Kiss Me if You Can Novel Completed - Chapter 129

By the time lunch was over, Ed hadn’t managed to exchange a single word with him. The barricade surrounding him was simply too solid. Despite his extensive experience as a football player, pushing and shaking off countless opponents to clear a path, he simply couldn’t break through the wailing wall surrounding Josh. The ironclad defense of girls who probably weighed half as much as him was incredibly sturdy. Ed, who had sighed, bitterly reflecting on his incompetence, belatedly tilted his head.

“Why? Do you think they’ll break up?”

“Wouldn’t they? He slapped her. And in front of everyone.”

Ed thought for a moment and then tilted his head to the side again.

“But he didn’t say much. I saw them going to lunch together just now too.”

“Of course. If he got angry with everyone watching, he’d just make a spectacle of himself, wouldn’t he? Besides, if he broke up with her publicly, it would humiliate Rita.”

Miki gave a light wink and added.

“Josh has good manners, so he probably considered Rita. Still, slapping her cheek is unforgivable. And think about it, if he just let this slide, every time he got a new girlfriend, they’d all start slapping cheeks to show off that Josh was theirs. So, he absolutely can’t just let it go, can he? I guarantee they’ll break up before the end of today.”

Miki nodded, seemingly very pleased with her own deduction. Ed silently watched her, then asked suspiciously.

“…Since when have you been so interested in Josh?”

At Ed’s jealous question, Miki brightened, saying, “Oh!”

“Is there any girl in the world who isn’t interested in Josh?”

And as soon as lunch ended, Ed realized Miki’s prediction had hit the mark. Josh and Rita had broken up.

When Josh came to the locker room after class, everyone on the football team welcomed him warmly. Among them, the members who were always with Josh particularly exaggeratedly patted his shoulders and started chattering.

“Hey, you look fine. Did you really present? You haven’t changed at all?”

“Did you just play hooky? You lied about not coming to school, didn’t you?”

“Did you take medicine? I can’t smell anything at all, really?”

Josh forced a wry smile, pushing away the guys who were sniffing around him.

“It’s probably because I took the medicine. I have to keep taking it for a while, it’s really annoying.”

He confessed honestly.

“Actually, I don’t really feel like I’ve become an Omega. I don’t feel any different.”

At Josh’s words, heads nodded here and there.

“Yeah, I know. I can’t believe it.”

“Josh presenting, I never imagined it.”

As they exchanged words, looking at each other, Tommy interjected.

“Show me your medicine. Let me take a look.”

Josh casually handed over the medicine to the hand extended with curiosity. “Ooh,” the burly guys gathered around.

“So this is a suppressant, I’ve never seen one before.”

“My brother takes this. The color’s a bit different?”

“Isn’t it different depending on the company? Anyway, if you take this, you won’t smell pheromones, right?”

“Too bad, I was curious.”

The guys, who had been chattering here and there, satisfied their curiosity and then returned the medicine. As Josh took the medicine bottle, another guy spoke.

“So what happens now? Are you really quitting?”

Suddenly, the locker room fell silent. The topic they had all deliberately avoided with jokes had unexpectedly surfaced. In an instant, all eyes were on him, and Josh awkwardly cleared his throat.

“Well, the rules are the rules, so I guess there’s nothing I can do.”

Speaking indirectly wasn’t his style, but for now, this was the best he could do. As expected, a sense of despair immediately settled over the locker room.

“The game’s next month.”

“Of all people, it had to be…”

“It’s all the same, no matter who’s missing.”

Josh interjected lightly, but the reaction he received was anything but light.

“You’re the quarterback, Josh. You haven’t forgotten what position you were, have you?”

“You’re saying we have to pick a quarterback with your skill level, get him to mesh with us, and win the game, all within just one month.”

“Do you, by any chance, have a doppelganger? A twin, perhaps? Huh?”

They revealed their true feelings and freely panicked. Seeing them clutching their heads in agony and spouting nonsense, Josh felt bewildered, but there was nothing he could do. He let out a deep sigh, and Ed, who had been watching, interjected.

“I know it’s disappointing, but everyone, stop it. Josh didn’t choose to present, did he?”

“Of course not.”

“I know, I know, but…”

Sighs continued from all sides. But they soon revived their teamwork and apologized to Josh.

“Sorry, Josh. We’re just really desperate right now.”

“We weren’t trying to blame you.”

Josh raised a hand to signal that it was okay.

“I know, don’t worry about it.”

Everyone fell silent again, and an awkward silence hung in the air. After a moment of hesitation, Tommy shouted in a higher-pitched voice than usual.

“Cheer up, everyone! Who are we? The Bison of the Ground, the Monsters of D High School! Let’s crush them all, we can do it!”

At Tommy’s shout, the other guys also cheered and waved their hands wildly. Soon after, the coach entered the locker room, and they all lined up, hugging and shaking hands with Josh one by one, concluding their long farewell.

“Well then, everyone, take care. See you again.”

After shaking hands with the last guy, Josh smiled, and everyone saw him off with gloomy faces. He apologized for delaying practice and then left the locker room. He planned to come back and clean up his belongings alone when no one was around. He felt that if he cleaned up his belongings in front of everyone, reality would suddenly overwhelm him. Josh wanted to postpone that moment as much as possible.

