Fallen from the Top Group Due to Cheating and False Accusations. The Only One Who Stood by Me Was My Little Sister’s Best Friend, Who Had Always Adored Me.

Chapter 12: The Buzzing Staff Room and Yuuka’s Fury.

(Soccer Club Coach Perspective)

A vague sense of unease lingered as I—Sakagami Kazuhiro—backed the car out of my home garage.

The morning sunlight felt harsher than usual. I immediately raised my left hand to rub the corner of my eye.

“…I really am sleepy.”

It had been a while since I’d had a sleepless night.

As a physical education teacher and especially as the coach of Hikarigaoka’s powerhouse soccer team, I was constantly under invisible pressure from the parent-teacher association and guardians to deliver outstanding results. I believed I had lived up to those expectations perfectly—five consecutive appearances in the Kantō Regional Tournament finals, and though we had narrowly missed qualifying for Nationals last year, I had consistently elevated the team to the stage where the ticket to the national tournament was within reach. Those achievements had steadily raised my reputation as a coach.

No one in this world dislikes being praised, of course. Yet every time someone called me “the leader of powerhouse Hikarigaoka,” I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of guilt. After all, this was a strong private school. Talented players flocked to us naturally every year without any special effort on my part. When former middle-school aces gathered into one team, losing would have been the real anomaly. All I did was arrange those luxurious pieces on the board. In shogi terms, it felt like fighting with nothing but Rooks and the King—victory was almost guaranteed.

And for next year, I had already decided who would inherit the title of “King.”

Yet a single event from yesterday afternoon refused to leave my mind, rattling around inside my head all night long.

(Rindou Arata… Why, of all people, did he skip practice without a single word…?)

He was the most dedicated player on the team—the one who stayed behind for extra training late into the night. He was supposed to be next year’s brightest star. The idea that he would miss practice without notifying me felt so impossible I almost wanted to believe it was some kind of mistake.

Swallowing that unpleasant premonition, I pressed down on the accelerator.

※The previous day, after classes※

While observing the students doing their laps from the staff room window, I noticed something off and stepped out onto the school grounds.

“Hey, Ren! Come here for a second!”

“Yes!”

I called the third-year captain—who had been leading the run—over and asked as casually as I could:

“So, where’s Arata? I haven’t seen him at all. Did I miss him?”

There was still a chance he had skipped class entirely, so I kept my expression gentle while questioning Ishizaki Ren.

“No, Coach. I haven’t heard anything.”

“…What?”

Not hearing anything wasn’t an acceptable answer. It was team rule that any absence had to be reported to the captain. Moreover, absences were generally not permitted except for illness or family emergencies, and reporting to the coach was mandatory. For the ever-diligent Arata to leave without telling either of us was simply unbelievable.

I decided to test him. My expression hardened as I looked down at Ren.

“Ren. You’re telling me you really haven’t heard anything?”

“Yes. Nothing at all. Did something happen, Coach?”

No reaction. He didn’t seem to be covering for anyone. Then why was Arata missing…? While tilting my head in confusion, I spotted a likely candidate among the students finishing their run and shouted, “Kayama! Get over here!”

Kayama Hayato—the type I personally disliked most. Always carrying that refreshing, handsome look, as if constantly showing off how cool he thought he was. Still, he would do for now. I remembered he was usually in the same group as Arata. He should know something.

Unlike Ren, he strolled over lazily. I asked him the same question.

“Arata didn’t show up for practice and didn’t say a word to me or Ren. Kayama, have you heard anything?”

“Nah~? I don’t know anything either. Actually, I only just noticed he wasn’t here.”

“I see… Even you haven’t heard from him.”

I was starting to run out of options and clutched my head when Kayama suddenly grinned and added, “Ah, but—”

“What? You have an idea?”

“Lately he’s been muttering stuff like ‘Practice is such a pain, I wanna quit’ all the time. He might leave the club soon.”

“…What did you just say?”

The words were so unlike Arata that I nearly gasped.

“There’s no way the practice-obsessed Arata would ever—”

“No, it’s true. Coach, you know he’s dating the manager, Matsunami, right?”

“Ah, yeah. I don’t ban relationships within the club.”

Matsunami Karen was an outstanding student—beautiful, intelligent, and an excellent manager. There wasn’t a single teacher in this school who disliked her. Come to think of it, she was also in the same group as Arata and Kayama.

“We’re not banned from dating, but he kept complaining that ‘every weekday we practice until late at night, and on weekends we have practice matches or away games, so there’s no time for dates.’”

“…I see. So even someone as hardworking as him had that side to him.”

