Volume 2 - CH 3.3

Shiina’s PoV

The crowd cheered.

Godou, who was surrounded by three defenders, managed to dribble his way through them and scored by shooting the ball right under the goalkeeper’s crotch.

The girls started screaming after seeing it.

He was a hero in his previous life, but he never played soccer back then. Aside from that, his current body was an ordinary one. That was why it was quite amazing for him to be able to play this well.

Still, I thought that he’d still be wearing that hateful indifferent face of his while doing this, but he didn’t. I suspected there was something going on.

That guy was playing more aggressively than usual and he was wearing a serious expression that was totally unlike how he’d normally act.

In other words, he was playing with the intent of winning. It had been a while since I’ve seen that serious look of his.

Maybe it was because there were two members of the soccer club in the opposing team, they kept marking Godou and made it difficult for him to move around. But, he managed to find an opening and moved toward the goal.

After receiving a pass from Kudou-kun, he shot the ball toward the goal.

Like an arrow, the ball went into the right side of the goal.

Shindou-san, who was standing next to me, made a gut pose and yelled happily, “Hurray!”

She only did it because it was Kudou-kun who passed the ball to Godou.

“Hehe, he’s pretty cool sometimes, isn’t he?”

“I didn’t expect Kudou-kun to be this good.”

“He is an ex-member of the soccer club. He was sick of it, that was why he quit… Still, Godou is better than him somehow. I know that he’s quite athletic, but I’d never imagine him to be this good…”

That was a given, he was the strongest person in the world before he reincarnated to this world.

This was also the reason why I wasn’t too amazed when seeing his performance.

I was worried that if I were to see him like this, my feelings toward him would grow even stronger.

Just a moment ago, when he showed his concern toward me, I was already at my limit.

I felt relieved that my feelings didn’t grow any stronger, but my relief was short-lived.

After he scored, Godou grinned, showing his white teeth.

“Alright!”

With Sakuragi-kun and Kudou-kun embracing him by the shoulders, he raised his right hand up to the air.

…He looked so cute. I can’t.

The happiness on his face looked genuine, he looked so different compared to the normally calm demeanor he showed to everyone.

Once I saw that gap moe, I just knew that I had already lost. I was too used to his calm look, him showing the serious look I hadn’t seen in a while and his happy look was totally unfair. I felt my chest tightening.

“A-Annoying…”

I felt so upset.

Why did I keep yearning for something that I had already given up on?

“What’s wrong, Mai-chan?”

Shindou-san tilted her head.

“N-Nothing.”

I let out a few coughs to deceive her.

There was no way that I’d let her know that I was fangirling over him.

“Shiraishi-kun is so cool…”

“I know right? But he already got Hina. I can never win against her.”

“Why is every good guy already taken?”

Suddenly, I heard the girls behind me starting to whisper to themselves.

Kirishima-san, who was in the forefront, didn’t seem to hear what they were saying.

“Nice, Godou!”

“Yeah!”

Kirishima-san waved toward him and he waved back.

I wasn’t the person in his line of sight.

But it was okay. I kept repeating those words over and over, trying to convince myself of that.

*   *   *

After that, our class managed to win all our matches and entered the finals, thanks to Godou and everyone’s hard work.

Almost all of our classmates gathered to watch the finals as it was the only game our class was participating in during this time. Everyone was earnestly cheering for Godou and the others to win the match.

The match was coming to an end. The current score was tied two to two, so the situation was tense.

Even Godou was having difficulties because he was marked by three people at all times.

The opposing team’s players were way more skilled than ours, save for Godou, of course. Not only that they were third-years, two of their members were the aces of the soccer club, while the rest of them were various members of the other sports-related clubs. They went all-in for the soccer game, it was obvious.

Just as I was thinking of how tough the situation seemed, Godou swept past all three people who blocked him and dashed away from them.

As soon as he received the ball, in the blink of an eye, he managed to get through the opposing team’s defenses and scored a goal. Immediately after that, the referee blew his whistle, signaling the end of the match.

Everyone cheered and rushed to the soccer field.

I was unable to keep up with everyone, so I was left alone on the bench.

Everyone gathered in the center of the field, doing celebrations and such.

At the center of everyone was the hero of the day himself, Godou.

Kirishima-san stood beside him. She raised his right arm to the sky.

Seeing her joy, Godou let out a wry smile.

Someone from our class whistled after seeing how close those two were.

