The Rise of the Iron Wall!-Chapter 21: Back to the Club Again

Higo was a weak-willed person.

Yeah, Higo himself was the first one to admit that, and even if it was Makino who mocked him, he wouldn’t complain or fight back. The best example was here.

Kumiko just gave him her best puppy-dog eyes for four seconds—yeah, he counted that—and the boy had been thinking about it since the beginning of the class to the time when the final bell rang. Creepy, indeed, but as long as he saved it for himself and never let anyone know about that side of him, everything should be alright.

Then, still drunk from that expression earlier in the day, when Kumiko invited him to the club meeting, Higo just nodded readily, not even showing any resistance. The goofy smile plastered on his face since the morning was enough to disgust Makino, as the captain took distance from him.

"Honestly, I don’t know what Kumiko-chan looks at you to the point that she will reject me for your creepy ass." He muttered sarcastically.

"Tch! What do you know?" Higo clicked his tongue in disdain. "This is the power of a childhood friend! Maybe, try to have one, and you know how wonderful the feeling is!" He smiled smugly, full of superiority.

A thick vein popped on Makino’s forehead, yet he still had more to answer for that. "Don’t you know that childhood friend is the biggest loser in the anime? Well, it seems that this is also true in reality. With your ordinary life, I am sure that Kumiko-chan will turn her head back at me soon."

"Ha?! Say that again, Teme!"

"Any problem with that, Chibi?!"

"Yes, I have a big problem with a loser like you!"

"Fuck! You only won one time, and your head is already that big?!"

"What?! Any problem with that?!"

Once again, those two started bickering out of nowhere, with the other players also spread apart as they didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire. Well, not everyone, per se... As Hiroshi, bless his innocent heart, suddenly barged in with his face flushed in excitement.

"Makino-senpai, I heard that you and Higo-senpai were playing together with Miyashi-senpai and the others? Why didn’t you tell me about that?! I would love to join one too!" He whined childishly.

Both Makino and Higo had the corners of their lips twitching madly, as they communicated to each other in silence. "Urgh... Sorry, I forgot to ask you yesterday, Hiroshi-kun. I will call you first if we are about to do that again in the future." In the end, the captain promised.

"Really?!" Hiroshi’s eyes were shining brightly as he grabbed Makino’s hand with a hopeful expression. "Promise that you will call me? Swear in the name of your mother!"

The last part was enough to annoy Makino, as the captain landed a light chop on his kouhai’s head. "Stop being dramatic! It is not a big deal!" Of course, he wouldn’t say that the little game yesterday was initiated with malicious intent.

It was still five minutes since the final class was over, and right now, some of the players hadn’t arrived yet. They were gathering in the club’s room—yeah, besides the pitch, the football team also had a room—with Kumiko preparing the screen, probably wanting to show something.

Higo was quite amused to see Makino getting flustered under Hiroshi’s probes. Honestly, remembering how the freshman kid dancing on the pitch a few days ago, he had a hard time thinking of him as a sunshine like this.

It was funnier to see that Hiroshi kept pestering Makino about the details of the game yesterday, but it also started to get annoying when the boy kept asking the captain even when it came to the goalkeeping scene, completely disregarding him as the main protagonist that day.

"Come on, Senpai! Just tell me! Is he really that good? I mean, did he really stop you four from scoring? What method did you use? How would he react to your attack? Also, how was his body language?"

Hearing the barrage of questions that was launched nonstop by Hiroshi, Higo even felt pity toward the captain, finding that even his worst enemy didn’t deserve to receive this annoying treatment. Still, he didn’t have any intention to interrupt, just going straight to the front while watching Kumiko preparing everything there.

"So, what are we doing today?" He asked casually, taking the chair in the front row to make himself comfortable. "Should we... I mean, start training or some shit like that?"

"Well, yeah..." Kumiko nodded, yet not even turning her head from the screen. "However, this is also an important matter that everyone has to hear, so while we are still at the recovery stage after the last game, at least, we can still have a productive time here."

Higo nodded slightly, yet couldn’t understand a shit about that. "Anyway, you haven’t answered yet. What are we doing today?" He asked once again.

"Oh, it is easy, just wait..." She typed with lightning speed, and after pausing for a while, a mischievous smile curled on her face. "Well, I decided to tell you later with the others! For now, just go and have a talk! Don’t be a loner, right?"

Higo stood still, speechless, not expecting him to be attacked like this. Still, he followed the suggestion, gathering around Saburo Kuroki, the team’s striker, who was also the only sophomore student here besides him and Makino. It wasn’t like he deliberately stayed away from the freshmen, but the others seemed to have their conversation partner already.

"So, what is it about, Kuroki-kun? Any idea?" He asked casually.

"Well, it is March already, so I think I know what is going on here." The strong boy nodded. "However, I don’t know for sure whether we are going to talk about that or not, so just wait, eh?" He chuckled mischievously.

Higo was so speechless, inwardly cursing, ’Does everyone here conspire against my back to keep it secret from me? For fuck’s sake!’

Fortunately, he didn’t need to wait for so long, because soon, the screen finally got connected to Kumiko’s laptop, and there, Higo could see the big title that told him what they were going to talk about here.

PREPARATION FOR THE SUMMER TOURNAMENT!

After seeing this, gone was all the chatter and playfulness inside the room, replaced by solemnity and excitement on their faces. Seeing this, Kumiko nodded in satisfaction, finally speaking, "Well, then, I think it is time to talk about our goal, right?!"