Chapter 9

With a blink of an eye, it was already late July and almost the start of the summer vacation. During summer, the annual Interhigh competition is held. As expected of Rakuzan, we managed to get through the preliminaries without any problems. Although everyone in the club had to manage to study and train for the Interhigh at the same time, but thankfully everyone managed to pass their exams.

"Nee~ Shirane-chan, tomorrow is the start of our summer vacation! Have you got any plans?"

We were having dinner at the cafeteria. I can see Inoue's eyes sparkled as though she needed to know something from me.

"I'm going back home."

"Eh?! You're not staying?"

Inoue's eyes widened in disappointment.

"The Interhigh for this year is closer to my home compared to here. Besides, I promised my family I'll be back for the summer."

"Aww... I thought I'll have some company... Oh well..."

Deep down, I was thanking god that I was not staying. I can't imagine her bothering me every day during summer vacation.

"If you're going back, is Akashi-kun going back too?"

Inoue perks up again, as if the disappointment never happened.

"I thought you would ask him since you are in the student council now."

That's right, after my suggestion to her, Inoue applied and got a position as the secretary in the student council.

"Well... You know that I'm still rather shy around him..."

Inoue shunned away shyly for a bit, causing me to nearly choke on my food. How can a person like her exist on earth in the first place?

"...He'll be staying to train until the Interhigh starts. I think he will return to his main house after the Interhigh."

"I see... I guess that means while Akashi-kun is away, gokon for me it is!"

Inoue chirped in joy and dug into her meal.

"...Some time I question your faithfulness..."

I muttered to myself as I continued my food.

"Jun! Over here!"

A familiar voice called me the moment I stepped out of the station. Today was the start of summer vacation and as I have told Inoue, I've return home to spend my summer.

"Shun."

I greeted my brother as I approached him with my bags in hand. Shun immediately took a hold of some of my bags for me.

"Thanks. Where's Mum and Dad?"

I asked, looking around to see if they were around.

"Dad's rushing his manuscript and Mum's out shopping for dinner. It's going to be a feast tonight! You know, Dad was really excited about you returning that he wanted to abandon his work to pick you up. Luckily his editor stopped him from doing so or else he wouldn't make his deadline."

"That's Dad all right."

I chuckled as Shun and I began making our way back home.

"By the way, the Interhigh starts next week right? So what are you going to do till then?"

"Hmm... I think I'll visit some friends of mine. It's been a while since I last saw them."

"Oh, your friends from Teiko right?"

An image of a certain person came flashing in my mind as Shun mention the name of my middle school.

"Jun, are you okay?"

Shun peered at my face, noticing the frown I was making as thoughts ran through my head.

"It's nothing!"

I weakly smiled at him, assuring that there was nothing wrong with me. Shun didn't seem convinced, instead he frowned.

"You still haven't gotten over him."

Placing his hand near my forehead, he flicks his fingers on me.

"Ouch!"

I rubbed my forehead in pain, glaring at him. Shun grinned at me as though he won a game against me.

"No more unhappy thoughts while you are back home okay? I don't want to keep seeing my sister frown whenever I see her."

Understanding what Shun wanted, I nodded in return.

"Okay."

Satisfied with my answer, Shun patted me on the head which I ended up brushing it off.

"We're home!"

Shun announced the moment we entered the house. Soon after, footsteps came rushing over to us as we were taking off our shoes.

"Jun! Welcome home!"

Mum grabbed me into her embrace before I had time to react.

"It must have been an exhausting trip back here."

Dad came over to us, smiling at me. Looking at Dad's expression, I gave a soft smile.

"I'm home."

I spoke out despite having my voice muffled out by my mum's chest.

"I'll meet you at 1pm at the train station tomorrow. I can't wait to see you there!"

"Same here."

With that I ended the call with Momoi. It was after dinner when I decided to call Momoi to tell her that I'm already back in town for the summer. For the entire call, Momoi seemed delighted about me being back and she chattered non-stop about things I missed. In the end we decided to meet up the following to catch up with each other.

"Made an appointment with your friends already?"

Shun was standing at the doorway to my room, giving a grin at me. In return I nodded at him before he decided to enter my room and sat beside me on my bed.

"I always wondered why you decided to attend the high school in Kyoto. You said it was to continue your training with your coach but it was because you broke up with him right."

Shun ponders deeply while I gave a sheepish smile to him. The part about continuing my train was true but for the most part, I didn't want him or my parents to know about the condition I was in. I just let them assume it was because of my break up with Kise. However I was not the kind of person to avoid one after breaking up.

"What happened has already been done I guess."

Shun sighed as he shrugged his shoulders. Curiously by his expression, I decided to ask him.

"What makes you say that?"

