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Chapter 3

Contract

A young man sat in his office with his laptop opened up in front of him. His red eyes were fixed on his laptop's screen and the longer he watched, the bigger his smile became. He was watching a video of a group of teenagers dancing, dressed in green and black.

"Hmm, their choreography is good but four of them are stiff and awkward, only one is their saving grace." He mumbled to himself. "Their voices need work too." He then leaned backwards in his chair as he continued to watch. After a couple minutes, the song ended but the video did not. With bright smiles and brief introductions, the dancers expressed gratitude to those watching.

In an instant, the man slammed the laptop close and headed out of his office. He walked speedily down the hallway towards another door at the end of the same hallway. Banging on the door, he waited anxiously for a response.

"Enter!"

With a grin the young man complied and swung the door open with too much strength, startling the grown man on the inside.

"Kenji? Is there something…?" the older man asked, upon seeing Kenji's face.

"Yes, President Aihara."

"No one's here, loosen up." Aihara drawled.

"I would like these boys to become idols under my management!" He said as he opened up the laptop on the desk. He restarted the video for President Aihara to watch, and it wasn't even one minute yet and the man began to cringe slightly.

"I know their dancing and singing needs work ―" Kenji started but was interrupted.

"Then why suggest them? This is ―"

"I smell money on them!" Kenji shrieked, knowing that this is the only way to get the man's attention. "They have character and they're really likeable! Don't watch the video with a criticizing eye; just watch it as though you know nothing of the industry! Please Dad!"

Aihara sighed. "Jeez,"

He restarted the video once again, and this time he watched it all the way through. There were times Kenji saw him nod his head but knowing this man, he may be nodding that they aren't approved of. But, when the ending came, Kenji saw him make a face that made him grin.

"You're right, but they'll need a lot of work. Their singing isn't terrible but it's bad. The blond and the redhead are awkward, the two black hairs are stiff but the blue haired one is decent. Can't you just make the blue-haired one into an idol? We have lots of back-up dancers to go by."

Kenji shook his head. "It looks as though they like dancing with each other. I don't want to disrupt that flow."

Aihara sighed and raked a hand through his brown hair. "Fine. Do what you want. But I want to see results."

"Tsch, who do you take me for?" Kenji said as he rolled his eyes. He then took up his laptop and made his way towards the door.

"Where are you going?"

Kenji grinned. "I'm going to find them, of course."

xxxx

The boys' lives went back to normal after, and that meant intense basketball practices. Kaijou had to prepare for the Inter-High, while Seirin had to prepare for the Championship League. Riko worked Kagami and Kuroko like mules, since; they hadn't had intensive training for the past two weeks. The two boys didn't mind, as they thought it was a pretty fair deal.

But by Shutoku, although Takao had practice, every chance that he got, he'd check how many votes their video got and the comments that came along with it. So far, they weren't terrible. At the moment, their ranking was 26TH out of 73 entries. In his eyes, as long as they aren't in last place or the last ten he's quite content with it. He knew it was somewhat unrealistic in hoping that they could win, but he couldn't help himself.

It was not long after that Seirin played against Touou, and was utterly defeated. Kise, Kasamatsu and Takao went to spectate the match. The trio were in awe at Aomine's skills, and in the midst of that, Takao was actually glad that Shutoku lost to Seirin. Midorima aside, he knew the rest of them would have a hard time with just Aomine, let alone the rest of them.

When the match was over, the trio went to Seirin's locker room in an attempt to console and cheer up the team, Kise stating that he'll beat Aomine for his 'Kurokocchi' which earned him a kick from both Riko and Kasamatsu.

Apart from that, whenever they got the time, they would meet up in Maji's and simply chat about varying topics. But, usually on the way home, Kagami would challenge Kise to a match and get himself horridly beaten. The others would laugh at his demise, but that didn't shake the boy's spirit. If anything, it ignited a fire in him.

"Damn! One more time!" Kagami barked.

"Kagamicchi, unlike you, I have to take the train. I can't go among people smelling horribly. Are you nuts?" Kise said. "There's always another day."

"Tsch, don't be so mean!" Kagami pursued. He then looked across to Kuroko. "I'll give you Kuroko for a week!"

That caught Kise's attention. "Done."

"Excuse me?" Kuroko spoke up. "I think ―"

"He'll agree." But, Kagami received a vicious jab from the small teen.

"As I was saying before I was interrupted, I think I have a say in this. I'm no one's property, so Kise-kun; Kagami-kun can't give you me for a week."

