I’m Spying on the Heroine in an Otome Game World 2821 min read
Volume 2 | Chapter 7: August (Up) – Part 3
“Tsuchiya-kun, is it okay for you to swim this much?” I asked. Yumi-chan blinked, looking startled at my sudden question. “Isn’t your tournament just around the corner?” I pointed out next.
Tsuchiya-shounen lost his words.
I am the vice class representative of our class. I also have a friendly relationship with Kyouko-jou, who knew many of the events currently going on. As a result, I, more or less, knew the upcoming tournament dates for clubs that showed results.
This year’s national swimming tournament will be held in the middle of August. In other words, just a few days from now. Such an important event coming up, yet Tsuchiya-shounen was here swimming on his private time until he lost his breath? Wasn’t this a little bit strange?
“…Ah…….” He opened his mouth with his eyes wandering elsewhere. “…….The coach said to rest my body for a while. But if I don’t swim, I get anxious, or rather…… But if I swim at school, the coach will find out and warn me again…”
Uwaaahhhhhh!! He’s pissing me off!!
I was on the verge of screaming at him, but I somehow crushed it down. Instead, I looked at him coldly. “I don’t know sports that much. But I’ve heard how breaking your body by overworking it could lead to lethal wounds that your body can never recover from. The coach instructed you to rest, but you didn’t listen and swam anyways with your selfish judgement. It’ll be nice if he doesn’t abandon you.”
“W-Wait, Shiori-chan!? I think you said too much…….” Yumi-chan quickly stepped in to stop me when she heard my harsh words.
If it’s Maria-jou here, I’m sure she will encourage Tsuchiya-shounen with kind words. However, lately, it doesn’t seem like any events occurred between her and Tsuchiya-shounen. This was probably why he threw himself into despair, am I right?
“If you’re anxious then you can do image training. At any rate, if you plan on becoming big in the future, you won’t be able to avoid pressure. If you can only keep your mind at peace by overworking your body, I think you’ll end right here,” I told him coldly.
Naturally, Tsuchiya-shounen got pissed. “Shut up! You don’t have any right to criticize my training.”
“You’re right, I don’t,” I readily acknowledged that. “But I’m your classmate.” I still remember that day when he swam in that local tournament. And how he struck up his fist in the air when he made it to his goal. “I know how you’re giving it your all. There’s no way I won’t cheer you on, Tsuchiya-kun.”
I said what I wanted to say. I was going to turn and leave but Yumi-chan stopped me.
“Shiori-chan, you where the one who said you wanted to talk to him. You can’t just do it half-way,” she said.
To be honest, my irritation was almost at the max level where I’ll start screaming, so I was trying to run away. But it’s like Yumi-chan said, so I reluctantly nodded in the end.
Yumi-chan turned to Tsuchiya-shounen and called out to him. “We can help distract you at least. So stop swimming and just play with the water, okay?”
Afterwards, the three of us sat down on the benches at the poolside. It was now that I started to feel like I might have been too harsh on him.
“Are you thirsty? Want to drink something?” I asked Tsuchiya-shounen.
“I haven’t drink any of my cola, so you can have it instead,” Yumi-chan offered with a bright smile.
Tsuchiya-shounen hesitated a bit and took the cola in the end. “…….Sorry,” he said. His expression had softened slightly from before. “Lately, I haven’t been feeling my best.”
He sighed deeply before looking up at the sky. “It’s been like this since around GW…… How should I say this? I can’t concentrate during practices. I find myself irritated for no reason. The coach noticed and… I guess he was trying to be considerate and told me to participate in a local tournament. He was trying to pump spirit back in me, but……”
Ah, that’s probably……. Yumi-chan and I exchanged looks.
When GW ended, a new student transferred into our class. In other words, this was when Designer-kun made his appearance, and Tsuchiya-shounen’s heart likely grew stormy.
“Coach told me I was worried about something, but I don’t have ideas on what. I’m pathetic…” Tsuchiya-shounen mumbled as he scratched his hair.
Once again Yumi-chan and I looked at each other.
“Hey, could it be he hasn’t noticed anything?” Yumi-chan whispered secretly to me.
“You might be right. He might actually not have noticed,” I agreed with a nod.
