"...As a friend." Kuroko finished as Mikan fell from the bench. She has to admit that he raised her expectations, but it's not like Akashi truly likes her anyway. Why bother?

    "Oh...I see...hehe." she said as Kuroko peered over her. "Are you okay, Sakura-san?"

    "Yes, I'm fine. Don't worry about me." bubbly tears rolled down her cheeks as she grieved by herself.

    Then the person who was hiding behind the trees walked back to gym, leaving the two of them alone.

♛♛♛

A week has passed as it was already Sports Festival, everyone was all hyped up and excited. Lots of parents have arrived today to cheer for their children who are going to play.

"Good luck, Tetsuya. Enjoy the game." Kuroko's mother stated as she caressed her child's head.

"We'll be cheering for you!" Kuroko's father grinned and gave him a thumbs up.

"My grandchild, do your best!" his grandmother cheered and gave him a wrinkled smile.

"Yes. Thank you, I'll do my best." he replied as he smiled at them.

"Do your best, Ryota-chii! You have to win!" Kise's sister grinned. "Yeah, you have to!" the other sister pipes in, cheering for her little brother.

"I know that, Onee-san." Kise grinned and nodded.

"Onii-chan, good luck!" Midorima's little sister cheered for her older brother as she flashed a cute smile.

"I will." his lips curved in a smile as his parents were also here to watch him compete in the games.

"Do your best, At-chin! If you win, I'll cook all your favorites later!" Murasakibara's older sister stated.

"Wow, good for you Atsushi! Nee-san doesn't really cook for us..."

"Yeah, and she would cook for you."

"You really need to win this."

Murasakibara hates practice or extracting effort on something, but he hates losing even more. So he thought of trying a little harder.

"I know that, geez..." he huffed.

"Knowing you Daiki, this is a piece of game! Win this!" Aomine's father cheered as his mother nodded.

"Yeah. I'm so gonna win this." he replied with a confident smug on his face.

While the others were preparing before the game starts, Akashi was busy doing school council work. His father didn't came to cheer for him today in the Sports Festival.

"What did you just say?" he was startled a bit from what the member of the council just said, maybe he misheard it so he needed some confirmation.

"Like I said, for this morning's main event, the obstacle race's special prize will be—"

"I heard you at first! But why did you decided that the prize is that?!"

"Well, according to polls, she is the girl that guys would most love to get kissed by..."

"Is this your idea?"

"No, it's not mine...but what's the big deal? I also have a slight crush on her, it wouldn't be that bad."

Akashi gave him an intimidating glare as the guy sweat dropped from the black aura that the student council president was giving. Anyone could tell that he was totally against it.

"He's right, Prez. It's not a big deal? That girl is pretty. You must've had realized it now...or do you prefer pretty boys instead?" another member of the council smug.

"I am not interested in such things. I demand that you change the prize for the obstacle's course." Akashi firmly stated as most of the boys in the council room whined.

"Why not? Are you not confident that you can win?" the male student challenged the president.

Of course, this triggered Akashi as he can't keep silent from this. "I am confident that I can win this, I won't lose against something or someone."

"Oh, is that so~? Then I'll announce the prizes okay~?" the boy stated and grabbed a microphone which made Akashi alarmed.

"What are you—"

"The obstacle course's special prize is to have the right to be kissed by Sakura Mikan!"

Everyone heard what the emcee just said through the microphone as it left everybody surprised. There was a dark emitting aura behind the speaker as he slowly turned around to see a dark Akashi that was seething.

Before he could lash out his anger on him, they heard the cheers of the male students at the assembly hall, they seemed to be very happy.

Though the girl who was the prize wasn't happy herself, she can't believe what she just heard as her mouth was left hanging low.

"I-I-I'M THE PRIZE?!"

This can't be real...why me? Mikan thought as she was indeed shocked.

Then the boys turned to her as all of them had a weird expression on their faces, it creeped the living daylights of the poor orange haired girl.

"No way! I don't want to! Why does it have to be me?! Can someone else do it instead?!" bubbly tears rolled down Mikan's cheeks as her knees fell on the ground and she grieved.

"Satsuki-san! Please switch places with me!" she begged the pink haired girl who turned down her offer.

"Sorry. I can't. My lips are only for Tetsu-kun only." Satsuki smiled.

