Lonely Rock: Love Songs Dedicated to the Stars

'You're lying, she clearly knows how to use this thing.'

After Aikawa's match ended, Yuma glanced at the ball in his hand, then at Uesugi, who had just put the ball down.

As Ueshiro was drinking water, she could already feel Yuuma's slightly resentful gaze, as well as the gaze from Ijichi Seika on the other side.

'These two are such a hassle.'

What could she do but pretend she didn't notice?

"Kenzaki, I really made a bad decision."

Aikawa, who had just returned, looked at Yuuma, panting heavily.

"how do I say this?"

"I shouldn't have asked you to cheer me on."

Aikawa had just passed the spot where the ladies were standing while he was running. He glanced over there and immediately spotted Yuuma standing behind the girls, swinging a ball around wildly.

Yuzhen thought she could just fool him, so she stood there and just waved her arms around aimlessly.

Anyway, Aikawa was so focused on watching him that he almost fell, but luckily he recovered in time. He thought about how everyone was cheering him on and he couldn't lose, so he miraculously overtook several people and came in second place.

"Isn't this just because you were moved by me and that's why you unleashed your inner power?" Yuma patted his back. "Because I don't know anything, but because I made a promise with you, I could only force myself to pick up the balloon and cheer you on. And the power of that promise made you unleash your potential. How inspiring! This is the bond between us."

"Cough cough, where's the passion?" Aikawa coughed twice after being patted by Yuma. "Never mind, you have a match soon, go check in. Also, you shouldn't try to play fancy ball games anymore, this was my mistake."

Yuma tossed the ball to Aikawa, then pulled Hoshika from the rest area to check in.

"Senior, let our opponents see the bond between us."

"You think you can get involved with just anyone?"

After verifying the information, Yuzhen got the rope. Just like yesterday, he squatted down and used the rope to tie their ankles together. But this time he was a little slower.

He stayed with Xingge until evening after they went home yesterday. There was no one else at Xingge's house yesterday, so the two of them sat on the sofa and played games together all afternoon.

After dinner, Xingge and he watched anime in the living room and she fell asleep without realizing it. He carried Xingge to the bed and couldn't resist giving her a quick kiss.

Looking at Hoshigo's shoes, Yuuma remembered that Hoshigo had gone to bed early yesterday and hadn't showered. When Yuuma went to her house this morning, Hoshigo was still asleep.

Did she not wash her feet yesterday?

As Yuma looked at her white socks, this thought involuntarily popped into her mind.

'No, no, what am I thinking?'

Yuzhen snapped out of her daze and quickly tied the rope back up.

Why is it so slow?

Xingge watched as Youzhen slowly stood up and then asked him.

"I was just thinking that I should tighten it a bit. It wouldn't be good if it suddenly came loose during the competition."

Yu-chan habitually touched the side of her neck with her right hand.

Xingge watched his actions. Having spent so much time with Youzhen, she knew he would touch the back of his neck when embarrassed and the side of his neck with his right hand when lying. He definitely wasn't thinking what he claimed.

'Did he find out I forgot to shower last night?'

Xingge also felt a little embarrassed, and she secretly sniffed herself to see if she had any odor.

'Thankfully, there's no strange smell.'

At this moment, Yuma also noticed Hoshika's little actions.

'Could it be that I was caught stealing a kiss from her yesterday?'

Chapter 50 Sports Meet (Part 4)

With Yuma and Hoshika's perfect teamwork, winning the semi-finals was inevitable.

After the match ended, Yuuma was about to squat down to untie the rope, but Hoshika was faster. She squatted down and untied the knot before Yuuma, then quickly took a step to the side.

Yu-ma thought that Yu-ma had made her angry because she had discovered that he had secretly kissed her last night.

"Senior, I'm sorry."

Xingge was taken aback by his words; she didn't quite understand why Youzhen wanted to apologize to her.

Why are you apologizing?

"Didn't I make you angry, senior?" Yuma looked at the puzzled Hoshika with a puzzled expression. "It's because I secretly kissed you last night that you got angry."

"How could I possibly get angry over something like this?"

So it wasn't because of that. Yuma breathed a sigh of relief.

"Wait, what did you do last night?"

"It's nothing, senior, please forget about it."

"How could I forget!" Xingge tried her best to make her eyes look scary as she glared at Youzhen, although to Youzhen, this look was no different from a coquettish expression. "You...you...you're not allowed to hug me after we go back this afternoon."

Her voice trailed off; she couldn't think of any other way to punish Yuuma. She finished speaking and turned to walk towards the classroom rest area.

