Complacent Events

"Y'know, we should probably head back and see what's happening back at the field," Shio said. He was standing close to Kun, pulling on the edge of his collar, producing air inside his shirt as it was steamingly hot outside. "The heat's tiring me out, too."

"Let me just finish my food," Kun replied, almost incoherently, while stuffing down the last bite of his meal. The crowd was more bustling than ever, seemingly how everyone is during lunchtime. Shio sighed, his hand motion getting faster, eliciting a much-faded air as the heat keeps evaporating it till its gust could no longer be felt that much.

"Darn." He muttered, sweat running down his forehead and on his neck. Everything felt like he was standing on flames, burning each and every corner of the atmosphere, especially his body that had collided with other several people.

Kun ran over to the near trash bin that was placed beside the wooden stall, its overflowing amount of customers soon declining, making the stall's features clearer and more noticeable. It had few colorful lightings encompassing the corners of its rooftop, with some paper cut-outs here and there. The stall had a 90's vibe to it with its signage saying, "Shwrmworks!"

It seemer pretty odd to have that kind of name, but at the same time, it did fit the stall's nature-a mixture of a calming yet party-filled aura.

Shio turned to look at his male friend and saw him about to shoot the paper that was once wrapped around his oozing shawarma. He was in a shooting position as he slowly let go of the crumpled paper and throwing it into the silver trash bin, yelling the name of one of the greatest and famous basketball stars, "Kobe!"

Shio sighed and placed his palm on his face, rubbing it irritatedly as he watches Kun return to him in an orderly slow fashion. "Could you hurry up?" He half-yelled, this time, his shirt was all soaked with his non-stop perspiration. It wasn't even expected to be this hot today, as told by the weather news reporter, it was only said to be at around 27° Celsius, but now it seemed to be at 32°!

"Yes, yes! I'm coming...grumpypants." Kun said, muttering the last word to himself while sprinting towards Shio who was now standing in the middle of the wide parking lot by the stadium.

"Let's go back," said Kun. Shio nodded at him as he started to walk back to the large field, with countless cheers from the roaring crowd that could be heard. "The others must be waiting for us."

They both arrived by the overwhelming bleachers who were filled with tons of people, only to be greeted by two of their teammates. The two runners were of opposite genders, but have been very good friends for a long time-this really proves that friendship knows no bound despite its age, sexuality, and personality.

The female one, named Kagura, ran in full speed then jumped onto Shio's wide shoulders, locking his neck with both of her arms. He looked all weirdly at how Kagura was acting around him, but she was only grinning all heartily, her arms still gripped tight on his neck.

"My Shio!" She sang. The other male soon caught up to her, breathing heavily as he was not prepared to catch up to Kagura while she's at full speed. It's a different kind of level, despite both of them are professional runners.

"Kagura, what the hell—"

"Oh, my, Shio! I have missed you, darling! Have you missed me too?" She asked, interrupting the other male—Xian—who was about to speak. Kagura gripped onto Shio more tightly, rubbing her smooth face against his clothed well-toned chest.

"No." Shio blankly replied. He was struggling to get out of Kagura's clutch, failing in every method he tried to pursue. Xian, who was beside Kun, only managed to let out a sigh. Not knowing what else to say, out of exhaustion from Kagura's antics, especially when she's around Shio.

"I'm so tired of this shit," Xian muttered enough for Kun to hear who only chuckled loudly upon hearing those words. The reason why Xian feels so obligated to follow Kagura around like a helpless puppy is that they are biological cousins. Both of them have gone through lots of things since they were toddlers-that is how far their bond goes.

Kun turned to look at Xian as he placed his one of his small hand on Xian's back and started to pat it gently as if he was comforting him, but in a laughable matter. "It's okay, dude. Hahahafjksjs."

Kun started laughing all hysterically, his laugh soon fading into a gibberish sort-of-whistle sound. Everyone that was around them started to look strangely at them, even the strangers who were passing by, and even Kagura who was busy strangling Shio to death.

"The fuck was that noise?" Shio snorted. He was trying to hold back his chuckle, while an irritating mark (💢) could be seen forming on his forehead.

"How cute!" Kagura commented.

"Fuck. Whatever, let's just go back."

"To where?" The two other male, who was both comforting each other by means of hugging it out, asked in unison. "Yeah, you've been telling me to go back since earlier," Kun added.

"The locker room, where else?" Shio answered, grabbing both of Kagura's fair-skinned arms, and letting it fall back to her sides. "I need to take a breather."

"Right," said Xian. Shio walked away from the group and onto the other direction, which was less congested than the other hallways. The stadium itself wasn't all too big that was able to hold a hundred thousand people. It only has the capacity of at least twenty-thousand with complete bleachers and resting areas to go.

After all, it is only a semi-final round on who will be going to face the other representatives for the other regions of the country. This was the first step for Shio to achieving his dreams of becoming a worldwide, professional, renowned runner.

He was soon at the empty locker room and decided to take off his damp clothes, placing it inside a plastic bag that was on his locker. Shio could hear the crowd's cheers decreasing slowly as the games were supposedly over. It was quiet, for a short period of time, and the locker room was shortly packed with the rest of the athletes who were done with their race.

Shio banged his locker door close and proceeded to go towards the shower room which was sighted beside the once empty locker room. He went inside and went to one of the stalls, whose curtains were all translucent and wet, perhaps it must have been just used recently. He turned the knob of the shower on, feeling the cold water run down his bare body and onto his feet.

"Haah... I wonder what's wrong with me?" He mumbled to himself, his head leaning against the ceramic white tile of the stall. Feeling all infuriated, he lightly punched the side of the wall and breathed deeply.

"Why do I keep acting so rash?"

Suddenly, the shower curtains slid over fast, alerting Shio who had hurriedly grabbed his towel that was hanged near the toilet soap. He hurriedly turned the shower knob and wrapped the towel around his waist. He then turned around to see who has been messing with him in the shower room.

To his surprise, it was none other than Hisato—his opponent earlier during their track meets.

"What the hell?"