9 - Discovery

                                    

                                          
"Hey Yuuma, can you help me train?"
"Hmm...oh, Haru-kun. Sure, what do you need help with."
"I still don't really get what you said before. How do I use my ball retention skills as a weapon?"
Yuuma frowned. "What do you mean how? Keep the ball close, find an opening, exploit it."
"Yeah, but...how?"
Before Yuuma could question the other boy further, Akihito interjected. "Sorry, Yuuma-san. Haru-kun hasn't been playing football for that long. You might need to show him the basics."
"How long is not that long?"
Haruto shrugged. "Like...a year."
"Year and a half, at most." Akihito added.
"A year and a half of experience...You've grown so much that you're a top 300 striker in the country, but not enough to understand the concept of ball retention?"
"I don't know dude. Blame him," Haruto said as he pointed at Akihito, "He mostly tells me to run this way...run that way."
Yuuma looked at the one to blame, who wore a sheepish grin on his face.
"Fine...show me how you usually play."
"Haru-nii, do you like vegetables?"
Haruto looked to his left, down at his little brother Shouya. "No."
"So, you hate vegetables?"
"No."
"Do you want mine, Haru-nii?"
"No."
"Can I give them to you, Haru-nii?"
"Sure."
A sigh could be heard on the other side of the table. Haruto's older sister, Mirai, rubbed her temple. "Haru, don't let Shouya give you his vegetables."
"Onee-chan, Haru-nii said that it's fine!"
A deep, guttural voice came from the father of the Kurosawa household, Tomoki. "Shouya, no screaming in the house. Eat your vegetables," he commanded, causing his youngest child to pout. The man then proceeded to turn his attention to his eldest son, "Haruto, why did you come home so late?"
"There was this senpai who made me join them."
"Hoooh, did you find yourself some friends already?"
"Haru-kun has already found friends?!" The excited half-yell of the mother, Mitsuki, came from the kitchen.
"How the hell did you do that, Haru?"
"I don't know. The ball came towards me, and I kicked it back...and then one of the guys, I think his name was Mizutani-senpai, said that I should join them, so I did."
Unlike his siblings, Haruto was calm, almost cold with a tinge of his father's cynicism. His stare was oftentimes so distant that his friends could never tell whether he was listening...he always was. No one could tell when he was happy or when he wasn't. Not his friends, not his siblings, not his parents.
It is no wonder then that the boy wasn't one to be easily intimidated. Ever since he was a child, he had been different from the other children. Unlike all his peers, he never cried, never screamed, never complained. From a very early age, the little ravenette took things in stride. Fall, dust oneself off, keep walking. Rince, repeat. For Haruto, things just are and that's good enough for him.