Another Like Me - Part I (CoTE x OC) ✔

Chapter 35.5 - Gossip (?) [Bonus]

"Keisuke!!" Chiaki fluttered up to me, along with pretty much the rest of the class, when they noticed me coming back, clutching my left arm in pain. "Are you okay? We saw it happen from here; are you sure you're fine?"

"I'm fine, Chiaki," I said, and I plopped down on the chair, and started rummaging through the first-aid kit. "Probably just pulled a muscle, it's nothing serious."

"No, it is!" she pouted. She looks so adorable when she pouts. "Your presence is necessary for us to win! You carried Hirata-kun on one hand for almost 10 seconds! You're insane!"

After berating me for a while, she snatched the first-aid kit from my hand and started going through it herself. "Here, show me your hand."

With that, she started wrapping a bandage around my hand.

"Wait, it's not broken," I said. "You're worrying too much. It'll be fine if I let it be."

"Stop trying to act all tough and just give me your hand."

I reluctantly agreed. I wasn't going to argue with Chiaki. I had no chance of winning.

"I noticed something odd going on in the field," Chiaki murmured to me in a low voice. "I noticed Hirata-kun grabbing the headband many times, but he was unable to pull it off. Only when he was literally in front of Ryuuen during the last seconds of the game, did he manage to yank off the band."

"I have a feeling Ryuuen had oiled his headband. Of course, I cannot report it to the school," I added, when Chiaki looked at me like she was to burst. "He'll play it down by saying that he had oiled his hair, and that it had probably got onto the headband. Everything was planned out."

"So you're not going to do anything ABOUT it?" she said, as she forcefully tied the bandage harder. I winced.

"Ouch. Go easy on me. I'm a frail man."

"Oh yeah?"

"Ouch!"

"Oh no, did I hurt you? I'm so SORRY!" She yanked on the bandage again.

"Oh god, stop!" I said, as I freed myself from the grip of the scary woman. "You'll screw it up even more than it is now!" Chiaki looked at me with a smug expression, and resumed to stare back at the competition.

"Takeyama-kun." Horikita approached me from the sidelines, and I could see Chiaki eyeing Horikita warily, like some sort of feral cat.

She walked up to me, stood by my side, and then in the next instant, punched me on the bandage. I grimaced my face, but the pain was probably evident from my expression.

"Hey, Horikita-san!" Chiaki immediately came to my rescue. "Why are you hitting him?! I didn't hit him that hard!"

"It's payback for stepping on my foot when I came back from the race," Horikita said indifferently. "Will you able to continue to take part?"

"Now that you've assaulted me, probably no."

"..... sorry. That must have hurt." Horikita apologized to me. A trace of a smile formed on my face. Horikita really was beginning to understand the value of human relations.

"You're such a tsundere."

"That is quite the repulsive piece of vocabulary," she snapped back. "Maybe I should have hit you harder."

"That's exactly what a tsundere would say."

"..... forget it." And the black haired beauty disappeared from my sight. She readied herself for the girl's cavalry battle.

"Horikita, they'll target you."

She stopped in her tracks and turned around to look at me. "What do you mean?"