#none of them have reached 100M

[liveyun]

good lord i am the worst at controlling my anger

[dearweirdme]

Hey , it's a small request from a fellow army, if Layover is one your fav albums from BTS members so can you & your army friends can stream all the MVs of Layover. None of them have reached 50M or 100M views yet. The 5 mvs were masterpieces & Tae worked hard for it. I am sad the views are not increasing. Please stream more if possible 🙏

Hi anon!

Let's make it easy shall we!

[kookiecrush]

Hey , it's a small request from a fellow army, if Layover is one your fav albums from BTS members so can you & your army friends can stream all the MVs of Layover. None of them have reached 50M or 100M views yet. The 5 mvs were masterpieces & Tae worked hard for it. I am sad the views are not increasing. Please stream more if possible 🙏

Although, I suspect you're asking the wrong people, anon, because we've BEEN supporting Tae and streaming for him around here. Every time I watch the "Slow dancing" mv, I'm blown away by how beautiful it is 😭

[mysmorgasbordoffantabulosa]

Hey , it's a small request from a fellow army, if Layover is one your fav albums from BTS members so can you & your army friends can stream all the MVs of Layover. None of them have reached 50M or 100M views yet. The 5 mvs were masterpieces & Tae worked hard for it. I am sad the views are not increasing. Please stream more if possible 🙏

Also, an addendum:

Reason none have gotten to 50/100m views is because you're concentrating on all 5 MVs I would prioritise the Main MV (slow dancing) and perhaps either Rainy Days or Love Me Again.

Also, to the anon, what makes you think we're not doing this already?

[formulalex]

Spygate and Crashgate...Formula 1′s cheating scandals!

There have been many instances of cheating in Formula 1 but none more compelling than Spygate and Crashgate. 

So, if you want to delve a little deeper into the Formula 1 iceberg, this blog post is for you.

Spygate 

 It was 2007 when Formula 1 was rocked by the Spygate scandal. Sounds crazy and it was, and there’s so much information that you could make a multiple part Netflix series on the one scandal alone. However, I am here today to give you the most important parts and sum it up for you in one blog post.

A staff member at the photocopying shop blew the whistle which then allowed Ferrari to subsequently file claims against Stepney outlining that he stole confidential technical information and gave it to McLaren in his time working there. 

This then became an FIA investigation and a legal case in Italy, where Ferrari is based. There was a case in England but was later dropped after Ferrari reached an agreement with the Coughlan’s. 

The FIA investigation was the harshest out of the bunch and found that McLaren had been in possession of the document and as a result McLaren was disqualified from the constructors’ championship and handed $100m fine, which to date is the largest fine handed out in the FIA’s history. 

It is important to note as well that both McLaren drivers at the time, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, both appeared in court to relieve themselves of any possible penalties and fines against them. Both said they didn’t have any knowledge of what had happened. 

Crashgate

The Formula 1 Crashgate scandal occurred at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. 

After 2007, Fernando Alonso had left McLaren and joined Renault. Across the season he had been performing well and heading into Singapore he was the favourite to challenge for pole and potentially win. However, the race and qualifying did not go smoothly.

In qualifying Alonso suffered a fuel problem in Q2 and thus, was knocked out, lining up on the grid P15.  

Alonso was able to come up the pack with the pitlane closed and following a fortunate string of events with other drivers involved including penalties and bad pitstops Alonso was able to claim victory. 

Sounds poetic, but it was all orchestrated. And we didn’t find out until the following year when Piquet, after being dropped by Renault midway through 2009, went to the FIA and spilled his guts about everything.

He told the FIA that Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds asked him to crash, bring out a safety car, and give Alonso the opportunity to secure victory. Alonso, however, was not considered to have been one of the conspirators in the crash.

 There are so many other sagas surrounding Formula 1 and more recently the cost cap saga involving Red Bull…but that one is for another day.

[somethinga7]

So after getting this comment on twitter (and me being extremely petty) I decided to look into it. It doesn’t really matter if I keep the 24-29km/h croc speed as sea monster speed after all but I did say I’d lower it to 20km/h so I’m sticking to my case.

1. This is a free fall calculator, not jumping. As we can see initial velocity (vº) is 20km/h (my estimate) and height is 2m and our result is 30km/h (like you said) that is NOT the speed they’d need to go at to get that height. This is a falling calculator, that’s the increase. That is how fast something falling constantly at 20km/h for 2m will accelerate to. Now maybe I’m wrong and/or you’re qualified, I know I’m not qualified and physics confuses me, but this seems right.

The easiest way to tell imho is to compare to something else. Luckily for us, there is an animal that likes to jump like L+A: Dolphins (for consistency, I will only be referring to bottlenose dolphins and I’ll just refer to them as dolphins)

Dolphins can jump up to 20ft (or 6m) and the fastest ever recorded vertical speed for a jump was 40km/h and they typically stay within a few meters of the water’s surface

Although that is double what I estimated for sea monsters, there is some important factors to consider:

1. The boys don’t really jump that high, their highest is about 4m MAAAAYYYBE 4.5m (I very roughly measured how high they got using Luca’s height [two sources for this, one saying 4’11, the other says 5’1 so I went with 5’0 .•. 4.5m = 15ft or 3 Lucas])

1.5 Their highest jump is one of two where they go almost directly vertically btw

2. That is the very fastest speed ever recorded, not the average, it could be an outlier.

3. Even if we took none of that into consideration, L+A should still be able to jump 3m at 20km/h if a dolphin can do 6 at 40km/h which is 1m more than OP said they would need to go at 22km/h to get

But I suspect that dolphins are not constantly going at 40km/h for their jumps. It only takes putting a dolphin at 30km/h to get the numbers necessary, giving us a speed (km/h) to height (m) ratio of 5:1

If we got this ratio, ie. got dolphins typically going at 30km/h instead of 40, it would allow L+A to reach a height of 4m at 20km/h… and what do you know

Taking off the 3km/h gives the boys an additional 20cm of height so 4.2m at 20km/h

Completely unrelated to me being petty but I also wanted to see how fast L+A would clear the Portorosso Cup swim. It looks somewhat far so let’s say a full Olympic size pool, or 50m each way

Now we need to know how fast L+A can go in m/s. 20km/h would be 5.5°m/s (° means repeating btw) that means it’d take Luca or Alberto 9.09 seconds per 50m (they have to swim back so 18.18s), considering they’re going full speed the whole time. But they’ve gotta speed up first so let’s be more realistic and get an acceleration speed

We can assume in the runaway scene that they’re going somewhat fast as Luca is running away so they’d want to be going fast + general excitement, so let’s say they’re already going 5-7.5km/h

Alberto’s first jump after the jump over the rock starts at about 3 Lucas deep or 4.5m he covers the distance in 1 second of screentime and got a jump of about 3m meaning he should be going about 15km/h by the time he reaches the water’s surface

Acceleration is in metres squared or meters per second per second. This means at 1m/s/s it takes 5 seconds to reach 5m/s. The acceleration value for going from 5km/h to 15km/h in 1 second (Alberto’s speed) is 2.778m/s/s and from 7.5km/h it is 2.08m/s/s this means it takes 1.98-2.64 seconds for them to reach 5.5m/s (or 20km/h) their max speed.

That means you’d only have to add 1.98-2.64 to that original finish time, so 18.18 + 1.98-2.64. giving us 20.16-20.82 seconds for them to finish the whole swim (a 100m swim) (btw a dolphin does it in 13.7s so it’s matching up still)

For comparison, that is HALF the time of the world record for a 100m swim (46.86s) and let’s say Giulia is considered B grade (the lowest competitive grade and the top 55% for age group competitively) as she trains quite hard for this competition. Just from one source (I’m lazy leave me alone) it would take a 13yo B grade girl 122.7 seconds to swim 100m, that is a whopping 5.9-6 times as long as it takes Luca and Alberto

Sea monster speed

I think I’ve got a pretty good estimate of the swim speed of a sea monster from Luca

First thing I needed was some way of determining how fast they were able to go at a certain time. Thankfully Luca has fish that his family farm. While these fish themselves are not a real species, there is a very compelling substitute: The Gilt-Head Bream.

This fish is very common all throughout the Mediterranean, it eats plant material (like we see Luca’s fish do) and it lives around 0-30m deep and near seagrass beds (exactly where Luca lives) it also is quite popular to eat so that’d explain why Luca’s family farm them, and while not too important it also looks like Luca’s goat-fish

Now the problem with determining Luca’s speed is that most fish speeds are really only estimates. So finding speed references for the gilt-head bream was a pain in the ass but I found a study putting them at about 2.448km/h (the study didn’t have a massive sample so take that with a grain of salt)

That sounds slow, until you compare it to the average human, who is estimated to have a swim speed of 2.1km/h and the max speeds the best of the best can reach unassisted is about 8-10km/h

As for our sea monster max speed, I decided to compare to similarly shaped animals and the most similar in my opinion, is crocodiles.

I decided to be realistic and go with one of the slower ones, the saltwater crocodile, who has a max speed range of 24-29km/h. I also decided to lower the sea monster speed just because 1. They’re rounder so not as good at cutting through water and 2. They also don’t really need to go quite as fast since they’re not hunting.

So my estimations for a sea monster swim speed is anywhere between 2.448km/h to 20km/h.

Meaning even if he wasn’t really trying, say putting in as much effort as jogging, Luca would easily win the swimming aspect of the portorosso cup.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Youtube, fair use, competition, and the death of the artist

Today we have three major record labels, the meanest, most voracious gobblers-up of the competition, companies that clawed their way to global dominance through absolute ruthlessness, particularly to the musicians who did the work that brought in the money. For example: the Beatles earned $0.01/record. Split four ways. But 15% of that was creamed off by the label to account for "promotional copies" that they later admitted they sold at full price without giving the Beatles their (one penny* of royalties. When Napster and other digital distribution platforms appeared, many musicians were angry about them, but many were hopeful: was this - finally - a way to be free of the labels? It was! For a while. The subsequent record industry lawsuits combined with runaway mergers and acquisitions in *both* tech (5 giants) *and* entertainment (4 studios, 4ish publishers, 3 labels) killed the dream of a pluralistic, fair alternative to the content oligarchy. This was confirmed when Youtube launched its music service in the early part of the past decade. After hammering out a deal with the Big Four (now three) labels, YT told all the independent artists and labels that this would be their deal too - or they could leave Youtube. In other words, Youtube was now an honorary member of the Big Four (now three) and every musician in the world who wanted access to the monopoly audio-video distribution platform would have to toe the Big Four's (now three) line...or else. The fusion of Youtube with the big entertainment companies includes a complete disregard for fair use - the limitations and exceptions to copyright that are so necessary to free speech, criticism, and new artistic expression. It's hard to square copyright with the First Amendment ("Congress shall make no law.. abridging the freedom of speech"). I wrote this, it attracted a copyright at the moment of fixation, and now the US government gives me to the power to bar you from repeating it. How can a government that is constitutionally barred from abridging your speech also have a law telling you what you're allowed to say? The Supreme Court explored this in Eldred v Ashcroft, with RBG calling fair use copyright's "safety valve." Fair use is how you can ban people from saying stuff without abridging their free speech: it allows for transformation, criticism, commentary, education, parody, archiving and a host of other uses. Without fair use, copyright is unconstitutional censorship. In 2007, Viacom sued Youtube for $1b; the court released emails between Viacom execs admitting that their goal was to "steal" Youtube and take it over (the emails were *very* sweary and included vicious fights about which exec would get to run YT) https://www.fastcompany.com/1588353/steal-it-and-other-internal-youtube-emails-viacoms-copyright-suit As the suit was making its way through the courts, Youtube launched Content ID, its automated takedown system. Content ID - which cost $100m to build and run - allowed select rightsholders to "claim" certain audio and video elements as their copyrights. Content ID scours uploaded videos for matches to claimed works, then (depending on rightsholders' preferences), Content ID either removes the matching video, takes the money it is generating, or (if it's ad-free) puts ads all over it and gives the money to the rightsholder. And Content ID can't figure out if a use is fair or not. No algorithm can. How software tell if something is parody? If it's commentary? If it's sufficiently transformative to constitute a fair use? It can't, and so Content ID doesn't. What do you get when you mix automated takedown, entertainment and tech monopolies and the absolute annihilation of fair use? The contemporary arts world. https://www.eff.org/wp/unfiltered-how-youtubes-content-id-discourages-fair-use-and-dictates-what-we-see-online In a superb white paper, my EFF colleague Katharine Trendacosta painstakingly documents how Youtube transfers gigantic sums from working artists to rent-collecting rightsholders in a system that incentivizes false copyright claims and punishes those who appeal automated verdicts. The paper starts by documenting how Content ID *really* works, and shows how the pretty, streamlined, easy to follow flowcharts that YT publishes to prove that it has a fair and transparent systems are a sham.

The reality is a giant, gnarly hairball of rules, threats, ultimatums and dire punishments, where videos that pass muster one day can be taken down the next, and where challenging the robot (or a rightsholder) can annihilate your Youtube account - and thus your artistic career.

It's a system where creators producing major video essays can upload them in five minute chunks to YT to check for copyright claims, find none, piece the whole feature together and upload it - only to get five copyright claims. It's a system where a ten-hour video of white noise attracts *six* copyright claims - one for an "infringement" that allegedly lasted for less than *one second*. Trendacosta's paper revolves around deep interviews with three very different Youtubers. The first is Hbomberguy, a long-form video essayist with 600k subscribers, who spends weeks playing blind man's bluff with Content ID, slicing more and more sections out of his video to get rid of copyright claims (and doing it over again when the algorithm changes). The second is Todd Nathanson, a musicologist who produces videos that dive deep into one-hit wonders and other musical oddities. He has given up on getting any of the money his wildly popular videos generate through YT ads; it's impossible to fend off the Content ID robots. Instead, Nathanson relies on Patreon subscribers to pay his bills, and allows the rightholders who lay claim to the money from his legal, canonical-fair-use musical excerpts to simply steal the money he is entitled to. Finally, there's Lindsay Ellis, a bestselling novelist with 1m subscribers who has been shunted from one service to the next as all of Youtube's competitors were driven out of business, landing on Youtube after she ran out of alternatives. Ellis's high profile means she can sometimes actually reach a human being at Youtube to discuss copyright claims against her work, but they are monumentally unhelpful. Ellis knows an awful lot about copyright, but that's actually a detriment when it comes to Content ID. That's because defending yourself to the Content ID system means that rightsholders can deny your defense and generate "copystrikes" against your account. Rack up three strikes and your account gets suspended or even deleted. Ellis wonders "why I bothered playing by the rules all these years because fair use doesn’t matter. Content ID is all that matters." Youtube's Content ID statistics are opaque and out of date, but Trendacosta estimates that the system rendered automated judgements in 122,500,000 copyright claims in 2017, a number that has surely climbed since. Once, creators dreamed of the internet as an escape hatch from the airtight cell that the Big Four (now three) labels had crammed all the world's music into. Today, most creators have been corralled into a single online platform. That platform colludes with the Big Three to misappropriate the incomes of artists who never signed their one-sided record deals, and the ripoff continues with a long tail of penny-ante grifters who claim copyrights over silence, white noise and birdsong.

[cheswirls]

[ pt 1/2 of the tensemi track au!! small note, when i started this (almost) a year ago i confused the one mile records with the 100 meter records, so this fic goes w/ the assumption the 100m record is 4 seconds. yes i know the 100m record is 10s. no i am not going to change it. just read it regarding this info, and it should be smooth. ]

year one |

the spring before eita’s freshman year, he has a growth spurt. it’s not anything big, only a handful of inches, but it’s enough to make a difference as he works around it in his training regimen. his legs get longer, his steps grow wider, and by the time track and field tryouts come around, he’s confident he’s adjusted enough to the change to make a difference.

“next, semi-san!”

a whistle blows as eita lines up and crouches on the third lane, eyes lifting to catch the 100 meter mark in his sight. he tenses his arms and lifts his figure, and on the next whistle he’s off.

eita likes running. he can’t remember a time in his life when he didn’t. but it’s the short bursts he likes best. he doesn’t have to worry about pacing himself. he doesn’t have the time to watch anyone around him. ten seconds and it’s over. ten seconds and he’s at the finish line, breaking a couple paces after, hands on his knees for a brief moment before he straightens up and turns.

everyone is silent around him. it wouldn’t bother eita so much, but they’re all watching him, and a feeling of unease creeps up his spine. it’s only elevated when they all start breaking out in chaotic whispers, and he turns his head to see the assistant coach blinking at his stopwatch.

“semi-san,” the head coach calls, and eita steps forward, shoes leaving the track for the grass on the inner field. the assistant coach finally moves his gaze away, looking incredulously to semi, but it sharply turns to pride and something else, like he just found an old treasure buried deep in a treasure chest.

“what was your average last year?” the head coach asks, and eita stumbles through his answer, mind still fixed on the expression of the assistant coach and the implications it suddenly held.

and that was how semi eita first learned he could run 100 meters in six seconds.

-

they have him come to day two of tryouts to run another. just to prove it wasn’t a fluke. eita knows it wasn’t, because he had run several that past night, just to prove to himself that it was all real. the same result happens. 6.4 seconds and his feet cross the line.

one of the football coaches that served as an assistant during off-season casually flips through a stapled bunch of papers, frowning slightly when he reached the end. “this is your only event?” he asks semi.

eita nods, and the assistant coach from the other day hums, taking the list to flip back a couple pages.

“why don’t you try for a 200 as well? i’m sure with-”

“i’m sorry, but i only run sprints.” both coaches look up in surprise, and eita bows sharply. then he turns and jogs off, done for the day.

when the list of names comes out the next day, he isn’t surprised to find he’s made it. he is surprised that there is only a single reporting time, and that they aren’t all separated by event immediately. he seeks out the head coach with a frown, bemused by the provided training. eita trains alone. it’s not that he minds the company, but he has his own routine. it worked through middle school, and it worked through the spring, and it would work now. besides, going through the same practice the long-distance runners did wouldn’t help him. it was just impractical. especially with his results.

the head coach takes his speech in stride, and then he tosses his head back and laughs. after calming down, he pats semi on the shoulder and shakes his head. “tell you what, kid. you place at nationals, and i’ll let you do whatever you want. but this year, i want you to try things our way. you came to shiratorizawa for a reason, right?” he winks.

the suggestion irks him, but he can’t deny the truth in the words. so, with a long-suffering sigh, eita bows his head and hurries off to join practice.

-

midway through pre-season is when eita has enough. usually, they’re divided by mid, long, and short distance, and given slightly different training exercises. today, though-

“everyone is running three miles.” one of the coaches points to the perimeter of the field, where a gate lines the outside. “there’s a road around the gate that circles the football fields and the tennis courts. twice around and back should be the distance you need. once you’re done, you’re free to go.”

everyone starts heading off, and eita snaps from his frozen position. “i can’t run three miles!” he bursts. a few people pause to look, some snickering, but he ignores them. a look from the coaches has him backing up, however, switching out his words. “i can walk three miles. can i -can i do that? that wouldn’t be that long. i could do it in, uh-” he breaks off, mumbling the math, the 20 on average so times three- “an hour. can i do that?”

one of the assistant answers him with another question. “can you run one mile?”

eita blinks. “yes,” he says, because he might be a sprinter, but one mile is nothing. the coach nods.

“okay. then walk two and run one. is that acceptable?”

eita purses his lips. “yes,” he mutters, and doesn’t stick around to see them change their minds.

-

shiratorizawa is an elite school. he knew this coming here, he knew the competition would be rough, he knew everyone around him was the best in their field. he thought he was good enough to be able to keep up.

but with a near four second improvement in his time, semi goes from good to untouchable.

there’s one other shiratorizawa athlete in his event, an upperclassman eita had never spoken with, but they’re in different heats and his concentration is pinpoint. it’s hot, but the breeze is there to cool him off, and eita sits down on the grass to do his stretches. if anyone approaches him, he doesn’t notice. there’s a group of girls a few paces away wearing the same purple uniform as him, but they don’t pay any attention to him, so he does the same.

he lines up when his rotation comes up and takes a deep breath as he crouches into position.

in, out. bang.

eita’s eyes lock on to the finish mark and he unconsciously speeds up, lungs burning, muscles twitching, giving his all for this short burst.

he doesn’t look behind him when he finishes, only up, but it’s not the same as middle school. the scoreboard still has results from two events ago. he sighs and walks off the track, hands on his head. he’d been used to having results immediately, but miyagi was a big region, and there were still three more heats to go before they compiled the results.

one of the assistant coaches comes up and hands him a water, congratulates him. eita nods in thanks, taking it, but he doesn’t feel excited. he may have won his heat, but he still didn’t know where he placed overall.

he kind of zones out, one minute gazing at the track as people line up for the 200 meter, and then the next he’s met with people carting out hurdles from the infield. he blinks and looks up to the scoreboard, and right on cue an announcer comes on to reveal the results for the mens 100 meter.

eita lets out a breath as he sees his name first. it’s not until he sees the point gap between him and second place does he realize how easy a time he had it. there’s nearly a five point lead. he’d completely crushed the competition.

later, as eita descends the podium with his medal, a handful of people in purple come up to congratulate him. eita doesn’t really recognize their faces, much less know their names, so he just does his best to smile and nod.

practice doesn’t change. and of course it wouldn’t. the coach’s offer was for semi to place at nationals, not a regional meet. the win didn’t count for anything but his pride. none of them did until the qualifier, it was all for the experience.

eita still practices alone, within the team. he’s divided up with the short distance runners and sent through the same paces, but he keeps to himself as he completes the drills. he doesn’t even know what the other runners think of him, and he really doesn’t care, either. he’s there to run.

