The Rise of the Iron Wall!

Chapter 169: Hori is Leaving?!

"Wait, what?! What do you mean, Hori resigned from the team?!"

The news came out of the blue, shocking all the members of the Hakodate Nishi team. Makino, who had been thinking of Higo’s interview since the day began, was so dumbstruck that he left his mouth hanging open like a dummy.

"Wait, Shishida-senpai, this is not funny anymore!" Fujinaga growled in disbelief. Hell, Higo even had to step up here, shielding the girl from his emotional teammate. "What do you mean by resigns? Why would he do that? We promise that we will go to the National Tournament together, right? This joke is not funny anymore! Please, don’t do that, Shishida-senpai..."

Even though he said it so roughly, everyone could hear a plea in his tone, wanting anyone to nod at him and say that it was just a bad joke. This reaction was understandable, since the boy and Hori were basically best friends, and he didn’t know a shit about this.

Unfortunately, Kumiko just shook her head solemnly, shattering all the hopes that they—especially Hori’s friends—still had.

"Damn it!" Hori punched the table out of frustration. "What the hell is going on here? Phone! Where is my fucking phone! I will fucking call him and ask it by myself! He promised me that we are going to the national together! What the hell is he doing?!"

Some of Hori’s friends, like Yuji and Ishinori, bit their lips, not really knowing what to say here. They also felt so complicated right now, wanting to ask their friend while also afraid of the answer they might get. The atmosphere was so somber in the club room, and even though the freshmen weren’t really that close to Hori, they also felt the loss here.

"Did he at least tell you his reason, Kumiko-san?" Kuroki asked, voice barely a whisper.

Kumiko hesitated for a second, glancing for a moment at one particular boy who didn’t know shit about anything here. She racked her brain to find an answer that could cool down the atmosphere and not just burn it till everything turned into ashes.

Unfortunately, she was too late, because Hori answered the phone call from Fujinaga right at that moment.

"Yes, Fuji? Don’t you have any training sessions today?" The boy asked on the other side of the phone; his tone was weak, as if he had lost his will to live. This alone was enough to make some of them alarmed.

Fujinaga, though, a hot-blooded boy he was, didn’t notice that immediately. "What the fuck are you talking about, Hori?! Get your lazy ass here before I drag you here!" He shouted, his face was so red from having to hold back his untamed temper.

Unfortunately, it seemed that his threat didn’t work, as Hori just laughed hollowly. "What’s the use of training, Fuji? You know that once the tournament begins, I will just be a benchwarmer for my kouhai, right? I don’t have the talent, and I am not even Shishida-senpai’s preference on that position, so why waste my time over something useless like that?"

The answer was... Clinical. Harsh. Cold. But somehow, it still made sense. When Higo heard that, he flinched unconsciously, glancing sideways to Kumiko.

’No wonder she couldn’t stop him from leaving...’

Of course, while shocked at the revelation, Fujinaga didn’t give up on his best friend. "So, you just want to quit like a coward?! Forgetting all the sweats and promises you made with the team?! I don’t know that you are like that, Bastard!"

For a moment, silence descended among them, before, in the end, another hollow laughter came out of the phone.

"Well, if you want to interpret it that way, sure. Be my guest. Maybe it is just like what you said. Maybe, you don’t really know me at all." After the last word echoed among them all, the call was closed immediately, leaving everyone dumbfounded here.

This stung. This really stung, especially for Fujinaga, who had been living next to Hori since they were just babies, to be told that he didn’t know Hori at all. However, indeed, he had to reassess all his knowledge about his best friend, because it seemed the boy on the other side of the call was an alien to him.

Of course, there were some people who reacted more strongly than Fujinaga. Makino had his shoulder shaking in anger due to the boy’s pettiness, and Denki, himself, the one who Hori targeted, even though no name was mentioned, also had his mouth gape wide from shock.

It seemed that this was the first time a senpai said it out loud that they would rather stop playing than have to be a bench player for him, and this was the level of pettiness that he had never seen in his life.

However, somehow, the one who reacted the worst was Kazawa.

’You mean to tell me that he ran away because... He couldn’t bear the thought of being a bench player?" The boy whispered softly. However, it was enough to make everyone shudder instantly, and the room that was initially in chaos suddenly became so dead quiet.

Out of everyone else in this room, he was probably the only one who knew the disappointment of having to be benched. Even though his football ability was decent, he was always the benchwarmer, from the start of his first year to even right now, when he himself was a senpai to another freshman.

The boy knew how hard it was to sit on the bench when everyone was still fighting, and yet, never had he complained even for once. So, to hear Hori giving up just at the thought... Yeah, it wasn’t like Hori was benched already, just from his thought, his insecurity! That he would be benched, Kazawa was definitely the most livid one here.

"Hey, hey, Kazawa! Where are you going?!" Fujinaga was so alarmed when he saw the boy walking out of the club quietly, not even speaking a single word to address his fury.

"I am just going to look for him." Kazawa just said one short sentence, but it was enough to create another chaos inside the room.

"Shit! Someone, accompany Kazawa! Don’t let him lose his mind!"

"The others, spread apart! Try to find where Hori is! Fujinaga, call his mother! Ask if he is already home or not!"

"I am on it!"

"Come on! Find Hori first before Kazawa can get him!"