JSWGAS Chapter 73

Chapter 73 73.

Chapter 73 73.

73.

Early April.

The sky was just beginning to lighten, and Kokonoe Taka was already dressed and ready to go for his morning run—even though today was the first day of school, he didn’t plan to change this long-held habit.

At his insistence, his grandparents didn’t return to Miyagi with him. In fact, they preferred that Kokonoe Taka continue his studies in Tokyo, rather than returning alone to a place with unhappy memories. But Kokonoe Taka finally persuaded them and politely declined his grandmother’s suggestion to close the flower shop and come to Miyagi with him.

“I have a reason why I must go back,” he said, bringing the family meeting to an end.

This house, which he hadn’t returned to for many years, was a fairly large private residence that had been left idle after no one lived there. It wasn’t until he took the key and pushed open the rusty fence and unfamiliar front door again that this gloomy house saw the light of day again. And although they hired people to clean it once a year, the weeds growing wildly in the yard and the accumulated dust were stubbornly persistent, and the ivy climbing up the windows and the withered vines added a touch of eerie urban legend to it.

Kokonoe Taka only cleaned roughly when he came back, and later he was busy with practice and school enrollment every day, going out early and returning late, so that now only his room on the second floor and the living room in this house have a trace of life.

He sat on the porch, carefully tying his shoelaces, his fingers flying, making a beautiful and perfect bow. When he looked up, he saw a small spider web in the corner of the empty shoe cabinet. “Tsk.” He frowned, planning to do a thorough cleaning after school today.

The first day of school shouldn’t be too busy, maybe he could clean up the withered grass in the yard outside as well. He calculated the time in his mind, stood up straight, and casually opened the door.

“—You’re slow.”

The cool morning breeze and the lighthearted tone that almost blended into early spring greeted him together. Kokonoe Taka’s footsteps paused almost imperceptibly, and the things he had just been thinking about were naturally covered by another thought. In his view, in front of the rusty iron fence at his door, a listless figure was leaning against it, and when he saw him coming out, the other person’s lazy appearance didn’t change, but instead, he slowly revealed a frivolous smile.

“…What are you doing here?” Kokonoe Taka asked, not stopping his steps.

“Of course, I’m here for a morning run.”

As Kokonoe Taka walked to the door, the last rising note of Oikawa Tōru’s voice gradually disappeared. He had his usual friendly smile on his face, but his mouth was saying something completely opposite to the smile, “Oh dear, I was really worried about what to do if Little Taka got lost in a strange place on the first day of school. After thinking about it, I thought it would be better to keep an eye on you, right?”

Kokonoe Taka: “…What strange place could I get lost in?”

The two chatted casually as they slowly ran along the road.

“A place with annoying egrets—” Oikawa Tōru hummed, “Or just get lost and go back to Tokyo.”

Kokonoe Taka: “…I think that’s better than ‘Rolling Caterpillar’.”

Oikawa Tōru: “…Aaaah, I told you not to mention that! Forget it!”

—‘Rolling Caterpillar’, a photo named and carefully backed up no less than five times by Iwaizumi Hajime. The photo recorded the scene of Oikawa Tōru and another person being tightly entangled in the net, and Oikawa Tōru’s rare twisted face.

(Oikawa Tōru had tried to delete the photo in the past few days. But he didn’t expect that Iwaizumi Hajime had also backed up this photo elsewhere.)

“That photo clearly captured you too!”

“But my face isn’t showing,” Kokonoe Taka retorted, “As long as I don’t admit it, no one will be able to recognize me.”

The two quarreled all the way, startling a group of sparrows perched on the telephone pole when they passed it. The sound was so loud that Iwaizumi Hajime, who had just left the house, could hear it from half a street away. He stood in place warming up until Kokonoe Taka and Oikawa Tōru ran side by side in front of him, and the two people’s bickering hadn’t ended.

