Ring!! Ring!!
At around 5 in the morning, an irritating sound of the alarm clock similar to that of emergency horn reverberating from Shun’s side of bed, woke him up.
However the person who had set the alarm clock, showed no reaction and kept on sleeping like a pig.
“Urgh!! Shun!! Turn off your alarm clock.” Hiro murmured while covering his ears and went back to sleep.
Even though he would normally wake up at around that time in the morning, he was struggling to wake up at the sound of the alarm clock that morning.
Because of his late night conversation with Shun, both of them had slept pretty late in the previous night.
And thus instead of waking up, he tried to sleep some more while covering his ears. But the irritating sound from the alarm clock continued without a break.
“Argh!! Shun!! Shut that damn alarm off.” He exasperated.
However Shun still didn’t reply anything at all. Neither did he turn off the alarm nor did he reply anything, he simply kept on sleeping while snoring.
Unable to hear Shun’s response, he rose up from his bed and wobbled towards Shun’s drawer attached to his bed to turn off the alarm clock.
With both their beds placed side by side, there was a decent space between their beds.
“Urgh!! Just why does he set alarm, if he’s not going to wake up.” He mumbled sounding somewhat annoyed while walking back towards his bed after turning off the alarm clock.
Just as he was walking towards his bed, a gust of cold breeze came rustling towards him out of nowhere. That gust of cold breeze gave him chills.
Feeling cold, he crossed his arm and squeezed his body.
“Now where did this gust of breeze come from?” Mumbling such, he turned his gaze towards the window.
The maroon coloured plain curtains were dangling and dancing along with the wind. Because of their late night conversation, they had completely forgotten to shut the window.
“So the window was open huh.” Saying such, he walked towards the window to close the window.
But just as he was about to shut the window, his eyes wandered towards the pitch outside.
Players were already rushing towards the pitch for their morning training. Seeing them rushing towards the pitch, he remembered something.
“Ahh!! Right!! Previous night, he mentioned about the morning training which starts at 5:30 in the morning. So what time is it right now??”
After remembering about the morning training, he leaned back to check the time in Shun’s alarm clock. The clock read as such 5:10.
“Shun!!! Wake up. It’s already 5:10.” He panicked after noticing the time on the clock.
He then quickly folded his blankets and took out his toothbrush from his bag. He still hadn’t unpacked his luggage. However he had placed his daily use item on a carry bag instead of a suitcase.
While he was hurrying to leave for the training, Shun was still lying in the bed with his eyes shut. Saliva dripping from his open mouth atop his pillow, he was drooling while sleeping in a weird position.
Unable to wake him via his voice, he shook him to wake him.
And as he began to shake him, he woke up while shouting in a state of panic;
“Earthquake!! Earthquake!!”
“Yeah!! Yeah!! It’s the beginning of an apocalypse. So wake up now.” Saying such, he walk towards his bed to grab his boot and training kit.
After conversing with Shun in the previous night, Hiro had found out that Shun was fond of manga and webtoons. That’s why, he made such remarks when Shun woke up in a state of panic.
“I’ll leave first. You should hurry up as well.” Saying such, he unlocked the door and left the room.
**** ****
With few bright stars and crescent moon still shining brightly atop the dark sky, the sun hadn’t risen yet.
“Good morning coach!” Hiro greeted manager Nozomi who was standing infront of the door of the pitch dressed in an ash grey tracksuit.
“Good morning Hiro” He greeted him back. After greeting him, he started to scribble something on a note which he was carrying in his hand. As if he was noting his time of attendance, he continued to note down something for about few seconds.
And as he finished noting down, he lifted his head and looked towards him.
“You’re the 15th.” Nozomi mumbled while looking at him.
“Huh!!” He asked dumbfoundedly. He didn’t understand the meaning behind his statement.
“You’re the 15th one to arrive on the pitch.” Nozomi clarified.
“Damn!! Players here are damn punctual.” Hiro intoned after finding out the meaning behind Nozomi’s earlier statement.
“Hahaha!! One must be willing to arrive early and leave late, if they’re aiming to become a pro afterall.” Nozomi chuckled as he heard him. “Go to coach Kazushi Fuji. He’ll instruct you about the training drill.”
“Yes sir!!” Saying such, he entered the pitch.
At the sidelines of the pitch, a man probably in his thirties was standing with a checklist in his hand, dressed in a casual tracksuit.
Coach Fuji was one of the assistant coach’s of manager Makoto who was responsible with the task of overseeing the training drills of the players.
He was also an analyst who advised both the managers about the performance of the players in the training. He was also tasked with the responsibility of analysing the performance of the players in official matches.
“Good morning coach Fuji. I’m Takahashi Hiro. A new recruit for the team.” Since coach Fuji was at the U-18 pitch the day before when he introduced himself, he greeted him while introducing himself.
“I know you. I was one of the coaches who approved your signing afterall.” Coach Fuji replied casually.
“Ohh!! I didn’t know about that.” Hiro mumbled with a stoic face after listening to the words of coach Fuji. 𝒃𝒆𝙣𝒐𝒗𝙚𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝒎
“Go stretch your body for a while. We’ll start the training with the team at exactly 5:30.” He advised him to stretch his body.
Since there was still 7 minutes left for the training to begin, coach Fuji wanted him to stretch his body.
“Yes sir!!” He replied and turned around.
All the other players who had arrived early were doing their own thing as well. Some were running while some were shooting. Everybody in the pitch was doing their own thing.