“I’m through with you Sendoh Akira!” shouted the sexy girl with make-up all over her face to the ace player of Ryonan High.

            “Nani?” Sendoh couldn’t believe his ears. What was she saying again?

            “I said I wanna break up with you!” repeated the lass.

            “Break up? But…why?” asked the bewildered Sendoh. I didn’t treat her good enough?

            “Listen Akira. I don’t wanna do this but you forced me to okay? I mean, look, you’re handsome, talented, well-built and smart plus you’re nice. But your entire goody-goody attitude is freaking me out! I can’t stand guys like that. They’re not cool enough. At first I thought you were but after we dated for this long, I realized that I don’t like you at all. I just like your outside not the inside. You’re not my type. Don’t you understand?” explained Sendoh’s girlfriend. Well, most probably ex-girlfriend now. Sendoh kept quiet for a while, his mind dissolving what his /ex/-girlfriend had just said. He stared at his hands for a while then quickly hid it inside his pockets. That’s his bad habit whenever he was nervous or when he was undecidedly confuse.

            “Akira? Earth the Sendoh Akira!” 

            “Huh? Oh…sorry, I was just…”

            “Listen Akira. I knew that it’s hard for you to accept this all of a sudden. But you have to learn sooner or later right? It’s better that it hurts now than it is in the future,” replied the girl putting a hand on his broad shoulder.

            Sendoh stared at his ex-girlfriend now, trying to find something in her eyes. Where was the girl that he loved long ago? How could she do this to me?

            “You don’t love me?” asked Sendoh quietly.

            The girl sighed. “I do Aki. I do. But that was so long ago. Like my mother said, love comes and goes. So I’ve learned to accept the fact that I don’t love you anymore. I don’t wanna lie to myself anymore, Aki.”

            “Can’t we go back?” asked Sendoh quietly barely audible.

            “No,” replied the girl quietly as well.

            “Then I guess…we’re still friends right?” asked Sendoh with a bit of hope in his voice.

            “Yes. Friends and a close one.”

            Sendoh grinned for the first time in that day and took out his hand to shake his ex-girlfriend’s. “Friends.” He repeated.

            The girl gladly too his hand and shook it. She too, smiled for the first time of the day, this time, for Sendoh Akira.

            “Hey, now that we’ve broke up, I don’t think I love you /that/ much too…” teased Sendoh. A moment later, a loud shriek was heard from the place of the two.

* * * * * * * * * * 

            “Ohayo minna-san!” greeted the spiky hair as he entered the basketball court of Ryonan High.

            “Ohayo Sendoh-sempai!” greeted a few juniors back to him while the others just kept quiet. Sendoh grinned and looked around for the seniors. He spotted Koshino, his best friend at the corner warming up for practice. Sendoh walked over to Koshino in easy steps, not even realizing that the coach was giving him death glares. If eyes could kill, Sendoh would be dead by now.

            “Hey.” Greeted Sendoh to his best friend.

             “You’re late,” commented Koshino. Then he added, “Do you realize that Taoka-sensei is steaming mad?”

            Sendoh glanced over at his coach and sweat dropped. He quickly shifts his gaze back to Koshino. “Wow.”

            “Now you know. C’mon. Just warm up. The match’s starting soon…” replied Koshino with a smirk.

            “Match? Wait a sec. What match?” questioned the confused boy.

            Koshino rolled his eyes and looked at his best friend. “Are you really our team’s ace player? I doubt it.”

            Sendoh grinned. “Sometimes I doubt that too.”

            “The match with Shohoku idiot,” informed Koshino to Sendoh. He added under his breath, “Why oh why do I have such an oblivious best friend like you?”           

            “Shohoku? How come no one told me about it?” asked Sendoh.

“Because you were busy dating you girl Akira…” replied Koshino as-a-matter-of-factly.

“Kosh, we broke up,” said Sendoh quietly. Koshino, after hearing those words, only stared at his best friend with concerned look on his face.

“You okay?” asked Koshino.

“Yeah. We’re friends now. Me and her,” explained Sendoh with a grin plastered on his face. “Don’t worry bout me Kosh. You know me. Nothing can hurt me.”

