Chapter One: “The Princess Wants to Win Over the Prince” — Part Six

“There. Perfect.”

I pulled my long hair into a ponytail and tied it tight so it wouldn’t come loose. When you’re doing sport, you have to keep it out of the way.

For club trial sessions, you wear your school PE kit. Each year has a different colour — ours, as first-years, is red.

“Not exactly cute, but what can you do.”

I touched up my makeup and left the girls’ changing room. The girls’ basketball club practised in the second gymnasium.
Several first-years hoping to try out were already gathered outside. Practice hadn’t started yet, and the upperclassmen were mingling with the new students.

Iori-senpai wasn’t among them.
The sound of a ball bouncing drew my eye inside. A few club members were already training — and Iori-senpai was one of them.

She’s already worked up a sweat… She must have got changed and come straight here after lessons.

While I’d been taking my time getting changed, fixing my hair, touching up my makeup — Senpai had been practising. This probably wasn’t something special she did today; it was just her ordinary everyday life.

“Oh — are you Himena-chan, by any chance?”

I was watching Senpai when an upperclassman I didn’t recognise spoke to me.

“Sorry, sorry — out of nowhere like that. It’s just that Himena-chan is so cute, even the third-years have been talking about you.”

This friendly-looking upperclassman was apparently a third-year.

“Are you a basketball veteran, Himena-chan?”
“…I’m sorry. I’ve never played.”
“Don’t apologise. I was the same when I joined. I probably won’t make the bench by the time I graduate — but there are girls who started in high school and did.”

She held out her hand with a warm smile, and I took it without thinking. The roughness of her palm told me everything about how hard she’d worked since joining.

And she still might not make the bench….

“…Is Iori-senpai really that good at basketball?”
“Are you kidding? She’s our ace. And she trains harder than anyone — genuinely gifted and a grind. It’s honestly a bit demoralising.”

Admiration, pure respect — and underneath those, something else too. Quite a few feelings tangled up in her voice.

“Are you here for Yaoji too, Himena-chan? I could go and get her if you like?”

Himena-chan too — that phrasing told me plenty. Iori-senpai clearly had no shortage of first-years joining up on her account. Even right now, several girls nearby were watching Senpai with barely concealed longing.

Which meant this place was full of my rivals.

“…It’s all right, thank you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. And — I’m sorry — I think I’ll withdraw from the trial as well.”

I didn’t want to fall behind my rivals, and part of me genuinely wanted to experience being in the same club as Iori-senpai. But this wasn’t a place I had any right to be.

I didn’t love basketball. I hadn’t the slightest desire to play it. Which meant I had no real intention of committing to it either.
Joining purely to stay near Senpai would be a terrible discourtesy — to Iori-senpai, and to this upperclassman in front of me.

“I’ll excuse myself, then.”

I bowed and walked away, leaving behind the girls buzzing excitedly over Iori-senpai. It stung a little. But I didn’t regret it.
It was fine. I had plenty of other plans for winning Iori-senpai over.