5: Sometimes you’ll trigger a flag you’ve been ignoring when you least expect it

5

Sometimes you’ll trigger a flag you’ve been ignoring when you least expect it

Three days had passed since I started practicing my layup, and the sports tournament was here.

We were playing in a typical league, round-robin style, and our class was doing great.

In the gym, I watched as Mizusawa cleanly slipped past the guy defending him and scored a layup.

“Nice one, Takahiro!”

“Thanks!”

He was kicking butt. Teams were free to change up the players on the court for every game, but he’d been in almost all of them. Was he on the basketball team? He looked like he might be, but I had a hard time remembering who played what.

As for me, I still hadn’t played a single game. Not much I could do about that. You could tell just by looking at me that I wouldn’t be of much use. That said, I knew I’d get out there at some point. According to the tournament rules, everyone in class had to play at least one game. Good thing, since this was a school event. So I’d get my turn eventually…right after this game, in fact.

I was nervous. But I’d also done my best to work on my layups like Hinami had told me, and I wanted to see if my hard work would pay off in a real game. I was especially curious because I hadn’t had a chance to play any practice games. My gamer side was rearing its head again.

“Hey!”

“Whoa!”

I whipped my head around, reacting dramatically to the sudden shout. It was Izumi, wearing a summery gym uniform consisting of shorts and a T-shirt that was reflecting the light from the window right into my eyes. Not that I could tear my eyes away from her when she was showing so much skin…

“How’s it going over here?” she asked, bouncing over to me. Izumi being Izumi, some other stuff bounced, too.

“Oh, um…we’ve got three games left including this one, and if we win two of them, I guess we win the whole thing.”

“Really? Wow!”

“Yeah…and…,” I said, glancing at the court. “It looks like we’ll win this game, so we just need one more.”

“Nice! You’re almost there!”

“Yeah.”

In other words, I had to play when the pressure was highest. Glad I practiced.

“Sounds like we might get a double win!”

“Huh? So the girls are…?”

Izumi burst into a grin. “We won our last game, and we’ve got one more to win the tournament!”

“No way!”

So the girls were set to go, too. Since softball games took longer than basketball games, they were playing knockout style, and the next game would decide everything.

“Yeah, we won the last game in the bottom of the ninth when Erika hit a home run!”

“Konno…hit a home run…?”

I smiled, imagining the scene. Not long ago, she’d been totally apathetic about the tournament, and now she hit a home run? She must have been swinging as hard as she could—talk about being motivated. When a leader goes for it, they really go for it.

“How’s it going for you? Did you play yet?”

“Um, not yet… I’m up next,” I said hesitantly.

“Ooh, perfect timing! I came over to watch because the game to decide third place in softball is happening before ours.”

“O-oh, really…?” I said, even though I wouldn’t exactly call the timing “perfect.” I mean, I didn’t want everyone to see me hanging out under the basket waiting for opportunities to make layups. Personally, I was satisfied with the effort I put in, but it wouldn’t exactly look cool. Well, whatever. At least it might make for a good conversation starter. No one was expecting much from me to begin with.

Suddenly, I heard a whistle, and the game was over.

“Okay, one more to go,” Mizusawa said, walking breezily over to the normies. He usually acted so mature, but right now he was grinning like a kid and acting extra friendly. The sweat dripping down his chin and neck was glittering in the summer sun like something out of a teen movie.

“Damn, why’s he so good-looking…?”

Izumi laughed at my honest comment. “I think Hiro’s scored some points for himself at this tournament…,” she said, looking to the side with an amused smile. What? I followed her gaze and saw Mizusawa in the center of a crowd of girls gushing over his performance.

“…Figures.”

Even I thought he was a near-perfect male specimen. The girls must find him irresistible. The gods are unfair.

He looked over at us, waved casually, and headed our way. His smile really was happier and more alive than usual—maybe it was the adrenaline from the game. His giant grin and his short, loose perm were so perfect together that I could almost see beams of light radiating from him. He walked right up to me, switched to a cooler smile, and clapped me on the back.