Iwaizumi Hajime ruthlessly knocked each of them on the head, “Be quiet! Can’t you just have a good morning run!”

Oikawa Tōru: “Ugh… Koiwa, why are you so gentle when you hit him! It’s not fair!”

Kokonoe Taka: “Because A-Ichi also thinks you deserve to be hit more.”

Iwaizumi Hajime: “Stop talking nonsense!”

Oikawa Tōru: “? Why are you hitting me again! He was the one who provoked it! Is your filter for this person so thick that it’s a little disgusting?!”

After being ruthlessly suppressed again, Oikawa Tōru could only vent his anger on running—he mustered up his strength and wanted to surpass the two of them, speeding up and rushing forward, leaving only a series of smug laughs, “Hahahaha, you’re not as fast as me! First place is mine!”

Iwaizumi Hajime and Kokonoe Taka followed behind.

Iwaizumi Hajime: “Idiot.”

Kokonoe Taka: “This speed will cause a stitch, right?”

A word came true.

Oikawa Tōru and Iwaizumi Hajime usually do morning exercises, but not as early as Kokonoe Taka. Coming out so early today was largely to accompany him—Kokonoe Taka rarely runs with others, or rather, few people can keep up with his pace. But Iwaizumi Hajime unexpectedly kept pace with him.

Almost overlapping footsteps, reassuring in a way.

Considering the time, the choice of the morning run route wasn’t so tortuous. After running out of the residential area, and passing a section of slope and downhill, crossing a bridge could circle back to the starting point. Just as the two ran up the slope, they saw someone squatting at the bottom of the slope from a high place, with a very pitiful back.

Although they wanted to ignore this person, they finally slowed down and stopped in front of Oikawa Tōru.

Iwaizumi Hajime didn’t sympathize with him at all, and sneered, “Got a stitch, huh.”

Oikawa Tōru: “…Ugh.”

He looked up with tears in his eyes.

As a result, his head was pressed down again by Kokonoe Taka, who had been coveting his hair that looked so good to rub for a long time: “Why don’t we just leave this troublesome guy here to fend for himself.” Groping up and down.

That’s what he said, but after a few cool digs, Kokonoe Taka still picked this person up from the ground, “Where does it hurt?”

Oikawa Tōru clutched his side abdomen, “…Below the ribs.”

Getting a stitch isn’t uncommon for sports-type teenagers, and they all know a little bit about how to relieve the pain. Kokonoe Taka peeled away Oikawa Tōru’s hand and gently pressed near his ribs. The latter took a big breath, dodging as if countless bugs were crawling on his body.

Kokonoe Taka gave him a puzzled look.

Oikawa Tōru’s reasoning was not straight, but his confidence was strong: “You pressed the wrong spot! Don’t touch my ticklish spot! A little higher! And too light! Taka, didn’t you eat?”

This is typical of taking an inch and wanting a mile.

Kokonoe Taka coldly let go. With a “paji” sound, Oikawa Tōru, who had put all his weight on him, lost his support and fell to the ground in a mess.

Oikawa Tōru: “…Hey!!!”

When he got up with a gray face, indignantly wanting to find the culprit to reason with, he found that the other two had run away without looking back, leaving him with a back full of indifference.

…

…………

After the morning run, the three went home to tidy up briefly and met again, walking to Aoba Johsai together. Mrs. Oikawa cooked breakfast in the kitchen this morning, a total of three servings, and told Oikawa Tōru to remember to bring the sandwiches to Kokonoe Taka and Iwaizumi Hajime when he left.

She usually lets Oikawa Tōru fend for himself, letting him buy milk and bread at the convenience store!

…And the portion for Kokonoe Taka actually had twice as much bacon as his.

Oikawa Tōru changed his portion with Kokonoe Taka’s without changing his expression, and said vaguely while biting the sandwich that didn’t belong to him, “Mom asked me to give it to you.”

“Thank Auntie for me.”

