Rei was standing in front of Teiko Middle School where there were many flowers in the garden which all tried to show off their beautiful colours and their elegantly polished petals. She was busy staring at a particularly interesting species when she realised she was going to be late to class.
Scanning around, she could tell that it was indeed a school well known throughout Japan. The sheer size of the school campus was immense and awe-striking and there were varieties of different choice of club activities. Teiko was exceptionally famous for basketball club, but it didn't mean that the other clubs didn't do so well. Because of its funding policy, the amount of funds each club received were based on their performance and it led to many clubs fighting hard to earn the glory and appreciation from the school. So in the end, clubs failing to prove their worth were forced to disintegrate whereas if cubs were well flourished, it was allowed to keep continuing.
Her mum had told her to join the marathon club and to participate in the upcoming preliminaries of Tokyo marathon competition for middle school students. She had emphasised the importance of her winning, since it will make sure the school will be aware of her presence and make sure the club doesn't disappear.
Sometimes Rei felt like her mum expected too much from her. Sure, she had two abnormally large lungs for a human like her mum, which made her fit for a marathon runner. Sure, both of her parents were sportsmen and they naturally wanted her to become one like them. However, she had one problem; marathon meant nothing to her.
Rei knew that she was the type of person who only tried when she felt like it was needed or she liked it. But for her, marathon wasn't fun and it wasn't really necessary either. It was just something her mum forced her to do and something she exceled at because of her body she was born with.
People said she was lucky she had parents who supported her dreams. There were people jealous of her lungs. But she wondered, how do they know what my dream is? Some of her friends were jealous of her passion for marathon. She wondered again, how do they know if I like marathon or not?
For her, marathon was a habit. It was something she had always done ever since she was young and it had become part of her life because of the time she invested in it. But it was never fun. Heart-warming. Enjoyable.
Deep in thought, she forgot to watch out a person standing in front of her and she ended up face-palming the back of the body.
"Hey man! Watch where you're going" said the person. Quickly abandoning depressing thoughts, Rei looked up, twitching the ends of her mouth to form smile and opened her mouth.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to walk into you like that. I guess I didn't see where I was going"
"Are you okay? I'm sorry this pig head was in the way. Did you get hurt?" A girl with an abnormally large breast came up to her and flashed a big smile. Rei, quickly scanning her uniform realised she was a first year like her since she was wearing a blue tie like her.
"Hey! I'm not a pig head- it was this chic that bumped into me!" Rei couldn't see his face because of the sun that was currently in the sky. He looked pretty tall and since she was pretty short for her age, she could only look at his neck. As she couldn't be bothered, she just nodded, mumbled another apology under her breath and moved to walk around the pair when the boy suddenly grabbed her arm.
"Aren't you…Hey, you look familiar? Have I seen you before?"
"Dai-chan, don't be rude to your peers!"
"I'm not! I feel like I've seen her before.. Hey you, we've met before right?"
'Who's this rowdy kid' was the thought running through her mind as her face formed a polite smile to say no. When she made an effort to stretch her head backwards make an eye contact with the rude man, her eyes became wide as the man standing before her matched someone in her memory. Look of understanding flashed her face and her mouth opened, speaking whatever was in her mind at that moment.
"You're that loser from-"
"So you remembered! You're that girl who barely managed to beat me just 'cause I was tired and you weren't right? And who are you calling a loser, huh? I can beat you anytime in basketball, just you wait! Back then was such a fluke!"
"Hmp, I don't think you call it a 'fluke' when clearly you were sounding like a dying horse back then. Sure, you were a good dribbler and a scorer, but didn't I tell you that stamina is an essential skill to have? Stop making excuses, ganguro"
"What? You piece of-"
"Dai-chan, stop being so rude!" The big-boob interfered their conversation by slapping his back.
"I'm sorry- er, may I know your name please? My name is Momoi and this ganguro is Aomine. I am sorry if he offended you, he doesn't think before he acts"
"What? Satsuki, I will kill you if you call me ganguro once again-"
"My name is Rei, Rei Tezumi. I stayed in New-Zealand when I was young so I'm not accustomed to being called by my last name, so please just call me Rei. And you don't have to worry about me getting offended, I am used to ignoring such non sense from guys" commented Rei with a smirk looking at Aomine's direction.
Momoi, sensing something between the two suddenly put her arm up and slipped it around Aomine's arm protectively. She was surprised that her Dai-chan knew a girl beside her and she didn't like how she felt excluded. She spoke a bit louder to focus attention onto herself and also out of curiosity.
"Rei-chan, can I ask how you two know each other?"
"Oh, it's nothing. This guy was so cocky about his skill in basketball when we met, so we played and he lost." Said Rei. She felt a bit weird at the fact that Momoi was speaking her name on such friendly term, as she knew putting a suffix 'chan' was only used when you were close. But decided to ignore it since she didn't care.
"Hey- don't say it like that, you only scored once during the whole game! You're making it sound like I legit lost a game of basketball to a girl"
"WHAATTT? DAI-CHAN LOST A BASKETBALL GAME TO A GIRL?"
"No! Satsuki, it was a bet that if she scored at least one goal, she wins. It wasn't a whole game dammit!"
Rei, not bothering to fix Momoi's misunderstanding gave another smirk at Aomine's direction. She was able to get few basketball lessons after her encounter with him, and she couldn't wait to own him and see another despairing look in his eyes.
"Hey, Aomine- what if I say we play another game of basketball again?" Only after she spoke had she realised she had forgotten to add a suffix at the end of his name.
'Japanese is so troublesome' she thought.
"Sure, I will make sure you score none this time so you can't spread any other bullshit about me"
Since Aomine didn't comment on her pronunciation of his name, she relaxed. It was just that she felt at peace around him. He acted genuine every time, and the fact that he didn't really care about anything much was a plus. She immediately knew they could be on good terms.
"Dai-chan, Rei-chan, we're going to be late to class! Rei-chan, do you know what class you're in? I'm in 1-A and Dai-chan is in 1-F" said Momoi
"Umm, no? I was just going to check but then this ganguro was in the way"
"My name is Aomine, god dammit! Stop calling me ganguro you shortass!"
"Dai-chan, stop being so rude!"
"Yeah, stop being such a dickhead, ganguro-san" smirked Rei. She congratulated herself on finding a sensitive spot to tease him about.
"Rei-chan, stop yourself too! Anyways, if you walk straight and turn right, you will see papers stuck on the wall with different names under the class list. You can check it out now, but you will have to be hurry since you have less than 3 minutes till the class! I'm sorry I can't come with you, I have to take care of Dai-chan first"
Then Momoi quickly dragged Aomine away, who looked like he was about to seriously go kill someone. Rei didn't feel scared that his glare was focused on him. She was used to it thanks to his older brother. With a mocking wave, she turned around to walk to the spot Momoi told her about.
Rei, in her slow paced walk, didn't run even when the bell rang.
'What's the whole point of running if you're already going to be late…' was the thought on her mind.