“Okay, Fumiya, we’re gonna win this, right?” he said, looking out over the court. What a dependable guy.

“Uh, right.”

I could never imitate his aura by copying his words or actions. It was something abstract that was born from everything he did and his underlying confidence. I guess all I could do was keep working on my expression and posture and tone and stuff like that.

The next game was about to start. The team was Mizusawa, Takei, Tachibana-kun, some guy I didn’t really know, and me.

“Okay, everyone! The game is starting!” shouted the other class’s captain, who was in charge of this court. A second later, Mizusawa was striding onto the court. He was incredibly energetic for just having played a game. I was only a few seconds behind him. Okay, let’s do this.

“Go, team!” Izumi yelled, grinning.

I smiled back and walked onto the court.

* * *

Shit. I’m not making any of these layups.

I waited under the basket in a panic. Five minutes had already passed since the game began, and these tournament games lasted only ten minutes. I’d done essentially nothing so far. I’d be in big trouble if I stayed this way. Conversation with the jocks would be out of the question.

Okay, early in the game, Takei had shouted, “It’s all you, Farm Boy!” and passed me the ball like he was throwing a Frisbee to a dog, and I’d calmly nailed a perfect layup. Hinami’s instructions on the form, steps, and method for assessing distance had paid off.

Mizusawa had shouted, “F-Fumiya?!” in shock, while Takei freaked out and yelled, “Who are you, and what have you done with Farm Boy?!”

Fine, I can understand why Mizusawa reacted that way, but why’d Takei pass me the ball if he was so sure I’d miss the shot? And me being me, I was admittedly smug about all my hard work paying off. So it was going great up until then.

But after that, someone started guarding me. I didn’t have the skills or strength to shake him off, and I turned into a waste of court space. I hadn’t touched the ball since. On the bright side, an essentially useless player like myself was now occupying one of the opposing team’s players, so I wasn’t entirely worthless. In that sense, you could say my work had paid off. Maybe?

Plus, the all-important game was turning out to be an even match. Or more accurately—we were losing by three points.

The problem didn’t seem to be with our team, despite the fact that Mizusawa was getting tired. Our opponents were just really damn good. After all, even though Hinami had said there wouldn’t be man-to-man defense in the tournament, they’d slapped someone on me the second I made that first layup.

“Got it!” Mizusawa said, intercepting a pass. He sped across the court and released the ball.

“Takei!”

“Nice pass! I’m on it!”

Takei smoothly caught the ball, dribbled dramatically around the guy guarding him, raced over to the basket, and scored with a crazy layup. With his build, speed, and totally unnecessary flair, it almost looked like a dunk. Wow. That was very impressive.

“Whooooooo!” The crowd went wild. A huge grin spread across Takei’s face, and he did a double thumbs-up. How is he not embarrassed? I’ve never seen anyone follow up such a cool move by being that uncool. Never change, Takei.

Someone tossed the ball back onto the court, and we started playing again. Now we were just one point behind. One more basket, and we’d be on top. I think we had about a little over a minute left.

The other team had the ball to start. Their strategy seemed to be just running down the clock. As the five of them tossed the ball back and forth at a healthy pace, they showed no sign of aggressive offense.

Of course—it was the natural strategy, given they were beating us and there wasn’t much time on the clock. Some people might call it cowardly, but there was nothing wrong with using the rules to your advantage. They went on passing the ball around the safest route.

And as time dragged on, defeat grew more certain.

Shit. If we don’t do something, we’ll lose. We were all thinking the same thing when it happened.

Maybe it was a wild instinct, or maybe it was a wild animal’s ability to track objects in motion—whatever the case, some sort of animal force seemed to be driving Takei as he darted out like lightning and into the ball’s path a couple of steps away from him.

“Nice!” Mizusawa shouted with uncharacteristic excitement.

