"You can't exactly eat hotpot and sing songs in the audience. At most, you can sneak a few snacks," gumi Kato said with a soft chuckle as she sat down.
"Singing doesn't matter, I just really want hotpot. Let's go have so next ti we're on break," Kotomi Izumi grinned as she leaned her little head over.
gumi reached out and gently stroked Kotomi's hair, her eyes full of boundless affection.
"You scared yesterday when you suddenly fainted. You shouldn't have co today—you need to stay ho and rest properly."
"Don't worry, I'm not so frail, cloistered young lady from ancient tis. I'm already fully recovered! Both ntally and physically," Kotomi said with a cheeky smile.
"Really? You've fully recovered physically too?" gumi asked sweetly, her tone casual, as her other hand lightly stroked Kotomi's thigh.
"...I suddenly feel like maybe I haven't fully recovered," Kotomi imdiately corrected herself after catching on.
It wasn't that she feared gumi's advances—on the contrary, this was a tactical retreat. By appearing weak, she could draw out even more aggressive attention from gumi.
Kotomi particularly enjoyed being handled assertively by her lover. However, gumi always treated her with such gentle affection that she couldn't bear to be rough with Kotomi. As a result, Kotomi had to rack her brains, constantly scheming ways to tempt gumi—to make her lose control and unleash her inner sadist.
What Kotomi was really hoping for was for gumi to suddenly grab her wrist tightly, flash a predatory smile, and say: "Whether you've recovered or not, tonight I want to hear your sweetest screams. Otherwise... I'll give you the harshest punishnt!"
"Still not fully recovered? I knew it. You really overdid it running that 800 ters yesterday. Even if you wanted to co in first, you only needed to stay just ahead of the others. Sprinting so fast all of a sudden—it's no wonder you twisted your ankle and fainted. How about I talk to Hiratsuka-sensei? When the sports festival starts, we'll skip the field and go to the nurse's office instead. Don't worry, you won't be lonely—I'll stay with you the whole ti."
gumi's concern was motherly, filled with warmth and love.
"No, no, that's okay. I still want to watch the other events at the sports festival," Kotomi quickly shook her head, then pointed to the pile of snacks on the table. "Let's grab so bags later and pack up these snacks our classmates gave us. We can bring them to the field and munch while we watch."
"Just don't eat too much, or you'll spoil your lunch."
"Trust in my appetite."
As Kotomi and gumi were chatting, Yukino Yukinoshita, Yui Yuigahama, and Mashiro Shiina arrived.
"Kotomi!"
"Hug ti!"
Yui and Mashiro rushed over one after the other and bear-hugged Kotomi.
Mashiro, in particular, clung to Kotomi tightly, and even lifted her head to shoot a proud glance at gumi.
Right in front of gumi, Mashiro was practically glued to Kotomi.
Seeing this, the smile on gumi's face deepened considerably.
Unlike Yui and Mashiro, who ran into the classroom and pounced on Kotomi, Yukino's concern was like spring water trickling through lting snow—still cool, but softer now than the icy cold from before.
"You really... had us worried yesterday," Yukino said calmly. Her cool tone couldn't hide the genuine concern embedded within.
"Sorry for making you all worry. It won't happen again. Even if Hiratsuka-sensei gets on her knees and begs , I won't sign up for the sports festival next ti."
As Kotomi spoke, she tightly hugged Yui and Mashiro in return.
After morning self-study ended, so students left the classroom early—these were the ones scheduled to compete in today's events, heading off to the locker room to change.
Kotomi no longer had any events, and she had already returned her number tag to Shizuka Hiratsuka. Today, she would head to the field together with gumi Kato and the others.
As for the athletic uniforms, those were the responsibility of the participating students. The ones handed out for the sports festival were slightly different in design from the standard gym uniforms issued with the regular school uniforms at the start of the sester.
They served as nice souvenirs.
In the classroom, Kotomi didn't sit idle. Together with Yukino and the others, she used several small bags to sort and pack the snacks and fruits her classmates had gifted her.
These were tokens of care from her classmates—if she didn't eat them, wouldn't that be a waste of their goodwill?
So, Kotomi decided—she would eat them all!
Not because she was greedy, of course. Just because she didn't want to let her classmates down!
"Today's snacks for watching the events are on . Everyone, help yourselves—don't be shy around your dear Kotomi!"
With a flourish of her tiny hand, Kotomi looked every bit the gracious host. Anyone watching might think she had bought all of it herself to treat Yukino and the others.
"Kotomi, ah~" Mashiro Shiina held a small cream cake in her hand and offered it to Kotomi.
