Bölüm

[AI ERROR / SAFETY BLOCK - RAW ENGLISH RETAINED]

…Her clothing was thin, and I could feel her bra.I tried hard not to think about it.

“Ryou… I took you by surprise during Golden Week, but…”

“But?”

She grabbed my T-shirt’s sleeve tight and pleaded, “Would you like to kiss again, properly, now…?”

My heart had been pounding in my ears even before that, but then it erupted.My mouth was weirdly dry, and my nose couldn’t smell anything but the scent of her hair.

There was a warm and soft feel on the back of my hand.I glanced at it and noticed Fushimi’s hand was on top of mine.

“I feel like my heart is about to burst…” She gently gripped my fingers.“But it’ll be our little secret.No one will know…”

I could feel my face burning up, as though my entire body temperature was concentrating in that spot.My brain wouldn’t work.The only other place I felt warmth was where Fushimi was touching.

Fushimi looked up at me with droopy eyes and slowly narrowed them, then closed them entirely.

I took a deep breath.I wasn’t sure how long it took me to make up my mind—could’ve been only an instant, but it also felt like an eternity.

“Hey!Bubby?”I heard a voice from afar the second I had prepared myself mentally.

“Ryou, Mana’s calling.”

It happened with just the slightest movement.Fushimi reacted to Mana’s voice, and my lips touched her cheek.Or rather, they bumped into it.

I messed up.

I didn’t know what to do after that.I only heard Mana’s voice becoming louder and louder.

“You here?Where are you, Bubby?”

Fushimi held a hand up to her cheek and put on the sweetest, most tender smile before jumping at me with a hug.

“Thank you.”She pecked my cheek in return.

She held me tighter before distancing herself.

“Mana’s looking for you.Let’s go.”

She walked back toward the beach, and I followed behind.

Mana was cautiously making her way over the rocks when she found us.

“What were you two doing?”

“Ryou was chewing me out about the filming.”

“Really?”She tilted her head and glanced at me.

“Yeah, basically.”

“You were totally doing something dirty!”

“We were not,” I said.

Though…we did something in the gray zone.I’m technically not lying, though, even if I am bending the truth a bit.

We changed the subject to Mana grumbling about their trip to the supermarket.

“That was way too much walking!”

They had bought a camp stove from a home center, along with cooking utensils, paper plates, chopsticks from a hundred-yen store.And, obviously, food.

“So we’re cooking here?”

“Yup.The Boss and Degu are preparing the food as per my instructions right now.”

Who’s really the boss now?

“Wow, that’s our head cook Mana,” Fushimi said.

“Hee-hee… I like the sound of that.”

What were they going to cook, though…?

“We’re makingyakisoba!Classic beach dish, right?”

“Oh!Yeah, that sounds great!”Fushimi exclaimed.

“Look forward to it!”

The head cook jumped off the last rock and ran merrily toward Shinohara and Deguchi.

I volunteered to help out, but she rejected my offer, saying I’d only cause problems.

Beside the beachside restaurant were three faucets, like the ones you’d see at school.They were cooking right around there.

Fifteen minutes later, theyakisobawas done.

“That’s the quality of Mana’s cooking we’ve come to expect!”

“Please, praise me more,” she beckoned.

We all ate together, and it really was as tasty as always.Despite it just being regularyakisobawith nothing special added.Was it because we were eating outside?

“Do you know why it’s so good, Takayan?”Deguchi asked, as he gulped down his serving.

“Because Mana made it?”

“That too, but there’s more.”

“Because of the location?”

“Yup, that’s also part of it.”

“What else is there?”I was getting impatient.

“Because, besides you and me, we’re surrounded by beautiful girls…”

“Wasn’t this expensive?”Torigoe asked Mana and Shinohara.

No one was listening to Deguchi.I also pretended as if I didn’t hear him.

“It was about seven thousand yen in total.Considering how much a restaurant meal would’ve cost, I think it’s reasonable,” Shinohara answered.

So about a thousand yen per person.Yeah, that much would cover a meal and maybe a snack.

“Bubby’s gonna pay for my part.”

“Who said that?”

“You’re the one with a job—don’t be stingy!”

“…Fine.Just this once, got it?”

“Hee-hee.I love you, Bubby!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Meanwhile, Fushimi had on this curious expression.

“Ryou, you got a job?”

“Right, I haven’t told you.I’ve been helping an acquaintance of Himeji’s.”

“Oh.”Fushimi glanced at her, then closed her eyes in disinterest.

They handed me the receipt, and I noticed something at the end of the list: FIREWORKSFAMILYSETX3.

Th-they bought fireworks?!

“Mana, why’d you buy three sets of fireworks?”

“Oh, was that not enough?”

“I’m not asking about the amount.What do we need fireworks for?”

Much to my surprise, no one agreed with me.Guys, you do realize you could’ve just paid seven hundred yen each if it wasn’t for this?Fourteen hundred in my case.

“What?I thought my judgment was perfect.I’m pretty sure I made a godly decision by buying them.No, it was even bigger—a cosmic decision.”

