The ramen shop owner was obviously very familiar with Sakuragi. Seeing him walk in, the owner greeted him with a wide smile: "Sakuragi, school's out? A large ramen with an extra portion of meat again today?"
Sakuragi replied cheerfully, "That's right. Hey old man, shouldn't you shave that beard by now?"
The owner rubbed his chin and grinned, "I was thinking of trying a new look. I'll keep it for a few more days."
Sakuragi put down his schoolbag and sat down, "You really have weird taste, old man."
Just then, Rukawa, who had finished parking his bicycle, lifted the door curtain and walked in with a stoop.
The owner was just about to step forward to greet him when Sakuragi made a hand gesture and said, "Just bring him whatever I'm having."
"Oh, a friend of Sakuragi's? Got it, just a minute."
Sakuragi stretched his neck and shouted toward the back, "He's not my friend, old man, don't get it wrong!"
The owner's voice came from the back: "Alright, got it, an extra portion of meat for him too."
After sitting down, Rukawa took off his shoulder strap by looping it over his neck, set his bag aside, and looked around.
Sakuragi came back after washing his hands, sat down, and asked with a puzzled look, "Fox, how come you look like you've never been to a ramen shop in your life?"
"I really haven't been here much."
Suddenly curious, Sakuragi asked, "Do you always eat at home then?"
"Yes, my mother cooks at home. Or..." Rukawa suddenly trailed off.
Sakuragi was thick-skinned and didn't pay any attention: "Then why did you come here to eat with me today?"
"My mother isn't home these few days."
It was the first time Sakuragi had seen Rukawa act with such a primary-schooler-like attitude, and he suddenly found it rather amusing. He continued to ask, "You don't know how to cook?"
"No."
"And you don't even know where to go to eat?"
"Because I rarely eat outside."
Sakuragi was holding back laughter internally. He never expected that Rukawa Kaede, who was usually so arrogantly full of himself in front of people, was actually a mama's boy behind the scenes. The contrast was simply too adorable.
Sakuragi ate his ramen with great gusto. He liked to eat while it was hot, slurping away until he was covered in sweat, which felt exceptionally satisfying.
Rukawa ate with such refined manners that it was almost infuriating. He picked up a few strands of noodles with his chopsticks, put them into his mouth, bit them off, chewed, swallowed, and repeated. There was not a trace of his ruthless, decisive style from the basketball court.
After burying his head in his bowl and eating more than half of it, Sakuragi looked up and saw this scene, nearly swearing out loud. Rukawa's way of eating made it look as if the ramen tasted terrible, which was a huge negation for Sakuragi, who had recommended the place.
However, after waiting a moment, he noticed that Rukawa was eating with intense focus, just a bit slower. There was no look of distaste on his face whatsoever; on the contrary, from Rukawa's completely expressionless face, Sakuragi could actually sense that Rukawa thought it tasted pretty good.
Sakuragi lowered his head and muttered, "Guess you know good food." Then he lowered his head again and went back to slurping his noodles.
With his stomach full, Sakuragi was in an exceptionally good mood, so much so that he found Rukawa a bit less hateful and even patiently waited for Rukawa to wheel his bicycle out of the parking spot.
Rukawa looked around, and Sakuragi squinted, saying with a hint of scorn, "Hey, Fox, don't tell me you don't know how to get home?" After saying this, he braced himself like he was facing a formidable enemy, "Let me tell you, this genius is definitely not going to lead the way and walk you back!"
Rukawa gripped the handlebars and looked at Sakuragi with the look one would give an idiot: "Do you take me for an idiot like you?" With that, he hopped on his bike and pedaled away.
Sakuragi stomped his foot behind him: "Aren't you an idiot?! Who was it that just had me bring him here to eat?! Stupid fox!"
When Rukawa reached the entrance of the basketball team's locker room and was about to push the door open, he heard Sakuragi shouting loudly inside: "Ah! Gentler, not there, I told you it's not there! Ah! It hurts! Do you even know what you're doing?!"
Then came Mitsui's voice: "Cut the crap! Stop moving around!"
Rukawa's heart sank, and he shoved the door open abruptly.
There were several people in the locker room. Sakuragi was lying face down against a locker, shirtless, while Mitsui was applying athletic tape to his back. Startled by how hard Rukawa pushed the door open, everyone turned to look at him.
"Oh, it's just Rukawa, you gave me a scare," Mitsui said. "Hurry up, stop squirming, get this taped properly so we can get ready for practice!"
"I know, Mitsui, it's just that you always tape it wrong and then blame it on me," Sakuragi said with a grievance.
After coming in, Rukawa swept his eyes over them once and didn't look in their direction again. He changed his clothes and went straight out.
Basketball practice proceeded as usual. The only change was that Sakuragi's training load was increasing bit by bit, and he could even participate in intra-team scrimmages for very brief periods.
However, Coach Anzai did not agree to let him play for long stretches, and every time, Sakuragi had to be coaxed before he was willing to sub out.
When practice ended, as usual, only Sakuragi and Rukawa were left behind to practice shooting.
Because his training volume was not large enough, Sakuragi's progress was relatively slow, and his shooting percentage wasn't rising as fast as he had hoped.
On the other side, the frequency of Rukawa's ball hitting the rim was visibly decreasing, which made Sakuragi somewhat irritated.
Sakuragi felt as though he were climbing a mountain. From his perspective, the peak seemed to be getting closer and closer, but because of a sudden slip, he had almost tumbled all the way down into the valley and had to start climbing all over again.
And that wasn't even the scariest part.
What was even scarier was that the peak was actually moving as well, drifting further and further away from him.
Even someone as single-minded as Sakuragi was bound to have emotional limits.
