"Now, for our next meeting, I want you to make an article about the history of one of the Classic Triple Crown or Tiara races from outside of Japan, as we already learned about Japan's classics last week. You'll work with your friend as a pair, and you only need to choose one race. Your class representative will make sure there are no pairs with the same topic, so ask her before you start writing. Is that clear?"
An old man with a perpetually stern-looking face stood at the front of the class. After conveying our next homework assignment, he gave a short, sharp nod to Mini. He was our teacher for the Racing History class, a rather infamous figure who was notoriously "strict" or to put it more accurately, stingy, when it came to giving out high scores. But he was also completely open to debate and exchanging opinions. His method of teaching didn't use any textbooks. In fact, he'd never even brought one to class. He would provide a topic, explain the gist of it, and then let us question and scrutinize it. It felt more like an open forum than a traditional classroom, as we were always encouraged to speak our minds...
"Yes, Sensei," the entire class answered in unison.
Though I honestly enjoyed this way of teaching, the lack of consistency and concrete sources of learning made it difficult for us during exams. It was as if, if you didn't actively ask a lot of questions during the class, you wouldn't have enough material to study. Our class had to work together, to scrape more information from the teacher, just so we could all survive the exams. Luckily, my class was on the more active side, with Mini as our tip of the spear. So, during the exams, every base was usually covered nicely.
Just on time, the bell for the first recess rang out, and the teacher walked out of the classroom as if there wasn't a single thing that could bother him in the entire world.
I looked around the class. I could feel that many of us were still in the process of transitioning out of winter vacation mode. Well, the vacation had just ended two days ago, so that was a given. As for me, I didn't have any specific plans for this break period, so I'd rather just stay put. I was thinking of maybe watching the race analysis for yesterday's URA Finale Qualifiers, or perhaps a campaign video about that game on Umatube. I took out my phone, but just as I was about to turn it on, an Umamusume with blue ear covers gracefully walked towards me.
"You haven't got a pairing, have you? Let's work on this together," she said, occupying the chair of my desk neighbor, Mini, who was currently up at the front of the class, organizing the topic distribution among us.
"Sure," I answered, regretfully putting my phone back into my pocket. "Any particular race you want to research?"
"Let's decide quickly, before the others pick it up first," King said, her eyes scanning the whiteboard. "How about the Belmont Stakes?"
"Nope," I said, pointing to the whiteboard where Mini was writing down the pairs and their chosen topics. "Somebody already has it." The French and American crowns and tiaras were already claimed.
"Fine. Let's go with the Epsom Derb—wait, Mini-san!" King suddenly shouted towards the front.
"Pupupu, too late, King-chan! It's theirs~" Mini snickered, pointing at the pair of students who sat in the first row.
"Sorry, King-chan. You were just a second too late," one of the pair said, turning back to us. If I recalled correctly, she was Honest Words-san, but I wasn't entirely sure.
"The St. Leger Stakes," I proposed, seeing the empty space next to it on the board. "Nobody has claimed it yet."
"...Very well," King pondered for a moment before she stood, walked up to the front, and decisively secured the St. Leger Stakes for us.
"Gratitude," I said as King came back to her occupied seat. "And when are we going to work on this?"
"This Saturday. What do you think?" King asked, already pulling out her own phone.
"Understood. I'm free every Saturday," I said.
"Huh? You actually have a day off?" she asked, her expression a mix of half-shocked and half-sarcastic. "I thought you trained every day, from dawn until night."
"Of course I have a day off," I replied, shrugging. "Even if I wanted to do just as you said, my trainer wouldn't let me."
"Isn't that obvious?" she sighed at my answer. "I wonder just how tough your body is."
"Tough enough, I guess," I said. "Anyway, where should we discuss this?"
"The academy's library? Or a nearby restaur—"
"Library, please," I cut in, perhaps a little too quickly. "My budget this month has already taken a massive hit because of the dress." I was genuinely happy with the dress, and I was looking forward to wearing it, but still... it had created a dent, no, a crater, in my bank account.
