12 Chapter one, 2016, school start: 8 (2/2)

'Nicely done! Even I can see how you got them fooled.'

A Ryu-kun alone with the goalkeeper was too much even for defenders concentrating on Watabe the older, and they turned and ran for him. Seemingly scared of the attention Ryu-kun kicked the ball into nowhere.

'Oh, my bad, maybe not nowhere after all,' Kyoko thought when she saw where the ball was going.

The older Watabe had already made a run for it. At top speed he met the rolling ball, picked it up with his left foot, rounded the goalkeeper and lazily rolled the ball into the net.

”And that is called paying attention to the game,” Kuri-chan said.

”If he's that good, why isn't he invited to the team?”

”Has to join the club first, but even then. Seniors don't like him too much.”

”Eh, why not?”

”Seniors' girlfriends like him too much.”

That was Kuri-chan for you. She was right of course, but you really, really didn't say those things aloud. Around them girls turned their heads and blushed. 'If you could at least keep your voice down! Half of them are the girlfriends you just spoke about.'

”Hey, kendo club finished already?”

Kyoko turned to see what Kuri-chan was looking at. Oh! ”No, those two just happen to come from the gym.”

The two friends Kyoko watched earlier had apparently washed off their sweat outdoors, because their hair were dripping water. The taller of them walked with a strange hunchbacked posture, far from how he had looked in the gym hall. Beside him his shorter companion looked outright striking.

'Strange, I could have sworn the big guy was the most handsome.'

”Cute shorty. Your type, Kyoko?”

”Eh, not really. I preferred the tall one. Earlier at least.”

Kuri-chan gave her a strange look. ”Preferred? Earlier?”

”He looked good in the gym,” Kyoko tried weakly. That didn't come out right.

”You got strange taste in men. Isn't he the geek from 6:1?”

Kyoko stared at Kuri-chan. ”You know him?”

”I try to keep track of anyone who stands out. Part of the job being me.”

Part of the job… In the world of Ageruman Kuritina that probably made sense. Kyoko was suddenly reminded of how her Kuri-chan only existed for a few of them. To most she was an object of admiration, desire and resentment. It was all too easy to forget that, and Kuri-chan probably couldn't afford doing so.

”6:1, you say. Come Monday they'll take the field during lunch break. They have PE before us,” Kyoko noted in what she hoped sounded like an offhanded way.

”I know. You should take a better look at the shorty. He's more your type.”

'And you're not supposed to say that. Like I can't decide on my own, or like someone is out of my reach. If I didn't know you so well I'd be hurt.' But Kuri-chan almost never meant anything bad. She just spoke what she thought, and sometimes she didn't even bother with the thinking.

Behind them the training match had ended, and the players were already on their way to the girls. Of them Kuri-chan and Kyoko were probably the only ones who looked in the other direction, at the two companions locked in friendly banter and outrageous laughter. As for the rest of the girls, well Ryu-kun had already started sharing his experience from the game with them.

Maybe not all of them. From the corner of her eye Kyoko saw Noriko-chan staring after the vanishing companions.

'How long have you been looking at them? Blushing? I thought you weren't interested in guys.' And it had to be those two. Kyoko turned her head and looked more closely at Noriko-chan. 'You're way too short for me to stand in your shadow. Kuri-chan can have your brother for all I care, but I get to make the first pick between those two.'