Few days have passed since the incident and Rei could constantly hear the rumours spoken from mouth to mouth; it was always about a mysterious girl who was able to outrun the boys trying out for Teiko basketball club. Hearing a girl beating a group of strong, resilient boys was a surprise, but the fact that a group of four boys who were able to get into the first string straight away – which hadn't happened in years - had lost, even with their devilish talent; surprised them even more.
But Rei, who was the cause of all the rumours throughout Teiko, didn't care a thing. Rather, instead of sharing the excitement with the crowd, she chose to be by herself and ponder about life. For her, everyday was boring and she was already getting sick and tired of having to go to school. The only notable differences in her school life was that she now attended club activities after school, but the club had been so poorly managed that she felt no fun going there. There was no one; not even a coach to guide her training. It was a bitter reality; the club had won no awards and the school haven't given any funding in return. But she knew she could change it.
The preliminaries for the middle-school marathon competition was only few days away and Rei continuously stayed and trained every day after school to keep her body in focus and balanced for the upcoming event. All seemed to be going pretty well, except for one thing; Arasaki.
Arasaki was another thing that annoyed her endlessly. After the day she kicked down his superego, he had been avoiding her ever since and paled at the very sight of her face; it wasn't very fun to see him jumping every time he saw you. He hasn't attended the club activities for a while and Rei could only guess that he had quit.
Rei hasn't had the chance to talk to Aomine either. She knew which class he was in but she felt like they weren't close enough to see each other during the break. This annoyed her a little as well; she needed something fun and exciting from her dull life. This morning was no different from her already boring days; the usual talk with Kise who was her neighbour, and talking with the girls as if they had become 'best friends'.
To be really honest, Rei didn't believe that a 'best friend' could exist.
Rei knew that in the end, what everyone truly cared about was themselves. There is no such thing as 'loving one as one loves itself' or 'sacrificing oneself for another'. No one can understand each other fully, meaning that there will always be misunderstanding. But having to pretend that they were made for each other; this was what she loathed. To put up a mask on her face so she would look welcoming. It was always hard for her to hide how little she cared, how little she felt for them and how little she understood what went on with their stupid, overly emotional head.
Every day she had to put in more effort to keep her good façade. And it was getting harder.
"Rei-san, you look really tired; is something wrong?"
It was one of the girls she befriended two days long ago. This girl had a habit of blabbering about other people's secrets, including her own. Hearing her was very annoying; Rei wished she could just tell her to shut up and mind her own business, but making an enemy in this closed society such as the classroom was a very dangerous thing, and she couldn't allow that to happen.
"No, I'm okay; I was just wondering how you get all the guys in our class" Rei spoke with a little bit of jealousy hinted enough in her voice to make her satisfied and quickly changed the topic of the conversation.
'It's probably the same shit…', thought Rei, while portraying an image of a girl who looked greatly interested.
It was the same thing but with a different guy all the time. Kanako was the flirty girl that every girl hated; she would always come to her during lunch time when she found no guys to hang out with and express how hard and stressful it was for her to have all the attention of the boys coming after her, and how sorry she was having to reject the boys asking her out, saying she wasn't ready for a relationship.
Rei had to spend 20 minutes of her precious lunchtime pretending she was worried about her. At first, she genuinely tried to give her a good advice, thinking Kanako didn't want all the attention. But as time went on, Rei realised that there was no point wasting her energy on Kanako whom didn't bother to listen to her. Kanako just wanted other people to be worried about her, at the same time wanting all the attention drawn to herself.
Kanako told her she wouldn't understand how she feels because she never went out with a boy or had been in this type of situation. But that was a serious bullshit. She had guys confessing to her, telling her that they liked her. But she would always say sorry and say she will never be able to like them back and cut them off, because that's what her brother told her to do and what she thought was the right thing to do. It was rude to drag them on. But Kanako didn't seemed to care and she seemed to do it for every time, saying she was just being 'nice' or 'friendly'.
'…enough thinking', Rei controlled her mind before it spiralled out of her control. Once it reached her limit, she didn't know what she would do. Stopping all the activity happening in her brain, she smiled, and listened to Kanako again. It was like a continuous cycle.
.
.
