courage dear heart | Yuki Ishikawa

05

Ishikawa's POV

I stared at the green-eyed girl who made my heart skip a beat yesterday. From the moment our eyes met after she almost bumped into me, for some reason, my heart skipped a beat.

It's not a feeling I'm very used to.

Sure, I've seen plenty of beautiful girls in the past, especially with all the traveling and seeing so many women at my games, but for the first time, my heart reacted this way.

Confused by this reaction, I furrowed my brows as I watched the stunning girl, who was staring at me with her mouth slightly open. She quickly apologized, and before I could even respond, she ran off.

I was surprised when I saw her walking toward me again and sitting right in front of me. She avoided my gaze the whole time, even when she was introducing herself to the others.

Kim Na-bi.

It frustrated me a bit that she kept avoiding looking at me, even though she was very sociable with everyone else. I thought it might have been my fault for giving her a scowl when we nearly bumped each other .

She wasn't intimidated by my teammates, not even by Ran, who was obviously flirting with her.

But then Yuji asked her who she thought was the best player in the match, and finally, she looked at me.

It was quick; she immediately looked away, but from her slightly panicked reaction, I realized I was actually the one she had in mind. My competitive side quietly cheered at that.

Her senpai, Ayumu, teased her about cheering every time I scored, and she turned completely red. I found it adorable.

Then, I noticed how my teammates bombarded her with questions, scrutinizing her as if she were something out of the ordinary. I quickly intervened, slightly annoyed by how close Ran was getting.

Luckily, the food arrived—or unluckily, because when she took her first bite of sushi, she made a face and a sound so close to being a moan that I had to look away and focus on something else to keep my thoughts from going down the wrong path at the worst possible moment.

But then she got excited again, and I let out a chuckle, which caught her attention.

I took the chance to talk to her and asked the most obvious question in the world: if she liked it. At that moment, I wasn't even sure what I was referring to, but I was fascinated by the way her eyes almost trembled under my gaze.

Then the coach started a speech that made her look away.

The evening went on without any more conversations between us, but it made me smirk to see how she blushed every time I caught her sneaking glances at me.

Now she's in the same room with me again, but I'm not the one she's smiling at so sweetly.

In front of her is a tall, well-built guy, definitely an athlete, who's handing her something. She took it and stood up to greet him with a hug. He returned the hug, and I noticed how he was a bit reluctant to let go when she pulled away. I felt my shoulders slightly tensed.

Is that her boyfriend?

A few other guys entered the room with him, and I recognized some faces from last year's Olympics—the gymnastics team.

Ran also got up from the couch to introduce himself. I watched them shake hands and saw that same competitive look Ran always has on the court.

Meanwhile, without thinking, I had started walking toward them and overheard her introducing him as her childhood friend.