"No!" Yuma quickly caught up with her. "You'll die. Senpai is so cruel."

'What are these two doing? They just finished a race and they're like this.'

Aikawa and Kamishiro, who had come over with water, withdrew their hands that were about to hand the water out. After unscrewing the caps, the two of them drank the two bottles of water that they had originally bought for Yuuma and Hoshika in unison.

……

"So it was just because of this."

Yu-ma and Hoshika were having lunch together in the classroom at noon. As for Yu-yuki, after receiving the bento box prepared by Yu-ma, he ran to the teacher's office to enjoy the air conditioning.

There were only the two of them in the classroom, and Xingge also told Youzhen why she didn't want to get too close to him today.

"I don't smell weird, do I?" Xingge tugged at her collar, lowered her head, and sniffed. "I think I don't, but... wait! What are you doing?"

Yuma had just stood up, moved closer to her, and then took a sniff.

"It doesn't have much of a smell." He paused for a moment, then added, "There's a unique fragrance about you, senior. Is that something I can mention?"

"Nonsense, I forgot to shower yesterday, and I sweated so much." She pushed Yuzhen's face away a little. "How could there be any fragrance?"

“I did smell a little bit.” Yuma sat back down on her stool.

"So, senior, you didn't let me untie the ropes after the competition because you were afraid I'd smell the sweat on your feet?"

"...More or less."

Yuma looked at Hoshika, who was looking down, and suddenly had the idea of ​​teasing her. After all, he rarely saw Hoshika so shy.

"Senior, I don't dislike you."

Yuma switched to a more serious tone.

"I'd rather you take off your shoes and kick me right now."

"What are you talking about now!?"

Xingge blushed and looked around to make sure no one had heard her.

"You're... a pervert..."

Yuma admired the Steam Princess Hoshika-senpai in front of him, a sight he rarely saw on ordinary days.

"I'm so sorry for being so perverted," Yuuma stood up a little on the stool and leaned forward. "So, will you hate me now, Senpai?"

"..."

Xingge glanced up at Youzhen, who had a smug smile on her face.

"...I don't dislike it."

The sound was very soft, but Yuuma heard it clearly. But did he really hear it clearly? Yuuma felt that he might not have heard it at all.

"I didn't hear you clearly, could you please repeat it?"

"You... I don't dislike you."

I also think you won't hate me.

……

There was only one event in the afternoon, a relay race with borrowed objects that Youzhen participated in. When he and Xingge returned to the playground, Xingge was still bothered by what he had just said, nudging him with her elbow every now and then.

'Just like a sulking child.'

With that thought in mind, Yuzhen walked to the check-in area, confirmed her identity information, and then went to the starting line of the track to prepare.

The school's borrowing race is 200 meters long. At the 100-meter mark, there are several tables, and each table has a box with some slips of paper inside that say what you want to borrow.

Yuuma looked at the track ahead, a little worried. Borrowing things might be difficult. And he'd heard there might be some strange notes asking him to find "the most important person" or something like that—was he going to have to run the whole race carrying that person on his back?

There was no time for Yuuma to think things through carefully; the referee had already told everyone to prepare.

After the gunshot, everyone rushed out together. Yuzhen ran in the lead; a 100-meter sprint was not difficult for him. He was the first to reach the drawing point and took out a slip of paper from the box.

He opened the note but didn't see anything strange; it asked him to borrow wired headphones.

He really remembered Yu Zhen; Xing Ge had been using wired headphones when she listened to music this morning. Borrowing them from her shouldn't be a problem. He immediately turned around and ran towards Xing Ge's location.

"Excuse me, could you lend me your wired headphones?"

Yuzhen stopped abruptly in front of Xingge.

Hoshika, Uesugi, and Aikawa were all standing by the track. After hearing Yuma's request, Hoshika was planning to take her earphones out of her sweatpants pocket, but it seemed that there was a loose thread in her sweatpants pocket, which got tangled up with her earphones.

Meanwhile, Kamishiro and Aikawa, who were observing the battle from the sidelines, saw that some people had already borrowed things and were running back.

"Kenzaki, some people are already heading back."

"what!"

Yuma glanced over and saw that the boy was already running towards the referee. But Hoshika hadn't taken off her headphones yet.

"Just take Ijichi-kun over there," Kamishiro said, getting a little impatient with their dawdling. "As long as the referee sees the earpiece, it's fine."

“That seems to make sense.” Yuuma nodded and looked at Hoshika. “Senior, let’s go quickly.”

"Okay, let's go... Wait a minute! What are you doing! Put me down!"