"Kyosuke...!" Heath struggles to say as he held his injured knee. "Kuga-senpai...?" Kohinata calls out, going to Heath's side as Kyosuke look back at him.

"Kuga-senpai, you disgraced the Honan Stride Club!" He yelled."Kyosuke-nii..." I whispered...

~*~

Heath was wapping his ankle in the clubroom, Riku stared at it, then later decieded to ask about it.

"Um, Senpai? What's wrong with your foot?" Riku spoke up and Heath looked at him.

"The Atami course was pretty rough. I just wanted to be extra safe." He answered. "One injury can ruin a whole lot of things at once." He says looking back at his bandaged foot.

On the other hand, I sat beside Kohinata, who was talking to Kadowaki on the phone. "So...?"

"I broke my clavicle, but otherwise, I just have some scratches." Kadowaki informs him.

"Okay..."

"I'll be moving to a hospital in Tokyo tomorrow! Oh, H.T.H! Hottie in The Hospital! No! My angel! I wasn't trying to escape! Oh, please be gentle with me..." Kadowaki dropped th call while I sweatdropped.

"Seems like he's kinda okay..." I said. "He hang up..." Nana says.

"Well, that's good news." Heath stated. "I'm so relieved!" Riku said while stretching his arms up

"Alright, start streching! Make sure to warm up well. Don't get hurt!" Heath announced

"Yes, sir!" We replied. I lokked over to Kohinata, who seemed down, I placed a hand on his shoulder.

"He'll be alright!" I cheered while he smiled weakly in response.

~*~

We have ended our training and now, we headed back to the clubroom and gathered when we got there. Dan-sensei was going to say some things.

"We don't have enough runners, so we may not be able to participate at all. Worst case senario, we'll have to withdraw." Dan-sensei explained

"What? But we have Ichinose-kun!" Nana said.

"I can't run for this match, I'm sorry..." I answered, I had to do something, not only for my sake but also for the team and that person, doing this is risky but I know it would be worth it.

"We will not withdraw." Takeru states

"Then, we have to find a replacement. I wonder who's around...?" Riku asked himself. "Someone... AHH!" he yelled

"You know someone!" Takeru dragged Riku out to find that particular someone. "Whoa! Wait! Hasekura-senpai, do you remember that one guy?!" Riku desperately asked but wasn't heard.

"Wait! I'm going too!" Nana yelled as she ran after the two. Which leaves me, Heath and Kohinata.

"Chototsu Moushin. The freshmen are very active this year." Dan-sensei states as he looked over to me.

"If that's the case, I'll be going to." I went after them. Since I was also genuinely curious who they're looking for.

I was walking around, looking for them and at the same time taking a good look at the school, not until I heard a faint voice of Riku saying "Kuga-senpai!"

'Him?' I thought as I ran towards the voice. When I got there, I saw the three going towards Kyosuke and attempts to persuade him to join. I didn't want to disturb them, so I hid behind a nearby tree, only to watch and listen. Takeru was the first one to speak;

"We need people, please join us." Takeru asked emotionlessly and immediately while the others started panicking about his sudden attempt, but Takeru continued. "Please join the Stride Club. Please run with us."

"I no longer have the right to participate in Stride." Kyosuke declined and reasoned as he got on his ride and went off. Leaving Riku hanging on the thought of the 'right' he talked about. "Right? What do you mean...?"

With that, I clenched my fist and went back. 'Still taking blame and saying fancy words like a right...'

I made my way made back to the clubroom to get my uniform and change, I quickly did so and after, I entered the room in a middle of a conversation.

"You asked Kyosuke?" Heath asked. "Yes. You said the other day that he was this awesome runner better than you." Riku answered. "Sorry I did it without your permission..." he also apologized.

"So... What did he say?" Heath questioned. "Something about him not having the right... I didn't know there was a right involved in stride." Riku explained as Heath and Kohinata cringed.

~*~

I was currently on a train going to Atami to visit Kadowaki in the hospital, waiting for my stop, I could only think about things. Random thoughts only kept coming and coming until I finally made it to Atami.

Once I got out of the train station, I ran on the sidewalks to the hospital, although on the way I had some stops but I kept myself in track. When I finally made it to the hospital, I went to a counter, asked for Kadowaki's room then followed he nurse's directions until I found a door with a name plate beside it that labels 'Kadowaki Ayumu.'

Kadowaki's POV

Someone had knocked on my door and I told them to come in. My gaze was on the door waiting to see the person behind it. It was opened quickly that it made me jump a bit, from there, the person was seen, Ichinose Shun.

"Tada! Kadowaki-senpai! I bought a cupcake, look! It has glasses too!" he said like a nine-year old, I chuckled a little then decided to greet him.

