After hearing Moeha’s story, Chika reacted with genuine surprise at hearing something she’d never known before.
"Wow, so that happened...?"
"I guess it caused a huge stir when he single-handedly crushed Raimon Middle School, one of the best teams in the country. For a while, the school was swarming with reporters, all going on about the ‘arrival of a supernova’ and whatnot."
What was this? I was hearing all of this for the first time.
Was the breakdown in communication between siblings really this severe?
"Hmm, but that’s a little strange... If he’s that good, how could he be unknown?"
"Rumor has it he only did individual training until he transferred to Shuchiin."
Right. Rin had never joined a soccer club and had only trained the basics with a private coach his father arranged for him.
That was partly because our father himself valued the fundamentals, and partly because of the mess that happened when I was in the soccer club.
In fact, Father hadn’t even planned to send Rin to a club until high school. But when I got into Shuchiin as a sports scholarship student, Rin must have been inspired, because he stubbornly insisted on going to Shuchiin Middle School and joining the soccer club, and in the end our parents had no choice but to allow it.
Moeha still seemed to have plenty of material left, because she kept going, excitedly piling on more stories.
"And do you know what surprised me the most?"
"Mm, what?"
"He’s the son of Suzuki Ryoma and Suzuki Wakana!"
"———Seriously!?"
Chika was shocked the moment she heard Moeha’s words. Since I was in a position where it was awkward to say anything, I stayed quiet, but hearing my parents’ names come out of someone else’s mouth always felt strangely off.
From the perspective of their children, they were annoying people who left us behind and spent all their time on overseas business trips. But for people around our age, and even a little older, the names of our parents seemed to carry a lot of weight.
"...So that’s what they mean by a silver-spoon gene. I’m kind of curious what he’d actually be like in person!"
Without realizing that the person sitting right next to her was exactly that, Chika closed her eyes and let her imagination run wild.
Unlike Moeha, who was enthusiastically sharing every little episode with Chika, Kei was still grumbling.
"...Hmph. So what if he’s good at soccer and has good parents? His personality is rotten."
"Well, Kei, I guess you can only see him that way."
I wondered what kind of rudeness that brat had committed to make Kei hate him that much.
Miyuki and I were close enough to visit each other’s houses several times, so we’d met each other’s younger siblings, but the siblings themselves had no connection.
I’d quit sports and kept my parents a secret so I wouldn’t attract pointless attention, so Kei probably hadn’t connected Rin and me...
"Can I ask what happened?"
Chika’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.
"......Well."
"I’ll explain!"
Instead of the hesitant Kei, Moeha stepped in.
*
After the Raimon match, Suzuki Rin’s popularity was at its peak.
He had everything that appealed to both men and women: top-tier soccer skills and a handsome face.
People naturally gathered around Rin, who had both.
Of course, he found it annoying, but people kept coming anyway, saying even his coldness was part of the charm.
Then one day, a girl who had gathered around Rin asked him a question.
"Suzuki-kun! Do you have a girlfriend?"
"No."
"Then do you want one?"
"No."
He gave the same flat answer over and over, but the girl didn’t seem to get tired.
"Aww, come on. Then how about our class’s number one beauty, Kei?"
Suddenly hearing her own name, Kei was a little flustered, but also a little hopeful. In the first place, there was no way a girl wouldn’t be at least a little curious about a handsome athlete.
While she waited eagerly for his answer, Rin’s reaction was enough to shatter her mood completely.
"Hmph..."
After staring at Kei for about ten seconds, Rin—
"...I’m not interested in some ugly girl like that."
—said that, then turned his head away again.
*
"Aaaah—! That jerk is so annoying!"
Kei grabbed her head and snapped in irritation.
So she had this hot-blooded side to her too. Thanks to her little brother, I was getting to see all kinds of interesting things.
But Miyuki, who had been radiating a murderous aura since earlier, looked deeply displeased.
"Hey, Hotaro."
"What?"
"...Apologize on behalf of the Suzuki family."
Miyuki’s eyes were burning. Hearing that his little sister had been called ugly had sent his siscon radar straight into the danger zone.
He was the only one here who knew Rin was my younger brother, so it wasn’t like I couldn’t understand why he was reacting like that.
I obediently apologized to Kei.
"Sorry, Kei."
"Huh...? No, why are you apologizing, Hotaro? It’s not like Suzuki is some rare surname in this country."
Come to think of it, my surname was one of the most common in Japan, ranked second among common family names, so it made sense she’d think that.
"Well, just..."
I’m really sorry my little brother has such a nasty personality.
I’ll beat him up when I get home instead.
