Kaede was walking along the corridor ignoring the stares and gazes sent his way by passing girl students and a few admiring and awed ones from the boys. He thinks nothing of them because it happened daily that he felt that it was normal for him.

Entering his classroom he saw Sakuragi sitting in his seat beside the window, his back against the wall and his head turned to look outside through the glass panes. The redhead was totally ignoring Yohei's presence as the shorter boy talked in what seemed to be in an exasperating manner.

Kaede took a seat on his chair and greeted them, "Yo."

Yohei immedietly turned towards him, "Kaede! Talk to this boy, will ya!"

The fox-eyed boy arched an eyebrow in question. The redhead looked at him for a moment before turning his head back to look outside the window.

"He just turned down Fuji!" said Yohei, "After 50 rejections you would've thought he'd jump at the chance to be with a nice girl like Fuji."

Sakuragi sighed in annoyance, "Shut up, Yohei."

"What's the matter with you?" said Kaede calmly.

Sakuragi didn't turn his head this time and said, "It's my choice."

Kaede watched the redhead as the boy stared out of the window. He didn't notice it before but the redhead seemed to be doing that all the time especially at this time of the day every week. Standing up to sit on the edge of his desk beside Sakuragi's he could see the scene outside and realised with surprise what the other boy was looking at.
Outside there were the year threes including the group from his brother's class; Akagi and a few others whom he didn't know their names but following Sakuragi's line of sight it was without any doubt directed towards Kogure who was standing at the far edge of the compound with another senior, the two boys laughing at something funny that they saw.



****

The bell rang, signalling to the students that school has ended for the day. The school was already nearly empty when Sakuragi and Kaede walked along the main corridor of the school as the two didn't rush home like other times and they were not talking and quarreling like they usually do. The sense of emptiness around them enhanced their moody silence.

Suddenly the raven-haired boy spoke up, "You like someone, don't you?"

Sakuragi smiled thinly and said, "So what if I am?"

"Not Haruko?" tested Kaede.

The redhead sighed, "She likes you fox. She's blind to every other guy."

"Oniisan?"

Sakuragi turned his head around to regard his friend in mild surprise. The fox was quick, that he admit, and the redhead knew that Kaede would sooner or later realise about his distractions and why.

Sakuragi didn't reply but shrugged carelessly, making Kaede want to scowl. Without another word, the raven-haired boy picked up his pace and left the redhead behind, "I'm going home."
The word 'alone' was not spoken but Sakuragi had a hint that it was there and so didn't make to follow.



****

That night, as the two siblings ate some snacks that their mother has thoughtfully brought out before she went back to the kitchen to wash the dishes, Kaede glanced at his brother who was watching the television with interest . The younger boy munched on a cookie for a moment and as he was slowly flipping through the pages of the magazine in his hand, he suddenly asked his brother, "Hey, didn't you tell me once that you liked this certain guy?"

Kogure, who was in the midst of drinking his juice, nearly choked.
"W-What?"

"How about now?" asked Kaede, watching the strong emotions flit across his brother's face.

Not looking at Kaede, the spectacled-boy stood up and said in a forced non-chalant voice, "Nothing. It's over."
Then he left, mumbling about washing his juice-stained shirt and nearly banging the toilet door shut in his haste to avoid anymore questions.



****

"Hey," greeted Sakuragi to the tall raven-haired boy who was already sitting in his seat in their classroom surprisingly still awake.

"You like him," said Kaede lowly, challanging the redhead to deny it.

Sakuragi's confident pose didn't falter as he made to sit in his seat and replied also with a low voice so that no one would eavesdrop their conversation, "You should've known that I like him."

"I didn't realise until yesterday," Kaede grumbled and looked away.

Sakuragi chuckled, "Protective aren't you?"

The fox-eyed boy rolled his eyes, "He's a big boy, ahou. He can take care of himself."

Sakuragi chuckled again but Kaede stopped the redhead's mirth when he continued in a serious tone, "But he only likes guys as old as he is. There's this guy he liked once... I think it hurts him everytime he thinks about it."

Sakuragi exhaled a deep breath and leaned against the chair, rocking it to and fro by the hind legs, "So that's a problem then."

Kaede propped his chin on his palm and said, "If he was a junior then it'd be different..."
The boy blinked when he realised how weird it sounded. He was talking about his older brother here!

