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The sound of sea waves splashing at the shore and the quiet murmur of leaves among tree canopies should be relaxing and capable of putting anyone to sleep. Still, Isagi lays on his back with eyes open wide, rolling and tossing until he kicks the sheet off himself and sits up in the dark. He squints at the bedside clock that blinks 04:34 and falls back into bed.
At the beginning of their vacation, they all got three days to spend in the Excellence Seaside Sanctuary resort sponsoring the Blue Lock project. Twin beds, seaside view, first line, all-inclusive, and each of them was even given a 10,000 yen allowance.
While everyone enjoyed their freedom, stuffed their faces with food at Michelin-level restaurants, and swam in the sea, Isagi moved through the day on autopilot, worrying about his upcoming tests. With the amount of training he had in Blue Lock, he only realized how much he fell behind in his studies once he got the notification about the upcoming tests.
They all were transferred to the resort directly from the U20 game locker room, so Isagi had no chance to grab his tablet from his dorm in the Blue Lock facility. His actual textbooks were waiting for him at home. So he was robbed full three days he could use to cram a few months of studies into the remaining two weeks. And now he has two more days to waste. He wants to eat his own slippers.
* * *
"You look like shit," announced Chigiri at the breakfast table.
Isagi wants to drown in his morning coffee.
"I couldn't sleep. Kept thinking about exams I am going to fail."
"Fail?"
"I... I may have forgotten to study until now. And I can only begin once we are dismissed. I am so doomed!"
"Uh oh. It was nice knowing you, man".
Isagi groans.
"But why exactly can't you sleep? It's not as if you can change anything about the situation at the moment." - asked Barou as he dabbed his lips with a napkin.
Isagi gave him an incredulous look.
"I think you've got too much free time in your hands, and you should use it wisely to relax and recharge!" - chirped Bachira, poking Isagi's forehead with a finger. Isagi batted his hand away.
"But worry not, my friend~!" Bachira singsongs as he pulls up his phone and opens the notes app. "We are going to make you a schedule filled with amazing activities!"
"And they will help me with my exams how?" - Isagi scowled.
"...they will not. But, listen, listen to me! Just follow my lead!"
* * *
Isagi read through the list again as he was brushing his teeth.
It depicted the following:
- Art class (Bachira)
- Cooking class (Barou)
- Origami (Reo)
- Swimming at the beach (Otoya)
Yoga (Rin)(Isagi scratched that one out without even going to attempt it.)
Bachira volunteered to accompany Isagi on his artistic journey. The resort's recreational zone offered art classes at 10 am. 10 am! And yet the class has already been filled. The boys scurried to grab free easels and today's medium - watercolors. The teacher played one of those 10-hour-long spa meditation zen sleep relaxation music tracks on Youtube, offering everyone to close their eyes and imagine their happy place. Isagi's mind brought him home to his textbooks at first, but he shook his head, trying to pull himself away from that thought. A forest, he decided. In the mountains. Far, far away.
Following the teacher, he wet his canvas and applied the first color. The paint blob seemed too thick and did not want to spread itself on the paper. Isagi tried to rush the blob, creating a long and thick smudge. Attempting to erase the smudge resulted in creating a wet hole in the canvas. He growled in frustration.
"You go too heavy-handed," commented Bachira. "Just dip your brush very lightly and use enough water."
They supplied Isagi with another sheet.
This time he managed to fill it in nicely and spread misty green with smooth gradation, at least in those places where the paper did not peel off due to excess water. Bachira had helped him with mixing colors, and Isagi was diligently building his layers until he suddenly sneezed. He did not have a chance to cover himself and sneezed all over his mountain landscape, which was still wet. He stared in horror at the growing spattering of white where his saliva diluted the paint.
"Personal touch! Very interesting! It looks like it's snowing!" Bachira sounded absolutely delighted.
Isagi sighed. Maybe art was not for him.
* * *
The kitchen in which the cooking class that Barou recommended would take place was empty. Unfortunately, actual classes won't start until the following week. However, as Isagi carefully peeked into the kitchen, he found Yukki kneading dough in quiet solitude.
"Interested in cooking?" he said as he slapped the twisted dough onto the counter.
"Just trying this and that," shrugged Isagi.
"You can help me knead bread," Yukki offered, gesturing for him to come over.
After washing his hands, Isagi was offered a solid piece of dough dusted with flour.
"We must knead diligently to stretch gluten strands in the dough. However, overdoing it can damage the liquid molecules and spoil the quality. Apply strength, stretch, and slap."
"Stretch and slap," nodded Isagi.
He took the dough on the side and gave it an unsure shake in the air, and thumped it on the floured counter.
"Harder!" demanded Yukki.
"Harder!" nodded Isagi.
This time he grabbed the dough fiercely and whooshed it above his head. As he was about to smack it on the counter, the naughty dough split in half and flew across the kitchen, where it slammed onto the ground with a dull sound.
Yukki squawked and rushed to save his bread.
Isagi decided that he better stay away from the kitchen.
* * *
Paper folding sounded boring, but out of respect for Reo, Isagi decided to check it out before heading to the beach. The craft room seemed messy, colorful squares and tiny leftovers scattered all over the desks pushed together. Surprisingly, the room was not empty. Even more surprising, Isagi found none other than Shidou Ryuusei hunched over one of the desks, brows furrowed, tongue peeking out, as he was folding a piece of neon green paper. In front of him stood proudly a tiny army of poorly folded paper cranes of various colors.
