Ben's Treat

As Luke entered the waiting room, a mountain of sandwiches greeted him! It was like a party over there!

"Whoa!" Luke exclaimed. "Where did all this stuff come from?"

"It's Ben's treat," Yuel informed, already with a sandwich in hand.

"Wow, you're da man, Ben!" Luke flashed a smile and rifled through the big selection of sandwiches. "Dang, there are sure lots of options here!"

"Um, I wasn't sure what everybody likes," Ben explained. "So, I brought different flavors just in case."

"Man, this is sure a lot!" The more sandwiches Luke checked out, the more he came to realize the sheer absurdity of these numbers. There were at least 15 sandwiches here, and that's after everybody else have already grabbed a sandwich or two for themselves.

"How did you even bring all of them here?"

"Um, in the backpack."

"Oh, right. Such a boring answer that makes perfect sense." Luke wasn't even sure what he was expecting there. For some reason, he imagined a helicopter that came outta nowhere and rained this huge mountain of sandwiches on them, but reality was often disappointing

"Well then, I'mma grab this one, and this, and this!"

"Don't stuff yourself with too much food," Yuel warned. "Eating too much at once will tire you out."

"Okay, mom." Luke chuckled as he hoarded the three sandwiches that caught his eye.

For now, he was content with just claiming ownership over these treats. Whether or not he'll gobble all of them at once was a different story.

[I do be hungry, tho.] Luke realized that only now, with the food in front of him. [So, I think I gonna have at least two of these bad boys!]

He unwrapped the first sandwich and stuffed it into his mouth. Hell, it was pretty dang good!

"Mwan, thfese arwe hwella fwine!" Luke produced something that vaguely resembled human speech as he munched on the sandwiches.

These sandwiches were legit good! They looked like your run-of-the-mill sandwiches, but something about them was real gud!

[Am I so hungry that simple sandwiches suddenly taste like some serious gourmet shit?] Luke wondered. [Nah, no way. These are legit goooood. Like, the tuna itself feels like the regular stuff I think, but this bread is like thicc and soft. So munchy!]

"This is indeed a splendid work of food craft!" Vincent joined in on the hype. "Ben, are you the master chef who crafted these fine pieces of art?"

"Not all of them," Ben said. "My mom helped out. Honestly, I think we got a little carried away..." He scratched his pink cheek.

His mom always insisted that "boys have to eat a lot in order to grow up", and Ben also felt like he had to repay the club for everything they had done for him. So, together, this duo of mother and son ended up producing way more food than necessary.

"How did you even stuff so many sandwiches in one bag?" Kai asked. "Wasn't it heavy?"

"Um, a little heavy, yes. But, it wasn't a big deal."

"You should've told us, dude," Lars said. "We would've helped ya carry all the goodies."

"Um, it's okay. I didn't want to bother anybody. Besides, I'm the one who decided to bring them in the first place."

"That doesn't matter," Kai said sternly. "You brought the sandwiches for the club so you should've asked us for help."

Frankly, she was probably the last person who had the right to lecture others about asking for help, she understood that as well. But, precisely [because] she was bad at asking others for help and have been working hard on this front, she felt obligated to lecture Ben about this.

The two of them were completely different, yet they were like two sides of the same coin. Kai didn't like asking others for help because she was too proud and believed she could everything by herself, whereas Ben didn't ask others for help out of shyness and the fear of inconveniencing others.

Their reasons were polar opposites but the result was the same: they both failed to communicate with their teammates and ended up taking too much burden upon themselves.

Of course, carrying all these sandwiches alone was a relatively harmless example compared to the many troubles Kai caused with her attitude. Nonetheless, seeing this was irksome.

Ben carried this same mentality onto the competitive stage as well, so it was necessary to start working on this problem ASAP.

Alas, Rome wasn't built in a day. So, for now, it was only natural for Ben to respond to Kai with his usual shy smile.

"I just wanted to help in any way I can," Ben said. "I caused so many problems to the club. I skipped practice and even missed the first scrimmage. Any other club would've kicked me out a long time ago. I'm really sorry about all that."

"It wasn't your fault," Kai, asserted. "You had circumstances."

"Yeah, dude," Lars tuned in. "No need to beat yourself over that stuff. Nobody thinks any of that was your fault, right, my dudes?"

