Chapter 111 Someone's In The Shadows - Part 3

"Kamimura-san."

"Yes, what is it, Mizuhara-senpai~?"

"How much do you know about me?"

There was a moment of silence.

***

"You'd get it if I said—I know... enough... about ya, right?"

It seemed that she knew more about me than I thought.

"Are you going to tell me the real reason you asked me out?"

"I don't... ya know, Mizuhara-kun. I had fun today. If ya could just forget about trying to figure me out, I could remember this day as one of my favourites..."

"I just can't help it when you've got ulterior motives."

She looked down at her feet.

"I really do like ya."

Her hair swayed in the wind.

"If that's the case, why are you doing this under the premise of something else."

"You really have no tenderness when it comes to the feelings of a girl..."

I looked down at her.

"My question to you is, how much do you really know about me."

The soft breeze washed through the area.

"I know you, I know Tachibana-san, and I know Hasegawa-san."

"You weren't part of the Ideal Human Project, so how do you know about all of us."

"Ah... I can't go exposing everything about myself now...~ I'm still waiting for your answer."

"To what question."

"Do ya want to go out with me...? Fully seriously..."

There was nothing to think about.

"You know my answer."

"Aha...~ y-yeah... of course... I get it..."

She was crying.

Why was she crying.

I didn't get it.

I made my way up to her.

"Now, tell me your ulterior motive. Why did you ask me on this date today...?"

"...u-um... can ya give me a moment... I-I'm still trying to process..."

She turned to run away, but I grabbed her arm. Swinging her around, I pulled her towards my body. Letting the momentum take over, she simply fell into my chest, clawing at my shirt. Tears were dripping out of her eyes non-stop.

"Tell me."

"M-mizuhara-senpai...? Mizuhara-senpai...!"

"I'm still waiting."

"Can't you think about my feeling...?! Just this once...! I've waited this long!"

"If you truly know me, you'll understand why I'm doing all of this."

"B-but..."

Ah. I get it now.

I pushed her away from me.

!#$(*%#$

***

"...huh...? Mizuhara-senpai...?"

"Kamimura-san, you don't really know me, do you?"

"...w-what do you mean...?"

"I still don't know who set you up for this. But whoever they are, they told you that information about me isn't that right."

"No... no... that's not it!"

"If that's the case. However, you really did meet me when I was younger, didn't you?"

I finally got it.

"..."

"You even went out of your way to change your name."

"..."

"Honestly, I'm impressed."

"..."

"Long time no see, Matsuoka Rei-san."

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A/N: Sorry for the hiatus, guys. I've been really sick recently and struggling with some other personal issues. Hopefully, I'll be able to continue this in the coming days. I'm going to finish this chapter off with a short story.

I'm really sorry about the lack of updates, I tried pushing myself, but I wasn't in the right mindset, and I wasn't writing very well. Hopefully, you will all stay with me, and I'll make up for it once I recover~!

***

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[Yamada and Soccer Tryouts Short Story]

"Oi, Yamada-kun, pass the ball!"

The tryout group were in the midst of an intense practice match. Yamada had the ball under his feet, controlling it carefully.

He was playing central midfield, a relatively dynamic position. The teams were split into the red bib and yellow bib teams. It was pretty obvious that the red bib team was quite obviously the more skilled team. The coach had split them this way on purpose.

Yamada was on the red bib team, whilst Okamoto was on the yellow bib team.

Instead of listening to his teammate, he kept the ball at his feet, watching as one of the opposition midfielders approached him rapidly. As he watched the opposition's movements, he quickly moved the ball to the right as the opponent stuck their foot out. There was a little bit of contact between Yamada and their leg, causing him to fall off balance.

However, the ball was still relatively close to him. As another midfield charged at him, he regained control of the ball and prepared to dribble past them as well.

"Yamada-kun! Pass it off, Jun-kun is on the left!"

He did not heed the advice of his teammate. Again, he placed his body between the opposition and the ball. Their two bodies collided, but Yamada managed to keep possession of the ball. Not long after, though, the two opponents tackled him at the same time, and after a tough fight, Yamada ended up losing the ball.

"Yamada! You have to pass the ball!" His teammates continuously shouted.

"Shut up! You guys were in bad positions!" He responded.

"Jun was literally right next to you!"

Yamada began to rush toward the player in possession of the ball. However, he seemed to have made a mistake in this decision. When he moved out of position to tackle for the ball, the opposition passed the ball into the open space behind him. With one big touch, Okamoto-kun gained control of the ball and charged into the red bib defence.

The entire line began shuffling back as the yellow bib team began pressing forwards. As one of the defenders moved forward to tackle Okamoto-kun, he quickly passed the ball to the side to one of the other yellow bib attackers.

With one big kick, the yellow bib striker managed to shoot the ball directly into the back of the net. The red bib goalie had no chance of stopping the strike.

There was a small celebration by the yellow bib team before everyone got back into position. Yamada-kun's team was less than impressed by his performance. Ultimately, the goal resulted from Yamada-kun's poor judgement.

"Yamada-kun! That was on you!"

He was silent.

A few minutes later, the coach called everyone over to announce the final lineup for the A-team.

Yamada-kun's heart dropped as he realised that his name wasn't called.