The preparation period for Powder Puff, which felt endlessly long to Henry, had come to an end.
The first day, which was also the eve festival for Powder Puff, Platts was bustling with people from early morning.
Booths prepared by each club, and even outside guests—the large school was filled with people.
Since Platts was the oldest and largest private high school in the area, events that allowed outsiders to enter always had many visitors, but this year was particularly exceptional.
The reason, if one were to name it, was that it had been quite a while since Platts had achieved great success at the high school football championship.
Because of this, people were uniformly curious about “Platts’ football club.”
Even though, being a Powder Puff Day event, it was actually the female students from the cheerleading club who would be playing the game.
Henry was walking around the playground with Joseph, looking at the booths in full swing.
Joseph was beside him, receiving or buying every snack there was to be had. Henry scorned him once for that, then silently looked around.
He responded to people who occasionally spoke to him, and sometimes participated in booths that looked fun. To be honest, he was bored.
As Henry continued looking around with such a bored face, something familiar and something unpleasant caught his eye.
A dunk tank. And Declan Russell, that is.
People were surrounding the booth so densely there was no room to step.
A blue canopy. A low stage. A chair installed at about a person’s height. A water tank of appropriate depth placed below it. And even a target board placed to the side.
Henry, who easily figured out what kind of booth it was, raised his head and examined the top of the device. Sure enough, there was a placard attached.
[DUNK TANK – Hit the target and your friend goes splash!]
An utterly provocative phrase. And sitting on the chair was none other than Declan Russell.
A dunk tank was an event where if someone threw a ball and hit the target, the chair seat would rotate. As a result, the person sitting on the chair would fall into the water tank.
Additionally, it was a popular booth that would be set up anywhere where festivals were held, booths were present, and people gathered—wherever these three conditions were met.
Most people were watching for fun, but a certain amount of malice could be glimpsed on the faces of those participating in hitting the target.
As he clicked his tongue and watched those continuously failing to hit the target, Joseph’s voice was heard.
For him, who had been following behind holding cup chicken, it seemed to be quite a bewildering sight, as he asked in a surprised voice.
“Isn’t that Russell? Why is Russell up there?”
Henry shrugged his shoulders.
“How should I know?”
“…He actually dislikes standing out. He probably didn’t go up there voluntarily.”
“It’s probably those guys.”
Henry gestured with his chin toward where a group was. Joseph, who turned his gaze there, frowned deeply.
“Aren’t those bastards Columbus’s friends?”
“Probably.”
“Did they have any reason to hold a grudge against Russell?”
“Columbus got suspended.”
“…If you think about it, wasn’t that because of you, not Russell?”
Joseph clearly pointed out who was right and wrong. But…
“Does that look important to them?”
It was obvious that they hadn’t sent Declan up there caring about the facts Joseph was talking about.
Columbus, who had given them power within the school, had left the school this year. They would have needed a target to vent their anger.
It was obvious that because Declan Russell, who had been involved in that incident, was right before their eyes at that moment, he ended up sitting in that seat.
Henry knew better than anyone that if it had been him, not Declan Russell, who had caught their eye, he would be the one sitting on that chair right now.
“And Columbus always disliked Russell anyway. You know that. It’s probably his influence.”
It seemed Declan Russell had bad luck. Relieved that it wasn’t him, Henry added with a completely lighthearted feeling.
Joseph also expressed agreement with that.
“Now that I think about it, you’re right.”
“Hey! Joseph, Henry! Did you come to watch too?”
At that moment, a familiar voice was heard through the crowd. It was Aiden from the same football club.
“Aiden!”
Unlike Henry, who wasn’t that close to him and just waved lightly, Joseph called out Aiden’s name, greeting him warmly. Then, as if it were natural, he held out the chicken he was holding.
“Want some?”
“Oh, yeah.”
Aiden put a piece of chicken in his mouth with an excited face.
“How long have you been here?”
“Me, from the beginning. I was looking around with that guy.”
Aiden answered Joseph’s question with a giggle.
“Then you know what happened, right? Russell didn’t go up there voluntarily, did he?”
Joseph asked Aiden to confirm a fact he had already expected. Henry pretended not to be interested, but listened to their conversation.
“Of course not. Those guys instigated it.”
“Would Russell go up just because they said so?”
“Of course not. He tried to ignore them and leave, but I guess the kids who didn’t know the situation thought it would be fun to put Declan up there. The atmosphere flowed that way, so he had no choice but to go up.”
It was exactly as he had thought. Colton’s incident didn’t happen anywhere else but inside the club during football activities.
If one were to guess, only a rough rumor like “Henry and Colton Columbus fought. Declan Russell, who was stopping them, got caught up in it and was called to the teacher together with them” would have spread. It might have even been more exaggerated.
Because stimulating stories about famous people on campus are always fun.
Henry thought this time had probably gone similarly. Most people would have cheered at the stimulation provided by the fact that “Declan Russell is sitting on the dunk tank chair,” rather than worrying that the relationship between Declan and Columbus’s group was bad.
“…Is it okay?”
Joseph was meddlesome as always.
He looked at the device and Columbus’s group with a worried face. The group was giggling with malicious faces, deliberately acting as if they might or might not hit the target.
From a distance, it felt exactly like they were threatening Declan over the matter of hitting the target.
However, at Joseph’s question, Aiden burst into laughter.
“Can’t you see his expression? Does that face look not okay to you?”
Only after hearing his words did Joseph and Henry also raise their heads to examine Declan’s expression on the chair.
“Hmm… Rather than not okay, he looks bored.”
Joseph let out an exclamation that wasn’t quite an exclamation. It was a statement that contained a meaning more like “what kind of guy is that” rather than surprise.
Henry barely held back the desire to nod and agree with Joseph’s words.
“That’s what I’m saying. I don’t think he cares much whether someone is trying to mess with him or not. He just wants to get down quickly.”
It was a difficult statement to deny. Declan actually had a face as bored as Aiden’s explanation.
“Hey. But this is delicious. Where did you buy it?”
Since the person in question didn’t seem to care, it seemed he thought it was probably fine.
With Aiden’s question, the topic of conversation between the two quickly shifted to the cup chicken in Joseph’s hand.
“Behind here. Across from the debate club.”
“Debate club? There’s something like that in the back? I didn’t see it.”
“Want to go together? If you’re going, I’ll buy another one too.”
At Joseph’s question, Aiden nodded.
“Henry. You?”
“Go ahead.”
Henry expressed his refusal. Because there was no way the food at these school event booths would be delicious.
That said, there was also no particular reason to keep watching Declan sitting on the chair.
It was the moment Henry turned around, intending to look around at other booths while Joseph went with Aiden.
“Wow, Henry! Did you come to watch too?”
A giggling, nasty voice was heard. Even without turning around, the other party was obvious.
Columbus’s friends.
“Since you’re here, throw one before you go.”
Once they had called out his name loudly, it was a natural progression that the attention that had been focused only on Declan would also splash onto Henry.
They approached with beaming smiles, but Henry easily noticed their utterly gloomy intentions.
They seemed annoyed that Declan didn’t care about them. To draw a reaction from him, they had undoubtedly deliberately stopped him, with whom they had a bad relationship.
Joseph and Aiden, who had been about to go buy cup chicken, also stopped walking.
“Ah. Sorry, but I have to follow these guys to buy chicken.”
Henry smiled readily and spouted a lie without concern. Trusting that Joseph and Aiden, who understood the situation, would keep their mouths shut on their own.
Just when he thought he had succeeded in escaping…
“Not doing it?”
An unpleasant voice was heard from above his head.
It was Declan Russell.
