Chapter VIII
We started printing the schedule for the up and coming practice games.
On the first page of the paper, it read,“Shinjo Tech Academy 4 p.m. Tuesday 4/12.”
“Is that who we’re going up against first?” Aiya asked.
“Seems like it,” I responded.
“Isn’t that our rival school? I heard Shinjo Tech has just as good academics as Sakura and an even better focus on sports,” Aiya added.
“Yeah it does, plus it’s a boarding school,” I chimed in.
Aiya and I looked over the schedule for a bit and started putting dates in Miyamura’s calendar since he also asked us to do that as well.
As we were on Miyamura’s computer we saw a particular file on his computer desktop.
Usually, we wouldn’t be nosy enough to look through a man's computer, but the file had an interesting name.
“Sugahara_Oda_Scouting_Report”
There were other files as well that contained names of other players on the team like Nakamura Haruki.
I thought it would be interesting to see what Sugahara’s file said, but at the same time, I didn’t care too much.
On the other hand, Aiya was insistent on clicking it.
We ended up opening the file and reading it’s contents.
Report
- Starting point guard for Grandaire Jr. High, the middle school with an unbreakable 51-game winning streak across 3 seasons.
- All losses occurred last year when Sugahara Oda stopped attending school midway through the season, resulting in a 9-game losing streak, tainting their record to 51-9 across 3 seasons.
- Averaged 22 points, 14 assists, and 7 rebounds across 3 seasons
- Averaged 46 points, 7 assists, and 9 rebounds in his last 11 games
- Versatile guard that can play PG or SG but shines most at PG.
- Average defender
- Above average athleticism
- Has a solid frame, and was 172cm his last season at Grandaire, unknown weight
- Was best friends with Onodera Kota
End of Report
The report made it seem as though Sugahara is even better than someone like Nakamura, who had so much buzz around his name as a top athlete when school began.
We were able to watch him play against Nakamura on Monday, where Sugahara beat him.
“Guess he’s the real deal,” I said to Aiya.
“Woah 46 points? I don’t know much about basketball, but I remember the kids in our junior high team would always boast about just scoring 15 points,” Aiya mentioned.
“Who’s Onodera Kota though, why is he relevant in someone else’s report?” I wondered to myself.
After reading Sugahara’s report, we quickly closed it and went out to give the papers over to the boys.
✾❀✾
POV: Yamato Reo
Practice was just about over when our new managers Kinoshita and Haruno came over to hand us the upcoming practice schedule.
Schedule
- Shinjo Tech Academy 4 p.m. Tuesday 4/12
- @Ryusei High 6 p.m Monday 4/18
- @Pearl Prep 6 p.m Wednesday 4/29
Starting next week we will have a practice game every week until the season officially starts.
There are 3 games in our practice schedule.
After reading our schedule, I couldn’t help but narrow my eyes at Shinjo Tech.
Why do we have to play them first?
With practice over, I said my goodbyes and took my leave.
I usually take my bike back and forth to school.
I actually have noticed some of my teammates do the same as well, such as Suzuki and Kojima.
On days like this, before heading home, I'll make my way over to the hospital.
Before arriving at the hospital, however, I stopped at a nearby flower boutique to pick out some flowers.
I stood in front of an aisle of flowers for a moment to pick some out.
I ended up leaving the store with a few yellow roses in hand since yellow is her favorite color.
At the hospital, I checked in at the front office and made my way upstairs to the 9th floor.
There I went into the usual room.
“Hey Mom,” I said walking into the room with flowers in hand.
“Oh Reo, more flowers dear?” she asked me
“Yeah, of course, here I brought a new vase as well,” I opened my backpack bringing out a vase.
I filled the vase with water and put the flowers in, then carefully placed the flowers on a table next to my mother.
This was the first time I had visited my mother since school began, only because she begged me to only come during weekends, so I could focus on school.
She asked me lots of things about school and if I was eating well at home.
“You look skinny Reo, have you been eating well?” she asked me.
“I have, I’ve actually been gaining some weight,” I told her reassuringly.
We continued to talk about small things in life, then she brought up something big.
“My surgery is arranged for Monday in the afternoon.
It’s a last ditch surgery that has about a 60% success rate,” she told me.
“I see,” I whispered looking down.
I couldn’t help it at all.
A tear flowed down my check and dripped from my chin.
I started to cry as I hugged my mother, resting my head into her shoulder.
At that moment I couldn’t help but think of it.
Think of what my mother had told me to never ever think about.
That she had become bedridden because of me.
