I Bought a Girl - Chapter 18

2 weeks have passed since Hasegawa-san transferred into our school.
She seems serious. She raises her hand to answer all the time and always writes in her little notebook during class.
Does she like to study?
Since she transferred in, she never actively sought to speak to people. Hiroto was the same when he transferred.
I haven’t really spoken to her much, but I decided to change that today.
Even though we rarely speak, I think I’d like to be friends with Hasegawa.

「Good morning, Hasegawa-san」
「Good morning」

Hasegawa greeted me with a polite bow.

「Hasegawa is very serious aren’t you? You do everything politely」
「…..I’m sorry」

She shows me a regrettable face.

「Please don’t say your sorry, I didn’t intent for that….」

Hmm.
It’s really difficult to speak with Hasegawa, I don’t know how to hold a conversation with her.
I can speak a lot more with Hiroto. With Hasegawa, we speak a little bit, but then the conversation ends.

3rd period is Gym, where we’ll be doing the box jump.
The wooden horse is placed with 3 to 6 stages on it. (TLN: Increase the height with each stack)
I’m lining up with the others a little way near that.
Hiroto has good motor nerves, so he cleared six stages easily.
Since I can’t move as well as Hiroto, I somehow just managed to clear 5 stages, so one less than him.
Hasegawa was struggling with the lowest, the 3rd stage.

「Hisashi Rei」
「Oh?」
「Are you friends with Hasegawa?」
「Well, yeah」
「It’s strange that she can’t jump the box properly」
「She can’t even pass the 3rd stage」
「It seems like movement is Hasegawa’s weak point」
「I think there are others like her though」

There are 8 people in total who couldn’t pass the 3rd stage.
2 of the boys who couldn’t do it are fat. 2 of the girls who couldn’t do it are fat. 3 of the girls are normal. Hasegawa is….
Hiroto used to say,『Those who gain weight, can’t exercise』.
But she doesn’t look overweight. Perhaps her and the other girls just don’t like moving much. Also, some of the over-weight people have cleared the jump already. So it’s wrong what Hiroto says.
Perhaps it has nothing to do with hating movement. Maybe she doesn’t know how to jump it. Something like if you tell a person to throw a ball, they won’t do it well if you don’t show them how. I think it might be like that.
Sakai-sensei has to spend some time teaching them how.

「If you remember how I jumped, you can do it easily」

I took his advice and when it was my turn, I jumped like Hiroto did.
I ran and then leapt over the box horse successfully.
When I returned to the line, I saw Hasegawa sitting in the middle of the box horse.

「Ruri-chan. Try and move you hands further apart」

Sakai-sensei said as Ruri returned to the line with a trot.
I thought she might be able to jump it by the end. However, she never managed to clear the box horse even once.

After returning to the classroom, I spoke with Hasegawa.

「Are you not good at the jump box?」

Hasegawa nods.

「You have to use your hands to control your momentum」
「I see. Thank you very much」

Umm…..

「Uh, well」

Hasegawa-san inclines her head at my words.

「Do you by any chance, hate me?」

She shook my head.
I was slightly relieved. I thought she might not like the truth.

「That’s good, I thought you didn’t like me. By the way, can you speak to others now?」
「Yes」
「Well then, good bye Hasegawa-san」

Hasegawa nodded.
It seems like the distance between us has shortened slightly.