Chapter 8

It’s a deviation from yesterday’s events when I was attacked by Rin-chan and my sister freaked out in disbelief.

Today, I’m suffering not from mental pressure, but from physical pressure from my intense fatigue.

Why is the first week of a new school year so hard?

Currently, the gym is filled with a sound that most people would find to be annoying or frightening to hear.

The sound is a musical scale that ticks away one by one in a steady rhythm.

It gets faster and faster, and the sound of the rubber soles of my shoes scraping against the gym floor begins to echo along with it.

“So tight…!”

When I’m doing this test, I should avoid talking about unnecessary things, but I can’t calm down if I don’t say so.

Currently, I’m doing the 20-meter shuttle run, one of the physical fitness tests held during spring.

Some schools may have an endurance test, but at this high school, we choose this one.

It’s the most strenuous exercise of the year for me, since I’m not even in an athletic club, let alone any club activities.

Even though it’s spring, April is hot these days, so I’m sweating like crazy.

It’s hard to do this early in the school year, but since it’s going to get hotter and hotter, maybe it’s better to do it early on.

“Whoa, Touma’s working hard.”

Haruki and the others, who are not on stage at the moment, seem to be enjoying watching me work so hard.

I would have been pissed off normally, but I don’t even have the time for that.

“He’s usually a pain in the ass, but he’s really serious when it comes to these things.”

“Yeah, he sure is. It’s like he’s trying to say something.”

This kind of thing is tiring, so many people stop at the right place, but I don’t do that.

If I don’t take this opportunity to do it for real, I won’t know how much I’ve lost in physical strength.

Besides, this is something the whole class is doing, so naturally the girls are watching.

Although I was acting like I didn’t really want to be aggressive with the girls, I still wanted to show them my good points.

If I do it for real, I can use the physical fitness test as an excuse, and if I get the results, I can show that I can move.

It usually feels annoying to show off, but this situation is different, so I decided to go all out.

“But it’s tough…!”

The number of times I’ve done this has already exceeded 115.

This is probably more than the average for a second year high school boy.

The other guys in my group who started at the same time as me have stopped and their numbers have dwindled.

“Touma, go for 120, okay?”

“No, 130!”

They were saying crazy things.

The level of their performance is at the level of athletics and ball games.

It’s not something you’d expect from a go-home club guy at a prep school.

After this, I ended up sticking with it until the 125th time, when I finally ran my body into the line and got tired.

In reality, this is not a good thing to do because it is hard on the heart.

“I-I can’t do it anymore…!”

“Way to go, go-home boy. You’ve got more endurance than most of us.”

“Really. Where do you get that kind of energy?”

It seems that I was able to maintain enough physical strength to impress the two of them.

“No, I do at least some physical exercise…”

“It’s a shame really. I guess this is what they call a waste of treasure.”

They said that, but it doesn’t matter because the only time I’m going to use it is to look good for girls.

“Wow, Itohara-kun. Your physical stamina is still alive and well.”

“T-Thank you…”

The gym teacher called out to me.

“You’re in the go-home club, aren’t you?”

“Yes. That’s why it’s so hard for me to stay in shape.”

“If that’s the case, why don’t you join our club?”

“Please give me a break. Even if I did it now, I won’t have any sense of real combat anymore.”

I used to play kendo until middle school.

But after I sprained my knee by striking it from an unreasonable position, I was really bothered by the pain that limited my ability to do anything.

…Later, I began to hate OK thrusts from high school too much.

I still remember doing it briefly in middle school for Kata practice, but I was too scared and the younger girls saw it and were very concerned.

At the last tournament of middle school, I performed too well, and this advisor tried to get me to join the club.

Well, I ran away and here I am now.

“Well, you’re always welcome. …Okay now, let’s go to the next group! Get ready!”

He invited me to say a few words as usual and went back to his work as a gym teacher.

I moved to the door of the gym and sat down.

The sun was hot, but the breeze was cool, something I was thankful for right now.

“Good work!”

“Oh, Chairman.”

“You’re really good. You can still run like that.”

“I never thought I’d make it that far.”

“Come on, I’ll give you some air!”

Chairman stirred up the recording carpet pad and sent me a breeze.

It’s not as flexible as the plastic underlay, so there’s not a lot of wind, but it’s nice enough.

“I want to get some air too, so come on, come on! Come closer!”

“Chairman…! It’s a bit too close!”

The chairman, who was running the same way as me earlier, also wanted to catch the wind, so she closed the distance between us.

“Oh? What are you worried about?”

“Nothing, I’m just sweating like crazy.”

“Ahaha! You’re sweating so much you look like you’ve had water poured on your head!”

“That’s why I’m embarrassed when you come that close…”

It’s not good for a girl to come close to me in this condition.

“Hoo~. You don’t seem to have much interest in girls, but you do care about them.”

“That’s not what I mean, it’s more of an image problem.”

Even if I’m not popular, I don’t want to be evaluated as a jerk.

“As it is, we’ve been friends since our first year, and I know it was after the shuttle run, so don’t worry about it!”

She said, and came next to me as if it was normal.

No matter what the chairman said, I remained unsettled.

“We’ve been hanging out together since first year, but I don’t remember many conversations like this between us. That’s why yesterday, and now, it feels pretty fresh.”

“Oh, I guess you’re right! I was with Haruki and it felt like we were just talking once in a while! Well, the reason I don’t have any resistance is because I’m Haruki’s friend and I didn’t have a bad first impression when I talked to him.”

“Well, yeah, maybe so!”

I’m not sure if the chairman was aware of Haruki’s feelings or not, and I don’t want this to turn into a question mark, so I’m just going to affirm it.

Based on the chairman’s personality and experience, I’m sure she’ll be fine, but depending on how I answer, there’s also a possibility that it will have a negative impact on Haruki and his girlfriend.

I’m going to talk about it in a way that will not create any unnecessary waves.

“So that’s why! I’ve never talked to you individually on LINE, only in class groups!”

“Well, that’s true. You said you had a boyfriend at one point, and if we can talk properly face to face, that’s fine too. I’ve never talked to anyone in person.”

“Hmm, well, Yukito and I are talking normally, right?”

Huh, Yukito-san?

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, well, it has been a while. Yukito had a girlfriend, and since then he hasn’t talked to me at all. The same goes for Haruki.”

“Well, that’s just how it is~.”

“That’s normal, isn’t it~? It’s awkward for us to keep talking about too much.”

The two of them are more relaxed now that they have girlfriends, but I’m sure there are a lot of guys who have girlfriends but don’t stop having intimate relationships with the chairman.

“Touma, do you have any female friends that you keep in touch with privately?”

“Not really. I don’t have any girls to talk to privately, so it doesn’t develop into that.”

With the exception of about one person. And I don’t even know if our relationship is friends or not.

“Hoo~, so I’m the most likely person you’ll be in contact with!”

“Well… will you be?”

“Do you want me to be the first one to contact you?”

“Huh?”

That’s what the chairman said to me.

“Touma is interesting and you don’t have a girlfriend, so I thought it would be okay.”

“Yeah, that’s totally fine.”

I had no reason to refuse, so I decided to accept the invitation.

“Yeah, it’s decided!”

The chairman smiled and nodded her head in satisfaction.

As Haruki and Yukito frantically performed their shuttle run, an unexpected friendship developed further.