Warnings: Lots of profanities. Lots of sweat-dropping. Some OOCs. Cracks. You have been warned!

Chapter 8

Sky blue eyes fluttered open. A whole bunch of nonsense had happened. Surprisingly, though, Kuroko found said nonsensical event funny and interesting, and it's a given that she rarely appreciates those kinds of things. Too bad, though, it all just happened in her dream.

Well, not all of it, but the best parts of her memory of the other day weren't real—like, ehem, how the redhead demon king came over and made a huge fuss and such… It was, unfortunately, fabricated memories. Even her day-off felt like it just passed quickly, and it felt unreal. 'Was it really just a dream?' She thought, can't exactly tell what happened for real and what did not.

Kuroko went to school as usual, and classes, err, was boring as always. Kagami sits in front of her as usual, too. She noted that one fact, since today, she has a lot of questions to ask him—and then, she notices the tiger-like boy snoring a little. He's asleep? She thought, wondering if the guy was actually excited for something again today, since he seems to lack sleep when exciting things are going to happen. And that's when she remembered the tiring events they went through the other day, if it were all real, that is. Ah, he's probably still tired. She thought. Now, she's really pumped up to ask him about it.

A few moments later, her one-subject teacher began muttering something about world history—16th century, Onin war, Nobunaga Oda, Mitsuhide Akechi, and other events, and samurais related which she already knew about (she had read a lot of books about it before)—all the while walking his way to the sleeping Kagami. Looks like he's gonna wake him up and punish him after that. She thought, feeling a little bad for her teammate.

Suddenly, the tiger-like boy raised his right arm—still sleeping, yes—and grabbed the semi-bald head of their History teacher. Well, surprise, Mr. Baldy.

"H-huh?" The tiger-boy gains his awareness again, slowly opening his eyes. Kuroko blinks her eyes in surprise at what just happened.

"Don't fucking 'huh' me, you worthless bird shit." Kagami's eyes widened, now completely awake, after hearing Mr. Baldy utter profane words. No, the whole class, even. Kuroko blinks in surprise for the second time.

The half-bald teacher, realized what he just said, and simply added, "Oh well, surprise, motherfuckers," making some of the students laugh, widen their eyes, and formed beads of animated sweat which may or may not have dropped down their foreheads.

"Whoa~ Who knew Ol' Teach here was a pottymouth?" A random class clown asked rhetorically, making most of the class giggle. "Oh, and Teach, are you gonna call him to the faculty office?" The last question made Kagami grimace.

"Shut your trap, you son of a bitch," Baldy said, earning a loud laugh from the class again. "I've decided that calling him a worthless bird shit was enough already, that's all. Get that, fucktard?" The class laughed harder, enjoying the sudden change of language use of their teacher.

And then the class went on with a few more lessons, stifled laughs, sarcastic comments, and profanities… Kuroko has to admit it herself, the class actually became less boring than usual. Kagami, however, wondered what the world has come to... Nobody sees the wrong in using profanities anymore? The hell? He thought.

The next thing Kuroko knew, the classes were over. Time flies so fast indeed. Now's her chance to ask Kagami about the happenings the other day.

Kagami stood up from his seat and started walking to the door. Kuroko followed suit, although the tiger boy didn't seem to notice her do so. She walks beside him.

Where should I start? The blunette thought, wondering if it's better to be direct or ask questions slowly. Ah, I should start from the very beginning. "Uh-huh." She nodded, determined, earning a surprised sudden head turn from the giant tiger.

"K-Kuroko!" Kagami half-shrieks, startled at the ghost girl's 'sudden' appearance. "Y-you…"

"Hello," She greets with a blank face, looking at him. "Kagami-kun, would you mind if I asked you questions?"

"Depends on what the questions are about." Kagami says simply. "Besides, that one should count."

"Eh?" Kuroko utters, tilting her head to the side a little, not understanding what her teammate said.

For a moment, Kagami thought that her head-tilt was kinda cute. 'Kinda cute' is an understatement, Kuroko-sama will always be the cutest. Anyways, he closed his eyes and sighed. Kinda slow on the uptake. He thought. "You know, you asked me if I mind being asked questions by you. Err, nevermind." He says, waving his left hand as if to tell her to not mind what he said.

