Later in the night, after having his dinner, Hiro decided to visit Naoto regarding the earlier incident which he witnessed.
Including Naoto, most of the senior player’s room was on the third floor.
Climbing up the stairs, Hiro made his way towards Naoto’s room, cautiously. Since he was going to talk about something sensitive, he was fearful to reveal the information and he was also somewhat scared to be found out by those players who sneaked into the manager’s office earlier.
Step!! Step!!
Walking up the stairs, he could see the end of the staircase. But he didn’t rush. Infact the more closer he got towards the end of the staircase, the more slower he got.
Climbing the final step, he sneakily hid behind the walls. For few seconds he stayed still at his place to hear any kind of sound coming from the hallway. 𝒊𝒃𝙧𝙚𝒂𝓭.𝓬𝙤𝙢
The hallway however was ghastly silent.
He then sneakily took a peek at the hallway. Bright light of LED bulb had lit up the entire hallway. Doors closed, empty hallway coupled with his fears, the empty hallway looked very sinister.
He then looked to his left and to his right. But the hallway still remained empty and ghastly silent.
‘Seems like everybody’s inside their own room.’ Hiro thought after checking the hallway couple of times.
After confirming that nobody was present in the hallway, he began to walk towards Naoto’s room, cautiously.
Naoto’s room was at the end of the hallway. After walking for couple of seconds, he finally reached Naoto’s room, completely undetected.
Standing infront of Naoto’s room, he then turned his gaze towards the direction where he came from, just in case.
With nobody in sight, the hallway still remained completely empty. After confirming that nobody had seen him, he gently knocked on the door.
Knock!! Knock!!
Hearing the knock on the door, Tatsuki who shared room with Naoto answered, “Yes come inside. The door is open.”
Twisting the handle, Hiro opened the door and entered the room.
Seeing Hiro, Tatsuki who was performing push-ups on the floor, stopped his action and spoke, “Oh it’s you Hiro. Are you here for some workouts?”
“I doubt if he’d have any energy left in him after that run.” Naoto who was sitting on his bed with his back leaning against the wall with a book in his hand, joined in.
“Hahaha… You’re right. After running that many laps on the field, I too doubt if he’d have any energy left in him.” Tatsuki chuckled and nodded his head.
While the two of them were joking, Hiro quickly entered the room and closed the door. As if he was getting chased by someone, he looked quite nervous.
Upon witnessing his unusual behaviour, Tatsuki quickly dropped his smile and asked with a concerned look on his face, “Are you alright? Is something bothering you?”
Hiro however remained completely silent for few seconds.
“You can tell us if something’s bothering you. We’re like your own brothers.” Tatsuki assured while trying to comfort Hiro.
Naoto too dropped the book he was holding and turned his attention towards Hiro. Naoto being smarter than Tatsuki, he could somewhat guess that something was bothering Hiro.
“You can speak comfortably. Nobody’s gonna hear us.” Naoto assured.
Hearing Naoto’s words, Hiro felt a bit at ease. He then walked towards Naoto’s bed and sat down.
“Umm… Today at around evening time, I saw Shotaro, Shunsuke, Takeshi and Yutaro sneakily coming out of manager Makoto’s office when he wasn’t present in the office.” Hiro revealed.
As soon as Tatsuki heard about the thing which was troubling Hiro, Tatsuki burst out into laughter, “Hahaha… And here I thought it was something serious.”
Unable to understand the reason behind Tatsuki’s laughter, Hiro was left dumbfounded.
“Isn’t it a serious issue? Like they snuck into manager’s office without permission.” Hiro exasperated.
“Indeed what they’ve done is wrong. But I can assure you, they weren’t in the office to steal or alter anything. They probably had snuck into the office to look at the name of the newly recruited players. Since some of us will be graduating from U-18 team, they were probably curious about their new teammate.” Naoto tried to clear his doubt in a gentle tone.
“But isn’t it still wrong to sneak into manager’s office?” Hiro argued.
Since he believed that it was wrong to sneak into manager’s office without his permission regardless of one’s reason, Hiro simply couldn’t agree with their point of view.
“Says the one who himself snuck into the pitch today.” Tatsuki joked.
‘How can you become professional if you justify such absurdity.’ Thought Hiro while glaring at Tatsuki.
Tatsuki however didn’t notice his glare because he was busy laughing.
“Don’t worry about it Hiro. I agree with you. I agree that what they’ve done is wrong. And I as your captain will definitely talk to them.” Naoto tried to calm him down.
“Ex captain.” Tatsuki continued to joke.
Infact Naoto and few other guys who were graduating high school at the end of march were leaving the team.
And with the departure of the second choice goalkeeper of Kawasaki Frontale club, Naoto who had already secured a professional contract was going to play as third choice goalkeeper for the senior team.
Along with Naoto, Kazuya who had also secured a pro contract was going to play for the senior team.
And rest of the players who didn’t manage to secure pro contract and were also graduating high school were leaving the academy to join university team or other amateur or professional teams.
Departure of old players and arrival of new players at the beginning of each new session, such scenarios were quite common in professional football academy.
“Yeah as your ex captain, I want to say that I enjoyed playing football with you Hiro. I know that you’ll soon make it to the professional stage as well. If lucky we can see each other in national U-21 team. If not I’ll have to work hard to play with you in senior national team.” Naoto spoke while looking Hiro in the eyes.
And while speaking such, his eyes moistened a bit. But to hide the tears forming in his eyes, he immediately smiled and continued, “But just remember that it’s not a goodbye. We’ll meet again. Who knows I’d even get to play with you when you turn sixteen. Hahaha”