But the ball slipped out of Takei’s hands and bounced across the court. No one was standing in its path. The closest players to it were Takei, the guy guarding me, and me.

“Tch!” My guard glanced at me, clicked his tongue, and ran toward the ball. I couldn’t peel myself away from the basket. The ball was now approximately halfway between Takei and the other guy. It was bouncing toward us, so they were probably going to get it.

“Yahhhh!”

But Takei was now a wild animal. Without any regard for his own safety, he hurled himself at the ball and wrapped his arms around it before his opponent had a chance.

“Defense!” the other team’s leader shouted. They started racing toward the basket where I was standing.

For the moment, though, I was the only one there.

“Tomozaki!!”

Still sprawled on the ground, Takei called my name—not Farm Boy, but Tomozaki—and passed me the ball. When did my school’s sports tournament become the setting of a basketball manga, and how the hell did I end up starring in its climax? Anyway, Takei passed me the ball with all his heart, and I caught it.

We had around ten seconds left. This was truly our last chance.

But I was a little too far away for a layup shot. I dribbled a couple of feet, grabbed the ball in both hands, and got into my layup position. If I missed, we’d lose.

Yup, if I missed, we’d lose.

Lose.

So yeah, of course the pressure would get to me.

“Ngaaaah!”

I might have been putting my all into it, but I’d still practiced my layups for only three days. It was a rush job. I wasn’t good enough yet to do it automatically, but how could I think through every single motion in a situation like this?

My feet wouldn’t quite cooperate, and that was when one guy from the other team reached the basket.

“Stop him!” one of his teammates screamed in a bloodcurdling voice.

“Ah!”

Panicked, I stumbled over myself and lost my balance. The ball slipped out of my hands and bounced off the ground. Shit.

I struggled to move my tangled feet forward and somehow catch the ball. But I was panicking, so I stumbled again and flew forward onto the ground.

My opponent watched me in shock but kept running toward the ball. I reached for it, and so did he. And then—

Still lying on the ground, I pulled the ball into my armpit with one arm and grabbed the bottom of my opponent’s jersey with the other. I-if I could just pull myself up and pass the ball…

Just then, I noticed that everyone, both on and off the court, was staring at the ref. He blew his whistle.

“Uh, red team…!”

Red team. That was us. The ref looked at me.

“Foul…and double dribble, and traveling…!”

Rahhhh!

The crowd erupted for a totally different reason than I had intended.

* * *

I was standing on the side of the court after the game ended.

“Ha-ha-ha… Don’t worry about it, man.”

Mizusawa gave me a beautiful smile and thumped me on the shoulder.

“G-gimme a break…”

I managed a listless comeback. Izumi giggled awkwardly. And after she’d come over just to watch our game, too.

Takei, who was standing right in front of me, burst out with laughter. “Farm Boy… I’ve never seen someone break three rules at once!”

He was gripping his stomach and pointing at me, his eyes teary.

“Shut up!” I shouted back, louder than usual because I was so embarrassed. I didn’t practice my comebacks for these kinds of situations! A cluster of classmates standing nearby burst into laughter, too. Well, at least I was reaching a wider audience.

Tachibana had been watching and laughing nearby, too, and he pulled himself together and walked over to us.

“Man, that was hilarious!”

“Aw, come on…,” I said with melodramatic chagrin so it was clear to him how I felt. He laughed even harder.

“Seriously, though, those guys were good. Not much you could do.”

“Yeah,” I said, still feeling a little guilty. “Good luck on the last game.”

“Leave it to me.”

Tachibana grinned, patting my arm. He must be on the basketball team if he was going to be in the crucial final game. Maybe sometimes you can judge a book by its cover.

So if I was talking to the jock Tachibana, did that mean my assignment wasn’t a total failure? Uh…

As I was mulling that over, Tachibana sighed and gave me a chill smile.

“Actually, you’re surprisingly…”

“…Hmm?”

He was still smiling as he finished the sentence.

