We started toasting our marshmallows on the wood fire. Just like usual, Sotoka was sitting by my side.

“Did you know? To make them perfectly toast, you need to turn them slowly from time to time, otherwise they’ll burn.”

“I didn't know that, Kasumi. It seems that you too can be useful from time to time. Hehe~”

“Oi! Don't go saying those things, people will think that I'm useless!”

“Aren't you?”

“You little…!”

Kasumi jumped over Clair and pushed her to the ground. Then, Kasumi started tickling Clair while sitting on her abdomen. 

“They seem really close, right Eriko?”

“Maybe they are also childhood friends?”

Until now, I haven't asked about the relationship those three have. As far as I could tell, they are really close. They trust and joke around each other, but I know nothing more. If Kasumi and Clair are also  childhood friends, does that mean that they can understand these feelings that are bothering my chest?

No, even if they also know each other from a long time ago, it doesn't mean that the feelings they have towards the other are the same that Sotoka and I have. In the first place, there's no guarantee that Sotoka feels for me that I feel for her. After all, as far as I can tell, this feeling isn't merely born just by spending a lot of time with someone, I can at least be sure about that.

While I was thinking about relationships and feelings, the loud screams of Kasumi and Clair took me back to reality. 

“Oi, Ka-Kasumi…!”

“Shut up, Clair! Now you’ll pay for always making fun of me!”

“S-Stop! C-Come on...!”

“No, no, no! Now you’ll listen!”

“I-I c-can’t…!”

“Come on girls! Let's enjoy this meal!”

Right when Clair’s shortness of breath was about to turn serious, Sapphire jumped onto them and threw Kasumi to the ground. After that, lying between those two, she started talking about fish, the ocean and the sky.

At that moment, I started spinning my brochette so my candy won't burn. Sotoka was doing the same while humming a melody with a smile drawn on her face. Somehow, the melody sounded strangely familiar, but I couldn't remember where it came from.

Right when I was about to ask Sotoka about it, our marshmallows touched.

“Sorry, Sotoka, I got distracted. Haha”

“Were you looking at my beauty or something? Fufu~”

“No, no, of course not!”

“Uh? It is really necessary to be that harsh...?”

Sotoka answered me with a sad expression on her face, although she was clearly faking it. It was so obvious that she was joking with me, that I can't figure out why I got so nervous after seeing her making such an expression.

 “Well, no.  I mean… You are beautiful and all… But I wasn't looking at you!”

“Y-You don't want to look at me?!”

She gave me another clearly fake and over exaggerated reaction. However, I was so nervous at that time that I couldn't help but keep on trying to find excuses.

“O-Of course I… Of course I want to look at you!”

“Then do it!”

Sotoka put one of her hands on my cheek, grabbing my head and leaning it towards hers. She also leaned towards me, leaving our faces just a few centimeters away.

Her eyes were fixed on mine, and I could feel how my heart was beating faster as the time passed by.

I needed to do something to get out of that situation. Of course, my well trained brain was able to come out with the perfect line for this kind of situation.

“Won't our marshmallows burn?”

“Uh…?!”

That 's right! They were still over the fire. Even more, they were still touching each other, so when we finally decided to separate them, some white shining threads that looked like silk were still connecting them.

We moved them away from each other as slowly and carefully as we could, making the threads thinner and longer until some of them started to cut.

When they were finally separated, Sotoka said something that made my heart skip a beat.

“It looked like a kiss, don't you think, Eriko? Fufu~”