The Third Objective

Fortunately, the muscular gym teacher appeared at this moment. He loudly gathered all the students and announced a 50-meter race divided by gender.

The girls started first. The boys gathered around the poolside to cheer them on.

The most popular girl among them was undoubtedly Kushida. Facing everyone's cheers, Kushida smiled and waved back.

Horikita's turn was much quieter. Most of the boys' attention was still fixed on Kushida. Only Ayanokoji, standing nearby, gave Horikita a thumbs-up, only to be met with a murderous glare in return.

"That is exactly why she isn't popular."

"That's also her charm point, though."

Ayanokoji looked at Hoshino with some confusion. He likely didn't quite understand the meaning of the term "charm point."

From the very beginning of the race, Horikita took the lead and maintained it until the end. Her swimming form was standard and skillful, and she finished with a solid time of 28 seconds.

Kushida's time was 31 seconds. The first place among the girls went to Onodera, a member of the swimming club, with a time of 26 seconds.

As the girls' race concluded, the boys offered applause to show their encouragement.

Next was the boys' race. Ayanokoji and the athletic Sudo were both in the first heat.

"Good luck," Hoshino said with a smile.

"I'll try, but I might not meet your expectations."

"The teacher said there's a 5,000-point reward for first place."

"I can't beat Sudo."

Despite the temptation of the point reward, Ayanokoji still seemed to lack any motivation. He would likely finish with an unremarkable result, just as he always did.

Having confirmed this, there was no point in Hoshino staying here any longer. He walked over to the teacher by the poolside.

"Teacher, I'm feeling a bit dizzy. Could I switch to observation duty?"

"Oh, no problem."

The teacher didn't even harbor the slightest suspicion and agreed quite readily.

For a split second, his gaze met Ayanokoji's, who was waiting to start. Ayanokoji nodded, his face expressionless. It was impossible to tell what he was trying to convey.

On the other hand, the intentions of Ike and the others were clear at a glance: Good comrade, you're pretending to be unwell so you can go to the observation area and help collect data, right? That was likely what their thumbs-up meant.

Hoshino arrived on the second floor. There were about ten girls in the lounge area; some were chatting together, while others were leaning against the railing, watching the swimming competition on the first floor.

Surely no one cared about the results of Sudo and Ayanokoji's race; they were probably waiting for Hirata to appear. Hoshino speculated with a hint of malice.

"Huh? Hoshino-kun? Why did you come up to the second floor?"

"Ah, I'm feeling a bit dizzy. It might be low blood sugar."

The first one to notice Hoshino and greet him was Sato, who was chatting with friends nearby.

Hearing the excuse Hoshino had casually fabricated, Sato and the others made space with worried expressions, letting Hoshino sit down to rest.

"I have some chocolate here. Would it help if you ate some, Hoshino-kun?"

Sato rummaged through her pocket, pulled out a bar of chocolate, and handed it to Hoshino. It was only after Hoshino took it that he realized it was a bar with the packaging torn open and one corner already eaten.

Sato only then realized her mistake. Matsushita, standing to the side, poked her twice with a mischievous look.

"Th-that, I broke it off with my hands to eat it."

"Is that so? A bit of a pity."

Shinohara couldn't help but let out a snort of laughter.

"I didn't expect that the first chocolate I received from a girl in high school wouldn't be on Valentine's Day, but at a swimming pool."

"Enough, give it back!"

Sato's face flushed red, and she reached out, claws bared, trying to snatch the chocolate back. Hoshino beat her to it, popping the chocolate into his mouth and taking a large bite.

Sato glared at Hoshino with pure resentment.

"Thanks, Sato-san. The chocolate was very helpful."

"Hoshino-kun, you really like to tease people sometimes!"

"My apologies. I'll treat you to ice cream another day as a thank-you and an apology."

Sato huffed, which counted as a reluctant agreement.

"Sato-san, you're eating chocolate and then ice cream—are you not worried about your weight?"

"N-no, it's fine! I'll just add a bit more exercise!"

Sato puffed out her cheeks in protest. She realized that Shinohara was just teasing her as well. The two of them dissolved into giggles and playful bickering.

