A Childhood Friend, Reunited After 10 Years Acts Deredere With Me - Chapter 13 - The day of the Forest Camp

The bus to the camp was headed deep into the mountains. The journey took about three hours, but three hours seemed to fly by when Alice was standing next to me.

“So? Alice? What are you doing?”

It is usual for her to hold on to my arm and not let go, but this time she is being really firm.

“I can’t sleep with Sora. I’m replenishing my Sora vitamin while I still can.”

“What happens when it’s gone?”

“With my current state, if I haven’t taken it for two days, I won’t be able to move.”

That’s bad, isn’t Sora vitamin a drug then?

“Hey Sora, you brought your spikes, didn’t you?”

“Mom huh? Wait, I brought them. I packed them in the back of the truck.”

Akira was the last one in our group. The camp is located in a converted school deep in the mountains, so naturally there is a playground. There seems to be a goal net there, and I asked Akira to come to our group to play soccer with me.

I didn’t think they would pull something from junior high school out of storage.

“You’re the only one who’s ever beaten me.”

“You won a few times.”

“Winning three times out of ten is just luck, isn’t it? You have better physical and technical skills than me. Let me take a good look at you.”

Soccer fools at their finest. No, I think I knew another soccer fool in junior high school.

“……”

“Hey, why is Alice looking so smug?”

I looked back at Alice, who was now behind me, and she was making a stunningly smug face.

“That is, you know, if the person you like is praised, it makes you as happy as you are.”

“Heh…is that what it is?”

Akira nodded as if he was impressed.

“You’ve never had a crush on anyone, huh?”

If I have time to do that, I’ll give it all up for soccer. It’s easy for a guy who wants to look good to say that, but there are very few people who will put it into practice. Akira is one of them. He has never had his first love.

He has a good face and his grades are not bad. He’s a good-looking guy with good grades and a good face, and he’s 180cm tall, and his personality is… well, he’s just a soccer fool, but he’s not bad.

“I don’t care about any of that. My target is this guy.”

“Eh…”

I took out a soccer magazine I had and submitted it. There was a picture of a certain guy playing.

“He is number 10 of Osaka’s Tokyo Metropolitan Kouou Gakuen, Kouren Shinomiya. He was the leading scorer in last year’s championship.”

“What about him?”

“I had a one-on-one with this guy once and lost badly. He’s probably just as strong as you, so I’m training for the championship.”

Well, there’s nothing wrong with that. Yeah.

“So, I’m gonna need you for a couple of hours.”

“Don’t be stupid! Won’t it just be a waste of my time!”

Despite this conversation, the bus continued onward, and we arrived at our destination.

………

……

…

We decided on our own room assignments: six of us in one room, me, Akira, and Shunya in the same room, and the other guys were all members of the same soccer club. All the other members were members of the soccer club.

We enter the room and put our luggage under the bed. Then, a hand was placed on my shoulder.

“You promised me we’d have a one-on-one match, right?”

“You don’t mean…you’re going to do it now?”

“Of course.”

Thus, the three of us went outside under the blazing sun and kicked a soccer ball toward the playground.