better than me, SemiShira

𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑒

I skated over to the skating rink, quickly retied my Inlineskates and started skating. In the beginning, I skated rather slow. I wanted to skate long, not fast. Besides, there was no sense in skating fast besides showing off. I would later but for now, I wanted to skate at this speed. 

I skated rounds, thinking about random things. I didn't need to concentrate when I skated so I always used that time to think about some random things. That's why I only realized that there were other people inline-skating with me when they had already caught up with me. 

Without thinking, I increased my speed I didn't want them to think that I was slower than them. Maybe some of them were. I would find out later. 

There was the grey-haired guy from earlier which was pretty fast, yet, I was faster. Additionally, there was a guy with black hair who was pretty fast. His technique looked really good. But I was faster than him as well. There were four or five other guys skating but soon enough I overtook all of them. 

After a while, two other boys showed up. One was rather average although his technique was neat. He was still really fast but he had way more potential. The other was fast. Like really fast. His tempo was the same I had when I started today but he got faster with every second he skated. He was an actual opponent.

I slowed down on purpose so he would catch up a bit. As soon as he did, I increased my speed and he did as well. He wanted to beat me and I wanted to do the same. We skated for a while but it was clear that I was faster. He seemed really disappointed that I was but I didn't care. I wasn't the one who started that race. 

"Rou!" Suga called out and I immediately stopped. "That was cool," the blonde boy which raced with me said. He stopped as well although I was faster at it. He didn't use up that many brake blooks though. In all those years I skated, I probably used up more than half a dozen brake blocks. 

Thank you, I skate a while now," I replied. "That is obvious. I'm one of the best Inlineskaters here and you beat me so, of course, you are," he stated. "That's nice to hear. May I have a look at the list?" I responded. "Sure, if you'll follow me?" Suga said and lead me to the side of the hut. There were laminated cards that looked exactly like the member card I got. There were a lot of names and sometimes nicknames for each skater. They were ranked from 1st to 17th. 

1) Kawa

2) Semi

3) Atsu

4) Kuro

5) Akashi

6) Tendo

7) Tobio

8) Kenma

9) Makki

10) Mattsun

11) Suga

12) Shoyo

13) Noya

14) Yaku

15) Bokuto 

16) Futamata  

17) Isumi 

"We can rank you if you want. We would put you in third place as you beat Atsu but it wasn't an official round so you guys could just skate again. But for being officially ranked, you need to skate at least three official rounds," Suga explained. "Sure, I would love to but I don't have that much time anymore, I need to go home soon," I responded. "Well, one official round is three rounds on the rink so you could try to fit at least one and we could pre-rank you. Those ranks change every day anyway so it wouldn't matter," Suga argued and I agreed. 

Everybody skated over to the rink and Atsu and I both got behind the starting line. Tobio counted down before he blew into a whistle and Atsu and I started. In the beginning, he was faster than me but I quickly caught up. After one round, I finally overtook him and for the rest of the rounds we skated, I only increased the distance. When I finished my third round, he was only halfway done with his last round. 

"You're way better than me. I bet you can even beat Semi and maybe even Kawa. Those two are faster than everybody else here and fight for the first place all the time," Atsu said after he finished. "Thank you," I replied before saying goodbye and skating home. 

ꕥ

"There is another skater who beat Atsu today," Tendo said when we were walking home. "Really, how fast are they?" I asked anxious. I didn't want another person to be better than me. "He was half a round faster and Suga said that he has even more potential so you should definitely look out," Tendo replied. "Will do," I said before heading inside my house. I really needed to pay attention. I didn't want to get beaten. I didn't want another person to be better than me.