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"It's not a mistake, is it?" Shindo smiled, still surprised about how they managed to survive the qualifiers.
"It says tenth right there." Musa nodded.
"It's like a TV show." Yuki grinned.
"This is reality." Nico-chan smiled.
Yukari quickly straightened her back as the cameraman pointed his camera at her and Kiyose. Even though the cameraman had been following them around for a while, Yukari still couldn't get used to the camera being pointed at her face.
"Uh, well! We proved that Hakone wasn't just a dream." Yukari scratched her neck awkwardly. Her 'senpais' laughed at how awkward she sounded as they watched her from behind. She frowned at them for teasing her about it.
"All that's left is to train and train until we reach the top." Kiyose chimed, "We'll do nothing but practice again starting tomorrow!" At Kiyose's words, the group who were watching shifted grey from shock.
"Can't we have tomorrow off?" Nico chan, King, and Yuki started to shake their leader by his collar.
"Let us rest!"
"What more can we do?"
"I can't use this footage." The cameraman sighed, glancing towards Yukari who was beside the commotion.
"You can just edit it out." Yukari sweatdropped, smiling nervously.
Joji and Jota were suspiciously quiet after what happened. Megumi tilted her head towards where Joji and Jota were occupied with; they seemed to be intently staring at the leaderboard. Curious, Megumi decided to hop over to Yukari and question her about it. As soon as Megumi tapped Yukari's shoulder, she was surprised at how she didn't notice the two before.
"Do you think they're upset with the results?" Megumi questioned Yukari.
"Who knows." Yukari frowned, should she be worried about them?
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As the team walked back to their van, they struck a light conversation on the way. After all, they were still excited about how they managed to pass the qualifiers. Yukari herself could barely believe that they made the cut.
"Were you guys nervous? Did your legs feel like water?" King started. "My heart was pounding."
"I get you." Yuki nodded, he had also experienced the feeling at the run earlier.
"Oh, I know. Let's predict which sections we'll run." King suggested, grinning widely. This made Yukari smile, she never thought she'd see King's enthusiasm in something other than girls.
"You're getting ahead of yourself," Nico-chan replied. Even though he tried to hide it, Yukari could notice the enthusiasm in him from a mile away.
"I'm amazed by how you can read." Shindo started, glancing at Prince who was reading manga as they walked.
"I'm rewarding myself," Prince replied, before turning to Megumi. "Hey, did you bring any more volumes?"
"Of course, I needed to entertain myself while waiting for you guys to finish." Megumi nodded.
"Were you really that bored?" Musa smiled.
"Megu-chan was just as worried as I was," Yukari smirked, wiggling her eyebrows up and down. "Oh, and did you know? She was the one who was most worried about Pri-"
"H-hey!" Megumi frowned, aiming to pinch Yukari in her shoulder. Yukari easily dodged, sticking her tongue out to the shorter female.
"You missed, ble~" Yukari mocked as the shorter female's face shifted into a shade of dark red. Megumi fumed, dashing at the brunette so she could pinch her. This ended up being a small game of tag between the two.
"What are you, kids?" Prince commented plainly, sighing at their childishness. The two girls stopped as soon as Kiyose turned his back around, surprising them.
"Guys, the fan club is giving us a gift of meat!" Kiyose announced excitedly, hyping up the members. "We're grilling meat tonight!"
"YEAH!!!!" The group cheered, this was certainly a great day.
"Hey, Kakeru." Joji called the raven-haired boy, Kakeru didn't turn his head until Hana called him. The two stopped and glanced curiously at the twins who seemed out of character while the rest of the team had already walked ahead.
"Haiji-san said we'd reach the top." Joji continued.
"Just now?" Kakeru questioned.
"Just now, and when he recruited us to run." Jota replied with a straight face. "And each time, I've thought, 'yeah!' "
"And?" Kakeru questioned, still confused about their point.
