Change [ A Slam Dunk Fanfiction ]

Chapter 8

Hana's POV

It was a bummer that I didn't get to give the banner that I made to the team. I didn't even realize that it was still in my hands when Michi practically threw me out of the gymnasium.

I could just give it to them on their next match, I thought. But how could I ever face the team after what Michi has done?

Mom told me to get ready as she supposedly, heard from a friend that there was a sale going on in the department store. Knowing how much my Mom loves shopping (only if there was a sale though), I was getting kind of worried as I can imagine how many bags we were going to be bringing home after.

~

I knew it.

Panting, I took a deep breath as both my arms hurt from carrying too much shopping bags. Mom was obviously tired too so I told her that we could go rest inside a restaurant or something. Thankfully she agreed and we hurried inside the nearest establishment with seats that we could find.

As I put the bags down, I sighed as I saw how red my palms were and how sweaty my face was behind my mask.

Holding five bags in each hand definitely wasn't a good idea.

My mom then told me to wait for her as she went ahead and ordered food for the both of us because all that walking made us hungry. As I was left to look after the bags when my mom got in line,  two girls, along with their boyfriends I assume, took a seat on the table beside ours.

They were talking to each other loudly, as if they were the only people inside. One of the girls looked at me from head to toe and whispered something to the group. In turn, the other three looked at me and started laughing.

I heard them say that I would have been beautiful if only I wasn't fat and that I must be really ugly behind my mask as they continued staring at me. I think they were purposely letting me hear because they didn't even make an effort to minimize their voices when they saw me looking.

Truthfully, I already did lose weight and am much slimmer than I was before. But it was like a habit that stuck with me to wear loose clothes and due to my larger-than-other-girls-figure, wearing such loose clothing made me look wider than I really am.

Their laughter just got louder as I tried harder to hide myself. Closing my eyes, I fought back the tears that were threatening to fall. 

I knew that it was meaningless for me to cry but I couldn't help it as I was really hurt. They didn't know how much courage it took me to even do this and yet..

Huh?

My eyes instantly opened as I felt something cover my ears. I looked to see that it was a rather, handsome guy. When he saw me lift my head up, he gave me a kind smile as he slowly removed his hand from my ears.

He has such mesmerizing eyes.

Realizing that I have been staring at the beautiful stranger's eyes for far too long, I turned to look at the group of people laughing earlier and I saw that another guy with longer hair was telling them off. His voice was even louder that the group making me look at the guy behind me in confusion. 

"Don't mind him, he's always like that.", he said as he took a gentle hand and fixed my messy hair for me by tucking stray hairs behind my ear, "Don't hide. You're beautiful."

Blushing from the sudden compliment, I instinctively lowered my head again as I utter my gratitude. 

It's just my luck that a handsome guy happens to approach me when I look like a mess!

And how can he even tell someone they're beautiful if he cannot see their face?

"Are you alright?", I turned to see another tall guy with a tanned complexion ask me as he held the loud guy from earlier by the collar.

"Ahhh Maki-san, let go of me!", the guy with the longer hair cried out as he tried to remove the tanned guy's hand from his clothes.

I had no idea what was going on so I just nodded. The guy called "Maki" then nodded in return as he told the others with them to follow him.

"Here.", The stranger who helped me earlier handed me a light blue handkerchief as he turned to follow Maki-san out, "Wipe those tears away. They aren't worth it."

Looking down at the handkerchief in my hands, a small smile made its way to my face. Upon realizing that I didn't even ask his name, my head instantly shot up but they were already so far away.

I hope I'll see him again.

~

I tried cheering Michi up when I learnt that they lost the practice game against Ryonan High but to no avail. I even offered to buy him new shoes since apparently, the training shoes he was using broke. Usually he liked it when I treat him but this time, he refused.

He kept on muttering how he would beat up someone named Sendoh.

Sendoh, huh? I wonder how good he is to make my brother sulk like this all day.

I wanted to walk with Michi to school but he refused to wake up early so I went first. I kept on looking outside our class window to see if he finally arrived and when I caught sight of that familiar red hair, I instantly went outisde to greet him.

It irritated me to hear constant whispering of the people in the hallway about the game that the team lost. I walked up to Michi and gave him a comforting smile but that was short-lived when three annoying leeches popped up from behind him.

"We could have won if they passed the ball to Rukawa-kun all the time!"

"That's right!"

"Show-off!"

A tick mark appeared on my forehead as I marched up to them and raised my hand to grab their hair. I would have wiped the floor with them but Michi held me back.

"Let go, Michi.", I said as I tried to get his hands off my shoulder.

"It was close yesterday, wasn't it?", a girly voice said from behind us and Michi finally let go of me, turning around to face the owner of the voice with an angry face. 

Upon seeing Haruko-san behind him however, he instantly turned around, not wanting to face her after their loss yesterday.

"I think you did very well yesterday.", Haruko-san told him.

I'm sure he did.

When I saw how he quickly regained his cheerful demeanor as soon as Haruko-san gave him compliments, I sighed in relief. 

I remembered how everytime Michi felt down before, he would always come to me. He told me that as his younger sister, he feels calm around me.

But now with Haruko-san in the picture, though he wasn't exactly being calm, I could say that he found himself a new cheerleader.

It felt sad but at the same time, I was proud of him.

"Oh right, Sakuragi-kun. Let's buy basketball shoes before practice starts today!", Haruko-san said, "Hana-chan, you should come with us too."

I looked at Michi and he was sending me a look that said I should reject her offer.

You wanted to be alone with her that much, huh?

I shook my head at my brother's silly wish but complied nonetheless, "I-I don't think that's a good idea..."

Walking back to class after saying goodbye to the four of them, I couldn't help but worry about Michi.

I just hope he wouldn't get his heart broken like all those other times.

Haruko-san, please don't break my brother's heart.