The best time of the year for many had finally arrived, or at least the time before said best time. It was the final week of classes before everyone would be allowed their long summer break and most students were in a buzz about it.

Most were discussing with their friends on their plans. As high schoolers, there was a lot many wanted to do before being forced back into the routine of going to classes, studying, and doing homework. So there were a good number who planned on taking trips together or with their families to get a good break away from mundane life.

Hakuta was not one of these people. His dad was never around and there was no way he’d want to do a bring your kid to work day considering the circumstances. The boy also wasn’t interested in the many ideas for a summer trip. Most of them involved going outside and he was more of an indoors person. Of course, this didn’t stop other people from pestering him on the idea.

“Hey Hakuta.” That person would be Iruka, seeing as she had easy access for talking to him. “You doing anything this summer?” She asked.

“I don’t think you need to ask that question.” To him, it should’ve been blatantly obvious what it was he had in mind for the break. They all knew what he wanted to do, which was stay inside away from the hot sun and play video games. This didn’t mean they wanted him to do so.

“Wait, do you sunburn easily?” She asked as a follow up. It was a fair assumption that him spending so much time inside might’ve prepared him poorly for handling the sun’s rays.

“No.” He answered, sighing at her continuing attempts to grab his attention and get the boy to do something outdoors with her. “Why don’t you go ask the other girls? I’m sure whatever they have in mind is much better than what I can offer.”

“But what’s the harm in you coming along too?” Now Yuusen and Itsuki had joined in on the conversation. The three had Hakuta surrounded, there was no hope of escape for the boy. “I can think of some fun places we can hang with the girls.” He said with a smile.

“And I can think of those places as being miserable for me.” He responded. “Let me take a wild guess, you all want to go to the beach.” It was an easy assumption to make. He knew his friends well and most people did want to go there during summer anyway.

“Bingo.” Itsuki gave him a thumbs up as if the boy was trying to answer a hard question. But it was not desired by Hakuta who really didn’t care for going to the beach. “Come on, you know all the great things we can see while we’re there, right?” It also didn’t interest him on the many things his friends wanted to see while they were there either. Mainly because it involved girls wearing cute and revealing swimwear.

“With all that sand there? No thanks.” He crossed his arms to reject their proposal. It would be hard to want to game there considering the lack of TV screens. However, even if he could bring his console, he wouldn’t. All the sand and humidity from the ocean would mean nature would wreak havoc on his hardware. So the boy would rather not take the chance.

“You know there’s more to life than just video games, right?” Asked Iruka. “I mean, we just don’t want you wasting away your youth all by yourself.”

“And I’m pretty sure when I’m an adult I won’t have time to play video games.” He countered. Which was part of why he attempted to make his youth as full of those games as possible for the future where he couldn’t. “Now I’m going to stand up and leave so I don’t have to continue this conversation with all of you.”

Hakuta was grateful it was lunchtime so he wouldn’t have to be forced to stay at his desk. As he walked away, he thought about the number of times during lunch when he actually didn’t eat. No wonder he was always starving by the time he got home.

But part of the reason for him getting up was also to head somewhere else. The boy say their classroom representative, Ino, preparing to take a small folder out of class to presumably the staff room. “That’s a lot less than you normally take with you.” He commented, stepping between her and the door to leave. It was rather uncharacteristic of him to want to make such a bold move, but he was desperate to talk with the girl. She used to be somewhat friendly with him, but things had taken a turn for the worst.

Summer’s about to start, so the teachers are trying to minimize the work so we can get this vacation started quickly.” She answered in a straightforward tone. Ino didn’t treat this as a conversation between friends. This was just a formal moment where one might expect in an office instead. “And if you’ll excuse me, I need to do my job.”

“Speaking of summer vacation.” He continued to block her path, though she did make attempts to push past him. “Do you have any plans for it?”

“Are you trying to ask me out on a date?” She asked in return. Judging by the harsh look on her face, this was a response more so of being offended rather than happy for the prospect of it. “Because the answer’s no.”

“O-of course not.” This was able to get him to lose focus and composure. Which also led to Hakuta backing up a bit and gave her the space she needed to leave the room now.

“Good.” She spoke, walking past him. “And just to let you know, I respect you a lot as a person. But the two of us can never be friends.” Her words would continue to echo in his head as the girl walked down the hall away from him.

Hakuta sighed as he walked back into the classroom. Of course she would continue to tell him about the impossibility of their relationship. It sucked, especially since he knew it was all because of Shiuka. Ino told him about her personal disdain for the gyarus. Where after he chose to stick by them, it seemed that was the end of his relationship with her.

That was beyond frustrating to him. As if he knew he was being given an ultimatum when all the boy was more worried about was his relationship with Shiuka. At the same time, he did also believe her when she said she respected him. As crazy as it sounded considering the other ways she had treated him. It made sense, as she did help him with telling Shiuka the truth about his feelings. Perhaps because Ino knew if they couldn’t be friends, then she might as well make sure he made good with the gals.

Without anything else to do, he ended up wandering back to the gyarus. Iruka had taken his advice on talking with the girls and unsurprisingly his friends had followed along too.

“Hey guys, what were you talking about?” He asked, speaking in a dejected tone. “Let me guess, it’s about the summer break.”

“We just came up with the best idea ever!” Iruka spoke in a manner of pride as if she were the one to come up with the plan, despite only listening to the other three girls come up with what they normally wanted to do. “A trip to the beach with everyone sounds great, doesn’t it?”

“That sounds exactly like what I just said was terrible.” It was as if they just ignored him earlier. “What’s so special with us going out somewhere together? We all already do that.”

“No, it isn’t just us.” Yuusen explained to him the idea. Instead of just having it be their friend group, which would be fun on its own. They all decided to invite as many of their classmates as possible to make it a trip to remember.

“We’ve been hearing rumors that some upperclassmen have been thinking of doing it too. So we figured that maybe we could make it even better.”

“Now that just make it feel like we’re trying to copy older people.” If there was one thing Hakuta hated as a first year, it was the idealization of the third years. What was so special about them outside of being a couple years older than them? It didn’t make them magically more wise or better than them in any way. “Hanging out with those students don’t really sound like my idea of a good time.”

This was what Hakuta truly believed, but it wasn’t the how his heart felt in its entirety. He had been beaten down a bit emotionally after his own ordeal with Ino. It wasn’t like she made him suffer, but he couldn’t deny feeling sad about what had gone on with her. Normally, he wanted to just throw himself into his video games to take away the discomfort. It’s worked for him before on more serious moments.

But perhaps a trip out anywhere might help him more than he thought. Most people do relieve their stress by enjoying a proper time to treat themselves. While the beach wasn’t his normal destination, a little bit of sunshine and fresh ocean air might give him new perspective.

Plus it was obvious Shiuka would be going to the beach and he didn’t want to be stuck at home all by himself while dealing with these emotions. So the answer ended up being easier than expected. “Fine though.” He relented to the group. “I’ll go too.”