The telephone rang multiple times until someone took some time off slacking to pick it up.
"Hello." Sakuragi answered lazily.
"Hanamichi!" Came an excited voice
"Sendoh?"
"Hi!"
"You in the city? Where have you been, man?!"
"Yeah, I'm calling from home. I had to take care of something at grandma's. So sorry for the late notice."
"This genius had a lot going on when you were away."
"Really? Let's see it then."
"You bet. Meet me at 5pm in front of DC mall; don't be friggin late." Sakuragi said sternly and hung up.
"…"
DC mall huh? Are we gonna play basketball in Timezone?
The spiky-haired boy had only been waiting for six minutes when he was greeted by a beaming Sakuragi. Sendoh surveyed him from head to toe to get a load of the peculiarities of the freshman's get up. He was sporting a Birdhouse shirt over a white ¾. He had on a pair of mid low-waist cargo pants and a pair of Airwalks instead of his perpetual Jordan 7's. In other words, the only thing missing was a skateboard.
"What's with the attire? I thought—"
"What, you gonna go critical on me now?"
"No. Pfffft. You didn't bring a ball?" Sendoh asked, noticing the absence of his favorite object.
"What for?"
The sophomore stared at him, seeming rather cautious about offending the redhead. He instead concealed the look of utter curiosity by grinning, "So, what should we do today?"
Sendoh asked.
"We're gonna watch a movie." Sakuragi said and not a second later did he start walking to the entrance with greater than usual haste.
Sendoh tucked his hands in the pockets of his jogging pants, compelled to follow the redhead. The non-talking Sakuragi became a little too puzzling to discern but the sophomore didn't want to tear his patience to shreds by attacking him with an avalanche of questions.
He asked anyway, "So, uh, how does Fantastic 4; Rise of the Silver Surfer sound to you?"
"Yeah sure." Sakuragi answered without looking at him.
"You wanna grab a bite before or after the movie?"
"After. We'll dine at Chili's."
"Sounds good. You seem to have this all planned out." Sendoh teased, his lips cracking a very wide grin. At last the freshman was stripped of his defenses. He pulled to a halt, turned to face Sendoh and tried, and failed, to look casual.
"I'm going to treat you cos you taught me all those fancy footworks."
Sendoh blinked and deliberately assumed a look of defensiveness. Nevertheless, the hints of bemusement playing on the corners of his lips and eyes betrayed him.
"Fair enough…." He bit his lower lip to prevent a fit of giggles from escaping his big mouth, but being the bigmouth that he was, he continued anyway, "Is this a date?"
A brutal clash of irritation and embarrassment manifested itself on Sakuragi's face. Moreover, the deep blush that followed made it impossible to discern whether he had gone red from fury or embarrassment. He, then, with great difficulty, spared himself the trouble of prolonging Sendoh's tormenting pretense of innocence and said,
"Yeah, if you'd like to call it that."
It was the sophomore's turn to blush. He stared at the back of Sakuragi's head as though it was an experiment that had gone awry. Eventually they reached the ticket booth and Sakuragi was now reading the showing schedule when Sendoh spoke,
"Is this a romantic date?"
"Quit pushing it, Spikey."
"That's cute."
"Quit it already."
"I just have one complaint, though…" Sendoh paused, completely disregarding the freshman's evident annoyance, and continued, "You know, you should've told me you had something cooking up so I wouldn't have to come here with my awful practice attire."
"Should I have, really?" Sakuragi asked in severe sarcasm.
"Yes. So I wouldn't have to follow you around looking like your nanny."
"…"
"That's ok. You're still my date, right?" Sendoh said cheerfully, wrapping an arm around the redhead's shoulders without inhibition whatsoever.
"Shut up."
…
The afternoon sun reached its most orange state as it mingled with Kanagawa Lake's dark blue water. Rukawa locked his bike on a nearby railing and dumped his mp3 player, towel and extra shirt on the bench—only to find a familiar someone shooting hoops on his second most favorite place in the world, the Kanagawa public basketball court.
