3

Ena mentioned she was thirsty as Eita was accompanying her to Shounan-Fukasawa Station, so they stopped by a convenience store.

Eita bought a can of coffee and a bottle of milk tea, both nice and warm.

“Think of this as my thank-you for your help today,” he said, handing the tea to Ena, who had been waiting outside.

“Really? Thanks!” Ena said obnoxiously loud, twisting off the cap. She took a swig and exhaled. The white vapor that resulted made Eita feel warm, even past the bitter cold. Maybe it was due to her drastic expressions and mannerisms, but everything she did seemed so picturesque.

He hadn’t seen her around school, but he assumed she was the kind of student who always stood out, for better or for worse.

“Hm?” Noticing Eita watching her, Ena turned his way, but Eita gracefully avoided eye contact. He pulled the tab to his can of coffee.

“So whaddaya think, Izumi-senpai?”

A very sudden and strange question was lobbed at him. He didn’t even have nearly enough context to figure out what she meant.

“Think about what, exactly?”

“Souma-senpai.” Ena deftly operated her digital camera with one hand as it hung from her neck. She scrolled through various pictures of Eita, Haruto, and Mio that she had taken without their consent throughout the day. Nothing about her profile or expression betrayed any indication of what she really meant behind her question.

“What do I think… I mean, we’ve been friends since middle school.” Eita gave what felt like a gold star answer to her question.

“And that’s it?” Ena’s gaze was laced with some untraceable meaning. It was like she knew something he didn’t, and Eita put up his guard.

“He’s definitely my closest friend.”

“Mhmm.” Ena didn’t seem very satisfied. Evidently that wasn’t the answer she was looking for.

“What’s that about?” Her attitude was getting at him, so Eita thoughtlessly asked a follow-up question.

Only to get ambushed by what she asked next.

“Then whaddaya think of Prez?”

This time, her expression was easily readable. Her amusement practically radiated off her.

“…She was a classmate in middle school,” Eita answered, trying to play every word cool. “And what’s with the way you call her Prez? I guess Natsume kept up the Student Council work in high school, too?” He hoped that would be able to change the subject.

“Well, she’s resigned now. She was the former president. Even back in middle school, though?”

“Well, she was vice-president and stuff.”

“Well, aren’t you well-informed.”

“Anybody’d remember that much.”

“Yeah, so you don’t care at all, but you remember who was the vice-president and secretary and everything? I don’t remember any of that stuff, myself.”

“…”

Ena was managing to shift things back exactly where Eita didn’t want to go. He could practically feel the walls closing in on him. And what she said next made it painfully obvious that he wasn’t imagining that.

“So, if you had to sum it up, what is it that you like about Mio-senpai, Izumi-senpai?”

“What do you mean, sum it up…” Eita was careful not to confirm or deny anything she said. He figured the emotions would fly too powerfully if he did either. His gut told him acting uninterested was his best play.

“And here we have the photographic evidence.”

But just as Eita managed to fend off the first volley, Ena showed him a picture she had taken on her camera. It was Eita, Mio, and Haruto, and it couldn’t have been taken more than 20 minutes prior.

Haruto was lying down on the field in the park. Mio watched Haruto with vacant eyes. And there was Eita, watching Mio with his own concern showing on his face.

Sometimes, Eita thought it was impossible to ever know what another person was truly thinking. But that picture that Ena had taken was a perfect reflection of honest feelings that Eita did not want enshrined in a photograph.

His body moved before he fully could rationalize his actions.

“You can’t just-!”

He reached out, trying to snatch Ena’s camera away. Ena deftly avoided him, and his hand whiffed through the empty air.

“Tell me one thing you like about Mio-senpai, and I’ll delete it.”

Eita tried not to respond to the provocation, lowering his hand which hadn’t even come close to grabbing anything.

He thought about the prompt. What he liked about Natsume Mio. It didn’t take much thinking, really. He already had an answer in mind.

“Her awkwardness.”

Ena burst out laughing at Eita’s displeased proclamation. “You better not tell Prez that, ever!”

“Like I would.” Eita realized his face was only getting more and more sullen. His bored expression stared back at him from the convenience store window.

“You’re a great guy, Izumi-senpai. I like you.”

“As a person, presumably.”

“Yup, as a person.”

“Can’t really say I‘m all that fond of you. As a person.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot.” Ena let out another cackle of laughter. “So, you gonna tell Prez how you feel?”

“Now you-”

“I mean, it’s gotta go better than telling her you don’t like her as a person.”

Ena pushed out the rest of her sentence before Eita could even try to argue. That was exactly the kind of thing he didn’t like about her.

“At the very least, it’d be better if Souma-senpai’s romantic confession works out.”

And how she’d say stuff like that. He really didn’t like it.

Despite all that, he just couldn’t bring himself to truly dislike her. There was a part of him that knew she was just being honest, and he was jealous of the way she could say all that without aggressively invading his headspace. There was just this way about her that he wished he could emulate…

But honestly expressing that was a completely different matter. It was still annoying, so even if he followed the logic, he didn’t want to give in emotionally.

“Oh yeah, here. I wanted to give this to you.”

Ena completely ignored Eita’s tantrum and pulled something out of her backpack, handing it over. Eita grabbed it without thinking, finding out it was a photograph. Another photo of that one-inning at bat. It was taken just after the home run. The very moment that Eita felt, “he beat me”.

There was shock on his face, but hidden behind it was just a trace of regret. Eita hadn’t seen the picture among the several displayed back at the restaurant.

“…”

It had been four years since he quit baseball. To feel regret for losing against a guy who had been practicing that entire time was the height of arrogance. And he knew that, but he couldn’t stop his emotions from showing. Somewhere deep down, he’d always wanted to beat Haruto.

“You can’t say you’ll lose before you even step on the mound, okay? Seeya.”

Having said everything she wanted to, Ena began walking away towards the station, quickly slipping out of sight.

Left by himself, Eita looked back down at the photograph.

“That’s quite the face…”

No matter how many times he looked, he always saw the regret on his face. He couldn’t smudge it out of the picture. Eita felt like he understood where it was all coming from.

Life wasn’t strictly about victory or defeat. But if he had to choose between winning or losing, he’d definitely rather win.

Maybe if he had the confidence to know he could beat Haruto, he’d be able to tell her about that.