Ch 89 – 1 June, A New Pride

Kouta woke up in the morning. In the bed, Satomi was  still sleeping beside him with such a peaceful expression. But she woke up when Kouta moved slightly.

"Nnn… Is it morning already?"

"Yes…"

"Is that so? I'll make you breakfast."

Satomi made a great big yawn while stretching her hand to the air, before she left her room. On the other hand, Kouta changed into his jogging attire. He had already been in the Satomi apartment several times, so he should not neglect his morning routine. He bought some of his clothing here.

After doing that, Kouta immediately took a shower, before going to the dining room. Satomi was already waiting for him with such a typical Japanese breakfast. She was also already in her teacher outfit.

"Oh… This looks good." Kouta said, placing the fried fish on top of the rice before bringing it to his mouth. "Un… It’s good." He said. Well, to be honest, It wasn’t as good as his cooking, but it was kinda familiar with his late-mother.

"Thanks, hehehe… Really, it feels really different to be praised by your boyfriend." Satomi replied with a tinge of embarrassment, but still smiled happily.

"Today is Friday, right?"

"Un…"

"If that's the case, can you help me?"

"Hm… Is there anything you want me to do?"

"Well, of course. Can you help me with Utaha?"

"Utaha? Is there anything wrong with her."

"You know that we've been making dating sims together, right? And since last week, we have been doing it in my home, and tomorrow was no exception. So I want you to help me make her a bit busy for a moment."

"That… are you trying to do anything to her?"

In the end, Satomi was her teacher after all, and of course, she knew about Utaha as Satomi taught Utaha and showed she was worried about her as a teacher.

"Hm… It’s a secret." Kouta replied, but from his expression, Satomi knew it very well. What he may be planning for. "Anyway, how about you asked her to help you with the pretense that you gave permission for using the audiovisual room? I think around this time is good." With that, Kouta gave Satomi a smile—his usual devilish smile.

And Satomi couldn’t reject his request.

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Usually there wasn’t anything mentioned, but Friday was a day of physical education. It was just that there was something different today, since physical education was mixed with class A.

After they had done a bit of running. The teacher told them to look for a partner and do some light stretching together. Kouta, who spent most of his time in the classroom alone or went to the clubroom or rooftop with most of his targets or girlfriends. So he didn’t have any male friends.

But thanks to this time, they had class together with Class A. At least, he knew someone familiar.

"Oi, Gojou-kun, how about we do it together?" Kouta asked one of the tallest men in the two classes together. His height could be around 185 cm, and he had short hair and gray eyes that looked a bit gloomy.

"Eh… Suzuki-san!?" Rather than answer Kouta's question, Gojou looked confused by Kouta’s invitation.

"Hm? Do you already have pairs in mind?"

"Eh… Well. No."

"Well, if that's the case. We can become a pair…"

"But… are you fine with me?"

Gojou, who in the anime around this time didn’t have any friends, looked unconfident. He said a word a little stammered and low too.

"What are you saying? I’m the one who's asking you. Of course, I’m fine. Just don’t think too much, and after all, we're just doing light exercise. It’s not like we’re doing something that difficult." Kouta

"Ahaha… That’s true."

Kouta and Gojou did some light stretching together, just like the teacher told them to do. Some of the stretches were a little difficult to do because of the difference in height between them. Their height difference was probably around 20 cm.

"So how about Kitagawa-san cosplay? Did it go well?" Kouta asked while Gojou helped him stretch.

"Eh, I have some problems, so I’m still not finished making it." Gojou replied with a gloomy tone. "But  thank goodness. Kitagawa-san understood, and she was totally prepared to wait however long it took for me to make it." He continued with a grateful tone.

"Hm… Is that so? You have some problems. Huh… No wonder you sound a bit gloomier than before." Kouta responded while turning to Gojou with a smile.

"Eh, do I look like that?"

"Yeah, of course. There must be something happening in your house. Huh…"

"Ah… Yes. Actually my grandpa suddenly collapsed and hurt his back."

"Really, that sound sucks. Well, if you need some help. You can ask me."

"Suzuki-san…"

"We can exchange numbers too."

"Really!"

The two of them had such friendly conversation while stretching until the teacher told the classroom to make their own group of five. And the girl had volleyball. while the boy was most likely playing basketball.

Kouta and Gojou were a bunch of loners in their classroom, and of course, their group made a bunch of leftovers. Kouta could hear a voice from them saying they didn’t want to play, and others too.

"Well… Can you play basketball, Gojou-kun?"

"I think I'm not good at any sports."

"That’s true." Kouta, who is familiar with Gojou from manga and anime, agreed with him pretty easily.

Kouta didn’t particularly care about physical education. Usually, he wasn't particularly interested in sports either. Since Kouta in the past was never really good at sports, and he never really did sports

But these days, Kouta has already started to do some sports, either by learning boxing from scratch or actually training his body nearly every day.

Because of that, Kouta had some weird new pride. That’s why he felt like he was in a bad mood when he saw or heard some people talking down at him. Especially the Riajuu one, the person that he had friction with several days ago.

Yeah, Kouta was pretty aware how that guy said pretty bad things about him to his own group and intentionally loud enough to be heard by Kouta.

"Look at that cute boy with a group of losers…"

"Hahaha, yeah. They will be humiliated next time."

Kouta could hear those people saying those things in his ear. Well, in the past, Kouta wouldn’t care, but this time that Riaju's attitude started getting on his nerves. Something that Kouta rarely felt before. Seeing that guy had that kind of smug attitude, one of the reasons he got under Kouta’s skin.

At that time, Kouta realized his attitude had already changed. The reason he didn’t really care about this in the past, because of how low his self-esteem was. Especially, he didn’t really do sports and viewed him as a weak guy compared to the others.

But this time Kouta was different. He felt not that weak and had the ability to back up his pride and his confidence. Also, he had relationships with girls, which actually increased his ego and pride too.

That’s why Kouta felt like he didn’t want to be looked down on by other people.

"Geez, I never expected that I would become such a petty guy. Oh… Anyway, Gojou-kun, I know you are not that good with sports or maybe basketball, but at least you can help me with an easy job, right?" Kouta asked Gojou who heard those people talking badly about them.

"Eh… Well, maybe…"

"Well, That’s good. All I want you to do is just a screen."

"A screen?"

"A screen is a blocking move by an offensive player in which they stand beside or behind a defender in order to free a teammate to either shoot a pass or drive in to score, but the best thing is to make it easier for me to shoot a three."

Yeah, Kouta didn’t know, but when his previous world died. Basketball is in a new era, the three point era, that people have said is the most skilled era because of the many good shooters they had, but it is also a soft era, because of how weak the defense is in this era. Well, in the end, it was just how people preferred how basketball looked. At least, for Kouta, who is just a small guy. A shooter's era was such an advantage for him.