Sports Day Preparations and New Friends

"Aww, I'm on the red team!" Chitose whined mournfully when she saw the

announcement about the upcoming Sports Day.

Itsuki had already seen the results and knew that he had been assigned the white

team, making them opponents for once. "If they're going to the trouble of dividing us

up, they could have at least put us on the teams that match our names…" He groaned.

"Either way, you'd still be on different teams," Yuuta reminded him.

Itsuki's surname was Akazawa, which contained the character for red, and Chitose's

was Shirakawa, which contained the character for white. At school, they were

sometimes called the "red and white couple."

"That's true… it's really tragic… a forbidden love, two people drawn to each other

despite being on opposing sides…"

Not bothering to hide his exasperation at the two who were lamenting their fates as

yet another way to flirt with each other, Amane gazed at the paper that showed how

the students were divided up.

Amane was on the red team with Yuuta and Chitose, while Itsuki and Mahiru had been

assigned to the white team. Although that meant Amane would be with the track and

field ace, it appeared that the opposing side included more members from the school

sports clubs overall.

Amane didn't particularly care whether his team won or lost, but he did want to put

on a good show for Mahiru.

"What events do you want, Amane?" Itsuki asked when he'd finished flirting with

Chitose.

He and Chitose were on the class's Sports Day executive committee together. It was

exactly the sort of thing that a popular, energetic guy like Itsuki would sign up for. He

was famous for avoiding putting too much effort into anything, which confused Amane

as to why his friend took on so many class leadership roles.

"What events are there, again?"

"The events left are the sprints, relays, obstacle course, scavenger hunt, three-legged

race, ball toss, and tug-of-war. I'm guessing the interclass relay isn't of much interest

to a member of the 'go-home club' like you."

"I guess the ball toss would be good."

"Of course you'd go for the most boring one… Well, just remember you have to do at

least two activities."

"All right, I want the ball toss and the scavenger hunt."

He didn't want to embarrass himself in front of Mahiru, and Amane had a feeling that

the relays and the sprints would be dominated by the members of the athletic clubs.

Itsuki, who he would normally pair up with for the three-legged race, was on the

opposing team, and although Amane had Yuuta, he didn't have the confidence that he

could keep up with him, given his strength and speed.

So he chose the easier events, and Itsuki put on a bitter smile.

"You're really going for the boring ones, huh…? But you know, depending on what

happens, the scavenger hunt race might be really exciting."

"Well, I don't do a lot of running, so…"

"You never change!"

Amane wanted to avoid any direct competition against the sports clubs and figured

participating in the games meant for the students in the cultural clubs was the safest

option.

"The problem is the cavalry battle with all the guys…," he said. "You're on the opposing

team, after all."

The only guys in his class who Amane was especially good friends with were Itsuki

and Yuuta. He figured that Yuuta might let him join his team out of pity, but even if he

did, Amane suspected that he would end up feeling a little isolated.

Since most boys would form teams with their friends, Amane, who prided himself on

being a wallflower, usually wasn't enthusiastic about Sports Day.

"Ah, if that's the problem, you should be fine."

"Hmm?"

"Yuuta, Kazu, and Makoto said they wanted you to join them. There, speak of the

devils…"

When Amane looked to where Itsuki was pointing, he saw three boys waving their

hands at him. It was Kadowaki and two other boys he seldom talked to.

Still, Amane knew of them. They were good friends of Yuuta's, and he'd pointed them

out once with a smile, telling Amane, "Now that we hang out, I want you to get to know

my buddies."

One of them, the one Itsuki had called Kazu, was a serious-looking guy who was in the

track and field club with Yuuta, and he specialized in long-distance running. His full

name was Kazuya Hiiragi.

The other boy was Makoto Kokonoe. He had a comparatively small build and,

according to the girls, something of a fickle nature.

When Yuuta wasn't hanging out with Amane and the others, he was with them.

"Hey, Fujimiya! Come over here. Let's form a cavalry battle team!" In the middle of the

group, Yuuta was calling him over with his usual refreshing smile.

Amane hesitated, but Itsuki said, "Get going," and physically pushed him from the back.

He stumbled up to the group, and Yuuta welcomed him with another grin.

"You're not teamed up with anyone yet, right, Fujimiya?" Yuuta asked. "If you want,

we'd like you to be in our group."

"That's fine by me, but what about the other two guys?"

"I don't mind." The first one to answer was Makoto. "Yuuta and Kazuya are both tall,

so height-wise, we think you'd be the best addition."

"Ah, I see…"

Makoto was probably the one who was going to ride on top of everybody's shoulders,

so it made sense that he was looking for three people with similar statures.

Amane was on the tall side, not that different from Yuuta and Kazuya when they lined

up next to each other. Although he was much ganglier and didn't have much in the way

of sturdiness and resilience like the other two did.

