“Hello everyone.” Rinse made her return known to the others. “I hope that I didn’t ruin the mood today.” From the reactions of her classmates, it was obvious that they were only concerned with her health and emotional well being.

There were also the boys who confronted Ishi that went up to him and apologized once more about their poor judgment. He simply told them the same thing he had told plenty of others. That there was no grudge held between him and any one of them. So he accepted it just to calm their nerves about the situation.

“Looks like things are wrapping up here.” Ishi commented as he and Rinse handed their plates to some of the students cleaning up. After all the hard work that he and Ryugi did to cook the meal, it was only fair that others handle the cleanup. “Should probably go look for Koto so I can go home.”

“What? You’re really looking that forward to leaving all of us?” Rygui complained to him. Since she was afforded some free time not having to work, she felt it would be nice to see him off as the night began. “Come on Ishi, after all the time we’ve been together, you should be begging to hang out with me.”

“Yes, she’s right.” Chiana backed up the gyaru. “You shouldn’t be so excited about getting rid of us.”

“It’s getting late.” He replied. “So unless I invite you girls to my house, which is never happening by the way, then our day’s pretty much over.” Though for the first time in a while, he felt a little disappointed that their beach trip really was over. Something like this was going to be their last now that the weather was getting to be colder. The fact only became more apparent being that they’d be graduating from high school, so it was unlikely that something like this would ever happen again.

“Are you afraid to ask?” Ryugi mocked him. “If you try your luck, who know? Maybe one of us might say yes.”

“Forget it.” He eyed past them to look over at Rinse. It seemed that things had returned to normal as she chatted up with the rest of their classmates. She might have preferred to hang with him, but at least they’d get the walk back to their homes together to enjoy.

“Ishi.” Meekly, Youna grabbed his attention. “I just wanted to thank you for today. It was a lot of fun.”

“You should be thanking Ryugi for coming up with the entire thing.” Even he was grateful that she orchestrated the event. While he may not admit it out loud to everyone, he had a blast going out in public. Normally his day would’ve be spent hanging out inside reading some books or playing video games.

That was a strange thought to have though. The boy never considered doing that to be a waste of a day. After all, he did enjoy himself doing those activities as well. But perhaps, was his viewpoint incorrect about what he should be focusing on with the rest of his youth? “Besides, I should be thanking you.” He brought his attention back to Youna. “If it wasn’t for you inviting me, then today wouldn’t have happened.”

“He’s right about that.” Chiana agreed. “Plus he’s also the one who paid for the food, and he also saved Rinse’s life.” That was something that the girl was going to be eternally indebted to him for.

“I’m glad he came too.” Ryugi spoke up, not wanting to be outshined by the other girls. “Things are a little funner when he’s around. No wonder why Rinse is so interested in him.”

“Are you sure the real reason you’re happy isn’t because you got to show off your body in a bikini?” Ishi quipped to her. This girl was too dumb for him to believe that she had anything of substance to take out of this day.

“Heh, is that your way of hitting on me?” Playfully, she turned it around and teased him.

“Aye…” He shook his head in disappointment. This girl really was full of herself. “Look, it was nice to chat with all of you, but I really need to find Koto so I can go home.” Ishi left the group and headed around to scan the beach. His cousin shouldn’t have gotten too far. Though things had dimmed from the lack of sunlight, he could make out the silhouettes of a couple of people with an obvious height difference.

“Ishi, I’m so glad to see you.” Koto looked to be very exhausted from hanging around Seyuki. “Can we go home now?”

“Sure, I’ll let Rinse know and we’ll head out.” He responded.

“It was so much fun today with you.” Seyuki was in a much brighter mood than him. Before the boys could leave, she picked up Koto and gave the small boy a tight bear hug. “I can’t wait to see you later in class.”

“R-right.” He could barely breathe while in this tight hold. “I’ll see you later then.” The boy could hardly wait until the moment he was free of her presence as she put him back on the ground. It wasn’t that he disliked her, or being with her. Just that it kept him from doing one thing that he really wanted to do.

“You ready to get Rinse and head out?”

“You know it!” His mood perked up as they came up to the girl.

“Time to head home?” Rinse said as they approached. Ishi confirmed that and soon they were on the walk back to their houses. “I hope you had lots of fun today.” She inquired about how their days went, though she was much more interested in Ishi’s response over his own cousins.

“I had tons of fun.” Koto was the first one to answer enthusiastically. “Seyuki’s got a lot of energy, so it can be hard to keep up sometimes.”

