The girl yawned as she watched the activity (or lack of it) outside the window before walking outside the room. A few seconds later, she walked in the office again to stand near the window and yawned again.

"Will you stop pacing. It's very annoying," Mitsui mumbled from his seat beside the window.

"But I'm bored!" Noor whined, pouting her lips in a childish manner.

"You were complaining just yesterday that you didn't get to have a break and that was when you only had one customer to attend," Koshino pointed out. The Ryonan player was currently hovering over Sendoh's shoulder who was busy looking over Noor's collection of slash/yaoi fics in her computer.

"And calls. I also got calls yesterday," the girl tried weakly.

"Yeah, but they weren't for you," Koshino said.

"Why don't you eat your Oreo cheesecake that you've brought, Noor-san" suggested Kogure.

"No!" Mitsui protested quickly, "Do you know what sugar does to a person as bored as her?"

The girl pouted again before huffing and turning away.

A few minutes later:

"I'm bored!"

Koshino sighed while Mitsui rolled his eyes. Sendoh was too busy reading the slash fics to notice. Kogure stood up from his seat on the floor between Mitsui's legs and came up to the girl, patting her shoulder comfortingly.
"Don't worry. Something will come up."

"Why don't she do facials for one of us?"

The four in the room looked at the Ryonan star in surprise.

"That's an idea," Mitsui murmured. "Y'know, one would think Sendoh wouldn't have realised we were here, much less thought of that idea with his brain stuck in the gutter reading the fics that you keep, Noor."

Ignoring the lame protest from the girl, Sendoh grinned. "My brain's multi-taskful."
The tall player turned to Koshino and winked, reminding the boy the time Sendoh was busy seducing him while also cooking dinner for them.
Koshino 'hmph'ed before turning his head away from the leering boy, with a blush on his cheeks.

"Alright!" cheered Noor, "Let's do Kogure!"

"You know, that sounded so much like-"

"Shut up, Sendoh," Mitsui said while Koshino cuffed his boyfriend at the back of the head.

Kogure blinked. "Me? I don't think-"

"Come on, Kogure-kun! Let's see what type of skin you have!" the girl said ecstatically, bouncing towards the face-scanner sitting on a table in the same room.

The reluctant but polite boy acquiesced and sat in front of the scanner, taking off his glasses while the petite girl took her place behind it. Kogure stuck his head inside the machine and as soon as Noor switched it on, the boy was presented with the enlarged view of his face amidst the purple rays lighting inside the darkened box.

"Th-That's my face?" Kogure asked in aghast, staring at the mirror situated at the bottom of the box.

"Yep. White heads, white heads, a little of black heads... oh, that purple colour is oily skin... I think you've got sensitive skin as well..."

"I want that facial now, please," Kogure promptly said as soon as he snapped out of the shock at how terrible he thought his face looked.

"Is it that bad?" Mitsui asked as soon as Kogure's head came out of scanner.

"It's bad," Kogure said, nodding in a grim manner as he put his glasses back on.

"Oh, it's not," Noor assured the spectacled boy, "Men normally look like that coz they don't look after their face as much as the women do. Some women have facials once a month."

Mitsui nodded. "Ah, so, I'd look like-"

"Worse," Kogure told him, before turning to the girl. "Lead the way, Noor-san."

The girl walked out of the office, followed by Kogure and Mitsui and along the way they passed by Sakuragi and Rukawa who were lounging on a couch, looked relaxed and mellow. On the next couch sat Hanagata and Fujima, the Shoyo captain's long legs dangling from the arm rest as he laid his head on his assistant's broad shoulders.

"Enjoying yourselves?" Mitsui asked, surprised that Rukawa and Sakuragi weren't fighting each other or necking on the couch.

"M-hm," the redhead affirmed, stroking the soft blue-black strands of Rukawa's hair.

"Aa," Hanagata said, patting at Fujima's hand who rested on his lap.

"Is he asleep?" Mitsui asked, peering at the prone form of the dark-haired junior who has laid his head on Sakuragi's lap.

"Nah. Just resting," the redhead replied, smiling when Rukawa began to purr at the grooming the brunette was receiving from him.

Mitsui arched an eyebrow. "Is that possible?"

Sakuragi shrugged. "It must be the scented oil," he said, pointing to the magenta ceramic pot where English Rose scented oil was being burnt by a small candle situated underneath the groove of the pot, "The fox likes it."

Hanagata just nodded, saying silently that his captain liked it as well.

