CH 72

“You had a hell of a showing out there, in more ways than one.”

“Oh, shut it.”

Ryuichi shrugged his shoulders as Sohei said this with a smirk on his face. Ryuichi running with Chisa and then with Shizuna had attracted quite a bit of attention.

“What, did it look like Beauty and the Beast or something?”

“No? I just thought you suited them perfectly: a handsome man running together with beautiful women.”

“…You.”

He himself knew that he had a terrifying face, but even so, he had recently been accepted by everyone, so Ryuichi was of course happy about this change. Still, being called a handsome man by Sohei, with whom he’d once had a strained though not hostile relationship, was a considerable change.

“I know it’s kinda late for this, but you’ve seriously changed, huh.”

“If you put it that way, I’m pretty sure you’ve changed way more than me, Shishido.”

“…Heh, for sure.”

“Yeah.”

Then, since their turns were over for the time being, Ryuichi observed his surroundings with Sohei. Shizuna was in a circle of girls, cheering for her friends who were competing, while Sohei who was beside Ryuichi seemed to be restlessly looking for something.

“What’s wrong?”

“No… Umm.”

His seemingly embarrassed mannerisms piqued his curiosity.

“Are you looking for someone?”

“…Mihara-san said she’d be coming.”

“Dayum~.”

Ryuichi knew he had been looking for somebody, but he never expected it to be Mihara. He patted Sohei on the back and said, “Well done, man.”

“I didn’t actually ask her to come, though. While you and Shizuna were having dinner at the club, we were talking about the sports festival, remember? And then…things somehow ended up going in that direction.”

“Hmm.”

In any case, it was surprising that Mihara would take the time to personally show up at the sports festival for Sohei. Although he knew that she had a liking for Sohei, he was surprised that she would go that far. For Ryuichi, Mihara was one of the many people who had helped him in the past, and Sohei had also become a friend of his despite various circumstances.

“I’ll help you look, too. Ain’t got nothing better to do, anyways.”

“…Thanks.”

Taking his eyes off the matches on the field, Ryuichi started walking with Sohei. However, they ended up finding Mihara surprisingly easily.

“Ah, Mihara-san!”

When Sohei called out to her, she waved her hand at them. Of course, she wasn’t wearing as flashy an attire as she did in the club because she was going outside; her appearance sat somewhere between Chisa’s and Satsuki’s.

“Hi there, Sohei-kun; you, too, Ryuichi.”

“Yo.”

Ryuichi could make eye contact with her as usual, but it was a little difficult for Sohei to look directly at Mihara, who looked different from usual. Perhaps Mihara had found such a Sohei cute, as she approached him with a giggle.

“It’s really hot today, huh? Make sure you two hydrate yourselves enough, okay?”

“Yes!”

What an energetic response from him. After that, Ryuichi didn’t really join in their conversation, instead opting to quietly watch them from the sidelines, but the mood they had was pretty good. From Mihara’s point of view, it may have felt no different than dealing with her younger brother, but it was certainly clear that she held a fondness for him.

It just goes to show that love doesn’t come in one form alone, so even if your first love doesn’t work out, you’ll always be able to find a new love like this.

The fact that even Sohei, who had once been in the throes of despair, could smile again like this was proof that he was looking ahead. In this regard, Ryuichi, who had been haunted by the shadow of his family for years, had been far more chained by his past than Sohei, who had all but recovered in a few weeks.

“…Geez, he might be even stronger than me, huh.”

He muttered those few words. 

“Wooooooo!!”

“Go, go, gooooo!!”

While he’d been watching them like this, the games were still going on in the field, and there was a huge commotion. Ryuichi decided to leave the place slowly, thinking that Mihara had been found and there was no need for him to accompany them any further.

“The sports festival, huh… Well, it’s definitely festival-like.”

He couldn’t say he didn’t find it a hassle, but he still enjoyed this once-a-year event. It was to the point that he almost wished he’d participated in this event last year. 

On his way back to where he’d been originally, he found Shizuna scurrying around, looking for someone.

“…Ah, right. I just up and disappeared, huh.”

Ryuichi couldn’t say for sure that she was necessarily looking for him, but when she spotted him, she immediately broke into a smile and ran over to him.

