Genuine(Kushida x Ayanokouji)

Chapter 4.5

Ayanokouji POV

Another day has come, and I start to get up from bed. I woke up at dawn to finish my usually routine that I set up a while back. I brought a small bag and a water bottle with me before leaving my room to start training. It was still 4 in the morning, classes don't start in another 4 hours, so most students are still asleep at this time. I carefully picked a certain route to start jogging after I did a few stretches, leaving my stuff at the same place. I finished my first lap in a few minutes, the entire lap was around 10 km, so it was enough as a second round of warm up for myself. At the second lap, I decided to see how fast I could finish the course. I do a few more preliminary warm ups, and added another normal and shorter jog before returning to the same place.

"Alright, let's see how this goes" I say to myself

I bend downwards and ready my position to sprint, I have a mental countdown before taking off as fast as I can. I run through the route, over a few obstacles like poorly placed trash bins and benches. I seem to be running quite fast as I noticed a few leaves get displaced from the trail of air that I cut through.

This feeling of running feels pleasant, liberating, a kind of feeling that helps me to forget about my troublesome circumstances. I can feel the cold, morning air on my face as I sprint and leap over the track. A few minutes afterwards, I find myself at the starting point, finishing my jog and I start cooling down. I take a look at the stopwatch on my phone to see that I finished the course at around 29 minutes, surprising me a bit.

"I was sure I could finish this faster at the peak of my ability. An entire year with only light exercise in that mansion must have slowed me down, and accounting for my relaxed schedule these past few months..."

"I should be able to improve this back to my original ability" I guess it will take a while, but a few more weeks should put myself back to shape.

I finish a few more rounds and do some other exercises to finish up. I head back to the bench where I placed my stuff and bring them to a corner at some building. I start to wipe off the sweat from training and change into my clothes, but as I was doing this, a certain person happens to appear from the corridor to my left.

"Eh? Ayanokouji-kun? What are you d- Ehhhh!?" It seems that Kushida had decided to go out as well

I look at my phone to check the time to see that it was already 6:30 in the morning, I guess it was a good time to enjoy the early sun and have a short walk. She most likely didn't expect to see anyone else up so early, which is clear on her face but, her eyes seem to trail elsewhere. I was still in the middle of changing, so it must be uncomfortable for Kushida to see me half naked. So I quickly put on a shirt over myself.

"A-Ayanokouji-kun! Couldn't you have changed in a bathroom somewhere?"

"It's still 6:30, the venues are only starting to open"

"Y-yes, but, you shouldn't expose yourself like that! That's naughty!" Kushida says, with a bit of red on her cheeks

"Well now, I didn't expect to see anyone else either, do you usually take walks early in the morning as well?"

"I do sometimes, I can also vent my frustrations in an open place where I know I won't see any people, so it works out fine for me" She says, still using her usually cheerful side