Can I Help You?

Chapter 4: Wishes

Ogiwara had been staring at his phone for a good forty five minutes now, thinking of what to say to the person he needed to apologize to. Ever since he left his black wristband with Mochida, he hadn't been in contact with Kuroko at all, not from phone or from anything else. He wanted to apologize, he wanted to tell him that he was sorry for quitting their favorite sport like that. But, but...

He knew all too well that Kuroko won't call him first, though. He must have felt guilty about his quitting, even though none of it was his fault. Kuroko was that kind of person, after all. He loved that about him, but hated himself for making his best childhood friend feel guilty over Ogiwara's own problems...

He needed to apologize.

Ogiwara took a deep breath, braving himself to flip his phone open and call his tealheaded friend. He even came to Tokyo just for this occasion, he needed to stop being a coward and apologize. Kuroko would forgive him, there was no doubt about that at all.

But before he could flip his phone open, it started to vibrate and rang out his favorite song. The name Kuroko Tetsuya blinked again and again on the caller ID. He wasted no time to flip his phone open and greeted his friend with a ramble. But before he could ramble even further, he could hear Kuroko's soft sobs echoing from the other line.

"Kuroko...?" He whispered carefully, his tone clearly implying how worried he was. But Kuroko, being Kuroko, didn't say anything. "Kuroko? What's wrong?" Ogiwara frowned even more when the soft sobs wrecked out from his best friend, and judging from the way Kuroko's breath became short, he was trying his absolute best to hold it all in. "Kuroko? I know we don't really talk anymore, but..."

Tell me what's going on, please. Ogiwara wanted to plead at the tealheaded boy, but he knew that Kuroko won't say anything through phone, where he thought he could hide everything from him. Ogiwara took a deep breath. "Just... just tell me where you are... I'm going there, okay? You don't need to cry anymore..."

"I-I apologize, Ogiwara-kun..." Kuroko, the ever uptight Kuroko, apologized even when he was already crying. Ogiwara felt extremely irritated at whatever it was that made Kuroko cry already...

Kuroko murmured out the address which Ogiwara knew all too well, after all, there was only one place that Kuroko would go when he was feeling extremely down. He took his cousin's bicycle and pedaled as hard as he could to the park near Kuroko's house.

Ogiwara parked the bicycle just under the lamppost and walked slowly towards the narrow space under the elephant slide, where he would always found his best friend curled up like a ball in absolute despair. He trembled, shaken to see his normally stoic friend looking lost and upset like he did now. Ogiwara forced a smile on his face as he petted Kuroko's teal-colored hair. "Fooound you." He said as he pulled the curled boy into a hug.

He murmured words of 'it's okay, it's fine, it's alright' to Kuroko, who kept his sobs hidden under Ogiwara's chest. He could feel his t-shirt getting wet from his best friend's tears, Ogiwara hugged him tighter. "Kuroko... what is it...?" There wasn't any coherent answer, of course. But Ogiwara kept on asking names, starting from the less likely until he reached a name. "Is it... Aomine?"

Kuroko tensed in his arms, but then he stopped sobbing and started to tremble. "I wish..." he whispered lowly, Ogiwara had to strain his ears to listen. "I wish I had never meet him..."

"Kuroko...?"

"I wish I have never met him...!"

Kuroko kept on whispering as he started to tear again. Ogiwara could feel himself getting angrier and angrier by the minute. Holding Kuroko tight, he closed his eyes and clenched his fists. How dare he made his most precious Kuroko cry like this?!

"I wish it too..."

Please, god, if you are really there...

"I wish you never meet him too, Kuroko..."

Please, grant me another chance. I want to make my best friend happy, please, god, please...

"I wish you'd never ever have to meet him!"

Please, let me be his light instead!

Suddenly, the air around him started to grew heavier and heavier by the second. Dark spots started to fill his vision as it blurred away everything around him. And then, everything went black...

But then, imagine his surprise when he woke up back in his dorm room in Meikou with his best friend as his bolster under his blanket. He had gotten up so fast Kuroko nearly fell down the narrow bed. "Shigehiro-kun...? It's still early, is it not...? What is it...?"

Kuroko was never a light sleeper, so Ogiwara only put his fingers on Kuroko's eyes as he coaxed him back to sleep. The tealhead yawned before falling sleep again, this time hugging Ogiwara's pillow as his bolster.

His dorm room had three beds, as usual, but unlike the usual, he wasn't rooming with the noisy Kanata or the early riser Mochida. He was rooming with Kuroko and the other bed seemed to be empty...

Ogiwara then noticed the clock just on top of his bedside table and grabbed it in a hurry. Oh. Oh. Oh gods... god really did exist.

Because he had returned back to before he even entered the basketball club... and this time, Kuroko was with him...

Ogiwara checked his phone that was thrown messily on top of his bedside table. The wallpaper was of him and Kuroko, wearing an identical gakuran as he grinned to the camera and Kuroko just smiled slightly. There was a caption there as well.

Me and Tetsu being a middle schooler!

Ogiwara cracked a smile so wide his face could have split into two. This was it, this was his chance. A chance to make his best friend happy, a chance to play with Kuroko- no, Tetsu- in the same court, sharing a smile and fist bumps, and everything.

Ogiwara Shigehiro was honestly the luckiest human being to ever live.

He gained his old friends too, of course. Mochida, Kanata, Tsukamu, Hikaru, and also a new addition to this world aside from Tetsu- Kagami Taiga.

The three of them quickly became the best of friends. He was comfortable enough to get extremely affectionate to Taiga as he did Tetsu. He seemed to like Tetsu a lot, and that was all it took for Ogiwara to instantly like the guy. He felt so so happy, unlike what he felt on the previous world, and he thought that it would last forever...

...until the day he felt something falling down to his perfect world.

Tetsu cried that day. He didn't know what happened, it's been almost two years since he arrived in this world, so that would mean... Kuroko was experiencing that night all over again in another world. And somehow, Ogiwara knew that someone else from his previous world had been pulled here, to his perfect world.

He had hope and hope and hope that he would never have to face Teikou Middle School here, but then imagine his surprise when Tetsu and Taiga brought over one Aomine Daiki to their favorite corner in Maji Burger...

He hugged Tetsu tighter that day, being overly affectionate than usual- if not a little bit possessive.

No, no, no, I don't fucking care if you're Aomine Daiki or anyone...

He was never letting go.

Short chapter, huh? Sorry... writer's block...

Reviews? It would be, um, very very nice...