Mejiro Dober was conflicted.
Shirayuki was someone she liked. Trainer was also someone she liked. Because her feelings toward the two of them were so evenly balanced, Mejiro Dober had agonized over it for a long time. She had even thrown caution aside and told Shirayuki, hoping Shirayuki would help her make a decision.
But at that time, Shirayuki had only given her a strange answer.
Wait.
Wait until the race was over.
Back then, Mejiro Dober had not understood why. Now, however, she vaguely had an idea.
Maybe Shirayuki and Trainer had a special relationship.
After all, the two of them had said they were cousins, but not blood-related. On top of that, Shirayuki knew far too much about Trainer's affairs. Mejiro Dober had reasonable grounds to suspect that the two of them had long since grown deeply close, and they simply had not told her.
Why did it turn out like this!?
I was still worrying over my feelings for both of you, but was I actually the third wheel all along?
After finally gaining two guiding lights in her life, those two lights had joined hands and flown away together. Mejiro Dober could not accept that.
So early in the morning, she ran to Fujiwara Chiya's room to demand a clear answer from her trainer.
Shirayuki was a beautiful girl, and Trainer was also a young man full of energy. If the two of them slept together, it was hard to imagine that nothing had happened. Mejiro Dober did not expect to have both of them to herself, but at the very least, they could not just leave her behind and run off together!
Mejiro Dober sat on the sofa while Chiya and Shirayuki had just finished putting on their clothes.
She wanted to check whether there were any traces of battle on the bed, but given her current position, it was clearly inappropriate. She had once told Trainer about the feelings in her heart, but Trainer had not given a clear response. The two of them were only trainer and uma musume. At most, they were a little closer than ordinary trainers and uma musume.
"Can you tell me what exactly happened yesterday?"
Mejiro Dober spoke nervously. Her gaze moved back and forth between Shirayuki and Chiya, terrified that they would suddenly say, "Actually, there's something we've been hiding from you."
No.
Please, not that.
If they really said something like that, Mejiro Dober would definitely burst into tears on the spot.
Fortunately, the situation was not what Mejiro Dober had imagined. Chiya explained that he had been massaging Shirayuki yesterday, but because it had gotten too late, Shirayuki had ended up sleeping there directly.
Mejiro Dober's suspended heart finally settled back down.
She did not have to worry about being abandoned by the two of them. She had a very good relationship with both Trainer and Shirayuki. Originally, that should have been a very happy thing. She did not want two forms of happiness to overlap and somehow turn into pain.
"Does Mejiro Dober want to try it too? Improving the body through massage. Shirayuki tried it yesterday, and the effect was pretty good."
"It was very comfortable."
Seeing the two of them like that, Mejiro Dober swallowed.
Why did those words sound a little strange?
My thoughts should still be pure, right?
That said, massage should be the kind where the whole body is treated, right?
Does that mean she would have to let Trainer touch her whole body?
Well…
It was not completely unacceptable.
"Dober can come over with Shirayuki next time too."
What?
Have me come to Trainer's room together with Shirayuki, and then… let Trainer massage me?
No.
Absolutely not in front of Shirayuki!
Mejiro Dober covered her face. Her cheeks were burning hot.
She could accept being alone in a room with Trainer, but if Shirayuki was watching, she would not be able to endure it. Her sense of shame would definitely explode.
"Let me think about it."
Mejiro Dober said this quietly to Fujiwara Chiya. Then she left the room with Shirayuki.
Fujiwara Chiya took off the bedding that had become damp from Shirayuki's sweat last night and put it into the washing machine. The room still carried the slightly sour scent of sweat mixed with the faint fragrance of a girl.
Shirayuki had always sweated a lot. She had even gotten up once in the middle of the night. The spot where she had been pressed close to Chiya had become damp and sticky. A man's body temperature was somewhat too high for her. After being held for a while, she would sweat heavily.
It had been Chiya's oversight.
Holding her had felt wonderful on his side. Shirayuki's body was softer than even the highest-quality body pillow. But on Shirayuki's side, it had not been quite as comfortable. When she woke up in the morning, her body looked as though it had been washed in water, and the entire bedding had been soaked with sweat.
Come to think of it, Shirayuki's constitution made it easy for heat to accumulate in her body. Even after entering the rapid growth period of her true development, this problem still had not improved.
Was there any way to change that constitution?
After starting the washing machine, Fujiwara Chiya searched online for a while. Then he contacted several of his high school classmates who were studying medicine. A few of them still occasionally played games together on weekends, so they had kept in touch.
And the answer Fujiwara Chiya received from them was:
Massage the feet.
The pressure points connected to the internal organs, circulation, and various hidden problems were all reflected in the feet. This was especially true for uma musume. Their feet were their lifeline. If he wanted to improve their bodies, he needed to give them proper foot therapy.
After saying that, those classmates also expressed their envy toward Fujiwara Chiya.
One by one, they complained, "Whoever tells people to study medicine deserves to be struck by lightning! Which bastard convinced me to study medicine back then?"
Fujiwara Chiya had already become an intermediate trainer, while they had not even graduated yet. Every day, they hugged textbooks thicker than bricks and chewed through them by force, sleeping later than dogs and waking earlier than chickens.
"I want to be a trainer too! I want to touch girls' feet too! I don't want to study medicine anymore!"
Amid his high school classmates' complaints, Fujiwara Chiya hung up the phone.
He silently took the freshly washed bedding out of the washing machine and hung it up to dry. Suddenly, he felt that life had become much easier.
His phone rang.
Fujiwara Chiya opened the messages. His classmates had sent him the materials they had prepared: pressure point diagrams that could help improve Shirayuki's constitution, along with recovery methods, massage techniques, and other details. They had organized everything for him.
[Chiya, send me a photo of that uma musume called Shirayuki.]
Seeing their message, Fujiwara Chiya silently sent over a photo he had taken during training.
A few minutes later, the other side replied:
[You damned bastard. Go die!]
Ah.
So this was how easily brothers could turn against each other.
Fujiwara Chiya looked through the materials they had sent. These were far more specialized than what trainers learned. The process, timing, methods, and even the medicinal ingredients needed were all included.
One month should be about enough, right?
The next race was twenty-four hundred meters. In order to make Shirayuki's physical condition meet that requirement, Fujiwara Chiya had already used every method he could think of, fully drawing on every connection he had.
Although she would not be able to participate in the final crown, he wanted to take the first two crowns. Then came the last representative exchange race before going overseas. After that would be Europe. When the time came, Mei would arrange the races, so he just had to listen to her.
Fujiwara Chiya sent a message to Hayakawa Tazuna, asking her to help prepare those medicinal ingredients.
As for himself, he headed to the library.
After passing the intermediate trainer exam, it was time for him to start studying the senior trainer curriculum.