It turns out that I have a fiancee, but she is the famous "villainess" of the school. What should I do? - Episode 44
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- It turns out that I have a fiancee, but she is the famous "villainess" of the school. What should I do?
- Episode 44 - The Beginning of a Long, Long, Old Tale
Episode 44 The Beginning of a Long, Long, Old Tale
I placed the coffee in front of Kiryu, who was at the sofa but was now sitting at the table in the living room, and I sat down across from her with my coffee in hand as well.
After waiting for me to settle down, Kiryu opened her mouth.
“Start from where you’re comfortable.”
“It’s going to be a long one, okay?”
“You made this coffee with that in mind, didn’t you?”
Kiryu holds up her coffee cup saying so. I smile at her and begin my story.
“I’ve known Ryoko and Tomomi since I was a little boy. I’ve been with Ryoko since she was born and Tomomi since nursery school. As a result, I’ve already known them both for over ten years now. We had our fights, but we still got along.”
“I see..”
“It wasn’t until elementary school that our relationship changed a little bit though.”
“When you got to elementary school you say… Aha, is that what I’ve heard so much about? The other boys making fun of you?”
I shook my head to her question.
“No, it’s when I started to play basketball. I loved basketball and was totally crazy about it. I even ditched Ryoko and Tomomi, who I played with every day after school, just to play basketball.”
“You’re so cruel… I would have been devastated if I were them. Seeing a good friend of mine leaving to pursue other interests.”
“I’m sorry about that… Well, to be fair, I was a kid myself, and I had more fun playing basketball than I did playing with Tomomi and Ryoko back then.”
Because all I did for fun with those guys was play house and stuff like that. It was kinda embarrassing.
“Tomomi and Ryoko were unhappy with my attitude, and Tomomi took action.”
“Action?”
“She joined the basketball team I’m on. Well, she was athletic, you know? “If Hiro can do it, so can I!” she said. As a matter of fact, she was improving and getting better and better. In elementary school, she was a lot taller than me, and I practiced harder than ever because I didn’t want to lose to Tomomi, who had joined the team later.”
— And so Ryoko found herself all alone.
“Knowing that Ryoko was now alone, she actively invited her to practice and games. By then she’d fallen in love with basketball, so stopping wasn’t an option. At first Ryoko was intimidated, but as she came to watch more practices and games, she got more and more into basketball as well. She then started acting like a manager.”
At intervals, she would give us snacks, hand us towels, make us honey lemon drinks, and so on. When I was in sixth grade, she even kept a scorebook to note down her analysis of the opposing teams. She was a great manager.
“And just like that, we began to spend more time together again, just like the old days. Ryoko would watch intently as Tomomi and I practiced and she would also give us advice, or give us information about our next opponent.”
“You guys were really close..”
“Yep, we were pretty close. A bit “too” close, if I may add.”
“What do you mean?”
“Remember I said that I stopped playing basketball before ninth grade?”
“Ahh. Along with the story that makes you feel like sick, isn’t it?”
“Girls shouldn’t say that word… Anyway, I stopped playing basketball and–“
Ahh, crap. It’s a little embarrassing.
“Well, that’s the thing. I was, you know… a little bit sick.”
“Sick?”
“Ah, no, not that kind of sick. I was more like… How do I say this… Very lethargic or something like that?”
I don’t know how to say it.
“Yeah, I guess so. It’s probably close to that. You’ve heard of retired office workers feeling lethargic because there’s nothing left for them to do, right?”
“Perhaps it’s something like where you don’t know how to spend your time because you’ve been so absorbed in your work that you have no hobbies anymore?”
“Something like that. I’ve been playing basketball since the first grade. I’ve been playing basketball since the first grade. I’ve been playing basketball for more than half of my life, or more specifically, for most of the time since I can remember. So why don’t I stop playing basketball, something which has taken up most of my life? I know my good friends were concerned about me at first. I don’t wanna say it myself but when the ace of the basketball team and captain, and even a candidate for national selection, whose nickname was “the basketball fool,” suddenly stopped playing basketball. Of course, you would be concerned, wouldn’t you?”
“I agree. I certainly think I’d be curious to know what happened, and if… it was a friend, I’d be concerned too.”
“Everyone thought so, too, and they talked to me a lot and tried to take me out to play with them. But I was always blunt with them, so they gradually distanced themselves from me.”
Thinking back on it now, I think I may have been too rude. Whilst they were concerned about me asking about my wellbeing, I retorted saying “Leave me alone”. It was a very salty thing to do.
“So, well, I was isolated in class, not to mention… Treated like a tumor, back then.”