-

end-of-term exams come around on the first week of july, and the track team is given a full ten days off in light of it.

at first, eita does as usual. grades have never been anything he’s really needed to concern himself with. he spends the extra time training, pushing himself in his newfound solitude.

but then all his tests are over, and school is preparing to shut down for summer break. before the week can let out, with five days to go until practice resumes as usual, eita runs, breathless, into the staff room, managing to corner one of the assistant coaches before he can leave.

“you want a key to the gym?” eita nods and he scratches his head, lightly frowning. “you know, the break is there for you to rest, and not just because of exams.”

“i get plenty of rest,” eita argues.

the coach sighs. “of course you do. look, we’re not supposed to let first-years wander off with keys, but . .” he shrugs, leaning forward in his chair to sort through a desk drawer. “you’re a good kid, semi-kun. if you think you need the equipment in the gym, i’ll let you borrow this.” he holds out a plain keyring and eita takes it with a nod. “give it back next time you see me, okay? and don’t forget when the next team practice is!”

eita is euphoric when given the opportunity. he’s halfway home when he notices the skip in his step, and then he realizes just how much energy he was pent up with, immediately setting off in a different direction. it takes half an hour before he’s sure he can return home without his mom yelling at him to quit bouncing off the walls, and by the time he’s on the porch steps he’s panting so bad he tries to use the gym key to unlock the front door.

his usual solo workout he’d adapted to before high school serves him well in the break, and adding on the private use of the gym makes it even better. the lights still turn on, thankfully, and the windows let in the sun just enough that even if they didn’t, it might not even matter. it’s not unusual to be here alone like he thought it might be -mostly it’s just quiet, which -even if he was reluctant to admit it- has grown quite odd. he’s accustomed to the low rumble that accompanied a large group -feet on the turf, murmurs, whistle blows, the shuffling of equipment.

on the morning of the eleventh day, eita wakes up early and jogs down to the school, keys jangling hidden in his pocket. he finds the particular coach he’d borrowed them from and manages to sneak them back without anyone else becoming wiser. if he was lucky, that would mean he’d have earned the trust to have them again.

-

the miyagi prefectural athletics meet in the middle of july doubled as the national qualifier for two weeks later, in august. even if the venue hadn’t been close by eita’s home, shiratorizawa still put the school’s budget to good use, transporting all the students in one go once they had gathered at the school.

eita’s internal musings he’d had since middle school of but i could have gotten there faster if i had walked from home take a hard backseat to the thrumming in his veins, the pure ecstasy he feels where he was headed and what he was headed there for.

the coaches camp out a big spot on the infield and shiratorizawa gathers into a cluster, throwing down personal bags and coolers and various other things until all around eita is a sea of royal purple.

there are three hours until his event, but he starts stretching right away, slipping off his warmup jacket and his trainers so he has enough traction to rest his feet on his shoulders. his eyes glance to the track periodically while he goes through the motions, watching as various smaller events take place.

noise to his left makes him glance up, sliding both legs to the turf. there’s a large crowd gathered around one of the field events -he can’t tell which one from his height. eita eyes the time and thinks, just for a moment, about going to investigate.

then he tunes that part of his brain out, resuming his stretches.

he goes for a run, careful to keep out of the way. he sprawls out on the infield, staring up at the sun as it tracks higher in the sky. it’s a nice day, overall. not too hot. a little cloudy, but not enough to threaten to rain.

his shoelaces get readjusted as someone comes to inform him of his heat. he has a number pinned to his back, the sun appears just a bit from behind thin clouds, and the roar of the crowd pulls him finally onto the track.

he’d missed competing in this spot. prefecturals were the same location no matter what school grade you were in. it felt like coming home.

he breathes out deep and crouches in his lane, looking down to adjust his footing before looking up to the finish line. it’s a singular focus, and slowly but surely, all the noise around him fades, until it’s only the internal sounds of adrenaline ringing in his ears.

bang. and he’s off.

his spikes dig in on the line before he fully realizes, having to force himself to stop several paces after, nearly tripping over himself. he looks back over his shoulder, breathing heavy, and throws his arms over his head.

there are still runners crossing the finish line. it’s a wild feeling, one eita’s never bothered to cash in on, and one that makes him absolutely dizzy with delight.

he crushes the time from his previous meet, and seeing the seconds lined up with the overall results has him feeling almost insane. there truly was no competition out here anymore. if he wanted a challenge, he’d have to go looking for it.

and that was exactly what he was going to do, he realizes, as he steps off the podium with a gold medal in hand and the proud gaze of the head coach on him.

-

nationals is in fukui, a six hour train ride away, on the second of august. on the first of the month, shiratorizawa loads onto a train in the morning. eita is not surprised to see many of his peers around him that would be competing in nationals -shiratorizawa was simply that kind of school.

eita has been on the shinkansen before, and knowing what kind of trip it would be, takes some of his summer homework to finish. since he also knows that they would be changing lines in tokyo for the one to kanazawa, he picks some of the less challenging, mind-numbing ones so that he’ll have enough awareness to switch trains.

eita sits in an aisle seat next to a boy he doesn’t know. it’s mostly uneventful, with him scribbling away at his papers and the boy leaning forward to talk to the students that sat in the row ahead. when eita feels like the noise around him is too much, he puts an earbud in and plays songs at random from his phone.

at kanazawa, they switch to a regular train for the last leg of the trip to fukui. it’s definitely hotter closer to the coast like this, and eita feels the lingering regret in his choice of clothing as his track jacket starts sticking to him. the train ride this time should be less than an hour, so everything is packed up in his backpack, and his overnight bag rests in his free hands as he waits for the train at the station.

“semi-san?” he hears as he climbs aboard, sighing in relief at the air conditioning. he looks over to find a girl with a high ponytail leaning out of her seat and into the aisle to address him. she smiles when he makes eye contact. “there’s a free seat here. come sit with us!”

and that’s how he finds himself nestled in with a few second-years. the seats face each other here, which means there was more leg room. everyone has their bags by their feet instead of the overhead slots, and eita follows suit, pushing his overnight bag under the window seat he’d been given and unzipping his other bag as he places it against the wall.

“-don’t understand why i had to give up my seat,” the boy to his left is complaining. it gives eita pause, as he’s reaching for his earbuds. the girl adjacent to him visibly rolls her eyes, rocking her feet forward to knock against the boy’s.

“semi’s a first year, silly. he’s probably never seen this before.”

“if it matters that much to you i’ll switch,” the boy across from eita says, and at that point he’s got one earbud in and his music switched on, so he no longer pays attention as they begin to switch around.

he does end up gazing out the window as they begin to move, and is surprised that he can see the coastline from here. a tap on his arm makes him glance to his left, where the girl has apparently switched seats to. she half-waves and points to her ear, and eita startles, moving to pause the music.

“you’re only wearing one,” she notes.

he shrugs. “i want to be able to hear if something happens.”

she lets out a little laugh at this, slouching in her seat. her legs are thrown over her bag, and she switches which is crossed over the other at the ankle. “don’t worry about that,” she tells him. “i’ll let you know.”

it’s an odd bout of kindness, and eita suddenly feels weird that he doesn’t know her name, or any of their names, really, even when they knew his. she moves into a conversation with the boys, leaving him to his own devices, and eita takes the chance to shrug off the awkwardness, pushing both earbuds in and closing his eyes.

maybe he falls asleep, he’s not sure, but a shaking on his arm gets him to open his eyes. it takes a moment for his vision to settle, and then his arm is shaken again, and he lolls his head to see the second-year girl nodding toward the aisle, where one of the assistant coaches stood.

eita takes the hint and pulls the earbuds out.

“-passing out your room assignments,” the coach is saying, handing stacks of envelopes to whoever was in reach. the boy adjacent to eita accepts the bundle, flipping through to grab the one with his name, and then handing the other three their own. eita takes his gingerly, frowning lightly at his name, and then tugs the flap open to find a list of names on a slip of paper next to a room number, and a key-card for the place they were staying.”

“oh, cool,” the one across from him, in the other window seat, was saying. eita glances up and then glances back up when he sees he’s being watched. “looks like we’re sharing.”

eita looks back down to the names, pursing his lips. maybe he lucked out, then, that out of the three he didn’t recognize, one of them he’d already met.

“that’s convenient,” the girl says. “who else is there?”

instead of listening to him list off the names, she leans into eita’s space and reads for herself. eita takes this in stride, turning the paper to face her, and her eyes light up when she recognizes the connection.

“oh, it’s all the short-distance. i guess there are only five of you. take care of semi-san, okay? he’s the only kouhai you’ve got on this trip.”

eita blinks, caught up on the last part. he misses his roommate’s confirmation as he puzzles this out, and ends up speaking before he realizes. “i’m the only first year?”

they all look at him, and then one by one, start bursting into laughter.

“man, you’re really out of your element here, huh?” the other boy, the not-roommate, says. eita’s lips purse as he tries to think of a comeback. he holds out his hands. “i didn’t mean anything bad. just, well-”

“you’re not very social, is what he’s saying,” the girl says. “there’s a girl on the relay team that’s a first-year, but you’re the only one with an individual event.”

oh. there had been so many that morning that he had just assumed almost everyone had placed for nationals. knowing most of them were second and third-years was . . well, it certainly helped his ego. not that he was letting that go to his head or anything.

before he can ask more, the train arrives, and he’s quickly grabbing his things before being pushed off and led away by one of the boys he’d be staying with.

-

fukui is nice. hot. humid. it’s a dizzying combination that has him staying in the hotel lobby instead of venturing out to see the sights, declining every invitation he’s offered. he finishes the portion of homework he’d been working through on the shinkansen, then puts the rest away for the trip back home. his mom calls after he’s procured a bottle of water, and he visits with her for a minute, lounging on one of the seats in the air-conditioned space.

after showering away a morning’s worth of travel, eita lies down in the unit on one of the beds. he’s the only one in the room, and after his lightheadedness doesn’t quite clear up upon consuming an energy bar, he doesn’t wait for any of the upperclassmen to return to tell him to take the pull-out bed, falling asleep on top of the duvet.

he ends up skipping dinner. when he wakes it’s late, around eleven, and the only light in the room comes from a small lamp near the wall on the other side of the bed. eita glances over to see the boy from the train leaning back against the pillows, scrolling on his phone. he looks up when eita turns and nods to the bedside table on eita’s side, where a peeled orange and a handful of crackers sat.

“for me?” eita murmurs, noticing the room’s other occupants are asleep.

“mhmm. you should try and sleep more, but eat that first. you’ll need something in you before tomorrow.”

“thanks,” he mumbles, reaching over to pull the meal into his lap. he doesn’t necessarily feel bad anymore, but something is still off, which is concerning. maybe it was the change in weather.

the salt from the crackers helps. the orange is good too. eita can’t believe it’s peeled. he sure lucked out with the upperclassmen he was assigned.

“i’m going to bed,” the boy says, after eita has finished and tossed the napkin away. he reaches over to turn off the light, and waves his lit phone for eita to see. “i set an alarm for the morning, so don’t be scared when it goes off.”

“oh, okay,” eita whispers, climbing under the covers. “thank you.”

“nah, don’t sweat it. that’s what i’m here for -to make your life easier.”

“not to win tomorrow?”

“well, that too. night, semi.”

“night.”

-

the next morning eita’s head is swimming, and nothing helps. his pained frown persists through a hot shower, a light breakfast, two medication pills, and the bus ride over to the stadium. he tries to ward off his concerned roommate that he really should be remembering the name of, but all that really gets him is more persistent near-coddling, until eita finally has enough and goes to sprawl in the grass near a corner of the track.

the sky is cloudless and the sun bright, this time. the heat is not helping in the slightest. eita rests a condensating water bottle against his forehead and extends his arms into the air, trying to convince himself to sit up and stretch.

maybe it was nerves. though, he’s never experienced anything like that before. maybe not never, maybe when he was younger, but it’s been a long time, and it wasn’t really something he’d think to concern himself over anymore, so this had to be the cause of something else.

he hopes he’s not sick. that would suck.

he goes through warmup and forgets everything as soon as he’s done it, leaving his body thrumming and his mind blank. he’s not the only one who’s noticed, either, as one of the coaches comes over to have a look at him, coercing him back into the fold and closer to where the rest of shiratorizawa is gathered.

“you still don’t look great,” he says, and eita snorts.

“i’ll be okay,” he mutters.

“still wanna run?” he asks, and eita nods. “alright, that’s your choice. just take it easy until then. keep yourself hydrated. you eat enough this morning?” another nod. “good. come grab someone if you get worse.”

it’s less than ten seconds. he’s only in one event. and it’s nationals, for crying out loud. even if he was dying eita still wouldn’t give up his chance to run.

but when he finally steps into his lane, he feels like his insides have been replaced with cotton. he squeezes his eyes shut and his vision clears, but he still feels slow, heavy. uncoordinated.

at least he knows he can stay in-between his own set of lines. he has enough awareness to position himself with the others, and to hear the signal to start.

that’s about the only thing he remembers. one of the coaches hands him a water when he comes off the track, tells him to eat something. he sits in the grass and drains half the bottle, then nearly passes out.

eventually he does end up falling asleep. he doesn’t feel any better when he’s woken up, but he’s regained enough awareness to put that as secondary, and his results as priority.

when he sees them his heart falls.

-

at eita’s first athletics nationals for the 100m sprint he clocks in at 8.6 seconds. the time is still leagues above his peers, and the only ones ahead of him are third-years.

he places fourth.

even with a remarkable time in his less-than-perfect condition, it’s still not enough for a medal.

the head coach finds him on the field as the sun is setting, and everything is beginning to wrap up. he sits easy beside eita, who rests with his head on his knees. “you still feel sick?”

“sorta?” eita mumbles. he’d eaten lunch, and drank a lot of water and pocari, and camped out in the shade near the bleachers. he’d thought, briefly, about watching other events -at the very least the event of the senpai who’d watched out for him- but he just hadn’t felt well enough to try.

“you timed in at under nine seconds feeling like shit,” coach says bluntly, and eita blinks, moving his head to face him properly. he shrugs. “c’mon, semi, you’re sixteen. i know you’ve heard worse.”

he wasn’t wrong, but it still was a little unexpected.

“you’re the only sixteen-year-old to place in the top twenty. wanna know how i know? because there’s only fifteen slots for 100 meter at nationals, and there’s not another first year around who’s come even close to touching those times. i’ve had enough people on my ass this afternoon telling me that to start to believe it.”

“people have been talking about me?” eita mutters in quiet disbelief.

“yeah, kid, had to beat ‘em off with a stick. wasn’t gonna let anyone interview you while you still looked like you would keel over at any moment. i saved you the trouble, let me tell you.”

he leans back further, gaze rising to the sky, as eita blinks and tries to come to terms with this.

“you didn’t do as well as you wanted, but you still did pretty damn amazing. fourth in the country out of people between sixteen and eighteen is nothing to scoff at. you’ve given me a lot to consider.”

eita looks up. “like what?”

coach shrugs, climbing to his feet and holding out a hand for eita. “i’ll decide on the train. you’ll hear about it by the time the new term starts.” he grins, pulls eita close to pat him on the back. “good work today. can’t wait to see what you’ll do when you’re in good condition.”

-

as promised, eita is greeted with news coming into the second term. big news.

even though he didn’t place at nationals, the head coach allows him a training exemption -two days a week with the team, and that was it. that was all he was obligated for, anyway. if he wanted to show up every day, they’d be happy to have him. if he wanted to focus on his own regimen, well, the staff knew how serious he was, and were happy to oblige him to a certain extent.

semi forks over his adjusted training regimen and has it added on to by one of the assistant coaches, and then sent loose. he pushes himself, balancing mediocre classwork with punishing workouts, and begins to spend less and less time with the team as a whole.

winter break comes and he again borrows one of the gym keys -this time asking the head coach directly. the granted request marks a sudden shift in eita’s mindset. they’re watching me, he realizes. it’s euphoric. he’s a first-year at a powerhouse school like shiratorizawa, and yet he’s being given this special attention.

by the time third term rolls around, it’s too cold to bother with anything but indoor workouts. eita is a regular occurrence in the staff room to borrow and return the gym key. he takes care of his health when he goes running outside. and he pushes himself, faster and harder and further and higher, to the point it becomes noticeable by his peers when he shows up for team practice that he was aiming for another level.

year 2 |

eita gets asked at the opening ceremony to show up to the first day of tryouts, so during the second week of the new term, he forgoes his study period to head out early to the field. none of the first-years are there yet, since school isn’t technically out, but a handful of second and third-years are, gathered close with the coaching staff.

there’s no skirting around them, especially since he didn’t know the reason his presence was required. one of the assistant coaches gets his attention and beckons him closer.

“i’m sure you’re wondering why you’re here,” he says, and eita nods. he grins, holding up a stopwatch next. “it’s about time to reevaluate your record, right?”

oh. oh. suddenly he feels a million times more excited.

“there’s a little more to it than that,” he continues, but eita could care less at this point. “not that you stuck around long enough to see it, but those of you here are our little exhibition gang for the next few days. something for the new kids to be excited about. it’s one thing to know shiratorizawa’s accolades by name, but it’s another thing entirely to see the competition yourself. so we’re re-assessing a handful of you now rather than at official practice, and in return, the first-years get to see what the track and field team is made of.”

“fine by me,” eita answers, nearly unable to keep still. he was used to being watched at this point. and this was beneficial for him, too, so who cared, really?

the coach rolls his eyes. “somehow i knew you’d be less-than-interested in that last part. but that’s okay. the group for day one is everyone you see here, and there will be separate groups for the other two days, so after we’re done with you today we’ll just see you again when practice starts.”

eita was ushered off to join the other students until tryouts began, with instructions to come find that particular short-distance coach so they could time him and cut him loose. he’s greeted after a minute by the relay girl he’d met at nationals, and they engage in idle conversation about the new school year until a plethora of students start to trickle in through the gates.

“i know it’s intended to be the other way around, but this is a good chance to observe them, too,” she ends up saying, and eita, confused, turns back to her. she rolls her eyes. “you never know who’ll end up being your competition. i remember last year, everyone was kinda shocked when a first-year timed in at under ten seconds on a sprint.”

it takes him a moment -too long, really- to catch on, but when he does, he sits up straight in a hurry, pointing to himself. she throws her head back and laughs, her long ponytail trailing on the track.

“you do what you want,” she tells him. “but keep in mind: it’s not a bad idea to watch at how they do.”

one of the older girls calls to her, and she jumps up to go get her hair braided before tryouts really began. eita sits, partially shocked, and thinks that this year, it would maybe be a good idea to not be so self-absorbed.

-

he thinks that, but in actuality, he doesn’t engage with the first-years at all. he stays around the short-distance group his assigned coach was watching over, and while he’s close enough to watch, he’s also far enough for them to not try and engage him. it probably helps that he’s in his track jacket, so they know he’s an upperclassman and not another first-year for them to try and make friends with.

the coach signals for him after he’s warmed up, and eita moves to the track where a third-year short-distance runner was waiting. his arms go over his head in a stretch as the third-year takes a seat near him on the infield, glancing to the coach waiting at the finish mark.

“okay,” eita puffs out, crouching down. “ready.”

the third-year moves to face their coach entirely, cupping his hands over his mouth to be heard over the bustle that was tryouts. eita’s fingertips tense on the track.

“go!” he shouts, more for the coach’s benefit than eita’s own, and eita rockets off. any lingering thoughts he’d had before that moment evaporate. he has a sole focus, leaving no room for anything, not even the pounding of his heart in his chest.

he breaks around three feet after the line, puffing out breaths and feeling the heat of the sun stark on his skin after the exertion. after giving himself a moment he turns to see the coach jotting something down on a clipboard. he glances up and nods at eita, and eita comes closer, meeting up with the third-year that hangs half a step back.

“6.1,” he’s told, and eita’s eyes widen. even if it’s within expectations, the notion that he’d improved is sending him. his mind keeps flashing back to the scoreboard at fukui, to the leading two times. if he could outrun those now, and he would only keep getting better, then. then-

“you’ve shaved off .3 seconds from this time last year. very nice.” the coach nods behind eita, and eita cocks his head slightly and then turns it fully over his shoulder when he finds the head coach standing close by, hands on his hips.

