Sae knew he was in a bind with the 1500-metre race; he knew too well that pacing wasn’t his forte. It didn’t matter whether he felt ecstatic or not about it. He had already signed up for the event, so intended to improve his stamina.

For the next two weeks, Sae went for a run on days he had time but avoided the small plaza and his school at all costs as to avoid meeting Shum Deil.

Everyone wanted to do well and qualify for the relay. Before the preliminary race, Sae was nagged at until he had no other choice but to ask Emi to help them. After all, the little girl had been a member of the track and field club for years.

Emi agreed, of course, telling Sae to bring everyone that Saturday. She said the more, the better. She also invited another member of her track team so they could demonstrate things.

Almost a year after graduation, Susu, Teo, Kaikai and Sae returned to H Junior High. The school looked identical to what they last saw. It was as unchanging as ever but no longer felt the same.

Emi and Sae came in from the back gate while the others arrived from the opposite direction. They were still metres apart when Kaikai started hollering, followed by Teo chasing him for a round.

Sae raised an arm to wave at the others. He looked around and saw a lone figure descending the stairs. Who could that be?

Someone also sprawled on the field with a bike tossed down next to them.

“Who are those two?” Sae asked Emi.

The little girl put her phone away before answering. Her hair was braided into two buns atop her head, and any time Sae looked at her, he had the notion to squeeze them.

These are called space buns, Emi had told him before they left. Now, she pointed towards the stairs, “Track club member, and…” She turned her hand in an arch, “That’s Deil.”

Although Sae had known the answer for a long time, it still made his lips flatten into a line.

Emi, the little traitor, invited Shum Deil to join their unprofessional training at the drop of a hat. Though, in her defence, she didn’t know what she did was treacherous.

Emi gauged Sae’s expression. “He said he’s giving the relay a shot, so I told him he should join us. Is that a problem?”

“...No.”

“You guys are okay now, right?”

Sae hesitated and gave a minuscule shake of his head. “...Right.”

As everyone approached, Shum Deil pushed himself onto his elbows with a smile.

So fucking cocky…

Sae felt his teeth ache if he thought back to their last meeting. He couldn’t linger on that thought for long, however, as the final participant of this makeshift track team arrived.

A tall kid jumped from the third to the last step of the stairs, landing right before Sae. He looked laid back and playful.

Sae trailed his gaze over the other before taking a step back, gravitating towards Emi. He had to tilt his neck the smallest bit back to look the kid in the eye. The kid didn’t mind; he kept an easy smile on his face.

Emi did the introductions, “Guys, this is Chan. He is a member of the track club. He’s in my year. Also younger than all of you, so you don’t need to mind him.” She pointed at her friends, naming them one after another. “This is Susu, Kaikai, Teo and Sae. Deil’s still lazing around.”

Emi turned to Shum Deil. “Hey, why did you want to come so much if you won’t even stand up?”

Shum Deil laughed and reached his hand out to Chan. “Shum Deil,” he said. The moment the kid approached to grasp his hand, Deil pulled hard, passing on the burden of getting off the ground with his own strength.

The kid broke away from his suave image the moment he got pulled down. He quickly steeled his body and hoisted Shum Deil up.

Once standing upright, Shum Deil looked at the kid and said, “I didn’t get your surname?”

“Rise Chan,” the boy said, a bit puzzled, “My name’s Rise Chan.”

Hearing the name in full, Teo and Kaikai moved closer to Emi as well, all three boys boxing her in from the sides. Sae caught Susu’s gaze. She watched things unfold with an amused expression.

“Rise Chan... What distance are you the best at?” Shum Deil continued asking.

Rise Chan didn’t have to think about it for a second. He replied, “I’m the club’s MVP. Of course I’m well-rounded in all aspects, but I like short-distance the most.”

Shum Deil hummed like he meant it, shrugged, and turned around. While walking backwards, he asked Emi, “We’re all here, right? This is all of us?”

Emi nodded.

Shum Deil was already some distance away. Even when walking backwards, he walked fast. “Warming up. Is that a collective thing, or we're allowed to do whatever?”

“Do some light exercise, then run a lap or two,” Emi waved her hand. “Do it however you want. It's not like this is real training.”

Shum Deil showed her an OK sign, then went to warm up separately. He just up and left his bike in the middle of the field.

The others went to drop off their stuff, but Rise Chan lingered around. Emi was talking to Sae when they felt him waiting at the side. Emi turned to the boy with an inquiring expression.

