CH 12

“Tomorrow, Let’s practice soccer for the ball game.”

When Chiaki sent him such a message, Asahi’s face clouded over as he pondered over it.

I’m more of an athletic person, but I won’t go out of my way to kick a ball during my day off.

However, when I remember my classmates’ enthusiasm to win the competition, I think about practicing for at least a day.

In the end, Asahi convinced himself that he was bored at home anyway, and sent a short reply saying that he understood.

It was pretty surreal to imagine the two of them kicking a ball together, but Chiaki was a former soccer club member, so he would get a lot out of it.

Although it was undeniably an amateur’s hasty preparation, it was surely better than doing nothing.

The next day, Saturday, Asahi let out a big sigh when he saw Chiaki operating the controller next to him.

“…Hey, Chiaki. I thought we were going to have soccer practice today…”

“Yeah, I’m in the middle of doing just that.”

Chiaki, muttering, “Watch me,” dribbled past two defenders and made a spectacular loop shot over the goalkeeper’s head in a brilliant arc.

“This is how you score a goal.”

“Isn’t this just a game…What’s more I play defense.”

When the meeting place was not at the nearest station or park, but at Asahi’s house, he already had a bad feeling.

The premonition came true, and since the daytime of the holiday, Asahi had been practicing soccer, or rather, soccer games.

While having this idle conversation, another player controlled by Chiaki scored a goal, and the originally decisive outcome of the game became certain.

It annoyed me that he was getting more and more sloppy in his play, but I couldn’t say anything about it because he was still far too good for me.

“Speaking of which, yesterday, didn’t you have a nosebleed, Asahi?”

“Yeah.”

“I heard there was an accident with the girls practicing in the gym at that time.”

Perhaps he was bored because the score gap was so wide, but Chiaki still wanted to talk to him, even though the game was in progress.