How long has it been. . .

His gray eyes slowly averted to the clock hung up on the wall. The dark room made it hard to properly see the time, and he squinted. Fed up in a mere two seconds, Nosaka grabbed his cell phone from beside his pillow. The sudden bright light was so harsh.

It was four in the morning. It seems like he'd been staring at the ceiling for a good two hours, trying to become tired again, and fall asleep. Though, no feeling drowsiness had taken over. The red haired male looked over at his roommate - Nishikage was sleeping perfectly fine.

How the hell did me manage to do that? How did literally anyone manage to get proper hours of sleep, and be refreshed in the morning. Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Nosaka ended up getting out of bed. As quiet as a cat in it's paws, he left the room.

Might as well get started early, if he couldn't fall back asleep.

He draped his sweat jacket over his shoulders sauntering down the deathly silent hallway. Running his fingers through his tresses of red hair, Nosaka heaved a breath, stepping into the lunch room. The male came to a sudden halt, seeing as the room was without any lights on but. . . There was someone occupying a seat.

Nosaka blinked his gray eyes in confusion, watching the white haired female shoot whipped cream into her mouth. It took him a second, before he quietly started chuckling to himself.

After hearing him, Park immediately started choking on the whipped cream, bringing a hand to her mouth to swallow properly.

"Oh god, you scared the hell out of me." She grumbled under her breath.

"Sorry, I didn't expect anyone else to be here. . ." Nosaka responded, awkwardly trailing off. "I'll leave if you don't want to be bothered."

Park stared at him for a second, before gesturing towards one of the chairs with a quick tilt of her head; "I won't bite your arm off, come sit."

He took her word for it, and sat at the same table. Even though she said she wouldn't, it really felt like he was about to get stabbed here.

"Why are you up so early?" In attempt to start small talk, Nosaka spoke up. Really, he had no experience in talking to people, despite how strange that sounds. He was constantly walking on eggshells - especially with this senpai of his. Those brown eyes could be genuinely ruthless.

Of course he wasn't scared of her hitting him or anything, he just hated how guilty she made him feel.

"I'm almost always up this early, but most of the time I don't come here in the lunch room. . ." Park trailed off, her eyes falling on the male opposite her. "Because you come in here."

"Where do you go then-?" He furrowed his brows.

"The lobby, stairs outside, sometimes the pitch." With a breath, Park lifted herself up and out of her seat.

"Where are you going?"

"Kitchen." Her response came terribly quickly. Without saying anything else, she'd just disappeared for a good five minutes. In the meantime, Nosaka was just fiddling with his cell phone. 

He expected Park to get a soda for herself or something, but she ended up placing a mug of coffee down in front of him. He definitely had to be dreaming, because this defied the laws of nature - basically.

". . . I don't understand." Nosaka wasn't really sure what else to say.

"It's coffee, silly. Don't you drink this stuff? Even though it's disgusting?" The last part came with a small scoff.

"That's not what I mean." He shook his head, sighing. "I mean 'why did you make it for me?'. You don't even see me as a teammate." Unintentionally, his voice was rather accusing.

Again, her brown eyes just stared at him. . .

"I don't know who told you that, but I definitely didn't." Frustrated, she pulled out the second chair away from him, and sat down sideways. "You did something stupid, and I got angry with you - that doesn't mean I hate you and want you to die." Park piped up, as the male continued to look terribly lost.

". . . You should." After looking away, and down at the steam of the coffee, he muttered under his breath. There was a pause after that, bur Park refused to yell at him or anything of the sort.

"Do you even regret using those dirty and pathetic plays?" Park cocked her head to the side.

"Of course I do!" The red haired male burst out. "Of course I don't want to play unfairly, but we had no other choice. . . !"

"What are you so scared of!?"

What is he so scared of. . .

What is he so scared of. . .

Scared of. . .

"Failure."

Quietly, Park reached out a hand and gently placed it on his shoulder in attempt to get his attention again.

"You are not responsible for the version of you that other people created in their minds." When she said this, his breath hitched.

"The perfect Nosaka Yuuma that everyone thinks you are - that isn't your duty to keep up. Spread your own wings, don't hate yourself for things that you can't change and start appreciating yourself for what you can and will change." Pulling her hand back, Park managed a rather weak smile for his sake. "People can be angry at you for the mistakes you make, but they can't be angry with the fact that you're only human."

Nosaka's gray eyes slowly averted back to the mug that he subconsciously gripped tightly.

"You make it sound so easy." He muttered.

"Yeah, I get that." With a sigh, the white haired girl leaned over, proceeding to pipe a shit ton of whipped cream on top of his coffee. "But you can do it, I'm sure. Just play soccer, who cares about anything else?"

"I see. . ." Nosaka forced himself to heave a deep breath to calm his nerves. "Thank you."

"Nooo problem kiddo." With such nonchalance, she chirped.

Finally feeling much better, he took a small sip of his coffee - the whipped cream ending up all over his face. He didn't think it was that bad, but, Park may have been laughing far too loud.

It was then, that he mentally gave up on trying to be the emperor that everyone sought him out to be. There wasn't anything wrong with being a simple person - like Endou or Asuto, people who just wanted to play soccer and have fun. It wouldn't be a bad feeling to be a soccer freak once in a while, and somewhere deep down, he was definitely one himself.

No, Nosaka wasn't satisfied with himself or anything - but he could slowly grow, and soon, maybe one day he will be satisfied. 

If he was unable to overcome a team from Orion, then he would use that wit of his to find fair ways to do so. Playing unfairly wasn't satisfying in the slightest, after all. Inazuma Japan was on the side of good - it was about time he started acting like it.

Park said Outei was made up of a bunch of frauds once, and he really hated the fact that she was right. The scales of ares may have fucked up his brain, but it was one of the reasons he could play on the pitch so well. If he hadn't went through any of it, he wouldn't be as special as he was now - frankly, he'd rather be a nobody rather than himself. Might as well use that 'gift' for good.

So, it ends now.

Putting up with the pain.

Getting frustrated with impatience.

Caught up with anxiety and paranoia.

It ends now, right in this lunch room, right beside this girl who punched him in the face once.

For someone who really hated coffee, Park made a very good cup of it.