Today was a holiday and it wouldn't be strange for students from our school to hang out here too. But still, meeting her like this spelled nothing but trouble for us.
Not to mention it was my second time having this kind of encounter here. The first time was with Amami-san and now it was Arae-san. My luck sure was rotten.
"H-Hello Arae-san. Did you come here to practice?"
"Hm? No, why do you care? What I'm doing here has nothing to do with you, no?"
"True… Umm… Sorry for offending you?"
"Tch…"
The moment she saw us, her previously soft facial expression turned into that of a demon.
Back when we were in the classroom, she was still putting in the effort to maintain her image, so she didn't show her hostility clearly like this, but since we weren't in the classroom now, she didn't even try to hide it.
Arae-san moved her gaze from Amami-san to us three, who were standing behind her.
Then she snickered out of nowhere.
"Ah, I see. I was wondering what you were doing here, so you probably blabbered about me being here to Amami, no, Maehara?"
"…What are you on about? We came here to practice, why would we care about you?"
"Ah, I see."
I blurted that out to her. I knew that she was trying to single me off, predictable move, but sadly for her such tricks wouldn't work on me.
And of course, my other friends knew better.
"Ah now that I think about it, so it was you guys who did that shabby one-on-one game over there. I see, I understand now."
"Shabby? Araecchi, are you blind? I haven't played basketball for a while, but I know that they are good."
"Good for amateurs, that's it. You need to raise your standard more, Nitta, this is why that senpai dumped you, your standard is too low."
"Ugh…"
I heard Nitta-san cursing at her in a low voice.
I asked Nitta-san secretly what was this girl's deal and found out that apparently back in middle school, she was playing basketball and her team reached top four in the prefectural tournament. Though she stopped playing ever since. It was understandable that she would look down on Amami-san and Umi since they were never part of a proper basketball team, but that didn't mean she could be rude about it.
"Well, practice hard. At least don't drag me down to your level when the match starts… Not like I'll do my best on it though, but at least I'll play to the extent that you won't be a total laughingstock to the whole school."
"Sure… Don't worry about me."
"Mkay, then, I'm busy. Have fun with that blabbermouth over there."
"Blabbermouth? You know Maki-kun isn't someone like that…"
"You don't need to defend him, Amami… Oh wait, is it probably, that?"
When Amami-san tried to defend me, Arae-san showed her a wicked smile.
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing~ I was just saying random stuffs~ Anyway, you should just act like an idiot like usual, Amami, bye~"
"Wait, Arae-san, I'm not done–"
"Noisy~ This place is too noisy, I can't hear anything~"
She ignored Amami-san and went to the three people waiting for her a little further ahead.
I was pissed that she was slandering me for no reason, but I knew that words won't work for trash like this, so I kept my mouth shut so this farce could end quicker.
I glanced at Nitta-san and together with her, stopped Amami-san from chasing her.
—Lame-ass bitch.
At that moment, Umi, who had been watching quietly, let out a murmur, no, it was too loud to be a murmur.
I was wondering why she was so quiet all this time, but it seemed like she had been holding her anger back.