***
Ken, Hiroki and Daichi were working up a sweat in the hotel gym, joined by a few other of their teammates.
They had just beat Canada convincingly earlier that day and had a few hours for leisure before the next film session. By this point, everyone had played 10 games in 10 days and were starting to feel the fatigue build up.
Therefore, the workout they were doing was rather light.
Well, except for Hiroki who seemed to be on his own schedule.
"Dude, it's the finals tomorrow, why don't you calm down a little?" Daichi said, looking a little concerned.
However, Hiroki ignored him, continuing his run on the treadmill.
"Just leave him. You know how he gets after standing on 1st base all day." Ken said with a chuckle.
Daichi shrugged, mumbling that it was none of his business.
"Ah, did you text Ai to tell her we made it to the finals?"
"Yeah, she said she's going to stay up and watch it with a friend." Ken said, grabbing his phone and showing Daichi the photo that she sent.
It was a picture of Ai standing next to another girl.
Daichi briefly glanced at the photo, intending on going back to his workout, but in the next moment he did a double take.
"W-What the hell?"
"What?" Ken asked in confusion.
"N-Nothing…" he replied, his face turning red.
"So damn huge." He muttered, going back to his workout.
A couple of pairs of ears perked up within the small gym at those words. Both Riku and Aki seemingly teleported in front of Ken, snatching the phone in his hand.
"HOLY MOTHER OF MILK!" Aki squealed, rubbing his eyes in shock.
Riku felt his soul almost leave his body as he saw the photo, his face turning green with envy.
"That's your girlfriend!? I hate you so much right now." Riku said, almost crushing the phone in his hand.
"How do you not suffocate?" Aki added, his curiosity overcoming his jealousy.
Ken's face frowned as he snatched the phone back from the two perverts.
"My girlfriend is the one on the left." Ken said, his face serious.
"Oh… Yeah she's really cute." Riku stated, his voice lowered.
"Ahem… You wouldn't happen to have the other girls number would you?"
Aki ran his hand over his bald head and sent a pleading and innocent look towards Ken. If he didn't know the guy, he might have been fooled by his acting.
"Piss off." Ken said simply, shooing him away like a fly.
Throughout the entire interaction, Hiroki was focused on his running. Rather then women, there was something, or someone else on his mind.
'Leo… I won't lose to you.'
If his teammates could hear his thoughts, they may think very differently of their friend.
Around 30 minutes later, the guys finished their workout. Apart from Hiroki who looked as if he just ran a marathon, everyone seemed to be loosened up.
"The film session will be starting soon, we should get ready." Ken stated.
"Yeah, let's go shower and head down." Daichi replied.
Everyone got into the elevator and headed up to their rooms. However, since there was only 1 shower in each of the rooms, it was a rush to see who could get there first.
As they approached the door, Ken's face turned serious.
"Have you thought about what's gonna happen when we return back to Japan?"
Daichi paused after opening the door, not expecting such a question.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you're currently living in Osaka at the school dorms. Isn't Miho living in Tokyo?"
"Mmm… I haven't thought that far." Daichi said truthfully.
Ken placed his hand on his shoulder and let out a deep sigh, "You need to start looking at the future little bro. You're always so… Naive."
As he said the last word, Ken shoved Daichi out of the way in one quick movement, launching himself forward and into the bathroom before slamming the door shut.
It took Daichi a few moments to understand what had just happened.
"Damn it Ken! You cheated."
It looked like Ken had intentionally misled Daichi into letting his guard down so he could shower first. Though he couldn't exactly complain since he'd done something similar in the past.
He let out a small chuckle, but quickly fell silent. Though it was used a distraction, Ken's words were weighing on him.
Since they'd just officially entered a relationship, he hadn't thought about anything in the near future. He was still in the first year of High School, while Miho was in her final year.
After graduating, she would likely be going to Tokyo University to continue her studies.
Would a long distance relationship work?
Daichi was thrown deep into thought and felt his anxiety levels worsen.
By the time Ken got out of the shower, he found Daichi in the same position where he left him, albeit with a depressed expression on his face.
'Oh man, he can't be that upset right?' Ken thought, feeling a little bad.
"Shower is free…" He uttered, heading over to get some of his clothes.
Yet he received no response.
"Dude, go shower. There's no point thinking about that stuff right now, you can talk to Miho after dinner."
As if knowing what he was thinking about, Ken softened his tone a little. He had wanted to talk about the subject at some point, since he didn't want his brother to end up like him.
With Ai, everything happened right before she left for Tokyo. While it had all worked out eventually, he would have rather they'd talked about everything in person beforehand.
Of course, he was mostly to blame for this since he'd been busy at the tryouts for the National Team, but that was neither here nor there.
Daichi nodded, taking on board what Ken said.
"Thanks bro." He said, before making his way into the bathroom. Yet even after he got into the shower, his mind was preoccupied.