A/N: I appreciate the review. I would probably not have been that motivated to continue this story if not for it.

Chapter 2: The Turbulent Middle

On this bright and sunny day it was a happier-than-usual Sendoh that walked down to the coppice in the park that was famous for the clandestine transactions that took place under its huddled boughs. It was a spot frequented by young and happy couples who wanted to steal a few minutes of privacy every now and then, but more often than not found that another young and happy couple had thought of the same plan.

Being by nature benevolent, Sendoh loved spreading joy and happiness among his friends. Indeed, it was whispered in the corridors of Ryonan by many a hopeful girl, Sendoh's day was incomplete until he had made someone smile. He was beyond delighted to be able to be of service to Jin, whose heart, though he was neither as athletic nor as good looking as Sendoh, was without a doubt in the right place. It pained him to see Jin pining after someone as popular and therefore inaccessible as Fujima; it pained him further to know that Fujima in turn pined after Maki, who everyone knew was in a relationship with his math teacher.

As he approached the not-so-secret coppice, Sendoh noticed that Jin and Mitsui were already there, and leaning against a tree. He waved as he approached them, and cleared his throat so that he could slip effortlessly into the role of the conspirator.

"I see you've started without me."

Mitsui scoffed.

"What's the big deal anyway, bringing us to a place like this?" He merely pretended to be aloof and uninterested. In reality, the promise of money at the end of the adventure filled him with so much excitement that he could barely contain himself. Even a thousand yen went a long way in fulfilling the dreams of a broke high school student.

"So Jin," said Sendoh as he plopped down on the dried mud, "I'll tell you about my plan."

Jin sat down, nodding eagerly for Sendoh to go on.

"We go over to Shoyo this evening, when they're practicing, and hide outside by the gates. Then when Fujima comes out, we surround him. He won't know what's going on. Then you step forward and get down on your knees, holding up a bouquet of red roses that we will have bought on the way. 'Fujima,' you say, your voice like the velvety tones of the cello, 'I love you. I have always loved you, and no other.' He is completely charmed by your confession, and the two of you live happily ever after."

Jin's face lit up.

"Do you think it will work?"

"Of course—"

Sendoh was interrupted by Mitsui's loud laughter. Indeed, the word 'laughter' is inadequate to describe the crazed guffaws that Mitsui emitted as he rolled around in the dirt clutching his sides, little caring that his school uniform was getting soiled. When the worst of his emotional storm had passed, and he was finally able to sit up and speak, he said:

"You watch way too many movies, Sendoh."

Sendoh looked offended.

"These methods are time tested."

Wiping a tear from the corner of his eye, Mitsui said, "If someone proposed to me like that, they'd be out on their ear that instant."

Sendoh looked at Jin appraisingly.

"I think someone like Jin would be able to pull it off just fine."

"It's too sentimental." Mitsui stretched out his legs to make his observation seem casual and therefore profound.

"But Jin's a nice guy."

"That's exactly the problem." Mitsui leant forward, and pointed at Jin. "He's too nice. He's boring."

"Huh?" Sendoh frowned at Jin while he considered this new aspect of his personality.

Jin was taken aback by the attention he was receiving.

"Nice guys are boring. The first thing Fujima would say to Jin, if he did what you told him to, is, 'I'm sorry, but I like Maki. He's strong, and manly, and rides the waves like his bitch.' I can guarantee it."

Sendoh had never seen someone deflate as rapidly as Jin did just then.

"That just seems too unfair to be true."

"Wake up, Sendoh. This is the real world, not one of your romcoms. In the real world, it's the bad boy that gets the girl – or in this case Fujima."

Their attention turned briefly to a young couple who had tumbled gigglingly into the thickets, unaware that it was being used at that moment by serious men trying to solve serious problems of the world. With horrified gasps and hands flying to the waistbands of their pants and skirt, they dashed away in the direction from which they had come, not wanting to witness what was no doubt a violent threesome on the verge of occurring.

"In the real world," Mitsui went on as if nothing had happened, "nice guys like Jin get the short end of the straw."

"The stick," corrected Sendoh, who always could separate idioms that had been mixed up.

"The stick," admitted Mitsui.

"So," Jin looked up timorously at the quarreling pair, "is there no hope for me?"

"Of course there is." A smile spread across Sendoh's features like the first rays of the morning.

Then Mitsui brought in the rainclouds.

"Not much, I'm afraid."

Jin stared sadly down at his hands. What did the universe have against him? Why had he been born, of all the wretched creatures that crawled on the surface of the Earth, a nice guy?

"Cheer up, Jin. Mitsui only meant that you'll have to work harder to get what you want. And the fruit of hard work being sweet and all that, you might even get the long end of the stick."