“Yeah right,” smirked Koshino. “Nothing huh? Next time after you broke up with your dream girl then don’t come running to me and say you’re heart broken and you’re hurting…blah blah blah.”

Sendoh grinned. “I most probably wouldn’t.”

“Whatever. Why don’t you just shut up and prepare before the opponents come. I’ll have a talk with Uozumi first.” said Koshino while he walked towards Uozumi, the team captain. Sendoh was left wondering alone. Oh well, might as well go with it. He hadn’t had any matches with schools for a while now. He was surprised when suddenly someone appeared from behind him.

            “Sempai!”

            “Hikoichi! You scare the hell outta me!”

            “Gomen gomen. Ne, sempai, have you heard?”

            “What?” asked Sendoh curiously. If Hikoichi Aida, the loudmouth of Ryonan has anything to tell him then it must be quite interesting.    

            Hikoichi rubbed his hands as if preparing to tell him about the biggest and juiciest news on Earth. “Have you seen Shohoku’s ace player?”

            “Huh? Ace player? How would I suppose to know?”

            Sendoh sweat dropped when he saw the glint in Hikoichi’s eyes. “You didn’t even know about Rukawa Kaede?”

            “Rukawa Kaede? Nope. Never heard of him before.”

            Hikoichi was giving his the ‘I don’t believe it!’ look. “You-you don’t know him? Are you sure? He’s very popular. Among girls especially.” Explained Hikoichi.

            “So? I’m popular too,” Replied Sendoh. “What’s so special about that?”

            Hikoichi sighed. “Sempai, forgive me for asking you this but… do you really live in Japan?”

            Sendoh grinned at his junior. “No. I live in Kanagawa.” Hikoichi sighed again.

            “If you do then how come you’ve never heard of the most popular, talented, rich, beautiful and attractive freshman of Shohoku High?” asked Hikoichi.

            “Umm… I know some guys are popular, talented and rich but…. attractive and beautiful? That’s a little too much isn’t it?”

            “You’ll believe it when you see it sempai,” replied Hikoichi, still with a glint in his eyes. Sendoh shrugged. Attractive and beautiful? It seems like this guy is something.

            “But still…I think the phrase ‘attractive’ and ‘beautiful’ is for girls only.”

            Hikoichi had this grin on his face that Sendoh doesn’t quite like.

* * * * * * * * * *

            All members of Shohoku Basketball Club have gathered at the entrance of their school, waiting for the bus to fetch them to Ryonan High. All of them were quiet except for one. Sakuragi Hanamichi. He was boosting around telling everyone that they’ll win for sure in the match against Ryonan because he’s a tensai. He went around laughing like a maniac and a few times earned a whack on the head by the manageress, Ayako.

            “Hahaha…Ore Wa Tensai Sakuragi Hanamichi...!”

            Whack!

“Ite!” groaned the red head. At this time of the moment, usually a reply was heard but today it seems to be missing.

“Are?” said Ayako while scanning around the team. Akagi, Mitsui, Ryota, Sakuragi…

“Rukawa? Where’s Rukawa?” asked the girl frantically searching for the freshman. There was suddenly a chaos in the team. Anzai-sensei, the team’s coach had an unreadable look while Akagi had a funny look on his face. Mitsui and Ryota ran back to the gym to search for him just in case he dozed off in the locker room. The others were asking and talking among themselves. Kogure was worriedly walking back and forth all the while taking a peek at the outside. Ayako was busy consoling the juniors and asking Sakuragi to keep quiet. And Sakuragi was…well, complaining that it’s unfair that the kitsune got so much attention from them. This earned a punch on his head from Akagi.

“Just shut up!” warned Akagi to the trouble maker.

After a few minutes, Ryota and Mitsui ran back to the team telling them that Rukawa was still unfound. Then the team was back to the chaos. Until Akagi scolded all of them and asked them to be quiet. Then he asked Anzai-sensei what to do next. The coach just laughed his trademark laugh “Ho ho ho” and that was all he answered. Akagi sweat dropped. When the bus they hire arrived, Rukawa was still not found. All of them except Sakuragi (he was happy) had no choice but the leave to Ryonan without their small forward.

* * * * *