A full afternoon spending time in the school library was nothing to Mirai. In her enjoyment, when she turned to her watch, she found out that it was near 5 o’clock! The library would be closing by this time! True enough when she looked around, she was the only one left inside apart from their lovable librarian; Io-san. She gathered all of her things before standing up and leaving after giving the sweet librarian an equally sweet smile.

There were still a lot of students around Meiji and she found out that most of them, especially the girls, were watching the practice game of the school varsity basketball team.

“Hi Mirai-chan!” She looked up at the voice and saw Haruna, a friend and classmate waving to her direction. She waved back before deciding to join her and her other friends at the bleachers.

“Why haven’t you guys head on home yet?” Mirai asked when she was finally seated next to Haruna.

The other girls squeed daintily while Haruna in an embarrassed manner, looked at the ground. “We just wanted to watch the boys’ practice game.”

Mirai turned back to the boys, immediately recognizing Ryosuke. Could it be…? She shook the thought away. So what if Haruna liked Ryosuke? What’s it to her? Although it really bugged her in some ways.

“Look Haruna! Yuto is looking at you!” Airi, one of Haruna’s friends said.

In an excited manner, Haruna looked up once again then started to wave at Yuto who waved back. Mirai chuckled to herself. Oh, so it was Yuto whom Haruna liked. Stop it Mirai, why are you feeling so relieved?!

“Ne Mirai-chan!” Her thoughts were cut off when she saw Tomohisa at the sides, wearing a simple shirt and jogging pants, waving at her. She waved back with a small smile.

“Itai!!!” A yell of pain came from the court where she found out that Ryosuke was hit straight in the face.

Tomohisa shook his head at the sides, yelling to his favourite player. “Ryosuke! Get your head in the game and stop staring at Mirai-chan!”

“Oooooohhh!” Cat calls from the other team members and Haruna’s gang echoed throughout the court. Mirai tried to hide herself from behind her book but Haruna teasingly wrapped one arm around her shoulder. “Na, I didn’t know you and Ryosuke were an item…”

“U-urusai na Haruna-chan.” Mirai stuttered, only earning another set of cat calls. She looked back and saw Ryosuke was nursing a reddening nose. Gosh she didn’t know he looked so cute like that.

Mirai didn’t know what led her to it, but she waved goodbye to Haruna and her friends before approaching Tomohisa.

“How’s it going coach?” She greeted, not being able to stop herself from smiling.

Tomohisa laughed slowly at the comment. “Na, I think you shouldn’t come to the practice or else Ryou-kun will ruin his perfect nose!”

Pouting, Mirai turned back to her “almost brother-in-law” and scowled. “I am not the reason Ryosuke is out of focus.”

“Oh really? He was doing perfectly alright until you came here.” Tomohisa continued teasing. It wasn’t helping that at that moment, Ryosuke was looking their way and waving to them.

“See?” Tomohisa echoed out as if proving a point. And as if deciding on something, h sighed then called out to his players. “Team! Take a break first! We’ll continue in 5 minutes!”

Some groaned in relief while others immediately reached for a bottle of water.

“You came to watch me play huh?” Ryosuke teased when he reached Mirai. And this was the time Tomohisa chose to excuse himself to text someone with his phone.

“For your information, I was heading on home but I saw Haruna and the others.” Mirai answered back.

Ryosuke only grinned as he began drinking from a bottle of water he had. With nothing else to say, Mirai moved to head on home. “Maa, I better head on home, we still have that book report to finish…”

Ryosuke almost did a spit-take but was able to hold himself. “That’s for tomorrow!?”

“Yeah… you forgot?” Mirai teased back. She knew the practice wasn’t over and won’t be until 6 in the evening. But somehow Ryosuke only shrugged his shoulders and answered; “I can handle it! I’ll get on with it once I get home.” He offered yet another one of those killer smiles. Mirai chuckled as she looked at the man. At least he wasn’t a slacker and didn’t have a negative side to him.

“Okay gang! Practice again!” Tomohisa returned, winking at Ryosuke and Mirai. He turned to the latter before she could get away. “Oh wait Mirai, I was talking to Maki on the phone and she said she’d come here so you might as well wait for her.”

“See Mirai?” Ryosuke piped up. “We’re destined to go home together!”

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It was a quarter after 5 in the afternoon, dinner goers usually came at 7 so Maki gave herself one hour to pick up her boyfriend and her sister at Meiji.

“Kazu I’ll be back in an hour!” She yelled through the kitchen. Kazuya didn’t have time to reply since Maki had already disappeared through the café doors and took a bus heading to Meiji.

Since it was dismissal time, there were only a few students left around campus but she did see a group of girls moving further inside and not outside. Her ears weren’t eavesdropping or anything but she heard the girls talking.

“The basketball team is having their practice right now…”

“All the freshmen are so kawaii ne?”