"Kurokocchi…" Kise started his whining. He even started trembling his lips, seeming as though he was about to cry. "Can't we go watch a movie then? As friends?"

"I don't trust you; you seem to have an ulterior motive."

"I don't! I just really respect you Kurokocchi! That's all!" the blond countered. "Well, I may try to persuade you come to Kaijou but still! I'll never do anything to harm you!"

"See? There's the ulterior motive."

"No! If I wanted you to come to Kaijou, I wouldn't ask you like the last time! I would show how Kaijou plays without me, or I point out Kaijou's good points and compare them to Seirin's bad ones or ―"

"I'll keep an eye out for that then."

"Kurokocchi!"

Meanwhile, Takao and Kasamatsu watched this all go down while laughing their asses off. But, a few more seconds later, Takao's phone went off. Surprised, he checked it and found a message…from the same site that he uploaded their video onto. But when he read the contents, he was so shocked that he alerted Kasamatsu.

"Yu-chan! Read this!"

"What? Did we win?" Kasamatsu asked as he took the phone. Reading the entirety of the message, he wasn't as excited as Takao. "Are you sure this isn't a scam? What if they want to kidnap us?" He then looked towards the others on the court. "Oi! Could you guys come here a sec?!"

The trio trotted over, and was shown the message. Kise immediately perked up and agreed, while Kagami (still holding his sides in agony) thought the same as Kasamatsu. Kuroko, however, took out of his phone and asked for a pen from Kasamatsu.

When he received the stationery, he dialled Hikaru's number all the while ignoring the others who were debating over whether or not it was a scam.

"Hello, Tetsuya."

"Dad, do you have Aihara Kenji-san's number? He's from Aihara Productions."

"Oh yes I do. What do you want it for?"

"My friend got a mail asking if we want to become idols. But Kasamatsu-san and Kagami-kun think it's a scam. I just want to make sure it's not."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. "Alright. Here it is."

Kuroko wrote down the number swiftly, and shockingly, the others were still debating. He found it strange, they were able to deliberate such a topic with some really reasonable points (Kagami especially), but he still couldn't persuade Kise to play with him one more time. How ironic.

Kuroko ignored them and proceeded to phone Aihara Kenji. He answered the phone, and Kuroko fired off the questions in rapid-succession, Kenji answering every one of them. When Kuroko was satisfied, he ended the call and exhaled a sigh of relief.

"Ano…" he started but he couldn't get their attention. Their argument was quite heated. He then walked over to Kise (who was closest) and gave him a light jab. The blond shrieked at this, not because it hurt (it didn't) but because he was surprised.

"Kurokocchi!"

"The email is real. And, tomorrow we have a meeting with him at my Dad's studio with our parents."

There was a pause.

"EEHH?!" they screeched.

"I said, the email Takao-kun received is legit. And as such, tomorrow at 05:30 pm in my Dad's office, we, along with our parents and/or guardians have to meet Aihara Kenji-san to discuss the emailed proposal."

"How'd you know all this Tetsu-chan?" Takao asked.

"I called." Kuroko replied with a shrug. "I recognized the name 'Aihara' since Dad had to train some of their rookies in dancing but I never heard him talk about 'Kenji'. So I called my Dad and asked for Kenji-san's number, he gave me and then I called Kenji-san and questioned him."

"And in the midst of questioning, you scheduled a meeting too, huh?" Kasamatsu said.

"He persuaded me." Kuroko said with nonchalance.

"Now I have to go home and persuade my dad." Kasamatsu sighed.

"Yeah, me too." Takao agreed. "My mother won't have a problem, though." He tapped a finger on his chin. "I should try to get her on my side first."

"My mother is worst. She'll interrogate me, asking me about pros and cons and all that stuff. My dad just wants to know why I'm doing this."

"Just say because you like music." Kagami offered. "That' should be enough, right?"

"Then he'll ask why I like music." Kasamatsu countered.

"Then, just tell him the truth." Kuroko said. "If that doesn't work, then we'll have to persuade him."

"Well, that said," Takao started, "let's call it a day and head home. After all, the meeting's tomorrow. I've got to give my parents the heads up."

With that, the boys said their goodbyes and headed into their separate directions, though; Kuroko, Kagami and Takao went in one direction, Kise and Kasamatsu went in the other.

xxxx

The next day, just as scheduled, the five boys along with their parents (minus Kagami's) were all present in Hikaru's office. Kasamatsu and Takao looked like they were expecting something awful, Kise was a ball of sunshine, Kagami and Kuroko looked indifferent.

