Alarm

8:45 came with Ash’s usual alarm, breaking apart his somewhat focused concentration. He checked his phone, noticing that of all the notifications he had, none were from Kai. So those words were a promise after all. Even if they weren’t and Kai had simply fallen asleep before cancelling, Ash would at the very least make sure. If Ash had learned anything about Kai, it was that the man was stubborn as all get out. Ash figured that Kai would have fallen asleep waiting in the practice room rather than cancel.

Thinking about Kai’s rather intense determination to continue life no matter what happened to him, Ash figured that Kai’s life motto was probably “Practice over Pride”. It was something one of Ash’s cousins said quite often. It had taken Ash years to figure out any kind of meaning for the phrase. He’d finally decided that it meant putting practice before your own accomplishments, no matter how large or small.