Am I in a Harem?

Chapter 11

Returning the Favor

The festival that Umi and Nozomi setup together was the talk of the town for quite a while. Even some of the students at school were talking about it. Whenever they spotted Umi, they praised her for her hard work and thanked her for showing the shrine. Maintaining the normal Umi act, Umi remained modest and said that it was nothing. No one believed her, but they just decided to go along with it anyway.

Now, school was finishing up so Umi was getting ready to head to archery club when Kotori pulled her over before she could.

"Hey Kotori, what's up?"

"I really wanted to talk to you."

"Well, you know that I don't have a lot of time since I have club practice right now."

"I know. This won't take that long. I just needed to ask you something."

"Okay, what's on your mind?"

"Will you g-…"

"Umi-senpai, we have to get to the clubroom. The president is about to tell us something important."

"Right. I'll be right there." She turned to Kotori and put her hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry. We'll continue this later. I gotta go." Umi turned around and dashed off to her club. That's when Kotori bowed her head in sadness.

"Will you go out with me?"

…

Club practice was long as always, but Umi managed to get through since it was something that she actually liked. She packed up her things and thanked everyone for their hard work. Everyone else returned the favor and allowed her to leave. Right as she walked outside, she ran into one of her friends.

"Rin-chan, wow, it seems like it's been so long. How are you?"

"I kind of felt the same way, except for the fact that you invited me to attend the festival the other day."

"I did?" Umi had to think back to when she was asking everyone she could and realized that she did ask Rin. She just didn't spend a lot of time with her request to fully remember that encounter. "Oh, I guess I did, haha. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I actually wanted to ask you something. Because you invited me to the festival and I thoroughly enjoyed, I thought I could return the favor. You see, my uncle is a major sports affiliate. And you know how the World Cup is happening right now?"

"Oh yeah, that is going on."

"Well, he gave me two tickets for the game tomorrow featuring Japan and the United States. I was just wondering if you wanted to come with me."

"Wow, you're asking me. Isn't this kind of a big thing?"

"Yeah, but I knew that you knew a lot about sports so I thought you would be the perfect person to ask."

"Well, I guess if that's your reasoning then I'll join you."

"Really? Sweet. We'll meet at the bus station at 9 in the morning tomorrow. It will take us straight the arena."

"Okay, I will see you tomorrow."

"Bye." Rin waved goodbye as she ran off by herself. Umi waved back to her and headed home.

…

The next morning started out early for Umi. She got ready and looked for her Japan jersey for the soccer team. She knew she had one, but she just didn't remember where it was. Once she found it, she ran to the station as fast as she could to meet up with Rin. When she arrived, she was nearly out of breath, but managed to apologize to Rin about being late.

"It's okay. We can't even leave until the bus driver checks out everyone's things."

"Thank goodness."

The two of them got in line and waited for their things to be checked. Once everything was okay, they got on the bus and headed for Tokyo where the World Cup was taking place.

Tokyo was a pretty rare place for them to go visit since it was their country's capital so they were excited when they saw it come into view. The tall buildings reaching towards the sky blew their minds. Once they made it into the city, their eyes were constantly at working, scanning every little thing that they could. When the arena came into view, they immediately became speechless. They had no idea that the thing look that big. When they exited the bus, they looked straight up to see the building towering over them.

"Wow, this is incredible."

"I know. I had no one idea Japan could do something like this."

"Well, of course we could. We can't host the World Cup without building something this awesome. Come on, let's get inside." Umi grabbed Rin's hand and pulled her inside of the arena.

Once they got inside, they were at a loss for words. The place was huge and had so many people inside. Most of the people were Japan fans with a few US fans. These people were looked at funny, but Umi and Rin were amongst those people. They quickly found their seats and found out that they were incredibly close to the field itself. Once they settled in, they eagerly awaited the start of the game.

Right as the game started, the arena rumbled like a riot. All of the Japan fans were screaming chants simultaneously which made Umi and Rin widen their eyes in amazement. They did their best to join in as well.

Because soccer has a lot of down time for the crowd, this gave Umi and Rin the chance to get to know each other, but Rin was the one who managed most of the conversation.

"So what's going on in your life?"

"I was actually wanting your help, Umi-senpai. There's this girl I've seen around school a lot, but I just haven't had the courage of talking to her."

"What? You're the shy-type? You don't seem that way to me."

"Well, that's because it's you."

"What does that mean?"

"No!" Rin immediately regretted saying it like that. "I didn't mean like that. I just meant that I feel really comfortable when I'm with you."

"Why didn't you say that from the start?"

"I'm sorry. Haha."

"Go! Go!"

The two of them immediately turned their heads back towards the game to see Japan making a run for the goal. The player was all alone on a break away with only one other person right behind him. They started to cheer as loud as they could. Once he was in range of the goal, he took the shot. However, the ball barely missed the upper corner of the goal and headed right for where Umi and Rin were sitting. Umi quickly threw her arms and grabbed the ball out of the air.

"Woo!"

"Nice catch, girl!"

"You lucky butt!" All of the people around them were congratulating her for the catching the ball. Even Rin was in awe of what just happened. She couldn't believe that Umi managed to catch a World Cup soccer ball.

"Oh my gosh, Umi-senpai, you are so lucky."

"I mean, I guess. It's a soccer ball."

"How could you say that? That is a limited edition World Cup soccer. Only once every four years can a person have the chance to catch one. You have got to understand that?"

"Yeah, but…" At that moment, Umi had a thought. She placed the ball in front of Rin's face and gave her a smile. "Actually, here's a good idea. You have it?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, you seem like you really want it."

"But I can't have it. You're the one who caught it."

"Who cares? I want you to have. You're the one who got me into this game so I'll give this to you as a present." Umi placed the ball in Rin's hands and patted her on the head.

"T-Thank you, Umi-senpai."

"No, thank you."

The rest of the game was a close one, but in the end, the United States managed to take the win with one goal whole Japan stayed at zero. Once the game was over, they headed out of the arena and back onto the bus where it took them back to their city. During the trip, Rin couldn't help but stare at her soccer ball with goo goo eyes. It was such a special gift and she was going to cherish this forever.

Once they arrived, they slowly exited the bus. Umi was the first one off so she waited for Rin just on the outside. As Rin made her way down the stairs of the bus, someone bumped her from behind causing her to fall towards Umi.

"Rin!" Umi was there to catch her before she could fall, but the most unexpected thing happened. Umi completely misjudged the trajectory of Rin's body. Their lips ended up meeting as one, but their eyes were both open. As quickly as they could, they broke away with red faces.

"Umi-senpai, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that."

"It's fine. It's not your fault." A few seconds went by of just awkward silence before Umi turned around and looked at Rin. "Hey, let's head home."

"Okay."

End of Chapter 11