By Zephyria Thump, thump, thump, thump, the loud drum sounds from the broadcast were followed by a flood of cheers, making his mind go blank. Koi took a deep breath and carefully looked around. The stands were filled with loud cheers and applause. He was so embarrassed that he emptied his head and focused only on not disrupting the formation, and somehow he managed to do it.
After lining up and bowing to the audience, Koi quickly headed for the dugout first. Thanks to everyone’s consideration, he was arranged to appear last and leave first. Thanks to that, Koi moved urgently. He felt like he couldn’t bear it unless he ran away quickly.
He hurriedly entered the dugout and was barely trying to catch his breath when someone suddenly grabbed his arm.
“Ah!”
Koi, who had unconsciously made a noise, raised his head and paused. Ashley was looking down at him with a fierce expression he had never seen before.
What’s wrong? Did I do something wrong?
Koi blinked in confusion. Even he, who was usually oblivious, could tell. Ashley was furious to the point of being unbearable.
“What is this?”
“…Huh?”
He was so flustered that he could only manage to utter a dazed sound, when Ariel’s voice suddenly cut in from behind.
“What do you mean, what is it? Can’t you see? It’s a cheerleading uniform.”
At those words, Ashley turned his head. Ariel, who had come in last, was looking at them with a frown. The ice hockey team guys, who had been waiting to say good job, cute, and the new uniform looks great to the Cheerleading Team girls, widened their eyes and looked back and forth between them. Ashley, still holding Koi, roughly spat out at her this time.
“What’s with this uniform? What kind of thing did you pick!”
“What?”
Ariel’s voice also rose.
“What do you mean, what kind of thing? Where are you barking?”
“Can’t you see? How could you pick something like this no matter how you chose!”
“Then you should have been at the meeting, who was it that skipped out to do homework!”
“What?”
“What about you!”
The other kids were flustered and didn’t know what to do at the sight of the two of them facing each other and growling.
“Why is Ash like that?”
The vice-captain asked anxiously, and Bill shook his head.
“I don’t know, me neither. He didn’t say anything when he saw you guys going out earlier, but suddenly he’s getting angry.”
Bill, who was also whispering in a small voice, had no choice but to step between them.
“Um, well… you know.”
Ashley and Ariel turned their heads at the same time. Bill flinched at the sight of the four scary eyes, but he mustered his courage and continued.
“I don’t know what the problem is… but, we all chose the uniform together.”
“Right?” Bill looked around. Then the ice hockey team guys who were watching them nodded as if they had been waiting.
“That’s right, we chose it together.”
“At Green Bell back then, right?”
“Yeah, I think it all looks good on everyone…”
“Me too.”
“Me too, everyone’s cute. It suits you well.”
Ariel put her hands on her hips and raised her chin at the sight of them agreeing, saying yes, yes. As if to say that you’re the only one talking nonsense. Ashley was furious, but it wasn’t easy to continue his own argument alone in a situation where no one was taking his side. Ariel questioned Ashley, who was urgently looking for something to say.
“Why are you doing this? What do you not like about this uniform! Tell me, you have to tell me the reason for me to listen or not.”
Everyone’s eyes were focused on Ashley. He had to say it. Why this uniform was a problem.
“It’s too…”
Ashley barely opened his mouth.
“It’s too short! Your legs are all showing!”
The surroundings fell silent in an instant. Only the noise from the stands faintly lingered between them. After a long time, Ariel asked with a distorted face.
“Did you eat something wrong?”
When Ashley paused for a moment, Ariel continued to get angry and said.
“This is a uniform! What’s wrong with showing your legs? To look at it with such a sexual gaze, are you a pervert?”
“Watch your mouth.”
“You watch your mouth! Where are you evaluating the uniform, saying your legs are this and that?”
Ariel was genuinely angry. At her fierce reaction, the other guys, including Bill, carefully agreed.
“Um, Al’s right. Ash, you’ve crossed the line a bit.”
“Yeah, it’s just a uniform. What’s the problem with this.”
