The gym was still filled with unpleasant noise and dust. But the woman standing before me was an even more foreign presence than all that.

U-Um... I'm... in charge of today's... interview...!

She was clutching her questionnaire and trembling like someone standing before a gallows. I'd heard it was her first time and she was nervous, but I didn't expect her to be this terrified in front of me. Normally, I would have coldly snapped, 'If you're going to shake that much, don't come,' but for some reason, the words wouldn't leave my lips.

Her fingers were pale, and a bead of sweat looked ready to drop onto the paper. That clumsy appearance strangely caught my eye. Anyone could tell she was a complete novice at interviewing.

Go ahead and ask. I don't want to waste time.

I spat the words out as coldly as usual, but my voice made her shoulders flinch once more. It was just as she finally managed to open her mouth and continue her questions, her eyes fixed solely on me.

I saw a stray ball from spike practice flying this way. The target was exactly the back of her head—she who was looking only at me with trembling eyes, completely unaware.

Before the thought could even pass through my brain, my feet moved first. I grabbed her slender wrist as she was reading the questionnaire and pulled her roughly into my arms.

Then, with my free hand, I lightly swatted away the ball passing over her head. A dull thud echoed as the ball hit the wall, and only then did silence fall.