"You okay with this, Hiiragi?" Yuuta asked.

"Yeah, isn't that why we called him over here? And also because I'm curious about him,

since you said you guys are friends now."

"Don't worry," Yuuta assured him. "Fujimiya's a good guy."

Kazuya stared at Amane. "Sure, your judgment is always spot-on, Yuuta. I've got no

reservations. That said, since it was your idea to team up with him, I won't know how

I feel for sure until we spend some time together."

Amane smiled bleakly at the questionable statement. Kazuya was still looking him

over, and it made him somewhat uncomfortable. That said, since he'd just entered a

new social group, he expected a certain amount of scrutiny.

"Well, welcome aboard," Hiiragi said finally.

It seemed like Amane had passed muster, at least enough that they weren't going to

turn him away. The other boys gave him mellow smiles, and Amane also smiled and

responded, "Happy to join the group."

"So I've got a question," Makoto said. "Are you close friends with Shiina, Fujimiya?"

At Yuuta's suggestion, the team was having a small get-together at a fast-food

restaurant. As he munched on his chicken nuggets, Makoto sounded like the question

had just occurred to him.

Amane quickly stuffed his face with french fries, hoping to avoid making any

embarrassing expressions.

The four of them were at a fast-food restaurant because Yuuta had wanted to discuss

strategies for the cavalry battle… but his main motive was to try and develop their

friendship.

Amane had never expected someone who was still a relative stranger to ask something

like that.

He shot a glance over at Yuuta and received an innocent look, so Amane figured that

the question must have come purely from Makoto's observations.

That meant Amane would need to work hard not to let anything show on his face, if

he could.

"What makes you think that?" he asked dryly.

"Well, the five of you, Yuuta included, are always chatting and doing stuff together. But

Shiina behaves sort of differently with you than with Itsuki and Yuuta."

"Oh, does she? I hadn't noticed at all."

Kazuya looked over at Amane like he hadn't expected that answer—his eyes were

open wide in pure surprise. "I don't think anyone has really picked up on it, either.

Everyone else has just been watching your little group out of simple jealousy."

"That's disturbing to hear…"

"Well, from the way you're acting, I bet I'm right."

Amane wasn't sure how to answer Makoto's questions. The other boy's expression

was practically unreadable. Amane looked over at Yuuta for help, and Yuuta gave him

a look that said that these guys could be trusted.

Amane scratched his cheek as he thought it over. Makoto seemed convinced that he

was right, but Amane didn't want those ideas to spread much.

However, Yuuta seemed like a good judge of character, and Makoto's question seemed

to stem from pure curiosity rather than invasive prying—he didn't seem to mean

anything by it.

"…Well, I guess you could say that we're good friends."

"It seems like she enjoys your attention, so I guess that must be true."

"…Is that what it looks like?"

"More or less."

Makoto's powers of observation were truly frightening.

Amane decided that, rather than clumsily dodging the question, it would invite less

suspicion to tell a certain amount of the truth. It was probably more believable to

admit to the friendship.

"We simply happen to live in the same neighborhood, so we had the chance to talk and

became friendly, that's all."

"And you've been friends since before our second year, right?"

"Well… second year was when we started hanging out together at school."

Naturally, Amane couldn't tell him that Mahiru was his next-door neighbor, and that

she came over to his apartment every day and fixed his meals. Even though his answer

wasn't exactly accurate, he decided there only needed to be a hint of truth to it.

After Amane answered, Makoto looked at Yuuta. "Did you know about this?"

Yuuta nodded, probably figuring that there was no need to hide it now that Amane had

said something.

Makoto sighed softly. "What the heck… What fools we were."

"Fools?" Amane asked.

"Oh, I'm talking about myself… Yuuta, you hid this from us, didn't you?"

"Indeed," Yuuta answered, "because I couldn't tell you anything until Fujimiya said

something first. But I didn't think for a second that you and Kazuya would spread

rumors."

"Of course not," Kazuya confirmed. "I'm not gonna go out of my way to do something

that will make people hate me."

"That honesty of yours is a virtue, Kazuya." Yuuta beamed.

Kazuya tilted his head in confusion—he didn't seem to understand why Yuuta was

complimenting him for something so basic. Amane knew then that he didn't have to

doubt Kazuya's good intentions.

He did feel like he was taking a bit of a risk by sharing all this information, but he felt

confident that he was opening up to decent people.

Amane was really impressed with Kazuya, who had a reputation of being an

upstanding guy. He was serious in a totally different manner from Yuuta. Amane

understood keenly why Kazuya was one of Yuuta's best friends.

Kazuya also had a very good eye for people's character. As a friend and as a companion,

Amane doubted he had any serious shortcomings.

"So in other words, it would be best if I didn't tell anyone about this, right?"

