3rd POV

(Y/n) stares wide-eyed at the boy that is standing in front of the door to the store. It's been a while since the last time she saw him, but he somehow found her. The nine-year-old was lost for words. She didn't know what to say or do.

"There you are," Miya says, frightening the girl as she ducks behind the table next to Oka. The said manager looks down concerningly at the girl as she peeks her head over the table so she can at least see him, but her look of fear doesn't leave her face.

"Oh, my God. How did he find me?" (Y/n) mumbles to herself, making sure that her voice was low enough that only she could hear it. Miya takes a step forward toward the frightened girl.

"I want to make a little suggestion for you if you don't mind me saying, Phoenix," The cat boy says. But before he could continue, Reki steps in front of him defensively. As he does that, Sketchy stands in front of (Y/n) on the table and growls at the boy.

"Wait, how do you know this is Phoenix and not just some random kid?" Reki asks, almost demanding an answer.

"I had a little run-in with her a while back. She wore her skirt with her orange and yellow bird tail connected to it. As described, Phoenix had a tail like that, so I assumed that she was the mysterious skater," Miya explains with a smirk as his cat eyes land on the said girl.

Reki wasn't having it and got even more defensive. "Okay, but that doesn't explain why you're here and what you want with (Y/n)," The redhead says as he rests his hands on his hip.

"It's pretty simple. I want her to skate alongside me. I can see the talent in her and I've never seen anyone with that much potential in skating. It's almost as if we were meant to skate with each other." Miya then says as his eyes never leave the girl's form, who is staring at him with a confused look from behind the table. "Just the two of us. We'll become close friends."

Langa then steps forward and joins in on the conversation. "But how do you know she even wants to be your friend?" He asks. If there's anything that the sky-blue-haired boy noticed, it's that (Y/n) looked scared when she saw Miya standing there. There has to be a reason behind that.

"Oh, she will. I'll just have to convince her. Or force her, even," Miya says. Reki only crosses his arms as he looks away from the cat boy.

"Good luck trying to tell her that. She doesn't understand Japanese, only English," The redhead states. Miya looks confused after he said that. Looking back at (Y/n), he never really thought about that. But a smirk forms back on his face, nonetheless.

"That's fine. It's an advantage, actually. I can be someone she can rely on. She'll have no choice but to stay by me, like a little lost puppy." Even though (Y/n) doesn't know what Miya is saying, she still gets the feeling he wants something that has to do with her, and that's something she doesn't want to get involved in.

Not liking where this is going, Langa stands up straighter in a defensive manner, which catches Miya's attention. "We won't let you drag someone, who probably doesn't want anything to do with you, around and force her into a friendship she is not interested in."

Miya was kind of taken aback by his response. But something about how he said that got him intrigued and excited. "Is that a challenge?" The boy asks as Langa's emotionless expression doesn't change. Miya lets out a sigh as he looks away from the snowboarder. "It has been a while since I've leveled up, so how about this? I'll run a beef against you in "S." If I win, then (Y/n)-- was it?-- will have no choice but to be my friend and you can't stop her. And if you win, then she doesn't have to see me as a friend. You two can have her all to yourselves."

Reki, Langa, and Oka were standing there with wide eyes while (Y/n) was now standing up from behind the table. She blinks a few times, the words in those sentences that she understood were "'S,'" "Friend," and "Win." Putting the pieces together, she thinks that Miya either sees her as a friend and wants to race her in a "beef" at "S" or is making a deal, saying that if Miya wins, then she'll be his friend. This was very confusing to her. She could only stand there as her brain whirled with different solutions.

"Are you in?" Miya then asks Langa with a cat-like smile. Langa was deep in thought, but Reki jumped in before he could think of anything else.

"Don't even think about it. He's in a totally different class. We'll think of another solution for this," Reki tells Langa. Taking in his words, Langa thinks for a few more seconds before he looks down at Miya again.

"I accept."

"Slow your roll! Don't get cocky 'cause you nailed an ollie! This guy's a hardcore professional!" Reki tries to explain to Langa, but the sky-blue-haired teen didn't seem to listen to him. "I'm in!" The snowboarder says with an emotionless yet look of interest on his face.

