March 11, 2002
 
 
 

The two young men trudged towards the school gate in silence. Sneaking a peek through the corner of his eyes, Kogure 
smiled when he caught sight of Mitsui, who was looking completely adorable in full pouting mode. “ Why the sulky face, 
Hisa-kun?”

His lips pulled down even further at the sound of his voice. Maybe if he pouted enough, Kogure would back down about 
the whole tutoring session thing. “ It’s not fair. I can’t believe I have to waste such a beautiful afternoon studying. I 
passed the last Physics quiz, didn’t I?”

“ That was Physics, Hisa-kun. You have a World History quiz tomorrow.”

Mitsui raised an eyebrow. This was news to him. He racked his brain, trying to remember if his history teacher had 
made any announcements about a quiz. “ I do?”

The bespectacled boy sighed, wondering at his boyfriend’s lack of concern over his schoolwork. “ Yes, Hisa-kun, you 
do. Isn’t it lucky that your classmate told me about it? Otherwise, you would have gone to class unprepared.”

“ And which classmate gave you this information, may I ask?”

“ No you may not ask. You’d probably bash him tomorrow for daring to tell me about it…”

Kogure knew him far too well for comfort sometimes. Sighing, Mitsui finally resigned himself to the fact that he would 
have to be stuck indoors the whole afternoon when he had been planning on taking his Min-kun out to see the latest 
action film that he had wanted to watch. “ I hate this…” He muttered under his breath.

Hearing this, his boyfriend turned to face him, a little smirk on his lips. “ We’re going to be studying at my house, 
Hisa-kun.” He pointed out, as though this was the best news that Mitsui would ever receive in his lifetime.

“ Yeah? And so?”

“ Tell me, Hisa-kun…” Kogure slipped a hand into Mitsui’s back pocket, leaning in closer so that he could whisper into 
the taller boy’s ear. “ Do you remember where my parents are?”

“ Oh yeah!” Mitsui was by now, feeling considerably better about being stuck indoors studying, knowing that it would 
only be him and his beloved Kogure in the house. Maybe if he was extra good, Kogure would reward him with something 
nice…He chuckled to himself, eliciting a small smile from his companion.

“ Feeling a whole lot better about our study session now, Hisa-kun?”

“ Studying has never looked better to me…” Mitsui responded, still grinning from ear to ear.

“ Good. And if you do well, then I’ll have to give you some sort of reward, then, wouldn’t I?” Kogure remarked, ruffling 
Mitsui’s cropped dark hair as though he was a child. “ So you have to be good, okay?”

“ Okay, Sensei.” Mitsui agreed amiably. His lack of studying materials struck him then. “ Wait! My stuff! I left my 
stuff in my locker!”

Sighing, Kogure stopped in his tracks. “ Hisa-kun…” Must he always be so absentminded? Kogure swore that Mitsui 
would forget where he lived if he wasn’t there to take care of him. “ Go get it then. I’ll wait for you here.” Kogure watched 
as his boyfriend jogged back towards the gym.
 
 

~**~
 

“ Another great shot, Hana-kun! I can’t believe how much you’ve improved since I last saw you play!” 

Hanamichi shrugged, dismissing the spiky haired boy’s praise. He liked hearing compliments, everybody did, but having 
his very own cheering squad in the form of the ace Ryonan player and his ever-sulky boyfriend was getting on his 
nerves. Now he knew what Rukawa felt with his Shinetai around him. Sometimes, it took the redhead’s entire reserved 
of self-control to keep from hurling the ball into Sendoh’s grinning face just to stop the constant stream of 
encouragements from him. 
“ Aren’t you supposed to be in Ryonan or something, Sendoh?”

“ You’re pissing him off.” Koshino remarked, jabbing at his boyfriend none too gently in the ribs. “Come to think of it, 
you’re pissing me off too. Can’t you just shut up for once in your life, Sendoh?”

“ I’m just trying to encourage him!”

Taking pity on the rather henpecked ace, Hanamichi flashed the two a bright smile. “ The Tensai needs no 
encouragement. The Tensai is already perfectly aware of his greatness.”

“ That much is already pretty obvious…” Koshino muttered under his breath, watching as Hanamichi made his way to join 
them at their seat by the sideline of the court. He hadn’t wanted to come to Shohoku with Sendoh, he could think of a 
whole lot of things that he would have preferred to do to tricking some poor, gullible freshman into thinking that someone 
was dying, but the spiky haired boy had threatened him, saying that he would carry him all the way to Shohoku if he had 
to and Koshino, knowing that the guy would have no qualms about doing such a thing, had just relented.

