Chapter Text
The pale, artificial glow of the smartphone screen illuminated the darkness of Caelus’s bedroom, casting long, shifting shadows across the baseball posters taped to his walls. Outside his open window, the steady chirping of early summer crickets harmonized with the distant hum of traffic on the Kamakura highway.
It was 11:42 PM on a Thursday.
Caelus lay flat on his back, his mattress groaning softly as he shifted his weight. He held his phone directly above his face, his thumb hovering paralyzed over the digital keyboard of the Nexus messaging app.
On the screen was the chat log between him and March 7th.
It wasn't empty, but it wasn't exactly a profound tapestry of romance, either. It consisted mostly of March sending him blurred photos of stray cats she found near the train station, followed by string of excessive emojis, to which Caelus would reply with something incredibly witty like, ‘lol cool cat.’
He let out a long, frustrated groan, letting his arm drop. The phone smacked against his chest with a dull thud.
"You are a coward," a monotone voice drifted from the doorway.
Caelus scrambled upright, He squinted into the darkness.
Leaning against the doorframe was Stelle, clad in oversized gray sweatpants and a faded t-shirt that read 'World's Okayest Raccoon'. She was holding a plastic tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream in one hand and a disproportionately large metal spoon in the other.
"Do you know how to knock?" Caelus hissed, throwing a pillow at her. "Or do you just materialize from the shadows whenever I'm trying to think?"
Stelle casually batted the pillow out of the air with her spoon. "I was getting a midnight snack. Your door was open. And I could hear you agonizing from the hallway. You're radiating a pathetic aura. It's ruining the flavor of my ice cream."
She walked into the room, kicking aside a discarded pair of gym socks, and sat heavily on the edge of his bed. She dug her spoon into the frozen green dessert, taking a bite and chewing thoughtfully.
"I'm not agonizing," Caelus lied, crossing his arms and glaring at the wall. "I'm strategizing. There's a difference."
"Right. You're staring at her social media profile trying to figure out if sending a sticker of a dog wearing sunglasses constitutes a formal declaration of love," Stelle deadpanned.
"Shut up. You don't know anything."
"I know that she posted a picture of a limited-edition crepe from that new cafe on Komachi-dori three hours ago, and complained that she hasn't had a chance to go try it yet," Stelle pointed out, gesturing vaguely with her spoon. "It's not rocket science, Caelus. Ask her to get a crepe."
Caelus paused. He quickly unlocked his phone, navigating to the social feed. Sure enough, right at the top of his timeline was a post from March 7th. It was a brightly filtered photo of a promotional poster for a 'Super Berry Blast Parfait,' accompanied by the caption: 'If I don't eat this before the weekend ends, I will literally pass away. Someone take meeeee! (╥﹏╥)'
Caelus stared at the screen, his golden eyes wide. "How did I miss this?"
"Because you lack observational skills," Stelle answered, scraping the bottom of her plastic tub. "You look at the big picture and miss the details. Just text her. Say, 'Hey, let's go get that parfait on Saturday.' Boom. Done. You are welcome for my matchless wisdom."
Caelus chewed his lower lip. His thumb hovered over the keyboard again. The cursor blinked rhythmically, mocking his hesitation.
"What if she says no?" Caelus muttered, his voice losing its usual brash confidence. "What if she's busy? What if she thinks it's a date and gets weirded out? What if she... I don't know, what if she'd rather go with someone else?"
Stelle paused her eating. She looked at her twin brother in the dim light. She recognized the insecurity hiding beneath his arrogant exterior. It was the same insecurity that flared up whenever he stepped up to the batter's box with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning.
But this wasn't baseball.
"Are you talking about Danheng?" Stelle asked, her voice surprisingly soft.
Caelus flinched. The memory of that afternoon in the library flashed behind his eyes. The way Danheng was leaning over her. The flushed, soft look on March's face. The sudden, agonizing knot that had formed in Caelus's stomach.
"He's helping her study," Caelus said quickly, though it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself. "That's all. The guy is a robot. He doesn't even know what a date is. Right?"
"Danheng is Danheng," Stelle replied, offering no real comfort. She stood up, tossing her empty ice cream tub into the small trash can by his desk. It landed with a perfect swish. "If you don't swing the bat, you don't hit the ball, Caelus. Stop staring at the pitch and just swing."
With that profound piece of advice, she turned and ambled out of his room, dissolving back into the shadowy hallway.