"Really?" Reki says, getting up in Langa's face.

"Then, it's settled," Miya says, getting the two boys' attention. "My next race will determine if I'm worthy enough to skate with the infamous Phoenix." Miya looks at (Y/n) one last time. Now (Y/n)'s fear was replaced with curiosity, and Miya seemed to notice that.

"I can't wait."

(Y/n)'s POV

After the whole encounter with this "Miya" boy, I decided that I wanted to look more into this skater. Langa had told me about the whole situation and the deal Miya made with him. I found it kind of weird that I was basically acting like the prize of this race.

Langa also told me that Miya is a candidate for a Japanese national skateboarding team, so I did some research. I saw a few videos of Miya Chinen, some of them taking place at different competitions. I did notice that most of the videos took place at some sort of indoor skatepark, so I looked into that specific building. It wasn't far from where I'm at, so that was going to be my mission.

Operation: Spy on Miya Chinen is a go!

I've been walking on the streets with my skateboard in my backpack for a while now, but it didn't take very long for me to reach the building. Looking at it, it was a two-story floor building made mostly of bricks. Humming to myself, I walk in.

It didn't seem too crowded here and many teenagers were skating all over the place. In the corner of my eye, I notice that some people were doing some kind of interview or something with one of the skaters. Looking closer, I notice that it was my target.

"There he is," I mumble to myself. Wanting to not look like I was here, I decided to go observe the boy from a different spot, one where he wouldn't even think about looking. I notice that on the second floor, there are a set of bleachers. Nodding to myself, I go over to the stairs.

Putting my skateboard on one of the benches, I go over to the railing and observe Miya from that spot. The railings are a bit too high for me, so I just had to make do and kneel while using my hands to grab onto the metal bars.

From the spot I was at, I could barely hear what Miya was saying, not like I could understand, anyway. So there's no way I'm going to find out more about him, but I guess I can just watch him. I mean, my mission is to just spy on him.

In the corner of my eye, I saw a group walking in my direction. I couldn't tell who they were, but I think two of the men were wearing formal suits. I didn't want to look completely at them because I know how rude it is to stare at people you don't know.

But taking another glance at the two, I notice that one of them had purplish black hair and is wearing a dark-colored suit. The other one really got my attention because he has dark blue hair and is wearing the same color as his suit.

They seemed a little sketchy, but then again, they could just be those kinds of people who do business stuff and might do some work in this building. I don't know. I could be wrong. But what got me really nervous was that the group stopped walking in the same area I was in.

I try not to make eye contact with the males standing there because, like what my mom had always told me: "Staring at people is rude."

So instead of doing so, I just continue to look down at Miya. He was taking pictures with a few other men behind him. Maybe those are his coaches or something?

'I've been here for quite a while, now. Maybe I should start leaving,' I think to myself. But before I could turn around, I noticed that Miya went into the skating rink. He was performing a few tricks on his skateboard, and that really caught my attention. Leaning back on the railing, I look down at the boy with stars in my eyes.

But after a few seconds of Miya doing tricks, I noticed that two boys on the sidelines opposite each other were smirking. I didn't know why, but when Miya did a handstand on his skateboard, I saw them kick their skateboards into the rink. They were rolling in Miya's direction at full speed.

I gasp slightly at the sight because I thought that Miya was going to fall if the skateboards were to hit him. But what really surprised me was that he was able to dodge them by pushing himself off of his skateboard and landing on one of the boy's skateboards after they hit Miya's.

My eyes go wide at that scene. "Whoa," I mumble to myself, astonished at what Miya was capable of doing. This got me thinking about what Langa told me when Miya visited the skate shop. He told me that Miya wanted me to skate with him because I had the same "capability" as him. Honestly, if I was in Miya's shoes, I don't think I would have reacted that fast just to dodge those skateboards.

Now that I got to see what I wanted to see, I think it was time for me to go. Quickly turning around, I grab my backpack that had my skateboard sticking out from it and start to make my way to the exit of the building. If there's anything that I noticed from this little spy mission of mine, it's that Miya would make sure that he is better than everyone.

3rd POV

Night had already come and the trio of friends are skating in a parking lot. Starting from the top of the structure, Langa skated ahead of Reki and (Y/n) as the redhead was giving out pointers to the Canadian boy.