"When he says top, do you think he means winning the race?" Joji asked. Kakeru widened his eyes, since when did they start caring about this stuff?
"Our total time was 10:16:43" Jota reminded, "Tokyo Sport, the top finisher in the qualifier was more than seven minutes faster." He continued, "Just how fast are the teams that win the Hakone Ekiden? Can we reach that level through practice?"
"Kakeru, what are we running for?"
Kakeru stood silently, opening his mouth, then closing it again. He couldn't answer them, he was finding his reason as well.
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After eating meat for dinner, it seemed to give Yukari an insanely good mood for the next morning. She hummed while feeding Nira on the dorm's porch. She also smiled at Nico-chan who was taking out the trash. Let's just say it scared him.
"U-uhm!" A voice called out to Nico-chan. He turned his head to see two men younger than him who were shining brightly. He slightly jumped as soon as they showed him a paper in their hands. After squinting at the tiny text, he immediately widened his eyes as soon as he noticed that it was a club application form.
"We saw your article in the paper and your website!"
"You guys are the best! Please, let us join you!"
Yukari felt her ear stretch towards the voices, some people wanted to join? Yukari stealthily peeked from behind the wall as her eyes twinkled brightly. Well, it wasn't stealthy enough because the two newbies instantly noticed the twinkle in her eyes.
"Oh, uh... You want to join the team?" Nico-chan questioned, "Wait. Why are you asking me?" He asked confused.
"Aren't you the coach?" One of them questioned.
"Pfft-" Yukari covered her mouth to stop herself from laughing. Too bad Nico-chan had already noticed her.
"Hey! Don't laugh!" Nico-chan scolded Yukari behind him.
"S-sorry, pfFT-" Yukari held in her laugh once again, approaching Nico-chan and the two men. "Sorry, but we're not accepting new members at the moment." Yukari apologized.
"Ah! You're Yukari Haiji-san, right?" The one with glasses questioned her, excited.
"Nice to meet you! We're from Joji and Jota's language class." The other smiled brightly.
"Ah, nice to meet you." Yukari smiled friendly at them, she then looked at their club applicants and nodded. "As I said, we're currently not accepting new members! But I'll get back to you when we're available." She smiled.
"Thank you!" They shouted with excitement, handing the papers over to her. "Looking forward to working with you, Manager-san, Coach!"
"About that. . ." Yukari chuckled, glancing at Nico-chan. "He's one of our runners."
"WAIT REALLY? WE'RE SO SORRY!"
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"And, that's what happened!" Yukari explained at the dining table where everybody was having their breakfast. Nico-chan frowned once more at his story, he couldn't believe that someone thought that. King and Yuki were the ones who cackled the loudest at his experience.
"You can clear away all the ash you want, but the road to anti-aging is long. Right?" Yuki teased, before laughing out loud again. He sure hasn't let out a laugh like that in a while.
"Shut up." Nico-chan frowned.
"I appreciate their enthusiasm, though." Musa smiled.
"I put up a note, we'll continue rejecting applicants." Kiyose said as soon as he entered the room, "The Aotake is full right now and I don't want to be influenced by any fads."
"I also don't have time to look after new members, and I want to focus on the ten of you." Yukari reasoned, pointing the fork in her hand she used to mix the veggies; at each and one of them, "If anyone approaches you at school, politely turn them down. But if they already filled up the forms, you can give them to me."
"We're drowning in interview requests, too." Shindo raised his hand.
"Choose carefully from the offers and reject as many as you can," Kiyose answered with a smile.
"What? But we can be famous." King complained.
"Shouldn't you be looking for a job?" Nico-chan questioned him.
"I can only assume he's trying not to think about it." Musa whispered beside him, making him sigh.
"What about Nippon TV?" Shindo asked, referring to the cameraman who had followed their journey even before the qualifiers.
"We'll continue doing whatever we started before the qualifier," Kiyose answered rationally.
