Whether it was Lala's feelings or the fact that the system had deceived him, Yuuji could not really do anything, so he simply decided to avoid both problems and not think about them.
But when Lala appeared behind him with her usual smile, Yuuji could no longer keep ignoring it.
"Lala, you are right, I did not even know today was the sports festival."
"Hehe, I was the one who told you everything that was happening while you were not coming to school, of course I would know" Lala said, smiling confidently.
"You do know that means the reason I did not know is because you did not tell me, right? What are you so proud of?"
Lala's eyes widened suddenly at Yuuji's words, realizing that it was indeed true.
Of course, she did not apologize, instead she simply made an expression copied from a manga and laughed.
"Hehe"
Yuuji decided not to keep arguing pointlessly, instead he observed her for a moment, not noticing anything different from before.
He was not sure what to do about the situation, if someone asked him whether he liked Lala or not, of course he would say yes. However, knowing the original plot, not only had he never even imagined her as a romantic target, but even, knowing Lala, he used to look at Rito with a bit of pity, thinking that going out with her must be incredibly troublesome due to her personality, her inventions, or the problems she passively attracts just because of her position.
"Yuuji?"
Now that the possibility was in front of him, Yuuji had to ask himself, is it worth so much trouble just to date a girl?
By pure coincidence, Yuuji was right in the exact middle point to worry about it, if he were in love, he would not care about the problems that come with dating Lala, while on the other extreme, if he barely knew her in person, given Yuuji's personality, he would reject her outright without wanting to get involved.
"Yuuji?"
But with Lala acting normal, maybe he would not really have to worry about that and could simply continue with their current relationship?
While Yuuji was thinking about this, he felt a metallic sensation against his cheek.
"Mm? What is this?"
"Yuuji, you finally reacted, you spaced out out of nowhere, are you okay?" Lala said when she saw him react. "I brought you something cold to drink in case you are hot."
"I am fine, I was just thinking about something" Yuuji replied distractedly as he came out of his daze.
He opened the can in his hands that Lala had given him and, without paying attention to what it was, took a sip.
"Pffft."
He immediately spat it out.
"Yuuji? What happened?"
"This... is hot coffee" Yuuji replied, pointing at the can Lala had given him.
"Hot coffee? Ah, I thought vending machines only gave soda, sorry, I will go buy another one!"
"It is fine, I will handle it myself" said Yuuji.
Using "Cool", he cooled the coffee, instantly turning it into cold coffee before taking another sip, this time much more enjoyable.
While drinking, he glanced at Lala, who was watching him nervously as he drank the coffee, with a mix of guilt and anticipation.
'Maybe she is not acting that normal,' Yuuji thought, unsure whether it was just a simple mistake or if something else was going on.
"By the way."
"Yes?!"
"There is no need to be so tense, you know?" Yuuji said at Lala's reaction, who responded far too energetically, looking at him as if she were ready to do anything he asked. "Just... do you know which events I am participating in?"
"Ah! Yui is the one who knows that, but she is busy with the parents right now" Lala said before turning around. "I will go ask her right now."
But Yuuji stopped her immediately.
"No need, I will go myself."
"What? But I can..."
"Hey, you two! The ones who look super awkward with each other while arguing in front of the whole class. We have the participation list here, nobody needs to go bother Yui" Risa shouted, and Yuuji wanted to sink into the ground when he saw the entire class looking at them.
The girls with curiosity, the boys wanting to jump him.
Doing his best to ignore the stares, Yuuji walked up to the participation lists for each event and looked for where he was participating.
Maybe it is because it was an anime, maybe it was the school, or maybe they felt funny this year, but for some reason only the lists for the first event were posted, and these would be changed before each event, so Yuuji would only know if he was participating when the event was about to begin.
By the way, he is participating in the first event.
"By the way, the ribbon..." After leaving while questioning the school's strange decisions, Yuuji approached where the class prop managers were, not far from the lists.
The person in charge, a serious looking man with glasses and short black hair, only looked at him for a second before clicking his tongue and quickly handing him a red ribbon, then looked away and ignored him.
"Did I do something to him?" Yuuji muttered as he put on the ribbon and walked away.
"You killed his hopes" Risa said, appearing behind him.
"When did I do that?" Yuuji asked, confused.
"You do not know because you arrived late" Risa said with the kind of smile someone has when watching an interesting drama. "Today Rito told Saruyama that his engagement with Lala ended, and Saruyama, of course, shouted it to the four winds.
Do you get it? All the male students excited thinking maybe they would have a chance with the most beautiful girl in the school, only to see her interacting with you like they are in a romantic drama an hour later. Oh, the horror. Oh, all those broken dreams."
