章 11: 1.10 Astronomy
"Huh what are you talking about? where were you last night I tried knocking on your door last night and you weren't in your room. Where were you?" Akihiko tried to divert the topic.
"I was out with Mr.Arai didn't I tell you? That's not the point. Can you please give me an explanation or even just an excuse. Please tell me you are sorry and that you will stop seeing Ishida." Haruto weeded as he spoke such pitiful words.
"I should be sorry? Huh You are the one who is running around Mr.Arai like a loyal dog, You are the one who is playing with me, You are the one who is cheating one me." Akihiko was getting a lot more angrier than he had expected.
"What? What are you even saying? What does Mr.Arai have anything to do with us he is just my sponsors as for you .. You look at this look at this. Didn't I ask you back then if you really loved me why did you lie to me?" Shu XinYi threw the printed pictures and SD card at Akihiko's body, "I really loved you Akihiko. Don't you like when we go out together in public so I even announced our love in front of the sponsors and here here look I even booked us a night in the Starlight restaurant for your birthday. Why did you cheat on me? what did I do?"
Akihiko saw as Haruto cried and tried to smile and calmly talk about the situation. He was even trembling a little like he was really hurt deep in his heart. Akihiko's heart beat had fastened. He tried to make sense of the situation but when Haruto asked that question he became dumb founded. Why did he cheat on him? Should I say because Haruto was being uncaring, But he remembered Haruto reassured him saying he will support him even if it is from the audience. Should I say beacuse Haruto used me for his own benefit? His mind was in a mess.
Akihiko was getting more confused and angrier by the passing seconds, "What did you do? You played with me and used me what else You-"
Haruto wiped his tears and interjected him: "If you want to blame me for your mistakes fine. Seems like only I cared about our love and future. I was stupid enough to fall in love with you. Well from this day forward we are not together, I hope you are happy with Ishida and please love him sincerely and don't break his heart like you broke mine. Ahh these passes guess I'll return it to Mr.Arai and this... this I guess I will save it till I fall in love again." Haruto had a little ring box in his hands, he smiled and scoffed while tears were running down his face.
"Yes obviously I love him, beacuse he deserves my love unlike you. I was the one who wanted to break up with you. I am not blaming you for MY mistakes, you did use me and play me I know all about it. You can leave and no need to rely on our relationship to get benefits any further." Akihiko used all his strength to say this. He was constantly trying to tell himself that this was all fake. There is no way Haruto loved him, he was just using him.
He continuously assured himself and continued: "You can leave and don't be cheap enough to share these pictures with others to threaten us."
Haruto scoffed again, with red eyes he said, "I will leave all the pictures I have with you. I have already been betrayed by you that is a torture enough, I wouldn't deliberately create more problems for myself trying to expose you. I just wanted a simple life spent with the one I love. Guess even simple things take too much of us. Good bye Akihiko and please don't let this effect our team and play. I hope you realize that I had truly been in love with you and that whatever things you misunderstood about me... well it's over now anyways. I will not allow you to hurt me anymore." Haruto left after saying this.
Akihiko was assuring himself again and again that Haruto was lying but his heart still felt pained. I want a simple life spent with the one I love? was it really true did he think so far in the future about both of us? He looked at the pictures and SD card spread around the room and stood up to clear up the mess. He stuffed the things in his closet and sat on the bed until someone knocked on his door again. It was Ishida.
"What happened what did he say to you why was he crying? Does he know about the drugs and his hand injury?" Ishida just wanted to clear his own name.
"No, he knows I am with you so he accused me of cheating and broke up with me." Akihiko was still registering the shock.
"Accused You of cheating? huh surely it is one of his plays. He just wants to make you feel guilty for the things that he did so your game will be affected." Ishida did his usual play.
Akihiko wanted to believe Ishida, he really did, but he was the one who had seen Haruto cry, desperately, even wanting to forgive him for something as bad as cheating if he just said sorry. He had been fed lies by Ishida for a while so even now he tried to assure himself that Haruto must've wanted to make him feel guilty.
"Well i's good for us he was really being a nuisance in our relationship, you can't let him win so improve your game okay, before we win the championship I will make sure he is out of the team." Ishida couldn't stand Haruto no matter what.
