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Sae has always been a light sleeper, waking frequently throughout the night even when he’s in his own bed; away from home, in an unfamiliar environment, curled up on a mattress that’s far too stiff and uncomfortable while surrounded by ten other human beings of the worst category (teenage boys), well. Trying to sleep through the night without waking up once is an exercise in futility. Every rustle, yawn, snore, grumble, even the click and whir of the air conditioner switching on—the slightest noise is enough to jolt him awake. Even by tonight, the seventh and final night of the New Gen 11 training camp, Sae has only barely gotten used to sleeping in this damn dormitory. It’s a miracle he’s even managed to survive the week with how little sleep he’s been getting, but Itoshi Sae isn’t regarded as a genius for nothing.
But even geniuses need their sleep, which is why Sae is really, really hoping he’ll be able to get more than a handful of hours tonight. He already knows he won’t be getting any sleep on the plane back to Madrid tomorrow, so if he doesn’t sleep tonight, he’ll be shit out of luck until he can finally collapse into his own bed countless hours later.
The clock on the wall is garishly bright for a dormitory, bright red digital numbers broadcasting the fact that the time is currently 12:49am. Sae shuts his eyes against the glare, twists his fingers in his thin blanket and wishes for the dark embrace of sleep to just hurry up and claim him already. He’s tried it all: breathing slowly and evenly, forcing his body to stay as still as possible, even fucking counting sheep, as childish as that concept may be. When all else fails, Sae just tries to clear his mind and relax.
It’s easier said than done, but still, Sae has very nearly achieved his goal when—
The sound of rustling sheets is followed by the soft but unmistakable thump of feet hitting the floor, and Sae’s eyes snap open, annoyance flooding his body. Whoever the fuck is getting up right now is going to get a piece of Sae’s mind.
He opens his eyes, lifting his head and peering through the darkness, trying to spot the person he needs to murder. There, inching open the door on the far left wall, he catches a glimpse of the guilty party—the fluorescents in the hallway illuminate a mop of fluffy blond hair as a certain forward slips through the crack in the door and eases it shut behind him before Sae can say a word.
Sae blinks, brows furrowing. That’s not the door that leads towards the bathrooms. Maybe if it was, he’d be slightly more willing to let it slide, but now, in addition to being pissed off, there’s something much worse brewing in his gut.
Curiosity.
So after only a moment of silent internal debate, Sae pushes aside his covers and follows.
The tile floor is cold and smooth beneath his bare feet as Sae pads across the room, soft and light-footed; he’s always been able to carry himself quietly, to not take up too much space if he wishes. And it helps that none of the other guys seem to have the same kind of trouble sleeping that Sae does. It’s almost too easy to sneak out the same door and catch his teammate striding confidently down the corridor.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Sae’s voice, flat and quiet, nevertheless echoes down the length of the hallway.
The other boy turns, blue eyes wide, and Sae is treated to the sight of Michael Kaiser with an expression of pure, genuine surprise on his face. Surprise, and something else, some flicker of—
Of what, Sae isn’t sure. Between one instant and the next, Kaiser’s face smooths out. His mouth twists into a smirk, lips curled just so: a perfect façade. Good enough to fool most people, to make them think they’d imagined that split-second crack in the mask, but Sae isn’t most people. He’s already cataloging that startled expression, tucking it into a corner of his mind to analyze later.
“Itoshi,” Kaiser greets him. “What are you doing up this late? Good little boys should be in bed right now, don’t you think?”
Sae levels him with an unimpressed stare. He may be well-behaved, but he doesn’t think anyone has ever called him a good little boy before, and he doesn’t intend to give them any reason to start. “You woke me up by stomping around the dorm. Were you even trying to be quiet?”
It’s an exaggeration, at best. Kaiser’s footsteps as he’d snuck out had been near-silent, even quieter than Sae’s. He mostly says it to irritate Kaiser, and based on the way Kaiser’s eye twitches, it seems to do the trick. “I was not stomping,” Kaiser retorts. “Go back to bed.”
“Not until you tell me where you’re going.”
That smirk tugs at Kaiser’s lips again, this time more openly condescending. “Or what? Will you tell on me, little Itoshi?”
“Maybe,” Sae says. A bluff. It’s not like he’s going to go and wake up the coach and tell them Kaiser’s sneaking out; he’s never been the type to snitch, and he doesn’t really want to personally get Kaiser in serious trouble, no matter how satisfying the schadenfreude might be.