Basically, could it be that he wasn’t aware of how he had feelings for Maria-jou? Here I thought the reason why he doesn’t approach Maria-jou was because he wasn’t honest. Could it be that he was pissed off at himself because he wasn’t aware of his own feelings, never mind trying to be honest with them?
The rest of his classmates already knew his feelings since he would react every single time Designer-kun made a pass at Maria-jou.
“……What should we do?” Yumi-chan asked me.
Errr, even if you ask me what we should do… Cause, you know? “I think it’ll be useless trying to force him to realize his feelings……”
That being said, pointing out and saying to him ‘You are actually in love with Maria-jou!’ will probably send his mind to chaos and land him in a slump.
“Aren’t you thinking too hard on this? If you don’t know what you are worried about, then there’s no point in worrying about it, right?” I said to him.
Tsuchiya-shounen made a small nod.
He probably wasn’t suited for thinking deeply about things. According to Kazu-nii’s memories, he was a man with plans of proposing to Maria-jou on Christmas in his first year of high school. His ‘liking’ of someone equals straight to ‘marriage’. Basically, he was a simple-minded person. An idiot, really.
“Come to think of it,” Yumi-chan said, changing the topic. “There are two girls in swimsuits next to you but you’re not reacting at all, Tsuchiya-kun.”
Ooooh! What a good thing to point out.
And she really does have a point. There are girls in cute swimsuits! — I think you can afford to be a little bit shy, Tsuchiya-shounen. Or are the earnest type of guy who will only react to Maria-jou? That would actually leave me with a good impression of you.
“Hm? What about swimsuits?” Tsuchiya-shounen tilted his head with complete confusion on his face.
Ah, I see now. “I get it. You see swimsuits all the time, after all,” I said, nodding to myself.
“Ahh~” Yumi-chan also let out with disappointment.
That’s right, he was in the swimming club. Girls in swimsuits weren’t an uncommon sight for him.
“You know, I wonder why guys react so differently between bikinis and girls in their underwear. I mean, we’re showing just about the same amount of skin,” I said to Yumi-chan.
“~~~~~!!” Tsuchiya-shounen let out a soundless scream and then looked the other way. He covered his mouth with his hand and was turning red to even the tips of his ears. I feel like I’ve seen this expression of his somewhere, or maybe not?
“Shiori-chan……” Yumi-chan called out my name with a tired smile. “Did you forget about the ball game tournament?” She patted her hand against my shoulder.
Ah… I get it now. I remember the changing room incident and found myself nodding. Wait a minute. I’m the one who got embarrassed back then, didn’t I!?
I feel like I just mentioned something unnecessary. “I’m sorry,” I apologized to Tsuchiya-shounen.
He continued to look the other way. Eventually, we discussed and decided to go our separate ways. At the very least, we managed to get Tsuchiya-shounen’s mind off his worries onto something else, so Yumi-chan and my role in this was over. We could only pray that he’ll get far in his upcoming tournament.
“Since we’re at the pool…… Let’s go swimming?” I suggested.
Our swimsuits weren’t made for races, so we decided to play in the running pool. Personally, I thought drifting along in a running pool felt the best. You can just float and the water will help carry you away. Well, if you go overboard and relax too much, you’ll end up bumping into kids nearby also drifting away.
“Hmm…. Swimming with a tunic makes it stick to my skin…… I might have messed up,” Yumi-chan mumbled.
As for me, I didn’t have the same worries. However, my swimsuit was mostly held up with strings. I’d bump into people once in a while and get my strings caught.
“Ow…!” Just as I was thinking that in my mind, I bumped my head against something. It seems like someone was behind me. I guess this meant I have to pay attention to people in front of me and behind.
“I’m sorry……?” I apologized and turned around at the same time. My eyes met the eyes of a cute girl. No, it wasn’t Maria-jou. This little girl was much smaller.
I’m guessing she was around 8 or 9 years old. Her shortish hair was forced into a ponytail and tied up with rubber bands. Hey, who the hell tied her hair up? She’s going to suffer the pain of her hair being ripped out when you try to untie later.
Her eyes were round and big, and her hair was black. She also wore a simple school swimsuit. On her chest was a white nameplate with the words, ‘Year 1, Class 1’, written big on it.
