Kagami sighed, shoving his hands in jacket pockets. As he re-entered his classroom and sat down at his desk, an empty loneliness loomed over him. 'Still not here,' he thought, glancing out the window towards the front entrance of the school. 'Where the hell is she?! I...I hope she's okay...'

Kagami ruffled his hair with his hands. 'No, no, what am I thinking?! I...I mean...it's normal to wonder if she's alright. She's on the basket ball team...'

"What're you doing?"

"I'm playing basketball, Kagami-kun."

'A-And she sits right next to me...'

"What are you doing here?!"

"I go to this school. I'm 15 years old."

'A-And she's tiny, so, her health must not be that good...'

"Can I help you?"

"Where the hell did you come from?!"

"Um, I've been here the whole time..."

'A-And, she...'

"This isn't icecream. This is a shake."

"I'm right here."

"Look, I know I'm a girl, but that's no reason to hate me."

"Just pass it. I want to show you something."

"See you at school tomorrow, Kagami-kun."

"Kagami-kun is a Pervet Bully Stalker."

"KAGAMI-KUN!"

"Wh-what if...what if you...h-had died, Kagami-kun...Kagami-kun, I...D-don't die..."

"...I didn't know you were that stupid, Kagami-kun."

"...okay, Kagami-kun."

"Are you alright, Kagami-kun?"

"K-Kagami-kun, I-I..."

"Thank you, Kagami-kun."

'And she's...special to me...'

Kagami placed his head in his arms on his desk. As the bell rang signaling the end of lunch, he could hear the shoes of his classmates scuffling around him. The teacher entered the room and began passing papers out.

"Hm, Kuroko-chan still isn't here...does anyone in here know where she lives?"

Head still on his desk, Kagami lifted one of his arms reluctantly.

"Kagami-kun, lift your head up, I know how you doze off in class!"

Kagami lifted his head up. The teacher rushed over to him.

"Kagami-kun, are you okay? Your face is so red!" Kagami grunted. "Here, take these papers and go ahead and head down to the nurse. Geez, what is this, flu season?"

Kagami picked up his things and headed down to the nurses office, face flushed red.

To Kagami, it felt like he had been laying down on the bed in the nurses office for centuries. He heard the door open and checked to see who had entered.

"Kagami? What're you doing in here?" Riko asked.

"I should be asking you that, coach."

"I come here every so often in advance to collect bandages and stuff for injuries and the like. Now, to you...you aren't sick like Kuroko-chan are you?"

"Kuroko isn't sick."

"Wh-what?...Hey, you didn't say anything to her to hurt her feelings, did you?!"

"...Probably."

Riko focused her attention fully on Kagami. "W-Well...what does that mean?! Is she upset with you?"

"...Probably."

Kagami could feel his face burn red. Riko sat down on the bed and faced Kagami. "You...hang out a lot, don't you?"

"...Probably."

"More than just basketball players?"

"...Probably."

"More than...just friends?"

Kagami covered his mouth with his hands. "...Probably."

"You...You love Kuroko-chan, don't you, Kagami-kun?"

Kagami hid his whole face in his hands and lay back down. "...Probably."

Kagami could here Riko shuffling papers. "Here," she said. Kagami took his head out of his hands and took the paper. In the top corner, in small girly handwriting, was an address fairly close to his. Without a word, Kagami grabbed his things and ran out of the nurses office and towards the entrance of the school. Riko sighed and held a hand up to her forehead. "Geez, that guy..."

"Tetsuya..."

Kuroko lifted her head out from under her covers. Her father and mother were standing at the foot of here bed.

"Hello."

"Good morning, sweetie," Kuroko's mother cooed. Kuroko stared into her mother's eyes.

"Tetsuya," her father sat down on her bed and placed his hand on her leg. "We noticed you've been looking a little...lonely." Kuroko brushed her bangs out of her eyes.

"We felt bad, just sitting around, watching you sit down and say nothing all day, so we talked to some of your basketball friends over the phone, and..." Kuroko sat up in nervousness, eyes lit up with excitement.

"They gave us an address to meet you at and hang around, so...why don't you go, sweetie?" her mom asked. Kuroko shakily grabbed the piece of paper and nodded. Her parents smiled, leaving the room without a word.

Kuroko's heart fluttered. She was nervous to meet back up with Kagami after what happened, but she expected him to forgive her and hang out with the others. She jumped out of bed and rummaged her closet for an outfit as she imagined having fun with her new friends.

Kagami nervously shook his shoulders and shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. After analyzing his current look, he shook his head, adjusted his collar, and cleared his throat before knocking on the front door.

A tall, frail woman with pale skin and light brown hair answered the door. "Hello?" she asked politely.

"...hey."

"Um...hello!...I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"O-Oh, sorry..." Kagami rubbed a hand on the back of his head shakily. "I'm Kagami Taiga. I...I go to school with your daughter..."

"Ah! Well, Tetsuya isn't home right now," she said, glancing behind her shoulder.

