CH 51

Hah, I’m exhausted….

After the match with Tojoin-san’s class, I took a quick break.

I hadn’t pitched in a while, but I did pretty well this time.

Well, there was only one factor that made me feel so good though.

I was playing catch with Yuuichi after the match to cool down for a bit.

I threw as hard as I could without much practice, so I had to take care of my shoulder and elbow afterwards or they would break with how much pressure I was exerting.

Well, it’s probably fine, but just in case, I need to be safe.

I finished playing a light game of catch with Yuuichi and went to the place where everyone in the class was gathered together.

Everyone was chatting excitedly, probably because the boys baseball team just won the match.

As Yuuichi and I approached them, several girls noticed us coming nearby and closed in on us.

“Yuuichi-kun! That home run was really amazing!”

“It’s really amazing to hit that far coming from the ace of the Baseball team.”

“Oh, thank you.”

As expected of Yuuichi, who was popular in class. He was immediately surrounded by the girls of the class.

Yuuichi gave a refreshing smile in response, and the girls around him immediately turned red.

Sheesh, that’s one good-looking protagonist.

Well, that home run really was amazing, so I can’t blame him.

“I’m sorry, but could you let me through?”

“Ah, To-Tojoin-san… Go ahead.”

Tojoin-san quickly appeared and dismissed the girls in the class with a smile.

As expected, the girls in the class didn’t seem to want to compete with Tojoin-san.

Well, it takes courage to stand up to Tojoin-san, doesn’t it?

Both in appearance and power.

“Yuuichi, good work.”

“Ah, thank you, Kaori.”

When Tojoin-san approached Yuuichi, most of the girls in the class that were near Yuuichi disappeared.

With the exception of one person, Shiho Fujise.

“Shigemoto-kun, thank you for your hard work. Here’s a cold towel.”

“Whoa, thanks, Fujise. Hah, that feels good.”

“Fujise-san? I wonder if that towel is yours?”

“Of course it is.”

She’s like a devoted manager who keeps a cold towel on standby for Yuuichi.

With such a cute girl as a manager, I’m sure I’d be able to be as strong as I ever want to be.

“I’ll buy that towel from you, name your price.”[PR: oh she’s a freak lol]

“Eh?”

“A towel soaked in Yuuichi’s sweat is worth a lot. Do you not understand?”

“No, I don’t understand.”

Yuuichi, as expected, twitched at Tojoin-san’s words.

Yeah, I think only Tojoin-san will probably understand what she means by that.

“What? Your sweat is worth a lot more to me than diamonds, Yuuichi.”

“No, no. Diamonds are definitely worth more than my sweat.”

“It depends on the person. Of course, If I was given the chance, I’d love to take a direct li-”

“Wait a minute, were you just going to say lick? What, my sweat? And ingesting it might be better than licking it, but that’s still pretty bad.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep my intake to a reasonable level, so I don’t think you’ll have any withdrawal symptoms.”

“I don’t get it, do you think my sweat is some kind of dangerous drug?” [TLN: Spynine, please pick me up I’m scared.] [ED: dead-san, I’m scared too here.] [PR: don’t be scared. Just be glad you’re not the target.]

Tojoin-san is a little unique with her fetishes so perhaps she’s a pretty dangerous woman.

“Ah, Hisamura-kun, is there something you would like to tell me?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

I think it’s safe to assume that my mind is already being read.

Especially when I thought of something a little rude like that, it was just too much.

“So, Fujise-san, what do you think? I can go up to 100 million yen.” [TLN: That’s around 800k usd.]

“HUNDRED MILLION…?!”

As expected, I also shouted that in surprise.

Isn’t that a bit too much?

A towel soaked with Yuuichi’s sweat would be a turn off for someone like me…

For me, if it means a towel soaked in Sei-chan’s sweat, then…

Le-Let’s not think about that anymore…

There’s a good chance I’ll end up with the same fetishes as Tojoin-san otherwise.

“Fufu, I’m sorry, Tojoin-san. This is my favorite towel, so I can’t give it to you so easily.”

Fujise assured her with a smile.

She easily pushed away an offer of 100 million yen.

“Eh? It’s your favorite towel, Fujise? Is it really okay if I use it?‘

“Un, It’s fine. Shigemoto-kun. Did you wipe off your sweat already?”

“Ahh, yeah. It felt good.”

“Ah, That’s good.”

Fujise received the towel from his hands.

“I can wash it at my place and return it to you if you want.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. I’ll wash it thoroughly. I won’t do anything like Tojoin-san, so don’t worry.”

“A-Ahh, I wasn’t worried about that, don’t worry.”

Yeah, Fujise wasn’t particularly described to have such bad fetishes in the original story.

Right…?

Tojoin-san and Fujise were arguing over Yuuichi, but I didn’t care anymore and just dipped away from them.

I think I saw Yuuichi shoot me a look that was screaming for help, but I was probably just imagining things.

Speaking of which, where’s Sei-chan?

I hadn’t seen Sei-chan since we finished the game.

I looked around for Sei-chan and found her a short distance away from where Fujise and Tojoin-san were fighting.

She seemed to be much closer to us than expected.

I started walking towards Sei-chan, and she must have noticed me approaching, because she looked at me and smiled lightly.

She’s cute. I want to go out with her. Oh, right, we’re already going out.