“It was eventful, to say the least.” Then it was Ishi’s turn to answer. He was a lot less energetic compared to his younger cousin when responding. They talked among themselves on the short trip back to their houses and soon enough, they got home.

“Well, I guess we’ll see you later Rinse. Have a good night.” Koto bid her farewell, believing that this was the end of their night. She thought so as well when she headed inside. Today was a long day and she spent a lot of it outside under the blazing sun and in some salty waters. Of course that meant a shower was in order.

She enjoyed the running water over her hair and naked body as the sands of the beach were washed away. Her night routine went over as usual as she cleaned her skin of all the dirt accumulated over the course of the day. Finally, after blow drying her hair, the girl exited back into her bedroom to get dressed into some pajamas and head to bed. That was when she was interrupted by the knocking on her window. There was only one person that could be the cause of it, so she hastily threw on her pajamas and opened the curtains.

“What’s up?” She asked as she opened the windows. “Did you forget something?”

“I just wanted to talk in private.” He responded. That was worrisome for her, especially after realizing that she had fallen for him. There was a part inside her body that had hoped he had come to the same revelations, but that was very unlikely.

“You know we could’ve chatted before going inside..” She replied.

“Then Koto would’ve bugged me about it.” That was his reasoning. Plus he was feeling very dirty too, so the boy wanted to take a shower first before speaking with her personally.

“So what did you want to talk about?” It was rare for him to be the one to start a conversation. If that was the case, then it must’ve been important to him.

“I just noticed something about you tonight.” That statement rang alarm bells in her head. Did he really just find out that she had a crush on him? Even she didn’t know it until recently, so that would’ve been really quick from him. Worse yet, if he was bringing it up, then was this already her doom and this boy was going to reject her before there was even a chance?

“R-really?” She responded nervously. His next response gave her a lot of anxiety. “And what would that be?”

“I just wanted to let you know that it’s fine if you want to hang out with me.” His response confused her. Partially because she was prepared for something else, and also because she wasn’t sure where it was coming from. “Everyone’s always wanting to be around you, but I know you only consider us to be actual friends.” While Ishi was no expert in friendship, he was pretty sure that people prefer to be with their friends instead of their fans.

“But I don’t want to say no to everyone.” She was worried about disappointing the people that adored her. They were a major reason why she was the person who she was today, so there was a bit of obligation in her heart to stick with them.

“Then we’ll just have to live with it.” He knew that things in life were going to be accepted regardless of their personal feelings of the matter. “Just that the next time something big happens, we should try to see each other more often. I saw you way too little at the beach today.”

“You…” She was stunned. Even if he wasn’t speaking romantically, the boy was actually feeling the same way as her about their circumstances. “But, you got to hang out with so many cute girls today.”

“I don’t know what their looks have to do with it.” He was bewildered about her statement. “And it was fun to be with Youna, Chiana, and Ryugi, but I also would like if you could be a part of it.”

“If that’s what you want, then let’s make a promise and try out best.” Rinse extended a hand out, with her pinky sticking out.

“Uh?” All Ishi could do was look at her gesture with confusion.

“I do this with the other idols and my producer when we make a promise.” It was kind of childish. She began doing it at a young age when she first became an idol, where it stuck around like a bad habit. Still, it meant a lot to her to keep a promise marked with a shared gesture.

“Fine.” He sighed and relented to her. Ishi took out his pinky and hooked it around hers. “Then, let’s work hard to stick together.”

bigbear51

Yay! Another end to another volume. It's been a long time since I've written in succession this much on one single story. Thanks so much for the support, it's been really helpful in motivating me to keep this up. Don't worry about me taking a break yet, since I want to get out the next volume and arc out as soon as I can. But I'll definitely take a hiatus after the ending of volume 4. After that, I'll start writing with the ending in mind, which sadly means I'll have to write some rejection scenes for our lovely ladies. I need the break to think things over and make the tough decision.

Also got the poll here because after writing this many chapters, I'm sure that people have their favorites. A lot of you have already mentioned them in the comments, which I'm glad to hear because I like understanding what my readers like and don't like. Go ahead and chose as many as you like, I just want to know which girls are viewed positively, and perhaps which one(s) aren't liked at all. This poll probably won't influence the ending too much unless one of them got really flamed or something.

Also after the next volume, I have a nice surprise for anyone who's read my other novel. I'm not going to say which one, or what it's about, because I wouldn't want to spoil it yet.