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Although there were no classes and by extension, no homeroom, our class still had to gather for a brief meeting. Yagisawa-sensei left us a note on the blackboard, telling us to go to a specified location within the school grounds at 9am.

She drew us a rough map, but it was too vague for us to see. Well, every group would be wearing different color headbands, so we only needed to group up with other people with blue headbands.

“Alright, I’m going to get changed, wait for me in front of the gym, okay? We’ll go to the field together,”

“Mm. So we’re in the same group this time.”

“Yes.”

I parted ways with Umi, who went to the girl’s locker room, and went to the classroom. I quickly changed into my P.E. uniform there. Actually, wearing the uniform wasn’t mandatory. In fact, I’ve seen other students wearing soccer team jerseys or shirts from famous sports brands.

As I was leaving the room with a blue headband, I almost bumped into a girl who was about to enter.

“Whoops, sorry.”

“…What, it’s you, huh, Maehara? You look as dull as always.”

“You seem like you’re in a bad mood, Arae-san.”

“…Leave me alone.”

The girl with bright colored hair that seemed out of place in this school was Arae-san. Normally, she’d be together with her cronies, but it seemed like she was by herself today. Moreover, her clothes seemed ragged and her face was filled with sweat.

“…What? Is there something on my face?”

“No… I’m just curious why do you look so tired?”

“…I had morning practice with Houjou and Nitori. What? You got a problem with that?”

“No. It’s just surprising to see you work this hard.”

“They forced me to, that’s why–”

“Good morning, Nagisa-chan! I missed you!”

Just as Arae-san was about to make an excuse, someone hugged her from behind.

“A-Amami?! Jeez, I told you to stop hugging me like that! It’s hot!”

“Hehe, sorry, Nagisa-chan, I missed you so much, so I did it without thinking~ Also, good morning, Maki-kun!”

“Morning, Amami-san.”

“Mm!”

Amami-san greeted me with her usual cheeriness. She had already changed into her P.E. uniform. She rolled her sleeves up to the base of her arm. There was a blue headband on her head.

Whatever she wore always looked good on her. I noticed a few boys were staring from afar.

“It’s great that you weren’t late today, Nagisa-chan! I’m glad I called you earlier~”

“D-Dum– Ahem, don’t say anything unnecessary, Amami. Of course I wouldn’t be late.”

“…Hm?”

Seeing Arae-san looking all embarrassed made me realize something.

Practicing with Nitori-san and Houjou-san should be true. They were still on their summer vacation, so they were probably playing a game or two to warm up before their summer practice.

When that was over, Arae-san probably went back home immediately and only realized that she had to come to school after Amami-san called her.

And so, she came here in a hurry.

That was why she looked so ragged and worn out. She probably ran here.

“…W-What? Look, it isn’t my fault, okay? Blame the school for making us practice in the middle of summer vacation!”

“…I didn’t say anything, though?”

“Ah jeez, whatever, go away already! I want to change!”

Arae-san glared at me, trying to hide her embarrassment. Then, she went to her seat, grabbing the headband from her table and quickly headed to the gym to change.

She was either in a hurry or was surprisingly clumsy. Either way, she somehow spilled the contents of her bag when she was walking. There was makeup and deodorant scattered on the floor and she picked them up in a hurry.

“Hehe, Nagisa-chan is cute, huh? By the way, Umi isn’t with you, Maki-kun?”

“She went ahead. We’re going to meet up in front of the gym.”

“Ninacchi will probably be there too… The meeting with the backboard group is over so I’ll go with you.”

That was why we didn’t come to school with Amami-san earlier.

While the rest of the students started returning to school today, the student council, the cheerleading squads and the backboard group had started their activities earlier this month. They had to come to school earlier than us too.

Since our school’s sports festival would only be held every other year, for the second year, this would be our last sports festival, so it would be a given that some of us were working hard to make sure the festival ran smoothly. Nozomu should be among those guys.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, let’s go, Maki-kun.”

“Mm.”

After waiting for Amami-san, who was grabbing her stuff, we left the classroom together.

Since we had nothing to talk about, we were just walking while aimlessly looking at the courtyard. Suddenly, Amami-san giggled.

“Hm? What’s up?”

“Ah, nothing. It’s just, you look way more relaxed now compared to back when you were a first year, Maki-kun.”

“Ah… Well, back then I always paid attention to other people’s eyes because I didn’t want to be conspicuous. Looking back, I was really self-conscious, huh?”

That wasn’t limited to school, I also did that when I was walking by myself on the street. I knew that I looked different from people around me, so I tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. I didn’t want other people to look at me strangely and laugh at me behind my back.

However, after I got to know Umi, I became close with the center of the class. As a result of that, I became used to being in the center of attention.

Umi’s good looks were a known fact and Amami-san was the prettiest girl at school. If I wanted to get along with them, I had to get used to being the center of attention whether I liked it or not.

“I like you the way you are right now, Maki-kun. You treat girls other than Umi in a rather flat manner, so I can rest easy around you.”

“…I knew it, you also have a hard time trying to get along with other people don’t you, Amami-san?”

“Yeah~ I can be at ease with people like Umi, Ninacchi and Nagisa-chan, but with the others, I always wondered what kind of things I could say to them, how to make the atmosphere not awkward and such. I’m doing my best, but it’s still hard to figure them out, you know?”

She was kind enough to not mention it explicitly, but I knew that she was talking about communicating with boys.

I mean, even Nozomu, who got along with her relatively well, always seemed nervous whenever he was alone with her.

I understood how the boy felt though. They didn’t want to offend her somehow and became public enemies at school.

However, from Amami-san’s perspective, she had to deal with that kind of thing from her conversation partner whenever she wanted to have small talk or working on an errand, it was no wonder that she’d feel bothered about it.

Amami-san just wanted to be treated normally, after all.

“That’s why, I’m glad that Maki-kun is like this. He’s always blunt with everyone except Umi. People in our class always had one thing or two to say about you, but for me you’re one of the few people I can talk to as a normal friend.”

“Friend, huh? …Yeah, you’re my friend.”

In the beginning, our relationship was merely ‘friend of a friend’ and nothing more. But, gradually, after the things we had been through together, we finally became ‘friends’ in every sense of word.

For the others, she might be the school idol, but from the perspective of our group, she was merely a sloppy girl who hated to study and was always oversleeping. To us, Amami Yuu was an ordinary girl you could find anywhere.

“Well, thank Umi for that. Whenever she’s around, I can’t look anywhere else after all.”

“Hehe. For you she’s your everything, huh, Maki-kun?”

Unlike Nozomu and the other boys who were still betting on a chance to be lovers with Amami-san, I’d only set my eyes on Umi. No matter what happened, the position of my ‘lover’ would only be reserved for Umi and no one else. That was why I could talk to Amami-san without much concern.

And that was also why she felt at ease around me. Well, of course that was also the reason why Umi got jealous the other day, so I should try to be more careful around her.

“Hehe, sorry for bringing up something so gloomy out of the blue, but I feel much better after letting it out… Thank you, Maki-kun.”

“Is that so? I’m glad to be of help then.”

“Mhm.”

Amami-san’s smile, under the bright morning sun that shone on her golden hair, looked heavenly to me. But at the same same time, it felt too bright to me.