Meanwhile, Momose was right beside me, shouting “Rinkaaa!” at the top of her lungs and literally hopping with excitement. Momose had a beautifully high-pitched voice that carried like nothing else, and I had a feeling that it got through to Aiba better than any of the other cheers and squeals that resounded throughout the gym.
As a matter of fact, every time Momose shouted or otherwise reacted to Aiba’s playing, a decent number of gazes turned in her direction as well. That definitely wasn’t a sign that she was standing out in a bad way, though. The crowd of spectators filling the gym had gathered to see Aiba’s outrageous skill in action, of course, and they were probably there to cheer on the basketball club as well, to some extent. Some of them, though, were definitely also there because they wanted to see Momose cheer Aiba on.
Aiba out on the court, carrying her team to victory. Momose off to the side, cheering her heart out for Aiba. That interplay between the two of them was what had turned them into the Sacrosanct. Each of them was a jaw-droppingly beautiful girl who overflowed with talent, of course, but it was when they came together—when their long-standing, intimate friendship was put on full display—that they formed the truly ideal yuri pairing.
When you put those two together, their charms weren’t compounded—they were multiplied! I’m talking an absolute explosion of yuri appeal, intense enough to turn an audience member like Momose into one of the show’s leading stars! Like, if the match had been broadcast on TV, the main camera would’ve been glued to Aiba except for every once in a while when it’d wipe to Momose shouting from the stands! Which, when I really thought about it, kinda made Momose a monster in her own right. The whole situation reminded me all over again just how incredible my friends really were.
Suddenly, I heard a fwish! While I’d been off in my own little world again, Aiba had landed a shot! She’d stopped a fair distance from the basket and sunk a three-pointer without batting an eyelash. Every little motion of the shot was polished to perfection, and the crowd went absolutely wild over it. You’d have thought she’d just scored the winning basket with how loudly everyone was cheering her on!
Then again, the crowd went wild for each and every shot she made. It felt more like a festival than a practice match, and everyone was drawn into the ecstatic atmosphere. Including me, of course! “Oh wow, oh wow! She’s so cool!” I shouted with glee, demonstrating that my vocabulary had barely evolved since elementary school, and clapped wildly.
“Isn’t she, though?!” agreed Momose, puffing out her chest with pride. Which was adorable.
“You’re incredible too, though, Momose!”
“Huh? Me?”
“Yeah! You’re amazing!”
“O-Oh? Hee hee hee,” Momose tittered, fidgeting bashfully with her hair.
Gaaaugh?! I clutched at my chest reflexively. Momose was heart-attack-inducingly cute when she got all embarrassed like that! Thankfully, I seemed to have escaped sudden cardiac arrest...barely.
And, yes, maybe it was a little weird that my heart had literally skipped a beat on account of a friend—and a girl, at that—but it’s not like I have control over every little one of my body’s reactions! Cut me some slack! It would probably have been super awkward for Momose if she found out about it, though, so I jerked my line of sight away from her in a panic.
Ah, I thought, stunned in a physical and mental sense as my gaze fell instead back onto Aiba. By pure coincidence, she was looking up at me as well at that precise moment, and our eyes met. It felt, like...I dunno, like it was destiny at work, or something! Or like she was reading my mind, which only seemed more plausible as Aiba flashed me a ten-out-of-ten—no, a twenty-out-of-ten—full-on ultimate prince smile.
“Ghwaugh!” Sniped through the heart by Cupid himself! C-Calm down! You remember she’s your friend, right? And also a girl?!
“People want to see the Sacrosanct swooning over each other, not me drooling over them!” I whispered to myself. “Get a hold of yourself... Don’t get the wrong idea...” I had to face facts: Momose and Aiba were wasted on me as friends, much less anything more than that! I couldn’t let myself expect anything of the sort! I just couldn’t!
“Yotsuba?”
“Wha-huh?!” I shrieked in such a hysterically panicked falsetto, it even surprised me. The squeal wasn’t my fault that time, though! Momose was the one who had decided to reach over and rest her hand on top of mine!
“You were spacing out again, weren’t you?” asked Momose in an accusatory tone.
“N-No, I...wasn’t...”
“I heard that pause! You expect me to believe you when you can’t even deny it with a straight face?”
“You saw right through me?!”
“Heh heh heh!” Momose chuckled with an adorable little smirk.
My heart let out a scream of agony as it was punctured yet again. Come on, don’t grin... Keep a straight face...
“What’s that look supposed to mean?”
“N-Noshing ad awl,” I droned through clenched teeth. Some sacrifices had been made, but I’d managed to stop myself from grinning like a moron, at least! Sure, she might’ve ended up thinking I was a weirdo, but that beat the heck out of her thinking I was the sort of person who’d start lusting after my friends out of nowhere! And so I made it through another perilous moment without committing social suicide. The End.
“Ah, come on, Yotsuba! Help me cheer her on!” said Momose, still squeezing my hand as tightly as ever.
“R-Right!” I agreed. I was saved—she hadn’t thought I was that weird after all! If she’d gotten freaked out and told me to take a hike or something, I would’ve never been able to look back on this day without writhing in shame!
So anyway, I jumped at the chance to latch onto Momose’s benevolent offer and focus once more on cheering on the star of the hour. Or that was the theory, at least, but part of me had to wonder: Would Aiba really be able to pick out my voice over the thunderous roar of all the other wildly cheering fans packed into the gym? Everyone was putting their everything into cheering with all their might. How could I expect my cheers to get through to her under circumstances like those?
“Hurry up, Yotsuba! Rinka’s waiting for you to cheer for her!” shouted Momose, almost as if she’d seen through me and picked out my self-doubt in an instant. It felt like she was cheering me on, which seemed like a waste of her efforts...but oddly enough, it still managed to give me the courage I needed.
That’s right—I’m Aiba’s friend! She’s playing her heart out, and that’s all the reason I need to cheer for her with everything I’ve got!
I finally worked up my nerve and nodded to Momose, who smiled back at me and mouthed, “On three!” Then, a count of three later...
“You can do it!”
...the two of us shouted in unison, as loud as we possibly could! I didn’t have Momose’s voice, and I knew it. I knew better than anyone that my shout was doomed to be swallowed up by the cacophony of cheers that echoed throughout the gym...or at least, I thought it would be, until I felt a twinge of pain in my throat and heard myself yell in a voice louder and clearer than I’d thought I was capable of producing!
Then, almost as if in answer to my cheer, Aiba looked up at me from the court and beamed. I saw her lips twitch—I was probably wrong, but I could’ve sworn she was mouthing, “Thanks.”