With that as a cue, everyone else started to join in and teased those two.

“Stop it!”

He told them to stop, but at the same time, he was chuckling. It was clear that he wasn’t serious.

“I-It isn’t like that!”

Meanwhile, Kirishima-san was blushing hard as she tried to ward the others off.

“Sure, sure.”

“Good ol’ Hina.”

“You guys are practically dating already, aren’t you?”

“Go explode.”

Kudou-kun shrugged his shoulders dismissively and the others followed suit.

Kirishima-san panicked and started to make a fuss, but everyone was just looking at her warmly.

…No matter how you look at it, those two were perfect for each other.

Someone like me, who’d only stuck by myself in the corner like this, didn’t deserve someone like Godou at all.

I found another reason to give up on him.

But, as if ridiculing my resolve, Godou parted ways from everyone and approached me.

“We won, Shiina.”

“…What? I knew that, I watched everything.”

“You cheered on me, right? Thank you.”

“…Does that even matter?”

I pouted and turned my face away from him. Then, he spoke in a sullen tone,

“Of course, it matters. Our performance could be affected for the better when someone is cheering for us. For me, your cheering made me play better.”

For some reason, he covered his mouth after he said that. “For you?…” I tilted my head in confusion.

“Is there something special about my cheering?”

“Uh yeah… I mean, you’re my friend…”

“Isn’t everyone in the class your friends?”

It seemed like I misunderstood something. Godou shook his head.

After a moment of silence, he told me something in a hushed tone.

“…I mean, it’s the cheer from someone that I like, of course it’s special.”

“Huh?”

Someone that he liked? Someone that he liked??

Huh? Wasn’t it Kirishima-san? What? What did he mean by that?

“Don’t you like Kirishima-san?”

“…What?”

He looked at me dumbfoundedly.

His gaze seemed like he was questioning my sanity, but that was what I should feel toward his attitude.

“No way, did you really take my words the other day at face value? Seriously, you…”

“???”

“What the hell am I doing? I’m not supposed to tell you this if I want to keep being friends with you… Wait, isn’t it better to just tell you to straight things up between us?”

He seemed to be mumbling about something that I couldn’t understand.

“W-Wait, could it be that the girl you like is…”

“You.”

His face turned red as he tried to avert his eyes. So cute…

…No, wait, that wasn’t the time to think about that! 

What did he just say? Me? The girl that he liked was me??

He liked me??

No way that was the case, but the person himself said it clearly to me.

“…Let bygones be bygones, you dumped me, after all. Let’s not talk about this again”

“…W-What do you mean?”

What? I dumped him? What was he talking about? When did I do that?

Noticing my confusion, Godou explained,

“…Oi, didn’t you tell me back in the fireworks festival that we should stay as friends?”

“B-Because your actions could make me misunderstand your feelings! I just wanted to straighten our relationship up!”

“Misunderstand?”

“I might misunderstand that you actually like me that way…”

“But I do??”

“…”

“…”

“U-Um… Y-You actually like me?”

When I tried to confirm this fearfully, Godou nodded his head.

“R-Romantically?”

“Yes. Is it wrong?”

“…N-No, but…”

“…Okay.”

His face reddened like a tomato, a proof that he wasn’t trying to fool me.

AHH! My face started to heat up too. I could feel a wave of joy rushing through my heart.

“Wait, you didn’t know about this?”

“O-Of course not! How could I notice it in the first place?…”

“I thought you did. So what you said to me back then wasn’t a roundabout way to reject my feelings?”

“I can’t even fathom the r in relationship. I don’t know how to do something that advanced!”

It was hard to admit it, but it was true.

“…So, you haven’t dumped me?”

I nodded to his words. I mean, I never intended to do that in the first place.

“…So, I don’t have to give up on you?”

“T-That’s…”

I almost said that he should never give up on me.

But, I second guessed myself at the last moment. Was this really okay?

I liked him too, so if I were to say it to him, we could start dating right here and then.

The reason I was going to give up on him was because I didn’t want to betray him. He told me he wanted me to be his friend, so I wanted to fulfill that wish of him. Though, if he liked me anyway, liking him back wouldn’t be a problem.

I was tempted by this sweet temptation.

At that moment, a memory from my previous life flashed through my mind.

I was dying while looking at the hero’s corpse.

Then, the scene moved toward the scene that I had just seen.

