Spilling over
He watched as Koshino took the chance and aimed a shot at the hoop. His eyes trailed the trajectory of the ball and he knew that the shot would fall short. With the flight of the orange spherical object imprinted in his mind, he timed his leap for the rebound. Sure enough, the ball hit the rim of the hoop and he bounded up, arms outreached, his long fingers easily reaching and wrapping themselves around the curve of the ball. With one hand, he brought the ball back down by his side before leaping up and executing a thunderous slam that left the board rattling and the hoop trembling in the wake of his dunk.
"Show off" Koshino said whilst grinning. Sendoh smiled. It could have been his imagination or perhaps it was just plain optimism, but lately, Sendoh had a sense that he was getting better at the game he loved. The ball felt right in his hand and his movements did not feel sluggish. There was a rhythm and flow in his playing that he fell naturally into, a timing that was uniquely his and when he played his cards right, he felt unstoppable.
Of course, self-recognition of this was one thing, telling the friend who had just called you a show off did not seem like it would garner agreement and seemed more like an invitation to incite more ragging.
"I wouldn't need to if your shot was going through" Sendoh retorted instead as he caught the towel Koshino threw at him. He wiped off the sweat on his brow. Since their defeat at the hands of Shohoku last season, Koshino and Sendoh had been putting in extra hours at the gym, staying on later than the rest of their teammates for one more dunk, one more layup, one more perfect jump shot. The burden of being captain weighed heavily on Sendoh's shoulders and he felt that if he were to lead the team, he needed his skills to be even sharper and ever keener on the court. Koshino understood this weight, and did his best to bolster his captain by sharpening his own on-court defense as well as his passing and shooting skills. For if Sendoh was the head of the team whom all their teammates placed their faith and aspirations upon, Koshino was the heart of the team, forever working and encouraging his teammates on to be more than they dreamed they could be.
"Well, I think we deserve a break, what say we head to Uozumi's restaurant. I bet we can get him to give us a discount." Koshino said, his eyes dancing with mischief as he thought about how he would arm-twist the sentimental part of his formerly fearsome ex-captain into giving them freebies. Sendoh hid his grin behind his t-shirt. He swore that Koshino was secretly like one of those old ladies he saw at the market who had honed the skill of bargaining. If there was ever a vocation that perfectly suited Koshino, it was that of a great salesman. Koshino was so persuasive at times that Sendoh was convinced that the young man would be able to entice individuals into buy something as useless as rocks for a very hefty price tag. Although tempted to follow his vice-captain, if only to see how the young man could charm his formidable ex-captain into paying for their entire meal, Sendoh quickly checked his watch and frowned when he noted the time.
"Some other time perhaps," Sendoh said as he started to gather his belongings and tossed them haphazardly into his bag.
"What is it with you these days? Did you get a curfew or something?" Koshino joked. Then his eyes narrowed for Koshino was never without his suspicions. "Or do you have a date? Are you hiding some girlfriend that you never told me about and that you totally should have informed me about?"
Sendoh laughed. "You know I don't have a girlfriend. Who wants to hang out with a guy who eats, sleeps and breathes basketball?"
Koshino sighed. Sendoh did have a point. None of the members on the starting line-up seemed able to sustain a relationship. "Yeah I know. Your last girlfriend got really fed up when you never found any time for dates... although how you found time for fishing instead of for your girl is beyond me"
"Don't mock the fish, the ocean is always there for me." Sendoh said half-seriously as he made his way towards the locker room.
"So what then? You're going night fishing? There's a mermaid you're not telling me about? Who passes up free food?" Koshino continued to badger the spiky haired boy as he trailed after Sendoh into the locker room. It struck him that persistence was one of the great trademarks of an excellent salesman and a truly regrettable trait of a nosey friend.
"Just... a promise I have to keep" Sendoh said and soon regretted as Koshino's eyes narrowed further. He made an effort to avoid the shorter man's intense scrutiny as he scurried into the shower room in an attempt to curtail any further questioning.
"I'm telling Uozumi that you're having an affair with a mermaid!" Koshino called after him as Sendoh disappeared behind one of the shower cubicles and hid behind the soothing hissing sounds of the powerful jet stream.
Sendoh groaned to himself. It had been a narrow escape but it was also a momentary one. Koshino would probably continue his interrogation the next day and there really was no escaping the barrage of questions that were likely to pursue him the moment he stepped through the school gates the next morning. Yet, he felt it would only invite more questions if he told Koshino the truth. And the truth of course was that he was only being chivalrous and making sure that no unwanted company approached a young frail teenage girl.
Except, she wasn't really frail. No, Ayako had quite the character of steel underneath those wavy locks. He remembered being taken aback by her nerve when on that very night where he had intervened, she had later whipped out her phone and from their safe distance, taken a shot of the offending male who had laid hands on her. He recalled clearly that that particular evening had dragged on because despite her insistence that he did not need to come, Sendoh had ended up following her to the Metro police where she reported the man who had accosted her. And then he had later followed her again to the actual police station where they had taken down both her statement and his as an eye-witness account. He had listened to her report in terse tones what the man had done and marveled at her composure when he imagined how much outrage she must have been inwardly feeling.
But back to the question at hand, it seemed that no matter what he told Koshino, Sendoh was sure that his teammate would still jump to the wrong conclusions and see this as another one of his flirting expeditions. In truth, he hadn't really thought about having a girlfriend or dating lately, since his last experience with a girl had burnt him and left him adrift for many months, resulting in those many weekends by the jetty fishing. And so, Sendoh, was proud to say that it was really with only good intentions that he had begun these nightly train rides with Ayako. That he had begun looking forward to the nightly train rides was a separate matter. He hadn't many female friends - most of his interactions with girls largely ended up with them having a crush on him - and so the time spent with Ayako on the train was like a breath of fresh air. Partly, because well at times, Ayako felt like one of his teammates. He could talk to her about basketball, and get into heated arguments on who should be on the dream team line-up. She had no qualms smacking him with a fan on the back of the head if he said something stupid or took up too much space on her side of the seat. He couldn't help the latter, Japanese trains were built for much smaller people and he was much taller than the average Japanese.
"You're in my space" she would sometimes say huffily when he had won an argument, which was rare because most of their arguments would never finish in the space of time that they had on the train. Sendoh smiled at the memory of Ayako elbowing him in her attempt to make him sit within the confines of his seat and not "spill over" into hers. He, of course, had retaliated by spreading himself out as much as he could on his seat, with elbows jutting out and legs spread apart to cause her maximal annoyance.
Yes, he did look forward to these rides. But he didn't think anyone would understand and funnily enough, he had a vague and unexplained fear that divulging these shared experiences would somehow strip them of their innocent nature.
Author's note: I have a vague notion in my mind of using the train carriage as a metaphor for a shell or bubble to insulate two people from the rest of the world, although i'm wondering how far i can take this train theme!