After school, Haruya made his preparations and headed to his destination.
The destination was a large park near the shopping mall.
It was where he had a terrible breakup with Nayu recently.
[Don’t pry any further…]
Her cold voice and expression sent shivers down his spine.
(Ah, scary… I’m getting nervous…)
Haruya sat on a bench in the park, waiting for Nayu.
He took out his smartphone to check the message.
Haru: It’s sudden, but I’m waiting at the park where we broke up the other day after school today…
Nayu: I’m not going.
Haru: I’ll be waiting.
Nayu: I don’t care.
Haruya didn’t have high hopes for Nayu showing up based on the tone of her messages.
But, there was still a glimmer of possibility.
Haruya hung onto the hope that Nayu’s response of “not going” rather than “can’t go” might mean something.
The sky remained overcast, and there was no sign of anyone around.
Alone.
This park had become Haruya’s personal space.
Taking a deep breath, Haruya relaxed and began reading manga on e-reader.
Now, it’s a game of endurance from here on!
As the outside gradually grew darker,
Haruya sighed while scanning the area.
(Nayu isn’t coming…)
Haruya kept waiting earnestly, but there was no sign of Nayu’s arrival.
It wasn’t just Nayu; no one seemed to be approaching the park.
Alone.
Haruya stretched leisurely and then looked up at the sky.
(Well, I can still wait… I have plenty of time.)
But maybe Nayu isn’t coming after all…?
Haruya kicked a small stone lying nearby, as if to dispel such anxieties.
The crimson sky had now turned completely dark.
Outside, it was significantly dim, with only streetlights and moonlight providing illumination.
Haruya’s stomach growled repeatedly, and they began to feel the urge to go home.
The chill in the air made it uncomfortable, and hunger started to gnaw.
It was understandable that he wanted to go home.
(Nayu probably won’t show up anyway…)
Should I just go home? Maybe give up for today.
It’s already late. There’s no chance she’ll come.
Well, I did invite her one sidedly. It’s normal for her not to come.
Despite trying to convince himselves, Haruya muttered under their breath.
“I just want Nayu to move forward…”
” That’s what I’m telling you to do.”
Suddenly, a retort came from behind.
Without turning around, Haru knew who it was from the tone of voice.
There was no mistaking that indifferent and cool voice.
“…………”
Slowly turning around, Haru saw the person they had been eagerly waiting for standing there.
“Good evening, Haru-san.”
“W-why…?”
Although Haru had invited her, he is wide-eyed in surprise.
“I’ve been checking on you from time to time. You seemed unwilling to leave, so I felt I had no choice but to come.”
Pushing up their sunglasses, Nayu said.
“To be honest, I didn’t expect you to be so relentless, Haru-san.”
“…You came?”
“Yeah. If I hadn’t, who knows how long you would’ve stayed here…”
Checking the time, Nayu showed a frustrated posture.
“How many hours have you been here?”
“Ah, hahaha…”
“Laughing won’t change anything… I’ve been keeping an eye on you since the beginning.”
“Huh!? …Was that so? But I’m glad you came.”
Thank goodness he didn’t leave halfway.
Haru breathed a sigh of relief.
“…”
Observing Haru’s reaction, Nayu tightly clenched their fist.
“…The reason you called me here is about basketball, right?”
After pausing for a moment, Nayu continued.
“Firstly───”
With that, Nayu thrust out what they were holding.
Upon inspection, there were several servings of food neatly packed in containers.
As Haru’s stomach growled again, Nayu continued.
“Wanna eat?”
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The energy surged within Haru.
His stomach was now satisfied.
They say hunger is the best spice.
“Is it delicious?”
“…(Nods eagerly).”
While vigorously nodding their head, Haru enjoyed the meal.
Bliss.
That was the word to describe it.
“You’re eating so eagerly… It’s embarrassing.”
Nayu scratched their cheek.
Right now, all the food that Haru was putting in their mouth was homemade by Nayu.
Feeling grateful for Nayu’s kindness, Haru continued to savor the food.
(…Ah, Nayu is too kind.)
With a heart full of gratitude for her loving gesture, Haru finished eating.
When they had finished, Nayu’s gaze turned towards them.
“Thank you. Nayu-san, it was delicious.”
“Yeah. If you’re enjoying it that much, bringing it was worth it.”
Haru finished every last bite.
After basking in the afterglow of the meal for a while, Nayu started the conversation.
The atmosphere shifted.
“…Hey, um… I rejected you, right?”
