Flashback: It doesn't matter anyway
"Nori," Aomine breathed.
Minori's forehead touched Aomine's and she looked into his eyes. The whole house was quiet and small rays of light escaped from behind curtains of the nearby window. Minori was straddling Aomine's lap and his hands were on the back of her upper thigh.
"Yeah," Minori responded.
Aomine moved his left hand to Minori's hair and asked quietly, "Are you staying in Japan?"
Minori moved her head away from his and her face went from intimate to bewildered.
"You can't be serious?! I'm in your room, I don't have pants on, and the only thing you wanna talk about is my future," Minori said as she left Aomine's lap and moved to the corner of the bed that was by the window.
Aomine watched Minori pout and fold her arms over her chest.
"We've been talking for months now and you can't stop talking about your future. But on the other hand, I can't get one word out of you about your past," Aomine said sympathetically, "What are afraid of?"
Minori looked hurt and tried to look anywhere but Aomine's eyes. She slowly edged out of the corner while trying not to get too close to him. The room was silent for awhile. Minori was thinking of where the story began.
Minori opened her mouth and the words fell out, "My mom moved here from America after college. She was looking for an opportunity to start up a business and thought that Japan was perfect. It turned out that she was really good at business things, so she stayed here. While her business was growing she met a lot of powerful people who could influence her success; but one of them really stuck out to her. She and this young business man began getting closer with each other. First he started out to be one of my mom's few friends in Japan, then their relationship became more romantic."
Minori paused to look out of the curtains, the sun was about to set.
"This businessman was married though and an affair is really fun… until you have a kid. My dad was really happy because I was his first daughter, but his wife wasn't really too happy about it. She forbid him from seeing me because I would ruin his reputation and business and name and so on. My mom understood that, but what she couldn't understand was why would his wife go out of her way to ruin my mom's business," Minori's tone shifted to anger again, "Why would she make it harder for an American business woman in a foreign country? Why would she have to slander her name? Who would do that?!"
Aomine put his hand on Minori's knee as she was biting her tongue to escape from crying.
"Do you get it now, I'm not welcome here. That's why I have to go, do you get that," Minori was searching in his eyes for understanding.
Aomine replied, "But his wife wasn't targeting you. You're okay, right."
The story didn't end there, so Minori continued with a slight smile, "I have a lot of older brothers and out of all of them my favorite is Hidoaki. When he found out that I was his sister, he went to my school, introduced himself, and offered to walk me home. At that point he was in university and just by meeting me, dad could have cut him off. And that's why I love Aki (Hidoaki), he didn't care what my dad thought, and he didn't pretend I didn't exist like the others."
Minori's attitude changed, "Well he use to not care. When he began shadowing my dad as the successor to the conglomerate... Aki had to stop seeing me. Dad wouldn't allow it, he said it would have ruined his chances for success. I understood that too, he's always wanted to take over for dad. So he stopped coming around and I felt alone, again."
Aomine thought about all of the people close to Minori. Her mom and Onaga Junko were the only two people in her life that weren't directly associated with basketball. She used to have Izumi, but not anymore. And even if she stays in Japan, there's a slim chance she'll stay close with her teammates. Aomine couldn't even insert himself into Minori's equation because they've only known each other for a few months.
Minori started thinking about how alone she was too. Moving to America probably wouldn't change that. Suddenly, Minori latched onto Aomine and put her head to his chest. At first he was in too much shock to hold her. Hot tears ran down Minori's cheeks and her hands gripped Aomine's shirt tighter.
"Whether I stay or go, it doesn't matter anyway," Minori said through the sobs.
Aomine looked down at his crying girlfriend. His hand stroked her long black hair as she shook from sobbing. Aomine stayed silent. The subject of America never came up again.