"Fine," King shrugged, then added, "But it's great, isn't it? With insights from this King, I guarantee that the dress will look perfect on you. Ohohoho!"
"Gratitude for your help," I said honestly, scratching my cheek. "I really don't know much about fashion."
"Yes, that was obvious when the designer asked you about the design," she sneered. "Your confused face was hilarious. But your racewear is wonderful. Isn't that also your concept design?"
"You can forget about that," I sighed. "And negative. I only copied it from the drawing I got from Just-chan. I didn't conceptualize it from the scratch."
"I see. What a helpless maiden," she said, shaking her head. "Let's go out for a shopping trip next time. I'll help you choose some outfits. You should at least have some casual fits that aren't in a camouflage pattern." She nodded, as if the matter was already fixed in stone.
"As I said, not anytime soon..." I sighed, but then I remembered. "Maybe after I win the Satsuki Sho? The prize money should be a lot, right?"
"Heh. Win?" she smirked, staring at me squarely. "You mean somewhere behind me? Yes, the prize money for that should still be quite a lot."
"I said what I said," I shrugged back at her.
"Oh, right," she said, her tone shifting. "Now that I remember it, as we are entering our Classic year, you should start to manage your social media presence. Even your fans want to be connected with you outside of the track."
"I already have my own," I said.
"Liar," she said immediately, her eyes narrowing in accusation. "How come I've never heard of it?"
"Because I just made it recently?" I explained, pulling out my phone and showing her my Umastagram profile. "Around the New Year. I created an Umastagram, Umatter, and even Umabook."
"What?" she said, grabbing my phone and looking closer at the screen. "You still haven't verified it? Or is this your second account? And your posts don't show anything about you... What is this? A gaming account?"
"It's my only account," I answered awkwardly. "Though yes, I forgot to verify it. And I wasn't sure what to post, so I just posted some montages of the game I've been playing recently..." I still wasn't sure about the boundary between the private life that was allowed to be shared on social media and the parts that were not. So, I had just posted something neutral.
"And just thirty followers? Even your fake accounts have more than this!" she sneered, holding up her own phone to show me the search results for my name. And she was right. There were quite a lot of fake accounts in my name already, all claiming to be genuine, and all with far more followers than my actual account.
"Do you know how to verify it?" I asked, snatching my phone back from her and looking at one of the fake profiles. They were fake, but I had to admit, they had a good collection of my pictures, though all of them were of me on the track.
"There's a verification request option in the menu," she explained with a dismissive wave. "The procedure is almost the same for every app. You just submit the request and wait for the review." She then paused, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "But with this... the wait should be much sooner."
Before I could ask what she meant, King immediately picked up her phone and pointed its front camera at us. I quickly noticed what was happening. On her phone's screen was the camera app's user interface.
Damn it. An ambush. I'm not ready yet! I screamed inwardly, my face frozen in an unprepared expression.
"Peacee~" Another voice suddenly chimed in, coinciding with another girl who abruptly joined the frame, her own peace sign held high.
Snap.
"Yay! Kopu-chan candid getto!" Mini cheered excitedly from beside me. "Tag me on Umasta, King-chan!"
"Alright, Mini-san," King said, her fingers already tapping away on her screen. "And what's your account name again?" she asked me.
"Copenhagen1202," I said. "Can I look at the picture first?"
"Don't worry," King said flatly. "I look good."
"No, no, I didn't ask, nor did I care about that," I countered. "How about me, though?"
"It's fine, Kopu-chan, hehe," Mini smirked.
Shortly after, I felt a constant, buzzing vibration coming from my phone. It was followed by a relentless storm of notification pings. Little red circles with "99+" appeared on every corner of the social media app icons on my screen. I instinctively put my phone face-down on my desk and looked at it with a sense of horror.
"King, what have you done?" I glanced at her. Her expression showed utter confidence and satisfaction.
"I just tagged your account in my Umasta story," she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "With this, your fans will know that the account I tagged is your real one."
I hesitantly clicked on the notification that read, "King_Halo.1 mentioned you in their story." There it was. A picture of the three of us, with me in the middle, my expression completely flat and unprepared, while King and Mini both gave perfect, camera-ready peace signs. Next to my tagged account name was a simple text: "The real one."
