During the evening time, when the sky dusked and the shadows got long and hard, silhouette of two persons were seen moving in the field.
Running laps around the field, Hiro and Shun were getting punished for their earlier actions.
While Hiro looked completely fine, the same couldn’t be said to Shun. Sweaty, out of breath and his tongue sticking out, Shun was extremely exhausted.
Looking completely out of breath, Shun mumbled while trying to catch up to Hiro who was about 10 steps away from him, “Hiro… Wait… Wait for me.”
Slowing down his pace, Hiro who’s shirt was already soaked with his sweat, replied, “Hurry up. We still have 5 more laps left.”
“5 more laps…” With the pitch of his voice increasing, Shun exasperated as if he was on the verge of collapsing.
Huff!! Huff!! Huff!!
Panting heavily and running as if he had hurt his legs, Shun continued, “We’ve already run 20 laps around the field.”
With his feets twitching and his leg muscles convulsing, Shun was starting to stumble.
Hiro who had already been holding back himself by running alongside Shun, matching his pace, turned around. And as he turned around, Hiro found Shun wobbling while trying his best to prevent himself from collapsing out of exhaustion and pain.
Seeing the miserable state of Shun, Hiro ran backwards and grabbed Shun’s arm and prevented him from falling down.
“We’ve already run 20 laps, so let’s give our best and complete this five more laps and complete our punishment.” Hiro tried to encourage Shun.
“It’s not fair. You’re a midfielder, so running 25 laps isn’t a big deal for you. But I’m a goalkeeper.” Shun complained about the unfairness of the punishment. “The most I’ve ever run is 15 laps. And today I’ve already broken my own record”
“My feet is already turning numb from pain. And it feels like I’m carrying 20 kg weight in my feet. Every step feels so heavy.” Shun continued to whine.
Even so, with Hiro’s support, he didn’t stop. And despite the pain, he continued to run.
Finally after about 20 minutes more, Shun completed the punishment alongside Hiro who supported him and prevented him from falling down midway.
Completely exhausted and drenched in sweat, Shun collapsed on the ground just as Hiro released him.
“Good work there.” Hiro complimented Shun for his perseverance, trying to cheer him up. “You’ve set a new record for yourself.”
Shun who was lying on the ground was struggling to stabilise his breath. His heart was racing and his face looked flushed. And because of the exhaustion, he couldn’t even bring himself to speak.
Witnessing his miserable state, Hiro bent down and grabbed Shun’s legs. He then began to massage Shun’s leg to prevent it from cramping.
While massaging Shun’s legs, Hiro asked with a concerned look on his face, “Are you alright? Or should I inform coach and ask him to take you to the infirmary?”
While lying on the pitch, Shun shook his head. He then lifted his hand and gave him a thumbs up.
Witnessing his gesture, Hiro revealed a slight smile and mumbled in a low voice, “Don’t try to act cool now. I’ll go and ask coach for some spray and bandages.”
Saying such Hiro released Shun’s legs and began to make his way outside the pitch.
While making his way towards the coach’s office, he found few of the guys of U-18 team sneakily coming out from the manager Makoto’s office.
Hiding behind the corner, so that they couldn’t notice him, Hiro began to wonder the purpose behind them coming out of Makoto’s office, ‘Shotaro, Shunsuke, Takeshi, Yutaro. Why are they coming out of manager’s office?’
Sneakily coming out of manager’s office, they then hurriedly ran away. And since Hiro had hidden himself perfectly, they didn’t notice his presence.
Just as they left, Hiro walked out of the corner. Looking at the sight of them leaving, Hiro couldn’t help but think something negative after seeing them sneakily coming out of the manager’s office, ‘Did they still something from manager’s office? Or did they perhaps alter some documents?’
Since Hiro didn’t have any decisive proof, he could only speculate.
With no solid evidence, he couldn’t simply frame them as well.
“Should I report it to manager?” Mumbled Hiro to himself. “But if I do that then they might turn against me. And it might also divide the team. So let’s just keep it to myself.”
While he was standing in the hallway, thinking on what to do, he noticed manager Makoto walking down the stairs.
“Let’s just keep it to myself. I’ll ask for Naoto’s suggestion later.” Mumbling such, he decided to not tell about them sneaking inside manager’s office for the time being.
Hiro then rushed towards the manager to ask him for few bandages and muscle cooling sprays.
**** ****
While Hiro was gone, Shun was still lying on the ground. By that time he had stabilized his heartbeat and breathing.
“No wonder people like him. He’s got such a pleasant personality. And although he doesn’t talk a lot. You can just tell by his actions that he cares.” Shun mumbled while staring at the sky above him.
Few stars were starting to get visible as the sky was starting to turn darker.
Even Shun knew that earlier Hiro was holding himself back by matching his pace.
“That Masao boy may not even know it. But despite that you helped him without asking anything in return.” 𝒍𝓲𝒃𝙧𝒆𝒂.𝓬𝙤𝒎
His heart filled with admiration, Shun couldn’t stop himself from admiring Hiro.
But then suddenly his face darkened as he squinted his eyes, “But not every people value kindness this day. I fear that someday your kindness will bring you big trouble.”
Although he was grateful to Hiro, Shun was also concerned about Hiro. Since Hiro was overtly kind to everyone and as a friend Shun feared that people will take advantage of his kindness.
As he was thinking such, a gust of refreshing cold breeze blew past him. As if the breeze was telling him that he was worrying for nothing, the breeze woke him up.
At that moment Hiro too came back with bandages and muscle cooling spray in his hands.