"Heishuu~!"
With a blooming smile, Yotsuba dropped the final basketball into the bin. Despite the undeniable traces of fatigue on her face, she chirped cheerfully, "Thank you so much for the help, President! I'm the one who promised to clear this up, but I ended up dragging you into it. I really feel terrible about it!"
"Don't worry about it. It seems I have a pretty strong fated connection with you Nakano quintuplets. I accidentally had lunch with Itsuki, ran into Miku at the vending machine when she was in a bind, and now helping you out isn't exactly a chore..."
Watching the sweat bead on Yotsuba's forehead and her slightly ragged breathing from exhaustion, Izuru let out a sigh.
"If you truly feel bad about me helping, then good. That way, I can ask you to think of yourself a bit more in the future. Don't just let everyone treat you like a 'pushover' and squeeze you dry. Just watching it makes me feel suffocated."
Hearing Izuru's words, Yotsuba blinked her large, cute eyes and replied in a slightly teasing tone.
"Oh? Is the President worried about me? How sweet!"
Izuru rolled his eyes before speaking with a touch of melancholy: "You could say that. Seeing you sacrifice yourself without expecting anything in return makes me feel uneasy—you give all your energy to others, while you might be losing a lot of things yourself because of it..."
Yotsuba was stunned for a moment, but then a mischievous look crossed her face. "Kind people always get a kind reward. Who knows? In the process of not expecting anything and losing things I was supposed to have, maybe I'm actually getting something far more precious in return?"
{Like right now...}
But that last sentence only echoed in Yotsuba's heart. She continued aloud, "Lu Xun once said that God might just be glitching; He doesn't just close your door, seal your window, and plug your drains—He might even pump toxic gas into them. But, He'll also feel a bit sorry for you and leave a secret passage as an unexpected surprise..."
"Judging by the vibe, that definitely sounds like something Lu Xun would say..." Izuru's lip twitched, then he asked curiously: "How do you even know that quote?"
Seeing his reaction, the sly look on Yotsuba's face deepened. "That's a girl's secret!"
{Secret, my foot!}
Izuru was powerless to retort, but he didn't pry further. After all, in this era of information overload, the entire Earth was just a global village thanks to the internet. It wasn't strange for a quote from another country to cross oceans and land here.
"Fine, keep your secrets. But I've finished tidying everything. Just need to return this bin of balls and we're done. It's getting late, let's wrap this up and go home. You take the small basket, I'll take the big one..."
While Izuru and Yotsuba were busy chatting, the cleanup was essentially finished. Most of the heavy lifting had been done by Izuru. Considering Yotsuba had just burned through her stamina on the court—and fueled by Izuru's masculine instincts—he had become quite diligent in his assistance.
Fortunately, Izuru's physical fitness was top-tier. Coupled with the company of a beauty like Yotsuba, he had a rare motivation to perform these tedious tasks. He felt that right now, he could climb thirty flights of stairs, outrun an elevator, and arrive at a pretty girl's front door before the ding!
Izuru shook his head to clear the ridiculous thought and hoisted the large bin full of basketballs without much effort.
"President, I didn't realize you were this strong. I thought Student Council Presidents were the bookworm types who were weak at sports, but you have incredible stamina and arm strength."
Seeing Izuru carry the bulk of the weight while his face remained calm without a single drop of sweat, Yotsuba lifted the smaller basket and followed behind him in awe.
"Of course. I'm a real man capable of typing hundreds of chapters every night with super-human hand speed until the walls nearly crack. How could my stamina and strength be bad?"
Yotsuba, however, didn't seem to catch the "perverted" subtext behind that sentence. She tilted her head in confusion: "Huh~? What do you mean by that, President? I don't get it~!"
"It's better that you don't. If you did, I'd be the one feeling embarrassed..."
Izuru felt a wave of relief and quickly shifted the topic.
"By the way, didn't you just transfer? Do you even know where the sports equipment room is?"
"Well, technically, I only came today to handle the transfer procedures and get to know the school. The five of us officially start classes tomorrow..."
Yotsuba, her attention successfully diverted, pursed her lips in deep thought as she tried to frame her words.
"But it's okay! The basketball club members told me the procedure very kindly when I agreed to help them clean up, so I know exactly where the storage is!"
Hearing that, Izuru's brow furrowed in displeasure again before immediately relaxing. He continued: "Then, since you only start tomorrow, how did you end up playing in the match? Isn't it usually for club members only? Didn't the others mind?"
"About that..."
At the mention of this, Yotsuba suddenly looked full of confidence, even a bit proud.
"Because the girls' team was being pressed hard by the boys, one of the girls felt really guilty and stepped down out of shame. The other team members also suddenly felt a bit unwell, so I had the honor of stepping in as a sub!"
{Pressed hard? The girls' team didn't have a single point back then; they were being slaughtered! And 'stepped down out of shame'? They obviously just thought the score was too embarrassing and bailed!}
{And as for the others suddenly feeling 'unwell,' that's even bigger nonsense. They were just afraid of the humiliation of losing, so they made up some random excuse...}
{And you, Yotsuba, were only 'welcomed' onto the court because they were desperate and wanted to drag one more person down to share the shame!}
Despite that, Izuru looked at Yotsuba's cheerful, innocent face—devoid of a single shred of malice...
{A girl like this... I can't help but really like her...}
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