42. A MODEL AND A SLEEPYHEAD

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YOU

and your two "teammates" walk through the halls of the Blue Lock complex, the heel of your shoe tapping against the smooth stone every step you take. You try your hardest to not even glance Shidou's way, but it's close to impossible when he's pressed so close to you, that you're convinced he wants to fuse together.

"You're gonna watch me explode, right, manager-chan?!" He presses his cheek to yours, having to bend down slightly to do so—which you're sure must not be comfortable to walk like that, but he does it anyways. "And only me, not that stupid underlashes, yeah?"

"Shut the fuck up, you insect," Rin hisses, eyes narrowed into thin slits of teal at the man pressed up next to you. He looks hostile—that's what you note when you look at Rin's posture. "You're just an imbecilic stepping stone towards my glory. Why the fuck should that stupid manager watch you and your weird ass plays?"

"Really, you wanna talk weird?! Okay, you fucking bro-con—"

You wind up and slam your foot into Shidou's shin before he takes a step forward—ignoring the shooting pain that runs up your legs—and you push him back so that there's a good distance between Rin and Shidou. You are that distance—and you act like you're the last force keeping the heavens and the earth from colliding.

You push back on the side of each of their arms, bag slung around your shoulder as you do so, "Can you two stop trying to make my life as difficult as possible? I don't care what freaky plays either of you pull on the field, but if I catch you two fighting again, I won't hesitate to shock you  both into the high heavens."

Rin only clicks his tongue—clearly annoyed, but doesn't fight back. Shidou rolls his eyes but still smirks, a shit-eating expression on his face. "Yeah, whatever—just keep ya pretty eyes on me, and I'll try not to beat him to oblivion."

Well. You'll take what you can get, you think with a heavy sigh.

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You walk on the field, grass crunching underneath your hell unnoticed, because of the presence of the two other players here. 

Nagi... Your eyes linger on him a little longer than they should've—because he walks up to you and grabs ahold of your hands, larger palms easily enveloping their size. He looks at you with the same emotionless expression he seems to consistently carry with him.

His head is tilted to the side like a confused owl, "[name]. Missed you," he mumbles, voice low, and he crashes into your arms—as if his whole body weight has suddenly become too much for him to carry. You instinctively wrap your arms around his hard torso (it's always instinctual with Nagi—you just can't seem to say no) so that both of you don't collide with the ground.

"Nagi..." Your voice is as low as a whisper, and he moves his head back from over your shoulder to peer into your eyes, blinking innocently. Too innocent, you deem, especially considering what had happened just a few nights ago. You can't say you've seen Nagi Seishiro the same way since.

A yank on your shoulder catches your attention—stolen away from the snow-haired man—and you whip your head around so fast it nearly stings. You don't expect to see Rin with his fingers gripping the skin on your shoulder, but you do expect to catch the blatantly annoyed face he makes at you.

"Don't waste time doing stupid stuff like this. You're just going to hold us up," he unintentionally sasses, making you roll your eyes—but you agree. You push Nagi away from your hold, something that makes his eyes widen out of their lazy rest in surprise.

"You have a game," you remind him—and his lips part slightly in realisation as though he had forgotten, but you wouldn't put it past this lazy genius. He rolls his shoulder back, stretching out his neck with a groan.

"A total hassle," and you snort at his comment.

Soon, the doors make a loud noise, and simultaneously, each team's three chosen members walk into the room. On your team—an abnormally tall player, Igaguri, and Aryu—who still shines just as brightly as you remember. On the other side, with Yukimiya and Nagi, are some guy with a large fro, Gagamaru and Reo.

You can't say you weren't a little disappointed to see him there.

But it was no matter. You would get through it anyway—it wasn't like you were planning to pay too much attention to the purple-headed heir in the first place. Rather, your eyes were drawn elsewhere—a certain brown-haired boy with sharp visors replacing his softly rounded lens.

The whistle chirps loudly in your ear—very effectively knocking you out of your trance-like state—and you take that as your cue to go and take your seat. You speed-walk across the field and towards your metal bench—your safe haven—and plop your bag down on the grassy floor.

You aren't alone—of course, you aren't—you're acutely aware of a presence beside you. You turn your head—to find she's already staring, and without an ounce of shame, she smiles wide, "Hey, [name], right? Cute thing you got going on. Like your hair."

You gulp thickly, thinking about what to reply with. "Thanks. I... like your hair too..."

The silence that swallows you whole is excruciating. She breaks it with a laugh, a lovely sound that falls from her lips and bounces off the steel walls around you, "Haha! You're so awkward."

You, once again, do not know how to reply. So you nervously laugh along—indirectly proving her point—and turn your head away once you're sure she's stopped looking. Each of the players lines up—already in position, and the whistle chirps, the kick-off officially beginning.

Reo and Nagi immediately begin with a one-two-passing dynamic with each other, and for a moment, it feels just as it did back when they were still as close as they once were. Reo sends a beautifully curved pass over towards Nagi—who is rushing forward for it at that very moment—but it is suddenly cut off by a large, looming figure over the field. The tallest high school player—you're sure he has to be at least 2 metres tall—headbutts the ball away and lands on his lanky legs.

Nagi halts his movements and slides across the plastic ground for a little, looking backwards in shock, where the ball is rolling over to Rin.

Shidou runs beside Rin with a wide grin and jeers, "Hell yea, it's our counter! Pass, you shitty eyelashes!"

