CH 11

Kishikawa-sensei returned to her usual dignified appearance, and right now she's giving us instructions to start the volleyball match.

The members of the various teams are now gathering, and after a while, Sensei blew the whistle to indicate the start of the games; after she did that, she looked at me, then she smiled at me. For the people around me, they interpreted that as a way to show that Sensei was satisfied with defeating me.

In the first game, another team from Class A and a team from Class B played against each other. For the second game, it will be our team's turn, but since Jun is absent, we borrowed one member from another team.

"Yo... yoroshiku onegaishimasu, Umihara-kun."*

"Ah, yeah. Same to you."

I don't know why they are being respectful to the point of using honorifics when talking to me. If I had to guess, maybe it's because they find me intimidating. That's why I'd be really glad if Jun were with me, because when he's with me, the atmosphere around me softens. So, Jun, hurry up and get cured.

"Then we'll start after we've decided who's going to serve first."

Kishikawa-sensei then called both our team and the opposing team to come up to the court. I was automatically made the captain because of my attendance number. I then played rock-paper-scissors with the opponent's representative to determine who would serve first. Since I won the rock-paper-scissors game, we are going to serve first.

Since in volleyball everyone is going to have a turn to serve, the positions don't really matter that much, but right now I'm on the left side of the vanguard. As this was already my second time in a volleyball class, my role in the game was pretty much decided already.

Even though this is just part of the class, since this is a game, it's only natural that I want to win. When I was thinking about that, a student from Class B sent a disturbing look at me from the other side of the net. There are times when I get into fights at school, but this is the first time that it looks like someone from Class B wants to fight with me.

"Hey, Umihara. Just because you have good grades and a good face, it doesn't mean that you can get carried away."

There are a lot of ways to incite a fight, but I don't think I will hear this fossil-like way of provocation; seriously, it's so old and cliche that I want some research institution to preserve it. Despite this, I'm still naive because the provocation had irritated me slightly.