In Co-ed Dodgeball, Pair Dodgeball Is Common Sense♡
1.
The teacher's choice had been perfectly reasonable. That was what I told myself. But after turning it over carefully in my mind, I arrived at an uncomfortable truth: the entire purpose of this policy was to ease the aversion that boys and girls, raised separately in all-girls and all-boys schools, would inevitably feel toward the opposite sex.
Delinquent or not, he was still a classmate I would be spending the next three years with—and today, of all days, was the entrance ceremony, the very day that relationship was meant to begin! To think there wasn't even this much consideration for a policy erected upon the sacrifice of one man with a big d...ick...
At the very least, on today of all days—the entrance ceremony where I stood as student representative—this was something I could not allow. An image of prestige and nobility takes years to earn, but it can be lost in a single instant. I could not afford to lose the word prestigious permanently welded to our academy's name, nor the titles of excellence, distinction, nobility, and superiority that forever trailed behind my own.
"Um, Teacher?"
The recreation currently underway was dodgeball. I addressed the teacher refereeing from the middle. "Excluding him from the activities just because he happens to be our only male student... I believe that's unfair treatment."
"Hmm, that's true. But everyone besides him is a girl. I'm worried it might lead to some uncomfortable situations."
A perfectly valid point. But I had an answer prepared. "The activity we're playing is dodgeball. In ordinary dodgeball, there's hardly ever any physical contact, is there?"
The teacher arched a brow. "Hmm... true enough. You really are such a good kid. I'll allow it since it's you asking and not the others—but if I catch even the slightest excessive touch, I won't be able to help you then." She turned her gaze on the delinquent and continued. "Did you get all that? Kim Taesung?"
So the delinquent's name was Taesung. Kim Taesung was already laughing loudly before the teacher had even finished.
"Pfft, KHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Kim Taesung!"
"Ah, yes. Yes. Got it, ma'am."
Ha, disgusting. An attitude utterly devoid of common sense. A sticky, slimy laugh that transcended the old proverb about not spitting in a smiling face—just hearing it made goosebumps crawl over my whole body. I found myself marveling, once again, at my own ironclad mentality for championing the rights of such trash—a loser, human garbage, a mongrel, a crippled bastard.
Ugh, even his voice was revolting. A delinquent, a male, and lazy with a vulgarity that knew no bounds. A walking personification of what people call misfortune porn. The trash—who you could tell at a glance was the type to coast through life on his face alone—beamed a gentle smile at the girls and said, exactly as I had predicted:
"But~ Teach.er? In co-ed dodgeball, aren't we supposed to play pair dodgeball~?"
The trash chortled the instant the words left his mouth. Ah, ah..! Huh? What? What? My head twinged. Less pain, really, than... a sting?♥
"Ugh..."
I identified the cause of my headache at once. That made three times today alone. It seemed to be my brain's instinctive self-punishment for failing to account for such basic common sense. I felt like I was losing my mind. Just as that delinquent bastard said, when men and women played dodgeball together, pair dodgeball was absolutely mandatory. Which meant that in pair dodgeball, someone was inevitably going to have to make contact with that freak.
To open my mouth without processing a single, simple thought like that... This was truly the worst possible mistake. My argument from moments ago had been "dodgeball involves almost no physical contact"—when pair dodgeball was built on physical contact as its very foundation. A perfect contradiction. At this rate, I risked drawing sneers not only from the teachers but from every other student as well. If I had been in their position, I would certainly have laughed. And those people, who naturally possessed far less consideration and respect for others than I did, might not stop at mere sneering..!
As if to prove my fears, the girls began to murmur.
"Ha, show-offs always... end up tripping over themselves like this."
"Right~? Like placing first on the entrance exam makes her something special."
"Ha, what about the poor girl who has to touch that bastard because of her..."
Whether by fortune or misfortune, the teacher stepped in to mediate. "Enough, enough. Too much talking. I didn't think of pair dodgeball in the moment either, so let's just pretend this never happened. Taesung, go take a rest."
No. This could not stand. If things ended here, my image would be cemented forever as an arrogant, attention-seeking moron. My mind scoured for a backup plan to break out of this situation—but only worst-case options surfaced. And if any more time slipped by, even the chance to choose the lesser evil would vanish. In the end, I spat the lesser evil out of my mouth.
"I-I already knew that!"
"Knew... what?"
The teacher looked at me, slightly taken aback. Before she—or any of the other students—could add their own commentary about me, I hurried to string the words together. "I mean, couldn't I simply pair up with him? That solves it, doesn't it?"
The teacher paused, choosing her words. "Uh....... Aah, um.." Scratching her head, she went on. "Th-then you would be the one standing in front. Cheongha, you do know how this works? When there are fewer men than women, if the man stood in front as the shield, that one pair would hold an unfair advantage—which is why the woman has to take the front."
This was news to me. Though... maybe I had vaguely heard something like that somewhere..? But it wasn't as if I could back out now with a "was that actually a rule?" I met her with the expression of someone stating the obvious. "Of course. Well, that much goes without saying."
At some point, the trash had drifted right up beside me. Thanks to which, his mocking little "pfft" came through louder than ever. Disgusting, disgusting, disgusting! I looked at his face again. The living textbook specimen of a hardcore delinquent, a leech, human waste. Touching him was something I despised more than death itself. But too much time had already been wasted to wait for my heart to catch up.