"Oh, uh...I just came to, uh...deliver some papers...for class, and stuff...sorry."

Kuroko's mom chuckled. "Well, won't you come in?"

Kuroko's mom handed Kagami a cup of freshly brewed tea as they both sat across from each other in the small living room.

"So, you're Tetsuya's friend? Of how long?" she asked.

"Well...we sit next to each other in class, so...since the beginning of the year? Also, we play basketball together..."

"Hm..." Kuroko's mom drank some tea before continuing. "I wonder...could you possibly know what Kuroko's been up to?"

"...Pardon?"

"Well, you see, we don't actually live here, it's just Kuroko by herself. But recently, she called us down here. We don't really know what's going on, even when we lived together she never asked for help. Did...did she get into another fight at school?"

'Another...?' "W-Well..." Kagami pondered his options. "N-Not that I know of."

"Well, then...I need a favor out of you, Taiga-kun. You see, when she was little, we got her a journal. She used to never write in it, but we noticed that whenever she is feeling down, she will pull it out and write in it for hours on end. We used to not pay attention to it - we thought that she was maybe just writing diary entries. But now, every day, all she does is either sleep, or stare into the notebook without eating. We're very worried about her health. She used to keep it under her bed, but...now, we don't know where it is. We've looked under her bed, in her desk, underneath her hamper, we just can't seem to find it. I don't know if it'll help or not, but I wanted to try...will you look for it? Please? We just want our daughter to be happy, but even though she called us over, she's so very quiet..." Kuroko's moms eyes teared up. Kagami leaned across the table.

"I...I will definetely try."

Kuroko's mom smiled widely. "Thank you, thank you!" She ushered Kagami to Kuroko's room. "I'll just leave you to it, then. Call me if you find it, okay?"

"S-Sure..." Kuroko's mom closed the door behind her. Kagami was left to his own thoughts and awe.

The room was painted a pale yellow, with bright blue butterflies scattered of varied sizes and types. He noticed the paint set on her desk and began tracing a butterfly with his finger. "She...she did this?" There were more butterflies than he could count on every wall. Kagami sighed in amazement.

Glancing at the rest of the room, he noticed every piece of furniture, every frame, every door was painted with a white background, absorbed in bright blue butterflies. Where there was yellow, blue butterflies. Where there was white, blue butterflies. Kagami noticed she even began painting some on the ceiling. "She...how did she even get up there...?"

Kagami noticed a small bulletin board over her school desk, walking over, he noticed few papers, but one of light blue, which stood out. He read the small poem.

The example

Here's an example from

A Butterfly;

That on a rough, hard rock

Happy can lie;

Friendless and all alone

On this unsweetened stone.

Now let my bed be hard,

No care take I;

I'll make my joy like this

Small Butterfly;

Whose happy heart has power

To make a stone a flower.

By William H. Davies

Kagami grazed his hand along the paper, anxious to define the true meaning behind the words. "Kuroko...why do you paint these butterflies?"

As Kagami pulled his hand away, he noticed a bump in the paper. He curiously removed the paper from the bulletin board to reveal a small key and folded piece of paper on a thumbtack.

He held the key in his hands as he unfolded the paper and began to read.

'Keep it where your secrets lie, above the shade, out of reach.'

"Wh...What the hell does this mean?! Kuroko, since when were you a poet, geez..." Kagami sighed loudly as he analyzed the poem further.

"Above, above...I'm looking above, I don't get it..." Kagami paused. "But, if Kuroko's looking up..."

Kagami got down on his knees and scanned the room carefully. The light from the ceiling against the desk cast a shadow against the corresponding wall, pointing out a small gap on the side of an electrical outlet above the small shadow. Kagami crawled over to the outlet, noticing the 'screw' was actually a small key hole. He inserted the key and turned, followed by the outlet popping out of the wall. There was a small safe inside the wall bigger than the size of the outlet. Inside was a paper-back notebook.

"Is...this has to be it, right?" Kagami was surprised to find a picture of a red sun on the cover. Kagami delicately opened up to the front page.

Without a word, Kagami opened the door to Kuroko's room and walked into the living room to meet Kuroko's mom, who was sitting on the couch. She stood up expectantly.

"Oh, did you find anything?"

Kagami looked her straight in the eyes. "You said Kuroko went somewhere?"

"W-Well, she did go somewhere...actually, I was surprised when you said you were also on her basketball team, now that I think about it..."

"Who is she with? Right now?"

"Well, I told her to go hang out with some basketball friends...she was so excited, I didn't have time to tell her that they were some old friends from middle school who happened to be in the area...she's never mentioned you before. Are you sure you're on that team?"

"Y-Yeah...but, I forgot where we're supposed to be meeting. Could you, remind me?"

"Well...I think I have it written down...here..." Kuroko's mom handed Kagami a piece of paper. Kagami shoved the journal in his pants pocket and bowed his head. "Thank you for having me," he said before bursting through the front door.

"Kuroko, Kuroko, Kuroko..." Kagami constantly murmured as he found his way to the decided location.