"Ah! Ichinose-shi! Come have a seat, you must have been tired on journey here!" I greeted while he nodes in response as he took a seat and gave me the cupcake he was walking about earlier.

"I was suppose to get here earlier but... I might have stopped a few times..." he apologized as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Stops? For what?" my curiosity had risen. "I may have stopped for a bit of candy and sweets..." Ichinose replied to my question, holding up a plastic filled up with candy.

'This is a bit?!' I sweated dropped but shook the thought off afterwards as I just placed the cupcake on the small table beside my bed.

Ichinose picked out a particular candy pack, opened it and placed one on his mouth. "So good!" he compliments it as he relaxed more, he look at me and asked me if I wanted some, I accepted as I took a piece of it and tasted it. My whole body shivered.

"It's so sour!" I commented while I placed my palms on my cheeks, Ichinose seemed to laugh at my reaction.

"So, are you feeling better?" he asked after he laughed. "Yeah, don't worry." I told him while nodded his head but I saw him tighten his grip on his pants and he quickly look lost in thoughts.

Shun's POV

'Kadowaki-senpai ran with all he had and yet I... I ended running half-heartedly...' I thought unaware of the concerned look of Kadowaki.

"I'm so stupid..." I whispered to myself and looked up to Kadowaki. "I'll just buy water in the lobby but I'll be back." I excused myself as he slowly said okay.

I left stuff in the room and exited, I took the stairs going down to the lobby because I didn't want to wait for the elevator. When I made it to the nearest lobby, I went towards the vending machines, there was one for snacks and one for drinks. I went in front the one for drinks, and I pressed a few buttons, placed some money and the bottle of water had dropped.

I walked back to the stairs, there weren't much, so it was no big deal. But when I was nearing Kadowaki's  room, I heard chatting and stopped in front of the door, I slowly and quietly opened the door a bit and peek through the small space and saw Kohinata talking with Kadowaki. I didn't think of going in, I just watched them and listen to their conversation.

Kohinata started saying sorry while bowing his head and was saying that it was his fault, guilt was clearly mixed with his voice, while on the other hand Kadowaki just asked his questions about practice and the search for the new member thing. I guess Dan-sensei had told him about it already.

"What if, like a super legendary doctor appears, and-" Kohinata was interrupted by Kadowaki. "Hozumi. Even if such a miracle happened, I won't be good enough. We have to win. Otherwise, EOS is over. I don't want that to happen. I'm a club member too." He ended his sentence with a smile.

"Ichinose-san?!" I heard my named being yelled, I jumped and my gaze automatically had spotted Riku, Takeru and Nana before I could have ran away. "O-oh, hey..." I greeted them as I placed a hand on the back of my head.

"Is Kohinata-senpai there?" Nana asked while Takeru and Riku waited for my response, I just nodded. Then Riku had knocked on the door and opened it. "There you are!" he yelled seeing Kohinata.

"Well, hello there, fellow comrades! What a pleasant surprise!" Kadowaki greeted only to be unnoticed by them, who just went straight to Kohinata. I just sweat dropped. Kadowaki was the one in the hospital injured yet he was ignored.

"I'm sorry... I really can't let Kuga-senpai..." Kohinata apologized. "It's alright. We're only here to listen to your feelings!" Riku said as the other two agreed.

"I can't run with Kuga-senpai, who betrayed the Homan Stride Club. Even if we did run, we probably wouldn't make a winning team. Stride is all about connecting emotions. I can't join someone who hurt Heath-kun's leg like that." Kohinata explained his reason, and with his last sentence surprised them.

"But Heath waited and waited, so that the club wouldn't get disbanded. So that we could run again. One whole year... With no one to rely on! That's why I won't let him. He chose to betray us, he can't just come crawling back. I can't let that happen." He finished.

I gritted my teeth with anger and looked down in sadness, I remembered what I saw, I had a different story from Kohinata's. "If he's not trustworthy, then we have no choice. Lets find someone else." Takeru states.

"Kyosuke-!" I stopped my sentence as Heath had entered the room and said "Wait."

"Hasekura-senpai..."

"My leg... it wasn't Kyosuke. Kyosuke was the one who protected the Stride Club." Heath stated while the other started saying thing like 'What do you mean?'

"Listen, nobody talks about this outside this room, do you hear? If wrong people hear this story, our club might get shut down." Heath says as he stood beside me.

"Heath-kun... What are you saying?" Kohinata asked as he stood from his chair. "Sorry Hozumi. There's something I haven't told you... or anyone. The true KGB incident."