That she is suffering because of me and what I did!
“It’s okay sweetie, everything’s going to be okay, remember what I told you Reo,
don’t think,” she reminded me as she stroked my head in comfort.
“I’m sorry mom…, it’s my fault, it's my-”
“No, it’s not Reo! I’ve told you so many times! Don’t listen to what your brother says, he’s WRONG!” she said sternly.
I remained silent as tears kept flowing.
I remained next to my mother for another hour.
RUMBLE…
RUMBLE…
The sound of a storm started to brew outside.
In a moments time, I started to hear raindrops hit the window.
A strong gust of wind blew strongly against the building.
Whooooshhhh
“I think you oughta get home sweetie,” my mom told me.
“A storm’s picking up,” she added.
I got off the guest chair and got ready to leave.
“I’ll visit again tomorrow, and then Sunday, and then early Monday too,” I said.
“I love you,” I told my mother.
“I love you too my son,” she said in a warm motherly way.
✾❀✾
The storm picked up fast, when I walked out of the hospital the rain was pouring quite heavily.
I took out my umbrella and opened it as I guided my bike with me.
It looks like I’ll have to take the subway home because if I rode my bike, I would get soaked.
As I walked along the sidewalk of the hospital towards the subway a silhouette emerged from the rain.
Walking towards me was a tall figure, around my height, with brown hair and a raincoat, holding an umbrella to dispel the rain.
He stopped and looked at me.
His brown eyes pierced through my heart, and his face looked at me with disgust.
His face was very familiar, in fact, insanely familiar.
It was the same face I see every day in the mirror.
He started to walk again and passed me, without saying a word.
Eventually reaching the hospital entrance and entering it.
He and I shared the same face…
And the same fate.
✾❀✾
POV: Sugahara
It was a sunny Saturday today.
I woke up pretty late around 12 p.m. due to playing video games late last night.
I yawned as I made my bed and went to go brush my teeth.
My outfit for the day consisted of sweatpants and a buttoned shirt.
I slipped on some shoes and went out in the hallway, heading down to the main floor.
I watched as the floor number of the display panel in the elevator dropped, as I descended.
8…7…6…
I eventually reached floor 1, which was the main floor.
This floor also had a bunch of restaurants to grab quick meals.
I had been eating here ever since Monday.
The foods they served varied in health as there were fried food options and also
Salads and rice.
I try to keep a good balance, not really worrying about what I eat in a day as long as it’s varied.
For brunch, I had some eggs and a rice ball.
For dessert, I got myself a popsicle as well.
Lately, I have been eating popsicles every day, I’ve tried almost all the flavors available here.
My favorite one has to be the blue raspberry, the sweetness and sourness are something quite refreshing I must say.
I lounged around at the restaurant table, scrolling through Instagram for a minute.
I started following our school’s basketball team, along with some other accounts from our school.
I went ahead and followed Kojima, Kinoshita, and Haruno as well.
Though Haruno has yet to follow me back.
I saw that our basketball team had just uploaded the team picture,
where all 8 of us team members, along with Kinoshita, Haruno, and Coach Miyamura stood
In the picture.
The Instagram account is now being run by Kinoshita, who seemed like she was able to edit the lighting in the photo to make it really look nice.
I kept scrolling for a while as I enjoyed my popsicle until I noticed a new notification on my phone.
It was a follow request on Instagram by a user named “theKa3de.”
At first, I didn’t realize who it was because I didn’t recognize the handle, but I quickly realized who it was.
It was Sato Sensei’s daughter Kaede whom I met on the first day of school.
I haven’t heard anything about her since the tryouts.
Come to think of it, didn’t she owe me something?
Anyhow, I accepted her request and followed her back.
Almost immediately I received a DM from her.
“Meet me at The Velvet Fork at 7 p.m. tonight.”
I replied asking her what it was for but all she said back was
“It’s a surprise,”
I was personally curious about what this “surprise” was so I kept that in my schedule for today.
✾❀✾
For the rest of the day, I went to the gym with Kojima, Asari, and Arisu.
Ever since joining the team, the four of us have been getting closer.
Especially since Asari is also in my class.
I believe that Arisu and Kojima are also classmates as well.
As for Suzuki, Okamoto, and Nakamura, I haven’t really spoken to them much.
In fact, Nakamura has been giving me a cold shoulder.
He already is naturally a pretty cocky arrogant fella, but ever since I beat him in the tryouts he hasn’t said a word to me.
However, I do notice when we are in practice, that he tries exceptionally hard against me.
