imagine-knb:

[Name]
apologized as she jostled her way passed people that were leaving the
audience, cursing herself for not breaking free from the crowd once the
ending buzzer had sounded off. She had been too shocked, frozen to her
seat when the game had ended. The feeling of dread had washed over her
entire being as she read the scores over and over again. Kaijou had
lost—granted, it was a very close game, the scores going back and forth
between all four quarters, but the team had just run out of steam by the
time the end of the fourth quarter came around. Their opponents, a team
from a school [Name] had never heard of, just had more stamina than
those in Kaijou, ultimately earning them the victory.

Finally
making her way out of the crowd, [Name] ran for the area she knew the
locker rooms would be in. More specifically, she ran towards where she
knew Kaijou’s locker room would be. As she ran, she passed by a plethora
of athletes sporting different jerseys from all over the surrounding
geographical area. Many schools she couldn’t even recognize save for the
few she remembered considering when she entered high school. Most guys
she passed were sporting large grins as they talked about previous games
they played or those yet to come, excitement evident in their voices.
It reminded [Name] of how they all had been only a few days ago when the
competition began.

---

Bouncing in
her seat slightly, [Name] couldn’t keep the excited grin off her face
as she watched the rest of the Kaijou basketball team load onto the
rented bus. Beside her, Kasamatsu was staring at her behavior with a
confused, yet slightly annoyed expression. His eye twitched a bit as she
obliviously continued to bounce in place, unknowingly bothering
Kaijou’s captain. A complete minute passed and, once she showed no signs
of stopping on her own, Kasamatsu found he would have to take the
initiative. Grasping onto her smaller hand, he tugged on it slightly to
get her attention, effectively getting her to cease her movement.

“Oi, what are you so giddy about all of a sudden?”

“Isn’t
it obvious?” She asked, only to be answered with a blank look that told
her to continue. “This is the first time I’m going to see you play in
an actual game and not some practice one or friendly one brought on by
my friends at Seirin.” Lifting her free hand towards her face so it
could rest on her reddening cheeks, [Name] looked her boyfriend in the
eyes. Kasamatsu could practically see them sparkling. “I’ll finally be
able to see you in your official basketball jersey!”

Kasamatsu
sputtered a bit at her confession and immediately retreated his hand
from hers, lifting both of his in an attempt to cover up the blush
creeping onto his face. Behind him, he could hear the rest of his
teammates let out a string of laughter at their captain’s embarrassment.

“Hey,
what about me, [Name]cchi?” Kise asked, leaning his arm on the back of
her seat. “You’re excited to see me play too, right?”

[Name]
could only nod at the blonde boy before Kasamatsu roughly shoved Kise’s
face away from his girlfriend’s, not liking the proximity he was in.
Whining to himself about the rough behavior, Kise retreated into his own
seat, faux tears prickling at the corner of his eyes due to his
senior’s roughhousing.

“Enough laughter already,”
Kasamatsu announced to the bus once the last of the team had settled in.
Standing from his seat, he turned to face his teammates. [Name] could
only watch in awe as his leadership skills shined. “I don’t know about
you guys, but I’m ready to win this thing!”

The occupants
in the bus cheered as Kasamatsu went through his speech, everyone
grinning with determination in their eyes. When the bus had started
moving and Kasamatsu’s speech had ended, [Name] could practically feel
the team’s excitement rolling around in the air. As he sat next to her,
she couldn’t help but find her initial admiration for him had grown
stronger over the course of their relationship.

“I promise to cheer extra loud for you if you promise to play extra hard.”

Kasamatsu merely nodded, grin settled on his features.

---

Finally
making it to the hallway she knew Kaijou’s locker room was located in,
[Name] slowed her running pace to a speed walk. Five doors down and she
would be just outside the place the team would retire to after every
game. She held her breath in suspense when she noticed familiar blue
jackets that had already exited the locker room. All their faces
dejected, they looked towards the ground as they shuffled their way
towards the stairwell that would lead them to the audience seating. Now
that they couldn’t play anymore, they would have to spend their time
watching the rest of the games before going home.

“Oh, [Name]cchi.”

Kise
was the first to notice the young Seirin female, looking at her with
eyes that seemed to be fighting back a good amount of tears. His voice
had lost of all his usual pep and his leg muscles seemed to twitch at
every little movement he made. It came as a surprise to her that he was
still standing, seeing as he had probably played the hardest out of all
the Kaijou members.

Jogging the distance between herself and the
team, [Name] noticed her boyfriend’s lack of presence from amongst the
group. Noticing her worried glance, Moriyama pointed back towards the
locker room.

“He said he wanted to hang out in there for a while.”

Nodding
in thanks, [Name] made her way passed the rest of the team, a few of
them giving her reassuring pats on the back as they marched off towards
the audience bleachers. [Name] could hear her heart beating loudly in
her ears as she approached the door to the locker room, a hesitant hand
reaching up to knock on the wooden door.

“Damn it!” The outburst,
followed by a loud metallic sound, caused her to flinch, retreating her
hand from the door as if its mere presence had burned her. Trying again a
moment later, she immediately reached for the doorknob instead, turning
it and entering the room before anyone else’s prying eyes could see.

“Y-Yukio?”

He
was standing at the far end of the lockers, head cast towards the
ground and a fist up against a locker’s door. His arm was shaking due to
punching the cold metal in frustration and his jaw was clenched
tightly, eyes screwed shut in an attempt to not show any more emotion
than necessary. He had failed once again. He had failed his team, he had
failed his coach, and he had failed himself. Kasamatsu felt like a fool
for believing he could carry Kaijou to victory. Growling in
frustration, he lifted his fist to punch at the locker door once again,
the sting from the impact reverberating up his entire arm.

Worry
and panic washed over [Name] when she saw a few tear drops fall from his
face to the tiled floor below and she quickly made her way to his side,
removing his now bruised hand from its place against the lockers. Her
heart ached seeing him like this, but it hurt her more knowing that he
was trying to bottle up all his emotion. Not knowing what to do or say,
she merely stood to the side of him, finally wrapping her arms around
his waist once a moment of dead silence had passed. Kasamatsu stiffened
at the gesture, not wanting to seem weak in her embrace.

“I think
it’s stupid, you know?” She murmured after feeling him tense up. Her
voice was barely above a whisper, but in the quiet of the empty locker
room it spoke volumes. “It’s stupid how guys feel like they need to be
stronger by not showing any emotion. It’s okay, you know? To feel.”

“Y-yeah…”

[Name] tightened her grip on him as the first tears of many started cascading down his face.

{EXTRA}

Once
the tears had stopped coming from his eyes and his body stopped
shaking, Kasamatsu finally got a sense of his surroundings. His knuckles
hurt, his heart ached, there was a pressure on his abdomen from where
his girlfriend was holding him tightly, and his clothes felt a little
damper than they had previously. Pulling away from her embrace,
Kasamatsu held [Name] at an arm’s length to get a good look at her.

“Idiot,
why are you crying too?” He said, the usual bite in his insult gone. He
reached his hands up to her face, his thumbs rubbing at the tears that
had gathered in the corners of her eyes.

“I-I-I get s-sympathy
t-tears, okay?!” [Name] hiccupped, lightly slapping his hands away
before furiously rubbing at her eyes to rid herself of the embarrassing
waterworks. “S-so it’s y-your f-fault I’m c-crying, st-stupid.”

Oh poor Kasamatsu! So sad!!

imagine-knb:

[Name] sighed in
relief when she finally spotted the wide open doors of Kaijou’s gym
before her, jogging the rest of the way towards the entrance. Noting
that the massive crowd of females were no longer present, she came to
the conclusion that ordinary practice for the basketball club had ended
long ago, leaving only the regulars behind. However, once she had
approached the open doors to the gym, she noticed that neither the sound
of bouncing basketballs nor the sound of squeaking shoes reached her
ears. Looking inside, she noticed that the gym was completely empty.
Worried, she quickly took her phone out of her bag, reading the time on
the illuminated screen and sighing in self disappointment. She was
fifteen minutes late for the end of basketball practice.

Frowning
to herself, [Name] placed her phone back into her bag before wiping at
the sweat that had started to form at her brow. She cursed her teacher
for making her stay later than usual after class and she cursed herself
for missing the first bus that would take her to Kaijou. Idly walking in
the direction of Kaijou’s school gates, she wondered if Kasamatsu had
already left to go home.

