* * *
Life is such that even when good things happen, annoying incidents occur quickly.
As if thinking such thoughts made the truth come to pass, a somewhat bothersome incident occurred during after-school activities. At that time, I was doing basic physical training on the athletic field under the blazing sun, and in between I kept glancing at Cheick who was sitting and resting near the goalpost. Then suddenly Olivia approached him and handed him water.
I don’t know what business Olivia has, but when she approaches someone, it’s absolutely not out of pure goodwill.
“…”
After holding my breath and looking around, I confirmed that the coach was busy training kids in other positions, then passed a bottle of ion drink to Cheick—in my haste, I just snatched what another teammate was about to drink. Cheick, who received the drink unexpectedly, looked at me with a bewildered expression, and the teammate whose drink I’d taken forgot we were in the middle of training and yelled loudly.
“You guys there, what’s this? Won’t you do it properly?”
The teammate heard the coach’s reprimand and returned to his original position muttering curses, and I continued training while watching Olivia’s movements.
Olivia tried to have a conversation with Cheick a few times, but when the conversation kept breaking off, she made a slightly sulky face and went somewhere.
With Olivia, she probably didn’t approach Cheick because she really liked him, but I’ve often seen kids who are actually interested in Cheick approach like that, then get disappointed by the repeatedly breaking conversation and turn away. But thinking about how when a confession note was found in Cheick’s locker—of course, I put it there—he naturally believed it must be a joke, I think he’s really peculiar.
‘At least the kids don’t call you a loser or a wimp.’
‘I heard it’s a trendy style at thug barbershops these days.’
…Or maybe he’s become unconsciously intimidated because the kids tease or bother him so much.
By normal standards, our team practices until the latest time even when competing with any sports department in the school, but today only, the track and field team with a competition right around the corner guarded the athletic field until the very end.
While Cheick was sweating for a long time preparing for the competition, I stood at the entrance of the cheerleader team locker room without even changing clothes as soon as practice ended—it was a strategy to be easily noticed—standing there obviously like someone waiting for somebody. Then cheerleaders who had been hanging around the locker room started talking to me asking what I was here for.
“Well, have you seen ‘Liv’?”
Liv. Olivia’s nickname, and I don’t know how long it’s been since I said this name.
When Olivia’s nickname was mentioned by me, a strange light briefly passed over the face of the guy I’d questioned. At that moment, I sensed the operation was successful.
“If the person you’re looking for is Olivia, she should still be at school.”
“Then could you contact her for me? Sorry. It’s obvious she won’t take my calls.”
Olivia wouldn’t take my calls. This was something I said to add stimulus to the rumor that would spread soon, but it was also true. Olivia and I have known each other for a long time, but we also avoid each other just as much.
Not long after the cheerleader kid made contact, an enraged Olivia appeared alone in front of me. Then she spoke in a terrifying voice that was hard to hear.
“Let’s talk for a moment, Liam Blake.”
“That’s what I want.”
Olivia dragged me into the empty cheerleader team girls’ locker room and hit my solar plexus quite accurately with her small fist.
“What’s your scheme, you son of a bitch? You said never to acknowledge each other at school.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry for breaking the rule. But the question about what scheme is what I want to ask.”
When I asked what scheme she had approaching Cheick when just a few weeks ago she looked down on him, I unexpectedly received the answer ‘I can’t meet Aiden anymore.’
“What’s that? If the person you’re meeting isn’t Aiden, does it absolutely have to be Cheick?”
But when I asked if Cheick wasn’t too far from her type, Olivia immediately answered yes.
“He’s absolutely not my type. That’s why it has to be him. I’m in the middle of changing my image. Both externally and internally.”
“Why?”
“Why? Others may not know but you would. Someone who lives in a slum but is full of vanity… living while lying here and there, sometimes it gets tedious. Because of that.”
Since I know that feeling very well too, I nodded at Olivia and asked her not to drag Cheick into complicated matters even so.
Olivia and I live in the same neighborhood, and this is a secret only we two know. We were somewhat close when we didn’t know better, but now we’ve promised not to acknowledge each other if possible and don’t get involved in each other’s lives as much as we can.
“You have good instincts so you probably already know, but because of what I just did, both you and I will have a hard time for a while. But if you try to do anything more to Cheick, I’ll publicly confess to you in front of the audience before our team’s game starts this week. Fake, of course.”
“If you even try that shit, I won’t let it slide. Anyway, such devotion. Since when have you been that close with him?”
“Whether I’ve been close with him or not isn’t important. He’s…”
Even when he says one word, it’s different. That’s what’s important.
…But there’s no benefit to either me or Olivia in saying that, so I decided to stop talking and say goodbye to her.
“Anyway yeah, see you later. ‘Liv.'”
“If you call my name like that one more time…!”
Leaving behind the raging Olivia, I went outside the locker room and checked my smartphone to find traces of Cheick calling. I called him while going outside, and as soon as I went out, I was able to run into Cheick, who was dripping with sweat—I don’t know when his practice ended—answering the phone.
