That night, he found himself struggling to fall asleep. Whenever he tried to fall asleep, his thoughts kept drifting back to Hiro.
What if he never plays again?
Though he refused to admit it, he couldn't rule it out either.
Despite the recurring thoughts, he forced himself to sleep, and somehow the night passed. However, the questions didn't stop.
For days, they followed him like a shadow, refusing to leave his side.
His focus slipped in training, and his coaches noticed, and so did his teammates, but none of them understood. They didn't know what Hiro meant to him. They didn't know that, in some way, Hiro was the reason he played at all.
Now, alone on the empty pitch, he drew back his foot and drove the ball against the concrete wall at the edge of the training ground.
Thud!
It rebounded to him, and he brought it under control and sent it back again.
Thud!
