Asking Oneself

When the two of us returned, we were met with incredibly suspicious looks.

“You’re back late. Were you two up to something fun? Heh,” teased Kiyohito. “Is Umi-chan actually quite proactive?” added Honjo-san.

These two together are really a handful…

“No, it’s nothing like that… right?” Umi-chan said, clutching my upper arm and looking up at me.

“Yeah, it’s not like that,” I responded firmly.

Umi-chan tightened her grip on my arm slightly.

“Hey, let’s all play this!” Marin-chan suggested, pulling out a beach volleyball.

“Alright, how about Aoi and I against the three girls?” Kiyohito proposed.

“Sure! But if you lose… you’ll be buried up to your necks in sand! So be prepared!” Marin-chan declared.

“What!? We can’t afford to lose then, right, Aoi?”

“…I’m not good at this kind of thing…”

“Come on! This is the time to show off, even if it’s hard!” Kiyohito urged.

“…”

“Alright! Let’s do this!”

The beach volleyball match that followed ended in a decisive victory for the girls’ team.

“Whoa! Don’t bury me!” Kiyohito protested playfully, while I felt like Umi-chan was seriously going to bury me in the sand.

“I’ll make sure you’re properly buried,” she said.

Scary! Her eyes are terrifying! She’s not smiling at all! This level of yandere is over the top!!

Next to her, Marin-chan was having fun pouring sand on me.

After burying us in the sand, we took some photos together.

“Wow! This was a great memory! Now I can finally focus on my entrance exams!” Kiyohito declared.

“There’s still the school trip, the cultural festival, Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s… Plenty of events to tempt you away from studying,” I pointed out.

“T-That’s not exciting at all…” Kiyohito stammered, blushing.

“Yeah, sure. You’re definitely excited.”

“Hey, Aoi-kun, aren’t you looking forward to them too?” Marin-chan asked.

“Not really. Marin-chan, you should focus on your studies too,” I replied.

Maybe it was because we were all tired, but Marin-chan and I started talking as if we were alone, even though everyone was around.

Even the two who knew our situation looked a bit surprised, but Kiyohito, who knew nothing, was even more shocked.

“Um, Aoi-kun? Marin-chan…?”

“Ah, no, it’s not like that… I just, um, called her that as a joke…”

“That was a pretty natural way to call her, though,” (Kiyohito)

“No, really! Actually, Yamaguchi-kun and I are surprisingly close! Right, Yamaguchi-kun?”

“Y-Yeah! That’s right, Shiozaki-san!”

“…No fair.”

“Huh?”

“I want to call you Marin-chan too!”

“Oh, uh, sure…” Marin-chan replied, looking a bit taken aback.

As I mentally thanked Kiyohito for his obliviousness, I noticed Umi-chan smiling sadly, while Honjo-san gave me a bit of a glare.

◇

“I put on sunscreen, but do you think it’s okay?” Marin-chan asked.

“You put on quite a lot, so it should be fine,” I reassured her.

“Really? Can you check for me?” she said, taking off her shirt to show me her back.

“Whoa…”

“Come on! You’ve seen my body plenty today, haven’t you? Don’t be shy, just take a look,” she insisted.

“Telling me not to be shy is kind of impossible…”

“No, it’s not! It’s because you always think about naughty things that you can’t handle it!”

“I… I don’t think about those things.”

“Really? Are you sure?”

“I… I don’t think about them… really.”

“Then you can look, right?” She parted her hair, revealing her back to me.

I stared at her back, examining it closely.

“So? Is it red or anything?”

Her skin was incredibly fair and smooth. There were no marks or blemishes, just pure white skin.

Feeling an irresistible urge, I gently traced the line of her spine with my index finger.

Marin-chan quickly turned around, staring at me with wide eyes.

“Wh-What!? Don’t touch me like that so suddenly! // It really startled me!”

“I-I wasn’t trying to touch you in a perverted way…”

“You totally were! It was super perverted!”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Geez, well, it doesn’t feel like it’s burning or anything, so I guess I’m fine. Oh, do you want me to check you too, Aoi-kun?”

“N-No, that’s okay. I can tell I’ve gotten a bit of a sunburn.”

“Aww, you’re no fun. I was offering to help you out.”

“…No, thanks.”

“Alright, alright! I’ll just have to forcefully strip you and check next time!”

“Please don’t do anything that sounds like an evil villain’s scheme.”

And so, our summer vacation continued to move towards its end.

◇

“Is it really okay for things to stay like this?” I asked myself.

‘Of course not. Are you going to give up again without doing anything? Just like always, leaving things half-finished and throwing them away. Are you going to cry alone again? Anything gained without getting hurt is fake. What you truly want and can get, even if it means getting hurt, is real. At least for the last time, face it head-on,’ I answered myself.

“…Yeah.”