Decisions

Three weeks have passed since Hiroto joined the football team at Tokiwadai High, and for three weeks, Hiroto's frustration with the club has been growing. Despite always doing well in training and clearly being better than Yukito Shotoku, the coach doesn't seem to want to give me any chance to play in the main team. The biggest problem is that this isn't even the coach Yukimura's fault; he's a nice guy. The issue is that he follows the orders of the school principal, who said that his son should play and be a starter. This is overlooked by others because Yukito isn't bad. Since then, Hiroto has vented to his parents, who were upset about their son's situation but couldn't do anything as it was out of their hands.

One Saturday, Hiroto was doing his morning running training around the block. He sat on a bench in a small park to drink water from his bottle and rest a bit. He looked around and noticed a basketball lying in the middle of the court. Driven by curiosity, he picked up the ball and started dribbling it, imitating some NBA players he'd seen now and then. Surprisingly, he did well and couldn't believe he could do such things so easily until he felt a hand on his waist pulling his shirt.

"Hey, mister, that's my ball, give it back!" said the angry boy.

"Okay, okay, here you go," said Hiroto, handing the ball back to the boy, who started trying to make some baskets and succeeded on his third attempt, impressing Hiroto.

"Do we have a genius here?" Hiroto thought.

"Hey, kid, how about a one-on-one?" he asked the boy.

"Are you sure, mister? I won't go easy," the boy said innocently.

"Sure, start with the ball," said Hiroto, passing the ball to the boy. The boy dribbled a bit, stopped, and shot, but Hiroto jumped and blocked the ball with a tap that sent it to the other side of the court.

"Don't think it'll be easy to beat me…" said Hiroto, provoking the boy (though he later thought it might be ridiculous to provoke a child who couldn't be more than ten years old).

"That was a lucky shot," said the boy, handing the ball to Hiroto and getting into a defensive stance, as it was now Hiroto's turn to attack. He dribbled the ball between his legs a few times, then behind his back, stepped back, jumped, and shot a three-pointer. Obviously, the little boy couldn't even get close to touching the ball due to the significant height difference, and the ball fell perfectly into the hoop.

"Wow, mister, I didn't think you played so well," said the boy.

"Well, that was one of the first times I played basketball, and I'm not a mister, I'm a teenager," said Hiroto.

"Wow, I thought you were an adult, but now that I think about it, your face does look like a teenager's, like my sister," said the boy.

"Your sister?"

"Yeah, look, she's coming over there," said the boy, pointing to a girl with pink hair walking towards them.

"Hey, Sakura, that guy made a really cool shot while we were playing one-on-one. He passed the ball behind his back and BOOM! Shot it right into the hoop," said the boy excitedly.

"Yes, Sota, I saw you guys playing. He really does seem to play very well!" said the girl, smiling at Hiroto. "Sota, why don't you go continue playing in the playground," she said.

"Okay," said the boy as he headed towards the other children.

"Your brother is very cute and smart," said Hiroto.

"He really is… Hey, I know you, you're Hiroto Fukuda from the first year on the football team."

"Wait, how do you know me?"

"You're quite well-known, especially among the girls," said the girl, smiling at him, making him blush a little but soon he composed himself.

"Besides, I heard you're having problems with the football club because of that idiot Yukito. The way things are going, you're just wasting time in the football club. You're tall and have a good wingspan, why not join the basketball club? From what I've seen, you seem talented…" said Sakura.

"I see, you figured all this out from a one-on-one game against an eight-year-old kid?" Hiroto mocked.

"He's nine, but just give it a chance. We still have time to enroll new players in the basketball club. You just have to go to our court and show the coach what you can do, and know that my eyes never miss when they spot someone talented; I'm not the assistant for nothing," said the girl.

"I can't throw away all the years I trained for football just like that," said Hiroto apprehensively.

"So you'd rather spend the next two years on the bench for that guy?" said the girl.

"Well, he's a second-year student; maybe in my third year, I could finally become a starter and win the nationals!" said the boy.

"Well, if you're okay with spending the next two years on the reserve bench, otherwise, come meet us by the end of the week," said Sakura, as she called her younger brother to leave.

After this encounter, Hiroto went back home to talk to his father for support.

"Understand, son, whatever you decide to do, I'll support you. If your heart says you should go to basketball, then go. The question is what you want," said his father.

"When I picked up the basketball and practiced a bit, I felt something different; it felt like I belonged there. I need to experience more of that feeling. Besides, sitting on the bench for two years doesn't seem like my thing," said Hiroto.

"Indeed, Hahaha," said his father.

So the day ended with Hiroto deciding he would try to join the basketball team and explore this new world he had stumbled into by accident.