Chapter 143

*Splash!*

"Oooh! Nice shoot, Kagami-kun!"

"This was your fourth in a row! It seems you got your touch back, right?"

Kagami had this smug expression as he watched his shoot once again go through the hoop smoothly. Unlike yesterday, he felt pretty good right now, and not even that damn dog would be allowed to affect his game.

Furihata rolled his eyes sarcastically, still feeling a bit exasperated at how fast Kagami's mood changed. Now, the red-haired boy even went to the dog and rubbed its head willingly, a completely different attitude compared with how paranoid Kagami was yesterday. And these mood swings somehow also affected Kagami's game too. If yesterday he bricked almost all his shots, now he was possessed by Stephen Curry, amazed everyone with his shooting consistency.

Usually, this kind of improvement is good for the team. Once Kagami could hit the shoot more consistently, it would add more weapons for their offense. However, Furihata started to get irritated by how Kagami always turned his head on him with a smug smile whenever the ball went in as if wanting to prove that his defense strategy yesterday to let the red-haired boy shoot wouldn't work again in the future.

Unfortunately, before Furihata could say anything to settle the score, Riko suddenly banged the door, surprising everyone who had started the training. She just stood in front of the gym, scrutinizing everyone else as if she wanted to guilt-trip all of them. However, since no one knew why she was not in a good mood, they all shrugged it off and thought it was just her moment of the month.

Seeing her clueless players, Riko snapped, roaring out loud, "What the hell are you doing here?!"

Being a clueless idiot, Kagami sacrificed himself, asking bravely toward the girl. "Well, we practiced like the usual. Is there something wrong?" This was echoed by the others who didn't know why Riko made such a big fuss.

The girl twitched her mouth in annoyance, swearing secretly at herself in the past for why she decided to be the coach of the team. Sometimes, her hardest work is not related to basketball at all. Instead, it was the nannying part that she had to do to make sure her players didn't go overboard, just like this time.

"Several of you, I could understand." Riko nodded in approval at several players, making them sigh in relief. "However, what I want to understand is, why did you four here?! Did I say yesterday that I prohibited you all from training?!" She pointed her fingers at Furihata, Hyuga, Kiyoshi, and Kagami.

Hearing that, Furihata and Hyuga turned their heads away quickly, not wanting to meet Riko's furious gaze. Unfortunately for them, they were still called by the girl mercilessly.

"Junpei, didn't I tell you to stop them in advance if those three insisted on training?! Did you already forget about that and decided to join them too? And Furihata-kun, you usually are logical and responsible. You know why I wanted you to take a break. So, why in the hell did you ignore my instruction?!"

Indeed, Furihata knows about it too. Out of all the players here, the four of them were the players who had the biggest risk of getting injured. Him due to the zone usage, Hyuga due to his minute play who was the highest among the Seirin players, Kiyoshi who had just recovered from his injury, and Kagami who had an explosive playing style and had already had a problem with his knee in the past. That's why Riko took an extreme path to ban them from training just to protect them from injury.

Unfortunately, habit is not that easy to change. Once he woke up from his bad, Furihata just did his routine and unconsciously, he had already hooped back on the gym, forgetting about Riko's warning at all. And he could guess the same for the other three.

"I don't want to hear your reason. This had already happened, and since you all insisted on going overtraining, a week from now, your amount of training would be doubled down and I will supervise it myself."

For Furihata and Kagami, they just shrugged it off as if it was nothing. After all, they had already experienced Riko's training style, and they felt they could handle twice the amount of what they usually did. However, Hyuga and Kiyoshi's faces were pale as they pleaded mercy to Riko quickly.

"W-Wait a second, Riko-chan! D-Don't be too hasty!"

"Y-Y-Yeah! You need to think about it! Don't you have a lot of things to do already? Why supervise us personally?"

"Yeah! We could do it ourselves, you could trust us!"

To be honest, their reaction scared Kagami and Furihata a bit. Moreover, the pity gazes they received from their senpai who were not punished also added to the amount of fear they felt right now. They just looked at Hyuga and Kiyoshi curiously, trying to find a clue as to why their reaction was so exaggerated. Unfortunately, Riko didn't waver by their plead and still stood by her punishment idea.