…….Who the heck made her wear this!? Her parents!? You’re wasting her cuteness!! This is a total waste!
If you’re going to bring such a cute girl with you to a leisure pool then you should also buy her a new swimsuit! I get it if you don’t have the money for it though!?
I crushed down the roars of my heart to apologize to the girl I bumped into once again. However, the little girl opened her big eyes wide and stared at me without blinking.
“I’m really sorry. …….What’s wrong? Does it hurt somewhere?” I got worried and asked her.
She instead mumbled something with a small voice. “Cute…….”
“…….?” I tilted my head. It doesn’t seem like she meant our faces. The little girl looked at my swimsuit and Yumi-chan’s swimsuit again and again.
It seems she liked them a lot. Well, yes, I understand wanting to wear cute swimsuits. But I think bikinis are still too early for you.
“Huh?” I caught the little girl before she got carried away by the water and observed our surroundings. I couldn’t spot anyone who seemed like her guardian. “Did you come with your friends today?”
The little girl shook her head. “Nuh-uh. I came with my big bro today,” she said.
I exchanged glances with Yumi-chan. Could it be this little girl was lost?
We got out of the running pool for the time being before I questioned the little girl once more. “Where’s your big brother? Is he watching your things by the poolside?”
“Nuh-uh. We were together,” she told us.
This was bad; we didn’t have a single hint as to where he was. Judging by how she was reacting, she wasn’t one bit aware that she was lost. I hope we can find this big bro before she realizes and starts crying……
I glanced at the running pool once more. If both of them were playing here then I would think the big brother will circle the whole pool once and return to where they separated…
My prediction was right on the spot. However, the big brother who arrived was someone I didn’t expect at all.
“Niimi?” The guy looked surprised.
Yes, he was Katsuragi-kun.
“Onii-chan!” The almost-lost little girl ran up to Katsuragi-kun as he got up to the poolside. Come to think of it, I feel like he mentioned he had a little sister to me before.
Yumi-chan took a slight cautious step back when Katsuragi-kun came over. Could it be they have never met before?
“He’s Katsuragi-kun from Class C,” I introduced him briefly.
Yumi-chan looked a little relieved before she bowed down her head. “I’m Sasaki.”
Truthfully, I just wanted to exchange greetings and go our separate ways. …….However!
“Hey, Katsuragi-kun. Were you the one who brought your little sister out here today?” I asked directly.
“……? Yeah,” Katsuragi-kun answered, not understanding why I asked. “Our mother is down with a cold and she told me to bring her here.”
“Then was it you who tied up her hair with rubber bands, Katsuragi-kun? And her swimsuit? Wasn’t there anything other than a school swimsuit?” I lined one question after another and made Katsuragi-kun shrink back a bit.
“R-Rubber band? ……No, she said she’ll do her own hair, so I don’t know… Her swimsuit? She mentioned last year’s got too small…”
…….Hmmmm…
With a stiff expression, I turned to look at Yumi-chan. “Hey, do you think I’m stupid?”
Yumi-chan probably understood what I was truly asking and nodded with strength. “I think you are stupid, but this is your money. I think you should use it on anything you like.”
“Alright,” I nodded deeply before I took his little sister’s hand. “Little sister, come together with your big sisters.”
The two of us took little sister to the swimsuit corner in the leisure pool. In places like this, there will be a corner where they sell pool related items for people who come by with nothing so they could swim immediately.
The downside was that we had to go back to the changing rooms, but who cares at this point. Katsuragi-kun was somewhat shocked when we took his little sister away. Still, he didn’t try to stop us. Well, he did ask us why.
“Are you listening? Katsuragi-kun. Letting a girl tie up her hair with rubber bands is something you should stop no matter what.”
I’m sure all girls have made this mistake once when they were young. If you don’t know why rubber bands were bad, then you should try it out yourself. It’ll bring tears to your eyes. Your hair will get caught and entangled around the rubber band. My hair is light and fluffy, so me plus rubber bands equals a disaster. I couldn’t remove my hair from the rubber band and ended up having to cut my long hair into a bob length haircut. I might sound like I’m exaggerating, but this did actually happen.
Now then, unfortunately to say, there weren’t many swimsuits since it was a store within the leisure pool. If we were in a shopping mall, there would be a number of swimsuits for children.
