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You'd always thought some days are better off forgotten; and right now, you were starting to think today was one of those.
Walking aimlessly through the dimly lit streets of your neighborhood, your mind wandered through everything that had happened with your boyfriend lately.
Or... ex-boyfriend, as you should call that asshole now.
It had been good, though... right? at least that's what you'd always thought. You'd talked, and laughed, and seemed to have good times together. He was a smart and funny guy; you had even considered you might have been feeling deeper stuff lately. Maybe even love .
But oh, well... that was all over now.
Sometimes, life kicks us when we're least prepared for it; and that was precisely what had happened earlier:
It was almost lunchtime and you were heading for the cafeteria, looking for your best friend. She'd disappeared a couple of minutes ago, and you weren't really looking forward to eating alone, so you'd gone searching for her through the school.
Roaming through the halls, you'd suddenly heard familiar voices.
"Wait... not here... she might see us"
"Oh, but please, just a little kiss"
"Alright. But then we'll go, ok?"
Giggling and caught by curiosity, you had peeked in the direction where you heard the voices come from. And then... you saw it.
Her. Your best friend. In your boyfriend's arms. Kissing .
That bitch.
Your whole world fell apart at that very moment. The worst was that the bastard didn't even try to apologize for what he'd done; in fact, you would've sworn he was practically laughing at you inside while she, on the other hand, repeated over and over what you'd hoped you'd never ever have to hear: "this is not what it looks like" .
Heartbroken, you'd spent the rest of the school day crying; your friend didn't even dare to look at you in the eyes. It was so evident, your teacher finally sent you home, as you weren't really capable of doing anything other than being sad.
And what made things worse, when you got home -puffy eyes and all- you found your mother waiting for you, furious because of something you couldn't quite comprehend. Anger had clouded your mind and, even if you tried, you couldn't understand a word of what she was saying -or actually yelling-, so you chose to just get out of there. Slamming the door, you left her alone with an unfinished discussion.
Geez, thanks for your support.
So here you were, walking by yourself through these almost empty streets.
You were sad and furious; everything hurt and you knew the only thing that helped you in these situations was walking.
So you kept walking.
You walked and walked through little streets, parks, and buildings; you walked in silence, trying to focus on your breathing. You walked... until you didn't know where you were walking to, as the places you saw were more and more unfamiliar as time went by. After an hour of this, you realized you were now completely lost.
Slightly nervous, you took out the phone from your pocket and were about to search for your location when, out of the blue, you felt something lightly hit your right foot. As you looked down, you realized it was a ball, big and orange. You took it in your hands curiously, looking around to find who it belonged to, but the owner was nowhere to be found.
Even in your sadness, you suddenly felt the urge to find them, and maybe bring a tiny ray of happiness to this awful day. You started asking all the people around you, hoping you'd be able to make someone smile... it would be so good if someone smiled at you, right? But after talking to several strangers, you still couldn't find who you were looking for. You supposed then, with growing frustration, that even one more thing had gone wrong today, so you surrendered to the fact and decided it was time to head back home.
After you finally understood where you were (and yes, you had gone quite far away), you set out on your way back. You were tired and starving and, though your head felt lighter thanks to the long stroll, your chest was still tight; the painful scene from earlier kept repeating once and again in your mind... but at least, now you had stopped crying.
Walking through a narrow street, you came to what appeared to be a small basketball court. It was already starting to get dark but the lights on the street were already on, so you could see a couple of kids still playing happily around one of the hoops.
You looked at the ball in your hands and, almost without realizing it, stood in front of a lonely hoop, getting ready to throw.
But... the ball didn't get in. Not the first time, nor the second, or the third; in fact, you didn't even get to score after fifteen attempts, the ball only reaching the border of the rim but never going through it. Normally, something like this wouldn't have bothered you much, but in the state you were in, every failed attempt felt like a punch on your wounded pride. Without caring anymore about who might have been looking, you fell on your knees, defeated. You just couldn't understand how your day could be so bad, you couldn't even get a ball into a stupid hoop.
A tear ran down your cheek, and with your head down you began to mentally enumerate everything that had gone wrong today, while you hugged the ball tightly; and while you murmured under your breath, you failed to notice that a silhouette appeared from a corner of the court and advanced towards you with determination.
