Arisa had just been provoked by Hiko and was very angry, causing her originally steady breathing to become erratic. The stitch in her side disrupted her running rhythm and made it difficult for her.
She had no choice but to slow down, walking to regulate her breathing. As a result, her teammates, who had been beside her, overtook her.
The distance between them slowly widened.
Although the gap wasn't very far at the moment, she couldn't run fast anymore; the distance would only grow wider and wider from now on.
If she just adjusted and ignored that guy, she would still be able to catch up to them later.
Arisa thought to herself, regulating her breathing and walking at a normal pace.
"If you don't run faster, you won't see anyone else," Hiko's voice rang out again.
"Bastard!"
Arisa, who had originally not cared about her teammates running far ahead, instantly felt angry again. She yelled at Hiko, then charged toward him.
"Tsk." Hiko was prepared for this. Seeing signs of Arisa's anger, he pushed hard on the pedals with his feet, immediately propelling the bike a distance and shaking off Arisa.
"Come and chase me~ If you catch me before the finish line, you can hit me, and I absolutely won't fight back."
Hiko rode his bicycle, teasing Arisa from behind, "You're not just all talk, are you?"
Arisa instantly exploded in rage at his words, putting all her effort into chasing Hiko.
Hiko knew that saying this would definitely provoke Arisa.
Therefore, before he sensed Arisa charging over, he was already pedaling the bicycle hard, accelerating to shake off Arisa.
While riding, he would occasionally look back to see if Arisa had stopped.
Hiko saw Arisa stop and give up the chase, so he also gripped the brakes and stopped, turning back to taunt, "Is this all you've got? Never mind catching me, you can't even see your teammates' backs now."
"That's too much! That's too much... Waaah... Waaah... Waaah..." Arisa had been provoked several times but failed to catch Hiko. When he provoked her again, she cried out loudly, covering her eyes with clenched fists.
At the same time, she stopped in her tracks and moved no further.
'Trying to trick me into coming over?' Hiko heard the crying but didn't see her tears, and a thought popped into his mind.
He cautiously did not approach Arisa, to prevent her from tricking him, to avoid falling for it.
"Why are you so fragile? If, when you get on stage, the audience boos, are you going to cry like this on the spot and make a fool of yourself?"
Hiko said to Arisa, maintaining a safe distance.
"Waaah waaah waaah... Waaah..." Arisa cried more and more sadly.
'Is she really crying?' Hiko felt troubled.
"If you don't keep running, I'm not waiting for you, you know." Hiko put one foot on the pedal, ready to continue forward.
He didn't want to get involved with Arisa; if she fell for him, it would probably be very troublesome.
Arisa continued to cry, unmoved.
Hiko turned back to look at the still-crying Arisa, "In an hour, if you still haven't reached the finish line, I'll tell the President that you hate training and no longer want to be an Idol."
After he finished speaking, he pedaled the bicycle forward.
Arisa, still crying, heard Hiko's words but ignored them, only feeling that he was trying to provoke her. After a while, there was still no sound around her.
She secretly peeked through the gaps in her hands, and not only could she not see her group members, even that hateful guy was gone.
'Will I really be abandoned?'
Tears slid from Arisa's eyes.
She remembered how she had only opposed that guy yesterday, and as a result, she was tormented so badly.
Her dream of becoming an Idol might completely fail because of her willfulness yesterday.
Being expelled from the group... Arisa felt sadder the more she thought about it.
"Why are you staying put? Are you too tired?" A soft female voice came from beside Arisa.
She looked up and saw that the person who had returned was the girl who went by the name Ai.
"Let's move forward together~" Ai showed a brilliant smile and extended her right hand in front of Arisa.
"Waaah..." Arisa accepted Ai's kindness, and thinking about how Hiko had tormented her, she suddenly burst into tears, "Leader, that guy is just too much. He kept humiliating me just now... and even threatened me..."
"Waaah... Waaah... The leader is the best." Arisa wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes with her left hand and held Hoshino Ai's hand with her right, "Ai, can I hug you?"
"Don't squeeze too hard, okay~" Ai nodded.
Just now, Hiko had found her on his bicycle and, upon meeting, said, "Arisa seems to want to give up being an Idol. Don't you think you should fulfill your responsibility as a leader and encourage her a bit?"
Ai felt that as a leader, she really should give her team members some encouragement, so she returned.
However, when she saw Arisa crying, she knew that things were definitely not as lightly described as Hiko had said.
After spending a month together, she knew that the other four all yearned to become Idols.
They would absolutely not cry and give up just because the training volume was high.
"Waaah... Ai, thank you..." After getting permission, Arisa opened her arms and hugged Ai.
Ai hugged Arisa back, continuously stroking Arisa's back, wanting to soothe her wounded heart.
Arisa hugged Ai for a while. After her emotions stabilized, she voluntarily let go of Ai and said, "Let's hurry and catch up to Niino, Takamine, and Watanabe."
"Okay~" Ai replied with a brilliant smile.
The two started running again.
After Ai and Arisa ran for a while, they saw Watanabe, Takamine, and Niino waiting for them.
"Why are you girls stopping here?" Ai asked, though she already knew the answer.
She thought to herself, 'This must be something Hiko cooked up again, right?'
"We're waiting for you." Watanabe handed two bottles of sports drinks to the two, "Let's rest for a bit."
"Thank you, then let's rest for a bit before running again." Ai took the drinks.
She saw that although Arisa's emotions had calmed, her complexion looked very bad, seemingly because of her crying just now, so she took this opportunity to agree.
Originally, Watanabe, Takamine, and Niino had already run quite far when Arisa was crying.
However, Hiko rode his bicycle and stopped Takamine, who was running in the lead. When the other two ran closer, he also made them stop.
After Hiko successfully stopped the three, he began to scold them, "As members of a group, how can you fight alone, each only caring about yourselves?"
The trio dared not refute Hiko's words and could only quietly endure the scolding.
Hiko was relieved that the three did not talk back, so he did not criticize them further.
He directly said, "It seems you have deeply recognized the problem, so I hope you will all reach the finish line together later."
"And not have group members arrive one after another, understood?!"
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Hiko x Ai - 57: Team II
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Hiko x Ai - 95: Study Session
Hiko X Ai - 96: Strict
Hiko x Ai - 97: Bet
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