I Confessed My Sexual Preferences to My Online Game Best Friend, and the Person Who Showed Up at the Offline Meetup Was the Cute Girl from My Class - 35

Chapter 35: A Gaze from the Next Court

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After the storm called the midterm exams had passed, the classroom was filled with shouts of joy and sighs of despair as everyone reacted to their results. I glanced back and forth between the average score for physics posted on the lectern and the test paper that had been returned to my hands, then let out a small breath of relief.

…68 points. I avoided a failing grade… In this case, I probably won’t get sent to remedial classes.

If it hadn’t been for that “hellish study session,” my heart would probably have stopped by now. In the seat next to me, Kaito looked up toward the heavens, holding up his test paper with trembling hands.

“…I survived… Kazuma, look at this. Forty-two points. Fifteen points below the average, but the failing line was forty… I—I’ve finally reached the realm of the gods…!”

“…You’ve got some nerve looking that smug with a score like that.”

“Shut up! I’m free from that hellish after-school remedial detention now. At the ball games tournament, I’m gonna go wild on the court!”

Kaito’s face flipped from zombie-like despair back to the raw vitality unique to a basketball player as he shouted. At that moment, two angels arrived on a flourish of glamorous air.

“Nihihi! Kaito, that face means you passed, right?!”

Ichinose-san slapped Kaito on the back with a loud smack. Standing beside her, as always calm and refreshing, was Rin Shinonome who softened her eyes just slightly when she looked at me.

“Kaito-kun, congratulations. Now the whole basketball club can practice together.”

Shinonome-san’s voice was the one everyone in class admired. It was the voice of “Shinonome-san.” But as she lightly tapped the edge of my desk with her fingertip, she leaned in to peek at my score.

“How did you do, Sato-kun? …Oh, that’s pretty good. Maybe my teaching paid off?”

“…Y-Yeah. Thanks to you, I avoided losing by default. Thank you, Shinonome-san.”

When I answered, a little embarrassed, she let a fleeting grin slip out. Now, that was definitely the smile belonging to “Haru.” At that moment, Kaito shoved himself between us.

“Rin, Saki! You seriously saved my life today! To thank you, I’ll grab every rebound under the basket at practice after school!”

“Ahaha, that’s reassuring, Kaito! But Saki’s shots are on fire today too, so make sure you pass properly, okay?”

“No, practice is separated by gender, remember?”

Shinonome-san’s sharp retort cut in.

…

…Right. Kaito and the girls were teammates in the same basketball club. In the “public” world of school, I was just plain old Sato-kun, while Kaito was one of the chosen few who could casually call Rin and Saki by their first names. Well, behind the scenes he used honorifics out of some mysterious devotion, but still…

I knew that fact already, but actually hearing Kaito call her “Rin” right in front of me made something sting deep in my chest.

…No. I call her “Haru,” and she calls me “Kazu.” The way we address each other when we’re alone… That’s my exclusive front-row seat.

I desperately told myself that, yet I couldn’t stop being conscious of it. Shinonome-san spoke to Kaito warmly as “Kaito-kun,” but she still kept a clear distance as just a clubmate. Perhaps Ichinose-san noticed that slight wavering in my heart since she flashed that strategist grin of her and tugged hard on my arm.

“Kazucchi-kun, what’re you spacing out for!? The tests are over—! Practice for the ball games tournament officially starts today! Kaito, Rin-rin, you ready!?”

“Yeah! …Oh right, Kazuma, you’re badminton, huh? Go flap your wings all by yourself at the edge of the gym, lol.”

“…Shut up.”

Brushing off Kaito’s joke, we headed for the gym after school.

…Just how much did Ichinose-san understand?

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The gym. This time slot was reserved for class-by-class practice for the ball games tournament. The gym at this school was huge. One-third of the floor was used for boys’ basketball, another third for girls’ basketball, and the rest was divided up for badminton. As the class’s badminton representative, I gripped my racket in the corner of the court. On the basketball court right next to us, the girls’ practice had already begun.

