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There were exactly 30 days left until the U20 World Cup.
Everyone who survived Nel, after a two-week break, returned to Blue Lock to continue training.
When they entered, Ego began talking and explaining everything to them. But what caused a stir was his last sentence, where he mentioned the rooms they would be sharing.
It turned out that the rooms were assigned based on ranking.
Which meant that the two number ones were paired together.
Rin and Isagi, eternal rivals.
Rin was not thrilled when he found out—he immediately had a bad feeling about it.
Isagi also wasn’t completely convinced. Sharing a room with the coldest and rudest person was not something he wanted to experience.
But true hell began when they went to see their room.
A damn single bed.
Rin furrowed his brows and stopped in the doorway.
Isagi looked at him and noticed his displeased expression.
— “This must be a mistake. I’ll go ask Anri or Ego what’s going on with this,” he said and ran out of the room, leaving Rin alone.
He took advantage of the moment to look around the room. It was better equipped than the ones they had before. Well, at the very beginning, during the first selection, they were forced to sleep only on mattresses. Later came the squeaky, hard beds.
At Nel, it was already better—the beds were bigger and softer. He sat on his new bed, testing if it was to his liking.
It was comfortable.
The one downside was that he had to share it. He decided not to worry about it for now and started checking if there were any things in the cupboards. Just as he suspected, in the one next to the bed there was a tablet provided by Blue Lock, the same kind they had received during Nel. On the other side of the bed stood an identical cupboard, so that was probably where Isagi’s tablet was.
He looked at the bed, and as if to spite him—there was only one blanket. Not only did he have to share a bed with that idiot, but also the cover.
He stood up and looked around. There was nothing extraordinary here, just an ordinary room.
The moment he stood back by the door, Isagi arrived.
"I asked the others, most of them also have single beds," he said as he walked in, closing the door behind him.
"Great," Rin sighed sarcastically, folding his arms across his chest.
"You know, I’m not thrilled about this either," Isagi said, coming closer and this time testing if it was comfortable. "At least it’s comfy," he leaned back and lay on his back.
"Yeah, whatever. I’m sleeping on the left side," Rin said, and before Yoichi had a chance to protest, Rin had already placed his things on the cupboard on the left.
"Rude brat," Isagi muttered under his breath, already resigning himself to the fact that Rin had taken the better side.
After that, without another word, they both went to training.
Maybe it was strange, but a lot of people were unhappy about the single bed. Ego only excused it by saying it was supposedly cheaper, or something like that.
In the evening, Isagi was the first to come to the room. He was freshly showered and smelled of Blue Lock shampoo. He lay down on his side of the bed and picked up his tablet, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of other players, thinking about how to use them.
An hour later, Rin came in. He smelled of the same shampoo as Isagi and was already ready for bed.
Without a word, he sat on the bed and looked at the older one, who didn’t understand what he wanted. So Isagi just gave a gentle smile and started the conversation himself.
"Going to sleep already?"—a simple question meant to encourage further communication.
"Yes," Rin answered plainly, then added, "this is my half. You can’t cross it, stick to your side," drawing an invisible line.
Isagi sighed, finding it childish, then replied with some surprise,
"What’s your problem? It’s just a bed."
Rin only turned his gaze away and then, a bit uncertainly, lay down. He tried to look natural, but Isagi noticed how tense he was. Still, he decided not to say anything.
Yoichi put down his tablet, turned off the light, and lay down beside him. For him too, it wasn’t the most pleasant experience, but he couldn’t understand why Rin was so tense. It wasn’t anything big—just sleeping together.
They pulled the blanket over themselves.
Rin tossed and turned for a while before finally turning his back to him.
Isagi, meanwhile, lay there staring at his back.
He shifted his position and closed his eyes.
He fell asleep.
But not for long.
In the middle of the night, he woke up from a sudden chill. He looked around in the darkness and saw that Rin was wrapped up in the entire blanket, leaving him with nothing.
Sleepy and slightly irritated, he grabbed the corner of the cover and tugged it toward himself, but Rin stubbornly held on and curled up into a ball.
"You’ve got to be kidding me…" he muttered under his breath and started shaking him gently. "Rin, give me the blanket."
After a few seconds, Rin groaned softly and looked at him with sleepy eyes.
"Leave me alone, Isagi. I’m cold," he said flatly.
"I’m cold too, give me the damn blanket."
"Find your own. And don’t cross your half," Rin mumbled, burying his face in the cover and leaving Isagi with nothing.
The older boy groaned in frustration, tried again to pull the blanket from him, but after a few more attempts and Rin’s insults, he realized it was useless. He lay back down on his side with nothing, like a pathetic loser.
He curled up and pulled his knees to his chest, trying to keep as much warmth from his own body as possible.
That night was hard and cold, but somehow he managed to fall asleep. He hoped it would be a one-time thing.
