Looks Like I'm Late

"R-Really?"

Yamada and the other asked in disbelief.

"Of course." Sakamoto's smile remained unchanged.

He did not care whether he could graduate from Class A, and points were not important to him either. To Sakamoto, let alone one hundred thousand points, even one million or ten million points were nothing more than a string of numbers.

The two were so grateful that they were speechless, standing there in a daze. Those points were the fruits of an entire year of hard work.

"Teacher!"

Saito suddenly dropped to the floor and bowed, addressing Sakamoto as his teacher. Yamada, beside him, froze.

"Please, Teacher Sakamoto, teach us chess!"

"If we had never seen an insurmountable mountain, we might have remained smug in this little place. But now that I have seen one, I cannot help yearning for it. Please teach us chess. Under your guidance, winning the national high school championship in Japan would surely not be difficult!"

Saito spoke solemnly again, repeatedly signaling to Yamada with his eyes. The latter understood and hurriedly voiced his agreement.

"I see."

Sakamoto looked at him with interest while pinching his chin with his fair hand, deep in thought.

At that moment, a girl leaning on a cane appeared outside the Chess Club's door. She happened to witness the scene and smiled faintly.

"Looks like I'm late."

Sakamoto raised his arm and glanced at the expensive watch on his wrist.

"It's 5:01 p.m. You are indeed late." Sakamoto smiled softly.

Yes, Sakayanagi had actually invited him to the Chess Club. During their first meeting with their classmates yesterday, she had deliberately mouthed the words for him to come to the Chess Club at five in the afternoon.

The reason was simple. From the first moment Sakamoto saw Sakayanagi, he knew that unlike when she was a child, she no longer regarded him with fearful respect. Perhaps too much time had passed, or perhaps she believed she had grown to the point where she no longer needed to fear him.

When she was very young, Sakayanagi had become curious about Ayanokoji and, through that affection, began trying chess as well. She soon became deeply fascinated by the intelligent and entertaining game. Yet while she was surrounded by the reputation of a genius,

Sakamoto Shunichi, someone she had only just met, had immediately pointed out the next move she was still pondering. The young Sakayanagi had then asked him to play chess with her. Naturally, she had been effortlessly crushed in chess. For Sakayanagi, who considered herself a genius, that was unacceptable.

Unfortunately, it had merely been a chance encounter. Sakamoto's father had business elsewhere, and the young Sakamoto naturally left with him. When they met again later, he refused to play her, saying she was no match for him and that he had no interest.

She had always waited for a chance to play him again. That wait lasted until she entered high school. The figure of that person had almost faded from her memory.

Sakayanagi entered Ikusei, which was practically her family's own property. She had originally thought her life would proceed as she envisioned, simply observing the person who had drawn her into chess—Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

She had thought Ayanokoji would be the only person she would pay special attention to during high school. Then her father suddenly told her that Sakamoto had entered Ikusei as well. The memories buried deep in her heart were instantly awakened, and she could not suppress the feelings from back then.

Chess. Sakayanagi Arisu would defeat Sakamoto Shunichi at chess! Only by completely defeating him could she rid herself of the obsession from her childhood!

"Oh dear, being unable to move about properly is not something I can help." She advanced by retreating. On the surface, she was saying she had arrived late, but in truth, she was pointing out her poor health and placing herself among the vulnerable. Everyone knew that vulnerable people needed consideration.

If Sakamoto, a healthy person, reprimanded her over that, he would appear utterly lacking in grace.

Sakayanagi tossed the topic back to Sakamoto.

"It's fine." Sakamoto smiled faintly, turning the tables by accepting her words and indicating that he forgave Sakayanagi for failing to arrive on time.

Their gazes met despite the head-height difference between them, and neither gave way.

"Ahem, why don't you two sit down first? Are you here to play chess? There happens to be a board here."

The two who had been serving as background decorations hurriedly spoke up to interrupt the strange scene before them. Otherwise, with the room full of awkward tension, they might as well just leave. They could not stay in this Chess Club any longer.

"Then excuse me."

Sakayanagi behaved with perfect courtesy as she elegantly seated herself on one side of the chessboard.

She slightly extended her small, fair hand, inviting Sakamoto to take his seat. With that gentle, expectant expression, surely no young boy just beginning to understand love could refuse her.

But who was Young Master Sakamoto? He was a top-tier player from another world, and also the most famous player in that world. As for why,

there was a famous case in gaming history involving him. Merely because he found it interesting, Sakamoto exploited a bug in a game to find the boss hidden behind the world and defeated it ahead of time.