“…”
“It was Tomomi who was annoyed by that appearance of mine. One day after school, She called me to the back of the school building.”
To this day, I can easily visualize the scene in my memory. I headed to the back of the school building, thinking it was a hassle.
“And she punched me with a ‘gyu’.”
“Huh?”
“Right in the middle of my face, you know? Blood flowed out of my nose like a waterfall.”
“Wa-wait! Were you okay?!”
“Well, actually it was just a small break, but it was close to a blood vessel or something, and it bled a lot. Tomomi, who had called me with the intention of getting angry at me, immediately got impatient and hurried because I was bleeding so much. Scratching her face half-heartedly, she stammered, “I’m sor-sorry, Hiro! I’m sorry!””
A junior high school boy bleeding profusely from his nose and a junior high school girl apologizing in tears, now that I think about it, it’s a hellish scene, really. Besides, normally, do girls even hit with a “Gyu”?
Well, the nosebleed finally stopped and Tomomi, who was scratching her head half-heartedly, stopped crying and… started. “”How long are you going to sulk?” and “You stopped playing basketball for your own reasons.”
She eventually said, her eyes welling with tears.
‘You’ve been sulking for too long! You loved basketball, I know that! You looked so cool playing basketball too! But, it’s not like basketball is the only thing you enjoy doing! There are other fun things you want to do, right? If not, let’s find them! Together!’
“After that, Tomomi took me and went with me to apologize to the people around us who I had been salty with. She said, ‘Our Hiro has caused us a lot of trouble… and he’s really just a kid. Please forgive him.”
“Like a mother..”
“My friends who were taken aback laughed at Tomomi’s attitude and forgave me. They made fun of me saying “You have a good wife, Hiroyuki””
“Wife? What?”
“Well, that’s what the junior high school students called us.”
“That sounds pretty embarrassing…but wait? Is that how Suzuki-san… How do I say this? Help you return to normal?”
“Well, technically she blackmailed me.”
“What about Kamo-san? What was she doing at that time?”
“This is a bit of a back and forth story, but just as I was starting to enjoy things besides basketball, Ryoko gave me a notebook.”
“Notebook?”
“‘You might not need this anymore, Hiroyuki-chan, but you can use it if you want. You know, when you go to a big sports park, there are soccer goals and such, but there aren’t many basketball hoops, are there?”
“Mhm.”
“So she mapped out every park about a train stop away that had a basketball goal. She also wrote notes about the practice menus of the best schools, parks that do one-on-one well, parks where it would be easy to practice alone… well, all that kind of detailed information.”
In Japan, unless you belong to a club, the environment for playing “basketball” is still very limited. Dribbling and passing practice is possible, but shooting practice is only half as effective without a hoop.
“…”
“‘Someday, Hiroyuki, I’m sure you’ll want to play basketball again. When that day comes, I’d be happy if you could put this to good use then.’, she said”
“Kamo-san is surprisingly stern, isn’t she?”
“Stern?”
“Because, Suzuki-san, approved of your decision to stop playing basketball, didn’t she? But Kamo-san seems to disapprove of you stopping basketball, doesn’t she?”
“Ah… well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say no… Well, it’s true she’s willing to do so. She’s pretty tough.”
“That’s pretty surprising, no?”
“The world may think that Tomomi is tough and Ryoko is gentle, but the reality is the exact opposite. Ryoko is always the tough one and Tomomi is always the gentle one.”
“…”
“In this way, Tomomi helped me make peace with my classmates. Not only that. As she declared, she helped me find ‘fun things’ together.”
My memories of that era will always have Tomomi.
“Hiro! Nakagawa says he’s going to karaoke! You’re going too! All right! You can hear my beautiful voice!”
“I found a great cafe! I’m going to improve my femininity with this! We’ll take Ryoko and the three of us will go there together~!”
“Hiro, let’s go shopping! What? Carrying your baggage? I didn’t mean to… just a little bit.”
“Hiro! The festival’s gonna start! Are you excited? Come on, let’s get going!”
“Hey, hey Hiro! We’re the gymnastics committee, so get your act together! Huh? “Hey! It’s the Higashi Kujo couple!” Higashi Kujo couple? No~ guys? Actually, I’m more of the son-in-law. Please call us the Suzuki couple okay?”
“And so. Tomomi always tried to find ‘fun things’ for me by my side, and such ‘kindness’ of Tomomi always made me more than happy.”
I take a sip of my cold coffee.
“—-I was attracted to Tomomi’s ‘kindness’ before I knew it.”