"Well, if you had time to do more training and still make a protest, you better prepare yourself for the next week. For now, get out of here! Don't let me catch you training again before getting my approval, do you understand?!"

"Yes, Ma'am!"

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Furihata sighed, walking aimlessly in the school corridor. Unlike Hyuga and Kagami, he decided to leave the gym early, not willing to stay there and do nothing. No matter how sweet Riko and Hyuga said it, there is no such thing as team bonding there when all they did was just watch the other training and do nothing. If he had that much time, he would rather do something productive than stay with them.

Unfortunately, Furihata himself didn't have anything productive to do. He had already done all of his summer homework way before the national tournament began just to ensure he wasn't burdened by anything else when he was on the court.

'Should I try to find a part-time job just like the other students?'

Furihata suddenly stopped walking, pondering for a while at his sudden thought. The more he thinks about it, the more he likes the idea. Not only he could get more pocket money, but this would also help him not waste time doing nothing.

'Well, let's see how harsh the next training is. If it was acceptable, maybe I should search for one.'

His train of thought was interrupted by the sudden loud voice from one of the rooms afar. It seems like music that was played on a speaker. Led by his curiosity, Furihata decided to take a look at the room, just to find out the faces that he hadn't seen for a while there.

"Hana-san? Saya-chan? Why are you here?"

"Kouki-san?!"

Yeah, it was Hana and Saya who were in the room, coupled with a recording camera that was shot into Hana's face. Just by looking at the setting of the room, Furihata could already guess what they were doing.

"Are you milking Hana-san for content again?"

"Hehe~" Furihata rolled his eyes at Saya's sheepish look. Unlike Hana, this little sister is a bit aloof, sometimes making everyone worry about her. "But Hana-nee is willing to do that! And our YouTube channel is pretty successful, you know?"

"Oh?" Now, Furihata is interested.

"Yeah! Just look here!" Saya gave her phone to him showing off the statistic proudly. There, Furihata could see 5 videos were uploaded by her, and the total amount of views already touched 100,000. It also had almost 20,000 followers, which was impressive for an account that uploaded less than 10 videos.

"Well, not bad." Furihata praised. "So, this will be your next video? Have you got the permission to access the room?"

"Aahh… This….." Saya turned around to a girl whom Furihata hadn't noticed her presence since the beginning. In turn, the girl smiles at Furihata and extends her hand, offering a shake. "Hello, I have heard a lot about you. My name is Yui, and I am the leader of the choir club."

"Aah.. Nice to meet you too, Senpai. I am Kouki Furihata, Hana-san's classmate."

"I know. And don't worry about them shooting a video here. They are under my watch." Then, she suddenly smiles knowingly. "But I am impressed, Furihata-kun. Not only you are the best student here, but you are also the star of the basketball team and you can play guitar too. Girls would flock naturally onto you, so be careful and don't make Hana-chan sad, okay?"

"S-S-Senpai!" Hana's cheek reddened instantly.

"Oh, is our Hana-chan being so shy in front of her crush now?" Yui giggled teasingly. "Don't worry, you can have him right now. We won't steal your boy anymore. Let's go, Saya-chan!"

"Ah! Wait for me, Senpai!"

Furihata could only twitch his mouth in annoyance, still wondering how fast the plot went. One second he was curious about who was in the room, and in a blink, he was left alone with the girl as if her friend wanted to feed her to the wolf.

Hana herself had her face boiled like a lobster. She still bowed her head down, too shy to face Furihata directly. This created an awkward situation where both of them didn't know what to do. After a while, Furihata finally got tired of the silence and decided to take the initiative.

"Want to take a walk?"

Hana just nodded silently, still not giving him a word. Furihata sighed tiredly, starting to think if there was anything wrong with her. Honestly, a shy girl is cute. But this is a bit overboard. However, he hasn't lost his mind yet and saying that out loud.

"Well…." Furihata racked his brain, trying to think of a topic and trigger a conversation. "How is your choir preparation for the national tournament? What was it called? NHK choir competition, right?"

"Oh, yeah!" Hana's face suddenly brightened, startling Furihata a bit. "We have already passed the qualification stage, and we will compete in the next October!"

