Seeing that Amane was running so fast that the few Soccer Club boys were exhausted to the point of death without catching up to her, Matsushita felt a bit surprised.
Was Amane really still within the scope of normal people?
Matsushita actually had such an absurd thought.
After a brief celebration, the match resumed. For most of the time, both sides were constantly running and attacking/defending, which made Matsushita feel a bit sleepy.
Suddenly, a First Year boy was punched from behind by Baba and fell directly in the opponent's penalty area.
The referee called a free kick. The captain of the First Year team took the ball and found Amane. As the team's primary penalty taker, he chose to yield the kick, which showed the extent to which he trusted Amane's soccer skills.
Amane faced the wall of players in front of her, flashed a sweet smile, and then quickly kicked the ball out.
The soccer ball traced a perfect curve in mid-air and then went straight into the goal.
"It was actually a banana kick! W-well, that girl named Miyako is actually kind of cool."
"Hahaha, Marina is still being stubborn. It was obviously super cool, okay? If she were a boy, I would already be dying to get her contact information."
"It's fine even if she's a girl. It's my first time seeing such a cute underclassman."
"Heehee, I heard that this girl named Miyako quite likes interacting with girls, you know."
"Really? I'm going to go try it out."
Listening to the upperclassmen in the stands enthusiastically discussing Amane, Matsushita couldn't help but feel a bit envious.
No matter where she was, Amane was always the most dazzling presence.
Amane, who was celebrating, seemed to spot Matsushita and hurriedly ran toward her location. Then, her body suddenly tipped over, scaring Matsushita into quickly standing up, only to see Amane perform a cool slide on her knees toward the stands where the girls were gathered, and then make a celebratory gesture.
"Miyako-san is so cool!!!"
A wave of cheers erupted from the stands.
"Good grief, Amane-san still loves showing off in front of girls so much."
The match ended with a score of 7 to 0. Amane personally contributed six goals and one assist, effectively ending the match, which resulted in the coach substituting her out after she had only played for sixty-five minutes.
Otherwise, Amane was even planning to score a double-digit number of goals.
"Wow! Chiaki, you're here too! That goal I just scored was super cool, right?"
Looking at the gaze Amane was giving her—like a child hoping for praise—Matsushita found it somewhat cute and couldn't help but stroke Amane's head.
"Amane-san is very amazing."
"Heehee, playing a match of this level is no problem at all."
This level?
She looked at the captain of the Second Year team, who was kneeling on the field and crying bitterly.
Perhaps... this match was actually a very important one?
But since Amane said it was nothing, maybe it really was nothing.
"Amane, are you very good at sports?"
Matsushita was a bit curious about how Amane managed to maintain such excellent grades while also being so outstanding in terms of physical fitness.
"I wouldn't say I'm particularly good at it, I just put in more effort than others. If the effort you put in doesn't get rewarded, it would surely be very frustrating, right? Fortunately, I have good luck."
Amane's answer could almost be called a killing blow.
If Amane had answered that it was talent, Matsushita might have felt a bit envious but wouldn't have developed any other feelings. After all, there were too many things in this world that one couldn't force, and talent was one of the things that could least be forced, especially when certain talents could almost be considered miraculous existences.
Yet, Amane's answer was effort, which elevated the answer to a higher level. Often, successful people like to tell you that success is simple and show their glamorous side to others, never telling others what kind of hard work they experienced behind the scenes to achieve success.
Once it involved effort, Matsushita could imagine the scene of Amane staying up late alone to study and review at night, as well as working out alone on the playground during winter and summer breaks or after school, and she couldn't help but feel ashamed of her own laziness.
Because after school, other than shopping and playing, she had never tried any real effort. Studying was also quite simple for her, but in her view, this was entirely due to talent. Thinking that someone as outstanding as Amane was still working so hard, Matsushita couldn't help but feel ashamed.
"By the way, Amane, have you bought a birthday present?"
Seeing that the conversation had fallen into silence, Matsushita hurriedly threw out a new topic, attempting to divert Amane's attention.
Sure enough, as soon as she heard about the birthday present, Amane became much happier.
"Eh? As for a birthday present, anything casual is fine, hehehe."
Looking at Amane, who was scratching her cheek with an embarrassed expression, Matsushita vaguely felt that something was wrong.
"Everyone is taking this birthday present quite seriously, you know. After all, when Class B bought our playing card numbers, they contributed quite a lot of points. With some spare money, we can prepare some higher-end gifts."
"H-high-end? I think something ordinary is fine. If it's high-end, it seems a bit inappropriate..."
Amane became fidgety.
High-end gifts aren't appropriate?
Matsushita's eyes rolled, and suddenly, she seemed to understand something.
She understood!
As expected of Amane-san!
If it were a group gift, choosing something high-end wouldn't be a big deal, but if everyone gave relatively high-end gifts, how would the other party return the favor? Suppose everyone gave a gift worth 20,000 points.
Just assuming ten people went to celebrate, that would be 200,000 personal points. Returning the favor would be quite a significant expense.
"As expected of Amane, you thought of it so thoroughly."
"Heehee, not at all, as long as everyone's feelings reach her, that's fine."
"That's right, everyone is a classmate, and the sentiment is what's most important."
Matsushita nodded inwardly. As expected of the leader who could secretly lead Class D to crush all the classes in the First Year; her considerations were so thorough.
"Then, let's wait until the Wednesday after next, and everyone go to Inogashira-san's place to give her a surprise."
Matsushita finished speaking happily, only to see Amane's footsteps stop, which made her feel curious.
"Amane-san, what's wrong?"
"Isn't the Wednesday after next the 31st? Why is everyone going to Inogashira-san's? Could it be... is it Inogashira-san's birthday?"
Amane's expression was a bit strange. Matsushita immediately realized the reason why she had felt Amane's words were a bit off before—it sounded exactly as if she were talking about her own birthday. Could it be...
"Amane-san, you didn't know Inogashira-san's birthday was coming up?"
"It was my oversight. So it's Inogashira-san's birthday, hahahaha. T-that, if you don't mind, I'll prepare the cake on the birthday. I'm quite confident in my desserts."
Amane's smile was a bit forced.
"That would be great. Everyone trusts your skills, Amane-san. I believe Inogashira-san will be very happy too... By the way, when is your birthday, Amane?"
When asking this, Matsushita's face was burning hot because when she first came to this school and hadn't integrated into the group, Amane was the only one who brought a gift to celebrate her first birthday.
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