Luckily, the muscular PE teacher showed up just then. He loudly called all the students over and announced a fifty-meter race, with the boys and girls competing separately.
The girls went first. The boys gathered around the pool to cheer them on.
Kushida was easily the most popular among the girls. She smiled and waved in response to everyone's cheers.
Horikita got a much cooler reception when it was her turn. Most of the boys were still focused on Kushida. Only Ayanokoji, standing beside them, gave Horikita an encouraging gesture, and she glared back at him as if she wanted to kill him.
"That's why she isn't popular."
"That's part of her charm, too."
Ayanokoji looked at Hoshino, puzzled. He probably didn't understand what "charm" meant in this context.
From the moment the race began, Horikita took the lead and held on to it until the end. Her form was textbook and practiced, and she finished with an impressive time of 28 seconds.
Kushida finished in 31 seconds. The fastest girl was Onodera, a member of the swim team, with a time of 26 seconds.
The girls' race ended, and the boys applauded to show their encouragement.
Next came the boys' race. Ayanokoji and the athletic Sudo were both in the first heat.
"Good luck," Hoshino said with a smile.
"I'll do my best, but I might not live up to your expectations."
"The teacher said first place gets 5,000 points."
"I can't beat Sudo."
Even with the points as an incentive, Ayanokoji still seemed unmotivated. He'd probably get an unremarkable result, just like he always did.
Now that he knew that, Hoshino had no reason to stay. He went over to the teacher by the pool.
"Sir, I feel a little dizzy. Could I switch to observing?"
"Oh, sure."
The teacher agreed readily, without even the slightest suspicion.
For a moment, Hoshino met the gaze of Ayanokoji, who was waiting for the race to start. Ayanokoji nodded expressionlessly. Hoshino had no idea what he meant by it.
The meaning behind Ike and the others' gestures, on the other hand, was obvious: "Good man. You're pretending to feel sick so you can help out in the observation area and collect data, right?" That seemed to be what their thumbs-up meant.
Hoshino went up to the second floor. Around ten girls were in the lounge. Some stood chatting in groups; others leaned against the railing, watching the races below.
No one would care about the results of Sudo and Ayanokoji's race. Maybe they were waiting for Hirata to compete. Hoshino made the cynical assumption.
"Hey, Hoshino? What are you doing up here?"
"Ah, I'm feeling a little dizzy. Maybe my blood sugar's low."
The first to spot Hoshino and greet him was Sato, who was chatting with her friends nearby.
After hearing Hoshino's off-the-cuff excuse, Sato and the others looked worried and cleared a space for him to sit and rest.
"I have some chocolate. Would eating it help, Hoshino?"
Sato fished a piece of chocolate out of her pocket and offered it to him. When Hoshino took it, he realized it was a chocolate bar with the wrapper already open and one corner bitten off.
Only then did Sato notice her mistake. Matsushita gave her a couple of teasing pokes.
"I-I mean, I broke it off with my hands."
"Is that so? What a shame."
Shinohara couldn't hold back a snort of laughter.
"I never thought the first chocolate I'd get from a girl in high school would be at the pool instead of on Valentine's Day."
"Enough. Give it back!"
Sato's face flushed red as she flailed, trying to snatch the chocolate back. Hoshino got it into his mouth first and took a big bite.
Sato glared at Hoshino resentfully.
"Thanks, Sato. The chocolate really helped."
"Hoshino, you really do like teasing people sometimes!"
"Sorry. I'll treat you to ice cream another day, as thanks and an apology."
Sato huffed, but grudgingly agreed.
"Sato, you're eating chocolate and ice cream. Aren't you worried about your weight?"
"I-I'm fine! I'll just exercise a little more!"
Sato puffed out her cheeks as she protested. She realized Shinohara was only teasing her, too. The two of them laughed and joked around.
When the teacher's whistle sounded from the pool, Hoshino leaned over the railing to look down. Just as he'd expected, Sudo was in the lead, his red hair easy to spot.
"Just as you'd expect from Sudo."
Matsushita had watched the whole race along with Hoshino, and calmly offered that assessment.
"Do the girls pay attention to the boys' races, too?"
"You don't have to pay special attention to know about Sudo's athletic ability."
"That's true. Sudo's one of the best athletes in the whole year."
"But not many girls pay attention to him. If anything, his usual behavior has earned him a lot of bad reviews."
"So being good at sports isn't enough to make people like you the way they like Hirata. At the end of the day, is it all about looks?"
"I said 'behavior.'"
Matsushita rolled her eyes at Hoshino.
"Come to think of it, Hoshino, you're on the girls' list of people to watch, too. You don't stand out like Hirata or Sudo."
"Is it because I'm handsome?"
"Maybe. It can't be because you're a pervert who likes sexually harassing people and teasing them all the time, can it?"
"Thanks, Matsushita. That was pretty harsh."
"But it's all true, isn't it?"
Hoshino shrugged.
"If you competed against Sudo, Hoshino, could you win?"
"I don't know. I'd probably lose."
"I see. That's a little disappointing. I was looking forward to seeing you compete against Sudo."
"I've switched to observing, so you should look forward to Hirata winning instead."
Matsushita looked Hoshino up and down, then shifted her gaze away as if to hide something.
"You made up that excuse for observing, didn't you? You weren't hypoglycemic at all."
"Huh? I thought I'd gotten away with it."
"Hoshino, here's something you should know. A lot of girls our age have experienced low blood sugar because they're dieting and restricting what they eat. So it's usually easy to tell at a glance whether someone's actually hypoglycemic."
"I see. Girls really do have it tough."
"You're the one who's having it tough, Hoshino. You made up an excuse that was so easy to see through, and still went out of your way to switch to observing. It makes me wonder what you're really up to."
"What am I up to? Isn't wanting to slack off enough?"
"If you wanted to slack off, you could've just switched to observing. Why go through all that trouble?"
At that, Hoshino's easygoing smile faded.
"Fine. Since you've asked that much, I'll tell you. My first goal really was to slack off."
"That's hardly a surprise."
"My second goal... do you still want to hear it?"
"I'm all ears."
Hoshino gave an exaggerated couple of coughs.
"My second goal was this: after getting a good look at the girls in swimsuits downstairs, I decided I shouldn't play favorites, so I came up to the second floor on a whim to check out the beautiful girls observing up here."
"..."
"Matsushita, you're the one who asked me to tell you. Could you not look at me with such contempt?"
"You were staring at girls in swimsuits and imagining something filthy, weren't you? Boys really are disgusting."
"Exactly. I couldn't stand being around them, so I came up to the second floor."
"Hmph. You're just like them—no, you're even worse!"
Though Matsushita spoke scornfully, she didn't look particularly angry.
"Girls do the same thing, though. You pay attention to boys in secret."
"That's completely different! Girls don't just stare at boys' chests and butts!"
"How rude. There are people in this world who are into legs and feet, too."
"..."
Matsushita was speechless again.
"And I think girls pay attention to boys' bodies, too. Like their muscles, or, um, their stuff down there..."
Before he could finish, Matsushita shrieked. Sato and Shinohara, startled, looked over, and Matsushita immediately pulled them away.
"Can perversion be contagious? Maybe."
Hoshino strolled along at his leisure, greeting a few girls. The races downstairs seemed to be reaching their final stage, and even the girls who weren't particularly interested gathered around to watch Sudo and Hirata compete in the final.
This was the perfect moment to achieve his third goal.
Hoshino went to a corner of the second floor and spoke to a girl sitting there by herself.
"Hi, Sakura."
Before you continue