“It’s not like the skirt is that short. Everyone wears this much.”
“Hey, why are you talking like our dad…”
Ashley had no one on his side. Of course. Ashley had never been like this before either. He had even dated cheerleaders, but he had never imagined saying things like what’s wrong with the uniform or what’s wrong with the legs. In fact, Ashley had been watching it like it was someone else’s business until the Cheerleading Team went out onto the rink.
But that was before Koi’s bare legs were clearly revealed in front of his eyes.
He felt like he was going crazy when he thought that everyone in the dugout, as well as everyone in the stands, that is, everyone in this stadium, was looking at those legs. Why hadn’t he thought of it? The reason why Koi was accepted into the Cheerleading Team in the first place was because they needed a ‘cross-dressing man’. In that case, it was obvious that Koi would wear that cheerleading outfit.
No, he knew that he would wear a skirt. He had expected it to some extent. But he had never imagined that he would be this cute. And what’s with those legs? He didn’t know Koi had such dazzling legs.
He felt like he was going to collapse when he imagined Koi sitting there wearing black stockings on those legs. He even thought that confinement was too weak. What kind of people are Koi’s parents? How could they put such a cute and sexy guy on that old bicycle and send him outside?
And that wasn’t all. Audaciously, Koi even had a pin in his hair. Coincidentally, it was a cherry. He couldn’t bear this alone. Ashley pointed directly at Koi with his finger and got angry.
“What’s with that pin? Why does it have to be a cherry!”
Of course, Ariel didn’t back down either.
“What’s wrong with a cherry! It’s just cute!”
Don’t you know what the problem is? A cherry on Koi is too sexy!
But Ashley was still the only one who recognized the problem. At the sight of him being stubborn, the Cheerleading Team kids who were watching began to whisper and talk.
“What’s wrong? Why are they fighting?”
“Isn’t it like that? He doesn’t want to show his girl to others.”
“Possessiveness? Jealousy? Something like that?”
Another voice cut in at someone’s words.
“If that’s the case, it’s really a turn-off, Ash. I didn’t see him that way.”
Soon, agreeing voices followed.
“I know, I didn’t know he was such a narrow-minded guy.”
“Even my dad doesn’t say that to me, how can he be like that?”
“Could that be why Al dumped Ash?”
At the last words, they suddenly realized. They looked at each other with wide eyes, and one of them carefully spoke.
“Um, could we have made a mistake?”
They had been worrying a lot about getting Ashley and Ariel back together until now. That situation was shaking from the ground up. Someone whispered, looking at the two of them still bickering.
“Isn’t it difficult to hand Al over to someone like that?”
“Is it just difficult? It’s nonsense!”
“That’s right, it won’t work. Ash is out.”
“What should we do, Al is too high-level, so it’s not easy to find a man who suits them.”
“We can’t help it. Al’s opinion is more important.”
Koi looked back at Ashley and Ariel with a bewildered face at the sight of the girls whispering and seriously talking. I’m too unsightly, so the two of them are fighting for nothing. Koi lowered his head in shame and guilt. He was grateful to Ariel for protecting him and sorry to Ashley for getting angry, so he couldn’t raise his head.
Amidst the ongoing argument, the horn sounded, announcing the second period.
“We have to go out, Ash.”
Bill, who had been watching until then, cut in. Ashley looked down at Koi once and then let him go after muttering a curse in a low voice. As Koi staggered backward, he soon put on his helmet and went out onto the rink. The other guys followed him in a rush. Bill, who was leaving last, looked back and forth between Ariel and Koi and said.
“Sorry, Ash seems a bit sensitive today.”
“It’s okay, just go out.”
Ariel retorted curtly and turned her head away. Koi said in a small voice that it was okay at Bill’s gaze towards him.
The players of both teams stood facing each other with the center of the rink in between. The referee threw the puck into the air, and the game began with a face-off (the action of the two teams’ centers facing each other and snatching the puck with their sticks when the referee drops it to start or resume an ice hockey game).