You Will Regret This Ichinose! [117]

Perhaps to give students more time to prepare for the upcoming Sports Festival, the P.E. teacher only briefly reviewed the usual lessons before leaving the rest of the class period open for free practice.

The recommended events consisted of four competitions: Borrowed Item Race, Four-Way Tug-of-War, Grade-Wide 1200m Relay, and Mixed-Gender Three-Legged Race.

Since the Borrowed Item Race was purely luck-based and the Three-Legged Race depended on teamwork, the only events requiring actual testing were the Four-Way Tug-of-War and the 1200m Relay.

As a result, the tests ended much earlier than expected.

With the evaluations finished, the former Class B students naturally started practicing for their respective events.

Ichinose, holding a pair of training bands, approached Uesugi Gen with an eager bounce in her step.

Looks like postponing practice until next class isn’t an option anymore…

Uesugi sat on a bench, sighing in resignation.

“Gen-kun, let’s go!”

Smiling excitedly, Ichinose grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the track.

Well, no helping it now. Things had already come to this—he couldn’t exactly let this girl down.

Shaking his head, Uesugi followed along, jogging beside Ichinose while offering a reminder,

“Slow down a little. We still have to practice later. If you sprint now, you’ll be exhausted.”

At that moment, Uesugi realized something.

The composed and reliable Ichinose Honami from the start of the school year had vanished without a trace.

In her place was a cheerful girl, fluttering around like a little bird, pulling him along with boundless energy.

To avoid the AOE damage from the scorching sun, Uesugi deliberately found a shaded spot.

Their first practice session was unlikely to go smoothly—it was unrealistic to expect instant coordination. Staying here to build some initial rhythm made more sense.

“Give me the band, I’ll do the tying,” Uesugi said, extending his hand toward Ichinose.

Ichinose smiled sweetly and handed him the training band.

Maintaining a half-crouched position, Uesugi carefully wrapped the band around both of their legs.

Although he had long since grown accustomed to the light, vanilla-like fragrance that clung to Ichinose, the gentle scent still made his breathing quicken ever so slightly.

“How’s that? Too tight?”

“Nope, it’s just right. Gen-kun is very gentle.”

Just as Uesugi turned his head to look at Ichinose, he found that she had also crouched down beside him at some point, arms folded, watching him intently.

“…”

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

With their legs pressed together and their arms nearly touching, they simply stared at each other in silence—so close that they could feel each other’s breath…

Who knows how much time passed.

“…Um.”

Breaking the silence, Uesugi spoke first.

“Honami, maybe we should save practice for another time.”

At some point, their crouching posture had shifted into sitting side by side, their bodies leaning against each other.

“No way.”

Ichinose continued staring straight at Uesugi.

“Just a little longer.”

“Have you seen enough?”

“Not yet…”

“…Still not enough?”

“Not yet…”

“Uh, Honami, just so you know, class ends in five minutes,” Uesugi reminded her helplessly.

“Uuuh…”

Snapping back to reality, Ichinose let out a cute whimper. “How did time pass so fast?!”

“With only five minutes left, even if we practice, it won’t make much of a difference. Let’s just head back.”

As he spoke, Uesugi reached out to untie the band around their legs.

Just then, Ichinose placed her hand over his, stopping him.

“Umm… at least, let’s practice a little bit.”

Her cheeks tinged red, she looked up at him with a hint of embarrassment.

“…Alright. At the very least, it’ll give us some peace of mind that we didn’t waste the entire class period.”

“It’s all your fault, Gen-kun.”

“Okay, okay, it’s all my fault.”

Like coaxing a child, Uesugi reached out and gently patted Ichinose’s head before standing up, brushing the dust off his clothes.

“Be careful, we’ve been sitting for a while, so your legs might—”

Before he could finish, Ichinose, halfway through standing up, wobbled and lost her balance.

Reacting instantly, Uesugi spun around and caught her in his arms.

Thud!

The two of them tumbled to the ground.

Lying there with Ichinose in his embrace, Uesugi stared at the patches of white clouds visible through the gaps in the tree leaves and let out a sigh.

“Called it. I knew it wouldn’t be that simple. That’s exactly why I picked this grassy area.”

With their legs bound together, their center of gravity was altered. Supporting the weight of two people on just two legs made balance significantly harder.

Especially when turning, accelerating, or decelerating—these sudden shifts in momentum drastically increased the risk of falling.

However, their situation didn’t even fall into that category.

Their fall had a much simpler explanation—tripping over nothing.

“Honami, let’s try again next class. Maybe today’s ground has bad feng shui.”

From within his arms, he heard a soft, slightly frustrated voice.

“One more try!”

“…There’s just one problem.”

“Hmm? What problem?”

“How do we get up?”

They were still tied together, and Ichinose was in his arms.

If this were a normal situation where two people fell, Ichinose could simply roll off, and they could stand up separately.

If this were a regular three-legged race fall, they could synchronize their movements and stand up together.

But right now, they were stuck in both conditions at once.

In the end, after much struggle, they managed to untie and retie the band before standing back up, side by side on the grass.

“This time, we’ll get it right in one go!”

Uesugi focused ahead, firmly gripping Ichinose’s hand, his expression determined.

“Honami, ‘one’ means we step with our bound leg, and ‘two’ means we step with our free leg. I’ll call out the rhythm—make sure we move the same leg at the same time.”

“Got it?”

“Got it!”

Ichinose clenched her tiny fists in determination.

“Alright! I’ll count down—three, two, one, then we go!”

Taking a deep breath, Uesugi steadied himself.

“Three!”

“Two!”

“One!”

“Go!”

“One—”

Thud!

The emperor had yet to build his kingdom, but he had already met his untimely demise.

Once again, Uesugi lay on his back, staring up at the vast blue sky with Ichinose in his arms.

“…Hey, Vice President, maybe we should just give up. I don’t think we have the talent for this.”

“No way! We just need to keep trying! And I’m your Class President—you’re my Vice President.”

“Well, can’t argue with that. Though I was thinking… maybe Kanzaki would love to take my spot in this race.”

Uesugi mused aloud.

Gradually, he started sensing something was off.

Lowering his gaze, he looked at the girl burying her face in his chest.

“…Vice President, let me ask you something.”

“Hmm?”

“You’re not… deliberately ignoring my rhythm, are you?”

The girl in his arms paused for two seconds.

“…How could I~?”

—

This is a fan translation of 人在实教，一之濑你会后悔的 by 作者：白良. All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!