“Hey, [Name]-san!”

The sudden call
of her name caused the first year to falter in her step. She turned to
look back towards the gym, noticing a few familiar people waving at her
as they walked in her direction.

“Oh, hello again Kobori-senpai,”
[Name] greeted as Kasamatsu’s teammates reached her. “It’s nice to see
you again. You too, Moriyama-senpai, Hayakawa-senpai, Kise-kun.” She
nodded to them all in greeting as she said their names, giving them all a
charming smile.

“[Name]cchi, why didn’t we see you during practice today?”

There
it was. That nickname again. [Name] scrunched her face in slight
confusion as she looked at the blonde, choosing to ignore his question
in favor for her own. “Why do you call me that?”

“Eh? You’re
Kasamatsu-senpai’s girlfriend now,” Kise answered, as if it were the
clearest reason to all her confusion. “Getting him to actually interact
with a girl is a pretty amazing feat in itself. You must’ve been pretty
persistent.”

[Name] wasn’t sure whether to take his answer as a
compliment or not. Deciding to brush it off as one of those quirks she
would never understand about the blonde, she answered his previous
question from before with a heavy sigh.

“I really wanted to watch
you all practice again, but I got held back to make up a math test I
missed.” [Name] scratched at the back of her head as she explained
herself, avoiding the guys’ eyes as she pouted to herself. Remembering
that she had specifically wanted to watch Kasamatsu practice again, she
looked around for said captain before asking. “Hey, where is Yukio
anyway?”

Kobori smiled, having noticed the way the young Seirin
student called Kaijou’s captain by his given name. “He’s discussing
things with Coach Takeuchi about our upcoming game.”

“You should come watch,” Moriyama added in. “The more pretty girls in the audience, the better I can play.”

“I
would love to come watch you all play,” [Name] said, ignoring
Moriyama’s usual flirtatious tone. Her smile widened as she thought
about finally seeing her boyfriend’s team in an official match.

“Come
on, [Name]cchi, let’s go wait for Kasamatsu-senpai at the front gates,”
Kise excitedly said, latching his arm into her own in order to easily
drag the female along. He smiled down at her, his eyes shining with a
mischievous glimmer. “We have some questions for you.”

“Questions?
Sure, what do you need to know?” [Name] asked, oblivious to the model’s
ulterior motives. As she was dragged along, she noticed that the other
team members kept up in pace, following behind the pair.

“How did you meet him before you two started dating?” Kise asked, getting straight to the point.

“H-huh?”
[Name] muttered, surprised by the question. “Well, we never really met
prior to me asking him out…” [Name] thought back to the day she had
first confessed to Kasamatsu, cringing at how awful it had been for the
both of them. “I just saw him playing basketball once in junior high and
thought he was cool. He’s even cooler now that I actually know him…”
She trailed off, smiling at the memory of a younger her watching a
younger Kasamatsu play. Comparing the memory to an image of herself now,
there wasn’t much of a difference. She still got pretty giddy whenever
he was able to make a basket and she would instantly melt when she saw
his determined smile.

“So you confessed to him first?” Moriyama
asked, butting into the conversation quickly before Kise could ask his
next question. Kise, who was just about to ask the same thing, gave a
pout as he looked at his senior.

“Yeah, I confessed first.”

“And
he rejected you.” Kobori stated casually more than asked. [Name] only
nodded in confirmation, not knowing quite why the guys would want this
information.

“I don’t know why he would reject such a cute girl,”
Moriyama sighed, shrugging his shoulders. “I know I would’ve said yes in
a heartbeat.”

“You would’ve said yes to anybody that asked,”
Kobori muttered under his breath, earning a glare from Moriyama and a
few laughs from [Name], Hayakawa, and Kise.

By now the small group
had made their way to the front gates of the school. They slowed their
pace to almost a crawl before coming to a stop near the school sign,
standing in front of the big blue letters that announced Kaijou’s
presence to the area around it. Kise had let go of [Name]’s arm as soon
as they made it to the front gate, choosing instead to waltz his way in
front of the girl so she couldn’t escape his form even if she wanted to.
The other three basketball players stood to the side, watching as Kise
continued his interrogation of the Seirin student. Every so often they
would put in their own opinions or ask their own questions.

