However, Yuihama's expression twitched slightly after hearing that.
"Y-you called her an idiot... D-do you even remember who she was?"
"I was almost dying from the pain at the time. How was I supposed to remember? Besides, if I have no impression of her at all, she probably wasn't very noticeable."
"N-not very noticeable... I wasn't wearing makeup back then... and I hadn't dyed my hair yet. I was only wearing pajamas, too... Ah, those bear pajamas probably really did make me look like an idiot."
Yuihama spoke so quietly that I couldn't hear a thing. I only saw her lower her head and mutter to herself. Was her stomach bothering her?
"What?"
"It's nothing... Anyway, you don't remember that girl, right?"
"I told you I don't... Huh? Did I say she was a girl?"
"Yay! Ah, you did, you did! You definitely did! You kept calling her a 'girl'!"
"Just how disgusting am I?"
Yuihama laughed it off, then turned toward the tennis court. I followed her gaze. The members of the Girls' Tennis Club who had been practicing earlier were walking back this way, wiping away sweat.
"Heyyy, Saika!"
Yuihama waved at them. Apparently, they knew each other.
When the girl spotted Yuihama, she hurried over.
"Hi, Saika. Are you practicing?"
"Yeah. Our club is weak, so we have to practice during lunch too... I kept asking the school to let us use the tennis court at noon, and we only just got permission recently. What are Yuihama-san and Hikigaya-kun doing here?"
"Nothing."
After saying that, Yuihama turned to me with a look that asked, "Right?" No, I came here to eat lunch, while you were going to buy juice. Are you a chicken? How can your memory be so bad?
"I see."
The girl called "Saika" smiled.
"Saika, you play tennis during class, and you're practicing through lunch too. That sounds rough."
"It's not so bad. I like tennis, after all. By the way, Hikigaya-kun, you're really good at tennis."
The conversation suddenly shifted to me, and I immediately fell silent. This was the first I'd heard of it. Also, who were you? Why did you know my name?
I had a mountain of questions to ask her, but Yuihama got there first with an exclamation.
"Ehh? Really?"
"Yeah. Hikigaya-kun's form is very proper."
"Oh, wow~~ Sorry, hahaha... So, who is she?"
I deliberately lowered my voice for those last words so only Yuihama could hear them, but her specialty was ruining my plans.
"What? Saika's in your class! Don't you have P.E. together too? How can you still not remember her name? I can't believe you!"
"Are you an idiot? Don't make things up. I remember perfectly well; I just forgot all of a sudden! Besides, boys and girls have P.E. separately."
She had completely ruined my attempt to defuse the awkwardness. Now she knew! What if she got upset? I looked at Saika and found her eyes brimming with tears. Crap, that look was devastating. She was so adorable it made you want to protect her—like a Chihuahua among dogs, or a munchkin among cats.
"Ah, ahaha, you really don't remember my name... I'm Totsuka Saika. We're in the same class."
"Sorry. We just changed classes recently, so..."
"We were in the same class during our first year too... Hehe, I don't really stand out..."
"That's not true, not true! Besides, I barely interact with the girls in class. Honestly, I don't even know most of their full names."
"Remember it already!"
Yuihama smacked me on the head. Watching this, Totsuka spoke in the same wistful tone.
"You and Yuihama-san are really close..."
"W-what? W-we're not close at all! The only thing I feel toward him is murderous intent! Like, I want to kill him and then die with him!"
"Exactly, exactly—wait, that's terrifying! If love ends up becoming a lovers' suicide, that's way too heavy!"
"What? A-are you an idiot? That's not what I meant!"
"You really are close..."
Totsuka murmured softly, turning his gaze back to me.
"Also, I'm actually a boy... Do I look that delicate?"
"Huh?"
Every movement and thought in my body stopped at once. I hurriedly looked at Yuihama, silently asking, This is a joke, right? But Yuihama nodded back. Her cheeks were still puffed up, probably because she hadn't gotten over being angry earlier.
Whaaat? Seriously? Don't lie to me! This had to be a joke, right?
Noticing the doubt in my eyes, Totsuka blushed and lowered his head, looking up at me slightly.
His hand gradually reached toward his athletic shorts, moving with strange sensuality.
"...I can prove it to you."
I felt something inside me waver.
Devil Hachiman whispered into my right ear: "It's fine, let him take them off~~ Maybe something good will happen!" He had a point. Opportunities like this were rare. "Wait!" Oh, the angel had appeared. "If he's taking something off, why not have him take off his top too?" Why not my ass! Aren't you supposed to be an angel?
In the end, I chose to trust my reason.
That was right. Characters with ambiguous genders were charming precisely because their genders were ambiguous. Reason told me to calm down and make the right decision.
"Anyway, I'm sorry. It's because I don't know you very well, but I still made you uncomfortable."
