She looked upon the crowds of people calling her name.
She could feel an emotion build up in her chest, it was… odd.
She couldn't quite describe it.
The feeling was warm, it was bright and yet… it was also oddly embarrassing?
She couldn't help but feel a bit self conscious as she realized what was close to at least 1000 people were looking at her.
Was her hair right?
Did she look haggard?
Was she panting too hard?
She didn't know, she couldn't know, it was her first time being in a position like this, being in the spotlight in front of so many people!
So… she awkwardly waved to the crowd and started to make her way to the tunnel.
But, she couldn't help but look at the stands once in a while, it just so happened that her teammates were there waving at her.
"Hope! Good job!" Most of them said with a thumbs up, the sole exception being Gold Ship who was standing there with an odd look on her face, it was a weird mix of a smug smile and a grin.
The best way she could put it was that it was off putting.
She waved good bye as she made her way back to the tunnel to change out of her race wear only to see her trainer there waiting with a soft smile on his face.
"Congratulations, you ran beautifully back there, the others never stood a chance."
"T-Thank you, Trainer."
She couldn't help the heat that went up to her face as she made her way to the lockers to change.
"No problem, but well, sadly we're going to have to go and get ready for the dance."
"Dance? There was a dance?"
"Yeah?"
"…There was a dance?"
"Yeah, what of it, we did train for it."
"I… I went to take a shower before practicing and each time I finished my shower by the time I got back it was already over…"
Her trainer only looked at her in shock after hearing her words, he opened his mouth to say something before deciding against and clicking his tongue, "You… you mean to tell me you haven't practiced dancing, whatsoever?"
She meekly nodded her head the heat in her cheeks growing even hotter.
He palmed a hand to his forehead and groaned.
"Umm… can't we just not go?"
"Are you serious?"
"It can't be that serious, can it?"
He stared at her, his gaze blanc and empty.
"'It can't be that serious' she says, 'It can't be that serious'… Hope," he put a hand on her shoulder, his gaze full of pity.
"Y-Yes?"
"It is that serious."
"Ah."
"Ah, indeed."
"So… what do I do?"
"Well, you have two options, either you go there and wing it, or you just say that you forgot if asked and don't go."
"…So I either skip and get some people angry at me… or I go and make a fool of myself."
"You can't be that bad."
"I am that bad, I got no rhythm when it comes to dancing."
"Really?"
"Yes, really, I once tried to dance along to a pop song and I fell and scraped my knee."
"Oh."
"Yeah, so I think I'll skip."
"That is understandable, if you lack that much rhythm."
And so, she skipped the song and dance.
…
"Say, Hope-san, are you sure you made the right call," Tokai Teio asked her as they walked between the shelves in the supermarket as they got the necessary ingredients for the hotpot that their trainer had promised them.
"No."
"Eh? You didn't even hesitate."
"Of course I didn't, it was a fifty fifty between making a fool of myself in front of 100s of people or cause a small controversy. What was I supposed to do? Damned if I do, damned if I don't."
"Well… when you put it like that it does make sense…" Her senpai put a hand on her chin and hummed as she thought of something.
"Hah, well, at least there's going to be something good to eat!"
"Yeah, at least, I don't know about you but I'm famished."
"Hmm, so am I, the race made me really hungry."
Teio chuckled a bit, a soft smile on her face, "Well, that's good to hear, who knows maybe you'll even give McQueen a run for her money!"
"McQueen senpai eats a lot?"
Teio suddenly turned on her feet and looked at her with a dry almost annoyed face,"Why do you call McQueen senpai and not me? Hmm? Care to explain that?"
"Ah, well, no offence, but…McQueen is… well… she's more senpainly…"
An unimpressed look was in her seniors eyes as she huffed and turned around.
"Teio-san? What's wrong?"
"…"
"Did I do something bad?"
"…"
Her senior picked up some ingredients and put them in the cart, her face was all but set in stone.
"Are you really hung up about that?"
"…"
"Fine. I'm sorry Teio-senpai."
She suddenly turned back around with a proud expression and smiled from ear to ear, "Was that so hard?"
She didn't deign her with a response and merely gazed at her with a flat face.
"Well, we should go back and meet up with the rest of the team. I'm pretty interested to see how much we bought this time compared to last time."
"How much did you all buy last time?" She asked as she rubbed her cheek in confusion.
"Well, we bought… well we bought a lot of food, enough to feed a small army in retrospect, and well that's not even including all the desserts and pastries we bought, though most of those went into McQueen stomach."
"Really! McQueen senpai always displays herself as the epitome of elegance."
"Mmm, she normally is but, well her will is far from iron, that's for sure."
"I… I see, sorry if it seems like I'm having trouble believing it's true Teio senpai."
"It's fine, that's to be expected, if anything, well… you'll see."
As they finally rounded the corner from the alley and met up with the rest of the team she couldn't help but be a bit shocked from the amount of food that they had bought, there was a giant crate of carrots and many other foods.
She couldn't help but look forward in a state of pure shell shock as she looked upon the valley of food.
It was such a shocking sight that she couldn't help but ask, rather meekly, "W-who is paying for all this?"
Then almost all as one, every single member of team Spica turned around and said one word in perfect sync.
"Trainer."
She looked around to find were the man was only to find him on the ground in the fetal position, silently shaking, with Gold Ship next to him patting his head, in what was oddly enough a caring motion.
"How is he going to be able to afford it?"
"Oh," started Daiwa Scarlet, a calm look on her face, "He will, he always does somehow. It's kind of surprising when I really think about it."
The scene and the information that she had just received was so shocking that she realized why he had been so adverse to doing a hotpot in the first place.
'Trainer… I'm sorry…'
In the end of the day, few things remained true no matter what in this cruel, cruel world.
The first of which being that Trainer Kenichi Ikezoe will always be suffering.
And the second that whenever Team Spica does hotpot, Trainer Okino, will always be left with an empty wallet.
————
Authors note
Sorry for the late release, not much I can say except that I was reading other fanfics instead of writing my own.
Sorry.
On another note, I may or may have not just completely forgotten about poor, poor Ikezoe after the first couple of chapters, bro was never saved, no, he can't be saved.
Press F to pay respect for the situation of poor Ikezoe.
This chapter is pretty obviously a call back to an episode from the anime, and I'm not denying that I basically took the main plot of Trainer getting his wallet drained, though I do not remember what exactly happened in the episode, so if they did it right after Spe-Chan won her debut, then… well… that is one hell of a coincidence.
Either way, this is GreekAntrielos, the master of procrastination, signing off.