Caelus sat alone in the quiet. He looked back at his screen. He took a deep, steadying breath, cracking his knuckles like he was preparing for a prize fight.
Caelus: Yo! I saw your post about the cafe. The baseball team has the weekend off. Wanna go grab that parfait on Saturday? My treat.
He pressed send.
The message bubble turned green. Then, a tiny indicator appeared below it. Read at 11:51 PM.
Caelus stopped breathing. The silence in the room suddenly felt deafening. He stared at the screen so intensely his vision started to blur.
Three small gray dots appeared. She was typing.
The dots vanished.
Then they appeared again.
What is she doing? Writing a novel? Caelus thought, his heart hammering against his ribs. She's trying to find a polite way to reject me. Sh*t. I shouldn't have said 'my treat'. That makes it sound too much like a date. I'm an idiot. I'm going to throw my phone into the ocean.
A notification chimed, loud and sharp in the quiet room.
March 7th: OMG YES PLEASE!! I thought nobody was going to ask and I’d have to go alone! You’re a lifesaver, Caelus! Saturday at 1:00 PM? Meet in front of the station?
Caelus let out a breath that was half-laugh, half-sigh of sheer relief. A massive, dopey grin stretched across his face, lighting up his features. The heavy knot in his stomach evaporated, replaced by a sudden, weightless rush of adrenaline.
Caelus: 1:00 PM sounds perfect. See you there!
He locked his phone and tossed it onto his nightstand, falling back onto his pillows. He stared up at the dark ceiling, a triumphant laugh escaping his chest. He had done it. He had actually done it.
Yet, as the initial euphoria began to settle, the ghost of the afternoon lingered. He closed his eyes, and the image of Danheng’s stoic, unreadable face returned.
Caelus wasn't a jealous person by nature. He shared his video games, his snacks, and his time freely. But the way he had felt standing in the doorway of the library... it was a territorial, primal instinct that deeply unsettled him. Danheng was his oldest friend. They had known each other since elementary school.
He needed to clear the air. He couldn't go into the weekend with this strange, heavy tension hanging between them.
•
The following day, the sky over Hoshinoha Academy was a brilliant, cloudless azure. The salty breeze blowing in from Sagami Bay ruffled the collars of the students gathering on the rooftop for the lunch period.
Danheng sat on his usual concrete bench near the chain-link fencing, far away from the noisy crowds. A neat, perfectly proportioned bento box rested on his lap—steamed rice, tamagoyaki, and grilled salmon, arranged with mathematical precision. In his left hand, he held a weathered paperback on the socioeconomic decline of the Kamakura Shogunate.
The heavy metal door leading to the stairwell slammed open with a metallic crash.
Danheng didn't look up from his book. He knew the acoustic signature of that specific entry.
Caelus strode across the rooftop, his uniform jacket unbuttoned as usual, his tie loose. He held two chilled cans of black coffee in his left hand. He stopped in front of Danheng's bench, his tall frame casting a shadow over the pages of the history book.
"You are blocking my light," Danheng stated, his tone smooth, betraying zero emotion.
"I come bearing gifts," Caelus replied, holding out one of the condensation-slicked cans.
Danheng paused. He looked at the coffee, then up at Caelus's face. The golden eyes of his childhood friend lacked their usual boisterous mischief. There was a solemn, hesitant weight to Caelus's posture.
Danheng carefully placed a silk bookmark between the pages of his novel, set it down beside his bento, and accepted the can. He cracked the tab, taking a slow sip. It was bitter, cold, and highly caffeinated. Acceptable.
"To what do I owe the bribery?" Danheng asked, gesturing slightly to the empty space on the bench beside him.
Caelus sat down, the concrete rough against his trousers. He popped his own can open but didn't drink. He stared out over the fencing, watching the distant waves crash against the shoreline. The wind whipped his messy gray hair around his face.
"I was a jerk yesterday," Caelus started, his voice uncharacteristically quiet, lacking its booming resonance. "In the library. I walked in, and I... I don't know man. I saw you two, and my brain just short-circuited. I acted like an asshole. I'm sorry."
Danheng didn't immediately respond. He analyzed the data presented to him. Caelus was apologizing. This was a rare occurrence, usually reserved for broken windows or destroyed video game controllers. The subject matter elevated the severity of the apology.
"Your behavior was irrational and disruptive," Danheng agreed, his voice cool and analytical. "You interrupted a critical study session and introduced unnecessary hostility into a neutral environment. However, your apology is accepted."
