At around 4 in the evening, he arrived infront of the hostel gate with his father.
“So are we here?” His father questioned as the cab stopped infront of the hostel gate.
“Seems like it.” Hiro replied while looking at his smartphone. He was using Google map to guide the cab driver towards their destination.
Despite visiting the city about two years ago, he had only visited the main stadium during his visit at that time. And thus, he himself had absolutely no idea about the location of hostel.
Unaware of the location of the hostel, he even thought of visiting the stadium first. However because the senior team had a match that day, he was forced to look for the hostel instead.
“But just in case let’s ask that guy over there.” He mumbled while pointing at an old man dressed in a guard uniform, seated at a chair infront of the metal gate with a wooden guard stick in his hand.
Saying such both of them hopped out of the cab and walked towards the old man to ask him if they were in the correct destination. However as they reached the place where the old man was seated, they found him drowsing in his chair. While seated at the chair, his head was sinking to his chest slowly while his eyes were struggling to keep him awake.
“Would it be alright to question him in such state?” Hiro whispered while looking at the drowsy state of the old man infront.
“We don’t have any other option. The cab driver only knows about the way to the stadium. And there’s literally nobody around us except the man infront. So let’s just ask him quickly and leave.” His father whispered back while looking at the face of old man who was struggling to keep him awake.
As mentioned by his father besides them, the cab driver and the man infront, there were absolutely nobody present there at that moment. The surrounding around them was as empty as space.
And the hostel was located in quite an unpopulated place as well.
So even though he was somewhat hesitant to disturb the man infront, he reluctantly decided to question the old man.
“Er… Umm… Excuse me Sir.” Hiro muttered in a soft voice.
The old man didn’t respond at all and only kept on swinging his head up and down.
‘Did he not hear me? Or is he simply pretending to be asleep.’ He thought after witnessing the unresponsive attitude of the old man. 𝐞𝗼𝐯𝐞𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
“Hello! Excuse me Sir! Can you tell us about the location of the hostel of Kawasaki Frontale’s youth team?” Agitated by the unresponsiveness of the old man, he yelled at the top of his voice.
Upon hearing the loud voice of Hiro, the old man abruptly opened his eyes and swung his guard stick at Hiro.
Hiro quickly leaped back to avoid the stick.
Since Hiro wasn’t standing close enough to him, he didn’t get hit by the guard stick. However the scenario would have been completely different, if he had been standing close to the guard.
“Who? Who? Who are you?” He stammered while pointing his guard stick towards Hiro.
“Er… Umm… We’re sorry for disturbing you. We were looking for the hostel of the Kawasaki Frontale’s youth club. But we couldn’t find it’s location. And there wasn’t anybody else around us beside you. That’s why we wanted to ask you for directions. So we’re really sorry about disturbing you during your sleep.” His father apologized while trying to explain the old man about their circumstances.
Upon hearing his father’s apology, the old man suddenly burst out in laughter.
“Hahaha…., You’re asking for the direction of the apple vendor while sitting underneath the apple tree yourself.”
“But we’re not asking for the direction to the apple tree. We’re asking for the direction to the hostel of the Kawasaki Frontale’s youth team.” Hiro blurted out dumbfoundedly. He didn’t understand the meaning behind his words.
“Sigh!!”
“That’s not what he meant Hiro. What he mean is that we’re already infront of the hostel.” His father mumbled in a low voice after releasing a deep sigh.
“That’s right. You’re already standing at the front gate of the hostel of Kawasaki Frontale’s youth team. Look infront, the hostel is just past this metal gates.” The old man lowered his guard stick and exclaimed while pointing his stick behind him.
“Great!! We’re here. Let’s go and get your luggage.” His father intoned after hearing the exclaims of the guard.
Both of them then walked towards the cab to unload Hiro’s luggage.
Since his father was going to spend a night at the city hotel, he requested the cab owner to keep the cab on standby for a while.
‘First they ask me about the direction to the hostel. And now when I tell them that the hostel is right infront of them, they walk away without telling anything. What kind of strange people are these two?’ The guard thought while looking at them leave towards the cab without saying anything to him.
The guard was left dumbfounded by their actions.
“Now why are they coming back with luggage?” He mumbled upon seeing them returning back with luggage.
“What are they planning on doing? The hostel is off limits for normal people.” He continued to stare at them.
“Sir you can’t enter the hostel without permission.” The guard rose up from his seat and blocked their way inside, while they were making their way towards the hostel with Hiro’s luggage.
“Hasn’t the club already informed you about my arrival?” Hiro questioned while pausing infront of the guard.
“The club has indeed informed me about the arrival of a new player. But I need to confirm first that the mentioned player is you. So do you have any sort of confirmation that you could provide me?” The guard asked him for confirmation.
“Ahh right!! Sorry about that. I forgot to hand you the letter provided by the club. Hahaha…”
Saying such, he took out a letter from his bag and handed it over to the guard infront.
He had completely forgot about the letter of enrollment provided by the club. Eric had specially reminded him multiple times on the phone to hand over the enrollment letter to the hostel guard before making his way inside the hostel.
But because of the excitement, he had completely forgot about his words.
After taking the enrollment letter from his hand, the guard looked at him with suspicious eyes.
“Sorry for forgetting to hand over the letter to you.” He replied meekly after noticing his gaze full of suspicion towards him.