In contrast to the relative success Rentaro had achieved on the bleachers, it was a completely different story near the other side of the gym. While Makoto had agreed to Megumi’s offer, she wasn’t very keen on contributing to the conversation. Open-ended questions were met with brief, unhelpful answers, and attempts to make small talk was shot down just as quickly. Despite saying she was willing to talk, it was oddly difficult for her to actually open up. While Megumi kept an understanding smile on her face, she was repeatedly racking her brain and struggling to find new ways to approach this situation. After so much intensive thinking, something finally hit her… but not in the way she had hoped.
“Oh, I know—” Before she could come up with another plan that was sure to fail, something extraordinary happened. Almost as if she was being punished by the universe for failing to get through to Makoto, Megumi was bashed straight in the head by an incoming volleyball. The sound of the impact echoed throughout the gymnasium, She held her head in her hands and let out a groan of pain, a small amount of blood dripped out her nose, falling onto her similarly red gym shorts. Makoto sat beside her in awe, her jaw agape as the volleyball awkwardly rolled away from the scene. Looking at who they hit, the boys who had been playing volleyball went silent almost immediately. A tsunami of regret washed over them and they quickly rushed over to her to make sure Megumi was ok. Looks of shame and fear were plastered on their faces, and they apologized profusely. They seemed so ashamed by their actions that some even got on their hands and knees to beg for forgiveness.
“I-I’m fine~ Everyone makes mistakes. Ehehe...” Looking up at them with a pained smile, she held her aching forehead whilst trying her best to laugh it off. From the looks of it, and the steady stream of blood rushing out her nose, things were very clearly not “fine.” Undeterred by her constant attempts to reassure the boys, they repeatedly offered to take her to the nurse’s office, until yet another surprise came her way. Rather than a speeding volleyball that was aimed towards her head, the surprise was Makoto’s surprisingly soft hands wrapping around her own.
“Out of the way losers, I’ll be the one taking her to the nurse’s office,” Makoto said, pulling her up and walking her out of the gym. The low grumble of irritation and jealousy got farther and further away with each step until the two had exited the gymnasium completely. Trying to thank Makoto while plugging her nose, she was quickly interrupted by Makoto handing her a stylish handkerchief with a cute kitten embroidered across the surface. Wiping her nose on it, a look of sadness fell on Megumi’s face when her blood stained the handkerchief’s design.
“Sorry about this.” Megumi apologized, feeling bad about staining her handkerchief.
“Kyojineko will be fine. You, on the other hand, look like you’re about to pass out. I recommend saving your breath till we get to the nurse’s.” Despite the throbbing pain shooting through her head, and slight lightheadedness, Megumi was oddly happy about this whole situation. Soon she was giggling happily while the two of them walked through the echoing hallways of Hanichi.
“Are you sure that ball didn’t give you brain damage…” Makoto said, looking at her with a worried expression…
Now sitting safely on one of her thighs, the two happily talked with each other. Considering everything he went through, it was surprising how fast Nozomi was able to open up to him, but he could still tell that they were still a little shy.
“Eh?! I almost sat on you?!” A look of shock appeared on her face, and they grew flustered. “Ehehe… I guess I’m causing all sorts of trouble for you today. Sorry again!” Nozomi backed away to properly bow her head. In some ways, the two were alike. And it was thanks to her that he was able to understand how his constant apologies make others feel. Slowly becoming more and more self-conscious, he quickly tried to distract himself from those intrusive thoughts. Looking towards the bowing Nozomi, he could see every detail of their vibrant, light-peach hair, and catch a whiff of the similarly peach-scented shampoo that she had used before going to school. Backing away, Rentaro blushed slightly before giving the apologetic girl some words of reassurement.
“If I was paying attention to where I was walking, this probably wouldn’t have happened.” He said, nervously scratching the back of his head. “So, really, I should be the one apologizing for being an idiot~.” Apologizing with a smile on his face, Rentaro chuckled to himself before mimicking Nozomi’s apologetic bow. And while he was expecting that they’d both laugh it off together, Rentaro was met with quite a different reaction.
