Everyman—Chapter 6 (Patreon)

AN: As before, MP3 below.

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Giovanni stared at her, wearing an unreadable expression. He couldn’t believe this was the same girl from two years ago.

“Damn…”

Speechless, his eyes swept her again. She looked entirely different.

This time, Luci didn’t appear discomforted by his gaze. Instead, she almost seemed proud.

“Like I said, I’ve been running since primary school.”

Clasping her hands behind her back, she twirled around, like a show-off.

Giovanni eyed her appreciatively. Her figure was a lot more impressive, given past context.

“…and you’re not wearing glasses.”

When she faced him again, he looked into her brown eyes. The ‘Lucrezia’ he knew wore a pair of black, thick-rimmed spectacles. They were practically a feature.

Luci nodded, sweeping aside her bangs with one hand and pointing at her eyes with the other.

“I got contacts when I started running.”

She smiled at Giovanni, showing off her braces. However, noticing him looking, she turned self-conscious.

“They’re coming off at the end of the year.”

Half-covering her mouth with one hand, she delivered a muffled statement.

Giovanni gave a non-committal hum.

“Still, you disappeared so suddenly. It’s been long since I last saw you.”

He looked at her, feeling nostalgic.

Luci’s smile flattened.

“Yeah, well, I got busy with stuff.”

She tried to keep her tone measured, but Giovanni detected some complicated emotions, hidden within.

Luci wasn’t on Ha-Rin’s level, as far as old friends were concerned, but she and Giovanni were still regular acquaintances.

“It’s too bad. Having someone to talk books with was fun.”

Unconsciously, his eyes on her softened. In his mind’s eye, he saw himself sitting in a library next to an overweight girl, wearing thick-rimmed glasses.

Noticing his shifting mood, Luci shoved her hands back into her pockets. She tried to look grumpy instead of sad, but didn’t quite manage it.

“Aren’t you friends with that blonde guy?”

She referred to Hugo, her tone grudging.

Giovanni chuckled strangely.

“We don’t always have the same taste in books.”

He understood Luci’s implicit meaning, that he replaced her with someone else.

The girl stared at him for a moment before realizing what he left unsaid. When she did, she covered her eyes with one hand and groaned, embarrassed on his behalf.

“Don’t tell me, you still read those cheesy romance novels?”

She glanced at him through the gap between her fingers, her tone full of disbelief.

Giovanni smiled at her, like looking at a hypocrite.

“You’re talking like you didn’t read the same stuff.”

He clasped his hands behind his head, leaning against the smooth trunk. If he was embarrassed, he didn’t show it.

Luci shook her head firmly, fluttering her shoulder-length brown hair.

“No! I don’t even read anymore.”

Her statement drew a frown out of Giovanni. The girl was even more of a bookworm than himself. He thought there must be a reason for dropping her favorite hobby.

“Why?”

His tone was suspicious.

For a few seconds, Luci turned silent.

“I just don’t have time anymore.”

Eventually, she provided an answer. She tried to sound indifferent, but Giovanni detected a strange note to her voice.

His frown deepened, but then he sighed, relaxing his expression.

“It’s fine if you don’t want to say. I just think it’s a shame. Rummaging around in the library, reading together, talking about our favorite parts—it was fun. You seemed to enjoy it too.”

Raising an eyebrow, he shot her a pointed glance.

Looking off to the side, Luci turned her face away. However, Giovanni noticed her lips pressed into a line. He couldn’t see her eyes, but he imagined thoughts swirling behind them.

For a while, she hesitated, thinking of what to say, but before she could, Giovanni continued.

“Do you think it’s nerdy or lame?”

Asking the question, he raised an eyebrow. It seemed out of nowhere, but he got a few comments over the years from other students. Naturally, he shrugged it off, but he was more mature than his peers, for obvious reasons.

If Luci encountered the same, she may have taken it to heart.

The girl tried a dismissive laugh as a cover-up, but Giovanni could read her like an open book.

“Alright, I won’t say anything else. It’s not my business, anyways.”

He closed his eyes, having figured out most of it—because of her being overweight and a nerd, she probably got a lot of nasty comments. In any case, getting in shape wasn’t a bad thing.

Luci remained silent, caught flat-footed.

About a dozen-or-so seconds later, Giovanni heard grass crunching. Yet, she didn’t leave, but walked toward him. When she arrived, she sat about an arm’s length away, also leaning against the trunk.

“I forgot how annoying you are.”