Few more days have passed, and Rei easily came first in the preliminary rounds, earning a spot in Tokyo's marathon competition for middle-schoolers. Rei had a big gap of 5 minutes between herself and another girl who came second, earning a nice surprise from the people around her. It was no big deal to her however, as she trained for harder competition than this.
When she expected to resume her everyday task at school, she could notice a slight change in someone's behaviour. It was Akashi. From the day after she got back from the competition, he had been constantly staring at her or would try to round up a conversation with her. It felt weird, having the attention of the son of the heir to the famous company.
"Hello, Tezumi-san"
'Why is he interested at me so suddenly…' thought Rei as she turned around, expecting to see a red-haired teenager. She could easily guess who it was, since he was the only person in her class still calling her by her last name.
"Hello, Akashi-san. It's surprising to see you walking to school, I thought you got picked up every day?"
"I do, but as I was passing by I recognised a familiar face and decided to take a nice walk to school today."
Rei looked around to see who this 'familiar face' by Akashi was. She looked at her left; an empty street. She looked right; a cat rustling in the garbage bag looking for food. Rei scrunched up her face slightly. It didn't sound right; she knew she wasn't in a close relationship with Akashi. Then why in the world would he stop his car and walk with her?
Akashi's voice broke her chain of thought.
"I'm sure you are wondering why I got off the car to talk to you, Tezumi-san. As you already know, we are just an acquaintances, a classmate. We are not in a close relationship to be on a friendly term, as some may call. However, I was deeply intrigued by the amazing performance you pulled during the preliminary round of the marathon competition and wished to speak to you about it- as a class president and one of the members of the school council."
"What do you mean, as a member of the school council?" questioned Rei.
"Tezumi-san, there was a school council meeting yesterday after school, and we were all surprised to see such an amazing achievement coming from the marathon club. Even though it was done by only one member, the time difference you made with the second runner when you finished; it was highly astonishing. So, abiding by our school rules, I was asked to talk to you about the surplus of your club funding."
'Surplus…?'
Then Rei realised. The reason why the marathon club was so unknown and unpopular with the students was because there wasn't enough funds for them to advertise and persuade many talented students.
"But if this is in regards to funding, shouldn't you talk to Arasaki, the manager of the club?" spoke Rei. This was very strange. Akashi would know that he would have to speak to him if it regarded money. What was going on here?
"I am very saddened to tell you this, but unfortunately, the school had already decided that it would no longer support marathon club before you even went into the marathon competition. It had failed to show any achievement during the past years of establishment. But then we couldn't proceed with our decision because of you winning the competition, Tezumi-san. However, Arasaki-san would have already been informed by the school's decision by email. So, as a result, we, the school council decided to support you only."
"What do you mean, me only..? I thought it was compulsory to join any club in Teiko? Doesn't that mean that I won't be belonging into any club?"
"It means that you will be given funding to hire a coach, to pay for your energy drinks and for the use of the school yards during school if you want. The money will be managed by you, of course. The club members would have to look for other clubs to join in. The same goes for you too, Rei-san since technically, marathon club no longer exists and you need to join another club. I know it will be distressing for you to find a club again at this time of the year, but mark my words, you will have the school's approval to join any kind of club you'd like."
Rei was quiet for a minute, walking in silence. And as she was thinking, she suddenly realised that Akashi was walking in step with her abnormally slow-pace that her friends always hated. It was a pleasant surprise to see that he was nice enough to keep his pace with her. After few minutes of thinking, Rei spoke out loud.
"Let me just clarify things here. So, the marathon club is going to shut down, correct?"
"Yes"
"But I get the funding directly from the school, to aid my training? So I'm not belonging into any club right now?"
"Your funding will depend on your future performance as well, but yes and yes."
"Since I have the school's approval, I get to join any club I want?"
"Yes"
"That's awesome! It means I get to continue training for marathon, as well as being able to join any club I like! That's great! I hated this club anyway" rei spoke in a passing tone.
"I'm glad you like the changes, Tezumi-san. I was worried you might not like the decision, but I guess that was just an assumption." Smiled Akashi slightly.
For Akashi, he smiled because he didn't need to deal with an overly attached club-member.
For Rei, she smiled because she didn't have to see any more faces of unwanted club members and earn a recognition from her mother.
.
To a stranger's eye, they looked like they had a tight relationship. But in reality, they were just thinking about themselves.