He was wrong.
After another five nights where Rin, like a selfish child, stole the blanket every single time, Isagi started complaining to everyone around him.
Aside from the nightly arguments where he told Rin to let him use the blanket too, first he went to vent to Bachira, then Chigiri, then Kurona, and the last victim was Hiori, who was the only useful one—he suggested going to Anri to ask for an extra blanket, which turned out to be the greatest salvation.
After a few requests, Anri managed to get him a new fresh blanket, and the night with it was the best he’d had in days. For the first time, he wasn’t freezing or waking up at least three times from the cold.
And just when he thought he had solved the only and worst problem he’d faced, another one appeared.
Of course—Rin again.
Rin, who decided he would now stay up at night, playing games and watching all kinds of horror movies.
There would have been nothing wrong with that, if not for the fact that his tablet lit up the entire room, and with such bright light, Isagi simply couldn’t fall asleep.
To make things worse, Rin didn’t have any headphones, so whenever he played his horror games, terrifying music echoed through the room—which Rin insisted was “for the atmosphere.”
Isagi was at least lucky that the younger boy’s movies had subtitles, so he didn’t have to endure the soundtracks or the characters’ horrifying screams. At least, that was usually the case.
Sometimes, though, he accidentally glanced at the screen—always at the most brutal and terrifying moments—leaving him unable to sleep afterward.
Not that he was scared of such things.
Well… maybe just a little.
So yeah, that was another problem.
Especially now—at 2 a.m.—Rin decided it was a great idea to watch a horror movie. And while he usually watched only with subtitles and muted sound, tonight he decided he also wanted to hear the audio, to get more immersed.
Isagi lay with his back to him, pulled up under the blanket to his chin, trying to ignore the terrifying screams of some woman coming from the screen.
"Can you stop watching that already? We have to wake up early for training," he finally said, though he didn’t dare look behind him.
"Shut up and sleep. I’ll just finish this and go to bed too."
"Then at least mute the sound. No one can fall asleep with that noise."
"This is as quiet as it gets," Rin replied, but paused the movie, knowing Isagi would keep complaining.
"I don’t care, turn it off," Isagi said, turning toward him with irritation written all over his face.
"What’s your problem, Isagi? Are you scared?"
"Of course not! I just can’t sleep!" he shouted, a little too loudly. He wasn’t scared. Well… maybe just a little.
"Just ignore it and let me watch," Rin said, and Isagi let out a frustrated groan.
"Watch it during the day."
"During the day it doesn’t have the same atmosphere," Rin said as he started the movie again, ignoring the complaints.
Isagi gave up, and the only thing left for him was to try to cover his ears and eyes with his pillow.
In the morning, despite the sleepless night, Rin—as always—was the first one up, making time for a yoga session before breakfast and training.
He stretched, ate breakfast, went to training, and performed well. It seemed like the day was perfect.
But in the evening, a strange feeling of sadness washed over him. He didn’t understand why today of all days, but all the happy memories of his brother kept circling in his mind. Even though they were cheerful memories, he knew they would never return, and that broke him inside.
His nii-chan had changed, and things would never be the same as before. He missed that, and maybe that’s why it hurt so much.
He was good at hiding his feelings behind a mask of indifference, so no one noticed.
Until someone did.
Before bed, when Isagi went to take a bath, Rin was left alone in the room. He sat on the bed and pulled his knees to his chest. It made him feel small, and somehow safer.
It reminded him of the time when he was with Sae—when he was safe, and didn’t even realize what danger was.
Back then, he always had Sae, who cared for him and worried about him. Sae helped with everything, made everything easier.
Life with Sae had been the best thing that could have happened to him. Too bad it didn’t last forever. He wondered what it would have been like if Sae hadn’t flown off to Spain… Would he have stayed the same, or would he have changed anyway?
"Rin? Are you okay? You’ve been sitting there staring at the wall for a while," he suddenly heard a voice that pulled him from his thoughts.
He turned his head and saw Isagi. He hadn’t even noticed when he came back.
"Of course I’m fine. Night," he said softly and almost immediately lay down on the bed.
Isagi looked at him, confused. He decided not to push—if Rin didn’t want to talk, he didn’t have to.
It was already late, so they both lay down on their halves of the bed and turned off the light.
Isagi fell asleep quickly.
Rin stayed awake a little longer, but soon, too tired, he drifted into sleep.
They had both kept their distance as they fell asleep, yet by morning they found themselves in a rather awkward situation.
Since childhood, whenever Rin felt sad or down, he had the habit of hugging something. When he was younger, he always went to Sae’s bed and hugged him. Later, when Sae was gone, a pillow had to do.
But tonight, a pillow definitely wasn’t enough.
Isagi woke up an hour before the alarm, feeling a weight on top of him.
