It came to her attention that Sakuragi Hanamichi was extremely attentive that afternoon during practice. Usually Ayako found that she had to resort to creative (and sometimes violent) means to get the boy interested in going over his drills. He was, after all, easily distracted by the silent ace on their team, often seething at Rukawa's performance and raging at how his teammate was always showing off. His attention was also often diverted whenever the younger sister of their former captain showed up. In that situation, his rage and frustration at his teammate's performance would suddenly be replaced with a sweet and cheery demeanor. Of course, any slight provocation from Rukawa was able to stoke the dormant fire stewing in the redhead, just as any word from Haruko was able to render him docile. Although she would never admit it out loud, Ayako found Sakuragi's swift vacillations between aggression and sudden congeniality fascinating to watch.

But despite her observations of his various emotions blowing hot and cold within the span of an afternoon, she had never seen him direct a deferential attitude towards her before. This newfound behavior and attention directed to her specifically put her on edge.

Sakuragi was facing quite the insurmountable problem. It was harder than any math question he had faced in class. And those were already exceedingly difficult. He did not understand the rules of calculus. He did not see the need for calculus. To him, all the calculation he needed to know was whether he could add up the numbers with pen and paper. Anything more complex than that was on a "need to know" basis, where "need to know" was defined by a metric of how much he needed to know to continue playing basketball before the wrath of his math teachers prevented him from doing so.

In any case, the question at hand was as inscrutable as an algebraic problem with too many random variables. His issue at hand was how to illicit information from Ayako about her (if any) interest in Koshino without letting on that he might know more than she knew or than she suspected. It was a typical conundrum of how much did she know, and did she know that he knew and if she knew that he knew, did that mean Koshino knew nothing? Sakuragi scratched his head as he became confused with his own hypothesis. In any case, the first rule in Sakuragi's 101 guide to getting information from various parties was to play nice. Step 1 always involved ingratiating oneself to the source of information in hopes that through one's friendliness, the source of information would freely unload and reveal their secrets to you. In Sakuragi's personal guide book to getting information, if Step 1 failed, then one unfortunately might have to move to Step 2, the usage of fists and head butts. In his experience, Step 2 was usually more effective than Step 1 but then again his main test subjects were the Sakuragi Guntai.

With Ayako, however, Sakuragi felt sure that Step 1 would suffice. He had a well-formulated plan this time. He decided that today, he would make the extra effort, and talk to Ayako as if he was just "one of the girls". He would behave and act as if he was one of her girlfriends that she usually opened up to and shared all her secrets. Thus, he decided to be extra nice, extra helpful and extra attentive to Ayako that afternoon.

"Do you need me to pick up the loose balls?" Sakuragi offered helpfully as he continued to hover over Ayako's shoulder. As he tried to look helpful and show off how quick he was to retrieve the loose balls, he failed to notice the quizzical look that passed over his team manageress' face.

"Uh, thanks. That's great." Ayako said a little suspiciously. Sakuragi had been acting strangely today. He kept hovering around her, following her like a puppy, and he kept insisting on helping her with menial chores that he usually hated. He was sticking to her like a leech. Inwardly, she wondered if Sakuragi had finally figured out reverse psychology and had found a way to make her give up on practicing his daily dribbling drills with him.

" You should always ask this tensai for help, I'm great at cleaning up. See how fast I can retrieve all these loose balls? That lazy fox would be utterly useless. He's too slow compared to me." Sakuragi said.

"Then you can just clean everything up" Rukawa muttered as the pair passed by. It took all of Sakuragi's willpower to resist the instinctual twitch to fight Rukawa. Instead, he zoned in on his mental mantra and repeatedly chanted the same few words in his mind, "Stay in her good books, stay in her good books"

"So Ayako, have you ... been by Ryonan lately?" Sakuragi attempted.

"Not since the last practice match. Why?" Ayako asked.

"Oh nothing. I just thought that some of the guys on the basketball team don't look so bad. What do you think?" Sakuragi said nonchalantly as he inspected his fingernails. So this is what girl talk was like. Sakuragi mentally congratulated himself for getting one step closer to the mystery that was women.

Ayako stared at Sakuragi open-mouthed. Was Sakuragi Hanamichi asking for her opinion on guys?

"Um, I don't know. I never thought about it" Ayako mumbled as she tried to make sense of the current situation. Sakuragi tried to recall how all his favorite female actresses in TV soap operas would react whenever they face a situation where the other was not forthcoming. As he recalled the scene from one of his favorite shows, he tried to mimic the actress' actions and fixed a pout on his face as he stood with his hands akimbo.

"Oh come on, you never found any of them cute?" And then suddenly dropping his voice to a whisper, he said "You know personally I always found Koshino to be not too bad looking. I mean that floppy hair, that intense stare." And then to seal the deal and show how serious he was about this conversation, he decided to fan his face as if the mention of Koshino had brought heat to his face.

"You know I personally would rate Koshino a ten ... ... out of ten of course." Sakuragi helpfully added with a wink.

Ayako could only conclude that after one year of playing basketball with the redhead, she still knew nothing about him.

Author's note: Sakuragi and Koshino are doing their best. But the best intentions don't help always with two people like Sendoh and Ayako :)