At the Finish Line [Haiji Kiyose] - Run With the Wind

twenty-five - "are you worried?"

Tapping the pen to her chin, eyebrows furrowed and nose crinkled in concentration, Chiyo's eyes scan the textbook in front of her.

After the Chikusei-sou residents returned from their summer retreat, a few weeks later they were back into normal life. University classes, evenings together and, for the guys, training got more intense.

With it now being September, the weeks and months leading up to not only the Hakone qualifier but the race itself are slowly ticking away.

As for Chiyo and Haiji, not much has happened between the pair in terms of discussing the kiss at the training camp. Not only has Haiji been busy with running, but Chiyo has also been trying her hardest to keep her head down with classes and lectures.

"What are you humming?"

She looks up from the page. "Huh?"

Haiji laughs, turning around in his seat to grab a folder from the kitchen shelving unit. "You've been humming the same tune for the last ten minutes and I can't figure it out."

Taking a sip of water from her bottle, Chiyo shrugs her shoulders. "To be honest, whatever comes into my head. I can't place the song myself, it's just stuck in my head."

The two return their attention to their work, Chiyo's humming resuming.

"You wanna be an airforce ranger; You wanna live a life of danger..."

Haiji grins, glancing up from his page. "You've remembered some lyrics now, that's music to my ears."

"I don't think I can remember the next line," She presses her lips together. "I have a feeling I shouldn't say it even if I could remember..."

"Oh, speaking of things we shouldn't say," Haiji places a finger to his chin. "Well, I phrased that wrong. Anyway, there's something I've wanted to talk about with you for a while but we've not been alone."

Chiyo leans slightly closer, resting her chin on the palm of her hand. "Sure. What is it?"

As he clears his throat so reply, the curtain of the kitchen rises and Yuki walks in, holding a small stack of papers. He yawns and scratches the back of his neck. "Here you go, Chiyo. It's that test you asked for."

She gasps, taking it and thanking him. "I got 83%, not half bad."

Yuki adjusts his glasses. "Yeah, it's not bad at all. I've got to say though, I'm glad I was able to drop Economics last year. Those questions on statistics were some pure nonsense."

Chiyo waves a hand, studying the question paper. "I'm not surprised, it took me a while to wrap my head around it."

"Economics and Law are both pure nonsense to me." Haiji looks between the two. "Literature is a piece of cake compared to both of them."

"Glad to see you looking so smug about that fact." Chiyo jokingly rolls her eyes.

Yuki points a thumb to the corridor. "Hey, you heard Prince leave a few minutes ago, right, Haiji?"

He shakes his head. "No, where'd he go?"

"Out for a jog, I think. That's what Kakeru said," Yuki shrugs, turning back to the door. "Anyway, I'm off to my room."

"Listening to the Artistic Monkey's new album?" Chiyo questions. "It's supposed to be good."

Yuki laughs. "How'd you guess? Goodnight you two."

"Goodnight, Yuki."

Once he disappears back to his room, Chiyo taps her pen to her chin again, looking back at Haiji.