Sorry for the late update. Can't help it. ^_^

Alexia: needing what? Why did u stop there?? -_-

Tensaispira: Yeah, but not everybody cares about the gender of names anyway. We'll see.

Iluvenis Telperien: Checked your bio. ^_^ Still, what does ur new name mean?

Unchained: yep, short of time and ideas. So what do you do? Drag in other ppl! Muahahaha!

Lilie-me: CBN? Arch rival? Yeah. But since ur out of it, you are forgiven. ^_^ Just joking. Thanks!

Fiery-ice: Thank you! Am glad you don't think Kiyota is OOC.

Krappkarmin: Thanks. ^_^

Kka: Bet's on. ^_^

Tiran: I kind of expected you to like how I potrayed Fujima. Dunno why you're so anti-him. ???

SLL: No, actually, he's her uncle – or something in that line. Me am confused too. Hope your head's better.

Crazy4u: I know where bangsar shopping centre is, yep, but it's far. I dunno why the font is different, but never mind. VARIETY!!!

Chidero: Yep. Am from SMKSBU too. ^_^ You probably know I'm taking SPM because I've been complaining loudly about it. So yeah, that's me.

Patty g: This is a short chap too, I'm afraid. Sorreee.

            "She's been coming around often lately," Jin commented as he finished doing his daily scan of the crowd before starting to practice. He passed a ball to Kiyota.

            "Who?"

            "Her," Jin pointed. "That friend of yours."

            Kiyota snorted. "Ah well, you know me. Girls just can't leave me alone." He passed the ball back, looked at the open door of the gym. Shouri caught his gaze and returned it with a raised eyebrow. However, a furiously waving hand attracted his vision. It was Shouri's cousin, giving him a dimpled smile. "Yep," he confirmed. "Girls really can't leave me alone."

Jin sighed. "I wished I had never mentioned anything."

            On the other side, Maki clapped his hands loudly to get their attention and shut the spectators up. "Mock game," he announced. "Assorted groups. In five, four, three, two – Okay. Good." The basketball players were already lined up in fives. "First two groups. The rest of you will continue after they finish. All right! Fifteen minutes of play only!"

            "Apparently," Kiyota said slyly as he took his position beside Jin, "you can't leave me alone either."

            Jin looked up at the sky helplessly. "You know, Kiyota, we have something that we call 'coincidence'. This is one of it."

            Kiyota laughed gleefully.

            The whistle sounded, and the ball flew.

            "Box zone." Jura muttered at the furiously note-taking Shouri.

            "Ozone?" Shouri looked up distractedly. "Jura, just because I don't know basketball terms doesn't mean you can fool me with scientific terms."

            "No, idiot. Box zone. B-O-X zone. The key players are using that strategy and very well at that too."

            "Oh." Shouri jotted it down. "Right. B-O-X zone." She looked at Jura. "What's a box zone?"

            "Just write it down. Fujima will understand."

            "Okay."

            "That one wearing the 16 yellow jersey? He's prone to under-the-basket offences."

            Shouri frowned. "I didn't see him do anything wrong."

            "Just jot, Shouri. Don't question my statements. I'm taking the trouble to help you here, remember? Show me a bit of appreciation."

            Shouri sighed. "Actually, you volunteered."

            "You must have been hallucinating – ooh!" Kiyota had just performed a successful dunk. "Number 10 is an awfully good dunker. Write that down, quick!"

            "It didn't look all that spectacular," Shouri said grudgingly, refusing to acknowledge the fact that everybody else was impressed too. "It's just pushing the ball in. I don't see –"

            "JUST PUT IT DOWN ON PAPER!"

            "Okay, okay."

            "Try and beat that!" Kiyota told Jin right after he'd scored another two points.

            Jin merely raised an eyebrow, caught the ball from another teammate who'd stolen it from the other team. Slow and smooth, he scored a three-pointer and then smirked at his friend. "Now YOU try and beat that."

            Kiyota pouted. "Send the ball to me! Send the ball to me! DARN IT! WHY DIDN'T YOU SEND THE BALL TO ME??" Jin had the ball and he scored again. "NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" Kiyota yelled at the fearful Year One fellow. "JIN'S AHEAD OF ME IN SCORING!"

            Maki blew the whistle. "Kiyota, if you don't stop talking, I'm going to substitute you."

            "Make them send the ball to me! What am I, a stool? I NEED THE BALL TO SCORE!!"

            "All right, all right!" the Year Two player surrendered the ball. "Sheesh!"

            Kiyota snorted approvingly, taking the ball. "Now THAT'S more like it!" He looked pointedly at his other teammates. "From now on, send the ball to me. ONLY ME. Don't send it to Jin!"

            Jin stared at him. "Hey!"

            "Hey, Toka, work that ass of yours and defend against Jin better, will you??"

