"Morning, Yamauchi!"
"Morning, Ike!"
A week after enrollment, I arrived at school right on time as usual. The class troublemakers, Ike and Yamauchi, were exchanging over-the-top, dazzling smiles as they greeted each other.
It had only been seven days since school started. Neither of them had been late, but it was bizarre how they showed up in class at the very last possible moment every single day.
"Man, I'm so excited for class, I can't sleep!"
"Hahaha, I know what you mean! This school's so great, we get swimming lessons starting in April!"
Come to think of it, today really was our first swimming class.
And the boys and girls would be swimming together.
In other words, the boys could legally admire the girls in their school swimsuits.
But these two... They were always going on about wanting girlfriends and cursing handsome, popular guys to die. Didn't they know that was the sort of thing you shouldn't say out loud?
Anyone with common sense could see that was why they couldn't get girlfriends.
In fact, most of the girls in class looked at them like they were cockroaches.
While silently criticizing their behavior, I laid out my chessboard and started working through an endgame.
I couldn't settle down unless I did...
As I was moving the pieces around—
"Hey, Hikigaya!"
Ike called my name.
When I looked up, he was waving me over, surrounded by most of the boys in class.
I didn't want to get involved, but pretending I hadn't heard would only make things worse. I might as well hear them out and then leave.
I walked over with a sigh.
"What?"
"We're betting on the girls' bust sizes. I'm out—"
"Wait! You're curious too, right? Everyone's already voted!"
"No idea. Not interested."
Besides, the girls were already glaring at me. I wanted nothing to do with this.
"Quit acting so cool! Oh, right! You're into flat-chested girls, aren't you? No wonder you're not interested!"
Ike nodded as if he'd just figured it out, and Yamauchi chimed in with an emphatic agreement...
"Why would you assume I'm into flat-chested girls?"
To be honest, I didn't care whether they were flat-chested or huge. Any beautiful woman willing to keep me would do.
"Huh? Because Sakanayanagi, who you're close to, is flat-chested, and Shiina's not that big either."
If Sakanayanagi heard that, you'd be done for.
She wouldn't blow up on the spot, but she'd definitely sneer and torment you until you were expelled.
As for Shiina... She'd probably be as unresponsive as ever.
She was even less expressive than I was. Seeing her smile once in a while was rare enough.
Still, at least that put an end to the conversation.
I wasn't interested in the topic anyway, and if Sakanayanagi found out about this bet, she'd definitely use it against us.
In the end, I escaped the bet and went back to arranging my chess pieces.
After school that day...
"So first place in the swimming competition gets five thousand points."
I told Sakanayanagi about what had happened that day while we played chess in the library.
Shiina usually joined us, too, but today she'd gone to the Tea Ceremony Club.
"Five thousand points for a class competition is a pretty good deal. By the way, what place did you come in, Hikigaya?"
"Ninth out of seventeen boys."
Right in the middle of the pack. By the way, was that your usual performance, or did seeing the girls in swimsuits throw you off?
"What do you take me for? Of course I did about as well as usual. Besides, more than half the girls in our class skipped the lesson."
Thanks to Ike and Yamauchi's lewd remarks, more than fifteen girls had skipped.
"Leaving that aside, the gym teacher said something strange."
"Something strange?"
"Yeah. He kept emphasizing that we had to learn to swim before summer, because it would come in handy later."
It wasn't strange for an enthusiastic teacher to say something like that, but I couldn't help feeling there was more to it.
"..."
Sakanayanagi seemed to sense something was off, too. She rested her chin on her hand and pondered for a moment.
But she soon returned to normal and moved a knight. "I didn't hear him myself, so it's hard to say. But since it caught your attention, Hikigaya, I'll keep an eye out. Though I can't swim myself."
Come to think of it, Sakanayanagi was hopeless at sports.
It wasn't that she couldn't swim. She couldn't do any sports at all.
"By the way, Hikigaya, there's something I've been wondering about. Do you have any friends in your class?"
"That came out of nowhere... No, I don't. Why?"
"I've just never seen you talk to anyone except Shiina and me."
"I keep up the bare minimum of communication. That doesn't make them friends."
