If you asked me what my favorite season was, I wouldn’t be able to come up with a clear answer. In my opinion, each one of them has its own pros and cons, and in the end they make even. In winter, it was cold – but streets covered by snow were really pretty, and the Christmas atmosphere was pleasant. If I were younger, I would also find having fun in snow another advantage. Summer was a bit too hot, but we had time free from school, and going to the beach was usually fun as well. Evenings, especially in the countryside, were charming and I loved going on a walk just after the sun had set, but when a short-sleeved t-shirt was still enough. 

That being said, I tended to hate the current season, being bothered mainly by its disadvantages, and wanted for the opposite one to come. This had been the case for some time now – the exasperating heat all over the place made it difficult to live. Falling asleep took me twice as much time as usual, studying was at least twice as bothersome as usual, was it at school or at home, but the worst thing was PE, which was thrice as arduous as usual. 

Speaking of which – I was undergoing an extremely tedious class, or rather, we were having a test that I managed to finish earlier than everyone else, so I was left to myself with nothing to do for the next dozens of minutes. Since I was sitting right next to the window, I absent-mindedly decided to take a peek through it. Usually, there was nothing interesting happening outside. Aside from the unremarkable view of the neighborhood, I could see the playing field quite well. There was nothing interesting in it, just another class working out, was it playing a game or just running around it. This time though, I noticed something that I quite couldn’t believe how I hadn’t seen before. 

Just as always, there were two groups of students – one composed of only guys, whereas the other one of girls. It was the latter that caught my attention, or particularly one person who was rather falling behind. 

At first, I couldn’t believe my eyes, even though that wasn’t anything unimaginable. I saw only the back of that person, which had her long, blonde hair tied in twintails fluttering along with her running. While this type of hair tying was completely normal in itself, the way she had done that reminded me of an anime character. Either way, I couldn’t confirm if she was the person who I thought she was – it wasn’t said that there was only one girl with blonde hair in that school, after all. It was only after she took a turn when I noticed something on her eye – and it was black. At that moment, I had no doubts anymore. 

Her group had apparently been in the middle of a warm-up by running around the field. What I noticed was that there was a pretty large group running at about the same tempo leading it, with a tail becoming gradually sparser following them. The person I was interested in was at the very end of it, and for some reason it didn’t surprise me. Her pace seemed to be irregular, and with every second the distance between her and the others was growing larger. For obvious reasons, I couldn’t hear her breathing from that distance, but her mouth seemed to be slightly open. 

I thought that if she somehow noticed me looking at her in that state, she would be extremely flustered. I didn’t worry about that though, since there was almost no chance of something like that happening. 

Soon enough, the group finally finished their run and stopped to take a breather. The girls that were leading it didn’t seem to be fatigued in the slightest, as they kept standing still. Amongst the girls following them, some of them sat down on the ground, whereas the others leaned forward and rested their hands on their knees. It took Lumiya a while to catch up to them, but when she passed the finish line, she showed her exhaustion in a kind of strange way – she just leaned her body forward and let her hands droop in the air. It reminded me of an undead. 

Since I had nothing interesting to do and the test had still been ongoing, I kept looking at the playing field through the window. To be honest, I felt a little bit guilty since she didn’t know that I was watching her, but I continued anyway. Before long, I noticed that the girls started pairing up – that made me wonder whether Lumiya was going to find a partner. She had to, as long as the number of people present was even. 

While the other girls were gradually pairing in groups of two, she stood motionless with her head staring at nowhere in particular, so she was probably doing it unwittingly. As it soon turned out, the number of girls currently present was even, because numerous distinguishable pairs appeared, among which one for some reason consisted of three people that seemed to be actively talking to each other, whereas Lumiya kept standing beside them alone. She didn’t seem to be concerned by that though as she didn’t even budge. 

Before long, the girl from the three-person group separated from it and ran over to the secluded girl. I couldn’t catch a glimpse of her expression at that moment, though. The distance between them appeared greater than average. 

It seemed that the teacher had instructed the groups as they started exercising. Lumiya with the other girl were staring at each other, but they also finally got to work. From that distance I couldn’t notice any details, for example what Lumiya was saying to her, if anything. They seemed to be quite awkward, as the speed of their exercise was visibly slower than of the other pairs. 

Suddenly, the teacher in my class called out in order to gather the tests. What a bummer, I thought as I approached him with my answer sheet. As the regular lesson began, I only took a short peek at the field every now and then. Every time I looked, I noticed Lumiya more or less detached from the others. She was either doing her exercise at a leisurely pace or standing utterly motionless. 

That day, I learned that the peculiar girl I had recently met was quite bad at sports and didn’t necessarily appear to have good friends in her class. Of course, I didn’t tell her about it, but that made me a little bit assured when talking with her.