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BANDS OF black AND blue
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o7 : present you the world
But I am scared when you hold me close and tell me that no one in the world will ever be as reliable - that you will not call anyone else your partner. Because while I encase myself in weak smiles and damp shadows and silence, you thrive in opposite conditions: you easily make strong bonds with people you've known for only a couple hours and throw yourself behind ideas that you have no practical knowledge of and laugh and scream while I try to talk sense.
And with some twisted affection that you most certainly would be flattered to claim, I hold you, Aomine Daiki of the Generation of Miracles - my first 'light', the ace, first-year student at Touou High - in the highest of regards.
You will not believe when Kise calls you on your cellphone, hysterical no doubt because I've up-and-vanished from the victory celebrations and why won't I answer my cellphone; you'll probably rationalize my ignoring of your subsequent calls. I do not know how you will pass off my lack of presence, only that you will.
And in all this rationalizing, there will be no time for you to think rationally - there will be no time for you to piece the flimsy little clues together. I choose the right time to take my leave from the Teikou basketball scene, even though the timing was by nature of chance, as opposed to actual reasoning. But it will not matter because I will be a freshman in a whole new high school and there will be a new team and I will make new friends and -
I will not - will never - be able to replace you.
Flash forward two months, I'm sitting by the side of my bed. You've stopped trying to call me, I've deleted every single one of your absolutely outraged text messages, and this is just the first step in a particularly daring plan of mine. Because I do not hold faith in your promises of eternal affection, because I do not hold faith in my ability to keep your interest, because I do not hold faith in the rest of the world in keeping your love of basketball.
Even now, I suppose you will not believe me. But it's alright; I've almost gotten used to the hatred that simmers in your eyes whenever you happen to glance at me. I've all but insisted that Kagami-kun ignore the blatant jealousy you show towards him. And I've reassured - time and again - my team that the next time we play your school, we will win.
And I believe in that.
Aomine-kun, you will not understand now, because you're so good at something that you used to love so much - that you now love only because you have loved nothing else. It hurts to see you like this; the Aomine-kun I know does not hate basketball, could never hate basketball.
You told me - at the end of our basketball season at Teikou - that you were unbeatable. That you were the only person who could defeat yourself; that no one else would be able to win against you. And it might have ended like that - had you been happy with it. But you were not, and - and don't you see? - leaving was the only way that I could find someone, discover a team, that would be strong enough to stand against you.
Look at me now - look at me, Aomine-kun. Or, more precisely, look at my new light, the one that you despise so much. See how good of a fight he gives? See his own inner talent: jumps that Kise-kun cannot copy, endurance that Midorima-kun cannot comprehend. You scoffed during the first match; he wasn't ready then. But now that Seirin is facing Touou a second time - your eyes tell me that you see him, that you see my chosen team, in a new light.
And that, you see, is what I have been aiming for all along. You will love basketball again Aomine-kun, I can promise you that. Because this team - my team - exists to beat you, to be beaten by you - to compete alongside and against you; to rival you. And in that competition, perhaps you will come to love the basketball that I play.
But look at you, shaking your head and refusing to believe. It's alright - just wait and see.