“ So, why are you and pouty here at Shohoku again? I notice that the two of you have been coming over here a lot 
lately… Are you guys trying to find a couple that you could have a partner swaps with? I think Mitsui and Kogure might 
go for that…I mean, Megane-kun seems sort of dorky at first but he’s pretty adventurous. Besides, Micchy can pretty 
much talk him into doing anything…”

“ A partner swaps?” Sendoh’s blue eyes sparkled. He was obviously interested and besides, he had had his eye on the 
sweet, brown haired Shohoku vice-captain for the longest time, not that he would admit that to Koshino any time soon. 
No. He valued his life more than that, thank you very much. “That’s a great idea! Tell you what, Koshino. Let’s do that 
and I’ll take Kogure-kun. You can have Mitsui-kun.”

“ Oh, so you want to exchange me for that Kogure now, do you?”

Sendoh fidgeted nervously under his boyfriend’s piercing glare. “ No Hiro-love… it’s nothing like that. I was just thinking 
that it would sort of be interesting if we were to do that but we don’t have to, if you don’t want to…”

“ Damn right we don’t have to.” Koshino snapped.

Hanamichi smiled apologetically at the tall, Ryonan player. He should never have brought that topic up in the first 
place. Poor Sendoh. Did Koshino always treat him like this? Then again, he was sure that Sendoh, with his ever roving 
eyes and wandering hands, needed someone that could control him. Someone precisely like the dark haired boy 
scowling up at him. “ So…what are you guys doing here again?” He asked, hoping to get them back on safer ground.

“ We had some extra time after our own practice and thought we’d come to see how Rukawa-kun was. But then, I 
realized that I’d forgotten that he told me he wouldn’t be at practice today. By then, it was too late though. Hiro-kun and 
I were already here so we thought that we might as well stay here and watch you guys practicing. And then you decided 
to stay behind for some extra practice so we decided to stay here and keep you company and that’s why were here right 
now…” Sendoh was slightly breathless by the time he finished his narrative of how he and his boyfriend came to be where 
they were. 

“ Oh.” Hanamichi paused, taking a while to absorb all of this. “ Why didn’t Rukawa come to practice then? He’s never 
missed one before and I was sort of worried when Gori told us that he wouldn’t be coming…what’s the matter with him? 
Gori said that it was some sort of family thing but I don’t believe that. I knew right away that it must have had 
something to do with his sickness. So, there’s nothing wrong with him, is there?”

Sendoh was gratified by the obvious look of concern on the redhead’s face. Everything was working out so nicely! 
Koshino was less than pleased though. He wanted to punch Hanamichi in the face for being so damn gullible and falling 
right into Sendoh’s trap. “ As a matter of fact, Hana-kun, you’re right. It wasn’t some family thing that made him miss 
practice. It was a doctors appointment.” The spiky haired Ryonan player kept a somber look on his face, hard as it was 
for him.

“ Nothing serious, was it?”
Sendoh took his time answering, pretending to be in very deep thought. He let out a heavy sigh. “He’s getting worse, 
Hana-kun…”

“ He…He is?”

“ Yes, Hana-kun. He is. Didn’t you see the way he was at that game Shohoku played last Saturday? How easily he got 
tired and how he wasn’t playing like he usually does? All of this is beginning to get him down…” Koshino had to hand it to 
his boyfriend; he would make one damn fine actor.

“ Well…isn’t there…isn’t there some way that the doctors can help him or something?” Hanamichi ran his hand through 
his fiery red hair, his lips pulled down into a troubled frown. The Kitsune… Now that Sendoh mentioned it, Hanamichi 
realized that the guy’s playing at Shohoku’s last game hadn’t really been up to par. He thought it was because of 
Rukawa’s heart condition, the one that Sendoh had told him about, when in truth, Rukawa had been in his distracted 
state because he couldn’t keep himself from thinking about Hanamichi and his sudden change of attitude.

“ There’s nothing more that they can do. They can only try to make him comfortable while he waits for the inevitable…”

“ That’s it…” Hanamichi’s voice was full of resolve, his hands clenched into fists by his side. “ I’m going to go and talk to 
the Kitsune. I’m going to tell him that he can’t go on straining himself like this. That he has to quit basketball.”