He opened his eyes, and to his surprise, Rin was clinging to his side, arms wrapped tightly around his waist, even drooling a little onto his pajamas.
As for the drooling—he had noticed that before. Rin often woke up with a wet pillow from his own saliva, and it was hard not to notice.
He was always too proud to admit it, so they never spoke of it.
Now, seeing him so calm and defenseless, Isagi felt warmth in his chest. It was a cute sight—Rin’s sharp features softened, his face relaxed, making him look younger, more like his actual age.
Sometimes Isagi forgot he was older than Rin, but whenever he remembered, a protective urge welled up inside him. He had never had younger siblings, and he didn’t know why he felt this way—but it was stronger than him.
He knew Rin would want to sink into the ground from shame when he found out in the morning, but right now, that didn’t matter.
What the hell—" Rin muttered as he woke from his peaceful sleep.
He was hugging Isagi.
His face turned red, and the moment he realized the exact position they were in, he instantly pulled away. "I told you not to cross your half!"
"Uh..." Isagi groaned sleepily. "Actually, you’re the one who crossed onto mine..."
"Shut up." With those words, Rin shot up from the bed like he’d been burned and rushed out of the room, probably heading for the shower.
Isagi smirked to himself. Cute.
Rin ignored him the whole day, refusing to engage in any conversation.
God, he was so embarrassed.
He had unconsciously hugged his biggest rival in his sleep. Embarrassing as hell.
At least it managed to push away his intrusive thoughts about Sae—because all he could picture in his mind was waking up in Isagi’s arms...
It had felt comfortable, but he’d rather die than admit it.
He only hoped Isagi would never bring it up again, never tell anyone, and that it would stay just a one-time situation they’d both forget.
In the evening, Rin was tense, while Isagi behaved normally. For him, it wasn’t anything extraordinary. Sure, he hadn’t expected it, but he also couldn’t understand why Rin was making such a big deal out of it.
He decided not to say anything to him, so as not to upset him even more...
That night was… fine. For some reason, though, there was a bit of awkwardness between them.
The next night, however, was calm.
After a few more, everything felt natural, and fortunately, that situation never happened again.
Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, there was only one night left before the World Cup.
And that’s when, during training, it was announced that Sae would be playing for Japan’s national team.
Of course, Rin’s mood worsened. He tried not to think about it, at least until training was over, but it was difficult.
He was slightly distracted for the rest of the day. He didn’t know if the others noticed, and frankly, he didn’t care.
He just felt… strange. Strange and bad.
And it showed at night.
Rin often had nightmares. He would wake up in the middle of the night, shaken—but that was almost normal. It wasn’t so bad; you could get used to it.
He didn’t want Isagi to think he was afraid of something. Fear was weakness, and he didn’t want to be weak.
He thought Isagi had never noticed his nightmares, and he wanted it to stay that way.
But tonight—the last night they would spend in that shared room, in that shared bed… maybe it was because of the news about Sae.
He had a nightmare.
He was different than usual. First, it was Sae leaving him alone in the snow, and then his voice and all the things he had said. Everything hurt. He didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want to relive it a second time… but apparently, he had no choice.
He felt a tightness in his chest, the cold… as if he were really standing in the snow.
It wasn’t until the middle of the night that he finally woke up. He sat up abruptly, his breathing irregular, his body sticky with sweat.
He didn’t care about anything around him; he just wanted to calm down. He felt like he was suffocating, unable to breathe normally.
He tried. He really tried, but it felt impossible.
Isagi quietly cursed under his breath, waking up and hearing soft whimpers. He thought it was just another one of Rin’s horror movies, but he was wrong.
He opened his eyes and faintly saw Rin in the darkness. Unsure of what to do, he turned on a small lamp that gave off a dim light.
"Rin," he finally said, looking at him. Rin didn’t respond, so Isagi decided to continue.
"Rin, what’s wrong?" he asked, but Rin couldn’t answer.
"Say something. What’s happening?" he repeated.
When there was still no response, he sat beside him and placed a hand gently on his back, stroking it softly.
"Rin, breathe," he said. He had no idea what to do. He didn’t know how to handle someone so panicked and fragile, so he spoke the first thing that came to mind.
"In… out… you can repeat after me." To his surprise, Rin listened and tried to follow his instructions.
It took a little time, but Rin calmed down.
Mostly thanks to Isagi, who was slowly soothing him.
Rin hadn’t said a word. He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t even look at him, seeming lost in thought.
"Come on," Isagi said gently. His voice was soothing and comforting, so Rin instinctively leaned toward him.
Isagi pulled him into his arms and lay down with him on the bed, paying no attention to the line they had set earlier.
"I hate you," Rin whispered, "but… thanks. I guess."
And that was enough for Isagi. Those quiet words were proof that Rin, despite everything, was grateful.
"No problem," he said.
They didn’t speak any more. They didn’t need to.
They simply fell asleep in silence.