"Still two months for now, huh?" Furihata hummed, trying not to mention her sudden mood change. "Where would the competition be held?"

"This year would be the first time it was held in Sogakudo Music Hall in Taito! That was the oldest and the most legendary music hall in Japan! I really wanted to sing there since I was a child…."

Furihata had sweat dropped at Hana's sudden enthusiasm. To be honest, he didn't know a lot about what Hana just said. For all he knows, Japan is not famous for the kind of opera and classical music that was usually held in a music hall. He didn't understand why Hana would make a big fuss about that.

However, after thinking about it carefully, Furihata finally realized something.

'For her, this Sogakudo Music Hall is the dream she chased since she was a child. It might probably be like any basketball player who was excited for a prospect to play in a legendary court like Maddison Square Garden or something like that. That's why she was super excited.'

Furihata smiled a little, patting Hana's head fondly as he spoke, "Tell me when was the date. I would cheer for you."

"A-Ah?!" The blush that hides for a while suddenly appeared once again on her cheeks. However, unlike before when Hana went mute because she was too shy, now she had this delighted expression, as if someone just approved her dream. "It would be on October 10th. Be sure to come, okay?"

"Sure."

To be honest, Furihata envied Hana very much. She had already known what she wanted to do in the future and worked very hard to achieve it. Compared to him…. Even though he worked hard enough in basketball; he had never thought about it as his main career. For him and probably most of the students in sports clubs, sports is just something they had a passion for, but once they graduated, they would leave it in the dust. Studying hard and going to a good university is still the main goal of most of the students in Japan.

'Should I start thinking of what I want to do in the future?'

To be honest, with his score, Furihata was confident he would be able to pass the test even for the best university here. However, Furihata didn't want to follow that ordinary path. He wanted to have a dream and work hard to achieve it, just like what Hana did.

"Ah!" Hana's voice snapped him from his thoughts. "It started raining!" Furihata turned around at the window just to see raindrops start to fall from the sky. And just within a couple of minutes, the amount was intensified as the rain got heavier.

"Hana-nee, did you bring an umbrella?" Saya suddenly came alone, running from the other side of the corridor. Hana shook her head regretfully at the answer to her sister's question. "I forgot to check the forecast today, sorry."

"Aah… So, we are trapped here until the rain is over?"

"I remember there are a few unused umbrellas in the gym. Do you want to check?" Furihata chimed in between the two siblings' conversation. "I know there were at least four there. Maybe you could borrow it?"

"Is that okay?" Hana asked hesitantly.

"Don't worry about it." Furihata waved his hand nonchalantly. "The only one who uses the gym this summer is our basketball club, and I know they all don't care too much about it. As long as you bring it back before the school starts again, it would be alright."

After thinking for a while, under Saya's pitiful gaze, Hana finally relented. "Okay, Thank you for the offer, Kouki-san."

"Don't worry about it. Do you need to go somewhere else?"

"Yeah, do you have anything else to do?" Hana asked curiously. It was not often for her little sister to give her doe eyes, and when she did, she usually had something she wanted.

"Well, I don't really have anything to do, but I have been wanting to see how the sports club is running. Is it true that a boy would look more handsome when they are sweating after training?"

Furihata rolled his eyes and chopped the girl's head to wake her up.

"Ouch!" Saya rubbed her head. "Don't be so mean, Kouki-san!" Furihata ignored her complaint, trying to think about his teammates' reaction when they saw him coming with two girls. When that scenario ran into his head, he sweated nervously as he could probably guess what would happen.

'They would kill me, definitely.'

However, before he could think of how to avoid that scenario, he could hear a girl's shout from inside the gym.

"Tetsu-kun!"

Furihata and Hana exchanged glances for a second, knowing clearly who it was. After silently communicating, Furihata finally shrugged, smirking a little at the girls.

"Well, do you want to watch a soap opera drama live?"

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Author note :

If you want to support me more, you can visit my Patreon page on patreon(.)com/ZetaFaes

You can read this fanfiction up to chapter 164 on that page. Also, you can read my other fanfiction, Diamond no Ace: The Prince of Hitter up to chapter 25 too.

Thank you! :)

-Zeta Faes-