"Wait here. Don't move!"
"…It's my home… Where else am I supposed to go?"
"… Don't move!"
In the living room of his home, Kei was ordered by his neighbour to stay still and seated on his couch while she went on to prepare dinner for the both of them. Since she had already long decided on what she wanted to cook for him, she brought the ingredients over from her own apartment.
It had seemed to Kei who was watching from the couch that Mai was planning on cooking something lavishing for him as he quietly sat there and watched Mai cook for about an hour or so. When she was done with the cooking, she called for him and had him seated on the dining table as she went on to take the two bowls that she had prepared.
"This is…"
"Fufu. Are you surprised?"
On the table was two bowls of food. One for each of them. Looking at it and taking in the smell, Kei instantly knew that it was ramen from the way that it was prepared with the Charshu and the hot spring egg. The reason it took so long for her to prepared the food was because she had made everything from scratch. From making the noodles to roasting the Charshu pork for him.
"Did you make this all by yourself?"
"Mhm! Please enjoy! I know it's your favourite."
"But… how did you know?"
"Saki-san told me. She said you used to eat ramen after school everyday during middle school. So, I thought I should try making it for you." Mai said as she gave him a very sweet and bright smile.
Kei took in a sip of the red spicy broth that Mai had made for him. To normal people, the broth would have set their heads on fire with how spicy it was, but for Kei, it was perfectly balanced with the Tonkotsu broth. It had seemed that Mai had taken every detail that Chihaya apparently told her into account.
"I… thank you…"
"You're welcome… heheh~" Mai said as she watched Kei continue eating.
"I can't be the only one eating, right? Come on, eat together."
"Mm!"
The two of them quietly but happily ate their meals together. Even though they were quite and silent as they ate, they were happy and content to be in the company of each other's presence, even if they do not know the feelings of the other person.
"Say, Kei-kun…"
"Hmm?"
"What time is your game tomorrow?"
"Hmm… since we are up against the second seeds, our game is earlier in the day since the tournament committee thinks that it won't be much of a contest."
"That's an awful way to treat the players."
"Well, you can't blame them. If the game is earlier, the strong teams would get more rest when they face other highly seeded teams."
Being a tournament, the tournament committee collects entrance fees for people who wants to come and watch the games in the playoff rounds. This rule is an exception for those who are close friends and family of players and also the players themselves who are involved in the competition. To encourage more people to buy the entrance tickets, they would put the exciting games at the end of the day where more people would come after work or school.
"Hmph… That means I won't be able to watch your game tomorrow."
"Then watch the ones after that."
"Won't your next games be early as well?"
"If we beat the second seeds, we would unofficially become the second seeds since we beat them. Not to mention that the matches become later as the tournament progresses."
"Well, let me know then."
***
"Okay, I know that this is the first time that our school has ever made it out of the group stages, but I won't tolerate anyone acting like we have won the competition before we even made it close to the final. Okay?"
It was the next day and Kei was standing in front of his teammates in the dressing room. At a time when captains and coaches would be giving the players motivational talks, Kei was humbling his teammates so they won't act carelessly or arrogantly in the upcoming matches.
"Take it easy, captain. We are definitely going to win this one!"
"Yeah! Oi, Sawamura! Is your girl coming?"
"Yeah! She's going to be watching from the stands!"
Looking at the players under his command, Kei could only give an exasperated sigh as he can clearly see that his team has gone beyond the point of arrogance for merely making it out of the group stages.
True to his prediction, the way that the players in his team play had completely changed compared to how he led them during the group stages. They were no longer listening to his commands and were even refusing to pass to each other and taking random shots at the baskets even if they were heavily guarded. Watching this unfold, Kei decided to stop giving orders altogether during the second quarter.
'TACHIBANA 22 – 48 TENKO'
This was the score and the state of the match when the game entered halftime. During the halftime breaks, both teams' players would go into their dressing rooms to discuss with themselves for 15 minutes. In the dressing room of Tachibana High School however, it was not strategies being discussed, but arguments.
"If only you passed, then I would've scored! I was open the whole time!"
"It was your annoying voice and squealing that was throwing me off my game!"
"Don't give me that crap! You were just trying to impress some girls, weren't you?!"
"What about you? I bet you only wanted the ball to impress your girlfriend in the stand, didn't you?!"
As they were arguing back and forth, Kei finally had enough and threw his bottle on one of the lockers behind the few who were arguing. When they heard the loud bang, the entire locker room fell silent. When there was finally silence, Kei quietly stood up and walked to the middle of the dressing room.
"Have you all finally had enough?"
"Captain, you have to agree with me here! He wasn't passing at a—"
"Shut up. What did you all say? We were gonna win this for sure? Where is this for sure now? Everything we practiced, all the instructions I gave during the game, all ignored. Now look at us."
"But—"
"Did I tell you to talk? For the second half, you three are on the bench."
"What?! You can't do that! What are you going to do without us starters?!"
Kei gave him a glare and he instantly kept quiet. It seemed that Kei had finally had enough of their theatrics and decided to bench the whole starting line-up except him and Maki for the second half.
"You three, get ready for the second half."
"…Y-yes! We won't let you down!"
The three that Kei was talking to was the three that had disrespected Kei during their first training and was relegated to the bench for the duration of the tournament. Now however, they seemed to have learned their lessons and had a newfound respect for Kei and the way he led the team.
"Alright boys! Let's wrap this up! Looks like these kids were pushovers after all!"
"Ahaha! Dark horse my ass! Looks like their unbeaten group run was a fluke after all!"
When the second half started, the other team was hurling insults towards the Tachibana players. They had the right to be confident in truth. After all, they were leading with more than double the points against their opponents.
When the game finally continued, the way that the team was playing had completely changed compared to the team in the first half. All Kei's instructions were finally being heard by his teammates and were being executed nicely.
'TACHIBANA 88 – 62 TENKO'
"You gotta be kidding me!"
"Are they on steroids?!"
Looking at the scoreboard halfway through the fourth and last quarter, the Tenko High School players were speaking a different tone compared to the beginning of the second half. Having been contained to scoring just 14 points in the space of 15 game minutes, they were finding it hard to believe that this was the same team they were playing during the first half.
'TACHIBANA 98 – 66 TENKO'
This was the score when the final whistle was blown. Tenko High School was completely swept aside. The spectators, along with the tournament committee, was completely shocked at the scene that unfolded in front of them. They had not expected the second seeded team would lose in the first knockout stages against an unseeded team that had just gotten out of the group stages for the first time ever.
After the players lined up and bowed to each other as a sign of respect towards each other at the end of the game, the Tenko players returned to the dressing rooms in complete shock and numbness. At this point it was safe to say that their confidence as basketball players were completely crushed.
In the dressing room of Tachibana High School however, Kei was standing in front of his 3 upperclassmen whom he had benched for the second half of the game.