Chapter 6 "The Blue Haired Boy from Next Door"
He was only 4 when a new couple moved in the next door. And when his mother told him that the new couple had two kids who were the same age as him, he was beyond thrilled.
"Ryota! They're here!" his mother called and he rushed down the stairs to their garden. His mother had invited their new neighbors to dinner.
Ryota Kise was a blonde kid who had long eyelashes and was too pretty for a boy. He had two older sisters but no friends because of where they were living was full of old people. So when he saw the new couple sitting with his parents at their garden, he couldn't help but feel excited for the new kids.
Although, he only saw one, a spiky red haired boy with different eye colors from each other, yellow and red. Ryota looked for the other kid but he couldn't see.
"My brother isn't here." different colored eyed boy stated and continued;
"I'm Akashi, Seijuro Akashi."
"I'm Ryota."
"What's your surname?"
"Oh, Ryota Kise."
"Although I'll call you Ryota, I want you to call me only by my surname." Akashi said and Ryota could swear he saw a crazy light in the other boy's eyes. The blonde boy nodded.
"Aww.. where's your other boy?" his mother asked the couple.
"He.. uhh.. he isn't much of a social type." Akashi's father said and mother added;
"I'm sure it's just a phase. He recently learned about Seijuro, and he is pretty shaken by it."
"Beg your pardon?" Ryota's mom asked, "About Seijuro?"
The couple smiled and hold hands;
"Seijuro is from my ex wife. She.. died four years ago, cancer."
"Dear God, I'm so sorry."
"It's okay. After her death, I was only lucky to fall in love again and had another son. And.. we both understand Seijuro who started to understand all and wants the be called by his mother's family name."
Ryota looked at Akashi who only shrugged as a comment.
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2 DAYS LATER
"Thank you, honey!" was the last thing Ryota heard before the next door neighbors' door shut.
There was only a low fencing between the two houses which was making easy to see the other garden for Ryota. He looked over Akashi's, he still wasn't sure if he was a friend or not, house and saw a blue haired boy who was getting out a small trash bag.
Ryota knew this was the second boy, Akashi's half brother who was 6 months younger than Akashi. So this kid was also the same age as the other 2 but seemed much younger because of his small built. Yeah, Akashi was also pretty small compared to Ryota but this boy was even smaller. Ryota could see the resemblance between the 2 brothers because of having the same father, except this one had light blue hair with big blue eyes.
'He is really cute.' Ryota thought. Less scarier than his brother.
"Hey!" he called to the cute boy even without noticing himself. The blue haired boy looked at him without saying anything.
"I'm Ryota! What's your name?"
He stared at him for a long time, that Ryota almost was going to think he couldn't talk, before answering;
"Tetsuya Kuroko."
"Wanna play together Kurokocchi?" Ryota asked, excited.
"No." Tetsuya answered, deadpan before getting back inside of his house.
Ryota stood there, shocked. And that was the last conversation he had with the blue haired boy from next door.
A month later, Ryota had to move out with his mom and sisters because of their parents' divorce.
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"Be careful on your way to school!" his oldest sister shouted behind him.
"Can you be any more embarrassing?!" Ryota shouted her back.
"Ya! You little ungrateful bastard.."
All of his family was a pain in the ass today cause it was his first day. In middle school. And he, well.. had absolutely no friends, he never had. He was sure that he was just really REALLY unlucky at finding people to become friends with. He had his own little fan base though, thanks to his sisters signing him up for modeling. It wasn't a real shock that he became known in just a year cause he really had a pretty face, on top of that he was very friendly and charming.
When he reached the school, he got goosebumps from excitement.
"First day, huh? Shouldn't be that hard." he muttered to himself.
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1 YEAR LATER
"Kise-kun!"
"Aiii! Kise-kun~!"
"Can I have an autograph?!"
"Yeah! Me too!"
"OH MY GOD! Please take a picture with me~!"
"Please, please, please ~!"