“…fun to talk to, Tomoshima-kun!”

“It’s Tomozaki.”

He still didn’t remember my name.

* * *

After two more games between the other teams, the last basketball game of the tournament began. This was the home stretch, and our victory was depending on it.

Since the results would determine who won the whole tournament, the area around the court was packed with spectators. If we won, we’d take first place. If we lost, we’d take second. In the latter case, our opponent for this game wouldn’t be the ones who took first—it would be the team we had lost to, thanks to me, in our last game.

“Let’s do this!”

Nakamura led the team onto the court.

The team was made up of Tachibana and two other members of the basketball team, plus Mizusawa and Nakamura. It said something about Nakamura’s all-around athleticism that he had been chosen for this elite team of the best players in our class even though he was on the soccer team.

As I waited for the game to start, I saw a group of students heading toward us from the baseball field. They were the girls from our class, which meant their tournament must be over. Izumi was leading the pack at a trot, waving at the guys.

“We won the softball tournament!”

She was smiling with heartfelt happiness, but I could also sense her dependability and leadership as the captain. Hinami and Mimimi were behind her, waving and smiling at us. Behind them was Erika Konno, wiping the glittering sweat from her face as she chatted cheerfully with her crew.

As the guys in our class called back to Izumi, she shouted toward the court.

“Shuji! No mercy if you lose!!”

Nakamura scratched his head and sleepily raised his eyebrows, a hint of happiness in his expression.

“I know, I know. I’m on it.”

He grinned a powerful, manly grin.

* * *

The final, decisive game was drawing to a close. Nakamura had the ball. Dribbling, he glanced to the left and right, mapping the defense—and then suddenly took off running.

He shook off his defense with pure speed and powerful dribbles, and he was across the court in a flash. He didn’t get quite far enough to shoot, though. The other team had made it to the basket first and blocked his path. At the very least, he wouldn’t be able to do a layup.

A second later, Nakamura stopped a few steps from the defense and took a shooting position. He was just outside the three-point line. Realizing what was going on, the defense went for him, but he jumped backward out of their reach. A few seconds remained on the clock. At the peak of his leap, he released the ball.

The ref blew his whistle. This shot was gonna be a buzzer beater.

Under the full attention of the silent spectators and players, the ball traced a slow, graceful arc against the backdrop of the blue, late-summer sky beyond the windows.

And then very quietly, it swished through the basketball hoop.

“Whoooo!”

The final score was twenty-three to eight—we would have won with or without Nakamura’s shot. That buzzer beater wasn’t deciding a super-close game; it was just kicking them while they were down. We already knew who would win after the first few minutes.

No surprises there. Our opponents in the nail-biter we’d played just before had been the second-place team, and this time, we had even better players on the court. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we were bound to win. Plus, our opponents this time wouldn’t get first place in the tournament no matter what they did, so they probably weren’t that motivated. That’s reality for you. Still, our victory meant both the guys and girls won the tournament.

“We’re number one!!”

Takei hadn’t played the last game, despite being the captain, but he still pointed to the ceiling and raised a warlike shout as our leader. Nakamura and Mizusawa followed suit and pointed at the ceiling, too, smiling happily. Most of the girls from our class were crowded around, and everyone was shouting and cheering. Hinami, Mimimi, and Tama-chan had their arms around one another’s shoulders. Tama-chan had to stand on her tiptoes.

I glanced at Erika Konno. Her smile was more reserved, but I could tell she was happy. When Izumi threw her arms around Konno’s neck with a huge grin, Konno ruffled her hair good-naturedly.

Wow. Everyone seemed to be having fun. I felt like the whole class had come together as one. The old me never would have done it, but I joined the crowd and tried cheering a little myself. I wasn’t sure, but it didn’t feel like a very good fit for me. Well, that’s life. Not everyone has fun in the same way.

“Nice job!”

Izumi pulled away from Konno and gave everyone a captain-like word of congratulations.