But, now she understood what he meant. "Ah." She says, smacking her closed right hand down to the palm of her left hand. "No, Kagami-kun. That one doesn't count; I was merely trying to be polite." She's kinda slow, indeed.

As if I didn't know that. Kagami thought, sweatdropping. "I was kidding, okay?" He sighs again. "So what are you gonna ask me about?"

"It's about the day we went on a practice match against Kaijou." She started.

Kagami started to gain interest at what her questions are going to be about. "Yeah?"

"The match itself got cancelled, right?"

Kagami's eyes widened, looking at her as if she just lost her head. "Hah? Are you kidding? Of course it got cancelled! That ikemen's chinaware phobia went out of hand, remember?"

Ah, so that was real. Kuroko thought, looking up. "Then, did we eat at a steak salon after that?"

Kagami flinched at the thought of almost dying because of the steak. "U-uh, yeah, we did." Then he got rid of the thought, replacing it with another sorta disturbing one. "After that, you suddenly disappeared in thin air. We went looking for you for about an hour, you know."

"I see." So that was real, too. "What happened when you and the senpais found me?" She asks, hoping that the next event also happened for real.

Kagami looked at her as if she lost her head again. "Are you for real? I was the only one who found you."

That's when Kuroko thought that the happenings weren't real. "Is that so?" She felt somewhat disappointed. So Akashi-kun didn't really come, after all. She thought. She was about to ask him something again when suddenly, their first-year teammates, Furihata, Kawahara, and Fukuda called out to them.

"Oi, Kagami! Kuroko-san!" Furihata shouts, as if he was paging.

"Yo, what's up?" Kagami greets.

"The senpais are asking for us. We came to get the two of you." Fukuda explains, smiling.

"Really, what are they up to now? Knowing coach, there must be something fishy about this gathering thing…" Kawahara announces, kind of worried.

Kuroko however, is kind of disenchanted, but shrugs it off. There'll be plenty of opportunities to ask him later. She thought, nodding a little.

"Oi, Kuroko, you coming or what?" Kagami calls out.

"Sorry." She says, a little surprised that she actually was in deep thought. She then increased her pace swiftly to catch up to her teammates.

The five of them started heading to where the second-years are.

Aida Riko had observed the members of the men's basketball club earlier, and yes—they were tired and sleepy as hell. 'These idiots, really; we didn't even get to play Kaijou for four quarters.' She thought, releasing an exasperated sigh. 'Oh, and they had a day-off yesterday!' Now she was completely exasperated, she started thinking of various training that would help them increase each member's stamina.

"Now that I think about it…" The coach pointed her pen on the side of her lips, looking up. "Today is the day." She then smiled. And that means she's scheming. Definitely scheming.

Now, Riko had successfully gathered the team, giving her plan quite the head start. She had considered earlier what she's going to add up to their training menu—how it wouldn't be too much for Kuroko, and at the same time, without it slowing down the others.

"So, what did you call us for?" Kagami asks the way he'd usually ask, and adding an, "Err, ma'am…" in the very last minute.

"Go buy some bread." Madame Riko orders the underclassmen, smiling innocently. It's really suspicious, if you ask them.

"Huh?" Kagami reacts, confused.

"Bread? For what, Coach?" Furihata asks.

"This exact same day every year, Seirin High's cafeteria sells a limited quantity of very extraordinary bread." Riko explains, holding up an index finger just to look clever.

"Oh." Someone said. Oh, it was actually Kuroko, which surprised the second-years. Unfortunately, they're still not used to her lack of presence.

"Y-yes," Riko acknowledges her, somewhat awkwardly. She gains back her composure in Mach speed. "So, back to the topic. Supposedly, eating this fantastic bread will bring you success in love, clubs, and everything else." The coach further explains. Somehow, the second-years thought she was advertising it or something. "The triple delicacy Iberian pork cutlet sandwich with caviar, foie gras, and truffles! It's worth 2,800 yen!"

"Damn, it's so expensive." Kawahara comments.

"The content sounds scary, too." Furihata adds.

"We're asking you to buy this bread so we can succeed as a team." The coach adds.

"I didn't know she was superstitious." Izuki whispers to Hyuuga, jokingly.

"Well, we badly need it for the competition, so shut up." Hyuuga replies bluntly to the pun-master.

Izuki just sweat-dropped. So you're superstitious, too.