Caelus let out a dry chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck. "Always so formal. Can't you just say 'it's cool, bro' like a normal person?"
"I am a normal person. You are simply deficient in vocabulary."
Silence stretched between them for a long moment. It wasn't the hostile silence of the previous afternoon, but it was heavy with unspoken questions. Caelus took a swig of his coffee, grimacing at the bitter taste. He much preferred the sweet melon soda, but he knew Danheng only drank black coffee.
"Hey, Danheng?" Caelus asked, staring at the aluminum can in his hand.
"Hmm?"
"Do you... do you like her?"
The question hung in the air, carried by the ocean breeze. It was blunt. Unfiltered. Classic Caelus.
Danheng stopped chewing his tamagoyaki. He lowered his chopsticks. The question did not shock him; he had anticipated this confrontation the moment Caelus walked onto the rooftop. Yet, the physical reaction it elicited within him was... unexpected. A strange, hollow sensation bloomed in his chest, a subtle tightness that defied logical categorization.
He thought of the spark of static electricity. He thought of the way her eyes crinkled when she laughed at her own terrible historical jokes. He thought of the scent of artificial strawberries and sugar that seemed to linger on his clothes long after she had left the library.
She is a variable, Danheng reminded himself, firmly reinforcing the steel walls of his mental sanctuary. She is a contract. An assignment. To attach romantic inclination to a transactional relationship is illogical and detrimental to my academic goals.
"No," Danheng answered, his voice steady, absolute, and devoid of hesitation.
Caelus turned his head, looking at him sharply. "No?"
"I do not possess romantic feelings for March 7th," Danheng clarified, meeting Caelus's intense gaze without blinking. "My relationship with her is purely academic and transactional. I am tutoring her under the direct mandate of Mr. Welt in exchange for exclusive access to the restricted historical archives. Once she passes her final exams and the threat of expulsion is removed, my contractual obligation ends."
He paused, ensuring every word landed with the weight of undisputed fact.
"You have nothing to be threatened by, Caelus. The proximity you witnessed yesterday was strictly a geographical necessity for demonstrating a map. Nothing more."
The change in Caelus was instantaneous. The rigid tension in his shoulders vanished. The heavy, dark cloud that had settled over his demeanor evaporated, replaced instantly by the radiant, blinding sunshine of his usual personality.
He let out a loud, booming laugh, slapping Danheng hard on the shoulder.
"I knew it! I f*cking knew it!" Caelus grinned, his golden eyes sparkling with relief. "I told Stelle you were just being a robot, but she got into my head. Man, you had me worried for a second. I thought I was going to have to challenge you to a duel or something."
Danheng shifted his shoulder slightly, ignoring the stinging pain from the slap. "A physical altercation would result in immediate expulsion for both of us. It is an incredibly flawed resolution strategy."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Mr. Genius," Caelus beamed, draining the rest of his coffee in one long gulp. He crushed the empty aluminum can in his grip with effortless strength. "Anyway, the reason I'm in such a good mood is because I actually did it. I asked her out. We're going to get crepes tomorrow on Komachi-dori."
Danheng picked up his chopsticks again. He looked down at his perfectly portioned rice.
"I see," Danheng murmured.
"I'm kinda nervous, actually," Caelus admitted, leaning back on his hands, looking up at the sky. "I don't really do the whole 'date' thing very often. I mean, usually girls just ask me to sign their baseballs or whatever. But March is... different. She doesn't care about the baseball stuff. She just treats me like... me."
"She treats everyone with an equal lack of decorum," Danheng noted dryly.
"Exactly! It's refreshing," Caelus laughed. He stood up, stretching his arms above his head. "Anyway, I gotta get back. We have a pop quiz in literature next period and I need to try and cram three chapters of poetry into my brain in ten minutes. Wish me luck!"
"You will fail," Danheng stated factually.
"Love you too, buddy!" Caelus shouted over his shoulder, jogging toward the stairwell door. "See ya at the library later!"
The heavy metal door slammed shut, leaving Danheng alone in the wind once more.
He sat perfectly still. The silence of the rooftop returned, but it didn't bring the usual profound peace he sought. The air felt thin.
Danheng looked at the empty space beside him on the concrete bench. He replayed the conversation in his mind, analyzing his own words. 'I do not possess romantic feelings... purely academic... transactional.'