Hmm, but something felt a little off...
If he really thought she was ugly, he wouldn’t have said anything at all. That brat was pretty much a tsundere, after all.
So if he’d been that blunt, I could only guess he meant something like, "Hmph, she’s kind of cute..."
Of course, I couldn’t be sure.
"Still, thinking back to when the sports scholarship topic came up at the high school level, he doesn’t seem like a bad kid..."
"...........?"
Why was my story suddenly coming up?
As Moeha tried to continue, Kei lightly touched her arm from the side, trying to stop her.
"Moeha. That story is..."
"Huh? Why?"
"Whisper whisper..."
"Ah...!"
At Kei’s hint, Moeha’s face suddenly turned bright red.
"I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to..."
Apparently, she hadn’t known I was a sports scholarship student.
Well, who would guess that the student council treasurer was a sports scholarship student?
I didn’t really mind. I hadn’t exactly shown anything as a scholarship student, and she was a middle schooler I’d never had any reason to meet anyway. It would have been stranger if she did know me.
"It’s fine. I don’t really care."
"You’re generous even with that. As expected of the build your sister praised..."
"Teeeenk!"
Chika lunged at Moeha again and started pinching her cheeks.
What on earth had she said to make Chika react like that? Since Chika had darted out like lightning to stop her, I still hadn’t heard it.
After a short pause, I asked Moeha, who was holding her reddened cheeks.
"If you don’t mind, could you tell me the rest of that story?"
"Ouch... Yes, so what happened was..."
*
One day, when Rin’s stock was still rising day by day.
The classroom was in the middle of a classic middle-school-style versus game.
At Rin’s level, he could already make it in the Shuchiin high school team. No—he’d eat them alive.
He could even make it in the EPL or La Liga later on.
People around him kept chattering away about whether he could reach his father’s level, and Rin just sat there, as if to say, talk if you want to talk.
But there was one story that made Rin react.
After class, during break time, two boys were chatting.
The two of them were a notorious pair, known for constant gossip and shamelessness, so their reputation was terrible.
"Hey, that Shuchiin High School sports scholarship student. At this point, isn’t it obvious he was all hype?"
"I heard they turned down tons of geniuses over the years, then last year the first one they picked was some backdoor selection. My brother says that guy is absolute trash at sports."
"If it were Rin, I’d accept it, but for some nobody like that to get chosen... what a disgrace to Shuchiin..."
Bang!
Out of nowhere, Rin kicked his desk, and the whole class fell silent.
The two students who had been talking looked flustered and asked,
"S-Suzuki...? Why are you suddenly..."
"Did we do something wrong...? If so, sorry..."
"......"
After a moment of silence, Rin quietly asked them back.
"Do you really think that?"
"Think what? That he got in through connections...?"
"Yeah."
The two boys just blinked at each other, then one of them scratched his head and answered.
"Well, if he has no results and can’t do sports at all, then if it’s not connections..."
"Idiots. There’s a limit to how much you can cut yourself down."
At Rin’s sudden words, which seemed to insult them, the two boys had no choice but to panic.
"W-What do you mean, idiots? What’s that supposed to mean all of a sudden!"
Not wanting to look weak, they raised their voices and shot back.
Rin crossed his arms and asked them,
"...Are you planning to go on to the high school division too?"
"Of course. We’ve been at Shuchiin since kindergarten. What other choice would we..."
"You’re badmouthing the school as a place where dirty methods work, and then you’re happy to keep going on to high school there? If it’s such a filthy school where that kind of thing works, then why do you want to stay at Shuchiin?"
At Rin’s cold words, the two of them couldn’t find a proper answer.
"Th-That’s..."
"Don’t cheapen your alma mater. Don’t cheapen yourselves."
After saying that, Rin stood up and walked out of the classroom.
The two boys, now completely speechless, eventually apologized and the matter was settled.
And it was common knowledge that the number of girls who fell for him after that increased exponentially.
*
After hearing the whole story, my thoughts were simple.
"...You’re still completely ruled by chuunibyou, little brother."
But what was this strange feeling of satisfaction?
My little brother was always cold to me at home, but outside he cared about my reputation and even got angry for me. He was pretending otherwise, but it felt like he’d been thinking about me all along, and my mouth corners moved on their own.
The chatter in the student council room wrapped up at an appropriate point, and when it was time to go home, everyone returned to their own houses.
I opened the front door and stepped inside, greeting my little brother for the first time in a while.
"Yo, I’m home."
"......Oh."
When I came in, my brother didn’t even glance at me, just kept watching soccer on TV. It was a Real Madrid match in full swing.
