A few months later, before the Autumn Tournament has started.

/// 2

"Huh? So you have cleaned the club room?"

"Let's see," Shibuya breathed heavily. "I -- spent hours -- I mopped the floor -- wiped the dirt off everything -- also -- I sorted out the info -- on the -- previous match."

"Well, yeah, I guess I have." But it was the first time she actually did it, unless the times she wiped the tables sloppily and sorted sheets of paper into messy piles counted.

It seemed that Mizumachi didn't catch the sarcasm in her voice, because he just nodded (not-quite) understandingly in reply.

"Oh! I thought you haven't, because everything looks the same! Haha! You got me!"

She froze. (This was worse than when he told her that her make-up was overdone)

"Is… Is that so?"

"Well… yeah!" he replied, a little too cheerfully.

There was certainly no sarcasm in his voice.

Mizumachi's words always stung. It wasn't that he was being mean or his words were coated in hatred.

"Mop the floor for me, Mizumachi," she muttered, before leaving the club room.

"Huh? Wait! Where are you going?" Mizumachi called out, but was left with no answer and a mop in his possession. He scratched his head, confused.

"Aw man… She's not a very good manager, is she?" he whined, yet started mopping the floor anyway.

Shibuya wished she ran out of the room to the football field instead of leaning on the door like what she was doing – she didn't need to hear that.

It's because it's the truth that it stung.

-

She sighed as she sat on the bench, watching the football practice being carried out. Kakei was berating Mizumachi for being late (she would've intervened and said that it was her fault, but Mizumachi handled it well enough – he simply grinned and said "Sorry!" cheekily).

Mizumachi had been doing very well since it was his first week in the American football club (if she didn't know him, she wouldn't have believed that he never played football before). He became a better lineman than the shorter upperclassmen within the short span of time.

After a month, he was certainly doing much better – he improved at an unbelievably fast rate, while the seniors like Kobanzame-senpai were having trouble catching up.

She felt somewhat sorry for them, but it wasn't like she could do anything to help.

-

"So… We're… finished?" Kobanzame-senpai asked hopefully. His face was completely red, with sweat running down it, and he was holding onto his friend's shoulder – it seemed that his legs gave out on him (they'd been doing that quite often since Mizumachi joined).

Kakei paused, before he heaved a sigh.

"You're the team captain. You should be the one who decides," he replied.

Kobanzame-senpai laughed nervously. "Haha! That might be so… it's not like I forgot about it or anything! I was just about to say… umm… I think I should let the first-years decide! I mean, if you guys still want to train, us upperclassmen won't hold you back! Heh…"

(Mizumachi was still running around happily)

It was obvious that Kobanzame-senpai couldn't take the amount of training that Mizumachi wanted for the team, and Kakei was one of the many who noticed.

He nodded, and smiled at the team captain's ecstatic grin. "Mizumachi, you can stop running laps now," he called out to the field.

"Aww… but I've just started!"

"You've done over twenty already," she spoke up, saving the bother of doing so for Kakei.

Kakei glanced at her for a few seconds, before turning towards his team-mates once more and she wondered whether it was his silent way of thanking her.

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