A/N:
HELLO!
Ahh, I'm back! I'm sorry for this supeeer late update, but things have been tough ;A; Sadly, the pandemic is still ongoing too T-T Hope you're all still doing okay and healthy!
Good news is I have regained the drive to continue writing this fic, because of you, dear readers :) Thank you for staying with me and liking this story! To the new faves and new followers, thanks a lot and welcome to this fic! I'm looking forward to your reviews, and to discuss more KnB stuff with y'all~
To QueenEzra, hiii! I'm glad you're enjoying this story. And! Finally, I continued this. Feel free to share your thoughts on the chapters. I would be happy to talk to you :)
Anyway, here is the new chapter. Enjoy~
Another year has passed, and Tsumiko was glad with the things she has achieved.
A new year has now began, and Tsumiko looked forward to be even better in the things she do: as a student, a coach and a young lady.
As a student, she was now back at school. At class, she shared holiday stories with her friends, Mizuki and Chitose. Wanting to keep that precious Christmas night to herself, she decided not to tell them about that special moment with Nijimura. Meanwhile, the dance with Akashi was something she couldn't keep whether she wanted to or not. That's because Mizuki has already been informed through her mom, who claimed to know someone who attended the party. According to Mizuki, her mom's friend apparently told her how Akashi and Tsumiko looked 'cute together', after finding out that the two of them were Mizuki's classmates in Teikou. Luckily, Tsumiko's own friend was quick to counter, "But, I told my mom that you're not a couple, so the adults won't assume and start rumors. I even told her you like someone else. Don't worry, I didn't tell her who", to which Tsumiko sighed in relief.
As a coach, she was busy in bringing the players back in shape.
As a young lady, she has already settled her feelings for both captain and vice-captain. She truly likes the ravenhead, whereas she only admired the redhead - she has decided. With this, practice went by as usual.
Too usual, that it started frustrating her.
Nijimura was acting normally. He never brought up anything about his mom, so she never asked, too. Well, she did – once – during the start of the year; and he told her that his mom really did go back to the States the day after Christmas. But that was it. Thus, without any developments in her relationship with the second-year, January passed by quickly.
Valentine's day arrived, and Tsumiko saw it as an opportunity to make progress. She planned to give home-made honmei chocolates to the sophomore. Among with Momoi and the other managers, they cooked giri chocolates and offered them to the basketball team – much to the delight of most of the boys. Majority of the members got weak and ill, afterwards, unfortunately. The only ones spared were Aomine, who refused to eat anything his childhood friend has laid her hands on; Midorima, who pushed up his glasses and stated that he didn't want to eat anything right before practice; Haizaki, who was late to practice; and Nijimura and Akashi, who both arrived a little later with Coach Sanada. Because of this, Coach Sanada had no choice but to call the training off, not after lecturing the girls to be more careful next time. This tragedy caused Tsumiko to also cancel her plans of giving her crush the honmei chocolates she made.
Again, no progress.
Almost a week after the tragic incident, the light-haired girl felt a bit more blessed.
It was February 20 – her birthday.
Face bright, she eyed the gates of the school, internally wishing for interesting things to happen. To her surprise, her prayers were somehow granted straight away. As soon as she entered the school grounds, she was met with a loud birthday greeting and surprise hug on her left – courtesy of her black-haired friend, Mizuki. On her right side, a hand patted her shoulder. The brown-haired Chitose quietly greeted her, while offering her an abashed and apologetic look. Tsumiko's confusion was instantly replaced by realization and embarrassment, when she heard cheers and greetings from a group of boys and girls at a corner. They were all upperclassmen – heck, she recognized some of them as Nijimura's classmates. Like a domino, greetings came from various directions.
At another corner, she identified a group of first-year boys, who were also greeting her. But what caught her attention was the blonde one sticking out. Kise didn't shout with the others but he has an amused expression, most likely enjoying her uneasiness. Naturally, the white-haired girl locked her eyes on his. It was a mistake, however. Because once she did, the model mischievously smirked at her then merrily joined in,
"Happy birthday to you~"
Of course, that brought out more cheers from some of the middle-schoolers at the vicinity.
"Kise Ryouta greeted you!", Mizuki pointed out the obvious. While Mizuki was snickering – undoubtedly satisfied by the chain of greetings she had caused – Tsumiko merely held tightly onto Chitose, while bowing in gratitude to everyone and walking briskly towards their school building. It was only when they reached their classroom that the young coach remembered the first-string practice. Fortunately, she got some time left before it begins, yet she must run anyway. With ragged breath and rosy cheeks, she arrived exactly in time at the gym, but expectedly, everyone was already there – well, except for Haizaki (but Haizaki was confirmed to have caught the flu two days ago, so she really was the last to arrive).
The colorful group was gathered at a spot and Momoi seemed to be speaking. Assuming that they were starting already, the first-year coach paused near the entrance and bowed,
"Good morning everyone! I'm sorry I'm late."
When she raised her head, though, she noted that most of them appeared to be taken aback. Before she could even wonder, Aomine blurted out, "Oi Irosu– " only to be cut off by the ravenhead.
"Yo Irosuzuka!"
Holding a water bottle on one hand, the second-year approached her; and the grin on his face was enough for her attention to be solely on him.
"It's okay. I'll let it slide for now", he continued as he got closer and closer, until he was directly in front of her. To her comfort, he left a good amount of space between them, so she didn't have to tilt her head too high to see his face and gauge his expression. Honestly, she expected his default scowl to return, but it didn't. Instead, the corners of his lips remained raised, as he remarked,
"Because today is special, right?"
"Eh?", she managed to squeak out.
As an answer, the distance between them suddenly narrowed when the dark-haired teen placed his free hand on the top of her silver head, then bent forward to meet her at eye-level – ultimately speaking his next words using a gentle tone,
"Happy birthday."
