Landing steadily, Miyahito turned around and raised his right hand in a flat high-five gesture toward Tooru and the Class B boys rushing toward him.
"Yes."
Accompanied by their cheers, the Class B players exchanged high-fives, fist bumps, and finally bumped forearms.
Behind them, the Class A guys collapsed onto the hardwood floor in perfect poses of utter defeat, groaning dramatically over their loss.
As for the girls outside, they were already impatiently flooding the gymnasium with drinks, towels, and other care packages.
At this moment, absolutely no one—not even Aragaki Miyahito, who was currently surrounded by them—noticed the figure standing just outside the gym doors.
There, a girl with wine-red eyes and long, sleek black hair stood watching the boy who seemed to be the center of the universe. She bit her lower lip, gripping a blue towel tightly in her hands.
Then, without saying a word or making a move, she simply stood silently at the very back, before turning and leaving with her towel and sports drink in hand.
Completely oblivious to all this, Miyahito politely declined every girl's offering, finally extricating himself from the crowd. Panting slightly, he returned to Class B's area, plopped down onto the hardwood floor, and pulled a blue towel from his gym bag to wipe the sweat from his face.
Then.
"Must be nice, being the dashing Miyahito-sama."
Ishikawa Tooru, eyes dripping with envy and looking utterly dead inside, glared at the girls who still lingered despite being rejected, then turned his gaze to the blank-faced Miyahito.
"You don't even have to bring your own water or towel. Ahh, I wish I could have that kind of treatment too."
"Then just beg me."
A voice suddenly cut into the conversation.
"I've got care packages too, Tooru. Want some?"
"Yes please! Thank you, Lady Yoshikawa!"
Hearing there were supplies, Tooru's mood instantly flipped from gloomy to bright. Watching this chameleon-like expression change, Miyahito couldn't help but shoot him a look of utter disdain.
"Here, Miyahito. Yours."
"Thanks, Kyoko."
Smiling, he took the ice-cold sports drink from Hori Kyoko, twisted off the cap, and took a huge gulp. "Ahh! Refreshing!"
"By the way, why'd you turn down all those girls' gifts?" Squatting between Tooru and Miyahito, Yoshikawa Yuki's face was practically screaming with curiosity. "Could it be you like me? Or Hori?"
"Cut it out." Shooting a look at the nonsense-spouting Yuki, Miyahito proudly tilted his chin up and said with dead seriousness, "Who do you think you and Hori are?"
"We're all bros here, okay? Bros don't go there."
"Mou! You're the bro!"
Yuki angrily smacked Miyahito's back. Even the usually good-natured Hori Kyoko couldn't resist grabbing Tooru's towel and throwing it at him.
Asking a serious question about romance only to get hit with a "bros" response was infinitely worse than a standard "you're a good guy" rejection card.
And if a girl with Yuki's above-average, perfectly fine figure was getting called a "bro," then what did that make Kyoko, who was constantly teetering on the borderline? Basically a flat board?
"Cough... I'm sorry! St-stop hitting me... cough cough..."
Begging for mercy, Miyahito barely survived Yuki's "death back-pats."
"So, what's the real reason, Miyahito?"
Resting her chin cutely in both hands, Yuki batted her eyelashes and pressed on with gossip-laden curiosity.
"So many girls in our grade, plus upperclassmen confessing to you, and you haven't said yes to a single one."
"Don't tell me... you already have someone you like?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, the highly interested Kyoko and Tooru also turned their attention to Miyahito, who was casually sipping his drink.
It wasn't unreasonable for them to be curious. After all, the guy sitting leisurely on the hardwood floor, fresh off a basketball game, was basically a magnet for girls.
Lean but muscular, the kind who looked slim in clothes but ripped without them. Add in his clean, refreshing face and his above-average height of 178cm... yeah, he was probably still growing.
Facing such a sunshine normie with explosive appeal, Toyogasaki's girls had already proven since the start of the term that he was a rising stock with massive potential.
Yet, despite receiving roughly three confessions a day behind the school building and enough love letters to stuff a shoe locker, honestly, if Yuki and the others hadn't seen it with their own eyes, they never would've believed the anime trope of a shoe locker stuffed with love letters actually existed.
And despite all that, Aragaki Miyahito remained single.
No, not just single.
There wasn't even a hint of a rumored fling.
It was completely beyond everyone's expectations. No wonder his friends were so curious.
"Could it be..." Seeing Miyahito still drinking, showing no intention of answering, Hori Kyoko smirked mischievously. "Miyahito, do you like guys?"
"Pfft... cough cough cough..." Choking on his drink, Miyahito accidentally sprayed it everywhere.
This instantly earned him matching looks of disgust from Yuki and Tooru, who were right next to him.
After coughing violently, he awkwardly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and struggled to speak.
"What stupid things are you saying, Kyoko."
"But..." Pushing down her smirk, Kyoko put on a serious face. "Think about it. You reject every single girl who confesses."
"And besides me and Yuki, you rarely even talk to the other girls in class."
"You just said we're like bros. And there are zero rumors about you outside."
"Doesn't that leave only one conclusion?"
After Kyoko's explanation, Miyahito was completely stunned.
Instinctively—purely on reflex—he turned his head toward Ishikawa Tooru, whose expression was slowly morphing into sheer terror.
The next second.
"Hey! Tooru! What are you dodging for?!"
"N-nothing..." Averting his gaze guiltily, Tooru answered while carefully scooting his butt away. "I just feel a little hot, yeah, just a bit hot."
"Hey!"
Veins popping, Miyahito shot Tooru a glare, then turned his dead-fish eyes toward the snickering Kyoko and Yuki.
After a long, helpless sigh, Miyahito pushed himself up from the floor, hands on his knees.
"What's there to be curious about? I just haven't found my type yet."
"Huh? Surprisingly normal answer."
"Hey, hey. What's with that rude evaluation, Yuki?"
"So, what is your type, Miyahito? C'mon, tell us."
For a brief moment.
Listening to Yuki's curious question, the silhouette of a tall girl with long black hair flashed through Miyahito's mind.
"Oh?"
Hori Kyoko, sharp-eyed as ever, caught that fleeting change in his expression.
But before she could press further, Miyahito quickly answered.
"Mature, kind older sisters, obviously!"
"Wow. Trash."
"Seriously... pubescent boys are all the same."
"That's harsh, Kyoko, Yuki."
"Yeah, I think you're a bit of a creep too, Miyahito."
"Even you, Tooru?!"
After a bit more playful banter, Yuki and Kyoko, having finished their care-package delivery mission, headed back to class first.
Left behind, Tooru and Miyahito each grabbed their gym bags, planning to hit the showers behind the gym before heading back.
In the locker room, just as Tooru peeled off his sweat-soaked jersey, he noticed the sports bottle in Miyahito's locker looked different from his usual one.
"Isn't that the 'Tritan Gradient Blue' sports bottle? Those are pretty expensive, aren't they?"
"Hm?" Hearing this, Miyahito glanced down at the newly bought bottle in his locker and smiled. "Not really. Only about a thousand yen or so."
"Whoa, and you call that not expensive?"
Hearing Miyahito's casual tone, Tooru clicked his tongue in mild disbelief.
But then, a thought suddenly struck him.
'Wait, aren't the gradient blue and gradient red versions usually sold together as a couple's set?'
'Oh, I guess you can buy them separately. I'll have to grab one sometime.'
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