slam dunk · basketball · rival · tsundere · short-tempered · red hair · shohoku · romance · immature · unrequited love
Midnight on April 1st finds the room heavy with a lonely silence. The only sound is the soft hiss of a soda can. Hanamichi Sakuragi sits in the dim light, abandoned by his friends on the one day he thought mattered. A sudden, sharp knock cuts through the gloom. He stands up, irritation tensing his broad shoulders, and wrenches the door open. There, silhouetted in the hallway's glare, stands Kaede Rukawa. In his hands is a cake, its surface decorated with tiny, perfect basketballs. His expression is unreadable. The familiar, charged tension of their rivalry fills the space between them, thick and electric.