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 23: In the Nurse's Office Together

Chapter 23: In the Nurse’s Office Together

“…Huh, that didn’t hurt?”

Kurihara stood there with a cool face, as if he hadn’t been punched at all.

That made sense.

The punching power of Amamiya, who had never hit anyone even once, was weaker than a child’s.

But even so, Amamiya did not back down.

He faced Kurihara in an unfamiliar fighting pose.

“Don’t get all full of yourself, you weakling!”

However, there was an overwhelming difference between Amamiya, who had only just started running recently, and Kurihara, who had been on the baseball team since middle school.

Their athletic abilities were just too different.

Thud! Amamiya’s head shook as his face got punched.

He saw Kurihara winding up his fist and tried to guard, but the fist hit his cheek first.

“…Not yet.”

Even after taking damage that should have knocked him down, Amamiya braced himself.

The blood flowing from his knee had stopped, but his twisted ankle throbbed. It hurt a lot.

His punched face stung with a dull ache too, and he wondered how easy it would be to just collapse right there.

And yet, for some reason, his body felt like it was telling him to stand up to Kurihara.

It was screaming that he must not lose.

“Aaaaaaaaah!!”

He couldn’t win in a fistfight, so Amamiya charged at Kurihara instead.

He wrapped his arms around Kurihara’s waist so he couldn’t escape the moment they collided, and disrupted his balance.

Kurihara, pushed backward, slammed into the storage cabinet for the nurse’s office supplies.

“Gah, you bastard!”

Kurihara punched Amamiya in the face twice.

It was full force, with no holding back.

Even so, Amamiya’s arms around Kurihara’s body did not loosen.

“What’s the point of that! You’re not gonna beat me anyway! Let go already!”

“No way… I’m absolutely not letting go. Not until you admit defeat… absolutely not.”

“Die, you shit! Die, die! Die!”

Had he been punched ten times? His eyelids should barely be able to open.

And yet, Kurihara gradually felt fear toward Amamiya, who glared at him with the fierce eyes of a predator that refused to let go no matter what.

“Just give up already. There’s no way a guy like you could ever go out with her, so why go through the pain and still hold on!?”

“If I give up easily and live miserably from now on, is that what you’re telling me to do? I hate that…”

With a voice that seemed about to break, Amamiya answered.

He repeated rough breaths several times and looked up at Kurihara.

His body was battered and on the verge of collapse, but only his eyes were serious.

“I don’t want to become someone who doesn’t learn from failures… who doesn’t make an effort to be liked… who gives up and stays stuck in place… I absolutely don’t want to become like you.”

“Who are you calling…”

“You’re more popular than someone like me, Kurihara-kun, and cooler too. To the people around us, you might seem more suitable for Karina than someone like me… but I like Karina more than you do… I like Karina…”

He said it clearly.

He did not want to lose when it came to these feelings.

“If it’s to become a man suitable for her, no matter how painful or agonizing it is, I’ll never stop. I’ll change, I’ll change… and someday…”

Kurihara looked stunned, as if he hadn’t realized Amamiya was this serious.

“To be able to stand side by side with Karina…”

His vision blurred, and his tongue wouldn’t move properly anymore.

Every part of his body hurt.

“I…”

He couldn’t finish saying it to the end and collapsed right there.

The last thing he saw was Kurihara’s confused expression, and then Amamiya lost consciousness.

“Yo, Amamiya. You okay?”

When he woke up, he was in the nurse’s office bed.

Sitting by the bed was the familiar blond hair—Kumagai.

He had a grave expression that made it hard to tell what he was thinking, more than just looking worried.

“Kumagai-kun, I…”

“Hey, hey, don’t force yourself to sit up. It’s only been an hour since then.”

As Amamiya tried to rise, Kumagai stopped him and showed him his smartphone screen.

The time was 12:20, still around lunchtime.

“Man, you got beat up pretty bad~. Well, at least no teeth got knocked out, and it’s just light bruises, so that’s good.”

“…What about Kurihara-kun?”

Amamiya couldn’t keep up with Kumagai’s energy and asked in a subdued voice.

Even if it was minor, his face hurt, and his nose had been bleeding earlier.

“He got held down by the teachers I called for help and taken to the guidance office.”

