Kaede toweled his damp hair vigorously as he walked into the open air room, signalling to the nearest player that the shower stalls were free.
"Hey! It's our turn!" the player called to his team-mates. The other players who were sitting down chatting and playing cards while they wait for the first batch to finish using the showers stood up to head for their turn. Kaede stayed under the threshold of the door, hooking his towel over his neck as he watched them exit the room.
When Sakuragi walked past him, Rukawa called lowly, "Sakuragi."
The redhead stopped and looked over his shoulder, "Yeah?"
"He doesn't want to talk about you anymore."
Sakuragi looked at the brunette in puzzlement, "What? Who?"
"My brother said it's over."
Sakuragi stayed motionless beside the door while Kaede walked away, feeling at first shock, then anger and then slowly sadness. He knew it would happen sooner or later with the way he and Kogure were acting towards each other. He just didn't know it would hurt this bad.
~~~~
The little town was teeming with students intent on enjoying their short school holiday to the fullest. The Shohoku highschool basketball team arrived back in their hometown from the camp in the afternoon and some went straight to the town before they head off home.
Sakuragi was walking along the stalls beside the small shops with Miyagi when they ran into Ayako and Haruko. As expected, the guard began pestering Ayako to be allowed to come along with her while Haruko and Sakuragi exchanged amused smiles. Finally, the third-year girl consented and the three set off excluding Sakuragi who declined the offer to be with them since he wanted to be alone. Haruko looked clearly disappointed.
When his friends were gone the easy smile on the redhead's lips faded just as quickly as it came. He wanted to go home, the empty feeling inside him threatening to consume him. He was about to head to the street which would lead to his home when he saw a small doll on the shelves of one of the stalls around him. Getting closer to have a better look he could see why that particular doll caught his attention. Being only four inches tall it has brown hair parted in the middle and was dressed in a student's attire with a quaint pair of spectacles made by a piece of wire attached to its face. It reminded him very much of Kogure, the young man who still holds a place dearly in his heart.
When Anta and three other members of the team found Sakuragi, the redhead was still at the stall staring at the doll with an expression of softness in his eyes.
A few minutes later Sakuragi parted ways with his friends.
"Ja ne, Sakuragi!"
"Ja!" Sakuragi waved back. When they disappeared out of sight, the redhead pulled out a wrapped-up packet from his pocket and smiled. Quickly he pushed it back into his gym shorts and began to walk home, his gym bag swinging over his shoulder.
----
Kogure fanned himself with the collar of his shirt and sighed. Already waiting for his friends from the university basketball club for over 15 minutes, he began to worry if he has gotten the time for their outing wrong.
Sitting on a bench under a tree, he watched the people milling about him as he played around with the friendship bracelet around his wrist one female member of his club made for them all. They all have the same bracelet, including Akagi, weaved from tough thread of black and red. He sighed again and looked behind him to see whether his friends would appear at that side when he recognised two students wearing Shohoku jerseys sitting at an outdoor table of a nearby fastfood restaurant.
Shohoku players? thought Kogure, Oh, now I remember. Kaede should be coming home from camp today.
His line of thought broke off when he overheard the two Shohoku players talk, "Hey, I heard Sakuragi is dating Haruko."
Kogure sat forzen in his seat as the other player exclaimed, "Honto?! But I thought Sakuragi already got a girlfriend."
The first player 'hmph'ed and answered, "I guess they broke up already."
"Awww..." sighed the second player, "I thought Haruko was free. I wanted to take her out."
"Tough luck," chuckled his friend, "Haruko-san seemed to like Sakuragi very much. You can tell if you see them together."
"Hey, Kogure!"
"Uh, hai?" the spectacled-teenager gave a start when a hand clapsed his shoulder from his left.
"Sorry we're late," apologised one of his friends.
"That's alright," smiled Kogure standing up.
A young woman grinned and nudged at him, "Hey, who were you daydreaming about?"
The young man gave an easy laugh, "Nobody in particular."
Sakuragi watched the brown-haired boy walk away with his friends in disappointment. Watching Kogure laughing freely with his university friends seemingly without a care in the world made him feel alone and rejected.
My brother said it's over.
Sakuragi turned and walked away, clearly conscious of the object in his pocket bumping against his leg.
Kogure's smile wavered when he felt something somewhere nearby prickling at his senses. Turning around he saw the usual crowd and shrugged.