            Toka frowned. "Hey!"

            Jin scowled. "Hey!" He raised his hands. "I'm your teammate, for heaven's sake!"

            Kiyota ignored him. "NOW LET'S PLAY REAL BASKETBALL!"

            Shouri added another bullet to her list under No. 10's expanding number of 'greatness', as supplied by Jura. "Noisy," she wrote down. "Extremely."

            "What are you writing?" Jura asked without even looking at her, eyes busy somewhere else. "I didn't even say anything."

            "I'm just noting down how clean the floor is."

            "Come on. Fujima won't care about the cleanliness of the floor."

            "You never know," Shouri replied easily.

            "Ooh!" Jura exclaimed then, hand reaching out to squeeze Shouri's arm as she always did whenever she was excited. "Here's another comment!"

            "For?"

            "Number ten."

            Shouri took hold of her pencil with a sigh. "Dunno why I even asked. Yeah, what?"

            "Looks good in blue-coloured shorts."

            Shouri had already written down as far as the word 'blue' when she stopped. "Fujima won't care what colour his shorts is or how good he looks in it." She reminded with an incredulous look.

            Jura winked at her. "You never know."

            Shouri grumbled, cutting the line she'd written with one, straight drag of the pencil. "Actually, he's wearing green shorts."

            "What?" came the distracted mutter.

            "Green. Yellow mixed with blue. Kiyota's short pants is green."

            Jura blinked. "Oh. Wow. I must be losing my eyesight."

            "No," Shouri argued, tapping her pencil against the notebook. "You were staring at the wrong legs. The only one wearing blue shorts here is Maki."

            "Um, well, Kiyota's legs looks good too."

            Shouri didn't even bother to reply.          

            She was still there after everybody was gone, head and eyes spinning from watching such a fast-paced activity. Jura had left early after getting enough doses of Kiyota (or Maki – Shouri wasn't sure which it was now), and she was left alone with barely any knowledge of basketball terms (except ozone) (sorry, B-O-X zone) (right).

            Her notebook was now full of squiggles of drawings, an attempt at explaining the game with pictures. There were notes like: 'Referee keeps blowing whistles because no. 24 kept doing this (see diagram below) (if not understandable, then too bad, Fujima)' and 'declared offensive because did not shoot early enough (how on earth are you supposed to shoot under thirty seconds? You don't even have time to strategise and plot!)'.

            Then there was also: 'No. 10, Nobunaga Kiyota, talked non-stop. Whistles blew a couple of times, and he was told off. Expected to see a red card (what colour is it in basketball? You know, when they send you off?) but saw none. Thinks game is unfair and that no. 10 should've been ejected fifty-minutes earlier (yes, am aware that there is only forty minutes of play) (which is exactly my point!)'.

            Then a shadow loomed over her notebook, and automatically, she snapped it shut.

            "I saw my name," Kiyota declared, hands on hips. "I swear I saw my name in there."

            "Even if there is, it won't be anything flattering." She quickly held the book out of reach when he crouched down to grab it. "Stop it! It's not for you to see! It's private, damn it!"

            "Private?" Kiyota's eyebrows rose interestedly. "Why didn't you say so?" he lunged for the notebook.

            "Aaaargh! Nooo!" Helplessly struggling, she watched as her book dropped from her clumsy hands into his outstretched ones. Chuckling, he took a firm hold of it, and in lightning motion, was running across the school lawn with it.

            Shouri scrambled to her feet. "Come back!" she screeched, running after him, skirt flying. "Give it back to me, you unashamed prier! It's not for you to see!"

            He wasn't listening to her, eyes busy scanning the pages. Then, quite suddenly, he grinned and stopped running. He turned and waited for her. Shouri stopped too, dreading it. "What?" she asked snappily, but nervously. What was in that page? Did she write anything mortally offending? Any composed ode? Any state secrets?

            He flashed the page at her, where Jura's handwritten 'I LOVE NOBUNAGA KIYOTA' stood out in purple ink. Shouri gaped, even as Kiyota winked at her. "Now, really, Shouri," the boy said soothingly. "You could have just told me."

            Aaaaaaaargh! Death to Jura! "It wasn't me!" she protested indignantly – and rather uselessly. "I don't write stuff like that!"

            He raised an eyebrow, a move that spoke volumes. "Really?"

            "I DIDN'T WRITE THAT!" she continued angrily, unable to stop the stupid need to blush. "I'm not a sappy romantic!"

            "Really?"

            "I DON'T USE PURPLE INK, DAMN YOU!"

            He ignored her, smirking as he flipped to other pages. "Kiyota, you're the greatest," he read cheerfully. "Kiyota is gorgeous. Kiyota is unbelievable. I want to be Kiyota's girlfriend." He looked at Shouri at that last sentence. "Oh?"

            Only one word sprang to mind. Shit!