Everybody nodded in agreement. If anybody was actually at fault for that incident, then it was the rest of the club. They ignored Ben's situation for way too long.

Most of them knew that something was afoot the entire time, but none of them dared to push hard enough to resolve the issue. Things only started moving toward resolution after Yuel got thoroughly fed up with Ben's frequent absences.

So, if anything, the ones who should be repenting were the other club members, not Ben. But, the guy was too nice for his own good, so he took all the blame upon himself as usual.

[Man, this is awkward.] Luke thought. [Like, I'm the only one here who did absolutely nothing to help Ben at all. Granted, it's not like I knew what was going on, but I had my suspicions.]

Ben was a goody-two-shoes and a chonky boi to boot, so it was easy to see why bullies would target him. In fact, even in the Classmancers club, some seniors took advantage of Ben's good nature and forced him to grind Ranked on their accounts and such. It was pretty disgusting.

Of course, Luke never took a part in any of that because bullying was for lamers, but neither did he ever lift a finger to help Ben. To keep his life simple, Luke plugged his ears and ignored all that complicated stuff.

This was how most people responded to situations like this, so it wasn't a crime. Nonetheless, ignoring acts of bullying always came with a twinge of guilt, especially when Luke personally knew the victim.

"I mean, I gonna enjoy this treat to the fullest regardless," Luke said. "But, I agree with the cap on this one. It's not like that situation was your fault, Ben. So, no need to feel obligated to 'repay' us or anything."

"Yeah, exactly," Lars agreed. "We would've totally helped you carry all this stuff if you asked, no problem. We're all best buddies here."

"T-Thank you." Ben smiled sheepishly.

With that, the topic died down.

It was evident that it'll take Ben some more time to overcome his past before he starts seeing himself as a "proper" member of the club. His wounds should heal with time, but it was always helpful to remind him that everybody in the club stood on equal footing, including him.

"I must say," Vincent started. "This bread is no commoner's bread! It's so very soft, so very fresh! It cannot be a regular product sold on the market. May I know where you have acquired such a legendary item!?"

"At my parents' shop," Ben explained. "They run a bakery."

"Oh, of course! How could I forget!?" Vincent exclaimed. "Now, all the dots have finally connected! The great mystery is solved!"

"Bruh." Luke jabbed. "It should've taken you like 2 seconds to figure that out if you knew where his parents work. I didn't, tho."

In fact, most of the club members didn't. Of course, it's not like they knew everything about each other in general, but this served as proof that most of them didn't bother interacting with Ben enough before. Perhaps, if they got to know him better earlier, then Ben would have had an easier time opening up to them about his problems.

"A bakery, huh." Luke examined the sandwich with great interest, mainly the bread.

Even though Vincent exaggerated as usual with his "legendary item" nonsense, there was no denying that this bread was the real deal. It was different from the generic bread sold in supermarkets and such. The bread there never had this level of freshness and chonkiness.

"So, you eat gud stuff like this every day?" Luke asked.

"Um, yes, pretty much," Ben said.

"Dang, you one lucky son of a gun. Though, I guess that also explains why you're so- Well, ya know, a little round and stuff, haha..."

It was clear that having free access to such top-tier bread on a daily basis strongly contributed to Ben's physique. Even though Luke was a hardcore memer, he'd turn into a meta slave in a heartbeat if the meta revolved around eating tasty bread like this for free every day.

[Maybe I'll drop by this bakery to check out what else they got there.] Like thought as he stuffed himself with sandwiches. [Actually, wait. These freebies I'm eating right now.... they're basically advertisements! Oh, snap! How did I fall for this marketing ploy!? Nuuuuuuu! ]

In this fashion, everybody enjoyed a delicious and fulfilling treat. It felt like a fitting reward for their hard-earned victory.

However, amidst the euphoria, one of them still had some concerns on his mind.

[This is only the first step.] Yuel thought as he clenched the tasty sandwich in his hand. [Things will get only harder from here on out.]

Stratus had indeed defeated the regional champions, but only once. The enemy will surely bounce back from this defeat and will return twice as powerful.

Stratus had to win at least one more game in order to truly establish themselves as a threat. And, it was up to Yuel to figure out how to increase the team's chances of getting that second win...