“Little sister, what colour do you want?” I asked.
Little sister also seemed to understand why she was brought here. Her big eyes widened with surprise before she cheerfully answered, “Pink!”
What a good girl.
Once we narrowed down to pink, we had three choices of polka dots, flowers, and stripes. Yumi-chan and I studied the three together and came to the conclusion that little sister will suit the separated type swimsuit with frills and flower pattern on it. Yup, this swimsuit sure is cute.
And maybe since this swimsuit was for children, it was cheaper than I expected. If anything, wasn’t the swimsuit I bought for myself way too expensive?
“Okay! Let’s buy this one.” While I was at it, I picked up a hair tie for little sister and went to the changing room together with her.
I’ve never helped a small child change before, to be honest. And in the end, I ended up making her suffer since her hair did get caught in the rubber bands as I tried to remove it. But the pain is only for a moment, so endure it and forgive me too.
After little sister changed into her new swimsuit, Yumi-chan and I both nodded deeply. Yes, I am super satisfied now.
I made an unexpected purchase but I think my wallet opened easily because I had extra money from working part-time. Which was actually quite bad. Could it be I’m the type who spends all the money I have at hand when I do have some?
Anyways, I held hands with little sister as the three of us headed back to the pool. Unfortunately, Katsuragi-kun wasn’t there.
Well, no, he was technically there, but in a situation we couldn’t call out to him. I had forgotten but Katsuragi-kun was a good-looking guy. On top of that, he also knew martial arts, so his body was splendidly built. His muscles were much different from some guy who trained for the sake of one summer to show off.
Moments before he had his little sister by his side, so he didn’t end up in this situation.
“Amazing…….” Yumi-chan muttered.
Katsuragi-kun was currently surrounded by girls trying to flirt with him. There was enough of a crowd that I couldn’t see the middle of it. Thankfully, Katsuragi-kun was a head taller than everyone else. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to notice him at all.
The girls around him were an army of beautiful women who had confidence in themselves. They reminded me of Mizusaki-senpai’s fan club for a moment. However, these girls here were in swimsuits and with a wider age range. I couldn’t help but think they were a grade up from the fan club.
The largest portion of the girls were university ladies or big sisters who joined the workforce recently. They all had perfect makeup on their faces, which told me they didn’t plan on swimming one bit at all. There were high school girls in the crowd, but they were losing to the force of the university and working big sisters.
Katsuragi-kun is amazing.
“What should we do with this?” I was going to consult Yumi-chan and ask her if we should just take little sister with us and play somewhere.
That was when little sister made the first move. “Onii-channnn~!” She ran up to the crowd, not caring much about them at all.
I guessed that little sister wanted to show off her new swimsuit. I mean, if I was her that’s what I would want to do. The urge would be even stronger for a little girl.
Katsuragi-kun looked troubled because of all the women, but he immediately noticed the voice of his little sister. Before long, he spotted his little sister past the crowd and pushed his way to approach us.
The army of beautiful women all looked at our direction simultaneously. Their eyes were really, really sharp and cold.
Wait, wait, why are you looking at us!? Cold sweat poured down my back. It’s not often you would experience being glared all at once by an army of beautiful women. This situation was actually pretty scary. Yumi-chan and I cowered together.
Big sisters, you have it all wrong. Katsuragi-kun is looking at his little sister and not us.
“It suits you,” Katsuragi-kun said with a smile as he patted his little sister’s head.
“Cute? Am I cute?” Little sister was in high spirits as she posed and twirled around.
“Yeah,” Katsuragi-kun nodded with a gentle expression.
Little sister was quite satisfied with his reaction. It felt like a good end to a story but… For whatever reason, Katsuragi-kun came by to us even after reuniting with his little sister.
“I’m sorry. Was it expensive?” He asked me.
“N-No, it’s fine. I’m the one who bought it without permission, so you don’t have to worry about it,” I told him.
More importantly, I’m terrified. Behind, behind you, Katsuragi-kun! The army of beautiful women were glaring daggers at me. What should we do with them?!
“Let’s go,” Katsuragi-kun declared.
Eh!? You’re just going to ignore them!? And to my surprise, little sister didn’t pay any attention to the army of beautiful women. Could this be a normal everyday sight in the Katsuragi family!?