I was a bit surprised at first to find Cheick wandering around, but soon a good idea came to mind so I approached him and put my arm around his shoulders. And I asked.
“I didn’t tell you I was here. How did you come?”
“I couldn’t not know even if I tried.”
Cheick said somewhat awkwardly. Did he search for me? I waited for what he would say next with a strange sense of anticipation. Meanwhile, the sound of someone fighting came from over there. About two or four people seemed to be entangled in an argument, and among them, one particularly excited person’s voice was familiar.
…Alice Miller.
With Cheick looking anxious in front of me, I turned my eyes toward the noisy place where conflict was occurring. Looking at it, Alice and Sophia, and about two cheerleader kids seemed to be confronting each other.
“Don’t make things up carelessly when you don’t even know. It’s not like he said so himself!”
“When did we make things up? He really came in front of us and asked! If ‘Liv’ was there. He even asked us to contact her instead since she won’t take his calls, so what more needs to be said?”
It seems a fight broke out because of what I just did. I nodded my head while watching the fight for a moment, then faced Cheick who was looking at me with an expression asking why I wasn’t going to mediate the situation quickly.
“Should I go stop that fight?”
Honestly, I don’t want to get involved in that scene. Whether I caused it or not, it’s not like I asked Alice to defend me. Why?
“Huh?”
When I reacted coldly, Cheick asked with a slightly surprised face. Oh no. Did I show my annoyance too obviously?
“If you want, I’ll go stop it. But I want to say this one thing in advance. I didn’t like Olivia approaching you, so I just called her and talked to her separately.”
“Could you tell me what you said to her?”
Of course. As soon as I received Cheick’s request, I walked with my arm still around him toward the opposite side of the fight scene.
“Olivia told me this once. She said she gets goosebumps all over her body just thinking about me. Because it’s so annoying and so disgusting.”
“…Are you two on that bad terms?”
“I don’t care much about her. Of course, our personalities don’t match, so I don’t want to be close to her either.”
When Cheick asked if I just fought with Olivia, I shook my head to mean no.
“I just asked her not to involve you if she was plotting something. That’s all.”
“Olivia… doesn’t seem like she’d obediently listen just because you ask.”
“That’s true. So I threatened her a bit. Since she hates me so much, I said I’d make a fake confession to her in front of everyone if she didn’t comply with my request.”
Cheick looked at me with a somewhat displeased expression, and seeing that expression, I felt like I was being reproached. But I didn’t feel intimidated or anything because of it.
“…You don’t want to get involved in the fight Alice is having, right?”
Cheick asked after maintaining silence for a while. I immediately answered yes, and Cheick nodded and headed to the parking lot saying he’d drive me home.
“I once got that feeling from you briefly. That you observe from a distance rather than rushing into situations.”
As soon as we got in the car, Cheick said to me while looking straight ahead. I don’t like getting involved in things. If the reward I can get by taking risks is big, I’ll move willingly, but usually I only speak and act within limits where I won’t suffer losses. It’s one thing that Cheick saw through that part, but I’m worried if it looked too bad.
“…”
The longer Cheick’s silence continued, the more I began to feel an intimidation I hadn’t experienced before. Meanwhile, Cheick awkwardly touched my cheek like he did this morning.
“If it’s about Olivia, you don’t have to help me that much.”
When he asked if I didn’t trust him, I was so flustered I explained it absolutely wasn’t that.
“It’s not that, I was just conscious of Olivia being around you…”
“I understand if you can’t trust me. I don’t think I’ve shown you a very decisive side either.”
“I was wrong after all, wasn’t I? I’m sorry. I often hear that I handle things unilaterally on my own. I should have been careful.”
Toward me rambling in confusion, Cheick shook his head as if it was okay and called me—Liam. I immediately shut my babbling mouth. Then I looked at Cheick who had an indifferent expression.
“It’s okay. However you handle things, if that’s your way, do it your way.”
“If I act too selfishly and lose your goodwill…”
“That won’t happen. I still don’t know what kind of person you are. So I’d like you to act more like yourself. When I think it’s not right, I’ll say so. I told you earlier too that you don’t have to help. You also make sure to tell me if I act too far from your standards.”
“…Are Alice and the cheerleader kids still there?”
When I asked carefully, Cheick looked at me and smiled softly. I asked him to wait in the car, then quietly approached the area where Alice and Sophia, and the cheerleader kids were still arguing and asked.
“So how far has the rumor progressed? That Olivia dumped Aiden and Leda and I broke up because in the end Olivia and I were having an affair? That the fight between Leda and me last time was also because of Olivia?”
Olivia and I only talked business, I told everyone.
“I didn’t have money to buy concert tickets so I sold meal tickets to Olivia. But listening to what other guys said, it seemed like I sold them too cheap, so I called her to argue for a few more bucks.”
I actually use Olivia when I sell meal tickets to raise pocket money. She makes a profit doing fairly large-scale meal ticket business at school, and I’m one of her regular and troublesome customers. On the condition of keeping the secret about our residence, I complain to her every time using the reason that she prices the meal tickets too cheaply.
