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Chapter 14: Broken Hearts

"Dou shita no, Kogure?" asked Mitsui quietly.

Kogure looked at his three friends and whispered, "She dumped me."

Sakuragi and Miyagi looked at each other in disbelief.

"Doushite? Dou shita no?" asked Mitsui.

Kogure shook his head. "I don't know."

Kogure looked so depressed that the trio didn't know what to say. Then Haruko and Ayako came in. "Konnichiwa!" they called.

Then they caught sight of Kogure and the three base players of the team. "What's going on?" asked Ayako.

Miyagi went to the girls and whispered, "Hiroko has dumped Kogure."

"You're kidding!" said Haruko.

Miyagi shook his head and looked behind him. Mitsui had his arm around Kogure's shoulders, saying: "Daijoubu, Kogure. You will get over it…"

"E, Hiroko is not the only pebble on the beach, you know…" said Sakuragi quickly. "Take it from me, I have been rejected for 50 times."

"I'm almost as bad as Sakuragi." said Miyagi.

"It's hard to forget your first love, but believe me, you will get better sooner or later." said Mitsui helpfully.

"And you will find someone better than Hiroko." said Sakuragi.

"Just pretend that you don't know this girl at all." said Miyagi.

Kogure sniffled and wiped the tear away from his cheek. "Arigato." he said quietly.

"Are you okay enough to practice today?" asked Ayako.

Kogure nodded.

"Dou shita no?" asked Rukawa, who came into the court.

"None of your business, kitsune." said Sakuragi.

"Kogure is just having a bit of love problems…" said Haruko.

Rukawa looked at Kogure, who still looked upset. "That's too bad." he said simply and walked off.

Everyone (except Kogure) gaped at Rukawa, who went to change his shoes.

"What did Rukawa just say?" asked Sakuragi in shock. "Did you just hear what he has just said?"

The next day, Kogure got slightly better. However, the Fates decided to play a joke on him and let him bumped into Hiroko after his class at the corridor. Usually students in different grade seldom even met each other in the corridors, because their classrooms were at different levels.

Hiroko was with some of her friends and Kogure was with Akagi. For a moment, Hiroko and Kogure just stared at each other.

"Hiroko, isn't he your boyfriend?" said one of Hiroko's friends.

"Um…" said Hiroko slowly.

Akagi glanced at Kogure in concern.

Kogure closed his eyes for a moment, then he cleared his throat and said, "Iie, I'm not."

"You're not?" asked Hiroko's friend in surprise.

Kogure shook his head.

"In fact, I don't even know all of you." said Kogure. "Which one of you is Hiroko?"

Akagi looked confused, but he kept quiet.

"She is!" said Hiroko's friend, pointing at Hiroko.

Hiroko looked at Kogure, trying to find signs of recognitions, but there wasn't any. Instead, Kogure was staring at her, as if he didn't know her at all. That hurt her badly.

"Ara." said Kogure and looked at Hiroko. "I don't know you at all, Miss. Gomen."

"But you are the vice-captain of the basketball team!" said Hiroko's friend.

"That's true." said Kogure, nodding.

"And Hiroko hit you with a tennis ball once when you were rushing for practice, remember?"

Kogure was silent. For a moment, Akagi thought he see a gleam of sadness in Kogure's eyes, but then Kogure blinked and the sadness gone.

"Iie, I have no recollection of that." said Kogure. "Maybe she hits someone else who looks like me."

"What about all those study sessions you two have in the mornings?"

"I have study sessions, yes. But I'm having them with my basketball team mates, Sakuragi, Miyagi and Mitsui. You can ask my friend here, right Akagi?"

Akagi gave Kogure a surprise look. "Nada…um, hai, Kogure holds study sessions for his friends in the morning." he said finally.

"See?" asked Kogure, smiling.

Hiroko's friends were speechless.

"Gomen, ladies. My friend and I have to go. I hope you all find Hiroko-san's friend soon." said Kogure.

"Demo…" started Hiroko's friend.

"Come on, Akagi." said Kogure. He turned around and left, taking Akagi with him.

"Maybe we did mistake him for someone else." said Hiroko's friend slowly.

Hiroko closed her eyes and tried hard not to cry. No, Kogure did it on purpose and she knew why. Hiroko could feel a dull ache in her heart, but she decided to ignore it.