Nayu was referring to their cold behavior at the previous offline meeting.
“…So why don’t you give up?”
“Do you remember when we first met?”
When they established the rule for the offline meeting…
Prompted by Nayu’s silence, Haru continued.
“That rule about not prying into each other’s private lives… Remember the exception?”
Nayu had said something to comfort Haru, who was feeling down at the time.
Haru repeated verbatim what Nayu had said.
“If either of us has a problem we can’t handle, it’s okay to pry into our private lives.”
“…”
She gasped.
Then she let out a small breath.
“Oh… You remembered…”
“Well, technically I remembered, but is Nayu really in the mood for talking about shoujo manga right now?”
“…It’s not like that.”
“It’s exactly like that.”
Haruya, having had a relationship with Nayu that was anything but short, understood this.
He knew whether she was truly enjoying talking about shoujo manga or not.
Just by looking at her expression, he could strangely tell.
And Nayu was probably the same way.
That’s why she tightly sealed her lips.
She realized that lies and pretenses wouldn’t work on a comrade like Haruya…
“I want to talk about shoujo manga with Nayu-san again. So, about what’s been bothering you… I want you to talk to me about basketball.”
Haruya looked gently into her eyes behind her straight sunglasses as he spoke.
“I’ve been indebted to Nayu-san many times. You helped me. So this time, I want you to give me the chance to repay that.”
“…But…”
She trembled as she clenched her fist on her thigh.
If he pushed any further, he might step on her landmine again.
He might touch her wounds, and to be avoided again.
It might become irreparable this time.
Still…
“It’s okay. I want you to trust me and talk to me.”
Haruya pressed on.
It was something he could say because he had decided to face it sincerely after receiving advice from Sara and Kohinata.
He made sure to stay close to her heart and never take his eyes off her.
Nayu let out a light sigh and smiled softly.
“Haa… Honestly… Haru-san is so pushy.”
With that, she resigned herself and began to speak softly.
This is the story of when I was abandoned.
Two years ago from now.
I, who always sought to be the best, was striving and growing together with my club members.
When I first joined, this basketball club was weak, but under my leadership, everyone followed me closely.
Especially Onoi’s presence, which ignited a sense of rivalry in me, was significant.
To go from being a weak team to a strong one, strict training was an absolute necessity.
Not only me, but also Onoi, the mood maker, actively engaged with the club members, leading to a successful reform of our training regimen.
All the painful practices were for the sake of becoming stronger.
Basketball is a team sport.
If only individuals become strong, they will eventually reach their limits.
The entire team must become stronger.
I motivated the club members with my play.
“If you follow me, we can win. So everyone, follow me.”
I pushed forward with that belief.
And indeed, the results I expected followed.
We went from losing in the first round to not losing in practice matches within a short period of time. In official competitions, we became runners-up in the district tournament, reached the top four in the prefectural tournament, and the top eight in the regional tournament.
At this rate, we could reach the national level.
So I ambitiously aimed for it. But things around me started to change.
“When you aim for the nationals, you should practice even harder next time. Everyone!”
When I said that, the response I got was lukewarm.
“Eh, the nationals? We’ve already achieved results at the regional level, isn’t that enough?”
“If the practice gets any harder, I won’t be able to keep up~”
“And, how far are you aiming for the nationals, Takamori? It’s hard to keep up…”
When we weren’t getting results, everyone followed along.
But once we achieved mediocre results, strangely, they seemed satisfied.
They no longer aimed for higher goals.
At first, when they followed me, everyone talked eagerly about aiming for the nationals…
That’s when I first felt the disconnect.
—Huh? Didn’t everyone say they believed in me and would follow me?
Why stop here? There’s no choice but to move forward, right…?
It was a little shocking.
But if I showed them my play, everyone would surely follow me again.
I was desperate.
“Hey, Onoi… If you’re my rival, you’ll follow me, right? Let’s increase our practice and show everyone how strong we’ve become. Together!”
“Eh… Uh… Yeah.”
“Alright, then let’s do some special training.”
If I worked hard with Onoi again, everything would return to normal.
I kept believing in my own path.
If we aimed for the nationals, this wasn’t enough.
We needed to increase our training, engage in special training every day.
Onoi believed in me and followed me.
As expected of my rival.
Of course, I aimed to excel in both studies and sports.
Indeed, I achieved the top score in the class in tests.
With this momentum, in club activities too—!
Surely, when everyone saw how Onoi and I were getting stronger, they would aim for the nationals with us.
—But the results were different. Reality was different.
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