Cosmic is bigger than godly?Didn’t God create the cosmos?Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

Nothing good ever came out of commenting on Mana’s bizarre wording, though, so I kept my mouth shut.

“We’re not even gonna stay here late enough to use them.”

““““Huh?””””

Voices overlapped.I soon learned everyone responded in the same manner, as I noticed all of them giving me weird looks.

It was barely past one in the afternoon; I couldn’t imagine us staying here for that much longer.

All the girls, though, immediately put the food utensils away.Theychanged and equipped swimming rings, dove into the ocean, and started playing and giggling.

I kept myself amused by grabbing sand.Deguchi stayed beside me, wearing his sunglasses and staring into the distance.

“Deguchi, is looking at the horizon that fun?”

“That’s what you would think, wouldn’t you, Takayan?Oh, but you are wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“The sunglasses hide my gaze.Which gives me the opportunity to freely ogle their swimsuits.They wouldn’t know I’m staring at them.”

“That’s why you brought them…?”

Couldn’t you use that passion for something more productive?I sighed, but at the same time, I was slightly impressed by how far he’d thought ahead.

“My man…this is the main dish of the day.See, I’m the one who should be sighing.How could you even for a second consider leaving as soon as we were done filming?Who knows when we’ll get an opportunity like this again!”

“I guess.”

We did have to start focusing on studying for our college entrance exams next year, so we likely wouldn’t have the time to play around like this.

“Join us, Ryou!”Fushimi beckoned me.

She was wearing a one-piece swimsuit with a floral design.It looked like a minidress, and I would’ve asked her,Aren’t you worried your underwear might show?if I didn’t know it was a swimsuit.

“Torigoe, what about you?”I asked the girl behind me who was reading a book.

She was sitting just under the restaurant’s shade.She had changed but was wearing a thin hoodie, with the hood on.

“I got to a really good part in this novel just before we arrived, and it’s been gnawing at me this whole time.So I’m good for now,” she said.

“Her outfit’s crazy, don’t you think?”Deguchi whispered while still facing forward.

“How?”

“I know she’s got a swimsuit underneath, but otherwise, she’s wearing nothing under that hoodie, right?”

“I suppose?”

“And because of that hoodie, it makes you feel like her swimsuit’s actually just her underwear…and she’s flashing them like it’s nothing.”

“Oh, for… Don’t put it like that, idiot!Now you’re making me see it that way.”

“HA-HA-HA!”Deguchi cackled while fanning himself.“I knew you would get it, Sir Takayan.”

“Please don’t.”

The colorful beach ball splashed into the sea, and there was giggling all around.

Himeji was wearing the swimsuit she had bought that day, while Shinohara was wearing her school’s bathing suit.Maybe because it was from a private school, it looked like professional swimwear.She was still wearing her glasses and had her hair tied up.

“Bubby, come over here!”Mana called out to me after realizing I wasn’t responding to Fushimi’s invitation.“Everyone knows you’re terrible at this game—don’t worry about it!”

“I’m not worried about that!”

Deguchi heaved a heavy sigh.“The problem’s Mana-banana.”

“What?Why?”

“She’s in middle school, right?Yet look at that body.That’s not fair.That’s cheating.Agyaruwho’s a good cook, is obsessed with her brother, and has those melons?Geez.”

It did not sit right with me having him talk about my sister that way.

“Oh, excuse me.Those aren’t melons.It’s summer, after all—they’re watermelons.”

“Who cares, dude?”

The most shocking comment, actually, was that apparently to others, it looked as if Mana had a brother complex?

“Ryou!Come over here already!”

Deguchi talked passionately about Himeji’s body as well.I let most of it go in one ear and out the other, but I did hear the wordgrapes.What’s with you and fruits, man?

It didn’t seem like we were going home anytime soon, so I sluggishly got up.Better than just staring, I supposed.

I had brought a swimsuit, since Mana wouldn’t shut up about it, so I changed behind the blue tarp.

“I’m gonna join them, Deguchi.”

“Takayan, may I ask one last question before you go?”

“Yeah?”

“Why did no one call for me to join them…?”

I couldn’t tell because of his sunglasses, but I imagined he was really staring into the horizon this time.

“Because you do crap like hide your gaze behind sunglasses.”

Deguchi fell down on the sand in pain.

The beach ball came rolling my way.I picked it up and tossed it back into the sea as I joined the girls.

By the time I realized it, the beach was tinted in orange, and the sky was growing darker.

I recorded us playing around, just as Torigoe had suggested.

And we played for several hours.Beach volleyball turned out to be more fun than I’d expected.

[AI ERROR / SAFETY BLOCK - RAW ENGLISH RETAINED]

I wondered how long it had been since the last time I used my voice until it was hoarse.

When I thought about how my frolicking had been caught on camera, it made me want to never look at the footage.

Partway through, Torigoe joined us for beach volleyball, and we played in teams of two of various pairings.

When Shinohara and I were paired together, the Torigoe and Fushimi team turned strangely aggressive.

As for Deguchi, no one invited him for hours on end.Poor guy got lonely.I suggested we all play beach flags, but none of the girls agreed.I think they realized Deguchi only wanted to stay back and observe from the opposite side of the runners.So, in the end, the guy ended up playing by himself.

