From betrotheds to lovers

Chapter 14

The first activity for Sakurako's class was stretching, so everyone began pairing up with their friends or close acquaintances in the class, as for Sakurako she didn't search for anyone to pair up with since she was still feeling bitter and depressed about having to attend the PE class

That was the main reason, but there was also the fact that she didn't really know anyone in the classroom since she would either be daydreaming, hanging out with Himari and Kohaku* (*if she wasn't bedridden), or simply because every single one of her classmates were too cowardly to talk with her face to face... Or those three at the same time, usually the last one

Then as Sakurako kept making a depressed blank face, the teacher walked up to her

"Kogane-san, did you already paired up with someone?"

"Hm? No, I didn't"

"Is that so? Then can you pair up with, Kaneko-san over there?"

The teacher pointed at a girl who was crouching with an even more depressing atmosphere than Sakurako

"... Sure"

"Thanks, and also... Don't you want to take off that sweater and scarf while you can?"

"I choose death over taking off even more clothes and participating in PE class"

"You don't have to be this dramatic"

The teacher then a small laugh after saying that, and quickly turned away from Sakurako since just looking at her was enough to make it feel like the temperature was getting way hotter than it was supposed to be. With the teacher had left, Sakurako then walked towards Kaneko who was still crouching

"... *mumbling* mumbling*"

Sakurako could hear that Kaneko was mumbling something as she crept closer to her, and then she touched Kaneko's shoulder without making a sound or saying anything to announce her presence to Kaneko, so Kaneko ended up doing the only suitable reaction to that...

"!?!?!?!?!?!?!? *Silent scream*"

Kaneko fell on her butt as she turned to look at who had touched her, and to her misfortune, it was Sakurako

"KoKoKoKoKoKoKoKo-"

Kaneko was unable to even say Sakurako's surname properly like a broken machine since, on top of getting scared by Sakurako touching her shoulder out of nowhere, she also had social phobia. And so because of her incapacity of saying Sakurako's surname, Kaneko closed shut her mouth while she had a desperate face as her whole body was trembling from nervousness. Sakurako on the other hand simply stared at Kaneko in silence and with her usual blank face

" "..." "

The two stayed silent, as one was too nervous to talk, while the other was trying to pull a good starting conversation topic from her rather limited pool of ideas

"!"

And then the perfect starting conversation for this situation came to Sakurako's mind, so she opened her mouth to start the talk

"Anoo..."

"! Y-Yesh?..."

"What's your name again?"

"*Shocked*"

And that was Sakurako's perfect starting conversation topic, asking for Kaneko's name since she hadn't remembered any of her classmates' names, as for Kaneko she could only make a shocked face at the question Sakurako made, and then she began to feel even more depressed

"I-It's Kaneko... Hitori..."

"Kaneko Hitori-san is it?... I'll try to remember it to the best of my capabilities" *Thumbs up*

"I'm sorry for forcing you to remember my name!"

"It's okay, the teacher asked me to pair up with you today"

"I'm sorry for making you pair up with me!"

"Ah! The teacher is going to say something, do you want help in getting up?"

"... ... ... Yes..."

With that Sakurako helped Hitori get up, revealing that she was a little bit taller than Sakurako, 173 cm of height, just 3 cm shy of Sakurako's 170 cm of height

Hitori also had long straight pale dark blue hair, and black eyes with dark circles underneath, which both gave her a pretty gloomy look, that looked even gloomier as she stood right next to Sakurako. The same could be said about her clothes, as Hitori was wearing her school bark blue gym jersey and pants that gave her a plain look

That looked even plainer when compared to Sakurako who was also wearing the school gym jersey, but differently from Hitori who was wearing her jersey fully closed, Sakurako's jersey was mostly open and hanging on her arms, which also made it very clear that she was wearing her black sweater underneath her gym shirt, with her scarf still going around her arms, and last Sakurako was wearing her school gym small shorts, which almost fully revealed her slim legs

She was wearing that many clothes, and it was a pretty hot day as well

And so as both Sakurako and Hitori felt depressed for different reasons, the teacher told everyone to start stretching with their partners. With no other choice, both Sakurako and Hitori began stretching together, with Sakurako keeping her blank face while Hitori kept feeling extra nervous from being too close to Sakurako

Then as it was Sakurako's turn to stretch her back, Hitori began to fall too deep into her own thoughts as she was pushing Sakurako's back

<She hasn't said anything all this time! She's clearly annoyed at being paired up with me! It's clear just from looking at her face! Goodbye, my bright high school life... *Crying internally*>

*Crack*

"Eh?"

Then Hitori heard the sound of what appeared to be something cracking which brought her senses back to reality, and then she noticed that she had accidentally pushed Sakurako's back all the down forward as she was talking to herself, and Sakurako wasn't moving...

"... ... ... !?!?!?" <I'm definitely going to jail because of this! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!! Forget my bright high school life! Now I'm going to spend the rest of my life in jail! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!>

Then as Hitori was screaming silently with a desperate face due to her delusion, Sakurako slowly lifted herself with a satisfied blank face since that crack on her back felt really good. After that, Hitori apologized to Sakurako a lot of times, even though Sakurako didn't get why she was apologizing in the first place

After everyone had stretched themselves, the teacher gathered them once again to tell them what they were going to be doing next

"Okay, everyone. Now we'll do some jogging for some arbitrarily decided laps. So follow me!"

And the teacher began jogging, which took some of the students a few moments to get that it had already started, so they all began to run or jog after the teacher. And again, with no other options, Sakurako and Hitori both began to jog behind everyone else

5 minutes in

The two were managing to keep up with everyone else, but Sakurako was already looking somewhat exhausted while Hitori was looking okay

10 minutes in

"..."

"Huff... Huff... Huff... Ack... Haa..."

By now Sakurako was barely able to keep up with Hitori and was slowly falling behind her

12 minutes in

Sakurako was now lagging behind by quite a distance from Hitori as she looked to be completely out of breath

12 minutes and 20 seconds in

Sakurako had collapsed heads down to the ground and wasn't moving

"KOGANE-SAN?!"

Hitori was the first one to notice that Sakurako had collapsed on the ground

- The end...

(A/N Notes: I can't believe Sakurako just died

Also, there's now a new illustration in Chapter 7)