Yumi-chan’s face was strained as she hid behind me. “S-Shiori-chan……” She called my name timidly.
Eh? Don’t tell me she wants me to be a shield? You want me to be your shield against the army? A shield against them?
“Onee-chan, come with us!” Little sister said innocently and pulled my hand.
Uwaaah!
Thankfully, the army of beautiful women didn’t follow us. I suppose they took Katsuragi-kun off of their pick-up list since he was accompanying his little sister. Though Yumi-chan and I who also accompanied the siblings might also be the cause too.
In any case, being glared by beautiful women was bad for the heart. I learned this fact quite well today. The academy was actually quite peaceful, huh……
Anyways, we left the army of beautiful women behind to come to the wave pool. I ended up coming along with the two since the little sister pulled my hand. But now that Katsuragi-kun safely reunited with his little sister, I feel like we can go our separate ways soon.
“See you later, Katsuragi-kun and little sister, we’re going to go off. Katsuragi-kun, make sure to keep your eyes on your little sister, okay?” I patted the little sister’s head and smiled at her. “Also, here. Your little sister’s old swimsuit is in here.”
I handed over my vinyl bag, which had little sister’s school swimsuit inside, to Katsuragi-kun. When the three of us went to the changing room, I removed my belongings from my bag. My towel, wallet, and cell phone were currently inside Yumi-chan’s vinyl bag, so there wasn’t a problem at all.
“Y-Yeah……” Katsuragi-kun nodded even as he didn’t hide the confusion on his face. He obediently took the bag from me. Soon he looked at the bag and me like he wanted to say something.
Eventually, he gave up on whatever it was and sighed lightly. Just what does he want to say to me?
“See you in the new term~” I waved my hand and moved to leave with Yumi-chan.
It was then when Katsuragi-kun spoke up.
“N-Niimi.”
“Hm?” I stopped.
“So………. It suits you. You’re cute.”
………..Oooohh!? Y-You made me freeze for a second there.
Katsuragi-kun continued. “I’ll return your bag in the new term. …….Sorry for all the trouble I caused you today.”
N-No, no, no, I didn’t do anything special today. Or rather, I just dragged your little sister around and did whatever I wanted. For whatever reason, Katsuragi-kun had a relieved expression on his face.
Ummm. Um! …….What should I do? I looked at Yumi-chan for help, and she was merely smiling. Ehh~! Why? Why are you laughing at me?
“Y-You don’t have to worry about it! A-Ahaha! The bag’s cheap! You can just throw it away! See you!” I shouted.
D-Damn it! I made a rather pathetic sounding goodbye. Also, it’s must be my imagination that my cheeks feel hot. I’m definitely sure it’s just my imagination!
I rapidly moved my feet left and right to get out of here. Yumi-chan followed behind me restlessly.
When Katsuragi-kun was out of my sight, I could finally breathe out.
“Shiori-chan, are you weak to airheads?” Yumi-chan asked, tilting her head.
“I don’t think so, but……” I sighed again and shook my head.
That was when Yumi-chan patted her hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry. He probably complimented you the same way he did with his little sister. You know? Like his parents probably told him that if a girl dresses up cutely, you have to compliment her.”
Hearing her words made me feel really relieved for some reason. “Alright, Yumi-chan. Let’s get our spirits back and play!”
“Yeah, but before that, let’s get something to eat. We still haven’t had lunch yet either,” Yumi-chan pointed out.
The day was still long!
Yumi-chan also mumbled another few words though. “But don’t you think it means something when there’s two girls and he only compliments one of them?”
I didn’t understand what she meant at all and tilted my head.
Alrighty. I’ve met two capture targets today and didn’t see Maria-jou once. It felt like something was out of place and lingered in my mind. It was when I returned home that I realized why she wasn’t around.
Maria-jou must have gone to Karuizawa with Mizusaki-senpai. Kaneshiro-senpai should also be on the trip. Yumi-chan looked up to him, so I should probably keep my lips shut.
If she knew that he went on a trip together with a girl, Yumi-chan will probably get depressed. I couldn’t help but feel a little gloomy because of that.
TL note: I use rubber bands to tie up my hair. I can get those for free and I’m super lazy 🙂