“HUH?!” As soon as Rentaro’s words fell on Nozomi’s ears, he shot up. Bringing her face closer to Rentaro’s tiny body, the tiny boy was treated to a front-row seat of Nozomi’s eyes, as she stared at him with an intense look of concern and admiration. Fog began to build on her glasses as she took a deep breath and leaned closer towards him. “How could you say such a thing?! You’re not an idiot! I know you’re trying to make me feel a little better, but please, please, please don’t say stuff like that!! I-I mean you have no reason to forgive me and yet you still did! And while some could say that forgiving everybody isn’t the smartest thing, y-you’re definitely not a dummy or an idiot! Also, if anyone’s an idiot it’d be me…!” Continuing to ramble on and on, Rentaro couldn’t help but find the situation a little amusing. With every word, they seemed to get more and flustered, similarly to how she was a couple of minutes ago, but unlike that time, Nozomi was ALOT more talkative. Walking towards one Nozomi’s hand, he gave it a firm pat before smiling at the flustered girl as she finally stopped rambling.
“S-Sorry.” They said, getting up from their bowing position and sitting back down on the bleachers. While he wasn’t paying attention at first, Rentaro had started unconsciously stare at Nozomi’s body. Like a certain friend of his, she was flat as a board and way skinnier than Furyu was, which wasn’t exactly a surprise considering he assumed that Furyu worked out and probably ate enough to keep her body in peak condition. And from the sweat running down her brow and slightly seeping into her shirt it seemed as if she wasn’t the active type either. Still, it was a little surprising, as someone who apologizes a lot, he never realized it was possible to get winded from it. Cheerfully laughing to himself, he continued to talk to Nozomi until they had little to talk about.
Sitting there next to Rentaro, Nozomi found herself staring at the open court of the gymnasium. An awkward silence began to grow between the two of them. At first, Nozomi was happy about how easy it was to talk with Rentaro, but somewhere around the midpoint of their conversation, he started to become a lot more bashful. Constantly glancing down and getting distracted during their conversations, compared to how he was a couple of minutes earlier, it was almost like night and day. While Nozomi had concerns, they didn’t want to be rude by bringing it up so she kept whatever concerns she had to herself.
Letting out a small sigh, she grabbed her water bottle to drink. Struggling to open it, she was rudely surprised as the cap popped right off the bottle. Falling towards the floor, it continued to roll until it had found itself inconveniently sandwiched between a crevice that made it nearly impossible to retrieve. Mouth agape, a look of sadness appeared on her face as she tried to force his hand in between the crevice to no avail.
Not wanting to see their new friend sad, Rentaro tapped on Nozomi's thigh, yelling up to her that he'd help get the cap for her. After much insistence, Nozomi accepted the tinies help and proceeded to lower him down onto the floor of the bleachers. When Nozomi finally let him off her hand, the tiny boy was hit with quite the surprise. Feeling a slight warmth behind him, he saw that Nozomi had taken off her shoes. Whether it was recently or a couple minutes earlier, Rentaro found himself extremely close to Nozomi's socked feet as they aired out casually behind him.
Breathing heavily, he gathered up all his will power and soldiered on to retrieve the cap. However, soon after his efforts to push it out from between the crevice, his will power began to drain. In his peripheral were Nozomi's toes idly flexing while she waited patiently for the tiny to return. Giving into his desires after much temptation, he yelled up to Nozomi that it'd take a little while for him to get the cap unstuck before waiting for Nozomi to look away. In that brief moment in which her gaze wasn't focused towards the ground, Rentaro took his chance using her toes as cover that'd temporarily hide him from view. Unable to control himself anymore, Rentaro unabashedly plunged his face into the fabric of Nozomi's socks. To his surprise, the girl's feet carried a pleasant aroma. The smell of peaches and the subtle aroma of sweat wafted into his nostrils as he planted a hug against her big toe. The softness he was experiencing had caused the tiny to lose himself, and soon Rentaro had pushed his luck too far.
After a couple of minutes, Nozomi began to feel guilty. Had she given Rentaro a task that was way harder than she could have ever expected? Thinking that Rentaro was expending so much effort in order to retrieve something so mundane for her was eating away at Nozomi's consciousness and, overcome by guilt, she bent down to see if she could help him somehow, but as her eyes fell on the micro student she was shocked to see what he had been doing.
Without warning, Rentaro was swept off his feet by Nozomi and gently held in between her fingers. The perverted tiny was caught in the act and was now staring face to face with Nozomi as she looked at him with a nervous and inquisitive gaze. Looking at her, all Rentaro could see was his own guilt through the reflection in her glasses. He knew what he did wrong, and he was willing to accept whatever punishment Nozomi had in store for him, however in spite of his acceptance, he had no idea about what was in store for him next…