Well... it wasn't as bad as I had thought. But for my grand social media debut, I would have at least preferred to show a friendly expression. Anyway, the shot had been fired. I added King's story to my own, slapping a simple "This is me" sticker on top of it.
The phone was still vibrating, even though I had already silenced it. When I looked at the numbers, my follower count had already passed 3,000 in under five minutes. And my old posts, the game montages, were being flooded with new comments.
[Little monster is one of us! wwww]
[@paradox_interactive you have a chance! Collab let's gooo!]
[What's this game?]
[Can't wait for the stream!]
[Copenhagen is a history nerd, confirmed?]
Alright. I was grateful for their enthusiasm, but for now, I turned off my phone. I hoped the incoming barrage would abate soon.
With that, I let out a long sigh and leaned back in my chair with a wry smile on my face.
"Huh. You know you can just turn off the notifications in the settings, right?" King said.
"I see. I'll do it later," I replied.
"Fufu, how do you feel, Miss Famous?" Mini teased.
"It's... not that bad," I admitted, the initial shock giving way to a strange, new feeling. "No, honestly... I quite like it."
"If you like it," King declared, her tone turning serious again, "then you should show your best for them, even outside of the track."
"Right. Let's do that," I nodded along. I didn't have the regal aura like King, nor the natural public figure sensibilities that I saw in her approach to her fans. But at least I didn't want my own fans to regret supporting me. Through things like these interactions on social media... maybe they could feel that I genuinely cared about their support? Hmm. Understandable. I guessed I was starting to get the logic.
"Ekhem. I think this is the right time," Mini suddenly said, her usual bright and cheerful demeanor vanishing, replaced by a profound seriousness. "King-chan, Kopu-chan. I have a serious issue that I need to discuss with both of you."
Her tone was so sudden, so out of character, that it immediately put me on high alert. What was so serious that it could make her look like this? She had never been like this before.
"What issue, Mini-san?" King also noticed the shift in the atmosphere. She asked the question with her brows knitted in concern.
"How serious is it?" I added, leaning forward slightly.
"As the class rep... you know about my responsibilities, right?" Mini said, her voice slow and low.
Both King and I nodded at her.
"One of those responsibilities," Mini continued, her gaze fixed on the surface of her desk, "is about the Spring Fan Fest that is planned for late March."
"And then?" I nudged her, wanting her to get to the point quickly.
"Yeah, don't make us worry. Just say it," King said, her voice firm.
"We still haven't decided on our representatives to enter the events!" The words burst out of her like a torrent of pent-up anxiety. "And we believe that you two, who have already entered your Prime, have the highest chance of winning among all of us! I know you both are busy around that time, but can you please join us!? Please!" With that, Mini suddenly bowed deeply, her head nearly touching her desk.
King and I looked at each other, and a silent, shared understanding passed between us. We both sighed, and then, we both smiled wryly. It had been quite a scare, but I was glad. She was just being herself, considerate and a little bit too dramatic.
"Mini-san," King said, her tone much lighter now. "Though we are busy, I believe we can still find the time to join the festival. Right?" She nudged me with her elbow.
"Affirmative," I nodded. "Don't worry, Mini. We can join."
"Really? Truly? Not just a white lie to be polite?" Mini asked rapidly, her head snapping up, her eyes wide with a mixture of hope and disbelief.
We both just nodded, our smiles reassuring.
"Finally!" she exclaimed, her usual bright energy returning in a rush. "If I had known, I should have asked you sooner! Alright! There are three events that still have vacancies: Hurtling Hurdles, Dodgeball Demolition, and Blazing Baskets. You can choose between those three! Once again, thank you!"
Yeah. Mini didn't fit with a gloomy look on her face. This bright, energetic Mini was the best.
"Too bad you can't enter the Gourmet Gauntlet," King sneered at me.
"Hey. I eat a lot because of necessity," I stared back at her.