Kise smiled at the crowd of girls and whole crowd screamed. He signed couple of autographs, all of them was his pictures; posters or magazine pages, and took pictures with a few. When the bell rang he said;
"Uhh.. Sorry guys but I gotta catch my class. We can continue later, okay?"
"Okay, Kise-kun~!" all of them said cheerfully, at the same time. He winked at them which caused lots of screaming and went to his class.
There were 2 main reasons why he didn't have friends;
The first reason was cause he was a celebrity-like now, all of the girls either were his fans or anti-fans.
And second one was because he gets most girls attention, all boys were hating on him.
He sneaked out after the class before anyone could catch up with him. He walked around the school, trying not to noticed by a fan, or an extreme anti-fan. When he came nearby the tennis courts, he watched them for a while thinking it would be great if he could join a club.
He wanted to do something that was challenging cause he'd mastered whatever he wanted to do, including tennis.
"HEY WATCH OUT!" someone shouted just a second before Kise got a headshot with a basketball ball.
"Ouch!" he cried out.
"Are you okay?" the same person who, now Kise could see clearly, had a brown skin that's darker than most people he'd met and navy blue hair that was quite short. He was as tall as him, maybe even taller, he couldn't decide since he fell down and sitting on the floor.
"Umm.. I guess so..?" Kise answered, wasn't sure himself too.
The dark skinned boy extended his hand to offer help and Kise accept. He pulled Kise up to his feet in one-go, he was strong. The boy squinted his eyes slightly;
"Ya sure you're okay? I'll kill the bastard who forgot to close the gym's gates."
"Yeah, yeah. I'm, uh, perfectly fine. Except.."
"Except?" the boy looked worried.
"Can you see any bruises? I have shootings after school and I have to look.. well, bruiseLESS."
Dark skinned boy looked at him, shocked, like he wasn't sure if Kise was joking or not. Then he snapped his fingers;
"Oh! You're that guy! The- the model one, right? My friend's a huge fan of yours! .. Sorry, what's your name again?"
'He really doesn't know?' Kise thought.
"Ryota Kise."
"Ah, yeah! That's it!" the boy grinned and added;
"And I'm-"
"Aomine! What took you so long?! Get back here!" an older man, Kise thought he might've been a coach, yelled.
"Daiki Aomine, 's me." dark skinned boy, Aomine, grinned then said;
"Sorry, gotta get back. 'S nice to meeting you, I'll SO tell my friend that I threw a ball at your face, she'll probably kill me. 'N no, it ain't seems like you'll have bruises." he laughed and ran back to the gym.
'What the hell was that?' Kise thought.
It was a day later since he'd met Daiki Aomine. He just couldn't get him out of his mind, like something was up with that kid. He had this aura.
Just like that Kise surrendered his curiosity and went to the gym again after school. He knew there was a basketball practice today.
The first thing he saw when he opened the gates of the gym was Aomine, dunking the ball. And it was that time, when he decided to do this sport, playing basketball. He was so mesmerized by Aomine's basketball that he couldn't see the ball which was going to hit him in a sec.
"HEY WATCH OUT!"
"Ouch!"
Aomine ran to him and started laughing;
"We gotta stop meeting like this."
"Can't agree more." Kise replied while rubbing his head.
"So? What're ya doin' here?" Aomine asked.
"Basketball." Kise spurted out.
Aomine frowned his eyebrows in confusion.
"I wanna try playing basketball." Kise explained.
"Oh! 'S great! Have ya ever played?"
"No, this is gonna be my first time but I learn fast."
"'S that so~" Aomine laughed, "C'mon in then."
And Kise got in.
The gym was big, like REALLY big. There were 3 separate groups that can be noticed. When Aomine saw what the blonde boy looking at;
"We call'em 'Strings'. There're Third, Second and First strings. From weakest to the strongest." he explained.
"Which string you're in?" Kise asked. Aomine laughed;
"Whaddya think?" It wasn't really a question. Aomine added;
"You'll, of course, start playing in the third-string but I'd like to play with ya someday, if only you make through the first-string."
