I'm sorry if this chapter is boring or not good to read T-T

Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke!

Ever since that day, Kuroko had always been dreaming and dazing off in the class. Luckily due to his weak presence, not even one teacher could catch an eye on him. Kuroko was quiet, not that he was talkative at first. He turned worse. He could only respond his friends with 'yes' or 'no'. Other than that, he would be extremely quiet, or just read his book peacefully. His friends had to try even harder to figure out what Kuroko was thinking in his mind. Momoi was really worried about her teal haired friend. For the whole three years in Teiko High School, the pink haired girl hadn't seen Kuroko this depressed before. The teal haired boy was really heartbroken.

Momoi tried to cheer up her friend every day, but was not effective. Kuroko always avoided everyone, even his own friends. Momoi couldn't do anything about it. At least Kuroko still walked back home together with his group of friends. Takao was completely aware of Kuroko sudden change, so the raven haired male helped Momoi to cheer up the smaller boy but they got the same result. What they didn't know was that, Kuroko would lock himself up in his room every day he backed from school. His parents worked overseas so they were not aware what was happening. Mostly Kuroko's mom was at home with him, but she happened to leave the house for a week due to her job just at the special day that Kuroko confessed. His mother was actually curious of his son making chocolates as gift, since he could only able to cook egg dishes. But his mother didn't ask any further of it and went to work after Kuroko went to school with the chocolates. He locked himself in his room with Nigou accompany him. The little dog just confused of his master's behavior and couldn't do anything but stay by Kuroko's side.

These awkward days passed quickly and it was soon graduation day. Momoi scared the teal haired boy would be absent that day. She wanted Kuroko to go to the graduation ceremony and ended their middle school life. It was a memorial day after all. She promised Kuroko's mother to take care of his son no matter what happened. The said mother was really happy of Momoi's words until she dropped her tears. She was glad for his son of having trustable friends to care for his son.

Momoi was standing in front of her teal haired friend's house now. She rang the door bell but nobody came out. The pink haired girl could only hear Nigou's faint barking from Kuroko's room's window.

Momoi tried to open the front door. She found out that the door was not locked. She sighed of Kuroko's carelessness. What if some burglars barged in and stole all the things inside the house? Momoi slowly walked into the entrance.

"Tetsu-kun?! Are you upstairs?" Momoi shouted at the stairs. No reply from the teal haired male. Momoi tried to call out again.

"Tetsu-kun! If you there please reply me! I'm coming up then!" Momoi walked upstairs and went to stand in front of Kuroko's room. A 'no disturbing' sign was hanging on the door. Nigou's barking could be heard more clearly now.

"Tetsu-kun?" Still no respond for the pink haired female.

"Tet~su~ kun~" Momoi pouted. Maybe Kuroko was still sleeping. Momoi opened the light blue painted door and sneaked inside.

Momoi guessed right. Kuroko was sleeping in his small bed. Nigou saw the pink haired girl and braked happily. Momoi put her finger on her mouth and shhed to the dog. Nigou immediately kept quiet and panted happily while looking at his sleeping master. Momoi approached the bed and kneeled to look at Kuroko's face more clearly. The boy slept with his glasses on. His messy hair covered his face. Momoi could see tear stains on the boy's pale white face. Momoi felt sorry for her friend. He didn't do anything wrong to deserve this.

"Tetsu-kun wake up! We have to go to school! Today is our graduation day!" Momoi shook the boy softly. The said boy grumbled softly in his sleep and opened his eyes unwillingly.

"Momoi-san?" Kuroko was blurred and looked at his female friend with sleepy eyes. Momoi found Kuroko was really cute and adorable with that reaction. She nearly wanted to squeeze and hug him forever.

"Tetsu-kun! You have to get ready now! Or else we will be late to school!" Momoi pulled the sleepy by up from his bed and helped him to prepare. Momoi felt like she was his mom or his babysitter.

"I... Momoi-san… I don't feel like going today…" Kuroko said in a small voice. Momoi glared at him and complained.

"No you can't! Everyone's waiting for you! Today's our last day to be there! You can't skip or run away!" Momoi was glad that she had came to call Kuroko more earlier than usual, in case the teal haired boy procrastinated and found any excuses to not to go for the graduation.

"Tetsu-kun… I know how you feel, but at least… stay with us for the last time at there… we will be going to high school soon. We won't get our chance to go back anymore." Momoi hugged Kuroko and sobbed silently. Kuroko felt guilty of making her cry. The boy hugged back the female.

"I'm sorry Momoi-san… Please don't cry anymore. I promise I will go." Kuroko released Momoi from the hug and went to wear his uniform and get prepared. Momoi wiped off her tears and smiled at Kuroko. Nigou barked and jumped happily.

