Train buddies
It was safe to say that Hiraoki Koshino had always had an inquisitive mind. He was quick to read situations and was sharp to pick out whenever things were more than meets the eye. He had a knack for finding things out and his persistence in drilling down matters until he understood them and internalized the facts was one of the traits that defined him. Such persistence and stubbornness was useful when it came to understanding concepts in math, Koshino never let go of a question until he knew exactly the logic behind its solution. Puzzles fascinated him and he could never let go of a problem until he had solved it.
It was only natural then that the recent mysterious behavior of his captain piqued his interest. The quick take-offs after their extended practice sessions, the polite declines to offers of free food and the firm reticence of his spiky-haired friend all formed the pieces to an intriguing puzzle. Koshino had tried the direct approach, but since that had availed no new information, he felt that it was only necessary that sleuthing was the next step.
And so he did. On a fine autumn evening, Koshino stealthily stalked his captain. He ducked into the shadows of alleyways and poked his head out from behind pillars as he trailed his completely unawares captain to his usual subway station. Thus far, there had been nothing out of the ordinary and Koshino wondered if his suspicions had been unfounded. He hadn't very long to second guess himself before the object of inquiry showed up and he gaped in amazement as the Shohoku team manageress and the Ryonan captain boarded the train together, laughing. Thankfully, he recovered his senses in time to leap into the same train car just seconds before the doors shut.
Koshino eyed the two from a safe distance. He had suspected that a female might have been involved. What he had not anticipated was that Sendoh would be fraternizing with the enemy.
In Koshino's mind, it was always best if the individuals came clean themselves. However, there were many ways with which one could use to illicit the truth from others. There was always the direct confrontational approach, something which Koshino found less appealing since it tended to raise the individual's defenses and sometimes led to counterproductive outcomes. He instead preferred relying on methods of subtlety.
"My sister offered me two tickets to the latest romantic comedy. I can't go though because I volunteered... at the orphanage that day. Do you know anyone who might want them?" Koshino said casually. He made a mental note to himself to find out the name of an orphanage so as to cover his tracks.
"That's too bad," Sendoh said whilst spinning a ball on his fingertips. " I could go to the orphanage in your place if you like"
Why did Sendoh always have to be such a nice guy? Koshino could see that this was going to be an uphill battle.
"No. I couldn't shirk my duty. You don't know of anyone who might want to go, with a date perhaps?" Koshino said, purposefully stressing the latter part of his sentence.
"Maybe Hikoichi? I think he's been hankering after some girl in 2C."
It was dawning on Koshino that the indirect approach would not work on his captain. There was also a growing suspicion- which Koshino found increasingly hard to dismiss - that his captain was really dense.
"What about yourself? You wouldn't want to go with anyone?" Koshino said, abandoning all pretense at subtlety. "You said you haven't been on a date in a while". Although given his recent discovery, Koshino was unsure how much credence to give to his friend's past claim.
"Nope. Nobody."
Koshino gave up. The movie tickets were clearly not big enough of a draw. A different tactic had to be employed instead.
"Hey, I need to call home but my phone is dead. Lend me yours" Koshino said, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice. Sendoh handed over his cellphone without any protest. Koshino gleefully grabbed it from his friend's hands, pleased at how easy his little subterfuge had gained him access to his friend's call history. To his surprise, he noted that most of the calls and text messages to Sendoh were either from himself, the team, or Sendoh's mother. In fact, the most recent one was from his mother, asking him to buy fish home for dinner. There was not a single call or text from Ayako on Sendoh's call and message history. This was not at all what Koshino had expected.
"Ok, photos, photos, there's got to be something there" Koshino muttered as he sifted through photo after photo of cats, basketball shoes and fishing rods before finally landing on what he had been looking for ... a completely unflattering photo of Ayako with her mouth opened wide as if in objection to having her picture taken.
"Aha! What do you have to say to this!" Koshino said triumphantly, waving the photo of the Shohoku team manageress in front of his captain's face.
"Hey, I thought you were going to call home!" Sendoh said and scratched the back of his neck. "Man, Ayako's going to kill me if she thinks I'm going around showing that photo to others."
"Never mind that, what is going on between you two? When did you start going out with the enemy?" Koshino asked as he continued to dangle the "enemy's" photo before Sendoh's face.
"Nothing, we're not dating. We're just ... train buddies." Sendoh said. Koshino stared at his friend incredulously. He had never heard of such a ridiculous thing. What on earth were train buddies?
"That's a pretty lousy cover-up" Koshino said as he tossed the phone back to Sendoh. "Train buddies. Is that even a thing?"
"It's true. We've never gone out. We just take the same train home every night." Sighing heavily, Sendoh proceeded to explain how their nightly train rides came into existence. He had always suspected that Koshino would be the first to find out and had been mentally preparing himself for the day where he would have to explain his rapid exits from their extended practice sessions. He had never known how to broach the subject and perhaps never felt it necessary to do so in advance, so it was just as well that Koshino was the one who initiated this revelation.
Koshino did his best to keep his tongue in check as he listened to his friend explain his nightly train commutes. There were some elements of the story that he found incredible and he could not resist stopping Sendoh every now and then to repeat and verify some parts of his tale.
"So, you guys don't talk or do anything outside of the train?" Koshino asked slowly. Sendoh nodded his head.
"And you don't even have her number?" Koshino asked. Another nod in assent. Koshino paused in his questioning to take all of this in. As the pieces of the puzzle began to click together, he realized that despite the bizarre nature of their interactions, Sendoh was telling the truth about his train commutes with Ayako. Having all pieces of information now displayed before him, Koshino now gazed at his friend tenderly with newfound pity. Was his captain being friend-zoned without him even realizing it? What the heck were train buddies?
Author's note: this chapter was inspired by the newfound relationship term "train buddies". :)