"Well, I don't expect you to lie, but I think it would probably be best if you could

pretend you don't know anyway. That said, if someone were to ask about our

friendship, I think they're more likely to ask Itsuki or Yuuta, rather than come to you,

Kazuya."

"You're not wrong there," Yuuta chuckled quietly. Amane felt reassured by his friend's

remark.

"Anyway, if you could do that for me, I'd be very grateful," he said. "I don't want to cause

problems for her, after all."

Amane would have preferred to cover up the whole affair, and he hoped the others

would keep it to themselves.

"I'm sure she wouldn't like it if all her friends started asking her all sorts of questions,

either. So I want to keep it on the down low. For her sake as well as mine."

Amane knew that if their secret was revealed, he would be the target of a great deal of

jealousy, and he was prepared for that. However, Mahiru would have to answer all

kinds of insensitive questions. The biggest question: Why him?

To their classmates, Mahiru was not just a gifted student… she was almost a divine

being, an object of worship in their school. There would be much confusion and plenty

of criticism about a member of the campus nobility associating with an ordinary

plebeian.

Their curiosity might be completely rational, but they would probably make Mahiru

uncomfortable all the same. He recalled her saying once that she wanted to be able to

choose her relationships freely. And Amane was convinced that Mahiru would get

angry with him for embarrassing her.

Since he didn't want to do anything that might upset her, he'd tried to hide their

friendship for as long as possible.

…Though I get the feeling that she wants to go public…

Amane had suspected that recently she'd been trying to close the distance between

them, little by little, but had chalked it up to his imagination.

"Ohh, ahh…"

"What is it, Kokonoe?"

"…Never mind, I just sort of realized something. It must be hard, man."

Makoto was looking at Amane with a bewildered expression. Amane could only tilt his

head in confusion.

"Yuuta, is this by any chance…?" Makoto asked vaguely.

"That's right." Yuuta nodded.

"What is?" Kazuya wondered aloud. "What are you talking about?"

"I don't think it would make any sense to you, Kazuya; don't worry about it," Makoto

insisted.

Kazuya didn't seem upset at his friend for brushing him off. Instead, he smiled. "In that

case, I guess I don't need to know." His reaction showed the depths of their trust and

the strength of their friendship.

For some reason, Yuuta and Makoto nodded knowingly. Amane wondered what the

two of them were thinking and wore a puzzled expression as he continued picking at

his french fries.

"Mahiru, what events did you choose for Sports Day?"

As she was putting leftovers from dinner, packed in Tupperware, into the fridge and

was about to take ice cream out of the freezer, Amane asked Mahiru this question.

Some time had passed since the incident with the kiss, and while things between

Amane and Mahiru had more or less settled down, the subtle awkwardness between

them had yet to completely dissipate.

No matter what they did, the two were both still extremely conscious of what had

happened. There was a distance between them that hadn't been there before. They

were back to sitting next to each other, but with enough space that they wouldn't

accidentally touch.

The atmosphere over dinner that night was also a little tense, though still amicable.

Even though things between them weren't exactly strained, it was clear that they were

both overly conscious of each other.

After passing the spoon for ice cream to Amane, she looked up in an attempt to

remember.

"Let me see… I chose the relay and the scavenger hunt."

"Oh, same here. But instead of the relay, I asked for the ball toss."

Amane didn't know whether he would get his top choices, but the ball toss was

honestly not very popular, so he figured it was likely he would.

It was a little iffy whether he would get the scavenger hunt, but even if he ended up

with his third choice, the obstacle course, that was okay with him.

That event tested a competitor's sense of balance and flexibility more than pure leg

strength, so even though Amane was not particularly fast, he probably wouldn't drag

his team down.

"You really don't like sports, do you?"

"Leave it to the pros. I'm just not that athletic, is all."

"…If I'm not mistaken, your grades in gym are about average, right?"

"Unfortunately, yeah."

Amane imagined he'd probably have better scores in gym class if he were more

athletically inclined, but sadly, sports were not his forte. He wasn't so awful that he'd

call it a weakness—he was comfortable being simply average.

The notion that he might excel in sports as well as academics seemed like a dream for

Amane, unlike Yuuta and Mahiru, both of whom had natural talent and worked hard.

"…If you were to be honest, you hate Sports Day, don't you, Amane?"

"Well, it's not that I necessarily hate exercise, but I do hate it when it's mandatory. I

like exercising on my own time, by myself."

As they made their way back to the living room sofa, Amane recalled a bitter memory

of a winter marathon he had run once. It wasn't that he lacked the endurance—he

could run the distances they did in gym class. He simply didn't find timed races to be

all that interesting.

It felt nicer just to run, at his own pace, toward his own goals, so it made sense that he

wasn't a fan of structured races.

Mahiru smiled sadly as she watched Amane take the lid off the ice cream with a bitter

look on his face.

