“Today’s tasks are finished,” Hibari murmured as she finished hanging up the laundry.

As always, she had finished her duties early that day. The time was still before noon. Even without Yuji around, she didn’t slack off and completed her work properly.

Taking a break, Hibari took out the prepared barley tea from the refrigerator and sat down to drink it.

“Still, I can’t get used to this maid outfit.”

Hibari looked at her current maid outfit.

Since a while ago, instead of her usual long-sleeved, long maid dress, she had been wearing a summer maid outfit. The reason was…

‘Hibari. That maid outfit must be getting hot now, right?’ 

‘No. I’m basically indoors, and there’s the air conditioning, so I’m fine.’ 

‘If you rely only on the air conditioning, you’ll make yourself sick, won’t you? You have a summer maid outfit too, right? Change into it.’ 

‘There’s no particular problem with staying as I am…’ 

‘Just change into it.’ 

‘Understood. Right in front of you, Yuji-sama… You cleverly thought of a way to see me in my underwear.’ 

‘Nobody said anything like that!! And don’t casually untie your ribbon! It’s bad for my heart!!’

It was because Yuji-sama had instructed her to change into the summer maid outfit.

The design was neat and clean, based on white and black, but the differences were that the sleeves had become short-sleeved and the length of the skirt had become a bit shorter. Her slender, pale arms that knew no suntan, which had always been hidden by long sleeves, were now exposed. Also, with the length shortened to about above the knee, her beautiful legs were also revealed.

Just by showing a little more skin, it seemed like Hibari’s natural beauty and attractiveness had doubled.

“Yuji-sama probably has no interest in maid outfits.”

His instruction to change into the summer maid outfit was purely out of kindness.

There were definitely no improper feelings involved. After all…

‘You’re beautiful and have such a gorgeous body… if someone like me gets any more of this treatment from you, Hibari, my heart won’t be able to take it…’

He was the type to get embarrassed when he became conscious of such things.

Having finished her barley tea, Hibari stood up.

“Since I still have time, shall I clean more areas today?”

Hibari had thought about cleaning the bathroom, but… she suddenly turned her gaze toward where Yuji’s room was.

Yuji was basically the type who didn’t mess up his room, and when Hibari entered his room, all she did was collect the trash that had accumulated in the wastebasket. Sometimes she entered Yuji’s room to wake him up in the morning.

“Even though it’s not messy, I should probably clean Yuji-sama’s room occasionally.”

Dusting and light vacuuming…

Thinking such thoughts, Hibari entered Yuji’s bedroom.

“This is the first time I’m taking a leisurely look at Yuji-sama’s room like this.”

The spacious room based on white had a king-size bed, a built-in large TV, bookshelves, a low table that could also be used for studying and eating with a floor chair… It was a simple yet comfortable-looking room.

Hibari thought about vacuuming first, but…

“…? What could this be?”

Something was sticking out from under the king-size bed. Hibari crouched down and reached out to take it.

“This is…”

◆

When we arrived at the pool facility, we changed in the locker rooms. Of course, men and women had separate facilities. The locker room was crowded, and I felt a strange sense of realization thinking, “Ah, it’s summer. Summer has come.”

“Men have it easy— just take everything off and put on the trunks!”

Tajima said this energetically, having already changed into his swim shorts. They had a simple black color.

“Huh? I should have packed it…”

Meanwhile, I was half-naked, rummaging through the school bag I had brought.

“Oh? What’s wrong, Kasajima? Looking for something?”

“W-well, yeah.”

It would be bad if I didn’t have a certain something…

“By the way, where did Saeki go? I haven’t seen him for a while.”

“Yuito said he was going to the bathroom. He told me before entering the locker room.”

Thinking about it now, I should have taken care of his luggage and brought it to the locker room first. He was going to change here anyway.

“Hmm. You two are still as close as ever.”

“How are you judging that?”

Where in that conversation was there any close friendship episode?

“But you’re always together at school, right? You’d never expect you two to interact based on appearances.”

Well, in the game world, Yuito and I were the protagonist and the villain respectively. I would persistently harass him, bully him, and pull strings behind the scenes in various events… That would be discovered by the beautiful sisters, earning their anger and leading to the confinement-and-beating bad ending… Ah, I definitely didn’t want to go down that route…

At first, I thought I could avoid the bad ending by getting close to Yuito and raising his favorability, but…

“Yuito is a good guy who’s kind even to someone like me who gets avoided because of bad rumors and my intimidating face. Anyone would want to be friends with someone like that, right?”

Yuito’s genuine kindness and brightness made me stop worrying so much about character settings and what might happen in the future. I just wanted to enjoy spending time as Yuito’s friend. That’s what I thought.

“I understand that Saeki is a good guy too… W-well? I also understand that Kasajima is a good guy!”

Tajima said this looking a bit embarrassed.

“It’s not like you to say something like that, Tajima.”

“Well, that… the incident at the forest school completely changed my view of Kasajima by 180 degrees… during the study group and now too. I thought that being with Kasajima doesn’t feel bad.”

“So I’m just ‘not bad’, making me a good guy?”

“I haven’t been with Kasajima as much as Saeki has, so I still don’t know you that well! That’s why I want to deepen our friendship, Kasajima. Of course, the same goes for Satoshima too.”

Friends, huh… In my previous life, I naturally became friends with people as we gradually got closer… but being told directly like this wasn’t bad either.

“If you become friends with me, it might be troublesome, you know? After all, I’m an intimidating guy with tons of bad rumors.”

“Hah, bring it on. Actually, when it comes to being troublesome, I might not lose to you.”

“That’s true.”

“At least deny it a little!!”

Seriously, what a self-serving guy.

◆

Since Yuito wasn’t coming back, I sent him a message saying ‘We’ll wait outside first’, and Tajima and I left the locker room ahead of him.

“Whoa! It’s huge! It’s massive!!”

Tajima said this excitedly, spreading his arms wide. Well, I understood his feelings.

Before us was an impressive sight. Being a pool facility attached to an amusement park, it was a spacious area with abundant attractions. The happy voices of people enjoying the attractions made the atmosphere even more exciting.

“I want to play too~~!”

“The other three should be coming soon. Until then, behave yourself, Tajima. And definitely don’t go hitting on someone you fall for at first sight, okay?”

“What do you think I am…”

Tajima crossed his arms saying “As if I’d do something like that”, but… with his tendency to fall in love easily, he might actually do it…

“Yuji-kun! Tajima-kun!”

A bright male voice called from behind us. So Yuito was the next to arrive. I had personally thought Yuito would appear last.

“Mahiro-san and Riina-san aren’t here yet, so take your time… whoa.”

I turned around and… noticed Yuito’s swimwear.