“nice going, kid,” he says, and eita nods. a clap on his shoulder has him looking forward again. the third-year is grinning, lips pulled wide enough to show teeth.

“that’s amazing, semi-kun! i’ve never met anyone with that kinda time before.”

“thanks,” he mutters, suddenly numbed by all the praise. shit, he could be able to thank this guy by name. he didn’t even know what event he ran. was it the 300m? the 150?

the hand moves from his shoulder to his hair, ruffling the two-toned strands, but eita is unbothered, letting it happen. “we’re done, right?” he asks the short-distance coach.

“you two can go,” he assures them. “but take semi by the mids before that. i want him to see kawanishi, and they should be about to start.”

“got it!”

eita lets himself be dragged away, towards another end of the field. “who’s kawanishi?” he mumbles.

“a first-year high jumper. well, that’s what he’s known for, but field events are tomorrow, and they wanted him to try an 800 meter today.”

“hm.”

they take a seat near the mids group, more aligned with the edge of the track. it’s easy enough to spot kawanishi before he’s pointed out to eita -he’s the tallest one there. definitely looked like a high jumper. did he even have the stamina for two laps? long legs weren’t everything.

but thoughts like those quickly dissipate when the first six are lined up and take off. he tunes out his upperclassman to watch, overanalyzing as the mid-distance runners ran around the track. kawanishi wasn’t bad, actually. he needed to pace himself better, but if they thought he was a good fit, the coaches would teach him how.

his form is good. eita hasn’t seen textbook form like that in a long time. he wonders, briefly, if that was kawanishi’s style, or if he didn’t know any other way just yet.

regardless, he clocks in first out of his group. when he crosses the line eita finds that he’s been leaning forward, and sits back in a hurry. his companion muffles a laugh and eita huffs, standing. “that was it, right?”

“almost,” the third-year says, cheerful, and jumps to his feet as well. “swing by the clubroom with me. i’m supposed to give you taiju’s things.” eita must look confused again, because he’s grabbed by the elbow and hauled off. “geez, you’ve never been to the clubroom, huh? i know you don’t show up to practice that much, but c’mon, semi-kun, that’s like, a sacred space! especially now that you’re a second-year, you should practically be living there!”

“i remember a taiju, i think,” eita mutters.

“he was the third-year 100 meter runner the year before. club vice captain? clocked in at ninth in nationals? any of this ringing a bell?”

“uh, sorry,” eita ends up saying, throwing his head back.

“dude, don’t beat yourself up about it.” they stop and eita looks back down to see the other jangling a key into a scuffed door. “he’s only the guy you outran while you were on the verge of heat exhaustion.” he snickers. “plus, he’s gone now, so there’s no one around to offend, right? let me look -ah, here it is.” he pulls out a stack from a cubby and gestures eita closer. “coach wanted you to have his keys, said something about you not bothering him anymore for ‘em.”

“oh.” eita takes them numbly. “thanks.”

the other shrugs. “eh, he said it fondly, so i don’t think he was too pinched up about it. take care of those, alright? here, he left these too.”

eita is handed a thin plastic bag, and his grip goes tighter on it when he realizes what they were. “really?”

“yeah, he wasn’t gonna run in college, so he left his spare spikes here. they’re pretty cool, i think he got them from overseas. well, it’s your choice if you wanna use them, alright? don’t feel like you have to or anything.”

“i don’t really use spikes,” eita admits. “i mean, i haven’t really tried.”

“first time for everything, right?” when eita looks up the third-year is smiling. “if you do decide to try ‘em out, you’ll have top-dollar ones to experiment with.”

this year really was . . starting to look different. and season hadn’t even started yet.

-

the second week of practice, and the third time semi shows up in the new term, the track team is graced by a visitor.

eita is collapsed on the slanted part of the hill leading away from the track after an exercise, breathing deep and clenching a water bottle tight in his hands. he raises it up for a drink when a loud ‘HEY!’ gets his attention, and ends up squirting water in his face, gasping at the cold sensation. one of the other runners near him breaks out into laughter. he’s not the only one, and eita sits up to look over his shoulder, catching the offender as he meanders down the hill.

he’s tall, even doubled-over, having caught sight of eita’s accident and burst into this howling laughter that immediately gains the attention of everyone around who had overlooked him. eita purses his lips, setting the bottle in the grass between his legs.

“s-sorry, i didn’t meant to scare ya like that!” he assures eita, but his expression suggests he didn’t quite mean it.

“what are you doing here, tendou?” someone asks, and now eita has a name to put with the face.

“just checking in,” he says, waving the other off. he’s still in his school uniform, eita notes, even after school had been out for a- wait, checking in for what!?

“student council need something?” someone else asks. “what did we do for the vice president himself to come all the way out here?”

tendou flaps his hand harder, if possible. “nothing! i’m serious. i’m supposed to go check in with the clubs throughout the week, see that everything is running smoothly. it’s just a courtesy visit.”

“where’s ushijima, then? the president too good for courtesy visits?”

“waka’s at practice,” tendou states, a little too blunt. he stops short, hands in his pockets now, and a little too close for eita’s liking. “he’s done his share, so i told him to skip out today. i’ll bring him next time.” he perks up. “oh! yama’s here! later!”

he runs off, shouting loudly for one of the mid-distance runners, and eita collapses in the grass again, breathing out slow now that the wake of the hurricane has passed.

-

it’s the same day the following week that the student council shows up at the track field. eita spots the shock of red hair from across the field and inwardly grimaces. as expected, over time the volume rises, and by the time eita’s group is given a moment to cool down, two sets of footsteps are fast approaching.

“oh, perfect, you’re done,” tendou addresses the group as a whole, and eita closes his eyes as he flops to the ground, no longer willing to squint up at the bright sun.

“for now,” someone says.

“hey, you brought the president this time!” someone else says, and eita risks the sun to open his eyes.

before he can make out the other properly, coach is urging them all to get up. three laps around the track, and then they were good to go. eita is relieved, honestly. it had been a long enough practice already, and he didn’t really wanna be stuck around the two outsiders for longer than necessary.

his luck doesn’t last, though, as his name is called halfway through his second lap. eita slows to a jog, then stops entirely when he sees just who was vying for his attention, trying his best not to gawk.

the man was a hulk, for lack of a better word. if he hadn’t been in a student uniform, eita would’ve thought him a teacher. he blinks, pointing to himself, and the guy nods, moving down the hill a little to get closer. eita purses his lips, looks to the side at the others running, then sighs and moves to the outside lane.

“who’s this guy, waka?” tendou asks, and damn if he didn’t come out of nowhere, making eita jump, unable to contain himself as he’s startled. tendou blinks in surprise, then his face lights up, placing eita from the week before.

“semi eita,” waka says. “we’re in the same class.”

“we-” eita cuts himself off before he can finish embarrassing himself. if this guy says they were, eita would believe him. the student council president definitely had more social awareness than the likes of him.

he seems to catch on anyways, frowning slightly and offering his hand. eita takes it after hesitating long enough for it to matter. “ushijima wakatoshi,” he tells eita, and eita nods, reminding himself to commit the name to memory.

“hah? you mean you have waka in class and don’t even remember?” tendou starts laughing. “how do you miss a presence like that?”

eita turns his head to the side, fighting back a blush. ushijima must take pity on him, because he gestures to another group of people further down the way. “satori, there’s still more people, right?”

“yeah, yeah, go on ahead,” tendou says, waving him off. ushijima shrugs.

“good to see you, semi-kun.”

“uh, sure,” eita mumbles.

he turns to get back into a center lane, but tendou stops him. “hey, wait! i wanted to ask you something.”

eita’s careful as he bites down on his lip. “what is it?”

“your hair is neat!” tendou’s smile shows all his teeth, this time. “did you do it yourself?”

“oh.” eita reaches up subconsciously, fingering the darker tips. “yeah, last summer.” he probably needed to do it again, since he’d gotten his hair cut since then. though he’d really just been planning on growing it out, so that he wouldn’t have to mess with it for a while.

before tendou can say anything else, eita points to the track. “i’m. um. gonna go.”

“yeah yeah yeah.” tendou flaps his hand again and eita fights back a grimace. must be a habit or something. “thanks for letting me steal your time. i’ll let you get back to it.”

-

eita picks a different day of the week to show up for practice. the reason he gives isn’t anything special, but he was unwilling to admit the true reason was so that he could avoid the student council.

unfortunately it doesn’t matter.

he has his shoes off so he can balance his heel on his shoulder better, camped out on the grass a little further apart from the others moving about the field. once he feels like he can do it, he leans back and uses his hand to push his leg up by the ankle, until it’s extended all the way in the air. he sets his other hand back in the grass and breathes out, mentally counting down to when he could release.

“damn, you’re pretty flexible, huh?”

eita’s arm falters and his leg curls a little. he leans back to see around it, and his face goes carefully blank when he sees tendou satori standing there. he lets his leg drop fully, foot loud on the grass.

“what?”

“bet that’s good for all sorts of things,” tendou says, and eita frowns. he really needed to stretch his other leg, but like hell was he going to put himself on display for tendou to see, not after that comment. he moves his arm across his chest instead, looking straight ahead across the field.

“don’t you have other people to bother?” he says after he’s done with both arms, then promptly snaps his jaw shut, a little mortified. he hadn’t meant to say that. out loud.

tendou takes it in stride, laughing as he settles on the grass. “i’m just checking up,” he assures eita. “don’t have to go talk to everyone. i’m too busy today anyways.”

“then why me?” eita mutters, and if his ears are red then he can’t help it.

“you’re interesting.” eita frowns, glancing over at him. “no, really. i’m not being mean or anything. you just seem like a cool guy, semi-kun.”

“i’m pretty average,” he mumbles.

“yama says you’re good at your event.”

eita raises a brow and tendou rolls his eyes. “seriously? do you know anyone in your grade? yamagata hayato! he’s a mid-distance runner?”

“um.” eita turns away again. “uh.”

“semi! you ready or what?” someone shouts from across the field. eita takes the chance and climbs to his feet.

“gotta go,” he mutters. then he leaves tendou to sit there.

-

“waka!” a voice drawls out, and eita, who had bent down to retrieve a fallen object, jumps, ramming his head on the underside of his desk. he breathes out in pain, moving back to his knees, and his hand comes up to feel around his head.

“oh? semisemi, is that you?”

“what?” eita opens his eyes to squint, glancing to the open classroom door. tendou stood in front of it, one hand still on the handle.

“what are you doing on the ground, semisemi?” tendou moves fully into the near-empty room, hands in his pockets. eita drops his hand from his hair and slowly moves to his feet.

“that’s not my name,” he mutters, placing his pen back on his desk.

“oh, come now.” tendou waves his hand. “haven’t you ever heard of nicknames?”

“don’t people get those from their friends?”

tendou stumbles back for dramatics, holding a hand over his heart. “semisemi! you wound me. and here i thought we had something special.”

eita rolls his eyes and resumes packing up his bag.

“hey, have you seen waka around?”

“ushijima-san already left. no, i don’t know where.”

“oh. hum. too bad.” tendou’s eyes are still on him, curious, and he leans back against an empty desk. “you’re not in a rush to leave. no practice today?”

“not today,” eita answers, zipping his bag shut. it was actually one of his days off, since he’d been coerced into taking a day of rest during the week, so there wasn’t any self-practice, either. hm. actually, now that he thought about it, maybe he shouldn’t have said-

“then come do something with me!” tendou proclaims, and eita falters, missing he bag’s straps and dropping it down onto the chair instead. he forgets it momentarily to stare up at tendou, who doesn’t give him a moment to refuse or reconsider. “i have to gain that friendship status if i want nickname rights, right? don’t suddenly tell me you have stuff to do, either! even if you do, well, i’ll just come with you! moral support! the works!”

he truthfully only caught about half of that, and that was enough for a headache to develop. eita frowns and picks up his bag proper. “i don’t have anything to do,” he mumbles. “but-”

“so it’s settled!”

“don’t you have student council things to take care of?”

“already done!” tendou kicks off the ground to sit fully on the desk, swinging his legs in the air. “i was gonna grab waka, but this works better! c’mon, semisemi, we’ll do anything you want. it’s your off day, so you can treat yourself, right? let’s go get ice cream! i’ll buy you some taiyaki! can’t go wrong with kakigori!”

“why are they all food related?” eita mutters, then shakes his head. “fine, okay. we can go.”

“yes!” tendou jumps from the desk and raises his arms high. the next moment he’s dragging eita from the classroom and down the hall. “oh this is gonna be so much fun. there’s a combini not far from here me and waka hit up sometimes, they have the cutest cashier, you’ll love it, i swear.”

eita pulls his phone out on the outskirts of school grounds, sending a quick message to his mom that he’d be home later than usual. tendou catches on and stops talking, trailing back from where he’s ahead of eita to look down at the phone.

“who’s that?”

“my mom?” eita snaps the phone shut and stuffs it in a pocket. “i’m usually home by now on fridays, so.”

“you don’t live in the dorms?” eita shakes his head and tendou hums, leaning his head back with one hand under his chin. “come to think of it, i’ve never seen you around. still, i didn’t think we had any commuters at shiratorizawa.”

“home isn’t far,” eita mutters. “school is already expensive as is.”

“you don’t have a sports scholarship?”

“it doesn’t cover it all,” eita admits. “really, it’s not that big a deal. can we talk about something else?”

tendou loops his arm through eita’s own. “sure thing, semisemi!” he gets dragged up a set of steps, then automatic doors open for a rush of cold air to greet them. “here’s the place i was talking about. taka-chan! hi!”

eita looks over to see the girl behind the register wave at them, a slightly exasperated smile on her face. he’s tugged over to the freezer before he can contemplate that.

they sit against the railings outside the store while they eat so they can catch the shade. it’s not bad. tendou had paid for his melon ice, and it was amazing to watch him tackle his own double popsicle, insisting he could finish both.

eita ends up finishing first, and in the end they start moving before tendou has a chance to toss his second popsicle stick. they trail up the road and tendou starts whining when he’s halfway done, complaining of a stomachache.

“gari-gari-kun would be disappointed,” eita drones, as he watches melted blue spill onto the sidewalk. tendou whines louder and eita hides a snort with both hands, turning his head away.

“so mean to me, semisemi. won’t even help me finish.”

“you took on that challenge all on your own. leave me out of it.”

“mmmm, i guess.” tendou sighs and drops the hand with the now-empty stick to his side. his fingers are all sticky. “hey, where are we going?”

eita perks up. “you have to go back, right? i was-”

“yeah,” tendou drawls, cutting eita off. “but not now. being there is so stifling sometimes. plus, i’ll have to work when i get back!”

eita raises a brow. “i thought you said you already finished?” tendou turns away and his lips curl up. “or is this you running away?”

“it’s n-” tendou cuts himself off, face suddenly as red as his hair. “not,” he mutters, quieter. “maybe,” he finishes.

“the vice president, skipping out on his duties.” eita shakes his head. “what will people think?”

“nothing if you don’t tell them,” tendou bites, moving closer and raising his sticky hands. “got it, semisemi?”

eita moves back, shuddering. “don’t you dare.”

“i bought you ice cream.”

“i took you off campus.”

“i made your day more exciting!” tendou winks and eita rolls his eyes.

“i’m indulging you.”

“yeah, you are.” tendou steps back. “let me walk you home.”

“huh?”

“you have to go back, right?” he says, echoing eita’s earlier words. “i’ll take you there. don’t worry, i’m good with directions, and i have waka on speed-dial if i get lost.”

eita blinks. “if you’re trying to be convincing you’re doing a terrible job. what’s in it for me?”

“getting to bring a friend home to your mom?”

eita crosses his arms over his chest. tendou tries again.

“helping a friend shirk his responsibilities for a little longer?”

“mhmm.”

“semisemi, please! i’m begging you!” he falls to the ground. “i’m on my knees!”

eita, unable to contain his act any longer, bursts into laughter. tendou’s expression breaks as he realizes he’s being messed with, and he reaches forward with his hands again. eita jumps back, laughing harder, a little more panicked now. tendou stumbles to his feet and eita runs off, not surprised that the other follows.

“i have long legs, semisemi!” tendou calls.

“if you think that means you can outrun me, that’s a bad call,” eita answers, speeding up around a corner. he spins on his heel to break and presses himself to the concrete wall, watching with baited breath as tendou appears and moves right past him, then pauses several paces away, confused.

“this is my street,” eita admits, and tendou whips around. eita points ahead. “we just go all the way down, then take a left. easy, right?”

“oh.” tendou stops, panting from the exertion. “easy,” he echoes. “sure.” he swallows, regaining some of his composure. “you can run really fast.”

eita raises a brow and tendou waves him off. “i know, i know. let’s just go already.”

-

there’s a practice meet with two other schools a week before midterms. perhaps because of this, shiratorizawa hosts, enabling their live-in student population the option of not having to travel while they were busy trying to cram for tests.

for eita, it didn’t really matter that much. he had always tested well. as long as he had the practical portions down, any sort of written exam wasn’t something he bothered himself with stressing over.

the rest of the team was another story. he discovers this when he walks into the clubroom on the day of the meet.

papers are strewn absolutely everywhere, enough so that he has a hard time walking around them all. about seven people are gathered around the low table in the corner, and the rest are laid out across the floor, each inhabiting their own space with textbooks, highlighters, notecards -the works. eita feels like he’s entered through a portal into another world. his presence doesn’t get much attention. those that do notice only offer a simple greeting before resuming their studying.

eita does his best to maneuver around it all and plant himself in front of his cubby, pushing his bag into the space and unbuttoning his summer uniform. he pulls on a loose shirt and ties his jacket to his waist, and only then does he bother addressing the room as a whole.

“y’know, there’s only an hour until we start,” he says, raising his voice just a little. it takes a moment for everyone to process, and then one more for the tumultuous effect to appear, people scrambling to their feet, the sound of books shutting audible as they raced to get out of their uniforms.

eita opts to leave the chaos behind, trailing from the room with his shoes in hand.

there’s already people at the field, but they all leave eita alone. he walks along the concrete until another path becomes unavoidable, then sits out of the way to put his shoes on, observing the surroundings as he does so.

the ones in green he thinks are datekogyo. he doesn’t know about the others -he hadn’t really asked, either. eita rolls onto the grass proper and moves himself into a more isolated corner of the hill, spreading his legs out in front of him.

“semi-san?”

“mm?” he pulls his head back to see a ginger in purple standing behind him. something about him is strangely familiar.

“mii-san is looking for you. said something about causing an uproar earlier.”

it takes a moment to click, and when it does eita resumes stretching with a snort. “their own fault,” he mutters. “where is she?”

“helping another school get settled.”

“that’s the captain for ya.” eita throws his arms over his head and locks his hands in a stretch. “okay, thanks for telling me. i’ll go see her in a minute.”

“taichi!” someone calls, and the shadow over eita disappears. he locks his knees and splays out sideways on the ground, twisting to stretch his midsection and hips at the same time.

mii’s long hair is already braided when he reaches her. she’s still in conversation, but pins him with a look that has him stiffen where he stands, waiting until she’s done. when she breaks away, it’s to a stab a finger to his chest that has eita reflexively moving back.

“i know you were trying to help, but have some tact next time, please.” she rolls her eyes as eita opens his mouth to protest. “some of them practically live in the clubroom right now. they’re stressed enough as is with midterms coming up. don’t make it worse.”

“got it,” he mutters.

“tai-kun grabbed you, right?”

eita raises his head, blinks. “the . . ginger?”

“oh.” mii covers a laugh with her hand and eita frowns. “i thought you had gotten better with names. kawanishi taichi. the first year in high jump? you saw him at tryouts, right?”

“isn’t he a mid?” eita remembers the face, now that he thinks about it. “his form was all stiff, though.”

“that’s what he’s trying today. i think they wanted him on a 300 too, but his field event happens at the same time, so it’s a no-go.” she shrugs, and a call of her name captures her attention. “anyway, i just wanted you to see him again. play nice with the first years today!”

-

short-distance events are the last of the running events this time -if you didn’t count relays, that is- so that gives eita plenty of time to warmup and then sit back and do whatever. it’s during some of this downtime that a loud call of his full name has him turning to attention, spying a burly man in dark green approaching.

eita points to himself in question and the man’s face lights up. “i thought so!” he calls, louder even as he’s far closer than last time. “it’s been- oh, right! introductions.” he holds out a hand. “i’m kamasaki yasushi! we ran against each other in-”

“middle school,” eita finishes, finally placing the face. “you’ve gotten taller. uh. a lot taller.”

kamasaki throws his head back and laughs, loud enough to attract unwanted attention. if eita hadn’t already been subjected to the whirlwind known as tendou satori, he might’ve been intimidated.

