Chapter- 54

~ Kana (Manager)'s point of view, recollections ~

　That was something I admired. I was captivated at first sight. The beautiful shooting form of the person who would become my senior. That was how I, a second-year junior high school student, had clearly set my goal.

　I had devoted my youth to basketball. The reason I saw him was because he had come to watch a practice in his hometown. He didn't have that special aura about him. I was stronger than this guy. That's what I thought.

　But that person was at his best, and when he had the ball he was stronger than anyone else. The time he spent with them showed that he had a different mindset.

　I realized this and quit the club in junior high school. If I want to go to the same high school as him, my current academic ability won't be enough. I want to play on the same team as him, even if it means quitting basketball temporarily!

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　And after a year of studying, I passed the entrance exam for the high school I had always wanted to go to! …But I wonder if that person is still there? If I see him in his first year, can we play together for a little while at the end? Or are there a lot of people just like him?

　But my ideals soon fell apart. The basketball club was suspended. Last year, the seniors in the basketball club had committed some kind of scandal, and the basketball club was suspended for a year.

　...How did it come to this? Basketball was everything to me. I studied hard and thought only of that... Is it all for nothing? ...I won't accept that!

　I immediately went to negotiate. I couldn't give up basketball! But most of the teachers didn't take me seriously. The rules were set, and they said it would be okay if it was after the suspension, but not until then. I'm sure that's one correct answer. But whether I can accept it is another matter. I can't accept this as the result of giving up on my beloved basketball and studying hard!

　But I can't do anything. At such times, a teacher listened to the confusion in my heart. She was a new teacher who started in the same year as me, and is a little older than me. Her subject is ethics and morality, and I often find myself thinking about questions that don't have an answer. Is it unusual for this high school to have this subject as a compulsory subject from the first year?

　She listens carefully to my complaints and gives me proper advice: what I really want to do, why I have opposing opinions, why I want to do it...

　…I guess I was unconsciously narrowing down my options. What I really wanted to do was basketball, but I didn't want to join the basketball club. The reason I was so hung up on the basketball club was because that person might have a girlfriend whose name I don't even know. …If I were to revive the basketball club, and that person was still in school, would he really join the basketball club again? I have to say that the possibility is extremely low.