“Ryuichi-kun! Where did you go?”

“Did I make you look for me?”

“Yes. I want to be by your side as much as possible, you see…”

He apologized, saying, “Sorry for that,” as he stroked her head. On the way back, he told her that he’d been looking for Mihara with Sohei. Shizuna was surprised, but she smiled happily.

“I don’t know about Mihara-san, but I wonder if Sohei has started on his path toward a new love.”

“Maybe. But it’s not gonna be an easy one since she’s an adult.”

“It’s fine. Love is a wonderful thing, no matter what form it takes.”

He felt a little strange as he looked at Shizuna’s profile while she muttered those words.

His and Shizuna’s next turn would not be for a while, so they had some free time, but at times like this, it was probably normal to cheer for your own team. However, he took Shizuna’s hand and headed toward a different direction from the field.

“Ryuichi-kun?”

He took Shizuna to the shade of a tree. Neither students nor parents would ever come to a place like this since they would all have their eyes on the field. Shizuna looked up at him with her back against the tree, somewhat bewildered, but he could see in her eyes that she was also expecting something.

“I’m not really sure myself, but I’m kind of in the mood for that.”

“I see… Fufu, that’s just what I wanted to hear. ♪”

No sooner had she said that than Ryuichi stole her soft lips. Shizuna didn’t try to avoid him or push his body away at all; she simply accepted him. The shouts and cheers faded into the background, and Ryuichi and Shizuna made their own private world.

“…Ah.”

Shizuna sounded sad when Ryuichi’s lips parted from hers. In all honesty, he couldn’t deny that he’d had those kinds of intentions in mind when he did this, but of course, he’d changed from last year, so he knew what he could and couldn’t do.

“…Ah~, anything more than this is gonna have to wait till we get home.”

“Let’s go home.”

“Oi.”

He lightly gave Shizuna a chop on the head. He knew she wasn’t an unreasonable girl, so she probably wouldn’t push the matter…or so he’d thought.

“Just now.”

“Yeah?”

“Just now, you made a face as if you were holding back from letting loose like last year’s Ryuichi.”

“………”

How could she tell? As Ryuichi’s eyes widened in surprise, Shizuna immediately closed the distance between them. Her expression seemed to say that she wanted him to carve her a new memory for herself, and that she would paint over it.

“…Geez.”

In the end, it wasn’t until 20 minutes later that the two returned to the field. Well, it was a bit of an indulgent experience as a student, but they just laughed, knowing that this too would become another memory of theirs. Incidentally, Shizuna had worked up a sweat—two types of sweat, of course—but it seemed that she still had some pheromones wafting in the air and thus attracted a little bit of attention.

“…I wonder if Chisa-san and the others will notice.”

“I think they will. They’ll definitely notice.”

Now that they’d done it, they had no other choice. If anyone asked them anything, they would just honestly tell them that they couldn’t hold themselves back.

“This concludes the morning events. After a one-hour break, the afternoon events will begin.”

With this announcement from the student council president, the morning games came to an end. Since they had promised to eat the lunch that Sakie had made for them together, they headed for a section of the gym that was open to the public.

“Ah, Ryuichiii!!”

“Oof.”

The moment they arrived, Chisa embraced Ryuichi for some reason. He didn’t want her to cling to him too much because he was sweaty and dirty, but Chisa didn’t seem to mind at all.

“You know, Chisa-chan’s been feeling really moved this whole time because of you, you know, Ryuichi-kun?”

“Moved?”

“You got that theme, ‘A person who’s emotionally supported you,’ then you chose Chisa-san, didn’t you?”

“…So that’s what this’s about.”

“That’s rightt! It really moved mee!!”

It was truly a rare sight to see her really moved to tears like this, even though she usually never showed herself crying. That was just how happy she was that Ryuichi had chosen her.

“…Don’t cry. Here, wipe your tears.”

“Mmm… Yeah!”

Besides, her crying in a place like this would attract even more stares than it already had. When Ryuichi patted her shoulder to stop her crying, Chisa suddenly started sniffing him.

“…You did it, didn’t you?”

She’d seen through him, just as he’d expected. From there, they all sat down to have lunch and welcomed the afternoon.