Looking for a Miracle | Kuroko no Basket

31. Parting Ways

Looking for a Miracle
Chapter Thirty-Two
Parting Ways

I didn't know how it happened, but the day before graduation, I was walking home with Akashi by my side.

I hadn't meant for it to happen. Class had finished, we had gone over exams, and I was striding out the door as quickly as I could to put as much distance between myself and Teiko as possible.

He'd caught up with me.

I didn't know why. We hadn't spoken properly for weeks. We hadn't spoken for ten minutes now. The air between us was heavy, full of tension and awkwardness. I had deliberately been looking at anything but the redhead by my side for the past ten minutes, to the point it was uncomfortable.

"Have decided which high school you're going to, Akane?" he asked presently. It was a pleasant enough conversational topic, but could hear something underneath the seemingly innocent question.

I didn't look at him, but remained staring straight ahead. I nodded. "I have."

"You're going to Rakuzan, I presume?"

It wasn't even a question. It was a statement. If faltered in my step.

"Why would you say that?" I asked.

"It's the best school in the country, is it not?"

He came to a stop. I followed suit, though not to follow him. It was because I was suddenly empty, unable to remember how to function.

I'd been desperately hoping for a different answer - a hint at our friendship, that he expected me to go to Rakuzan because we had grown up together, and hadn't even been separable through classes in middle school. I'd wanted to hear him say that it was because it was all too strange to think of any person but me sitting next to him in class.

But of course he wouldn't say that. He'd grown distant with everyone. I was no different.

But maybe I could see something in his eyes, that betrayed his cold response...

No. I slapped myself mentally. Don't kid yourself, Hirai Akane. There's nothing you can do anymore, except give him the truth.

Somehow I mustered the strength to meet him dead in the eye. I paused, licking my lip and steeling myself as best as possible before saying, "I'm not going to Rakuzan."

I stiffened, waiting for his reaction. His face remained almost impassive, though I detected a flicker of shock before his features smoothed out once again.

"Where are you going?" he asked, a hint of coldness in his voice.

I swallowed.

"Katayama Academy," I responded. "My parents preferred it, there's less chance I could get distracted by boys."

The lie was so much easier to say that the actual truth - that I couldn't bear to see him, or anyone else, again.

"You were supposed to come to Rakuzan."

I blinked. His voice had cracked - only for a second, right at the end, but it had still happened - proof that my Sei was still there somewhere and that even if it was deep down, he still cared.

I bit my lip. But he wasn't my Sei. He hadn't been for a year now, and nothing I could do could change that.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, eyes closed to hide tears. "But I've been accepted. I'll be going to Katayama next school year."

"Akane -"

For one terrible, heart-wrenching moment, I thought I saw both his eyes turn red. But then that illusion was gone and he wasn't Sei, but Akashi, staring at me with his heterochromic eyes. But there was something in those eyes, that looked like Sei, my childhood friend...