Kokonoe Taka accepted it, and casually took out two bottles of milk from his backpack, throwing one to Iwaizumi Hajime, and deliberately put the bottle for Oikawa Tōru on top of Oikawa’s head, crushing his carefully styled hair before he left. But he took back his hand before Oikawa Tōru could resist, turned his head and asked Iwaizumi Hajime, “A-Ichi, when I looked at the list before, which group were you assigned to?”

Iwaizumi Hajime took a sip of milk: “First year, first group, same as you.”

Oikawa Tōru didn’t bother to condemn Kokonoe Taka for messing up his hair, “Then what about me—”

Iwaizumi Hajime’s answer was damn cool: “Who cares about you, look for yourself.”

“…That’s too much!”

Oikawa Tōru protested angrily, and finally threatened the two of them with his setting skills in the next few days that they must accompany him to see the bulletin board.

There was no shortage of guys besides Oikawa Tōru who were careless and didn’t remember their class in front of the bulletin board, and people of all heights squeezed into a circle. Oikawa Tōru glanced at the two guys who barely followed over and finally stopped outside the crowd and refused to go forward, resigned to squeezing inside.

A tall and handsome guy standing in front of the bulletin board was enough to attract attention, and two handsome guys were even more eye-catching. But compared to the black-haired handsome guy behind him who had a kind of inexplicable aura that no strangers should approach, the brown-haired handsome guy in front with a lighthearted smile seemed more approachable.

So when Oikawa Tōru broke through the barriers to see his class, Kokonoe Taka and Iwaizumi Hajime watched him experience no less than ten hook-ups, and even became more and more difficult to move—there were too many girls who surrounded him intentionally or unintentionally. And this guy’s happy expression made the girls flock to him.

Kokonoe Taka: “…”

Iwaizumi Hajime: “…”

The two looked at each other and turned their heads to leave tacitly.

As for Oikawa Tōru, who was squeezed in a mess, finally found his class on the bulletin board with difficulty, and found out that the reaction after the two people who were waiting for him disappeared without a trace—this is another story.

They didn’t come too early or too late, and half of the seats in the classroom of the first year, first group were already occupied. Iwaizumi Hajime went in first, looked around the classroom for a week, and turned his head to ask, “Sit at the back?”

Kokonoe Taka followed him in, looked around, and answered indifferently, “Okay.”

After saying that, he walked to the empty seat at the back of the classroom.

One of the two people is usually straightforward and doesn’t care much about details, and the other habitually ignores other people’s gazes, and the most sensitive one was ruthlessly abandoned by them—so neither of them noticed that since they entered the classroom one after another, the originally slightly noisy conversation obviously lightened more than one degree.

In this way, the first year, first group ushered in the late-arriving homeroom teacher with a rare silence. The latter was quite surprised when she came in—the classrooms she passed along the way were very noisy, especially the screams in the third group were the loudest. She couldn’t help but stick her head out to take a look when she passed by, oh, it turned out that there was a flamboyant new student.

She understood in an instant.

But after standing on the podium, the homeroom teacher felt that she had found the root cause of the silence in the first group—it was because of the handsome guy sitting by the window in the last row, right? But he looks much more stable than the one in the third group.

She clapped her hands, indicating that the new students should do a simple self-introduction.

After the self-introduction, there was a class election, and after the class election, the teacher arranged for the students to participate in the opening ceremony together. After that, the student council went back to their respective classrooms for a big cleaning. The two rolled up their sleeves and ran to carry water with a group of boys, and then contracted the task of wiping the windows. The two usually take the initiative to clean at home, and they work quickly, and the hygiene of the first group was quickly completed.

“People are really not to be judged by appearances.” A pink-haired boy in the same class said with emotion, “Iwaizumi is one thing, I originally thought that Kokonoe was the kind of person who wasn’t good at cleaning, but I didn’t expect him to be so skilled at working.”

Kokonoe Taka raised his eyebrows, “Then what type do you think I am?”