“Oh I like that Yamada guy…”

“Nakajima’s cuter…”

“You can say all you want but coach Yamaa is the cutest.” One of the girls said. Hearing that, Maki snickered to herself. Apparently the girls heard her.   

“Ah…” She bowed her head apologetically and thought of getting herself out from being caught. “Anou, do you girls know where the basketball courts are?” Of course she knew where they were, she just didn’t want to look like she was eaves dropping.

Thankfully, all of the girls didn’t seem to mind. The one at the middle smiled and answered. “We’re heading there one-chan, why don’t you just follow us…”

“Oh, okay then arigato.” Maki smiled back.

The three girls turned back and started walking while Maki heaved a soundless sigh of relief from behind. With one more step, Maki and the girls were now at the area of the courts. Being the polite woman that she was, Maki faced the girls and bowed in thanks. “Arigato ne?”

“Mochiron onee-chan!”

It wasn’t hard to spot Tomohisa. He was the coach of course and the kids (especially the girls) all directed their line of sight to him. She shook her head, amused at how much appeal her boyfriend had. With her hand bag around her shoulder, she approached him. Before she could actually reach him, Tomohisa had felt her presence and turned around. The man’s lips lifted slowly and the stern and serious expression on his face faded away.

“You always look so happy when you see me.” Maki teased before leaning to kiss Tomohisa’s cheek.

Tomohisa wasn’t satisfied. The moment Maki tried to pull away, he leaned again closer and gave a proper kiss, capturing her lips with his own.

“Guys, please not in the court!”

The couple turned their heads and saw Mirai mock rolling her eyes at them. Laughter escaped through the older Horikita’s mouth before she pulled away from Tomohisa and teasingly pinched Mirai’s cheek.

“You know Mirai-chan, if you’d give Ryosuke a chance, then you wouldn’t get jealous!”

“Ha, I only said that because some of the students could see you guys…”

True enough, when Tomohisa and the Horikita sisters turned their heads, the team and the spectators were looking their way. It was as if a new scandal broke out.

“Coach’s girlfriend is so pretty!!” A basketball team member said.

Smiling shyly, Tomohisa waved the members off. “I was giving you drill practices! 50 suicides now!”

The boys followed Tomohisa’s order but were still teasing, showing thumbs up and knowing smiles. It was then that Maki heard the girls she had entered with talking.

“She totally heard us talking about her boyfriend!”

“Maa, she’s so lucky ne?”

Maki just laughed, She turned back to Tomohisa. “Ne, practice ends at six right? Why don’t you have dinner with us at Wits?”

“Sure, I’ll wrap it up in just a bit.” Tomohisa squeezed her hand for a moment then returned to his team, giving last minute orders.

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Another day finished, Meisa was just packing up her things, checking if anything was missing. Her students bid her goodbye, leaving her inside the studio. She was just ready to leave when a small knock came to the studio’s door frame. It was actually no surprise to her to see Jin standing there with a small, almost shy smile on his face and she admitted to herself that she found it adorable.

“Dinner?” He said simply. They were still friends weren’t they?

Meisa found herself nodding her head, defenceless against his charm. Maybe Namie-san really was right with her fortune.

“So where will we eat?” She asked once they were out of the building, Jin laying a steadying hand against her back.

“Let’s eat at Wits that way you’re already home.” Jin said. It was just a few blocks away so the both of them decided to walk. Meisa was thankful for the twilight air, that was her favourite time of the day because the lights were just beginning to open.

They had to pass by a quiet area to make it a shortcut. Jin had this dark feeling in his gut but Meisa just seemed to really want to get home and was actually walking ahead of him.

“Oooh hey it’s a y lady!!”

Jin quickened his steps when he heard the voice and saw by the dark alley that Meisa was being cornered by three men. “Hey!” He yelled, moving to step in-front of Meisa and holding her behind him. He could actually feel Meisa’s grip on his arm almost tearing it off. “Back off man, let us pass.”

“Woah big man huh!” A man with a scar on his forehead mocked as he turned to his comrades and laughed. He patted Jin’s arm who quickly shoved him off. “Share your woman man. She makes my eyes pop you know.”

Jin’s blood was boiling by now. “ off man. Stop disrespecting her!”

Meisa gripped harder while Jin made sure she was safe behind him. It looked like these guys weren’t going to go away anytime soon.

“You’re so tough why don’t you fight us?”

Jin gritted his teeth then in the quickest way he could, he whispered to Meisa. “Run!” He aided by pushing her farthest away then landed a punch on the guy in-front of him. Meisa turned to look back but Jin motioned for her to go on.

Scar-forehead laughed slowly but landed a punch on Jin himself. Jin moved to fight but suddenly the other two guys held him off until Scar-forehead was free to throw punches left and right.

Meisa who was hidden behind a dumpster could only cover in as she gasped in worry. “Jin…”

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AN: It's been so long friends! I hope you like the new chapter! poor Jin! T_T