That Manager - Kuroko no Basuke (Book 3)

第66Q

It was Mathematics lesson, and the teacher was showing his students the solution to a problem that most of them couldn't solve. Though it was important, especially when it was a favourite topic in the exam, Momoi's attention wasn't on the board, neither on the teacher. One hand was fiddling with her pink a mechanical pencil, and the other supported her chin while she looked out the window, with her exercise book opened in front of her. Her mind had already drifted off to somewhere else when the teacher moved on to another question that was equally as important as the last one.

Ever since Yasu broke the news that she was going to leave Japan, Momoi noticed there was a slump in all the Generation of Miracles for the past few days, including Kuroko. It wasn't obvious, but it was there, as the boys were doing all they could to spend as much time as they could with her.

Akashi demanded his class teacher to let him be Yasu's desk mate, which she did out of fear, and talked to the girl every now and then, besides accompanying her to wherever she went. It got to the extent where she had to chase him away when he followed her to the girls toilet. Kuroko and Midorima would occasionally argue on who was going to walk her home, with the former constantly winning because of the distance, though the shooting guard sometimes walked her home when Kuroko had some errands to do.

During lunch breaks, Aomine invited Yasu to accompany him to the roof where they ate her bento boxes and chatted with each other until the bell rang. Murasakibara surprised everyone by eating her home-made cookies sparingly instead of wolfing down them in few minutes like usual, and gave her some of his snacks, sharing them during practice breaks. Kise, who was never the type to hide his emotions, openly threw himself on the girl to hug her, though he was constantly pushed away by the others before he could come in contact with her, and volunteered to help her with the cleaning.

Momoi knew that Yasu meant so much to the boys, not just as an assistant manager, and she felt that it wasn't fair to just send her off without a proper goodbye. The pink-haired girl sighed, and started to pack her things when the bell rang, telling the students that it was time for their lunch break. While making her way towards the door, she overheard few of her male classmates, who were from the third-string, talking about the assistant manager.

"Since Yasu-chan loves peaches, I was thinking of having my cousin to help out in baking a Bourbon peach shortcake for her." mentioned one of them. "What do you guys think?"

"That sounds great!" praised another. "I'm sure she'll love it. Also, Takahashi-senpai managed to book the third gym with coach, so the entire place is ours on this Friday. Since today is a Monday, we still have time to decorate the gym, if we look at the number of people who are joining the farewell party."

"I heard one of the first-years' dad owns a catering company." said the other boy. "He said he'll make orders with his dad once he gets the signal. I'm meeting up with him later in the cafeteria to tell him that the gym is booked."

"Alright!" cheered the first student. "Yasu-chan's gonna love this party!"

'A farewell party for Yasu-chan, huh?' thought Momoi before walking out of the classroom. 'And it's only with the third-stringers. Well, it makes sense, since they love her to bits for helping them throughout the months.' Just then, an idea struck her, causing her to halt in her tracks, and her face lit up from that. Without wasting anymore time, she sprinted to the cafeteria to look for her friends, and stood next to them at their usual spot. 'Yasu-chan's not here.' she thought with relief. 'This is my chance!'

"What took you so long, Satsuki?" asked Aomine lazily. "We've already gotten our food."

"Guess what?" she began excitedly. "The third-stringers are planning to have a farewell party of Yasu-chan."