broken heart.
"You know I'm not playing this kind of basketball," said the phantom player.
"Yup, I know but it won't help you here ! The loser buys an ice cream to the other !" he said in a childish way, as if he had regressed to childhood. "Prepare your money !" he added.