But Kaiser doesn’t need to know that. And years of crafting his own cold, controlled mask mean that Sae has long since perfected his poker face. So he stares Kaiser down, watching, waiting for him to crack.
It takes a few moments longer than Sae expects for Kaiser to relent, that smug little grin of his finally dropping. “If I tell you where I’m going, you’ll leave me alone? And keep it between us?”
Sae shrugs. “Probably.”
To his surprise, Kaiser snorts. “Probably? You’re a little shit, aren’t you?” The way he says it sounds like he’s amused, but a little impressed, too. He tips his head. “Fine. I’m going to sneak into the pool and do a little night swimming. Is that enough of an answer for you to leave me be?”
Sae blinks. Whatever he was expecting Kaiser to say, it certainly wasn’t that. The training facility they’re using for this camp has a pool connected to the gymnasium, presumably to be used by other elite sports teams using the same facility, but as far as Sae knows, the doors to it are locked, and they’re not allowed inside. Which begs the question—
“How exactly do you intend to get inside?”
It’s Kaiser’s turn to blink at him, as though that wasn’t what he was expecting from Sae, either. “What?”
“I asked how you intend to get inside,” Sae repeats. “Aren’t the doors locked? Also, do you plan on going swimming in your pajamas? This is a shoddy plan. Did you even think this through, or did you just decide to do something stupid on a whim?”
That earns him a scowl from Kaiser, which Sae actually finds more enjoyable to look at than his smarmy smirk. At least it’s more sincere. “Hey, you don’t get to come in and start criticizing my plan without even knowing it,” he bites out, pointing a finger at Sae. “I’ll have you know I’ve thought everything through. I’ve been planning this all week!”
Sae knows he should go back to bed. He got the answer he was looking for, which means his curiosity should be sated. Instead, he finds it burning brighter than ever at Kaiser’s words.
“Prove it,” he says, crossing his arms.
Kaiser gapes at him. “Prove it? Are you saying you want to come with me?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Sae lifts his chin. “If this really isn’t just some lukewarm scheme you thought up impulsively, then let me come with you, and prove me wrong.” His heart is pumping faster, beating to an exhilarating rhythm inside his chest. He’s never done anything like this before—sneaking around, breaking the rules—and any other time, he’d just leave Kaiser to it.
But for some reason, this taste of freedom Kaiser is offering has him fired up. The last thing he wants is to go back to that shitty mattress and try to force himself to sleep while Michael Kaiser is out having an adventure. Maybe it’s just dumb teenage impulses, or maybe it’s something specific about Kaiser himself that appeals to him; there’s something about him, some star quality, that seems to make people want to follow him, no matter how infuriating they might find his personality. And apparently, Sae isn’t as immune to that magnetism as he liked to think before now.
Whatever the reason, Sae wants this.
Kaiser scoffs an incredulous little laugh, but there’s a glimmer of interest in those blue eyes of his that wasn’t there before. “I may have had the wrong impression of you,” he says. The smile that quirks his lips now is a little crooked, a little less than perfect, and he holds out a hand to Sae. “Alright, Itoshi. Just for tonight, you can join me on my stage.”
Sae glances at his hand, but doesn’t take it. Instead, he walks right past Kaiser. “Spare me the theatrics.”
It only takes a couple of strides for Kaiser to catch up to him, his slightly longer legs allowing him to fall in a half step ahead of Sae, taking the lead. “Aw, come on. You’re not going to play along?” He’s got a fake pout on, but there’s a hint of a laugh in his voice that betrays him. “I think I’ll cast you as the cold and reserved ice prince whose favor the dashing protagonist—that’s me, by the way—has to try to win.”
What the fuck? Sae’s brows pinch. His ears feel hot; he hopes Kaiser doesn’t notice. “What are you even talking about?” he bites out. “That’s idiotic.”
“See, you’re already playing your part perfectly,” Kaiser says brightly.
Sae is experiencing an immediate and deep sense of regret. He doesn’t consider himself a violent person, but he kind of wants to smack Kaiser upside the head. “Shut up. Where are we going, anyway?”