"What do I have to do?" the blonde boy asked, felt his blood started to boil with excitement.
Aomine shrugged;
"Win."
ㅡㅇㅡ
When he got accepted to the club and started to play as a third-string, he noticed that normally no first-string player was talking to the other strings' players.
One of the reasons was that they were no where to be seen, actually. He'd seen Aomine and exchanged greetings, sometimes even ate lunch and hung out together but for the others.. well. There was this scary green haired guy with glasses as well but he'd never talked to him. The truth was, he got warned by his teammates that it'd be better if he just could stay away from that gut. He didn't know the story behind it but seemed like the green haired boy managed to scare the whole second and third strings.
To everyone's, but not to himself, surprise he made it the first-string almost in no time. It was Aomine who welcomed him first.
"Others ain't here, nerding for their upcoming exam but I can introduce you with-" Aomine whistled to a really but a REALLY tall guy and gestured him to come over. The tall boy didn't hurried to come and when he came, "Atsushi Murasakibara." he finished.
The tall boy looked over Kise. He had violet eyes and shoulder length, lavender hair that was touching his back.
Aomine continued;
"Ya probably ain't see'em here much cause.. uh, he hates practicing."
"I saw the green haired boy with glasses a lot and red haired one but not from close. Other strings don't even talk about them like they're the Bloody Mary."
Aomine laughed then nudged the tall guy, Murasakibara;
"This's Ryota Kise. Coach decided to move'em to play in first-string."
"Hmph." was all Murasakibara said.
"Say 'hi'. He's also my friend."
That made Kise extremely happy cause he knew Aomine wasn't the type that acknowledges someone easily as a friend. Murasakibara looked at Aomine with a stern look but then turned to Kise and said;
"Hi~" lazily then left without even waiting for a reply.
"You'll get used to him. Gotta know one thing tho; Do NOT belittle yourself or else they'll crush ya and even I can't help."
ㅡㅇㅡ
This was the day. This was the day that he'd finally meet with the first-string players. Aomine had texted him last night that the others' exams were over and today after school they were all going to practice.
He couldn't help but shake with excitement the whole day. He felt like this was the longest school-day ever. He just couldn't stop thinking about what kinda amazing players he was going to meet today. When the bell that announces the end of the school time rang, he almost ran to the gym. Kise was really surprised that 5 people were already there, before him.
"Yo! Kise!" Aomine called once he noticed him coming, they gave each other a high five. Everyone on the court stopped practicing and came near them.
"Akashi, this is the new guy that I was talking about!" Aomine said, smiling.
'Akashi?' Kise thought for a second about the familiar name but couldn't make it out.
"You're the Copy-Cat then? Ryota Kise."
"I- uh- yeah."
He didn't know why he panicked at the red haired boy's voice. But his aura was just too overwhelming.
"I'm Akashi, Seijuro Akashi. Captain of the Teiko Middle School Basket Team, First-string. Although I'll call you Ryota, I want you to call me only by my surname."
The blonde boy nodded and Akashi smiled in a weird way then continued;
"You're already friends with our ace, Daiki, so I'm just gonna skip him.-"
"I also met him Aka-chin~" Murasakibara cut-in.
"Did you?" Captain raised his eyebrows.
"Mine-chin made me~" he answered.
Kise thought the tall boy meant Aomine by 'Mine-chin'.
"Okay then; Daiki, Atsushi step back. Others step ahead."
Kise was surprised by how the two troublemakers like them obeyed the orders immediately. Just what kinda captain Akashi was? Then he noticed the other two stepped ahead. One of them was a girl.
'Wait, there's gotta be a mistake-'
"I know what you're thinking and no, she isn't playing but she is a teammate. Satsuki Momoi, Manager of Teiko Basketball Team, All-strings." Akashi introduced.
