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Chapter 108 – True
[The winner of the relay is the going-home club!]
The broadcaster’s words were pleasant to my ears.
That lifted my mood by a ton.
“We won!! We actually won!! We’re number one!”
Arina dashed toward us with outstretched arms. Her hair and uniform were messy, but she didn’t seem to care about it as she showed us a dazzling smile.
It was that, huh? A hug?
I was still out of breath, but I managed to muster all my strength to stand up and opened my arms to receive her. This was just like the movies I often watched. Thinking that, my heart started to beat faster.
On my back, Masao was screaming like a madman while Takazo was pedaling his bike in a circle. Everyone was doing their own thing to express their joy. Well, me too, this hot embrace I was about to do with Arina would be the way to express my joy.
Eh?
She passed by me without even taking a glance at me. When I turned around, she was embracing Rion while spinning around. I see, so that was how it is. No one was there to ease my loneliness, so I decided to embrace the air around me. The warmth brought by the embrace of the oxygen felt great.
Anyway, we had to play it a little bit dirty, but a win was a win. If there was anyone who dared to complain about it, I’d make them drunk in Arifana again before sending Masao to stomp on them.
“Why do you look so down? We won the thing, you know?”
Said Arina as she poked. She seemed to be in a very good mood.
“It’s called self-control. If I let my guard down even a little, my little brother down there will leak some nasty fluid out.”
“Your legs are wobbling, are you okay?”
“I’m okay, I just need to go to the toilet.”
I said that, but I actually felt really elated.
Too bad, they cut our celebration short and kicked us out of the area because the second round was about to begin.
Honestly, I wanted to tell the whole world that we, of the going-home club, would be the one who rule the world, but Makoto, one of the members of the loser club, the badminton club, stopped me from doing it. He did it pretty roughly too. I mean, I knew that trying to seduce the broadcaster to take over their mic wasn’t an okay thing to do, but c’mon.
“VEEEEE! (This is a cry of victory)”
The moment I exited the area, I howled like an animal.
My voice blended into the blue sky as my mind started playing flashbacks of past scenes that led to this very moment. From the member selection, the six of us practicing under the blessing of the twilight, the arguments between Takazo and Rion, Masao’s focused look when he was reading a pastry book, Eiji playing around with his mouse on a desk and Arina randomly dozing off.
The time of us being together felt like a fleeting moment but at the same time, it was so fulfilling. We did our best for today’s relay.
And our hard work paid off.
“Well, it’s an undeniable fact that we won and you all can celebrate it all you want, but please, don’t go overboard.”
“I don’t want to hear that from a guy who was circling around Masao like a weirdo.”
Still, his antics couldn’t beat Rion’s.
“Arina! This way we can be school idols!”
“Wait, Rion, firstly, take a deep breath
”
“This is our time to shine, Arina! We’re number one, so we’re definitely the most popular girls at school!”
“We? I’m not–”
“This is our chance, Arina!”
Her eyes sparkled as she went closer to Arina.
“C’mon, Arina, show us Arinyan! I beg you!”
“NO! DON’T REMIND ME OF THAT!”
“Arinyan! Arinyan!”
“Ugh
 That’ll be recorded as one of my darkest histories
”
“What’s the matter, Arinyan?”
“Stop that, Sui-nyan— AAAHHH I DIDN’T MEAN TO SAY THAT!”
Her face went red before she crouched down. Why was this girl so cute? I felt like tomato juice would come out of my nose at any moment.
Then, I returned the mouse I’ve been holding on to Eiji. When he received it, he asked me how many people had I killed with it. In other words, his FPS syndrome returned. Seeing this made me feel sad though, after all, I doubt that we would be meeting each other as often again. I guess I should start watching his streams, huh? I hope that you’ll have a good life, pro gamer.
Meanwhile, Masao was suffering from the side effects of the mango he consumed. He had been mumbling ‘Heaven
 I’m in heaven
’ repeatedly for a while now. This seemed bad. (T/N: That’s probably a lyric to Cheek to Cheek by Fred Astaire. Might be tripping, but the author knows his western songs, so who knows.)
In any case, the going-home club won, there wasn’t a better conclusion than that.
But this also meant that our group would be disbanded. I could feel a tinge of loneliness creeping slowly in my heart. Arina’s reaction was more direct as she showed her concerns in her face.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing
 It’s just, this would be the last time we’ll be gathering together like this
 I just feel a bit sad about it
”
“Right
 I feel you.”
But still, as the members of the going-home club, we shouldn’t show our weakness like this. Losing friends along the way was common for us, after all. Honestly, I lost count of how many members of the going-home club that fell in battle.
Besides, meeting and parting with someone was a part of the cycle of life, we couldn’t do anything about it.
“I
 I had a great time
”
“Oh, Masao, welcome back. How was heaven?”
“U-Um
 A-Anyway, thanks to you, Sui-kun, I’m starting to feel a little more confident about myself. I’m really glad that I got to know you guys.”
“Likewise. You guys actually stuck around with a weirdo like me, you guys are amazing. I’ll never forget you guys.”
When I said that line, Rion started to tear up.