Just before I was about to call out to Sei-chan

“Thank you for your hard work, Hisamura-kun.”

“That pitch was amazing, did you used to play baseball?”

Two girls suddenly talked to me, coming in between me and Sei-chan.

“Well, thank you. I only played baseball when I was in elementary school.”

I was surprised when she suddenly spoke to me, but I couldn’t ignore her, so I replied back to her.

I mean, who are these girls?

I remember that we were in the same class, but I can’t remember their names.. I’m sorry.

“That’s right… You’re very athletic, it’s amazing.”

“Yeah, it was very cool!”

“Oh, haha. Thanks.”

It’s honestly nice to be praised, but I’m afraid there’s more to it than that.

Also she said I was athletic. It’s only because I played it during elementary school and was able to excel against a crowd of amateurs.

Compared to Yuuichi, the ace of the basketball team who hits home runs with ease even though he is an amateur, my athleticism is nothing.

And Sei-chan… I want to talk to Sei-chan.

That’s what I thought, and I glanced over at Sei-chan as I talked briefly with the two girls.

“A-Ah!”

“Nn? What’s wrong, Hisamura-kun?”

“N-No, it’s nothing.”

I almost shouted out in fright, that was dangerous.

The two girls don’t seem to be able to see because she’s behind them but the look that Sei-chan’s giving right now is kinda scary.

I feel like the atmosphere of her’s currently is similar to when Tojoin-san chases away the girls around Yuuichi.

Eh, maybe Sei-chan is… j-jealous?!

Lies… Really?!

No, I feel bad thinking about this, but I feel really happy about that.

As I was looking at her, she noticed my gaze.

Sei-chan huffed, blushed, turned away awkwardly and ran far away from me.

I don’t know if she was jealous of me or not, but I think she was embarrassed to see my face.

“I’m sorry, I just remembered I had to do something.”

“Eh, uh, yeah.”

After apologizing to the girl who had just spoken to me, I chased after Sei-chan.

Sei-chan hadn’t gone that far, she was at the edge of the schoolyard, where the school building was blocking the sun and casting a shadow over the area.

The sun was not shining here, so it was cool and a perfect place to take a break after a long day of hard work.

I saw Sei-chan leaning against the wall.

She might be just leaning against the wall but no matter where I look, I can’t help but see it as a picture perfect scene.

“Sei-chan, thank you for your hard work”

“Hisamura… I didn’t do anything but thank you for your hard work too.”

When I spoke to her, she looked down without meeting my gaze and said so.

There are several students around us, but they are talking to each other, so no one is looking at me and Sei-chan right now.

“Did you not see what you did? I was cheered on by Sei-chan, so I worked very hard, I even surprised myself with that.”

“Y-Yeah, of course I saw that. I mean… you were cool.”

“NN?! T-Thank you.”

I didn’t expect such straightforward praise coming from Sei-chan, so I couldn’t help but choke on my words of thanks.

“I heard you used to play baseball, but I didn’t think you were that good.”

“Well, I’m not particularly good at it, but since I was cheered on by Sei-chan, my adrenaline began pumping.”

“T-The girls in class… were saying how cool you were. I-It’s a good thing, right?”

“Hmm?”

Why is she suddenly talking about the girls in class? Ah, she’s probably referring to the two girls just now.

“I’m glad the girls in my class appreciate me, but I guess I’m just not that interested. I’m only interested if Sei-chan’s opinion of me has improved.”

“O-Of course it went up… You did your best for me, so it would still go up even without any results.”

“O-Oh, thank you…”

I was too happy and she’s just too cute.

I feel like I’ve been hit with a counter attack from earlier.

No, maybe Sei-chan is embarrassed too, so it feels like we’re giving each other a clean hit in return.

I couldn’t look at her, so I looked away and glanced back at her from time to time.

That’s when Sei-chan looked at me at the same time, and our gazes met each other perfectly.

For a moment, we made a puzzled expression at each other, and then we couldn’t stand it and laughed together.

“Haha, that was kinda funny.”

“Fufu, yes. That was a confusing moment I didn’t quite understand.”

Even these casual-like, meaningless conversations are fun to have with Sei-chan.

The atmosphere was a bit awkward, but then it all became much more relaxed after that.

“Isn’t it time for the girls’ basketball game?”

“Yeah, I guess so. Well, let’s head to the gym.”

Moreover, the next match would be with Tojoin-san’s class.

Up until now, our class had won easily thanks to Sei-chan, but that would not be the case if we were to play against Tojoin-san.

“The next match is against Tojoin-san right?”

“Yeah, I guess so. She’s probably the strongest opponent in the tournament.”

“Good luck, Sei-chan.”

Sei-chan had practiced the day before and yesterday to win against Tojoin-san.

We practiced three pointers the entire time.

I didn’t keep count but I’m certain that she managed to hit a hundred in a row.

“Since Hisamura helped me so much, I’ll be sure to win for you.”

“….!”

She said this so casually whilst casually raising the corners of her mouth.

It wasn’t a counter-attack or anything, but a straight punch to the face, which took me completely by surprise.

“You’re too good-looking!”

I muttered to myself as I covered my face with my hands.

“EH?! D-Don’t say that out of the blue.”

Sei-chan said to me, looking embarrassed at my words.

With this exchange, Sei-chan and I headed for the gym.