Momoi had long, bright pink hair that was reaching her lower back. Her large eyes were also pink. She was slender and had large breasts. She was wearing a skirt that was quite short with a light green sweater, zipped open. She was smiling at Kise brightly;
"Hi! Nice to meet you!" Kise smiled back automatically;
"Nice to meet you too!"
"I am a huge fan! I-"
"Satsuki, back." Akashi interrupted her and Momoi joined the other two.
The captain pointed the other person, the boy with green hair and glasses who was just a bit taller than Kise;
"Shintaro Midorima. Our shooting guard."
"Nice to meet you!" Kise bowed 90° cause of the boy's serious, scary look.
"You shouldn't bow down to other people who haven't prove themselves to you." the boy with glasses, Midorima said.
"But you're a first-string!"
"So do you, now, but you still haven't prove yourself to us."
"Yoo~.. Midorima, 's ain't even his first day y'know. Go easy on him, will ya?" Aomine said while others didn't comment on it. They shared a look before Midorima asked;
"What's your Zodiac?" to Ryota.
The blonde boy caught off-guard but answered;
"U-uh, Gemini."
"Huh.. There are going to be complications in your love life."
Kise rubbed back of his head while smiling and saying;
"I don't have a girlfriend though.. Anyways, it was really nice to meet you all."
When he finished, Aomine and Momoi started to laugh, Akashi grin and Murasakibara and Midorima rolled their eyes as 'Not this again.'. Kise was confused by the acts, fortunately Akashi explained;
"There is one more player you gotta meet."
"Oh, is it? I thought you were all. Why isn't he here? When am I gonna meet him?"
"I am here." a voice called, literally in front of him.
He screamed and jumped from the shock.
"Since when were you there?!" Kise asked.
"Since you came to the gym." the boy answered and Kise's jaw dropped open;
"He's lying, right?"
Everyone shook their heads as 'no'.
"H-HOW?!"
"Meet Tetsu." Aomine laughed.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Tetsuya Kuroko." he said, deadpan.
"Nice to meet you too.." Kise muttered.
'Tetsuya Kuroko..' he thought, 'Why is it so familiar?'
Kise stared at Kuroko. The boy was probably the shortest on the team, was the same height with the girl, Momoi. He had light blue hair and light blue eyes which had a blank gaze.
...
...
!
Kise looked at between Akashi and Kuroko over and over. Others were looking at him weirdly like he was crazy because of his act. But before anyone could say anything, Kise pointed at Kuroko and shouted;
"The Blue Haired Boy from Next Door!"
Kuroko tilted his head slightly while Akashi raised his eyebrows.
"So much from a normal person." Midorima stated.
"Oh, ya look at yourself." Aomine snapped and Midorima glared at him.
ㅡㅇㅡ
After Kise talked about the past, both brothers remembered him but only a little cause they were only a month-long together and they were 4, not to mention Kuroko'd never talked to him.
Kise never liked Kuroko, not even now, after all these years, he was still the same. He wasn't even looking at Ryota's face.
Even though the whole Kuroko fact, he still became good friends with the others and started to hang out with them all the time. He loved spending time with Aomine the most but he had this weird habit of getting disappeared time to time. Kise had no idea what could he be doing and whenever he asks about it, he was always changing the subject.
"He ain't a bad person." Aomine defended Kuroko.
No one besides them had came to the practice after school. And they were having a 1 vs 1. Kise knew now who do what whenever a person didn't come to the practice;
Akashi, Kuroko and Midorima studying (nerding as Aomine refers), Aomine and Murasakibara simply slacking and Momoi shopping.
"How do you know?" Kise replied.
"Cause he's my best friend." he made a score.
"He's just- So. Damn. Cold, Aominecchi." Kise also scored by copying him.
"Aominecchi? 'S this whatcha callin' me now?"
"You didn't like it?"
Aomine shrugged;
"Got no problem with it. 'S just kinda reminded me of Murasakibara's 'Mine-chin'."