"Sure, let's go with that," she said dismissively. She then turned her attention to Mini. "Mini-san, let me join the basketball event. I'll show them the true skill of this King! Ohohoho!" Her haughty laugh filled our corner of the classroom. Well, as I thought, she would have chosen that. She always wreaked havoc in our PE class whenever we played basketball.
"I'll join the hurdles, then," I said. "Is it a solo event or a relay? And what's the distance?"
"It's solo, Kopu-chan!" Mini replied, her face beaming. "And the distance for this year is 7,200 meters, around the campus and the district! What do you think? Can you do it!?" I could almost see stars in her eyes. Wait, that must have been just my imagination.
"I should be fine," I said honestly. As long as I didn't engage my Gear Two, I could run in Gear One at a level below of its top speed for a double marathon. So, a 7.2-kilometer race wouldn't be a problem for me. I didn't know how the other participants would run, but they surely wouldn't be running at their full, flat-out speed, right? With the long distance, the hurdles, and whatnot, I should have a chance to win. I believed so. Though, I still needed more data to confirm my winning chance.
"Hey! Stay here! We're still talking!"
I felt my body being shaken and heard King's voice cut through my thoughts. I refocused my attention on Mini.
"Apologies," I said. "Affirmative. I can do it, Mini."
"Thank you so much!" she said, her gratitude palpable. "The other girls said they weren't confident enough to join the hurdles. Maybe we still have a chance to win among our year, but we'll have to race again against the upperclassmen too. And to face the likes of active and legendary stayers or steeplechasers... it will be very difficult to win."
"Don't worry, Mini-san," King proudly declared, patting her own chest. "We can still win, at least in the basketball event."
"You say that as if I don't have a chance in mine," I retorted, a challenging glint in my eye. "Alright. Want to bet?"
"Ohoho! Interesting!" King's smirk widened, her crimson eyes locking onto mine. "Let me hear your proposition."
"If I win the hurdles," I stated, my voice low and direct, "I want to hear you say, 'Copenhagen, you are better than me.'"
"Tch," she clicked her tongue, a flicker of annoyance crossing her face before it was replaced by a predatory grin. "What a low blow. But fine. And if you don't win, I'll have you become my personal dress-up doll for an entire day. You will wear whatever I choose, and we will take pictures. Please, don't back down now, or I'll have to start calling you a coward."
"Hahaha! That's a nasty bet, King-chan!" Mini joined the fray, her eyes sparkling with amusement. "But please share the pictures with me later, okay?"
"That's too much, isn't it?" I said, turning my glare on Mini. "And you, Mini-iincho! As our class representative, shouldn't you motivate me to win?"
"Sorry, sorry, hahaha!" Mini laughed, holding up her hands in surrender. "But you're on your own for this one, Kopu-chan."
"It's non-negotiable," King said, her voice laced with triumph. "It was you who started it. Coward."
That single word, delivered with such precision, was the final nail. "Sigh... Fine," I said, the word tasting like defeat. "I'll bite the bullet."
"Great! I'll be enjoying it~" King's melodious, victorious voice grated on my nerves.
"You'd better savor every single syllable when you're saying it," I snarled back.
We kept glaring at each other, a silent battle of wills waged across the small space between our desks, until the sharp, uncompromising ring of the bell for the next period shattered the tension. King quickly returned to her own seat with a springy, triumphant gallop, as if she had just won a G1 race.
I leaned back in my chair, watching her go. I used to think of her as just a haughty ojou-sama, one with great talent and a justified work ethic. But recently, my view of her had shifted. She was still all of those things, but now... she was a haughty rival with great talent and a justified work ethic who was, somehow, comfortable to be around. She was clever with her words, her rhetoric always a step ahead of my own. Our communication was usually sprinkled with these small clashes of words, battles where I was defeated more often than not. But to say I didn't enjoy it... that would be a lie.
I glanced over at Mini, who was already focused on her notebook, a small, happy smile still on her face. I guessed, without them, without King and Mini initiating contact with me so often, my school life here would have been the same as my solitary life back in elementary. Quiet. Lonely.
Once again, I thought, a rare, genuine warmth spreading through my chest, I'm glad I came here.