As a result, that game lost its boss storyline meant for the ending. Upon defeating the boss, an ending screen was supposed to play for all players, but because the boss had been found through a bug, the ending screen could not play properly.

Countless players reached the final boss only to receive no ending at all. At the time, they thought the game's developers had failed to finish it, while the developers themselves remained completely in the dark.

They were utterly baffled. As the incident escalated, players began criticizing and condemning the game across various platforms.

By coincidence, the company had recently laid off a group of older programmers and replaced them with younger ones.

The company held meetings and handled public relations every day during that period, to no effect. The newly hired programmers worked overtime to find the issue, but they did not dare touch the complicated code.

In the end, the incident grew so massive that it dominated the trending lists on every platform. Only after Sakamoto personally released a guide to the bug did everyone discover that someone had defeated the boss ahead of time.

All the players gritted their teeth at the guy who had been the "first" to defeat the boss, wishing they could give him a cyber execution.

But there was nothing they could do. As one of the world's top players, Sakamoto was always the first to clear a game and provide clues and suggestions, blazing trails for the other players, even though he constantly did things that shocked the entire player base.

He was the kind of person all players loved and hated. When they loved him, they praised Sakamoto to the skies. When they hated him, their teeth itched with frustration, yet there was nothing they could do to him. He did it merely because he found it interesting. Who could stop him?

Sakamoto refused Sakayanagi Arisu's invitation to play chess, giving the reason that Sakayanagi was inferior to him at chess, so he had no interest in playing her.

That was a lie. Sakamoto simply wanted to do it that way. As for the reason,

he merely wanted to see how the young lady from the Sakayanagi Family, who had been impeccably polite on the first day of school and attracted the attention of everyone in class, would look after being rejected. Perhaps it would be unexpectedly cute.

"So, Classmate Sakamoto came to the Chess Club early and even played a match with those two upperclassmen, all just to refuse to play a game with me?"

Sakayanagi Arisu's gentle smile did not change, yet somehow it gave people a bone-chilling feeling.

"Ahaha, why does it feel a little hot in here? Let's go outside for some air."

The two background decorations, Saito and Yamada, slipped out under that excuse.

That was quite a dangerous thing to say. Under normal circumstances, if a girl said something like that to a boy, and the boy still gave a thoughtless, emotionally clueless response, the girl would most likely become angry enough to stop speaking to him.

At a time like this, the high-EQ response would naturally be a denial paired with a little kindness.

Yet Sakamoto was not affected in the slightest by the atmosphere that made one's skin crawl.

"I'm tired today. I'll come another day."

Sakamoto yawned. Ignoring Sakayanagi's increasingly cold smile, he turned and prepared to leave.

"Oh? Is Classmate Sakamoto afraid of losing?"

Sakayanagi used a provocation. The usually polite young lady now spoke with an arrogant, overbearing tone.

Sakamoto stopped in his tracks.

He turned and approached the girl barely one and a half meters tall.

Less than ten centimeters separated them.

Yet because of the difference in height, Sakayanagi could only look up at the approaching Sakamoto.

Sakamoto stopped in front of Sakayanagi.

He extended one hand.

Slowly,

he patted her head.

"My apologies, but you're too weak. I simply have no interest in competing with you, little Sakayanagi."

Sakamoto spoke each word distinctly before turning to leave once more.

A normal person would have gotten angry long ago at such an action. But Sakayanagi, as someone of high standing, could not do that, especially not lose her composure before Sakamoto again. Feeling the touch on the top of her head, the white-haired girl tried her best to maintain a faint smile as she counterattacked.

"Sakamoto-kun is truly a mean-spirited person. You came here, yet you refuse to keep our agreement."

"Classmate Sakayanagi, I never agreed to any appointment."

Sakamoto lowered himself slightly. His gentle face appeared before the girl, his deep eyes and mild presence drawing close to her. For a moment, her mind went blank, and she did not know how to respond.

By the time she regained her senses, he was already outside the door.

The girl watched his departing figure.

The corners of her lips curled upward.

"Sakamoto-kun really hasn't changed at all."

She had not succeeded this time, but next time, she, Sakayanagi Arisu, would utterly defeat Sakamoto Shunichi and wash away every humiliation.

Yes, all the memories he had left her were humiliations. She should have rejected that head-patting gesture, but it had happened too suddenly.

Her frail body did not allow her to react that way, and as a noble, she had to remain calm in a crisis. Deep down, she had been somewhat afraid in that moment, but outwardly, she should not have revealed any flaws. In that regard, Sakayanagi Arisu had maintained herself well.

And so, a strange agreement came to an end...

Looks Like I'm Late