"And that's all." The coach says. "But of course, we're not the only ones having our eyes on it, so you better hurry. It gets busier than usual sometimes." She seems to have completely convinced the first-years with her innocent smile, however, Hyuuga and Izuki flinched at her last line knowingly.

Somehow, Furihata can also feel something wrong; he flinched at the possibilities of what's gonna happen later.

"Well, that's easy as pie… ma'am." Kagami says with determination.

Are you sure!? Furihata thought

"Here," Hyuuga hands Kuroko a brown envelope which seems to be containing the money for buying the so-called special bread. "We're paying for this, so go buy yourselves a bread," He smiles, and then adds, "Also, buy us some lunch while you're at it."

"Roger, Captain." Kuroko says, saluting to Hyuuga with determination. An adorable action, yes, and it made the whole team smile.

"Hurry up, it sells really quickly." Izuki says.

"Izuki-senpai…" Furihata says, hesitant about what's waiting for them at the cafeteria.

"Don't worry, we managed to get some last year, so you can, too." Izuki tries to encourage his kouhai.

"We're going. See you later." The first-years said in unison, and started walking on their way to the cafeteria.

"Go-pher it, gophers!" Izuki exclaims at the first-years' backs.

He's unbelievable. The first-years thought in unison, sweat-dropping.

"No one can tell whether you're trying to cheer or insult them." Koganei says, doubting the raven-haired cutie.

Mitobe, on the other hand, holds out a hand as if trying to reach his kouhais.

"You always worry too much, Mitobe. What are you, their mother?" Koganei says, also doubting the silent boy.

"What did you mean, 'it gets a little busier'?" Hyuuga finally gets to say it, with an incredulous expression on his face.

"Fufufufu~ I'm making this an annual event for first-years." The coach states a decree cheerfully.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously?" Is what Kagami can only say at the chaos happening right in front of him and his teammates. Apparently, the cafeteria isn't just getting busier than usual; in fact, it is the perfect example of a pandemonium or anarchy or tremendous uproar or whatever.

"ONE IBERIAN PORK CUTLET PLEASE!"

"WHAT THE HELL!? I WAS HERE FIRST!"

"OUCH! THAT HURTS YOU BASTARD!"

"GIVE ME ONE IBERIAN, LADY!"

"HEY, DON'T PUSH ME!"

Despite the chaos in front of these blockheads, they still had determination plastered all over their faces. Except Kuroko-sama, of course, she was still wearing a blank face as usual.

"W-we can't give up, we must try until the end! Who knows what the evil duo will do to us when we fail here." Kagami tries to encourage his teammates some more; his last line referring to their Coach and Captain.

"R-right." Fukuda seems more convinced, however, he can still feel the bad aura all the students in the line were giving off which made him flinch a little.

It seems that Kawahara is also convinced since he has started stretching all of a sudden. "Okay, I'll go first. I may not be as strong as Kagami, but I'm pretty confident in my strength!" And the boy started running for the crowd.

"Don't die!" Fukuda says in a worried tone.

Kawahara tried to dive in the sea of people. To Kuroko, Kagami, Furihata and Fukuda's surprise, he did not drown. Instead, he was forcefully pitched back to where he was standing earlier.

"K-Kawahara…" Fukuda mutters, shocked at what he had witnessed happening.

Furihata jumped next to the dead-looking body of his friend, worried. "Kawahara! Are you dead!?"

"That's pointless to ask, Furihata-kun. You won't get an answer if he did." Kuroko says nonchalantly.

That's what you're concerned about!? Kagami, Fukuda, and Furihata thought, giving her a disbelieving look.

"W-well, he was pretty useless…" Kagami says as obnoxiously as possible.

"That's mean, Kagami." Furihata adds, making a disappointed-yet-agreeing-a-little face.

"Now that I take a better look, we need a lot more than just strength." Fukuda speculates. "The Sumo club, Weightlifting club, the Rugby club's forwards, and the American Football club's linemen… just how are we supposed to get past these guys?"

Kagami can feel nothing but anticipation now, challenges like these has always had him thrilled ever since he was born. And then he remembered, Kuroko needs to overcome this, too. And he smiled at the idea he has in mind. "Oi, Kuroko."

Said girl looks up at the tallest guy among them with split-eyebrows. "What is it, Kagami-kun?"