“word is you’ve gotten faster! can’t wait to see it in person.” he holds out a fist. “may the best man win.”

eita bumps it with his own, accepting the challenge. “sure thing.”

-

he ends up corralled into watching the mid-distance events, having nothing better to do at that point. one in particular catches his attention, and he squints down at the track as he spies familiar ginger hair.

“oh, taichi-kun?” reo, one of the particular people that had roped him into this activity, and the secondary vice captain of the team, reclines back in his seat in the stands. he moves his hands from behind his head to below his chin as he muses. “hmm. i think it’s just the 800 meter today. he should do pretty well. he’s loosened up since pre-season, at least. but if you want my opinion, haya-chan is beating out everyone today.”

eita must look as outwardly confused as he feels inside, because reo rocks forward to point over the railing, at another shiratorizawa athlete pacing near the starting line. “yamagata hayato. he’s a second-year like you.”

“i’ve heard of him,” eita mutters.

reo smirks, leaning back again. “well, guess that’s the bare minimum. his older brother, hayashi, has the school record for the 600 meter. he was outgoing when i was a first-year, got injured or something, so that’s about all i know. haya-chan’s real serious about running. he’s kinda like you, in that respect. though, he definitely has more social awareness.”

eita hunches further into his seat. “you don’t have to rub it in.”

reo laughs, reaching over to slap eita’s back. “i’m just messing with you! cheer up, kid.”

“hm.”

he can’t lie that he’s intrigued by yamagata, knowing he was the one tendou was always running to when he showed for practice. but as the first heat lines up, his attention diverts to kawanishi.

eita doesn’t really . . mid-distance events were fine, but it still took a minute for the results. it wasn’t like watching short-distance, way less engaging, but it was at least more entertaining than watching the mile-runners.

eita’s interest dips after the first several seconds, and he feels his eyes wander over the gathered crowd in the stands. he’s not sure who he’s looking for, among all the students that had come out perhaps for a break from studying, but he doesn’t find them before there’s a swell in noise that has him facing the track again, watching several runners enter the last lap.

kawanishi taichi’s form really has loosened, but he’s not sure that’s a good thing. he seems more lanky in his movements now, and while his long legs made up for it, the dip in speed was still noticeable.

he ends up crossing the finish line in third. it’s close, but there’s still another heat, so eita has doubts about him placing.

“not bad,” reo mumbles, leaned on the railing. he crosses his arms over each other and looks over at eita. “for someone new at it.”

“good point,” eita answers. he watches as yamagata moves to clap his junior on the back, taking his place in the same lane. eita can’t tell -he thinks kawanishi looks off-put. whether it’s from the results or yamagata’s reassurance is up in the air.

“i think haya-chan is really gunning for ishikawa this year,” reo notes.

eita blinks. “ishi- what’s there?”

“nationals.”

eita frowns. “there hasn’t been a confirmed location yet.”

reo rolls his eyes. “my god, you and mii are both the same. it’s between ishikawa and ibaraki. and ishikawa is further to travel to, so why not get my hopes up for it?”

“but we went to the west coast last year.”

“ishikawa is twice as long a trip as ibaraki,” reo argues, holding up two fingers and moving them apart to illustrate his point.

“i think you need to get out more,” semi says, before the other can begin a tirade he really doesn’t want to hear.

“all i’m saying is-”

the starting shot interrupts reo, and they both turn to watch as the second heat takes off. yamagata instantly pulls a lead, but he’s pacing himself, because it doesn’t last, two people on his heels once they’re out of the first bend. eita loses interest on the second straight, but reo’s narration keeps him entertained enough to keep his eyes from wandering.

“see how they’re dropping off now? but watch haya-chan. he’s not speeding up or slowing down -it’s all been the same pace since the beginning.”

he was right. lap two comes around, and everyone besides yamagata was beginning to stagger, losing form or speed as they tried to push themselves, or recover from an earlier stint. he comes around the final bend several paces ahead of the rest, and in the final stretch pushes off into a dead sprint, easily placing first.

“wow,” eita mutters, as he lets reo stand and wrap an arm around his neck and shout in celebration. the crowd goes crazy and then settles as the results are compiled, and reo releases eita to stretch his arms above his head.

“alright, time for me to go.”

“good luck out there,” eita tells him, and he tosses him a thumbs-up in return before running off.

-

eita is on the infield, spread-eagle, when it finally gets dark enough to switch on the stadium floodlights. he takes it in stride, eyeing the setting sun, and is grateful that there was no school the following day.

“must be nice to have a two minute walk home,” he mutters to himself, thinking about everyone that lived on campus.

“there you are, semi! ready to go?”

he looks up from his legs to see the head coach ambling over. he can’t make out his eyes underneath the shade of the hat he wore, but his lips were pulled into a low grin, and that was enough to go on.

“ready,” he replies. “you sticking around to watch?”

“well, i’ll see what happens. there are a few things going on that i’ll have my eye on.”

eita nods, bending his legs so the bottoms of his feet press together. his shoes are in the grass to the side. coach eyes them for a moment.

“you got taiju’s old spikes, right? thought about trying them out yet?”

eita hums. “maybe. i don’t know. that seems like a big change to make.” he relaxes his legs, sitting up properly. “what i do now works.”

coach shrugs. “just a thought. you do what you want.” his pocket buzzes and he pulls out his phone. “hm. gotta run. i’ll find you again later, alright?”

“yeah.” eita waves him off, settling back to pull on his shoes and tighten the laces.

there’s only one heat for the 100m, and it supercharges eita, knowing he didn’t get the chance to instantly know results like this very often. kamasaki catches his eye from the far lane, but eita only distractedly nods at him, already slipping into hyper-focus mode. his record for the new term was 6.1s. as long as he aimed for that, he was golden.

he presses his fingerpads onto the track, looking up from them to eye the finish line. in, and out.

the breeze ruffles his hair, but he’s never let his bangs grow long enough to fall into his eyes. everything he does prepares him to run. every inconvenience considered.

his toes curl in his shoes, and very briefly, he wonders what a little more traction would feel like.

then the signal fires, and all his wonders disappear, taken up by one single focus.

he breaks easy three steps after the line, one foot in front of the other, and takes a moment to breathe. then he looks up to the scoreboard, not a moment too late, results flickering into the screen.

6.12 seconds. that was his time. second place was in the nines, and everyone else fell from there.

eita breathes out again, lifting his hands to rest on his head. that was the best he’d ever done, and it was for a practice meet.

“god, semi, they really weren’t kidding with saying you got faster!”

eita snaps out of it as kamasaki approaches. he didn’t catch the first part, but context wasn’t needed as he continues, so eita forgets about it.

“six seconds? that’s almost unbelievable, man.” kamasaki shakes his head. “here i was, thinking my height gave me an edge. you sure proved me wrong.”

eita glances at the scores again, confirming kamasaki’s time was second. “yours is still good,” he says, and kamasaki wrinkles his nose, so he presses on. “no, really. it’s not pity. that’s a top time in miyagi for sure.”

kamasaki laughs, but it’s awkward. his hand lands on eita’s shoulder. “well, thanks. good job today. it’s hard to believe we’re the same age.”

a roar from the crowd leaves them both distracted, and eita angles his head to the side of the field. “what’s that?” he mutters.

“i think high jump is still going on,” kamasaki confesses. “or maybe it’s triple. listen, i gotta run, i’m in a relay event soon. it was good to see you!” he pounds a fist to his chest. “next time i won’t lose!”

eita watches him go, replaying their conversation in his head as something catches his attention. he only realizes it was the comment about height, the same thing tendou had said to him, when mii comes up from behind and pokes at the backs of his knees, leaving him stumbling forward.

“sorry i missed it, but hey, that time speaks for itself,” she says, laughing off his annoyed expression. “seriously, how are you a highschooler? that much dedication should be illegal.”

“you really sure you wanna say that, captain?” eita quips.

she raises her hands in surrender. “hey, all i’m saying is that there are limits. you better do well on midterms, alright, or coach will have my head. even if you’re not here full-time, you’re still my responsibility as part of the team.” she hums, prying off her headband and smoothing back her hair so she can readjust it. “oh yeah, satori was looking for you earlier.”

eita perks up. “tendou?”

“don’t know what the vice pres wants, but he seemed pretty adamant about it, so i thought i’d warn you.” she jerks a thumb over her shoulder. “he should be near that way somewhere. well, field events are over now, so maybe now. worth a shot though.” she shrugs. “relay is starting, so i’m off. come watch if you have time!”

“good luck,” eita calls, moving away as well.

even with the swell in people, it’s not hard to spot tendou. ushijima is with him, but upon noticing eita, tendou breaks away to meet him, waving wildly.

“semisemi! i can’t believe you were competing- listen, this event we were watching was crazy! that first year you got has some serious talent.”

eita, confused, tips his head. “elaborate.”

“high jump! kawanishi-kun! yama made us watch, and wow, i’m glad he did. oh, did you see yama run? he’s pretty amazing, right? that’s really what i came for, but yama promised kawanishi-kun he’d watch his event, and then we got roped into it, and now the sun isn’t out anymore, but y’know, no school tomorrow, so it’s cool-”

“tendou,” eita interrupts, watching the other’s jaw snap shut. “mii-san said you needed me.”

“mayu? oh right! come with me!” tendou takes him by the arm and drags him forward, until they’re near ushijima again. “waka! look! i found him!”

“it was more like i found you,” eita mutters, but it goes unnoticed.

“hello, semi-kun,”ushijima says. eita nods back. “i look forward to working with you.”

“what?” eita stumbles, caught off-guard.

ushijima hums, taking his reaction in stride, then turns to tendou. “satori, you didn’t tell him yet, did you?”

tendou waves him off. “not yet, waka, geez, way to jump the gun. where’s yama?”

“with his junior.”

“oh fine then, forget about him. hey, semisemi, listen.” he turns to grab eita by both shoulders, and eita, shocked, lets it happen. “i need a favor.”

his lips downturn, slightly. “w-what?”

“be on our relay team for sports day.”

“huh?” eita deadpans, mentally tracking the dates. “but that’s weeks away!”

“it’s on june fifth,” ushijima supplies, and eita’s eyes fall shut.

“and student council’s already planned it,” he realizes. “why me, exactly?”

“we need a fourth person!” tendou finally releases him, stepping back. “and you’re perfect! no matter how far behind we are, if we put you as the last leg, it’s a guaranteed win! at least, that’s what yama said,” he finishes, trailing off and losing some of his energy with the last bit.

eita’s brows rise. “you have no idea, do you?”

tendou snaps his fingers. “relay runner. right? that’s why yama-”

“those are going on now.”

tendou falters, but he regains his energy in a heartbeat. “please be on our team!” he holds a thumbs-up and eita’s arms cross over his chest.

“if it’s that important to you, i suppose i can consider.”

“you’re messing with me again, aren’t you?” tendou mutters, turning his hand so it’s a thumbs-down.

eita snorts. “who plans out stuff this far in advance?”

“me! it’s literally my job!”

“oh, right.”

tendou sighs, turning to ushijima and slowly shaking his head.

eita shrugs. “well, if that’s all you-”

“wait, wait!” tendou yells, stopping up. “it’s late. come eat with us.”

“i can’t leave until this is all over,” eita admits, a little touched by the invite.

“then i’ll bring you something. you must be starved from being out here so long. here, give me your line.”

eita feels strangely coerced, as he enters his line info into tendou’s phone, but he doesn’t mind, either. his own phone was still sitting in his jacket, out on the field. he should probably go grab it.

“just sit somewhere i can reach you,” tendou tells him, and eita assures him he would, waving the two off. he could at least get his jacket before retreating to the outskirts again. it was cold, even for may. and tendou was right -he was hungry. even if he went home to a hot meal waiting, it would still have to be after everything was wrapped up here, and that would take time.

it was. nice. for him to bring eita something. to go out of his way like that.

he’d never had a friend quite like that before.

-

miracleboy. what can you even eat??? waka is being unhelpful miracleboy. theres fruit miracleboy. you want an apple? miracleboy. oh wait miracleboy. [photo attached]

eita is reclined on a higher part of the hill, having a better view of the entire track from up here. he’s distracted from relays by tendou’s incessant messages, but he doesn’t mind, smiling and rolling his eyes each time his phone chimes.

semieita the muffins look good

miracleboy. noted! ill grab a couple

semieita thanks

miracleboy. yama says hi, btw miracleboy. [photo attached]

eita squints up at his phone, opening the attachment to see a blurry picture of yamagata hayato halfway forming a peace sign. the background is obviously the school cafeteria.

semieita odd, since he’s supposed to be here

miracleboy. hes “““lost””” rn semisemi miracleboy. b back before it ends

semieita right. sure. got it. whatever you say

miracleboy. how can you b that sarcastic thru text

“semi-san?”

eita looks up from his phone to find kawanishi taichi hiking up closer, hands stuffed into his jacket pockets. he drops his phone to his chest, sitting up a little more.

kawanishi stops short, looking ruffled. “have you seen yamagata-san around?”

“no,” eita says, perhaps a little too quickly. “but i can help, if you need something,” he tries, trying to smooth it over. “you’re kawanishi, right?”

“you can just call me taichi,” he mutters, face turned to the ground.

“taichi-kun, then.” eita blinks, as taichi stays like that. his phone buzzes and he pockets it, moving to properly sit up. “everything okay?”

“uh, yeah.” taichi shrugs. “sorry. i’m just a little lost.”

eita gestures to the grass and, after a moment, taichi sits down. “i saw your event,” he starts. this gains taichi’s attention, and he finally looks up again. “not the main one,” eita clarifies. “the 800. you did pretty well, for your first time.”

taichi’s lips quick up, turning wry. “not really my strong suit, huh? you should’ve seen my field event.”

“next time,” eita promises.

taichi perks up a little more. “really?”

“as long as they don’t overlap again.” he nods, committing before he can back out.

“i’d like that,” taichi admits. “and, um, you were really amazing today! i’ve never seen someone that fast in person.”

eita blinks, and then it all hits him, and he can’t believe he didn’t realize sooner. the bashfulness, the quiet, the wanting, the praise -kawanishi taichi, to a certain extent, looked up to eita.

it’s the first moment being an upperclassman has really hit him, really set in. he doesn’t know what to do with this information. actually, he has an idea, but he thinks trying to ruffle taichi’s hair would be too much.

“’in person’ is an interesting distinction to make.”

“well, i mean.” taichi turns his head to the side. “i’ve seen the olympics,” he mutters.

eita can’t help the laugh that tears from his throat. taichi doesn’t seem to mind. he wants to say something, eita can tell, but before he can eita’s phone starts going off, and he pries it from his pocket.

it’s tendou, calling. “what?” he answers.

“semisemi, thank god! i thought someone got you! how could you just not reply like that?”

eita’s smile is easy on his lips. “i was busy.”

“well, get un-busy! i need to know where you are.”

eita rolls his eyes and relays his location, then glances down at taichi. “hey, is yamagata sneaking back with you? tell him he forgot something.”

“shhh, semisemi, secret, remember? and forgot wha-”

there’s noise on the other end, muffled, though eita makes out a tai-chan in the midst.

“noted,” tendou eventually says. “see you soon. don’t move or anything! you’re a lot harder to find than i am!”

eita hangs up and tosses the phone into the grass next to his feet. “alright, kid, you’re all set. wanna wait here?” he points down to the field. “or you can join the party down there.”

literal, as all the members of the shiratorizawa boys 4x400m relay are dog-piled by their peers and then lifted into the air. the victory shouts reach all the way up here.

“oh, nao’s in there,” taichi says, mostly to himself. eita smiles and leans forward.

“go see him, then. yamagata will find you soon enough.”

“okay.” taichi stands, moves down a few feet, then turns back. “thanks, semi-san.”

eita waves him down.

-

“one delivery for semisemi!”

eita leans his head back to see tendou sliding down from over the incline. he presents a package made from a wrapped napkin that eita reaches up to carefully take.

inside are two mixed-berry muffins, each just smaller than his fist, and a handful of ocean crackers. there’s warmth coming from the muffins.

“thanks,” he says, while tendou takes a seat next to him, spreading his lanky limbs across the grass.

“no problem. oh hey, mayu’s race is starting!”

eita turns to the field with one of the muffins in hand, biting into it. he squints when he makes out the girls dressed in purple. “which one’s she?”

“there!” tendou points to the leadoff, and when she turns to address the others, her braid flies over her shoulder. eita hums.

“mii-san?” that would make this the 4x100m, and the last race of the night.

“yep. man, i’m glad i caught it, since she asked me to stay. would’ve had to ask someone for the results otherwise, and that’s a whole hassle, y’know?”

eita stuffs some of the crackers past his lips. “you mean, to make it seem like you watched?”

tendou winces, then turns hard to face him. “listen, semisemi, do you have any idea what mayu is like when she’s mad?”

“a little,” eita answers, recalling earlier that afternoon. he shivers, suddenly understanding. “good point.”

mayu. something about that bugged him. and, hadn’t she called him satori, earlier?

eita finishes the first muffin and glances over at tendou, finding him completely transfixed as all the relay runners get into position. well, if he came to that conclusion, it was understandable, right? it made sense, right?

eita finishes his food, and the girls win their race, and the two of them pick their way back down to solid ground as the commotion settles. eita hangs back a step or two behind tendou as he moves easily across a corner of the field and onto the track. “mayu!” he calls, gaining the track team captain’s attention with ease.

“satori!” she calls back, and then she’s swept up into a hug. “you actually stuck around!”

“you were amazing! are you like that every time? why aren’t you on top of the world yet?”

mii blushes at this, pushing him away. “that’s too much,” she says, and tendou backs off with a laugh.

“nice one, captain,” eita chimes in, and mii looks over at him, her eyes lighting up.

“semi!” she folds him into a hug, too, probably still high off the euphoria. “i know you’re glad this is all over. thanks for sticking around.”

“no problem,” he wheezes, and she releases him with a laugh that breaks into a thoughtful look.

“hey, how are you getting home? it’s so dark out now.”

eita shrugs. “i’ll-”

“you still have your bike, right?” she asks tendou. “why don’t you take him?”

“oho!” tendou claps his hands together. “i like the way you think, mayu. i even know the way,” he sings, dragging the last word out.

“don’t i get a say?” eita asks, disgruntled.

“nope!” both of them reply in sync, smiling at him.

“just tag along with this guy a little longer,” mii orders, pointing to tendou. “for my peace of mind.”

“i’ll have to go grab my bike,” tendou notes, and mii shrugs.

“you can go now. just meet semi at the clubroom.”

“isn’t there a meeting soon?” eita asks, gesturing to everyone around them packing up.

mii shakes her head. “yes and no. it’s not important. i’ll tell them you went home early. just remember there’s no practice next week.”

“sure i won’t miss anything?”

“i’ll message satori if it’s important.”

“why do i feel like you’re trying to get rid of me?”

“nah.” she flaps her hand, gesturing for him to go away. “you’re imagining it. try not to move anyone’s stuff around when you grab your things, okay, or i’ll have to kill you to appease the masses.”

that certainly explained away the ulterior motive. “sleeping there is unhealthy,” eita calls, once he’s further away.

“some of us don’t test well like you do!” mii shouts back as she takes off her headband. she moves it over her thumb and uses it like a slingshot, firing at another third-year who screams in response.

eita leaves behind the track field’s happy atmosphere for one of his own making. he throws his button-up on over his shirt, letting it hang open, and trades his shorts for shiratorizawa’s standard slacks, knowing it was only bound to get colder.

tendou is waiting for him when he leaves, sitting easy on a bicycle, legs splayed on the ground on either side of the front wheel. he looks up and his smile grows when he sees eita. “all ready?”

“there’s not a stand on the back,” eita notes, hesitance growing as he approaches. “how are we doing this?”

“pegs!” tendou kicks back at one and eita nearly rolls his eyes to the back of his skull.

“that’s one solution, i guess,” he mutters as he climbs up, placing his hands on tendou’s shoulders for balance. tendou hums and kicks off, and eita hopes his biking skills aren’t as wild as the rest of him.

surprisingly, there are no incidents. eita is deposited on his doorstep in good care, and he waves at tendou until he can’t make him out anymore before going inside.

-

eita is cooling off in the shade from a day’s worth of events when tendou finally manages to find him and inform him of their latest plight.

“what?” his face scrunches up. “yamagata’s sick? is he skipping? how does that even happen?”

“yama just has the worst luck like that,” tendou whines, stomping his foot. “waka went to find us a replacement, but as far as i know he’s only planning to ask reon, and he’s already on a team with the other volleyball second-years. we might be outta luck here.”

eita shrugs, not really that disappointed by it, even as tendou resumes his whining. eventually he lets tendou pull him to his feet, and they re-join the festivities.

“oh, but i did enter you in the 50 meter,” tendou says, the only part of his never-ending rant that eita tunes in to listen to, and it has him braking, so that tendou is forced to pause when he refuses to release eita’s arm.