Jin didn't look up.

"But it's Fujima I want…"

"And you will get Fujima."

"Especially," said Mitsui with a glint in his eye, "for two thousand yen."

Sendoh frowned disapprovingly at Mitsui, but said nothing. Two thousand yen happened to be exactly the price of the cheapest fishing rod at the store.

But Jin was fast losing hope.

"I don't think money can buy love." He got up to leave. "I'm sorry I wasted your time with my stupid problems."

"Wait, don't go." Mitsui leapt to his feet and grabbed Jin by the arm. "Whoever said money can't buy love was a twit. Of course it can, if you put in the right amount."

"Love costs two thousand yen?"

"Erm, no," Sendoh hastened to say before Mitsui could beguile Jin any further. "No, it doesn't. But you can't win someone's heart if you're so glum, no matter how much you pay. Even if we are," he cast a sharp glance at Mitsui, "the Love Gurus."

Mitsui sighed in defeat. The images of wealth and indulgence beyond his wildest imagination that had flashed so enticingly before his eyes vanished into thin air with a faint pop.

"We will help you," Sendoh went on, "not because you're paying us, but because you're our friend."

"I would, however," Mitsui added, "strongly recommend paying us each two thousand for best results."

"Sure." Jin didn't even blink. Sendoh and Mitsui thought at that moment that his family was probably wealthy enough to buy him ten lookalikes of Fujima. "Just tell me what I need to do."

"The first thing you need," said Sendoh, clasping Jin's shoulders, and steering him out of the coppice, past a young couple who were waiting patiently behind a tree for their turn, and into the outside world, where the afternoon sun hit their faces like a pile of bricks, "is to learn to be confident."

Jin had always had trouble with confidence. No matter whom he spoke to, whether pretty girl or dumb freshman – or even, for that matter, Fujima –, his gaze would always be directed at shoes, and the words would emerge from his mouth like the strained puffs of a steam engine traveling uphill.

"Confidence," said Sendoh knowingly, "can make all your virtues look ten times more attractive."

"But if you overdo it, you will look like a huge asshole," warned Mitsui.

"He would know," Sendoh nodded. Mitsui fumed.

As they walked toward a group of girls who were passing through the park, Sendoh suddenly said, "Watch how a master does it."

He walked toward the pathway, staring high up into the sky, pretending to study cloud formations. As the girls passed him, stealing furtive glances at him and coloring, he pretended to lose balance, and fell on one of them.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, miss," he said, extending his hand to the girl on the ground, and helping her gather her things.

The girl dusted her clothes off demurely, her companions giggling behind their hands, and said, "It's all right."

Sendoh then cast such a powerful smile at her that she was forced to look away. (More giggling from her friends.)

"To make up for it, can I get you a drink?"

She glanced uncomfortably at him for a brief moment, before blurting out, "I'm sorry, but I'm already with someone," and hurrying away.

Mitsui couldn't stop laughing.

"That was epic," he said through gasps.

"And I think you looked a bit like an asshole," Jin added.

"What are you talking about? I did great." Sendoh, the master of suavity, had a hard time accepting that he had made a girl feel uncomfortable. "She would have totally run back into the woods with me."

"Except that she already had a boyfriend." Mitsui's laughter scattered a flock of pigeons that had descended to feed, and scared some elderly passersby.

"Well, you get the idea," said Sendoh, adding with animated gestures, "You have to look into people's eyes, talk loudly and clearly, and try to win them over with your words. Now you try."

Jin took a deep breath, and approached an attractive woman in her early fifties.

"Excuse me, ma'am," he said, looking into her sunglasses, "do know what time it is?"

She patted him on the head, and thrust a bar of candy into his hands.

"You've still got a few years to go before you can have me," she said, and continued walking.

"Well, that was a start," said Mitsui.

"Yes, you nearly had her," said Sendoh, punching the air to show encouragement.

Jin was duly encouraged, and felt that he could take on anyone.

"I have a good feeling about this. I think I want to talk to Fujima today."

And so the Love Gurus found themselves flanking Jin outside the Shoyo gates that evening, looking more than ever before like his bodyguards. Nervous glances and suspicious glances were cast at them by Shoyo students leaving for home, but these did not faze in the slightest the three coconspirators in love. It was not the rabble they were here for, but the King.

After a quarter of an hour of standing awkwardly in front of the gates, when the basketball team still showed no signs of emerging from the bowels of the school, Jin said, "I think we should go inside."

Sendoh concurred.

"That's a good idea."