It was the truth. It was a logical, undeniable fact. He had no desire to date March 7th. He had no desire to date anyone. He valued quiet, order, and predictability. March was loud, chaotic, and inherently unpredictable. They were fundamentally incompatible.
So why, when Caelus announced they were going on a date, did the hollow sensation in his chest suddenly twist into something sharp and uncomfortably heavy?
Danheng closed his bento box. He had lost his appetite. He picked up his history book, opened it to his bookmarked page, and forced his eyes to scan the text. But for the first time in his life, the words refused to form a coherent narrative. The letters just looked like meaningless ink on a page.
He closed the book. He hated variables.
•
Saturday afternoon in Kamakura was a vibrant, chaotic symphony of life.
The spring weather had given way to an early, unexpected wave of summer heat. The iconic red torii gate marking the entrance to Komachi-dori shopping street stood tall against a brilliant blue sky. Throngs of tourists and locals alike crowded the narrow avenue, the air thick with the overlapping scents of roasted sweet potatoes, fresh seafood, and sweet, fried dough.
Caelus stood near the stone pillar of the torii gate, checking his watch for the fifteenth time in ten minutes.
It was 12:50 PM. He was ten minutes early.
He was sweating, and it wasn't just from the heat. He had spent an agonizing hour that morning standing in front of his mirror, rejecting outfit after outfit. He had ultimately settled on a casual, unbuttoned short-sleeve overshirt layered above a plain white tee, and dark denim jeans. It was simple, safe, and hopefully didn't scream 'I tried too hard'.
He nervously ran a hand through his ash-gray hair, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. He pulled out his phone, checked for any new messages, and shoved it back into his pocket when he saw the screen was blank.
What if she forgot? he thought, his anxiety spiking. What if she woke up and decided I was too boring to hang out with outside of school?
Across the bustling plaza, standing partially obscured by a large, wooden signboard for a local souvenir shop, a pair of teal eyes watched him intently.
Firefly clutched a woven wicker shopping basket tightly against her chest. She was wearing a simple, flowing sundress in a pale shade of mint green, a wide-brimmed straw hat shielding her fair skin from the afternoon sun. She had come to the station plaza simply to buy fresh produce for her mother at the weekend market.
She hadn't expected to see him.
Her breath hitched in her throat when she spotted Caelus. He looked incredibly handsome outside of his school or baseball uniform. The casual clothes gave him an effortless, rugged charm that made her heart ache with a familiar, dull throbbing pain.
She took a step forward, a hesitant, hopeful smile forming on her lips. She could go say hello. She could pretend it was a coincidence. She could ask him what he was doing here, and maybe, just maybe, he would invite her to walk with him.
“If you want him to see you, Firefly, you must stop standing in his shadow. You must step into the light and declare your presence.”
Danheng’s cold, logical words echoed in her mind, giving her a sudden, desperate surge of courage. She gripped the handle of her basket tighter, stepping out from behind the wooden signboard.
"Caelus..." she whispered, her voice lost in the ambient noise of the crowd.
She took another step toward him.
"Caelus! Hey! Over here!"
A bright, musical voice pierced through the murmur of the plaza, ringing out like a silver bell.
Firefly froze. The blood drained from her face.
From the direction of the train station ticket gates, March 7th came running.
She was a vision of chaotic radiance. She wore a light, off-the-shoulder denim jacket over a ruffled white blouse, paired with a pleated pastel-pink skirt that bounced around her knees as she ran. Her vibrant, short pink hair bounced freely, the choppy layers framing her flushed, smiling face. Her digital camera bounced lightly against her chest on its colorful strap. Caelus turned at the sound of her voice.
Firefly watched, paralyzed, as the nervous, tense expression on Caelus's face instantly vanished. It was replaced by a look of sheer, unadulterated awe. His golden eyes widened, his posture straightening, a massive, genuine smile breaking across his features.
It was a look Firefly had spent two years desperately hoping to receive.
"Hey!" Caelus called out, waving his hand, stepping away from the torii gate to meet her halfway. "You made it!"
"Of course I made it!" March laughed, coming to a slightly clumsy halt in front of him, panting softly. She rested her hands on her knees for a second to catch her breath, looking up at him with sparkling blue-pink eyes. "I sprinted from the platform! I wasn't going to let that limited-edition parfait get sold out. I have my priorities straight."
