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The Secret Life of Kuroko Tetsuya: The (Straight) Boy's Love Novelist
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I own nothing but my crazy imagination.
"Oh so this is Hiro's new team..." Comment Rindou, the video I took of Kaijo yesterday was playing on Matsuki's office desktop. "They seem, well, normal." She commented. "Pretty vanilla." She sighed.
I nodded in agreement, "They're quite average, not really screaming Yaoi at me." I admitted.
Rindou nodded, "I know what you mean, everything seems super manly, which is great and all since they're technically supposed to be masculine." She sighed. "But..."
"They're boring." I deadpanned, Rindou nodded. "They have character but... Maybe as side characters." I rested my hand under my chin.
Rindou's eyes brightened, "I got it! Make one a crossdresser!" She squealed, grabbing my shoulders and shaking it.
Cross dressing... A male cross dressing... That would be unlikely in the basketball field... I'm sorry Rindou, but no muscular man can succeed at such a task. "..." My lips didn't move, instead, I simply shook my head in silent disapproval. I aim to make my fans lust after these characters, not puke in horror or revolt... I don't think I'll be willing to implant that visual into their innocent minds.
"But it's unique!" She protested. I still shook my head. "Fine," Sighed Rindou as she crossed her arms and leaned back in Matsuki's chair. The silence didn't last long, it never did since it was Rindou we're talking about. "Hey, I know! If we want to get into the minds of basketballers, we should be basketballers!" She told me before grinning. She got up in her seat as she grabbed her backpack and pulled out a basketball, thrusting it out towards my face. "Let's go play!" She said enthusiastically with glee.
"No."
... Why?
We stood outside in the court nearby Matsuki's office, it was empty. Of course it would be... It was around 9pm on a weeknight, most people would be home by now... Actually... Rindou should have gone back now but I don't think she cared. Tsk, no wonder she gets caught easily when she attempts to break curfew. She didn't think things through well enough.
"Alley loop!" Rindou yelled, shoving the ball forward. It hit the back board, snicker. It landed back in her hands. "Go in!" She threw it again, smack. Same result... Rindou dropped the basketball and turned to me smiling, "Let's start warming up."
"Someone must have definitely dropped you on the head as a child because I'm quite sure you have the order of things wrong." I informed her bluntly.
Rindou's smile didn't flatter, "I said, let's warm up!" She grabbed my arm and before I knew it we were running laps around the court... At least that was the plan before we stopped halfway. "I forgot how unfit writers and artist were." She whined, her hands rested on her knee caps as we were doubled over on the ground.
I didn't quite agree, "I think it's just us, Rindou." I managed to squeeze a few words in. She nodded as she crawled into a ball and rested against the court's fence wall. We sucked. Spotting the basketball, I picked it up. Hmmm... I looked at the hoop, and aimed...
Nothing. It didn't even reach the hoop.
"HAHAHA!" Rindou burst out in a fit of laughter. A deeper voice laughed behind her from behind the fence as Matsuki stood with his face pressed to the fence, his hands clutching the wires tightly.
"For someone whose always writing game play, you suck, Tetsuya!" He yelled at me. He looked dapperly dressed, more than usual at least.
I frowned, "Says the man who clearly failed another marriage interview!"
That got him, it always did. "Shut up!" He snapped as he marched into the court in his formally dressed clothes, he really went all out in his stripped pin grey suit. "I'll show you how to play basketball." He grumbled, tossing his blazer onto Rindou (the girl protested). He caught the ball I tossed him, dribbling it for a while before he dashed to the hoop and smashed it in one powerful dunk.
"Wow~" Rindou and I said. "You must have been rejected super badly this time at your arranged marriage meeting."
That set him off even more. "Oh shut up! You both don't understand the pains of an adult!" He snapped, running his hand through his styled hair. Matsuki was a fairly handsome young man, but he could never seem to find himself a girlfriend, which is why he had started attending the oddest things, the latest being arranged marriage meetings. Unfortunately... Something always seemed to go wrong in these meetings. Very wrong. "All I want is to find a nice woman, get married and have a nice family." He muttered softly to himself. Well life doesn't always work out...
Oh, that's right... "Foul." I deadpanned, my finger pointed sharply at his feet. "You practically travelled all the way up to the court." I told him.
