Episode 8: A Gaze of Hatred
The fourth period for First Year, Class C, was physical education. The 50-meter dash.
Using the straight part of the track on the school grounds, they were currently measuring times separately for boys and girls.
From the boys’ side, you could hear things like, “I’m faster,” “I’m not even serious yet,” and “I’m hungry.” On the girls’ side across the track, there were noticeable groups chatting and giggling.
It was hardly the attitude of students during class, but thanks to the teacher in charge’s leniency, which could also be seen as indifference, it was a good way for the students to let off steam during a day of taking notes in the classroom.
“……Haaah――”
Among them, Kamijou Yuuto, having finished his time measurement, let out a long, heavy sigh while gazing at the pure white clouds flowing in the blue sky.
Yesterday after school, he had finally become lovers with Ichinose Ayano, whom he had liked since he was old enough to know, after a period of estrangement during middle school.
It could be said that he was at the peak of happiness in his mid-teen life.
–It could be said, but the hardships were equal.
Before the morning assembly, he had said something that seemed like showing off to Ayano’s friend, Mizuhara Kaori, drawing the attention of the entire class, but it was his true feelings, and he had no intention of hiding his relationship with Ayano, so he had no regrets.
However, ‘Ichinose Ayano’ was more famous in the school than Yuuto or Ayano herself thought.
By the first break, the story had reached the neighboring classes, and by the end of the third period, rumor-loving people had probably used messaging apps during class, spreading it to all the first-year classes.
It was already widely known that ‘the beautiful girl Ichinose Ayano rejected Mikado Kouki’s confession and is dating her ordinary childhood friend, Kamijou Yuuto.’
As a result, he was exposed to jealous and curious eyes while moving to the schoolyard.
Well, that’s as it may be–.
“On your marks, get set――!”
Immediately after the girls’ starter’s call, the sound of the pistol firing made his lover start running from a crouching start.
He glanced at the breasts of the girl running in the next lane, which were bouncing up and down and left and right, as if casting a curse, and accelerated.
She quickly increased the distance and sprinted towards the goal.
Cutting through the wind, hidden in Ayano’s gym clothes that swayed slightly up and down, was not a soft, firm, maternal abundance–but a stack of fluffy pads.
(I was completely fooled by that…)
There should be a considerable difference between ‘B’ and ‘E’, but the skill to cleverly enhance it was impressive.
Even Yuuto, who knew the situation, didn’t find anything strange about the appearance. No adolescent boy would be able to see through that.
Even if it were to be exposed to those around her, he could confidently say that he would continue to be her boyfriend, so for Yuuto, it would end up being a ‘minor problem,’ but for her, it was a matter of life and death.
Girls apparently have “entanglements” that boys don’t understand.
As her boyfriend, he wanted to help Ayano, but,
“――Ah……”
In Yuuto’s line of sight, Ayano, who had finished running in the late eight-second range, was frequently concerned about her chest.
He was the only one in this place who could sense that something was wrong.
However, as a boy, Yuuto couldn’t rush into the girls’ group, and even if he did, there was nothing he could do in the first place.
Rather, if he worried about it strangely, it would be like exposing it to those around her.
–He was just watching, even though he was causing her unnecessary trouble.
If he hadn’t blurted out those words to hide his embarrassment at that time, if he had been able to apologize immediately, he might have been able to spare her from feeling like this now.
While being driven by remorse, he unconsciously followed Ayano with his eyes, and her friend Mizuhara Kaori noticed that gaze.
Kaori hugged Ayano as if protecting her,
“Hey, Kamijou! Don’t look at your girlfriend with perverted eyes!”
“I wasn’t looking!”
He certainly was looking, but it wasn’t with perverted eyes, so it was a false accusation.
He retorted and escaped into the circle of Akimoto Fuyuki and the others, as if fleeing from the girls’ gazes that said, “Boys are awful.”
“……Do you want to see her so much that you’re trembling?”
Fuyuki asked with a grin, using a phrase that Yuuto recognized.
“I’m not trembling. There were times when I felt so far away from Ayano, though.”
To Fuyuki’s grinning, familiar phrase, Yuuto replied with the following phrase.
“I understand that you’re looking forward to her lunch, but please wait another 20 minutes?”
“That’s not what I mean. Well, I am looking forward to it, though… But 20 minutes is quite long!”
Another friend teased him.
He resigned himself to the fact that being childhood friends and lovers with the most beautiful girl in the grade meant that some teasing was inevitable, and as he was chatting, he suddenly felt a gaze and looked up.
“――?”
Kamijou Yuuto doesn’t have any special ‘power’ like the protagonist of a shonen manga.
He didn’t make eye contact with anyone.
So, it must have been his imagination.
“…………”
However, the fact that the direction of his gaze was the classroom at the left end of the school building–First Year, Class A–made his heart strangely uneasy.
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Afterword
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