Instead of listing the constant struggles that this entire request had brought about for a few days, for both Tatsuya and for myself, it'd be easier to just conclude that Tatsuya was not a talented runner. Much less one that could be talented in sports. Even still, the kid was pushing himself unusually hard, and that inspired my club members to try even harder.

"C'mon! You can do it Tatsuya!" Yuji yelled, a hand to the side of his mouth.

"Yeah, Tatsuya, move those legs!" Hiro shouted.

"You're going so fast...!" Wannabe drawled with stars in his eyes.

"Guys... I honestly don't think we're helping," Saki whispered.

We all turned to see Tatsuya struggling to get to us—to be more precise, he was still only a small distance from the starting line. We all, except for Wannabe, let out a simultaneous breath.

"Wow! Tatsuya has gotten so much quicker!" he cried, hands clasped together in awe.

"He's being sarcastic, right?" I said. "There's no way he truly thinks this kid is fast, right?"

"Such a doting brother," Yuji tsked.

Shaking our heads, we waited patiently for Tatsuya to come our way from the starting line, and after what seemed like hours, he finally arrived from his lap.

Tatsuya collapsed to the ground, gasping for air as if he had run a full-on marathon when it was only a 100 metre dash. "H-how...d-did I...do...?"

We all inwardly cringed. Except for Wannabe, of course.

"Group huddle!" Yuji hissed in response.

He gestured us all over and it took a while for us to come together.

"It seems our plan to allow Tatsuya to become a faster runner is backfiring on us..." Yuji whispered. "Granted, it's already been three days but there hasn't been any progress."

"Then let's just not let him run," Hiro suggested. "There're other events in the Sports Festival."

"But would Tatsuya want that?" Saki asked.

Turning my attention towards the boy, I discreetly backed away from the group. They continued on without realizing I had left the huddle, and gratefully, I bent down to pick up a water bottle. Walking up to the breathless Tatsuya, I held it out for him.

"Hey, you do know you're not a fast runner, right?" I said to him as he took it.

Tatsuya only frowned at me, a glare fixated on his face as well. "I didn't ask for you to point out the obvious."

I shrugged his snappish attitude off. "Why do you want to run the 100 metre dash so badly? There are other events you'd have a better shot at."

Although I expected Tatsuya to stubbornly protest the suggestion, he simply glanced away from me. "Believe me, I don't want to do this either. But I have to."

"No you don't," I told him. "You could still back out now. Sign up for a sports event instead. Oh, I'm very knowledgeable about them so I can even help you out—"

"I already tried researching tutorials on playing sports before but they've never once helped me become better. I doubt your sources would be any more reliable," Tatsuya cut me off sourly. "Anyways, it's easier doing this running event since I don't have to rely too much on other people."

Although I would've typically been offended, I instead took his words into account. Taking a seat beside him, I barely registered the arguing from the idiots about Tatsuya's situation. If I paid attention I could hear them clearly. Tatsuya must know what we'd been saying about his nonexistent progress then. And yet...

"So you do understand you'd make nothing but a fool out of yourself if you run in this event," I reiterated after a pause. "And that at this rate, it'd be better if you made a fool out of yourself on a team because they can support you and cover for your mistakes."

"I doubt my classmates would want to support me. 'Accidentally' hitting me multiple times in the face seems more plausible." Tatsuya's response caught me off guard. I wasn't exactly expecting him to be so honest. Impassive as he always was whenever we were alone, Tatsuya peered up at me. "Why do you care anyways?"

A wry smile curled up my lips. "No it's just, after what you said to me last time, this is really hard to digest. So this entire request—you're really serious about it? You aren't plotting against us again like you were with your ring?"

For a moment, Tatsuya was silent. "Well, you can believe whatever you want to believe. I may be serious, or I may just be lying about this whole speed thing because I want to mess with you guys again."

"I see..." I paused, looking upwards. "But Tatsuya, either way, you do plan to run in that event, right?"

"...I guess," he carefully replied. "Why?"

Exhaling a deep breath, I rose up to my feet, dusting off the dirt clinging to my pants. "Then get up," I told him. "You're going to have to train harder than before."

Tatsuya's right eye widened slightly. "You're... still going to help me?"

I smiled at him. "Lucky for you, I don't think these idiots even plan on giving up." I beckoned behind me for emphasis, and I wasn't the least bit surprised to see that they were now moved on from being hopeless to discussing their forming ideas excitedly. Snorting, I returned my focus back to Tatsuya. "So until you've made some kind of endurance progress, you're not going home today."

"That's..." Tatsuya got up anyway. "But I just said that I may or may not be being honest about this! I can give you a lot more trouble and slow my pace down even more, you know!"

"Honest or not, you just said you wanted to run in that event. If you're gonna stay committed and put up with this, then the people helping you have to stay committed too." I cupped my hands over my mouth. "Saki, Yuji, Hiro, Wannabe! Tatsuya's saying he's ready to run again!"

The four of them swivelled to face us, bobbing their heads and flashing us thumbs-ups.

"...Seriously?" Tatsuya whispered after a pause, in utter astonishment.

"Seriously what?" I asked him, raising a brow.

He was almost hesitant with his next words. "You know what I may be planning and yet you're doing this for me. You really are weird..." Tatsuya, for the first time since I met him, broke out into a genuine smile—he even laughed a bit too. "Not only weird..." he murmured to himself. "You're interesting, Miyuki-neesama."

"Hey." I frowned at him. "You're supposed to be getting ready to run again. Just focus on increasing your speed, and not on my weirdness. I already know I'm not normal."

He laughed at my words, as if he hadn't expected me to say that about myself. "Yup. Definitely an interesting kind of weird."

"...Thanks?" I raised a brow as Tatsuya left ahead to join the guys from the club. I sighed, resting my hands at my hips. Well, that seemed like enough for today.

"Miyuki-neesama? Aren't you coming?" Tatsuya called out to me once they realized I hadn't joined them.

Grinning, I spun on my heels, waving over my shoulder. "Um, I think I've been mixed up in reality far too long. I helped enough too. If you'll excuse me, I have to go home to watch Kiss Him, Not Me and hibernate for the weekend... Bye!"

I dashed off and despite their startled cries of surprise, a short chuckle escaped my mouth as soon as I left the school premises.

They kept seeming to forget that there was obviously no way I'd voluntarily ditch new anime releases for my club activities.