The boy beside Nozomi had a shit-eating grin on his face. The rest of his group was busy praising Hina. They were still trying to score something with Hina. Nozomi had chosen to ignore them because they were not too much of a nuisance and had not gone overboard with anything.
However, this was the first time she was approached instead of Hina.
‘Did I look THAT pitiful?’
“Hey, let’s play another round, I’ll help her this time, yeah? I’m good at this.”
However, Hina hesitated.
‘Ah, I’m just a cover for him to play with Hina. So, I didn’t look THAT pitiful. Still, it’s true I haven’t won once.’
Meanwhile, his peers persuaded Hina.
“He's not kidding. He’s good at this game. Why not see if you can beat him?”
“You could take him down a notch.”
When Nozomi tuned back into their goading, she was sure that they would challenge Hina to other games after this one. If Hina was smart and did not want to play with them, she would reject them now. ‘But she isn’t.’