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 ti that there might be bad rumors about , I was hurt to so extent and got so 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, so 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 ti 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 ss with !
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 sumr tournant was starting.
For the third-years, this was their retirent. The third-years were totally fired up.
But, there was an exception.
Sahori-senpai: "Ugh, I'm off my ga! Sothing's missing!"
What do you an, "sothing" lol
...It's at tis like this that people start babying him...
Airi-senpai: "Senpai! This is your last tournant, 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 ga.
He even got subbed out during a tiout partway through...
Losing pissed 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 more?!"
He started taking it out on .
"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 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 sothing 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 gas with a focus on defense and endurance, that'd suit them way better, right?
Sohow, 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 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 a lot? No, no! I turned him down! Every ti! ...But, even yesterday, he kept inviting out to hang out or go on dates... Even though he has a girlfriend? It really shocked ..."
Nagase-san said, looking troubled.
Satsuki... No, this isn't sothing I need to worry about.
Nagase-san was rumored to be involved with a second-year student council officer from the sa 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 ... I swear I will never show any more weakness!
Well, right now, I couldn't even imagine falling for a girl anyway.
Sa 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 ti 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!
Sumr 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 ti-spanning nightmare: they'd been parasitized, and ants would co crawling out of their bodies!
There's a queen ant in the underground cetery, so did the protagonist at the ti get eggs laid in them without knowing?!
Aru is traumatized by ants.
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