"I challenge you to match, Kuroko," Kagami grins. "Whoever buys the Iberian Pork sandwich first wins. If you win, you'll get the privilege to ask me everything you want, and I won't ever complain." The idiot trio are now confused at what Kagami's trying to do.

On the other hand, what the tiger said made Kuroko fired up immediately, her eyes brimming with determination. "Alright, Kagami-kun, I accept your challenge."

"I like your enthusiasm!" Kagami snorts. "However, if I win, you have to—"

The tiger didn't get to finish his line since Kuroko dashed straight for the cafeteria. All the four of them were dumbfounded at Kuroko's sudden darting.

"Wh-wha?" Furihata and Fukuda both react late, still processing what just happened. As if it wasn't enough that Kuroko behaved out of the ordinary (outside a game, at least), the girl was also completely out of sight—in less than a second, too.

Kagami stood frozen. He didn't even get to say what he wants as reward for the challenge. Damn you, Kuroko! Anyways, I can't just lose. He thought, finally gaining his resolve and composure. "Leave this to me, you guys." He says to the trio.

"Good luck Kagami!" Fukuda says, cheering for the tiger with split-brows who already darted for the crowd.

"W-wait…" Kawahara, their almost dying friend earlier, has finally gained consciousness—if he were unconscious earlier in the first place. "Wh-what's going on now…"

"Oh, Kawahara, you're awake." Furihata says in an uncaring manner, turning their bald friend's expression into a depressed one.

"Finally, Kawahara, you're done with your act." Fukuda adds, making the bald boy's face darker.

"Y-you guys…" Kawahara the bald boy says, depressed.

"Anyways, shouldn't we help them? Each of us is supposed to be doing something you know?" Furihata changes the subject subconsciously.

"Kagami and Kuroko-san had a bet. We can't interfere." Fukuda explains.

"E-eh? They did!?" Kawahara asks rhetorically. "Wait, if that's so, we really can't get in their way."

"You two… we won't get in the way no matter where I look!" Furihata states.

"Are you sure, Furi? If we get to buy the bread first, their bet will become void."

"That's exactly the point! There's no way we can get in their way when we can't even buy bread, you know."

Fukuda and Kawahara sweat-dropped. So what's the point of helping? The two said and thought in unison.

"AAAAAARGGGGHHHHH!" The three can hear Kagami screaming. It seems as though the tiger cannot actually get in further the crowd, and fell on his butt right after being pushed back by the crowd.

"Even Kagami can't do it… It's hopeless." The trio murmurs, in the brink of giving up.

"No, not yet!" Kagami bounces back up and tries again. Unfortunately, he just got pushed back again and fell on his butt for the second time.

For some reasons, he didn't give up, repeating the same cycle over and over again. And again. And again. And again. The trio knew—this has to stop. Someone! SOMEONE, PLEASE! PLEASE HELP UUUUUS! The three thought.

"Uh, excuse me." Says someone. All of the guys turn their heads to the person who said it, including Kagami.

Turns out, it was Kuroko. No one just comes to realize that it's her, alright. "I bought five Iberian Pork Cutlet bread. There's no change." After hearing this, the guys all looked the plastic bag she was holding. And boy, there really is so-called extraordinary bread. There was a moment of silence.

"Well, it's Kuroko-san's complete victory, I'd say." Kawahara comments. The other two of the pack nods in agreement.

"WHAT?" Kagami reacts, thunderstruck. Within a second he was right in front of Kuroko, grabbing her shoulders. "HOW?"

Kuroko looks up, trying to remember what happened. "The flow of the crowd pushed me to the front, so I got five breads and left some money on the counter."

They all sweat-dropped, except Kagami—he stood there frozen.

"That's the former phantom sixth man for you!" Furihata cheers on her.

"Thank you, Furihata-kun. But it's nothing to praise about, really." She says expressionless.

"Oh come on, don't act so modest! You won a bet against Kagami!" Fukuda adds. Now, Kagami feels even smaller.

"About that, I don't think I actually won."

"Huh?" Kagami finally reacts, his face still in frown.

"I have all the money with me. You couldn't have bought anything even if you got to the front."

"Oh." The three boys mutter.

