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-16-

"Suwa!" I yell, running over with my cheer outfit on. He, Hagita and Kakeru are currently eating as the girls are standing in front of him. He looks up from his sandwich as I pose right in front of him. "What do you think?" Hagita only adjusts his glasses as he clears his throats and Kakeru's mouth falls open as his eyes get wide. Suwa only look at me boredom and talks with food in his mouth.

"Am I suppose to make those noises and cheer you on?" He asked, I only nod enthusiastically and he lets out a sigh. He puts down his food and stood before clearing his throat. "Woo that's my cousin! Hot mama coming through ay ay ay ay ay! You get it girl!" I make different poses as he cheers me on. After saying another cheer he asked if he was finished and I smiled with a nod.

"See you girls on the field!" I smiled with a small wiggle of my fingers as I left confidently.

That's what me and Suwa do, it gives us confidence to make complete fools of ourselves.

"The afternoon portion of the athletic meet will start with the girls cheering battle." The crowd cheers as we all go in the center of the field. I stand straight in the front, seeing all the smiling parents and even Suwa's. They give me a thumbs up as I smile proudly. "The red team is up first!"

The music starts and as we began the routine, it starts off easy before Maria emerges to my left. Which means it's time to start the stunts. I make my way over to my spot before we started doing our backflip and round off back tuck.

"Go go win! Let's go red team, go go go!"

When we finished our cheer we started to get dressed, my friend said she'd be in the bathroom and would meet me outside. I adjust my track suit as I saw coach looking at his clipboard. I ran over and asked him what he thought of my performance. He said I was good before Kakeru walked past us, he called him back and asked for a favor.

"Can you both carry a mat for me, it's by the equipment room."

He looks at me, realizing I was supposed to go with him. I nod and walked with the boy trailing behind me. When we reached the area we see the mat and grab opposite sides, he comments on the weight of the mat as I stay quiet. After we walked for some time our arms got tired, and he asked if I had wanted a break. I only nod and we drop the light blue mat, him sitting on top of it. "You were amazing on the field." He smiles, fiddling with his fingers.

"Thank you." I said monotonously as he sighed, presumably realizing he won't get anywhere.

"Shall we?" He stands to his feet and I follow, we reach for our ends and he counts to three. As soon as he lifted he flinched and let's out a shaky breath. He tells me he's fine as I raise an eyebrow.

"Lying to me doesn't make anything better-"

I was cut off by Suwa grabbing a side of the mat, everyone comes to pick up a side as Naho is beside me grabbing the mat as well.

"You're so stupid. If your ankle hurts just tell us." Suwa told him, I shook my head as I knew he was lying to me.

"How'd you know?" He asked, Azusa ignoring the question as per usual.

"We're sorry. We should've noticed before."

Everyone asks about his well-being as Naho mentions that he should talk to them more. Kakeru tells us how he felt guilty for having fun, how his mom would've been there is she wasn't dead. And that wherever she was she would be sad while he's laughing. Azusa and Takako tell him that his mother would be worried and how worried Naho was.

"You can't keep her worried Kakeru." Azusa smiled as I take a step back and Naho picks up my side. They all look at me as I glanced at all of them, My gaze lingered on Kakeru as I told them I'd be using the bathroom and walking off.

I could hear Suwa groan as he yelled to me, "you have to stop running [Name]!"

He was right, yet I hated seeing them together. To me, I felt as if I already lost this battle. I saw Maria who had been looking around and finally spotted me, coming over to yell. She babbled about me running away and how I should've waited. When I told her the story she understood and went quiet, she sighed and told me she'd see me later as I grew confused.

"[Name]."

I sighed as I understood why she ran. Whenever he comes around we both tend to ignore her and she's always left awkwardly waiting for me. 

I turned to face the boy. My arms crossed, "yes?"

He walks towards me and ends up to close as I back up, he keeps coming closer as I end up with no escape because of a wall. "W-what are you doing!?" I stutter, his arms on either side of my head.

"I can't focus with you mad at me."

I couldn't breathe with him staring at me so intensely, I turned my head down as I attempted to catch my breath. He was waiting for my answer and I knew he wouldn't quit without one. "I-I'm just frustrated." I looked up at him, our eyes locking and our bodies this close felt so intimate. " I know you're going to pick Naho.." I whispered. He only shook his head and his arms dropped, he took a step back. I bit my lip, scared if he was actually going to tell me his decision.

"I still don't know yet [Name], please respect that."

This time it was me who shook my head. "You don't understand." I was going to walk away as he grabbed my hand.

"Then make me understand."

I grabbed both of his hands, connecting our fingers. "I really like you Kakeru, but I know you well enough to know you won't choose me over Naho." I looked down and he took at step closer. "Everyone is on her side, I just-" I cut myself off and he removed his hand from mine. He brought it to my face where he only lifted my chin to make me look at him. "If you win today's race.. I'll never avoid you again."

With a smile he squeezed the only intertwined hand we had. "You got yourself a deal!" He took a step back before running off, me finally letting out a breath.

"Never thought I'd see that happen." Maria smirked, leaning on the brick wall. I sighed and put a hand to my face.

"We're not talking about it." My voice muffled from my hand and we made our way to the bleachers.

We watched the relay and the red team won. We both cheered, which met I had to keep my promise.

I can't run away anymore.