Talent

Madoka's POV

It's been two months since then and I've gotten closer to Kenji more than I expected. He's been helping me with homework as much as possible while I had to deal with Homura.

I still couldn't let him go for some reason, no matter how much I wanted to I just wanted to have sex with him, it's like I'm forever cursed to be with him.

It's December and we have playoffs a bit early and it's before our winter break. Sadly I can only stay at home for 3 days cause the teams have a trip for the rest of the break.

The boys team has won every single one of their scrimmages except for their first one. Kenji's been sitting out in every single game and everyone on his team seems to despise him more.

The girls team is undefeated so far, I've already scored over a thousand points throughout the preseason and Coach said that I'm better than most of the boys on the team which is kind of true.

I've began to gain more popularity in the school and now, I'm the center of everyone's attention. My Instagram account had 620 followers, now it's 3,450 followers, not just from this school but also from other schools.

I don't like being the spotlight but what can I do, it's what I get for being good on the basketball team. Some of the boys in school even tried to hit me up but I turned all of them down because I already had Homura.

The boys team has their first playoffs tomorrow so I was planning on not bothering him, not Homura but I guess Homura wants to spend time with me.

"Kenji." I called out

Kenji turned around and waved.

"Where are you going?" asked Kenji

"To Homura senpai's dorm." I replied

"Oh he's out with the rest of the team, I think they're training again since the school we're going against is the school we lost to." replied Kenji

I was a bit ticked off that Homura didn't let me know beforehand.

"Why aren't you training?" I asked

"I mean, I'm not playing." replied Kenji

"You never know." I replied, "But since you're free, help me with English."

He nodded but this time I grabbed his arm and dragged him to his dorm.

"Why my dorm?" asked Kenji

"Just." I replied

"Wait you don't want to go in there-"

Too late, I opened the door, revealing a very traditional room, a low desk, a zaisu which is a chair with no legs, a low bed that barely has legs, a wardrobe, and two guitars. I was in shock when I saw his room, it was so neat and clean.

"Your room, it's so traditional." I awed in shock

He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Yea it is." he replied

"Anyways, you can play music right?" I asked as I picked up one of his guitars.

"Oh I took lessons." replied Kenji

I put the guitar back on some kind of stand and he told me to sit down on a zaisu.

"Want some tea?" he asked

"No just water." I replied

He nodded and began making himself some tea and gave me a cup of water. He hands me the water and sits next to me with his tea and he pulls out his notebook.

"English, english is a very complex language." said Kenji

I pulled out my notebook and opened up to some of the notes I took I didn't understand.

"Why do these words have a comma looking thing on the top?" I asked

Kenji looked at them and looked at his notes.

"I did this last year, so these comma looking things are called apostrophes. These are like two words combining together to make one word." said Kenji

"Give me an example." I said

"See here, 'I am', you can combine that to become 'I'm'." replied Kenji, "'Will not,' becomes, 'Won't'."

"This is so confusing." I said

"It is, you just have to memorize them." replied Kenji

"Okay, well I can try that." I sighed

"Okay, now here are some common ones." said Kenji

He took a piece of paper and began writing some examples and handed it to me. His handwriting was neat and his notes were really well organized; it surprised me.

"Okay I'll try memorizing these." I said

Kenji nodded and he took a sip of his tea.

"Anything else?" he asked

"No it's just the damn apostrophes, I understand grammar rules and all that but I can't seem to get these." I replied

"I see." replied Kenji

Kenji leaned back against the zaisu and rubbed his knuckles.

"I guess we're done?" questioned Kenji

"Sorry, I thought you were going to explain a lot more." I said

"Sorry, I don't think there's a better way to explain it." replied Kenji

"It's okay, this is more than enough and a lot easier." I replied

Kenji nodded and sighed.

"Can you play a song?" I asked

Kenji looked at me and at his guitar.

"Uhh yea, but I only play American songs." I said

"Why American?" I asked

"Well my favorite artist is American." he replied

"Who?" I asked

"Lewis Capaldi." he replied

"Oh I know him, he's pretty good." I replied

He nodded and smiled.

"I wish I could go to one of his concerts but I don't have enough money." he said, "But it's whatever."

"Can I see you play?" I asked

"You want to see me play?" he questioned

"Why?" I asked

"No it's just, I never played anything in front of another person..." he trailed off

"You trail off a lot." I said

"Sorry, I always think of something." he said

He grabs his guitar and starts strumming really quick.

"Can you sing as well?" I asked

"Yea, music's my backup. If I couldn't get into basketball I was going to go into music." he said

He then starts playing and it was so beautiful, I heard him play but it was always muffled because I'm in Homura's room.

Before You Go by Lewis Capaldi

I fell by the wayside, like everyone else

I hate you, I hate you, I hate you

But I was just kidding myself

Our every moment, I start to replace

'Cause now that they're gone

All I hear are the words that I needed to say

When you hurt under the surface

Like troubled water running cold

Well, time can heal but this won't

So, before you go

Was there something I could've said

To make your heart beat better?

If only I'd have known you had a storm to weather

So, before you go

Was there something I could've said

To make it all stop hurting?