After missing yet another shot on his final attempt, Sakuragi suddenly flew into a rage.
He smashed the ball hard against the ground, squatted down, and buried his head deep between his knees.
Tap, tap, tap. Sakuragi heard footsteps, and then a pair of shoes entered his field of vision. Rukawa's voice came from above: "Big Idiot, you can't even handle this much?"
Like a firecracker, Sakuragi leaped up instantly from the ground, standing face-to-face, eye-to-eye with Rukawa.
Just as he was about to erupt, he suddenly deflated like a punctured balloon, giving a bitter smile: "What's the use of me getting mad at you? Even if I beat you up, it won't make my basketball skills any better."
Sakuragi turned to leave, but unexpectedly Rukawa reached out, grabbed his wrist, dragged him back, and forced Sakuragi to look him in the eye: "Big Idiot, you haven't been keeping track of the data, have you?"
Sakuragi didn't know whether it was because he was being stared at by Rukawa at such close range or because his wrist was being gripped, but his heart was pounding wildly: "Wh-what data?"
"Right. How could an idiot like you possibly pay attention to that?" A cool light flickered in Rukawa's eyes. He sighed and continued, "Never mind. Your shooting accuracy has gone from 1.5 out of 10 shots on that first day to 3.5 out of 10 today. Your progress is obvious."
Sakuragi's eyes went wide: "What, what did you say?"
"Do you want me to say it again?"
Sakuragi's emotions were extremely complicated right now. He didn't know whether he should care more about his so-called stats or be even more terrified by the fact that Rukawa had been observing him.
Wasn't he going to be scared to death here?!
"Fox, how did you know?" Sakuragi asked cautiously.
"Idiot, is that hard? You just have to pay a little attention. Listen to me, your form is fine now, but it still takes time to become second nature. If you don't even have this much patience, everything you want to achieve is just a pipe dream!"
Sakuragi felt somewhat dazed.
While shooting, he indeed kept paying attention to his posture and strength, leaving no mental bandwidth to record any data.
Yet he never imagined that the guy on the other side who was single-mindedly shooting three-pointers was actually observing him.
"Fox, you..."
Rukawa let go of his hand, gave his own arm sleeve a casual tug, turned to pick up the balls, and conveniently gathered Sakuragi's balls as well, putting them back into the rack.
"Big Idiot, you're way too tense. Relax. What on earth are you in such a hurry for?"
With that, he left the gymnasium.
Sakuragi stood there all by himself.
What am I tense about? Yeah, what am I tense about? I should still have plenty of time, but it really feels like I'm in a rush. I need to think—what exactly am I rushing for?
Lost in this train of thought, Sakuragi walked toward the locker room in a daze.
By the time he got there, Rukawa had already changed and was just closing his locker door.
Sakuragi watched him for a moment, looked away, and walked past Rukawa to open his own locker.
He took off his shirt, and just as he pulled his change of clothes over his head, he suddenly felt a palm press against his back, freezing him in his tracks.
"Fox, what are you..." Sakuragi quickly yanked the clothes off his head, spun around to glare at Rukawa, and barked fiercely.
Seeing that he was about to turn around, Rukawa reached out with his other hand and pressed him against the locker door, pinning Sakuragi in place so he couldn't move.
Sakuragi had no idea what he was up to, but he was furious anyway. Just as his anger flared up and he was getting ready to let loose, he felt Rukawa tearing off the athletic tape on his back.
"Big Idiot, don't you know you're supposed to take off the athletic tape after working out? If you leave it on too long, you'll get a rash and won't be able to tape it next time. Are you an idiot?" Rukawa said coldly.
Sakuragi hadn't thought of that at all. Still pinned and unable to move by Rukawa, he pressed his face against the locker door and muttered, "Since this thing is on my back and I can't see it, it's really easy to forget."
Rukawa was peeling it off very slowly, going along the direction of the hair growth.
Sakuragi found it strange: "When Mitsui put it on for me this afternoon, he put it on wrong and had to peel it off and reapply it—it hurt like hell. How come it doesn't really hurt now?"
"That's because the senior is an idiot too," Rukawa said mercilessly.
Sakuragi obediently stayed flat without moving. Seeing that he wasn't struggling, Rukawa stopped pinning him and used both hands to peel it off a bit faster.
Sakuragi mumbled and grumbled to himself: "Why do we even have to put this stuff on? It's such a pain. And so inconvenient."
"Idiot, this thing is used to provide external support and reduce joint burden. For someone like you who has been injured, it can also lower joint pain. It has a lot of uses. Didn't the doctor tell you?" Rukawa explained patiently, using the most indifferent tone possible.
Sakuragi was so bored he started drawing circles on the locker door: "The lady doctor did say so, but it was too long, she nagged for ages, and I couldn't remember any of it. Besides, since it's on my back and I can't apply it myself, I wanted to use it even less."
"Just remember that this thing is good for you, and remember to put it on before working out. Done." Rukawa's hand left Sakuragi's back.
Only then did Sakuragi realize that Rukawa's palm had been quite dry and warm.
The moment that thought popped into his head, he gave a shudder.
What on earth am I thinking? Gross.
Rukawa's mother seemed to be back, so he didn't mention anything about going out for dinner with Sakuragi today.
As he straddled his bike and got ready to leave, he suddenly turned his head and said to Sakuragi, who was walking with a slouch: "Big Idiot, if you don't put on athletic tape before playing next time, I'll kill you!"
Sakuragi glared at him: "Nagging bastard!"
Rukawa turned his head back, presenting the back of his head to Sakuragi, and said facing forward: "If you need help, you can ask me." With that, he pedaled away.