“what?”

“the race?” tendou frowns. “you have to race, eita. especially since the relay is off. i know it’s not far, but c’mon, running is your thing. you’ll love it.”

“i wish you would’ve asked before doing it,” eita mutters, still refusing to budge.

“aw, c’mon semisemi, do it for yama! think at how miserable he is, missing out on all this.”

“yeah, whatever, i’ll do it.” he looks down at his sneakers. “but i need my shoes if i’m doing this for real.”

tendou perks back up. “then let’s go!”

eita raises a brow. “to the other side of the school? ha ha, tendou. very funny.”

“if we’re careful we can go and be back before anyone notices.”

“and since when are you careful or tactful about anything?”

tendou winks. “you’d be surprised. plus, i have a fallback card. and if you’re with me, it applies to you too.”

“yeah?” he crosses his arms. “let’s hear it, then.”

“student council perks mean i can run around the school without anyone batting an eye. if someone asks i’ll make up an excuse.”

oh. that actually was a good point.

his thought must show on his face, because tendou grins, and he knows he’s yielded the argument with no further conversation necessary.

“this room is nice,” tendou notes, looking around as eita jerks his duffel from his cubby.

“‘s fine.” eita gives up on subtlety and kicks his sneakers off, then sits down on the ground to wrestle his socks off. he’d come grab them before practice.

he’s stretching several minutes before the all-out race was due to start when tendou asks the question he’d been pondering in the clubroom.

“hey, semisemi, so yama showed me this magazine article the other day, and it said all the pro trackletes never wear socks. so what about you? you switched from the school-issued ones, but the half-size you have on now are still a layer between you and the shoes.”

eita pauses, bent forward. “please never say trackletes again,” he says absently, gears turning in his mind as he looks down at his feet.

while tendou is blubbering about something he could care less about, eita rips one shoe off then pries the sock from his foot and wiggles his free toes. his gaze moves between them and the shoe. “i’ve never thought about that,” he admits, and tendou stops talking.

“the article said for some it was for comfort, that others could feel the ground better underfoot, or their shoe fit tighter without the added layer,” tendou adds slowly, watching as eita unties the laces and slips the shoe back on, barefoot.

he doesn’t quite frown, but his lips twist, once his foot is all the way in. he pulls on the laces a little, shifts his foot around. then he pulls tighter and ties a single knot, and stands.

“it’s weird,” he mumbles. “but not bad. it’s-” he sits back down and slips his other shoe off to repeat the process, and tendou hangs back and watches until he’s back on his feet, rocking back and forth on his heels.

“yeah, okay,” he starts, and then there’s a call for the race participants, and he bends down to pick up his socks and press them into tendou’s hands. “hold onto these for me.”

“what?” tendou cries. “you’re giving me-! semi!”

“hey, this was your idea!” eita calls, already heading off, bouncing every other step.

it’s not an all-out race, because there’s only so much space, so eita is delegated to waiting a while. he walks around in his shoes for a spell, getting used to the feeling.

50 meters was nothing. a perfect test, really.

and like that, the competition had, for eita, turned into an experiment.

-

“that didn’t feel too bad,” eita admits as he stuffs his socks in the pocket of his shorts. tendou cries out when he sees this.

“you could’ve done that from the beginning!”

eita shrugs. “consider it payback for entering me without permission.”

“yeah, whatever.” tendou slouches. “have fun at practice. i’ll be here, cleaning up.”

eita knocks at his shoulder. “thanks for the suggestion.”

“don’t get any blisters.”

“i’ll be careful.”

-

the first open track meet for miyagi prefecture is almost three weeks since eita started running sockless, and ten minutes to go to his event, he’s panicking.

a rewind is necessary, so in simple terms, this is what happened to cause the needless panic.

eita stretches. it’s hot. he pulls on his shoes, doing the laces up tight, but after a lap around the perimeter of the infield, his feet feel clammy, and in particular, his left shoe is loose. not enough to come off, not by far, but enough to where it matters, to where it’s an unnecessary distraction.

eita sits back down and undoes the knot, then pulls excessively tight on the laces to lock his foot into place.

and they snap.

-

“it’s over,” eita groans, lying with his hands over his face and his eyes closed to the harsh sunlight overhead. not that it mattered, because the combined shadows of mii and reo crouching over him blocked it out. they both share a look.

“yeah, that sucks,” reo starts, but he’s cut off abruptly -eita suspects it’s because of mii, mostly because he’s been on the end of her sharp elbows before.

“you still have time.” mii hums, pulling out her phone. “i wonder if concessions sells any as trinkets. would be worth a shot.” her voice trails off as she moves away, raising her phone to her ear. reo crouches down near eita’s head.

“you need new shoes?” he ponders. “maybe they’re too stretched out.”

“i can think about that after the meet is over,” eita mutters, removing his hands from his face. he opens his eyes to half-mast. “where did mii-san go? i don’t want to wallow anymore. she’s good at snapping people out of it.”

“well, sorry for not being good enough emotional support. she’s-”

“hey, semi, get up.” mii kicks at his foot -specifically, at the shoe with the broken laces. “i called satori. he’s at the edge of the field.”

“tendou?” eita mutters, leaning up on his elbows. “what’s he gonna do?”

“didn’t say. but you have five minutes, so i’d just go along with it.”

“maybe he’ll put me out of my misery,” eita sighs, leaning his head back and letting the rest of him go slack.

“four minutes and counting,” reo sings, and that’s enough to drive him to a stand, stumbling in the direction mii points to.

tendou is indeed waiting, just on the other side of the small fence separating the turf from the rest. when eita reaches him he immediately jumps it with zero regards to his inability to be there, then pulls eita down to the ground so they’re both out of the way.

“give me your shoe,” he demands, and eita tugs it off and tosses it over. with deft fingers, tendou removes the bright laces, mapping the path at he tugs them loose. then he pulls an old pair of white ones out and starts lacing them in the same pattern.

eita’s brow creases as he watches. “that was fast. how did you get spares out here?”

“they’re mine,” tendou says. “as in, from my kicks, now,” he elaborates, and eita blanches, looking down to tendou’s left shoe that was indeed laceless.

“what? why would you do that?” he sputters.

“you don’t have any time.” tendou shrugs. “you can give them back after your race, alright? here, i’m done.” he hands the shoe back and eita numbly slips it back on, doing the laces up tight until everything is snug.

“thank you,” eita mumbles, nearly at a loss for words. tendou helps him to his feet and claps him on the shoulder.

“if you don’t win with my laces, i might have to fine you,” he jokes. eita rolls his eyes, the numb spell officially broken as he shakes off tendou’s hand.

maybe he’s still frazzled, or maybe he’s not quite used to the new style just yet, because eita’s time is less-than-impressive, for his standards. he clocks in at just under seven seconds, which is more than enough to place him at first, but there’s a lack of self satisfaction from it.

“time for new shoes,” one of the assistant coaches suggests, when he tries to explain this. “shame about the laces. i don’t think you’ve gotten slower with no socks, so if you like it, keep doing it. you’ve got one month until the qualifier, so there’s time to figure out what you do and don’t like.”

that was pretty solid advice, actually. another of the short-distance coaches makes a note about modifying his regimen if he had to break in new shoes, and it leaves eita strangely touched.

he finds tendou nearly in the same spot he’d left him in, back on the correct side of the fence but leaned so far over it that it almost didn’t matter. he grins as he catches eita’s eye, and eita knows that this time, he’d caught his event as it happened.

this time it’s eita that climbs over to settle on the concrete on the other side of the barrier. tendou slides down until he’s sat beside eita, accepting his laces back when they’re finally pulled free. he’s doing them up in his own shoe again when he finally bothers to speak.

“wanna go shopping for more?”

“you seem like the last person i should go get shoelaces with,” eita say before he can help himself. tendou throws back his head and laughs.

“why not? we could get some cool ones. like in neon colors, or stripes, or words, or-”

eita breathes out in annoyance and tendou breaks off as he catches the tail-end of a mock-deadpan expression that conveys this was the exact reason he was hesitant to take tendou along. then he’s turning the other way to hide a smile, a brief upturn of the corners of his lips, and tendou reaches out to jab him in the side, causing eita to squeak.

“wanna go later?” tendou offers. “not like you’re tired or anything. you only have one race, right?”

eita shakes his head. “yeah, but. tomorrow. tomorrow,” he promises, and tendou settles back.

“no backing out now, semisemi.”

“don’t make me regret this.”

-

there’s no school the next day, so eita and tendou meet up at the shopping district in the early afternoon. the first sporting goods store they wander into is small, and it doesn’t take long for them to be the only ones occupying the space.

eita pulls off four boxes from the shelves from the same brand as his current track shoes and drops them to the floor next to a bench. tendou leans over and pries the tip of one of the lids up, whistling when he sees the style.

unfortunately, the pair he really liked end up being one of two eita near immediately nix as he removes them from the box, not even bothering to try them on as he finds faults with closer examination that he couldn’t live with.

“shut up, tendou!” he snaps as the other’s whining becomes intolerable. “i practically have to live in these shoes! they need to be perfect, or as close as possible.”

eventually it gets to the point where eita wonders why he’d invited tendou in the first place, and banishes the other to another section of the store. that only meant he’d have to deal with having replacement shoelaces forced onto him later, but he was willing if it meant getting through this part quietly.

he puts one shoe from the remaining pairs on each foot and gently kicks the ground with his heel. it felt weird to try on shoes without socks, but if he was going to be wearing them like this anyway, it was the only good way to test them out.

after walking around some eita finds a frown forming on his face. there was only one thing he needed to see about, and he couldn’t-

wait.

“hey, tendou,” he calls, and after a moment, the redhead appears from behind a shelf, expression suggesting he was still sulking. “are we still the only customers?”

“yeah. staff is in the back, too, so-” he breaks off, blinking, and then grins. “what are you planning?”

“i need a straight shot,” he confesses. “twenty meters or so.”

“if you’re at the back wall you could run down the center aisle.” tendou rocks back on his heels, thinking. “you should hit twenty before the door. let me see if anything’s in the way.”

technically there weren’t any other customers to disturb, but eita is silently grateful none of the staff was around to catch them, knowing it would be something they’d disapprove of.

with tendou’s help they clear a path and eita leans one foot against the back wall, eyeing the distance. the store wasn’t big, but he’d brake well before the door.

he crouches down, lets his fingers run over the smooth flooring.

then he rockets off, near full speed, and his teeth are clenched by the time he’s stopped. tendou moves forward, humming in approval.

“that’s not a good sign,” he says, as eita tugs the left shoe off.

“no, it is. it’s this one.” he vaguely points to the shoe on his right foot. “this one’s good.”

“as close to perfect as possible,” tendou quotes, nodding. he trails eita as he wanders back to retrieve the box, and the other shoe to the pair. “except the laces are white, so you need better ones.”

eita rolls his eyes, but he’s still in front of tendou, so it’s purely for his own satisfaction. “they are a little short,” he mentions, and that’s enough to have tendou running off again.

in the end he ends up with the shoes, a lavender pair of laces (“because school colors, semisemi!” tendou had insisted) and a black pair of spares. he’s smiling when they exit the store, and tendou notices, nudging him with his shoulder.

“well that was fun!”

“nope,” eita argues, but there’s no heat to it, and he’s still smiling, so tendou reads it as a joke right away.

-

before the end of the month, eita is coerced into seeing a volleyball game. he has better things to do -like break in the shoes- and doesn’t really know anything about volleyball -and would rather break in the shoes- and wants to focus on other things -like the sho

but tendou tells him he could run to school and back home, and that’s enough to make eita show up at the gymnasium that evening, looking a little lost among the teems of people that had showed up for a mere practice match.

“no one has anything better to do,” tendou tells him, leading him over to a few free spaces in the stands. eita recognizes oohira from 2-B when he turns to address tendou, having heard the remark.

“it’s pre-exam jitters. people will take any chance they get to focus on something that isn’t academic related.” he nods to eita from tendou’s other side. “hey, semi.”

eita nods back, gaze falling to the court. “ushijima-san. is he any good?”

oohira coughs, trying to be polite, but tendou has no problem in throwing his head back and cackling, and eita leans away, frowning as he realizes he’s asked a stupid question.

“waka’s on another level,” tendou tells him, once he’s calmed down. “well, all of our sports teams are top-tier, and volleyball is no exception. just watch. you’ll see.”

eita sees.

shiratorizawa destroys their opponent in the first set 25-14. ushijima ends it with a spike into the court so hard eita feels his teeth chatter. if anyone had gone for that, their arms would’ve come off, for sure.

they’re switching sides for the second set when a shuffling occurs further down the stands, and suddenly oohira is being pushed over, causing tendou to suddenly very much be in eita’s space. “what-”

“sorry i’m late,” the newcomer says, peeking out from behind oohira’s bulk. “i couldn’t find my phone.”

“yama!” tendou exclaims. “it’s about time!”

“you always have the same excuse,” oohira notes.

“because it’s true,” yamagata protests. “it keeps happening to me! i must’ve rolled some bad luck at new years, because this didn’t happen at all last year.”

“he’s very forgetful, semisemi,” tendou turns to tell him, holding one hand over the side of his mouth.

yamagata perks up as he catches the words. “semi’s here?” he leans more around oohira.

“oh, right! you two don’t really know each other, huh?” tendou slings an arm around eita, ignoring his grunt of protest. “yama, this is semi eita! semi, this is yamagata. you’re in the same club. if you bothered to show up more than twice a week you might’ve had-” he breaks off to gasp “-a real conversation before all this!”

“it’s not like i’m skipping,” eita protests, brows furrowed. he waves distractedly to yamagata, who returns it after shaking a look with oohira. “i just get more done by myself.”

“that sounds like a motto you shouldn’t strive for,” tendou points out, and eita finally escapes from his hold as the whistle to start the second set sounds.

yamagata snorts. “well, semi’s leagues better than the rest of us. the coaches are practically fast-tracking him for the all-youth.”

eita blinks, attention ripped from the match, and he has to physically turn his head to look down toward yamagata. “what?”

yamagata glances over, sees eita’s expression, and then turns to him properly. “yeah, the under-eighteen reps? wakatoshi’s one of them too.”

“they’ve said that?” eita asks, a little stunned.

he shrugs. “no, but it’s implied. they’re helping you with individual training. it’s like singling you out of the group. no one on the team can deny that you’d be the one deserving of special attention. i mean, did you see your time at the practice meet? impressive doesn’t cut it.”

“you’re over-exaggerating,” eita mumbles, barely audible over the roar of the crowd as shiratorizawa earns another point.

“they could be prepping you for worlds,” yamagata muses. “never can tell what coach is thinking.”

“wait wait wait.” tendou throws his hands in the air. “you’re telling me semi is potentially qualified to compete internationally?”

yamagata shrugs, and there’s a pointed look in his eye. “you tell me. you saw him run last time.”

“i still think that’s a bit much,” eita protests.

“you wouldn’t want to?” yamagata smiles, and though it’s more along the lines of a leer, it’s sincere, too. “if they give you the chance, you should take it, semi. you’re good enough. everyone on the team knows that.”

those words stay with him through the rest of the match, and on his run home. everyone on the team. it wasn’t said with any sort of malice. and before, when he had talked about eita getting special attention, there wasn’t any jealousy coloring the words. the consensus was that eita was amazing, incredible, even, and everyone on the team respected that.

but he hadn’t thought. well. about that before. he knew he liked running. he knew he was good at it. but he’d never thought about competing outside the nationwide school system. much less globally. he’d never even considered it before.

and now that the seed is planted, he can’t deny that if he was given the chance, he’d probably take it.

that’s why he leaves early, just after the practice match ends in shiratorizawa’s victory. tendou is high off the win and anxious to tell ushijima so, but he stays back to see eita off, recognizing there was a lot on his mind and he wasn’t going to stick around.

“it wasn’t a complete waste of time,” eita ends up saying, and tendou sputters.

“just admit you had fun!”

“yeah, fine.” eita sighs, then smiles. “it was fun. thanks for inviting me. i’ll see you around.”

he leaves fully invested in internal thoughts, so tendou’s sudden blush goes completely unnoticed. well, to him.

“dude,” yamagata says, coming up behind tendou. he pokes tendou’s arm, making sure his friend is still alive. “you got it bad.”

if anything, tendou blushes harder, spinning on his heel to glare down at yamagata. “SHUT-

-

practice today is one of those longer exercises that cover the entire team, and they’re free to leave after they finish. after dismissing everyone to get to it, one of the mid-distance coaches calls out to eita, stopping him before he can begin.

“how are the shoes?” he asks, and eita is a bit taken aback. “are they broken in?”

“for the most part,” he answers after a moment.

“well, take it at your own pace, then. wouldn’t want you getting blisters. it’s been pretty hot lately. usually when you stop running with socks one of the main things you look out for is making sure your feet stay dry. are those breathable enough?”

eita looks down at his shoes, then curves them in, feeling around. “they’re good. i’ve been washing them, too, but not too much. i’m worried they’ll lose shape.”

“start putting in powder and you’ll get away with washing less.” eita’s face screws up and he takes this into account. “not a lot. not enough to lose grip. just a little here and there. i have some in my bag if you ever want to try it out.”

“yeah, thanks.”

he notices, now. has ever since the volleyball match. the coaches do their best to accommodate him when he shows up for practice. they care about everyone, of course. he wouldn’t know for sure unless he hung around more, but he’s almost positive they looked out for all the athletes under their care. made sure they were doing well. checked in when they weren’t.

and yet, it’s different. when they give everyone the same set of exercises but tell eita he can change his to a certain extent, yeah, it’s noticeable. it’s not uncomfortable. he doesn’t mind. just merely an observation, one that makes yamagata’s words take root, that makes the gears in his mind start turning, start hoping.

maybe if i make a good impression at nationals again, it’ll open up more doors.

“no,” he mutters later, as he’s running. “i’m going to win nationals. that’ll open up more doors than i’ll know what to do with.”

“you��ve got some high ambitions.”

eita perks up, turning his head to see kawanishi taichi suddenly keeping stride with him. he slows a little to make it easier for the first-year, but it’s apparently unwelcome, because taichi’s lips twist into a light frown.

“you heard that,” eita states. taichi looks at him funny and eita rolls his eyes. “yeah, guess i was talking aloud. i don’t know. i think nationals last year in fukui has been the only real competition i’ve had since i came here.”

“that sounds depressing,” taichi answers, deadpan. eita snorts before he can catch himself, and slowly, taichi’s lips quirk up in response.

“and you?” eita asks, suddenly curious. “you’re the track star of your grade. what do you think of everything so far?”

taichi takes a minute to answer, but it’s worth it, because eita likes his response. the change to a mid-distance event. the challenge. being encouraged to push himself. having upperclassman around willing to help him where he needs it.

“i like it here,” he finishes.

“yeah,” eita echoes. “me too.”

“do you?” taichi shrugs when eita turns to look at him questioningly. “you just said there’s no real challenge. and you’re never here. i mean, you are, you are right now, but not a lot. not as much as you could be, if being around a support system was something you really cared about.”

“i think,” eita starts, after mulling it over, “that i like to do things my own way, and that takes priority. being here hasn’t changed that. but the experiences i’ve had with the team have changed things. changed me. everyone motivates me to do better, to be better. better at, like, normal things, not just running. i like shiratorizawa because everyone is at the top of their game, and yet everyone stays humble. like you. you’re amazing at your field event, and yet you’re trying a track event to experiment, even if it means getting lower results than you’re used to. you didn’t mention high jump at all when you talked about why you liked this place.

“so that’s why, even here in miyagi, every meet i’m so excited i can’t hardly stand it. i’m pushed to improve myself. even if it’s only me versus the clock, i still have so much fun. it’s supposed to be fun, in the end, right?” he smiles. “i’m glad i came to a school that makes running fun.”

taichi is quiet, but he still keeps pace with eita. it’s not until they’re almost done that he speaks again, expressing his desire for eita to see him compete again.

eita laughs, admiring his determination. “i said i would, right? if-”

“no,” taichi interrupts. “the mid-distance one. i wasn’t sure, before, because i’m still not nearly as good as i want to be. but.” he bites down on his lip. “but, after hearing all that, i realize it doesn’t really matter. i’m not going to be amazing right out of the gate, and i don’t care. i still want you to see me run.”

“then it’s a promise.” taichi looks over and eita smiles. “at the qualifier. work hard until then.”

-

tendou and yamagata exchange looks as eita rehashes his conversation with taichi the day before.

then yamagata’s look turns into a leer that tendou rolls his eyes at.

“semisemi, i’m not sure i’d call that admiration,” tendou says.

“huh?” eita looks up from his lunch, brows creased. “then what is it?”

“it’s-” yamagata is cut off with an elbow to his stomach, wheezing, and tendou takes control of the conversation again.

