I Confessed to the Three Beautiful Sisters at School and Got Rejected, but After I Became their Stepsister, They Started Doting On Me - Chapter 45

The day of the sports festival had finally arrived.

My heart was pounding like a drum.

“S-Saezuki-san…?”

“W-What is it?”

Our eyes met.

Our arms were entwined, already damp with nervous sweat.

Saezuki’s lashes fluttered slightly.

“I’m just… really nervous about the three-legged race.”

“Now you’re nervous? Seriously, you…”

Her reply was brutally fast, as always.

Right now, we were standing on the track of the school field.

Our legs were tied together, arms over each other’s shoulders, waiting to receive the baton.

“I mean, it’s like we’re being tested on how well we practiced… and I’m starting to worry we’ll let down the class.”

“Even so, why are you this nervous? That applies to every event.”

“But the other ones I’m in are stuff like the ball toss and tug-of-war… I don’t stand out in those.”

“So you’re just relying on others!?”

Well… it’s not like I have the physical stats to shine in individual events…

Which is exactly why this event was a terrifying exposure of my actual capabilities.

“If we do poorly, everyone will definitely blame me. I’ll get those judgmental stares, I know it…”

My position in the class was already kind of delicate.

Suddenly getting close to the Tsukimori sisters…

And now, doing the three-legged race with someone like Saezuki, the ultimate extrovert…

I was making moves no self-respecting introvert should ever make—pairing up with literal school idols and social elite.

If I screwed this up, it was obvious I’d be the target of backlash.

“Then don’t worry.”

“Eh…?”

But Saezuki said it with unwavering certainty.

“If we hit the same time as in practice, we’ll only go up in rank, not down. So all you have to do is what you always do.”

“Saezuki-san…”

After saying that, she turned her eyes away, looking off into the distance.

But I had to respond to her words.

“Um… you do realize the reason I’m nervous is because doing what I always do is hard under pressure, right?”

It’s because I don’t trust myself to perform that I’m panicking.

“I’m trying to encourage you! Just accept it already!”

She turned back toward me, visibly irritated.

“…I mean, isn’t the sports festival itself already not a normal situation? Telling me to ‘just do what I always do’ feels impossible…”

“Ugh, you’re so exhausting! You’re supposed to just smile and feel better when someone encourages you!”

Huh?

Wait a sec… if I read between the lines…

“Were you… trying to make me feel better, Saezuki-san? Like, cheering me up on purpose?”

This from that Saezuki? Seriously?

Why?

“I-I mean… you getting all weird and panicky and messing up would be super inconvenient for me, that’s all!”

She snorted and turned away.

…That attitude…

“Yeah, I guess… if I mess up, you’d get dragged down too… Sorry in advance.”

Ugh… the pressure’s crushing me.

This is exactly why I stick to being a background character—so I don’t have to be in the spotlight like this.

Sports festivals… they just shine a giant light on everything I try to keep hidden. Truly cursed events.

“Ahhh! I-I’m sorry, okay!? I didn’t mean it like that!”

“…Maybe if I tripped and injured myself, everyone would forgive me. But, uh… a scrape wouldn’t cut it, huh? Maybe a fracture? Though I probably can’t fall that hard… and I hate pain…”

“H-Hey! They’re almost here! Our class’s team is coming, we’re next!!”

“…Huh!?”

Snapped out of my spiraling thoughts by Saezuki’s urgent voice, we braced ourselves and took off running.

“Guh… gasp… haagh… nghhh…”

“Haa… haa… You really have the weirdest way of breathing after a race…”

Collapsed on the grass after finishing the three-legged relay, I was wheezing like a broken engine.

Meanwhile, Saezuki had only dropped to one knee to catch her breath. The difference in stamina was… devastating.

“But like I said—we improved our rank, didn’t we?”

“Y-Yeah…”

Maybe the mental blackout helped?

The moment the race started, my body moved before I had a chance to think.

And because of that, I performed like I did in practice.

We managed to pull the class up into third place.

“It’s all thanks to you, Saezuki-san.”

“What are you talking about? You worked hard too.”

She replied matter-of-factly—no sarcasm, no mockery, just genuine acknowledgement.

“W-Well… at first, I wasn’t sure about pairing up with you, but… sometimes when you team up with someone who might slow you down, it actually makes you more focused. Weirdly enough, it was kind of fun.”

Saezuki muttered the words while deliberately turning her face away.

“…I, for one, am absolutely done with this kind of thing.”

Next year, I’ll definitely ask Chiya to remove the “everyone must participate” rule for the three-legged race and limit it to volunteers only.

“You seriously have no sense of the mood, do you!?”

“…Wait, does everyone actually want to do the three-legged race that badly?”

“What are you even talking about!?”

Even after we managed to get good results, Saezuki still yelled at me.

…Yeah. She really doesn’t like me, huh?

◇◇◇

“Hey, Akari! Good job out there!”

Right after the three-legged race ended.

I’d parted ways with Saezuki and made my way to the tent where the sports committee members were stationed.

There, waving at me, was Karin.

“Karin-san, I came just like we agreed.”

“Yeah. But are you okay? You sure you don’t need more rest?”

“I’m alright. I managed to recover.”

Thanks to all the practice we did, my body was bouncing back quicker than before.

“That’s good. But seriously, that comeback you guys pulled? The whole crowd was going nuts.”

“I don’t know how to react when you say that…”

After all, Karin was our anchor—and she was like a whirlwind on the track.

She outpaced every other runner and brought us to a solid first-place finish.

“Well, I mean, we do exercise regularly, you know.”

And yet, despite being the anchor, she was already back on duty with the sports committee.

Meanwhile, I’d only just recovered enough to walk here.

“So, what would you like me to do?”

I was here to help Karin with her committee duties, after all.

“Ah, sorry, right! We need to get the equipment for the next event ready. Could you come with me?”

“Of course!”

And so, Karin and I headed toward the equipment shed together.

“Still, I can’t believe both Hiyori and Chiya invited you too.”

“Yeah… It turned into a surprise triple booking.”

Thankfully, after some discussion among the three sisters…

“Why don’t we just make a schedule and split time between us?”

That was Chiya’s peaceful resolution, and it settled everything nicely.

“Akari, you’re more popular than you think, huh?”

Karin teased with a playful tone.

“I think it’s more that everyone’s just really kind to a lonely girl like me.”

“…Hmm… I wouldn’t say that’s entirely accurate…”

“Eh?”

“I-I mean, it’s not wrong, exactly… But you even ran with Saezuki, right? That’s not very ‘loner’ of you.”

“Ah… that was kind of a revenge thing, to be honest.”

Though in the end, it turned into something where I had to rely on her.

“Really?”

“Yes. It’s… complicated.”

“Huh, got it. Then next time, I’ll pair up with you… maybe?”

She said it lightly, almost like a joke, but—

“Don’t worry. I’m already planning to ask Chiya to make sure I’m exempt from next year’s three-legged race.”

“…That’s not really what I meant…”

“It’s not?”

“It’s fine, I guess…”

Watching Karin’s shoulders slump as we walked, I realized we had arrived at the storage shed.

Karin took out the key and opened the door.

“Can you grab the cones from the back? We need to restock them. They’re not too heavy, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Got it!”

I headed toward the back of the shed where the cones were stacked.

“……”

—Clunk.

“Huh?”

I suddenly heard the sound of the door closing.

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