CH 2.10

After a pause, as if wondering whether to say anything or not, she finally opened her mouth.

“During the basketball game on the other day, I thought this way already, but Yamato-kun, you’re surprisingly good at organizing and mobilising people around like this.”

“…Um, I just utilised my experience from the past.” As I answered, I felt a little conflicted.

When Yuzu told me about this, I became aware that I might have been a little too forward just now.

“I guess it’s my shortcoming that I can only do things half-baked.”

Despite not being able to make it to the end, I still delved into it and ended up pushing people around.

“But you look like you were having a blast, you know?” Yuzu said, somewhat teasingly.

“Give me a break. Come on, let’s get to work.” Frowning, I dismissed her words and turned on my heel.

As soon as I gave that remark, suddenly with a snap, Yuzu hugged me from behind.

“H-Hey!” I was totally caught off guard, I didn’t know what to do.

I thought I was going to be teased again, but Yuzu didn’t seem to let go for any length of time; on the contrary, she squeezed her hands around my body harder.

So I regained my composure and asked, “What’s the matter? Anything wrong?”

Even when I turned my head to see her, her forehead was pasted against my back, so I couldn’t see her expression. However, I somehow knew that Yuzu was not acting normal.

“…There is. But I won’t say it.”

A sultry, softly spoken voice resonated directly into my back.

“Is that so?”

I let out a small sigh and relaxed my back, I just let her do what she wanted. She could be stubborn in weird ways, so once she decided she wouldn’t tell me, then she certainly wouldn’t. All I could do was to indulge her like this until she was ready to tell me herself.

“Yamato-kun,” Yuzu called my name in a whisper after a while passed.

“What is it?”

“After the cultural festival, let’s play games together again.”

“What a sudden thing to say. Even if you don’t tell me, I’d do that with you.” I gave the obvious answer to the invitation, which seemed out of the blue.

“We’ll play again in the literature clubroom, just the two of us. Promise?”

“Okay.” I had no idea what Yuzu’s intentions were, but I nodded my head in agreement.

And then, as if satisfied with that, Yuzu moved away from me.

“…Hm! I’m up and alive again!”

As soon as she said that, Yuzu showed her usual bright smile.

“Is that enough?”

Just in case, I stared at Yuzu’s face to make sure she wasn’t straining herself, and for some reason she just smiled.

“What? Are you sad that I pulled away?”

“Are you an idiot?”

Darn, I felt so stupid worrying about her.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to bluff, you know? Come here, if Yamato-kun hugs me this time, I’ll be more than happy to comply.” Yuzu opened her arms wide in a welcoming gesture.

“…Then, please check out the costume rental shops. There’s a fair amount of them, so if you can’t find any available one nearby, you can give up.”

“Ah, you reverted to work talk. You’re really not honest, geez.” Yuzu puffed out her cheeks as soon as she saw that I was ignoring her.

“Listen properly, we need to get our asses moving. In the meantime, I’m going to the staff room.”

“Yes, sir. Have a safe trip.”

As Yuzu waved me off with fluttering hand motions, I left the gym.

.

It was a series of negotiations and compromises, along with multiple inquiries and persuasions at work. Despite a few hiccups, we managed to get everything in place just in time before the school closed for the day.

“Thank you very much!” I bobbed my head lightly and left the teachers’ room.

“I’m exhausted…”

I thought I would be able to get it done fairly quickly, but it took longer than expected. After all, when getting outside people involved, communication was not so simple.

“I can’t wait to get home and play my games…”

At times like this, I felt like playing RPGs and levelling up. I’d just turn on some random radio noise and level up my character in the game without thinking about anything—this was how I would relieve stress.

When I told this to Yuzu before, she countered me by saying that she couldn’t understand it at all. Even when I was in the basketball club, I used to practice shooting endlessly when I was stressed out, and it seemed that I was the type of person who kept my mental stability by mindlessly doing routine work.

“Oh, Yamato, good work for today!”

While I was lost in thoughts as I strode down the corridor, Hina walked near me.

“You too. It must have been hard to convince the drama club.”

In response to my praise, Hina flashed a smile.

“It’s nothing. The drama club is aware of what’s going on and it’s been easy for me. It was more difficult for Yamato, wasn’t it? Our advisor is very stubborn.”

I remembered the face of the teacher with whom I had been corresponding with earlier, and I scrunched my face in bitterness.

“Sort of. The fact that an outsider is taking the initiative to change the plan is a bit of a bummer for him. To be honest, I feel off to be in charge of this.”

The teacher didn’t like the idea of an outsider taking the lead in changing the plan when they were trying to promote leadership in the club, so it was very difficult for me to get through to him.

“If I had known he was such a teacher, I would have left it to Sakuraba or Hina to persuade him.”

“That must be tough,” she said with a wry smile.

“Indeed. I’ll leave it to you next time we have an incident like that.”

“No-no, rather than that, Yamato could just join the basketball team,” Hina amusingly suggested.

I had a scowl on my face.

“There’s no way that’ll be happening, I told you. You’re always trying to recruit at every chance you get, aren’t you?”

“That’s right. The more members we have, the more money we can spend, the easier it is for us to do our job, and we are always happy to welcome new members. You can even be a ghost member if you want.”

“Isn’t it all about increasing the club’s budget? Hey!”

When I stared at her, she giggled in a silly way.

“I’m kidding. You have your beloved girlfriend, right? If you have time to play basketball, you want to be with Nanamine-san instead, right?”

“Ugh… Well, whatever you want to make of it.”

It was an unpleasant misunderstanding, but as we called ourselves a couple, I couldn’t deny it here. I let out a deep sigh and accepted the misunderstanding that I brought upon myself.

chocolala: Aw, Yuzu misses their alone time just chilling out playing games, and we’ll finally conclude this long chapter next week!