Mikan reached the arcade, since she just practically roamed around the town near their school to search for a certain troublemaker, it was indeed tiring to search throughout the place, but since she was scared of seeing Nijimura's angry face—she has no choice but to oblige to his request.

"Bring it on, you piece of sh*t."

"You f*cking bast*rd."

"Damn f*ck boy."

Inside the arcade were lots of delinquents trashing the place, there lots of swearing floating in the air, voiced by different people.

Mikan was about to turn her heel, thinking that there was no way that Haizaki would be here, but she stopped when she spotted a light grey haired guy playing in the arcade.

What is he doing here?! she yells in her head, bullets of sweat drop trickling down her face.

Her head was in chaos, should she go in the arcade or walk away? If she goes inside—she'll encounter scary delinquents, but if she walks away—she'll receive Nijimura's wrath. Clearly, she has no choice but to go inside and convince Haizaki to attend basketball practice instead of playing games in the arcade.

"Here goes nothing!" she slapped her cheeks and walked in the arcade.

Indeed the place was pre-occupied with lots of dudes, there were no women or children around, just guys. Now she was getting slightly shaken and afraid.

She decided to walk around the corners to avoid attracting unnecessary attention from the people, slowly, she walked towards the spot where she saw Haizaki.

Mikan saw him playing a fighting game in a machine, a smile of relief formed her lips as she finally found him. She was about to walk towards him when random guys walked towards her, beating her to the bush.

"A middle school girl, eh?"

"She's kinda cute."

"I bet she is a virgin!"

The orange haired girl froze on her tracks when random guys suddenly walked towards her and started hitting on the poor girl. Her knees started to tremble and her lips were quivering.

She opened her mouth to stage a protest, but no word came out. She was tongue-tied, she can't speak at all. It's like as if she has forgotten how to speak because of how afraid she was.

"Let's have some fun, shall we?"

A hand extended to her, it was about to grab her but someone stopped the delinquent before he does anything to the school girl.

"Sure."

Mikan looked up to see a cocky smirk on a familiar face that she knows—it was Haizaki! He was standing up for her! Or that's what she thought.

"I'm not talking to you, I was talking to this girl."

"Oh, come on. Don't give me that cold shoulder, let's have fun. I'm really bored right now."

"I don't know who the hell you are or f*cking care about you. Let go of my arm or else I'll punch you."

Mikan flinched from the word punch that the random guy just said, she was worried that this might turn into a rowdy fight.

"Punch me? Try it if you can." Haizaki smirked, provoking the man even more.

"Haizaki-kun, you shouldn't provoke him any—GAH!" Mikan screams when the delinquent suddenly punch Haizaki on the face.

His cheek began to turn red and starting bleeding a bit from the impact, he chuckled darkly as he flipped into his crazy mode.

"Now you did it, f*cking bast*rd." he cussed as he swung his arm in the air and smacked the unknown man in the face—it was a payback.

Mikan screeches as the two males started beating up each other, she wanted to stop them but if she did—she might get punched on the face.

Haizaki punched the man one more time as he fell on the floor, his face was swollen up from the beatings he received from the middle school kid.

Of course, the man's companion won't just sit there in silent, they started to surround Haizaki with a angry look in their faces—however, the boy wasn't fazed a little bit.

Before another fight could occur, Mikan grabbed Haizaki's hand as she pulled him with her and ran as fast as they can out of the arcade, getting away from them. The gang of guys started chasing after them as they continued to run away.

She expected for Haizaki to stage a protest, but strangely, he didn't. He lets her grab his hand and runs away with her just like that.

They went into an alleyway to get away from the thugs, they hid there for awhile and waited for them to leave, silently.

"Tsk. Those two got away!"

"Find em—I'll beat up that lil sh*t and show him who's the boss."

They heard the sounds of footsteps slowly walking away and finally ceasing. Once the coast was finally clear, Mikan heave out a sigh of relief.

"They're finally gone..." she sighed.

"Heh." she turned around after hearing him let out a low chuckle.

"You shouldn't have provoked them any further, Haizaki-kun! Look at your face—it's all beaten up." Mikan said, gesturing at his face.

"Well, you shouldn't have get in the way. I don't really need your help, and stop acting like my Mom." Haizaki replied while his hands were tucked in his pockets.

"If I didn't act, you might get hurt even more by those guys...I can't fight like you or even say bad words, but I don't want to see someone I know getting hurt right in front of me."

Haizaki was startled by her, he could sense that she was being honest and meant no harm. He didn't replied as he felt a pain pang on his cheek.

He sats down on the concrete ground while holding out the swollen cheek, Mikan crouched to his level and to see him in pain.

"It hurts..." Haizaki murmurs.

"That's what you get for provoking them." Mikan sighs.

She grabbed a handkerchief from her pocket as she started damping his cheek with it, the blood from the cheek was wearing off as Haizaki stares down at her worried face.

"Ouch." he yelps causing for Mikan to flinch and stop wiping the blood.

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to—" she was cut off when he grabs her hand that was holding the handkerchief and pulled her closer to him.

Their faces were up so close to each other, there was a inch of space in between them. He looked in her pair of amethyst eyes with his ashen ones seriously, making her a bit nervous.

