Kuroko's Basketball: I'm not the boss?

"The match is over, aren't you going out for a dinner party? Takeuchi isn't that stingy, is he?"

Masako closed the magazine in her hand and asked calmly.

"Because there was some kind of interview, the coach was afraid it would take too long, so he dismissed the team first, saying he would make it up to us next time."

Xiangyang answered as he found a towel to wipe the water off his body.

Masako didn't speak, she just quietly looked at Xiangyang, and the two remained silent for a long time.

"Miss Masako, I'm hungry."

After drying his hair, Xiangyang said to Yazi with a grin.

"What would you like to eat? Steak?"

Masako got up and stretched; she hadn't had dinner yet either.

"The indulgence meal will have to wait until the day after tomorrow."

Xiangyang's words made Yako pause. She turned to stare at Xiangyang, who still had a playful smile on his face, as if nothing was wrong.

"Wait."

Masako didn't say much and turned to walk towards the kitchen.

As he watched Yako's departing figure, Xiangyang's smile gradually faded.

He didn't ask Masako why she didn't answer his calls, just as Masako didn't ask him why he didn't answer her calls.

After a while

Masako came out carrying two plates, and the aroma could be smelled from afar by Xiangyang.

The aroma of steak filled the air.

"What's going on, Ms. Masako? The all-you-can-eat dinner isn't until the day after tomorrow."

"I just finished a match, so eating more will help me burn off the calories."

Ignoring Xiangyang's unusual behavior, Masako placed the plate directly in front of him.

Tonight, Xiangyang's dinner consisted of two steaks with broccoli and a bowl of rice.

With the food placed in front of him, Xiangyang didn't insist any longer and picked up his chopsticks to eat heartily.

Although it's a bit strange to eat steak with chopsticks, this isn't a Western restaurant, and Masako is the only one around, so we can just do whatever makes us comfortable.

Unlike Xiangyang's hearty eating style, Masako tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and ate the salad on her plate in small bites.

For a moment, only the sounds of chewing and swallowing filled the air.

“Hey, Ms. Masako, I wasn’t selected for the national youth team.”

As Xiangyang tore at the steak in his bowl, he spoke in a very calm tone, as if he were talking about something trivial.

Masako paused, her hand holding the broccoli pausing for a moment. She gave a soft "hmm," already guessing what had happened.

Another silence fell. Although there were often quiet moments between them, never before had a silence made Masako feel so uneasy.

"Aren't you going to ask me why? We clearly won the game, isn't that strange?"

Upon hearing Xiangyang's words, Yazi tightened her grip on the chopsticks slightly, as if she wanted to break the broccoli in two. She didn't look up, but focused intently on her plate, as if contemplating what to eat next.

Unfortunately, Xiang Yang didn't look at Ya Zi either, otherwise he would have noticed that something was wrong with her. At this moment, he was also staring at the steak in front of him and said with a wry smile, "Coach Takeuchi told me that as long as I go to the trial next week, the Basketball Association will let me join the national youth team."

"Thank you, Ms. Masako. If it weren't for you, I'd probably still be excitedly anticipating the tryouts..."

Xiangyang leaned back against the chair, looked up at the ceiling, and a hint of resentment appeared in his eyes.

But he didn't see that right across from him, Masako suddenly erupted in anger. She immediately raised her hand to cover her mouth, her body trembling slightly.

"I'm so sorry, Ms. Masako, all your training for me has been for nothing... Ah? Ms. Masako, what's wrong??"

Just moments ago, Xiangyang was looking up and lamenting the impermanence of life, but when he looked down, he discovered a scene that threw him into complete disarray.

Is Masako Araki crying right now?

At this moment, Masako finally couldn't hold back anymore. Tears the size of soybeans streamed down her cheeks. She tried her best not to cry out, and even bit her lips until they turned purple.

Xiangyang panicked. Had something gone wrong? He wasn't selected, so why was Yako so agitated?

Although he didn't understand the situation, Xiangyang still pulled out a few tissues and handed them to Yako, saying almost involuntarily, "Miss Yako, to avoid any misunderstanding, I'd like to confirm first that your eyes aren't sweating, are they?"

After saying that, Masako burst into tears.

Xiangyang: ...

With no other option, seeing that Yako's mood was getting worse, Xiangyang had to bite the bullet and sit down next to Yako, gently comforting her in the tone that adults used to use to coax children in his previous life.

"Don't cry, don't cry... Masako is a good girl, right? Good girls don't cry, okay?"

... "

Xiang Yang suppressed his shame and awkwardly comforted Ya Zi, but he had to admit that he didn't seem to have any talent in this area.

Before they could exchange more than a few words, whether it was the words that worked or something that provoked Yako, she grabbed Xiangyang by the collar, buried her head in his chest, avoided eye contact, and mumbled, "Stop talking! It's disgusting!"

Xiangyang immediately shut up. His words not only provoked Yako, but also tormented himself.

As time went on, Yako's sobs grew quieter and quieter. Xiangyang guessed that she had probably cried enough, because he could feel that a large patch of her clothes was wet around her chest.

Women are indeed made of water...