Koshino raised an eyebrow at this. What an interesting turn of events! He couldn’t wait to see how Sendoh would get 
himself out of this one! He could just about picture the reaction of the dark haired Shohoku super rookie when 
Hanamichi turned up at his doorstep, begging him to give up basketball for the sake of his life. Things would not be too 
pretty for Sendoh then, would they?

“ No! Hanamichi!” The younger boy was slightly shocked by the adamant reaction from the Ryonan ace player. “ 
You…you can’t do that to him!”

“ Why not? It’s for his own good…”

“ Basketball is his life, Hanamichi. His life. It’s what keeps him going. You can’t take that away from him. You just 
can’t.”

Nice save…Koshino thought to himself, a wry smile on his face as he watched Sendoh and the redhead.

“ I guess that you’re right about that, Sendoh…But…I just can’t stand the thought of the Kitsune suffering like that…”

“ I thought you hated him.” Koshino couldn’t resist putting in. He himself was rather amazed by the sudden change in 
Hanamichi’s attitude towards the person that he had considered to be his worst enemy. 

“ I did…”

“ Did? So what happened to change your views of him?”

“ Well…When I found out the truth about him, how he was dying and all that, it made me feel sorry for him, so I started 
acting nicer to him and everything and when I did that, the weirdest thing happened…” Hanamichi murmured thoughtfully, 
his voice so low that his two companions had to lean in towards him to hear him talking, “ He started to act nicer 
towards me too and I guess I sort of realized that he wasn’t so bad after all, after he started to get all decent and 
everything…”

“ Your whole attitude changed towards him because you found out that he was dying?”

“ Yeah. That’s pretty much it.”

“ And if, let’s say, you found out that Rukawa wasn’t going to die anytime soon after all…” Koshino ignored the look of 
alarm that Sendoh sent his way, “ What would your reaction be?”

Hanamichi shrugged. “ If that were the case, then I would be really happy for him.”

“ You would still be friends with him?”

“ Well, yeah. Why wouldn’t I be? I mean, I’ve found out such a lot of things about the Kitsune that completely changed 
my views about him…”

“ All because of you hearing about how sick he is…”

“ That’s pretty much it. I really regret the fact that I only just now found out that the Kitsune is really pretty decent…”

Sendoh flashed Koshino a smug smile. “ See. What did I tell you, Hiro-kun?” The shorter boy, never liking being told 
that he was wrong about anything, wiped the irritating smile off the face of the Ryonan ace by stomping down onto his 
foot.

Hanamichi rolled his eyes at this, realizing by now that physical violence was a normal part of the Sendoh-Koshino 
love-hate relationship. “ For a guy supposedly in love with Spiky, you sure hit him an awful lot, Sulky…”

“ He deserves it. For messing into people’s lives…”

The redhead raised an eyebrow at this. “ Messing into people’s lives? How exactly is he doing that? If you mean that 
he shouldn’t have told me about Rukawa and the fact that he was sick, then you’re wrong. He wasn’t messing into 
people’s lives by doing that. He just did the right thing. God knows that I would have felt like a bastard if Rukawa had 
suddenly died with me treating him the way that I had been.”

“ Believe me, Hanamichi-kun, you’ll find out about everything soon enough. Just you wait.”

“ What the hell is he talking about, Sendoh?” The redhead demanded, puzzled by Koshino’s grim warning. The guy wasn’t 
exactly the model of sweetness and light at the best of times, but it wasn’t like Sendoh’s boyfriend to just be spouting 
morbid crap like that without some reasoning behind it.

Sendoh had to think fast. It seemed as though Koshino was determined to ruin everything for some reason. He hadn’t 
been planning on going along with this stage of the plan so early on but it seemed as though it was necessary for him to 
do so if he didn’t want everything that he had been working on for the past few weeks to be put to waste. “ 
Hanamichi-kun, you’ve really made these last few weeks easier on Rukawa. He told me so himself. He couldn’t stop 
going on and on about how great you were being to him, how much you’ve been helping him with your new attitude. It 
just brought him to life again…”

“ The Kitsune…He…Said that?” The redhead’s tone of voice was gruff and yet the spiky haired boy could see that he had 
been quite pleasantly surprised by what he had just told him.

“ Yep. He said that. Isn’t that right, Hiro-kun?”