“Rin! Pass!”

“Roger, Saki! —There!!”

The sharp squeak of basketball shoes against the floor, voices flying back and forth. The two of them running across the court looked like living art. She looked great in her uniform too, but Shinonome-san in a basketball tank top and shorts was even more lithe and powerful. Her smooth black hair was tied up high in a ponytail, and as she leapt with sweat glittering, the boys watching let out audible gasps of “Whoa…”

When I stopped swinging at the shuttle and found myself staring at her… Rin, having just made a shot, suddenly turned my way.

……

Our eyes met.

As she wiped away sweat with her towel, Shinonome-san pointed to the nape of her neck and gave me a quick wink, so fast no one else noticed.

…!!

Yesterday’s study session flashed through my mind—when she rested her head on my shoulder. Or maybe it was that time I passionately ranted over voice chat about my “ponytail-and-nape fetish.” She was definitely doing this on purpose, trying to make me remember.

“…H-Haru…!!”

When I blushed and completely whiffed the shuttle, she let out a satisfied “nihihi” and returned to her court.

“Hey, Sato! Focus! You were amazing back in middle school, right!?”

Spurred on by my practice partner, I tightened my grip on the racket.

…Yeah. I wasn’t planning on staying on the sidelines forever. I’d show them the pride of “Kazu,” who had spent three years protecting her back.

I stood at the back of the court and served. A sharp shh echoed as the shuttle sliced through the air. The shuttlecock dropped as if being pulled straight into its landing point.

“…Huh.”

From the boys’ court on the opposite side, Kaito, who was watching between drills, widened his eyes.

“Kazuma… That footwork of yours… That’s legit, man!”

“…Just savings from the past.”

I replied casually and snapped the return back with a sharp backhand. My body felt unbelievably light. The awareness that Rin Shinonome was watching me awakened a buried instinct inside me. I was overflowing with the desire to win. The skill of “reading the opponent’s next move” that I’d honed in online games began to link up even here, on this real battlefield called badminton. My eyes weren’t just following the shuttle’s trajectory. I felt like I was sensing the flow of the entire gym.

During a break in practice. As I drank my sports drink, Ichinose-san came over with Shinonome-san. A towel was draped around her neck. Since the girls’ basketball court and the badminton court were right next to each other, it was only natural for them to join us.

“Nihihi! Kazucchi-kun, that was amaaazing! Even Saki couldn’t see that smash just now!”

“…Ichinose-san. You’re exaggerating.”

“That’s not true, Sato-kun.”

Shinonome-san said as she handed me a bottle of sports drink. Her eyes held the familiar kindness of “Shinonome-san” at school but also a quiet, burning intensity that belonged to my partner, Haru.

“…You were moving really well. Honestly, I was surprised.”

“…Your basketball was incredible too. From the other court, Kaito kept yelling ‘Rin, nice!’ so loud my ears hurt.”

When I tossed out that small jab, she blinked, then laughed mischievously.

“Kaito-kun? …He’s always so enthusiastic. …But, Sato-kun…”

She stepped closer and whispered in my ear.

“(…Being called ‘Rin’ by Kaito-kun is nice and all… but being called ‘Haru’ by you, Kazu… makes me hundreds of times happier. …Idiot Kazuma.)”

“…!!”

She immediately turned away when Ichinose-san called her.

“Ah, practice match is starting, so I’m going back!”

 And then, she lightly ran back onto the court. Left alone, I stood there for a while, unable to move. No matter how often Kaito called her by name… No matter how much the class worshipped her as an angel… This “special” possessiveness she showed only toward me… The lie that we were “just best friends”…

Inside this heat-filled gym, it beat against my heart with a heat so intense it could no longer be hidden from anyone.

“…I’ll do it. This ball games tournament.”

I drained my drink in one go and gripped my racket again. The June breeze blowing through the gym windows gently brushed my flushed face. And the spirited voice I heard from the neighboring court became the most reliable “buff” I could ask for.

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