"Good evening everyone," Kenji began. "I'm Aihara Kenji from Aihara Productions. I'm here to discuss with you my proposal of making your sons into an idol group."

There was silence for quite a while. The air was extremely tense, and the poor boys felt stifled. Even though Kise and Kuroko's parents seemed like they were on board, Takao and Kasamatsu's looked as though they were about to walk out any minute.

"I've consented for my son's participation." Ryouhei said. "However, I'd like to know what you are going to do since all five of these boys play basketball for their respective schools. They aren't bench members either." Looking at Ryouhei, the other boys couldn't believe that he was Kise's father. Compared to the last time they saw him, here, he emitted a powerful aura one that gave the boys shivers (Kise looked fine though).

"I'd like to know as well." Kasamatsu's father joined in. He looked like an older version of Kasamatsu, same short hair, same thick eyebrows…if the boys didn't know better, they would have thought he was his older brother. He was dressed quite professionally; however, his dress shirt had a few buttons loose signifying that he was coming home from work. "Yukio is the captain of the team, and surely, he can't afford to miss any match."

"I was briefed by Kuroko-kun and Takao-kun and I've come to a conclusion. It will not affect their basketball matches or practices. Being an idol requires strength and stamina to perform as you all know, so their basketball activities would be substituted for the training they'd receive as trainees."

The four fathers nodded their understanding.

Thus the meeting continued, all the fathers fired-off questions at Kenji, the poor man tried his best to answer them. He realized that these fathers are quite the savages, asking questions such as:

"Will our sons be subjected to bullying while as a trainee?"

"What kind of training will our sons do?"

:among many others. Kenji nearly had a headache just by talking to the fathers alone. He never knew this feeling since the group he currently manages was someone else's at the initial stage.

When the meeting was over, Kenji and the boys exhaled a breath, relieved that the first part was finally over and it ended in a success. The second part entailed him getting in contact with Kagami's father (who was currently in America) to get his consent. In addition to that, Hikaru would pose of Kagami's guardian since his father was away.

And so, the other three fathers and their children left the office, leaving Hikaru, Kagami and Kenji to conduct their meeting.

xxxx

"Man, Kise, does your father have a split personality or something?" Takao asked. "He was a totally different person in the meeting today!"

"Yup, he's like that." Kise chirped. "He's really affectionate and loving. But when it comes onto business, he likes to intimidate people. How do you think he's so successful?" He laughed at this part.

"It's sad how you didn't get that attribute." Kasamatsu sighed. "We could use it sometimes in a match."

"Senpai! I can be intimidating!"

"Only on the court when you play seriously." He shrugged.

Currently, the four boys were sitting in Kuroko's practice room, waiting for Kagami. They didn't want to leave him behind, plus, they've grown so accustomed to each other, that they'd want to chat a little before going home.

"So, do you think Tai-chan's father will agree?" Takao then asked. "I really can't see us doing this without him."

The others stifled their laughter. No matter how many times they've heard it, Takao's nickname for Kagami is too cute. The redhead is always complaining about it, but Takao listens to no one. Even Kasamatsu gave up and allowed himself to be called 'Yu-chan'.

In the midst of their chatter, the door then opened, revealing Kagami and Hikaru. Kagami looked the same as always, Hikaru had a warm smile on his face.

"So what's the verdict?" Kuroko asked.

"Dad agreed." Kagami replied. The boys erupted in joy and hugged in each other, and then jumped Kagami.

"He was quite the handful." Hikaru sighed. "I thought Takao-san and Kasamatsu-san were stubborn but he takes the cake."

"Really?" they asked.

"Of course, if I wasn't there, poor Kagami-kun and Kenji-san would have been destroyed." He chuckled.

"But, he still agreed. Tai-chan, you better thank Hikaru-san!" Takao chirped.

"I already did!" he retorted.

"Good, so how about a game of charades?" Kise then asked.

"No fair! You can copy anything!" Takao argued. "I say 'Old Lady', I've some cards on me."

"Okay!" the others agreed. Kise swore revenge on Takao and argued with the hawk eyed teen that if it isn't sports, he can't copy it.

Seeing them huddled together, Hikaru whisked himself away, leaving them to their own devices. Starting Wednesday, they'll be trainees, preparing for when they'll début.

"This will be quite interesting." Hikaru smiled to himself.

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