“ Whatever you say, Akira…” By now, Koshino had decided that he might as well go along with things, because as much 
as he may wish this not be the case, he was already hopelessly embroiled in the whole situation. He was already going 
to die anyways when Hanamichi found out about everything, what was the harm in going along with his doomed boyfriend 
then?

“ You’ve grown to mean a lot to him…” Sendoh paused dramatically, taking in a deep breath, as though bracing himself 
before revealing some sort of mind blowing secret. “ And he likes you.”

“ Well…I like the Kitsune too. He’s my friend.”

Sendoh blinked, wondering if he hadn’t been clear enough. “ He likes you.”

“ You already told me that, and I already told you that I like him too. He’s my friend and-”

The spiky haired Ryonan player held a hand up to stop him from going on with his sentence. “ Look, I don’t think we’re 
understanding each other here…”

“ God, Sendoh. What the hell is there that’s so hard to understand? You just told me that the Kitsune liked me and I 
just told you that I like him too. All right? Do you get it now? We’re friends now so you don’t have to worry about me 
not getting along with him anymore.”

“ Look Hanamichi. I see that I have to be very clear here…” Sendoh rubbed one aching temple gingerly. He poked his 
finger to his chest and then at Hanamichi’s. “ Hanamichi likes Sendoh. Sendoh likes Hanamichi. Hanamichi and Sendo; 
friends.”

The redhead nodded in understanding, watching his companion in rapt attention. He still didn’t know what the guy was 
getting at but it wasn’t everyday that he got to see the star player of Ryonan acting like such a loon. If Sendoh didn’t 
look so damn serious, he would have been laughing his head off by then.

Next, Sendoh draped an arm around Koshino’s shoulder and pressed a soft kiss against the smaller boy’s cheek. “ 
Koshino likes Sendoh. Sendoh likes Koshino. Koshino and Sendoh; more than friends.”

“ All right. And so?”

“ And so…can you guess which sort of ‘like’ Rukawa has on you?”

“ Can you try to be more clear instead of acting like such a spastic idiot?”

“ Dammit, Hanamichi. Rukawa is in love with you, all right? Is that clear enough? Is it, Hanamichi?” Koshino finally 
blew up, irritated by the fact that it seemed as though he was surrounded by a bunch of dimwitted morons who had to 
have everything spelled out for them. The two boys with him just gaped at him.

“ What the hell are you talking about?” Hanamichi reeled back in alarm.

“ Hana-kun, Rukawa has always liked you. It’s only now, when it seems as though he might actually have a chance with 
you, that he confessed this to me though. He likes you. Rukawa is in love with you.”

“ But-”

“ You like him too, don’t you, Hanamichi?” Koshino put in softly, his warm brown eyes sympathetic. “These last few 
weeks, you’ve seen a side of Rukawa that you never knew about, and now that you have, you’ve fallen for him.” God. For 
the sake of the two younger boys, Koshino hoped that Sendoh’s love prevailing over all the lies theory to be true.

“ I don’t know…”

“ Hana-kun. You have to give this a try…”

“ I can’t…” Hanamichi whispered his brown eyes trained on the gym floor. “ I just can’t. I won’t be able to stand the 
thought of loving him and losing him, just like I know I will. He’s going to die, and I don’t want to be that attached to 
him. I don’t think I can stand losing someone that I loved like that…”

Dammit. Sendoh couldn’t exactly just up and tell him right then and there that all that Rukawa dying stuff had been a 
load of crap, so he came up with another convincing argument for Hanamichi to go for it. It was really lucky that he had 
been blessed with a particularly quick mind. “ Hanamichi, he loves you, and you love him. Isn’t it better to have true 
love, even for a short while, than to pass it up, just because you’re afraid of getting hurt? It will make him so happy to 
know that you feel the same way about him too, Hanamichi. It will make things easier for him. Having you will just make 
things better. Rukawa is dying. And he needs you…”
 
 

~**~

Mitsui stood breathlessly by the doorway to the gym, his History book and binder lying forgotten on the ground beside 
him. God. There was too much going on in there for it all to register. First finding out that Rukawa was a terminally ill 
person, then hearing Hanamichi’s confession of love for the person that he had considered his worst enemy…

He couldn’t handle all of this information on his own, so he did what he usually did when confused; he went to look for his 
Min-kun so that the two of them could talk.