Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki, Vol. 6 by Yuki Yaku and Fly

Author:Yuki Yaku and Fly [Yaku, Yuki / Fly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yen On
Published: 2021-03-23T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

That day after school, a big group of us were walking home together.

“I lost again?!”

“Better luck next time, Takei!”

Mimimi was teasing Takei after a round of rock-paper-scissors.

Hinami, Mimimi, Tama-chan, Nakamura, Mizusawa, Takei, and I were playing porter, that elementary school game where the loser of a rock-paper-scissors match had to carry everyone else’s bags to the next telephone pole or corner or whatever. Very nostalgic.

And the cold, harsh truth was that Takei had just lost four times in a row.

“Why me again?!” he howled, pressing a hand to his head dramatically.

Well, the answer was simple. Takei always carried our bags because he always went with rock when it mattered most. He played normally when we were in a big group, but when it came down to a runoff between two or three people, he could only produce rocks for whatever reason.

At first, other people lost some rounds and had to carry the bags, but the more we played, the more people started to notice his fatal flaw, and now he was at four straight losses. With only himself to blame.

“To that corner, please,” Nakamura said, a little meanly.

“Dang it!” Takei sounded humiliated, but I could still tell he was having fun. That was just how he was. “Oof!!!”

He heaved all our bags onto his shoulders and sped ahead of the rest of us. Amazing horsepower.

“C’mon, man, hurry up!” the unburdened Nakamura said, running alongside Takei.

Mimimi watched with glittering eyes. “Ooh, are we racing?!”

“Yep, see ya!”

A second before Mimimi took off running, Mizusawa sprinted ahead with a cool smile.

“Hey, false start!”

“Byeeee!”

“Et tu, Aoi?!”

Mimimi started to run a few paces behind Hinami and Mizusawa. Everyone looked super happy racing down the long, straight stretch.

“They sure have a lot of energy!”

Tama-chan was standing next to me, smiling. Huh. Was this my chance? The only photo in my quest that I could take on this walk home was the shot of Tama-chan making a funny face, so the fact that we were alone together was a big plus.

“Yeah. You’re not gonna join the race?”

She looked at the others with a placid expression. There was no tension in her face at all; she was completely relaxed and open. Until recently, I’d never seen her like this—before, she was always somehow on guard.

“Nope.” She spoke slowly, as if she was thinking aloud. “Recently, I’ve felt more like I can just hang out without doing stuff I’m not comfortable with.”

“…Huh.”

She gave me a confident look. “Thank you again!”

“Nah, you’re the one who made it happen.”

I meant it, too, but she sounded a little sullen when she responded:

“Come on! I doubt I could have done any of that without everything you taught me.”

“I guess so…,” I said hesitantly.

She pointed at me sharply, like she always did. “Just take the compliment already!”

She was so completely herself, so completely honest that it really blew me away.

I nodded slowly. “Okay. Thank you.”

“Much better!”

She grinned, and it felt like sunshine.

Anyway, the assignment. How could I get her to make a funny face? I was trying to think of something when I had a realization.

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