I couldn’t bear the sight of that and, since I was getting hungry anyway, I suggested we go buy something.I figured, even for drinks, it’d be more cost-efficient to grab a big bottle at the supermarket than buy the individual ones from the vending machines.

“What are you, Takayan?A housewife?”

“Tell that to Mana and she’d be like,Uh, duh?while giving you the scariest glare ever.Choose your words carefully.”

“Oh, that sounds nice.”

Yeah, I forgot this guy was fine with anything.

I took out my wallet at the register, since it was me who had suggested coming here, but then Deguchi offered to split the bill.

By the time we got back to the beach, it was dark, and the girls were already preparing the fireworks.

“Oh man, they changed…” Deguchi sighed.

I could barely see at all, but it seemed he had a sensor for this sort of thing—he could immediately tell they were back to wearing regular clothes.

See, Deguchi, that’s why no one invites you to join them.

It was too windy for candles, so we lit them up with the stove.

Fushimi and Mana were extremely excited about it, despite just having played with fireworks during Golden Week.Torigoe seemed excited, too—she cheerily stared into the lights of the fireworks.

This reminds me of that kiss…

Fushimi had said that was unfair to her.That she wasn’t as nice a girl as I thought.

I had no idea what she meant, but Himeji had said something similar.Apparently, there was a concept of fairness when it came to these things.

If that was true, then perhaps it really was Fushimi who wrote that stuff in my notebook about having my first kiss with her once I got into high school.

It was written after Himeji transferred schools.Around when we were still writing letters to each other.

I had a recollection of the letters, and I was sure I had them stored somewhere.But our feelings must have been mutual since I continued to correspond with Himeji.

We used up nearly all the fireworks while I was lost in thought.Only sparklers remained.

“Three was the perfect amount,” Torigoe told Mana.

“Right?I knew one wouldn’t be enough!I’m glad I convinced you!”

Deguchi was recording everything with the camera.I’d told him to be extremely careful with it, since it wasn’t ours, and he seemed to be doing a fine job.

“The sea at night is…quite something, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

My sparkler’s spark fell with the wind.

“Oh, nothing.”Himeji refused to explain herself.“Deguchi, you should avoid recording the sea itself.”

“Huh?Why?”Deguchi was still holding the camera, even though he was already picking up the trash and preparing to leave.

Everyone turned their attention toward Himeji.

“What if it happens to capture…something?”

Silence fell.A chilly wind blew.

“Himejima, let’s not say that sort of thing, okay?”

The wind blew stronger, ruffling the blue tarp loudly.

“Meowa!”Fushimi screamed like a frightened cat.

Her scream scared me, and Shinohara and Torigoe ran away in silence.

It was pandemonium already.

“What?!Wh-what is it?!”

Even Mana, who usually stayed calm no matter what, panicked.This only scared everyone even more.She tugged at my hand, trying to pull me away from the coast.

“Bubby, w-we g-g-gotta go!”

“Wait, hold on!Everyone… Is something here?!T-Takayan, wait for me!”Deguchi ran after us.

Wait, where’s Fushimi?

I turned around and saw her frozen in place.

This can’t be good!

“Fushimi.”I turned back, but Mana tried to stop me.I dragged her with me all the way back to Fushimi, and I grabbed her arm.

“I—I just saw something…,” Himeji said as she ran right by us.

“Bubby, we gotta go!”

“Fushimi!Fushimi, c’mon!”

“Ah… Ryou?”

“We’re leaving!”

Mana gripped my hand, and I gripped Fushimi’s, and we ran for our lives.

…We arrived at the station in no time.I was short of breath, and my sandals had nearly come off multiple times on the way.

The rough feeling of sand remained on my feet.

We were the last ones to get there.Everyone else welcomed us with worried looks.

“…So what did you see?”Deguchi asked to no one in particular.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Hee-hee.”Mana giggled.“You were all so panicky.It was funny.”

“Mana, this is no laughing matter!I was so scared, I couldn’t move!”

“Hina, maybe you couldn’t move because someone was grabbing your feet…”

“DON’T SAY THAT!”

I couldn’t tell if it was a reaction to this sense of relief or because I was no longer scared, but I began to laugh.

“I was so, so scared, seriously…” Fushimi started tearing up.

Torigoe, Shinohara, and I laughed.

“What happened back there, really?”Himeji feigned ignorance.

…It was all because of you.You scared everyone.

“Geez, I was terrified, too,” Deguchi said while cackling.

We kept on laughing in the otherwise deserted station for a while, and we missed the train.

“Wait… It’s thirty minutes until the next one!What is this, the middle of nowhere?!”

“You just realized?”I replied to Deguchi’s annoyed comment, and everyone laughed.Anything could make us chuckle at that point.

We waited until the next train and were finally on our way back home.

We chatted at first, but soon enough, the swaying of the train made everyone fall asleep.

“Ryou, you’re not sleepy?”

“I just wanna check the footage.”

“Oh.”Fushimi giggled.

“By the way, I’m pretty sure Himeji made up that thing about the ghost.”

---