"I can see that," Caelus chuckled, his gaze lingering on her for a fraction of a second longer than necessary. He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, a faint pink dusting his cheeks. "You look... wow. I mean, you look really great, March."
March blinked, a genuine blush spreading across her own cheeks, dusting her freckles in a rosy hue. She looked down, playfully kicking at the cobblestone with her white sneaker. "Thanks. You clean up pretty nice yourself, baseball boy. Better than your dusty uniform anyway."
"Hey, that dust is the mark of a champion," Caelus protested, though his grin never faltered. He gestured toward the crowded entrance of Komachi-dori. "Shall we brave the crowds? The cafe is about halfway down the street."
"Lead the way, my valiant knight of sweets!" March declared, dramatically pointing forward with her finger.
Caelus laughed, falling into step beside her. Their shoulders brushed lightly as they merged into the river of people flowing down the shopping street, their voices blending into a harmonious, joyful chatter that slowly faded into the distance.
Firefly stood alone by the wooden signboard.
The heat of the afternoon sun felt suddenly freezing against her skin. The bustling noise of the crowd faded into a dull, ringing silence in her ears. She watched their retreating figures, observing the easy, natural way March leaned in when Caelus spoke, the way Caelus’s large frame seemed to instinctively tilt toward her, shielding her from the jostling tourists.
They looked perfect together. Like a scene ripped straight from a shoujo manga. A blindingly bright, vibrant painting that had absolutely no room for a quiet, silver-haired girl who only knew how to stand in the shadows.
Firefly slowly lowered her foot, retreating the single step she had taken into the light. She pulled the brim of her straw hat down, hiding her face, hiding the tears that suddenly welled up and spilled over her eyelashes, tracing hot, jagged lines down her cheeks.
She turned around, gripping her empty woven basket until her knuckles bruised, and walked in the opposite direction.
•
The cafe on Komachi-dori was exactly as obnoxious as its social media profile suggested. The walls were painted a nauseating shade of pastel pink, neon signs shaped like various fruits adorned the windows, and the air smelled heavily of spun sugar and vanilla extract.
Caelus and March managed to secure a small, round table near the back window, overlooking a narrow alleyway where a feral cat was currently sleeping on a trash can.
Between them sat the 'Super Berry Blast Parfait'. It was an absolute monstrosity of culinary engineering. It stood nearly a foot tall in a thick glass fluted cup, consisting of layers of strawberry ice cream, crumbled cheesecake, fresh berries, and a mountain of whipped cream that defied the laws of gravity, all topped with a sparkler that had long since burned out.
"Okay, this requires a strategy," March announced, holding a long metal spoon like a weapon. She leaned forward, studying the parfait with intense concentration. "If I go straight for the cheesecake layer, I risk a structural collapse of the whipped cream. But if I only eat the cream, I'll fall into a sugar coma before I reach the good stuff."
Caelus rested his chin in his hand, watching her with an amused smirk. "You're treating dessert like a military operation. Just dig in, March. If it falls, it falls. We'll eat it off the table."
"Spoken like a true barbarian," March gasped in mock horror. She picked up her camera from the table, quickly removing the lens cap. "Hold on, I need to document this masterpiece before we destroy it. Smile!"
She pointed the lens at him, peering through the viewfinder.
Caelus instinctively stiffened, flashing a rigid, slightly awkward peace sign.
"No, no, that's your 'baseball team press photo' face," March giggled, lowering the camera slightly. "Give me a real smile, Caelus. Look at the parfait. Look at the joy it brings."
Caelus looked at the ridiculous dessert, then back at March. Her blue eyes were bright, filled with a vibrant, infectious warmth that made the heavy, artificial sweetness of the cafe suddenly feel incredibly genuine. The awkward tension he had felt waiting by the torii gate melted away completely.
He didn't force a smile. A soft, genuine one broke across his face naturally.
Click.
March lowered the camera, looking at the digital screen. A soft "Oh" escaped her lips.
"What?" Caelus asked, leaning forward trying to see. "Did I blink? I always blink."
"No," March murmured, a faint blush returning to her cheeks. She quickly turned the camera off and set it down. "It's... it's a good picture. You have a nice smile when you aren't trying so hard."
Caelus felt a sudden, warm flutter in his chest. He reached for his own spoon, digging it unceremoniously into the side of the parfait, deliberately causing a minor avalanche of whipped cream to spill onto the plate.
"Hey! The structural integrity!" March squeaked, diving in with her spoon to save a falling strawberry.