“don’t worry about it. kawanishi-kun will mention it when he wants to.”

eita hums, but doesn’t probe for further explanation.

-

exams come and go, but even as summer rears its head full-force, eita still finds himself venturing out to school.

it would still be a few days until regular practice resumed, so the only reason he had for being here was one tendou satori.

“waka’s family live on the outskirts of the city,” he explains to eita one afternoon, when they’re sprawled in the shade of one of the big trees in the front courtyard. he spreads his arms in the air. “big place. he’ll come back for volleyball, but being home is more important to his folks, so he makes a point to divide his time.

“yama’s mom lives alone with his younger sisters, so he goes home during breaks to help out. i think the girls would cry if their big brother decided not to come, so it’s always been an easy choice for him.

and my parents aren’t in miyagi, so it’s either i make the long haul home, or choose the easy option and stay here.” his nose wrinkles in quiet distaste. “i’d rather be alone here all summer than go back to that house.”

eita doesn’t know what all to think of that, but he doesn’t ask, either, not wanting to bother tendou. he seemed on the verge of being upset. better to not make it worse.

“well, i’m here.” he lolls his head to the side to stare at tendou. “i’ve got nothing going on. my parents are chill. if you get tired of campus you can stay over.”

tendou turns his head to look back. “and if i don’t?”

“i can keep coming back, just like this.” eita’s fingers twitch, ruffling the grass. he doesn’t move them further. “whenever you want.”

tendou grins. “that’s a dangerous game to play, semisemi.”

“well, i mean, if it’s absurd enough i can always say no.”

“damn. here’s me thinking sneaking you onto campus at four in the morning would be pretty awesome.”

“yeah, you’ll have to try something else. you wake me up in the middle of the night and i’ll have to contemplate killing you.”

“scary.”

“normal.”

“i’m telling you, that’s not a normal response.”

“and what would you know about normal?”

“hey.” tendou kicks out, landing a blow under eita’s knee, and he winces. in the next moment he’s kicking back, hard enough to bruise, and all tendou does is flop from his back onto his side, facing him, and start laughing.

“you said you had something to try,” tendou says later, when they’ve both calmed down.

“yeah. i’m thinking about putting spikes in,” eita admits.

“your shoes?” tendou sits up halfway, leaning on an elbow. “like yama has? the ones for better traction?”

“i got some at the start of first term,” eita mumbles, nodding. “really good ones. i’ve been debating using them. lots of people want me to try, so i think it’d be good to indulge them if they think i’ll like it. but at the same time . . i don’t know. i’m worried, i guess. about the change. being elevated like that, even if it’s less than a centimeter from the track -it makes me nervous. i like to be able to feel myself push off at every step. having spikes in means i’ll be sacrificing some of that.”

“you can always take them out,” tendou notes. “if you don’t like them.” he sits up fully. “let’s go now! no one’s on the track, so it’s perfect. the spikes are in your clubroom, right?” eita nods. “and you have the key, right?” another nod. tendou grins and pulls himself to his feet, then offers a hand to eita to do the same.

eita lets himself be hoisted up, and then tendou is physically dragging him across campus, until they’re in front of a battered door and eita is wrestling the key into the lock in his sudden excitement.

it takes a minute to put all the spikes in. they do it in the clubroom, even with the lack of air conditioning, because it meant being out of the hot sun for a bit. eita leaves barefoot when he’s ready, shoes swinging from one hand, and takes tendou out onto the track, climbing up the fence and then over the hill.

“no one is around to care,” eita says, as he sits down to throw the shoes on. “besides, even if they do, it’ll hurt your reputation more than mine.”

tendou places a hand over his heart. “ouch, semisemi.”

walking is weird, with the spikes, but walking wasn’t really the point. eita locks his knees and bends down to touch his toes, feeling the strain in his legs. “damn,” he mutters, realizing he wasn’t going to get away with not stretching properly. he kicks the shoes off and flops down on the track’s perimeter, bringing the bottom of his feet together and pressing down on his knees with his elbows. “give me a minute,” he throws over his shoulder.

but tendou isn’t there. it takes a second to realize he’s re-settled in front of eita, and even then, he’s still shocked when tendou reaches forward to grab his leg at the bend of his knee, pulling until it straightened out.

“lean back, semisemi,” tendou murmurs, moving his foot into the air. “i used to do this for waka all the time.”

eita doesn’t know what compels him, but he obeys, lying back on the grass. tendou rises to his knees and pushes eita’s leg until it’s in a deep stretch towards his chest. he tugs eita’s toes down and the entire leg twitches with the added effort.

tendou does his other leg after a spell, the exact same and then a couple extra, and then unceremoniously drops both legs to the ground. eita huffs in surprise as they land, and his eyes pop open. it’s not long until he’s glaring at tendou, even with their angle awkward for eye contact.

this time, when eita settles onto the track, he moves into a low start position. “count me off,” he mutters, and tendou moves to rest in the next lane, nodding.

“three.”

just to the forty. he could see the mark.

“two.”

or maybe the full 100, who was he kidding.

“one.”

actually, if this was a true test, shouldn’t he just go as far as possible? get a feel for it?

“go!”

eita is near the 80m mark before he slows, blinking down at the shoes. he jogs back over.

“well?” when he looks up tendou is bent forward, eager. “how was it?”

“dragging.” eita purses his lips. “it felt like i was digging into the track. but instead of being able to push off easier, it felt like i was getting stuck.”

“you probably have to get used to them.”

“i know. i just don’t like adjusting. i just like things to be good, y’know?”

“i hear ya.” tendou leans his chin against an open palm. “try again. this time go all the way down, then run back.”

they pass the better part of the afternoon like that, indulging eita’s whims. not that tendou seemed to mind. he even takes eita home, as they both realize the only pair of shoes he’d worn out now weren’t suitable to walk around the streets in. eita’s mom is certainly surprised, when she opens the door to find her son barefoot. she waves to tendou just before he leaves again.

“that was nice of him,” she mentions, while eita drops his track shoes in the entryway and explains away his earlier plight. when he stands again it’s in house slippers. “you have a good friend, eita.”

friend. eita wonders when exactly that had happened.

[tuscanwalker]

September 8, 2021: “This is the End”

20 km, 450m (1,500 ft) CUS

Today is my last day on the trail. I will reach Koblenz and the symbolic end of my journey at Deutsche's Eck, the point where the Mosel River meets the Rhine. I have been walking the RheinSteig Trail, which overlaps with both Jacob’s (St. James, Santiago) Way and the Mosel Camino. The whole area is littered with a very complex network of crisscrossing trails where, as the sign below exemplifies, you can often go left or right to get to the same place.

It was an early start as breakfast was at 7. Just after six I dashed out to a bakery I spotted the day before. I managed to corral a couple of salami on a bun and a sweet raisin bun (the raisins actually turned out to be chocolate chips - yum) along with some mineral wasser mit gas so lunch was a done deal. This was a longer day than most but not as hard as many. While there was a reasonable amount of climb it was much gentler than usual with only one stretch of 20% slope at the beginning for half a km (100m CUS). The next stretch was gentler with a long steady slog of 5 km to gain another 250m (5%). Tiring for sure but at least not stupid. This was very much the kind of walking that Kim and I experienced in Italy most days.

When I reached the first plateau, the trail slid into a dark cool forest with lots of wide trails (none of which hung me over a cliff). It was very tranquil and relaxing but surprisingly rather noisy with all the birds (including buzzards that meow like kittens) and even what I think was the grunting of a deer in rut. I soon came upon what the trail notes describe as a 19th Century Jewish Cemetery in a small meadow. I assume it was placed there to avoid prejudice and persecution, but this may be unfair and the notes are silent. There was no obvious trail to approach it closer which is probably good as it likely reduced the potential for vandalism.

Climbing slowly though the forest, there was widespread evidence of selective harvesting and there were often piles of logs seasoning by the trail. I also noticed hundreds of small bird houses made from hollow logs. They were only 15-20 feet off the ground with hinged fronts, so it is likely that they are tended regularly. Along with them were numerous bat houses and houses for solitary bees to lay their eggs, usually made from log sections drilled to provide appropriate cavities. The entire back of the Camino sign pictured above was just such a large bee house. I should have taken pictures of all these things but it just never occurred to me, ooops.

A little later I took a 20 minute detour to visit the remains of a Gallo-Roman temple dedicated to Mercury and his Gallic equivalent, the godess Rosemerta. He was God of, among many other things, travellers; which seemed appropriate under the circumstances. It apparently dates to 100 BCE which is surprising to me as the empire had not yet extended this far north. It was in use for another 600 years, until the empire had essentially fallen. (I know, I am the only person reading this who is not yawning at this point - sorry, I can’t help myself.

The next recommended detour was to Schloss Stolzenfels. It was a 13th Century Castle, destroyed in the 17th century, rebuilt in the 19th century as a pastiche of a 16th century Tudor Palace with a Gothic Revival Chapel and all the mod-coms of the time. In the early 21st Century it was substantially renovated and is now a UNESCO world heritage site and is open to the public. Somehow this hodgepodge did not seem to be worth the climb down and up, particularly as I have seen a few Tudor castles and palaces in my travels (e.g. Henry VIII’s Hampton Court).

I passed it by and carried on to the Rittersturz where, in 1948, the 16 minister presidents from the three western occupation zones came together to write the constitution of a new German Republic. Despite the terms essentially being dictated by the western powers, the Germans left some wiggle room to later include Russian Zone (East Germany) if the situation arose. Sadly, the conference site later slid down the cliff (boy can I empathize) so this monument was built to replace it.

Last stop Duetsches Eck. This confluence of the Rivers was the site of a center for Teutonic Knights and the Basilica of St Castor. In the 19th Century Kaiser William II (yep WWI Willie) wanted to create a nationalist cult around his Prussian grandfather William I who was the unifier of Germany in 1871 along with his first minister Otto Von Bismarck. The inscription at the base read “Never will the Empire be destroyed, so long as you are united and loyal”. Boy, did he get that wrong. The monument was destroyed by shellfire in 1945 and finally restored in 1990 after the Berlin Wall fell. Today it is still a nationalist symbol, but mostly just a tourist attraction. Oh yes, on the way in aI also past a monument to grandpa’s wife.

If you want to be really bored, come back in a couple of days and I will wax lyrical about my experience. Tomorrow I am off up the Mosel River to Cochem which is where they take their Riesling seriously and where the serious wine tasting begins (yes I have just been studiously practicing thus far). I will continue to blog for a couple of days until I go home (assuming that i am sober enough to find the iPad).

[irispublishersengineeringscience]

Iris Publishers - Global Journal of Engineering Sciences (GJES)

Air Conditioning Booster

Authored   by   Ehab Nader Tuffaha

Abstract

The study trying to utilize and allows to harness the natural and free solar energy gotten from the sun by converting the additional free enthalpy gotten as thermal and kinetic energy likewise into useful power; on other words the main concern is increasing the COP.

This type of AC will use as much solar energy as is available and convert the solar energy directly to replace the equivalent amount of AC power from the mains provider. Under optimum conditions, this can save up to 25% – 45 % of your mains power usage during the summer.

This will be most recent innovation in standalone power saving which is partially free of charge by the Sun.

The study aims to renovate the traditional refrigeration system which is normally known as compression refrigeration cycle everywhere in our buildings, so that it can be developed to take advantage of the free solar energy without complicated changes neither a completely demolishing.

Keywords: HVAC; Solar radiation; R 134a; Thermodynamics; Momentum

Introduction

Jordan is among of the most enthusiastic developing country to promote utilization of renewable energy, as very well known the solar radiation in Jordan average within 4500 Wh/m2 to8000 Wh/ m2.

More than 300 sunny days in Jordan driving us to think more seriously in renewable energy resources and somehow reduce dependence on oil consumption.

Basic thermodynamics statement that as a greater temperature difference between substances the faster heat flow, so once the refrigerant gas temperature increased then a heat rejection is higher; same what happened when the ambient temperature increases, less heat can be rejected from the air-cooled condenser to the hotter ambient.

Adding an extra heat to the cycle in order to increase ΔT between condenser and surrounding environment. Not quite, but the future will be for renewable energy, however the first step should be renovating the transition phase of the hybridized types by paving the way for the renewable sources, as there is no doubt that renewable energy does not match in any way the traditional energy that we are accustomed to in term of cost neither the required efficiency.

Methodology

Heat transferee calculations:

a) Qh = mh x Cph (Thou t-Thin) Versus b) Qc = mc x Cpc (Tc out-T c in)

Equation a here represent water system versus equation b for refrigeration cycle.

Where Q = heat energy (Joules, J) m = mass of a substance (kg) c = specific heat (unit’s J/kg∙K) Δt is a symbol meaning “the change in” temperatures

Tcout = Outlet refrigeration temperature from heat exchanger.

Tcin = Inlet refrigeration temperature from heat exchanger.

Thin = Water Inlet temperature from the solar collector to heat exchanger.

Mpemba Effect on the Refrigeration Cycle

The basic advantage is a quicker phase change from gas to liquid leading to a better sub cooling and that to less flash gas then more cooling capacity at the evaporator and with the control of the unit then to the original cooling capacity at the evaporator but with less compressor work. All the known formulas in thermodynamics can’t explain, because there is really none for the phase change except the amount of heat transferred at phase change.

We gain here 15 KW using our selected heat exchanger); Now a gas coming from a higher temperature has a much higher kinetic energy of the molecules and they kick much more into them as a result they can develop much quicker the interconnecting Vander Waals forces and as a result they liquefy quicker. Since the gas gets quicker liquid, the remaining way in the condenser is used to cool down the fully liquid further.

Where a & b are dimensions to be experimentally found. p = pressure, n= number of moles, T = temperature, V = volume and R = universal gas constant. Hence Its value will be nearby to general gas equation the given gas is at low pressure and high temperature.

PV = nRT; V = As x L, as the selected exchanger is 0.311m height,

P @ 90 C = 10 bar = 9.9 atm; V= 0.5 m3

R = 0.082 lt. atm /deg.k.mole

10 x 0.5= n x 0.082x 363

So n= 0.2

However as very known from

P1V = n1RT …; P2V = n2RT … Considering the volume is constant (Isochoric) as the heat exchanger is a small closed tank so: P2 X 0.5= 0.2 x 0.082 x 363 k ; So P2 =12 bar

Discussions and Ideas

Based on the below equations and numbers, a rapidly increasing in momentum during of heating the refrigerant gas R 134a:

As an estimation each pressure drop in heat exchanger 4m/ 100m and we have a 10 meters pipes so we have a 0.4 bar =4079 kgf/m2 (kg per sq. meter); let us multiply the factors as below:

0.2 kg/s (refrigerant flow rate) x 4079 kg/m2 x 0.02 m3/kg (specific volume @ 40 c & 2 bar) = 16 kg.m/s

This unit is a momentum, so let us try to get the momentum @ 90 c & 10 bar:

0.2 kg/s (refrigerant flow rate) x 4079 kg/m2 x 0.3m3/kg (specific volume @ 90 c & 10 bar) = 245 kg.m/s.

This is mean each change in momentum is a new specific impulse on other words this is producing a thrust force which is also a gain for the cycle.

Conclusion

• The system clearly shows that COP is increased from 4.3 to 5.5, by converting solar thermal energy to sub cooling additional for the refrigeration cycle.

• The system adds more 2 bars to the refrigeration cycle consequently increasing in the entropy as mean a quicker phase change due to quicker set-up of intermolecular bindings because of v Van der Waals forces yielding additional sub-cooling.

• The most important is we don’t have to increase condenser surface. It is very well capable to remove the additional heat, the Formula Q = alpha X surface x delta T. Alpha is heat transfer coefficient and does not change, If Delta T increases due to higher temperature of the refrigerant entering the condenser, the condenser just transfers more heat. The environment as the heat absorbing media is capable of taking up that additional heat. For more explanation, let say what happened with radiators: if you flush water with a temperature of 45 °C through the radiator, it does not provide that much heat as if you flush water through with a temperature of 90 °C so the radiator is capable of doing the job.

Basically W (KJ/Kg) = ∫p*dv, however the dv in heat exchanger considered zero by other words it’s an Isochoric Work When V is held constant and P changes W = 0 Because gas is not doing any work but as surrounding adds energy to internal energy of gas That’s why Cp is always greater than Cv Specific heat capacity at constant pressure is always greater than Specific heat capacity at constant volume, now once the gas goes through the condenser a quicker phase change occurred there cause When gas expands it has to do work to push environment to create space for its expansion by spending energy from its internal energy that’s why suddenly Gas cools down.

Addendum

Data Analysis

The below study shows if reduce refrigerant up to certain limit could be useful for COP, however should we not reach to the maximum temperature of 120 c which is the critical temperature, however power consumption is reduced accordingly (Table 1).

The below are a figure out and illustrations using Mollier diagrams which is a very common for systems with fixed compressor speed = fixed mass flow. DC Inverter units with variable mass flows and many changes in circuit offer wide range of mollier diagrams will be a high improvement for the proposed system .

To read more about this article  https://irispublishers.com/gjes/fulltext/air-conditioning-booster.ID.000612.php

Indexing List of Iris Publishers: https://medium.com/@irispublishers/what-is-the-indexing-list-of-iris-publishers-4ace353e4eee

Iris publishers google scholar citation : https://scholar.google.co.in/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=irispublishers&btnG=

[rockinjoeco]

Is Jose Mourinho special no more?

It’s still a shock to so many people that Mauricio Pochettino was sacked as Tottenham Hotspur manager last November, particularly after finishing in the Champions League places four years in a row, developing home-grown talent like Harry Kane and getting to the Champions League final last season. His departure brought shock and dismay to many Tottenham fans, even though the club swiftly appointed serial winner Jose Mourinho as Pochettino’s replacement. Mourinho’s reign as Spurs’ manager so far hasn’t been smooth, having been knocked out of the FA Cup to Norwich, who are currently bottom of the Premier League, and have been knocked out of the Champions League by RB Leipzig. Tottenham are currently 8th in the league, 7 points behind fourth-placed Chelsea. Is the so-called ‘special one’ no longer special?

It has now been 12 years since Spurs last won a trophy, after winning the League Cup under Juande Ramos. When Pochettino was brought in as Tottenham manager back in the summer of 2014, becoming their 10th manager in 12 years, Tottenham had a very disjointed squad. The summer before, they spent over £100m on new players (Spurs did make a profit of over £6m that season thanks to the world-record sale of star player Gareth Bale to Real Madrid) and apart from Christian Eriksen, none of them had made the desired impact over the 2013-14 season. The Argentine manager was tasked with helping Spurs to Champions League football, which had been their for nearly 10 years and only achieved it once during that time. Pochettino earned plaudits for his previous job at Southampton, when he was controversially hired in January 2013, and produced great football as well as helping the homegrown talent there (namely Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Jay Rodriguez) earn their first caps for England. Although Pochettino didn’t win any trophies at Spurs, his tenure there will be remembered fondly by Spurs supporters and the way he took a disjointed Tottenham team from being a Europa League team to a Champions League team has seen Pochettino being linked with management roles at Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Manchester United.

You would’ve thought that if Tottenham wanted to start winning trophies again, surely there would be nobody better to help them do that than Jose Mourinho, who has won three Premier League titles in two spells at Chelsea and has won the Champions League twice. Even though his previous job at Manchester United brought a mixed verdict, he still managed to help them win the League Cup and Europa League in his first season. What was evident during his second spell at Chelsea, however, was his so-called ‘third season syndrome’. After he won Chelsea the league title, he become the first Chelsea manager during the Abramovich era to be awarded with a contract extension. Since then, Chelsea’s results have dipped badly, his media interviews had been questionable, including constant referee-blaming and a seven-minute rant after the home defeat against Southampton, and that infamous row with club doctor Eva Caneiro during the opening day draw against Swansea. What also came under scrutiny during that period was the style of football Chelsea were playing under Mourinho and his youth policy, having seen former young prospects Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku establish themselves as world class talents elsewhere in the Premier League. Even though Mourinho has enjoyed plenty of success elsewhere prior to his return to Chelsea, it seemed that when he signed that new contract with them in the summer of 2015 that this would be where he would really build a dynasty at a club, as he has never been manager at a club for more than three years. However, seeing his misjudgement when it comes to youth suggests that he is a manager for the short-term and not as a long-term option, unlike the manager he had idolised; Sir Alex Ferguson.

