Catching up

Souma lived on opposite sides of school from my house, but he enjoyed the fact that he could take a single train that ran a straight line to a small station near a big retail store that my family often shopped at. Across the street, there was a small basketball court hidden by some very old and twisted trees. Even if they were rather small, the sheer number of them made the place look a little old and, honestly, even abandoned. There was an old fountain that had been completely dry since I was a kid. I think it's because it was deemed unsafe when the water pump broke and the water became stale, and for some reason, no one ever fixed it. At that point, the little park belonged in a museum or something, but there was no other convenient place to play basketball at.

I sat down on the ground, reaching for my water bottle. Souma brought his own tea with him, but it was a far cry from refreshing after sitting out in the sun.

"Ok, so, don't get mad at me, but from what Yuina's said, she seems to really like you. What did you do? It can't be just the art, right?" Souma raised an eyebrow, and a droplet of sweat slid down from the side of his eye.

"Mad?" I laughed. "I didn't do anything, maybe she just really likes cute drawings and you didn't know it..."

Souma gave my arm a playful punch.

"And what do YOU know, sir popular with girls?"

"Wait, no." I protested. "This is not one of those situations, trust me Souma."

Souma wiped his face with a towel and got up. He talked while he walked to a corner all the way on the other side, where the ball was nested.

"If that's the case, then why not?"

"I don't know, man. I just think we're friends" I raised my voice to be heard as Souma walked away, who then promptly started walking backward, facing me with his head tilted.

"You don't think she's cute?"

"I do."

"Fun to talk to?"

"Very much so."

Souma stood there for a moment with the ball in his hands, and I finally got up with an energetic jump, waiting for the throw.

"She's also pretty smart too, by the way."

He threw the ball, making it bounce on the ground once before it reached me.

"And popular." Souma continued.

"So, am I getting this right?" I dribbled the ball as I moved toward Souma. "You got a crush on her."

"Hey, man..." Souma opened his arms in defeat, and I took the chance to throw the ball at him by surprise, to which he barely had time to catch, awkwardly at that. "Sometimes you can just know something and not say it out loud, come on... It's kinda embarrassing to hear that coming from you."

I laughed.

"No such thing as crush shame between friends" I ran up to him and stole the ball. "But I'm serious. I have no reason to think she wants anything more with me, either." I sighed and paused briefly. "Pretty rare occurrence, let's be honest..."

Souma shook his head.

"Look, if that makes you feel better I would've third-wheeled for you two little birds if that was the case. Believe it or not, I could look past all of this just to help my friend get started in his, uh." Souma looked away. "Life..."

I blushed, then laughed the nervousness away.

"It's all good, we'll exchange roles then. Leave that to me. Deal?"

"Deal."

I threw the ball from where we stood and missed the ring. Barely. It was pretty obvious that neither of us was particularly excited to go back and fetch it, so we agreed to stop playing for the day. Souma wanted to accompany me all the way to my house and say hi to my parents since it had been a long time.

"How's the club?" Souma asked looking down at the dirty ball.

"It's... There. It's a club that exists." I replied jokingly, as I kicked a pebble.

"Hold up, I thought you actually liked it?"

"Hell yeah, I do! But lately, I've been way more into drawing than playing. I'm not gonna lie, Souma, being showered with virtual attention feels kinda nice... And you?"

"I bet it is." Souma chuckled. "Meh, some clubs look fun, but I'm fine with just going home. My mom says I should join something for networking and stuff, but I still feel that helping her at the shop is the better option." He looked at me. "Not a conversation I want to have with her again, though."

Fifteen minutes later we arrived at my house, where we found my dad attending to a big vase with a few different plants, and yellow and white flowers. Souma has never had the chance to know my parents by name, they were all Sasaki in that household. But the dad did introduce himself: Shouta Sasaki.

Dad noticed us approaching and turned away from his flowers.

"Hey. Oh, nice to see you..." I heard the hesitation in his voice.

"Souma." I quickly said.

"Yeah, Souma! It's been a long time since you last visited us, good to see you."

"Nice to be here. I figured I would come by to say hi."

"Mom went out for groceries, she should be back soon with food. You should stay for dinner" My dad said, excited with the idea he just came up with.

"You heard the old man" I poked Souma with my elbow and walked inside looking for respite from the sun. And that was the last thing I heard from that conversation.