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The Secret Life of Kuroko Tetsuya: The (Straight) Boy's Love Novelist
I do not own KnB¬
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"It's too large, make it more feminine."
"Just sign it in pink, it'll make it more girly that way."
"No way! It should be signed in turquoise, he's called Turquoise Angel remember?" The pen in my hand wobbled, I lifted my hand and stared at the masterpiece that should have been my signature, if it hadn't been for the massive ink smudge left unintentionally behind. I snapped my head back as I gave Rindou and Matsuki the stink eye glare, the massive eye bags emphasising my irritation and annoyance from being overworked.
The deadline was tomorrow. The book itself was done, typed up, proofread and completely printed. There were two copies made, one that I had already signed under the name Turquoise Angel for my own self copy, the other I would have been done with, if I hadn't been distracted by the two behind me. "Shut up." I warned them, grabbing a light pink pen to try and fix the mess made. I lightly went over the signature, creating a merging gradient colour with the blue ink that formed a nice light purple hue. Letting out a sigh of satisfaction, I put down the pen and left the ink to dry. I was done, finally. The two behind me clapped. Exhaustion was seeping in as I slumped back in my chair, a wool blanket wrapped around me, it was barely hanging on as it draped from my shoulders. It had been a while since I've stayed up for two consecutive nights to finish off a book. "Well done, Tetsuya!" Said Matsuki, he patted my back lightly but I didn't hear him. He was speaking but all I could see were his lips moving. My eyes felt heavy as my skull dropped back, I blanked almost immediately as I fell into a sleep state.
Ding! My hand shot out and felt around for the electronic device before I finally felt it. My head lifted, resting on my chin as I stared sleepily at the screen. I must have somehow fell forward when I was asleep, odd, I should have woken up from the impact of the fall. Maybe all those times of falling asleep in class has contributed to the hardening of my skull. Regardless, my finger moved to open the new email I received:
"Hey there Kuroko! I hope you're feeling better, hopefully you'll recover from the cold soon. Good news, we've won the first Interhigh preliminary match! You won't believe the guy they had playing for them, he was an exchange student from Africa. Here's a photo of him, he was so tall, but Kagami's incredible jumping ability saved us. Anyway, that's all I wanted to tell you! See you soon~
From Furihata Kouki." Read Rindou's voice from over my head, her chin resting on my head. "You told them you have a flu? You could have come up with a better excuse."
"What I tell people is irrelevant. Where is Matsuki-sensei?" I asked, my eyes noting the absence of a usual tall pink haired man.
Rindou's chin didn't move, she only leaned forward, her fingers grabbing my phone from my palms as she opened the image attachment. "He went to submit the giveaway items to the public relations department, they'll be the ones to give it to the winner." She informed me.
"I'm surprised you still gave away one of your original drawings." It was amusing. She had been so insistent to not give away a drawing that she hadn't shown up for work for over a week, which not only backtracked printing but also the publication of the book as a whole. In the end, they had to compromise (over the phone because there was no way Rindou would step in the office and get her way without Matsuki attempting to ambush her) to instead give away high quality photocopies of the original drawings instead.
Rindou pouted, "I didn't want to but you know how he gets when the higher ups pressure him." That was also true. Matsuki was only my manager, it didn't make him his own boss, the man had his own bosses to respond to, so his actions were understandable for once. He took his job seriously, aside for the times he locked himself in his office reading shoujo mangas, and when he prayed for love. "Exotic." That was the one word that Rindou used to describe the man in the image attachment.
"My Love From Another Country." The words came out of my mouth as I sat up, my head knocking Rindou away, she let out a yelp in response, clasping her chin as she pouted by the corner. "Or My Fair Exotic Romance." The title ideas were flowing out of my mouth as I felt the writing gears spin inside my mind. Yeah, I can totally see it. "Imagine...Kagami stranded in a foreign continent, no where to go, and then he meets the prince of his dreams." I gestured to the image sent to me by Furihata to Rindou.
Rindou snorted, "Okay first of all, that is not a fair lady. Neither of them are," she told me. "Secondly, that guy is no bishouen prince or ikemen (no offence to him, I'm sure he's considered hot elsewhere) and Kagami not even remotely close to resembling a damsel in distress. His is not a fair lady. You could get away in The Shadow, but straight up love at first sight romance, there's no way it'll work."