If Jose Mourinho had been appointed as Tottenham manager in the summer of 2014 rather than back in last November, there would be a wave of excitement amongst the Spurs faithful. Now considering how great a job that Mauricio Pochettino had done, despite not winning anything, the mood is still one of scepticism, particularly given Mourinho’s reluctance to give youth a chance in the team, something of which that Pochettino was lauded for, and the style of football that Mourinho’s teams tend to play. Prior to Mourinho’s appointment, there were problems at Tottenham, such as not selling Christian Eriksen last summer when he had just a year left on his contract and the Danish international didn’t want to extend his contract. That would’ve been an opportunity to remove anybody who didn’t really want to be part of the team and get a suitable replacement in. The decision to sell Kieran Trippier to Atlético Madrid without getting a replacement was also questionable, as Serge Aurier is very erratic at right-back and inconsistent to be a first-choice right-back for Spurs. Tottenham are also lacking strength in depth in attack, especially with back-up striker Fernando Llorente departing for Napoli last summer and with Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min out injured. With this now being the second season in succession that he’s suffered a serious injury, there are concerns that Harry Kane may be becoming injury prone, not just from a Spurs perspective, but from England’s point of view too. Spurs definitely should’ve eased the goalscoring burden on Harry Kane and Spurs should’ve bought a new striker in January.

We can debate about whether Jose Mourinho is still ‘the special one’ or not, but you can’t argue with his track record. Hypothetically, if Spurs won the league cup, would it be a greater achievement than reaching the final of the Champions League? Probably not, but it may be more important. Winning a trophy, any trophy, may just be the catalyst for this Spurs team to go on to achieve greater things. While it was exciting seeing this young Spurs team develop under Mauricio Pochettino, there was a fear of whether the likes of Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Eric Dier would one day leave Spurs for a more elite club who specialise in winning titles. With Mourinho at the helm, considering the track record he has in winning things, would that tempt these key players into staying at the club? Even if Mourinho didn’t play the attractive football that Pochettino played and if he doesn’t qualify for the Champions League this season? That’s a question that many will keep asking, but also think about this; could one trophy under Mourinho be a catalyst for greater things, or a consolation for his upcoming failures?

[wordsturnintostories]

show me your rosettes, baby (g)

summary: The world tour is over and the Bangtan Boys finally get their well-deserved break. When Namjoon suddenly can’t find Jimin anywhere, things take an unexpected and pretty unbelievable turn. word count: 1.8k note: so, this is kind of a prologue. please know that I will try my best, but i may update very slowly cause long fics like this take much effort and I wanna do it well. this is my birthday gift to you guys. ✨ warnings: none

masterlist | moodboard masterlist

[ prologue | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven ]

The suitcases and bags collide with the carpeted hotel floor in a collective groan. Leather and textile rub against each other and are abandoned as the seven members of Bangtan Sonyeondan rush towards their bedrooms and the en-suite bathrooms, aching for some calm minutes, aching for their beds, aching for just a break.

It’s the second last event of their world tour that they’ve just put behind them. Now, there’s only one more fansign, one more concert, three more days and then, home. Their schedules look like someone’s cut through them with a knife, full full full and then - nothing. It’s gonna be heaven, promises the fine print. Just a few more days, they tell each other and their tattered bodies. We’ll make it through. Fighting.

At least their last concert is already kind of home. Management had been proud to create a framework, have the Love Yourself Tour start in Seoul and conclude in Seoul. To make it feel like they’ve actually rounded the planet. And honestly, that is an aesthetically pleasing thought but of course, there’s a flip-side to this. They have to stay in a hotel in Seoul rather than going home this close to the end. To keep up the concentration and stress level, the tour energy. From a psychological view, it’s probably a legitimate thing, but to the members, it just adds to the desperation. But then again, you can take it this or that way and Bangtan decides to treat it like a 100m sprint athlete who imagines the bathroom to run faster - as an accelerator. They don’t complain, trying their hardest to stick to a positive mindset, grateful they are able to travel and go on tour like this in the first place.

Every single one of the boys follows their personal skincare routine, some (Jungkook) going through it a little more sloppily than others (Seokjin). By now, they can dress, undress, remove makeup and apply their skincare in the dark. Months of touring do that to you. Thanks to the tiredness crawling through their bones and minds, there’s not much talking. Everyone just wants to finally lay their heads down and shut off. However, there’s the occasional cough, sigh or groan, hidden but truthful answers to the question, “are you okay?”

At this point, they aren’t. Calendar pages of exhaustion accumulate and leave the boys shaking, no matter how well they eat or sleep or prepare. Jimin’s got it the worst this time around, apparently, because he keeps getting dizzy spells, keeps throwing up and waking up sweaty and feverish and still insists on pulling through their performances as if nothing ever happened to him. They all know (ARMY doesn’t) and they’ve all talked about this already in an emotional exchange of feelings and facts.

Everyone does this, but Namjoon especially makes sure to check on the suffering younger, always with an open ear and ready hands. Just like he suspected, old issues and insecurities bubble up under the immense pressure of camera flashes and microphones.

Tonight is no different. Namjoon spends probably an hour with Jimin, sending his dongsaeng off to bed with comforting words, a long, rocking hug and painkillers, taking the younger’s temperature and as required, going through the medical sheet that he’ll have to hand over to their personal physical tomorrow.

Jimin still groans in pain when Namjoon leaves, but at least his heart is lighter and he manages a genuine smile before the light turns off.

Namjoon himself doesn’t feel particularly well either, even as his heart fills with gratitude and warmth as he stops by every room to say goodnight to the members. As he feared, his mind is loud and chaotic tonight, brain cells thrumming with excess energy (he can’t say where it’s coming from all of the sudden), running as fast as the engines of the airplane they were on a couple of hours ago. Normally, five tosses are his maximum before he glides off to dreamland. Normally, his head hits the pillow and he’s gone.

But that normally doesn’t happen tonight. An hour passes, a second one almost follows and Namjoon feels overwhelmed by the noise that is intent on cracking his skull open in this silent room. It’s too quiet here when all he’s had in the last months were stadiums full of screaming fans.

At one point, Namjoon’s had enough of this uncomfortable situation. He wanders around a little, pays a visit to the bathroom, googles a few methods to calm down (he already knows all of them, it’s time for humanity to come up with something new already), tiptoes down the hallway to press his ear to the member’s doors, finds the kitchen’s water supply and his own throat treatment package.

He’s swallowing some obligatory supplements when something moves in his vague periphery and in the semi-dark hallway behind the open door. Namjoon freezes, almost drops the glass in his hand. What was that? He catches the glass, thanks God and his reflexes (where have you been all my life?), aware that a shattering glass would have disturbed everyone else.

When he looks back to the hallway, there’s nothing there. Even as he walks over to the door, the entire hallway visible in both directions, there’s nothing unusual. He frowns.

Namjoon’s mind tells him what he saw was a small something, like a small animal, a puppy or a cat maybe. His mind also tells him it can’t be any of their pets because Micky and Tannie and Rapmon and Holly aren’t here (and Rapmon is definitely bigger than that). Thirdly, his mind suggests that they might be in one of those hotels with pets that accompany guests for comfort and stress relief. Maybe management wanted to do something nice for them but forgot to tell them. But then, that’s a strange idea too because in the three hours they’ve been in here, they haven’t seen any animals and they haven’t opened the door to let any in. So where did it come from?

Of course, pet hotel is one hell of an assumption but Namjoon knows he’s definitely seen something. On the other hand, Namjoon’s mind keeps talking, tells him that he should go back to bed, that he is actually a sleep-deprived human being that will break down tomorrow if he doesn’t get rest tonight.

Maybe I just imagined it, Namjoon thinks and wipes his face. I should really get to bed.

But it bugs him, even as he’s under his blanket, so much so that he sees the little shadow over and over again behind his closed eyes. Groaning at himself, he decides to check it out a second time. What if it’s a wild animal from the outside, maybe a misdirected bird? Or a stray cat? With his phone’s flashlight, he lights through the kitchen, through the living room even if he doesn’t really expect the animal to be there. There are only two rooms down the side of the hallway that he thinks the animal might have walked to, and those rooms are Yoongi’s and Hoseok’s. Not wanting to disturb his hyungs, Namjoon tries to keep the light beam to a minimum and quickly closes their doors again.

A muffled, “‘Night, Namjoon” reaches him from Yoongi’s room and he sends the wish back. He huffs. There’s nothing out of the ordinary in either room (it is out of the ordinary to catch Yoongi awake in bed, but he doesn’t mean that) and starts wondering whether he imagined the animal.

I must be really tired, Namjoon concludes. For the third time this night, he slips into his sheets and closes his eyes. Finally calming down, he drifts off.

---

Jimin wakes up in Yoongi’s arms and isn’t quite sure how he got here but he’s incredibly grateful for the prolonged skinship with his hyung. For not being alone. For being taken care of. For the fact that Yoongi accepted him into his bed. Usually, this hyung sleeps alone. The bed is his holy space. No one disturbs him at night.

There is no way to fight off the smile on Jimin’s face. He likes sleeping with Yoongi. It’s peaceful. And Jimin feels refreshed. Which is not a given for Jimin. He looks to the side, where Yoongi’s face is smushed against his pillow, mouth half open and eyes relaxed. Maybe Yoongi has perfected the art of sleeping to the degree that his sleep even energizes the people touching him.

When Yoongi wakes up gradually, the elder seems a little confused at first but sends Jimin a bright smile. His voice is oddly raspy and Jimin thinks it’s still as cute as the first time he’s heard his hyung’s morning voice.

“I dreamt there was a kitten in my bed.” “Really?” “Yeah. A baby cat. But I see now that it was you.” “What does it mean, hyung?” Jimin looks excited, with his eyes becoming bigger and his teeth showing. He cuddles back into Yoongi’s shoulder. “Does it have to mean anything?” “Of course. Taehyung’s halmoni used to say that all dreams mean something.” Yoongi musters Jimin with one open eye. “Is that so?” “Yeah. So, what do you think it means?” “I don’t know,” Yoongi mumbles, “that I should get a cat?” “That’s lame, hyung. Holly would hate to share you. What do you usually dream about?” Yoongi looks at the ceiling, blushing a little. That piques Jimin’s curiosity. He giggles. “Hyung, tell me! You’re so red!” “Shut up,” Yoongi groans and hides his face under the comforter. Jimin crawls under to put his face on his hyung’s chest. “Tell me, hyung. I won’t tell anyone, promise.” Yoongi’s eyes crinkle. “You’re so cute, Jiminie, I swear. It’s not good for my health.” “So, what do you dream of?” “My bed,” Yoongi mumbles, “it’s soft and pretty and warm and never rejects me and-“ Jimin has the urge to laugh but doesn’t want to embarrass his hyung further. “Daydream, daydream,” the younger sing-songs. “No, at night. During the day, I usually dream of Holly or tteokbokki.” “I’m surprised you even find time to daydream, hyung. Sometimes I even wonder if I have time to breathe.” “What do you usually dream of, Jiminie?” “It’s stupid.” Yoongi frowns but his eyes are soft when he pulls a couple of blonde strands of hair out of Jimin’s face. “I’m sure it’s not. Unless you have nightmares. Nightmares are stupid.” Jimin breathes. The warmth of his hyung gives him confidence. “I do get nightmares. But the other nights, I dream of all the things I want to do with Taehyung and Jungkook and all of you guys. Travel cities, visit places, play games, all that.” “That’s beautiful,” Yoongi rasps. There’s adoration in his eyes when he slings an arm around Jimin’s waist to pull him closer. “Let’s doze off until Namjoon drags us out of here.”

Later, during breakfast, Jimin receives compliments on how well-rested he looks. He surprises everyone with a good appetite, food that stays in his stomach, and a relaxed mind that lets him tend to the others. He smiles.

“I do feel better.”

Maybe he should sleep with Yoongi more often.

[ prologue | one | two | three | four | five | six | seven ]

masterlist | moodboard masterlist

tags: @xmagicxshopx, @taeshuworld, @justanemptydream, @hoodmeup, @gingerpeachtae

[taskadeycmbnt-blog]

Everything you need to know about YCombinator startups

It is not a secret to anyone that YCombinator is that the most eminent accelerator within the world. they need created spill two,538 investments.

YCombinator runs 2 programs annually: throughout the summer and winter, named consequently. the newest Summer two019 batch of startups has graduated slightly below 2 weeks agone.

YCombinator is additionally, not solely the foremost well-known accelerator, however out and away the foremost profitable one. in step with the statistics back in 2018: fifteen YC alumni's are valued at over $1B and over seventy YC alumni's are valued at over $100M.

Many YC alumni corporations become trendsetters. they're better-known to create new product segments and dominate them. With my “live curious” perspective in life, i made a decision to dive deeper into the foremost recent S19 batch of the chosen ones.

Interestingly, that 197 corporations were accepted into the program, however solely 166 created it to the demo day. By the way, here could be a smart short description of companies by TechCrunch: companies bestowed throughout day one and corporations presented during day 2.

The level of variousness of the data on 166 completely different corporations is sort of high, therefore I began to hunt for a service or a tool that might provide Pine Tree State the likelihood to structure and consider the statistics during a additional elaborate means.

There are several nice services which may assist you to be told additional regarding YC alumni. maybe:

YCBD - includes a terribly cool high one hundred company list options.

Golden - permits you to question on the businesses for additional info on the social media or current company standing.

YClist - tracks dead and flourishing corporations.

The problem with all of them is that none of them has enough info on the newest batch.

Besides, i used to be additional fascinated by the trend analytics, instead of predicting the long run of the startups. therefore I created some analysis on my very own and tried to accumulate attention-grabbing and fun facts regarding all S19 YCombinator startups. The document is open and on the market to everybody. If you would like this knowledge for your analysis, please act and use it. Here is that the doc.

During my analysis on each of 166 corporations, I started seeing clear trends. For instance, four corporations clearly stood out, thanks to having no accessible info on their founders. None. Zero. Of course, you'll continually create an additional mile and inquire on the corporate incorporation documents, or perhaps reach intent on YCombinator itself. But to me, there are four delinquent corporations on the list.

77 corporations out of 166 were incorporated by first-time founders.

It implies that, eighty nine corporations on the list have a minimum of one in all the founders with a previous initiation expertise.

Out of 166 corporations, solely fifty five have their domain extensions, that aren't “.com”. So “.com” remains a go-ahead selection.

83 corporations were based in 2019. It implies that precisely 50% of the businesses are over one year recent.

There are thirty one corporations with only one founder. ninety four corporations with two founders, twenty seven corporations with three founders, and solely nine corporations with four founders.

In terms of the founders' origin. Of course, the North American nation dominates with 102 corporations, whose founders are from the States themselves. However, we are able to see that YCombinator is supporting diversity efforts. In S19 batch twenty seven countries were being bestowed by the founders. the foremost in style country when the North American nation is North American nation - with nine corporations being within the batch.

72% (119) corporations claim that there are generating revenue currently.

The fun question is: what's the foremost stylish color scheme? Is there one? Well, 30% of the businesses have over one change their combination. however company blue remains the foremost in style or safe selection, as thirty seven corporations selected to use it. the smallest amount in style main color is yellow, with solely 2 corporations victimization it extensively.

What will any of those statistics tell us? Besides the plain thought: if they might have intercourse, you'll have intercourse.

I’d say simply one: nobody is aware of if a startup are going to be eminent or not. several factors will minimize the danger, however once more, no one is aware of needless to say. that's why Y Combinator experiments with the choice of best in their diversity and variety of their founders expertise.

[rinistop]

IF YOU LOVE SOMETHING, SET IT FREE - PART 6

Summary: With Rin leaving for Australia once again, Rin and Sousuke spend their last night together making memories. But all actions have consequences. Written for the Free Kink!meme

Rating: M

Contains: A/B/O, mating, knotting, mpreg, Alpha!Rin, Omega!Sousuke

The baby came in the winter, a month before Sousuke was due to sit his entrance exams. A little girl who took an entire night to birth and when they finally laid the sleeping infant into his arms for him to look at, Sousuke's second thought was to wish Rin was there to see her too. So real now, a wrinkled little face still red from birth, soft and delicate and so, so tiny. He was enamoured.

Pressing his nose to the baby's head, he wondered if he did the right thing. To deny her a father. He wondered if he would ever stop questioning it. But he couldn't go back on that now, he had to stick by it.

He named the baby 'Kei'. A blessing.

~~~

Parenthood was a difficult thing, he soon learned. Harder still to juggle his studies on top of it. He was thankful for his father's help and experience, felt in turns overwhelmed and more focused than he'd ever been in his life, like his whole world had narrowed to revolve around catering to the needs of this helpless creature who needed him for everything, like he'd never been needed by anyone before.

Pregnancy had changed his perception of his own body - he had never really had any particular awareness of what it's capabilities as an Omega were before, just that he was taller and broader and held a power that the other genders didn't. When he'd been younger, it hadn't even meant much that his body would go through Heat - most Omegas started taking suppressants as soon as they hit puberty and never experienced their first heat until they were mated and started trying for a baby. After he'd hurt his shoulder, he'd resented his body immensely - it hadn't been able to take the strain of his training as he grew, had broken under the pressure he'd put it under instead of getting stronger. And then it changed in pregnancy, his broader waist and hips accommodating the baby's growth inside him easily, his broader chest plumping so he could feed it. He'd spent entire afternoons, fascinated by the feeling of it kicking inside him, amazed by his body's capabilities and learning to love it again. Then, after the baby was born, he found his perception of self strengthened, found a resilience in his spirit that he had been digging for for years, that he hadn't quite managed to find for himself, but had managed to find for Kei. It was as if she was a well of strength he could draw on, even as he slowly adjusted to the responsibilities of his new role as a parent.

The first few months felt the most difficult, when all Kei seemed to do was cry and eat and poop and sleep. It was exhausting, to be up at all hours and to fall into fitfull sleep, hair-trigger ready to wake at the slightest indication that Kei might need him. He got a lot better at multi-tasking, learnt to do everything he needed in the times that she was sleeping, and to do it with one eye on her always too.

But slowly, a distinct sort of personality started to make itself known. Kei was a little quick to cry (and of course she would inherit that trait, Sousuke thought with a sigh), but just as quick to cheer up again, to giggle sweetly at her father and grandfather pulling faces and making silly noises at her. By and large, a sweet-natured child, if easily excitable. As her features plumped out he could see they shared the colour of his eyes, but the shape of them was Rin's. Her nose too like her sire's, and something of Gou in her chin. No hair yet, but the soft fuzz covering her head was indeterminably dark.

The start of the academic year was his first day away from her, as exhilarating as it was distressing. Leaving her was like a strange sort of grieving, being apart even worse. His father sympathetically told him that separation anxiety was something a lot of new bearers went through, except most of the time it happened after a period of parental leave longer than the handful of months Sousuke had had. He was thankful that there were only introductory lectures for the first week, because his mind was too occupied by thoughts of Kei at home with her grandfather, missing her, to be able to concentrate on what he was being told or to appreciate fully adult conversation that wasn't interspersed with cooing or didn't revolve around baby needs.

He wasn't so open with the fact that he was a parent, and a single-parent at that. Being unmated and having a child just wasn't the done thing and if he had to tell anyone, he would stick with the lie that the sire was at away at university elsewhere. When he was with Kisumi, people often assumed they were together and then he didn't say anything. Perhaps for his grandparent's generation it would have been more common to have settled with a mate and start having children by his age, but nowadays people tended to leave it later. Mid-twenties at least, certainly not nineteen.

Already being a year behind most of his classmates - people who would have been his juniors up to then - made him feel like he needed to work harder, like he had more to prove. He wasn't behind because he was a dropout or something. And where his classmates would go out to socialise after lectures, all Sousuke wanted to do was go home to his baby, already feeling anxious from being away from her for so long. So he kept mostly to himself - it wasn't hard to stay busy with studies and a newborn to stay on top of. It could be a little lonely, but time would decide which new acquaintances would become friends.

He managed to hear through the grapevine that both Samezuka and Iwatobi had made it to Regionals, then  Nationals; that Nitori had managed to put in a solidly improved performance that had netted him a fourth in the 200m breaststroke (which made Sousuke feel rather proud of him) and had gone on to apply to university in Tottori. Momo had managed a bronze in the 100m backstroke and the Samezuka swimming club was once again under the leadership of a Mikoshiba in his final year, which meant the kid had upped his game and wasn't messing around so much. They hadn't had much contact though - Nitori had invited him  to come and watch the Nationals, which always took place in Tokyo, but Sousuke had been rather obviously pregnant by then and reluctant about it being public knowledge for his former club mates to gossip over and so had declined with an excuse about rehab sessions.

Gou, on the other hand, had managed to get into university in Tokyo - to study something related to sports and management because muscles had apparently transformed from an obsession into a lifestyle choice - though she was on the other side of the city from him. She messaged him fairly regularly - more regularly than Rin nowadays anyway - and was quite tenaciously keeping in touch. Sousuke was grateful for it - Gou was like a sister to him too and he missed her.

~~~

She came over with Kisumi one day, not long after moving to Tokyo, wanting to both meet Kei and tell him off for being bad at keeping in touch, and then tried to make it a point to meet once a month. To that end, she'd taken his phone and programmed it into his calendar with alarms to remind him too. He remembered that first visit though, the way she'd been quiet as she watched him with the baby as if she was having trouble relating the way she knew him to what she was seeing. He could understand that - he'd never been that parental, not like that Tachibana guy from Iwatobi who seemed like the sort of Omega who had been born ready to have kids. It must have been strange for her to see him being so tender, with a baby in his arms.

