I Miss You

Momoi had known Seijirou since preschool.

She remembered the first day she'd met him like it was yesterday.

It had been recess. She was with Daiki, who seemed to hate it. Suddenly a boy came up to them.

"Come play with me."

Both Satsuki and Daiki had obeyed the order.

He had already begun a game of King and Queen with himself as the King. He was ruling from the top of the double slides. He grabbed Satsuki's wrist. "Be my Queen."

"Why?" She asked, staying back with Daiki, though he had already started talking to a few of the other boys.

He looked at her. "Please be my Queen?"

She looked back at Daiki, already thoroughly distracted. Then she turned back to him. "I'll be your Queen. But Dai-chan is a knight, 'kay?"

"Okay."

Years passed. In grade school, Daiki was still the loyal knight to Satsuki and Seijirou's Queen and King.

When the two were playing basketball, Satsuki began her data collecting skills.

One day while they were waiting for Seijirou, Daiki started screaming at her. Something had upset him, and since she was at fault, he would take out his rage on her.

She started crying when suddenly she felt hands on her shoulders. "Leave her alone, Daiki."

"This isn't your business, Akashi."

"It is now." He grabbed Satsuki's shoulder and steered her away. Daiki shouted at them, but Seijirou guided her away from the place as fast as he could.

Once they were far away, he handed her some tissues. She wiped at her tears as quickly as she could.

He sat next to her and it was comforting.

Teikou was a good school with an excellent basketball team.

It was hard to believe she had almost not become a part of it.

Seijirou had fought for a long time with the coach until he let Satsuki sit through a few practices. Seijirou was already ahead of so many of the players, and even reckless Daiki was as well. Within a few weeks, they both found their way into the first string. Seijirou quickly became captain and began implementing Satsuki's strategies in the game, until the coach agreed that Satsuki should be the manager for the first string.

They worked their way to victory constantly after that. Akashi-kun, Dai-chan, Tetsu-kun, Midorin, Mukkun, and Ki-chan all worked so hard.

She noticed that as Junior High continued on, Dai-chan began to pay her a bit more attention, especially in certain areas, as did many of the other boys. Because of that, she began spending a bit more of her free time with Akashi. At least he didn't oogle her and he was very helpful when it came to spying on the other teams to collect data.

It wasn't until the end of their third and final year at Teikou that Akashi said something.

"Will you come with me to Rakuzan?"

"What?"

Akashi sighed, setting down the shogi piece he'd been holding. "I want you to come to Rakuzan with me."

She turned away from him. "I don't know. Dai-chan's already enrolled in Touou, and..."

Suddenly Akashi grabbed her wrists and made her look at him. "You're going with Daiki?!"