“My, my, you’re impatient.” Kaiser clicks his tongue. “We’re going to the locker room to get a change of clothes and, ah… borrow some towels. I don’t know about you, but I don’t particularly want to swim in my pajamas. And correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think you’d be too keen on the idea of skinny dipping.”
Not trying to hide his disgust, Sae’s nose wrinkles. He doesn’t even bother to dignify that with a response.
Kaiser barks a laugh. “That’s what I thought.”
Slipping in and out of the locker room is easy in the dead of night. They both have spare shirts and shorts in their lockers that they quickly change into, and Kaiser snags a couple of towels from an unlocked storage cabinet, brandishing them at Sae with a triumphant smile. Sae just narrows his eyes at him in return and takes one, slinging it over his shoulder. All of this is well and good, but Kaiser still hasn’t actually explained how he plans to get them into the pool.
Fortunately, Sae doesn’t have to wait much longer to find out. As they approach the padlocked set of double doors to the pool room, Kaiser produces a pair of hairpins seemingly out of nowhere. Grinning at Sae, he holds them up, the metal glinting faintly under the dim ceiling lights. “You wanted to know how I plan to get us in? Watch and learn, little Eisprinz.”
Sae doesn’t speak German, but the nickname isn’t hard to puzzle out based on what Kaiser had called him earlier—ice prince. His mouth flattens in displeasure. “Don’t call me that.”
“Why not? It suits you.” Kaiser twirls the hairpin between his fingers, his grin taking on an edge of something sharp, something dangerous. “Now, hush. I need to concentrate.”
He crouches in front of the lock, one knee pressed to the floor, and immediately sets about the task of—oh, picking the lock. With the hairpins. Sae didn’t even know that was actually possible, thought it was one of those things people can only do in movies and television shows, but Kaiser’s expression is calm and self-assured as he starts bending the pins into specific shapes. There’s no hesitation in his movements. Instead, his hands are steady, confident, as though he’s done this a thousand times before.
“Itoshi,” he says, “do me a favor and hold the lock up for me?”
A little uncertain, Sae nevertheless kneels beside him, cupping a hand around the heavy padlock and tilting it so the keyhole is more level with Kaiser’s eyes.
“Perfect,” Kaiser hums. He leans in a little closer, eyes narrowing in concentration, as he inserts the pins into the keyhole and gets to work. Sae doesn’t know what exactly it is that he’s doing—it seems to involve a lot of careful wiggling of one of the pins, but that’s about all he can gather. Kaiser’s head is tipped slightly to one side, listening carefully for a series of clicks that Sae assumes must be something inside the lock slowly but surely disengaging. At first, Sae is watching his deft hands, but as the seconds tick by, he finds his gaze drifting over to Kaiser’s face.
Calm and focused, he’s quieter than Sae has ever seen him; he’s not posturing or puffing himself up the way he always does on the pitch, no sign of that arrogant movie-star smile nor the feral snarl Sae’s only seen a handful of times when Kaiser gets pissed off. It occurs to Sae then that he really doesn’t know anything about Kaiser, other than the very basics: he’s a seventeen-year-old football player from Germany, a forward for Bastard München and a genius striker, but those are things everybody knows about him. They don’t explain Kaiser’s penchant for theatrics, the blue rose tattooed on his neck, or the reason why he knows how to pick a lock with such ease. Why he’s risking getting caught sneaking out of the dorms just for a chance to go swimming late at night.
Then again, Sae can’t really think of a proper explanation why he himself is doing this, either. Again, he is not and has never been the type to just… do things like sneaking out to go fuck around in a pool, of all things. He’s not afraid of getting in trouble, but he’s hardly looking forward to the harsh scolding they’ll inevitably receive from their coaches if they do get caught.
Which, really, just means they can’t get caught.
“See something you like, Itoshi?” Kaiser murmurs, and Sae—blinks, caught in a different way. Caught like a spider in a web, staring at Kaiser’s face in three-quarter profile, and now those crystal-blue eyes have slid over to him, the corner of his lips quirked upward in a smirk.
“No,” Sae deadpans. “Are you done yet?”
Despite the denial, Kaiser’s smirk widens, turns knowing, as though Sae has admitted to something that he doesn’t even realize. “Almost,” he says. “Just one more…” He wedges the pin into the keyhole a little deeper, tilts it just so until Sae hears a final click, and then—
The lock releases, the shackle sliding loose from the heavy golden body of the padlock, coming free in Sae’s hand.