“You guys won, too, right? Our class rules,” Nakamura said casually.

“We sure do!”

Izumi raised one hand to about head height. What was she doing? As I was puzzling over this, Nakamura raised his hand, too, and they met with a slap in midair against the sun. Oh, a high five. I’d been watching, but I had no idea that was coming. Those two really did think alike. Or was I just clueless about normie culture? That was probably it.

I looked over at Takei and noticed he was staring sorrowfully at his own palm. I get you, man. You’re captain, after all. Normally, the two captains would do the high five here. Poor Takei.

The tournament over, we joined the closing ceremony and then went back to our classroom. By the way, the closing ceremony included a rousing speech from our new student council president, Hinami. Watching her, I thought about how each of us had our role to play.

* * *

A few hours later, Hinami, Mizusawa, Takei, Mimimi, and I were heading to the train station from school, and we were peering around the corner from the shadows of a building. A couple was walking side by side down the nearly empty street—Izumi and Nakamura.

Yes, they were walking home from school together, and we were tailing them.

“Well, well, I wonder what’s going to happen!” Mimimi said, clearly enjoying this.

“Yeah, me too,” I said, thinking back to what had happened after the tournament.

The whole class had been treated to ice cream as a reward for taking first place. Apparently, Hinami had conspired with Kawamura-sensei to buy it using student council funds. Wait, is that allowed? Not that I mind.

The celebration went on for a couple of hours, until it was time to go home.

Finally, Izumi took action.

She walked up to Nakamura while he was talking to Mizusawa and Takei and abruptly made a proposition.

“Shuji… Wanna walk home together?”

Her boldness—her strength to do whatever she put her mind to—had seemed to define her lately. Nakamura gave her a short “Sure, whatever,” which was his way of agreeing.

The rest of us, who had been listening from nearby, made comments like, “Oh, okay, see you guys tomorrow,” and started casually letting them know they could do what they wanted. As soon as they left, we all huddled and unanimously agreed we had to tail them. And here we were.

“What are they gonna do?!” Hinami whispered.

“This has got to be it. We had a double victory at the tournament, and Yuzu even brought Shuji back to school with the power of love,” Mizusawa said.

“What are you talking about?” Mimimi asked, frowning.

“Oh…a lot happened while you were fooling around with Tama,” Mizusawa answered.

“What’s that supposed to mean?! Details! Gimme the rundown!”

We filled her in on the events of the past couple weeks as we kept following Izumi and Nakamura. Pretty soon, they veered off the usual route home. We couldn’t figure out why. Which meant…?

Mimimi leaned forward, eyes sparkling. “Ooh, where are they going?”

“Hey, get back, Mimimi! They’ll see you,” Hinami said, pulling her back with an exasperated smile.

“I knew we shouldn’t have brought her along…,” Mizusawa joked.

“Well, aren’t you a sassmaster today? If you’re nitpicky about everything, you’ll never get a girlfriend!”

“Ha-ha-ha. I think girls like me fine.”

“Really now? And yet you’re still single, Takahiro!”

“Shut up. I just don’t do things halfway. Anyway, look who’s talking. Where’s your boyfriend?”

“I don’t need one. I have Tama! Right, Tomozaki?”

“Wh-why are you asking me?”

While we were busy joking around, the two lovebirds had headed for an empty park.

“Oh shit! It’s getting real!”

Takei managed not to shout while he was jumping around excitedly, but we still had to shush him for being way too loud. He got all depressed and looked down with apologetic, silent grief. C-come on, man, don’t get depressed!

Anyway, I recognized the park they’d walked into. It was the same place I’d been practicing layups. Was Nakamura going for a bittersweet romantic scene? Maybe he’d say something like If I can make this shot, be my girlfriend! Or maybe not.

We followed them into the park, whispering excitedly and sticking to the trees around the edge, where we’d have a view of the central area. The two of them sat down next to each other on a bench facing the entrance.