"You gotta drop your hips more!" Reki told Langa. Langa obeyed what his friend said and bent his knees to keep his balance while skating. Reki smiles at this as (Y/n) gains more momentum to skate between the two boys. "That's what I'm saying! That'll up your downhill momentum!"

The three friends skate down to the next level while picking up speed simultaneously. As they do, Reki notices that Langa is struggling like how he usually would in the beginning. "Whoa. He's already comfortable skating at this speed?" Reki asks himself but smiles nonetheless. "However this race ends up, it's gonna be good!"

After going down the slope, Langa makes a sharp turn, but doing so causes him to fall. Seeing him fall all of a sudden causes (Y/n) to come to a complete stop as she walks back to her friend. "Langa! Are you okay?" She asks, sounding worried as she goes to her knees. Langa was in a sitting position as he looks at the girl with a comforting smile.

"Yeah, I'm okay," He reassures her, causing the said girl to let out a sigh of relief. By then, Reki had already stopped behind the two. "You all right?" Reki asks Langa, to which he answered back saying, "I think so," while letting out a groan.

Reki notices that every time the three of them would skate down, that current spot that they are at is the same place Langa would fall. "This is the exact same place you bailed earlier. Is there a crack or something?" The redhead asks.

"It's different on snowboards," Langa starts to explain as he goes to his skateboard. "You know how the friction can come from the front or from the side?" "Yeah?" "Skateboarding isn't like that," Langa says as he spins one of the wheels on his board. "If you speed going forward and then you suddenly turn sideways, you start braking." He then swipes his finger against the wheel sideways, causing the said wheel to stop spinning.

"Oh, turning like that'll definitely get you hitched up," Reki says as he looks over Langa's shoulder to look at his skateboard, (Y/n) doing the same thing.

"Just something I'll have to get used to," Langa then says.

(Y/n) kind of understood what the problem was. Seeing how Langa demonstrated with his wheels, the only thing she could get down was that he had trouble making sharp turns at full speed. "If only there was a way to help you with that," (Y/n) said.

"Hey! You! Stop!" An unfamiliar voice gets the three friends' attention. They turn around and see a security guard running toward them with a flashlight in hand. (Y/n)'s eyes go wide as she flinches at the sight of the guy because she never dealt with guards or the police before, especially for a kid her age. Any ordinary kid would freak out and start crying if something like this ever happened to them.

"Let's go! Run!" Reki says as he grabs (Y/n)'s hand after grabbing his skateboard and runs with her as Langa followed. Once they made it out of the parking structure, they split up, Reki and (Y/n) going right while Langa went left. "Meet you at the store!" The redhead yells before they ran in their own direction.

"See you there!" Langa lastly yells. But what caught the snowboarder by surprise was that the security guard started running after him specifically. This freaks him out as sweat was starting to drip down his face. 'Why's he after me?!' Langa yells in his head.

In the other direction, Reki waved to his friend with one hand while the other was still holding onto the nine-year-old's hand. Speaking of, the girl was only focused on running like the wind, wanting to get out of this situation as fast as she can. "I believe in you, Langa!" But before the boy could turn around to face forward, he trips over something and falls to the ground, taking (Y/n) down with him.

He managed to have the girl land on him so that the impact wouldn't hurt her. "Ow! That hurt!" The redhead groans in pain. He helps (Y/n) get up before he turns around and glares at the object he tripped over. "This is your fault!"

But to the boy's surprise, the object was a caster with wheels, looking as if it belonged to the bottom of an office chair. He noticed that one of the wheels of the caster was rotating quite smoothly before it came to a complete stop.

Seeing how the swivel head rotated with the top plate gave the boy an idea and his eyes go wide in realization. Using one arm to hold onto his skateboard, he goes over and observes the caster on the sidewalk as (Y/n) looks at him with a confused look. The redhead grabs onto one of the legs and lifts it to get a better look at the caster wheels.

"Yes, this could work," Reki says to himself as his face brightens up.

(Y/n) looks over the boy's shoulder with a confused look as she observes the caster of the office chair. "Hmm? A wheelchair thingy?" The nine-year-old questions out loud, not remembering what that kind of chair is called.