"Forget what I said," said Kaede ignoring Sakuragi's snicker. Sakuragi let his chair fall back down on four legs and leaned against his desk, flipping idly through his notebook. Then his eyes fell upon some scratches on the desk and recognising that the scratches were actually a name that he recognised, he shoved his book aside and read silently, "Dai suki, my friend. Kiminobu-kun."

"Do you know that your class was my class two years ago?"

Sakuragi recalled that conversation with Kogure and marvelled about the possibility of having Kogure's desk among all the desks in the classroom but after he thought about it, it does make sense because since basketball players were normally the tallest in the class, with the exception on Ryota, it was expected that they would be seated at the back of the room.
He remembered the first day of school when he fought for the window seat and just short of baring his teeth to the others, his classmates backed away, intimidated. Kaede wasn't scared like the rest of them but he didn't want the window seat anyway, saying that the sunlight would disturb him when he sleeps in class.

Sakuragi tapped his fingernail on his desk and asked the boy sitting next to him, "Hey, fox. Do you know the name of that guy that your brother liked?"

Kaede shrugged, "Don't know."



****

The day has ended and the basketball team all made their way home after they finished clearing up the equipment and cleaning up the gym for next day's use. Kaede waited for Kogure to lock up when he saw a figure leaning against the school gate, the person's red hair illuminated by the street lamp identifying the fox-eyed boy who it was even when the person's face was hidden in shadows.

Kaede turned towards his brother and said, "I need to rush home. Catch up ok?"
Kogure protested, "Kaede! Wait!"

As he was rushing to match Kaede's long strides, he didn't realise the presence of another person until he heard a voice call out to him, "Kogure-sempai!"

Kogure twirled around before his eyes widened when he recognised the junior. Nervously he waited until Sakuragi reached him, the redhead's eyes looking at everywhere except at him.

"Can we talk?" requested Sakuragi, still keeping his eyes diverted.

"About what?" asked Kogure wearily. His gut feeling told him that it was not going be a light conversation.

"I'll walk you home and we can talk along the way," the redhead said, already starting to walk. Kogure followed him silently.

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, the redhead asked, "You've ever carved or written on your desk before?"

Kogure looked at the redhead in puzzlement, "What?"

"On my desk, there's these words - 'Dai suki, my friend.' And you signed your name on it," said Sakuragi.

Kogure's heartbeat jumped when he realised what the redhead was talking about. He had scratched those words on his desk two years ago when he was hurting inside for the extreme love he felt for his best friend. Now he was morbidly embarassed that he has forgotten to scrape it off. The spectacled boy hoped only Sakuragi have seen it, and not anyone else.

Kogure blushed at being caught by his act of vandalism on school property, "It-It's still there?"
He laughed nervously and said, "Th-This is embarassing..."

"A friend?" asked Sakuragi, cutting the senior's further stammering. When Kogure stilled, Sakuragi waited.

Then the spectacled boy allowed himself to speak, "Yes, my friend from class. I fell for him since we started school together in year one.
The day before he left the school for good, I told him that I liked him... He didn't feel the same..."

Remembering that day when he first met the senior crying in the gym's store room, Sakuragi could easily guess that that was the time when Kogure was rejected. Hey, he's been rejected 50 times so he knew how it felt.

"That's the story," Kogure said, putting on a bright smile but it was lost on the other boy who has turned his face around to continue staring at the concrete walkway.

"Souka," mumbled Sakuragi.

"Souka"? That was it?
Kogure was puzzled at Sakuragi's lack of response. Then why the interest?
What also surprised the senior was how easy it was for him to be able to tell the redhead of how he has been broken-hearted when he knew that the other boy wouldn't push if the topic was hurting him too badly.

"You're home. Ja ne," said Sakuragi suddenly and Kogure realised with a start that they have indeed reached the front of the gate to his house.
The senior wanted to ask Sakuragi for an explanation about his odd attitude but he then changed his mind as he watched the redhead walk away.

Kaede took a bite from his sandwhich as he looked outside the window, watching his brother alone outside the gate who was looking at something out of the fox-eyed boy's field of vision but Kaede knew that it was his redheaded classmate, Sakuragi. Sighing inwardly he turned away and went up to his room.


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