His Score (Mitsui Hisashi x OC)

Chapter 16: Stranger

"How's the basketball team?" He asked while wiping the clean plate with a clean cloth.

"It's okay, just a little tiring is all."

"I see." Both did not say a word while they continued cleaning. Eita glanced to her sister in curiosity, he wondered what his sister was thinking all this time ever since she has not mentioned the name Mitsui through her lips.

He knew about the middle school Mitsui Hisashi, because her sister admired him so much and would talk a lot about him, how great he is in basketball and just how amazing he was. But after the finals, where he watched her sister lose in that competition, he knew something had happened but did not know what exactly took place.

What made her lose focus on that game? Who made her scared? And why? Eita's face was still blank with his thoughts in his head before snapping back to reality when Rei parted her lips and said, "Eita-kun, do you remember... Mitsui?"

Rei closed the running faucet, only followed by water dripping down and hitting the metal sink. Rei's eyes did not turn to her brother's gaze while he looked at her in slight surprise, "Mitsui-san? Yeah.. you talk a lot about him before but I didn't even get a chance to see him."

"He was hospitalized.... Remember when I left you at the park to visit someone? I went away to see him." Eita widened his eyes and confusion took over his face. Why is Rei talking about him just now? Mitsui was hospitalized? What is going right now?

Though more curiosity got on his mind, he still waited for her sister's explanation about the stuff she was blabbering about. But before Rei could say something else, she was cut off by the sound of a sudden static laughter that came from the television show. "Oh my! Mister here is so funny!" The distant voice of their mother caught their attention and Rei took the opportunity to leave the kitchen as soon as possible since she was done washing the plates.

"Sis! Wait!" Eita quickly wiped the last plate and sat it down on the drawer. The sink was not yet cleaned so he decided to do it himself before heading up stairs to find her sister. Footsteps and wood thumping was heard outside Rei's bedroom, followed by a door creaking open.

Eita peeked his head inside the room, only to see Rei watching the starry night through her opened window. He called out for her name and she hummed as an answer, he walks to her direction, joining to stare at the scenery outside the bedroom walls.

The cold wind blew on his face and the sky was dark with only a few stars shining above. Lit houses gave light to the neighborhood. "Sis, somethings bothering you. I can see it and I bet mom does, can you tell me what it is? Is it about this Mitsui guy?" Eita's voice was worried and Rei felt she needed to vent now.

So without turning to his face, she let out a sigh and laid her hand on the window sill. "You already know how I admired him as a basketball player when I was in middle school right? Well... the reason why is he was the one that encouraged me to be in the girl's team in Takeishi."

"Whoa, he did? I can't believe it, you were very clumsy when you tried to shoot a ball before." Eita chuckled at the memory where his sister tried to do a jump shot but instead she hit the rim and the ball bounced against her face. Rei glared at his direction while Eita continued to laugh at her clumsiness before.

"Sorry sorry!" He nervously waved his hand around after seeing her sister's angered and annoyed face.

Rei sighed heavily, and looked back again at the empty street of her neighborhood. "Well, you are in fact correct, I was a klutz. Back in middle school, I sneaked in the school's gym and took the opportunity to play around with basketball and that's how I met Mitsui." Rei's eyes went gentle when she reminisced the memories at the empty gym where Mitsui and herself shared conversations.