I still found it hard to believe, but if his close friend Kayama was saying it, it had to be true. The image I held of Rindou Arata as my star player quietly shifted into disappointment. Still, he was a normal high-school boy after all. Even if he said he wanted to reach Nationals, it was only natural he’d want to enjoy his youth with the opposite sex.

“Ah, well, I’ll head back to practice then.”

“Yeah, sorry for holding you both up. Get back to it.”

As I watched the two of them return to the group side-by-side, I quietly revised my evaluation of Rindou Arata. If he really intended to leave the club, it would be a heavy blow for the team. But keeping a player with a slacking attitude around would only hurt team discipline.

As much as it pained me, I decided I would call him in for a talk. If he had lost his motivation for soccer, I would encourage him to withdraw voluntarily.

Present

Even after making that decision, I couldn’t shake the unsettled feeling. It swirled in my mind all night, keeping me awake.

(Well, I’ll meet him directly this evening and hear from his own mouth how motivated he is right now.)

There was still a faint chance he wanted to aim for Nationals. Holding onto that small hope, I arrived at school.

The moment I parked the car and stepped into the staff room, a crowd of teachers rushed toward me all at once.

“Sakagami-sensei!”

“Vice Principal…? Good morning.”

I gave a light bow to the Vice Principal who had hurried over, but he ignored the greeting and thrust his smartphone screen right in front of my face.

“Wait, wait—what on earth is going on?”

“What do you mean ‘what on earth’!? A first-year girl just came to report that a video of some kind of fight between soccer club members has been spreading among the students since yesterday. She asked if the school was aware of it. Do you know anything about this!?”

“No… I don’t, but let me see it.”

Annoyed by the Vice Principal’s aggressive tone, I still took the phone as instructed. The moment I saw the two boys and one girl on the screen, shock hit me.

There was no mistaking it—the boys were Arata and Kayama, and the girl between them was Matsunami Karen.

“This is…”

It was clearly a love-triangle dispute, but the problem was that Arata appeared to be hitting Matsunami while Kayama was hitting Arata. And the location… wasn’t that a love hotel not far from school? Wearing school uniforms right in front of a place like that…

The audio was patchy, so I couldn’t catch every detail, but judging from their positions and Matsunami’s behavior, objectively speaking this looked like…

“Kayama Hayato is protecting Matsunami Karen…?”

“…………”

Eh? What’s with that reaction…? Did I say something wrong…?

I had simply voiced my honest impression from what I saw, yet the Vice Principal and the other teachers were now murmuring uneasily.

“Um… did I say something strange…?”

“You absolute idiot—”

“Id-… Idiot!? Who the hell just insulted me!?”

“I did—”

I looked around angrily, and from behind several teachers, a female student stepped forward.

She had neat, attractive features, but I didn’t recognize her—probably a new first-year. She looked up at me with cold eyes and took a step closer.

“Don’t you think the one being rude is you? Standing there as a teacher who is supposed to be impartial, yet judging the situation based solely on surface-level information without any fact-checking. Isn’t that far more disrespectful to the victim?”

“Victim…?”

My head was spinning with question marks. What was this girl even talking about…? On top of being sleep-deprived, the conversation was moving too fast for me to follow. To make matters worse, the Vice Principal and other teachers were now shooting sharp glares my way. What the hell was going on…!?

As my vision started to blur, the girl continued glaring at me. The Vice Principal finally coughed and stepped in.

“Anyway, Sakagami-sensei, we’ll discuss the details in the inner conference room with her present. For now, you have no prior knowledge of this video, correct? For example, you weren’t consulted by a student named Kayama beforehand or anything?”

“…No, nothing like that. Those three have known each other since middle school and have always gotten along well.”

The girl shot me another piercing glare. Just who was this kid…?

“But Vice Principal, we both have classes starting soon…”

“What…?”

Immediately after—BAM!—the Vice Principal slammed his fist against the wall with a demonic expression, silencing the entire staff room.

Isn’t this straight-up power harassment…?

“What are you saying!? There is a victim of assault! Confirming the facts immediately takes priority! Just have the PE classes do self-study or play dodgeball!”

“…Understood…”

“And let me be clear—if what she is about to testify on behalf of the victim turns out to be true, this will become a serious case of assault. Keep in mind that the soccer club may have to withdraw from this summer’s Inter-High preliminaries.”

“U-Understood…”

“Then let’s go, both of you. Hurry.”

“Yes, Vice Principal.”

“…Yes.”

Following behind the Vice Principal and the mysterious girl, I headed toward the rarely used inner conference room. That room was essentially an execution chamber used only for serious incidents—student violence, bullying, shoplifting, or other misconduct outside school. It was a place teachers dreaded entering because it also tarnished the reputation of the homeroom teacher or club advisor involved.

To think I would end up stepping into that forbidden territory…

Just what was going to happen to me from here on?