I thought I saw him... iie. It couldn't be...
Then one of his friends made a joke and he laughed along. But in his heart he could feel the pains of loneliness in contradiction to the facade he was putting on.
If he was really here can I have laughed like this?
Kogure and Akagi rushed to the gym, hoping that they haven't missed anything important. Unfortunately, they missed everything as when they reached their destination the game was over. To their surprise they ran into Mitsui who was walking out of the gym with the rest of the crowd of spectators.
"I told you it was the 14.30 train," grumbled Akagi to his spectacled-friend.
Kogure scratched his head sheepishly and apologised, "Gomen nasai kudasai."
Then he turned to Mitsui and saw the serious expression.
"Mitsui, what's the matter? Did Shohoku lose?"
"Iie," sighed the scarred-face man, "Shohoku made it to the finals but that's not what I'm worried about."
"Then what is it?" asked Akagi.
"It's Sakuragi," Mitsui told them grimly, "He was a terrible player. If he doesn't clean his act up soon, Kanagawa will lose to Akita's Sannoh."
Akagi frowned and Kogure let his head fall to cover the worry in his eyes. Both of them wondered, What happened?
The next week, Shohoku played a friendly match against Ryokufu before their confrontation with the Akita team. Anzai-sensei held back Rukawa and Sakuragi for the first half to let the new players try their hand at playing the game against the skilled Ryokufu players. Sakuragi was watching the game in concentration as his hands busied themselves passing the ball from hand to hand when the coach patted his knee and get his attention.
"Sakuragi, is anything the matter?"
"Uh... w-what do you mean, sensei?" stammered the redhead.
The coach did not shift his eyes away from the game as he explained, "Your playing lacks will. Have you lost your source of inspiration?"
When Sakuragi did not reply, the coach let his hand slip away. Anzai-sensei knew that young hearts are easily impressed but they are also very fragile. Remembering what happened to one of his students, Yasawa, the coach knew firsthand at what was the result of disappointment.
Haruko stood behind them, staying quiet as she listened to what the coach was saying to Sakuragi. While the others, including herself, were not able to figure out what the redhead's problem was, the portly coach was the one who understood and conveyed them with only a few words. Words that made everything seem clear.
What is Sakuragi-kun's source of inspiration?
Haruko gnawed on her pen trying to guess the answer when she lifted her eyes to see Kogure sitting on the seats with the rest of the spectators. There was no sign of Akagi and the girl wondered why Kogure would bother showing up when the Shohoku team was only doing a friendly practice match. When Kaede and Sakuragi was called to the court, Haruko knew. Kogure's eyes followed the redhead from the moment Sakuragi stepped his foot on court and when the match resumed the spectacled teenager clearly frowned when the redhead made mistakes in his moves which was often enough for her to find out that Kogure held his interest in Sakuragi more than any members of the team including his own brother. Never letting Kogure from her sight, she watched the expressions crossing the young man's face which was honest in whatever he was feeling. One in particular made Haruko's breath catch in her throat. It happened when Sakuragi fell down after foolishly charging one of the Ryokufu players without putting enough stability in his jump and when the redhead hit the floor of the gym hard, Kogure's face went pale. She had not realised there was someone who felt that strongly about Sakuragi until know.
Sakuragi-kun's girlfriend... sh-she... was a he?!
Now she understood why she kept seeing the ex-senior hanging out with Sakuragi even without Kaede's presence. Her attention has been on Sakuragi from the beginning but now thinking back she realised something about Kogure-sempai. Whenever Sakuragi was present, the young man seemed to glow.
Is Kogure-sempai Sakuragi-kun's source of inspiration?
She was still stunned at what she has just discovered that she didn't realise the game has already ended and everyone was walking back towards the locker-rooms. Shohoku has won 70-66.
"Haruko-san?"
Haruko turned her attention towards the young man beside her with a start, "Ah. Sakuragi-kun."
"What's wrong?" asked the redhead.
Haruko smiled, "Nothing."
~~~~
Kogure walked back from the match alone, breathing in the sweet afternoon air which was slowly getting chilly with the oncoming darkness. Watching the auburn sky overhead, a sad smile touched his lips as he let his thoughts stray to the person whose hair was as red as the setting sun in the horizon. Whoever Sakuragi chooses to be with after him, he wished the redhead hapiness.
That's how it should be.