"I see." Shindo nodded, "Can we discuss water station staff and volunteers later?" He asked again, this time the question was directed towards Yukari.
"Ah, okay!" Yukari gave him a thumbs up.
"I'm also thinking about checking out the course next weekend." Kiyose said, " We can't run it, but it's worth just looking at. Make sure to keep your schedules open."
"Let's go to the hot springs on the way back!" King shouted excited. Once again, Yukari smiled at his excitement.
"Question." Joji raised his hand, "We can't. We have plans that day." He replied in an uncooperative manner, he didn't seem to happy about seeing the course.
"We're playing soccer with some friends from language class." Jota added.
Language class, huh?
"Cancel your plans." Kiyose answered.
"What? But they won't have enough players." Joji protested, "We'd be inconveniencing them."
"There's still time. I'm sure you can find some substitutes, right?" Yukari suggested, frowning at their weird behavior. "Not even professionals can afford to run unprepared."
"Besides, soccer? What if you got injured?" Kiyose added. "Hakone comes first. Don't forget that."
"Hey, listen," Jota spoke up, "Is there any point obsessing over it?"
Yukari raised her eyebrow at their attitude, obsessing? We're doing our best to prepare for the final run!
"You've been tricking us, haven't you." Joji frowned. "When you recruited us, you said we'd aim for the top!" Joji stood up, standing on his feet.
"That's impossible! Just look at our time! It's clear as day!" Jota stood up beside his twin, "No matter how hard we try, we're not strong enough to beat the seeded teams! It's impossible to win!"
"You knew that and wheedled us anyway, didn't you?" Joji questioned Kiyose, a look of disappointment could be seen across his face.
"You're right that I said we'd aim for the top. But-"
"See? See?" The twins chorused pointing towards Kiyose before he could even finish his sentence. Yukari lips twitched at their childish attitude, they're just being straight-up rude now.
"W-wait. Calm down." Musa frowned. "Is it really impossible for us to win no matter how hard we try?" He asked hopefully.
Kakeru was about to open his mouth, but Yuki interrupted him "It's impossible! The twins are right. Our times proves it." Kakeru shut his mouth again, deciding not to say anything yet.
"Especially in long-distance, it's rare to see an upset." Nico-chan added, stating his opinion.
"Even Rikkudo's second team is way better than us." Yuki nodded, agreeing to Nico-chan's statement.
"You guys knew." Joji frowned, feeling dissapointed from the information he recieved. "That's not fair!" Jota frowned as well, matching is brother's tone.
"But, depending on how you look at it, we're lucky." Prince interrupted. "No matter how fast you are, only a handful of runners get to run at Hakone. But we made it through the qualifier. We get to run at Hakone, just like we wanted." He raised his head, "There are plenty of people who'd be jealous of that alone."
"You're not wrong, but..."
"There's no point if we can't win!" Joji complained, "Yeah! There's no point in competing when you already know the outcome!" Jota added.
Yukari bit her lip to prevent any unnecessary comments to be thrown at the twins. Maybe they were right about this whole thing, but what difference would it make for them talking about it now? Yukari sighed, her excellent mood vanished in an instant.
Kakeru slammed his hands on the table, standing up to his feet as he turned his head towards them. "Then you shouldn't be playing soccer. If you want to win, you should be training." He replied, annoyed.
"You think you're so great." Joji hissed, "We're saying we can't find the motivation to do that!"
"Yeah! How can you say that after you couldn't respond the other day." Jota argued.
"Enough, guys." Yukari warned sternly, her patience decreased by every second they argued. If they didn't stop soon, something bad might happen.
"If you guys can't run because you can't win, will you quit living because you'll die someday?" Kakeru pointed his finger at them, "Is that how it is? It is, isn't it?" He argued, proving his part.
"Ha? What are you trying to say?" Joji asked, furrowing his eyebrows.
"Here he goes again, Kakeru's making ridiculous arguments again!" Jota mocked, making a ridiculous face.
"I'll never die. I'll never ever die!" Joji mocked, ridiculing Kakeru.
Kiyose opened his mouth to say something, but the twins ignored him and continued to mock Kakeru. Not listening to her was one thing she was upset about, but ignoring her brother was an action that crossed the line.
"Stop it you three." Yukari slammed her hand on the table. Her mouth twitched upwards as soon as the twins continued to mock Kakeru. "It's not funny."
"Quibble, quibble! Here comes the quibbler!"
"To be or not to be? That's the question. BUT I'LL NEVER DIE!"
"Listen to me! What are you doing?" Kakeru shouted.
"Kakeru the quibbler will never die!"
Joji was just about to open his mouth again but was interrupted by a fork being thrown into his direction. The twins' faces turned purple as it barely missed their faces. They slowly turned their head towards Yukari, who had successfully thrown it between their faces without hitting them. "Stop with the useless arguments, will you?" She said sternly. The twins turned their heads towards the wall to see how the fork managed to stick onto the wooden wall behind them.
"Yeah." Kiyose grabbed the twins by their collars. "I thought you had a question for me." He glared darkly at them, matching her sister's aura making them shiver. "You're right that I mentioned the top, but I didn't mean we'd win." He explained after taking a deep breath.
"What did you mean, then?" Joji asked him.
"I'm searching for that answer, too." He closed his eyes. "I'm searching for the destination. What it means to run." He answered, letting them process the truth behind his actions.
". . . .This is stupid." Jota rolled his eyes. The two harshly removed Kiyose's hand from themselves and left the dining room. Kakeru was about to chase after them, but Yuki quickly called him out.
"Kakeru, it's your turn to do the dishes." Yuki reminded.
"Why?!"
"Just because. Learn to keep your cool." Nico-chan advised.
"I'm off to the bathroom." Yukari excused herself, leaving the room in silence.
"Man, what's up with them?" King frowned as she left the room, he then got up to retrieve the fork Yukari threw, which was still stuck to the wall. "Eh? I can't pull it out."
"That's amazing! It's actually sticking to the wall!"
"I don't know if I should be proud or worried."
"S-scary."
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The Aotake members gathered in front of Kiyose's van. Everybody was present, except for Shindo who was searching for the twins inside. Kiyose tapped his watch impatiently, noting that it was already seven minutes past their meeting time.
"Haiji-san! The twins aren't here." Shindo frowned, he wasn't expecting that they would leave so early.
"They actually blew us off." King sighed, shaking his head disappointed. Yukari on the other hand, didn't seem to be bothered by it one bit. King looked at her weirdly as she seemed to smile as she texted someone.
"I'm sorry." Kakeru apologized, "It's because I couldn't answer them. On the way home from the qualifier, they asked me why we're running."
"Well, it's like not being able to tell someone what the meaning of life is." Yuki smiled at him.
"Oh? Nice quibble." Nico-chan smirked.
"We made it through the qualifier. We're running at Hakone together." Kakeru said, "Maybe we've already achieved the first goal we set for ourselves. But that wasn't the real top." He continued. "I knew that, too. After all, I wanted to aim even higher with you guys. But... I failed to answer them." Kakeru sighed.
"Cheer up, I've already found them!"
"How did you even-?" Nico-chan gaped.
"Nico-chan senpai, don't you remember the boys that thought you were the coach?" Yukari questioned, making Nico-chan let out a crusty smile. "They said they were from Joji and Jota's language class, I called them earlier to tell them that the twins can't make it."
"O-oh, and what did he say about it?" Nico-chan questioned.
"They said they already prepared substitutes beforehand so it was alright." Yukari shrugged, "He also told me they're gonna play at the soccer field near the riverbank." Yukari explained.
"We should go get them," Kakeru suggested. After all, he felt like he was the main reason they tried to skip practice and pick soccer instead.
"I think that's a good idea, but what if they run?" Musa asked.
