I Was Unreasonably Dumped By My Girlfriend And Had My Heart Broken. When I Rescued A Beautiful Girl Who Was My Former Classmate And Idol In My Class From A Group Of Yarisa, My Gray College Life Started To Shine - Chapter 20

Episode 20: In Order to Become a Pair Together

It was not a dark battle to decide pairs for trash collection… but rather, to go bowling.

Our club, Tiana, had come to the bowling alley near the university, not to a duel arena…

“I think we pair up based on first place with last place, second place with second-to-last, and so on.”

“Yeah, that’s right. It doesn’t matter if you’re male or female. Well, I’m looking forward to bowling, regardless.”

I understood as I listened to the conversation between the seniors.

It seemed that even if you got first place, you couldn’t choose your partner.

So, rather than a duel or a struggle, it was just a matter of luck.

I just had to enjoy throwing the ball.

Thinking like that, I headed to the lane assigned by the seniors.

Although they tried to make sure first-year students were paired together, there were more than ten of us.

As a result, I was in a different group from Aoba.

“Oh, I’m with Nogami! Nice, you remember me, right? I’m Hayashi, we talked at the welcoming party. I’m in the Economics Department.”

“Uh, yeah. You were asking about the relationship between me and Aoba, right?”

“He doesn’t remember my name, but he remembers unnecessary things…!”

I sat on the sofa and chatted with my schoolmate Hayashi.

Come to think of it, there was a guy like this too, huh? I vaguely remembered.

Just then, I felt something touch my cheek.

Wondering what it was, I looked at the armrest of the sofa and saw a crumpled tissue paper there.

And when I looked in the direction it seemed to have come from, I saw Aoba looking at me, tapping away on her phone.

So I checked mine, and there were a few notifications.

“Let’s strategize. How should we become a pair?”

“Do we just have to rely on luck? Should I pray while throwing?”

…What is she talking about?

I raised my head, and Aoba, who was still tapping her phone, looked at me again.

It seemed she had no intention of sharing her plans with others.

“That won’t do anything. It’s just a game. Maybe we’ll have to request a pair change later?”

Or rather.

“Do we really need to go to such lengths to pair up?”

I wrote down what I was thinking.

When I returned, there was a mysterious sticker showing a panda with an angry face and flexing muscles.

Suddenly, when I glanced back, Aoba was also looking at me with puffed-up cheeks, making the same face (by the way, not flexing any muscles).

Seriously, what’s going on?

Just as I was thinking that, what came to me was the word “List”.

Taken aback, I opened the “List” and finally understood: “Redoing youth! Things I want to do list”.

There was an item there: “Climb a mountain together!”.

Sure, the main activity this time is trash collection, but we’ll also be climbing a mountain, technically.

Still, it seemed unlikely that she’d give up easily.

As I pondered, an angry panda sticker kept coming.

“What’s wrong, Nogami? Messaging your mom?”

“No, a friend from middle school suddenly contacted me. I’ll be the last one.”

I casually continued the conversation with Hayashi.

It wasn’t exactly a lie, so it should be fine.

I sighed and once again reviewed the rules for determining pairs this time.

Then, I came up with a simple and surefire method and wrote it down.

“If one of us gets first place and the other gets last place, we’ll be a pair, right?”

…The difficulty level is quite high, though.

This was the only thing I could practice without worrying about the rankings of other people.

“Got it! Nogami-kun, you’re amazing! Great idea! Panda-san is smiling too. Let’s go with that plan!”

“You seem excited, Aoba-san. Are you good at bowling?”

“Huh? When I played before, I scored 5 points in one round. Leave being last to me! I have no skill at all. My friend even helped me aim for the gutter…”

Yeah, well, I thought it would be something like that!

But that score is just terrible.

I looked at Aoba and she showed a small victory sign.

As for me, I’m not particularly bad at bowling.

Back in my sophomore year, I used to go to the local bowling alley with my friends so often that I even became a Gold Premium Special Card member, unless you were a regular.

My best score was exactly 250.

But all of that is in the past.

Last year, I devoted all my time to studying for exams, so I didn’t go at all.

Of course, my membership card has reverted to normal.
But if Aoba has expectations for me, it’s not good to make excuses.

“I’ll do my best. I’ll aim for first place.”

I replied and closed my phone.

“Hey, Nogami. It’s your turn. Are you done messaging?”

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

In response to Hayashi, who had just called out to me, I stood up.