"Idiot, I have some money on me. If ever, I could've just got it back easily by taking the money they handed to you." Kagami says without looking at Kuroko, head turned to the side, trying hard not to look like he's consoling her.

Kuroko looks down and thinks about what her teammate said. "Well, if you say so, then I guess it's my win."

Kagami's eyes settle at her, his head still at turned to the side, and becomes surprised at what he sees. She looks more humble than usual, I wonder what happened? Whether he's being sarcastic or not, no one knows.

"U-uhm, here Coach. Kuroko-san bought the bread." Fukuda hands the bread to Riko.

"Good work! Wait, what? Only Kuroko-chan!? Are you kidding me!? Just how gentlemanly can you freaking boys become, huh!?" Riko screeches, unleashing the monster within her. Good thing Izuki, Koganei, Mitobe and Tsuchida restrained her.

Hyuuga however, started giving off frightening aura. "I know I gave Kuroko-chan the money, but that doesn't mean I was leaving the entire job to her, you retards. Or did you need a little bit of a reminder, huh?" He started cracking his knuckles.

"EEEEEEEEK!" The trio hid behind Kuroko.

Before she could open her mouth, Kagami was already speaking. "We tried to help, but Kuroko was just really skilled in… uh… being invisible. So yeah, she got through the crowd."

"Oh, I see." The evil duo of Coach and Captain said unison, understanding the situation.

That was easy. The rest of the team thought in unison.

"So again, guys, good work! Here's some juice to accompany that special bread." The coach stretches a hand holding a plastic bag which seems to have packs of fruit juices in it.

"B-but, how about you guys?" Fukuda asks, somewhat puzzled. He thinks they were really asked to buy the bread as gophers.

"Go on, it's for you guys to eat." Izuki tells him reassuringly, smiling. Well, it's his pun earlier which caused the misunderstanding, so yeah, he's doing his best to clear it up.

All of the underclassmen looked somewhat surprised. They weren't gophers after all. "R-really?" Fukuda asks again, this time, looking at their captain.

"Of course. Don't hold back." Hyuuga assures him.

Fukuda turns to his first-year buddies. "Let's take turns. So who goes first?"

"It's gotta be Kuroko-chan, of course!" Kawahara makes a suggestion which no one opposes.

"Thanks for the food." Kuroko takes one bread from the bag and starts to bite on the extraordinary bread. Oh yes, indeed. It is indeed one of the best breads she's ever eaten. "This is incredibly delicious." She says in a rare happy expression. The trio is now convinced.

The three started chewing off the bread. They couldn't agree with Kuroko more, it really is incredibly delicious. Kagami still looked skeptic, but Kuroko just shoved the bread into his mouth. He didn't choke, though, he has huge throat, it was probably easy for him to swallow that bread at once. Well, not really, but…

After that, they all went their way to change into their practice attires.

"Kagami-kun." Kuroko calls out to the tiger.

"Yo," Kagami greets. "So, you're going to interrogate me immediately, huh?" Kagami says with a constipated face.

"Yes, is that bad?" She asks just to be polite.

"N-no."

"I see. I'll ask a question then." She declares. "Kagami, kun, when you looked for me back then, who did you found at the park with me?"

Kagami gave her an incredulous look. "Are you serious? You don't even remember that?"

She shakes her head a little.

"Well, Kise, and, uh… that Midorima guy…" Kagami says, thinking. He wasn't even sure if he pronounced the greenhead's name right.

Kuroko is a little disappointed. "I see. Akashi-kun didn't come after all." Why did I even dream of something like that?

Kagami gave her another incredulous look. "Idiot, that Akashi came! How could you forget!?" Whoa, is he secretly shipping Kuroko with Akashi? "When I tried to get you, he actually aimed his scissors at me! He tried to kill me!" Oh. Unfortunately, he's not a shipper—he just felt bad because Kuroko didn't remember his almost-dying-scenario. Poor guy.

And the memories automatically came back to Kuroko—making her murmur an, "Oh," with the blankest face you can imagine. How could I forget an event so weird like that? She thought, quite disappointed at herself.

The only fabricated memory she had was the part when the whole Seirin team got to witness Akashi hired a hitman to destroy Midorima's printer, which in her dream, appeared to be his lucky item for the next day. And then her pun-lovin' senpai did something embarassing... Well, yeah, if she's gonna sum it up, it was quite a hilarious and silly dream.