"Until last year, Homan Stride Club had tons of members. Most of the regulars were third-year students, but when Dan-sensei officially became coach, he added Kyosuke, Tomoe and me to the roster. We were undefeated, but a few third-year students started to quit. Then came he second match of the Trail Tour. Our Relationer at that time was a third-year, but he got tricked by a bluff."

Flashback

I was looking for Kyosuke and his teammate, Heath, since I saw the accident in the race as I watch the match.

"What's wrong with you?!" I heard a yell and quickly sprinted there. "Hasekura wipes out, and Kuga just stops? You guys are unbelievable." says another third-year. I stood behind the corner turn's wall and watched.

"That's not correct. Senpai, you just got tricked by the bluff. I heard the whole exchange. They are not at fault." Yagami Tomoe spoke up. "Yagami, you little-!"

"Heath..." Kyosuke was helping Heath up, I was going to run and help-

"You too, stop pretending that you hurt yourself!" the third-year had kicked Heath's leg with rage, causing Heath to yell in pain. I stopped my tracks, wide-eyed.

Kyosuke had stopped the third-years from further violence as he hit them down. "Kyosuke...!"

Other teammates had come to the scene and started looking at Kyosuke, "Kuga-senpai?" thinking that it was all his doing...

"Kyosuke-nii..."

End of Flashback

"Kyosuke was ready for the consequences. If word got out that multiple club members had a brawl.-" I intercepted Heath's sentence and continued it my self.

"Instead, Kyosuke just took all the lame for himself, and insisted he did it all, Heath-senpai's leg and everything..." I stopped there. "None of the third-year students denied that story." Heath continued.

"So, Kuga-senpai did all that to save the club...?" Nana questioned to be replied with a short nod.

"And so Kyosuke left the club, Tomoe got invited to the U.S. and took off. Kyosuke did protect the club, but only Hozumi and I were left as members. Funny, huh, Hozumi?"

"No, it's not. That just pushed all of the club's problems onto you. Is that what you wanted? A hallows shell of the Stride Club? Even if it meant you were going to be all alone? And Kuga-senpai thinks he protected the club by doing that?" Kohinata told him.

Riku suddenly yelled as he stood up with arms raised. "I don't get it! But, seriously! Hasekura-senpai, do you want to run with Kuga-senpai again, or not? Kohinata-senpai! To summarize, if Kuga-senpai came back, Hasekura would be happy, and everything would be okay, right? Those third-years are no longer here anymore, so who cares?!" Riku stated.

"Riku it's not that simple-" Kohinata was cut-off by Heath's laugh. "Yeah, Yagami is right. Maybe I overthought. We're looking for a new member... I know a guy who runs really fast, and... I really want to connect my feelings with him again." Heath said while Riku was getting all pumped.

"Okay! Let's-" Riku was interrupted. "Yagami. This my case to close." Heath said.

~*~

After all what Heath said, he even apologized and explained, but he was left unanswered to the question: 'Can you please run with us?' Kyosuke just left him with a second glance.

I quickly got out of my hiding spot and ran to a particular someone's home. As soon as I was there I stared at the door for a moment then knocked on it. "Kyosuke! Let me in!" I yelled while knocking, after a short while, he opened the door.

"Shun. What is it?" he asked. "What is it? Are you kidding me? What's your answer?" I said while he just walked back in a vein had appear on my forehead but he left the door open, so I walked in.

"Kyosuke! It's not only Heath who misses and wants to run with you! I want to run with you, like how we used to... Like when I was little..." I stated as I dropped my bag on the floor and sat down on the couch.

"You were the one who showed me stride, telling me about the wind thing and the one who always puts a bandage on me if I tripped or something especially on my forehead. I want you to run again..." I slowly dozed off in my mid-sentence because of the eventful day...

~*~

3rd Person's POV

"This could be the..."

"Whoa! Dust in eyes! This attack penetrates lens armor!" Kadowaki says as he held up his arm. While everyone else could feel a presence behind them and saw the person who they were waiting for, Kuga Kyosuke.

"Third-year. Kuga Kyosuke. I wish to return to the Stride Club, effective today." Kyosuke states while the team was surprised but really happy.

"First-year. Ichinose Shun. The unnoticed one, effective today..." Shun muttered while looking away, who was actually standing beside Kyosuke since they got there, but everyone had either laughed or chuckled at the said remark...

"Kyosuke!" Heath called out for the said guy, who smiled.

And with that they had shared a high-five while Shun felt relieved and happy at the sight and so did the others...

Ichiro Junpuu.

_-_-_

Thanks to everyone who voted on me story on commented!! And also to the readers as well! And thanks for adding my story to your reading list!! I'm so happy! So thank you!!!