Chapter 121 – Warm-up Match (1)

On a day off after the members of the class match were chosen, the usual gang and I were hanging out at the arcade.

The goal of today's outing was 'practice for the class match'. Other than the batting center, this place also had both basketball and futsal courts, so it was perfect for us.

As for our friend group, except for Amami and I…

Umi: Basketball

Nitta-san: Basketball

Nozomu: Softball

Those were the sports they'll participate in.

Nozomu wasn't here because he had practice. He seemed disappointed when he refused my invitation.

I wondered when he would be free?

Anyway, let's forget about him for now. We also had another matter to discuss, which was Arae-san's matter.

"Arae huh~ I noticed her name when I was looking at your class roster, but I didn't expect for this to happen…"

"Do you know her, Nina?"

"Well, she stands out because of her looks, but they said that her personality is bad. So I never tried to befriend her~"

Nitta-san seemed to know about Arae-san from rumors. She had a lot of friends, but it seemed like she was pretty picky when it came to befriending someone. Seeing the things that happened the other day, I could say that she made the right choice to not befriend Arae-san.

"Yuu, did you ever do something to that girl?"

They were currently in the middle of passing practice. Umi asked Amami-san that as she passed the ball over to her. They said that they hadn't practiced much since middle school, but looking at their dribbling and passing, they looked like a pair of experienced basketball players.

"I don't think so. I mean, I didn't even know her until we got put in the same class…"

"So, she's just another small fry."

By small fry, she meant that she was just one of those girls who were jealous or hated Amami-san for no reason.

Amami-san stood out in a lot of ways, but that didn't mean she didn't put any effort into it.

Sure, she had both talents and looks, but she became the person she was today because she put in a lot of effort in her studies, exercise, self-care and networking. 

And despite that, she wasn't perfect. She also had her own share of problems, like the thing with Umi last year.

Well, I defended her partly because she was Umi's friend, but honestly, even if she wasn't, I would still defend her. After all, just because she looked like she was living her life to the fullest, it didn't mean that her life was trouble-free.

"So far, I could only see this person as a small fry… What do you think, Nina?"

"Who knows… Ah, right, I heard that even though she looks flashy, she never tried to get closer to any boys, on the contrary she hates boys… You heard about that too, right, Rep?"

"Mhm, I did."

In the end we barely knew anything about her.

What was her motive? Jealousy? Some other circumstances? Or both?

Either way, for now we could do nothing about it.

"What are you going to do, Yuu?"

"Umm…"

Umi passed her the ball and she received it with a distressed look on her face. She listlessly bounced the ball around for a while.

In the end, the actions we would take depended on Amami-san's opinion. If she thought that Arae-san was an annoyance, we would cooperate and get rid of her. If she wanted to ignore her, then we would help her with that.

She was someone important to Umi, and by extension, to me as well. As long as she was my classmate, I would stay by her side no matter what.

"…I don't know, I can't decide… Let's just forget about this and have fun! It's been a while since the four of us hung out together like this!"

"Well, yeah. We've paid for this, so might as well. Also, I think I'll come up with better ideas if I move my body around."

"Oh, I wanna see another one-on-one! The last time you both did this was during PE last year, right?~ I remember things were quite heated back then, I want to see it again!~"

"…Ah, right, I think I remember that happened."

I didn't remember it in detail, but I did remember that it happened.

Before I became friends with Umi, there was a time when we were playing basketball during PE. Umi and Amami-san were on opposing teams, it seemed like a lot of fun.

Both of them clashed often in my home while playing video games, but seeing them competing in sports was a rare sight.

"Hehe… Right, that happened… By the way, that time, I won, right, Umi?~"

"Oho? My dear best friend, are you trying to taunt me? Fine, I'll bite. I won't go easy on you this time, okay?"

"Why are you bluffing, Umi?~ If you were going easy on me back then, the point difference would be wider~"

"You squidface!–"

Amami-san taunted Umi with a smirk. I was expecting a two-on-two, but it seemed like they would really go one-on-one this time.

"…Where did Yuuchin learn to taunt people like that?"

"…Beats me."

…Actually, it might be my fault. She had been watching me taunt Umi whenever we were playing video games, but I was innocent until proven guilty.

A preview of the class match between class 10 and 11 was about to begin in front of us.