After I apologized, Totsuka shook the tears from his eyes and smiled.
"No, it's okay."
"By the way, how do you know my name?"
"Huh? Ah, because Hikigaya-kun stands out."
When Yuihama heard Totsuka say that, she stared hard at me.
"What~~? He should be the exact opposite of noticeable. Unless something special happened, nobody would pay attention to him."
"Idiot, I stand out, okay? I stand out as much as Kira Star."
"How do you stand out?"
Yuihama asked with complete seriousness.
"...B-being alone in the corner of the classroom makes me stand out, if anything."
"Ah, that would stand out quite a bit... No, wait, sorry."
She immediately looked away. That attitude hurt even more.
Seeing the atmosphere grow heavy, Totsuka hurriedly stepped in to smooth things over.
"By the way, Hikigaya-kun, you're really good at tennis. Have you learned it before?"
"I only played Mario Tennis in elementary school. I've never actually played tennis."
"Ah, that party game? I've played it too. Doubles is super fun!"
"...I could only play by myself."
"Huh... Ah... Sorry."
"What's with you? Why do you keep stepping on my emotional land mines? Is your job digging up my trauma?"
"You're the one who buried too many land mines!"
Totsuka happily watched Yuihama and me bicker.
Just then, the bell signaling the end of lunch break rang.
"Let's go back."
Totsuka said, and Yuihama followed.
A strange feeling suddenly came over me.
Yeah, we were all in the same class. Of course it was natural for us to return to the classroom together, but at that moment, I couldn't help feeling a little sentimental.
"Loner, what are you still doing?"
Yuihama turned back at me in confusion, and Totsuka stopped walking to look at me too.
Can I walk with you? I wanted to ask, but decided against it.
So I said something else.
"Weren't you supposed to run an errand and buy drinks?"
"Huh? Oh no!"
A few days later, it was time for P.E. again.
After endless practice, I had gradually become an expert at rallying with a wall. I had now reached the point where I didn't need to move my feet at all.
Starting tomorrow, P.E. would begin practice matches. In other words, today was the last day of practice rallies.
I wanted to seize this final chance to swing my racket to my heart's content when someone poked my right shoulder.
Who was that? A ghost behind me? Nobody would want to talk to me, so had I seen a ghost?
I turned around, and a finger poked me right in my right cheek.
"Ha ha, got you."
It turned out to be Totsuka Saika, smiling adorably.
Ehh~~ That was strange. What was this feeling? Why was my heart pounding so hard? If he weren't a boy, I would've confessed to him already and gotten rejected. Huh? I really would get rejected.
If you saw Totsuka in his school uniform, you would know he was a boy. But once he changed into gym clothes, which looked the same for boys and girls, it suddenly became impossible to tell. If he were wearing black stockings instead of athletic ankle socks, I definitely wouldn't be able to tell.
Totsuka's arms, waist, and legs were slender, and his skin was extremely pale.
It was only a pity that there was nothing on his chest, though Yukino's chest was about as small as his.
In that instant, I felt a fierce chill.
That brought me back to my senses, and I spoke to the smiling Totsuka.
"Need something?"
"Yeah. The classmate I usually pair up with is absent today, so... if you don't mind, would you like to practice rallying with me?"
Don't look at me with those upturned eyes. You're too cute! Don't blush, cheeks!
"Oh, sure. I'm alone too, anyway."
Sorry, wall. I can't keep rallying with you...
After apologizing to the wall, I accepted Totsuka's offer. He sighed softly as though relieved and said, "I was so nervous." Hearing him say that only made me more nervous. He was just too cute.
Yuihama had said that some girls called the lovable Totsuka "Prince." I understood now. Totsuka was as cute as a girl, a beautiful boy, and that nickname certainly suited him. The word "Prince" probably also carried the meaning of "someone you want to protect."
And so, Totsuka and I began rallying.
As expected of a Tennis Club member, he was quite skilled.
I had learned to serve accurately from rallying against the wall. He returned every ball beautifully, hitting them right back in front of me. After several exchanges, Totsuka apparently found silently hitting the ball boring and spoke to me.
"Hikigaya-kun, you really are amazing."
Because we were some distance apart, Totsuka's voice sounded slightly delayed.
"I've been rallying with a wall the whole time, so I've gotten the hang of tennis."
"That's squash. It doesn't count as tennis."
We continued talking while rallying. While everyone else made mistakes from time to time, neither of us had broken our exchange once. Then Totsuka caught the tennis ball that bounced toward him with one hand, pausing our rally.
"Let's take a short break."
"Okay."
The two of us sat down. But why were we sitting side by side? Wasn't that strange? Usually, friends of the same gender sat facing each other or diagonally across from one another, right? Wasn't this distance too close? Was it? Was it?
Before you continue