He stares at it, momentarily speechless—and begrudgingly impressed, even if he won’t say it in as many words. It’s just as well that he naturally doesn’t emote much, even when he’s not trying to keep his face blank the way he is right now. It means it’s easier not to slip up and concede to Kaiser that he is impressed. Just a bit.
“Well?” Kaiser prompts, when Sae doesn’t say anything for a few moments. “Have I surpassed your ‘lukewarm’ expectations? Proved the excellence of my brilliant plan? Are you ready to fall at my feet and beg forgiveness for underestimating me?”
Sae scoffs. “In your dreams.” He straightens up and turns the padlock, slipping the shackle free from the door and pushing it open. “Come on.”
Pushing back up to his feet, Kaiser sighs. “Shame. I would’ve liked to see that.”
Yeah, Sae bets he would. Briefly, he lets himself entertain the thought of shoving Kaiser into the pool room and then locking the door behind him, but instead, he just follows him through the door.
It’s dark inside for the first few steps, but then the motion sensor-activated lights flicker on, revealing the main attraction: a perfectly still expanse of chlorine blue in the center of the room. Kaiser’s eyes light up with an almost childish delight, and looking at him, Sae wonders just how many different types of smiles this boy has, how many of them are masks and how many are the real Kaiser shining through. This one, at least, he thinks is genuine, if only because of just how gleeful Kaiser looks.
The doors behind them have barely shut before Kaiser is tossing his towel aside and crossing the rest of the short distance to the pool. Seemingly between one blink and the next, Kaiser—normally so elegant and graceful, every move calculated perfectly—launches himself into the water, his golden mane streaming out behind him. He lands with a loud splash that completely shatters the peace and stillness of the pool, sending glittering droplets of water flying everywhere.
For a moment, as he watches, Sae finds himself envying that unrestrained freedom, which is stupid. If he wanted to go run and jump into the pool after Kaiser, there’s nothing stopping him. It’s just that Sae isn’t that type of person. Rather than jumping in, he sits at the edge of the pool and dips his feet in the water, opting to watch Kaiser rather than join him.
As it turns out, Kaiser is… actually kind of bad at swimming. Sae doesn’t know him well enough to be properly surprised by this information, but honestly, he’d kind of expected Kaiser to be better than this, just based on the fact that he’d come up with this whole elaborate scheme to go swimming in the middle of the night himself. But no. He’s passable, at least, but surprisingly inelegant compared to how he usually carries himself—a step above doggy-paddling, but that’s the most Sae can say.
Unfortunately, Kaiser is quick to notice that Sae hasn’t actually joined him in the pool. He comes up for air beside Sae, slicking his wet hair back and out of his face and looking up at him accusingly. “Hey, why the hell aren’t you swimming? After all you did to convince me to bring you along, you’re not even going to get in the water?”
“I’m fine right here,” Sae says primly, crossing his legs. “You suck at swimming, by the way.”
The offense on Kaiser’s face is comical. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” Sae tips his head, eyes half-lidded.
Kaiser glowers at him. “And you’re so much better? I bet you don’t even know how to swim, and that’s why you’re sitting on the sidelines.”
“Of course I know how to swim.”
“Prove it, then,” Kaiser challenges. “Or else I’m going to keep believing that the great Itoshi Sae can’t swim for shit.”
If he really thinks that lukewarm attempt at appealing to Sae’s competitive side is going to work, he’s sorely mistaken. Sae rolls his eyes. “Believe whatever you want. It doesn’t make you less wrong.”
Silently, Kaiser stares at him, eyes wide. Water drips from his hair, trailing pathways down his cheeks and jaw, his neck, his arms. His shirt sticks to his body, wet fabric clinging to his muscular torso. Sae isn’t into Kaiser, but the sight is admittedly just the slightest bit distracting, which is why he doesn’t realize what Kaiser is about to do until it’s too late.
A hand closes around Sae’s ankle, yanking him off the edge of the pool and down into the cool cerulean waiting for him, so fast that Sae barely even has a chance to gasp in a breath before he goes under.
He recovers after only a second, his head breaking the surface of the water only to be greeted by the sound of Kaiser’s raucous laughter. Frustration wells up inside Sae, internal wires sparking hot, burning away the ice-cold apathy that surrounds his heart for a brief moment. Giving in to impulse, he splashes Kaiser in the face, turning his laughter into choked spluttering.