“Hey,
if you liked him so much, why didn’t you come to Kaijou?” Kise asked. He
had finished asking her about her past and was now moving on to
questions about the present.

[Name] sighed a bit, wondering if
Kise’s onslaught of questions would ever end. “My dad got transferred to
a different office and my family moved homes so his commute wouldn’t be
too bad. Seirin was a lot closer to home than Kaijou, so it only made
sense. Besides, why would I follow someone who clearly rejected me?”

Kise
waggled his pointer finger, giving a small wink. “I’m the one asking
questions [Name]cchi.” Thinking to himself for a moment, Kise wrestled
with his mind a bit to see if there were any more questions he had for
[Name]. When none came to mind, he decided to just say what was on his
mind, hoping more questions would come from the conversation. “So when
you saw him again, you must’ve been really excited. Or nervous, I guess,
since he rejected you before… But then you confessed again!”

[Name]
felt herself flush in embarrassment at the memory of her second
confession. She had forgotten that Kise had been there for the event as
well. When the others started to ask Kise what had happened during the
second confession and Kise had started describing in detail, hand
motions and all, she had to stop herself from punching the blonde.
Kasamatsu’s violent tendencies were starting to rub off on her.

“I
thought you were asking me questions,” [Name] reminded them in order to
save herself from further embarrassment at the memory.

“Oh yeah,”
Kise said, telling the guys he would tell them the rest of the story
some other time. “So, how long have you guys been going out now?”

“Uh,
almost a month and a half now,” [Name] answered, thinking back to the
night Kasamatsu had asked her to make their relationship official.
Telling Kise to continue with his interrogation had been the wrong move
after all, seeing as [Name] was slowly starting to find it harder to
keep a blush from forming every time he asked her about her previous
dates.

“How many guys did you date before?”

“Three.”

“And how long did those last?”

“About two months at most.”

“How long do you want this relationship to last?”

“A-As
long as possible of course!” [Name] felt stupid for playing into Kise’s
game as he smiled at her answer in a mischievous way. Her cheeks
continued to redden and she placed her hands upon them in a desperate
attempt to hide the color.

“Oh,” Kise drawled out in a teasing tone. “So, you really like Kasamatsu-senpai, huh?”

“I-I
more than like him,” she declared easily despite her darkening cheeks.
Kise gave her yet another teasing smiling as he raised a single brow,
asking her to continue. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she croaked
out more words in a vain attempt to get Kise to end his questions. “What
more do you want me to say? That I love him? B-because I do.”

[Name]
had closed her eyes in order to obtain the courage to say those words,
but after realizing that she was met with only silence, she opened them
in order to assess the boys’ reaction. It confused her as to why they
were all grinning widely until a strangled cough from behind caught her
attention. Turning to look towards the noise, she was met with the sight
of a very red faced Kasamatsu. He had a hand to his cheeks and his eyes
were wide, darting back and forth between her and his teammates. [Name]
could feel her own face flare up with another heated blush as her eyes
met with Kasamatsu’s steel blue ones.

“See, Senpai,” Kise
exclaimed, cutting into the awkward atmosphere with his bubbly
personality, “There’s no need for you to worry! [Name]cchi really does
love you!”

Kise could only cry as he became the victim to countless kicks to the back.

{EXTRA}

Silently
holding hands, Kasamatsu and [Name] walked to the station where they
would part ways for the day. His teammates, who he had reprimanded
harshly for their teasing, had already left and were long forgotten. As
they walked, Kasamatsu couldn’t help but replay [Name]’s and Kise’s
words in his mind. It would be the last time he confessed to the blonde
about his relationship troubles ever again.

“I meant what I said,”
[Name] murmured, breaking Kasamatsu from his mental stupor. She wasn’t
looking at him, instead opting for gazing at the trees they passed by as
the red of her cheeks slowly crept back. “I-I really do love you,
Yukio.”

Kasamatsu faltered in his steps before coming to a halt,
causing his younger companion to stop as well. He opened and closed his
mouth a few times, incomprehensible syllables spluttering forth as he
tried to gather his thoughts. Finally, after a moment, he took a deep
breath.

“I-I love you too, [Name].”

So funny and cute!