Chapter 3 – Full Swing

1

Eita looked up to see wispy clouds strung out endlessly, like puffs of cotton in the sky. Despite the blue sky he could see above, none of the sun’s heat was reaching him. Even as late in the afternoon as it was, it hadn’t gotten all that much warmer.

It was December 26th, with only a few days left of the year. The weather forecast had proclaimed sunny skies, but it was more cloudy than anything.

Eita sat on a park bench, feeling just as temperamental as the weather. A frozen, wintry field sprawled out in front of him.

The Kamakura Central Park was a spacious nature park that was about five times the size of the Tokyo Dome, interspersed with fields and forests. It was a popular spot for joggers and dog-walkers alike.

Someone ran past Eita as he sat on the bench. As that runner passed another local out taking a run, they both exchanged greetings. The place was very entrenched in the local community. The time was leisurely slipping away, making the park a perfect place to kill time. But Eita wasn’t at the park so he could take a day off and relax.

“So uh, Komiya-san.” Eita directed his statement at the girl standing just beside his spot on the bench.

“Hm?” She answered with a disinterested grunt, focusing more on the digital display of her camera.

“You told me to leave the dog to you.”

“I sure did. And bam, there it is.”

Ena’s camera shutter clicked a few times in a row. She was pointing her camera into the field at an area about 10 yards away, right spot on a labrador retriever. Souma Haruto was hunched over stroking its head, while Natsume Mio held the leash of her beloved Labby.

True to her words, Ena had created the opportunity for Haruto to interact with a dog. But her methodology was questionable.

Why choose Mio, of all people?

But why did Mio even agree to it? She knew perfectly well why Haruto wanted to overcome his fear of dogs, because she was in the same group chat.

“Labby is very gentle, so he won’t bite.”

Eita couldn’t guess what her motives were, but Mio was taking a lot of initiative to help Haruto in his training. She was teasing him when he got scared, but also genuinely encouraging him… in a lot of ways, treating him just like a regular classmate. Something about the way she was smiling was unsettling.

“Natsume has exams. You shouldn’t have dragged her into this.” Eita turned away from the image he didn’t want to see, instead choosing to shoot a few sharp words in Ena’s direction.

“Mio-senpai made her own decision. She said it’d be fine to meet up during Labby’s walk.” Ena lowered her camera to look at Eita, letting out an exaggerated, “Mmhm”, as if to defuse his anger.

It was true enough that if Mio was there of her own accord, then Eita had no grounds to complain. But seeing Mio and Haruto together like that made him feel so… impatient, or something like that. Eita let his unstable feelings control him and threw out another jab.

“You knew she wouldn’t say no if you asked.”

That was how it worked in middle school, at least. Mio’s role in various committees and the student council wasn’t something she decided on her own. She ended up inheriting the roles from doing it the year before, or taking over when nobody else wanted to, and other similar reasons.

“Is there some kind of reason that it’d be inappropriate to ask her that I’m not aware of, Izumi-senpai?”

When pushed with that question, Eita realized just how irritated he was feeling. No doubt his irritation had leaked into his comments. It was a really sly question from Ena. She had a pretty keen intuition, and paid close attention to her surroundings.

“…” Eita silently stood up. At first, he almost denied Ena’s question, but he realized that anything he said would come out extra harsh, so he swallowed any other comments. Immediately afterwards, he heard Haruto scream, and there was finally something else to pay attention to.

“Aaaahh! Don’t come over here! Stay!”

Eita looked over and saw Haruto sprinting away, screaming. Labby was making a mad dash right after him.

“Sorry, Souma!”

Evidently, Mio had let go of Labby’s leash, and was now trying to chase after them. But she wasn’t gonna close that gap any time soon. A full-time studying student stood no chance against a baseball player and a dog. She stopped in place before long, wheezing. Then, she turned towards Eita, fire in her eyes.

“Help me, Izumi!”

“Why me?!”

“C’mon!”

So Eita was left with no choice but to chase after them.

Haruto was running in circles around the field. Eita cut right through the center, making a beeline for them. He passed by Mio and reached for the leash, but the second he tried grabbing it, it slipped away.

“Stop being stupid, Eita!” Haruto screamed, looking over his shoulder. But looking back made him lose his balance, and he fell over.

Labby seized the opportunity, jumping on top of Haruto and playing with him, licking all over.

“Ahh, no, stop!”

Eita was too late by the time he made it over. So he just took out his phone and snapped a pic of Haruto playing with the dog.

“Save me, Eita!”

“Well, we need some kind of photo evidence, right?”

Eita posted the pictures to the LINE group chat as Mio ran over and grabbed Labby’s leash.

“No, Labby!”

Haruto was finally free, but he seemed to have used up all his energy from sprinting and all the physical contact with the dog he didn’t like. He showed no signs of getting up.

“I just can’t do dogs, man…” he muttered weakly.

At that moment, Hazuki sent a response in the group chat.

“You sure about that?” Eita asked, tilting his phone towards Haruto so he could see the response. It was a stamp captioned Great Job!

“…Holy crap, I really do like her.” Haruto was, as usual, blindingly honest. “I gotta do it this time… I’ll tell her how I feel during our shrine visit.”

Eita’s chest tightened, because Mio was right next to them…

Definitely close enough to hear what he’d just said.

He couldn’t stop himself from stealing a glance at Mio. She was watching Haruto on the ground, a forlorn look cast across her face.