"Oh. I could-"
"Naah~ 'S fine." he laughed but then got serious;
"Y'know, Kise, basketball's ain't a sport that you can play solo. Y'gotta trust on your teammates too-"
"I do, Aominecchi!"
"-'n gotta get along with'em." Aomine finished.
Kise got silent before saying;
"You're talking about Kuroko."
"Damn yeah I am!" he laughed, "Just. Get pass his shell. Look, I know that's some hell of a tough shell but once ya get pass, you'll see what kinda person he really is."
"Is he really that amazing of a person?" Kise asked, doubtfully.
"Find out yourself." Aomine grinned and added;
"He likes vanilla ice cream." before he left the gym.
ㅡㅇㅡ
"Ryota, Tetsuya is going to be your personal instructor from now on." Akashi announced in the middle of their practice.
"What?! HIM?! But I'm much more stronger than him!"
"His strength is in a whole different class from any of us."
"I didn't even see him playing basketball! Not even ONCE!"
"Ya can't even normally see him." Aomine joked.
"Are you disobeying me?" Akashi sternly looked at him. Kise froze with the hit of Akashi's crazily strong aura.
"No."
"Good."
"But I was just wondering," he chose to push his luck, "wouldn't Aomine be a better instructor?"
"He can't even look after himself." Akashi sighed.
"Hey! What did I do?" Aomine threw his arms to the air while Akashi was completely ignoring him and asking Kuroko who was sitting on the bench with Momoi;
"Will you be able to do it?"
'Say no, say no, say no..." Kise chanted initially again and again.
"Yes, Akashi-kun."
'UGH!'
ㅡㅇㅡ
Kise's first official game happened to be for second-string players' match against another middle school. As they were walking toward to gym, Kise offered;
"Let's make a bet on each other's uniform. Whoever gets more points today's match will win." to Kuroko who was walking next to him, behind from the others.
"I decline."
"What? Why?!"
"Because what you do for the team is more important than individual points." he answered and continued to walk in silence.
Kise weren't put in the game until Teiko started to lose badly. Expected it to be easy, he immediately guarded by two men and couldn't move as he wanted. After a minute or so Kuroko also entered the field. He went directly next to Kise and said;
"I'll need your help."
"What? My help?" Kise was surprised.
Kuroko nodded;
"Pay attention to me and move quick."
"Hey! I don't have to listen to you."
"You actually do, Kise-kun, since I'm your personal instructor." Kuroko replied, deadpan as always.
'UGH!'
"Okay! Let's see what's so special about you."
The match started and Kise had to swallow ALL the bad things he said or thought about Kuroko. Kuroko was a misdirection master. He was using his misdirection to get the ball and making his invisible pass to Kise who was scoring, finally. It was like the walls in front of him vanished with Kuroko's existence on the court.
Kise was beyond amazed by Kuroko's ability and they eventually won the game. After the match, he approached Kuroko and asked;
"Do you like to sacrifice yourself for other people to score?"
"I don't. But it's all for the sake of winning, right?" Kuroko replied.
"Right.." the blonde boy muttered.
After witnessing Kuroko's strength, Kise acknowledged him and changed his attitude towards him drastically.
ㅡㅇㅡ
"Kurokocchi~!"
Kise had seen his personal instructor walking alone after school and decided to ran towards him. When he was about to hug him, Kuroko raised the basketball ball in his hand and Kise hit his face to the ball.
"Ouch!" he cried out, "Kurokocchi, you're so mean.."
"What do you want Kise-kun?"
By the time, he was already got used to Kuroko's cold attitude cause he wasn't acting like that because he didn't like them but it was just who he was.
"I.. uh.. I was just wondering.."
"Yes?"
"Would you like to get ice cream with me? Eating alone is kinda boring."
Kuroko smiled at him slightly but it was more than enough to make Kise all excited.
"Sure, Kise-kun."
Kise got both of them a vanilla ice cream and handed one to Kuroko. The blue haired boy raised his eyebrows;
"How did you know that I like vanilla?"