Kotomi lowered her head slightly and opened her mouth, accepting the bite Mashiro fed her.
The little cream cake tasted pretty good, though the cream was a bit excessive—any more might have made it cloying.
Compared to this, the desserts from the Dango Cake Shop were still more to Kotomi's taste.
During their days in Kyoto, Mashiro had grown fond of feeding Kotomi and had only gotten more adept at it.
gumi saw all of this, and the displeasure in her heart grew. She had a nagging feeling that sothing had happened between Mashiro and Kotomi during those three days in Kyoto, but she had no evidence.
When they arrived at their class's designated area on the field, gumi and Mashiro—due to their prior agreent of a "temporary truce"—did not openly or covertly fight over the seat beside Kotomi. Instead, they let Kotomi sit in the middle, with each of them on one side: gumi on the left, Mashiro on the right.
Thanks to the so-called "temporary truce," the atmosphere was a little more peaceful—at least, it didn't feel like a battlefield about to erupt.
However, once today's sports festival ended, the truce between gumi and Mashiro would likely shatter completely, returning things to their usual head-to-head tension.
"Kotomi, if you're tired, you can lean on my shoulder," Mashiro said as soon as she sat down to Kotomi's right, firing the first shot.
"Kotomi's not so fragile, you know. Kotomi, are you thirsty? I'll give you a drink," gumi replied with a sweet smile, but there was a definite assertiveness in her tone.
How exactly will she feed water…? That was Kotomi's first thought?!
She glanced left at gumi, then right at Mashiro—and made her choice.
She closed her eyes and leaned to the left, resting her head on gumi's shoulder as if she were about to doze off.
Before gumi could bask in her victory and flaunt it to Mashiro, Kotomi's little head tilted to the right—now leaning on Mashiro's shoulder.
She rested there for twenty minutes, then naturally leaned back onto gumi's shoulder.
Twenty minutes later, she moved back to Mashiro's.
Switching sides every twenty minutes, Kotomi made sure neither gumi nor Mashiro was left out. Pretending to rest with her eyes closed, she quietly thought to herself—
I really am too clever!
And so, Kotomi spent the entire morning leaning on gumi Kato's shoulder for a while, then on Mashiro Shiina's—swaying left and right between them.
As for the events themselves?
Kotomi didn't watch them. Just maintaining balance between gumi and Mashiro was thrilling enough. She had no ntal space left to focus on competitions. In fact, she almost regretted not signing up for more events. At least if she were up on the field, she wouldn't be caught in this emotional battlefield.
Why couldn't I control myself in Kyoto?! Kotomi thought gloomily. She had taken the initiative to kiss Mashiro there—and not just once. Even though it was mostly due to the side effects of her Queen of All Females constitution, she couldn't very well explain that. No one would believe it anyway, so what was the point?
Now Mashiro was already treating her like a full-fledged girlfriend. Otherwise, why would she be constantly clashing with gumi over Kotomi?
Wait a minute... didn't Mashiro already act jealous around gumi even before Kyoto? Kotomi recalled quietly. It was impossible not to worry. Being flanked left and right might look like a dream, but for the one in the middle, it was a constant balancing act!
Do I like Mashiro? Yes.
When it ca to her feelings, Kotomi was honest. If she liked soone, she admitted it. If she didn't, she'd make that clear too. She was passionate, but never indiscriminate.
Faced with a girl she didn't like—no matter how beautiful—Kotomi would find a way to turn her down. She'd never leave soone hanging or lead them on.
And if she liked soone, even if she already had a girlfriend, her heart would still waver. She would go after them.
Kotomi had a certain confidence—that no matter how many girlfriends she had, she would treat each one wholeheartedly.
But she still owed Mashiro a proper confession. The kisses in Kyoto had been partly influenced by that mysterious constitution. If she truly wanted Mashiro to be her girlfriend, then she had to give her a formal confession.
But how exactly should she do it? When she and gumi got together, it had been gumi who confessed first.
As she leaned on gumi's shoulder, Kotomi was deep in thought, planning how to confess her feelings to Mashiro.
"What are you thinking about?" gumi asked softly. Her attention had never strayed from Kotomi. She had just finished peeling an orange, even removing the white pith from each segnt, and brought a slice to Kotomi's lips.
Kotomi opened her mouth slightly and accepted the orange slice. Oranges with the white strings removed were the best—sweet and smooth. After finishing, she finally replied to gumi:
"I was thinking about you."
gumi didn't say anything in response, but the happiness in her smile deepened. She continued peeling off the pith and feeding Kotomi.
Twenty minutes passed.
Kotomi had just finished the last orange slice when she tilted to the right—leaning onto Mashiro Shiina's shoulder.
