Run and Win Her Heart [Miya Atsumu vs Miya Osamu]

Chapter 17. "Miya Atsumu San's room number is 406, miss."

Mid May, the cool and warm spring season had gone leaving everyone behind with the hot and humid summer. Summer in Japan was something you should not make a joke of, especially the temperature and the humidity. You were guaranteed to be sweating like a waterfall whenever you were not inside a room with air cond.

Fortunately, the research room that kept the two most expensive experimental equipment, namely transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and her twin, scanning TEM (STEM), was really cold to the point that you always wanted to just stay there for the rest of the summer. You never knew the setting temperature of the room, but if you had to guess, it would be as cold as in late winter. It was more like the room had to be kept cold so that the equipment wouldn't be broken due to overheating.

4:00 pm in the evening and you were done analyzing the sample using TEM. You called it a day because your brain couldn't, or more accurately wouldn't want to think anymore. Shutting down the TEM required a lot of steps that took several minutes in order to let the electron beam to cool down over time so that it wouldn't cause the lens inside the TEM body to burn. If any part of the equipment was broken, it was not something a student or a teacher could fix. You need to call an expert. And if the expert said the equipment could no longer be used, that meant it was time to say goodbye to the USD 100,000 or more equipment.

4:12 pm, the TEM was shut down according to the guidance that had been passed down for generations. You then took the stairs and walked back to your study room two floors above. Checking the phone would be the first thing you do after trapping yourself inside the cold research room for the whole day because most likely you would not open the phone when you were using the TEM.

You just reached your study room and slid open the phone lock.

What? 8 missed calls from Osamu?

Scrolled down a bit and noticed you got one message from him at 13:47.

[Osamu]: Are you busy? Tsumu is unconscious, his coach said he suddenly passed out during the practice. He is now at the hospital where you got your arm treated. Come here if you have time.

Atsumu.

You instantly forgot about the summer heat that you constantly complained about. You no longer could feel how tired you were after doing research since morning. You did not even remember you still had not eaten lunch. Your mind was swirling with fears for all the possible scenarios that might happened to Atsumu.

Hamstring strain?

Shin splints?

Rotator cuff tendinitis?

Patellar tendinitis?

ACL tear?

You immediately grabbed your bag, took two steps at a time, and ran toward the nearest station that was about 100 meters away from the building. Sweat pooled down your back with your bag vigorously shook in chaotic directions. You dialed Osamu's number while running but the call went directly to voice mail. You left a message "I am coming.", and pressed 'End'. You swung both of your arms again for as fast as they could so that you could boost the running speed.

You reached the entrance of the station when you saw a big notice written in red color that says the trains were not operating at the moment due to some unexpected mechanical problems.

Shit!

You took your phone that had been inside your hand, and clicked Google Maps. Your hands were shaking when trying to enter the hospital name. The shaking was either you were just too tired for running after having a tiring day doing research, or you were really worried if anything bad happened to Atsumu.

Please Atsumu, please be fine.

You mistakenly clicked the wrong alphabet repeatedly. You cursed, quite loud. Some people turned their heads and looked at you. After several attempts, you successfully entered the hospital name and waited for a few seconds for the application to navigate you through the shortest direction from Kobe University to the hospital. You analyzed it in less than two minutes and memorized it as much as you could. You grabbed the phone tightly back inside your right hand and started running right away.

Throughout your runs, your mind was telling you not to sprint, but your heart told you a different thing that could cause your tendon to be torn again. Even though you wanted to see Atsumu as soon as possible, you need to keep the run at a normal pace or otherwise you might end up not being able to run for the rest of your life. It wasn't the run that you wanted to keep, but if you really ended up with torn tendon and could no longer run, that would make you not be able to see both Atsumu and Osamu for as soon as possible when you wanted to see them. You needed to save your legs, for yourself and for them.

Don't sprint. Don't sprint. Don't sprint.

After several turns and a few hundred meters of run, you slowed down your speed to check the Google Maps again and see which direction you should go next. Your hand was shaking quite badly to the point you had a hard time clicking the application accurately. This time the shaking was because you were really worried about Atsumu.

Please please stop shaking!

You grabbed your shaking right hand with your left, trying to reduce the trembling movement, and it worked, somehow. You clicked the Google Maps again and checked the directions before you went back on the track and started running again.

The warm humidity of the summer made you feel sticky and suffocated. Your clothes and hair, slicked with perspiration, cling to your skin. Sweat rolled down your skin in thick, salty beads. You could feel your heart throbbing inside your chest. Your skin felt like it was roasting. You began bouncing slightly as you run, which wore you out pretty quickly, but you didn't stop.

47 minutes later you saw the familiar red cross that had been with you last November. It was too familiar that you even noticed the broken LED lamps at the corner of the cross were not fixed yet since you got admitted here about half year ago. Legs were still running.

You entered through the main door and went straight to the counter on the right to ask for Atsumu's hospital room number. Only when you reached the counter, you let your legs to take some rest before you were back running again to the told room number. Waiting for the nurse to type something on her desktop felt like forever, it was like the time itself had extended for hours. You could not wait any longer.

Please please what is his room number?

"Miya Atsumu San's room number is 406, miss."