Taichi slunk away, doing his best to distance himself from his junior.  Yoshino Fujieda was only a few years out of high school herself, a student teacher who ended up in charge of the famously unruly football club because everyone with even an ounce of seniority refused to put up with them.

And she just happened to have a famously short fuse.  Snapping over even minor inconveniences or humiliations.  Which were extremely common given how childish the football club could be.  At first, it looked like a terrible mismatch, but they all listened to her in the end.  Mostly because she was capable of taking any one of them in a fight. 

In her first week as a student teacher, she had somehow stumbled into a fight between two delinquents, who didn’t recognize her as being different from any other students.  When the blows were redirected at her, she managed to pin both of the delinquents to the ground within seconds.  A feat that was quickly tested by many students with more pride than common sense only to find themselves repeating the result.

Completely asinine in Taichi’s opinion, considering the reward for successfully assaulting a teacher would be expulsion at best.

No one knew why Yoshino was so good at hand-to-hand combat, she never said, but it had earned her the respect and fear of nearly every student.  And while she knew almost nothing about football, all of her punishments involved physical training of some sort, so in her own unique way, she was helping the club.

“Give me ten,” Ken said, jogging past the green-haired computer club member.  “I need a shower and a change of clothes.”

“Right.” The boy nodded slightly as ken ran by, his eyes searching the football pitch.

It didn’t surprise Taichi that someone had come to get Ken.  Ken was good at anything he tried, not quite like Taiki, he needed more training, but often saw better results.  The football club had a shot at regionals at best and would get slaughtered at nationals, no matter how good Ken was.  But the computer club had some unreal geniuses in it, that were apparently on the verge of some major AI stuff. 

Honestly, the more Taichi heard about it all, the less he understood.  Not that he would ever stop Koushiro from speaking whenever he went on an explanation streak, it just flew over his head.

But that didn’t explain why he was here.

Taichi found himself straying towards the intruder, whose eyes were still fixed on the field. 

“Haru right?” Taichi asked as he got closer. “What are you doing here?”

Haru took a step back, sizing Taichi up and down. “I, uhh, Koushiro was thinking of trying something quantum for our project, but no one can run code on a quantum computer that executes fast enough for what we want to do, so we need Ken to look it over, because -”

“He’s the only one who can read the code and know how it will execute.” Taichi finished, much to Haru’s evident shock. “I know, but why are you here?  Miyako’s know ken since middle school, Koushiro and I have been friends for even longer, and he used to be in football club before any schools even offered a computer club.”

Taichi did his best to stare Haru in the eye. “Why are you here?  Why are you always the one who comes.”

“I had a friend, who used to play football.  Watching others play reminds me of him.”

“Had? Where is he now.”

Haru’s eyes darkened. “Gone.”

Taichi nodded, he may be obtuse, but he wasn’t that obtuse.  “I see, did you and him ever play together?”

“Wha, well of course we did.”

In one smooth motion, Taichi’s right foot dragged a ball from beside him, flicking it up towards Haru, who instinctively caught the ball with his chest, allowing it to fall to his feet.

“Pretty good,” Taichi said. “You should play with us sometime.  It’s no good to be trapped inside all day working on those gizmos.”

“I couldn’t,” Haru said, “I’m not very good.”

“Neither is Takuya.”

“Say that to my face Yagami!” Takuya yelled kicking a ball at the gogglehead while running by. Taichi just laughed, sidestepping the ball with ease.

 “So?” he asked, his focus never once leaving the green-haired boy in front of him.

“ahh, no it’s not my thing.” Haru demurred once again.

“But it used to be your thing, right? With your friend.  Do you really think he’d want you to stop?”

“Well, I…”

“Tell you what.  I know there’s no computer club on Thursday, and honestly, I won’t be missed here for one day.  Meet me after classes, just you and me, and I’ll give you a refresher.”  That way Haru didn’t have to feel embarrassed if he was still rusty. “and afterward I’ll take you out for ice cream.  I know the best place.  Well, my sister does, I haven’t tried enough places to know it’s the best.  It does have a nice view of the beach.”

Haru’s face turned red, and he struggled to meet Taichi’s eyes “Just the two of us?”

‘Man, he must really be worried about his skills if he’s this embarrassed with just me.’ Taichi thought.  His mouth was more sensitive. “Hey, don’t sweat it, I’ll be gentle.  Just ask Koushiro, or Ken, or Miyako.  On second thought, don’t ask Miyako, she likes to spread rumors for fun.  Just ask Kou, ok?”

“Kou?” Haru repeated.

At that moment Ken emerged from the changing room, clean and ready for hours of nerdtime, as Daisuke not so affectionately called it.

Taichi reached out, patting Haru on the shoulder. “Just think about it, you don’t need to force yourself, I just want you to have fun.  Your friend would have wanted you to be happy.”

“I, uh, yes,”

“Yes?”

“Yes!” Haru screamed darting off towards the school doors.

“Okay then,” Taichi said. He wasn’t sure if that was a ‘yes I’ll think about it’ or a ‘yes I’ll do it’, but he supposed for now yes would suffice.