"I don't know what you said, but I hope you're thinking what I'm thinking," Reki says as he stands back up and grabs onto the girl's hand, leading her to the place he told Langa to meet up at.

Timeskip

Reki and Langa were the first two to make it to the shop. Reki had taken out a few caster wheels from a box he had stored away while (Y/n) was sitting on a chair with Sketchy sitting on her lap as they watch what the redhead was doing.

Suddenly, the sound of someone panting catches (Y/n) and the fox's attention. They both turn around and see Langa standing there with his skateboard in hand.

"Yo! You made it!" Reki said, not even looking back to see who was standing there. Langa peeks his head into the room Reki and (Y/n) are in with a look of betrayal on his face. "After you abandoned me!" Langa said grudgingly.

"What? I don't speak grudge," Reki said as Langa walked in and was fuming from running so much. After the sky-blue-haired boy gave Reki his skateboard, he noticed the wheels that were laid out on the table. "What's that for?" He asks.

"I've been cooking up miracles," Reki answered simply. "This beauty's gonna spin your board into a winner! I call it the 'Reki Langa (Y/n) Special Rolling Slider.' Or the 'Reki-L(f/n/i)2S' for short!" Reki then says with excitement as he had stars in his eyes and around him.

(Key: (f/n/i) = first name initial)

(Y/n) tenses at the mention of her name, making her wonder what the redhead was saying. Langa only looked at his friend with a "really?" look. "You come up with the weirdest names for stuff. Also, you left out the 'R' for 'Rolling.'"

"Shut up! You're gonna love it!" Reki says playfully, his smile not disappearing on his face. But before he could continue with his work, Oka appeared in the doorway and peered into the room.

"Hey, come here! I found something you'll wanna see!" The manager tells the three kids, Sketchy sitting up on (Y/n)'s lap at the sound of his owner's voice. The two teens wonder what Oka was going to show them while the (h/c)-ette was curious about what he said.

They all moved to the table beside Oka as he was showing them a video of Miya on his laptop. The cat boy was doing some cool tricks at a competition that he signed up for a while ago. "It's Chinen at some competition," The manager states.

"Amazing. How is he not shaking at all?" Langa asks, sounding astonished at the same time.

"I've seen several vids like this. He definitely belongs on a national team," Oka says.

"Yeah, he's talented," Reki said. After saying that, the two teens look at each other with concern and then look at (Y/n), who had stars in her eyes as she was watching the video. They remember hearing Miya say that he wanted (Y/n) to skate alongside him because she has talent, like him. Maybe there's something that they're missing. That could be a reason why Miya wants to be (Y/n)'s friend, but who knows if there's some meaning behind it or if there's something else he hiding.

All the while, the video that (Y/n) is watching reminds her of the time she went to that building where she saw Miya skating. She never told the boys that she went, and it doesn't matter if she does tell them or not. But looking back at the video, she notices that whenever Miya smiles, it doesn't look like his real smile. It seems like he's faking it.

She hums at this. "His smile," (Y/n) mumbles, loud enough for everyone to hear. Reki tilts his head, not knowing what the nine-year-old said. Figuring that everyone else except for Langa doesn't know what she said, she points at Miya's face on the laptop screen "His smile doesn't look real. It doesn't look like he's having fun."

Langa looks at the screen and understands what (Y/n) means. "Oh," He said, and then looks back at Reki. "She said that Miya doesn't look like he's having any fun," He translates. With that information said, Reki looks back at the video and sees what the girl means.