He really was a die-hard Real fan. Back when Father was still active, he’d stayed up all night at that age without complaint.
Looking closely, I could even see Father on the screen here and there, standing on the bench.
He’d accumulated quite a bit of experience as a head coach by now, so I figured he’d probably get offers to manage somewhere before long.
"Hey, little brother. Want anything to eat?"
I felt like making him something tasty as a thank-you.
When one of us was on duty, we usually just cooked whatever we wanted, so asking each other’s preferences was pretty rare.
I’d finally decided to show off a little today, but...
"...I don’t need anything."
My brother rejected me immediately.
He probably meant he’d already eaten, but the way he said it was still the same as always.
There was no doubt that when he was little...
"Big brother, let’s play soccer together!"
"Big brother is the best at soccer!"
He’d been that cute.
Time had stripped all the adorableness out of him. How cruel.
Since he said he didn’t need food, I made myself a simple meal alone, and while I was eating, an idea suddenly flashed through my head.
This would let me thank my brother and get revenge for Kei at the same time.
I walked straight over to Rin.
"...Want to have a match?"
At those words, Rin shot up from where he’d been lying down like lightning.
His usually indifferent eyes were unusually wide open.
"You’re serious?"
"Yeah. If you don’t want to, forget it."
"Get out here right now. I’ll crush you."
He abandoned the soccer match he’d been watching and went straight to the shoe rack. I hadn’t expected him to want to go at me that badly.
Then I’d better grant his wish. Of course, I had no intention of going easy on him.
*
Breathing in the cool evening air, the two of us were out at the futsal court near our house.
As we warmed up with some light stretches, Rin spoke to me.
"What got into you all of a sudden?"
"So you hate it?"
"...If you’re eager to get crushed, I have no reason to stop you."
Meaning, "No, I don’t hate it..."
When would he ever learn to be honest? Honestly.
After finishing his stretches and bouncing the ball once, Rin said with sharp eyes,
"I’m going first."
"Fine."
Rin slowly began advancing the ball toward me.
Looks like he was starting with stepovers, circling the ball in turn.
‘That alone probably would’ve torn through the middle school level.’
The way to add devastating force to even basic tricks was, of course, speed.
Both Father and Mother had exceptional speed, and Rin had inherited explosive acceleration as well.
But if you know how he’s coming, it isn’t that hard to stop him.
‘The moment his pace suddenly spikes—right now!’
I caught that instant and placed my foot in the path he’d have no choice but to pass through—
Thud-
"Ghk!"
Rin’s drive was stopped as the ball was taken from beneath my foot.
I bounced the ball under my foot and asked,
"...My turn now, right?"
"Shut up and come at me."
His cold eyes were blazing.
It had been a while since I’d seen him like that, which made me even more eager to see the look on his face when I said "that" line.
Before dribbling, I lifted the corner of my mouth in a grin and asked Rin,
"So, little brother. Got it yet? My level?"
"...What?"
The moment I finished speaking, I drove the ball at Rin and charged in.
He was focused, ready for every possibility, so I leaned my body just slightly to the right.
‘Ohh...’
The right side was Rin’s perfect iron wall.
There was no opening there. So I tried shifting left with a body feint, but—
"Not so fast...!"
Rin reacted there too, as if he’d predicted it. A sharp cut came in for the ball.
It was excellent defense, the kind that would strip the ball clean from most players. Nice one, little brother.
But you’re still a little lacking.
Just as I pretended to keep going left and made Rin’s center of gravity lean that way—
Tap!
".........Ghk!"
I instantly changed direction with a Marseille turn and broke past Rin.
This turn was my complete victory.
Rin’s eyes were burning with frustration at being beaten, but I dumped cold water on him without hesitation.
"Little brother, are you still bored out of your mind and wanting to die?"
"..................??"
For just a moment, a flustered expression appeared and vanished.
It looked like it said, How do you know that...?
"Hmph. Pointless talk."
He tried to brush it off and get back into the match.
But that was only the beginning.
"Little brother, you know what?"
"For me, soccer is a medical procedure..."
"This is a hospital... From now on, I’ll give you proper treatment for failing to understand that."
"Come at me right now. I’ll save your life."
"................!"
Rin’s quietly simmering patience finally snapped.
"Please... just shut up——!!"
Hearing his own achievements(?) rearranged and delivered back to him in real time must have broken his mental state, because he charged at me like an enraged bull.
Kei would be very happy if she saw this.
"Hey, what kind of attitude is that toward your big brother?"
I dodged this way and that, evading all of Rin’s cuts.
Watching my brother lunge at me like a fish flopping on a cutting board, I grinned.
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