strange way to love. bllk

II. golden ticket

“Where are we going?”

Nagi and [Name] asked simultaneously, and death glared at each other for about a couple seconds. Reo on the other hand, couldn't care less about the ongoing staring competition so he just laughed it off, “You’ll see guys”. Once she noticed they were going to the boys' dressing room, [Name] started watching her steps instead. What if they were still changing or something? I mean, Reo seemed to not know the concept of personal space based on their friendship, especially with the taller boy. But for her, she didn't want to be perceived as a pervert for trespassing. Running away wasn't an option either because the nicknamed ‘chameleon’ here would simply carry her like a potato sack. 

"I have a surprise for you two," Reo commented, with sheer enthusiasm in his voice. With that said, the three entered the room, [Name] still looking at ground and Nagi playing his game.

"Greetings" "Welcome captain Reo!" [Name] raised her head and saw a group of boys, divided in two, lined up; making space for them to step inside. Both Nagi's and her eyes widened, this "team" didn't exist three days ago so how come there were at least fifteen guys dressed up in sportswear in front of them? She recognized some of them that were in her class though.

Nagi asked Reo how did he do this to which he responded something about the power of connections.

[Name] let out a drastically fake gasp following by  a "...nepotism" of course, as a joke. Influenced by Reo's power, the guys started daydreaming about the luxurious life, being famous and whatever.

"They'll invite us to parties with idols if we go all across the country right?", "We'll get to go to Disney with actresses if we win, won't we?" The girl just blankly gazed at them and thought that they were clearly not well in the head, they are not even known in their homeroom classrooms— yet they want to party with famous people that won't even acknowledge their existence? Let's start a little lower. Reo was way too quick to feed their delusions, "We will! Right now our team is still in the best 8 of the regional qualifiers, but now that I'm here it's a must that we make it to nationals!" when he finished boosting the guys' egos the whole room erupted in cheers.

Just as they were celebrating, one of the team members rushed through the door.

"Hey... I've got news! We just received an application to hold a practice match here" He delivered the news, huffing and puffing in between.

"What?! no way!"
"Already! Isn't that too quickly?"
"But wait—" He continued, "It's from a very strong team that's regularly on the nationals... Aomori Dadada high school!"

From hearing about their opponents [Name] perked up in surprise and finally spoke up, "Oh, I heard they were looking for an opponent for their Kanto tour, but isn't this way too sudden? " she questioned, slightly tilting her head.

"She's right, why would such renowned team like them come all their way from Aomori to us? Shouldn't it be the other way round? It makes absolutely no sense"

Now that she contributed to the conversation, this dilemma seemed like something that wasn't of [Name]'s convenience, she spent a few minutes wondering what does this have anything to do with her. She tried approaching the door and leave, however, someone went ahead and had opened it first. Feeling a gush of the hot air from outside hitting her face, she noticed an older woman entering.

Said woman, who stood out amongst the bunch of teenagers for her above-average height was Baya; the Mikages' servant and who eventually [Name]'s friend from all the visits she had paid to the heir. The girl definitely looked up to her; not only for her unshakable patience from tolerating Reo for years straight, and particularly enjoyed mentally tracing the outline of Baya's aquiline nose to which she found pretty unique. In general, she's a nice woman. Taking that aside, the older woman stood facing Reo, hands behind her back with an eerie aura, scaring some of the people there.