"Momoi-chan! Tet-chan! You're late again!" When the both of them reached their destination, their raven-haired friend glomped at them.

"I'm sorry Takao-kun. I overslept." Kuroko said. Takao saw the smaller boy's terrible bed hair and laughed.

"Tet-chan!~~~~~ Your bed hair's so cute!~~~~~" Takao ruffled on Kuroko's hair roughly. Kuroko felt annoyed.

"Takao-kun please don't do that." Kuroko pouted.

"Momoi-san, Takao-kun. Can I walk around the school myself? I promise I will be back before the ceremony." Kuroko asked.

Both of his friends nodded and waved at the leaving Kuroko.

"Is something the matter? Tet-chan does not feel energetic or happy." Takao whispered to Momoi.

"Maybe he hasn't recovered completely from the shock. I hope Tetsu-kun could forget about them… They are so mean to Tetsu-kun…" Momoi whispered back to Takao. Takao sighed bitterly.

Kuroko wandered around the place and thought deeply. He knew he had chosen the wrong decision. He shouldn't be doing all those things and made his self feeling ashamed. He loved how he looked. Maybe he was really evading the reality by having the nerdy looks. He didn't regret it. Perhaps he really had regretted it for quite a little.

During his scrolling, he happened to notice the people he didn't want to see. Nevertheless, Kuroko avoided them as much as possible. He quickly went back to meet his friend.

When he was running on the hallway in the school building, he saw a familiar face passed by him in the opposite direction. If it was another person, he wouldn't mind it because he or she would not aware of his presence. But this was the guy Kuroko scared the most to meet with. The mismatched eyes stared at him and then moved away its attention from the shivering boy. The owner of the eyes walked away calmly. Kuroko stiffened. Even though he didn't want to look at him, he couldn't help it.

The smile. That contempt smile was very disturbing in Kuroko's mind. Kuroko couldn't help but felt troubled. Why is he smiling at me like that? Kuroko fastened his steps and walked out the building and towards the hall.

As promised, Kuroko went into the hall and meet with his friends for their graduation. Himuro and Kagami were there too.

"Damn it Kuroko! Where have you gone? Everyone's waiting for you!" Kagami was the first person to complain to the smaller boy. Kuroko smiled.

"Kagami-kun's the one who is not impatient here."

"But you take too much time wandering around! Is this the first day you come here?" Kagami continued to complain.

"I just want to remember the place here. We're going to leave this place soon." Kuroko said in a calm tone.

"Whatever… let's go then." Kagami patted the smaller boy's shoulder.

Kuroko knew he couldn't escape to not hearing the speech from the famous group. Momoi and the others stayed by his friend's side for the whole ceremony. Kuroko was really touched of his friend's accompany, though Takao always hugged him until the teal haired boy nearly suffocated to death. But he didn't hate it.

The ceremony ended soon. Kuroko went to his usual favorite spot, his secret spot at the rooftop of the school building. He let his friends to follow him.

"Tetsu-kun! This place is so nice! I can see the whole school here!" Momoi shouted in excitement. Takao continued to hug Kuroko.

"We are going to high school soon~ All of us will be going to Teiko High School~" Takao said excitedly and high fived with Momoi.

"I hope we can be in the same class." Himuro said.

"Man, it was so boring just now. It makes me so sleepy." Kagami yawned and looked at the scenery from the top of the building.

Kuroko stayed silent and looked at all his friends. He just couldn't hate these people. Whenever he was in trouble, they would be the first person to lend their hand to help him. The main reason that made Kuroko liked them very much was, they didn't care about how Kuroko looked. They accepted not his appearance, but his character and nature.

"Tet-chan! We have to leave now... we have… someone to meet with…" Takao stammered in his talk. He didn't want to lie to Kuroko. Not only Takao, Momoi and Himuro also asked for permission to leave. Kuroko understood. They have to go and meet their friends. The teal haired boy nodded.

"Everyone can just leave. I want to go home too anyway." Kuroko pushed his glasses.

"So soon?" Takao looked at the smaller boy.

"There is nothing to do anymore here. So I might take my leave now." Kuroko bowed and left his secret spot alone, leaving his friends behind.

As soon as Kuroko backed home, he locked in his room again with Nigou with him. He felt tired, even though he didn't do anything today. He buried his face into the pillow and felt asleep.

Momoi was still worried of Kuroko, so she followed the teal haired boy back to his home, without him knowing. She had troubled finding the boy in the middle of the following. Blame Kuroko's weak presence.

When Momoi reached the house, she found out that the door didn't lock again. She thought Kuroko forgot to lock the front door again, but then someone greeted the pink haired girl.

