For the sports festival, since students were split into Red and White teams for competitions, working together with Ichinose’s Class A was crucial.
Luckily, Ichinose’s class, under her leadership, was very cooperative. Hirata, Horikita, and the others discussed strategies with Ichinose and Kanzaki, mainly focusing on selecting the most athletic students from both classes. Proper planning on how to arrange them for each event was just as important.
To get the best rankings and highest scores, they avoided putting two strong athletes in the sa group whenever possible. They also had to gather intel on their opponents. The best strategy was the "Tian Ji horse-racing" thod—using weaker athletes in events against the enemy’s strongest ones, while saving their best athletes for matchups they could actually win.
So over the next month, they not only had to carefully plan out the lineup for each event but also had to keep their strategies a secret from the opposing team.
Of course, none of this was Hikigaya’s concern.
That said, the sports festival had a total of 13 events, 9 of which were team-based. Every student had to participate. Excluding gender-specific events, that ant each student had to compete in at least 8 events. This was a major challenge for everyone’s stamina.
Even Hasebe and Sakura were starting to feel the pressure. They weren’t the athletic type, but nobody wanted to be the one dragging their team down.
This was actually a huge shift in mindset compared to the start of the sester. Back then, a lot of students wouldn’t have cared and would’ve just slacked off. But after two special exams—and especially after Ike’s recent expulsion—everyone was beginning to feel a real sense of urgency.
Turns out, nothing pushes people forward like a crisis.
Among the team events, there was one special competition—the three-legged race.
Normally, students would team up with classmates, but this ti, there was an extra rule: students couldn’t pair up with soone from their own class. In other words, they had to team up with soone from Ichinose’s class, making this event much harder.
Because of that, Hirata, Horikita, Ichinose, and Kanzaki had held multiple etings just to plan for it. In the end, they picked a few strong athletes to form the best possible teams, while the rest of the students were paired randomly. This way, at least so of their teams had a good shot at winning, while the others would just be there to participate.
To account for so students’ preferences, special arrangents were made for the girls—especially those like Sakura, who might not be comfortable pairing up with a boy for a three-legged race.
So after school, the students from both classes who were part of the random selection process gathered to draw lots. Hikigaya, of course, was just going along with it and didn’t really care who his partner would be.
As the students found their assigned partners, the remaining few just needed to check their numbers. Hikigaya glanced at his paper—number 17.
Then, soone lightly tapped him on the back.
"Hikigaya-kun, what number did you get?"
He turned around—only to see Ichinose standing there.
His face showed a hint of surprise. He had assud she would team up with soone like Horikita or Hirata to aim for a high ranking.
"17."
There’s no way... right?
For a brief mont, the dead-fish-eyed boy felt a tiny spark of hope. But he quickly laughed at himself for having such a ridiculous thought.
Sure enough, Ichinose looked disappointed.
Hikigaya kept a straight face, but inside, he felt embarrassed for even having that tiny hope just now.
After all, no matter how you looked at it, Ichinose was undeniably beautiful. No—calling her "beautiful" felt like an understatent. She was practically the perfect embodint of what teenage boys dread about when they thought of love.
Saying he had no thoughts about her would be a complete lie. Even Hikigaya wasn’t immune to that.
But he was also self-aware. He knew so things only existed in dreams—and should stay in dreams.
The line between fantasy and reality was sothing he understood better than anyone.
Was it self-doubt?
Hikigaya wasn’t sure. Maybe.
Or maybe he just appreciated beauty for what it was—nothing more, nothing less.
"Huh? Did I get left out?"
Hikigaya noticed that all the students around him had already found their teams. The few people left, including himself, had also gradually joined their groups.
It seed like he was the only one left now.
"Talk about a lucky break!"
Thinking this, Hikigaya felt a strange kind of excitent, like he had just won the lottery. But at that mont, Ichinose suddenly let out a small giggle.
"Ah, s-sorry, Hikigaya-kun! I didn’t an to laugh... I just wanted to surprise you..."
She tried her best to hold back her laughter while apologizing.
Hikigaya: "..."
Even soone as slow as him could figure out what was going on.
"So, Ichinose... you’re also number 17?"
Hikigaya’s expression darkened.
Ichinose nodded, then lowered her head like a child caught doing sothing wrong.
Hikigaya opened his mouth but didn’t know what to say. This was just too unfair!
"Anyway, let’s get out of here first."
Even though Hikigaya didn’t care much about other people’s stares, that didn’t an he wanted to endure this awkward situation.
So, under the envious and jealous gazes of the surrounding students, Hikigaya and Ichinose left.
As they walked along the school path, Hikigaya couldn’t help but speak up.
"Hey, Ichinose... how about finding soone else instead?"
"Huh? Why?"
Ichinose looked puzzled. "Do you really hate that much?"
"Uh... no, it’s not that. I just think—"
Before Hikigaya could finish, Ichinose interrupted him.
"If you don’t hate , then why don’t you want to team up with ? I knew it... You say you don’t dislike , but deep down, you actually find annoying."
As she spoke, she lowered her head, sounding dejected.
Hikigaya knew perfectly well that Ichinose was doing this on purpose to shut him up, but he didn’t call her out on it. Instead, he just let out a small sigh.
"If I really disliked soone, I wouldn’t bother talking to them this much in the first place."
Ichinose lifted her head and blinked. Then, as if realizing sothing, her face grew slightly warm.
"I just think that instead of ’Hikigaya Hachiman,’ you probably have much better options."
Hikigaya said with a hint of self-mockery.
"And you don’t need to rush to argue, because that’s just the truth."
"Yeah... that is the truth."
Ichinose’s expression beca complicated, and for so reason, she felt a slight sting in her heart.
"But... have you ever considered my truth?"
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