"Yeah, she's right."

~~~~~~~~~~

That night, Langa had wanted to drive (Y/n) home because he doesn't like the idea of a kid skating at this time of the hour. (Y/n) didn't want Langa to take her home because he, including Reki, don't know where he lives. As much as she tried to refuse his kind offer, Langa still insisted on doing so.

So (Y/n) just had Langa drop her off a few blocks away from the Drive-In. Once the motorcycle comes to a stop, the girl gets off the bike. She then takes off the helmet Reki had her borrow, which was very big to fit her small head. But at least something was protecting her head.

"Thanks, Langa," (Y/n) says as she gives the helmet to the said boy. "It's no problem at all, (Y/n). You know we're always here for you, right?" He says with a smile.

"Yeah, and I appreciate that," She says as she was about to start walking off. "I'll see you tomorrow before the race to help you practice."

"Okay. Now, hurry home. Your parents might be wondering where you're at right now," Langa tells the girl. She was able to not tense up as much when her friend mentioned her parents. She just gave him an innocent smile.

"Yeah, you're right," (Y/n) says as she starts to walk off. But as she was, Langa remembered something now that he mentioned it. "Hey, wait!" He calls out to the girl, to which she stopped in her tracks and turned around to look at the snowboarder. "Sorry to keep you waiting a bit longer. I just have a quick question. Do your parents know where you go when you leave the house?"

(Y/n) stands there wide-eyed. She didn't know what to do or say at the moment. She didn't want to lie to her friend because then that could lead up to having trust issues. So thinking back on what her mother once told her about the topic of death: "When people die, they go to a better place, and they always make sure to never leave their loved one's side. They will always be with them."

Nodding to herself, she looks back at Langa. "Yeah. My mom is a skateboarder, too. She told me what 'S' was all about and showed me where it was. She also gave me her sticker so that I'm able to go to the abandoned mine." She only hopes that Langa believes her, but she isn't really lying.

Langa nods, understanding what she means, but he still feels a tad worried. After Oka told him and Reki about kids being sent back to their home country because they were seen without their parents for a while made him curious.

"What about your dad? Is he a skateboarder, too?" Langa then asks. (Y/n) looks down as she thinks, remembering why she was going to "S" in the first place. She looks back up at her friend and nods with a smile.

"Yeah..." The girl says but then stops, wondering if she should tell Langa about him. "Well, at least that's what my mom told me." Langa was a bit confused when she said that. The way she said that made it sound like her dad was no longer alive, so he assumed the worst, causing him to bow his head down.

"I'm sorry... I shouldn't have asked about him," Langa says, which catches (Y/n) off guard. She didn't know why Langa was apologizing, but she still went along with it. "I-its fine," She says as she waves her hand to show that he shouldn't sweat about it.

(Y/n) takes a glance towards the Drive-In, and then looks back at Langa as she lets out a quiet sigh. "I-I should probably start heading back home," She says as she starts walking backward slowly.

"Of course. Just know that if you ever need me for anything, I'll be there for you," Langa lastly says, still feeling bad that he asked the question earlier. Hearing those words caused (Y/n)'s heart to pound. It felt... heartwarming to hear someone say that to her. She was glad to know that she isn't alone in this world.

A warm smile creeps onto her face as she starts to slowly turn in the direction of her home. "Yes. Thank you, Langa... For being a good friend." And with that, (Y/n) places her skateboard down. But before she skated away, she remembered how she felt when she raced against Shadow that night.

Her heart was pounding, but it gave off a warm feeling inside of her. It made her feel excited whenever she skated. That's the only feeling she wants to feel. That's what made skateboarding fun. Looking back at Langa, she speaks up to break the silence.

"Hey, Langa," She says, getting the said boy's attention. "When you skate against Miya, don't focus so much on the race. Look for a feeling deep down inside you. A good feeling. It'll motivate you to keep skating... That's what makes it fun!" The nine-year-old says with a smile at the end.

Langa seemed touched by those words of encouragement. This is probably the first time (Y/n) had given him some good advice ever since she and Reki started helping him skate. Snapping back to reality, he smiles at her with a nod. "Thanks for the advice," He tells her.

(Y/n) nods as a way of saying "you're welcome," and then hops on her skateboard, skating off into the night.

Watching the girl skate away, the snowboarder smiles at the girl as he starts his motorbike up again. After he drives off, (Y/n) could only think about what the snowboarder had said earlier. She likes hanging out with her friends. It's the only thing that makes her happy now that her mother is gone. The only thing she has to do now is to continue looking for her dad.

Thinking about that topic suddenly caused her smile to drop. Soon the truth will be told about her parents and she's afraid that it'll ruin her friendship with Reki and Langa if they were to find out that she kept that a secret away from them. Letting out a sigh, she hopes that her fear doesn't occur anytime soon.

She doesn't want to end up alone again.