Suddenly, the face of a red-haired boy appeared in front of yours.
"Don't throw the ball with both hands" he said, looking at you with deep crimson eyes.
"What?" you answered, a bit confused.
"You use one hand to hold the ball, and with the other, you throw it... you need to aim at that small square, right there-" he carefully took the ball from your hands "-like this. See?"
You saw him make the gesture and then pass the ball back to you; for you to try, you guessed. You stood, doubtful; the boy seemed to mean well, but he was still a complete stranger. Attractive ... but a stranger nonetheless.
"Then... I have to hold it like this?" you asked, trying to mimic his grip.
"The hand a bit lower, more like-" standing right behind you, he took your hand and moved it a little around the ball "-like this".
"Oh... o-ok" you looked at him, your cheeks blushing lightly. He stared at you with a small smile and then you realized he was waiting for you to throw.
A bit uncomfortable for being stared at, you threw the ball anyway; it spun on the edge of the rim, once, twice, three times... until it fell gracelessly to the side.
"Ugh, almost there!" you said, not sure if you were feeling frustrated or excited for the small improvement.
"Actually, it was a lot better" the boy said then, getting closer. "Try again. But this time try to bend this wrist a little when throwing".
You looked at your wrist, turning it around, not quite understanding how to follow that instruction. Then the redhead took your arm and guided it in a circular movement, as he had told you to do. A small chill ran through your body when you felt the boy's touch again, and concentrating as best as you could, you threw the ball. This time to your surprise it went in, albeit awkwardly. Your eyes shone with excitement and without thinking you threw yourself to hug your improvised coach. He softly giggled.
"Now you only need to reach a bit higher".
Your confused face made him smile.
"You have to jump. When you throw the ball, that is" he clarified, laughing as you let him go.
"Oh... right" your face started turning red again. You took the ball with more determination now and, complying with everything you had learned so far, tried once again. Unfortunately, when you took off from the ground, a clumsy move made you fall backward, directly into the boy's arms, both of you landing hard on the ground.
"Are you alright?" he asked, more amused than worried.
"Yeah... everything's fine, thanks. I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to push you!"
You were worried that he'd think you were just being rude.
"Ha, of course not. Don't worry. " As he stood up, he offered you his hand so you could get up too. "By the way, I'm Kagami Taiga".
"A pleasure to meet you, Kagami-san" you answered then "I'm-
"You can call me Taiga if you want" he interrupted you with a childish smile.
"Oh… okay, nice to meet you then, Taiga . I am Y/N". You finished introducing yourself, smiling too. "I wanted... I wanted to thank you, for everything. I was having a terrible day, and I…" you sighed, finally releasing all the accumulated tension "You turned it into the best." A new smile lit up your face. "I'd like to do something for you too".
The boy then moved closer to you, and running his thumb over your cheek, wiped away the trail of a tear you never realized you had let go.
"I liked to see you smiling" he said, as your heart skipped a beat. "I'm happy to know I somehow helped to make that happen".
"And also..." he added "there is actually something you can do for me". He grinned.
You watched him, expectantly.
"You could give me my ball back!" he laughed, his hand in the back of his head.
"Is it yours?!" you asked, quite surprised. Then you quickly went to get it and gave it to him. He took it and sighed, looking at it with such a happy face, you couldn't help but surrender to the warmth in your chest. He looked so... adorable.
"I found it a few blocks from here. I looked for the owner for a long time! I had actually given up when I found this place. Anyway... how did it even get so far?"
"Who knows?" he shrugged. "I guess the important thing is that now I have it back, thanks to you; we're even" he winked at you, joyfully.
"I'm glad I could help you too" you looked back at him. But he seemed to be deep in thought, about something he couldn't quite elaborate.
So you stood there, watching him in silence.
"Would you like to go for an ice cream? I know a good place around here. My treat!" he said, at last, a couple of minutes later.
"I'd love to!" you answered excitedly, after which you set off while thinking about how the worst day of your life had suddenly turned into the best, thanks to an amazing boy named Kagami Taiga.