Naseru's motorbike was being stubborn. She did this sometimes; refused to wake up and move. It was something he could relate to. But, with his bike completely uncooperative, he was left with no choice but to take the bus. He had to skip breakfast to make it to the bus stop in time, and as he leaned against the window, gazing out at the street, his mind wandered back to those girls.
It had been five days, eleven hours and twenty-four minutes since Sayuri went missing, and who knows how much longer since Emi had heard from Kibata Mae. Naseru's stomach clenched. He felt like it was lined with lead.
He got off the bus at the nearest convenience store. He needed water, and fresh air.
There were a few people in school uniforms milling about, mostly from the schools further afield, lingering at the store or by the bus stop across the street, waiting to commute to whatever swanky school had such a gaudy uniform. Naseru made his way to the fridges and bought a fruit pot, two red apples and two plastic wrapped milk buns. His eyes flickered to the candy aisle adjacent to the tills.
On the opposite end of the aisle, facing a row of vending machines and self-service drinks counter, stood a teenage boy in a different school uniform than the other kids. It was Ryota from Naseru's class. He was leaning against one vending machine, filled with American candies, talking to an older man. He laughed, running his hand through his hair. Naseru furrowed his brows.
Ryota was wearing his school trousers and a vest, his blazer tied around his waist. A neon pink basketball sat under his armpit, and his face was dripping with sweat. The man he was talking to was a good four or five inches taller than him with a crew cut and a five o'clock shadow. He seemed equally as sweaty.
Naseru slipped into the aisle and picked up two matcha 'Kit Kats'. He'd get a coffee from the vending machine at the next convenience store once he was closer to school. Seeing Ryota meant he wasn't too far from school – even if he was in a sea of gaudy purple blazers from a swanky private school.
Naseru paid and with his blue plastc bag in tow, he walked a few feet away to a bench. He spotted the bus pulling up on the other side of the street, the kids from the private school all queueing up to board. The boy at the back of the line flipped his hair and lifted his phone to take a selfie.
Naseru had been too busy watching to hear the convenience store bell chime with Ryota's exit.
"Oi! Tatsuya! Don't be a stranger, yeah? I'll text you next time we go bowling."
The boy looked up and gave Ryota a thumbs-up before moving out of Naseru's line of vision. Ryota looked Naseru up and down and frowned, "I didn't know you lived around here?" Ryota said with a frown, "I thought I would have seen you around the courts."
"Oh, I don't live around here. My bike is on the fritz."
Ryota shook his head, waved to the man with the crew cut and turned to Naseru, "Matsuoka, you should try out for the basketball team, sometime."
"No thank you," Naseru said walking away.
Ryota didn't relent, he matched Naseru's pace and bounced his neon pink basketball, "Why not? You said you played before."
"I also said," Naseru replied, "That I wasn't interested in entertaining that hobby in the future."
Ryota snorted, bouncing the ball as he walked, "Sounds like you're a coward, Matsuoka."
"I don't care if that's how it sounds to you," Naseru shrugged.
Ryota rolled his eyes, "Do you think you're better than us?"
"I never said that," Naseru said, "Now if you'll excuse me."
In gym class, the students in all three classes of second years were corralled into a massive sports centre, divided by nets to separate the male and female students during lessons. Kaho watched her brother stride into the room, wearing a dark green tracksuit, a piece of elastic pulling his hair out of his face. He blew his whistle and drew all the boys on his side of the net to attention. Behind him, one of the other gym teachers wheeled in a trolley overflowing with basketballs.
Basketball wasn't usually played in gym class until winter. Usually, as summer drew nearer, the gym teachers sent the boys out to do track and field sports. This had Taiga written all over it. Kaho rolled her eyes.
The two female gym teachers Akamatsu Sensei and Nakamura Sensei were holding volleyballs up. The girls were to divide themselves into teams and play against one another. Kaho sighed. She didn't mind volleyball, not really, but in middle school, Ayami had nearly broken her nose with a wayward serve. Call it superstition, but there was no way she was teaming up with her.
Kaho took Mariah and Kikiyo's arms and waded into the masses of second years. The girls' volleyball team had joined together, all six second-year players were already setting up their ideal pitch positions. Kikiyo tugged on Kaho's arm and pointed toward Maki, who lurked in a corner, scowling beside Emi. Kaho shrugged.
As they walked over to the girls, one of the girls from Kikiyo's class bounded over, her short brown hair was buzzed at the back, and the rest stuck out in random directions like she'd been electrocuted. There was a mole on her chin, and braces on her teeth. She grinned, spinning a volleyball on her finger like it was a basketball.
"Can I join you?" she asked.
"Of course you can, Yui, c'mon," Kikiyo replied, waving her hand at Maki and Emi, who both kicked off the wall and joined the huddle.
Their game was subpar, especially when they were matched against the school's actual volleyball team. They'd celebrated when the team's wing spiker received the ball and it bounced back off the court into the neighbouring game. It was the only point that they were going to get. And that was okay. Gym class and exercise didn't have to be that stressful.
Kaho's eyes wondered to the boys' side. While the girls were working with two courts, the boys had three courts, where they were playing basketball. Taiga was prowling the courts, eyes trained on one boy in particular. Naseru.