.
.
.
The already-present blush on her face – which was a result of the cold weather and the run to the gym – became prominent enough for her crush to clearly spot. He almost looked alarmed, himself, that he stood up straight immediately then walked past her, before coolly announcing, "Go and start the training. I'll just get water."
The birthday celebrant was too flustered to respond. It was only when the pink-haired manager embraced her and greeted her that she found her words again. Momoi proceeded to show her a hairclip adorned with violet gemstones, which were arranged to form three small flowers. While her friend was busy attaching the clip to her snow-like locks, the rest of the freshmen starters voiced out their greetings, as well. Tsumiko simply uttered her polite thanks, due to her being currently preoccupied with thoughts of the captain.
Weird.
Nijimura was acting weird.
It was unknown to her what caused the shift. Nevertheless, this gave her hope and made her feel giddy for the rest of the day. Afternoon training went by relatively more serious and usual as compared to the morning training, most likely because Coach Sanada was around. Despite this, she couldn't help but feel extra conscious, and catch Nijimura's gaze on her a bit more frequently. Instinctively, she broke their eye contact and looked down at her clipboard – tucking phantom strands of silver behind her ear – only to realize that it probably looked silly since her hair was up in a ponytail and she was wearing the hairclip Momoi secured on the top of her head.
Ah, maybe it was because of the hairclip. Maybe it looked weird on her? Maybe it was too flashy?
Or maybe because today was indeed her lucky day.
This reminded her of the lucky item Midorima has handed to her discreetly at class. It was a tiny dice but he carefully placed it on her desk during class, along with a note – in his neat penmanship – notifying her that she should hide it and not show it to anyone else, as if it was something illegal. Shrugging it off as her seat neighbor just being a tsundere, she decided to follow what he said; and in the end, she deemed it to be effective, especially once practice was over. Mentally thanking her green-haired classmate and the gods of fate for her boosted fortune, she tried to bite back the smile, when Nijimura casually walked beside her, on their way home.
Apparently, he learned about what occurred at the school gates that morning from his classmates, so he got curious. The two of them ended up conversing about it – with the birthday celebrant recalling how humiliating it was and with the other teasing her about being popular, especially since she was a first-year coach. She retorted, saying he was the more famous one. To add to her argument, she almost mentioned how a lot of people definitely has a crush on him; but before she could do so, she caught herself. The topic of crushes might be tricky, and she might end up slipping.
In the end, they comically sighed at how stupid they were for determining who was the more popular one. She was talking and enjoying his company too much, that it only dawned upon her that they were now nearing her house when she saw a certain children's park, with few lights illuminating the swing set on this cloudy winter night. Suppressing herself from reminiscing that winter night of Christmas, she focused on the situation now and paused in her steps, causing him to follow.
"Senpai...", she faced him in alert and pointed out, "You're going the wrong way. We're about to reach my house."
The older teen scanned their surroundings, "A-ah! Shit! Yeah...damn."
He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, "I'm such an idiot. I didn't even notice.", then awkwardly laughed. In return, she simply giggled at how adorable he was, with the tips of his ears turning red.
Steel irises held her opal ones for a moment; and the warmth on her chest, that has already spread to her cheeks, contrasted the somewhat chilly air. There was seemingly a contemplative look on his orbs before it shifted to a determined one – as if he has just made a decision.
"By the way", he broke the brief silence, "I don't have a gift right now. But, when we're not that busy...maybe during spring break..."
There was another pause, but she remained waiting in anticipation.
"Do you wanna go to the amusement park?"
Her eyes widened – processing what he just asked – but he was quick to elaborate, "Of course, I'll buy the tickets...as a gift."
Oh.
Oh.
This was it.
This was the progress she was waiting for.
Memories of the summer camp – when they viewed a romantic sunset; memories of the cultural festival – when they held hands; and memories of Christmas – when they shared a hug, came flashing in her mind. All of the chances she could have confessed, but didn't.
A chance.
'Roll the dice. Take a chance', a voice in her head declared.
Feeling more confident this time, she allowed her lips to curl up to a beam, while nodding, "S-sure. That would be fun! Thank you."
It happened too fast, but she swore she saw his dark gray lenses light up ever so slightly, before they went back to normal.
"Cool", he replied.
Following this, he excused himself, "I gotta go now. Uh, happy birthday again."
After she waved at him as goodbye, they both parted ways and walked towards their destinations – ears red and cheeks red. Tonight might just be extra cold. And as if fate was truly in her favor, she felt something icy hit the tip of her nose. She gasped.
It was snowing.
Her heart leapt in glee, as she watched the snowflakes drop prettily. The previous snowfall was last January. Oh wow, today just couldn't get any better. Thinking that Nijimura was still probably close by, she looked back, just in time to catch him do the same.
With an animated expression, he semi-shouted, "Oh! The hell?! It's snowing. What the – Oi, Irosuzuka, you must be really lucky, huh?"
In response, she shook her head in disbelief. To be honest, her smitten self wished to test and push her luck further by running up to him, asking him to stay for a while, and enjoying the snow together. Contrary to that, her logical self perceived the snow to be dropping a bit heavily.
Meanwhile, the supposedly-older one out of them was still amazed and has snowflakes decorating his black hair. Chuckling at the cute and endearing sight, the now-teenager called out to her senior, "Hurry up and go home safely, senpai! It's dangerous if this turns into a storm."
He glimpsed at her one last time, "Yeah sure, coach", before turning around. With a wave of his hand, he started jogging away.
Tsumiko let herself watch his retreating back for a few moments, while playfully catching snow on one hand. Staring fondly at the snow flakes melting on her left hand and touching the lavender flower hairclip using her right hand, she couldn't wait for winter to end and for spring to start.