As a confirmation, Rukawa purred louder and Fujima cuddled closer to Hanagata, humming in contentment.

Mitsui chuckled and shook his head before he turned around to join Kogure and Noor in the facial room. When the 3-P shooter reached there, Kogure was already lying down on a bed (sans spectacles) and Noor draping a blanket over the boy's feet and a small towel around the boy's neck.

The girl went out of the room and in less than a minute she was carrying two basins of water and a pair of sponges dunked inside one of them.

"Alright, since you have mostly normal skin, I'm gonna use Normal for you," Noor said, rolling up her sleeves.

"Hai," Kogure said, keeping still as Noor began to rub the cleansing milk on his face. Mitsui just watched until she reached the step where she uses the scrub as the third cleanser.
After the girl has finished wiping the scrub off of his koibito's face, the scarred-face player smiled in approval. "I can't believe I'm saying this but your face looks cleaner somehow."

Kogure smiled. "Honto?"

"Aa. You're beautiful."

Kogure's brown eyes softened. "Mitsui..."

Noor could've sworn the pair was sparkling so before the flowers could begin to appear, the girl quickly placed a pair of rose-watered cotton pads on Kogure's eyes with a curt, "I'm gonna steam you now."

"You're gonna what?" yelped Mitsui.

"Steam his face," the girl said, rolling the steamer machine over the blinded boy's face, "So that the pores will open."

"Ah..."

While Kogure was having his face steamed, he chatted with Mitsui as Noor began clearing up her trolley and it was at that moment that Sendoh came in, pushing a reluctant Koshino in front of him.

"Noor! Teach me how to do a facial on Koshino," the tall spikey-haired player said.

The girl blinked. "Uh... O-Okay. Koshino, you sit on the next bed. I'll go get some more water."

In a few minutes, Noor was cleaning Koshino's face under close observation from the boy's partner.
"Then what?" Sendoh asked after she finished wiping Koshino face from the scrub.

"Then we steam him like what I'm doing to Kogure. He must be done by now," the girl said, walking over to Kogure's bed.
Switching off the steamer, Noor poured more water inside the flask and rolled it over to Sendoh. "Now you wait for it to start boiling and when the steam comes out, direct the nozzle over Koshino's face. I need to go back to Kogure now."

"Hai," Sendoh said before Noor turned away to attend Kogure. Picking up a metal instrument from her trolley, the girl said apologetically, "Now, this is gonna hurt, Kogure-kun. This is the extraction part."

Mitsui widened his eyes in anxiety. The first wince from Kogure made Mitsui clench his fist in panic. "Min-kun? Does it hurt?"

"Yeah. But it's okay," Kogure replied before wincing again at the girl's careful but still painful administration on extraction.

"Most people get used to it," Noor mumbled, hovering over Kogure's face, "Sometimes they even fall asleep until I was done."

"My respect to the women then," Kogure said before wincing again.

Sendoh joined them a few minutes later and after watching how Noor extracted flaws out of Kogure's skin, the Ryonan player asked, "Hey Noor. Can I do that extraction thing on Koshino?"

"Uh-okay. Do you understand what you have to do?" the girl asked.

"Yep, I'm a quick learner," Sendoh said, grinning when Koshino mumbled something rude to him.

As soon as the girl nodded her agreement to him, Sendoh went back to Koshino with an extra pimple extractor and switched off the steamer before working on his boyfriend's face. Amidst Koshino's complaints and his attempt at soothing the boy down, Sendoh enjoyed what he was doing, feeling that it was an intimate thing that Koshino was allowing him to do. There was nothing more private than allowing your loved one to see the less-attractive part of oneself.

After what seemed like hours to Mitsui, Noor was finally done and the no.14 player forced his fist to relax from grabbing at Kogure's blanket.

"You okay?" Mitsui asked worryingly as he looked over the redness on his friend's skin.

"I'm okay," Kogure smiled weakly, trying to be inconspicuous in wiping a tear from his eye.
"Please tell me that the women cry as well," the boy half-joked, half-pleaded.

"Yes, they do Kogure-kun," Noor said, deciding to keep it quiet that less than 25% of her female customers do.

"Ok. Now what?" Kogure asked.

"Now, I need to use the High Frequency machine to kill off the bacteria from your face. It's going to smell a little," Noor told him as she picked up a square case and placing it on her seat before unclasping it open. Kogure could see the arrays of glass tools on the straps of the inner part of the lid before Noor placed the same pair of rose-watered cotton pads on his eyes.