"Momoi-chan?" A female voice said to the confounded girl.

"Minori-san?"

Kuroko's mother, Kuroko Minori smiled at Momoi.

"Good evening Momoi-chan. What makes you come here this late?" Minori let her into the house.

"Minori-san, when did you come back?" Momoi asked the elder woman.

"Just some minutes ago. Man, the job just exhausted me enough. Let me prepare tea for you." Minori offered some tea for Momoi.

"It's okay Minori-san. I actually have something to discuss with you." Momoi gulped.

"What is it? Oh, come to think of it, I missed Tetsuya-chan. Where is he?"

"Umm… maybe he's in his room…" Momoi was not sure of her answer. Minori twitched her eyebrows. She went upstairs and minutes later she went back down again.

"Strange… Tetsuya-chan locked the door… are you sure he's inside his room?" Minori asked the pink haired girl.

"Huh? I saw Tetsu-kun went into the house just now! Did he, maybe locked himself in his room?" Momoi gasped.

"For what reason?"The elder woman was confused.

Momoi paused and lowered her head. She couldn't reply the woman in front of her. Minori pondered.

"Is it related to the chocolates that day?"

Momoi raised up her head to meet her eyes with the teal haired woman.

"How does Minori-san know?"

"It's not hard to guess. That hate-to-cook Tetsuya-chan is willing to stay up whole night to make the chocolates. It must be something really important. So Tetsuya-chan had confessed that day? How's it going?" Momoi could see the excitement in the childish nature woman's eyes.

"Uh..."

"Let me guess, it did not went well right?" Minori's eyes narrowed, face went closer to Momoi's frightened one.

"Minori-san how do you know?" Is Minori-san's a psychic? Momoi sweat dropped.

"Based on the situation now, I can feel . Tetsuya-chan had locked himself in his room. That's just means one thing. He's upset or even worse, heartbroken." Minori said calmly. "So, care to tell me the whole story there, Momoi-chan?"

Momoi nodded her head and explained everything to the teal haired woman. Kuroko's mother had teal long hair, same color as Kuroko's. Her eyes were a brilliant sapphire colour, a very lively colour. She had the same look as Kuroko.

"So… that's what the story about…" Minori closed her eyes and thought. She then grinned.

"I'm glad."

Momoi was confused. How could Minori-san be glad when his son was in pain?

"I know what you're thinking, Momoi-chan. But Tetsuya-chan has to face the reality. It's a challenge to him. He had to learn about the humanity. It's normal to let people judge by their looks." Minori said calmly and sipped her tea.

"Minori-san… are you sure Tetsu-kun is fine with that?"

"Yeah. Because something worse than that happened before."

"What happened?" Momoi jumped up from her seat.

"I don't think Tetsuya-chan wanted me to refer to that incident again… but since it's Momoi-chan, I will at least tell you about it. Maybe it's better to inform you." Minori put the cup on the table and stood up.

"Where should I start… Tetsuya-chan does not look like that when he was a child." Minori walked towards the bookshelves and searched for the book she wanted to look for.

"Eh!? I thought Tetsu-kun wore those glasses ever since he was small!" Momoi said in a high-pitched tone. Minori took a book from the shelf and went to Momoi's side.

"Here. I bet you haven't seen Tetsuya-chan's photo when he was a kid. Take a look at it." Minori smiled and handed an album book to the pink haired girl. Momoi received the album and opened the first page of it. Momoi eyes widened and her mouth opened so wide that she could swallow a whole cup.

In the photo, there was a very cute teal haired child was hugging a teal colored teddy bear in his arms and smiled genuinely. Momoi squealed.

"Too cute! Minori-san! Is this Tetsu-kun!?"

"Yeah! You can't believe it right? He looks like an angel!" Minori squealed with the younger female.

"But too bad… that look does not last long…" Minori sighed and sit on the coach with Momoi beside her.

"What does that mean, Minori-san?"

"Actually, Tetsuya-chan used to be outstanding like those famous people you mentioned." Minori looked at the photo.

"Really?" Momoi looked at the teal haired woman.

"Tetsuya-chan's really adorable and cute when he was in his kindergarten age. Because of his attractive look, the children there loved to play with Tetsuya-chan despite his weak presence. The teacher once told me that Tetsuya-chan was very good at hide-and-seek game. Tetsuya-chan was smart too. He always read stories for his friends." Minori smiled while talking. She continued.

"But there was a group of children who was jealous of Tetsuya-chan because before Tetsuya-chan went to the kindergarten, they were the outstanding one. Tetsuya-chan had stolen the spotlight from them."

"What happened next?" Momoi was concentrating in their talk.