“Oi, oi, Rion, stop that. Save your tears when someone finally confesses their feelings to you.”
“Oh shut it! Let me have my moment!”
“What a troublesome girl. Takazo, say something to her.”
“Please stop crying. You don’t want the ground to turn into a marsh, do you?”
“This is why no one likes you, Skinny Takazo!”
*   *   *
We had fun, but we didn’t manage to win the overall game.
That couldn’t be helped, but at least this sports festival was the most fun out of all the sports festivals I ever had. That was why I could accept this outcome with no regrets. If I had the chance to write an autobiography, I would write this war as a ‘holy war’ and hoped that it could be a lesson to all the young seeds of the going-home club members out there.
By the time that happened, machine translations would be developed even further and every member of the going-home club from every corner of the earth could read it.
Fast forward to a few days after the sports festival.
Because the festival burned me out, I had been spending my life in idleness.
I knew that I was in my third-year already, but I couldn’t help it, okay? I spent my time lazing around to the point that all the jobless people who would have come across me would treat me like a comrade-in-arms. Such was the darkness of humanity that I swore to fight against.
“Someone looks really free these days, huh?”
Said Arina while slumping over her desk.
She looked like a puppet that had just lost its strings.
“You should look at yourself in the mirror.”
“My case is different, I’m just enjoying my life here.”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing.”
“You’re just lazy.”
I mean, true, I guess.
Thinking back, they said that I wasn’t exactly a well-behaved guy. My dad said that back when I was still in my mom’s womb, I kept kicking her stomach like a madman. I was a delinquent even back then, huh?
By now, I was used to the bloody fights at the cafeteria, so it was easy for me to get what I wanted. Well, mostly because the first-years were still hesitating to join in and I had been flaunting my status as a senior. But, my reign was coming to an end quickly as the more experienced girls had been teaching the first-years on how to beat me. My sides had been aching lately because they kept hitting them with their elbows.
Well, I wonder how things will go this time? I rolled up my sleeves before approaching the cafeteria.
“Are you here to sexually harrass the girls again?”
Suddenly, Arina appeared in between me and the crowd of girls.
“No. I’m fighting for the bread.”
“You sure you aren’t here to cop a feel here and there?”
“I’m good, I have Ugin at home.”
“You’re the worst.”
“Well, why are you here, anyway? Trying to stop me from getting my bread? I’m going to tell you that I won’t hold back even if it’s you.”
“No, I need to talk to you. It won’t take long.”
After that she walked toward the stairs. Since I couldn’t just ignore her, I followed her in reluctance.
I could hear her footsteps echoing from above. It seemed that she was going to the highest floor.
The highest floor was pretty much a dead end because they locked the door to the rooftop. She was currently sitting on the step in front of that door. I walked up to her while covering part of my eyes with my hands to prevent myself from seeing her panties.
“Why are you doing that? It’s embarrassing
”
“I’m just trying to be true to my nature as a gentleman.”
Since I didn’t have the courage to sit beside her, I leaned my back against the wall next to her instead.
“So, what’s up?”
She didn’t turn her head to face me, instead she gazed at the distance before opening her mouth.
“I still can’t remember anything about you.”
I knew that already. After all, whenever we talked, she never brought up the things that we did back in the past.
“Don’t worry about it much. It’s fine.”
“I’ve been trying
 I kept going over my notes and our text history
 But it’s still not working
”
“That sounds creepy out of context.”
“Shut it. In any case, I want to confirm something.”
“Yes?”
“Do I like you?”
Straight to the point, wow.
The way she said it felt like she was talking about someone else’s problem. Now that I think about it, was this her way of indirectly confessing her love to me? No way, right?
“Why is your face so red?”
“Because my blood is red
”
“Forget about that, can you answer my question?”
“I told you over and over that I don’t know. Only your past self knows what you felt about me, I know jack about it. You should stop minding it, you know? Just forget about it.”
“Then, what about you? Didn’t you confess your feelings to me back then?”
Huh?
“HUH?? W-w-w-w-what are you—”
“It was back when I called you over on the day before Shirona’s confession to you. You said that you liked me. You remember that, don’t you?”
Come to think of it, that happened, huh? I sealed that memory deep inside my mind already.
“Well, I remember it, but it was a spur of the moment thing, you know?”
“I don’t care.”
What do you mean, you don’t care?
“I feel bad for you
 If you really like me, then this situation is just too cruel for you
”
“That’s none of your business, isn’t it? You don’t know how I truly feel about this situation, don’t assume things on your own like that.”
“I’m sorry, I’m just worried about you
 Not in that way, but still
”
“I know, I know. Still you don’t need to worry about me, baby.”
If we were to go down the stairs together, people would start strange rumors about us again, so I decided to go first.
After this conversation, I reached a conclusion. Arina’s rehabilitation was over. There wasn’t anything I could do for her.
Whether this whole situation was cruel for me or not, she didn’t need to concern herself with it as she wasn’t guilty of anything.
Besides, she had no right to decide whether this situation was cruel for me or not.
After all, she didn’t even understand anything that was going on.
Besides, she most likely did this out of pity for me and I disliked being pitied.