A few seconds later, his face was covered with a strip of gauze and after listening to whatever Noor was doing to get herself ready, he felt the gentle movement of cool glass on his skin before it began to grow warm from the electricity flowing through the instrument. True to Noor's warning, it did begin to smell, like something bad burning but Kogure stayed silent until the girl was done.

Next Noor applied the mask on Kogure's face. It smelt odd in the boy's opinion but its cool minty effect made his skin feel nice. "Now don't move or you'll ruin the mask," the girl ordered before she moved over to where Koshino was lying waiting for her to apply the frequency treatment on him.
After she was done with the treatment and applying the masker on the Ryonan player's face, she said the same thing to Koshino, not noticing the glint in Sendoh's eyes as she walked out of the facial room to fetch more clean water.

Back inside the room, Sendoh quietly pulled the curtain between Koshino's and Kogure's beds closed for a more private setting with his friend. It was not long before Mitsui heard a muffled protest followed by the sound of struggling coming from the next bed. Curious, Mitsui walked over and poked his head through the curtain. He blinked when he saw what Sendoh was doing.

"Anou... Sendoh. I don't think he needs to be tied down like that..."

~~~~~

"You feel nice, Min-kun," Mitsui said, caressing Kogure's smooth face lovingly.

"I feel good," Kogure said, liking how his face looks and feels now as compared to earlier.

"Mmmmm.... feels like satin...." Sendoh sighed, rubbing his cheeks against Koshino's smooth one.

Koshino was too relaxed with the atmosphere to mind the public display of affection.
"Smells nice..." the boy commented on the scented air.

"English Rose," Sakuragi supplied. Rukawa's purring has already begun to sound like a buzz-saw.
The eight players were lazily lounging around in the guest area after Koshino and Kogure's facial treatment and after Noor was done clearing up after her work, she came to join them, sitting beside Koshino who was sitting on the floor between Sendoh's legs with the taller boy on the couch. Having eight tall basketball players draping their long limbs over the small area, it was a miracle Noor did not manage to trip over any of them.

Suddenly the redhead spoke, "Hey, I think you've got a zit fox."
The brunette's blue eyes popped open in minute pain when the redhead pressed on the red sore.

"Don't touch it," Rukawa growled.

"Alright. Seesh. I was just surprised. I didn't think you'd get zits," said Sakuragi huffily.

"Neither did I," Sendoh said, staring at Rukawa's pimple sitting in the middle of the pale, supposedly flawless skin.

"He is a teenager after all," Noor pointed out.

"I also had one before. Once," Fujima said.

Mitsui gaped. "Only one? And once? When?"

"Last year."

"How did you get rid of it?" Kogure asked, also amazed.

"I used my mother's lotion. Stayed in bed for a whole week," Fujima replied. Hanagata had a smile on his lips as he remembered his friend's less-than-calm moments.

The other boys burst out in laughter.
"Ah, so the Shoyo captain is as vain as we are," said Mitsui with a grin on his lips.

"I just can't stand people staring at me," said Fujima cooly, "It's very distracting."

"Because no one would've thought you'd get zits," Mitsui told the handsome brown-haired player with jealousy.

Fujima shrugged. "I am a teenager after all," he said, repeating what Noor has said earlier.

Rukawa nodded in agreement. Noor stood up to fetch a small bottle of pimple ointment from her desk before tossing the bottle to the fox-eyed rookie. "Apply it in the mornings and nights after you wash your face," she instructed as she sat again on the floor.

To Sakuragi's surprise, Rukawa accepted the ointment as easily as he had accepted Minami's after their match with Toyotama.

"Feeling vain, fox?" the redhead teased.

"Only for you," the brunette murmured, closing his eyes with a small smile after seeing the delighted grin on the redhead's face.

After a while, the sole girl in the room fidgeted before standing up again. It was not long before she began to pace in and out of the office for the second time that day.

"I'm bored!" came her whiny holler from the office that reached the boys who were still sitting around at the guest area.

"I would've thought she'd be more relaxed with this scent around us," Koshino commented, letting his head drop against Sendoh's thighs with a sigh, "It smells like a rose garden in here."

"Maybe she's already immune to it," suggested Hanagata.

"I think she's eating her Oreo cheesecake in there," remarked Kogure.

"A pox on girls with too much sugar in their blood," Fujima said lazily.

"'Second that," the rest replied, feeling laxed and content as they ignored the continued whining of one particular girl with too much sugar in her blood.



~Owari


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