After I Confessed to My Childhood Friend and Got Rejected, I Threw a Game Offline Meetup to Cheer Myself Up, Only to Find Out My Long-Time Gaming Buddy Was Actually the Quiet, Silver-Haired Swedish Beauty Who's the Cutest Girl in School - Chapter 22.2: I Liked You First

Chapter 22.2: I Liked You First

Kumagai provoked him like that.

Kurihara didn’t seem scared of him at all, which was impressive.

(But… aren’t these two supposed to be friends…?)

Sparks flew between the irritated-faced Kurihara and the refreshingly smiling Kumagai.

Amamiya shrank in the middle, trembling.

Were these two really friends?

“Take your positions—, ready.”

At the teacher’s signal, the other teams linked arms and got into running stances, but as for Amamiya’s team.

“I’m not losing for sure, Kumagai.”

“I’ll throw that line right back at you.”

Even with their ankles tied together, Kumagai and Kurihara crouched at the starting line.

Amamiya had a bad feeling and crouched too in the same moment.

“Don!”

“Uwaaaaaaaaah!?”

At the starting signal, the two athletic guys dashed off, dragging along the one frail guy.

A three-legged race was supposed to be three people running in cooperation, but this was more like an individual race.

“Yay! Go, Kumagai-kun!”

“Fight, Kurihara!”

“Takaaki-kun—!!”

Kumagai got cheers from the girls’ group, Kurihara from the boys’ group, and Amamiya got worried cheers from Karina.

The PE teacher, who saw it, hurriedly stepped in to stop them, and Amamiya somehow survived with his life.

“Ow, ow…”

“Whoa, Amamiya, you okay? You’re bleeding.”

Amamiya’s knee was bleeding, probably scraped when he was dragged.

Kumagai asked about it like it was someone else’s problem, so Amamiya started to retort, but his ankle hurt too, and he ended up clutching it without thinking.

“Maybe sprained it.”

“For real? Uh… sorry about that, Amamiya.”

“No, is that supposed to be an apology?”

Amamiya gave a light retort to Kumagai, who lightly put his hands together in apology.

What a carefree guy, even though he was the cause of the sprain.

“Then, off to the nurse’s office. Anyone want to give Amamiya a shoulder to lean on?”

The teacher called out to the classmates, but only Karina quickly raised her hand.

They apparently didn’t want to help an introvert.

“Teacher! I’ll go!”

“Yeah, then Nagase…”

“Um, I think it’d be tough for a girl to support him all the way to the nurse’s office, so I’ll do it.”

The teacher was about to ask Karina, but unexpectedly, Kurihara volunteered to go instead.

Kumagai whistled and tried to sneak off somewhere.

Amamiya felt an impulse for the first time to punch Kumagai, while inwardly praying that Kurihara was absolutely the last person he wanted.

“Yeah, then Kurihara. Take care of Amamiya.”

(Nooooooo)

“Ehhh—!!”

Karina, whose role was snatched by Kurihara, let out a wail that echoed across the schoolyard.

The classmates got excited over the new discovery that “Karina-san can make a voice that loud.”

Unfortunately, the nurse’s office was empty, and Amamiya swallowed hard.

Because he’d be alone with Kurihara, who was openly hostile and picking fights.

For now, wash the scrape with water, disinfect it, and make ice for the sprained ankle.

As Amamiya thought about that, he realized he was lying on the floor.

“Kurihara-kun…?”

Because Kurihara, who had supported him this far, had pushed him down.

He looked down at Amamiya with a scary face.

“For an introvert, you’ve been getting awfully chummy with Karina lately, huh, Amamiya? Hey?”

Amamiya tried to crawl away from Kurihara, who approached while cracking his knuckles, but Kurihara easily grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.

“Hey, don’t run away, you shit. Don’t make me deal with you… you’re getting cheeky.”

He got smacked on the cheek with a light slap.

Kurihara’s hand was covered in pimples, but the pain made Amamiya wince.

“What? About to cry? If you’re gonna cry, then cry, you weakling. Let me tell you, I’m not stopping at this. For trash like you, the quickest way is to beat it into you. So, one more.”

With a sharper slap than before, blood trickled from Amamiya’s nose.

Amamiya tried to resist without understanding why, but he had no chance against the well-trained Kurihara and got slammed to the floor.

“Why her and not me, but a worthless loser like you… a useless piece-of-shit trash who serves no purpose… why does she turn to you! This was my first love, you know!? And yet, why won’t you… why won’t you show me that smile! I liked her first!”

As he took slap after slap from Kurihara, Amamiya remembered the rumor from a few months ago that Kurihara had confessed to Karina and been rejected.

(Oh… so that’s how it is…!)

Even volunteering for the hassle of taking a sprained, non-friend Amamiya to the nurse’s office was just to vent his frustration.

He couldn’t stand seeing a gloomy introvert who clearly didn’t match Karina at all chatting happily with her, when he’d been turned down himself.

“Hey, Amamiya. I’ll just say it straight: Karina’s my girl. Next time you talk to her without my permission, I’ll kill you, got it?”

Kurihara, with bulging eyes, leaned his face close to the supine Amamiya and warned him in an intimidating way.

It was a terrifying expression incomparable to Tojo or Takasaki.

Deep down, Amamiya had been prepared for something like this to happen someday.

The other boys liked Karina too, and he was always on guard because some of them might do something scary like this.

And finally, that day had come.

(Scary, scary…)

The old him, who had just admired Karina from the back seat, would have given up easily.

(But…)

His image of her as just a pretty but cold person had changed greatly in Amamiya’s mind since they became friends.

She was cute but didn’t bow down to anyone. Actually, she was shy and had a complex about her voice.

She loved games more than anyone and hated to lose. But she was a hard worker too.

Amamiya, who got to know the Karina that no one else did, ended up liking her even more than before.

“Do it!”

His fear of Kurihara vanished, and Amamiya swung his fist up with all his might.

He had never hit anyone in his life, but the dull thud and raw sensation from striking the jaw made Amamiya close his eyes.

He was desperate, for Karina’s sake or maybe his own.

With no time to think, Amamiya slammed another fist into Kurihara’s face.