Akihiko was still silent, his mind was a mess and he no longer trusted Ishida's words. Although he had told Haruto he loved Ishida but only he knew his feelings. All this while he had only been trying to dispel the void Haruto created using Ishida. After he realized Haruto wasn't serious about their relationship he wanted to assure himself, which Ishida helped him with. Now he had to hold on to Ishida since he had already declared he was in love with him and he was all he had now.
"Yes it doesn't matter, Now we can be an official couple as for Haruto let's just leave him be, he is alone now what can he do." Akihiko didn't fully assess his emotions before making this decision.
"If he doesn't become a nuisance to us, then sure"
Akihiko didn't tell Ishida about the pictures to worry him. He just hugged Ishida to calm his nerves, Atleast he had Ishida.
For the next few days the team players saw the change of Haruto being in daze, he even messed up several times in the court while practicing. The other players around knew how good Haruto was in court and his passion for basketball. Some players tried to ask him what was wrong, not because he was disrupting the team play, but because they genuinely cared. Haruto was a calm cheerful person and he made conversation with everyone in the team. So suddenly seeing him so down even the three coaches were worried.
Haruto however just dispelled off any questions about his well being saying that he is sorry for the disruption he causes in play and asked them to reprimand him if needed. At first the other team members and coaches were in a confused state but day after day when they saw Ishida and Akihiko's PDA and haruto trying his best to avoid them, unless in court, they finally got their answer.
The other players didn't have anything against two guys being together as long as it didn't affect their game in court. So they never isolated or bullied them since they were all grown ups who had seen much of the world. When in the dinner meeting Haruto boldly announced his relationship, everyone was suprised but not weirded out. Some of them even thought that Haruto was really brave, he must love Akihiko a lot. But now seeing a very sad Haruto and the unaffected Akihiko who was flirting with Ishida every chance he got , they could only silently pity Haruto.
The mood around the team became weird, it was hard to even train because everyone was weirded out by Akihiko teasing Ishida. The coach even scolded them saying they were not focusing on practice, this was true Akihiko's play had become significantly bad. Even after the first month of training was over, Haruto was still not recovering from the emotional trauma. The coaches were in a dilemma, either to seriously reprimand the boy or to take a slow approach and give him time to recover. But they only have one months time left now. So they went directly to Mr.Arai to tell them the situation.
Shu XinYi was utilizing all his acting skills, He didn't like being pitied at all but he had to do this to gain the players and the coaches favour. If his plan went well, Akihiko will reach bottleneck. Akihiko was someone who was always alone, His parents died when he was 3 and he was brought up by his uncle who neglected him. All he had was the street club where he played basketball and met Haruto. Later on he realized his dream after meeting Haruto. So Haruto had become somewhat important to him. In the original too it took great effort for Ishida to make Akihiko move on from Haruto.
So when Shu XinYi played his act of love and devotion and facing betrayal from Akihiko, Akihiko will feel guilty and lost. Moreover Akihiko always played for the people he even started playing after seeing fans cheering for a famous player. He liked when people cheered for him looking at him from the stands. Now that even the team he is playing with gives him angry looks he will definitely falter. The more desperately he tries to become better and to fix everything the more everything will mess up further.
Akihiko did feel guilty and a lot more than Shu XinYi anticipated, what he found the most disheartening was that now Haruto looked at him like he was air not even looking him in the eyes like it was not worth to raise his head. Even in court he saw him as an average player nothing else. This was what broke him the most.
Ishida on the other hand was irritated to the bone, he wanted a loyal dog who can bring him great feats. Not a barking stray dog who has a broken leg. Now all he wanted was to twist its neck to silence it. He couldn't do that for now so he only tried to get close to Mr.Arai who was really difficult to reach as a shut in.
Nomura knocked on Haruto's door one of these nights and even without asking brought him to the roof. The roof was silent with a cresent moon peeking from the clouds, The crickets and the rustling leaves only made the environment more serene.
Nomura sat down on the chair and indicated Haruto to sit on the other.
"He kissed me." Nomura said with an excited demeanor.
