The night, like a piece of velvet soaked in ink, slowly covered the day's heat.
The lights of the wild baseball field lit up, casting cold white light on the concrete ground, stretching Gu Jin's shadow long.
He had already returned home, but the house was empty—Yoko and Konan had long since moved to their “new home.”
Sakuragi Xiaonan sold the old Shimamura family residence, and Sakuragi Zhe Xiong also disposed of his previous apartment. With the noodle shop's booming business, the two had jointly purchased a spacious house near Kamakura City, just so their “family” could live more comfortably.
Without the usual lively atmosphere, Gu Jin felt an emptiness in his heart, so he simply returned to this wild baseball field.
At this moment, the court was empty, with only the wind occasionally blowing through the net, making a soft sound.
He stood alone in the center of the court, still clutching the basketball, which felt heavy from sweat.
Every detail of his earlier match against Hiejima Den replayed in his mind—!!!
The ghostly dribbling rhythm, the changes in direction that rotated close to his wrist, and those subtle wrist movements that seemed to anticipate his defense.
“Truly amazing…” Gu Jin murmured to himself, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing the surface of the ball.
Even in his previous professional career, such players were rare.
It wasn't that Hiejima Den was incredibly strong, but rather that his style of playing basketball was a perfect combination of science and art.
The opponent's attack method showed no brute force; every dribble, change of direction, and shot seemed to be precisely calculated, perfectly hitting the weak points of the defense, and the accuracy of his ball control was simply extreme.
He tried to imitate Hiejima Den's dribbling posture, lowering his center of gravity and applying force with his fingertips.
The basketball bounced off the ground, but he always felt that the rhythm was missing something compared to his memory.
When watching the opponent dribble earlier, the ball seemed to stick to his fingertips, with almost no extra sway during changes in direction, but when he tried it himself, the ball always seemed disobedient, occasionally flying out of control due to excessive force.
“No…” Gu Jin frowned, stopping to recall.
When Hiejima Den dribbled, his wrist movement was very small; he relied more on subtle adjustments of his fingertips to change the ball's direction and spin.
He tried again, deliberately narrowing his wrist movements and using only his fingertips to control the ball's trajectory. The basketball's bounce indeed became steadier, but it was still far from that “ghostly” feeling.
He also remembered the opponent's behind-the-back dribble that went under his armpit. Gu Jin stepped back a few paces and tried to execute it—a behind-the-back dribble, then a turn, but he could never quite manage the inertia of the turn; either he turned too slowly and was blocked by the “imaginary enemy,” or he turned too quickly, and the ball flew straight out.
“Tsk.” Gu Jin picked up the ball and wiped his face.
Seemingly simple movements contained too many details.
The coordination of footwork and dribbling rhythm, the shift of his center of gravity during turns, and even the force of his fingertips touching the ball—a slight difference would lead to vastly different results.
He didn't give up, repeating those movements over and over.
Dribbling, changing direction into a behind-the-back turn, subtle wobbles after a sudden stop, imitating the opponent's fluctuating rhythm… Sweat ran down his temples, dripped onto the ground, and quickly evaporated, leaving only a small dark mark.
Occasionally, for a fleeting moment, he felt that the ball control in his fingertips seemed right, the angle of the ball rotating against his wrist during a change of direction was perfect, and the breakthrough path precisely avoided the imagined defense. That feeling of exhilaration made his heart leap, but the next attempt brought him back to square one.
“So, just replicating the movements is useless after all.”
Gu Jin panted, leaning against the basketball hoop to rest.
Hiejima Den's attack was scientific because it was an instinct formed by countless practices, a result of the combination of ball feel, body coordination, and anticipation of defense, not something that could be learned by simply imitating movements.
He looked at his shadow on the ground and suddenly smiled.
That competitive urge he had earlier faded, replaced by a sense of excitement.
Facing such an opponent, that's what makes it interesting.
Gu Jin straightened up, patted the basketball, and stood in the center of the court again.
Under the lights, his eyes became focused once more.