“Huh, you called for help, Kumagai-kun?”

Kumagai smiled and showed him the smartphone screen.

A video was playing of Amamiya being assaulted by Kurihara in the nurse’s office.

“Huh, you were filming!?”

“Yeah, well, I’ve known the guy for a long time. My gut was telling me he might do something stupid, so I tailed him quietly, and boom—assault.”

“If you were filming from the start… help me.”

“Sorry about that. But if I’d jumped in to help right then, it’d just be a temporary fix, right? So I figured capturing the decisive moment on camera as evidence would put an end to Kurihara’s harassment once and for all.”

“Mm, yeah, that’s true…”

Kumagai really was a rational guy.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the school.

But without solid evidence, Kurihara might get off lightly or make excuses.

“B-but the part where I punched him too…”

“Oh, that? Editing takes care of it, no problem. Anyway, I already sent the video to the teachers.”

“Got it… thanks for everything.”

Amamiya had been helped late by Kumagai, but he decided to accept that getting beaten had been worth it.

He might have to go to the hospital after this, though.

“Man, Kurihara’s an idiot. For a baseball club guy to cause a violence incident like that. It’ll get reported to the baseball federation or whatever, and the team might have to forfeit tournaments due to joint responsibility, or at the very least, he’ll get kicked off the team. Plus, the school will punish him too.”

“That’s rough for Kurihara-kun… my condolences.”

“Well, it’s 100% his own fault. His dad’s apparently strict about baseball, so whatever happens at home might scare him more than the school punishment.”

Even though they were friends, Kumagai seemed somewhat detached about it.

Maybe it was just a surface-level friendship.

But Amamiya chose not to bring it up.

“Anyway, that’s the report. If I hang around too long, the teacher who comes back might scold me, so I’m heading back to class. Gonna grab a juice first.”

Whenever he thought of Kumagai, canned juice came to mind.

Because every time they met at school, he was always drinking something.

“Yeah, see you.”

Amamiya expressed his thanks to Kumagai as he stood up.

He kept getting saved by him.

“Oh, right.”

Kumagai stopped as if remembering something and turned back with a smile.

“You’re weak, but you stood up to him anyway. That was cool.”

With that, he waved and left the nurse’s office.

Amamiya felt a pang of regret, like he could suddenly understand why the girls who liked Kumagai felt that way.

He was a good guy, as always.

“Ah… uh…”

Amamiya heard Kumagai, who had left the nurse’s office, make an awkward sound, so he pulled back the curtain around the bed to check.

Out in the hallway, Kumagai was talking quietly to someone.

But the conversation ended quickly, and Kumagai hurried back to class like he was fleeing.

Not understanding, Amamiya tilted his head, but he needed to rest, so he lay back down in bed.

However, he heard footsteps approaching his bed, and when he turned his gaze toward the sound, his eyes met the person’s.

“Ah…”

Amamiya understood why Kumagai had fled in a hurry.

Because the person standing there was someone he knew well.

“Takaaki-kun… sniff…”

Karina was crying.

She looked truly worried, with a sadder expression than he had ever seen.

Seeing that made Amamiya’s chest ache.

“Takaaki-kun, Takaaki-kun, Taka… aaki-kun…”

Tears spilled from Karina’s eyes as she gripped Amamiya’s hand tightly.

“Good… I’m so glad…”

“Karina…”

Karina, who was crying for his sake, felt so precious to him.

She had rushed all the way to the nurse’s office and worried this much about her injured friend—she really was a kind girl.

He liked her.

“—I like Karina!”

For some reason, remembering the outrageous thing he had said during the fight with Kurihara made Amamiya’s cheeks flush red.

He regretted it now, wishing he had confessed those words to her directly instead.

As always, Amamiya Takaaki was pathetic.

“Um, Takaaki-kun…”

As if breaking the silence, Karina spoke in a small voice and sat down on the bed, looking at Amamiya’s face with a shy gaze.

Her sense of distance was off as usual, but this time, something felt different from always.

“I, um…”

Amamiya felt his heart pounding faster from the tension as Karina brought her face close, to a distance where their lips almost touched.

And still, she didn’t stop.

Karina brought her lips near his ear and, even though they were alone in the room, whispered so softly no one else could hear.

“…I like—”