Haruto: ...
"Mr.Kenjiro .. he kissed me today, I was really happy. Is it shitty of me to tell you this since whatever happend? Nomura said knocking the answer.
Haruto: ...
"Maybe it is, But you are the only true friend I've had, so I wanted to share this happiness with you. Don't all friends do that?" Nomura sighed, saying with a chuckle.
Haruto: ...
"Can I say something that is definitely very cliche and you definitely don't want to hear, but it is a simple truth?" Nomura was persistent
Haruto: ..
"Akihiko doesn't deserve your love. I mean it. Someone who deserves your love should be crazily in love with you. Know your worth Haruto. The night is lonely and dark but aren't we accompanied by the stars, the moon, the winds. Or maybe you want to see the sun? the sun will rise at it's time so just be patient until then." Yeah, this was cliché alright.
They were sitting in silence for 15 minutes when Haruto finally spoke up "Mr.Kenjiro he .. Do you love him?"
Nomura looks at him with smiling eyes "I don't know about that. What I do know is that Mr.Kenjiro likes to take notes like a journalist. He folds his napkin in 7 turns and places it on his suit. He also slices any fruit precisely in 7 pieces before eating it. I want to know more about him and want him to know more about me. I am happy to spend time with him .. I don't know if this can be called love."
Shu XinYi rubbed his temples, honestly saying, "You are a good man Nomura. Thankyou for being my friend."
Nomura giggled, "I feel the same. So if you are over that dump truck Akihiko can you finally use the power of seduction to get Mr.Arai?"
Shu XinYi laughed a little at this saying "So Mr.Arai deserves my love then..? I don't see him crazily in love with me"
Nomura said in a matter of factly way, "Not yet but I can tell he wants to be crazily in love with you it's more like he is stopping himself for some reason like he is scared or something. Maybe because he is just scared of confessing or something but who knows. He is your department to handle so figure him out."
Shu XinYi also felt that Mr.Arai was scared of something. They rarely talked outside of professional realm but when they did, Mr.Arai always stopped himself. Making breakfast and their conversation that day was the last time they were close. After that Mr.Arai didn't directly contact him even keeping his distance. Sometimes Shu XinYi had an illusion that Mr.Arai was like a kid who was abandoned and lonely for many years but then finding that someone wants to stay with him he becomes scared and untrusting.
Maybe Mr.Arai had a difficult childhood that led to this. Shu XinYi felt pained in the heart when he imagined a Mr.Arai who was lost and abandoned by everyone trying to assure himself that it will be fine. Shu XinYi gulped trying to stop his emotions from getting to him. He really wanted to hold Mr.Arai hold him and tell him that he will stay with him.
Shu XinYi really wanted to go to Mr.Arai right now but if his conjecture was correct then he should be slow in his approach, letting Mr.Arai know that he had really fallen in love with him and it was not just momentary infatuation.
Haruto's performance improved after that night and no one questioned it, he had gone back to how he originally was. Mr.Arai heard this report from Mr.Asahi and smiled a little, He really wanted to make the boy happy and it was taking all of him to not rush over and comfort him, but he still didn't beacuse he felt scared to hold the boy, very scared. All his emotions were heightened since he met the boy. He was really confused about what he was feeling and what feelings he had for the boy. He wanted to open up to the boy but he was scared to do so, so all he can do is handle company matters until the boy approaches him, himself.
In the next week all the 16 teams participating were officially introduced and the match timings and dates were released. The tickets for the court had sold out not only because this championship had many loyal fans but also because this time they had people from various countries coming over to support their teams. In this world technology was not very advanced and people liked physical sports and performance a lot. So it wasn't a suprise that the tickets were sold out this fast.
This whole week all the player and teams had to go on photoshoots with their team and solo. These were the pictures that will be used to represent them in the court screen. Haruto and the team had regained their sync except for Akihiko and Ishida. Since they depended on each other in the court, Ishida and Akihiko both had worsened. Ishida only stood with Akihiko after all that happened because of their game play but now that was gone and he too was facing backlash. He really regretted chosing Akihiko. At that time if only he had chosen a different center, but at that time Akihiko was the best player.
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