I woke up a few minutes before my alarm is supposed to go off, ‘Well, that’s rare,’ I thought to myself as I got out of bed.
“Chief, are you up yet?” I asked, but got no response.
“Chief?”
I walked up to the bed he was sleeping in, but he wasn’t there.
“Ah-hah, I get it. You’re taking a dook, aren’t you?”
I turned around and stood in front of the toilet’s door.
“Hey, chief. Are you alright in there?”
Once again, there was no response. I tried knocking but still no sign of the chief. I concluded that I must have still been sleeping. I went back to bed in attempt to wake up in a world with the chief in it. But, the very moment I laid down in bed, the chief opened the door from the hallway.
“Huh?! Chief?”
“Hmm? Good morning, shouldn’t you be getting ready for school?”
“Well, yeah. I should. I have morning practice after all,” I said, after getting out of bed again and grabbing my uniform. His entrée nearly made me forget why I went back to bed in the first place.
“Chief, where–”
“Soichiro, how would you spend your day today if you were me?”
“Hmmm… good question,” I was thinking about it as I put on my uniform. If I were in his shoes I’d definitely avoid going outside, “I’d stay inside… and just relax in my room, I think?”
“Then I’ll do just that, thanks.”
“Let me know if you need anything.”
I grabbed my schoolbag, shot a quick glance at my wardrobe mirror and walked off towards the hallway door.
“See you later, chief,” I said, whilst giving him a pat on the shoulder.
“See y–”
“Wait a minute,” I cut his sentence off and didn’t let go of his shoulder.
“Err, what’s wrong?”
I sniffed the air, getting closer to his body with every sniff. It doesn’t take a sleuth hound to figure out where this crisp scent is coming from.
“Why do you smell so good?” I asked him.
He didn’t flinch nor shriek, in fact, he was calmer than ever. He raised his slightly down-tilted head to horizon level, turned his head and looked me in the eyes.
“You’re running late,” he said.
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I looked over his head, at the clock hanging on the wall. He was right, I was running late.
“Oof, you’re right. I better get going. See you later, chief!”
I let go of his shoulder and ran my way out of the house.
***
I made it to our training grounds in time. There, I was greeted by the captain.
“Good morning, Yamamoto-kun! Hope you’re all fired up again as usual!”
“Of course I am!” I said, as I gave him a fist bump, “There’s a lot on my mind at the moment, so I’m gonna give it my all in practice today. To clear my head, you know.”
“Uh-huh, that’s the spirit!”
We started the training off with a couple of laps around the football field. All of us singing—well, yelling—chants at the top of our lungs to boost our motivation, energy and team spirit. Our team doesn’t consist of the most talented players, in fact, none of us on our own are anything above average. Together however, we’re an unstoppable unit.
“Wakou high school!” our captain yells out loud.
“Wakou high school!” the rest of us chant along.
“Are gonna redeem the title dream!”
"Are gonna redeem the title dream!”
“Because we’ve got Izumi on the team!”
“Because we’ve got Izumi on the team!”
The person who’s hyped up in the final line of our chant has to run to the front of the line and improvise a chant of his own. This goes on until everyone has chanted.
After three of our players did their chant, it was my turn to go up front.
“Good morning,” I heard Hirawa greet our manager—and classmate.
“Good morning, Hirawa. Here to watch the training?”
“I was just passing by, but their energy made me curious,” she giggled, “Oh, is that Soichiro-kun, running up front?”
“Yup, he’s going to lead the chant now.”
Crap, Hirawa is watching… argh, now is not the time to get nervous.
“Outta the way, Wakou’s here to play!”
“Outta the way, Wakou’s here to play!”
‘Man, why does it have to be a freestyle everyday…’ I thought to myself.
“Chest puffed, head up, we’ll win the regionals cup!”
“Chest puffed, head up, we’ll win the regionals cup!
“Morning practice early rise, our opponents we traumatize!”
“Morning practice early rise, our opponents we traumatize!”
“He’s really giving it his all,” Hirawa said with a smile.
***
Later on during my first class I was a little bit low in spirits—especially compared to earlier this morning. I drop my head onto my desk as I let out a sigh.
“Are you alright, Soichiro-kun?” Hirawa asked.
“I miss the Chief…” I said, before even realising the situation, “I mean, I’m totally fine,” I picked my head up and sat back in proper posture.
“The chief… is Tamaki-kun, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I nod.
She went silent and looked away for a second.
“Why do you call him ‘chief’ if I may ask?”
“Well, when we were younger, up until we turned twelve years old, he was our playground leader, you could say. He would always make sure that everyone was getting along, and that no one was left out. It all sounds silly when you look back so far in the past, but back then it meant the world to me. Someone like me who—up until then— had never fit in easily, suddenly didn’t have a hard time making friends anymore. Now things aren’t…” I let my sentence trail off into nothingness as I turned my voice’s volume button down.
“You really admire him a lot, huh. Although I have to be honest, I would have never expected Tamaki-kun to be anything like that in the past.”
“Most people wouldn’t, I suppose,” I laughed.
All of a sudden, I heard his name in a conversation on the other side of the classroom. People were whispering about his absence, in correlation with yesterday’s news of course.
“Say, Soichiro,” a classmate called out to me, “Do you have any idea whether Tamaki is turning up today or not?”
“Negative. The chief hasn’t informed me about his whereabouts.”
They took that answer without prying further. Someone else on the other hand…
“That’s a lie, isn’t it,” Hirawa whispered.
“No comment,” I said, making her subtly laugh.
***
The rest of the day went by slower than any other slow day I’ve ever had. Luckily, once the final bell rang, I could rush home and strategize with the chief again.
When I arrived at home, I had a quick chat with Iori-san. After that I immediately ran down the stairs to go to my room. Once there I had a quick chat with the chief about my day. It really seemed like that would be all there was to this rather uneventful day. That was until we turned on the news right after dinner.
“Chief…”
He didn’t say a word, he didn’t move. Too stunned to react, he blankly stared out in front of him. It was only after a solid minute passed that the first words found their way out of his mouth.
“How did it… escalate this quickly?”