Chapter 235 â A Lonely After School (2)
âThanks everyone for your hard work! Practice will continue tomorrow, so please go to bed as early as possible! You may go home now!â
After the speech from the third years, we were finally released from our first day of practice. It was scorching hot since morning, but none of the students got heatstroke or any other illness thanks to the student councilâs and the health committeeâs measures.
As I was thinking about that, Amami-san approached me.
âMaki-kun!â
âAmami-san.â
âHehe, good work today! I saw you practicing with Umi! Did she work you to the bone?â
âYeah⊠Thanks to that, Iâm exhausted⊠Itâs only the first day, jeezâŠâ
âHehe, I feel you. It was exhausting for me too! Iâm having fun, though!â
She said that, but she didnât look exhausted at all.
Even though I saw her running around the yard earlier, she didnât seem to be out of breath at all. I would bet money that if she ran ten more laps, her expression would stay the same as it currently was.
âŠI guess we were built different, after all.
âBy the way, where did Umi go? She disappeared before practice endedâŠâ
âNakamura-san asked her to help the student council out since the vice president is out of commission right now.â
Of course I wouldnât tell her that Nakamura-san dragged Umi partly because she was bitter about us flirting out in the open.
âThe vice president? Ah that cool looking first year? Takizawa-kun, right?â
âYou know him, Amami-san?â
âMhm! Ninacchi made a fuss a while ago about a âreally handsome first yearâ, so I know about him.â
Of course Nitta-san knew about Takizawa-kun.
Well, that was a given I guess. With looks like that, no wonder he stood out.
âŠBut even with those good looks, Takizawa-kun still hadnât managed to make Amami-san fall for him, huh?
If Nozomu were here, he would be patting his chest in relief.
âSo youâll be going home alone today, huh? I would like to go with you, but I still have some work to do with the backboard teamâŠâ
âAmami-senpai~ When will the meeting start?â
âAh! In fifteen minutes at the workshop! Sorry, Maki-kun, I gotta go!â
âMhm. Do your best.â
âI will! Thank you, Maki-kun!â
With her golden hair fluttered behind her back, Amami-san dashed away.
âThat girl is so cuteâŠâ
âI know, right? Sheâs cheerful and kind, even to the first years.â
I could hear such comments coming from the boys who were staring at Amami-san.
While being popular wasnât necessarily a bad thing, dealing with peopleâs gazes and expectations seemed tough.
âWoah, are you trying to take your chance to hit on your girlfriendâs best friend now that she isnât with you? You look harmless, but youâre surprisingly daring, Rep.â
âShe was the one who called out to me, you know?â
That was a terrible thing to accuse me of, but since it came out of Nitta-sanâs mouth, I let it slide.
She probably approached me because she saw me here by myself, like Amami-san. Although her way of approaching me was different from Amami-san, the kindness they showed me was the same.
ââŠWhy are you grinning? Thatâs creepy.â
âMy bad, my bad.â
I started to understand her a little better.
Everyone around me were kind people, which Iâm grateful about.
However, I didnât expect them to be so worried about me when Umi wasnât around. Guess it was to be expected, considering how we were always together at school.
âŠThough, we tried to not be conspicuous about it.
âI came over since I heard you were talking about Takizawa-kun. Do you know him, Rep? If so, can you do me a favor? Iâll be grateful for the rest of my life if you do it! Can you give me his contact?â
âI donât know himâŠâ
âEh, really? Well, I guess itâs youâŠâ
The thought about telling her about his relationship with Nakamura-san crossed my mind, but I kept my mouth closed. I donât think Nakamura-san would appreciate it if I were to babble like that.
It wasnât like I didnât trust Nitta-san though. Nakamura-san would tell her sooner or later anyway, I was sure of it.
Instead, I told Nitta-san about Umi, who went to help the student council.
âI see, Takizawa-kun is sick⊠Jeez, if I knew this would happen, I would have joined the student council in a heartbeat.â
âYouâre the same as ever.â
âHuh? What did you mean by that, hm? Of course I would act like this. Unlike Umi and Yuuchin, I donât go after the boys in my surroundings! If I donât do it earnestly, I wonât find my ideal boy!â
If she had the same dedication toward her studies or work, I would respect her moreâŠ
âHuh?âŠâ
Her words made me feel strange.