Mitsui became aware of his presence instantly. Upon impulse, he ceased throwing shots to pay cordiality.
Long before now, the freshman had erased the spectrum of self-doubt he had fostered. That said, if he still wanted to challenge the senior head on, he would have to make that clear in whatever manner he could afford.
"One-on-one, sempai."
"Sure." Mitsui agreed. He took the ball in his hands and passed it to the rookie, "First possession's yours."
Rukawa received the ball, only to find himself frozen and staring absently at the object.
"Something wrong?" Mitsui asked, relaxing his posture to allow his lifted arms to gradually fall down his sides.
"I just want to play; that's all."
"Same here, Rukawa."
"I'm no longer marking you as my rival."
"Oh."
"I've learned about our differences."
"Rukawa, this is just taking it too seriously. Let's put it behind us."
"Sempai, I'm sorry about last time."
"…" Mitsui struggled to learn where the freshman was leading the conversation to. With the silence at hand, a couple of minutes of mental deliberation had not brought him any closer to making the leap toward full comprehension.
"I admire the finely tuned balance of your playing style. And you're right, I'm a show-off."
"…" that was when Mitsui saw Rukawa for what he was; a dickhead who fell notably short in the logic department, "I didn't say anything like that."
"You implied."
"So you're taking out your insulted ego on this challenge?"
"No."
"No? Then what is this all about?" Mitsui asked, half-expecting the exchange to turn into a very cinematic moment.
"It's about playing against you."
Mitsui, for all the right reasons, still hadn't caught on the freshman's point. As it was, he remained unable to utter another word.
"…"
"Sempai."
"…" the non-existent dramatic progression of the conversation could have pushed any self-respecting person to at least comment about the weather or whatever lame excuse for a conversation of some sort. However, the senior, for some reason, was still at a loss for words.
"I wish we can always practice together." Coming from someone like Rukawa, those words brought with it overwhelming flattery, but there was certainly more to it than that.
"I—I've been spending a few hours in the stadium after practice sessions, right?" Mitsui stammered and paused to think before continuing, "Listen, Rukawa; I dunno if I should be glad about your sudden change of view about the 'tension' between us but I really wouldn't mind if you challenged me to a one-on-one every day. It will always be a good opportunity for me. It wouldn't bother me anymore whatever it might have meant to you, okay?" The senior finished and grinned amiably.
"It means a reason to be near you."
The weight of what the senior was hearing evoked a mental surge of raving confusion. It was very much like trying to draw Japan's map using vacation photos. In due time, evening began to envelop them in its darkness.
Getting late as the day was, Mitsui did not elicit the slightest hint of distraction. On the other hand, Rukawa never extricated his gaze from him for a second.
Mitsui finally spoke, "Well…you should've made it less complex. You should've gone straight to the point." as a handsome smile started to replace the blank expression he was formerly wearing.
"…"
Mitsui's grin grew wider but not a tinge of its pleasantness wore off.
"Next time, ask me to a movie instead; even coffee would do."
He finished, placing a hand on the raven-haired head and ruffled those black strands, leaving them messier than ever…and Rukawa, redder than ever.
"Sempai."
"Yeah?"
"Tomorrow then, Fantastic 4; Rise of the Silver Surfer."
"No problem"
"And…coffee later."
At this, Mitsui picked up the ball on the floor before saying, "After one-on-one."
"And…"
"Yes, Kaede?"
"I..."
"Haha…save it for later; I'll stay with you until late."
"You mean it?"
"Down to the last letter."
…
"Nobu-chan!" Kiyota woke up with the sound of a heavy fist pounding against his door.
"Damn it! What the hell is it this time, Karin?!"
"Someone's come to see you." With that, he hopped off his bed to open the door, and he did so abruptly it bounced almost halfway back.
"Who is it?"
"He said his name's Fujima. He's kinda cute."
A look of surprise and utter nervousness sparked a life on his sleepy face. He tousled his hair as he normally did before going out with a girl. After brushing his teeth hastily, he traipsed past his sister and made for the stairs, almost skipping his steps in doing so.
"Fujima-sempai."
