Chapter 26: Concern’s of a father

After thoroughly analysing the footage of the match of Karasuno elementary school, coach Miura dismissed the meeting.

One by one everybody started to head home. However Hiro couldn’t leave for home immediately as he would have to still wait for his parents to pick him up. And thus, after bidding his goodbye to Akashi and while everybody started to head home, he started to walk towards the pitch.

“Where are you going Hiro?”

Honda san called out for him.

“I’m going to the pitch. Since I’ll have to wait for my parents to show up, I wanted to kill some time by kicking the ball on the field.”

Hiro exclaimed.

“You don’t have to do that today. I already informed your parents before the start of the meeting and they should already be here. So go home!”

Honda san gave him a gentle push.

As mentioned by Honda san, he found his father waiting for him outside the entrance. Usually it would be his mother who’d pick him up. But surprisingly it was his father today, who came to pick him up.

“Dad you’re here!”

Hiro exclaimed as he approached his father.

“Yeah! Your mom’s kinda busy with something today. So I’m here in her stead. By the way, you played really well today.”

Takashi praised him for his earlier performance.

“Now then, shall we head home?”

“Ummmm”

Hiro nodded his head as they left for the train station. While they were inside the train, they talked about his earlier performance. Takashi couldn’t look more proud of his achievements.

“Where are you going dad? Our home is in other direction.”

Hiro pointed towards the path to their home as Takashi took the wrong turn.

“I know! Just follow me for a while.”

Takashi exclaimed.

After that Takashi took him to a sports store.

“Dad why are we here?”

Hiro was baffled by his father’s unusual behaviour.

“Go and pick the cleats you like.” 𝓫𝓭𝓸𝓋𝓁．𝓬𝓸𝓂

Takashi nonchalantly exclaimed.

In disbelief, Hiro took a peak at his father’s face. However he looked really calm and composed. He meant what he said and he wasn’t joking about buying him new cleats.

“Thank you dad”

He stormed inside the store after thanking his father.

He got himself a pair of classic adidas predator boots in red colour with black stripes. The boot was quite expensive and costed his father about 28,000 yen roughly 200 dollars.

If it were any other time, he would have complained about the price of the boot. But since today was a special occasion, he didn’t hesitate to buy him the cleats which he selected.

While on his way to home, he and his father talked about a lot of things. He felt closer to his father at that moment than he did in his whole life in his previous life.

“Don’t tell your mother about the price of the boot. If she finds out that I bought you such an expensive boot, she’ll cut my pocket money for entire month.”

Takashi exclaimed with a worried expression.

“Don’t worry dad. I won’t tell her dad.”

After listening to the words of his son, Takashi chuckled. Just then as he took a peak at his son, his smile faded away.

“You’ve matured way too early in your life. Sometimes when I talk to you, I feel like I’m talking with a grown up adult person. May be it’s because of your useless father, you were forced to mature so early in your life. If only I could provide you with the things you desired.”

Takashi whispered softly.

Takashi was very well aware of his son’s abilities and he wanted to send his son to the academies in Europe to help him improve. But that would have costed him a lot of money and he roughly earned about 800 dollars a month.

However due to the unusual silence around them, he could hear him clearly. His heart felt heavy upon listening to his father’s words, but he didn’t speak anything and pretended as if he didn’t hear anything at all. Even though he was a 27 year old from inside, he couldn’t find the right words to console his father and thus, he decided to keep his mouth shut.

By the time they reached their home, the sun had already settled down. While there were still some light coming from the far off horizon, the sky was getting darker. Shades of blue and black mixed together to form a beautiful scenery in the sky above.

Sniff!! Sniff!!

“Something smells really nice.”

Hiro began to sniff around as he smelled something fragrant coming from inside his house.

“Oh you’re here! Welcome back!”

His mother greeted them both as they entered the house.

“Mom what are we having for dinner?”

Hiro enthusiastically questioned as soon as he entered his house.

The house he lived in, was a traditionally built Japanese style house called ‘minka’. The house was made up of woods and consisted two floors. The bottom floor contained 2 spacious large rooms, while the upper floor contained 3 small rooms. Even though their house was pretty small, it contained a small yard infront.

“You’ll know once you see for yourself.”

She chuckled.

“Now go freshen up and change your clothes.”

As he took of his shoes, he ran towards his room in a hurry. He didn’t even arrange his shoes properly, he simply tossed them aside as he ran towards his room in a hurry.

“Put your shoes in the shoe rack.”

His mother yelled as she began to collect his tossed aside shoes.

Takashi remained frozen infront of the door with a cheerful smile on his face.

“Now should I send you an invitation separately?”

His mother looked at his father with her icy cold gaze. Seeing her gaze, the smile on his face faded away. He then took his shoes off and obediently put them in the rack.

“Woah!! It’s fried chicken for dinner today.”

Hiro exclaimed in awe.

Hiro was a fan of fried chicken. Mostly they would have steamed white rice, boiled veggies and fish for dinner. As she considered fried foods unhealthy, she wouldn’t let them feast on anything fried in oil. And only in rare occasions she would cook fried foods.

After leaving separately from his mother in his previous life, he had to survive on fast foods. And that was the time when he discovered his love for fried chicken.

“Yeah since it’s a special occasion today. So eat as much as you want.”

She exclaimed in ecstasy.

“But what’s this special occasion you both keep mentioning about?”

Hiro bewilderingly questioned as he pulled the chair and sat down.

“You’re getting interviewed tomorrow.”

“Cough!! Cough!!”

As soon as he heard about the interview, he choked on his food.

“Easy…, Easy.”

Takashi stroke his back gently and provided him water.