When I Brought The Lost Little Girl To Her House, The One Who Came Out Of The Front Door Was The Most Beautiful Girl In The Grade. - Chapter 21

The event and slogan for the sports festival have been decided, and everyone is eagerly looking forward to the upcoming sports festival.

Among them, the most impressive thing was when one of the extroverted members of the basketball team bought basketball shoes.

When I heard about it, I was genuinely surprised. In the sports festival, we can only wear the school-designated shoes, so buying those new shoes wouldn’t be of any use.

However, when I was told, “It should be fine for practice, right?” I couldn’t help but be dazzled by their confidence.

Even though I feel it’s impossible for me at the moment, I will do my best to the extent that I won’t die during the sports festival while leaving the hard work to the extroverted members…

Such thoughts quietly crossed my mind.

On that particular day after school, the basketball team stayed in the classroom. It seemed they were discussing some strategy.

“Well then, let’s first decide who will play in the first half,” said the leader-like figure, Shirasaka Yuuta, who is also the captain of the soccer team.

He’s good-looking, has a great personality, and is a natural leader. Well, with this kind of charm, he must be popular with girls.

I couldn’t help but want to point out that he is the captain of the soccer team and yet they were having a discussion here.

“The soccer team has the day off today, so I thought we could only do it today,” I said.

As if he could read my mind, he gave a radiant smile, shining brightly around him.

And so, the discussion continued for about 45 minutes.

There seems to be a rule in the sports festival that every person must participate in at least one event match.

As a result, I ended up playing in the second half.

Well, I say second half, but we actually exchange players in the middle…

I couldn’t leave everything to the extroverted members.

“Well then, why don’t we rent a gym close by this weekend and practice?”

“Huh?”

The words just slipped out of my mouth. It seemed too sudden.

“What’s up, Kuroda?”

“No, it’s just… It’s so sudden, so I was wondering if everyone’s schedule would be okay…”

“We can go, right? Right, Yuuta?”

“We can go, but it’s not certain if Kuroda and the others can make it.”

The one who confronted me was Sasaki, a first-year student who was on the basketball team but quit after only four or five months because it was too tough.

I never expected the atmosphere to become like this. Damn it! I hope it doesn’t get troublesome… but it seems like it might, and that’s scary.

“I-I’m sorry, I have something to do this weekend…”

In that atmosphere, one of the basketball substitutes, just like me, said.

Then, one after another, the other substitute teammates started excusing themselves as well.

I understand their feelings. I wouldn’t want my important weekend to be taken up either.

But doing this in the current situation…

“Are you guys kidding me?!”

See, as I thought… I sighed inwardly. At least I deserve praise for not sighing out loud.

Sasaki is acting all high and mighty just because he was on the basketball team.

He probably looks down on anyone outside of the extroverted group. I’m likely one of them.

“What do you have to do? Come on, tell us!”

“M-Me?! Um, w-well… It’s just…”

He glanced around nervously, but no one met his gaze.

Everyone was looking down, except for one last hopeful look directed at me, as if saying, “Please, help me.”

“Alright, alright, leave it at that…”

I put my hand on Sasaki’s shoulder and said that while he glared back at me.

“You know what? If you didn’t butt in back then, things wouldn’t have turned out like this!”

Now I was the target. Dealing with someone like this is quite tiring, I thought.

So, I decided to just listen to whatever Sasaki had to say.

“I-it’s because a new video game is coming out…”

“Huh? A new video game?”

“Yeah… I’m sorry.”

One of them asked for my help and mustered up the courage to tell the reason.

“You can buy games like that anytime! That’s why…”

“Enough!”

As Sasaki tried to continue, Shirasaka intervened.

It was perfect timing. However, I wished he had done it a little earlier.

Sasaki had to accept it since Shirasaka stopped him, but he couldn’t hide his frustration.

“Alright, let’s end it here for today! We’ll continue the discussion tomorrow! Until then, think about what we talked about today.”

Shirasaka gave us one day’s grace. A stark contrast to Sasaki.

I was furious. I used to think that I didn’t really dislike anyone. But maybe it’s just because I haven’t met them yet. I might actually dislike Sasaki.

For now, the discussion was over, so I immediately put on my backpack and left the classroom.