Eight
Akira and Hanamichi walked across the carnival in silence.
Akira bought two green cotton candies for the both of them and they ate it like they're both in solitary.
Suddenly, Akira's indigo eyes gazed towards a flubby lady wearing a red-striped dress and red apron with a bunch of red roses on a basket she was holding. The lady's very red lips curved in a cheerful smile and the red spots on her cheeks gleamed even more.
"What's your favorite number?" The Ryonan ace murmured.
"Ten...? Why do you ask?"
Akira didn't answer the question, but moved forward to the flubby lady. He paid her and took ten fresh red roses. The lady's long fake lashes flickered as she handed back the roses, which was now tied with a red special ribbon.
"For yor girlfriend?" The lady queried in her soft sweet voice.
"Kinda..."
Akira left and returned to Hanamichi.
"For what are those?" The redhead asked... looking at the bouquet of flowers like it were worms that he feared.
"For you..."
Hanamichi didn't even touch a petal like it would kill him if he does. Instead, he walked farther from Akira.
"Hana," Akira intended to follow him. "Is there someone you're thinking of?"
"I wanna go home."
"No. Not unless you tell me."
Akira put his arms around Hanamichi's shoulders as they walked slowly to exit the carnival. They went to his pick-up truck and they sat at the back.
"So it's Rukawa." The Ryonan ace mumbled. He didn't know if he should stay calm or should he be kicking some asses.
"Yes."
"If only Rukawa treats you the way I do." Akira shook his head horizontally. "Do you love him? Or your just infatuated with his handsome face and godly physique?"
"What do you mean?"
"You say it yourself... the guy treats you merely like an urgent goal." Akira's face and tone of voice were apparently showing his disappointment. He never thought Hanamichi could really feel something for an emotionless guy who cares for nothing but Basketball. "He gives you expensive gifts but doesn't even call you at home to make sure you're fine."
"I told him to court me."
"Is he courting you?"
"Not the way I expected it to be."
"Hana." Akira took Hanamichi's hand and enveloped it with his own. "Even if I'm not your boyfriend, I'm always here for you."
"Thanks Akira." Hanamichi leaned his head on the Ryonan ace's chest. "I wish you were Kaede..."
Akira gritted his teeth on that pronouncement.
Akira hopped off his truck to open the door for Hanamichi.
The Ryonan ace offered his hand to guide Hanamichi as he hop off the truck, but the latter refused.
"I can manage." Hanamichi said and exited the truck by himself... and holding the bouquet of red roses in one hand. "Don't treat me like a girl."
Akira laughed and hovered until Hanamichi was able to enter the gates of his house.
"Have a good night sleep, Hana." Akira gave him a sweet peck on the cheek.
"Thanks."
And Hanamichi entered his house while Akira remained in his own absorption of the kiss.
Suddenly, Akira felt a very heavy pair of eyes digging in his skin. He looked in front of his car... where 5 meters away from him, Kaede Rukawa was standing.
Kaede's deep sapphire blue eyes were almost black with fury and threat.
"Stay away from him." Kaede said in his usual low and emotionless tone.
"He's not yours." Akira said, unyieldingly.
"I'm serious. If I see you near him again, you're dead."
"Try your best, rookie." Akira smirked with a challenge and went inside his truck. He drove it forward and pushed on the break when he crossed Kaede. "If you want to have him, you better treat him good."
Kaede paid him with a very heavy and raging look. He didn't lose that look until Akira's truck was gone out of his sight.
Meanwhile in Hanamichi's room, the yellow lamp was the only source of light.
Hanamichi fixed the red roses given by Akira into a vase as his mother told him. Hanamichi told her mother that Akira bought it for her.
Unconscious to the redhead, Kaede was watching him through his window with a videocamera zoomed in to his direction.
What shall I do to have you, Hanamichi? Kaede thought to himself as his fingers dug on the videocamera.
Kaede was about to have his morning bike-ride. He opened his gates... balancing his bicycle on his right hand.
Suddenly, a dark-haired man who's shorter than him popped in his eyes like a jack in the box.
"Rukawa." Yohei called with a serious look. He was with his three close friends; Takamiya, Noma and Ookusu; and the four of them looked like the men in black in their serious faces.
"..." Kaede spoke nothing but stared at them. He's not fond of collecting friends. He had no friends at all.
Kaede grew in the walls of his father's discipline and responsibility. He never experienced riding bikes with playmates or playing Basketball not for competition, but for fun.
"We know what you're up to." Yohei murmured. Until that moment, he was still thinking twice if he should negotiate with an obnoxious Rukawa.
It seemed that it meant nothing to Kaede. The raven-haired sportsman remained staring at them.
"Hanamichi is my bestfriend." Yohei continued, without a smile on his face. "I don't want him to be hanging around with you... but..."
Kaede's eyes darkened. Yohei may be Hanmaichi's best friend, but he had no right to interfere with Hanamichi's love life especially in choosing his suitors.
"He's not yours." Kaede snobbishly brought his bicycle outside and locked the gates.
"I know. I want to help you."
Kaede paddled his bicycle away from them. His father who's a business man; always told him not trust anyone.
"Don't you want Hanamichi to love you?" Yohei shouted and people walking on the streets looked at them.
Yohei's three friends took care of the bystanders. "It's nothing. It's nothing."
And Yohei walked towards Kaede who stopped in a very unexpected moment.
"Hanamichi loves people with perseverance." Yohei said. "I know how determined you are to be the best in Basketball... so why don't you apply it to Hanamichi?"
Kaede gave him a blank stare.
"Don't you want to be the best man for him? Better than Sendoh?"
"Why are you doing this?" The raven-haired sportsman asked.
"Because I want hanamichi to be happy."
-to-be-continued-
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