"Understood."
Watanabe, Takamine, and Niino replied in a scattered manner.
Hiko was dissatisfied with their disorganized responses and called out each name in turn: "Watanabe! Takamine! Niino! I didn't hear your voices! Louder!"
"Understood!" the three shouted in unison.
"Very good. You three stay here and wait for Arisa and Ai."
Saito Hiko nodded in satisfaction, then rode his bicycle to a nearby convenience store.
"He's about the same age as us, but he acts like such a mature adult."
Niino watched Hiko ride away, then turned to Watanabe beside her and complained.
"I don't see any problem with it. At least he's the best-looking guy I've ever seen," Watanabe replied. "It's better than having some forty or fifty-year-old uncle as our coach."
"I wasn't saying he was bad. I just feel like his demeanor is completely different from other guys our age," Niino explained, thinking Watanabe had misunderstood her.
"Yes, I get it. I have the same thought," Watanabe nodded in agreement. "Although I haven't talked to him, I can feel a sense of reliability."
Niino heard Watanabe's words and put on a gossipy expression: "Eh? Why don't I feel that reliability? Are you deliberately trying to cover something up by saying 'although I haven't talked to him'?"
"If I were close to him, I wouldn't have been called out and reprimanded," Watanabe thought of the scene where the three of them had just been scolded.
Niino found this reasonable and turned to Takamine: "Do you have any feelings about him?"
"I don't have any feelings," Takamine shook her head.
"You don't even feel a special aura?" Niino pressed again.
Takamine nodded.
"How strange," Niino murmured. The aura they sensed from Hiko seemed different for each of them.
So, Arisa also didn't feel anything… was that why she was so brave?
The three chatted idly for a while.
"Oh, by the way, I feel like Ai and he know each other. It's been so long, and Ai and Arisa still haven't arrived," Niino suddenly said.
Watanabe beside her suddenly poked the soft flesh at her waist.
"What are you doing?" Niino looked at Watanabe in confusion, but seeing no reaction from her, she continued, "They haven't fallen victim to the president's nephew, have they?"
"They have not fallen victim," a male voice answered her question.
"But it's been a while, and I still haven't seen Arisa and Ai," Niino went on. "That person must have played a dirty trick. Arisa talked back to him yesterday, so she must have offended him."
"How could I possibly harm Arisa just because she talked back to me?" the male voice sounded again right beside Niino.
'Me?'
Only then did Niino realize something was wrong, and she turned her head toward the source of the voice.
"Ah!"
Niino was startled and fell backward onto the ground.
The very person she had been talking about was standing right beside her.
"Am I that scary?" Hiko looked at Niino, who had turned her head only to fall in fright, feeling a bit speechless.
Niino remembered Watanabe poking her earlier, clearly warning her that the person in question had arrived. But she, being careless, had kept talking about him behind his back.
Caught red-handed, she rolled her eyes and tried to change the subject: "Didn't you leave? Why are you back here?"
Hiko held up the shopping bag in his hand. "I just went to the convenience store to buy you guys sports drinks. I didn't expect that as soon as I left, you'd start badmouthing me behind my back."
"What I just said was clearly, 'Why is the coach so charismatic and handsome, it's truly a delight to behold,'" Niino quickly retorted, thinking on her feet.
"Well, I'm not a petty person," Hiko handed the shopping bag to Niino. "Stretch out your arms and hang this on the back of your hands until Arisa and Ai arrive."
"This isn't me holding a grudge; it's to train the balance and strength of your arms," Hiko added.
'Petty guy!'
Niino could only curse silently in her heart at Hiko's shameless excuse, not daring to show any disrespectful thoughts for fear of being punished further.
"Ugh..." She obediently stood straight, raised her arms, and hung the shopping bag, containing five bottles of sports drinks, on the backs of her hands.
"I'm not a devil either. Once you see Arisa and Ai, you can put your hands down," Hiko said with satisfaction. He took two bottles from the bag and handed them to Watanabe and Takamine. "Here, one bottle each. When Arisa and Ai arrive, share them with them. I won't disturb your bonding time."
After finishing, he put his foot on the pedal, then remembered something and turned back: "If you put them down early, I'll give you extra training later."
"I absolutely won't put them down until they arrive!" Niino quickly promised.
"You said it. If you do, I'll double it on top of the original," Hiko replied.
"..." Niino suddenly felt uneasy.
"Alright, I'll go to the finish line and wait for you all."
Hiko rode away on his bicycle.
As soon as Niino could no longer see him, she immediately put her hands down. "So tired."
"Aren't you afraid he'll suddenly come back?" Watanabe kindly reminded her.
"He said he'd wait for us at the finish line, so he probably won't come back, right...?" Niino looked in the direction Hiko had left.
"Looking like that is useless. If you can see him, then he can see you too," Takamine added.
Niino sighed and reluctantly raised her hands again, hanging the bag back up.
"I really don't understand you. Just now you were so brave talking about him behind his back, but now you're so scared," Watanabe Akane said, watching Ninomiya Suzune foolishly put the bag back up.
"He's our coach, our instructor, and he can even write songs and choreograph for us. Isn't that a big shot?" Niino thought for a moment. "As long as we cling to him, we won't have to worry about future songs, right? We can just focus on training."
"Since you know so much, why were you talking about him behind his back?" Watanabe asked.
"Just now, I thought he had left, didn't I? Who knew he just went to the convenience store and came back silently," Niino replied.
"So that's what you were thinking. Well, you can look behind you now," Takamine said.
"Don't scare me... Did that guy circle back around?" Niino muttered, timidly turning to look.
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Hiko x Ai - 58: Team III
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Hiko x Ai - 101: Collaboration?
Hiko X Ai - 102: Sponsorship
Hiko x Ai - 103: Looking Away
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