My Childhood Friend And The Endurance Run

According to my childhood friend:

“With the endurance run, if it’s really too tough, they’ll let you walk!”

…Or so it goes.

No, that’s not really okay… though I won’t go so far as to call it strictly forbidden.

◆◆◆

“…Ayu, you’re technically a reincarnator, right?”
“I am. Why?”

Today, like every other day, we shiver our way to school under a freezing sky. Coats, scarves, every scrap of cold-weather gear we own, and cold is still cold.

“Being born with the memories of a past life intact is basically magic, isn’t it?”
“Well… I suppose so.”
“Which means there’s a possibility that you, the one actually doing it, can use magic. Right?”
“Your logic just took a hop, skip, and a jump there…”
“So, y’know, could you go ahead and bring that summer heat over here right now or something?”
“This kid just hit me with the most outrageous demand.”

Unlike Ayu, I put a reasonable amount of thought into what I wear. She’s bundled into so much winter gear she may as well be a snowman, while I am genuinely cold, so I’d like a little effort out of her.

“We already did the whole ‘she’s a reincarnator, so she must have some kind of special power!’ routine right after we started high school, didn’t we? And we established that I don’t have any, didn’t we?”
“Useless piece of work…”
“So unfair… you were the one being skeptical about it back then, too, Gin-chan…”

Cold, cold, COLD. Come next summer I’ll no doubt be saying much the same thing. Probably.

◆◆◆

“It’s finally here…”
“Ayu-chan’s most dreaded class of all has come around~”

PE. Starting today, this period would be handed over to endurance-run lessons for a while. Right now the chill knifes straight through our flimsy gym clothes, but once we actually start running, our bodies are guaranteed to go toasty warm.

Now, about the endurance run. Of every unit we do in PE, it’s the one Ayu, with her comparatively meager stamina, is worst at. And yet.

“But this year Ayu-chan’s been doing her morning jogging~”
“…That’s right!”
“…”

…Well. That’s how it is. A while into the second term, it came to light that Ayu and Hotaru-senpai had been jogging in the mornings. That jogging was really about building stamina for the culture festival, but since she had to hide that purpose from me, Ayu passed it off with the cover story of ‘building stamina for the endurance run.’ It’s still fresh in my memory.

“So this year I might get to run all the way to the end with you, Ayu-chan~. I’m looking forward to it~”
“…M-maybe so!”
“I don’t think I’ll manage… so if it looks like I can’t keep up, feel free to leave me behind without mercy…”
“…”

The culture festival, the true objective, came and went without a hitch, and yet the morning jogging is still going, she says, albeit at a much reduced frequency. I run with her from time to time myself, so Ayu isn’t putting on airs and lying. It’s the truth.

But even so… running to the very end together, the way Hina hopes, probably isn’t going to happen.

“Aaall right! Let’s all give it everything we’ve got~! Yeaah!!”
“…Yeaah!”
“…”

Hina’s voice rang out through the clear air in front of the school gate. This time the endurance run takes us off school grounds for a single lap around the surrounding area.

◆◆◆

“Huff… haah…”
“Huff… huff…”
“Saw that coming.”
“Ayu-chan, you’re sooo slooow!”

Not long after the endurance run began and everyone set off at once, the outcome was exactly what it looked like. Two JKs, breath ragged and stamina spent, were thereby born.

“Wh-why are you back here too, Ayuri-san…?”
“Huff… huff… Leave this one to me and go on ahead!”
“Yes, yes. Try not to push yourself too hard.”
“Sorry, Ayu-chan~ this class does count toward our grades, after all~…”

Towing a visibly regretful Hina along, I pushed on past Ayu and Sumire-san and left the two of them behind. They literally weren’t going to be able to stay in this fight.

“…”
“…”

Hina and I run the loop around the school, just the two of us. Not every stretch of the course is a pedestrian-only road, naturally, but this area is rural enough that at this hour there isn’t much traffic. With the noisy one gone, all I can hear is the other students running nearby, the cars passing on the road a little way off, and the two of us breathing.

“…”

— Glance.

“…”

I’ve still got plenty left in the tank, and so, by the look of it, does Hina. Ayu dropping off the pace doesn’t seem to have rattled her in the slightest. Maybe she saw this coming all along too.

Incidentally, the reason Ayu couldn’t keep up despite her morning jogging is simple. The frequency has plummeted compared to back then, and that’s all there is to it. I only heard about it later: back then she was running two or three times a week or more, but these days she’s stopped almost entirely and barely runs at all unless Hotaru-senpai or I invite her. Ayu’s stamina was the lowest among us to begin with. Take the morning jogging away and the stamina ranking settles right back where it lands every other year.

“…”
“…”

Silence. Even with no teacher watching us it’s still class, so there’s nothing to be lost by taking it seriously… and yet.

“…”

— Bristle.

“…”

— Glide.

Hina’s pace ticks up just a little, and the gap between us starts to open. I refuse to lose, naturally, so I lift my own pace and stay with her.