For the next hour, they sat in the neon-lit cafe, sharing the massive dessert and passing the time with effortless ease. The conversation flowed naturally, bouncing from Caelus's disastrous attempt at cooking dinner for Stelle, to March's incredibly exaggerated stories about her previous hometown.
"So wait," Caelus laughed, wiping a smudge of whipped cream from his chin with a napkin. "You're telling me you actually convinced your old middle school teacher that the school was haunted by the ghost of a samurai just so you could get out of a math test?"
"I didn't convince him, I merely presented compelling photographic evidence," March defended, taking a delicate bite of cheesecake. "I took a picture of a really weird shadow in the gymnasium, and I might have... slightly edited the contrast to make it look like a helmet. It wasn't my fault he was super superstitious! They closed the gym for two days!"
"You are a menace to the educational system," Caelus chuckled.
"I prefer the term 'innovative problem solver'," March grinned. Her smile softened a bit as she stirred the remaining melted ice cream in her glass. "Though, I guess my innovative problem solving isn't really working at Hoshinoha. Danheng makes sure of that."
At the mention of his name, the light, airy atmosphere between them shifted, just a fraction.
Caelus twirled his spoon in his hand, looking down at the table. "Yeah. Danheng's pretty strict. He's always been like that, even when we were kids. He used to organize his crayon box by the hex code of the colors. If I broke one, he wouldn't speak to me for a week."
March laughed softly, resting her cheek in her palm. "That sounds exactly like him. He's so... rigid. Like a statue. But..."
She trailed off, her eyes drifting toward the window, looking out at the sleeping feral cat in the alley. A distant, soft expression crossed her face.
"But what?" Caelus asked, his voice suddenly a pitch lower.
"But sometimes," March murmured, her voice losing its boisterous volume, "when he's explaining something, and he forgets to be the 'perfect model student' for a second... he has this look in his eyes. It's really quiet. But it's not empty. It's like... he's carrying this huge, heavy library of thoughts inside his head, and he's just waiting for someone to ask to read a book."
She turned back to Caelus, offering a small, slightly apologetic smile. "Does that make any sense? Or am I just rambling because of the sugar rush?"
Caelus stared at her. He heard Danheng's cold, logical voice echoing in his memory from the rooftop just twenty-four hours ago.
‘I do not possess romantic feelings for March 7th. My relationship with her is purely academic.’
Danheng didn't have feelings for her. Caelus knew that. It was a fact.
But as he looked at the soft, thoughtful expression on March's face while she spoke about the stoic librarian, a cold, sinking realization washed over him.
Danheng didn't have feelings for March. But Caelus suddenly wasn't so sure about the other way around.
Before he could formulate a response, the bell above the cafe door jingled violently.
A loud, booming voice shattered the quiet ambience of the back corner.
"Well, well, well! If it isn't the star captain of the baseball team, stuffing his face with sugar instead of hitting the batting cages!"
Caelus flinched, the spoon slipping from his fingers and clattering against the plate. He slowly turned his head, his face draining of color.
Standing in the aisle, blocking the exit, was a tall muscled upperclassman with slicked-back dark blue hair and a terrifyingly sharp grin. He wore the Hoshinoha uniform, but the blazer was draped over his shoulders like a cape, a clear violation of the dress code.
"Sampo Koski," Caelus groaned, sinking lower into his chair.
"In the flesh, my friend!" Sampo laughed, strolling over to their table uninvited. He leaned heavily on the back of the empty chair next to March, invading their space with a suffocating, overwhelming aura of shady charisma. He winked at March, who looked completely bewildered. "And who is this lovely young lady? Don't tell me you're skipping practice for a date, Caelus. Coach wouldn't like that. Coach wouldn't like that one bit."
Sampo pulled a small, folded piece of paper from his pocket, twirling it between his fingers like a magician's coin.
"Speaking of things people wouldn't like," Sampo purred, his grin widening into something distinctly predatory. "I heard a little rumor that our boy Caelus here barely passed his history essay. It'd be a real shame if the upcoming midterm literature exam... proved to be too difficult. A real tragedy for the team. Unless, of course, a certain captain wanted to make a small... investment in his future?"
Caelus's jaw clenched, his golden eyes narrowing as he glared at the paper in Sampo's hand. The sweet, airy atmosphere of the date was instantly annihilated, replaced by the heavy, suffocating reality of Hoshinoha's cutthroat point system.