The Shoyo star was browsing through their framed family pictures. He was wearing a small brown Def Leppard shirt, a pair of rather skinny jeans and a pair of Chucks. An electric guitar would have wrapped up the rock star look.
"Hello, Kiyota-kun."
"Hi…"
"Are you busy?"
The question quelled the rookie's thrill a bit but it did very well in amplifying his nervousness.
"No, uh, I've been doing nothing lately."
"You've stopped coming to the public basketball area. I figured training's gone really serious since then."
"Oh, it's not that." Kiyota said before he could stop himself.
"Then why haven't you been going lately?"
"Uhm…" Kiyota frowned before saying, "I just don't feel like it."
"Ok. I'll tell you something then."
The freshman looked up the senior. Some good four minutes might have passed until Fujima spoke again,
"It's been rather boring without you. Hahahaha don't get me wrong; I'm not taking pleasure in always defeating you…the point is, the ballers I've been playing against lately are no better than my six-year old brother. And since you've taken the fun out of these past two weeks, I suppose you owe me two weeks' worth of it." Fujima finished with a handsome grin.
Something has gone inexplicably bizarre here, Kiyota thought.
"Er, how do I pay you back?" the rookie asked, still trying to recover coherent thinking.
"Just put on some jeans; we're going to Karakura town"
"Fujima-san, that's two towns from here."
"I've got full tank today. Now dress up; fireworks will start in two hours."
Kiyota made his way back to his room, still trying to let the senior's words sink in. When all was done, he went down all dressed up to find Fujima already cracking the engine of his car to a start.
"So what exactly is there to see in Karakura?"
"Someone told me about some festival which sounded fun; fireworks, souvenirs, firecrackers… I forgot what they call it, though."
Kiyota mulled in silence for awhile upon finally remembering something.
"Fujima-san—"
"Kiyota, it's Kenji."
"Uhm…Kenji—san, er, I believe the festival they're holding down there right now is called Lovapalooza." Kiyota said all these very slowly to exact sense to the senior. Lovapalooza was basically a lover's festival. A pathetic excuse to display lewd acts without care for the world since everyone around would be doing the same. It had no particular historical importance at all. In all manner of consideration, perhaps only a desperate good-for-nothing lovesick puppy invented the silly event; it was just a gathering of lovers in celebration of their…love? How meaningless.
The freshman's heart threatened to tear his ribcage open because it was now desperately trying to jump out of his chest. Because Fujima's casual behavior, his utter coolness, was so foreign to Kiyota it was making him uncomfortable.
"Are you serious?"
"Huh?"
"About going to the festival?"
"Don't I look serious?" Fujima asked, smiling the breath out of Kiyota Nobunaga.
"Kenji-san, Lovapalooza is more like a party, exclusively for lovers…"
Fujima stared at him in slight confusion, "You sure?"
"Yeah."
"That's strange. Hahaha, my friend said it would be fun. To be honest, I never really got the details hahaha." Fujima was shaking his head, laughing merrily at what seemed like his own idiocy. "In any case, we're gonna get there just in time." He added, looking at his watch.
"Like I said, it's for lovers, sempai…" Kiyota said this very slowly to emphasize his point.
"Hmmm…that should be a good start for us." The senior said without looking at the freshman, though the latter could see a smile playfully waltzing around his lips.
The absurdity and beauty of what he was hearing outweighed the comfort of being near the senior, leaving him with nothing else to say.
"Sempai" Kiyota started.
"Hm?"
"It's gonna be a fun night for us." The freshman continued sheepishly.
"It's gonna be a wonderful evening."
END
Note: Thanks for reading.
ivybluesummers: Strider's left me hanging in the air that's why I
can't even finish 'A Prince's Diary' ...frowns... Hahaha I've been
requesting a few stories for her to write but she keeps delaying!
aaargh! she says hi though
mistress KC: where's the next chappie of 'Identured'? I'm
waiting...drums fingers... thanks for reading
mayfaire: mitru fandom is going extinct. i'm flooding this
Category. care to help? haha kidding, notify me if you have a
mitru coming up :)