It was a tough day at practice today at Seirin. Aida Riko was not a normal high school girl. Maybe she was in other aspects but she was definitely not entirely normal. Why? Because she was the coach for the Seirin's basketball team.

Lifting the whistle that was over her chest to her mouth, Riko blew it hard enough for it to catch all the members' attention. The training resume for today was tougher than usual. Dribbling, shooting, strengthening their defense, heightening their stamina and then more dribbling. The boys were all drenched with sweat, panting because of the vigorous exercises and training they just finished.

When everyone gathered around her, she made an announcement. "Alright, I know this is sudden but we have a practice match with Shutoku at the end of this week," she said as she looked from her left to right at the boys lined up in front of her. "It would be a good chance for us to learn something new in this practice and the coach for Shutoku thinks so too. So don't take lightly of this practice match, play as if you were striving to win! Do you get me?"

"Yes!" everyone replied in unison.

"Finally, another match with that bastard Midorima!" Kagami exclaimed, clearly the most excited one on court. "Just you wait, Midorima! I'm going to beat you so hard!"

Hyuuga smacked Kagami's arm when he walked past him. "Shut up! Stop shouting!" he scolded, causing Kagami to quiet down and mutter an apology, not forgetting to add in honorifics at the end of his sentence.

Kuroko, who was standing beside Kagami after that happened, walked towards the bench where his light blue towel and water bottle were. He sat on the bench and wiped off his sweat as he replenish the water content in his body. Staring into the space in front of him, he felt someone sit beside him. It was coach.

"What is it, coach?" he asked, polite as always to anyone he talks to.

She smiled at his acknowledgement of her sitting beside him. "Kuroko-kun, how are things going with him?" she asked out of concern.

Kuroko turned his head to his right to look at Riko. "It's fine though we haven't been meeting for a while now," he answered monotonously. "We're only sending mails to each other through our cell phone,"

"Was it because of practice?"

"Yes," Kuroko was no longer facing Riko, he was staring up ahead, observing Kagami getting lectured by Hyuuga with Kiyoshi there trying to calm Hyuuga down. "He said that practice has not been letting up recently and the same goes back to our practice at Seirin. So either way we're still not able to meet,"

"Do you miss him?" Riko tilted her head to the side. It was an obvious question but it did not hurt to ask.

What surprised her next was Kuroko's answer. "No," he said, without a hint of any sort of emotion.

"What? You don't?"

Kuroko only nodded.

"But why? Aren't you suppose to be missing him, wanting to see him or touch him? Isn't that the normal reaction?" confused by his answer, Riko shot questions at the poor blue haired boy. Maybe she was having thoughts like that because she read a lot of shoujo manga recently.

The blue haired boy reached for his bag and got his blue cell phone out. He flipped the screen open and pressed on the keypad with Riko eyeing him suspiciously. He showed her what was displayed on his cell phone screen. It was a picture of a raven haired guy doing a 'V' sign with his fingers and shaping his lips into a '3'.

Before Riko could comment on the picture, Kuroko clicked into the next picture where the same guy was smiling handsomely. Not only did the smile make him look sexy but there was a hint of fondness in it.

"So this was why you said no?"

"It was a joke,"

"Which is it?!" she snapped.

Kuroko flipped his cell close with his index finger, leaned forward with his elbows on his knees to support him when he hung his head, looking down at his shoes. "... I don't know," he smiled a little, sounding lonely.

"Well, if he were to not treat you properly, come talk to me! I'll—"

"Coach! We need your help here!" Koganei shouted from across the gym, cutting Riko off midsentence.

"Kuroko-kun—"

"Thank you, coach. I'll take you up with the offer if it's still available when that actually happens," Kuroko replied, knowing what Riko was meaning to say in her previous sentence. Riko smiled and patted Kuroko's shoulder in approval of his answer and to cheer him up. She turned to walk away from him while shouting back at Koganei to acquire the reason he needed her help.

A/N : Hey there! I've started a new story after I ended my previous one 'Jealous'. I have to thank this one person who had been supporting me since my very first work up on FFN and this story idea was also provided by her! (You know who you are ;) ) Thank you for reading this till the end like always and even this kinda long author's note of mine! Please do excuse my grammar mistakes in there if there is because I've noticed a few mistakes that I have done in my previous works when I reread it. Chapter 2 will be up soon(?) I'm not sure but have a nice day!