Chapter 14

Pool with those insolent brats.

Brought to you by Noir

(POV: Past)

“Thank you for all these years, sempai(s).”

The juniors bow their heads in unison.

“Thank you very much!”

Today is the farewell ceremony of the basketball team to which Arizuki belongs. After losing in the first round of district qualifiers, the second-year students took over the responsibility for cleaning up the club room and doing other chores for Arizuki and the other third-year students. As they were to retire today.

“Well, then the party will be held at 7:00 in Okushyoen, looking into everyone’s requirements. For now, disband.”

Okushyoen is a chain of yakiniku restaurants operating in the region.

[TL Note: yakiniku; simple translation would be grilled meat (with sauce and other things or even not)]

“Hey, Yuu. Let’s go somewhere to kill time until 7 o’clock.”

Endo, A third-year student, approached me.

“Sorry, I’ve got some personal business to attend to during the day.”

“I see, then I’ll see you tonight.”

“Ou~uu”

2.

“Argh, it’s damn hot~.”

The Sun was powerful today. It felt like my skin was being roasted.

Well, it’s a perfect day to swim in a pool.

Good old municipal swimming pool.

Although it tends to lose customers to the extensive leisure pools that have opened recently, it still gets crowded well.

I mostly think of girls in bikinis when I think of swimming pools.

*Kyuun~

[TL Note: felt a sharp sting in his heart because of being attracted to someone.]

My eyes were involuntarily drawn to the Bon sisters playing and enjoying the water.

I’d love to go out with a girl with that style someday.

“… wa~aa”

“Hey, what are you sighing for?”

“He can’t help it, Mahiru. He is weak during the summer. He’s just a weakling.”

Miya shrugged her shoulders.

“There are so many people out here, heh.”

Asaka says.

“Wa~aa,” I sighed yet again.

Sadly, I was with pesky little runts over here, Tetsu, Peta, and Sutton. As usual, I was asked to babysit these brats in this pool.

“Okay, here we go.”

“Let’s go then.”

“Hold there, all of you. Let’s do some warm-up exercises first. You need to relax your body completely before entering the pool, or else your body and heart might get a sudden cramp.”

“I am rather shocked to see how fair-skinned Yuu-nii is. He is even fairer than me. He looks like a bean sprout.”

Mahiru snorted a laugh saying that.

“Shut up! I’m an indoor player. Wait, that sort of thing doesn’t matter now. Come on, let’s get going with it.”

“Yesu~”

“Yesu~”

“Yesu~”

After finishing the warm-up exercises, it was time to enter the pool.

“Also, No matter what, don’t ever run by the poolside.”

“We know, we know.”

Miya jumps into the kiddie pool, which has a shallow bottom.

“And no jumping in!”

*pon pon  

My shoulders get hit.

“Nn?”

Asaka was sucking on the air plug of a deflated floater.

“Yuu-san, please inflate this!”

“What happened? Asaka, you can’t swim? Let me have a look there.”

She tried hard till the halfway mark, but I guess it’s tough on the lung strength of a first-grade elementary school girl to go beyond that.

After a while, wearing the puffed-up floater ring, Asaka jumps inside the pool.

“Yaay~”

“Don’t jump in!”

“Shut up and go away!”

Miya and Mahiru start splashing water on me. However, it is only a child’s arm strength. Not much water comes flying at me.

“I’m going to show you what a ‘real’ water splash is, damned kids. ORAA~”

“Uwaa~aa”

“Scatter out, team. We need to use guerilla tactics.”

Good Lord, it’s so tiresome to deal with these little brats.

Well, since tonight is yakiniku, I guess I’ll put up with the haughtiness of these little devils for some bit.

After playing around in the pool for a while, we headed towards the cafeteria to eat ramen. Why does ramen taste so delicious after swimming?

“Hey, I want to go on that ride.”

Miya points to our back. A large pipe undulates and extends from the top to the bottom. It was the centerpiece attraction of this swimming pool, the water slider.

“Aa~ that huh…  If I am not wrong, weren’t the kids not allowed to ride it?”

“Eh, ~ Is this partiality?” Asaka says.

“Hey, you~ Where did you even learn that word from?”

“Isn’t it fine? Let’s get into it.”

Mahiru pulled me by the hand and forcefully took me to the waterslide area of the pool.

When we reached there, I found that there was still a height restriction: you had to be at least 125 centimeters tall to ride.

“Look, stand in front of the board here. You must reach at least this red line to get on the ride.”

And sure enough, none of the three runts could reach the red line.

“Muu~” Miya pouted unhappily.

“Well, how about you ride on the smaller one over there? It has no restrictions. Go ahead.”

There was also another waterslide that was not so steep and long. Designed such that even small children can safely enjoy sliding down it.

As I waited for them below the kid-water slide, Miya returned.

“Hmm? What’s wrong?”

“I was told I can’t slide this waterslide unless I’m with an adult.”

“Eh?”

“Now, fast, fast.”

… How did it come to this?

“I–it’s quite high, isn’t it.”

I slowly began to feel terror when I started looking down the waterslide in front of me. The lack of a pipe covering the sides of the slider makes the height difference felt directly at face value.

However, I definitely didn’t let them know that I was scared. Since if I did, I would definitely be called a weakling over and over again.

I had Miya sit on my lap at the starting point.

“Let’s go~.”

“Don’t be so reckless; hold onto me tightly. Whoa~aa”

Holding onto Miya’s slender waist tightly, I slid down the slope rapidly. The end of the waterslide grows nearer. As I thought, I felt a slight chill run through my lower body; my vision was already under the water body.

“Aaha~haha, This is so fun!”

I—Is this ride really meant for children?!

“All right, then I’ll be next.”

Mahiru was waiting for me.

“Eh, ~ wai–wait.”

“No wai–it’s really dangerous.”

“Come on, it’ll get crowded.”

“Hehe~eheh.”

“I’m next.”

“Uooo~oooo.”

By the end of the ordeal, I had slid down the waterslide three x four times.

A total of Twelve times.

2

That evening. I went to the farewell party of club activities at Okushyoen.

“Hey Arizuki, how the heck did you get so tanned? Weren’t you white when I saw you this morning?”

Endo looks at me curiously.

“Ah~ look at his wrist. He is only tanned on one side.”

It seems that the only part of the body that did not get tanned was the area where the locker key was tied.

“You’ve been to the … pool by any chance, haven’t you?”

“Aah~ well~.”

Oh crap, they found it.

“You said you had a personal errand to run when I asked you to hang out together this morning, didn’t you? What can even be the reason that would suffice to turn down a friend’s invitation? Is it perhaps a girl/woman?”

“A wo–woman?”

“Arizuki, you got a girlfriend?”

“Who did you go out with? Don’t you dare steal a march on us.”

My other club members also rushed inside the interrogation.

Damn, I—I can’t tell. I can’t tell them that I was being played and toyed around by those little brats in the pool.

“Spit it out!~ Who was that other party?”

“Don’t say. Is she someone from our own class, like Shimomura-san?”

“No, I’m serious. We’re not like that in the least—”

It turned out to be a Yakiniku party that was far away from meat.

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