So this is what actually happened: she went with Kise and Midorima to a nearby street basketball court to talk about something, when suddenly, the redhead former captain of Teiko appeared out of nowhere. Said redhead was about to do something crazy to the greenhead who looked like he was flirting with Kuroko when suddenly...

"KUROKO!" Kagami the Americanized idiot screams throughout the whole place which made four different-colored heads turn to his direction. Midorima felt like he was saved for a moment there.

"Heh?" Akashi emphasized the pretend surprise in his voice. "Why is this plebeian I've never heard of shouting your name so shamelessly, Tetsuna?" His tone suddenly changed into a one with killing intent. No shit.

Before Kagami could even react violently, Kuroko beat him to it. "Akashi-kun, please don't call Kagami-kun a plebeian, because he isn't one." She says, more serious than before.

The green, yellow, and red-haired somewhat felt at a loss… and just when they were about to ask why she is defending the boy with ugly hairdo, Kuroko interjects, "He lived in America before, he seems to be living in an expensive apartment, and he always buys about fifty pieces of cheeseburgers everyday. I believe he's not fit to be called a plebeian."

She took it literally. Kagami, Kise and Midorima thought, sweat-dropping.

The redhead just sighed a little. "Really, Tetsuna, and I thought you were trying to defy me… I almost had the urge to kill him." He smiles dangerously.

Kuroko mimicked Akashi's sigh. "Really, Akashi-kun, do you even know what happens after you kill someone? Or what to do even?"

Kise and Midorima's eyes widened comically. Why is Kuroko/Kurokocchi doing this? Does she want the world to end already!? They both thought. And when they turned to the redhead, however, he looked unsure. Wait, what?

Akashi's eyes widened like that of a cat. Poor guy—he has always been so sure, but right now, he's not really sure about things. And the rest of the boys there, including Kagami, yes, were looking smug for a moment.

Did Kuroko just save my ass? Kagami thought. Well, not really, but she defended him, that's for sure.

Way to go, Kurokocchi! Kise thought, high-jabbing mentally.

Serves you right, Akashi. Midorima thought, pushing his glasses up.

The three looked smug, really, thinking: how come they're so scared of Akashi when they are actually taller than him? And just then, those three felt a glare with killing intent, which sent chills to their spines.

Those taller than me should just die already. Wait, what was Tetsuna trying to say? How should I answer her question? Wait, it might be rhetorical. Ah, no, probably not. Just as the redhead's thoughts were about to compile like paperwork, a thought invaded his mind. Tetsuna, really surprises me in many ways. He mentally smiled. Oh, and that whirlwhind of thoughts by the redhead only lasted 0.1 second. No kidding.

Akashi cleared his throat. "So it's three, huh." He said, smirking. "Sorry—Kagami, but I can only handle two at the moment. So leave." He said with a delay, probably because he tried to remember what Kuroko called the guy.

Kagami was kind of confused; two, three? He wondered what the redhead was blathering about, but he refused to back down. "Hah? Sorry, but I'm going to bring Kuroko with me no matter what."

"Oh, is that so?" The redhead smirked, and was about to attack him with his scissors when—

"Just give up, idiot." Midorima finally said to Kagami. Come to think of it, this is the first time he talked to him! For some reasons, the tsundere would prefer not to talk to someone he hasn't met formally yet, but yep, he couldn't take it anymore. He wanted to tell him that he's an idiot all this time.

"Haaaah!? And who the heck are you!?" Kagami retorted. "Just so you know, I can't leave without Kuroko!"

"EH? DID YOU JUST SAY CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT KUROKOCCHI!? YOU CLOSET PERVERT KAGAMICCHI!" Kise blew up.

"WH-WHA? PERVERT? KAGAMICCHI?"

Midorima pushes his glasses back up, sighing again. "Kise, he said leave as in depart, not live as in survive. Clean your ears sometimes, idiot."

Kise sweat-dropped. "Clean my ears? I didn't even mishear him, Midorimacchi! It was him who has problems with pronunciation!"

Midorima sighs again. "I see, you're just utterly stupid, why did I actually try to give you assistance? How wrong of me."

A huge vein appeared on Kise's face. "I told you alright! It's this guy named Kagamicchi with funny eyebrows' fault!"

"HAH?" Kagami's face was covered with veins.

