SLAM DUNK: A PLAYER'S HEART
Chapter 13: Unclear...
"Sacrifice not choices is the measure of true knowledge!"
Vanessa Arrha A. De Leon
Ran woke up to the sound of voices outside her room. She smiled wanly to herself, as she peered through outside her window. Takiko Villa was certainly a beautiful place. It was far from the hustle and bustle of the city, and it had the sceneries to match that of Saka's Orchard Lodge.
She walked towards the door, the sunlight gracing her now pale features. She sighed to herself. It had already been one month ever since... Rukawa left her. She heard from her brother that he had come back to Shohoku Basketball, a few days after her "incident".
But she didn't blame Rukawa, she knew that basketball was his life. Not her, not anyone else for that matter. She sighed again but her thoughts were disturbed when someone knocked at her door.
"Yes..."
"Ran-chan, you'll be late for school!"
Ran recognized the motherly voice calling from outside, she smiled to herself then replied, "Hai, Yuta-san, I'll get ready!"
Ran opened her closet and found a new set of uniform smoothened and folded and placed on the top shelf of the closet. She took it and went directly to her bathroom.
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"Don't worry, Ran..." Ruiyo said noting the slight worry on her face. Kayu will be there to accompany you.
Ran looked at Kayu, who was sitting next to the driver up front. "Arigatou, Kayu-san!"
"Your welcome, Ran!" Kayu replied back and flashed her a short sweet smile.
Ran felt herself blush under Kayu's gaze.
"Kayu, stop flirting with my sister!" Ruiyo quickly pointed out which caught Ran by surprise.
Kayu shook his head innocently and looked at Ruiyo, "Eh! I'm just acting like a big brother!" He then looked at Ran who was blushing even more.
Ruiyo's left brows shot up, "Whatever..." he replied then looked outside the car's window.
"Ne, Ran! Do you want to hang-out tonight?" Kayu immediately asked afterwards.
"Kayu!" Ruiyo said in a warning tone. Kayu finally shut up while Ran sweatdropped.
"These two idiot!" she thought to herself.
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They arrived at Shohoku High rather early that morning. Ruiyo did not step out but bade Ran and Kayu goodbye.
"You know, Kayu-san, our uniform really looks good on you!" Ran noted while they were walking towards school.
Kayu raised his left hand to sweep his hair back, "Anything looks good on me, Ran!" he said which made Ran snort out.
"That is if I'm with you..." he added afterwards.
Ran froze and felt her cheeks grow hot.
Kayu bursted out laughing, when he saw the red hue on Ran's face. "You're too gullible, Ran!"
"Hmmpph..." Ran muttered in utter irritation then walked ahead leaving Kayu at her back, almost breathless from laughing so hard.
"Matte! Ran-chan!" as he ran towards her.
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While they were walking towards the first year's building, the two passed by the school gym. Ran stopped in her tracks, looking at one of the metal doors which was hanging slightly open.
Ran walked towards the door with Kayu trailing behind her. She peeked inside and recognized a certain raven-haired man standing on one of the corners of the hall. He was talking to someone though she can't see it. At that moment, she could feel herself slightly blush.
"Are you eavesdropping, Ran?" Kayu said to her softly.
"Shut up, Kayu, or else... we'll get caught!"
"If you want to say something, then say it directly to him..." Kayu said as he shove Ran gently inside the gym. She slid gently but made a squeaking sound on the floor's smooth surface.
Rukawa stopped talking and turned around to see Ran holding on to one of the gym's post for support.
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When Ran opened her eyes, after the initial, she finally saw who Rukawa was talking with. Her eyes widened in surprise but she was careful not to show it. Instead, she acted normally although a blush was creeping on her face.
"Ran-chan..." Haruko's voice resounded throughout the gym.
"Uhmm... Konnichiwa! I was just passing by so I thought I could just drop off and see what's going on inside the gym!" she said trying to sound cheery.
"Ran..." Rukawa's voice trailed off.
Ran forced herself not to look at him, instead she looked directly past towards Haruko.
Haruko, sensing the attention blushed softly although she also knew Ran was surprised at seeing them together.
They went on like that until Kayu decided to break the silent tension between the three.
"Uhmm... Ran! I think we're going to be late..." Kayu's voice called to her.
Ran finally broke off the trance and she bowed silently towards the two.
"Uhmm... It's been a month! I'm glad to see both of you again!"
Rukawa did not react but Haruko bowed back. "Me, too, Ran!"
The bell rang, signalling the start of first period. Haruko immediately panicked, and grabbed on to Rukawa's arm. "Rukawa-kun! We should go!"
Ran felt a pang of envy as she saw how tight and protective Haruko's grasp on Rukawa was but she tried to hide it within herself.
"Uhmm... Hai! Kayu, we should go to!" Ran said then faced Kayu, grabbed his arm and proceeded towards the door, but she was surprised when she found someone blocking the way. She looked up and found a pair of deep, piercing green eyes looking at her.
Rukawa and Haruko were watching this unfold, noting the slight resemblance between Kayu and the other man.
"Eikawa..." Ran finally said, her voice quite choked up with surprise.
Kayu knew Ran was in fear and he stood defiantly between the two. He looked at Eikawa, trying to divert his attention. "I thought you were going to Ryonan, why are you here?"
"I've thought about it and decided to go here instead!" he said his eyes still fixed on Ran.
"That didn't work!" he thought to himself.