“Piece of shit,” Sae hisses, but there’s no real heat behind it.
Kaiser is still laughing, wiping water out of his eyes. “You look like a drowned cat! Maybe I should start calling you Eiskätzchen instead?”
Sae doesn’t even know what that means. What he does know is that Kaiser is seriously pissing him off. “You’re a fucking child.”
“What are you gonna do about it? Splash me again? Pretty childish of you, Eiskätzchen,” Kaiser taunts him, grinning wide. “Catch me if you can!”
It is childish. And stupid, and lukewarm, and a thousand other things that Sae could use as excuses—should use as excuses to pull himself out of the water, dry himself off, and go back to bed. But he’s come this far already, and there’s an unfamiliar warmth in his chest that feels like annoyance, but maybe like something else, too, and he can’t remember the last time he just played around with someone like this, without thinking about football or scoring or being the best striker in the world. The last time he just acted like a kid, like the sixteen-year-old that he is, without the weight of the world on his shoulders.
And honestly, above all else, Sae just. Really wants to wipe that stupid fucking smirk off of Kaiser’s face. So he shoves his wet bangs off his forehead, leveling Kaiser with a deadly stare.
“You’re on.”
They chase each other around the pool until they’ve tired themselves out, which doesn’t take long; even the members of the New Gen 11 have limits to their stamina, and it’s already been a long day of training before this. The impromptu water battle ends in something of a draw, as neither Sae nor Kaiser is willing to admit defeat, but neither of them can really be said to have won, either. Panting, Sae leans back against the wall of the pool, lungs and muscles burning, closing his eyes briefly as he tips his head back.
A moment later, he feels the ripples of the water shift and change direction beside him. When he cracks open an eye and glances over, a similarly winded Kaiser has settled next to him, one arm up on the edge of the pool, elbow bent, the side of his head braced on his hand. His cheeks are a bit flushed from the exertion, and the smile on his face is that slightly crooked, delighted one Sae caught earlier. The real one.
Companionable silence settles between them for a minute as they both catch their breath, before Kaiser breaks it with a little laugh. “It’s funny,” he says, not looking at Sae. “I’ve never really done something like this before.”
“Break into a pool in the middle of the night?” Sae asks flatly.
Kaiser snickers. “Well, yes, but… I meant this,” he says, gesturing between himself and Sae. “Hanging out like this with someone. Messing around for no reason. It’s… different.”
“I thought you and that midfielder were friends,” Sae says, looking at Kaiser sideways. “That dribbler who’s always hanging off your arm… what was his name?”
“Ness?” Kaiser’s expression twitches. “Ness isn’t my friend. He’s more like a dog. His place in my life is that of a servant, and nothing more.”
Sae doesn’t know if he actually believes that, but he lets it slide. It’s not as though he knows any better. He’s only seen them from afar during or after matches, but he supposes calling him a dog doesn’t seem too inaccurate. Ness is always barking at Kaiser’s heels, after all. Still, though—he’d sort of assumed they had some kind of friendly relationship.
“So you’re not friends with Ness,” he concedes. “Do you have any friends?”
Arching a brow, Kaiser turns to look at him. “That’s rich, coming from you, Itoshi. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen you smile, much less have a positive interaction with anyone.”
“You say that like you’ve been paying attention to me.”
“And why wouldn’t I pay attention to you?” Kaiser counters, which stops Sae short, but he isn’t done. “You’re a genius, aren’t you? We’re both at this training camp together, so that’s proof enough. If you weren’t such a difficult brat, I’d kill to have a midfielder like you at my side.”
Kaiser probably isn’t trying to pour salt in Sae’s wounds, but Sae’s hands twitch anyway, hands curling into fists; his recent transition from striker to midfielder is still a sore spot, as much as he pretends it isn’t. Every mention of it is a fresh reminder that he failed, that he’s been forced to change the dream he’s been chasing for his entire life, and Kaiser’s words feel like pressing on a still-tender bruise.
He swallows the bitter taste in his throat. “You’d have to earn my passes first,” he says.
Dramatic to the end, Kaiser places a hand over his heart. “Are you saying that our newfound friendship isn’t enough reason for you to want to pass to me? I’m hurt.”