Shun stops for a while, contemplating whether he should tell me or not. In the end he did.

"Just the other day, I had another photo shoot with him and..."

"And?"

I repeated his last words, curious about what he was going to say next.

"He wanted to talk to you for some reason. I didn't gave him a chance and gave him a piece of my mind. In the end I got banned for doing any jobs for the next few weeks."

"You did what?!"

I was shocked by what Shun just said. He got himself banned from his job?!

"I couldn't help it! He made you cry after all! He caused you to leave home and attend the school at Kyoto!"

Shun defended himself in attempts to calm me down. However I was not going to calm down anytime soon.

"That's not the point! You shouldn't bring up personal affairs to your job!"

"I know so I'm kind of regretting it now."

Shun seemed upset with himself as he look down the floor. I should tell him to let go of it before it affects his job even more.

"Shun, I've gotten over it already. So you should let it go."

Shun suddenly faced me, surprised with my words.

"Are you sure? You were frowning when I mentioned your friends at Teiko earlier."

"I was thinking about something else that's all."

I smiled sheepishly at him. The fact was that I hadn't gotten over the issue yet despite trying my best to forget about it. But with the addition of the the rest of the guys, it was too painful to forget.

"If Jun says so, I'll let him off the hook."

The following day, I was waiting at the train station 5 minutes before the meeting time. Dressed casually in a shirt, shorts and sneakers, I looked at the clock located at the front of the station wondering when Momoi is arriving.

"Jun-chan! Sorry to make you wait!"

A familiar voice called out to him before someone glomped me from my back.

"Momoi. It's been a while."

I greeted her despite disliking her way of greeting me as usual.

"I didn't I tell you to call me Satsuki? Anyway, shall we get going? There is this new cafe that open up here recently and I always wanted to go there."

Momoi pouted a little before resuming to her earlier mood.

"Sure. Let go then."

"So how's your school like? Did you made any new friends?"

Momoi asked me as we were enjoying our parfaits in the cafe.

"I met some rather interesting people there..."

I said, shivering at the thought of Inoue. Momoi will never know the torture I felt for the past few months.

"That's great to hear!"

Momoi cheerfully answered before her face changed into something rather depressing. I peered into her face, wondering what was wrong. Seeing that I was worried, Momoi spoke up.

"Ki-chan contacted me the other day."

Momoi fiddled with her fingers as she watch my expression.

"I didn't tell him that you were in town for the summer but he said he wanted to talk to you."

That's strange, Shun was saying about Kise wanting to talk to me just yesterday and now Momoi is saying the same thing.

"Really... How come? If he wanted to talk, he could have called me."

Even though we broke up, we still had each other contacts. So if he wanted to look for me, he could have easily texted or called me. It was strange that he asked Shun and Momoi instead.

"Ki-chan wasn't sure if you were ready to face him. You guys never spoke to each other after the break up right?"

Giving a thought, I slowly nodded in agreement. That time, I was really upset with how everything turned out. I couldn't face Kise after what he said to me.

"But something in his tone changed when was asking me for the favor."

"What do you mean?"

I asked, puzzled by what Momoi had just said.

"It was as though... He went back to his old self."

"His old self?"

Momoi nodded at me.

"He told me he has a practice match with Tetsu-kun's team the other day. He lost."

"Eh?!"

Wait, did Momoi said Kise lost?!

"Apparently, there's this guy in Tetsu-kun's team. His name is Kagami Taiga. From what I have gathered so far, he came back from the states a couple of years ago. He is said to be on par with Dai-chan and the others."

"You mean that this guy is the same level as them?"

"Seems to be the case. And he became Tetsu-kun's new light."

So now there's a guy that came out of nowhere that is the same level as the guys. I guess I could say that he is the miracle that did not became one of the miracles. Furthermore, Kuroko chose him as his new light. Talk about the chances.

"Anyway as I was saying, Ki-chan told me after losing the match he realized that he regretted what he did in the past. I really think he wants to make up with you."

When Momoi gave her opinion, I started to doubt it was true. Even if it was, I don't think we will get back together after what has happened.

"Anyway, I think you should at least meet up with him."

Still in doubt I gave Momoi a vague answer.

"I'll try."

Momoi watched my response before turning to face the window and sigh loudly.

"If what Ki-chan said was true, I wish that Dai-chan goes back to his old self as well."

Momoi sadly commented. understanding how she felt, I joined her as well.

"I wish the same goes for everyone."

It's been a long time hasn't it? Sorry for the delay! I hope you enjoyed this chapter because this took me quite a long time to get back on track especially since the manga came to an end and I was thinking to make it as close to the manga as possible. I'll try my best to produce the next chapter soon. Till then!