Chapter 26: Concern’s of a father

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nAfter thoroughly analysing the footage of the match of Karasuno elementary school, coach Miura dismissed the meeting.

nOne by one everybody started to head home. However Hiro couldn’t leave for home immediately as he would have to still wait for his parents to pick him up. And thus, after bidding his goodbye to Akashi and while everybody started to head home, he started to walk towards the pitch.

n“Where are you going Hiro?”

nHonda san called out for him.

n“I’m going to the pitch. Since I’ll have to wait for my parents to show up, I wanted to kill some time by kicking the ball on the field.”

nHiro exclaimed.

n“You don’t have to do that today. I already informed your parents before the start of the meeting and they should already be here. So go home!”

nHonda san gave him a gentle push.

nAs mentioned by Honda san, he found his father waiting for him outside the entrance. Usually it would be his mother who’d pick him up. But surprisingly it was his father today, who came to pick him up.

n“Dad you’re here!”

nHiro exclaimed as he approached his father.

n“Yeah! Your mom’s kinda busy with something today. So I’m here in her stead. By the way, you played really well today.”

nTakashi praised him for his earlier performance.

n“Now then, shall we head home?”

n“Ummmm”

nHiro nodded his head as they left for the train station. While they were inside the train, they talked about his earlier performance. Takashi couldn’t look more proud of his achievements.

n“Where are you going dad? Our home is in other direction.”

nHiro pointed towards the path to their home as Takashi took the wrong turn.

n“I know! Just follow me for a while.”

nTakashi exclaimed.

nAfter that Takashi took him to a sports store.

n“Dad why are we here?”

nHiro was baffled by his father’s unusual behaviour.

n“Go and pick the cleats you like.” 𝓫𝓭𝓸𝓋𝓁.𝓬𝓸𝓂

nTakashi nonchalantly exclaimed.

nIn disbelief, Hiro took a peak at his father’s face. However he looked really calm and composed. He meant what he said and he wasn’t joking about buying him new cleats.

n“Thank you dad”

nHe stormed inside the store after thanking his father.

nHe got himself a pair of classic adidas predator boots in red colour with black stripes. The boot was quite expensive and costed his father about 28,000 yen roughly 200 dollars.

nIf it were any other time, he would have complained about the price of the boot. But since today was a special occasion, he didn’t hesitate to buy him the cleats which he selected.

nWhile on his way to home, he and his father talked about a lot of things. He felt closer to his father at that moment than he did in his whole life in his previous life.

n“Don’t tell your mother about the price of the boot. If she finds out that I bought you such an expensive boot, she’ll cut my pocket money for entire month.”

nTakashi exclaimed with a worried expression.

n“Don’t worry dad. I won’t tell her dad.”

nAfter listening to the words of his son, Takashi chuckled. Just then as he took a peak at his son, his smile faded away.

n“You’ve matured way too early in your life. Sometimes when I talk to you, I feel like I’m talking with a grown up adult person. May be it’s because of your useless father, you were forced to mature so early in your life. If only I could provide you with the things you desired.”

nTakashi whispered softly.

nTakashi was very well aware of his son’s abilities and he wanted to send his son to the academies in Europe to help him improve. But that would have costed him a lot of money and he roughly earned about 800 dollars a month.

nHowever due to the unusual silence around them, he could hear him clearly. His heart felt heavy upon listening to his father’s words, but he didn’t speak anything and pretended as if he didn’t hear anything at all. Even though he was a 27 year old from inside, he couldn’t find the right words to console his father and thus, he decided to keep his mouth shut.

nBy the time they reached their home, the sun had already settled down. While there were still some light coming from the far off horizon, the sky was getting darker. Shades of blue and black mixed together to form a beautiful scenery in the sky above.

nSniff!! Sniff!!

n“Something smells really nice.”

nHiro began to sniff around as he smelled something fragrant coming from inside his house.

n“Oh you’re here! Welcome back!”

nHis mother greeted them both as they entered the house.

n“Mom what are we having for dinner?”

nHiro enthusiastically questioned as soon as he entered his house.

nThe house he lived in, was a traditionally built Japanese style house called ‘minka’. The house was made up of woods and consisted two floors. The bottom floor contained 2 spacious large rooms, while the upper floor contained 3 small rooms. Even though their house was pretty small, it contained a small yard infront.

n“You’ll know once you see for yourself.”

nShe chuckled.

n“Now go freshen up and change your clothes.”

nAs he took of his shoes, he ran towards his room in a hurry. He didn’t even arrange his shoes properly, he simply tossed them aside as he ran towards his room in a hurry.

n“Put your shoes in the shoe rack.”

nHis mother yelled as she began to collect his tossed aside shoes.

nTakashi remained frozen infront of the door with a cheerful smile on his face.

n“Now should I send you an invitation separately?”

nHis mother looked at his father with her icy cold gaze. Seeing her gaze, the smile on his face faded away. He then took his shoes off and obediently put them in the rack.

n“Woah!! It’s fried chicken for dinner today.”

nHiro exclaimed in awe.

nHiro was a fan of fried chicken. Mostly they would have steamed white rice, boiled veggies and fish for dinner. As she considered fried foods unhealthy, she wouldn’t let them feast on anything fried in oil. And only in rare occasions she would cook fried foods.

nAfter leaving separately from his mother in his previous life, he had to survive on fast foods. And that was the time when he discovered his love for fried chicken.

n“Yeah since it’s a special occasion today. So eat as much as you want.”

nShe exclaimed in ecstasy.

n“But what’s this special occasion you both keep mentioning about?”

nHiro bewilderingly questioned as he pulled the chair and sat down.

n“You’re getting interviewed tomorrow.”

n“Cough!! Cough!!”

nAs soon as he heard about the interview, he choked on his food.

n“Easy…, Easy.”

nTakashi stroke his back gently and provided him water.

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