Early the following morning, Rukawa boarded the bus that would take him to the station, from where he would take the train home. Most of his teammates went back to sleep the minute they got on the bus, and the trip commenced in silence but for the light drizzle of raindrops on the windows. As the bus passed along the road that ran alongside the beach Rukawa gazed out at the familiar spot along the sand. But for the first time that summer, Hanamichi was absent, there was no one there. Perhaps it was due to the rain, but somehow Rukawa doubted that that was true.

School started and routine returned, in a way Rukawa felt like nothing has changed. He still slept through his morning classes; he was still the object of every female's attention, he was still the star of the basketball team, and he still didn't give a damn.

True enough, there were some alterations to the structure of the basketball team, Miyagi and Mitsui had risen to take the positions of captain and vice-captain, a few more people had signed up for the team, and they now had two managers. But the routine was still the same, the intensive practice games, the endless, rigorous drills, Anzai-Sensei's laugh, Ayako's paper fan…

Nothing has changed, and yet everything was different.

There may have been more people around him, but the whole place just seemed too quiet, no one was screaming at him, no one was challenging him at every given opportunity. It made him feel uneasy, and the fact that it made him uneasy made him feel confused.

Practice sessions had already commenced by the time he rejoined the team, and he was surprised by the new-found enthusiasm his teammates were showing. Ayako must've sensed this somehow, for one day she said to him:

"They must've seen the performance of the team during the inter-high matches, that kind of passion for a sport can obviously be highly contagious"

He didn't make any remark, and merely shrugged.

"Of course…" She added "You and Sakuragi Hanamichi have been the talk of the team all summer"

He started at the mention of Hanamichi's name, and cautiously glanced at the senior, who smiled back broadly "You two make quite a pair"

He tried to put on a look of disgust, but instead felt himself blushing. Quickly looking away, he made a major effort to un-blush, before muttering an inaudible "whatever", and hurrying back to rejoin practice.

It took Rukawa until the end of his first week back before he was finally able to relate Haruko's name to her face. It wasn't that she was hard to remember, just that he never bothered to distinguish one fawning fan girl from the next, it was only when he realized that their new second manager was, in fact, the very same girl Hanamichi was infatuated with, that he started to take notice.

It was one afternoon, just as afternoon drills were wrapping up and people were filing out of the gymnasium, that Rukawa suddenly remembered the message Hanamichi had asked him to pass on. Though it felt weird that he was doing the do'aho a favor, he reasoned that it'd be easier than facing his wrath when he returned and finds out the message was never delivered.

So he called out to her, just as she was stepping out the door:

"Haruko!"

Immediately, the entire gym fell silent. It happened so fast that he could still hear the "ko" echoing off the walls. All the girls who had gathered in the stands to watch their practice stopped short in the middle of their chatter, and spun their attention toward him with widened eyes and gaping mouths. Even Ayako turned to look.

Haruko had frozen in the doorway, and took a moment before she slowly turned to face him. She had such a startled look on her face that Rukawa wondered what he could've possibly done to make her look as horrified as she so.

He didn't know why everyone thought his actions were worth gawking at, but whatever the cause he still didn't feel like yelling out his message for everyone to hear, so he made his way over to her, noticing with some bewilderment that she looked more frightened the closer he got. By the time he reached her, her face was a shocking color of red.

Just as he passed her, he leaned down, and spoke softly so that no one would hear:

"The do'aho wanted me to tell you hello"

"Oh…oh…" Haruko stuttered, her breath coming in short.

He hadn't really meant to stop, for he wasn't looking for a response, but the girl looked so very tense that he couldn't help but pause momentarily and ask:

"Are you all right?"

"Mm…mmhmm!" She nodded frantically, but blushed even harder and still couldn't formulate any words. Her expression was so bizarre, it reminded him of the way Hanamichi would react whenever a girl would praise him on anything, and he couldn't help but smirk.

Later on as he was packing up his things in the change room, he thought he heard squealing coming from the gym, he considered going there to see what the fuss was about, but then decided it wasn't worth the effort.

Probably nothing to do with me anyway…

In order to prevent Hanamichi falling too far behind on his studies, the doctor had allowed him two days time to visit his high school and pick up on the materials they were studying. Had this doctor known Hanamichi's attendance record in the past, he may never have bothered with such a trip, but Hanamichi jumped at the chance to go back to Kanagawa and so didn't explain any of this to the unknowing man.

He had wanted to surprise his friends when he got back, and so he didn't contact Youhei or any of his gang to let them know of his arrival.

Thinking himself something of a celebrity back at school, he donned the typical low hat and sunglasses in order to sneak into the grounds unnoticed, and though he got the occasional curious glance from passing students, no one paid much attention to him.

Feeling smugly proud of himself, he was just about to round the corner to the gym when he heard a few female voices chattering. He would've ignored them, but for the one sentence he caught:

"Can you believe Rukawa's actually going out with Haruko!"

Hanamichi froze…Rukawa? Haruko!

"I mean, she's been drooling after him for heaven-knows-how-long…" the same voice continued "And he's never paid any attention to her, but then suddenly, summer's over and they've become an item, what the heck happened!"

Hanamichi felt his heart pounding as he tried to absorb the information…Rukawa and Haruko are together…? They've been together since school started! How come I knew nothing about this!

"You know what I bet?" Another voice piped up "I'll bet that he's just doing it as a favor or something for her brother"

"You reckon?"

"Yeah, think about it! Her brother was the basketball team captain, he's gotta have some sort of influence over Rukawa"

"Hmm…I suppose that kinda makes sense…"

Influence…captain…

Gori was in on this as well!

"You know what's weird?" Hanamichi had lost track of who was speaking, the way his head was swirling "They never really walk around together or anything like that, not around school anyway…and even at basketball practice they don't say much to each other"

"They probably don't want everyone to know or something, although I mean, come on! It's so obvious!"

"I heard someone say that they secretly meet and stuff, you know, before school, after practice, on the rooftop or whatever…"

The rooftop!

At the mention of that place, Hanamichi's breath caught in his throat. For a reason he couldn't quite define, the rooftop was always something of a special place to him. It was somewhere he could go when he just wanted to get away from it all, for rarely did anyone else go there. And he's always imagined that that would be the place where, for the first time in his life, a special someone would accept his declaration of affection. He realized that it may be no more than a silly day dream, and he's never assumed Haruko will definitely be that someone, but it was still something he held on to, nonetheless.

The chatter still went on, but Hanamichi was no longer listening. All thoughts of surprising his friends and teammates flew out of his mind, there was only one place he needed go – one person he had to see…

Rukawa!

-

A/N: Thanks for the reviews people, feedback is always appreciated.

Just a side note, I've recently been diagnosed with clinical depression, and am in the midst of picking up the pieces of my shattered life. On top of that University has started and stress levels are escalating as fast as depression levels. You didn't need to know all that, but it's just another way of saying, since my whole existance is such a mess right now, don't count on any updates. Not for a long, long while.