Chapter 670: International Break (I)

After the dinner was over, Higo didn’t just come back to his flat like usual. Besides the fact that this was a rare occasion where Kumiko and Sakura were here, this was also the competition’s last game before the international break, and while Higo didn’t intend to slack off his training, at least tomorrow, he planned to sleep like a log, not caring about anything else in the world.

That was why, for now, he even allowed himself to come to the station, watching both girls go back to their own town. Inwardly, the boy also clenched his fists, muttering, ’Once the money is stable, I have to buy my own car. At least, I couldn’t let them suffer from having to go by train all the time.’

It wasn’t like there was anything wrong with using the train. After all, Kumiko and Sakura were not spoiled girls who would make a fuss over something like this. They both were so used to traveling like this back home, so there was no need to adapt too much when it came to a way of travelling.

However, Higo had been in this country longer, and he knew that while Germans were always proud of their own discipline, it didn’t apply to the train schedule. Sometimes, a 30-minute delay was considered normal, and if things were quite bad, more than one hour could be wasted just to wait for the train.

They were lucky that today, they only got delayed by 7 minutes, but Higo didn’t want them to rely on that too much.

Still, it was a matter of the future, once he got more money from the sports. After watching the train disappear from his line of sight, Higo started to yawn, feeling all the exhaustion finally descend on his body.

’I haven’t done that much, but the enthusiasm of having Kumiko-chan here is enough to drain me mentally. I need to recharge myself for a while tonight.’ He muttered, having to fight the heaviness in his eyes.

True enough, the moment he fell on his bed, the boy lost his consciousness already. His sports bag was still on the floor, and the room was quite messy. However, that was the least he cared about right now as his mind had already entered the dreamland.

The next morning, he woke up quite late, right when the sun was already quite high in the sky. Still, the wind was quite breezy today, and since it was September, the hot temperature that always threatened to melt him on the spot also disappeared, getting replaced by a comfortable smell of autumn.

His body still ached due to the game yesterday, but other than that, Higo didn’t feel anything else. He just washed his face quickly, and after checking the clock, the first thing he did was go to the kitchen, starting to fry an egg, brötchen, avocado, and a glass of milk for his breakfast.

While doing so, the boy also didn’t forget to check his phone. A few messages came from his mother, his sister, and even Kumiko’s mother, who wanted to ask about the girl’s situation here. Higo answered quickly, then went straight to his social media. However, the first post he saw was enough to make him raise one of his eyebrows high.

Kumiko Shishida: A promotion! Childhood friend->boyfriend~

Yeah, it was a post from Kumiko, as she shared a photo of her and Higo yesterday. It was after the game was over, and they stood side by side with the boy hugging her shoulder affectionately.

The photo itself was not a problem. After all, he was conscious enough when she asked him for that. The boy was curious, though, as this was the first time she announced their relationship on social media. While it was on her private account, so many of their friends followed it, so it was clear that the caption became a bomb for those people back home.

True enough, the comment there was filled with people’s gasps, and Higo also knew most of them. Makino, Hiroshi, and even the homeroom teacher congratulated the girl, showing that she had a good relationship with the others back in her school time.

Higo felt the corner of his lips twitching when he read those comments one by one, and the boy couldn’t hold back the urge to call Kumiko straight away.

"Yes, Ryukkun?" The girl’s crisp and melodious voice rang out of his phone quickly. Her tone clearly showed that she was in a good mood right now.

"Urgh..."

Higo opened his mouth, and yet, words seemed to be stuck in his throat. I mean, what should he say in this case? Talking about the post? Wasn’t that a bit embarrassing and narcissistic?

Fortunately, it seemed that Kumiko had already foreseen this situation. "You want to talk about my post? The photo is good, right?" He could hear the smugness in her tone.

Even though it was a casual question that didn’t go straight to the point, Higo was grateful for the opening that she provided. "Yeah, it is a good photo, but what is that caption? Is it okay for you to announce our relationship like that?" He asked, worried.

"Why is it not okay?" Kumiko countered quickly. "I mean, I am an adult right now, and our families also know about our relationship. If anything, it should be me who asked about this, right? That’s why I asked Fujita-san about it, and he just said that it was okay."

This time, Higo was so speechless about it. "So, even Fujita-san knows about it? That means the only one who is still in the dark is me, right?"

"Well, what can you do about it? You don’t care about your public image at all, not even wanting to delete your dark history even for once!"

Higo blushed a little when she mentioned this. The dark history that she mentioned was when he was just a mere keyboard warrior during his high school time, when he always debated so many things with people online. While yes, he could delete all the traces there, the boy felt like this was a part of his journey to become an adult, and while it was embarrassing, he didn’t want to delete it completely.

"Anyway, forget about it." Kumiko suddenly changed the topic, snapping Higo out of his mind. "You have two weeks of international break, right? Do you have any plans to spend your holiday?"