"Then. . . "
"Me and Kakeru will chase 'em down." Yukari smirked.
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Joji and Jota waited for their friends at the empty soccer field. They huffed, noticing how the sun had just recently started to rise into the sky indicating the start of the day.
"We haven't played soccer in forever." Jota started, striking a conversation with his brother.
"Yeah." Joji replied.
"We've just been running this whole time."
"Yeah."
"Is that them, over there?"
"There's no mistaking it."
"Do you regret it?" Jota asked his twin. "Choosing this."
"Nah. We made these plans first." Joji reasoned.
"Whoever catches one of 'em first gets the privilege of not doing their chores for a week."
"Deal. I'm sorry for making you do my chores, Yukari-san."
"What? You're saying I'm gonna lose?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
"You're right. We're running at Hakone." Jota nodded, "Now we just have to practice enough so they won't complain."
"Complain?" Joji furrowed his eyebrows. "So who won't complain? Haiji-san?"
"Good luck, Kakeru. You'll need it."
"Let's go, Yukari-san."
Jota raised his hand to his chin, he was also confused by his own words. "The guys who didn't qualify?"
"Oh." Joji replied.
"I hope everyone shows up soon. We got in the habit of waking up early." Jota chuckled awkwardly. That surely was a weird topic to talk about.
"JOJI! JOTA!"
The twins furrowed their eyebrows, turning their head towards the source of the voice. They squinted their eyes to see two figures running in the distance.
"Who's that?" They asked no one in particular.
"LET'S GOOOO! TO HAKONEE!" Kakeru shouted. "EVERYONE'S WAITING!!"
"Crap! It's those two." Jota cursed.
"What in the world are they doing?!" Joji hung his mouth open.
"Who even crashes a soccer game?"
"LET'S GO TO HAKONE, YOU DUMBASSES!!" Yukari shouted.
"Crap! Let's run!"
"They're running at us while smiling!"
"STAY AWAY!"
"IT'S NO USE! THEY'RE CATCHING UP!"
"JOTA! DON'T GIVE UP!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
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"Nicely done." Nico-chan smirked. The twins had been successfully caught by Yukari and Kakeru in the blink of an eye. Two rested lifelessly at the back seat of Kiyose's van.
"There's no way you were outrunning them." Yuki added, boarding the van after Nico-chan senpai.
"I. . . can't run anymore. . ."
"I. . . don't consent to this. . ."
"I caught Joja first." Yukari nudged Kakeru's arm playfully. "I hope you don't mind cooking until next week." She grinned, watching as Shindo and Musa boarded the van slowly.
"That was because he tripped," Kakeru complained.
"A deal is a deal." Yukari grinned, making Kakeru sigh. There was a short silence between them until Kakeru suddenly placed both of his hands on her shoulders. Yukari's lips rose into a crusty smile as she was surprised by the sudden contact he made, it seemed like he was trying to find something hidden in Yukari's eyes.
After a few seconds of staring into her soul, Kakeru sighed again. "Fine." Kakeru grunted, releasing his grip from her shoulders.
"Are we ready to go now?" Kiyose interrupted their conversation.
Kakeru slightly jumped at his arrival before panicking, seeing that he was the only one who was sitting in the passenger seat that hasn't boarded the van yet. He muttered a small sorry before climbing onto the van.
"Gosh, kids these days." Kiyose shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Always flirting every chance they get."
Yukari's face burst into a shade of red. "W-we weren't flirting!" She denied, gently rubbing her shoulders. 'Skinship. . .?' Yukari smiled to herself, she could still feel his touch on her shoulders.
"Yeah, yeah. Come on, let's get going."
"Nii-chan! Ugh. . ."
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A/N : hello! sorry for the long wait, i finally finished my tests and now i'm back to writing again!! ngl tho i laughed a lot writing this chapter, especially at the part where the twins started arguing with kakeru. so anyways stay safe you all, ily!