"Why did you do that?" asked Akagi to Kogure.

Kogure looked at Akagi sadly. "I just want to get over her sooner, that's all."

In Sendoh's bedroom, the phone rang. Sendoh tossed the mini basketball through the hoop before he went to pick it up. "Hai, Akira here."

"Hello, cousin." said Hiroko on the phone.

"Ya. What's up?"

"…"

"Is there anything wrong?" asked Sendoh in concern.

"I broke up with Kiminobu, Akira." said Hiroko finally.

"…How did he take it?"

"…"

"Hiroko?"

"… I-I saw him today and he pretended that he didn't know me at all. It's awful." said Hiroko and Sendoh could tell that his cousin was very upset.

"I think his heart is broken, Cousin." said Sendoh finally. "Maybe he thinks you dump him with bad intentions."

"I know… it's my fault. I thought I could be stronger and put all this behind me… and that I will be happy just to look at him, but I was wrong. I don't want to just look at him, I want to hold him like I usually did… When I saw him today, he just looked at me like a stranger… we are not even friends anymore… I still remember the day we first kissed in the snow during Christmas… that's the best memory I ever have with him and now he hates me…"

Then, Sendoh could hear Hiroko breaking down and crying. Sendoh closed his eyes, feeling sad for his cousin. She could have Kogure but no, she was tied down by this stupid betrothal.

At that point, Sendoh was determined to help his cousin. He's going to clear up this misunderstanding by himself.

The next day, Sendoh skipped his own basketball practice and went to Shohoku. He went to the basketball court and saw Shohoku team doing their practice. As he knew that he was the enemy of the Shohoku basketball team (his excellent basketball skills were too much for them), so he tried not to attract attention to himself and he stood there, hoping that Kogure would notice him.

But Sakuragi was the first one who saw Sendoh. Immediately, he dropped the ball. "Ah, it's Sendoh!"

"Nani?" asked Rukawa, who turned and glared at the Ryonan ace player.

"What is he doing here?" asked Miyagi with resentment.

"Sumimasen." said Sendoh quietly. "May I speak to Kogure for a moment?"

"Doushite?" asked Mitsui rudely.

"Just something." said Sendoh.

"No way." snapped Sakuragi. "Why should we let you talk to Megane-kun?"

BONK

"Itai…" said Sakuragi, covering the bump on his head.

"Baka, it's not your place to decide whether Sendoh could talk to Kogure!" snapped Akagi.

Kogure looked at Sendoh and turned to Anzai. "Sensei, may I be excused?"

Anzai nodded and Kogure went out to Sendoh.

"Be careful, Megane-kun, he may want to take revenge for his school's defeat!" called Sakuragi.

"Nadayo?" asked Kogure as he and Sendoh walked away from the basketball court, out of everyone's sight.

"I want to talk to you about Hiroko." said Sendoh.

"… what about her?" asked Kogure after a while.

"It's not her fault that she wants to break up with you."

"Doushite? She's the one who wrote the note." said Kogure.

"I don't know what note you are talking about, but believe me. She doesn't want to break up with you either."

"Then why did she do it?"

"Don't you know?"

"Iie. She didn't say."

"It's our parents. We are betrothed to each other since we were babies."

Kogure's eyes widened.

"But don't get me wrong. Hiroko and I love each other, but we are like brother and sister." Sendoh continued. "When Ojiisan found out about you and Hiroko, he was furious. And he wants Hiroko to break up with you or he will disown her. So she did it. Unwillingly, of course. She didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

Kogure looked away.

"She called me yesterday and told me what happened in school. She thinks you hate her."

"I don't." Kogure muttered and lowered his head. "At least, not anymore. Thank you for telling me this, Sendoh."

Sendoh shrugged. "Doitashimashite."

"… So does that mean you and Hiroko will get married in the future?" asked Kogure, dreading the answer.

"I afraid so." said Sendoh quietly. "After her graduation, I guess."

Kogure smiled at Sendoh faintly. "Congratulations, then." he said weakly.

"Arigato, but I don't feel like getting congratulated." said Sendoh dryly.

"I feel peaceful now. At least Hiroko will have a good husband." said Kogure.

"I really wish that the groom is you." said Sendoh sincerely.

Kogure smiled sadly and shook his head. "That will never happen."