When they reached the gym, they saw that the King was indeed busy stirring his subjects into action. His presence, in spite of his slender build, seemed to fill the entire gym. A mere syllable uttered from his mouth was enough to scatter players much taller than he like billiard balls. He was an artist who knew how to command the medium of his choice. "Hasegawa, lower your waist!" he ordered with hands on his hips, for that made good art; "Hanagata, you were this close to making a foul." No, Fujima would not accept anything short of perfection – anything less than his vision of the ideal, which was meant only for eyes like his own.

Then he noticed Sendoh, Mitsui, and Jin standing outside the gym doors.

"Oh hey, you guys," he said, jogging over to them gregariously. "What brings you here?"

A sharp jab in the small of the back from Mitsui caused Jin to stumble forward.

"F-F-Fujima," he stammered, having yet to overcome the initial effect of being thrust into Fujima's awesome presence. "We were just… passing by."

"Shouldn't you be at practice now?" Fujima was intimately familiar with Kainan's training schedule.

Jin scratched the back of his head, and laughed sheepishly.

"I wasn't feeling very well, so I decided to skip practice today." It didn't sound as credible as he would have liked. It was well known that the Kainan team wouldn't miss practice even if an earthquake hit the region.

"Oh," said Fujima vaguely, and then repeated his original question: "So what brings you guys here?"

"There was something Jin wanted to say to you," said Sendoh, winking at Jin.

"Ah," said Jin when Fujima's attention suddenly returned to him. Then he decided to muster all the confidence he had, and blurted out in the space of a second, "I love you very much."

Fujima's eyes stared back at Jin like bewildered oases. Bewilderment then made way for comprehension, as the words sunk in one by one. And then all emotion seemed to disappear from his face altogether, and the sound of activity in the gym abruptly died out. All eyes were on Jin and Fujima. Hanagata flashed his glasses warningly upon Jin, but the damage had been done.

"Jin," said Fujima with what sounded like some effort, "I appreciate your telling me this," – always a sign that the speaker would have in fact preferred not to have heard something – "but the one I have feelings for is Maki."

Deep down, Jin had known that this would be the result of his confession; but that did not make the shattering of his heart the less painful. Indeed, he would not be surprised to see the front of his shirt stained with his own blood and a gun in Fujima's hand. Enough! He could take no more.

But Fujima was inexorable.

"You're a nice guy, Jin. I'm sure there's someone out there for you," he said, Hanagata nodding his agreement with this very logical statement from behind; "but not me."

"Why not?" Jin mumbled. His gaze had returned to its traditional spot on Fujima's shoes. "What does Maki have that I don't?"

Fujima sighed. He didn't want to make Jin suffer any more. But it was not possible to explain his feelings to him in a way that wouldn't hurt him.

"Maki is special to me," Fujima said carefully, "perhaps in the same way as I am to you."

Sendoh and Mitsui, both too stunned for words, stepped forward to escort Jin to a less painful location, away from Shoyo – away from Fujima, that devil with an angel's face.

But Jin wasn't going to leave quietly and obediently, with his tail between his legs. He looked up into Fujima's face even as he fought back tears, eyebrows furrowed with the effort, and concentrated all his passion into his stare.

"Maki won't love you back in the way you want him to," he said. "But I will. Why would you still pick him over me? Is it because he's better looking? Is it because he's a better basketball player?"

Fujima raised a hand to put it on Jin's shoulder, but thought better of it.

"Jin," he said, his voice filled with genuine sadness, "I like you a lot, too. I've watched you play quite often, and it's fascinating. But my feelings for Maki are just too strong." He dug his hands deep into his hair in frustration, and looked away. Hanagata was not sure whether to come to his friend's assistance. The rest of the Shoyo team had retreated to the far end of the court, and were engaged in subdued basic training. "Sometimes I hate myself for it, too. But I can't help it. Please, try to understand!"

After the passage of a measured breath, Jin said, "I understand. I'm sorry I bothered you. I'm sorry I interrupted your training. Most of all, I'm sorry not to be Maki." Then he shoved Sendoh and Mitsui aside, and ran out into the dusk before anyone could think of following him.

Fujima looked feebly from Sendoh to Mitsui, as if hoping for absolution.

"I'm sorry, Fujima," said Sendoh finally. "We were the ones who encouraged him to do this. Good luck with practice."

"Good luck," mumbled Mitsui. He had known that a traditional confession wouldn't work; he had known, and he had tried to warn them.

But now all he and Sendoh could to do was to head back home, dazed and numb from their first failure since becoming professional experts in love.

/tbc

A/N: I guess this story will span four chapters, then, as I see it - not three. I'm also liberally employing all the cringeworthy love cliches I'm familiar with from fiction and television under the excuse that this is supposed to be a romantic comedy.

Also, I know that Jin is hopelessly OOC, and so perhaps are the other characters. (Erm... romantic comedy?)