“Damn, they’re looking this way. We can’t get any closer.” Mizusawa sounded disappointed.

“…Wait,” I said as he made a move to put down his school bag.

“Huh?” He looked at me expectantly as I nodded and pointed across the path.

“There’s another entrance over there. If we go to that side, we can get a lot closer.”

“No way!”

“Yeah.”

I’d have never guessed my layup practice would pay off in this way, but I had a fairly good sense of the park’s layout. I gave a thumbs-up, and Mimimi thumped my back and whispered, “Nice!” It hurt, which meant she was in a good mood.

We crept around the park, went through the other entrance, and stealthily approached. We ended up in the shadow of an equipment shed a couple of yards from the bench, and if we strained our ears, we could just make out what they were saying. After a quick glance at one another, we focused on eavesdropping.

“…Right! And then Aoi took over as pitcher for the rest of the game!”

Izumi was talking, and she’d just revealed something new to me. I didn’t know Hinami had pitched the end of the winning game. I looked at her, and she gave me a goofy You got me! smile. As always, her perfect-heroine expressions made you want to laugh.

“Ha-ha-ha. She’s always so pushy, huh?”

“Well, thanks to her, we won!”

I almost burst out laughing at Nakamura’s refreshing description of Hinami. He was right; if someone asked me whether she was pushy, I’d have to say yes. Not only was she the student council president and the class leader, but she was also the pitcher in the final game of the tournament? That she managed to do it without being obnoxious was a testament to her well-balanced personality. Of course, from my perspective, she was nothing but obnoxious.

“You didn’t do so bad yourself, huh?” Nakamura said bluntly. We looked at one another and sniggered. Even now he was playing it cool.

“Um…,” Izumi answered haltingly. “Uh, yeah. I guess.”

“Hmm…”

“Hey, that didn’t sound like you.”

Nakamura gave a sudden, offhand smile. “What’s that supposed to mean? What am I supposed to sound like?”

“Uh, um…meaner?”

“Hey, jerk!”

With that, Nakamura clamped his hand on the top of Izumi’s head.

“Ow, ow, ow!”

“Are you saying I’m mean?”

Izumi grabbed Nakamura’s arm with both hands, but he didn’t let go. She was squealing but not really trying to push him off. And after a little while of that…

“So you wanna go out with me?”

“Eeeek?!”

Izumi yelped at Nakamura’s abrupt question, and I almost did, too. I clapped both hands over my mouth, and when I had calmed down, I realized everyone aside from Takei had their hands over their mouths, too. Takei’s mouth was covered by Hinami’s hand. Huh? …Had she instantly recognized the danger and covered hers and his at the same time? If so, it was an excellent decision.

Anyway, what the heck just happened? Things went from zero to a hundred in about one second. They’d been dragging along forever, and now all of a sudden, they were leaps and bounds ahead of what any of us expected. On the other hand, it seemed in character for Nakamura.

He went on, as cool and blunt as ever.

“What was that noise? You sound ridiculous.”

“H-hey, no, I don’t!”

“Well, what’s your answer?” he said irritably.

Seriously, what was his deal? He took forever to tell her how he felt, then once he did, he acted all cocky and superior about it. Or was it just a top-tier thing? Geez, dude.

“Um…when you say ‘go out’…”

“Huh? I mean, nothing will change, really.”

“R-right…”

Izumi looked down silently for a minute. I couldn’t see her face, but I could imagine how red it must be. The silence continued. Nakamura was sitting with his knees spread, looking casually away from her. How did he emit such a powerful aura of unconcern that I could read it from behind?

Finally, Izumi turned to face him.

“…Yes, I’d like to. Because I like you, too.”

Her voice was strong and grounded, but I could make out an excited heat in it, too. We crouched there in the shade of the equipment shed, our hands still over our mouths, looking at one another with satisfaction.

“…Okay, then.”

