The applause was still echoing faintly behind them when Hiro followed Diego out of the interview room and into the long concrete corridor beneath the stadium.
The air out here was cool and quiet, and the bright, hot noise of the press conference fell away as a coat dropped from the shoulders.
A few stewards stood at intervals along the walls, murmuring into their radios. Somewhere far above, muffled by layers of steel and stone, the last of the crowd was still draining from the stands.
Hiro let out a breath he felt he had been holding for the past hour.
"You did well," Diego said, without looking at him.
"I think I shook a little."
It wasn't his first time facing an interview, yet for some reason he couldn't help but feel anxious this time. Perhaps it had something to do with the earlier riot.