Slowly, he would eventually figure it out. As he was thinking, the silence was suddenly broken by a gentle voice.
“Why aren’t you home yet?”
A familiar voice came from behind him. Gu Jin turned around to see Shimamura Yoko standing by the court, her tight jeans accentuating her straight legs, paired with white sneakers, a simple pure white T-shirt, and long hair naturally draped over her shoulders, with a few wisps of hair on her forehead gently swaying in the night breeze. (I'll include an image in the comments here; I'm not great at drawing, so please bear with me!)
“Yoko? Why are you here?” Gu Jin was a little surprised, his dribbling slowing by half a beat.
“Hmph! I came to see if my boyfriend had starved to death!” Yoko raised an eyebrow and walked closer, her tone carrying a hint of playful reproach.
“Huh?” Gu Jin didn't react for a moment.
“Sakuragi said he left the court this afternoon, but I couldn't find you at your house, so I thought you might still be here.” Yoko kicked a pebble at her feet. “You're still here, just as I thought. You definitely haven't eaten, have you? Really, it ended ages ago, and you neither went to eat nor came to find me.”
Gu Jin's face instantly darkened. Sakuragi? Did he call that finishing practice? He clearly went to pick up girls, and on his way out, he conveniently swiped the money from his pocket… Gu Jin put the basketball down, and it rolled a few times from inertia, stopping at the edge of the court.
“I went back earlier,” he said, raising a hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead. “The house was so quiet and empty that I didn't feel hungry, so I thought I'd come back and practice a bit more.”
Hearing this, Shimamura Yoko deliberately put on a stern face, but couldn't hide the smile in her eyes, with a touch of spoiled bossiness: “As your girlfriend, I order you to come eat with me right now!” Her expression was indescribably cute.
Gu Jin was amused by her, shrugging helplessly: “Alright, I'll listen to you. What do you want to eat?”
“Let's go for sushi!” Yoko's eyes lit up, her voice full of excitement.
Gu Jin smiled, bent down to pick up the basketball from the ground, and stuffed it into his sports backpack. Halfway through zipping it up, he remembered something and reached out to take Yoko's hand: “Let's go, for sushi.”
Yoko leaned into his arm. The night breeze carried the scent of fresh grass from the court, and she laughed as her nose brushed against his sweat-soaked T-shirt: “Oh, and Sakuragi, I don't know what's up with him, he went out mysteriously again tonight, and he secretly sprayed Dad's cologne.”
“Sakuragi, that guy, wearing cologne?” Gu Jin raised an eyebrow, his steps not faltering, secretly chuckling to himself, “Looks like that kid must be out on a date with Fujii.”
“Indeed,” Yoko walked beside him on tiptoes, the streetlights twisting their shadows into a braid. “He said he was going to meet Mito Yohei and them, but I don't believe him; he's clearly lying…”
Gu Jin smiled and shook his head, but his fingertip gently hooked her pinky.
Yoko's hand trembled, and she clasped his hand tightly, the warmth in her palm as hot as the court ground earlier.
The warm yellow lights of the sushi restaurant glowed at the street corner, and the proprietress waved to them through the glass.
Yoko pulled him into the shop, pointing at the fatty tuna in the refrigerated display: “I want that! And eel sushi too!”
Gu Jin sat opposite her, watching her eyes sparkle as she picked up a piece of sushi, not noticing a bit of soy sauce on her lips. He suddenly reached out and wiped it off for her.
Yoko froze, her cheeks flushed, and she lowered her head to stuff sushi into her mouth, mumbling indistinctly: “What was that for…?”
“Nothing,” he smiled. Gu Jin had just pushed a piece of sushi towards Yoko when he suddenly caught sight of the door of the “Sakurai Video Room” 【Those who know, know】 across the street being pushed open.
He followed his gaze and saw two familiar figures walking out side-by-side. The streetlight cast its glow on them, making their silhouettes exceptionally clear—it was Sakuragi Hanamichi and Fujii Ran.
Gu Jin almost choked. Was it developing that quickly? He clearly saw that Fujii Ran's hair was a bit messy…