The next few chapters will focus on character development. Please, R&R as usual.
The month passed quickly. Days were becoming shorter and the crisp breezes of autumn slowly turned into the biting cold winds of winter. Students studied and slacked off, and the basketball team drew closer and closer to a second shot at the Inter-high games.
"The sentence structures in English are different from Japanese. Instead of subject-object-verb, they go subject-verb-object." Kaede explained. Sakura has been very grateful for all his help in her English. He has been a very good teacher to her, though not exactly the most patient one. He's yelled at her quite a few times when she could not understand how prepositions worked. It frustrated him, but she was never a linguist to begin with; Math has always been her strong suit. It upset her sometimes that he would yell or raise his voice at her, but at the same time she enjoyed seeing him talk so much, seeing this side of him. Who would have known THE Rukawa Kaede knows English very well?
"For example, umm...'My dog plays ball.' The dog is the subject, 'plays' would be the verb and ball would be the object." Kaede said, circling the words in her notebook. Sakura pursed her lips, "Well, what about this sentence, 'She is dancing,' Isn't 'dancing' also a verb?" She asked, pointing at a sentence in the same page. "In this case it's an object."
"Then where's the verb?"
"'Is' is a verb. It's called a linking verb. Linking verbs are: am, is, are—and in their past tense, was, were...there are other ones, but these are all you need to know for now."
Sakura stared at her notebook, staring at the English words. Sentence structures are easy but it's the different forms of the words that make it complicated. Sakura bit in the inside of her cheek, as she always does when she's confused or thinking really hard.
"Also, one way to identify the object is that it answers to the question,'who' or 'what.' So for example, 'My dog plays...' what? He plays ball. Or 'She is...' who? She is Sakura." Sakura thought about it, glancing back and forth between the pages of her notes. Then she snapped her fingers, "Oh, okay. That makes it easier. I think I get it...but I think I may have to memorize some more verbs."
"Yes, maybe the next time you decide to doodle mathematical equations on your leg, you can write verbs instead." Kaede smirked. Sakura looked at him suspiciously, How'd he know she has that habit? "You know more about me than I thought." She smiled. In an instant, Kaede's pale face evidently turned pink and he turned away from her. Sakura stifled a giggle. She thought it was endearing, she ought to embarrass him more often.
In the beginning she did not like Kaede at all. He was the sum of everything she despised: lazy, unambitious, cold, stubborn, selfish, egotistic and then she thought at one point that he was some perverted teenager. But again and again, over the course of the past several months, he proved her wrong.
She realized he's a prude: Kaede had a very difficult time studying the reproductive system with her that he blushed and stuttered and couldn't look at her straight the entire time. It was very difficult for both of them: Sakura was very shy about it and he wasn't making it any better. She tried her best to be professional but in the end she couldn't get herself to say the words out loud either. She would say, "phee-neshhh" and "vajee". Kaede, too, had his own way of censoring the words. Most of the time he'd say, "the thing" or "you know" or just click his tongue.
Once when he had to describe puberty, he couldn't say the word, "breasts" and in his frustration, accidentally pointed at her breasts to make his point. It made both of them blush so hard, they could not talk for a good ten minutes. It was even more embarrassing to Sakura who barely had breasts to begin with. He apologized profusely but when he tried to explain himself, it came out in a string of even more inappropriate words: "I'm sorry Ishihara-san, I didn't mean to do that. It's just that, I was so frustrated, I didn't want to say it and they were the first ones I saw—No! Not that I was looking—there was nothing to look at—I mean, not that there's nothing to look at per se, they're actually quite nice—and SHIT! Just kill me now!" He buried his face in his hands to hide his reddening face. It was extremely embarrassing for her then, but now that she thinks about it, the whole thing was actually quite funny. It was nice to see the coolest guy in school get all awkward.
Kaede has so many surprises, Sakura mused. She discovered he has a hidden skill in English and languages (Apparently, he knows some Spanish too). She learned just how hard he works for his ambitions, which is to be the number one basketball player in Japan, that almost every waking moment he spends playing basketball. That's how dedicated he is. She also learned that he is sensitive when it comes to matters of family. He always gets this somber look on his face when she talks about her brother and her mom. She also concluded that underneath that tough guy facade is a very caring and loyal guy. He helped her and the whole Juniors class at Tanabata; he took one for his team and helped them make money during the festival. He is really something.