Kuroko, who was standing just right where she was observing the idiots, was not amused. She probably knew how this will end. Akashi-kun will probably—

"ENOUGH." The dangerous redhead of Rakuzan couldn't take it any longer. "HOW DARE YOU BICKER SO NONCHALANTLY IN MY PRESENCE?"

Heck, Kuroko was right. Aaaaaand the scissor-throwing began after that, which wounded Kagami's left cheek. The ripe and unripe mango duo was unscathed.

"…"

"You remember now?" Kagami asked the blank-faced lady, sighing.

"Yes." Kuroko replies. "What happened after that, Kagami-kun?"

"Well, you ran to my aid and threatened to beat Akashi."

"I-I did?" Kuroko reacts suddenly. I did that? She thought, feeling embarrassed. It's really out-of-character for her to suggest to kick other people's asses.

That was the first time Kagami heard her stutter, like seriously. "Well, yeah, you threatened to beat him a basketball match."

"O-oh."

Damn, what's with this girl? Kagami thought, and without thinking he suddenly pronounces, "First, you asked me questions as if you had amnesia. Second, you bought that stupid bread without effort. And now… you… you're stuttering…" There was a slight pause, and then he continued. "You're really overwhelming a lot of people, you know."

Kuroko gave him a faint smile. "Sorry."

"Anyways, you can't beat Akashi without going through the intense practice later."

"Oh, right."

"We have to hurry, we can't be late."

"Of course."

The two started sprinting to the locker rooms. Indeed, they can't be late for practice. Who knows what the punishments are going to be.

Kuroko stops sprinting, remembering something. "Kagami-kun!"

Said guy stops his stride, and turns to the owner of the voice. "What!?"

"If you won the bet, what would you have asked for?"

Kagami was taken back. Now he is puzzled. Is she asking 'cause she remembered, or did she felt guilty 'cause she avoided hearing it? He shakes his head afterwards, and smiled a little. It's probably the first one.

"You actually remembered, huh?"

"Sorry, I feel guilty because I avoided hearing you out, Kagami-kun." She bows her head as a sign of apology.

Kagami's eyes widened. "O-oh." I was wrong there.

There was a moment of silence.

"It was nothing important. Don't worry about it." Kagami tries to dismiss the conversation.

"But, I'd feel guilty if you don't tell me now."

This girl... Take a hint! He mentally retorted, closing his eyes. He sighs, opening one of his eye, looking at her. "I was going to ask you to eat more burgers next time we eat at Maji's, that's all. You drink too much vanilla shake that it sickens me."

That was unexpected, well, for Kuroko at least. "Alright Kagami-kun. I will eat more burgers next time." She gives him another faint smile.

The tiger was again taken aback. "Y-yeah. That's good."

"See you later."

"See you later."

Kuroko Tetsuna, on her way to the lockers, thought about what happened after the scissor-throwing. She didn't fail to notice the saddened smile the redhead captain of Rakuzan gave her when she ran to Kagami's aid. Now, the expression on her face looks so conflicted.

Why would Akashi-kun make an expression like that? She bit her lip, feeling all her frustration penting up. She sees it all vividly—the sad smile, and after that, he just walked past them wearing his usual commanding expression, and told her that he's looking forward to how their plan—no, how his plan will turn out. It was as if that ''sad'' smile was just a lie.

Why is Akashi-kun always trying to confuse, me? Why? She feels a pang on her chest. It hurts...

A/N: I'M SO SORRY GUYS! TT_TT I broke my promise that I'd update TWICE last March! I was infected by a disease called writer's block and yes, busy with school work and FINALS was like HELL, seriously! In the past few days I got busy with other stuff, and yeah, I've only finished half of this chapter today.

That was a quite sad way to end the chapter, but sometimes I have to add sad scenes too, I think. XD From now on I'd only be replying to my dear readers' questions and answer it in a Q&A format~

I'll be updating soon again~ Thanks so much for everyone who followed and favorited this fic! And to my readers who are always, always reviewing (you guys know who you are), really, really, I'M GRATEFUL TO YA'LL!

Thanks so much for all your support! :) Please leave a review~ I really feel energized reading them. Feel free to give constructive criticism as well. I'd be striving to improve as much as possible. ;)

See ya all again in the next chapter. Sore ja.