Maybe to hide his shyness, Nakamura stood up and started walking toward the main park entrance. “Wait!” Izumi shouted. He turned toward her. A second before he did, Hinami and Mizusawa pulled us behind the shed. G-good job, guys.

“What?”

Hiding behind the shed, we could only hear them.

“It’s just…I said I liked you, too …but you never actually said how you felt. And I don’t want to put words in your mouth or anything…”

She sounded faintly nervous, but I could tell she was trying very hard to sound extremely nonchalant.

“…Huh? What are you talking about?”

Nakamura was trying to stay blunt, but I also thought I could hear his cool facade breaking down, little by little. Finally, we heard the sound of something like sand or gravel crunching underfoot. I didn’t know who it was.

“I just…want to know.”

Izumi’s voice was so earnest, like she had gathered all her strength to get the words out.

Silence.

The wind blew, fluttering Mimimi’s and Hinami’s hair. There was a dry sound like falling leaves scuttling across the ground.

The wind stopped. I heard that gravel sound again.

“I like you, too.”

The summer heat had died down now, replaced by the cool, pleasant air of late September.

“I’m glad.”

Izumi’s reply was soft and short, but overflowing with a happy sweetness. Behind the shed, we looked at one another wide-eyed, breath held and hands still over our mouths. Then we all nodded, although I had no idea what it was supposed to mean.

“Let’s get going.”

“…Okay!”

After Izumi’s short, satisfied answer, we heard two sets of footsteps retreating. We stayed there for a moment as their lingering happiness wafted through the park.

“They’re gone…!”

Mimimi looked around at us impatiently. Hinami poked her head out from behind the shed, surveyed the scene, then looked back at us and nodded. All clear. We all let out our breath.

“Sh-Shuji! Way to go, dude!” Takei gushed as soon as he was released, although his voice was a little tight. Hinami looked at him and smiled.

“Yeah, it sure took them long enough!”

Her tone conveyed a mixture of exasperation, amusement, and affection. I didn’t want to think about how much of it was her acting. Scary.

“Young love in bloom before our eyes! I’ve gotta keep up!”

Mimimi, who for some reason was taking a competitive approach to the situation, pounded my back as I crouched in the shadows. Ouch!

“Hey, that hurts! …But yeah, guess the drama’s over.”

I sighed. Maybe life wasn’t so bad after all if there were happy endings like this. This game did have its good points.

Suddenly, I heard someone laughing behind me.

“…To their long and happy life together!” I could see a touch of chagrin in Mizusawa’s smile as he joked, but he still looked like he was having the most fun of any of us.

* * *

“So actually…we’re dating now.”

The next morning in class, Izumi announced her news, her face beet red. Nakamura was standing next to her.

“What?! Seriously?! Congratulations!”

Following Hinami’s lead, we all pretended we had no idea what had happened the day before. Her performance was perfect, of course.

“Who said something first?! Nakamu?!”

“I don’t think Shuji has it in him!”

Mimimi and Mizusawa joined in with equally perfect, teasing performances.

“Shut up. Who cares anyway?”

Nakamura was being as cocky as ever. He could be so annoying.

“Wow, I never would have expected this!”

“Y-yeah! Congratulations, Izumi and Nakamura!”

While everyone else was busy being smooth, Takei and I offered our clumsy reactions. Cut us some slack, okay? At least it wasn’t enough for them to guess we’d seen the whole thing.

“Thanks!”

“Enough already. It’s not like anything’s gonna change.”

While Izumi answered with honest appreciation, Nakamura abruptly tried to change the subject, probably out of embarrassment. They were definitely an odd couple, but in my opinion, that made them just right for each other.

Soon, the whole class knew and started congratulating the new couple. The general mood had been pushing for them to get together, so some people were even like, “Took you long enough!”

As I was thinking the other day, the whole thing ended without anything bad happening to anyone. Everyone was satisfied, and the mood was good. Life would go on as usual. And everyone lived happily ever after—

—or not. I was about to learn that the game of life wasn’t quite that sweet.