Chapter Text
“I’m never going there again”, Yamato declared with a serious tone.
“Relax, it’s just a haircut”, Jiro reacted, much less worried while he corrected the other’s hair.
“Just a haircut? You know how much it costed? And I only went there because the online reviews were so good. They must be all fake!”
“Darling, stop moving your head around so much or I’m going to hurt you by accident.”
“Yeah, yeah”, Yamato agreed dismissively. “Anyway, did you hear any news from Lin?”
“Not really. What happened?”
“Nah, I didn’t hear anything either. But he’s been living with Banba for … months now. Out of his own free will as well. They have to get together at some point, right? I mean what’s taking them so long?”, he asked, turning around.
Suddenly his head was grabbed rather forcefully and held in place.
“I’m starting to think it’s not the hairdresser’s fault that your haircut turned out like this”, Jiro commented drily, his patience thinning. “You should honestly be glad you weren’t stabbed with how much you’re moving!”
“Eh … sorry.”
“Anyway, I think they’re both quite oblivious to the other’s attraction which creates this comical situation where everyone knows they’ll end up together except them.” The tone of his voice dropped. “And if you move your head once more, I am going to actually stab you.”
Yamato remained as still as he could, only allowing himself to move around with his eyes while Jiro finished up the corrections much more relaxed.
“You know what we should do?”, Yamato picked up again the conversation while checking his hair with his phone camera. “We should have a bet going on when they will get together. Not just a bet between the two of us I mean, but with everyone from the team. Well, everyone expect Lin and Banba of course.”
“You see their feelings for each other and want to make a bet out of their situation?”, Jiro questioned, sweeping up the hair from the floor. But then he smiled and added: “Sounds like fun! When do we start?”
At the next baseball training Lin and Banba were sent away under a pretext. Before anyone could scatter, Enokida called for everyone’s attention.
“Alright, so we’re going to have a bet on when Banba and Lin are getting together. I’ll explain the rules to you!”
“Hey, it was my idea, so I’ll explain”, Yamato interjected, but was stopped instantly.
“You had the core idea, but your execution was so poor that instead of writing you a program to keep track of the bets, I came up with a much better system.”
“Wait … betting when they are going to get together?”, Saitoh repeated, part of him thinking he might have misheard.
“Yes, well, they’re going to end up as a couple eventually anyway. The bet is about what day it will happen”, Enokida clarified nonchalantly.
“How do we bet?”, Martinez asked right away, his interest obvious.
Enokida sighed. “Okay, everyone – how about first you listen to my explanation, then ask questions. Good? Alright, every day that you want to bet on costs a certain amount. The base amount is 1.000 yen. Any day that is more than six months in the future from the time you place your bet costs that much. Any day more than three months in the future up to six months, costs double. From two to three months it’s triple, one to two months costs five times the base amount and within one month it’s even more expensive. Namely from two weeks to a month it costs ten times as much, anything less costs twenty times the base amount. You can bet on as many days as you want and you can add more days to bet on at any time.”
“What the fuck?”, Yamato exclaimed.
“It’s to discourage people like you from only placing bets on short notice based on how Lin and Banba’s relationship is progressing”, Enokida answered smugly. “It’s an incentive to place early bets and then add to them when the situation seems fortunate. Oh yeah, and if two or more people bet on the same day and that happens to be the lucky day, then the money is split evenly – regardless of how much they paid for their bet on the day. I printed out the rules for you. So, any questions?”
Everyone took a paper except Genzo who just stood there with his arms crossed.
Price for one day
(in the future, relative to the day the bet is placed)
-
1 day – 14 days
20.000 yen
15 days – 1 month
10.000 yen
1 month and 1 day – 2 months
5.000 yen
2 months and 1 day – 3 months
3.000 yen
3 months and 1 day – 6 months
2.000 yen
over 6 months
1.000 yen
“Will we see which days the others are betting on?”, Saeki asked after studying the paper.
“Yup, it’s all open. I’ll keep in on sharefile and add everyone’s bets as they come in. Like that you can see all current bets in real time.”
“And as I notice the first entry states one day, meaning you can’t place a bet for the current day, only for the following day”, Saeki continued, lightly tapping the paper.
“Exactly”, Enokida confirmed.
“What happens if there’s no bet on the winning day? Does everyone get their money back?”, Jiro guessed.
“Nope, too much effort. If that happens, all the money goes to charity. So make sure to put up lots of bets!”
“I’m not having too much cash on me, is it okay if I transfer the money later?”, Martinez asked, already having noted down some dates on the paper with the instructions.
“Sure, sure. Okay, any more questions? No? Great, let’s start with the first bets before Lin and Banba return.”
“Wait!”, Yamato interjected. “Will you be betting too, Enokida?”
“Well of course. But as I said it’s all transparent and the history of when which bets are placed will be archived as well, so I am not having any unfair advantage, I’m merely managing…”
“Bullshit, you’ll just manipulate the timestamps of the bets, so that you’ll win anyway!”
“We haven’t even started yet and you already accuse me of cheating?”
Murmurs went through the small crowd as Enokida and Yamato kept arguing, both sides getting some audible support.
“That’s enough!”, Genzo shouted and everyone fell silent. “I’m not going to participate in this anyway, so I can take over managing the bets.”
Everyone could agree that this was a good solution.
“Alright, let me just show you the program I made then”, Enokida offered, but the old man waved him away.
“No need. Everyone just writes down their bets on the back of these papers and I’ll put everything together later.”
“Using my program, right?”
“If it’s put together later we won’t see what the others are betting on right away”, Martinez commented, keeping the paper close to his chest while the others were writing, almost everyone having the calendar app open on their phone.
“Then just put down all papers at once here on the table”, Genzo suggested. “And by the evening I’ll have it put together anyway. What’s the rush?”
“Figuring out which days everyone else is betting on is important to decide on one’s own strategy”, Saeki explained.
“Well, hurrying it up is also important”, Enokida added, his eyes fixated on his phone screen. “I can see they’re already on the way back, so hurry it up!”
Less than a minute later everyone put down their papers at one. Bent over the table, each of them examined the others’ bets .
Most of the bets were scattered throughout the months, accumulating around holidays and festivities. Christmas and New Years were especially cluttered with bets, being in the very fortunate price range of 2.000 yen per day. Out of the first set of bets three stood out: Saeki’s who had betted on only one day, Saitoh’s who had only betted on a bit more than a week that was more than half a year in the future and Yamato’s who had betted only on the upcoming weekend.
“Why would I throw out money before seeing what everyone else has put down – after all we can add bets anytime”, Saeki reasoned when questioned, while examining everyone’s bets closely. “It’s interesting. I guess Saitoh for example doesn’t believe Banba and Lin to get together anytime soon.”
“No, actually … I really want to join the betting, but I’m not having too much money to throw around”, Saitoh admitted. “So I just thought I’d get the most days out for the money.”
“And I guess Yamato has too much money to throw around then!”, Martinez joked, pointing to the other’s paper.
“Shut it”, Yamato growled, his fists balled. “Fucking idiot making the upcoming days so goddamn expensive.”
“Well if you have any complaints or don’t want to pay, you should bring it up with Genzo”, Enokida suggested with a grin. “He’s managing everything after all.”
“No complaints, just… Hey, old man, you’ll also keep us updated what the pot is right?”, Yamato asked, then showed a self-assured grin. “After all, I’d love to know how much I’m winning this weekend!”