"By the way, you owe Otoya a date now." Ishi had no other means to break the news to Rinse than by hitting her with it as quickly as possible. So he spoke up to her once he gained back his energy.
"What!?" They had gathered back onto the track to finish off the sports section of the day. "Why?"
"I kind of promised him that right before he broke off for that big run." He explained. "If you didn't decide to motivate all the boys like you did with that cheer, we wouldn't be in this situation now would we?"
"Oh, don't go turning it around on me now." She countered. "But okay I'll accept." Rinse did relent to him, but only on one condition. "You have to do something for me."
"I'll do whatever you ask." He replied. If he had to choose between her or Otoya in terms of being in debt to. Ishi would pick her every time. That boy wasn't someone he wanted to owe anything to. "What do I gotta do?"
"You'll find out when I come up with something." Her response didn't fill him with any confidence. If it was a favor asked of convenience, then he'd probably end up suffering the most out of it. Still, it was too late to back out now as they turned their attention back to the games.
"Yo, Hirose." Someone called him from behind. They turned around to see who it was. There Ryugi stood with rope in hand. "I need to tie you to me."
"Well, this is already stupid." He responded. "Why?"
"Because the two of us have to go run this stupid three-legged race." She answered. Most of the boys were too tired to continue with the games after their hard fought victory. Plus, since they already won the day, it was kind of pointless so of course everyone said that Ishi should be the one to do this throwaway event. Which is why he was the representative for the boys' side despite not getting his opinion of it at all.
Meanwhile, most of the girls didn't want to end up being tied to him of all people. The only one who didn't mind was Youna, but they collectively decided that she would've been too slow for the race after her performance in the shot put. No one even asked Rinse because she was too "valuable" to be allowed into a race like this. "And I ended up pulling the short stick, so that's why I'm here."
"This might be one of the most convoluted selection processes I've ever heard of." He complained. All of this only happened because of their pettiness against him.
"And can you at least try?" She quipped as Rinse tied up the rope to their legs, Ishi on the left while Ryugi was on the right. "I don't want to look like an idiot on the track."
"I think you do a good enough job of that in class." He had a snide remark towards her, which led to the pair to do a bit of a slapping match in their arguing.
"You're really good at picking fights with people, aren't you." Rinse commented as she witnessed the pair in all their disgrace. "Can't the two of you at least wait until after you're not stuck together?"
"Fine." They both replied in unison, then were about to walk away until the rope reminded them of their situation. The pair fell to the ground as their legs got tripped up from the imbalance. "That's your fault." The pair continue to speak at the same time as they blamed the other.
"Look, obviously the legs that are tied up have to be moved together." He told her.
"You don't think I know that?" She responded negatively. "Just follow what I do and we'll be fine."
"You mean that you should follow me." He didn't like her, and being bossed by this girl wasn't on his agenda. "I'm the smarter between the two of us, so I should take lead."
"I'm more athletic looking at your noodly arms, so I should lead us in this athlete competition." While they fought, Rinse guided the pair to the starting line.
"You two, can't you save it until after we're finished with the race?" She pleaded. "Just work together, that's what I have to do when I team up with any idol groups." The girl was normally a solo act, but that didn't mean collaborations didn't occur at her workplace.
"Ishi!" A young boy's voice called out to them. It was Koto, and he wasn't alone at the starting line either. Tied to his leg was the leg of a girl much taller than him. That being Seyuki. "Please, I don't know if I can do this."
"What happened to all those weights you brought to our house?" Ishi asked.
"That doesn't help me with running." Nor did he have a proper routine anyway, so his equipment ended up being unused ever since the day he moved in.
"Come on, I know we can win this." Seyuki had a much more positive outlook. She had chosen him to be her partner for this race, so she knew he had it in him.
"Just do your best." His older cousin informed him. He figured that this boy's problem was because of the girl he was strapped to. She was much taller than him, so that meant larger strides. Not to mention she seemed rather athletic compared to him. Given his personality, he didn't want to look so weak in front of everyone at school.
