Whistle! © Higuchi Daisuke


(xi.)

It started as a game.

There they were – Tatsuya, Yuki, and Shige – stuck with cleaning duty on a moderately warm summer afternoon.

Tatsuya had been diligently sweeping his corner of the room and Yuki had been wiping down the blackboard when Shige, quite bored of sweeping already, took his broom and swatted a paper ball. It narrowly missed Yuki as she ducked down to pick up a sopping, dirty cloth, but it had hit Tatsuya squarely in the face.

Two hours later, after playing several convoluted games of a hockey-soccer-basketball morph contriving of equally convoluted rules, the trio realized that the class was in a worse shape than when they had begun.

Their raucous laughter alerted the teacher on duty and when he walked into the room, he gave them a stern lecture on the proper usage of janitorial equipment.

(xii.)

As best friends go, Tatsuya and Shige are two sides of the same coin. One is black and the other is white. Tatsuya is studious while Shige is laid-back; Shige revels in spontaneity while Tatsuya excels in strategic-based tactics; Tatsuya is order and Shige is chaos.

They never thought they would find common ground between two very different people.

Not until one day, when that "supposed" ace striker from Musashi no Mori off-handedly says that Yuki is cute. They both suppress an odd urge to strangle Seiji Fujishiro.

They realize that they're not so different after all.

(xiii.)

It's the middle of winter.

They've finished making their midnight rounds at the temples. Yuki's hands are freezing; her nose is bright red like an overly ripe tomato. She can barely stop her teeth from chattering.

But as the others happily, loudly decide on their positions, Yuki grabs their hands: Tatsuya on her right, and Shige on her left. This was all she needed.

She couldn't be happier.

(xiv.)

"So, what do you think, Tatsu-bon?"

"No."

"But! It's Golden week, Tatsu-bon!"

"No. And stop calling me Tatsu-bon."

"What's going on?"

"Kojima-san, I—"

"Yuki-chan! Listen, listen—"

"…Stop planning the training camp in the atmosphere of a married couple."

"…"

"It's disgusting."

(xv.)

On the day of the graduation ceremony, a girl from another class stops Yuki as she's leaving the gymnasium.

"K-kojima-san! Which is it: Mizuno-kun or Shige?"

"Well, I don't really care but, knowing them, it's probably both."

The girl gasps, startled. She runs out, crying.

Yuki is confused; it easily could've been either Shige or Tatsuya.

Did it really matter who could eat the most chili peppers?