He heard the words coming from beside him, spoken in a grumpy tone.

Keeping his eyes closed, Giovanni smiled.

“Do you like running?”

He questioned her, ignoring the provocation. In the end, he couldn’t quite smother his nosiness.

Luci hummed in affirmation.

“Yeah. It makes me forget about stuff.”

Her tone was strangely wistful.

Giovanni swallowed a sigh. He didn’t know her problems, whether they went beyond normal teenager things and they weren’t close enough to ask.

“Well, that’s good. It would suck if you dropped something you liked for something you didn’t.”

He opened his eyes and looked at her.

Luci was staring ahead, at the group of steadily-growing athletes. It couldn’t be far from two-o-clock, but there weren’t more than a dozen people.

“Yeah.”

Her answer was non-committal.

Giovanni considered lending her a book-or-two, but picking up on her mood, he could only drop it.

It was a little disappointing—he rediscovered an old friend, yet it seemed they didn’t have much in common anymore. After all, he wasn’t really into running. He only did cross-country because it was better than the alternatives.

The conversation lulled, but it wasn’t really awkward. Both of them were thinking their own thoughts.

In time, Ms. Streisand arrived, though there were still students absent. Seeing her, Giovanni stood and patted the grass and leaves from his shorts. He was about to ask for permission, but unexpectedly, after scanning the crowd, the female coach met his eyes and made a shooing motion.

‘Did Coach Martinez tell her to send me off?’

He idly wondered if the two of them were involved. Having similar roles, they often interacted and could frequently be seen talking together. It wouldn’t be strange if some romantic feelings developed.

Rousing himself, Giovanni nodded to Ms. Streisand before turning to Luci.

“I’m going. See you tomorrow.”

He gave her a small wave.

The girl noticed the exchange between him and Ms. Streisand, but apparently it wasn’t interesting enough for her to ask.

“See you tomorrow, John.”

Mirroring his movements, she stood as well, but just as Giovanni turned to leave, Luci took a step forward and hugged him. Caught off guard, he barely had time to appreciate the feeling of her generous chest before it was over.

Withdrawing, she flashed her braces at him and left, walking toward the other athletes.

Giovanni’s eyes lingered on her retreating figure before he sighed and left. He wasn’t looking forward to the upcoming confrontation.

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Making his way over to the football fields, Giovanni saw teams practicing. Being the premier sport among boys and given the four year-groups, there were a lot of them.

Most were finishing up, given the school-day was nearly over, but one team was an exception. Near the boys’ dormitories, the seventh grade A’s and B’s were still doing drills.

“Contact, contact!”

“Jason, go long!”

“No, pull left!”

“The center is a dummy! Bison, off-load the ball!”

Call-outs sounded from Giovanni’s old team mates. They were having a practice match against the seventh-grade B’s, who barely managed to keep up. The latter only stood a chance because of the A’s handicap, playing with a smaller team.

Coming to a standstill next to an equipment shed, Giovanni crossed his arms, leaning against the wall. He scanned the field, observing the familiar scenery. He was surprised at the faint excitement in his chest—despite quitting, he had to admit, right now, he felt an urge to play.

His eyes followed Bison, the boy making use of his considerable mass and strength to cover ground. Three people were hanging off him, but he kept going. Eventually, like a buffalo hunted by a pride of lions, he was brought to the ground.

However, pulling off an uncharacteristically agile maneuver, he one-handedly spun the oval pigskin over his left shoulder. It seemed ridiculous, since there was no one to receive, but like magic, a tall, athletic boy appeared in the gap.

He was so fast his movements were a blur. Before the B-team knew what happened, he was already in their quarter, the ball clasped firmly in the crook of his left elbow.

Looking at him, Giovanni’s expression was indifferent. The youth in question was the A-team captain, a boy nicknamed Silver. He was an incredibly good player, but the two of them never saw eye-to-eye.

After scoring, Silver walked back to his side of the field, basking in the awed gazes from both teams. Once he got his stride, there wasn’t a single person in Trivandrum who could catch up to him.

Sighing inwardly, Giovanni shook his head.

“That’s game.”

Suddenly, a deep, measured voice came from somewhere, off to the side. A tall, handsome man was sitting on the bleachers with a clip-board in his hands. He looked in his forties, having dusky skin and short, salt-and-pepper hair, with a groomed beard to match.

When he spoke, everyone immediately turned silent.

Coach Martinez stood, walking toward the field. The boys watched him approach, most of them with unconsciously lowered heads.

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