Note: I am planning to keep this going on till the anime finishes, and I hope I do. Thank you all, my dear readers, for telling me what you think of this story. I deeply appreciate it. Please do enjoy.

When all of them heard the familiar ringtone of a new message coming from Kuroko's bag, they couldn't help but wonder who would text their teammate. So all of them couldn't help taking just a slight peek - as they had said to themselves.

All of them had finished showering but Kuroko hadn't. It was the usual, him resting after practice and bathing afterwards.

Koganei cautiously looked at the few people around him, making sure that they were as curious as he was.

It was nerve wrecking for some reason.

He casually dug inside the bag, and when he finally found Kuroko's phone, he took out.

Immediately, curiosity overpowered his rational self and he whispered the message so that everyone in the locker room would know.

"Tetsu-kun, congratulations!" He said in a flat tone. "How was the match? How's Midorin? I called him after the game but Midorin hung up on me! Then Dai-chan called him again and wouldn't let me talk to him!"

Only at that moment, they then noticed the lacking sound of running water.

"Excuse me, Koganei-senpai."

All of them jumped and some screamed.

Koganei reflexively stood up straight and hid the phone behind his back. "Yes?!" He said loudly, instead of shouting from shock.

"What are you doing with my phone?" He asked, although he knew the reason why perfectly.

Slowly, Koganei placed the phone in his hand and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Kuroko. We were all just curious!"

They all said that curiosity killed the cat.

Kuroko bent down and grabbed his bag. "It's fine, Koganei-senpai. I don't mind."

Kuroko saw Koganei rubbing the back of his head. "Really?"

But he really disliked people who did those kind of tresspass.

That was left unsaid.

"See you tomorrow."

He offered a smile before he left, and when he heard sighs of relief through the closed doors of the locker room, and Hyuuga saying, "Well that went better than expected."

Once he was out of the gym, he checked his inbox for any new messages. When he saw the latest message, read and recent, he couldn't help but smile again.

This must have been the one Koganei-senpai read.

Oh, how he loved Seirin.

He typed, 'Thank you, Momoi-san. I'm sure Midorima-kun wanted to talk to you but just not at that time. After the match, we bumped into Midorima-kun and Takao-kun at a shop nearby.'

In just a few seconds he received a new message, 'Really? That's great! So how was he?'

Just imagining Momoi in front of him, talking to him, walking with him, made him smile.

I miss her.

That train of thought made him pause typing on his phone.

What am I thinking?

Then he thought of what life in Seirin would be like if she had enrolled in Seirin too. He shook his head and told himself that what had happened had happened, and imagining things that wouldn't happen was just a torture to the mentality.

'He seems fine. Honestly, Midorima-kun and I never got along well.'

When he sent the message, it was only a few minutes later when he received a message from Momoi saying how she suddenly felt like seeing him.

He couldn't help but smile.

If only she knew how he wanted to do that too.

Despite so, he replied, 'Well, Coach is training us really hard. If you want to, why don't we meet up after my next match?'

He made a mental note to remember to bring that hair pin he had previously bought for her. When his phone rang in his hand, he read the message, not failing to notice the increased amount of emoticons and hearts.

'Sure! Then we'll celebrate your win against Midorin! I can't wait!'

'Me too, Momoi-san.' Then he remembered he hadn't told her about Nigou. 'I took in an abandoned dog just a few days ago.'

'Really? I love dogs! They're so cute! Can you send me a picture?'

Kuroko smiled and sent her the picture. 'Koganei-senpai and the others named him Tetsuya #2 because he had eyes like mine. We all just call him Nigou.'

Momoi looked at her message and squealed, temporarily ignoring her childhood friend who was playing with the ball while lying down on the stage of Touou's gym.

"He's so cute!" She said aloud, and when her voice echoed in the gym, Aomine lightly scolded her. She gasped when she looked at Nigou's eyes. "It's the same!"

She excitedly typed, 'He's so cute! That name suits him! Is he tamed? He looks really friendly.'

She ignored the 'Message Sent' notification and saved the picture to her phone.

She looked at Aomine, and said, "Look! Tetsu-kun got a new dog! It's so cute!"

Sadly, Aomine just turned the other way and started reading his magazine. "Yeah, yeah. So cute."

She pouted. "You didn't even look at it!"

Her phone rang again, and she smiled widely.

'Yes, he's very friendly. He doesn't bite at all. Kagami-kun's really scared of dogs. There was one time I chased him around the gym while holding Nigou and he just kept on shouting for me to stop.'

Momoi laughed. At that moment, she felt her heart drop a little, thinking how fun it would be if she had went to Seirin instead of Touou.

'Ah, I wish I could've seen that! It would have been so funny!' She added in some happy faces before sending them.

Then she said softly, "I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, Tetsu-kun."

Aomine didn't look away from his magazine. "Huh? Said something, Satsuki?"

