The Playmaker

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Haruka

The first week of school was made less stressful by the fact Haruka was not completely alone. Hiro and Ayame helped her out with the introduction to the school. Ayame had given her brief background info on most of the girls in their class.

Before joining the school, she had already heard what an incredible basketball player Hiro had become, and that he was the team's captain. He turned out to be very pleasing to look at and as serious as always. Some things never changed. No wonder all those girls on Habu were writing anonymous love letters to him. She stopped posting on social media but decided to return to it. She was starting a new chapter in her life after all.

A few minutes before classes started, they bunched their desks together and were enjoying some girly talk.

"Haruka, I can't believe you're friends with Hiro! He hardly ever talks to girls. Lucky!" Namiko whined. Haruka realised that she had created quite a buzz just by walking into school with Hiro. Photos of them going to class were already up on Habu, fresh with gossip and questions about who she was and where she had come from. "First and second-year classmen don't really mingle with the third years."

"Don't you have a cousin in the third year?" Haruka asked.

"Yeah but he's a loser, so I try to keep that information confidential."

"Oh, right."

"He doesn't even play a sport, let alone basketball."

Another thing Haruka had learned was that this school was crazy about its basketball. She hadn't expected the school's pupils to see the sport as a holy cult. A system across Habu ranked the best players across Japan, and the list was called the Generation of Prodigies. Hiro was on it. The girls were obsessed with each player from the Prodigy list, and knew almost everything about them.

"Do you play?" Haruka asked Yua, the girl who had been gushing on about the players the most. By the looks of it, no one was more obsessed with the players than this girl, which was weird because she looked more like the bookish type rather than someone who followed sports.

"N-No I don't," Yua said with a nervous laugh. She wore thin glasses, and her hair fell just below her jawline in a stylish bob. There was poorly blended thick foundation across her pimples.

"None of the girls play basketball," Namiko said with distaste, like it was obvious.

Haruka shrugged. "I was the captain of my team back in middle school. I used to beat Hiro when we were kids. I was taller than him back then."

Namiko's eyes bulged in surprise. "You're joking, right?"

"No! You can ask him. I don't play anymore, though."

Haruka had given enough of herself to the sport, and though she would never say out loud, she was sure there would be as formidable a girls' team here in Fujisawa as in Tokyo. Besides, her interest in playing the sport had decreased as her father's long absences from home increased. Her dad was her number one fan, and with him not around anymore, the sport lost its appeal. 

 She told herself it was okay to just enjoy being a high school student, maybe actually have time to date and go out with friends. Perhaps she would even help out in her mom's salon more often. Her mother and sister needed her more than ever now.

"So you just like to watch the boys break a sweat, huh?" Haruka said with a grin. The other girls giggled and nodded their heads.

"If there are any cute players, I'm watching a match or two," Haruka said. When Haruka imagined having a boyfriend, she saw him as an athlete. He had to be into sports.