"Kotomi, what were you talking about with gumi just now?"
Mashiro looked like she was sketching in her notebook, but her eyes had never left Kotomi. Otherwise, how else could she spend half the morning scribbling and only end up with a page of circles and lines?
"I was thinking about you."
Kotomi believed that one of her best traits since childhood was—honesty!
Upon hearing that, Mashiro tossed both her pencil and sketchbook to the ground and hugged Kotomi's arm tightly.
The morning session of the sports festival had ended. Though there were still two events in the afternoon—a short-distance sprint and a high jump—after that, it would be ti for the awards ceremony.
"I ran so fiercely yesterday—think the school will give a gold dal?"
On the way back to class after grabbing lunch from the school store, Kotomi asked Yukino Yukinoshita.
Like yesterday, just before the morning events ended, Kotomi had excused herself early with Shizuka Hiratsuka and snuck off to buy lunch. And just like yesterday, Yukino had co along with her.
"There might not be a gold dal, but it will count toward your school credits. Don't worry about your term grade," Yukino Yukinoshita replied.
"Eh... Not even a gold dal?" Kotomi's mouth dropped open slightly, and her resolve to never participate in another sports festival only grew stronger.
"Once the sports festival wraps up this afternoon, the next big event is the cultural festival. I forgot to ntion it earlier while we were relaxing on the field—Momoka-senpai gave the key to the second music room this morning. When would be a good ti for us to go practice there?"
"I'm free whenever. How about after school today? The question is—have you decided on the vocalist yet?" Yukino countered.
The ntion of the vocalist made Kotomi's head ache. That was the one role they still hadn't filled. There were quite a few students at Sobu High with nice singing voices, but Kotomi would rather find soone she knew personally than approach strangers from other classes.
Team chemistry was vital in a band. Having a familiar classmate take the vocalist position would make both rehearsals and the final performance smoother.
There were less than two weeks until the cultural festival. Every mont counted. The less ti spent on adapting to each other, the better.
In theory, it all made sense. But there was one small problem...
"I haven't decided yet. Kiyoko Matsumatsu from Class 1-B sings well. I wanted to invite her, but she's already committed to Class 1-B's cultural festival event. She can't join us."
Kotomi rembered playing Apex with Kiyoko—after taking out two opponents, Kiyoko had been so excited that she broke into a rendition of "Ultramarine."
She was slightly off-key in a few places, but overall it still sounded great. Kotomi had been tempted right then to invite her into the band.
"Kiyoko, I'm planning to form a three-person band to perform at the cultural festival, and we're still short a vocalist. Are you interested?"
"Kotomi, you're going to sing on stage at the cultural festival?! Whoa! I don't even care about Apex anymore—I just want to fast-forward to the festival so I can hear you sing! This might be my only chance in all of high school to perform with you!"
"You're probably right."
Kotomi didn't deny it. After all, it had been Shizuka Hiratsuka's wordplay trap that roped her into both the sports festival and the cultural festival.
Next ti, whether it was the sports festival or the cultural festival, she might skip them entirely. If soone wanted to perform with her, this might really be their only chance.
"That's such a sha... I really wanted to perform with you, Kotomi. But last Monday, our class already finalized our cultural festival plans. Everyone signed up to participate, and I did too."
Kiyoko sighed, her disappointnt evident in her voice.
"No worries. If you don't mind asking—what's Class 1-B doing for the cultural festival?"
"It's kind of weird. Almost everyone in our class had their phones confiscated by the guidance director—super sketchy! So when we held the eting last Monday to decide our project, our class rep slamd the table and said: 'Everyone! If this continues, even the landlord's family won't be able to afford secret phones anymore! Let's sell snacks at the cultural festival and earn so money to buy new phones. I'll go ask the school store manager for sponsorship!'"
After discussing it, the whole class agreed to set up a grilled sausage stall. Luckily, the school store had a spare sausage grill, and the owner agreed to lend it to them. All they needed was to buy a box of sausages.
"Kiyoko... your phone..."
"Sigh... I've already had three phones confiscated by the guidance director," Kiyoko groaned. Most of her saved-up allowance had gone into buying new ones.
Kotomi was a bit disappointed that she couldn't recruit Kiyoko into the band, but she'd have to keep searching for other classmates with good singing voices.
"Yukino, do you know any classmates who sing well?" Kotomi asked.
Yukino shook her head. Her only friends at school were Kotomi and the others.
My sister sings pretty well… but forget it. Even if I asked, she wouldn't co. Lately, she's been promoted to editor-in-charge for a popular light novel. She's constantly swamped. Yukino thought to herself.
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