“Do you have a request? We’re talking here,” Sae said.

Emi turned to Sae with annoyance written on her face. Sae felt that scornful gaze but kept his eyes on Rise Chan.

Rise Chan was really tall, almost as tall as Kaikai. The bright sunlight made the bleach in his hair glaringly obvious, and the smile on his face stiffened. He reacted after a moment. “No, I don’t–– I’ll just go and warm up…”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Do it properly. I don’t want to have a headache later, telling our teacher about an injury,” Emi said.

“Okay.” Rise Chan became more animated. He saluted with two lazy fingers, to which the disdain in Sae’s heart deepened.

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The sun had been high in the sky for a while; it was warm and comfortable to be out. Thanks to the mild temperature and the fact that almost everyone had walked to get here, they didn’t take too much time to warm up.

Emi pulled at Sae’s elbow. “He’s here to help, okay? There’s no need to be like this.”

Sae avoided a straightforward reply, saying, “I thought you’d bring a girl from the club. Now there’s only you and Susu.”

“It doesn’t matter. We can practise like this.” Emi let go of him and explained, “Handoffs can go both ways. It’s not like we’re actually competing. Go and warm up, and I’ll stay with Susu.”

Sae looked like he wanted to say something else, but he only stared at Emi for another three seconds before turning to join the boys.

“Tough spot, huh? Why’d you bring a hottie, then?” Susu smiled as Emi approached her. “Oh God, it was so funny when the three of them stepped up to you at the same time. I was about to bust a kidney from holding back my laughter.”

“You think that’s hot?” Emi didn’t wait for the other girl’s answer, waving dismissively. “Never mind, you don’t know him.”

Susu only smiled at her. “Who is he then?”

“An idiot?” Emi thought about it and amended, “Okay, half an idiot. At any rate, he’s also in the club, so he's qualified to help the boys.”

“Only if they let him. I don’t know if any of them want to go close enough to actually hear what Chan has to say...” Susu started her warm-up with wrist and ankle circles. She was familiar with quick and effective warm-up routines from playing volleyball.

And she was right. Sae and the rest goofed around, but they all avoided Rise Chan.

After a minute of observing the boys, Emi let out a sigh. “Can you talk to them? At least make Kaikai and Teo act a little more friendly?”

“What power you give me.” Susu snickered but agreed, “I’ll see what I can do. But I don’t think Sae’s ready to play nice. He’s too protective of you.”

Emi nodded as they both followed Sae with their eyes. Susu asked, “What about the other wild card?”

They walked towards the other side of the field, approaching the boys. Emi squinted her eyes. “Deil? I have just the method to occupy both of them.”

----------------------------------------

After their warm-up, everyone met in front of the stairs. Since the preliminary race was to determine the fastest runners per year, Emi told them to start small. Rather than jumping straight into relay handoff practice, they first tried out basic acceleration tips.

Susu shuffled over to stand between Teo and Kaikai. Sae saw her whisper to the two of them but couldn’t hear what they said. He felt left out, and that made flags go off in his head.

“Okay, so since we have a two-to-five ratio, let’s do a hundred-metre dash first. I want to see how you all fare respectively and in a competitive situation. Boys,” Emi pointed at the starting line, “I’ll go to the finish line and time you. Chan will give the signal for you to start.”

The boys lined up next to each other. On Sae’s right was Teo, while Shum Deil took the outmost lane on his left.

“Okay, on your marks.” Rise Chan said, “You’ll set off when you hear me clap.”

The boys bent down and took their position.

“Ready.” Rise Chan waited a few seconds for them to adjust, then clapped loudly.

The boys shot out like bullets from a gun, sprinting with all they had. On Sae’s right, Teo easily took the lead. He wasn’t bragging about his speed all the time for nothing.

Compared to Teo, Kaikai was visibly slower, not that his speed could be considered slow by any standard. They all had been part of the school’s basketball team, so of course they possessed speed and agility.

Sae tried to pace himself, keeping a steady distance between himself and Teo. He smelled the dirt below their pounding feet, and his muscles awoke as he strived harder to feel that strain.

Just then, Sae felt a slight wind from the left as Shum Deil accelerated. He glanced aside from the corner of his eyes, and rather than looking ahead, he saw Deil watching him.

What the fuck?