She just pretended not to hear him, and whenever she thought of the next game coming up - Seirin against Touou - she couldn't help but get excited and smile, and worried as well.

What she was worried about wasn't about her dear childhood friend.

It was about him.

She didn't want them to play against each other. They were involved in something she didn't know, and she refused to understand it. The thought of Seirin losing to Touou -

Tetsu-kun losing to Dai-chan.

- made her want to cry.

But then she remembered how unpredictable he was.

How she couldn't analyze him.

How he turned the tables around in every game.

Maybe he could turn the game tomorrow too?

As she looked at her childhood friend, she also remembered Kuroko's words.

"I will make them love basketball again, so trust me."

She smiled and she couldn't help but wonder how he could make her fall in love with him any more than she did.

She read the new message. 'You should come and see him sometime. I'll see you after the match?'

He really is unpredictable.

When Kuroko reached home, he placed the hair pin on his desk, right in the centre, and he wondered whether he should wear bracelet too. He had kept the bracelet in a small square box, not sure when he should wear it.

Summer was coming, and so was the match against Aomine.

He had to beat him.

He needed to get Aomine to love basketball again.

He didn't and couldn't understand what it was to be like them. Having so much talent and skills that playing against anyone wasn't fun anymore. He had to take it from the bottom, and it was still the same. He was slowly making his way to the top, with his teammates making sure he would always be not too far.

He sat down on his chair and looked at the two washed-out photos he had taped on the wall just above his desk.

One was of him and everyone else in Teiko, even Momoi who had positioned herself next to him. Everyone was enjoying themselves, smiling and laughing.

It was a gift from everyone to him, with personal messages written on the back, and whenever he read those messages back then, he always felt so grateful for having friends like them.

Friends he could never have in any other place or country in the world.

The other photo, well, it was a gift from Momoi, for memory - she had said. Wanting Kuroko to remember the time they spent together, she had asked Kise to secretly take pictures of them, because she loved pictures which were taking spontaneously.

So did he.

They both agreed that photos taken like that told a story.

It was a picture of her squatting down while talking to him with a bright smile on her face, and he was smiling her way as well, a towel around his neck, his right arm balanced on his right knee brought up, holding the sports drink she gave.

That seemed to be the only thing Kuroko thanked Kise for.

I should ask Coach for a group photo too.

Momoi had framed her pictures instead, and she absolutely loved both of the pictures. She remembered that time, after every practice, she'd pass him a towel and get him a sports drink. He'd smile and say, "Thank you, Momoi-san."

But that time was special, because he was sitting on the gym floors, leaning against the wall alone. She saw it as a chance to actually talk to him in private. It felt exciting to have a conversation that only two would know.

She had totally forgotten that Kise was given the duty of taking pictures of the two people.

She didn't know how, but she totally forgot.

Then that moment when Kise took the picture, the camera made a flash, and they were both caught off guard.

When she asked him for the camera, Kise didn't give it back immediately, instead, he brought it home. Nobody except him knew what he did to those many pictures of Kuroko and Momoi, but the next day, when he came back to school with the camera and two washed-out photos in hand, he just gave them a knowing smile.

He said, "Sorry, sorry. I remembered that I had a photo shoot just right after practice so I had to get back to work immediately."

Kuroko and Momoi never suspected that it was a lie.

They each kept one photo, and they both thanked Kise, defending him while he got bullied during practice from that moment on.

Well, it only lasted a day, though.

That night, Momoi sat on the side of her bed, and sent Kuroko a 'good luck' message.

'Good luck, Tetsu-kun! I'll be cheering for you!'

She received a reply immediately.

'Thank you, Momoi-san. I appreciate it, but shouldn't you be cheering for your own team instead?'

Then she just smiled sheepishly. It was at least two more days until the match, and she already felt so excited to see him.

'I'm cheering for my own team too!' She lifted her fist into the air and nodded with a determined look on her face, which made her pause her typing. 'And I'm cheering for you, too!'

She could still remember his laugh and hoped he would do so when he read her message.

She added on, 'Are you doing more training tomorrow?'

The notification was ignored and she was staring at her phone as if her life depended on it. When her phone rang so suddenly after seconds of silence, she jumped a little.

'I must be very lucky then, to have my opponent's manager cheer for me. Yes, we're all going to Coach's sports gym tomorrow to train.'

Momoi placed her index finger on her chin and muttered, "Coach's?"

Then she remembered her research on the Seirin team. "Ah! Aida Sports Gym!"

'Sports gym? What time will you be going?'

A plan started to form in her mind.

'We're meeting there at ten. Are you possibly considering to go there?'

She laughed.

Already caught.

'Well I'll see you there! Goodnight, Tetsu-kun! Sleep well!'

'Yes, you too, Momoi-san. I'll see you tomorrow then.'

Momoi couldn't sleep for a few hours after that, excited that she was finally going to see him again after so long.