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On the training turf, the morning air still carried a little chill.
The field glittered faintly with dew, every blade of grass silvered by the first thin light of dawn. Most of the early morning Umamusume runners hadn’t arrived yet. The Tracen Academy campus was quiet, the sort of quiet that made every small sound stand out.
Admire Vega preferred it like this.
No crowd. No chatter. Just the turf, the wind, and the long empty straight stretching ahead of her like a promise.
She slowly rolled one shoulder, then the other, flexed her left hand, and took a steadying breath.
The scent of the grass rose around her, cool and clean. For a moment, she simply stood there, gaze tilted upward. The sky was paling now, but one or two stars still clung stubbornly to the edge of morning.
‘...Still there, huh?’
“Ayaaabeee!”
Ayabe shut her eyes. The quiet, naturally, did not survive.
A moment later, her roommate Curren Chan came jogging across the turf path, bright as the rest of the sky at sunrise. She had a sports towel around her neck and a grin that looked entirely too awake for this hour.
“Good morning!♪” Curren Chan cheered, planting herself right in front of her. “Wow, wow. You really do start super early... That’s like, sooo serious of you.”
Ayabe stared at her. “...You’re loud.”
“Hehe. Thanks!♪”
“That... wasn’t a compliment.”
Curren Chan only beamed wider, as if she had decided the difference was optional. “You’re doing partner running with me today, right?”
Ayabe frowned. “I never agreed to that.”
“You didn’t say no this morning.”
“I also didn’t say yes.”
“Mhm! Which means your answer was ‘Curren Chan, please come charm me in person~’”
“That’s... not what silence means.”
Curren Chan leaned in conspiratorially. “It does when it’s cute.”
Ayabe sighed. “I don’t get you...”
“I know.♪” Curren Chan clasped her hands behind her back and rocked on her heels. “Yet, here we are.”
For a second, Ayabe had no response to that.
Last night, Curren Chan had cornered her in the dorm hallway with a dramatic pout and announced that solo training was quote: ‘a total waste of a perfectly cute training partner.’ Then she had insisted; persisted, really, until Ayabe, too tired to keep arguing, had muttered something noncommittal and gone to bed.
Curren Chan, naturally, had interpreted that as a binding contract.
Ayabe looked away toward the track. “I was going to run regardless.”
“Mmhm. And now you get to do it with me! Lucky you♪”
Curren Chan spun once on her heel and threw her arms out toward the empty turf like she was posing for an unseen audience.
“Today’s special feature is: two beautiful horse girls, one refreshing morning, and a partnership run full of sparkle!”
Ayabe rubbed her temple. “You make it sound like an advertisement.”
Curren Chan gasped dramati-cutely. “That means it worked!”
Before Ayabe could reply, Curren Chan moved a little closer, peering at her face.
“But really,” she said, softer now, “you don’t have to look so wary. It’s just a training run. We’ll match pace, do a few stretches of acceleration, and finish with one nice clean lap. Is that so bad?”
“You asking if it’s ‘so bad’ makes me trust it less.”
“Rudey-Toody. I’m being supportive...”
“Annoying.”
Ayabe gave her a long, flat stare.
Curren Chan smiled back without flinching.
At last, Ayabe exhaled through her nose. “...Fine.”
Curren Chan’s eyes lit up. “Yay!♪”
“But just for today.”
They began with warmups. Curren Chan chatted through nearly all of them.
Ayabe had already expected that, but somehow hearing it and enduring it were still different things.
Curren commented on the weather, on the softness of the light, on which warm-up drills looked cutest from the side, and on how Ayabe’s serious expression would definitely make her popular in a ‘cool yet beautiful’ kind of way if she’d only let people see it more often.
Ayabe answered with grunts, short phrases, or silence.
And still, somehow, Curren Chan seemed to carried the conversation for both of them.
When they finally stepped onto the turf side by side, their shoes brushed through the damp grass with a whispering sound. Curren Chan bounced lightly in place.
“Okay! First stretchy, nice and easy. We stay together, got it...?”
“I know how partner running works.”
Ayabe looked ahead. The lane opened before them, long and green and faintly shining under the growing dawn.
“...Ready?”
They pushed off together.
At first, their rhythm didn’t quite match. Ayabe’s stride was efficient, silent, almost severe. Curren Chan’s had a natural buoyant spring to it, lighter on the surface, but quicker to adjust.
A few seconds in, Curren Chan shifted; finding the cadence naturally, until their footfalls began to align.
One-two. One-two. One-two.
The wind moved past them in cool ribbons.
For a while, neither of them spoke. Ayabe found, reluctantly, that Curren Chan was not difficult to run beside. She didn’t crowd. She didn’t drift. She held the pace exactly where it needed to be, as if she could feel it in the air.
Despite everything, she was, as one would say, a ‘first-rate Umamusume’.
A memory stirred in Ayabe’s chest of her own first run, of the scent and the speed and the strange overwhelming joy of movement. The world slipping by in vivid streaks. Her heartbeat ringing like an alarm. For just a fleeting second, she felt it again.
“Nnnghh…”
Beside her, Curren Chan glanced over.
“Are you okay...?”
“I’m... fine...”
They rounded the bend.
The sun was higher now, washing the turf grass in golden light. The remaining stars had vanished.
Curren Chan must have noticed the shift in her expression.
“Hey,” she said, a little gentler, “look at the grass.”
Ayabe frowned. “What?”
“The grass. It’s sparkling.”
“It’s dew.”
“Mmhm. Sparkling dew.” Curren Chan smiled. “Same thing~♪”
Ayabe looked down despite herself. Countless droplets flashed at the edge of her sight as they ran, scattering brightness with every step.
Curren Chan went on, voice easy now, less performative than before. “You always look up, Ayabe. Which, okay, makes sense. Stars are pretty. Super pretty. But things down here can sparkle too.
Ayabe went silent.
Curren Chan puffed a little harder, though she kept her grin. “Not as much as me, obviously~”
“There it is...” Ayabe muttered.
“...huh?”
“The part where you ruin the moment.”
Curren Chan laughed. “Aww. So you admit it was a moment~?”
Ayabe didn’t answer, but... she didn’t deny it, either.