"Just kidding."

Blood began rushing up to her face as her cheeks became warmer all of the sudden, her pulse started beating faster as she was surprised.

"W-What's with that?!" she stuttered, flustered.

Then Haizaki lets go of her hand and drops down on her lap, the blush on her face increased even more.

He closes his eyes, trying to get some sleep on her lap. Mikan started to calm down herself, she looks down on his face, now that she has a full view of him—he was quite attractive.

However, before he could get his sleep, Mikan lifts up his head from her lap and drops it on the ground.

    "Ow!" Haizaki said as the back of his head made a contact with the ground. "Why did you do that for?!"

    She adverted her gaze away from him with a pokerface, "Nothing~"

    He rubbed the back of his head, it hurts, it feels like he has a bump on his head. It hurts falling back on the ground from heaven.

    "What're you doing here in the first place?" he grunted as he slowly faced her, he had a frown on his face.

    "Nijimura-san told me to find you and bring you back to the gym." she answered while making an eye contact.

    "Well, just make up some excuse like I have a cold or something." Haizaki says rather in a bored tone.

    "If I can, I would've done that earlier. But—Nijimura-senpai is scary." Mikan shivers from the thought of going back to the gym empty-handed, without him.

    "Don't worry, I don't think he hits a woman." he assured her.

    "No, I'll be going back with you. Since I already found you." she firmly stated. "Plus, we have to treat your wound first—it may get an infection."

    Haizaki was getting ticked off by this woman. "Why would you give a rat ass about me anyways? Why do you f*cking care?!"

    "That's because you are Teiko's first string player, one of the starters, you should practice instead of goofing around! Stop acting like a delinquent when you're not even one."

    "Shut up!" he shouts. "You're just a temporary manager for awhile!"

    Then she faked a cough. "I am now actually a real manager, for your information."

    "Like I care! Temporary and real are just the same." he scowls at her.

    Really, Haizaki was really hard to deal with. He just don't take any orders from anyone and has the least motivation than anyone else.

    "Alright, do whatever you want, just let me treat your wound." Mikan sighed as she finally gave up of convincing him to go back to the gym.

    "Finally, you're leaving me alone." he slowly stood up as she followed, they went to a nearby clinic as Mikan treated the wound on his cheek.

    Haizaki just sat down on the stool as she does the prep work, after fixing his wound, she puts a bandaid on top of it and she was finally done.

    "It's done." she smiled as she did a great work in treating a wound.

    Though he kept silence as he looks down on the ground, solemnly.

    "Just like what I said earlier, you can do whatever you want after I treat your wound. I'll see you tomorrow." she told him as she turned around and walked out of the clinic.

    You...idiot! Why did you let him go?! Brace yourself for Senpai's wrath. she thought as bullets of sweat trickled down her face.

    Then someone's hand grabbed her shoulder, she turned around to see Haizaki standing behind her.

    "Haizaki-kun?" she asked.

    "I guess I'll go back with you to the gym and practice." he said as she felt overjoyed by that, but what made him had a change of heart all of the sudden?

    Haizaki noticed a can of iced black coffee that she has been holding onto earlier, a smirk formed his lips as he snatched it away from her.

    "H-Hey, give it back!" she says, trying to reach it from his grasps.

    "This drink is mine~" he coed as he opened the can and drunk it, he began gulping and slurping until the can was finally empty.

    "Puwah~ that hit the spot~" he said as he threw it in a trash bin like he's shooting a basketball in a hoop.

    "Why did you drink that for?!" she screech while flapping her arms in the air, whining.

    "Huh? I thought that it was for me?" he smirked mischievously as it made her more pissed.

    "It wasn't for you—it's for Senpai! Uwah! What should I do?! He'll certainly get angry...." her face turned pale as if she saw the pits of hell.

    "Just buy him another can." he simply stated.

    "But that's the last money I had!" she said.

    "Eh....sucks to be you..." he tiredly stated as she began whining again, she was getting into his nerves.

    ♛♛♛

They reached back to the gym as Nijimura turned his head to face them, he had a look of a killing monster.

"Nijimura-senpai, I brought Haizaki-kun, just like you requested me to do..." Mikan softly said after seeing his beast mode.

"Where did you found him?" he asked, his voice was intimidating.

"A-At the arcade, Senpai..." she stuttered as her face turned pale.

"Then where is my drink? I'm thirsty right now." he asked yet again.

"About that...I bought it but I dropped it earlier, I'll go buy—"

"—I drunk it."

Mikan turned to Haizaki with a shocked expression, she was already covering for him, yet he intends to expose himself in danger?

"Not only you skip basketball practice, you also drunk my coffee. How dare you...HOW DARE YOU?!"

Nijimura hates holding back, so he began to beat Haizaki up ruthlessly in front of Mikan and the team who was practicing.

"S-Stop it, Senpai! He is injured. You don't have to do this." she says, trying to stop Nijimura from beating him up.

"The hell I care, those who doesn't practice—gets punished. As a captain, it's my duty to correct my teammates wrongdoings." he said.

"B-But this is too much..." she whimpers as he didn't paid her any attention.

Kuroko and the others had a scared expression in their faces as they watched how their captain beats up their teammate, Haizaki, ruthlessly.