Ai too felt her face heat up in response to these words, yet they didn't feel forced or dirty like other times she had heard it. In fact, it caused her to feel butterflies in her stomach, even bringing a smile to her face.
"Okay everyone, let's jump on the bus." Coach Hanada announced.
'YOU'RE THE BEST COACH!'
Ken inwardly rejoiced, he had been saved by the bell. However, he still needed to smoothly extricate himself from the girl in front of him, hopefully making up for the awkward atmosphere.
"Okay bye."
With that he turned around and headed to the bus.
'W-What the hell was that!?'
Ken was mortified. He would need to set up a performance meeting with his brain at a later date to talk over these past 30 seconds of decisions.
Ai blinked a few times before…
"Pfft hahaha"
She broke into one of her giggling fits.
Thankfully her hand was covering her mouth and others were preoccupied with getting onto the bus that no one but the other two managers heard her.
Both Kaori and Yuko had witnessed the whole situation and were about to step in when they saw Ai was uncomfortable. That was until Yuko noticed Ken storming over quickly with purpose.
Using her women's intuition she was able to see the shining white knight in the form of Ken who had come to rescue the damsel in distress. With a practiced ease, she picked up Kaori and retreated to a safe distance where they could watch the proceedings.
However they were left speechless at the abrupt ending.
Yuko and Kaori looked at each other as if to confirm they had seen the same thing, only to be interrupted by the muffled giggles of Ai who seemed to be in a great mood.
"Is she delusional or something?" Kaori commented, watching the girl giggling violently.
Ken brute forced his way onto the bus, almost flattening Shiro who was gingerly walking up the steps. He let out a squeal, drawing a pitiful sight as he clung onto the bus handles for dear life.
After finding a seat, Ken placed his head down and felt his face heat up.
Thankfully he managed to recover a few minutes later by the time everyone got on the bus.
"Looks like we have most of the people here." The coach said, standing up at the front of the bus and getting everyone's attention.
His face turned up into a smile, "There's still one person who wanted to come and cheer us on."
With that he moved to the side.
A boy made his way up the stairs slowly, holding a crutch underneath each of his arms. His body looked in tremendous shape despite the brace on his knee.
"Yusuke!"
"Welcome back."
"Haha let me use your crutches later."
Morale was instantly boosted, despite the players already being hyped for their very first game of the new year, the atmosphere reaching an even higher level.
Yusuke waved to the team mates he had worked alongside for the past month and couldn't help but smile. He moved his gaze, looking for a certain person in particular.
Ken lifted his head, his eyes locking with the injured boy.
A look of gratitude appeared on Yusuke's face, telling Ken everything he needed to know. He then made his way through the bus aisle and spoke up, pointing to the seat next to Ken.
"Mind if I sit here?"
"No worries."
The two sat in silence for a little over 5 minutes into the 40 minute trip, however it wasn't awkward.
"Thank you."
Ken didn't respond, nor did he feel he had to. To him, the only natural conclusion was to do what he did, since he knew about the tumor thanks to the system.
He also did not want Yusuke to be a liability during nationals with his injury, hence his actions weren't completely altruistic. It was all for the end goal of winning the nationals this year.
Yusuke didn't seem to be phased by the lack of response.
"The doctor said I should be fine to go back to training in about 3 weeks from now as long as I complete the physical therapy." He stated, feeling a smile form on the corner of his lips.
"Good. Don't push yourself too hard." Ken replied.
"Yeah…"
Once again the two were silent for a while before Yusuke turned towards Ken with a serious expression.
"Ken if it wasn't for y—"
"Don't sweat the details man." Ken interrupted him, already feeling unworthy of the praise.
"Just make sure you recover properly, we'll need you in order to win Nationals this year."
Yusuke stared at his benefactor with a stunned expression for a moment, however it was quickly replaced with a smile. It seemed that Ken was not good with receiving gratitude, so he decided to drop the matter entirely.
"Yeah, no worries. I'll be fighting fit in time for the prefectural tournament." He stated confidently.
There were no more words the rest of the way between the two, yet they still enjoyed each others company.
Soon enough the bus came to a stop, yet everyone stayed in their seats besides the coach.
"Okay guys, the game starts in an hour so I want everyone to head straight for the locker rooms and get changed before we have a quick chat. We'll then head onto the field to warm up."
"Alright, no dilly-dallying let's go."
With that he ushered everyone off the bus, not leaving until there was no one left behind.
The team walked in the school gates and headed towards the baseball field located at the back of the school. It almost felt like an excursion walking into another school dressed in one's own uniform.
There was a small crowd of 40 people near the baseball fields who had come to watch the friendly, mostly made up of students from the school.
The opposition coach walked out to meet Coach Hanada and shook his hand. He was an older gentleman, yet his eyes were sharp and filled with intelligence.
"Thanks for coming out all this way Coach Hanada." The older man said, a harmless smile plastered on his face.
"Thanks for having us Coach Goto."