Today was finally the specified day for the beach trip.

Everyone had met up outside Takei's house at the crack of dawn and waited for Akari's dad to come over and pick them up in the rented minivan.

Takei was dressed up in some comfortable basketball shorts and a plain white t-shirt.

He was consistently yawning as Takei rarely ever woke up this early in the morning.

"Why did we choose such an early time..."

Eiji walked up to Takei and placed his arm on Takei's shoulder as support.

It seemed that Eiji was also feeling the efforts of waking up early in the morning, since he was looking equally exhausted.

"If we went later, we wouldn't have the whole day to play."

Logically explaining the early departure time, Rikka bonked her brother on the top of his head.

Including her, all of the girls were dressed in comfortable and easy to move clothes that varied in design between all of them.

Helena was wearing jean shorts with an oversized t-shirt, while Arisa wore some loose joggers with a cute pink shirt that emphasized her feminine upper half.

In contrast to Arisa's balanced outfit of practicality and cuteness, Rikka wore her gym clothes since they were an existing combination that was made for easy movement and comfortability.

While the girls had stylish combinations of clothing, the guys were rather dull in their choices of beachwear.

Each and every one of them were just wearing basketball shorts with a plain t-shirt.

Ryuto saw this and lightly chuckled at the situation.

"Hehehe, this looks perfect! The beach arc is going well so far..."

Ignoring his weird comment, Takei noticed that Arisa was fidgeting a bit.

"Are you okay?"

"Wha-? Ah, um... I'm just a little nervous."

Takei felt concerned about her behavior and decided to ask her about it.

Once she revealed that she was nervous about the trip, Takei finally remembered an important fact about her.

Arisa had always been a timid girl who didn't really go out of her comfort zone, so going to the beach with a group of friends was already a tall task for her.

Before he could try to console her, someone else stepped in without warning.

Wrapping her arm around Arisa's neck, Helena grinned at her with an excited expression.

"It's okay! We're all friends here, so let's have fun together~"

Perhaps due to being an outgoing person with a lot of experience in interacting with others, Helena tried her best to soothe Arisa's worries.

Seeing that Helena was trying her best for Arisa's sake, Arisa lightly smiled with a refreshed expression.

"Alright, I feel better now. Let's have a lot of fun!"

"That's the spirit!"

"Woohoo!"

After Arisa announced her new found resolve, the rest of the group celebrated with her by rejoicing loudly.

The air of tiredness had completely dissipated as everyone whooped and cheered out of excitement for the readily approaching beach trip.

Well, everyone but Akari.

What's taking her so long?

Could it be that something happened to her...

As this line of thought crossed Takei's brain, a sound of an incoming car could be heard.

Looking down the street, there was now a silver minivan coming his way.

Once it got close enough, the minivan stopped in front of the driveway of Takei's house.

As soon as it had stopped, the side door of the minivan flung open and the person that he had been waiting for finally made her appearance.

Akari Akazawa entered the spotlight with her dazzling appearance.

She had decided to wear a light blue frilly one piece dress that was absolutely cute in nature, and was easily able to take Takei's breath away.

In addition to the small straw hat on top of her head, there was a sweet cherry scent coming from her which was destroying Takei's common sense.

"Sorry for being so late, there were some unforeseen complications and..."

Akari tried to explain her late status, but was stopped midway due to the familiar boy who ran up to her and embraced her in an aggressive bear hug.

"I was worried..."

Stating his true feelings, Takei worried that something had happened to her since she was never late and always punctual.

He knew he was being a bit overprotective, but that was a byproduct of his overflowing love for her.

"Oh you..."

Akari realized that Takei had genuinely worried for her, and lightly patted him on the back as a way to console him.

Eventually, his heart began to return to its usual stillness and he let go of Akari.

He noticed that he had done such a thing which resulted in Akari's beautiful dress getting slightly crinkled.

Once he realized this, Takei's face paled and dropped a few shades of color.

"I'm sorry..."

Meekly apologizing, Takei wanted to punch himself in the gut for acting that way in front of her.

At this, Akari placed her index finger on Takei's lip in order to prevent him from apologizing any more.

"Don't apologize, I would've done the same. I mean, it's our job to worry about each other, right?"

Akari explained the logical reasoning of worrying about your loved ones to Takei, which finally helped him understand that it was something natural that would happen no matter what.

With his newly gained knowledge, Takei nodded and leaned forward.

Akari didn't know what he was going to do, so a figurative question mark appeared above her head.

Once he was close enough, Takei reached out and squeezed her cheeks.

"How dare you make your boyfriend worry so much."

Takei continued to playfully stretch her cheeks, as he complained about this unjust treatment.

"I'm... fuehh... sorry!"

Akari barely managed to eek out an apology as the onslaught of her cheeks getting squished continued.

After a few moments of blissful joy for Takei, he finally let go of Akari's cheeks.

However, the extremely flushed expression on Akari's face refused to disappear.

Seeing this whole ordeal unfold, the whole group sighed and looked at them exasperated.

"Idiot couple..."

"It's blinding!"

"It's too early in the morning for this..."

Of course, they were disillusioned with the reality in front of them.

However, there was one person who wasn't.

"Hmm? My little girl is growing up so fast. I'm going to be a grandfather soon, huh?"

Humming happily, Haruto sat in the car and watched his daughter interact with his future son-in-law.

Although, it may take a while due to how innocent they are...

---

Idiot Couple Meter: 60 -> 64%

I feel bad for their friend group, having to deal with these two must be giving everyone a migraine...

Serious-san: You're dancing perfectly!

Sugar-san: I'm doing it!

Serious-san: And now, for the finale.

Sugar-san: Wait, wha-?

As Sugar-san tried to finish her sentence, she noticed that there was something that was blocking her lips from being able to move.

Snapping back to reality, Sugar-san realized that it was none other than Serious-san's lips that were intertwined with hers that resulted in this beautiful phenomenon.