My Childhood Friend Is Dangerously Sexy and Cute - 23

Chapter 23: The Time Without My Childhood Friend

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー

About a week had passed since the preparation period for the sports festival began. By this time, preparations were in full swing, and our days after school were spent entirely on practicing cheer routines and athletic events. In the midst of all that, as for me…

“Okay, 1, 2, 3, 4, and spin right there!”

I was dancing alone on the riverbank in the evening to the beat of Hoshino’s clapping. At our high school’s cheer competition, the mainstream style involved performing dances to music. And I was abysmally bad at dancing. That was why I was receiving after-hours private lessons from Hoshino, who was a member of the cheer squad. Even though almost everyone else had already started heading home. It was sad.

No, I could still dance… I should be able to.

“Ah, ahaha… That same old robot dance as always…”

“Ugh…”

Hoshino gave a strained smile as she watched my splendid(?) dancing. Why? In my head, it was perfect. According to others, my dancing was on par with a robot that couldn’t even keep a proper rhythm. I had heard that the cheering competition carried a lot of weight in the scoring. In other words, if my robot dance stood out in a bad way and caused us to lose, it could affect the overall victory or defeat of the entire team.

That was why I had to somehow transform from a robot into a human by the time the sports festival arrived. Could a machine truly become human? I didn’t know.

But please, don’t give up on me. Hoshino-sensei. Please don’t wear that twitching smile. Look, they say the most troublesome children are the most lovable, right? Aren’t I lovable? It’s hard to wrap my head around, but Yuki says that a lot too. So keep at it. Hoshino-sensei.

“A-Anyway, practice makes perfect! It’s okay! We still have time!”

Hoshino hopped in place. Her brown hair, tied up with a scrunchie, swayed along with her. However, it seemed Hoshino-sensei had no concrete plan for a breakthrough. I didn’t know what to do either. Therefore, I had no choice but to follow Hoshino’s lead. Just then, a lone figure approached us.

“Hello, hello. Hoshino-kun and Asama-kun. How are things going?”

The woman who spoke to us in a friendly manner was Kiriko Natsume-senpai. She was the senior I had met previously through my part-time job at the cafe. Like Hoshino, she belonged to the White Team’s cheer squad. Actually, she was the leader of our White Team, the cheer captain.

“Ah, Captain! Thanks for your hard work!”

“Hey there, um… Captain…?”

Should I call her that? I still hadn’t quite grasped the vibe of the sports festival.

“You don’t have to call me something so stiff like ‘Captain.’ It’s not like it’s practice time for the festival anymore anyway.”

Well, I’m doing extra practice, though!

No, I wouldn’t say something so cynical to such a nice senior.

“Natsume-senpai, then.”

“Mm.”

Natsume-senpai smiled contentedly.

“I’m going to call you Captain. It sounds cool!”

“Is that so…? I wish you’d call me something more casual, though. Like Kiriko-chan.”

“No, that’s a bit much…”

Whoa, this person’s eyes were sparkling slightly. 

Does she want me to call her that? Me? Kiriko-chan? Yeah… that’s impossible. Adding “-chan” is a bit… I mean, Natsume-senpai suits being the captain perfectly. I think she’d look great draped in a school gala uniform.

“Hmph… well, fine. So, how is Asama-kun’s dancing? Does it look like he can become human?”

“How is it, you ask…?”

“We’re completely lost in the woods!”

Hoshino said enthusiastically. I think this girl just wanted to use a fancy idiom. It just came up in our modern Japanese class recently, after all. 

Besides, I guess I really am not human… I want to become human soon!

“I see… but there’s still time. Asama-kun, you don’t need to rush.”

“Ah, right. I’ll make sure to at least get to the point where I’m not dragging everyone down.”

“Umu. I’m counting on you.”

Leaving us with those words, Natsume-senpai departed from the riverbank. As she watched her go, Hoshino spoke.

“The Captain, you know… she talks to every single student in the White Team like this.”

“Seriously?”

“Serious, serious.”

I thought she had come specifically to see me because I was a problem child…

No, maybe I’m a hundred times worse than a normal problem child…

“She says she wants everyone to enjoy the sports festival together.”

“Heh…”

Since I had always just coasted through these things every year, I didn’t quite understand that sentiment.

“I wonder if I can become like the Captain…”

“Eh?”

Hoshino’s voice was so faint that I couldn’t catch what she said.

“Ah, no, it’s nothing.”

“Okay.”

“Yeah. More importantly, you know, I want to win this sports festival. For the Captain’s sake too.”

“Not for the sake of our match with Yuki?”

“Of course that’s part of it too! But the Captain, you see… she was physically weak until about the time she became a high schooler. Asthma? I think that was it. Because of that, she couldn’t really participate in school events.”

“Is that so…”

I couldn’t really imagine it from her current appearance. The current Natsume-senpai gave the impression of being consistently dignified, friendly, and very reliable. It was hard to believe she had been so sickly.

“This is the first time she’s ever participated in a sports festival.”

“What about until last year?”

“It seems she was just an observer. She helped support her team from the sidelines.”

Participating as the captain in a sports festival she had been unable to join for so long. I wondered what kind of feelings were behind that.

“The Captain said it’s enough if everyone can have fun together. But I think deep down, she really wants to win. That’s why I’m going to support the Captain with everything I’ve got!”

Hoshino pumped her fists as if to show her determination. Then Hoshino added, “Losing also lets you learn various things. But I want the Captain to win. Because for her, it’s the first and last time.” I felt like there was some strong emotion contained in those words. Surely that, too, was something beyond my understanding.

“Alright! So let’s work hard, Asama-kun! We’re going to dance a little more today!”

Hoshino seemed to grow embarrassed by her own storytelling and clapped her hands to urge me on.

“Alright, let’s do this…!”

I might have started feeling a little motivated myself. No, I had already wanted to win because I was scared of Yuki’s “request.” I had also been despairing over my poor dancing skills. But hearing the story from Hoshino and Natsume-senpai made my desire to win grow even stronger. Maybe this was what they called youth. It was a kind of youth I had never known until now.

However, the only lingering regret for me was that Yuki wasn’t here. I wondered what kind of expression Yuki was making at the practice grounds of the rival Red Team. I wondered what she was thinking.

While performing my robot dance, I found myself thinking about those things…

“Okay, I’ll dance too, so try to copy me!”

“Right! …Wait, hang on! If you move that vigorously… I can see! I can see it!?”

“Huh? What can you see… wait, I’m wearing a skirt!?”

Hoshino crouched down while holding down her school skirt. Her face was dyed redder than the sunset.

“Did you… see?”

“Well…”

Third time, thanks for the treat.

“Light blue?”

“No, it was pink.”

“You really did see! Geez…! Seriously!! Forget it! Absolutely forget it!!”

Hoshino pitter-pattered against my back with her fists.

Even if you tell me to forget it. The moment I see underwear, it gets burned into my memory. That’s just how adolescent boys are. By the way, the method for deleting the folder in my brain is unknown. Man, recently, foreign objects have been getting mixed into the folders in my head that used to be filled with nothing but Yuki and Sayuki.

Haah… I wondered if I could truly become human under this somewhat airheaded teacher. I was honestly worried about the sports festival. 

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー