The Difference Between a Practice Game and The Real Thing

"Oh, Mamoru really missed me that much, huh," I said, puffing out my chest.

"You realize stuff like this was why you weren't good teammates," Minamoto said, wincing.

I nervously chuckled at her reaction, but in all honesty, I was relieved. I haven't participated in team activities for a little over several months. Even after I sequestered myself away from everyone all this time, I still had a brotherhood that I could return to. But that led to another realization I had yet to reckon with.

Hayato wasn't the only teammate I had to apologize to.

"Well, anyways, I'll be sure to meet him soon enough," I said with a raspy laugh.

Minamoto leaned closer and gripped my shoulders, and plastered the same toothy, mischievous smile she was always known for on her face.

"I'm sure my bro will be very happy you said that. I'll pass it on to him."

"Please don't, aha."

"And you don't have to worry about students like the ones from earlier. I have a friend on the female varsity basketball team. She's a bit of a blabbermouth who talks to everyone, but once she gets the word out about how nice Fumiko-san is, I'm sure the narrative about her will start changing. And if there are people that'll still badmouth her, I'll take care of them," she said.

"Thanks, but why would you do that for Fumiko-san? You barely know her."

"Hayato might have planted some information about your guy's relationship, hahaha."

She pressed her index fingers together while letting out a hearty laugh.

Oh, great. Now she has the wrong idea. Or does she? You know what, I won't even correct her.

"Thanks, Karin. I appreciate it."

I pressed my chest forward and hugged her for barely longer than a second. I didn't want it to linger too long, or else she'd probably overreact and assume it was something else.

Karin was a kind person, but my focus was already on someone else.

"Oh, yeah! Don't mention it, Kenta," she said, her animated arms suddenly more stiff.

Fumiko and I waved her off, our classes taking part in different wings of the school.

I noticed Fumiko was glaring at me once the two of us were alone. The expression wasn't cold and calculating, but fiery and passionate. If they got any hotter, the sharp metallic edge to her blue irises would almost certainly melt off.

"So about the two of you-".

"I promise it wasn't anything serious," I said.

"Alright. Then who was Minamoto-san to you then," Fumiko asked.

That answer comes with so many rotating, meshing parts, that it was hard to isolate it all in a way that didn't sound suspicious. It didn't help that at one point, I considered breaking my hiatus from love to actually date her.

"How do I say this, Karin Minamoto is the younger sister of one of my former teammates. Even though she wasn't in Roppongi high at the time, she'd often help us practice outside the school gym, in case there was an offensive set taught by the coach that we didn't understand."

"Okay. That tells me what she is identity wise, but not how she relates to you, Kenta."

"Right. Right. Sorry. Minamoto-san was my friend."

"Oh, okay then," she said, running a few steps to clamp me in her arms.

"I'm already dedicated to making our joint effort to make your dream come true, Fumiko-san."

Despite some old anxieties resurfacing after meeting Minamoto, I closed the circle and finished the hug by wrapping my arms around her back.

I was happy now, but now I wondered something about Karin.

Was she content right now? Did she already move past the rejection?

The two kept our hands clasped together until we reached the south entrance of the school.

"I guess this is where we see each other off," I snorted.

"Yeah, I guess so. We have different classes after all," snickering with her hand over her mouth.

"I was trying to be nice, you know. I know I was stating the obvious."

"Sorry, Kenta. It's just that I don't get a chance to see you flustered too often."

"I'll see you later, okay," she finished, raising our hands and then separating them at the last second to wave at each other.

I now only had one thing in my mind that lived in my head rent free.

I had an appointment after school at the gym to keep with Hayato.

***

Three other players were on the court practicing by themselves after the coach dismissed the rest of the team after practice was officially over. I remembered during the first semester of practice, that half the roster clanked their shots.