Isagi sat across, dragging his chair carefully in order not to disturb the paper troops.
"What are you doing here?" Isagi blurted out as curiosity won over precaution.
"Huh?" Shidou looked up, seeming to have just noticed Isagi. "I'm making a thousand paper cranes. Sae-chan said he would send me a selfie if I wished really hard for that. I am wishing. And I am hard. So to prove it, I will send these tiny brats to him."
"And how many have you made so far?"
Shidou grunted and nodded at the basket on the chair beside him. "Four hundred thirty and..." he squinted at the cranes on the desk, "and sixteen more."
Isagi nodded, "Good luck!" He reached for a paper square, but Shidou slapped his hand away. "Hey!"
"Bring your own paper. These are all claimed!" he growled. "You are not standing between me and Sae-chan's selfie!"
Isagi decided that he had tried hard enough, and it was time to finally move on to the last point on his itinerary for the day - the beach.
* * *
The private beach was an amazing idea, and now as the sun had set, there was almost no one present, not even a lifeguard in sight. Almost no one, except Otoya, who met Isagi by the beach huts. He, too, had just arrived, hoping to avoid wrestling people for a square meter of sand.
"Out for a late swim? I bet we can get away with skinny dipping!" - Otoya shoved Isagi with an elbow, which almost made him drop his swimming trunks.
"Thanks, but no thanks," he declined. "Who knows what sort of creatures come to the surface as the night falls? I don't want them anywhere near my dick."
Otoya gasped and pulled up his own speedos.
As they walked to the seaside, Otoya rambled about different sea creatures he saw on some fisherman's instagram.
"Realistically speaking, we probably won't meet any of those deep sea bastards, though," he concluded. "Jellyfish, on the other hand..." he trailed off.
"Just watch out for inflated blobs with weird-colored tails, and we should be good!" Isagi shrugged.
"I better stay away from jellyfish. Don't want you having to pee on me to save my life or anything!"
They both giggled, and after a loud high-five, Isagi was ready to race into the growing waves when Otoya suddenly made a loud 'hmph!' noise.
"I can't believe it!" he explained, "We are on a private beach, and yet some idiot had the audacity to throw away a plastic bag! You go first, I'll take care of it before some poor turtle gets trapped!" He said, jogging away.
Isagi nodded, "Yeah, yeah," and was about to go into the water when he froze and turned back around in a panic.
"OTOYA!!! THAT'S NO PLASTIC!!!"
* * *
An hour later, right after Isagi dropped Otoya off at the infirmary, he found himself in front of a massage parlor.
He and Otoya promised never to tell anyone about what happened at the beach. They also decided to never interact with each other again. Isagi was still shaken and needed to relax to forget everything he was forced to do in the past hour. He checked the price for the massage and was disappointed to see it exceeded the 10,000 yen they'd received earlier. He spotted Chigiri at the arcade and asked to borrow some money. Unfortunately, Chigiri had blown almost all of his allowance already. Isagi sighed heavily, taking a longing look at the parlor's welcoming banner.
"Massage?" Chigiri squinted at the banner in front of the parlor and whistled. "That's a lot for a massage..."
Isagi could only growl in annoyance, resting his head face down atop the arcade machine.
"You look like you really need one, though. Well, lucky you!"
Isagi whipped his head up and stared at Chigiri in question.
Chigiri pointed at himself proudly, "I used to work out with Kunigami a lot, like a lot a lot, and he would always help me with a nice sports massage afterward! So you know, now I'm something of a masseur myself."
And this is how Isagi ended up on Chigiri's bed with his shirt off. Chigiri plopped on top of him, rubbing lotion between his palms, and Isagi got assaulted by a strong chemical aroma of strawberries, peaches, and peonies.
"Relax now!" Chigiri cooed and began squeezing and twisting Isagi's shoulders in a way that was anything but relaxing. Isagi tried his best to endure, but after a particularly painful pinch, he wanted to lift his head to protest. However, Chigiri had already moved on to torture his neck. And this is when Isagi began worrying about his life. Eventually, as Chigiri attempted to twist his arm and nearly dislocated his shoulder, Isagi howled in pain and managed to kick Chigiri off.
Chigiri frowned. "It is a sports massage! You probably hadn't exercised enough to be able to truly enjoy it!"
"Yeah, I'm sure that's the reason!!!" Isagi yelled from the door as he took his chance to escape.
* * *
Back in the safety of his room, wrapped up in a blanket burrito, he finally released a deep sigh, trying to settle to sleep.
"So?" - whispered Bachira loudly from his bed. "How were the activities?"
"Well," Isagi hummed. "I have spent an entire day trying them all and discovered I am talentless when it comes to art, my presence in the kitchen is a biohazard, paper folding is for desperate people, and I do not want to talk about the beach."
"I heard you even got Chigiri's special "sports massage"!" Bachira giggled.
"Interesting what you call that bone-breaking torture," Isagi snorted.
They laughed until their bellies hurt.
"But did it help?" Bachira was whispering again.
"Help? OH..." Isagi realized he had not been thinking about his failing studies at all.
"It did..." He smiled in the dark, pulling up his notes to see what activities his friends had written down for tomorrow.