Matsuki tsked, "I'd like to see you do better," he bounced the ball back to me.
"I want to play!" Rindou practically wedged herself between us as she speared the ball away from my palm, she took a defensive stance as she dribbled the ball in front of Matsuki. She attempted to drive past him but the man clearly had an advantage, she smirked, tossing the ball over his shoulder to the left.
"Where the hell are you throwing?" Exclaimed Matsuki as Rindou moved to his right, he clearly forgot I was there. I swiped at the ball, passing it to Rindou who caught it with ease before she moved towards the hoop. "Shit! I forgot you were there, Tetsuya." Matsuki didn't bother to block her as the ball managed to at least pass through the net this time.
Rindou smiled and gave me a thumbs up, "Nice job, Tetsuya!" She told me.
There was the sound of bags dropping as we turned to see Riko standing by the fence, she was still in her school uniform, but had dropped a bag of snacks from the local mart nearby. She must have been on her way home from late practice (which I was supposed to have attended). "Kuroko," she exclaimed. "You have to play at the practice match!"
"Huh?"
"You'll be our trump card!"
"I decline." I bowed at her.
She made her way into the basketball court, completely disregarding the presence of Rindou and Matsuki as she focused on me. "But you could help us win against Kaijo!"
"Coach, look at my stats..." I said, she seemed to listen to me because her face distorted and paled, she couldn't hold herself back from cringing at what I can assume was my incredibly low statistics. "I don't play basketball, or even exercise... There's no way I could reach national level in time. It's impossible." I deadpanned to her.
Riko sighed and nodded, "True." She muttered. "Alright, I'm sorry for interrupting... Whatever this is..." Her brown eyes darted to where Rindou stood, her foot on the basketball while Matsuki scowled at his phone, his hand in his pocket.
"It's fine." I told her as Riko left the court.
Her phone rang, "Huh? You want to come over to house to train some more? Are you insane, Hyuuga?" My ears twitched at the phone call, what was this?
"You know, if you wanted to see me in private, you could have just told me after practice." He stared at the male before him, he leaned his body against the frame of his open door. It was late, but that clearly didn't stop a certain someone from calling him out here. Well, it wasn't like he was going to deny him anyway. He never did in the past.
The teen before him shook his head, "I'm sorry, I just had to see you." His hands clenched tightly in his pocket, he didn't dare meet his classmate's eyes. "There was something that I had to confirm." He muttered.
Ren smirked, he cupped Jiochirou's cheeks and leaned closer to him teasingly. He loved to trouble his childhood friend, it always drew out the cutest reactions from him. As if he'll ever admit it to him. "And you couldn't have told me during practice?" He smirked as the teen began to squirm. 'Too cute.'
His cheeks were burning now, "There were other people." He still didn't meet his gaze.
Ren frowned, "Look at me." He whispered.
"No,"
"Look at me." He pressed their forehead's together. "Anything." He told him. "You can tell me anything, don't forget that."
'But I can't tell you...' His friend muttered silently. 'I could never tell you that 'I love you'... because you already have a girlfriend.'
My fingers finished typing as I ended the latest chapter. That was satisfying to type. "That seems like a good place to end it."
"You gave Coach a girlfriend?" Rindou exclaimed from over my shoulder, her eyes twinkling. "That's just cruel on Jiochirou." She commented.
I nodded silently, "Everything will eventually come together." I assured her. "It'll just give fans something to look forward to." Look forward to, more like rage over... Especially when there was an enemy that dared to interfere with their OTPs.
"Like how you were so pissed about the latest chapter of Kuroshitsuji*." Teased Rindou.
I scowled as I recalled, "Don't you have to get back to school?" I asked her.
Rindou shook her head, she patted the sleeping bag beneath her. "Nope, gonna sleep in the office tonight. I'll have to finish the art for the novel since you're publishing the next book soon right?" I nodded. "Yep, I'll just stay here since it's too late to go home anyway." I glanced at the clock, she was right. It was almost midnight, Matsuki had abandoned us to return to his bachelor apartment, probably to drink away his sorrows. She was right, it was too late to go home now. I found myself staying over in the office that night, contemplating the practice match with Kaijou tomorrow. 'I should charge the camera...'