Hopefully, I didn’t damage his ego too much.
The four of us played some pick-up ball at the gym.
Since it was the weekend, there were more younger people here than last time.
We played well together, with Asari able to grab boards easily and even dunked a few times.
Kojima, after the tryouts, started to play a little more passively, however, he still had a scoring bone in his body.
Arisu was an exceptional shooter, he really only missed a handful of shots the whole time we were there.
As for me I mainly just messed around.
I got some buckets and only stepped up if we were going to lose a match.
We played against people who weren’t on a team, so the competition was relatively low.
In fact it would be quite concerning if we were to lose a pick-up game.
We ended our session in the sauna to relax our muscles and boost our recovery.
“So, what do you guys think of the coach?” Arisu asked.
We all agreed that he was pretty strict, but he wasn’t bad.
“I’ve had some pretty old coaches growing up, so it’s a nice change to have someone younger like Miyamura,” Asari replied.
“Same, I also heard that Miyamura played professionally for a while until he got hurt,” Kojima added.
“Wonder how good he was,” I added.
“We should challenge him next time!” Arisu mentioned.
“He’s still in his 20’s he should be able to keep up with us right?” Arisu added.
“I bet Sugahara would drop buckets on him!” Asari said.
“By the way, what middle school did you play at?” Asari asked me.
I didn’t want to mention it, especially after I told Kojima I never played for a team before.
“Didn’t you go to Grandaire?” Arisu asked me.
I was surprised to hear that Arisu knew.
He must be the type of person to keep up with the basketball scene.
Though I suppose Grandaire was famous for our legendary run.
It was all over the news for a while, but most people didn’t pay attention to junior high athletics.
Only those really involved in basketball would know that.
I smiled as I asked Arisu, “How’d you know that?”
“Oh, I’ve played you guys once, in my first year in junior high.
Man, I remember it clear as day, our team got the ass-whooping of our lives.
To this day I believe that it was still our school's record for the most points we ever lost by,” Arisu explained.
“I see,” I replied.
“So do you still talk to him? Onodera I mean,” Arisu asked me.
Onodera Kota, the star of the show at Grandaire.
He was so good that he attracted scouts from overseas to come watch him play.
He was also my best friend.
“Yeah, I talk with him here and there,” I said.
“He’s over at an academy in America right now, so I haven’t seen him in a while,” I mentioned.
“Onodera huh? I think I’ve heard about him before,” Asari said.
“He’s the best basketball prospect to ever come out of Japan,” Kojima mentioned.
“Didn’t know you played with him Sugahara, that explains why you're so good as well,” he added.
“Yeah, well I’ll never get to his level,” I replied as I stretched and yawned.
“Should we start heading out?” I asked the group.
They all agreed, as we started to make our way home.
✾❀✾
I got back to my room at 5:30 p.m., an hour before Kaede’s surprise.
I went to shower, and get dressed.
The Velvet Fork was an incredibly expensive establishment to eat at.
I wonder if we’re just meeting there or eating there?
I dressed a little nicer, just in case we do, however I don’t know why we would.
I didn’t ask her to take me out to eat a fancy dinner for our bet, did I?
The time was now 6:45 p.m. and I was outside of The Velvet Fork.
I looked at my wristwatch as I waited for Kaede to show.
Soon enough I got a tap on the shoulder and I turned around to see Kaede,
All dressed up like it was a special occasion.
She wrapped her arm around mine suddenly.
“Let’s go inside!” she said.
We got escorted over to a table that Kaede reserved already.
We sat down at the table and got our drinks situated.
After that, the waitress gave us time to look at their menu.
Kaede seemed pretty energetic, showing that she was in a very good mood.
“So, what's the surprise?” I asked her.
“Just this,” she replied.
“A little dinner date with me,” she announced.
“U-um, and why exactly,” I asked.
She leaned forward towards my cheek, and cuffed her hand, as if to tell me a secret.
“FOR THE BET DUMMY!” she said loudly, ringing my ear drum.
“Oww, that heard moron!” I said.
“Don’t care, you should be grateful.
Bet you didn’t expect a dinner this fancy huh?” she asked me.
“I didn’t expect a dinner at all,” I replied.
Just then, I remembered what the bet was originally for.
“Yanno the bet was for you to cover my lunch for a month right?” I told her.
“What?” she said.
“The bet was for you to cover my lunch! For the next month!” I said a little louder so she could hear.
It seemed like she denied it at first, but when she finally realized, she turned really red.