The teacher roughly paired off the surviving students and blew the whistle to begin. In that instant, the trash—who until this very moment had kept a careful minimum distance—seized my hands and arms. For a heartbeat I nearly shrieked, what do you think you're doing?—but fortunately, this time, I remembered before committing such a rudeness. Because in pair dodgeball, the person in back binding the shield's arms and using them as she pleased was perfectly sound, logical, self-evident common sense.
In sports, anything goes in pursuit of victory, so long as it stays within the rules. No—rather, failing to go that far was what truly defiled the spirit of sport. Certainly, to win at pair dodgeball, the shield's proper role was to abandon her ego entirely and simply be wielded, nothing more than a shield. Before I knew it, I loosened the fist I had momentarily clenched and surrendered my arms to the trash.
And I was not alone. The other girls assigned as shields offered their arms behind them, one after another, and were taken hold of—one, two. Once every shield stood with her arms bound behind her, the starting whistle blew again. Now, at last, the real pair dodgeball began.
Perhaps my remark had drawn attention, because from the very first throw, the opposing team came at me. But the spin was weak and the ball slow—an angle I could easily have dodged. And yet...
"KYAAA~AK! Here it comes!"
The cry rang out from behind me. In the next breath, the trash—gripping my arms with crushing strength—moved me exactly as he pleased.
"GYAAAAAAK!"
THWACK.
"HNGYAAAK!.."
The ball struck my chest dead center. This was serious dodgeball played with volleyballs, and the pain was considerable. But because I had blocked it with my body, we had a clean chance to go catch the rebound. And then...
With my arms still bound, the trash's steps tangled with mine for an instant, and down we went. The ball bounced loose and rolled toward an opposing player beside us. It came flying back before I could even set my stance—and arriving from the side while I was sprawled on the floor, it was obvious he couldn't use me as a shield this time.
Honestly, I didn't want to play this dodgeball one second longer. Determined to make the delinquent bastard take the hit, I dredged up every last ounce of strength I had and ducked my body downward, along with the arms he held. If I could just endure 0.1 more seconds like this, the ball would strike him and we would be out. It should have been a happy ending...
As I tugged at his arm, a sigh laced with mockery slipped out of him. But I was the only one close enough to hear it. And I understood the meaning of that sigh, that sneer, before even 0.1 seconds had passed. With astonishing reflexes, the trash released my arms in a flash and moved his hands to my ankles. And then—shhhk. He spread my legs.
The moment he spread them, his other hand seized my backside and lifted slightly, positioning me precisely in the path of the incoming ball. Legs splayed wide open, I waited for the instant of the ball's arrival like an eternity... At last came the sound of impact. Followed by pain. And shame...
THWACK——
"KIHGYAAAAAAAAK!!♥ Aaahn.. Hnnnnngh.......♥"
The ball, having struck my crotch with perfect accuracy, rolled back toward the opposing side as if mocking the moans it had wrung from me. Our academy was an ultra-elite, prestigious institution. Whether the pursuit was sport or study, we gave our utmost with excellence, anytime and anywhere. Even if a classmate from the same academy, in skin-tight shorts, was presenting her crotch to the enemy with her legs spread wide by a delinquent male. Had I been in her place, I would have done exactly the same.
And just as expected, the ball that had rolled to the opposing side came flying straight back at me. The son of a bitch controlling me from behind seized me by the hair this time and blocked the ball with my face. As a shield—whose proper contribution to victory was to go completely limp and be manipulated—the only self-defense available to me was turning my face so that at least my nose survived. And so, by the overwhelming reflexes of that delinquent, that trash, that son of a bitch, I survived to the very end—pounded exclusively on my crotch, my chest, and my cheeks—and ultimately contributed to our team's victory.
Countless snickers had rung out during the match, but my teammates didn't blame me for bringing them the win. On the contrary, they praised me—even called me impressive. For my part too, the pleasure of the winning moment outweighed the shame I'd felt during play. That was the true thrill of sports. That was the nobility of a prestigious academy. Of course, the praise fell on one person alone. Me. It was only natural. Intentionally or not, he had committed every repulsive act any girl would abhor—through me. And so he was thoroughly, pointedly ignored.
"Hoo, I'm perfectly fine, you know. Still, we really ought to cherish even trash like him, shouldn't we? Looking after the lowest dregs of society is, after all, the virtue of people like us."
Pretending to address the friends fussing over me, I unleashed everything I'd wanted to say to him at full force. All that remained now was stretching, and then the entrance ceremony recreation would be over and I could go home. Knowing I'd have no further entanglement with such a creature was precisely why I'd allowed myself the bluntness. Because he had handled me so very roughly, what I'd assumed was the worst option had turned into the better one. Judging by my friends' reactions and how warmly they approached me afterward, the image that had momentarily crumbled seemed largely restored.
The stretching session that followed proceeded smoothly. I was just thinking that nothing remained but the principal's closing address when a bolt-from-the-blue announcement rang out.
"Ah, ah... mm..? Oh, sorry, sorry..? We skipped one, didn't we?"
The recreation coordinator apologized out of nowhere. "For our final stretch, we're supposed to pair up and help each other into the splits. Sorry, sorry. As for the pairs... mm, there's no time to make new ones, so let's just go with the pair dodgeball pairs."
Pair dodgeball... pair...? Which meant...
Before me, materializing out of nowhere yet again, stood that human mongrel of a bastard, biting down on his laughter for dear life.
