Chapter 12: End of the First Term
In this way, I dealt with the rumors by making sure to play the recordings for people, preventing any further damage, and since I had already warned my acquaintances ahead of time that there might be bad rumors about me, I was hurt to some extent and got some curious looks, but I managed to weather this storm of bad rumors.
Satsuki and Yamamoto were spreading bad rumors while acting like victims, but as my recording counterattack started to make people see them as the aggressors day by day, they panicked and stopped spreading the rumors.
...Honestly, having the low-risk, low-return "Kousuke and Satsuki were never dating" rumor go around and everything getting muddled while I'm left to cry myself to sleep would have been way scarier.
Apparently, some people who heard my recordings started questioning them and their inconsistent answers made people suspicious.
I threw myself into studying and club activities to change myself.
I increased my independent training, ran more, and pushed my body to the limit!
I also spent a bit more time studying, but focused on raising the quality by staring down reference books!
I absolutely don't want anyone to say my grades dropped because of heartbreak! With the way Satsuki is, she'd totally use that to mess with me!
Of course, I still had damage and flashbacks, and my wounded heart hadn't healed, but I desperately kept putting in effort every day.
That effort will turn into results! Believing that, I kept piling it on day after day.
The basketball club's summer tournament was starting.
For the third-years, this was their retirement. The third-years were totally fired up.
But, there was an exception.
Sahori-senpai: "Ugh, I'm off my game! Something's missing!"
What do you mean, "something" lol
...It's at times like this that people start babying him...
Airi-senpai: "Senpai! This is your last tournament, you know? Give it your all♪"
Sahori-senpai: "Man, can't be helped. Hey, first-years, don't just stand around watching!"
...You're the one who can't be helped! Flirting like that...
Hokusho won easily against the weak school in the first round, but lost by a hair in the second round against a mid-tier school.
It's a quarter system with four 10-minute quarters, and even though I was just a first-year, I got to play starting from the third quarter!
(Sahori isn't moving!)
When I was on in Q3, Sahori-senpai just wasn't on his game.
He even got subbed out during a timeout partway through...
Losing pissed me off so much I couldn't stand it.
The third-years must feel that even more.
Sahori-senpai: "Kousuke! Why didn't you pass to me more?!"
He started taking it out on me.
"You couldn't shake the mark off you, could you? You were totally gassed."
Sahori was going on about how everyone should screen (be a wall) or run decoys to free me up so I wouldn't have to mark him!
And then,
Sahori-senpai: "I just didn't practice enough! I've got the talent! I didn't lose because of talent!"
Isn't it even more pathetic to lose because you didn't practice? Not practicing is your own fault, right?
And this guy's supposed to be the ace (lol).
Well, once he's gone, the basketball club might actually get a bit better.
Why is Airi-senpai even dating a guy like this?
The basketball club's taste in comfort girls is something I just don't get.
Still, the big sister with her long hair tied up, bouncing around as she runs for the basketball club's sake, is everyone's comfort.
The defenseless, innocent, devoted big sister is way more precious than that Sahori guy.
In the basketball club, Airi is the flower, Sahori is the rope, and everyone envies their criminally mismatched combo.
They went on about run-and-gun and playing offensive basketball, but honestly, if this team just practiced hard and played gritty games with a focus on defense and endurance, that'd suit them way better, right?
Somehow, thinking of all this, I picture a possible future with my best friend in mind.
Basketball club leadership changes!
And then, the final exams.
I had really been putting in the effort with my studies lately.
I felt pretty good about it. Wonder how it'll turn out?
I talked with Nagase Aya next to me about how the test went.
Nagase: "Kousuke-kun, how was it?"
"...Not bad, I guess? Classical Japanese was a bit tough..."
Nagase: "I know, right!"
While we were chatting like that,
Nagase: "...Kousuke-kun, sorry. It's Yamamoto-kun who's dating Mishima-san, your ex-girlfriend, right?"
I nodded.
Nagase: "Actually, for a while now? Yamamoto-kun's been hitting on me a lot? No, no! I turned him down! Every time! ...But, even yesterday, he kept inviting me out to hang out or go on dates... Even though he has a girlfriend? It really shocked me..."
Nagase-san said, looking troubled.
Satsuki... No, this isn't something I need to worry about.
Nagase-san was rumored to be involved with a second-year student council officer from the same middle school.
But she always turned bright red and waved her hands, denying it with, "No, that's not true!"
Nagase-san is one of the most popular girls in our year. She's a refreshing beauty, and Hiroshi, my friend, says she's got a healthy kind of sexiness.
Nagase: "...Kousuke-kun, you're working really hard, aren't you?"
Kousuke: "...Club stuff? Studying?"
Nagase: "Both! You really seem like a boy, you know?"
Haha! Nagase laughed and headed over to her friends.
...Yamamoto is looking over this way...?
I glare at him.
Even if Satsuki was stolen from me... I swear I will never show any more weakness!
Well, right now, I couldn't even imagine falling for a girl anyway.
Same for my best friend, but I keep telling myself—this is my training arc so I can change myself.
And then, the tests were returned.
I was ranked 10th in the year...!
I'd always been upper-middle, so this was a big jump!
...Satsuki... She ranked 250th out of 300—will she be okay?
No, that's not my business anymore.
Yamamoto stayed about average... but yeah, his grades dropped as expected.
...Well, if you spend all your time playing around... what do you expect?
If they're rotten grasshoppers, then I'm the poker-faced, silent ant.
I swear I'll put a decisive gap between us!
Summer vacation begins!
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The author, Aru, has a trauma about ants.
When I was a kid, I was playing Romancing Saga 2, the historical RPG about generations, and the night I stayed in the savanna, I let my guard down—
It's ants!!
Suddenly, the whole village was swarming with ants, and the protagonist beat the underground queen ant and all was well!
Or so I thought, but then a few generations, a few hundred years later, when you're sleeping at the distant main base...
It's ants!!
Again!
The ants you thought you'd exterminated secretly multiplied for hundreds of years, spreading through the town for revenge—it was terrifying to imagine.
And then, if you talked to the villagers, you got a two-stage time-spanning nightmare: they'd been parasitized, and ants would come crawling out of their bodies!
There's a queen ant in the underground cemetery, so did the protagonist at the time get eggs laid in them without knowing?!
Aru is traumatized by ants.