She let out a simple and quiet, “Oh.”
“I see, I guess I had it wrong, that’s on me,” she replied.
Suddenly she started to form a sinister grin on her face.
“Well, since we’re already here, we might as well enjoy ourselves, rightttt?” she said in a suspicious tone.
“Sure, why not, I could eat,” I replied.
We both started scouting the menu for some food that sounded good.
The whole time we were looking, Kaede would start having little chuckles.
“Are you okay? Do you need some water?” I asked her.
“No, I’m okay,” she replied, hiding her smile with the menu.
When the waitress returned, we started our order.
“Can I have the Soba noodle salad with ginger? And also the Wagyu Beef Carpaccio as well,”
I ordered.
After the waitress wrote down my order, she asked what Kaede would have.
"Hello, I'll have... hmm, let's start with the Seared Scallop and the Tempura Shrimp with Ponzu Sauce for appetizers.
Ooo and for the main course, I'll take the Lobster Tail with Garlic Butter Sauce, the Wagyu Beef Steak, and the Duck Breast with Orange Ginger Glaze. Oh, and a side of Truffle Parmesan Fries, please!” Kaede said, placing her order.
When she placed her order, I caught a glimpse of what she was up to, but I didn’t say anything.
As we waited for the food to arrive, we conversed a bit.
“So how’s the school paper? Were you able to get a good shot at tryouts,” I asked her.
“Sure did, in fact, when it comes out and you read it, you might even be grateful,” she replied.
I had not the slightest clue of what she was alluding to.
‘So what do your parents do for a living?” she asked me.
“My parents? Hmm, they are both convenience store clerks,” I replied.
“Seriously?” she exclaimed.
“Yeah, is that a problem?” I replied, trying to scare her.
“No, no, not at all,” she replied, taking a sip of her drink.
“Just out of curiosity, if I had won the bet, would you have actually bought the camera for me?” she asked.
“Of course, I don’t beat around the bush.
If I had lost, you’d probably have the camera in your hands right now,” I told her.
“I see, that’s good to know,” she said with a smile.
I looked at her pretty closely in that moment, noticing that Kaede was actually a really attractive-looking girl.
I would say most boys at our school would die to be her boyfriend.
When the food finally came, we started to dig in.
I started cutting my piece of Wagyu, while Kaede absolutely tore through the appetizers.
I helped eat some too, since she ordered a lot.
I started to finish up my meals and so did Kaede.
I think that girls who can eat a lot are pretty attractive, but man, when I say Kaede can eat, SHE CAN EAT.
She devoured all the appetizers as well as the main course.
I thought girls were supposed to be embarrassed about stuffing their faces, but she obviously didn’t care at all.
She must have one hell of a metabolism though, because she can eat all that food and still maintain such a slender frame and a nice jawline as well.
It’s pretty impressive, to say the least.
The waitress came over again to see how everything was and asked if we wanted dessert.
I ordered the Sakura Panna Cotta, it was a good enough dessert for me to end the night.
However when Kaede ordered…
“I'll have one of everything!” she said cheerfully.
The waitress wrote it down and left again.
I had already realized what she was scheming, but now she’s just going over the top.
“You're not planning on splitting the bill right,” I asked her with a smart look on my face.
“Hehe, nope, you caught me,” she admitted with an innocent tone.
“I figured,” I told her.
“Are you mad at me?” she asked.
“Somewhat,” I replied.
“Well, as long as you're not SUPER mad at me, we can continue to be good friends!” she smiled and laughed as she extended her hand to pat my shoulder.
We finished our desserts, though I had to eat over half of them since she finally got full midway through.
I paided the entire bill with my card, which totalled out to around 97485 yen, which didn’t hurt my pockets at all, but sure did hurt my ego.
Kaede and I walked out of the restaurant together.
She wanted to part ways, but since it was dark out now, I offered to take her home.
When we got close to her house, she offered to walk the rest herself.
“Thanks, for the night, I had fun!” she said.
“I didn’t,” I said under my breath.
She looked at me with her now signature mischievous and seductive smile.
Her face started to get ever so slightly closer to mine.
It go closer,
and closer,
and closer.
Soon our eyes met, her nose only a few inches from mine.
I was prepared for the worst at that point.
She then moved quickly to my ear, and whispered something.
“You’re my wallet now,”
She patted me on the back and let out a little laugh.
After that, she walked the rest of the way to her house.
I gazed upon the crescent moon in the dark sky, shining brightly.
I knew I had to prepare for the worst.
“I got totally robbed,”