Kise decided to stay honest;
"Aominecchi had mentioned it before." and he saw Kuroko got blushed slightly;
"Oh."
They talked for hours that felt like only minutes. Kise got this weird but nice feeling whenever Kuroko smiled at him even if it was only slightly. And not after long, he understood what it was that got him very off-guard.
ㅡㅇㅡ
Kise was sitting on the stairs of Teiko with Aomine when he asked dark skinned boy;
"Aominecchi, do you ever like someone?"
The dark skinned boy laughed;
"Yo, Kise. I know I look like I hate everyone but I actually like people, ain't more than basketball of course."
"I didn't mean that way.. Like, you 'like' like someone?"
Aomine froze for almost a minute.
"I,- yeah."
"I bet it was some girl with large breasts from America, right?"
"Hah! Exact the opposite, actually, ain't my type at all. But well, I fell for'em."
Kise kept play with his ball while asking;
"What does it feels like?"
Aomine stood up and started to walk and Kise immediately followed him.
"Um.. 'S like.. Everything that person does matter to ya and y'just wanna see'em happy. And.. no matter what you do, y'just keep fallin' even harder for'em. Whenever they're happy, you're happy 'n whenever they get hurt, ya hurt even more. Shittiest feelin' ever if ya ask me."
Kise thought for a moment before speaking slowly;
"I think.. I like Kurokocchi.."
"YOU CAN'T!" Aomine replied quickly and a bit loudly. Kise was confused;
"W- Why?"
"You're both guys for one reason. Ain't it concerns ya?"
"But I LIKE him."
"You still CAN'T."
"WHY THE HELL NOT?!" Kise shouted.
"Cause he already has someone." Aomine said with a lower voice.
"What? Who?"
"Satsuki and Tetsu are a couple." Aomine continued slowly;
"I don't know if I should be telling ya this but they're a couple for a long time. They just ain't share that much."
"But they weren't acting like-"
"I know." Aomine cut-in. He saw Kise getting teary so he got the blonde kid under his arm and ruffled his hair while saying;
"Oi! What happened to being happy for'em?!"
"I AM! I AM! LET GO!" he shouted but Aomine replied by tickling him.
Later that day, Aomine heard Kise crying out loud outside of the gym.
ㅡㅇㅡ
2 days later, Kuroko and Momoi announced that they were dating and started to hangout together more. As for Kise who decided to bury his feelings and be Kuroko's side even it'll mean only as friends, continued to hangout and have long conversations with Kuroko.
"Aka-chin~ Do you really think-" one day Kise coincided Murasakibara and Akashi's conversation. He couldn't help but ear drop.
"Of course not. I don't know why but Tetsuya is playing which is very unlike him." Akashi interrupted Murasakibara.
They were, now they started to get called Generation of Miracles, helping on a school event in the gym.
"What is that Kurokocchi playing?" Kise asked, couldn't stay hidden for long.
"Were you ear dropping?" Akashi squinted his eyes.
"Yes, I was. Now tell me, what is that Kurokocchi playing?"
"I'm just not buying it like you idiots are." Akashi replied. Kise didn't get what was he referring so the different coloured eyed boy explained;
"Tetsuya and Satsuki. They're not dating. Look at them." and pointed them; Kuroko and Aomine who were painting a poster together. Kuroko was laughing at Aomine who was messing up the poster unintentionally.
At that moment, Kise realized.
ㅡㅇㅡ
PRESENT
Yukio Kasamatsu, captain of the Kaijo Basketball Team, hit Kise's head teasingly, they'd met when Kise was on the way of gym and asked;
"What were you thinking, idiot?"
"My first love." Kise answered, smiling in a heartbreaking way.
"So even YOU can fall in love, huh?"
Kise didn't reply so Kasamatsu continued;
"Anyways, let's go loser. Coach will have our heads for that defeat."
Kise nodded and the two Kaijo players started to walk towards gym.
To Be Continued~