Just as he entered the shower room, he noticed the floor and the walls covered with white marbles. A lot of shower heads were embedded at the walls.
“1..2..3…4…5…6…7…,13… 14… Damn!! 14 shower heads!!” Hiro intoned after counting the number of shower heads in the shower room. 𝗼𝐯𝐞𝐥．𝐜𝐨𝗺
The hostel shower room had a capacity to host 14 people at once. With a 4 feet tall wall separating the chambers, there were altogether 14 chambers. With no doors, the chambers were quite open.
The ceiling of the shower room was pretty high as well. At the top of the walls there was rectangular glass window used for ventilation.
With bright led lights attached to the ceiling, the whole shower room was illuminated bright by those white lights.
“I expected that reaction.” Yuya mumbled casually after hearing the words of Hiro.
“Now let’s not stand here and stare at the shower in daze. Let’s go and wash ourselves quickly. Afterall other players will be coming in a while.” Saying such Yuya lightly pushed him forward.
“Woah!! Woah!!”
Upon getting pushed by Yuya, he wobbled a little and crashed against another player. Luckily neither of them fell down.
The player with whom he crashed was the opposing left winger.
“Sorry!! Sorry!!”
While trying to stabilise himself, he apologized for crashing on him. However the guy with whom he crashed against didn’t speak anything at all.
Unable to hear his response, Hiro shrugged his attention away from him. He then turned back and poured on Yuya;
“It could have been dangerous Yuya. Luckily noone got injured. But please don’t do such things again.”
“Sorry!! I won’t do it again.” Yuya apologized while joining his hands into a namaste.
“It’s okay. But don’t do such things from next time.” Saying such, he turned around.
And just as he turned around, he found the opposing winger staring at him. Wavy black hair which almost covered his eyes, sharp nose and somewhat tanned skin. With his bulging eyes, he was staring at him waiting for an opportunity to erupt.
“You’re fond of dancing huh?? Dancing on the field wasn’t enough so you started to dance on the shower room too!!” The left winger exasperated.
“Why are you making this issue big Seiya? He has already apologized to you for crashing against you. And plus it wasn’t even his fault. It was me who pushed him.” Yuya stepped forward to defend Hiro.
“I’m not talking to you dork.” Seiya shrugged his words and turned his attention towards Hiro, once again.
“Who does he think he is? Why must he get special treatment from the coach?? Today just because of him our friends got punished. Today it’s them, tomorrow it’ll be us.” Seiya erupted.
Just as he finished, other players around them started to gossip.
“Yeah why does he get special treatment?”
“Yeah!! Seiya’s correct.”
“Today it’s them, tomorrow it’ll be us as well.”
Hiro didn’t react to his claims and kept on staring at him with his mouth shut. He thought that speaking more would only worsen the situation. And he was there to play football and improve himself. He knew that Seiya was upset about the punishment. Thus, he kept his mouth shut.
‘All bark but no bite. So let’s wait for him to cool down.’ He thought while looking at him bark.
However Yuya, Shunta and Shun who were beside him didn’t share his intentions. They stood up for him.
Especially Yuya who was fuming with anger after listening to the unreasonable claims of Seiya was on the verge of eruption.
“He’s a nationals champion. A talent sought after by the world. And speaking of the punishment, those players running in the field only got punished because of their unwillingness to cooperate. Or did you not hear what manager Nozomi said a moment ago?” Yuya exploded.
Hearing such words coming out from the mouth of Yuya, everybody in the shower room got silent all of a sudden.
Then after a moment of pause, they began to gossip.
“He has won the nationals?”
“No wonder he plays so well.”
“There must be something special in him.”
While majority of the player in the room was praising him. There were also some players who were stil criticising him.
“That must be a lie.”
After listening to the words of Yuya, Seiya started to get flustered. He wasn’t willing to accept his claims.
“Hah!! What national champion? Stop lying. If he did win the national championship, then why don’t he tell us the name of his school?” Unwilling to accept the fact that Hiro had won national championship, Seiya asked him about his school name with a smug smile on his face.
As if he was sure that the words of Yuya were mere lies, he questioned him without a bit of hesitation.
“Ookami elementary school. The 2019 champions. He’s their star player Takahashi Hiro. If you don’t believe me, you can go Google it in manager Nozomi’s phone as well.” Yuya replied.
Since they weren’t allowed to bring mobile phone in the hostel, Yuya told them to search for the fact from manager Nozomi’s phone.
“Now I remember!! You’re that Soccer Wizard right??” Takekazu interrupted after listening to statement of Yuya.
Hiro who was staring blankly at Yuya turned his gaze towards Takekazu and replied;
“Yeah! I did operate that channel for a while. Though I didn’t post more than 5 videos. And I also deleted the account before the start of pandemic.”
“I knew it. No wonder you felt so familiar. Hirato he’s the same guy from the video I showed you back then.” Takekazu shouted in ecstasy.
Hirato who was standing just beside the door with his towels went completely blank after hearing the words of Takekazu.
Since the beginning, he didn’t have any favourable impression of Hiro. But now that he found out that he was a very famous footballing talent, he was at a loss of words.
“Damn!! I never realised that you were a national champion Hiro.” Shun mumbled while looking at Hiro.
“Yeah!! And he has participated in five of it as well.” Yuya continued with his flattery.
“Holy cow! Five times!!” With their mouth agape, all of the player in the shower room intoned.
“My school from Hokkaido never even got to participate in the nationals.” Shun mumbled under his breathe.