Sae just looks at him blankly. Friendship? Is that what this is? Sae is just as unfamiliar with the concept of it as Kaiser, if not even more so; the only person he’s ever been close enough with to even consider a friend is his little brother, and Sae is fairly certain that doesn’t actually count, not least because they’ve hardly even spoken in the last three years since Sae left for Spain. Rin is the only person in this world that Sae loves, but that doesn’t make them friends.
Then, is this what friendship is? Hanging out and goofing off, like Kaiser described? But this type of behavior is an anomaly. Out of character, a glitch in Sae’s programming. The person Sae is right now, a boy who boldly follows Michael Kaiser into an abandoned swimming pool and chases him around in the water, will disappear come morning; even now, he can already feel that boy slipping away, making way for the cold, rational machine that is the typical Sae. Does that mean he’s not built for friendship? If he’s not wired for it, is it even possible for him to form that kind of connection with someone?
“Friends,” Sae murmurs, so quietly it’s nearly inaudible. Trying the label on for size, but it doesn’t sit right on his tongue, not completely. It’s like trying to put a puzzle piece into a spot that looks right, but it doesn’t quite fit. He looks over at Kaiser, who’s watching him with poorly disguised curiosity. “No. I’m not your friend.”
Kaiser’s brows knit. “No?” He tips his head, the ends of his gilded hair trailing in the water. “Then what are you?”
Sae meets Kaiser’s eyes, as deep and endlessly blue as the water surrounding them, and that feeling wells up inside his chest again. That warmth, that heart-pounding exhilaration, that want. Pinning down the why of it is more difficult this time—before, he’d been able to pinpoint it better, to identify the source of this want as a desire to follow Kaiser into this crazy plan. He’d been drawn into Kaiser’s orbit, for whatever reason, caught up in his gravitational pull.
And maybe this situation isn’t so different—maybe he’s still caught by Kaiser’s magnetism—but now, he’s aware of a different desire, too. The desire to pull Kaiser into his own orbit in turn.
He pushes off the wall, treading water, moving to face Kaiser head-on. Kaiser’s eyes widen as Sae gets closer, but he doesn’t flinch, doesn’t move at all, even when Sae reaches out and takes hold of his chin, looking him straight in the eye. He may not know exactly what Kaiser is to him, or what they are to each other, but he does know one thing, and it crystallizes into something clearer than ever as the words come out of his mouth.
“I’m someone you should keep paying attention to,” Sae says. “I’m someone you should watch closely. Keep your eyes on me, Kaiser. Don’t underestimate me.”
Kaiser’s lips part, but no sound comes out. He looks good like this, Sae thinks. Flustered and caught off-guard, with Sae looming over him, that perfect façade nowhere to be seen. There is something endlessly satisfying about being able to make Kaiser speechless, and this expression, too, is tucked away in that corner of Sae’s brain to pore over and analyze later, when he’s alone.
Soft as a whisper, Sae releases his chin, letting his fingers slide away. His heart is still thudding in his chest, a rapid pulse inside his ribcage, wild—alive. But his expression doesn’t waver as he moves away, breaking the moment with a soft splash. He grips the edge of the pool and hoists himself out, soaked and dripping, already beginning to shiver only moments after leaving the water.
“Wh-Where are you going?” Kaiser splutters from behind him.
Sae doesn’t turn around. “Back to bed. I still need to get some sleep tonight.” He scoops up his towel, wrapping it tightly around his shoulders. “Make sure you lock up when you leave. We have to keep this secret, after all.”
He can’t see Kaiser’s expression, but he imagines the other boy gaping at him as he walks away; hidden from view, Sae allows the faintest smile to touch the corners of his lips.
It’s only once he’s back in bed after carefully drying himself off and changing back into his pajamas, curled up on his uncomfortable mattress with sleep finally attempting to drag him down into its dark embrace, that Sae dares to admit to himself that he actually had fun hanging out with Kaiser. It’s not an incident he ever intends to repeat, but he did enjoy it while it lasted.
The door on the left wall eases open, and Sae turns his head to see Kaiser creeping back in. For a moment, their eyes meet in the red glow of the wall clock, and a grin tugs at Kaiser’s mouth.
Sae rolls over to avoid that smile, his heart skipping yet another beat.
Maybe he shouldn’t say never. If, at next year’s training camp, Kaiser comes up with some other wild scheme like this, maybe—just maybe—Sae will join him.