Chapter 120 – Class Match

Golden Week was over. Exactly a month had passed since our second year started.

At first I wondered what would happen to me, changing class and all, but a month had passed before I realized.

And within that month, nothing much changed in my daily life.

Despite what happened back in April, nothing big happened and I even started to forget about the hostile words that were directed at Amami-san back then.

A few times, I wondered what it was about, but in the end I was glad that things didn't escalate further than that.

All the classes were over for today, save for Homeroom. Normally, this would only take a few minutes then I would be waiting for Umi's class to finish, but since today was a special occasion, this would go on a little bit longer.

"Um… As you all already know, the class match will be held next weekend. So before we decide on the members who will participate, we can't go home yet. That's all I have to say, class committee members, you guys can take over now."

"'Kay~"

Amami-san, who was seated next to me, stood up. The members of the class committee had been chosen since last month and Amami-san had volunteered to be the class' representative.

The class match would be the first duty that the committee will take care of. For this reason, Amami-san looked more excited than usual.

Of course she wasn't alone, there was a male representative too, chosen by lottery. The lottery happened not because of the lack of volunteers, rather it was because there were too many volunteers.

Naturally, I had to draw a lot too, but this time I didn't win it, to Amami-san's disappointment. Though personally, I felt relieved that I didn't have to do it, last year's cultural festival was enough for me.

Well, I'll still help her out if she needs me. 

"Let's see~ This year's class match will consist of four events, softball, soccer, volleyball and basketball. The boys will play softball and soccer while the girls will play volleyball and basketball."

Softball and soccer, so both of them would be team sports. Last year, there were individual sports like ping-pong, but it seemed like they didn't hold those this year. Probably because those sports weren't well received by the students.

Which was a pity for me because I liked the quiet atmosphere of ping pong, because everyone would opt to look at the other events.

Well, I had to choose one and I wasn't good at either of them. I didn't want to be a burden to the class, but no matter what I chose, I'd end up being a burden.

While I was pondering that, they started filling in the names of the participants.

"There are now eleven volunteers for soccer, so those who haven't volunteered will be assigned to softball by default… Who were the ones who haven't volunteered again? …Ah, Maehara-kun and Ooyama-kun… Are you two okay with this?"

I didn't even need to choose, apparently. Well, refusing now would be awkward, so I'll just nod my head.

Now that this was out of the way, all I needed to plan was to avoid any injuries during the match…

I went to the front of the class to write my name and almost bumped into Ooyama-kun.

"Go ahead, Ooyama-kun."

"Ah… 'Kay…"

Ooyama-kun was my classmate from last year, like Amami-san. Come to think of it, it had been a while since we've talked to each other. After I started dating Umi and hung out with Nozomu more, we just stopped talking to each other.

I stopped trying to talk to him and he stopped trying to talk to me too.

"Here's the chalk… See ya."

"Eh? Mm, thank you…"

I was about to talk with him, but he quickly went back to his seat.

I thought that he was trying to act casually with me like usual, but since we hadn't talked  for more than half a year, I guess it was natural that our relationship became like this.

I wanted to befriend him, but he seemed to be avoiding me for some reason.

Did I do something to earn his ire?

"Are you done, Maki-kun?"

"Mhm. How's the girl's side?"

"Almost done~ We just need to figure out how to group the basketball teams."

I took a glance at the blackboard. The six members of the volleyball team had been decided, so the rest of the girls would be assigned to the basketball team. But, there were two teams for basketball, team A and B. So far, only three names were written on each of the teams. Amami-san's name was on the A team.

There were four more girls who hadn't been assigned yet.

And those girls were the group seated in the back of the class.

"Hey, we're the only ones left. Which group will you guys enter?"

"Hm? Don't care~ As long as I'm with Nagisa."

"Me too~"

"Same~"

They were one of the more inconspicuous people in the class, second only to Amami-san.

The prettiest among the four turned her head toward Amami-san.

I think her name was Arae. Attendance number 2, Arae Nagisa.

"We won't be able to decide anything if it's like this, Class Rep. What do you think we should do?"

"Huh? Even if you ask me, it's first come first serve, so you guys should divide it by yourself, or it wouldn't be fair to everyone else."

Team A's members were Amami-san and two other girls who had been close to her back in the first grade while team B's members were three classmates back in the first grade.

Unlike softball and soccer where there were a lot of players involved and you could just shove everyone in, basketball only had five players per team, for this reason, team division became more troublesome.

Honestly, they could just skip this farce and assign the names randomly, but it seemed like they didn't do it because of reasons.

"What about this, us four will get into a team with you, Amami-san, that way you'll be able to motivate us. Besides, you can work with whoever, right?"

"Yeah, but that means we'll have to ignore the opinions of the other two who're already in my team…"

Amami-san glanced at me with a troubled expression. Well, this was something that happened a lot in school events like this, but this was her first time having to deal with this, it made sense that she was troubled about it.

If Umi was here, she would just shut those four up no problem, but sadly she wasn't here.

"…This is going nowhere, Yagisawa-sensei. What should we do?"

"…It can't be helped…"

Yagisawa-sensei, who had been sitting in the corner while watching over us, sighed before standing up.

"I want everyone to decide everything on your own, but not like this, Arae-san… If you have a request like this, then state it in the very beginning. Well, we'll decide it by rock-paper-scissors."

"'Kay."

Hearing her scolding, Arae-san and her cronies backed down and wrote their names on the blackboard.

Arae-san herself wrote her name on team A, the team where Amami-san was in.

"Alright! We're in the same team, so I'll be in your care, Arae-san!~"

"Mm. Huh, what's with that hand?"

"Huh? Hand shake? I mean, we're in the same team, no?"

"Ah, I see."

She said as she ignored Amami-san's hand.

"Arae-san?…"

"Amami, look here… Don't get too chummy with me. I'm only doing this to not embarrass the rest of the class, got it?"

I got that she disliked Amami-san for some reason, but putting it that way was just plain rude.

She was probably aware that she was being rude, that's just how much she hated Amami-san I guess.

"I'm going back, Amami-san."

"Ah, yeah… Thank you, Maki-kun."

"Don't mention it. Also, don't think much about that."

After I consoled Amami-san and returned to my seat, I heard a murmur.

'In the end, you need a guy to save your ass, huh? What a bitch'

Those unpleasant words mixed in the noisy atmosphere of the class.

Amami-san, who was talking with Yagisawa-sensei probably didn't catch that murmur, but I managed to hear it perfectly.

And by perfectly, I meant I recognized who muttered it.

In the end, that person couldn't stay still for the rest of the year, huh? Now, what should I do?