The next morning was a mess of training and battling. Kris divided all of us into groups, and we had to battle eachother. She said it was a team-building activity.

Of course, I was put in a group with Free. And I was a mess of blushing the whole time.

Valt was also in our group, and some other random people I didn't know. I distracted myself from Free by chatting to Valt.

I had to look at Free when I was battling him though, to see if I could figure out his strategy. I tried to hide my blush by brushing my hair around my face, but somehow I think it was still fairly visible.

Eventually it was lunchtime, and I didn't have to be near Free.

Except I did.

He sat right next to me at lunch, with Valt on the other side.

"You're a pretty strong blader, Y/N. I nearly lost to you," Free said.

"Um... yeah..." was all I could say back.

I saw Free glance at Valt, then down at his plate. Then at me.

I wished I knew what he was thinking. He was very good at hiding his emotions.

I soon finished my lunch, and couldn't help noticing that Free hadn't eaten any of his. I didn't worry though. Maybe he just simply wasn't hungry.

After lunch I went to jog in the forest. I didn't actually want to go jogging, I mostly just wanted to catch a glimpse of the deer, and maybe meet Free there too.

I ran into the clearing where I first saw the deer with Free, then sat down in the middle.

As soon as I sat down, I heard some rustling, and looked up to see the deer standing near some bushes.

A wave a calmness flew over me at the deer's presence.

I suddenly felt someone behind me and turned around to see Free standing there. "I knew you'd be here," he said.

"Hi, Free."

He sat next to me. "I expected that I'd see you again here."

I blushed. "Yeah, I just came here to jog and I sat here to rest."

Free looked at the deer. He seemed lost in thought.

"I saw you didn't eat anything earlier," I blurred out suddenly. Free looked back at me emotionlessly.

"Yeah. I guess I wasn't hungry."

He didn't sound convincing, but I didn't push it. I assumed he wasn't hungry anyway.

"The deer likes you," Free whispered. "It usually only shows itself to people it trusts."

"Maybe it's because it knows I'm with you," I replied, blushing as I realized how cheesy that sounded.

"Yeah, maybe it is," Free said, glancing at me then back at the deer.

We sat in silence, looking at eachother, and the deer, not really sure what else to say.

The Free suddenly said, "We should do this every day. It's peaceful, and it's nice to get away from beyblading once in a while."

I blushed, but hid it by putting my head down. "That'd be nice."

Free stood up. "We should go back."

"Ok." I nodded.

We walked back through the forest together. On the way back I took a chocolate bar out of my pocket and ate it. I offered some to Free but he refused it, which I found strange. No one refused chocolate.

We soon got back to BC Sol. "Bye, Y/N," Free said quietly. He looked distracted since I offered a bit of chocolate to him.

"Free, if there's something bothering you, you can tell me."

"It's nothing, really, Y/N."

I wasn't convinced.