"It's not like I don't understand," she said sympathetically. "I also don't really enjoy

doing something if I've been forced to do it."

"Right? So that's why I'm just going to do enough to contribute."

Amane didn't want to slack off enough to invite any negative attention, and he knew

he'd feel guilty if he didn't do his part. He wasn't going to go all out, but he would at

least do enough to demonstrate that he was capable. Though if he ended up getting

the events he'd requested, he figured he wouldn't have to try particularly hard anyway.

"Heh-heh, too bad I won't get to see you going all out."

"Leave it to me, I'll show you what I can do during the ball toss… probably."

"Probably?"

"Well, it's a boring event, so I won't stand out much."

Now that they were in high school, Amane didn't even understand why a childish event

like the ball toss was kept as part of the program. Surely there were some schools

where it had been phased out, but their school kept it nonetheless.

It was probably there to give the nonathletes a chance, but even so, Amane had gotten

the impression that nobody got too worked up over the ball toss.

"You have a fairly good aim when you're throwing things, Amane. Your shooting was

on-target when you played basketball in the gym the other day, and I've never seen

you miss when you throw a tissue or something into the trash. That's just because

you're too lazy to get up, though." Mahiru added a quiet jab at the end.

All Amane could do was force a smile.

"Please forgive me for being so lazy, since I never miss the trash can."

"Well, I suppose it's fine since you're in your own home. But I'm serious, you know,

your aim is quite good."

"I guess I'm all right at throwing things. Especially stuff like darts. My mom took me

along with her all the time."

Amane's mother had dragged her son around with her to all sorts of places, and he'd

picked up a number of useless skills—everything from Airsoft tournaments, to white

water rafting, to darts matches, bowling contests, and game centers.

Apparently, they were finally going to come in handy, so he supposed he shouldn't call

them completely useless.

"Don't you feel like you got a special education of sorts, Amane?"

"Maybe, but only in the field of games."

"That's amazing in a way, and so is Shihoko."

Mahiru sounded more impressed than amazed, but Amane, as the person who'd been

dragged around, wasn't sure he agreed with her sentiment.

But it was true that he owed a lot to his mother.

She had packed his days with all sorts of novel experiences, and during his middle

school years, when he'd gone through a difficult period, that had never changed. She'd

always made time for him. That had really helped him through his depression.

Nevertheless, it had been exhausting, being pulled from one place to the next, and he

hadn't always appreciated it.

"…Well, the event is what it is, and I doubt it will be especially exciting to watch. I'll put

in as much effort as I need to. It's gonna be pretty boring, though," he concluded, then

stuck his spoon into his partially melted ice cream and scooped up a bite.

The rich cacao ice cream was lightly sweetened, a limited-edition flavor made for

convenience stores by a famous chocolate company. It was one of the more expensive

ice creams on the market, so Amane wanted to savor every last morsel.

"Do you really hate Sports Day that much?"

"No, I just kind of hate spending half a day outside in my gym clothes now that it's

gotten hot. Though I guess we'll have tents."

"Well, when you put it that way, I can see your point. But you'd better do your best,

okay?"

"I'll do what I have to."

"Geez."

Mahiru pouted but then her gaze was drawn to the spoon or, to be more accurate, to

the ice cream. Amane couldn't help but laugh.

Thinking that he should have bought a second one just for Mahiru, since she liked

sweets so much, he held the spoon up in front of her for her to try a bite. Her eyes

sparkled enthusiastically.

She's really much easier to read than she used to be, huh?

Chuckling quietly, Amane brought the spoon closer to Mahiru's lips, and she took the

spoon into her mouth without hesitation, like a kitten accepting food from the hand of

its owner.

Her eyes closed in a satisfied smile.

The ice cream was delicious. He could tell by her expression.

Amane thought so, too, but Mahiru's tongue was more sensitive than most people's.

She was an excellent judge when it came to a food's quality and flavor. If she said that

something looked tasty, she was probably right.

"…This is the good stuff, isn't it?"

"You can tell?"

"I mean, it's obvious from the packaging. But it's even tastier than I expected."

"Is it? Here."

When he offered her another bite, she accepted it gladly.

Faced with a smile warm enough to melt ice cream right out of the freezer, Amane felt

his face slowly heating up.

…Crap, I just fed her like it was the most natural thing in the world.

He'd been trying his best to keep a bit of distance between them, yet he'd gone and

done that without thinking about it.

He thought they were both to blame, though, since Mahiru had shown him such an

unguarded expression, despite how things had been between them lately. But he

wouldn't have expected her to be happy about being spoon-fed by some guy.

"…Mahiru, you can have the rest."

"Huh?"

"I'm brewing some coffee, so I'm good. It's all yours."

Amane pushed the ice cream cup and spoon at Mahiru, who looked confused, and then

escaped to the kitchen, where he desperately shoved a filter and some coffee beans

into the coffee maker.