"But there's the magic of drawing," I told her. "You can always transform them into ikemen." I reaffirmed my decision.
Rindou scoffed, "I'll try my best but you should probably change those titles, they sound terrible."
"Daddy dearest." I deadpanned at her.
Rindou burst out in laughter, I didn't think it was that bad of an idea. "Yeah, maybe if he was his sugar daddy!" ... on second thought, never mind. Maybe I should just put this whole Papa x Kagami novel on hold until I'm fully rested and well. I don't think I'm sane enough to actually write something right now.
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The next few weeks went by relatively smoothly, I found myself working a decent pace that allowed me to continue producing new novels. Unfortunately, I had to scrap the exotic novel idea starring Kagami and Papa because my brain couldn't think of any more elements to contribute to the story line, but it was fine. I had Please Teach Me More and other works to keep my fingers preoccupied. As for my role as manager of the Seirin basketball team, it was going well. Seirin was doing pretty decently as a team, we've been on a winning streak that kept the team moral pretty high. It was a nice feeling. It was almost as nice as watching the swimming team captain feed his best friend, and co-captain his sandwich right now because the latter forgot his lunch. 'Inch in a little bit more! MOVE CLOSER!' My grip tightened on my phone as my eyes were glued at them as they sat together outside on the grass. 'A little bit more...' I brought my phone up to snap a photo. 'JUST A BIT MORE!'
"Ah Kuroko!" Exclaimed Riko, spotting me in the hallway as I normally spend my time roaming the halls during lunch break. I flinched slightly as I turned away from the window. Nearly got caught there. "Are you busy?" She asked me, approaching me.
Well... I was busying snooping around for any potential BL material like always, you know, the usual where I spy on people from other sports teams chilling out together, snapping photographs of them and definitely not listening into their conversations and morphing it into my own writer fantasies. Yeah, just the everyday ordinary usual. "Not at all." I lied.
Riko smiled, "That's great!" She told me. "Follow me, I need your help with something!" She gestured for me to follow her.
'Dammit,' I mentally swore. I glanced back at where the two swimming team members sat, 'I'll be back for you two!'. I had hoped that she would have left me alone to my own devices but I guess not, I grudgingly followed her as my feet moved by itself, my soul internally cringing as I recalled the wrestling move she had worked on Kagami whenever he disobeyed her. I was not going to take the risk, she could use those moves on me if I didn't obey her orders as Coach. My hands were precious for my work, I can't type with my toes or tongue, I needed my hands for my fingers.
We arrived at a sort of storage room, Riko smiled as she opened the door to reveal a gold mine of tapes. Wait... Could this be what I think it is? My eyes started to twinkle in delight. "Here we are," said the second year student, stepping into the room, my feet following behind her. "Alright, I just need your help to carry some of these tapes." She told me, handing me the items. "On it are recordings of some matches of our future opponents, Seihou and Shutoku." Shutoku... Teiko's Midorima entered that school! But more importantly...
"Riko-Senpai," I began as we left the room, my eyes looking back at the door. "Am I correct to assume that that room is storage place of all sport recordings?" I asked her.
Riko nodded, "Yep, inside that room, you'll be able to find recordings on all of Seirin's competition, and it's not just basketball but other sports as well."
"So, as manager, I will have access to it right?"
Riko smiled, "It's good to see you're so enthusiastic about researching our opponents, Kuroko," sighed the elder girl. "I wish the rest of the team was as passionate as you are when it comes to training, but right now... Let's go crush their moral and bring them back to earth!" She sent me a thumbs up. I had to agree. "The team has been doing really well, they're beginning to get overconfident and I don't want that happening before we face two of the three kings." She muttered beneath her breath.
My lips turned up into a slight smile, "Don't worry, I shall research them well." So well that I'll be able to create a mass of new characters for my stories! This lunch break has been worth it, I've discovered a diamond mine of material, if I've known it's existed, I would have never joined the basketball team! I could have just stolen tapes from the room. As we walked to the classroom where Riko had ordered the rest of the team to gather, a thought entered my mind. 'Maybe I should go take a look at the swimming team's tapes... Or the baseball team... They won't notice if one or two tapes were missing, right?'