Our team shooting was so bad, that we had to pay as a team out of our pocket to replace the dented, warped goal. It was weird to think that the dented rim of the basket shamed and motivated us to improve more than Coach Kamikita when he'd demand that we do drills double time after losing. I couldn't help but scoff at the memory.

One of the three players, Hayato, who was in his white undershirt rather than the team uniform, motioned me over.

"Hey, Kenta. Glad you could finally make it bro," Hayato said, slapping me on the back several times.

"Yeah. I guess I couldn't stay away from this place," I said.

One of the other two players, a taller boy with more musculature and longer, wilder brown hair than Hayato's, stopped shooting and held the basketball in place to take in the sight of me finally returning to the court.

"I heard you've returned, but I didn't think you'd show up. I guess I owe you one Hayato," he said, addressing both me and Hayato.

"So what's this about wanting to play against me again, Mamoru? Did you want to make the record 13-4 instead of 12-4? Because I'm more than happy to oblige."

"You haven't hit the court in four months. You won't hold up against me in a regulation game," Mamoru said.

"Won't know until we try, new team captain."

"We'll play later. I want you at your best when I beat you, Kenta."

"Later? What do you mean?"

"I guess I should fill you in," Hayato said, tapping his finger on my shoulder to interject.

"Mamoru wouldn't allow us to use the court unless I agreed that he'd played against you again," Hayato said, scratching his back.

"Oh, I see. So where will our special venue be, then?"

"We will play at the old park where we always settled the score. At Yoyogi Park! Coach Kamikita even went through the trouble of booking a community event for us."

"That's just fine for me. But since we've gone through the trouble of coming here, we should at least do a short two-on-two scrimmage. What do you say, Mamoru?"

"I have no problem with it. What about you, Aoi," he said, turning to a blue-haired boy with curly coiffed bangs.

"I mean-- how could I not be excited at the chance to play against the former point guard of the Roppongi Sea Kings," Aoi said, giggling with his teeth bared.

The four of us decided to take the ball out from inside half-court, both teams seeing no point in playing a longer full-court slugfest. First to ten wins.

I walked forward and dribbled the balls for a few seconds. As usual, I stopped on my left foot. Now I waited for one of them to take the bait. Of course, the novice that Aoi was, decided to check me when I stopped dribbling. I kept the ball firmly pressed to my midsection.

He rushed to defend me, admittedly positioning himself pretty well in front of me.

I skipped the ball off one hand and let the ball glide over to Hayato, where he gained possession of the ball.

Mamoru immediately closed ground on Hayato almost instantaneously.

"Aoi, stay on your man!"

I clicked my teeth at the mistake. I sped left center. As I felt the energy build within me as I gained momentum while running to one of my usual spots, I couldn't help but let out a satisfied primal grunt. Luckily, Hayato's arms were long enough for him to pass the ball overhead to me.

Aoi recovered a half-second too late to contest me as I smoothly flicked the ball overhead, scoring the first basket.

"I'm back," I said.

"Captain, you didn't say he was this good!"

"Lesson number one, rook. You don't defend a player like Kenta by guarding him while he holds the ball close to his chest. It's almost always a fake."

Mamoru let out an exasperated sigh and scratched his forehead.

"Welcome back, captain," Hayato said, grinning from ear to ear.

***

Roughly eleven minutes passed since the scrimmage began. Mentally, the game felt the same for me as it always did. Hayato and I executed the old sets we'd use in national games about as well as we always did. Hayato himself was moving well, surprisingly enough. But there was a subtle difference in the way he moved his feet. He had the same level of athletic burst to the basket, but he had a new habit of decelerating about a couple seconds before he reached maximum speed.

He became a more willing passer, but he also appeared more hesitant.

I hope this wasn't a behavior that would factor into the rematch scheduled this weekend.

Mamoru by stark contrast, just shot a turn-around fadeaway in Hayato's face from fifteen feet away from the basket. The ball smoothly slides through the net below the rim.

The score was now tied 8-8.