The scene where Godou was smiling happily, surrounded by the other classmates with Kirishima-san by his side.

“…”

I just needed to nod to his question. That would be enough to make me happy.

But, I couldn’t move my head. My whole body was frozen stiff.

“…My bad. Just forget it.”

After seeing my silence, Godou shook his head. 

“Got it, I’ll give up on you. Can we still be friends at least?”

“…Of course. We can still be friends.”

Even though those were my own words, my chest still felt hurt. Godou let out a wry smile.

No. That wasn’t my intention. He was supposed to be happy, not like this.

“Anyway, your cheers helped me. So, thank you. See ya.”

I couldn’t bring myself to say anything before he turned his back on me and left.

I tried to reach for his back, but my hand never reached it.

*   *   *

Lunch time.

I was practicing basketball by myself in the corner of the gym.

Probably because everyone else was eating their lunch, there was no one here.

Since it was decided that I’d be playing basketball, I had been practicing by myself in the park. Though, it seemed like all my efforts were futile as I was still dragging everyone down in group practices.

I tried to shoot the ball toward the ring, but it bounced back and hit the floor.

When I went to pick the ball up, someone had already done it.

It was Godou.

Remembering the exchange we just had, I started feeling nervous.

Apparently, he was feeling the same as me as he looked unusually hesitant to say something.

Then, he started dribbling. Unlike my clumsy dribble, his was perfect. Even though he never really played basketball, his reflex was sufficient to make it up for his lack of experience.

After a while, he shot the ball. At the same time, he finally opened his mouth.

“Practicing on your own? What an earnest girl.”

“…What? Is it bad?”

“No. That wasn’t sarcasm.”

The ball went through the hoop flawlessly.

Seeing him doing it perfectly irked me. I practiced really hard, yet I still couldn’t shoot properly.

Even back in our previous life, when I was busy calculating my moves in battle, this guy just left everything to his instincts. Seriously, how could someone be as unreasonable as him?

“You just started practicing, don’t think that you could suddenly be good at shooting.”

“…What should I do then?”

“Here.”

Godou suddenly passed the ball to me, which I tried to receive in a hurry.

“If you put your hands out like that, you could injure your arms. Place them in front of your chest and wait for the ball to come into your hands.”

“Why so suddenly?…”

“Pass it to me.”

For some reason, I passed the ball to him.

Like what he told me, he placed his hands in front of his chest and received the ball flawlessly.

“I’ll give you a slow pass, don’t get scared.”

It was because I was afraid of the ball that I put my hands out whenever I saw it coming in my direction.

But, when I followed what Godou told me, I managed to receive the ball properly.

Even though I had never been able to receive a pass like this before. The ball always bounced off my hands.

“Nice. Your shoulders are too tense though. Relax.”

Once again, Godou asked me to pass the ball to him, so I did.

I passed the ball, he received it, he passed it back to me. This repeated for a few more times.

Godou calmly received all my passes. His movements were gentle, probably because he wanted me to use them as references.

And so, I tried to imitate what he did. Of course, I didn’t have the physical capabilities to perfectly imitate his movements right away, but I wanted to be able to receive passes at least. I was lucky that Godou decided to teach me.

After all, I couldn’t practice passing by myself.

“Good, good. Let’s increase the speed a little.”

It was only in times like this that he didn’t say anything stupid to me. It annoyed me a little.

Before I knew it, I was able to receive passes properly. When I let out a deep breath, Godou clapped his hands.

“You still can’t shoot or dribble properly, but at least you could pass the ball around now. That should be enough for now.”

“…Mm.”

Why did he help me?

Dummy, the answer was obvious, it was because he liked me. Realizing that, I noticed my cheeks starting to get hotter.

…Sadly, I couldn’t answer that feeling. I couldn’t make him happy, after all.

Sure, if we became lovers, I’d be really happy.

But I doubt that I’d be able to make him happy.

If we were to stay as friends, he wouldn’t need to be burdened with someone like me.

I wasn’t worthy of such an important position in his life.

I wanted him to be happy.

‘I love him. I love Shiraishi Godou. Out of everyone in this world, I love him the most.’

The one who was worthy of him was already by his side, after all.

“…The game is about to start. Thank you.”

That was why I should distance myself from him.

I didn’t want him to realize this feeling I had decided to bury deeply in my heart.

When I turned my back on him, I heard a gentle “Do your best” coming from behind.