NIKE -Blue Lock-

Trying to live

The fact was that under the water everything was still. Motionless. Static. Silent.
There were no screams, no voices, no noises, no money, no crying, no laughter.

There was absolutely nothing.

A sublime contrast to the dynamic flow of her life.

The girl removed her head from under the glassy surface of the water, taking a big breath after holding it for so long. She slowly closed her eyes as she rested the back of her head against the edge of the pool, letting the imperceptible waves of water around her caress her skin.

It was four in the morning, almost five. The girl had finished her workout a half-hour earlier, and at that moment she was enjoying the empty, silent Blue Lock bath.

The quiet sound of light footsteps made themselves heard.

Someone was there with her.

Despite this, the redhead remained with her eyes closed, continuing to relax her perpetually challenged muscles as those footsteps grew closer and closer.

She recognized that gait: too slow not to belong to that person.

The red eyes opened, meeting the gray ones of the white-haired boy.

"Did you steal my phone?"

The girl smiled, lowering her gaze for a moment to his naked body, covered only by a miserable cloth placed where it was best to cover. Her eyelids closed again as she brought her head back.

"Maybe."

Nagi stared at her intently, aiming his gaze in particular at the only area visible from above the surface of white vapor that acted as a blanket over the water.

And his eyes traveled from just above her breasts, from which drops of condensed vapor were falling, to her collarbones, to her fragile neck on which a slight black shape, that seemed about to disappear, could be glimpsed.

The shape of a hand.

He said nothing, also undressing himself of that white cloth and allowing it to fall a short distance from the edge of the pool, then proceeding to slowly immerse himself in the communal pool.

Silence fell between the two.

Nagi sighed sleepily, closing his eyes and resting his head against the edge of the pool as the rest of his body sank slightly under the water.

He didn't really feel like being awake at this time of night, but his cell phone withdrawal had kicked in and he felt the need to request his little treasure back.

And he knew the girl would be there at that hour just from that understanding look she gave him before she left the room that evening.

"When did you take my phone?" the white haired boy asked in a calm and neutral tone, raising his head a bit and pointing his kneaded by sleep eyes at the ethereal figure of the redhead.

He noticed how her chest rose and fell at a smooth, slow pace, a sign that she was completely at ease in the situation.

"When I touched your hair. I admit it was very easy."

Her voice. She had a beautiful voice: soothing, feminine, slightly rough and occasionally husky. Attractive and harmonious despite those sudden but sweet cracks.

"And it's not the first time you've been distracted by me, Seishiro."

And his name.

His name sounded like the bewitching hiss of a rattlesnake, one of those that attracts the prey with that unusual melody. But it was so beautiful, his name spoken by her: it slid on her tongue with such continuity that it was perfect.