Aside from the fact that Ishi never cared about trivial things like that. This girl also seemed like she'd top even most boys regardless of their physical abilities. So there wouldn't really be that many people who would judge you if you lost.
"So how are we gonna do this?" Ryugi asked him once they got into starting positions.
"It's simple, just count." One for the tied legs, and two for their free legs. He thought that they could coast well enough compared to most of the competition.
Ishi was really wrong on that fact the moment the line judge yelled out 'go'. The two of them got off to a brisk pace, but quickly fell behind the pack as they tried to keep their rhythm going. Meanwhile, his cousin and that big girl took the lead effortlessly. Well, it was effortless for her, but Koto was screaming out for her to slow down as he had to work his hardest to just not to be dragged by her.
"We look so lame right now." Ryugi complained. "Come on, let's kick it up a notch."
"Wait, but-" He attempted to warn her, but the girl wouldn't listen as she picked up her pace. As a result of losing this melody, the two stumbled but were able to keep their footing. "We need to be in sync."
"Well, your sync is just too slow." She talked back to him. "Now pick it up."
"It's not about my speed." He informed her. "The two of us, we're just not working together." Ishi was more than willing to accept some blame for that. After all, he disliked this girl. It was clear that she felt the same way about him. But now was not the time for petty arguments. They might not have had a race to win, but they sure weren't going to be made fools of. "Calm down and let's focus on us, not everyone else."
"Fine." She relented. "I'll match your speed then." Ryugi calmed herself down and lowered her pace. Then, something strange happened that she noticed immediately. They were going… Faster? "What the?"
"Now this is more like it." He spoke, gaining some momentum of his own. When running the way they were, tied up with one leg. Not having the same step meant losing speed no matter how hard they ran. The legs that were tied would hit the ground at different times, messing up each person as they moved their free legs. Essentially they were losing efficiency with the way they were running previously.
Now it felt like running naturally, as if they weren't running tied together by a rope. Their strides picked up and soon they had done more than just gain ground on the others who passed them. Now it was them doing the passing, as they moved their positions up from last, to second-to-last, all the way up to second place.
The backs of Koto and Seyuki were in front of them. Somehow, they had found a way to potentially win this. Could they get a clean sweep for the third years as they inched forward closer and closer? However, the finish line was coming up, and they had to hit one final burst of speed. The two pair ran across the checkered flags, a photo finish.
Everyone stopped running, gasping for breath as the judges deliberated who won. Thankfully, for situations like this, someone was recording right on the line to witness who crossed first. It was close, the difference was only a few mere centimeters.
"The third years are our winners!" They finally proclaimed, which caused the students to erupt into cheers.
"Yay!" Even Ryugi was glad to be a part of their victory. "We did it, high five." The girl put up a hand for him to meet. However, he simply responded by turning his head from her and crossing his arms. "Oh come on." She whined. "At least pretend to be a little happy about it." In response, he put up a hand from his crossed position so that she could give it a nice tap.
"Now that that's over with, let's get ourselves untied." They were going to return back to Rinse to free themselves. However, they had relaxed a bit too much and they ended up tripping over themselves trying to leave. This put them in a position as she laid over him. Her large breasts pushed up against his chest as they struggled to pick themselves back up.
"Idiot, you're always so clumsy." She yelled at him.
"I'm pretty sure that's your reputation." He responded. Quickly, the others came to their aid and helped Ryugi back on her feet.
"Are you all right?" Rinse asked him as the boy got back up. He responded that he was fine. She couldn't believe his composure. Surely any boy would get a little flustered at being so close to a girl like Ryugi. She was beautiful, popular, and very well developed. Yet he didn't even act fazed at all. In fact, given that he made no effort to 'hide' himself, he didn't seem to even care about what just happened.
Just what would make this boy blush?
"Well, looks like it's time to get changed out of these smelly clothes." He said, dusting himself off. "Then we can get started on the real culture festival."
"So, are we going to-"
"No."