"You are definitely dramatic" Yuuji said, watching Risa act as if she were, ironically, in an anime. "Are they not exaggerating too much? Well, it does not matter anyway, I do not care what strangers think of me" Yuuji sighed with resignation, he could not do anything to change the situation so he would have to get used to it, as always.
Anyway, he spent most of the time sleeping in class, so it did not affect him much.
"True, but remember, we are at the sports festival" Risa said with a mischievous smile before running off energetically as always.
Hearing this, Yuuji remembered it as well and looked around, where almost every male student in the high school was looking at him as if they wanted to kill him.
"This is going to be a hassle" he muttered, knowing the day had just gotten more complicated.
...
1st event - 200 meter race.
The 200 meter race was quite simple, since it was individual and interfering with others was not allowed, Yuuji finished the race quickly, giving him the feeling that the sports festival would not actually be that troublesome.
He was wrong.
...
3rd event, carrying a partner race.
While Yuuji rested calmly watching the event, where his class was last since clearly none of them had any intention of putting in effort, the speakers announced the next event he would participate in.
Yuuji approached the partner assigned to him on the list, someone he did not remember seeing before, although, in his defense, he does not remember at least 80 percent of the class.
However, when he approached his partner, the guy raised a hand and immediately refused to participate.
"Sorry, I feel sick and I cannot participate, please find a replacement" he said, pretending to be in pain while holding his stomach with both hands before running off with other male students.
Looking around, Yuuji found all the boys avoiding his gaze or pretending to be sick.
'Are they seriously going to do this?' Yuuji really wanted to hit them for their childishness.
'It is fine Yuuji, calm down, it is not that big of a problem' he told himself.
Even so, it was not such a big problem, it was more of a nuisance whose solution was even more annoying.
Unable to participate with a boy, he simply looked toward where the girls were.
Maybe it is true that women have a sixth sense, because the moment he looked at them, they all turned to look at him.
As if they knew what he was going to ask, they all pointed in the same direction.
Following that direction, of course he saw Lala, who reacted by looking at the girls without understanding why they were all pointing at her.
This gave Yuuji a strange feeling.
'Being jealous of Lala, none of them participated. Would it not have been better to participate with me to make sure I do not get close to her, and also sabotage me during the game?' he thought.
For a second he even believed they were geniuses hiding their intelligence and had something planned, but their shouting made him realize immediately that he was overthinking.
"What? What is he doing? Where is he going?!"
"He is heading toward the girls!"
"What?! Is that even allowed?!"
"Well, there is no rule that forbids it."
"Damn it! Our singleness limited our imagination!"
"He is going for The Saint, stop him!"
"Jun, you were his original partner! Participate!"
"I cannot! I already submitted my resignation in administration!"
"This cannot be!"
Yuuji ignored their dramatic shouts of frustration and regret and walked over to Lala.
"Hey, Lala, would you mind participating with me in this event?" he asked, extending a hand without any formality, since they were close enough friends not to need it.
Lala, of course, took it and nodded immediately.
"Sure, but what happened to your partner?" she asked curiously.
"He felt sick" Yuuji shrugged.
"Then... did you think of me first?"
"I thought asking a girl would be rude, but all the other guys were not available" Yuuji replied honestly.
"What? Could it be... because of me?" Lala asked, roughly understanding the situation.
"Not really, do not worry" Yuuji truly did not think it was her fault, since they were just being extremely childish, so even if he found it annoying, he never blamed Lala.
"But..."
"We are here, thanks for your help" before Lala could finish speaking, Yuuji interrupted her directly.
"W-what? When?" Lala said in surprise, noticing they were already at the finish line and that, at some point, Yuuji had started carrying her like a princess.
"First place, Yuuji Rito from Class 1 C, with just 3 seconds, completely inhuman but we will not focus on that, let us give him our congratulations" an energetic voice said through the speakers.
Yuuji said goodbye to Lala and went to sit in the participant area since, somehow, he was also participating in the next event.
...
4th event - Three legged race.
Normally a three legged race does not happen when there is a race carrying a partner, since they are almost the same, but Yuuji decided not to question the logic behind the students' decisions after what he had already seen today.
Instead, he approached the starting line, where his partner was waiting for him, this time without running away.
"Nice to meet you, Yuuji Rito" he introduced himself while extending a hand toward him.
But at his gesture, his partner reacted with confusion.
"??... I know you, we have been classmates for almost two months" he said, not understanding why Yuuji was introducing himself.
However, Yuuji did not lower his hand.
Suddenly, his expression changed, from the original confusion to understanding and anger at the same time.
"Damn it! You just want to know my name because you have no idea, right? I am Yahari Kabuta" he said with annoyance.
______________________________________
+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)