I was beside myself. There was never doubt that Mamoru could shoot, but now he's actively trying to shoot, even with defenders heavily contesting him.

I returned to the top of the key once possession of the ball switched to us. I gestured to Hayato to come closer with a wagging index finger.

The two of us bent our knees to let our bodies recuperate.

"Listen, bro, I'm going to need you to shoot on the last possession," I said, whispering.

"Aren't you the most skilled shooter out of the two of us? That seems like a bad idea," he said.

"They're going to see me coming from a mile away. Those two have taken turns defending me all game. I'll make it easy for you. Once you decelerate, pass the ball instead of shooting. After that, move to the top of the key."

"Alright, fine."

Now it was time to test my theory.

Hayato began to position himself to get the ball. I dribbled for the first few seconds, taking several steps forward. Aoi slid his feet near the high post to stay in front of me. I dashed right another several steps and Mamoru now stood near the wing. The right side of the court was now suffocated by their presence.

Good, they both have their eyes on me.

I arced myself to the left of them, drawing all attention to me again. They really didn't want me to get an open shot, huh? But that's just fine. I saw Hayato running around them to position himself on the other side of the wing.

I jumped and flung the ball to Hayato while he was inbound. He burst forward for several steps and then stopped on a dime. They were already looking off of him, they're feet already positioned towards me.

He passed the ball one more time.

As predicted they swarmed me, one defending high and the other low with their arms outstretched.

I arced the basketball out of my hand, Aoi fumbling to regain possession of the ball.

Hayato scooped the ball in his hand and prepared to shoot.

Unexpectedly, Mamoru was ready to guard him.

Hayato, unperturbed, created space and shot a stepback shot just outside the 3-point line.

The final score was 11-8.

I ran to high-five him, followed by a series of friendly slaps on each other's back before locking our fingers together in a final shake of solidarity.

"How long were you able to do that," I asked.

"For as long as I figured out how to play basketball without just dunking," Hayato said.

"About that--are you going to be alright for the rematch, Hayato?"

"What do you mean?"

"You were deferring even more than I was during the game. Too much passing results in the offense breaking down. Sooner or later, someone has to shoot."

"Look, man, I developed a style of play that addressed my concerns in practice. I'll play with you, but don't force me to be a player I no longer am."

I remembered the doctor's compression sleeve fastened to his knee and fell silent.

"Okay. Don't worry about it, Hayato. There's more than one way to play this game after all," I said, smiling with a breathy laugh.

I turned my attention toward Mamoru and Aoi. Mamoru firmly stood with his arms crossed, with Aoi simply peering back at us with an unassuming smile.

Mamoru stepped closer to shake my hand.

"Even though it was only a scrimmage, you beat me and the rookie here full stop."

"It was a tough run. I didn't expect you to close the gap this much in the time I was gone."

"Hmmph, a leader has to set a good example for the rest of the team. If I don't try to elevate my ability as a player, how can I reasonably expect everyone else to?"

I chuckled a bit at his behavior. We played way too many games together for him to pretend to be this emotionally distant. It was only because he constantly elevated himself that I was able to reach my full potential. Before I began improving, he only saw me as an entitled brat.

"Hey, Mamoru, in all seriousness, I apologize for inconveniencing the team after I left."

He raised his eyebrows and blinked his eyes in disbelief.

"If you want to properly apologize, then do it on the court this weekend," Mamoru said.

"Will do, bro," I said.

"You're acting rather familiar for someone trying to get in the team's good graces," he said, scoffing as he walked off the court.

"It was nice playing against you guys. I'm glad that I finally got to play against good competition," Aoi said, energetically running from us until he was in lock-step with Mamoru.

"Man, these kids just keep getting more talented, don't they," Hayato said, wiping a single bead of sweat off his brow.

"I think we may have a lot of work to do if we want to keep up with them," I said.

I was thankful that we didn't play a whole court game against them.

It would've exposed just how bad my physical conditioning was.