Ayu probably doesn’t know this, but ever since elementary school, in schoolwork and in sports alike, a light contest like this occasionally starts up between Hina and me. Where the endurance run is concerned, I get the feeling we do it at least once a year.

“Haah… haah…”
“Hff… hff…”

One of us picks up the pace and the other forces herself to hang on; one of us drops back and the other seizes the chance to drop back too and rest a little. Over and over.

From the outside we must look outrageously close, and we are close, and I do think of her as my best friend, but I don’t think ordinary friends suddenly crank up the pace like this trying to shake each other off.

The upshot of it all is that the two of us end up with times worlds apart from Ayu’s. In that sense, I’m glad Sumire-san, who runs at about Ayu’s pace, was beside her this year. Ayu always joins up with somebody or other near the end and finishes with them, but until that point she’s been running alone.

◆◆◆

“Phew… pheeew… I win!”
“I looost~!”

In the end, the two of us finished quite high up among the girls. Among the ones not in a sports club, I’d wager we came first.

“Come on… I lose to you plenty on tests… so at least let me have this…!”
“Haah… phew… Not bad~… Gin-chan…”

Catching our breath, we congratulated each other on a good race.

Honestly, though. Sports club or not, I’m the one who jogs regularly, and yet what on earth is Hina doing, latching onto my pace like that? Back when we first started middle school it was a landslide in my favor, but the gap has narrowed year by year, and now it’s a photo finish like this. Maybe Hina has been putting in work somewhere I can’t see, too.

We waited a while after that, and once the vast majority of the students had finished, Ayu and Sumire-san crossed the line. Judging by how little they were out of breath compared to Hina and me, they seem to have run at a fairly leisurely pace of their own. For all I know, they may well have walked.

“Phew. Good work, everyone!”
“…I-I’m done for…”
“Good work.”
“Welcome back, you two~”

Hina and I greet the pair as they finish. Quite a bit of time had passed since we crossed the line, so we’d pulled our track jackets on to fend off the cold, and when Hina, dressed like that, drew close to greet Ayu…

“Mmm~… Ayu-chan’s lovely and warm, fresh off a run~”
“Wh-wh-whoa, Hina-chan?!”
“Oooh…!”

…She hugged Ayu, who had only just finished and was faintly sweaty, and Ayu’s face, already a little red from the run, went bright crimson.

“H-hey, Hina-chan?! Sweat! I’m drenched in sweat right now!”
“I was drenched in sweat myself until a moment ago, so there’s no problem, right~”
“That’s a problem too! Harassment! It’s turning into sexual harassment!”

The fact that she went with ‘it’s turning into’ harassment rather than ‘this is’ harassment suggests that, in Ayu’s mind, she is the one doing the harassing. By any measure I’d have thought Ayu, hugged one-sidedly against her will, is the victim here, but perhaps her awareness of having once been a man is what makes her see it the other way around.

“H-hey, help… stop laughing and help me!”
“Yes, yes… Come on, Hina, let her off there.”

Since I’d been asked, I reluctantly peeled Hina off Ayu. Hina wasn’t clinging all that desperately either, and gave up her hold easily enough under my hand.

“Honestly…!”
“Sorry, Ayu-chan~… once the sweat cools off, it gets really cold~”
“Gin-chan’s right there next to you! Go do it to her!”
“Gin-chan would get angry~”
“I’d like to be angry too, you know?!”

Hina slips lazily out of every accusation Ayu presses on her. But well, vague as her assent had been, Ayu did once agree to run together with her, and the guilt of not having managed it seems to be keeping her from getting properly angry.

Or rather. Isn’t Hina counting on exactly that, and hugging her because of it?

“Sorry~… I’ll lend you my favorite sweat wipes later, all right~”
“Those are the ones we bought together the other day, aren’t they?”
“Then~… how about a melon soda on the way home~”
“…Well, if it’s that… I suppose…”

Isn’t she far too easy to buy off? …Never mind. I have something of my own I need to say to Ayu.

“Ayu.”
“…Hm? What is it, Ginko-san?”
“The morning jogging. Let’s step it up a bit.”
“Ehh… I flat-out don’t want to, though.”
“Let’s do it, Ayuri-san! I’ll train hard too!”
“Huh, why are you in on this as well, Sumire-san…?”

Really, why Sumire-san too? That was my thought, right up until her sparkling, delighted expression gave her away.

Most likely, having just watched all that, her face is saying:

(If I can run with them, I might get to see something good!)

That’s the face of someone thinking that. Probably.

“See? Sumire-san’s saying so too.”
“Ehhh…”
“Ayuuu~…”
“Shouldn’t you be living up to those expectations of Hina’s that you failed to meet today?”
“…Fiiine. I’d like to run to the end with everyone at least once, too.”
“Ayu-chan!!”
“Wh—?! Again?!”

Mm-hm. Exercise is a good thing. Mm-hm.

…And after that, their efforts bore fruit in the end, and Ayu and Sumire-san did finally manage to run all the way to the finish alongside us.

And that, on that occasion, Ayu was hugged by Hina while drenched in sweat, exactly as before, goes without saying.