Since he didn’t want to cause any troubles, despite being aware of the cold stares some players were showing towards him, Hiro intentionally ignored their cold stares. And instead he only focused his attention on those who were acting friendly towards him.
And it wasn’t his first time getting such cold stares from the players around him. Afterall even during his first day at the club, he got a lot of those kind of stares.
“I was indeed right. Look at those abs, wings and chest.” With his eyes sparkling, Tatsuki spoke with a cheerful voice while walking towards him.
Tatsuki then took off his jersey as well.
‘Why is he taking off his jersey now?” Hiro thought while looking at him.
Tatsuki’s weird behaviour left everybody dumbfounded.
Flaunting his abs and muscles, he then started to strike different body building poses as if he was some kind of bodybuilder.
While striking a side chest pose, Tatsuki then spoke in a serious tone, “As Socrates once said, it is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”
“‘Hahahaha”‘
Unable to hold back their laughter, Hiro and the others burst into laughter after hearing Tatsuki’s philosophical quote, instead of acting impressed.
However there laughing didn’t bother Tatsuki in any way and he still continued to flaunt his muscles without any stop.
“Let him be. He’s like this. If you continue to pay attention to him, you’ll get late for school. So let’s leave.” Saying such Naoto then asked Hiro to leave the pitch with him.
While exiting the pitch after the end of the morning training, Hiro turned his gaze towards the U-15 pitch in hopes of finding some of his friends on the ground.
However the U-15 pitch was totally empty. With nobody in the pitch, their training had ended about 15 minutes earlier than theirs.
**** ****
Even at the canteen, he didn’t meet any of his friends. Although he did find some of the reserve players from the U-15 at the canteen whom he wasn’t much familiar with, he didn’t find any of his friends.
With nothing special, that morning’s breakfast consisted of some chicken breast, rice, vegetable soup and orange juice.
Sitting alongside the U-18 players, he had his breakfast. And may be because of that, the reserve players from the U-15 team also didn’t dare to approach him.
Quickly finishing his breakfast, he then headed towards his room to get dressed for the school.
And after changing into his school uniform, Hiro then hurriedly rushed towards the school bus.
As usual, Shun had saved a spot for him. Raising his hands above his head, Shun then gestured Hiro to come towards him.
While walking towards Shun, he could feel a lot of gazes which were pointed towards him. Although getting stared at wasn’t anything unusual for him.
Those stares at that moment were very different. While some of those stares were full of admiration and happiness, most of those stares were full of jealousy.
Gnashing their teeths, some players were looking at him coldly as if he had robbed him of their most precious thing.
However that was completely within his expectations, afterall he had been promoted to the U-18 team in less than a month of joining the club, while there were players in the U-15 team who weren’t even sure of their promotion despite playing for so long.
“Congratulations Hiro.” Hidetaka and Yugo congratulated Hiro while he was making his way towards Shun.
“Thank you.” While nodding his head and thanking them with a smile on his face, Hiro continued to walk towards his seat.
Along the way, he heard congratulatory words from many players.
With no change in their facial expressions, Shun, Yuya and Shunta all three of them were acting as if nothing had happened.
“Good morning guys.” Hiro greeted them and tried to start a conversation.
However they stil didn’t reply anything.
‘What’s wrong with them?’ He thought while taking his seat, silently.
For a while they spoke nothing. However just as the bus started to move, Shun punched him lightly on his arm.
“You cheeky bastard. You didn’t even tell me about your promotion.” Shun spoke sounding somewhat angry.
“It happened so fast that I couldn’t get the time to tell you.” Spoke Hiro in an apologetic tone while rubbing the part of his hand where he got hit by Shun.
“We literally live in the same room you bastard.” Replied Shun while pouting.
“Ahh right!! Sorry!! Sorry!! I just forgot to tell you.” Apologised Hiro after hearing Shun’s reply.
“It’s alright you bastard. I don’t want to hear your apology. Afterall it’s only a matter of time. From next season onwards I’ll be playing with the U-18 as well.” Replied Shun with a smile on his face.
“Ahh right!! Congratulations for your promotion.” Shun added while patting Hiro on his back.
At that same time Shunta who was infront of him, stood from his seat and turned towards him. And as Shunta faced Hiro, his face lit up. Shunta then opened his mouth, “Congratulations Hiro.”
“Thank you guys.” Replied Hiro with a smile on his face.
And as they finished congratulating him, they then started to ask him about his training experience with the U-18 team.
“Did you get to play against Naoto Miyashiro? How was he? Was he better than me?” Asked Shun while looking him in the eye.
Shun was really curious about who was better, he or Naoto. Even though the answer was quite obvious, he was still comparing himself to the fourth choice goalkeeper of a professional team.
“Yeah!! I have also seen him play against the pro teams. And despite being so young, he never looked intimidated. I still remember his performance against Vissel Kobe. And damn in that game he conceded only a single goal. And that goal was against Iniesta as well. Can you believe that he had already played against world class talents?” His brows raised and his tone sharpened, Shunta mumbled with a excited look on his face.
“He-”
Just as Hiro was about to speak, Yuya interrupted him with his own opinions.
“Yeah!! That goal was a banger. Although we lost the game 1:0. But in that game Naoto played really well despite being 17 years old at that time.” Yuya intoned. 𝐨𝘃𝗹.
Seeing them talking nonstop, Hiro kept his mouth shut. Without uttering a single word, he kept on looking at them while listening to their chatters.
Not that he didn’t want to speak anything. But they simply didn’t give him any opportunity to present his opinions.
**** ****
Despite asking him question first, for entire bus ride, those three kept on talking, giving Hiro no chance to speak. And only after the bus stopped infront of their school, did they realise that they couldn’t hear anything about the U-18 team.
“Seems like we talked way too much.” Spoke Yuya while scratching his scalp.
“Yeah!! We didn’t even get to hear about the U-18 team.” Added Shunta.
“Don’t look at me now. It was all you guys who kept on talking without a break. Some times I wonder if you guys will grow up to be like those gossiping aunties of the neighborhood.” Saying such Hiro rose from his seat while grabbing his bag.
Listening to Hiro they looked at each other. Images of them dressed like aunties flashed before their eyes as they looked at each other.
Shaking their head vigorously, they then looked at Hiro with a rather irritated look on their face.
But Hiro was nowhere to be seen.
“Oi wait you cheeky bastard.” Saying such in an irritated tone, they then rose from their seat and chased Hiro who was already at the door of the bus.
Getting off from the bus, they then headed towards their class. While walking to his classroom, he kept wandering his eyes, searching for Masao. But he was nowhere to be seen.
Thinking that he was inside the classroom, Hiro then entered the classroom. While entering the classroom he looked at Masao’s seat.
However the seat was completely vacant.
He kept on wandering his gazes all over the classroom. However he was still nowhere to be seen.
“Good morning Hiro.”
“You’re here Hiro. How was your holiday?”
The girls in his classroom quickly surrounded him as he entered the classroom.
He tried to ignore them as much as he could. However they still continued to flock over him like swarms of mosquitoes gathered around a sweaty person.
Since he couldn’t avoid them, he tried to put up with them until the start of the class while maintaining a smile on his face.
“The teacher’s coming.” Shouted Rin while entering the classroom.
Finally as Rin entered the classroom and lied to them about the arrival of the teacher, they dispersed.
“You’ve yet to repay me for my previous helps. And now you owe me even more.” Giggled Rin as he placed his bag and took his seat.