“Goodbye.”

After saying goodbye one more time, he closed the door. A dull thud sounded behind him, and as he was left alone in the quiet corridor, a hollow sense of loss finally set in.

Josh awkwardly scratched his head and walked down the hallway. Most of the locker rooms seemed empty, as if the other sports teams were all training. The football team guys would leave soon too, he thought. That’s when it happened.

“?”

Suddenly, someone covered Josh’s mouth. Reflexively, he tried to elbow the assailant, but then another guy clung to his waist.

“You bastards, where do you think you’re…!”

Josh gritted his teeth and elbowed the guy clinging to his waist. With a suppressed grunt, the guy collapsed, and Josh immediately twisted his hand back, grabbing the hair of the guy covering his mouth and violently pulling him away.

“Ah, aah!”

As the screaming guy stumbled back, another guy immediately rushed forward. Josh leaped into the air, spun half a circle, and kicked him, sending the guy sprawling with a bloody nose.

“That bastard, watch his legs!”

“Tie his legs!”

“Shit, how are we supposed to do that?”

The guys stumbled around, trying to somehow grab Josh, but they couldn’t even get close. His spinning kick came too quickly.

There were more opponents than he expected. Roughly counting, there seemed to be seven or eight. There might even be ten. Facing that many alone, even for Josh, was too much. For now, fleeing was the best option. He could figure out who these guys were later.

Josh moved quickly, dodging and retaliating, slowly retreating towards the exit. The football team guys should be coming out soon, but he didn’t have time to wait. Getting out of this situation by himself was his priority.

“Huh? What is it? What’s going on? You guys!”

At someone’s shouting voice, Josh paused for a moment. But it was a trick. Immediately, another guy struck him on the head with a blunt object, and Josh lost consciousness.

A throbbing headache was accompanied by ringing in his ears. Groaning in pain from the sharp, piercing sensation in his ears, Josh barely managed to open his eyes. It took some time for his blurry vision to properly focus on objects. And a moment later, he realized he was trapped somewhere, lying alone on the floor.

What in the world…?

He instinctively tried to get up, only to find his wrists bound. Panicked, he quickly checked elsewhere, and thankfully, he was free except for his wrists. Josh moved his legs around, then sat up, trying to comprehend his current situation. He had been dragged to the gym storage room, located behind the buildings. It was a place where sports equipment and other miscellaneous tools were kept, but since it housed useless or rarely used items, most people never came here.

Except for cases like this, of course.

Josh calmly recalled his thoughts. This kind of situation was often experienced by students who were being bullied. Of course, until now, Josh had always been on the side of helping such students, never on the receiving end.

Situations always change, don’t they?

The situation he was in now was clearly that. But what he wondered was who held such a grudge against him. Josh prided himself on never having harmed others, so he couldn’t understand it, no matter how much he thought about it.

Could it be Wilson?

He thought of the rival school’s quarterback, with whom he had almost gotten into a physical fight, but then he quickly ruled Wilson out. He wouldn’t be so foolish as to come to another school to do something like this. Besides, if he had really acted on it, he would have dragged him back to his own school.

Then.

Just as he thought that, the closed storage room door opened, and several burly guys appeared. Along with them, a subtle, unfamiliar scent faintly reached him.

“It’s true, we did it.”

Someone exclaimed in admiration, followed by another guy responding.

“It was tough, it took five of us to finally drag him here.”

“You have to put in that much effort, he’s a great quarterback after all.”

At that, another guy chuckled.

“Not anymore.”

“Yeah, not anymore.”

Another guy retorted.

“Now he’s an Omega.”

Josh looked at the last speaker with a frown. He looked familiar.

Soon, he remembered the guy. He was a pathetic sports club trash who used to chase Emma.

Then, like a panorama, memories resurfaced, and the faces of the guys appeared one after another. There weren’t just the guys who had bothered Emma and gotten a good scolding from Josh and his group. Josh saw faces from other schools mixed in, and only then did he somewhat grasp the situation.

These bastards, when they couldn’t do it alone, they ganged up and did this.

“Don’t you know that the basic spirit of a sportsman is fair play?”

When Josh sneered, they flinched and looked at each other, as if feeling a pang of guilt. Then one of them replied.

“Because I’m not a sportsman.”

“And neither are you.”

At the words of the guy who chimed in, everyone burst into laughter, seemingly amused. Josh faintly frowned. He had a feeling that they hadn’t just orchestrated this to collectively beat him up.

Then.

Belatedly, he remembered them calling him an Omega. At the same time, one guy stepped forward and spoke.

“Did he really present? He doesn’t look much different.”

“He did.”

With that, another guy held up Josh’s bag. What he pulled out of it was a suppressant. Seeing it, the group still looked confused, half-believing and half-doubting, as they alternated glances between the medicine and Josh. Then one of them spoke.

“If you don’t know, we can test it, right? Whether this guy reacts to pheromones or not.”

“If he takes medicine, he won’t, will he?”

At that, another guy replied.

“He won’t not react, he’ll just be dulled.”

With that, another guy also stepped forward.

“If you pour pheromones on him, he won’t be able to endure it, no matter how much medicine he takes.”

Then, the faintly felt scent grew stronger. Soon, Josh realized. This was the scent of an Alpha’s pheromones.

…Uh.