By evening, the long-planned event had finally come to an end. Their exhausted minds dragged their bodies down with them.
"Ah—I'm starving." But the two of them still had to follow the coach's car back to the club, then ride their bicycles home.
Fortunately, Mr. Sasaki had thought of that. The two kids had been out all day; not personally picking them up already put him behind the other parents. Making them ride their bikes home on top of that would have seemed far too irresponsible. With that in mind, Mr. Sasaki had driven over. But there was one thing he had not anticipated: the road leading out of the venue was completely jammed. Afraid that getting in would be easy but getting back out would be difficult, he had turned down a side road toward a nearby station.
"Pfft, Mr. Sasaki came to pick us up." Kōshū had turned on his phone as soon as the event ended. "But he's stuck outside and can't get into the venue. Let's meet him by the nearest station."
Mr. Sasaki's car had not been parked for long before he saw two boys in sportswear running toward him. Their steps were incredibly light, like two cheetahs moving side by side. Their pace matched perfectly as they slipped through shoulder-high grass, their heavy paws sinking into the mud without making a sound.
He stared at the sight and fell into thought. It reminded him of his childhood, when he and his older brother had run to school one after the other. The figure ahead had always moved much faster, and he could never catch up. Yet in the underpass, where sounds were amplified, their footsteps often blended together, creating the illusion that they were running side by side.
But once they passed through that