"But my lips are still virgin!"
。・゜・(ノД')・゜・。

"Virgin? Can you still say that after kissing Da—mffgh." (*^◯^*)

"Please keep your mouth shut, Satsuki-san!" ｡ﾟ(ﾟ'Д｀ﾟ)ﾟ｡

"Sakura." Mikan whipped her head around and saw Akashi standing in front of them. "I'm sorry, this is all my fault. I was planning to get this prize abolished but to think they announced it before I could stop it..."

"Sakura Mikan's hot kiss!"

"I will definitely win the prize!"

"She's so cute! I want to marry her."

Mikan flinched from what she just heard from the guys who are looking at her as she was in a blushing mess.

"S-So scary...I want to go home..." she shivered in fear as tears were visible in the corner of her eyes.

"Sakura! There you are!" she turned around to see Aomine running towards her as he stopped when he finally reached her.

"Are you alright with this...?" Aomine asked the weeping girl.

"Of course I'm not alright with this!" Mikan wailed as she denied. "T-This is just completely unreasonable...!"

The blue haired guy was startled to see her crying, he crouched down and grabbed both of her shoulders.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you!" Aomine vowed as he gave his word to her, then she sniffed and finally stopped crying. "Really...? You will protect me...?"

"Yeah. I swear if any guy tries to come at you...I'll f*cking beat the living daylights out of them."

The male students that heard Aomine's words immediately ran for their dear lives since they didn't want to be beaten up by him.

♛♛♛

"The last event for the morning session, the obstacle course, will be starting soon. There is no limit to the number of participants, who will start from the field and clear each zone!"

It was finally the obstacle course, which was everybody was anticipating for—thought all of the runners are males who has the eyes on the prize.

"Who will be the glorious winner of this race and claim the hot kiss?!"

Mikan sits on a royalty chair as she was wearing a long red cape with a crafted crown on top of her head.

"I will protect Sakura."

Aomine unleashed a seething aura as some of the boys backed out from the monstrous beast that will be competing against them, however there were some boys who didn't.

"Unfortunately, but I will be the one who will win this race. Give it up." Akashi stated as he began stretching his limbs before running.

"No, I can't afford to lose against you again, Akashi. I will emerge to victory." Midorima firmly said.

"I'm the one who will win this race. I'll get Sakura-chii's kiss~!" Kise whined adorably.

"Nah...I'm the one who will win this race...my legs are longer than yours and I can run faster than the rest of you bunch." Murasakibara lazily mused.

"No, all of you are completely wrong." Kuroko said out of the blue. "I will be the one to win this race!"

None of the boys are giving up as they stared at each other with rivalry burning in their eyes.

"Oh? That sounds interesting itself. Let's play a game where there are no second chances!" Aomine smirked.

The basketball players of Seirin High steadied themselves in front of the starting line as they finished stretching, all of them had one aspect in their head—WIN.

"On your mark...get set...GO!" a gun was triggered as a single bullet was shot up in the sky.

Aomine, Akashi, Kise, Midorima, Murasakibara and Kuroko ran as fast as they can to outrun each other as they don't want to lose and want to win the obstacle course.

Ah, why am I so nervous? I'm not even the one who is running...? Shouldn't I be more worried?! Mikan thought as she can't sit still on the chair while she nibbles down her fingernails.

After running for so long, the other boys were getting left behind as their tiredness was getting a toll on them and their stamina was decreasing, the ones who are in the lead are Akashi and Aomine.

"I'm surprised that you have enough stamina to run this far while avoiding the traps, Akashi." the blue haired boy stated as he continued running.

"Don't be so cocky, Aomine. I will be the one who will win this race." the red haired boy snarled as he was running neck-to-neck with Aomine.

"Hmm, let's see about that." he stated with a smirk tugging his lips as he picked up his pace.

They ran as fast as their legs could take them on the track field as one of them had finally reached the goal...but who won?!

"Goal! The first place goes to..."

⇜♡⇝

Hajime: I watched Kuroko no Basuke movie ; the Last Game yesterday in the cinema with my best friend–it was indeed a superb! I highly recommend that you guys watch it because you don't know what your missing. Kagami x Kuroko FTW. Thanks for the 2K reads though and who do you think will win this race?!