“Achoo!”

“Ame-ne, you keep on sneezing. Do I have to take you to the doctor?” Kyo asked worriedly after hearing Ame sneeze for the nth time today. It’s been a week since she’s been continuously sneezing during the training but still hasn’t stop.

“Huh? This is nothing Kyo, I don’t have to get a check-up, and I’m perfectly fine—achoo!” Ame’s assurance was a failure since she had sneezes in between those words. Kyo looked at her unconvinced and sighed. “You just don’t want to see oka-san” with that, Ame yelled at her irritated. “So what if I don’t wanna?! I hate her and I don’t want to see her face!” the imouto looked a little taken aback at her reaction and retort back.

“Why do you have to act like that towards oka-san?!” Kyo also sounded irritated. “I know she’s done something wrong in the past but don’t you think she doesn’t deserve this treatment from you?! After all… she’s still your mother…”

“MOTHER MY ASS!” Ame snapped, surprising them all, as her jaw clenched and she curled her hand in a fist. Her head was heating up with Kyo defending Yoite again. “She was never there for me! I grew up without having a mother… so why do I even need or have one, huh?!”

“Ame-ne that’s enough! You’ve gone too far!”

“Shut up, Kyo! You’ll never understand what I feel, because after all, YOU were always the centre of attention in the! You never felt ignored! Or treated like a complete outcast! They always made you feel special!”

Everyone was silent while Ame and Kyo were fighting. The players stopped playing, and Riko approached to take a look on what’s happening; even Teppei.

“Kyo, Ame, that’s enough” Riko stopped their fighting and turned to Ame. “You shouldn’t yell at your younger sister like that”

Ame huffed at her turning away and was about to walk off when she heard Kyo crying and call her. “Felt ignored… complete outcast…” Kyo sniffed, tears rolling down her face. “Never felt it? Never treated that way…?”

All of them stared at Kyo, eyes widened as Riko went to comfort Kyo. “Kyo, that’s enough…”

“No!” Kyo shouted and went to grab her sister to face her and yelled. “Don’t you dare to talk to me like that when you either don’t know what I feel!!!!!” Ame looked shocked at Kyo’s sudden burst and stared at her gaping. “No! I already felt ignored! I felt ignored by you! Always have that cold act at me whenever I tried in making gain friends or even help you in making up with oka-san! You treat me like an outcast whenever you say those and cold and hurtful words to me! I’m your sister! You’re not supposed to say all those painful things!”

“Kyo…” Riko looked at her in agony seeing her cry for the first time. It hurt her. Kyo was like a sister to her.

“And most of all… I don’t feel special… when a person special to me doesn’t even treat me like one…” “…and that’s you Ame-ne… y-your my favourite sister! I-I don’t even mind if Nikki-ne and Kaede-ne feels bad about that…”

Kyo’s tear droplets tapped the gym floor. Riko looked at her concerned while Ame had an unreadable face expression.

“Then…” she spoke. “Why make it harder for yourself? I didn’t ask you to make a special person to you…” the moment those cold words escaped Ame’s mouth, Kyo’s palm had made it’s way to collide with her cheek. Kyo slapped her. Her face was turned to the side by the impact. Everyone stood there shock, but Ame wasn’t. She knew she deserved this.

“From now on, you’re on your own!” Kyo spat bitterly and walked out, leaving a silenced gym.

“She shouldn’t have done that…” Shun whispered over to Junpei who gave him a warning glare. “That’s not important right now” the captain replied to him, annoyed. “Alright, let’s call it day, everyone, go take a rest and freshen up for dinner” Riko announced and looked at her before walking to the kitchen to prepare dinner. “You should talk to her”

Ame remained silent and just stood there, staring at the floor, blankly.

“H-Hey, someone should go after coach!” someone warned.

“We’ll go! Mitobe, Tsucchi, let’s go!” Shinji volunteered together with the two and ran after Riko before she could make something that could kill them.

“What are you three standing there for? Go and change clothes” Junpei ordered then glanced at Teppei. “You okay just by talking to her alone?” he referred to Ame. Teppei nodded and watched Junpei exit the gym with the rest of the team.

Tetsuya gave one last glance to his senpai and noted mentally that he’d go where Kyo is to know how she is doing. ‘For some reason, seeing Ame-senpai’s pained face doesn’t make me blame her for what happened…’

“Amei-chan”

“Ngh. What do you want?” Ame sneered.

“Do you want to talk about what happened?”

“There’s nothing to talk about” Ame tried to leave but Teppei grabbed her wrist. She squirmed her hand to escape his grip but he immediately pulled her in his arms, and trapped her in a hug.

“I can see that you didn’t like what happened” Teppei whispered softly in her ear as she felt her insides melt. She wanted to breakdown.

“Tch. Let me just tell you one thing. I won’t hate someone without a reason” she noted and earned a question from him.

“What reason is it?”

Ame sighed.

She knew this was coming. The day that someone would ask why she was like that. Kyo didn’t have to because she knows all of what happened to her sister; the reason why she tried to understand and tolerate Ame’s cold attitude. This time, she was at her limits.

“You know, I won’t be able to tell you when you’re holding me too tight” Ame’s voice was quite muffled due to her face buried on his chest. But because of the warm body he possessed, she doesn’t have any single complaint about it. She liked his warmth.

“S-Sorry” Teppei apologized and let her go, pulling his arms back. Ame sat on the floor as he followed she started to recall all of what happened to her. She tried to forget about it but she can’t. The time she started to be like this.