She'd been absolutely delighted by Kei, who had also taken well to her (possibly partly due to bribery with yoghurt lollies) and play-dates with Aunty Gou became as regular as Uncle Kisumi, rattling colourful toys just out of reach as she told him about all the gossip she was in know about.

That summer, Rin made the rankings that allowed him to compete in the Pan-Pacific Championships that were being held in Canada, in both butterfly and free sprint distances. Both Kisumi and Gou decided to congregate at his house (with snacks!) to watch because Gou had needed to stay at university for an assignment instead of going to Canada with her mother, but fortunately, the aquatic finals fell on the weekend. He managed to feed Kei and while the diving was on, none of them paying too much attention to the graceful lines and arcs the divers made as they fell into the water while they waited for the races in the next hour or so. Gou was talking about the National competitions she had taken Iwatobi to in her final year of high school, critically dissecting various performances with newer insight as he did so.

"You were right to make Nitori-kun focus on the longer distances, of course. If he'd tried to take on Nagisa-kun in the shorter distances, he definitely wouldn't have placed so highly."

Sousuke shrugged, tipping the bottle to a better angle for Kei's mouth, "He always had a lot of stamina, but he got discouraged because his technique and focus were on the sprints. We worked to correct that and it seems like he kept it up."

"And Momo-kun did really well - his style is quite different to Makoto-senpai, but it's also a little lighter."

Well, Tachibana could be surprisingly aggressive in the water, completely at odds with his usual nature. But it was a style that worked for him and made him a ferocious contender to compete against - the few times he'd actually bothered to watch him had showed him that immediately. Sousuke wiped at a little dribble on Kei's chin, then sat her up to burp as Kisumi pulled faces at her.

"It's good Momo didn't have to race him, but I think he could give him a run for his money the way he swims now. Tachibana was good enough to be scouted, just unlucky that he was sharing a pool with Rin and Nanase. You have to be in the right time and place for these things."

"Yeah. But Makoto-senpai didn't want a career in competitive swimming - he loves it, but he doesn't thrive on competition the onii-chan does. He's going to be a great teacher though, it's perfect for him. Hey, you know he and Haruka-senpai are dating now?"

Beside him, Kisumi muttered 'finally' with a roll of his eyes, but Sousuke quirked a brow at her, drawn in despite himself: "Weren't they already?"

"No! It only happened like a month ago! And there was drama!" Sousuke didn't really care - they were more Rin's friends than his - but she carried on anyway. "They're at different universities with different schedules and they've made friend groups that don't really cross over as much, I guess, but apparently Makoto-senpai was under the impression that Haruka-senpai liked my brother."

Well, that was news to Sousuke, though he'd be lying if the thought hadn't crossed his mind. Rin had been fascinated by Nanase from the moment he'd first seen him swim, had moved to Iwatobi to figure out what made it so special. Sousuke had wondered, briefly when they were younger, if Rin liked other Alphas. But he'd also wondered if maybe Rin liked a certain type of Omega, given the way he'd been around Tachibana  - oddly protective and gentle, in the same way he was to Gou, though he was a little like that with Hazuki too. Absent-mindedly, he sniffed Kei's bum, then laid her down in his lap to settle her.

"So, he was trying to move on or something, but Makoto-senpai being how he is -"

She titled her head towards Kisumi, who smiled wryly and added, "That guy doesn't know he's popular, so of course a lot of people like him. I went to his student union for a party last year, you should have seen how many people wanted to get him stuff. A lot of Alphas, but not just them."

"Exactly, so Haru-senpai was getting really jealous -"

"It doesn't actually take that much to get Haru jealous where Makoto is concerned - I used to tease him all the time back in middle school. I tried to do the same to Makoto once, but he just got all sad and I felt like I kicked a puppy, so I didn't do that again."

"-right, and apparently it was disrupting his swimming. But then onii-chan yelled at him - I know because he called me to rant after and said I should yell at them too. He told Haru-senpai: 'you need to take the chance while you have it, otherwise someone else will come along and make Mako happy and you'll have lost your chance from being blind and stupid! You don't have to pick between the water and Mako, so don't!' And it worked! Isn't that great?"

Sousuke watched Kei sleeping and wondered if those words had anything to do with how Rin felt about him, then told himself that they didn't mean anything at all. Gou sighed and put her hand to her cheek, her gaze turned inward.

"It's silly, really - they've never had eyes for anyone but each other. They were just being, ugh, dumb. But…it says something, doesn't it? The things we take for granted, without bothering to do anything to actually make them happen - we just…expect them to. But things don't just magically happen by themselves."

Her eyes shifted to him then, something sad and rueful in them as she looked at him and at Kei. "You know, I used to think that you and onii-chan would get married. I think I even planned your wedding out in my head once." She laughed, softly.

Sousuke shrugged uncomfortably, not knowing how to respond. "…It wasn't the right time or place."

Kisumi managed to change the topic to something lighter then, livening the atmosphere until the races started, freestyle first. Rin stepped into the screen with Nanase behind him, both of them looking in the best physical condition they had ever been in. Sousuke couldn't help but stare as Rin took his position on the starting block, at the chiselled musculature that looked even more defined, at the determined jut of his chin and the cocky grin he sent to the camera. He looked…good. The starting horn blared and they dived, fast-paced commentary accompanying every stroke.

"And it's Australia's Campbell in Lane 3 and Japan's Nanase and Matsuoka in Lane 5 and 6 taking the lead early with smooth entrances there. Some explosive energy from Matsuoka there. These two are up and coming, but they've had solid performances since they've entered the international arena and already the favourites for Japan's Olympic team! But they've quickly become infamous for the way they swim when they're in the pool together, you can see the way they're pushing each other, they've already posted times that are so close to National records and they are nipping on Campbell's heels - a lot of talk on which of these is going to be breaking records first.

"They're bouncing off the walls now, beautifully smooth turn from Nanase - there's no way he could have timed that better - but Campbell's still in the lead. But he can see them, with every turn of his head, they're right there, it's looking incredibly close, they could pip him at the last second - but Campbell's just managed to touch the wall first, Nanase then Matsuoka a fraction of a second behind! It's Australia's gold and Japan take a silver and bronze! They're going to show the replay, it honestly looks so close, there's practically no difference in those times, what a race! Some beautiful swimming there and we'll be seeing more from Matsuoka later in the Butterfly too. What a race!"

None of them had been able to watch without sitting forward, each of them shouting when Rin and Haruka had touched the wall, loud enough to startle Kei awake and then frantically shushing each other though the damage had been done. Gou, who had shot up to pump her fists in the air knelt by her to try and soothe her and stop her startled cries. When Kei finally quieted down, suckling on a soother, Gou giggled and they all followed. After that, there was no getting her back to sleep.

"Ah, Aunty Gou was making a lot of noise while Kei-chan was sleeping! Silly Aunty, very silly, ne? But your Uncle RinRin is swimming and we're all going to cheer for him to win - Kei-chan can cheer too, ne?" she pressed a rattler into her fist and clapped her hands excitedly. When Rin came back onto the screen for the butterfly race, she pointed him out, "Lookie, there's RinRin! Kei-chan, cheer loudly for RinRin, ok?"

And Kei did, waving her chubby little hands and feet and the rattler, caught up in the excitement of the adults around her. The commentator's rapid-fire chatter rang over the crowd's hooting to highlight the swimmers' performances:

"…Men's 100m butterfly, the ones to watch out for in this race are Gonzales, Kaling and Matsuoka. Gonzales really took the World Championships last year and rumour has it that he was making fifty point seven in practice, so if it's a good day for him, we'll see. Kaling can be notoriously inconsistent on his starts, but he's been doing really well in these games and his first fifty is how we'll guage it. Matsuoka, honestly, consistently better every performance - look at that entrance!

" Immediately, Gonzales pulls ahead, but Matsuoka is right there, just a hand-span behind and not letting go. It'll be the turn that judges it - and Kaling is just a little too near on the twist, not a good turn. Matsuoka has fantastic turns, really wrings that extra boost of power out. It's between Gonzales and Matsuoka and you can see Matsuoka has his head down, he's turning it up and Gonzales is feeling the heat. Will he make it? He's getting level, just the last bit - and Gonzales just makes it first! Ohoho, there was a hair's breadth between, honestly, it is so exciting to watch promising newcomers like this - Matsuoka is really going places and I can't wait to see what he'll do - a bronze and a silver on the same day and maybe gold in the future! But there you go, USA, Japan and Singapore on the podium for this one! Wow!"

None of them had managed to stay seated the entire race, all of them on their feet by the first leg and cheering at the touch. Gou was jumping up and down with baby toys in her hands and Sousuke raised Kei up over his head, where the baby spat out the dummy in her mouth and started screaming and laughing in delight.

"RinRin won! RinRin won!" Kisumi started the chant and they all took it up, dancing around the living room together.

Sousuke felt giddy with the sensation of his heart racing, as if it would burst out of his chest - Rin was realising his dream of standing at the top of the world stage. And, by proxy, it felt like he was realising Sousuke's too.

[sirro85-blog]

Lieutenant Dale Luttig blessed his old man for making him learn how to fix the communications array as it hummed back into life, wherever Dad was now Dale was quite sure he'd be giving that slow steady nod, the closest he ever came to praise.

"Hello!?" A voice crackled over the radio.

"Hello, is anyone still out there? Is anyone still fighting, this is Corporal James Dubrovic of the Planetary Defence Constabulary to all human forces, we have wounded, we have women and children, there are civilians and elderly here...we are experiencing stronger and more aggressive attacks on our position and we cannot hold...over."

Dale snatched up the mouth piece and depressed the button, "James, it's Dale, son have you heard from any of the others? Over."

"Lieutenant? Am I glad to hear from you, no, the sergeant went quiet 5 minutes before we lost comms, but now comms are back I think that means a rescue ship might be here!..over."

"Sorry son, that was me, have you seen what's happened to the positions they captured?"

"Prisoners I think, getting led away...what are they Lieutenant?"

"They're called the Garax James and they're probably raiding which means it's off to the slave pens if they catch you. The normal defences we rely on won't work on them, this planet isn't earth-safe, it neither gets warm nor cold enough and the weather doesn't get extreme enough. It's gonna be on the PDC to stop them. Over"

"I'd heard Garax were like crocodiles, these things are more like...iguanas," a pause, "over."

"Not a priority now son, can you get to the central command hub? How many of the PDC are left? Over."

"Yes, it'll take time though, we have wounded and elderly, there's 4 PDC, total 20 of us-over"

Dale heard a noise but when he turned could see nothing, 20!? Of 350!? the Garax had slaughtered PDC easily, 5 of them was never going to be enough to hold the remaining defences, "head to the centre son, we'll hold them there. Out"

Dale started to make his way to the command post, keeping an eye out for Garax raiders; the Garax had swept down onto the planet's small colony, and the PDC armed with little more than side arms and shock sticks had little to no chance of withstanding them.

Dale realised he was being stalked just in time to dive for cover, the wall above his head exploded as a blast hit it. Dale wished he'd made it another 100m, he could have bottle necked them and bought the others some time, here all he was was a distraction. He stared at his side arm and thought about his dad, time to earn another nod he thought.

His first round ricocheted off the lead Garax's helmet snapping it's head back and the second round took it in the throat. The Garax returned fire with their hand cannons the wall he'd initially dived behind cracked and shattered. He covered his head as he crawled further into the room, looking desperately for more cover.

"Hell of a shot that, these fuckers have body armour that takes some beating." Shouted a human voice.

"Who is that? Who, who's out there?" Whoever it was was standing in a corridor with at least 8 Garax warriors.

"Names Kovac, Major Kovac of the Dark Horses, we caught your distress signal, you wanna come out?"

Dale had heard of the Dark Horses, mercenaries and some of the toughest bastards in the galaxy by all accounts. He stood and hesitantly edged out of cover, in the corridor stood roughly 12 humans, armed and armoured in an older style than the modern soldiers Dale saw occasionally. No two weapons appeared identical and they all seemed to have a different set of kit hanging from belts or packs but even their ragtag appearance seemed to feed the air of professionalism they gave off.

A tall man approached him, younger than he had expected he loomed over Dale, "Kovac, anyone else with you?"

"Lieutenant Dale Luttig, PDC, no sir I came out alone to fix the comms," Dale stared up at Kovac, he was early 30s but from what he could see of his hair beneath the helmet it was white naturally or prematurely he couldn't say.

"That was you? Good job lieutenant, we heard the conversation as we were dropping in but we didn't want to alert the Garax, I've got one team heading out to the northern section to see why half the Garax troops are out there, Captain Becca here is getting me to your central command hub and my third unit is about to cut off the Garax from their ships, arrogant fucks have barely left them defended. Is there anything else you can tell me?"

Kovac pronounced it "lefftenant" in the military way, Dale turned as the Captain introduced herself, she was another giant, 6 foot but still small beside Kovac who must stand at 6'6" and was heavily built to go with it, "uhh, no sir, sorry, I can't explain the North, unless they've found a group of survivors."

"No problem Lieutenant, Captain if we're ready?"

"Sir, Ocampo! Aova'a! on point lead us out." Two soldiers pushed on past those in sentry and the group started to move.

"Major, is it possible, can I head out to the northern section? If my family are anywhere they'll be out there!" Dale asked suddenly, "there will be other PDC in the command to answer any questions you need."

The Major paused and then signalled the Captain, "of course Lieutenant, I'll send two of my men to get you there." He looked down the line and signalled, "Assem, Buckets, you two take the Lieutenant here to Captain Wolf, once you get him there see if Wolf needs any supplies, he's reporting heavy resistance."

They met up with Captain Wolf less than 10 minutes later, there were signs of recent combat but no living Garax in sight, Captain Wolf gave Dale a perfunctory greeting but then turned to Buckets, "if you two can get me more ordinance, ammo and water the dust is choking the further put we go."

Buckets nodded and he and Assem headed out into the gathering gloom.

"Captain, you can filter the dust through a cloth," Dale explained pulling his own face covering out of his neck and over his mouth and nose.

Wolf stared at him a moment and then smiled, "good advice Lieutenant it's cold here, I never thought to use desert wear, Shemaghs out you lot!"

Around him the soldiers covered their heads with scarves and adjusted their helmets. Wolf turned to Dale, "one last building up ahead, got maybe a dozen of them in there, they tried to rabbit when we first got to them but they hadn't counted on Richards and Hemmings here, these two are the best shots in the Squad. You had family out here?"

"My mother, wife and kids are off planet now, but mum lived in North section," he closed his eyes a moment, "if she's not on a slave ship she's here."

"Knickers! Cover the Lieutenant here, keep him hole free while we get this last group our of here."

A slender, grim looking woman of indeterminate age walked up and nodded at him, then turned away slightly.

"This is knickers, don't let her care free attitude fool you she's the best I've got."

Dale tried a smile that was met with no reaction.

"Tragic, born with no sense of humour," Wolf said with a smile.

Dale wanted to ask how she got her incongruous nickname but looking at her grim face he decided he wasn't brave enough.

The two stood back watching the Garax position get rolled, Dale knew little of war but just seeing these soldiers cycle their weaponry and how they performed each of their tasks told him he was amongst some consummate professionals. As soon ass the last Garax was captured Dale saw the soldiers start to reload and restock, the position was secured and those with any injuries were dressing them.

A tall man with a heavily scarred face introduced himself as Sergeant "Fluke" Glover, he explained there was a hostage situation and the Captain would appreciate his help.

A few minutes later he was explaining the layout of the warehouse to the Captain.

The Captain walked out to meet the Garax leader his four remaining soldiers with the line of hostages with Knickers, Dale and another soldier in support. Communication was limited as the Garax were more interested in paying insults than any negotiation. Wolf refused to consider single combat and smiled through the worst of the insults insisting that he would only do so if the Garax gave up the hostages when they lost. More insults were paid and then the Garax gave a signal, one human an elderly man Dale did not recognise was pushed out of line and without any warning the Garax executed him.

Dale stared as the man fell to the floor, Knickers had raised her rifle and dropped to a knee and the other soldier was pointing his rifle at the lead Garax. Wolf had gone very still.

"I accept the challenge," Wolf said.

The Garax gave a hiss of pleasure and strode forward unlimbering what looked like a medieval battle-axe as it did so. Wolf calmly walked forward to meet it. When they were less than a dozen yards apart the Garax swung the axe as though warming up, Wolf paused. It occurred to Dale just as Wolf began to move again that neither Knickers nor her counterpart on his left had lowered their rifles, it happened in the blink of an eye, one moment Wolf was edging to his right and the next he had drawn his side arm and unleaded a volley of shots into his opponent's chest, at the same time four shots rang out. Hemmings and Richards had reached their position.

Dale stared at the soldiers around him, Knickers, the unnamed soldier, Hemmings and Richards had all fired within a heartbeat of the Captain firing. "You agreed to single combat," he said, a little stunned.

"Single combat?" Wolf's voice dripped scorn, "we're soldiers not boys playing games."

Dale busied himself with checking the hostages, none of them seemed hurt, just scared and shocked, none of them had seen his mother. He became aware that the soldiers were getting ready to move again, and hurried over to Wolf. The captain glanced past him causing Dale to turn, once again dour faced Knickers stood behind him.

"Major secured your central command, Captain Dorman has freed the captive on the ships." Wolf gave a vague gesture, "other than a few prisoners, we're done here."

"What will happen to the prisoners?" Dale asked, anger giving rise to vengeance in his chest.

"Whatever the Major decides will happen." Wolf answered.

Once they got to the site the Major already had the prisoners bound and ready to be taken from the planet, some angry residents were unhappy that they couldn't exact revenge. The Major stood between them and the less than half a dozen prisoners.

"If we allow you to murder these unarmed prisoners we will be no better than them," he sighed, "today, we have furthered the lesson that Humans are great warriors, masters of the violent arts, it would be nice if we could be better known for our natures of mercy, justice and clemency?"

The Major looked up and saw Dale, "Lieutenant, your mother is with the medics, farewell.' Dale nodded his thanks and hurried off. By the time he returned from checking his mother. Major Kovac and the Dark Horses had departed the planet.

Had a couple of asks looking for something a little different, not sure it really works but lmk what you think. I love feedback and do my best to meet requests if I can.

[trademarkclick]

Now Google will reimburse French Publishers for reusing their content

Alphabet Inc.'s Google LLC recently signed copyright agreements with six different French newspapers and magazines. Signatories to the deal include the following top national dailies and magazines Le Monde, Le Figaro, Liberation, L’Express, L’Obs, and Courrier International. Google was also reported to have discussions with other national and regional publications.

A new European Copyright Rule came which recognizes the right of publishers to demand a fee from online platforms for displaying extracts of their news. France was the first one amongst them all to enact this rule in the EU. Thus, France's competition authority ordered Google in April to negotiate with French publishers and news companies on reimbursing them for the act of reusing their content on its own platform. The same was challenged by Google as well. But the Paris Court of Appeal closing all the doors for Google upheld the French competition authority's decision in October.

The world’s biggest and most used search engine initially fought against this idea of paying publishers for using their content by contesting that their websites were able to make larger profits from the traffic brought by Google which is usually greater in amount. But in the end, it was left with no option but to enter into copyright agreements.

Google gave its statement after a month of the Paris Court of Appeals ruling order came where the U.S. Company was asked to open talks with publishers in France about paying to use their content. Sebastien Missoffe, Manager Director of Google France, said, "Under the terms of the new deal, payments to publishers would be based on a set of criteria, including daily publication volumes, monthly internet traffic, and the publisher’s contribution to political and general information”. He also added, "Google has already invested around €85m ($100m) since 2013 to help media companies in France to adapt to the shift to digital platforms."

Yes, you read it right there are some criteria upon which these 6 agreements with six French newspapers are based upon. They are:-

The publisher’s contribution to political and general information,

The daily volume of publications,

The monthly internet traffic

The use of their content on Google’s platform.

The tech giant presently is busy having talks with other French national and regional dailies and magazines. It is also aiming to reach a framework agreement with the country’s print-press lobby by the end of the year. Let's see whether they really get there or not by the end of the year.

The agreements with French newspapers involve the strategy of Google’s vehicle to remunerate news publishers, which are already having agreements with the leading publications in neighboring Germany.

Google has also announced last month its plans to invest almost $1bn in partnerships with news organizations. The company is also planning to build a new tool on the company’s existing licensing program having a policy of paying selected publishers to include their stories in Google News and Search. But none so far have come from France amongst the 200 news outlets that have signed up to date to the initiative worldwide.

Everyone is really hoping that this new European copyright rule will not lead to a cold war between Google and countries that will enact them. But it won't be ethical and just on the part of Google if it really started targeting.