As he heard those words of Hiro while looking him straight in the eye, different complicated emotions started to take shape within his heart. Yet he couldn't bring himself to speak his heart out.

Experiencing Yuya's unresponsiveness, Hiro felt quite pitiful and sympathetic towards Yuya. If possible, he wanted to help Yuya. But Yuya had already built a wall around him. And forcefully taking that wall down would only worsen the situation.

Thus, he decided to leave Yuya by himself for the time being. However that didn't mean that he was giving up on him. It's just leaving him alone for some time seemed the best possible outcome right now since Hiro wasn't good with words in the first place.

"Then I'll get going for now."

Bidding his farewell, Hiro walked past Yuya without waiting for his response.

For some while, even after Hiro's departure, Yuya stood frozen at his place with a hollow heart. He could no longer tell what was right and what was wrong.

His face betrayed of any kinds of emotions, he simply stood their expressionless; staring at the ground beneath.

**** ****

"What was going on your mind when you made that final block?"

A somewhat timid looking guy who was seated opposite to Shun who right now was surrounded by flocks of player excitedly asked.

With a smirk on his face, while puffing his chest and flaring his nostril, Shun rose from his seat at once. Brimming with pride, he then answered in somewhat overexaggerating tone, "At that moment when that arrogant captain of the opposing team was rushing towards me, I said to myself that I'd eat this guy alive"

Listening to his exaggerated explanation, the entire room got silent as they all focused their attention towards Shun who right now was the center of the attention.

Continuing his explanation, he then jolted his eyes towards Akihiro who had raised this question, "Then I looked him in the eye. In that moment, he too fiercely looked at me. But nonetheless, I didn't divert my eyes off of him. Instead I glared back at him and challenged him, come at me if you dare"

Lost in his storytelling, everybody became intrigued as his way of explaining details piqued their interest. Almost everybody present there was aware that what seemed to be only few seconds to the onlookers was rather long for the ones experiencing it.

For example while making a simple save, countless thoughts appear in the mind of the keeper. In those split seconds, he had to read the distance, predict the shoot course and also try to predict the next move the attacker would make.

Just as Einstein had famously proclaimed in his one of the renowned theory, "Time is relative". What may seem to others only a fraction of second to other might be an eternity to the one experiencing it.

But what we onlookers see is only the outcome.

"Then while he was rushing towards me, I also rushed towards him. I was ready to put my life on the line for making that save. In that moment, I didn't care if I got pelted on my face or on my balls. Then just as he was about to shoot, I sensed a change in his aura. It was like, all of a sudden he became even more scarry."

The listeners who were ardently listening to Shun's exaggerated story was so engrossed in his story that some of them while feeling the suspense, unwittingly gulped their saliva.

"Then bam!!"

Just as Shun finished articulating his words, Hiro who had walked into the room totally unnoticed; spoke, "So much suspense for one save"

Hearing his words which to them came out of nowhere and spoiled the fun, startled many of them. But soon they started grumpily complaining about his intervention, "Why do you have to spoil the fun when we were just about to get to the climax?"

"Yeah, couldn't you at least let him finish his story?"

Specially Shun, he seemed the most unhappiest out of them all. Afterall why wouldn't he be unhappy? He was telling such an interesting experience but he walked out of nowhere and ruined his story.

Immediately, Shun then started retaliating while making an unsatisfied face, "Weren't you satisfied with your previous intervention?"

It wasn't Shun's first time getting asked this particular question. After the final match, he had been asked this same question by his teammates from the national team. And even that time, Hiro had spoiled his story by intervening in the middle.

"Well, your story is just too unrealistic"

Hiro answered nonchalantly as if he had done nothing wrong.

"What's so unrealistic about it?"

In somewhat unsatisfied tone, Shun questioned Hiro.

"From start to finish, everything is unrealistic. First up all, do you even use your brains?"

His words were like a direct slap to his face. And hearing those words triggered Shun as his face became red with anger.

However next instance just as he was about to launch himself towards Hiro, somebody in the crowd burst into laughter.

"HAHAHAHA"

Followed by that laughter, a chained reaction took place as one by one almost everybody present in the crowd burst into laughter.

"Hahaha, Hiro's kinda got a point"

"Yeah, it's rather questionable that Shun thought that much, hahaha"

"Yeah, we're talking about Shun after all"

Soon enough, the once tensed mood inside the room became lively as laughter of players echoed all around the room. Followed by several defeats and draws, it had been quite sometimes since the dormitory had been this cheerful.

And Yuya who happened to caught glimpse of this extremely lively atmosphere from outside the door couldn't help but feel complicated upon seeing this scene. He should be rejoicing like the rest but yet he couldn't bring himself to rejoice.

He had never been treated like this. Let alone someone showing goodwill, during his stay with this team not even a single person had offered even a friendly handshake to him.

Even the treatment, one would get was based on their skills. Not only did Hiro intervene the story of Shun and spoiled the fun, he even insulted Shun directly to his face, yet nobody was angry at him. Instead they all appreciated his sense of humor.

Why was the treatment with him and Hiro different? Why was he treated like shit while he's treated like king?

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