Her childhood.

“Teppei, you love me right?” Teppei flinched when he heard her say that and replied the obvious. “Of course I love you, you’re Amei-chan” he smiled at her as she held his hand.

“Then, would you mind listening the whole story why I’m like this?” Ame requested giving him pleading eyes. “I think it’s about time I tell you everything… well… that is if you want to know…”

“I-I want to know!” Teppei burst out and gave her hopeful eyes. “Amei-chan I’ve been dying to know everything about you!” he held her hands in his. The story behind those cold eyes of yours… the one causing the pain in our heart… I… I want to know everything… so I could do something about it… I want to know… I want to help…”

“T-Teppei…” Ame’s eyes narrowed. It softens afterwards before she sighed. “How do I even… start with this…” she trailed off. “Yoite… I mean, mom and dad divorced when I was three…”

“Amei-chan…”

“I didn’t remember what were they fighting about at that time but I was so sure that they ended it with a divorce…” Ame continued with a scoff. “Of course me, being the excluded sibling, I wanted to stay with my dad when he had to leave the house. I… my mother didn’t care about me back then… she didn’t fight when I wanted to leave… when I wanted them to get back together. So dad had no choice but to take me with him. We lived with each other for 4 years until he had to leave the country to work. And I was left to live with Yoite… my mother”

“And he… he never came back, did he?” Teppei looked at her sadly. He remembered Kyo mentioning about their father gone missing years ago, but she never mentioned if he was declared dead.

Ame smiled bitterly. “I waited for 4 years…”

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

9 years ago…

“Dye your nails with the flowers

Of the Garden Balsam,

Dye your mind with the words

Of your parents' advice.

Countable are the stars in the sky

Twinkling at midnight,

Uncountable are the teachings

Of your parents”

 (A/N: this is a Japanese folk song titled “Flowers of the Garden Balsam”)

A 8 year old young Ame hung out at the Nature Park again, just singing child songs to herself. She sat at the bench park by herself and started the flowers planted around her. She liked staring at them.

“The guide is the North Star

For ships sailing on dark nights,

And the only guide for me

Is my beloved parents.

Polish your jewellery

So it doesn't get rusty,

Polish your mind

Not to become a dropout”

She stopped singing and sighed. “It’s been a year since Oto-san left for work… I wonder where he is right now…” Ame looked high up in the sky, missing her old man and feeling lonely as ever. “Nikki-ne is playing with her friends and I bet Kaede-ne’s playing with Yukio-nee again. And Kyo…”

“…she’s probably with Yoite…”

She looked down at her hands feeling sadness drift her heart. ‘No one cares for me…only oto-san does…’ She came to that conclusion. ‘Well… it’s not like I care about them to… they abandoned me and oto-san… they treat us like outcast…’

“Accomplishments bring prosperity

For a long time in your precious life,

Flourish forever

For your descendants to live long.

Everything can be realized

If you have wishes and drive,

Nothing can be realized

If you are dull or idle.”

Ame just continued to sing, entertaining herself when suddenly; a ball hit her head interrupting her from her personal concert to herself. “OW! Itai!” she rubbed her head, comically crying and saw a basketball drop in front of her. It lightened up her mood. Basketball reminded her of her father when he had brought her to real live games and schools that her father’s friends coached, including Kagetora when he was still coaching. “A basketball!” she was about to pick up when a blonde perky looking kid beat her to it. “Hey!”

“Sorry, this is my ball” the blonde perky kid told her with a smirk on his face. She noticed how wide his mouth was.

“Uh, sure” she tried to resist a pout but the kid had noticed it before she did. “You have a pretty cute pout there, hehe~” he told her, finding it cute that she was pouting. “What’s your name?”

“Uh” Ame stared at him for a while. “Ame, Haname” she revealed her first name which he likes.

“Huwah, Haname really suits you Hana-chan! Call me Kotaro!” the agile kid introduced himself cheerfully and let out a hand.

“Hi then… Kotaro-kun…” she replied meekly and accepted his handshake not expecting her whole body to also be shaken. “H-Hey!”

“Hehe, sorry about that Hana-chan!” Kotaro apologized with a big smile.

“Yeah… by the way… why does my name suit me?” she questioned curiously, with a passive look.

“Ah! Well… I together with Reo-nee and Skinny Eikichi always see you here hanging out at the garden surrounded by flowers” Kotaro explained. “Hana means flower right?”

“Yeah… well actually… Haname’s based from Rain flower… Ame meaning rain…”

“Well Hana suits you better! Ame is a sad name!”

“Why is that?”

“Nothing, rains just make me sad. I can’t play out here in the court!” Kotaro complained about the gloomy weather he always hated and pouted. Ame smiled when she heard what he said.

“There’s a court here?!” She grinned. Kotaro was surprised at her reaction and grinned back.

“Yeah, want me to show you?” he led out a hand. Ame didn’t say anything and grabbed his hand, starting to run. “H-Hey! I’m supposed to be the one dragging you!”

“Just show me the court already, Kotan!”

“K-Kotan?!”

“That’s your nickname from me!”

“Huh?!”

“C’mon, Kotan!”

“O-Okay! Jeez, Hana!” 

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Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy we're at Ame's flashback arccccc!!! any guesses on who's her childhood friend?? XDDD loooool... 

sorry if this doesn't make sense to you but I promise it will on the upcoming chapters... Hope youlike this!!!