Chapter 4:
There’s No Freaking Way I Can Ever Be a People Person!
THE DAY OF THE MATCH brought clear weather, and I was fit as a fiddle too!
As an aside, we still had class like normal in the morning, but afternoon classes were canceled so we could have the competition. I could have chilled and slept in until noon, but my fever had already gone down and everything.
Wearing a smile as sunny as the worry I’d caused everyone, I walked into class and belted out, “Howdy, gang!”
“Rena-chin!” Kaho-chan cried.
I yelped as she tackled me and grabbed my shoulders. I lost my balance and pitched forward, and she wasted no time in putting her hand on my forehead.
“Your fever’s a goner!” she said.
“Uh, yeah. I mean, I told you I got better already.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t really trust you.”
“Say what now?!”
Come on. There was no one in the world who wanted to skip school on the daily more badly than I did. So would it have killed her to have a little faith in me when I came to school while I was still in recovery? Well, I guess you could make the argument that this was something stupid I was doing for the sake of my class. I wasn’t really the type to think about the consequences, after all. Okay, I got her point. Kaho-chan was right.
“Sorry for making you worry about me,” I said.
“God, you can say that again,” she said. “Eh, but I’ll letcha off the hook ’cause you’re here now. But you gotta take it easy until the competition. C’mon, sit down!”
Kaho-chan forced me into a chair. The fact that such a thing was necessary made me, to be totally real with you, kind of happy. Heh heh.
“Fine, fine,” I said. “I’ll save my strength.”
“Yup. If there’s anything you gotta do, I’ll take care of it for you. So sit tight.”
She was so nice…
“Oh, but before that,” I said, “I need to run to the bathroom.”
“Sit!” she barked. “I’ll go for you!”
“How is that supposed to work?!”
Because, as it turns out, one can’t go to the bathroom for someone else, I set off for the restroom. I bumped into Hirano-san and Haseagawa-san on the way and gave them both a heartfelt apology.
“Sorry,” I said, “for getting a fever and making everyone worried. I’m completely good to go today, I promise! Now let’s go give this basketball game our all!”
Thus, even as they were concerned for me, they also felt intensely motivated for the competition later today. Heh heh! Morale ran high with Class A!
As I was washing my hands, the school’s number one raven-haired beauty walked into the girls’ bathroom.
“Oh,” I said. She didn’t reply. “Satsuki-san.”
“I see you’re better now,” she told me.
“Yeah, I guess.”
She stared down at me. Wh-what was this all about?
“Do your absolute best today,” she said.
“W-will do!”
“For the sake of your beloved Sena, no doubt,” she added.
I gritted my teeth. “W-well, yes, as it turns out… But that’s rich of you to say when you’re all fired up because of Ajisai-san too!”
Standoffishly, she showed no emotion on her face whatsoever. What was up with that? But I couldn’t say anything else in the face of her judgmental disrespect. She was pretty much our best weapon, so I guess I had to put up with this for the time being…right?
But just as I was about to leave the bathroom, she said, “Say, Amaori,” making me stop in my tracks.
“What?” I asked.
Satsuki-san stood in the center of the room. After checking to see that no one else was around, she asked, “Are you happy dating both Mai and Sena?”
“Uh…in what sense?”
“Please, you needn’t assume I have any hidden intentions. Take the question at face value.”
She said that, but she was also grinning like a man coming up to your house in the middle of a night with a hatchet saying, “Me? Oh no, I’m no shady customer.”
“Satsuki-san, you have intentions hidden behind intentions hidden behind intentions,” I told her.
“Goodness, you’re obnoxious,” she said.
“Hey, Satsuki-san, you see that thing right there? That’s called a mirror.”
As I kindly pointed out the bathroom mirror, Satsuki-san gave me a murderous glare. Ah, now that was more like it.
“Yeah, well,” I said. “I’m happy. It’s just…yeah.”
“Really now?” For some reason, Satsuki-san didn’t sound very pleased with me. But I answered her and everything! “You were certainly reluctant when I asked you.”
“That’s got nothing to do with the present!”
I was pretty sure it was a mark of growth for me to have moved beyond the way I thought in the past. Maybe, I considered, I should turn the tables and tell Satsuki-san how great my girlfriends were in order to get the better of her. Mind you, I doubted she’d understand. But it might be fun to give it a try. I’d pay for my curiosity with my life, granted, but still.
“Amaori,” Satsuki-san said.
“Y-yeah?!” I cried, my voice cracking.
Oops. Satsuki-san was a phantom who could read minds! Okay, no she wasn’t. But I just couldn’t help but think that. It wasn’t a crime to think that, right? People should be free to think whatever they want, right?
She stared me down and then looked away like a cat who’d lost interest. “Well, I’m glad to hear it,” she said.
“Huh? Oh, okay.”
Was she sincerely wishing me happiness…? Nah, no way.
I felt a little chilled. “I-it’s okay, Satsuki-san. We’re still friends, even if I have girlfriends now!”
Satsuki-san didn’t answer but instead walked into a stall.
Man, this was all kind of… Like, you know. I wasn’t sure how to say it. Like a hangnail. I normally wouldn’t be concerned about this, but there were moments when Satsuki-san just sort of seemed off. It all started back when she’d sent me that message. Or maybe it all began when I started going out with Mai and Ajisai-san. What was the deal with this…whatever…Satsuki-san didn’t want to talk about? What would I do if the hangnail never healed? It made me worried. I had plenty on my plate to keep me busy until the competition was over, but when it was all said and done, I hoped I could talk things out with Satsuki-san.