Chapter 9 - Physical Education and a Photoshoot (1/2)
Physical Education and a Photoshoot
I remembered that at around the end of April of my second year of high school, we played soccer for physical education at some point. Today was that day. When the physical education teacher had explained what was happening in class today, the people that were part of athletic clubs were super excited.
However, I was pretty sad. I do like the sport itself, but I myself am bad at it. Besides, if I remember correctly, today was that day…
I had ended up missing an easy shot, which resulted in a large amount of laughter from everyone around me. It was super embarrassing and a day with bitter memories. Needless to say, Fujimoto never stopped teasing me about it, and the girls who saw it in the class ended up associating me with being bad at athletics.
Thinking about how that might happen again, I can’t seem to bring out any energy. At the start, the teacher told us to group up in pairs and do some light passing practice. Since I’m so unmotivated, maybe I should take the excuse of feeling sick and skip.
As I tried to take out my secret knife and fake stomach pain, I was caught by Fujimoto who grabbed my jersey.
“Hey yo, hey yo, Sanada, you’re looking down. It’s probably because you don’t have anyone to partner up with, right?”
I was somewhat irritated by the rap that MC Fujimoto had attempted to create.
“Shut up, you’re probably the same, right?”
“That’s right. That’s exactly right, but we’re close. Friends. Coming from the same place, eating from the same bowl, that’s why we’ll go together.” [1]
Why is it a rap? Translating this into normal Japanese, it probably means that he’s asking to pair up with Sanada-sama. That’s probably how it can be taken. I had no choice though, I ended up going with Fujimoto.
During the soccer match, I should just stick around the edges, and try not to get involved in anything so no one will pass to me. That way, I won’t be able to miss an easy shot. Probably.
Ah, Sensei! The girls who were running around raised their voice in excitement.
“Today, I have some time. So I’ll be observing. Everyone, good luck.”
Looking at the teacher coming over, the boys also made a commotion. The teacher who came was Hiiragi-chan. She looked in my direction and once our eyes met, she waved her hand.
“Good luck!”
Ugh.
Her eyes had so much expectation. They were sparkling. This makes it hard to skip out during the match… Since she was still far away, no one knew who she was cheering on besides me and her. As such, the motivation of all the guys ended up rising.
“I guess I’ll have to be a little more serious…”
Fujimoto ended up saying that with conviction. The other boys were also the same.
“Hiiragi-chan sensei is cute today as well.”
“I usually only use about 1/30 of my full power… but I guess today will be good.”
“Well, as for me, I usually only use about one percent. Today, I’ll show you my true power.”
If I don’t skip out, I’ll end up showing my worst parts to Hiiragi-chan. However… no matter how I think about it, she definitely came to observe me during physical education.
“Hiiragi-chan sensei, she seems to be preparing something…?’
The boys stopped their passing practice and stared at Hiiragi-chan. Also caught by it, I start looking for her as well.
“Umm… this is the power and… Ah, it’s on ♡.”
She was holding on to a small camera. Didn’t you come just to observe!? You’re like a mother going to their child’s sports festival…
Looking at the screen and in this direction, Hiiragi-chan waved her hands cutely. Sensei, cameras are no good, the girls will start crowding around,
“Nope. This is for when you guys graduate, so you can leave some nostalgic memories behind, right? Isn’t that moving?”
Ah. Was there usually a athletic part of the graduation album? So it was just my imagination that she came to see me…
However.
Why is the lens always facing towards me!?
“This camera should be pretty light and easy to use.”
Camera!? Are you a professional!? [1]
“Hmm? I can’t seem to record… Sanada-kun? The details about this camera, do you know them?”
There’s no way I would be familiar with cameras or cameras. Because I was called over by the goddess, I headed over to where Hiiragi-chan was.
“I came ♡.”
She spoke to me secretly so that the people around us couldn’t hear.
“What are you doing? You prepared all this?”
“I wanted to find out what the second year A and B classes were doing during physical education so I prepared all of this ♪.”
“You completely intend to make this into a photoshoot…”
“I thought to take a few pictures of some of your cool points, Seiji-kun.”
“I’ll tell you this now, but I’m not that good at soccer, you know? I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
“The cool points that Seiji-kun has, it’s fine if I’m the one to decide them.”
Whether she wanted to cheer me up, or whether she truly thought that, I didn’t really know for sure. However, I’ll do my best. Learning to operate the camera wasn’t very hard, so after teaching Hiiragi-chan, I returned to Fujimoto.
“Sanada. Somehow, don’t you seem close to Hiiragi-chan?”
Giku.
“Ever since you got your cellphone confiscated, it’s been like this, hasn’t it?”
Giku.
“I-is that so? Well, when I have something that I don’t understand about world history, I go and ask her about it. Maybe it’s because of that, that it’s easier for her to ask me to do things?”