Kaho swallowed the lump in her throat as the teams playing shuffled around and Naseru ended up on the same court as Ryota. She elbowed Mariah in the ribs, who tugged Kikiyo over to the nets to watch the boys play. Kaho didn't care if it looked lecherous to watch, she was sure Taiga was doing mental gymnastics, hyper-analysing every interaction Naseru had with the basketball, which quickly found itself in his possession.
"He's gorgeous, isn't he?" Mairah said, "Matsuoka. Not Ryota. Ew."
Kaho bit her lip and nodded. He moved around the court with a confidence she'd seen from her brother and Ryota before. Maybe it was because he wasn't playing on an equal playing field, but it was clear to Kaho, even from where she was that there was a magnetism to his play. Instead of marking individual players on the opposing team, three of the boys on Ryota's team were pushing back against Naseru.
Naseru pivoted on his left leg, and ducked low, as if he was about to dribble and dash along the court line. Two of his blockers moved with him. A faint. Naseru rightened himself and attempted a three-point shot. The basket rolled around the edge of the hoop, Ryota itching for a rebound. He got it, as the ball toppled off the rim at the left, and with full possession of the ball, Ryota began to dribble.
Kaho hadn't paid much attention to how Ryota played the game, not for years anyway. Taiga used to teach him skills, like a sneaky pass from your left hand to your right from behind your back, or a sneaky and dangerous move he'd nicknamed 'the leapfrog', where you jump forward and bounce the ball full force between your legs so it will hopefully bounce back to your teammate. Though, Taiga stressed that was a move for only the most dire situations. You get a basketball to the nuts once and you doubt you'll ever walk again.
Kaho's eyes narrowed as Ryota spun on his heel, veering away from Naseru and faced his own team's basket. Kaho swallowed the lump in her throat. She hadn't seen him try this move in ages. Usually because he got kicked off the court in gym class for trying it. But Taiga was there. Taiga was watching, and this was another move he had taught Ryota. He smirked to himself, and took the ball in both hands and throwing it back from behind his head, full-force at his own basket's backboard. The clang from his move felt like a localised earthquake, and both Ryota's teammates and Naseru's gawked at the brazen tactic.
The ball bounced hard, and Ryota had to jump to receive it from himself. It hit him square in the ribs, and his landing was off-kilter. But he wasn't giving up. The rest of the team had been too surprised, watching the arc of the basketball soar by the rafters. Entranced. Even Naseru had stopped to stare at Ryota's play. Even still, he was the first one to make it to the basket to intercept Ryota.
Ryota attempted a set shot, but it was off, and bounced off the backboard. Naseru slapped the rebound away, and one of Ryota's teammates, Yuto, tossed it back. A jump shot. A successful one, too. Naseru was sweating. Kaho had forgotten her volleyball. She'd forgotten any of her friends were watching them play with her. In her mind it was just her, Taiga, and the game on the court. Neither of the other games existed. Taiga was beaming with pride. Kaho wasn't surprised, that had almost been a total success. That manouvre needed practise. But there he was, Ryota, giving the game his all. No wonder he had been so confident he'd be a starter this year. From the looks of that game, he probably should be considered the ace. But who was she to make that decision?
Naseru had the ball, passing it to Sousuke, who, a good few centimetres taller than Ryota, held the ball over his head and passed it across the court. Yuta tried to intercept the shot but Eiji, who had been put on Naseru's team, caught it first, cutting off the ball's trajectory. He passed it to Naseru who did a jump shot and the ball swished through the hoop cleanly and smoothly.
Ryota made a fist, and Mariah elbowed Kaho in the ribs. She was turned away from the thrall of the match. Kaho shot her a glance. Kikiyo, Maki and the rest of their team were waiting for them on the court. They'd been summoned again. Kaho sighed, and looked up over at the game one last time and caught her brother staring right back at her.
"Oi! Matsuoka!" Akamatsu Sensei said, blowing her whistle. Kaho turned around and saw her classmate had removed his shirt, exposing the fine shape of his muscles. Kaho swallowed, her throat suddenly dry.
"Matsuoka, shirts stay on in this gym class, do you understand?"
Naseru blinked back at her, wiping the sweat from his brow with his balled up shirt.
She got closer to the dividing net and rolled her eyes, "You wouldn't know this, since you're new, so I'm not going to punish you. Just do me a favour and put that shirt on. You'll distract the girls, and encourage the other boys."
"Too late, Akamatsu Sensei," Taiga laughed, gesturing to half of the other boys peeling off their sweaty gym clothes.
She glared at Taiga and blew on her whistle. Taiga did the same. The shrill sound echoed through the rafters and shot through everyone's ears. Naseru winced and put his shirt back on.
"I'm sorry, Sensei. I didn't know. I'm just really hot, can I get some water."
She looked over at him, a sympathetic smile on her face and nodded, "Go ahead, Matsuoka."
She spun on her heels, "Aigawa Sensei, Bantomi Sensei, get your boys in their shirts now, before I start issuing detentions and extra clean-up duty."
"You heard the Boss, boys," Taiga said, "Anyone shirtless by the count of five is running laps and cleaning the gym after school."
The boys frantically thrust their heads back into their shirts, arms getting stuck, and shirts ending up inside out, or worse, backwards as they frantically attempted to avoid punishment. Kaho snorted, and promptly got smacked in the head by an incoming spike. She was supposed to be playing volleyball.
Ouch.