Change of offense and defense.

Once we exchanged passes, Sakuraba quickly dribbled and made his way past me. So fast—but, I could still catch up!

I went ahead of Sakuraba and attempted to block his offense. Alas, just before I managed to do so, he lightly pivoted his body around and changed his course.

—That was a ‘Roll’!

Without haste, I tried to block Sakuraba from the goal, but our difference in power made me unable to push him back.

“Ugh… So heavy…!”

I used all my energy, yet it was like pushing a giant rock. This attempt in blocking his offense was borderline a foul.

In the end, the one who gained control was Sakuraba who was superior to me physically. He easily got past me and shot a layup so simply.

“WOW!! Sota, you’re so cool!”

“Yo! The next captain of the basketball team!”

The shot made the audience even more excited.

‘…..I can’t win against him.’ I lamented as I heaved a sigh, and returned to the beginning point of the 1-on-1 match.

In RPGs, there was something called ‘losing battle’. Following the setting of the story, the battle could not be won no matter how you try. The opponent’s HP could be infinite or the damage could never deal any effect. By having a battle where you can never win no matter what, that was the way they portray the strength and coolness factor of the other party.

My 1-on-1 match with Sakuraba was precisely that. It was a battle that was never meant to be won in order to emphasize the charm of the man called Sakuraba.

He easily earned the three shots before me, Yuzu and I quickly parted ways with Sakuraba and the others. We left the entertainment complex and just randomly strolled around.

“Aa, to play basketball after so long, I’m battered now. When you do things that you’re not used to, it’ll turn out like this.”

“….Um.” Yuzu who walked next to me seemed to be in low spirits.

It wasn’t particularly sudden, she had been like this since my match with Sakuraba.

“Hey, what’s wrong? After the match, Sakuraba and Kotani had a good vibe between them, didn’t they? Isn’t everything good now?”

With her crush gaining a complete victory, Kotani was exhilarated as he praised Sakuraba; while Sakuraba also looked fairly pleased in return. For a naive and innocent her to be forward and thus closing their distance, this served as a step towards our objective.

It was supposed to be so, yet Yuzu was in a bad mood, why?

“…Not everything is good. Yamato-kun, didn’t you lose face?”

Yuzu was angry… or more precisely, she was negating what I said with a sulking tone.

“Were you sullen about that? Well, when your boyfriend is beaten one-sidedly, it sure doesn’t appear good, but-”

“Not that!” Yuzu yelled as she cut in my words.

“You know, today I want Yamato-kun to have fun. This date…no, the time we spend together, I want you to feel joy in it. But then, losing at things you’re good at, and also losing your face… Like this, how can you feel it’s fun to be with me?”

“…..”

I was left speechless to discover how she actually felt. Originally Yuzu and I had no contact whatsoever, even now our interactions were quite shallow. I was only baited by a game software, so this relationship was only a part-time job for me.

She perfectly understood that, yet she tried to let me have fun.

“…Urmmm.”

I heaved a breath before coming up with something to say, “You said you chose me because I have no interest in you, but now you want me to have fun while I’m with you. Aren’t you contradicting yourself?”

“Hmph… I know that.” Yuzu pouted like a little kid and looked another way.

When I saw her do those gestures, it provoked a smile in me. She was a narcissist, self-centred, and black-bellied, yet she was so considerate. She came up with various plans, but in the end, what she wanted was for people around her to always be smiling—just a simple good intention. This unbalanced state of hers strangely made her appear charming.

“Moreover, Yuzu, you got one thing wrong. Today I had plenty of fun.”

“…You’re lying.”

Yuzu peeked over here to check my expression, maybe she thought I was forcing myself to say so.

“I’m not. Just think about it; I played my favourite basketball, and gained a step closer to Robot Buster, and also, I have the ultimate cute girlfriend next to me all along. Is there any element in there that could make me unhappy?”

“Even though you were faking smiles during the match with Sota?”

“Wasn’t I cool to hide my real feelings behind a smile in order to achieve my goal?”

“…Narcissist.”

“I don’t want to hear that from you.” I inadvertently retorted.

With that, the heavy air seemed to have dispersed and Yuzu put up a smile like she was drained.

“Geez, don’t say strange things, you idiot.” Recovered, Yuzu spouted some words of complaints.

“It was because you were strangely down.” Matching her pace, I also broke into a smile.

“Well, you don’t have to be bothered about me. Anyhow, if you suddenly feel down without warning, I would be anxious.”

“…Um. Thanks.” Yuzu smiled abashedly.

It appeared that she had completely recovered, she stuck out her chest with full energy, “Well, when I think about it properly, there was no way that you wouldn’t have fun when you’re with me! Oh no, it seemed like I still undervalued my own charms, what a blunder!”

“Aaaa…I made a mistake. This girl is definitely a lot cuter when she was down. Just why did I help her recover? Stupid me!”

As I supported my head while brooding over my mistake, Yuzu came over and shook my shoulders, looking dissatisfied.

“What’s with you, don’t say such thoughtless things. Hey, hey, now try saying it out loud that you’re happy to be able to see a cheerful smile from your cute girlfriend, won’t you?”

“Who would!?”

Getting battered with a spirited Yuzu, who had made a perfect recovery, I continued to walk along her side while matching her strides.

I shrugged my shoulders, and at times I would get fed up, even then, there was no pause in our conversation. It was truly a twisted series of events, somehow only our initial objective was achieved.1

chocolala: Here’s the end of the looong chapter 1. Their (fake) relationship only becomes better and better and less fake I see there. So yeah, with this mass release, it’ll be quite another long while until we can update next, for chapter 2, it’s shorter than this but maybe around 8parts? so see you later. I’ll be updating the SS ch in the meanwhile, those are easier to tl, maybe? lol