She said she didnât go after the boys in her surroundings, unlike Umi and Amami-san.
In Umiâs case, the boy in her surroundings should be me, but in Amami-sanâs caseâŠ
âNitta-san, did Amami-san find someone that she likes? Just now you mentioned her going after a boy in her surroundingsâŠâ
âHm? âŠAh, sorry, I just said that randomly. You saw that Yuuchin is getting closer to Seki lately, right? Yeah, I just said those words because of that. I donât think she found someone that she likes yet.â
âI guess so, huh?âŠâ
I was surprised that she said those words so casually.
As far as I knew, the only boy that Amami-san was close to was Nozomu. I thought that Nozomuâs feelings finally became requited, so I almost became happy for him, but it seemed like it wasnât the case.
âSorry for making you misunderstood like that. Since Iâm cute, please let me off with this.â
âThatâs not a good enough reason. Well, letâs just say that we are too tired to think correctly and had a slip up, that should be okay.â
ââŠWe could go with that I guess. Anyway, I gotta go.â
ââKay, see you tomorrow.â
âMm, see ya~â
I parted ways with Nitta-san and went to the classroom to change into my uniform. There was still an hour before they locked the classroom, but I didnât want to be in my P.E uniform any longer. It reeked of dust and sweat.
Since I took my time in the yard, the bustling atmosphere in school had died down since most of the students had gone home already. The only people who stayed were the backboard groups and the people who were making cheerleading equipment. Even though they were sacrificing their summer vacation time, they seemed to be having a good time.
It was just like last yearâs festival.
Come to think of it, there were a lot of things to do back then too, but looking back, it was a lot of fun.
Because back then, I always had my âprecious friendâ by my side.
ââŠI love Umi so much.â
I muttered to myself as I walked down the hallway.
Whenever I was alone with my thoughts, I always ended up thinking about her.
It was only after I befriended her that I started to live more like a normal student. So it was natural that my precious memories were only filled with her. Though, if I were to see it from an objective point of view, it felt like I was thinking about her a little too much.
From the lottery that made me the committeeâs representative, the work that we did when we were left alone at school, the beef we had with Amami-san because of a slight misunderstanding, the moment where we held hands on the rooftop⊠All of them were my precious memories and Umi was in every one of them.
I suddenly had the sudden urge to go to her side right now.
Sometimes, I felt like this. I felt uncomfortable that she wasnât by my side.
ââŠNo, stop thinking about that. I should calm down.â
Thinking about her any longer would just leave me in agony. I should get ready to go home instead.
I took off my P.E uniform and wiped the sweat off my body with a spare towel. After that, I sprayed some deodorant on my body. I used to only wipe my body with a single handkerchief, so I made significant progress in this regard.
Well, everything that I used were the things that Umi bought for me⊠I guess I should think about buying them myself without her telling me next time.
After changing into my uniform, I took out my phone and tidied up my bangs. Then, I sat down and let out a deep sigh.
All I needed to do was to wait for Umi to finish her work. For some reason, the time passed agonizingly slowly.
I took ten minutes to change and stuff. It was great that I managed to finish everything in that short amount of time, but I wished that it took longer than that.
ââŠLetâs take a nap for a second.â
Even if I were to set an alarm, Iâd sleep until midnight anyway because I was exhausted, so I decided not toâ Of course that wouldnât be the case. The teacher will wake me up when itâs time.
Now that I think about it, I used to do this a lot back then.
I used my gym bag as a pillow and plopped my head on the desk. I hadnât done this in a while because everyone wouldnât leave me alone at school. It felt good to do this once in a while.
As time passed, my eyelids started getting heavier, so I decided to stop thinking and closed my eyes. I should take a ânapâ until my âalarmâ woke me up.
âAh, itâs that guyâŠâ
ââŠHm?â
I heard the classroom door being opened along with someone elseâs voice.