"Once, they locked the poor Tetsuya-chan in the storage room. Nobody could find him. Or you can just say… they did not even try to find Tetsuya-chan…" MInori huffed.

"But…but why?"

"Well, they are not true friends... They just wanted to play with Tetsuya-chan because of his looks. After that, the teachers managed to contact me at the end of the day and finally, we found Tetsuya-chan in the storage room. He was curling in a ball when I found him in the dark room. That was the first time he cried, and it was also the last time too. Since then, he asked us to change his looks for him. His father gave him the glasses to hide his eyes and Tetsuya-chan decided to keep his hair long. So there goes the look now." Minori smiled bitterly.

"Maybe it's better to be that way… you know what? When Tetsuya-chan was a child with his adorable face, he had been kidnapped for nearly 3 times a week. That's really a trouble." Minori laughed.

"It makes sense though… but 3 weeks a time? That's too much!" Momoi was really shocked.

"It can't be helped. My baby boy is too cute and irresistible. Luckily Tetsuya-chan can escape himself back to me, thanks to his low presence. Even the neighbors love Tetsuya-chan! " Minori said happily.

"Maybe Tetsuya-chan is hesitating of his next step. I hope he will not regret what he's doing."

"Okaa-san, I can hear you."

The sudden new voice made the both ladies jumped.

"Tetsu-kun!"

"My baby boy! How are you!" Minori glomped on Kuroko.

"Okaa-san welcome back. And please don't call me that anymore. I'm a big boy now. Momoi-san, good evening." Kuroko pouted. His bed hair was messy as ever.

"Tetsu-kun~! I don't know you are that cute when you're a kid!" Momoi glomped on Kuroko with the elder female.

"Both of you are heavy…"

"I'm sorry Tetsu-kun!" Momoi released the teal haired male from the grip.

"So Tetsuya-chan, what are you going to do now?" Minori looked at his son. The woman looked very young. When Momoi first met the lady, she thought that Minori was Kuroko's sister.

"I don't know." Kuroko deadpanned.

"Maybe I spoiled out too much things. Tetsuya-chan, no hard feelings?" Minori folded her arms.

"It's ok. I actually want to talk to Momoi-san properly sooner anyway. Okaa-san thanks for helping me." Kuroko smiled. The said mother smiled back.

"I'm sorry Momoi-san. I didn't mean to hide it from you guys." Kuroko apologized. Momoi waved her hands in the air.

"No no! It's okay! It must be hard to let Tetsu-kun to tell your harsh memories to us!"

Kuroko smiled at Momoi. Momoi really loved the teal haired male's smile. It was really attractive and sincere. If he removed the glasses, maybe the smile could really make the pink haired girl fainted.

"So you had heard everything?" Minori said to her son.

"I guess so. From the very beginning."

"So, what's your plan now?" Minori smiled brightly.

"Momoi-san, do you really want to see my original look?" Kuroko asked his friend.

"Of…of course! I really want to see Tetsu-kun's looks!" Momoi's mood had lit up. She was waiting for this moment!

"Well… then I had to trouble Momoi-san for helping me then. Can you come by the day before the open ceremony?"

"Of course I will help you Tetsu-kun! You're my friend after all!" Momoi looked determined at Kuroko.

"Thank you Momoi-san. It's late already. Let me walk you to the nearest bus stop." Kuroko smiled at the pink haired girl. Momoi nodded and hugged him.

"You ok there?" After Kuroko reached back home, Minori hugged her only son from the back.

"Okaa-san, what do you mean?" Kuroko was confused. Minori pointed at Kuroko's chest.

"Your heart. Ok there?"

"I'm fine."

"My baby boy, let me advise you something. Cherish the things you have now. You have a group of nice friends. I haven't seen you that happy before when you're spending your time with Momoi-chan and the others. Does those famous people's matter to you? Momoi-chan and those three guys are really treating you as their true friends. What do you think?"

Kuroko paused.

"Okaa-san, maybe you're right after all. When I had been rejected, I neglected my friends' concern towards me. I shouldn't have done that to them. My affection towards the 'Generation of Miracles' this three years are worthless after all. I will try to forget about them from now on." Kuroko felt stupid now of making himself depressed and locked his self in his room all because of that silly fash.

"That's my boy. The Tetsuya-chan I know will not get defeated by those pesky things. Tetsuya-chan is strong in his heart." Minori sighed in relief.

"Welcome back my soon old sweet Tetsuya-chan! I missed your adorable face! I will be looking forward for that day. I will assist Momoi-chan to help you too!" MInori hugged her son softly.

"You will not regret again, right?" Minori asked her son. Kuroko closed his eyes and enjoyed the hug with his mother.

"I had my friends, I will not regret anything more."

Done!