I left class still depressed, met up with Riona, and we started home.
“Ryouya and Nee-chan’s class — did you pick a play?”
“Yeah, Snow White. And Ryouya-kun is Snow White.”
“Ryouya is Snow White.”
”…Mostly because of Reona’s machinations.”
“Machinations is such an ugly framing — I lobbied for you so you, who never gets to be the lead, can have a moment.”
“Nee-chan is so kind.”
Sounded reasonable, but in practice this was Reona’s personal entertainment. I deeply regretted falling asleep — although, even awake, I would’ve lost. Existence-tier difference in influence.
“Ughh, if a typhoon hit and the festival got canceled…”
“Backup days are scheduled in case of weather.”
“Yeah, no need to worry, Ryouya-kun.”
“Replying earnestly to my distress mutter is — extra unpleasant.”
I couldn’t escape the play. Performing in drag in front of the entire school was a kind of torture.
Marriage prospects — gone forever. Then again, no one would marry me anyway, so the loss is theoretical.
“Oh, tomorrow’s homeroom is important too — please don’t sleep.”
”…What were we deciding?”
“Wait — we discussed this in today’s homeroom.”
“Sorry, no memory, must’ve been asleep.”
“Ryouya-kun is so Ryouya-kun.”
“Ryouya is Ryouya.”
The two of them looked exasperated. Stop using my name like a slur.
“Tomorrow we pick sports-day events.”
“Oh, that…”
“Why does Ryouya look so deflated?”
“Things happened last year.”
The unpopular 1500m run slot had defaulted to me last year because no one else picked it. Nightmare.
Dumping it on a loner is predatory. I’d almost faked sick to skip the festival that year.
“You’ll be doing the three-legged race, Ryouya-kun. Please make plans.”
“That’s the mixed-gender one, right? Normie-only event.”
This is a peak-young-love event reserved for the youthful-couples class. A loner is not the audience. There also was no girl who would partner with me.
“Your partner is me, by the way.”
“Just confirming — are you sure? There are other options.”
”…What does that mean?”
“Are you planning on pairing with a different girl?”
“Explain — who, exactly?”
Reona and Riona had gone deadpan and were closing in. Their eyes were settled. My next answer could be fatal.
What I’d meant: isn’t there a different event? They had heard: Ryouya would prefer a different girl as a partner.
“No, no — I meant other than three-legged race, are there other events? If three-legged race, then there’s literally no one but Reona.”
I had no other female classmate I could ask, and the post-wallet-incident fallout meant no one was approaching me anyway.
“Huh — so for you, there’s no one but me.”
“I’m going to remember that word for word.”
The black aura cleared and they shifted back to pleased — crisis averted.
No more careless statements. The exchange had been draining; I had hoped to go home; Reona and Riona had other plans.