April’s time reached its end as Golden Week approached us. From next week onwards, we’d be free. However, after school, Tetsu and Towa bowed their heads to Ms. Hiiragi in the teacher’s office.

“Tch, why am I in this mess?”

“It’s all your fault, isn’t it?”

“Shush, both of you. Just look remorseful for a little while and you’ll be forgiven in time.”

“…I can hear all of you, idiots.”

Oh no, this is bad. Ms. Hiiragi is starting to exude pure bloodlust. Let’s just keep bowing our heads! — Hmm? Why are we in this situation? Well, it all happened during the physical fitness test that happened just earlier today.

“…Anyhow, I’m gonna get the best grades in my class~”

It all started with that one comment from Tetsu…

When it was his turn to measure the handball throw, he just kept staring at the ball for a while, only to mutter these next words. “Then, you want me to throw the ball as far as I can?”

“Yeah! Any good ideas on how to, though?”

“Let’s see…”

Tetsu thought for a brief moment, then answered with a pleasant smile.

“How about throwing it with centrifugal force, like a discus?”

“I see, centrifugal force…”

After our exchange, Tetsu entered the measuring circle and set up the ball.

“Let’s get that home run!”

“Yeah! Leave it to me!”

Tetsu replied to Towa’s cheers and started spinning on the spot like a Beyblade.

“Heave-ho!”

Then, he released it vigorously, and the ball rose to the air as if to crash into the horizon.

“Oh look~ It’s flying!”

Towa, who stood next to him, almost sang that observation. Yeah, the ball flew up with remarkable momentum.

“Sure is. Oy, look, it’s falling into a residential area.”

The ball soon fell out of measurement range and crashed into a private house. Right after it, the sound of something breaking echoed around the neighborhood.

“…It’s broken, huh.”

“It sounded like a crack. Oh, now doesn’t it sound like screaming?” Towa noted.

If you listened carefully, you could hear something awfully similar to screaming, as Towa said, but—

“Noooooo!”

Soon a scream loud enough to down all other noises pierced our ears. It’s Ms. Hoshimiya.

“Y, you guys… What have you done?!” Her face was livid as she approached us, almost as if she could spontaneously combust at any second.

Hmm? You guys?

Feeling uncomfortable with the teacher’s words, I point to Tetsu and tried to justify myself. “No, ma’am, Tetsu is the only one who did it. Towa and I—”

“Well, if Tatsu hadn’t taught me how to do that, I wouldn’t have tried it,” he covered his a*s by pulling me down with him.

“Wha?!”

This guy…

He didn’t want to face responsibility alone, so he brought me down as well. What a guy, selling out his friends, huh? I’ll complain the hell out of him later.

…That aside, it’d certainly be easier to share the blame with a larger number of people, so I opened my mouth and looked at Towa.

“Then, Towa’s encouragement also played a part in that result, didn’t it?”

That’s right, we’re the best of buds, we’re pals—bros—and our bond is strong. We can face all sorts of hardships together!

“Wha~t? Ryu-kun, you can’t do that!” He tried to express his dissatisfaction, but I just looked the other way. It would be unforgivable for one of us to have their a*ses clean.

The teacher just looked at us bewildered and sighed. “I think I understand what your teacher, Ms. Hiiragi, is going through. Anyway, meet me in the staff room after school. The three of you.”

That’s how we ended up in the staff room in front of Ms. Hiiragi.

“Apart from all that, how did the ball end up flying outside the arena?!”

“I was just trying to live up to Towa’s expectations…” Tetsu said.

“So it’s my fault?! It was a mistake to throw it that way in the first place!”

The two kept bickering futilely. Meanwhile, Ms. Hiiragi just rolled her eyes with sizzling patience. Unfortunately, we weren’t aware of that, so we just kept doing it even more. After a few more moments of the same, unable to handle it any longer, she just inhaled and—

“That’s enough, stop it!!!” She shouted at the top of her lungs.

Needless to say, we were right in front of her.

“Ouch, loud!” The three of us exclaimed in unison. I glared back at my teacher, who just poured cold water on our heated discussion.

She, catching the glares of three of her students, just backed away and covered her face with her hands.

“No more…” She wept bitterly.