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I found myself humming a light tune as I set up the camera. I checked the angle, yeah, that looked good. Checking my phone, I glanced at the message from Rindou: 'Live stream is good!' Yes, not only was I recording this, I was live streaming it to the office so that they could record a copy for research.
"Wow, you're really dedicated to this, Kuroko." Mused Riko.
"Yes," I found myself answering. "I am."
Riko smiled, "I'm happy to know that we got such a dedicated manager." Yeah, let's go with that. I nodded in agreement as I placed the folded towels down on the bench for the players when they finished their first quarter. Things hadn't gotten off to a smooth start, first of all: they had gotten lost. Nobody had bothered to come and bring them to the gym, delaying the match. The team wasn't playing in the gym that Riko and I had initially visited, nope, it was a bigger and fancier one. Secondly, they did not deem Seirin important enough to play that they were only using half court, without Kise Ryouta. They benched the blonde, THEY DARED BENCH THE ONLY PERSON WHO I CAME TO OBSERVE. Needless to say, after Kagami's dunk, one that inspired a very interesting line for my next book, they took us seriously. The game proceeded but currently, Seirin was behind. It was to be expected after all, Kaijo was no joke. They were formidable all on their own. Riko looked worried, "This is bad... The pace is too fast..." She muttered.
I glanced up from my phone where I had begun taking notes of the gym's surroundings, hey, you can't blame an author for note-taking, research was essential for when describing a scene. "Maybe they should try changing the pace." I told her offhandedly.
Dunk! Kise had scored. There was squeal of fan screams that followed from the Kaijo observers above the gym, as usual, the blonde smiled and waved. He was popular, as always. He always had his own fan groups around.
It must have been a normal thing in Kaijo, one that was very annoying as his captain, Kasamatsu, scowled before running towards him, the man leaped. He reached out and cupped Hiro's face, turning the blonde's attention entirely onto him. Gold eyes met cool grey ones. He stared up at him with a serious gaze, "Hey, don't you dare think about looking at anyone else but me." He told him with that authoritative tone he normally used during practices, but this time, it was different somehow. With that, he released the blonde's flushed cheeks and walked away wordlessly. What had just happened?
This was it! I had found my new pairing, I could finally launch a sequel to Scandalous Afterschool Love Affair! Kise x Kasamatsu VS Kise x Aomine! My fingers were typing as I took down notes of what had just occurred. Well, Kasamatsu hadn't done what I had written, nope, the man had instead kicked the blonde to curb. I think I'll write in him into the series as a tsundere, that would make him the second tsundere character in my writing works. I nodded to myself satisfied with my findings just as coach called for a break. "Kuroko," I turned to her, she was clasping her palms together as she looked at me with an attempted puppy dog look. "Please go into the game! I'm begging you."
"Huh?" Everyone has exclaimed.
"No..." I wordlessly replied.
Break was over... And I was standing in the middle of the court in a Seirin Number 11# uniform that Riko had secretly prepared. I gave a stink eye glare from my position as the game was soon to resume, dammit. That woman was persistent.
"Seirin, where is your last player?" The referee asked, looking around.
I sighed, of course this would happen. It always happens. "I'm standing right here." I said, my hand was raised in front of him. At that moment, everyone screamed and jumped back.
"Holy crap! I didn't see him!"
"That was scary."
"What is he? A ghost."
Rindou and Matsuki must be loving this, from the corner of my eye, I spotted my phone practically blowing up from text messages. Damn them, they were going to love watching me mess up. "Ah alright..." With that, the match resumed. I stood for a moment, observing the scene before me. The pace had resumed that high paced speed it was just now, I sighed. I really didn't know what Coach had expected me to do to slow down the pace, besides, I hadn't played basketball in years, since I was in primary school. Instinctually, I watched as Kaijo's captain, my latest vict- book model dribble past me, Izuki-Senpai on his tail, Kagami was open. My hands moved fast as I speared the ball away from the offensive point guard and slammed the ball into Kagami's free hands, the teen was stunned, his red eyes widening before he reacted and scored. Yeah, I could just do that. This seemed to work well for me.
Game on, Kaijo.
*The latest chapter made me cry and rage so much. I just cannot. I'm so done, I think I'll stop reading the manga until it's officially completed. My heart cannot take anymore.
Anyway, reviews are always welcomed! See you next time!