Hanamaki Takahiro took two steps back in a serious manner, looking at him for a moment: “—Um, looks like James Bond who sneaked into the school and is about to assassinate the dean of education.”

Iwaizumi Hajime muffled a laugh: “Pfft.”

Kokonoe Taka: “…Where exactly did you see that from?”

Hanamaki Takahiro said plausibly: “The temperament is very important! Temperament! So when I saw you so virtuous—uh,” he received Kokonoe Taka’s meaningful squint, and changed his words quite consciously, “So skilled, it’s inevitable that I would feel very disconnected.”

Boys often become familiar with each other in just one or two sentences, and after learning that Hanamaki Takahiro also planned to join the volleyball club, they planned to go to the gym together and hand in their club application forms.

There weren’t many people on the corridor, and Hanamaki Takahiro was planning to list three or four more reasons when he heard the boy he had dubbed ‘Bond’ suddenly ask him, “Then what type do you think that guy is?”

If he could do it again, Hanamaki would definitely not answer this question—but at this time, he was still ignorant of the chaotic relationship (specifically, the food chain) between Kokonoe, Iwaizumi, and Oikawa, and saw the brown-haired, handsome boy whom Kokonoe Taka was pointing at, standing out from the crowd of blushing girls, and made a conclusion without hesitation.

“Although it’s just a hunch,” he said seriously, “I feel like either he’s being played with miserably, or he’s playing with others miserably—”

His voice was slightly loud, and since two handsome guys with completely different styles appeared on the corridor, it wasn’t so noisy, which led to the fact that when this sentence was said here, the surroundings had been quieted down for the most part.

Hanamaki continued to comment sharply without realizing it.

“—If it were a woman, it would definitely be very difficult to deal with.” He gave an example based on facts, “Like the Fujiko Mine type, right?”

—At this time, the corridor had fallen into a completely silent state, and this sentence was even more deafening.

In a way, what he said wasn’t really wrong.

But the person involved wasn’t in such a good mood after hearing it.

Oikawa Tōru had noticed them when Kokonoe Taka and the other two were walking towards this side. He had just raised a smile, and before he could speak, he heard the pink-haired guy next to Taka and Koiwa say this shocking statement.

Oikawa Tōru: The smile slowly cracked.

And his friends obviously didn’t care about his fragile heart at all.

Kokonoe Taka: “…Pfft. Well said, Hanamaki.”

Iwaizumi Hajime: “Hahahaha Hahahaha! You’re a pretty good guy!”

With the laughter of these two as a starting point, muffled laughter rang out continuously around them, and in the end, the corridor became a sea of joy. Oikawa Tōru only felt that he was caught in the middle and out of place—”Why!?” He widened his eyes and rushed to the three of them in anger, Kokonoe Taka and Iwaizumi Hajime laughed even more arrogantly, and the guy who made the shocking statement moved his eyes away guiltily.

“How could Oikawa-sama be like Fujiko Mine—”

Kokonoe Taka stopped laughing: “In terms of being difficult to deal with, you’re exactly the same as her.”

Oikawa Tōru: “…I can tell that you’re not praising me!”

Kokonoe Taka wasn’t afraid of him at all, and sighed slightly: “Sometimes it’s better to deceive yourself, Tōru.”

“What self-deception!” Oikawa Tōru shouted, “According to this, are you Lupin or Zenigata, Taka? Koiwa is just that annoying Daisuke Jigen, right!”

Iwaizumi Hajime: “Isn’t Daisuke Jigen very handsome?!”

Oikawa Tōru: “Not handsome at all! Only a special effects fan like Koiwa with no taste would like him—Uwa, that hurts!?”

Hanamaki, who started this sinful topic, turned his head and expressed his doubts to Kokonoe Taka: “Why has this guy completely brought himself into the perspective of Fujiko Mine?”

Kokonoe Taka: “…”

That makes sense, I want to know why too!