"I was really surprised how easily you defeated Kainan yesterday." Sakura said, knowing that talking about basketball always makes him forget the now. She was not very knowledgeable at sports. She did not follow any of the news or paid close attention to details (i.e. player names, height, year level, game play). But she's been trying for the sake of Kaede whom she realized truly values her input on the games."I kept hearing that they're supposed to very good, yet you won with a 12-point lead." She recalled how Kainan's number eleven got in a battle of words with Hanamichi after the game.
Kaede turned to face her: embarrassment forgotten, "They no longer have their star player, Maki, you see. The only ones left from their starting line-up last year are Monkey and Jin." Kaede said. Sakura raised her eyebrows and shook her head, "I'm sorry, Monkey?"
"Number eleven. The loud-mouthed idiot."
"Oh," Sakura laughed and Kaede continued, "Jin was our biggest threat, but you guard him well enough and he won't be able to make the three-point shots. They train hard, but sometimes, skill is innate." He winked at her. It took Sakura by surprise but maybe he just has something in his eye, "Well, one more and then the Inter-high games!" She pumped a fist in the air.
"Ne, you're playing Ryonan next, right?" Sakura paused to think, "Shohoku plays Ryonan next." She said in English, eliciting a smile from Kaede, "Good job. And yes, we are." Sakura did not miss the excitement in his tone, "Looking forward to it, huh?"
"It's my last chance to beat my rival, Sendoh." Kaede smacked his fist against his palm, excitement and determination in his face.
"Sendoh Akira? I've heard he's become the ace of Ryonan." Sakura mused, "He was my upperclassman, you know? Back at Kitazawagakuen."
Kaede looked stupefied, "You went to the same Junior High...Isn't Kitazawagakuen in Tokyo?"
Sakura nodded. She realized it had been a mistake to bring it up. She was treading on delicate and sensitive ground...and she's not ready to talk about it. She has to close the topic quickly, "It's not like I knew him very well or anything. I probably spoke to him three, four times the entire time I was there."
"What did you talk about?" Kaede growled. The topic wasn't dropped, but at least he's focusing on the unimportant details.
Sakura paused to think, "Well, once, he caught a fish for my group during a school trip. We were camping, you see, and could not catch any for dinner, and he gave us some of the ones he caught. That was really nice of him, the fish was deli—"
"What about the second time?" Kaede interrupted.
"Eh? Um...Let's see. I don't remember very much...Oh, once he invited me to a basketball game."
"Did you go?" Kaede barked. What is he getting so worked up on?
"No, I didn't. I had stuff to do."
Kaede leaned back on his chair and the frown on his face relaxed a bit. "What about the third time?"
He's still at it? "Rukawa-kuuun, I don't remember all of it. Let's just do Math now, okay?" Sakura groaned, can't he just drop it? The deep frown on his face made a comeback, "No. You have to remember!" He exclaimed, banging a fist on the table. Sakura, in return, yelled back, "Why?!" She does not respond well to shouting AT ALL.
"Y-you...y-you just have to." Kaede hissed. Sakura puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms over her chest. For his satisfaction, she'll try. Maybe it's some sort of basketball strategy or something. Sakura thought hard while Kaede stared at her with much anticipation on his face. Sakura's face scrunched up, darn it, why can't I remember? My memory is so bad.
Sakura shook her head, "Rukawa-kuuun, I can't remember." Kaede huffed in response and he looked away, disappointment in his face. Sakura didn't like seeing him upset or disappointed—whatever his reasons are for acting like this.
"I do remember him to be nice and friendly." She began, hoping to ease his upset. "One time, I was part of a school play as a servant girl. My role was to get beaten up but the girl playing my master was too harsh. She slapped me too hard on several rehearsals. Sempai had been the one to notice and get her out of the role. He spoke with the producers of the play and got her replaced. He played a footman, and for awhile that was his nickname in the entire school, 'Footman'. I never knew he was into basketball though...oh wait, Chisa might have mentioned it once..." Sakura scratched her head, "Mou, I don't remember. I don't retain unimportant things."
Kaede looked like he's calmed down, but he looked concerned about something. "Will you be cheering for him, this weekend?"
"Eh? Why would I? I have you!"
Kaede finally smiled, "Good. Because I'm going to beat him this time."