After a few more training drills, the morning training finally came to an end. With the sun shining over the horizon, the clear morning sky was awash with golden lights.
Despite his poor performance in the first test, Hirato uplifted his position and attained a comparatively high ranking by the end of the training by performing really well in other tests.
Hiro who performed significantly well in every single test easily secured the first place by a large margin. However Shunta who had placed first in the first test couldn’t perform well in other tests. Still he barely avoided the punishment by placing in 20th overall ranking. Yuya and Shun who performed decently well got placed in 14th and 11th spot in the overall ranking respectively.
But what surprised him the most was the ranking of Takekazu, Seiya and Koto Yui. Takekazu secured a 3rd place, Seiya secured a 5th place and Koto Yui secured a 7th place.
And just as manager Nozomi dismissed the players after concluding the end of the morning training, Hiro accompanied by Yuya, Shunta and Shun started walking towards the hostel.
“Shun’s ranking is understandable since he’s a keeper but Yuya and Shunta, you guys really need to improve yourself if you want to play in the starting 11.” Hiro intoned sounding somewhat worried while making his way towards the hostel building.
Despite it being his first morning training, Hiro was already commentating on the performance of other players.
“But I think I performed decently well.” Yuya casually replied as if he was satisfied with his performance.
Shunta on the other hand kept his mouth shut and shrunk his body in an attempt to avoid getting detected by Hiro.
“See!! That’s the problem with you Yuya. You’re not hungry to improve. You’re just satisfied with your current performance.” Hiro pointed out the flaw in Yuya’s mentality.
Unwilling to accept such criticism, Yuya tried to divert the topic of their conversation elsewhere.
“Hahaha…. I’ll keep that in mind. Ahh right!! You’ll be attending your first physical classes from today onwards right?” Yuya chuckled and questioned while attempting to change the topic of their conversation.
However Hiro wasn’t willing to let him change the topic of the conversation. He was genuinely worried about Yuya.
“Just know that satisfaction will always keep you away from fulfilling your potential. You’ll never realise your true potential until you push yourself to your absolute limit everyday.” Hiro stated while making a serious face.
Hiro was simply uttering the truth. But as we all know truth is only harsh when someone is unable to face it. And to Yuya who was simply unwilling to face such truth, the words of Hiro struck him like an arrow shot towards his heart.
“Yeah!! How can someone gifted like you know the suffering of us untalented ones.” Yuya replied coldly and hurriedly stormed towards the building all by himself, leaving their company.
Yuya’s action left him dumbfounded and he kept on staring at him running towards the building. Even though he was only trying to help him, unknowingly he had hurt Yuya’s feeling.
To Yuya who didn’t have extraordinary physique like Takekazu, wasn’t gifted like Hiro and Hirato and didn’t have pace like Shunta, those geniune words of Hiro was simply a statement mocking his efforts.
**** ****
After taking a quick shower, Hiro went to the cafeteria to get himself something to eat. Morning breakfast was provided from 7:15 onwards in the morning.
By the time he arrived at the cafeteria, it was already flooded with players. Players from both U-15 and U-18 team had already occupied most of the tables in the cafeteria.
Shun and Shunta who had simply poured water over their body were already seated at one of the tables with their breakfast.
Yuya who had left all by himself a moment ago was also seated beside them with tray full of food. However he didn’t notice him among the crowd of players.
‘Those guys!! Did they not wash themselves??’ He thought while looking at them.
Just then while he was staring at them, Shun suddenly lifted his chin up. And as he noticed Hiro standing beside the door of the cafeteria, he arched his mouth and smiled while looking at him.
Smiling with his mouth full of rice, his face resembled a squirrel who had stuffed nuts inside it’s mouth.
‘Hahaha…. What is he? A squirrel??’ He chuckled while looking at the smiling face of Shun.
“Save a seat for me.” He whispered while looking at him.
Seeing his gesture, Shun nodded his head.
Hiro then got himself a tray full of same food as other as well. His tray consisted of a bowl full of rice, fish cutlets, miso soup, boiled egg and some veggies accompanied by a glass of orange juice.
With his tray full of food, Hiro walked towards the table where Shun, Shunta and Yuya were seated.
But as he reached the table where his friends were seated, he paused all of a sudden. The sight of Yuya running away flashed in his mind as he noticed Yuya seated at that table.
Still upset from the previous conversation, Yuya didn’t even bother to lift his head up. He kept on munching the food in his tray.
“Why are you standing over there like a mannequin? Have a seat. We’ll have to leave by 8:15.” Shun intoned after noticing him standing infront of the table holding his tray.
“Ahh okay!! Excuse me then.” Mumbling such, he took a seat beside Yuya.
Unaffected by his arrival, Yuya still continued to deliberately ignore his presence.
‘Is he still upset about the comments I made earlier?’ He thought while lifting his chopsticks.
“Umm…, Yuya.” He tried to start a conversation with Yuya.
But Yuya still continued to ignore him.
Yuya’s unresponsiveness made him uncomfortable. But that didn’t stop him from talking with him.
“Look.., I’m sorry about saying such things earlier. But I really didn’t say such things to mock you. I just wanted to help you. So I’m sorry if I hurt you in some way.” Hiro apologized.
“Yeah!! Yuya!! You too know that he’s not the type of guy who’d mock anybody right? So don’t be so upset about the earlier conversation.” Shun and Shunta vouched for Hiro.
“Indeed!! I simply wanted to help you Yuya.” Hiro continued.
“I know Hiro. I know that you meant good for me. It’s just I’m scared of trying hard.” Yuya replied after hearing his apology.
“So you don’t have to say sorry to me, Hiro. I’m just scared to compete against this god gifted talents. No matter how hard I try sometimes I feel like I can never reach their level.” Yuya’s voice shook as he revealed his fear. There was pain in his voice. 𝓫𝓭𝓸𝓋𝓁．𝓬𝓸𝓂
As if he was deliberately trying to hide something from his past, his answers were vague.