Sae gave chase, so even after a good stretch, Deil couldn’t pull ahead. This impromptu struggle made Deil laugh, which, in turn, made Sae want to laugh as well. So he did.

“What are you doing?” Ahead of them, Emi cupped her hands around her mouth to yell, “Don’t waste your energy laughing! RUN!” The way Emi said it, her entire vibe changed. She excluded authority. Maybe something did rub off on her after all these years of training.

“More, more, more!” Emi jumped up and down, trying to hype the boys.

During the last dozens of metres, Sae got his head back on track. He sprinted off, leaving Deil in the dust.

The four of them ran a few metres after the finish line before they gradually slowed down and turned back. The wind tousled Sae’s short bangs, and he tried to control his breathing through slightly opened lips.

“Okay,” Emi beckoned them closer, listing their respective times. “The first one is Teo, then Sae, Deil and Kai. Teo, you did well.” The little girl gave a thumbs up.

Teo looked up to say, Piece of cake, immediately followed by bending over with his hand on his knees.

Emi smirked and turned to Sae. “Your start was too tense, and by the end, you strained yourself a bit too much...”

Emi finished assessing everyone with a few sentences, and Rise Chan walked back with Susu just in time for the switch between boys and girls. It appeared that the volleyball princess got along fine with just anybody.

“She’s doing it again,” Kaikai mused while glancing at them. Teo nodded, but he didn’t pay more attention to it.

“What do you mean?” Emi asked.

“You know,” Kaikai waved a hand, “Kind of like creating the illusion of meeting the coolest girl ever. Someone exceptional you’ve never met before? Susu can do it like a snap of her fingers. I’d probably believe it too, if I hadn’t known her already.”

“Is this thing proven or just another piece of the Kaikai brain rot?” Emi smiled with a tilt of her head.

“It is true,” Kaikai glanced at her. “I’m not making it up. Ask anyone.”

“How can she ask anyone? Everyone here knows Susu,” Sae reasoned.

“Oh, my bad,” Kaikai put his hands up. Light glistened on his teeth as he opened his mouth to grin. “Then you can only ask your friend Chan.”

Emi snorted and shook her head. When the two arrived, she strode to the other girl’s side. “Okay. Susu, are you up for it?”

Susu nodded, her short hair bobbing. They got ready with Teo playing as the referee.

Sae supported his hands on his knees. He watched the girls without giving the opportunity for Rise Chan to approach him.

The boy walked up to Kaikai, and the two chatted intermittently.

A voice said from behind Sae, “Right now, you remind me of the time Emi realised I’m her tutor-to-be.” Deil took a step closer. “She acted almost the same way as you do now, but I don’t think Rise Chan had ever endangered her so… What makes you act this way?”

Sae turned to look back at Shum Deil, squinting one eye. “Maybe I know things about him that you don’t.”

Shum Deil watched the girls get into position. “I don’t doubt you know things about him that I don’t, considering I don’t know anything about him.” He let out a breath and glanced at Sae. “That was some speed you showed just now.”

Sae straightened up, wiping the dust off of his hands. As the two girls rushed out, he turned away, not watching any longer. “Were you staring at me instead of the track?”

“Your reaction is more fun than the ground,” Shum Deil said, his lips curving up. “It made you win, though.”

A crease appeared between Sae’s dark brows. “I didn’t win.”

“You came in second. You won against me.” Shum Deil was upfront about his intentions. He shaded his eyes from the sun and asked, “Did you go running these past weeks? Your pacing is better. I was ahead of you in the warm-up lap, and you finished just behind me. That means you matched my pace.” He gazed at Sae and hesitated for a moment. “Was that intentional or subconscious?”

The day was warm and dry. Emi had voiced her worries to Sae that the forecast said it would rain. However, looking up at the sky now, there was nothing but fluffy clouds leisurely drifting over one another. The sun hid behind them, and Shum Deil dropped the arm he used to shade his eyes. His gaze turned deep and curious.

Sae didn’t know how to answer. During their previous dash, when he was ahead of Shum Deil, there was no need to deliberately keep up with him or to overtake him.

As for the warm-up, Sae had been aware of Shum Deil running a few metres ahead of him. Even if he didn’t want to, he couldn’t not see someone right in front of him. But that didn’t mean he actively matched his speed to that person.

Sae had not paid attention to this until Shum Deil mentioned it.

So if it wasn’t intentional… Did that mean he did it subconsciously?