Hearing the teacher's whistle from the pool side, Hoshino leaned over the railing to look down. As expected, Sudo was in the lead; his shock of red hair was very eye-catching.

"As expected of Sudo-kun."

Matsushita, who had watched the entire thing just like Hoshino, gave this calm assessment.

"Do you girls pay attention to the boys' situation too?"

"With Sudo-kun's athletic ability, you don't need to pay special attention to know how he's doing."

"That's true. Sudo's athletic ability is probably among the best in the entire grade."

"But very few girls pay attention to him. If anything, his usual words and actions have earned him a great deal of notoriety."

"So, it's not like just being good at sports makes you as popular as Hirata. Does it all come down to looks in the end?"

"I clearly said 'words and actions' just now."

Matsushita rolled her eyes at Hoshino.

"Come to think of it, Hoshino-kun, you're also on the girls' list of key interests. Unlike Hirata and Sudo and the others, you've always kept a low profile."

"Is it because I'm handsome?"

"Isn't it? It couldn't be because you're a pervert who likes to sexually harass people and constantly tease them, could it?"

"Thank you, Matsushita-san. That was really harsh of you."

"But it's all true, isn't it?"

Hoshino shrugged.

"If you were to compete against Sudo-kun, would you be able to win?"

"I don't know. I'd probably lose."

"Is that so? That's a bit of a shame. I was actually looking forward to seeing a competition between you and Sudo-kun."

"I've already signed up for observation duty, so please look forward to Hirata-kun's victory instead."

Matsushita looked Hoshino up and down, then averted her gaze as if to hide something.

"Your reason for observing was made up, wasn't it? You don't have hypoglycemia at all."

"Huh? I thought I wouldn't be found out."

"Hoshino-kun, let me tell you something. Among girls our age, many of us have experienced bouts of hypoglycemia because we control our diets to lose weight. So, it's basically easy to tell at a glance whether someone actually has hypoglycemia or not."

"I see. My, girls really have it tough."

"Hoshino-kun is the one having it tough. You went out of your way to make up such an easily debunked excuse just to switch to observation duty, which makes me curious about what your goal actually is."

"What's my goal? Can't it just be that I wanted to slack off?"

"If you wanted to slack off, you could've just signed up for observation duty directly. Why go through all this trouble?"

Hearing this, Hoshino reined in his relaxed smile.

"Sigh, since you've pressed me this far, I'll tell you. My first goal was indeed to slack off."

"Not surprising at all."

"My second goal... do you still want to hear it?"

"I'm all ears."

Hoshino coughed theatrically.

"The second goal is: after getting a good look at the girls in swimsuits downstairs, I thought I shouldn't play favorites, so I decided on a whim to come to the second floor to see the beautiful girls on observation duty."

"..."

"Matsushita-san, you're the one who asked me to say it. Could you stop looking at me with such contempt?"

"You're just looking at girls in swimsuits and fantasizing about lewd things anyway, right? That's why boys are so disgusting."

"That's exactly why I couldn't stand them and didn't want to stay with them, which is why I came up to the second floor."

"Hmph, you're just like them. No, you're even more lewd than they are!"

Although she was saying disparaging things, Matsushita's expression didn't look like she was very angry.

"Girls are actually the same, aren't they? You pay attention to boys in secret."

"It's completely different! Girls aren't like boys, only staring at chests and butts!"

"How rude. There are leg men and foot fetishists in this world, you know."

"..."

Matsushita was speechless once again.

"And I think girls also pay attention to boys' bodies, like their muscles or, uh, things down there..."

Before he could finish, he was interrupted by Matsushita's shriek. Startled, Sato and Shinohara looked over, and Matsushita immediately pulled the two of them away.

"Are perverts contagious? Perhaps."

Hoshino walked leisurely, greeting a few girls. The competition on the first floor seemed to have reached its final stage; even the girls who weren't very interested were joining in to watch the showdown between Sudo and Hirata.

At this very moment, it was the perfect opportunity to achieve his third goal.

Hoshino arrived at a corner on the second floor and spoke to the girl sitting there alone.

"Hello, Sakura-san."