At school, we headed to the field with our classmates. Combined with the middle school, the total head-count was enormous.
Thanks to team T-shirts, finding your assigned spot was easy. In middle school I’d gotten lost finding my line position and eaten the embarrassment.
Group warm-ups, team-captain oath, sports day began. My event was later, so for now I was just spectating.
“Honestly, no one I’d actively cheer for.”
Reona was only in my three-legged event; Riona and Mio were the only other competitors I could cheer for. I’d half-cheer and read web novels.
Reona returned from a team-leader briefing.
“Where were you — that corner?”
“Easy to slack from here, plus shade.”
“Ryouya is so Ryouya-kun.”
“Don’t use my name as a slur.”
“Riona’s event is coming up — let’s get closer.”
“The borrowing race?”
“Yes — we might need to be in the audience for hers.”
She took my hand and walked. Hand-holding is normal at this point, zero resistance.
We got to the front and the borrowing race started. Riona’s heat was a bit later, so we watched the prior ones.
The borrowing race involves grabbing a slip with an item on it and finding that item to bring to the finish line. The required items can be cruel.
“How do you find a student with a deviation score over 70?!”
“Wait — macho dude?!”
Some prompts were absurd, and bad-luck contestants got publicly humiliated. Glad I’m not running this event.
Riona’s heat began. At the gun she ran, picked up her slip, then started looking around. What did the slip say?
While I was idly wondering, she made eye contact with me. Immediately straightlined toward me. Bad feeling.
“Ryouya, come with me.”
“Wait — what about Reona, next to me?”
“No.”
“Ryouya-kun, have fun.”
I was dragged from the spectator area. The crowd murmured; some boys gave me parent-killer looks. What did the slip say? We crossed the finish line.
”…Oh.”
“That’s why I needed you.”
The slip said Princess. Because I had played Snow White, I qualified. Princess.
The teacher-judge gave me a what part of you is a princess look, but Riona’s invocation of the play resolved it.
But then a new problem.
“What was the slip?”
“Secret.”
“Aw — curious.”
“Yeah, probably exactly what Nee-chan is imagining.”
Riona loudly had that conversation with Reona. Highly misleading framing was deployed on purpose, and the audience’s eyes on me intensified.
Definitely intentional. Peaceful school life: terminated. Then again — that ended a while ago.