Chapter Text
Something sears through her throat down to where her heart comfortably sits when a tangible piece of memory appears within Momoi’s eyeshot.
Deep within the bottom drawer of her desk, in search of a pastel pink flash drive, she has stumbled upon a Polaroid she had almost forgotten in most of her years as an undergraduate student. It is a picture of her in her Touou Academy uniform, appearing so full of life as an almost eighteen-year-old as she cheerfully latched onto a sulky Daiki who looked as if he’d been wanting to go home as soon as their graduation ceremony came to an end. And sealed in the small ziplock found under the picture is a button.
The corners of her lips tug upwards, and soon enough, Momoi couldn’t stop herself from laughing.
Although the memories of their graduation day are now simply vague, hazy remnants of the past, one thing she clearly remembers is how her childhood friend of twelve years effortlessly took off the second button from his uniform and instantly placed it in her hands before he got whisked away by his teammates. It all happened so fast that she almost didn’t realize that their nosy parents were full on looking at her with teasing smiles.
On the car ride home, when she asked him about the button, Dai-chan told her, plain and simple just the way he is, “I don’t want others asking for mine.”
Before she long forgets about the task at hand, she takes the Polaroid, along with the needed flash drive, out of the compartment and puts them on the desk. The glee she has gotten from discovering the correlation between variables in the data she collected for a research paper has already simmered down as she is now roused by the bittersweet taste on her tongue.
The digital clock at the windowsill reads out 2:14 A.M. when Momoi is done wrapping up her work. Taking one last glance at the picture she propped up against her pen holder, she finally turns off the bedroom lights and heads for the comfort of her bed.
She has a long day ahead of her, but sleep seems to evade her. Some ounce of curiosity nags at her instead, and with the lingering sour aftertaste of nostalgia, she couldn’t even blame herself for feeling that way. When someone has become a huge part of your life, you would naturally wonder how they are doing at the moment, right? Especially when it’s been months since you’ve talked.
High school Momoi Satsuki would most likely dial his number without any hesitation in this situation, but that version of herself has now grown up. The idea of calling him late at night, of bothering him from his sleep, does cross her mind ever so often but shyness holds her back. How could she do that when he’s doing so well?
From all the information she’s gathered about him, it appears that Aomine Daiki is at the peak of his collegiate basketball career. At last, their university’s men’s basketball team has made it to the final rounds of the current season, mostly because of him. Seeing his name up in the list of candidates for the season’s MVP has definitely struck her with pride and joy that it’s easier to come to terms with the situation.
However, that doesn’t mean that everything has always been smooth sailing since his absence. On some days, it’s difficult. Daiki has carved his presence since their childhood days into her life that the occasional company of Ki-chan, Mukkun and her college mates can never replace him. It’s a different kind of unlearning she has to do to stop herself from buying two cartons of strawberry milk from the convenience store.
Before she knows it, Momoi has already loaded up his Twitter account on the screen of her smartphone. She scrolls through it, smiling at how his profile picture is still a photo of him all smiley from their Teiko days. Retweets of their past games and NBA news, tweets about these games with tens of thousands of likes and retweets, a victory picture of him with his teammates, a retweet of Horikita Mai’s new gravure magazine issue, and another retweet of other games. Of course, there’s not a lot to go on since she knows firsthand that her childhood friend is a casual user of SNS. And yet she is content with that, with the knowledge that he’s okay.
As long as he’s happy, that’s all that matters to her.
Momoi shortly falls asleep from staring at a picture of them on their first day of college.
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[7:26 AM] dai-chan: i’ve had enough of mama’s nagging
[7:26 AM] dai-chan: and i’m free from training this week
[7:28 AM] dai-chan: and it’s been awhile so
[7:31 AM] dai-chan: lets get lunch if ure free
[8:01 AM] satsuki: good morning to you too?????
[8:01 AM] satsuki: and here i thought you’ve already forgotten about your childhood BEST FRIEND!!!!!!! lol
[8:02 AM] satsuki: btw there’s this new thai food place by the train station uwu
[8:03 AM] dai-chan: k
[8:03 AM] dai-chan: see u later
[8:05 AM] dai-chan: i’ll come pick u up