It kills me how your mind can make you feel so worthless

So, before you go

Was never the right time, whenever you called

Went little, by little, by little until there was nothing at all

Our every moment, I start to replay

But all I can think about is seeing that look on your face

When you hurt under the surface

Like troubled water running cold

Well, time can heal but this won't

So, before you go

Was there something I could've said

To make your heart beat better?

If only I'd have known you had a storm to weather

So, before you go

Was there something I could've said

To make it all stop hurting?

It kills me how your mind can make you feel so worthless

So, before you go

Would we be better off by now

If I'd let my walls come down?

Maybe I guess we'll never know

You know, you know

Before you go

Was there something I could've said

To make your heart beat better?

If only I'd have known you had a storm to weather

So, before you go

Was there something I could've said

To make it all stop hurting?

It kills me how your mind can make you feel so worthless

So, before you go

End

My mouth was open the whole time, listening to him was like listening to an actual musician at a concert. It was so good, so beautiful, so elegant so peaceful, so many words to describe it.

"Uhh yea, there." said Kenji as he took a sip of his tea.

"Wow." was all I could say.

I didn't know how to react and I ended up staring at him.

"Uhh you good?" asked Kenji

"Yea, yea sorry." I said

But then I remembered something.

"You should perform at the school festival the day before school break." I said

"Huh? That's in 4 days and I don't like to perform in front of a huge crowd." he replied

"But you said you wanted to become a musician if you didn't get into basketball. So you should practice now." I said

"Oh well, I uhh..."

Kenji looked away and scratched the back of his head.

"If you do it maybe people's perspective of you might change." I said

"I mean, maybe but I don't really care about what others think about me." he replied

He sighed and drank the rest of his tea.

"But I'll think about it." he said

I smiled a bit and Kenji also smiled back, just a bit.

"Homura should be back, you might want to wait in front of his room." said Kenji

"Oh right." I said

I quickly packed up my stuff and Kenji left the room to check the halls and then signaled me that I can leave.

"Thanks for the lesson." I said

"No problem, I'll see you tomorrow." he replied

He closed the door and I waited in front of Homura's dorm room for about 3 minutes until I saw him jogging towards me.

"Sorry I'm late, I had to practice a bit more." he said

"It's fine." I bluntly replied

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day

Madoka's POV

I sat down on the bleachers, waiting for the game to start. Kenji was warming up but he wasn't playing, most of the boys were more relaxed since he wasn't playing but I felt a bit heavy about it. We were in the school stadium for basketball and the stadium was huge, it was like an actual basketball league game.

I was on my phone, texting Kikotei before the tip off started. He seemed excited that I was coming over for winter but at the same time sad because I'm only staying there for 3 days. Apparently the trip would last the rest of break so I'm stuck with the annoying boys in the boys team.

"The game's going to start." excitedly said Yuziki

The tip off started and the other team got the ball first. The crowd cheered as the game started, there were at least 2,000 people right now in the stadium from both schools and just random viewers.

The boys advanced down the court and began to pass the ball around but then one boy threw the ball too hard and it went out of bounds. I sighed in annoyance by the fact that they just got a stupid turnover.

"Why would you do that?" groaned Ayaka

The boys went into defensive position but the opposing team came out them aggressively, dunking on one of the boys. The boys tried to redeem themselves but they kept missing the ball and giving careless turnovers.

"Come on! Focus!" yelled Coach Yamoto

But the boys kept losing the ball, they kept missing every shot they took.

"What's going on?" questioned Emiko

Homura tried to get his team back together but nothing was working, they were behind by 20 points and it was the end of the first quarter. Coach was furious, he was pointing at the others telling them what to do and what not to do.

Kenji was just sitting there playing with his fingers, not knowing how to help. His leg was shaking and it looked like he was pretty anxious as well.

The 2nd quarter started and it was the same, the boys gained a bit but the opposing team's playing with them now. They were laughing and throwing the ball around, watching the boys chase after the ball like a dog.

"It's over even before this started." I sighed

But then the center of the other team accidentally knees one of the boys as he dunks him and the boy falls onto the floor unconscious. The referees called a foul but the boy was unconscious so they put him on a stretcher and carried him away.

"Who's going to sub in?" asked Haruka

"As long as it's not Kenji." said Emiko

"But it was the secondary point guard who got injured, no one else has that position besides..."

"Kenji." I whispered, finishing Yuziki's thought

Coach pointed at Kenji and Kenji looked really confused and Coach was yelling something at his face and Kenji just sighed and took off his sweater revealing his jersey. He removed a watch on his wrist, I forgot he always wears a watch and he puts on a wrist band over it.

He got on the court and everyone on his team groaned, the girls next to me also groaned and I didn't know why I felt like I wanted to stop the game myself.

After Homura took the penalty shot the opposing team got the ball and began to advance down the court. They shot a three and it went in and now we have the possession, Kenji starting off with the ball.

I noticed that one of the boys from the opposing team was taunting Kenji to take the shot, giving him space while the others heavily guarded the other boys on our team. Kenji tried to pass the ball but no one was open.

'Are you going to shoot it?'

But then Kenji jumped up and raised the ball up.

"He's going to shoot it?!" gasped Ayaka

"Oh no..." whispered Yuziki

'Please, please make it.'