Promptly (and unsurprisingly) Rin ignored the tanned boy. A vein pulses on Shidou's forehead, and he clenches his jaw. You slap the heel of your palm onto your forehead, groaning. Jenny smiles, and she pats your back gently, "Seems like a handful."

You let out a heavy breath, removing your hand from your vision, "You can't even imagine."

It seemed that Igaguri had taken possession of the ball now, before he was stopped by Reo blocking his path forward. The monk looks conflicted—whipping his head between Rin and Shidou—and you're sure he's confused about which to pass to, with how much he's sweating.

Well, he isn't conflicted for too long, because his answer is handed to him on a silver platter when Shidou suddenly screams while running, "THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, IGAGURI?! WANT ME TO SMASH YOUR FUCKING HEAD IN?!"

Your ears feel burning hot and you lower your head into your lap, body twitching. I'm really going to quit. I can't do this now. You feel embarrassed when the girl next to you gives Shidou a strange look, then a pitying one to you.

The mentioned boy squeals in fear before sending the ball over to Shidou without an ounce of hesitation, the tan salon freak grins at the sight. He slides around Gagamaru, who looks at him with his big bug eyes, then at the ball. Gagamaru uses his long limbs and ridiculous flexibility to stretch his leg up and rebound the ball midair.

It flies off his foot, and he crumples onto the floor like a piece of paper—but still, he raises his head and looks up, at the player who had received his ridiculous pass—Yukimiya Kenyu.

Immediately, your attention is focused once again. Yukimiya is met with Rin as soon as he plops down to the floor, dribbling the ball around his feet in a scissor-like motion, tucking it between the dip of his foot and ankle—blasting forward, and successfully feinting out Rin.

He's fast!

Yukimiya smiles, a charming smile that could only be fitting of a model, right before being matched up with Shidou. Matched up with the top two, back to back... can't be easy.

Jenny laughs from beside you, and catches your attention easily, breaking eye contact with the field. "Yukki is super quick and he's slimmer than the other guys, so he can get around them easily. In a one-on-one situation, Yukki reigns king."

A one-on-one emperor... You think, eyes shining. Yukki... that sounds cute.

Yukimiya winds his leg back, shooting the ball towards the goal flying so fast you can barely see it, and the wind from his movements blows his styled hair back from his face. He grins until the ball is meticulously stopped by none other than the most glam person alive—Aryu.

But that was a hoax too, because running up is Nagi, and he traps the ball with ease. You can barely pull your eyes away from Aryu's shocked expression, only looking when Nagi shoots the ball into the goal so quickly that even Blue Lock Man has no time to react.

It's just plot twist upon plot twist!

Nagi turns around, eyes as tired as ever, and looks to Yukimiya, "Sorry, glasses, I stole it." But it seems Yukimiya does not take it personally, and only laughs with such a bright smile.

"Good job trapping that, Nagi-kun. You can call me Yukki."

"That trap was wicked cool," Jenny says with awe, stars shimmering in her eyes. "I saw it on the camera footage before, but it doesn't compare to real life."

It reminds you of yourself when you first witnessed Nagi's ridiculous skills, something he did not hone but simply possessed—something that you couldn't help but be envious of. But you did not feel that now—you're too close with Nagi to even think about it. 

Still, every now and then, you find yourself wondering what could've been. Only sometimes.

The whistle churns into your ear, signalling the restart and catching your focus once more. Shidou passes to Rin—though they are arguing, who is surprised?—Rin manages to get around Reo with a nutmeg and sends the ball over towards the head of that ridiculously tall guy.

It rebounds off his forehead, and over to Aryu, who uses his also ridiculously tall height to send the ball to Rin, who has positioned himself in the perfect spot right in front of the goal. Rin takes the shot and without so much as a quirk in his expression, scores another perfect goal.

The goals felt like they were going quicker and quicker—especially that last one, with Rin's timing and use of his teammates—it's no surprise he's the top player. It should be illegal to be that good at sixteen.

The game restarts and Yukimiya quickly heads forward with the ball in tow. Igaguri tries to stop the one-on-one emperor, but as the name suggests, he wins the one-on-one with minimal difficulty—but it seems that a slight pause made in his movements was all somebody like Rin Itoshi needed, blasting the ball away from Yukimiya's feet.

Rin gives him a hard, cold stare, and Yukimiya replies with a smile, "Dude. You are so not cute."

The ball flies upwards and luckily (or unluckily for you, you guess) Reo catches it with his chest—and without hesitation, passes it to Nagi. Reo doesn't stop rushing forward, catching the pass Nagi sends back to him with ease, but seems to be blocked by two defenders.

Nagi's in such a perfect position, right in front of his favourite shooting range, and you can even see his lips move in the shape of Reo's name, but he gets ignored—much to your shock. Reo doesn't even give his former partner so much of a glance, eyes completely and utterly focused on the ball in front of him.

He winds up his leg and swings it back—the tip of his shoe colliding with the ball sending it flying across, but the shot looks familiar. Is that... the shot Yukimiya took earlier? It's moving the exact same way...

The ball flies into the net and earns their team another point—barely grazing the hands of Blue Lock Man—and Reo's feet touch the floor. He sticks his tongue out with a wide grin, and you can't help but feel the least bit proud.

* You can't seem to stop yourself when you step forward, hands resting on your thighs when you bend down slightly, so you can see Reo's ghastly expression. "I think... you should take control of your own life. If you're too dependent on somebody... then you will never be able to truly improve. Maybe... you should try choosing yourself for a change."

And then, you smile.

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* 27 —TAKE ME WITH YOU!