CH 15

“….It’s nice that today’s dinner is curry.”

During afternoon, on the rooftop alone, I was using my jersey as a mat to lie down. Listening from the rooftop, the usually noisy students, now sound like a perfect lullaby, causing me to get drowsy.

Slowly and slowly, the voices start getting smaller. My eyes start to close and consciousness fades away. After few seconds, I would complete consciousness, falling asleep. But something hits my head lightly, causing me to wake up completely.

“The semi-finals will start any moment now.”

Something struck my head lightly… It was an empty PET bottle. The one, who was holding that PET bottle in her hand, was Kirasaka. While sitting besides me, with ‘tap-tap’ she was striking my head.

“In any case, even if I don’t see, I would have understood from the noise.”

“Certainly so.”

Since the schoolyard was just below the rooftop, crowds of voices, cheering for specific people could be heard. Sometimes, after big cheers, I could hear the sound of whistle. From that fact, I wonder if Yuuto was scoring.

“From these circumstances, it looks like the Class 3 will advance to the finals.”

“It looks that way… Besides the handsome-kun1, the other soccer club members are also doing a good job in defending. Class 3 might unexpectedly, be very strong.”

While admiring Kirasaka, who praises someone rarely, another great cheer could be heard. With this, it should be a two goal difference. Looking at the smartphone’s watch, it had been 10 minutes since the game had started.

In the ball game tournament, unlike the official soccer rules, one game is of only 20 minutes, which means half of the game had already finished. Hence, there are only 10 minutes left in this game.

From the fact that few times, I could hear screaming, I wonder if the opponent team had continued attacking, not giving up.

However, after the third round of cheering, the whistle signalling end of the game, could be heard. Class 3, won an easy victory, with a score of 3-0. With this, only the finals are left.

“Finals… Will Class 3 win?”

Putting her hands on the fence, at the height of her chest, Kirasaka asked me, while looking below.

“The opponent is Class 1? In that case, there should be no problems. There are also two members of the soccer club there and here we have Yuuto as well.”

“You do value him quite highly.”

I raised my body and without looking at Kirasaka, replied.

“He is the first guy… I have felt jealous about.”

The men’s soccer finals became the final event of the ball tournament, mainly due to the great demand from the female students. Before the game time, there were students kicking the balls left in the schoolyard and some students going to watch other events.

I slipped among the crowd of spectators and approached up to the gymnasium.

Right now, the girls’ basketball finals were happening in the gymnasium. Kirasaka, who had been besides me till now, joined together with Shizuku who had kept advancing till the finals, and started going berserk in the court.

If you think about Shizuku, who stole the ball from the opponent’s defense with a magnificent dribble, there was also Kirasaka who scored the shot from a far away distance. Even though the opponent team also had the ace of the girls’ basketball team, the girls of Class 3 didn’t let them get closer and clinched the victory.

“How was it? Did you see my dribble?”

After the game, Shizuku came over carrying a brilliant expression, her face filled with delight.

“I saw…I saw… I felt pity for the opponent wasting away your talent.”

“Jeez! Minato-kun, please give me a praise honestly!”

With a side glance at Shizuku, whose cheeks were swelling, I took notice of the surroundings. I had thought that Yuuto would definitely come to see the match and offer words of congratulations, but his figure couldn’t be found.

In the gymnasium, after the basketball match was over, even though it was supposed to be a ball game tournament, I was amazed at seeing a rope skipping event as well. It was over without much excitement, with the victory of class 4.

Since the girls of Class 3 were taking a commemorative photo for the overall victory, I parted with Shizuku and went back to the rooftop.

I climbed the long stairs leading up to the rooftop and stopped in front of the heavy door. Opening it, I found Kirasaka looking below at the students from the rooftop, who should have been in the gymnasium, few moments ago.

“How was it… My play”

Kirasaka, who noticed me, was wearing a proud smile while looking towards here.

“The 3 pointer, which smashed the opponent’s pride and motivation, was magnificent.”

“….Do you know there are situations, where I want you to praise me honestly?”

It was different from the cool Kirasaka as usual. I felt for the first time, I saw a reaction from her, appropriate for her age. Displaying a similar reaction to Shizuku, unexpectedly they might have some places of resemblance. While thinking so, I stood next to her.

Beyond her gaze, I could see many students gathering in the school yard. I could understand, the men’s final would be starting soon.

The opponent, Class 1, had already lined up. The guys from the Class 3 couldn’t be seen yet. While the school yard was just beginning to make noise, within one portion of the crowd, huge cheers could be heard. From there, students of Class 3 started appearing.

With Yuuto leading, the guys from Class 3 lined up in front of the referee. Looking at them, Kirasaka muttered “There is one missing.”

I also started counting the players from Class 3 and realized, certainly there was one person missing from the team. Yuuto bowed his head, apologizing several times to the referee. While I thought they were having a deep talk, he separated from the line alone and came running direct below us.

“Minato! Help……..” “I refuse!”

With Yuuto running directly towards us, I could easily understand the situation. Interrupting Yuuto’s words, I declined his request.

1. So, this is kind of Kirasaka’s special nickname for Yuuto. She had also used it in an earlier chapter, but I had thought it as a one time only event, so didn’t bother specially writing it as such. The original is イケメン君 (Ikemen-kun).