Xiang Yang sighed inwardly, then looked at Araki Masako, who was still leaning against his chest, and asked cautiously, "Ms. Masako? Are you alright?"

silence…

Masako did not answer Xiangyang's question. Just as Xiangyang was feeling a little embarrassed and wondering whether he should ask again, a voice as thin as a mosquito's bite suddenly rang out.

"sorry."

Huh? Who's speaking?

Xiang Yang looked around and found that the gym was empty except for him and Ya Zi.

"Um, Ms. Masako, did you just say something?"

With another "I'm sorry," Masako indirectly answered Hikaru's question.

"Why are you apologizing to me? Shouldn't I be the one apologizing to you for not making the national youth team? After all, you helped me so much, and I let you down."

Faced with Xiangyang's question, Yako remained silent. After a while, another "I'm sorry" reached Xiangyang's ears.

Xiangyang: ...

Are you a broken record? And with your head buried so deep, it's really hard for me to understand what you're saying!

Xiang Yang looked up and rubbed his temples, activating "overthinking" to calm himself down. Then he said softly to Yako, "It's okay, Miss Yako. I don't know why, but I forgive you. Why don't you look up and wipe your face first, and then we can have a proper talk?"

Masako didn't react at all. Xiangyang tried to tug at her, and... well, Masako was really gripping his collar very tightly.

Hey... this is so out of character for you...

Sensing Masako's resistance, Xiangyang had no choice but to lower his head and press it close to Masako's head, asking, "Go ahead and speak, Miss Masako, I'm listening."

With Xiangyang's persistent persuasion, Yako finally finished her apology, but she still didn't look up, as if she was afraid to face Xiangyang. She remained lying on Xiangyang's chest and recounted everything that had happened outside the arena that day.

……

"What's going on? Ms. Masako, you don't want me to join the national youth team? I thought you did."

Xiang Yang's expression was a little strange at this moment; he seemed to have misunderstood Ya Zi's previous meaning.

Sensing the underlying meaning in Xiang Yang's words, Ya Zi, who had been burying her head in the sand for nearly twenty minutes, finally looked up and cautiously asked, "Don't you hate me? I personally destroyed your dream of becoming a member of the national youth team!"

Xiang Yang scratched his head, picked up a tissue to wipe away Ya Zi's tears, and said carefully, "Well... saying it's a dream of joining the national youth team is too exaggerated. I admit that I really wanted to join the national youth team to prove myself because I was not convinced, but now I have come to terms with it. It's okay if I don't go to the national youth team. I'm already very happy playing in Haichang."

"Besides, Miss Masako, you didn't do anything, did you?"

Upon hearing the second half of Xiangyang's sentence, Yazi immediately retorted, "No! It's precisely because I didn't do anything that I'm wrong!"

"I could have helped you, but I didn't do anything..."

As she finished speaking, Masako's voice grew softer and softer, as if she were scolding herself. Perhaps feeling ashamed, she lowered her head and seemed to want to burrow into Hikari's chest again.

Seeing this, Xiangyang quickly pulled Yako back, stopping her "ostrich" behavior, and said with a smile, "Miss Yako, you did something, on the contrary, you helped me."

"Let me know why the Basketball Association is treating me so badly."

The national youth team's number one, right? They pulled off a clever deception... They played quite well...

(Okay! Let's try the romance scene one more time. Hopefully, this time it wasn't too awkward. Everyone can relax a bit about the national youth team; they weren't originally planned to be included, and besides, you're all quite resistant to it. The main plot is still the high school competitions; the national youth team is just a matter of how it ends.)

Chapter 126 Winter Cup (End)

“Don’t worry about that guy. He’s booked a flight to Argentina for tomorrow. I’ll have someone sink him into the Shinano River before he boards the plane.”

Returning to the topic of the national youth team's number one player, Yako regained her usual composure.

This terrifyingly fast change of expression left Xiangyang speechless, and Yako's second half of the sentence terrified him even more.

Hey, don't just throw someone into the river with a single sentence. The guy who was crying on me just now, don't act so ruthless!

After Xiang Yang's painstaking persuasion, Ya Zi has now successfully transferred all her resentment towards herself onto that unlucky kid, the number one player on the national youth team.

Xiangyang had no doubt that Yako's words just now were serious and not just empty talk.

"Uh... that guy is indeed annoying, but it's not like he deserves to be killed."

Xiang Yang hesitated for a moment but still decided to speak up for the national youth team's number one player. After all, he had only tripped up Xiang Yang's job search and didn't deserve to die.

Masako raised an eyebrow and asked, "So you're just letting him go like that?"

"Of course not!"

Xiang Yang shook his head decisively. What a joke! To belittle him like this, while it wouldn't kill him, it would be perfectly reasonable to teach him a lesson.

People must pay the price for their actions.

"Isn't he going to Argentina? Take all the money off him, then let him get on the plane... Hmm? Or how about we change his flight and send him to Indonesia?"

(Fun fact: Indonesia is one of the countries with the harshest environment in the world, frequently hit by typhoons and volcanic eruptions, and its geographical location is also in an earthquake zone.)

Masako:…

"For a moment just now, I actually thought you were a kind-hearted person. It was truly my fault."