I am a girl after all [WINDBREAKER - Umemiya Hajime]

Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Umemiya was in disbelief, and so was Kotoha.

"Well, I haven't heard that in years," Kotoha mumbled, still quite shocked I would ask Ume to fight me one-on-one. "Are you that mad at Ume that you want to fight him?"

"I told you back then, didn't I? My goal is to beat Umemiya Hajime in a fight, this has nothing to do with--," I tried to reason but who am I kidding, this definitely has something to do with what happened at school this morning.

I was pissed,

I was extremely mad,

I was furious beyond compare,

I hate how he treats me like a kid, I hate how he enjoys it when girls fawn over him, I hate how I have to introduce Seto-san to him, and I hate everything that has happened today.

I have to defeat him right here, right now. I won't be treated like a child anymore if I win. He would finally see me as his equal once I beat him and destroy Bofurin, and I especially don't have to introduce Seto-san to him if I win.

I have a lot riding on this fight, I really can't afford to lose.

"Yuzuru--," Ume interrupted me before I could finish my sentence, "I am not going to fight my little sister," He sighed, "It was all fun when we were young but we're young adults now, I'm not going to fight you,"

It was all fun when we were young!?

Was it just a game to him? Even back then he never took me seriously.

I have never felt so offended in my entire life.

I've been training for years non-stop just for him to validate my efforts and to him, it was just a game? I was beyond pissed, I wanted to smack him in the face right there and then.

So I did, at least I tried to.

I grabbed a stool and threw it at him, his eyes grew wide and quickly evaded the chair and I used that opportunity to try and land a kick on him.

But of course, never downplay Umemiya Hajime,

Even when he was distracted with the stool, he effortlessly caught my foot when I tried to kick him in the head.

"Do you want to fight me that badly?" He sighed as he let go of my leg,

"I'm not taking 'no' for an answer," I told him, he sighed yet again, got up from his seat, and headed out the door.

"Wait, what? Ume!" Kotoha-nee quickly called out to Ume as she ran after him, "You're really not going to fight Yuzuru? Are you?" She asked the Bofurin leader,

"If that's what she wants then why not," Ume told Kotoha as he took off his jacket and handed it to Kotoha, classes in Furin hadn't started yet so he wasn't wearing his school uniform, he was wearing one of his stupid graphic t-shirts Kotoha gave him and a black bomber jacket over it, "I'll fight you, but this will be the last time, I am not fighting you anymore after this,"

Even though I was quite confident with my fighting skills, I was unsure if I could defeat Umemiya. He was in a whole different league, he wouldn't be the leader of Bofurin if he weren't. 

I didn't respond to what he said, instead I quickly lunged in for an attack, and even though I was one of the fastest fighters in Bofurin and possibly in Makochi, I was still no match for Ume.

He effortlessly grabbed my arm, twisted it behind me, and lightly slammed me on the floor, face down with him on top of me.

I was stunned, to say the least. All those years of training but he pinned me down with so much ease, he didn't even flinched. I am in complete and utter shock at how weak I was compared to him.

"I win," He said as he let go of my arm and got off of me.

"Ume! How could you slam her onto the floor like that!" Kotoha scolded Ume, 

"I didn't even slam her that hard, it was gentle," Which he indeed was, he made sure he didn't hurt me in any way.

He might not hurt me physically, but my ego was so damaged from that fight that I had no choice but to accept it.

"Ume--" I mumbled, trying my best to hold in the tears, "One of my classmates asked me to introduce her to you," I said lowly as I got up from the floor and dusted myself off, "She said she wants to get to know you,"

I had no right to keep Ume to myself,

I was weak,

He will never see me as a girl,

And he will never see me as his equal, not with my current strength.

I will never deserve his acknowledgment, so I had no right to stop other girls who do deserve it.

"Yuzu--" I didn't want to hear what he wanted to say, I was upset and disappointed, I just wanted to run away and hide forever.

"I'll send you her number," I quickly cut him off and headed back inside the cafe, ignoring Kotoha who was calling out to me.

I locked myself in my room the whole night and ignored Kotoha who had been knocking on my door non-stop that night.

...

The following morning, I had no choice but to head out because as much as I hated going to that stupid school, I had to attend class and graduate.

Kotoha was cooking breakfast when I headed out and surprisingly Ume wasn't around. That's weird, he'd always eat breakfast here especially since school hadn't started yet in Furin.

"Yuzu-chan, good morning," Kotoha-nee greeted as she placed a plate of bacon and fried rice on the table. So she's not going to bring up about what happened yesterday? I find it quite suspicious but then again I really didn't want to talk about it either. "So do you have training again later?"

"I'm probably going to quit," I casually told Kotoha as I ate my breakfast, she was taken aback by what I said, "I've been training for years and you saw what happened yesterday, I haven't improved at all, I couldn't even touch Ume,"

"Is beating Ume the only thing on your mind," Kotoha sighed,

"Not really, you wanna know what's on my mind right now? You're fried rice tastes bland as hell," I told Kotoha who looked pretty annoyed with what I said, "I'm joking, anyway, where's Ume? He ate breakfast early today?"

"Oh, he said he's meeting with that classmate of yours," I could feel my heart sink to my stomach as soon as Kotoha said that.

This means he texted her last night,

I never in a million years thought Umemiya would entertain a girl let alone make the first move and go out with her.

I was heartbroken,