Chapter Two

GAME OVER

"Yah! that's made it the nineteen times I beat you, Sendoh." cried Sakuragi, laughing racuously. "Are you done?"
"For today"
"Cheh, stubborn guy!"

Sakuragi stood up and stretched his back grimacing. Sendoh at once shot out of his seat.
"Is your back hurting? Stupid me, I forgot"
Sakuragi slapped Sendoh's solicitous hands away from his back.
"I am a tensai not a weakling. My back is perfectly fine. Even your back, old man, will hurt after sitting for three hours."
Satisfied that Sakuragi's back was alright, Sendoh felt that his back was starting to hurt too.
"Next time we have better limit it to two hours"
"There's no next time. We are done here."

Sakuragi stalked off followed closely by Sendoh. The crowd of mainly junior kids in the games parlor watched them with curious eyes. They looked like two giants among them. After exiting the parlor, Sakuragi stood under the bright sunlight, his eyes watering from staring at a lighted screen for three hours.

Damn it, he thought, this has to stop. He turned to Sendoh and told him tersely, "A deal's a deal, Sendoh, you know you are never gonna beat me. Go back to Ryonan, you have a basketball team to captain."

Sendoh looked at him, light fading from his blue eyes and lips pinched in defeat. He knew that he wasn't able to beat Sakuragi in Conquerer of the Realm but in the gloomy darkness, he was in a semi-high as he listened to his opponent's excited cries and whoops of delight. If he closed his eyes, he could even pictured himself in a different environment and he was the reason why Sakuragi was crying out. He was a VERY lovesick boy indeed.

"If I go back to Ryonan, will you meet me after practice?" he asked hopefully.
"NO!" Sakuragi pointed his index finger at Sendoh."We will meet on the basketball court. You are banned from seeing me until Ryonan beat Shohoku"
Sendoh grabbed his hand and pulled him forward so that Sakuragi almost fell into his arms.
"It's always basketball for you now, Hanachan? But there are other things beside basketball. I will beat Shohoku and then I will show you that basketball is not everything."

"Prepare to die if you call me Hanachan again!" Sakuragi had to pry open Sendoh's fingers to release his hand. "And stop with the weird stuff." He took a deep breath to calm down because he felt like headbutting the crazy guy before him. "I like what you say about beating Shohoku, this is more the Sendoh I know. So like I say, we will meet on the basketball court."

Sakuragi turned and walked away without waiting for Sendoh's reply. His always present four-member Guntai who had been watching the two boys avidly at once followed him. They thought that Sendoh's infatuation with him provided even more amusement than his crush on Haruko last year.

"So how does it feel to be the object of desire for a change, Hanamichi?" asked Takamiya but Youhei gave him a 'stop or else' look. He knew why Sakuragi was spending so much time with Sendoh. Sakuragi had as usual sought him out when Sendoh started to try and date him.

"The guy is just insane. He looked at me with doggy eyes and called me Hanachan, it's plain disgusting"
"I remembered someone being childish and whiny not too long ago when Haruko spurned him for Rukawa"
"That's different. Haruko's a girl"
"Being in love is the same whether it's animal, vegetable or mineral"
Sakuragi looked thoughtful for a while and nodded.
"You are right as usual. Sendoh's a good guy. He just needs a kick in the butt to remind him that basketball is most important."

Sakuragi was good about his word and came up with the idea of Conquerer of the Realm all by himself. He could beat anyone in this video game even in his sleep. So he had challenged Sendoh saying he would only go on a date with him if Sendoh could beat him and if he lost, then Sendoh had to go back to his basketball team. Unfortunately he did not account for Sendoh's tenacity and he ended up playing with Sendoh for three days in a row.

Youhei now glanced at his best friend with pride and affection. He knew that Sakuragi remembered his own lost and hurt feelings when he was infatuated with Haruko and he didn't want Sendoh to suffer like that for him. Perhaps you can fool the others, Youhei smiled quietly to himself, but I can read you like a book even though you pretend to be a tough cookie.