"Then am I your friend, since I play chess with you after school?"
"Don't be ridiculous. To you, I'm just a toy you call a 'friend,' right?"
As I spoke, I moved a piece, but Sakanayanagi shook her head.
"Not entirely. I won't deny that when we first met, I did think you were an amusing toy."
"So you really did think of me as a toy." I appreciated her frankness, but I had no intention of being anyone's plaything.
"However, I won't deny that I enjoy spending time with you like this."
"...Thanks."
I thanked her, my cheeks growing slightly warm.
Sakanayanagi was calculating, but sometimes she was astonishingly straightforward.
From the way things stood, this didn't seem like a probing lie. She really meant it.
"You're welcome... Well, it's about time to finish this. Checkmate."
My desperate attempts to fight back were nearing their end.
Once Sakanayanagi put me in checkmate, all I could do was flee in disarray.
I tried to find a way out, but in the end, I lost.
▽
"Coffee after a game of chess is the best."
"You only say that because you always win. From the perspective of someone who always loses, this cup is full of tears."
"That won't do. Calling the server over to 'deal with' them would be far too rude. I was only joking, of course."
"Your sense of humor leaves a lot to be desired."
At seven in the evening, I was drinking coffee that Sakanayanagi had treated me to at a café.
She'd been inviting me out frequently ever since we started school. At first I'd refused, but I could never shake her off, so lately I'd stopped resisting.
Habits were scary...
"By the way, you asked earlier whether I had any friends. What about you?"
I asked her what I'd been curious about for a while.
Given Sakanayanagi's abilities, she probably had plenty of followers.
But more than any sort of master-and-servant relationship, I wanted to know whether she had any genuine friends.
"Of course I do."
Just to be clear, I didn't mean people who did whatever she told them. I meant people she genuinely trusted.
"...Well, I suppose Hikigaya and Shiina count."
"Trust? You can count me out. Shiina, maybe."
"That's right. You both speak your minds, but you never flatter me on purpose. It's easy to be around you."
"Flattery wouldn't get me anything anyway."
That was what her followers were for. Someone like me didn't even get near the popular crowd.
Still, Sakanayanagi had asked about my friendships, but the chances of my becoming friends with my classmates seemed slim.
Several cliques had already formed in our class.
Kushida, who openly declared that she wanted to be friends with everyone, occasionally tried to talk to me. But I couldn't bring myself to get interested in her masked persona, so I always made excuses to brush her off.
"By the way, are there any followers like that in your class?"
"There are, but they're not my followers. There's a boy in class named Katsuragi who's well respected by his classmates."
"So Katsuragi has followers. Sounds pretty boring, though."
Sakanayanagi said that, her smile fading.
Judging by her reaction, she didn't seem to dislike him so much as find him uninteresting.
"Exactly. We've only been here a week, but he's already so dull. Maybe it's because I met someone as striking as you on the first day of school, Hikigaya."
"What's so striking about me?"
"Doesn't being labeled a two-timing playboy within your first week count as striking?"
"Don't bring that up. Besides, this is all your fault, isn't it?"
"Oh? Isn't Shiina partly to blame, too?"
"I'll grant that Shiina's an airhead, but you were definitely planning it all along."
During lunch and after school, Shiina and Sakanayanagi sometimes came to our classroom.
Every time, Sakanayanagi showed up with a mischievous smile.
The day before yesterday, she'd even asked in front of the whole of Class D, "Can I come to Hikigaya's room tonight (to play chess)?" I'd nearly hit her in anger.
As for Shiina, she'd casually said things in Class D like, "I want to stay by your side," and, "Want to go to the bookstore in the shopping district this weekend?" The invitations were unbearably embarrassing.
Thanks to them, everyone had completely taken me for a two-timing scumbag.
"That's right. I did it on purpose."
Sakanayanagi flashed a bright smile.
She really knew how to get on my nerves.
Though I thought that, I held back instead of getting angry and simply sighed.
Before I knew it, I'd grown used to this kind of relationship...
And deep down, I couldn't deny that I actually enjoyed our back-and-forth.
Before you continue