Chapter 7: Man, The Real World Really Is Harsh On Loners

“It’s about time we headed back to the classroom.”

“Yeah. Considering we need time to get changed in the locker room, it’s about time.”

We had PE during fifth period, so we needed to get moving early. Apparently, today’s activity was volleyball. Since it was a team sport that required cooperation, I was already feeling depressed before we’d even started.

Team sports and loners were an absolutely terrible combination. Honestly, I wished they’d just excuse me from participating.

“Ryoya, see you later, Big Sis.”

“Yeah. Shall we get going?”

“Huh? Wait, are you planning on walking back with me?”

“Of course.”

Reona answered my question with an expression that practically said it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Hold on, wouldn’t that be a problem?”

“What would be a problem?”

“Well, you know… What other people might think and all that…”

“I’m not bothered by that at all, so it’s fine!”

Even if Reona was perfectly fine with it, I certainly wasn’t!

I tried explaining that to her, but then she asked whether I didn’t want to be seen with her. Caught off guard, I immediately answered that it wasn’t that I disliked it, leaving myself with no way out.

As expected, walking back to the classroom with Reona attracted an absurd amount of attention. Needless to say, my stomach was practically tying itself into knots from the stress.

After taking my gym clothes out of my backpack, I headed straight for the locker room. Once I’d changed, I hurried over to the gymnasium.

Our PE teacher was pretty strict about having everyone lined up before the warning bell, and being late would only make things troublesome, so I had to be careful.

After a while, class began. We did our warm-up exercises, then paired up with whoever was left over to practice volleyball serves.

Incidentally, the boys and girls shared the gymnasium. The girls were having their basketball lesson on the other half.

“Hey, which girl in our class is your type?”

“That’s obviously Tsurugi-san. No contest.”

“Yeah, figured you’d say that.”

Some of the boys were having this conversation while practicing their serves. Apparently, Reona was incredibly popular.

Well, with her looks and personality, it would’ve been stranger if she weren’t popular.

Before I knew it, half the class period had passed, and the practice match began. I joined the team I’d been assigned to and participated.

That said, I wasn’t particularly useful during the match. I was bad at pretty much every ball sport, and I was shorter than the average Japanese man, so there wasn’t much I could contribute.

A little while later, I was substituted out. While taking a break, I happened to notice the girls playing their basketball match.

Some of the girls were just casually participating, much like me, since they were also bad at ball sports and on the shorter side. However, there were also a few who seemed genuinely focused on winning.

“Reona, take the shot!”

“Got it! Leave it to me!”

Reona caught a pass from one of her teammates and sent the ball straight through the basketball hoop.

Afterward, she happily exchanged high-fives with the other girls.

Yeah… Reona and I really did live in completely different worlds.

Even though I was the one who’d saved her life, I honestly couldn’t understand why she’d started going out of her way to interact with me so much.

I spent the rest of the practice match wondering why Reona and Riona were so determined to get involved with me, but I never came up with an answer.

Thinking about it any further would probably just make me go around in circles, so I decided to give up.

After PE, nothing particularly noteworthy happened. I attended sixth and seventh periods, and at long last, the school day came to an end.

I was now sitting in the classroom with my head in my hands.

“I didn’t understand a single thing we covered in class. This is seriously bad.”

I’d expected as much beforehand, but since I’d been absent for nearly two weeks, the lessons had progressed quite a bit. As a result, most of the material had been completely incomprehensible to me.

Mathematics and physics were especially bad. At this rate, I was practically guaranteed to fail the upcoming exams.

“Getting a failing mark would be such a pain… What am I supposed to do?”

Incidentally, at our school, students who received failing marks on their exams were required to attend remedial classes during their long vacations.

There wasn’t much time left before the final exams, so I needed to do something about this as soon as possible. Unfortunately, things weren’t looking good.

This was the sort of situation where a popular, socially active guy would rely on his dependable friends, girlfriend, or upperclassmen to help him get through a crisis.

But, sadly, I was a loner.

“Man, the real world really is harsh on loners.”

I wished the world would be a little kinder to people like us.

At this rate, failing was practically inevitable. Maybe I should just accept my fate and start preparing to attend remedial classes.

“Ryoya, what’s with that troubled expression? What’s wrong?”

“Whoa?!”

I’d been completely lost in my own thoughts when someone suddenly spoke to me. I was so startled that I couldn’t help shouting.

“…You don’t have to be that surprised. It kind of hurts my feelings.”

“Oh, look! Riona’s sad. Shame on you, shame on you!”

“Sorry! I just wasn’t expecting someone to suddenly talk to me… Anyway, you two haven’t gone home yet?”

Nearly thirty minutes had already passed since our final homeroom period ended, so I was surprised that Reona and Riona were still at school.

“We were waiting because we wanted to go home with you, Ryoya-kun.”

“But you took so long, Ryoya, so we came to get you.”

“Huh?! You two are planning to walk home with me?!”

“Yep! And we’re planning to keep doing that every day from tomorrow onward, so I hope you’re ready!”

Even though today had already been packed with first-time experiences for me, like going to school with the two of them in the morning and receiving a homemade lunch from them at noon, it seemed the surprises weren’t over yet.

“You’re going to say no if I try to refuse, aren’t you?”

“Of course.”

“Ryoya-kun, it looks like you’re finally starting to understand us!”

Over the past few days, I’d experienced firsthand just how incredibly pushy Reona and Riona could be. By now, it was obvious that no matter what I said, arguing with them was completely pointless.