"Wow! Look at the time! We've all got to go!" Kayu looked at where Rukawa and Haruko was and waved to them good-bye. And then got hold of Ran's hand and almost dragged her outside.
Eikawa was left with Rukawa and Haruko inside the gym. "Nice to see you, Kaede!" he said before walking out the door, following the two who went ahead.
Haruko tugged at Rukawa's arm again, and this time the two went to their classrooms in a hurry.
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After the afternoon classes, Kayu immediately fetched Ran from her room and lead her to their gym. They passed through a crowd of giggling girls.
"Kayu, why are they all giggling?"
"Tsk... Tsk... Poor, naive Ran! Of course, they'll giggle, you're with ME!"
Ran arched an eyebrow, "You airbag!"
"Or maybe... they're just feasting over your fiance over there..." Kayu said as he pointed to where Eikawa was, standing not far from them and being surrounded by girls.
"I always thought, he had it in him!" Kayu said then tugged on Ran's hand more to make her run faster.
They walked towards the gym and found the players were already there. When she stepped inside, she received greetings and polite nods from the team. Ayako even hugged her.
After all the greetings, practice resumed. While Ran was seated beside Ayako, Kayu walked and went to Akagi.
"What do you need?" Akagi said while eyeing him.
"Akagi-san! I'm here to apply for the basketball team!"
"Apply?" Akagi said not fully comprehending what he said. (Akagi isn't stupid, he was just surprised.)
Kayu nodded then went towards the court to show his stuff. Ran watched him in exasperation. "That airhead! He's going to show-off again!"
Kayu took hold of the ball, while the other players watched, Rukawa took it upon himself to guard him.
Their "game" started. "Good defense, Rukawa-san..." he said noting the serious look on his face, but he himself turned serious, the grin suddenly fading from his face, "Although not good enough!" he exclaimed then immediately charged forward. He jumped and Rukawa followed (Rukawa's under-estimating him.) but Kayu managed to pull of a faint. Rukawa's eyes widened at this and when he landed he tried to jump again, but Kayu had already done so and had managed a perfect fade-away shot. The ball was too high and Rukawa couldn't block it. He landed and watched the ball easily glide in the air and into the hoop and then shoot! score!
"Scored 2 points over you!" Kayu said then went running off. Ran who was watching from where she was seated gulped in surprise, "So he really is that good!" she said in a faint voice.
Kayu looked to where Ran was seated, winked at her and flashed her a smile.
"Told you, Ran!"
Kayu walked over to where Akagi was who was also struck with surprise. "So how about it, Akagi-san?"
A smirk graced Akagi's lips, "So pretty boys can do basketball, too!"
"Pretty boys like ME..." he said emphasizing the word ME.
"Braggart! Although he reminds me a little of Sakuragi! But this one's all over his looks, while the red-head is all over his so-called skills..."
"All right, you're in! But you're not part of the starting group!"
"It's okay, I'll only be here for a month!"
"A month... why?"
Kayu looked to where Ran was and again flashed a smile, this time long and deep, which made the girl blush terribly this time.
"Something about love... you know... personal stuff!" he said then walked away to where Ran was.
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Rukawa watched Kayu and Ran in silence. Him, feeling a small hint of jealousy when Kayu slapped Ran a high-five.
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Sakuragi was late for practice that day, he hurried off to the gym but found someone leaning on the door watching the team practice.
Sakuragi shove him off, while he entered the gym. "What is he doing blocking the door like that?"
When he entered, he was immediately surprised when he found Ran running towards him. She practically jumped on him in excitement.
"Kyodai!" she said out excitedly.
Sakuragi, too was quite overwhelmed. But he was also all too glad to find that her sister was safe.
"Where did you go for the past 1 month, Ran?" he asked when she finally loosened her grip.
"Just resting..."
"Oh!" he replied.
"Well... got to go, I have to change before Go----"
"SAKURAGI!"
For ten minutes Ran watched Akagi tear Sakuragi into pieces.
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When practice was over, Ran bade goodbye to the rest of the team and "dragged" Kayu outside. "It's already dark, Kayu, we've got to go home!"
"Ran..."
A voice called her from behind, she spun around and found Rukawa standing before them. "Uhmm... got to go, Kaede-san, good night!" she said formally then walked ahead.
"Wait..." he called out.
Ran turned to face him, her eyes somewhat in a glare, eyes burning against the cool, dark environment surrounding them that night.
"I don't wait anymore, Rukawa!" then added, "I don't have anymore time to waste waiting for you..." she said then walked away.
Kayu stood in his place a few minutes before he smiled at him. "Gomen, Rukawa, you can't hurt a woman twice and expect her to run to you again!"
He said this and ran ahead, leaving Rukawa alone in the darkness.
-------TO BE CONTINUED;)-------
Author's Note: FINALLY... FINALLY... Chapter 13! Not really much there, since this is just a filler chapter to show you what happened after Rukawa left Ran one month ago. I really hated myself for adding Haruko but without her no one will spice things up. Not really a dramatic chapter like most of my previous ones, I think I'll call it a drama fiction gone into the teen flick action.
I really want to spill my guts out, too many blushings and winks, what is with me today? Am I getting all too mushy? Sigh... Hope you enjoyed this sorry excuse for a drama fiction, no worries, I'll make it up on the next chapter.
10/31/05 UPDATE: I wrote this chapter a long time ago and I had this just posted now. Don't have time to explain some stuff, please check out my Author's page for the current update and standing of this fic. Although this fic is not in hiatus and will still be updated, gradually.