Hey there my dear readers, sorry for my late update I was so busy. Thanks for your patience and now a new Chaprter! Hope you'll like it. Bye, bye XOXO

Chapter 9

~It's been almost a year since I played in a match~

And just like that the Winter High came. The hard work from this summer training paid off, the guys were doing so great, they were determined more than ever to win the competition. But firstly we were now celebrating our victory against Toou Academy.

"I'm sorry Ryo-nii."I did an encouragement smile to my cousin.

"It's ok. Next time we will win for sure!"He promised.

"You know we won't go easy on ya!"I accepted his challenge.

"What are you thinking of?" I asked tilting my head to a side, leaning towards Aomine while he was laying on the stairs outside the stadium.

"What the?!" He got startled, and I sneered. Then I sat down beside him looking into the night, I felt his eyes gazing at me but I pretended not to see.

When the buzzer beater stated the victory of the Seirin, Aomine's face was bewildered, he did lost and he had found an opponent stronger than himself. His world was now turned upside down, and I could've feel he had conflicting feelings. But right in that moment I understood something: Aomine did love basketball.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" I was still looking ahead of me. He didn't answered right away, I guessed he was thinking what to say.

"I still don't know." then he said.

"I knew you would said that."

"Eh?"Aomine asked surprised.

"Tonight you lost." he twitched and was about to replied back.

"But you also gained something. Ain't that right?"I then turned to face him, and brightly smile. He stopped for a moment, maybe surprised to see me smile.

"Humpf… is that so?"He was still playing the hard one.

"Mhm… It's your smile!" I stated. His eyes went wider as if he had only now realized. He grumbled something that I couldn't hear. "Why don't you hang out with me sometimes?"I invited him while standing up.

"Uh?! W-what are you talking about all of sudden?! " He said while stuttering, I thought I saw his cheeks turning red.

"Oi Aomine, what are you thinking?! Basketball. I'm talking about basketball! Let's play just for fun"I explained to him.

"Tch! Why would I play against a girl?! It's too troublesome!" Now I was going down the stairs, walking away from him.

"Oi, did you hear me?!"He yelled seeing me not stopping.

"Yeah I did." I replied.

"I'll wait for you at the basketball cage. It's a date, ahomine!" I said anyway.

"Oi! Temee!" He said standing up, but I was already left.

"That girl! What is she thinking about?" Aomine thought.

"Sakurai! You're going to play in the next match against Russia."The coach said while I was training with my teammates.

"What?! Seriously?!" I looked at the coach and then the ball hit my head.

"Ya! Umeko-san! What the hell!" I yelled at her.

"Takiko has some problems with her back. The physiotherapist told her not to play. So you're up. I'm counting on you, Sakurai!"the coach said.

"Yeah, i will do my best. This time i will score 50 points, coach." I happily squealed. The man returned to do his business while shaking his head.

"Hell yeah!" I celebrated.

"It's been almost a year since I played in a match! Oh my god i'm dying here…"

"You're getting on my nerves, Remi!" Kagami said doing his stretching.

"Uh?!" I glared at him.

"Remi-san, will the match be held overseas?" Kuroko asked

"No, we're gonna play here in Japan!" I excitedly told him.

"Really?! Then we all gonna come to cheer for you!"Riko smiled.

"Will you? Really?"I asked touched.

"Of course we will! You're a part of the Seirin's team, Sakurai!"Hyuga replied, and the others nodded in response. I smiled feeling their support and I felt reassured.

"Ok. Practice. Need to practice!" I told myself while heading towards the basket to practice my shoot.

"Oi, temee you were helping me with my stretching!"Kagami protested since I wasn't paying attention to him anymore.

"Got no time for you, now!" I replied with no attention while I was already beginning to shoot.

"Oi!" Kagami exclaimed.

I was standing there motionless, in the usual basketball cage, looking at the screen of my phone.

We won't be humiliated again by a fucking high schooler reserve as you. This time you won't score even a basket. This text was followed by some pictures of Yuki in the classroom at her school. "Why?" I thought. Couldn't we just play basketball and enjoy it? Couldn't we just… play?

Almost a year ago I played my first official match in the national team and we played against Russia, even though I was a rookie and didn't have so much experience, I led the team to the victory, and Russians couldn't believe that I, a mere middle schooler, just won them over. The medias went wild, saying that "The middle schooler national reserve brought Japan to victory"and such things, what I did was only play the game I loved, then why would they threaten my sister?

I was running as fast as I could and my legs was wobbling, not because of the running but because I was scared. I was scared for my sister, that someone would hurt her and this time, I wasn't there to protect her. I would have even stopped playing basketball if that would have meant safety for Yuki. I would have done it.

I was panting hard, completely out of breath while searching among classes and classes for Yuki. I knew that someone from Toou Academy took those pictures, because they was taken while she was in class, I just needed to find who did it.

"Yuki!" I yelled out of despair as I finally found her. I hug her tightly.

To be continued…