“Okay, I’ll be heading out now.” Hakuta announced while standing by the front door. Today it was time for him to go shopping for some swimming trunks. The boy had never had a reason to go swimming, so he hadn’t owned a pair that fit him. The last ones he apparently still had were from when he was in elementary school, so they very clearly didn’t fit him anymore.

“That’s cool, I’ll see you later.” Shiuka wasn’t joining him as she didn’t need to buy anything new. Of course, if she saw something cute before their trip started she would easily pick it up. But today, she was more busy getting things setup with Iruka’s father, Omihiro, so he would be all good when she wasn’t around.

With their short conversation finished, Hakuta left to go meet up with his friends at the mall. They weren’t really in need of anything new, but it never hurt to have some time to hang out with the boys. It had been too long since the last time he had been with Yuusen and Itsuki without the girls with them. Perhaps a growing pain that came with the territory of making new friends.

Unfortunately his hopes of being with just the guys ended the moment he saw them.

“Hey guys… And Rouko…” He headed into the food court where they agreed on meeting. This was also where he saw Rouko sitting at a table with the other two. Considering what had transpired not even a week ago, the boy wasn’t in the mood for seeing her again in a somewhat public place outside of school.

“About time you showed up.” Yuusen greeted him with a playful look at his watch. Hakuta wasn’t late, they were just early. “Too bad the one time you’re here on time, we kind of hoped you were running late.”

“Usually I’m the one early.” He corrected them, not caring for the mocking being made as a result of a girl being here. Hakuta did spend a lot of time waiting for these two fools whenever they made plans. It was like they decided to take detours whenever he was the destination target. “And what’s Rouko doing here?” He was also promised it would only be just them. Mostly just so he would have just one day to himself without the gyarus coming in to ruin it.

“I swear we didn’t invite her.” Said Ituski, putting his hands up to show innocence. “We really just ran into her here.”

“They’re right.” She spoke up. “I came here because I wanted to look for some cute swimsuits. I think I’m going to need a new one just for this occasion.”

“And I see these two bozos just couldn’t couldn’t resist the temptation for having you join us.” He commented, sighing in disappointment over this news.

“Come on, she’s a friend.” Yuusen assured him nothing would go wrong. “Wouldn’t it be weird to just avoid her if we’re all here?” They weren’t wrong, but Hakuta wasn’t a fan of the idea either.

“Whatever.” He relented to the group yet again. While it was a funny coincidence, he couldn’t help but get the feeling this wasn’t just pure happenstance. “Can we go ahead and shop now that I’m here?”

“We were just waiting on you.” Yuusen replied as they all got out of their seats. The group would head on over to the most popular clothing brand in the mall to seek out some swimsuits. This was mostly for Hakuta’s sake, as he was the one who really needed it the most out of everyone. But also for Rouko, because of course she would want something really special.

“This looks good enough to me.” He picked up a pair of blue swimming trunks from the rack and already decided it was enough shopping for him. There was nothing special about this pair outside of it being plain and cheap, which was nice for a boy like him. Despite the fact that he had brought along more than enough money to purchase something even considered designer.

“You can’t just do that.” Rouko scolded him. “Where’s the style? The pizzazz? Besides, how do you even know if it fits?” There were many more things she could’ve listed out, but basically her point boiled down to that he should care about his looks and try and do it well.

“I’m not looking for attention.” He turned his head to his friends, who were both taking a good look at one of the swimsuits that Rouko had picked out for herself. “And that one looks really skimpy.”

“Last time I checked, you’re not my mom.” She countered, leaving the group to head into the changing rooms.”

“She’s not wrong about that.” Said Itsuki. “Besides, it’ll probably look real nice on her.”

“That’s because you two are biased.” He defended himself, but Hakuta had to admit there was no sway he had with that girl when it came to any of the decisions she made. Though he did hope he influenced her enough when it came to keeping the secret kept between them.

The guys all went to sit down at one of the benches to wait for her. Despite the suggestion for him to enter a room, Hakuta declined their idea to just wait for her first. It would prove to be a decent plan were he someone who was more interested in some eye candy.

“Well, what do you boys think?” She asked as she came out in her lovely striped yellow and white bikini. It left little to the imagination as she gave them a little spin to show how it wrapped around her body, which was barely outside of the important bits.

“If you choose that, it sounds good.” Hakuta gave a much more muted response to his friends. He also had much less words to say compared to them, who were still speaking to her as he sat and thought about the outfit. If she was interested in catching the attention of a boy through only her body, then this would be a good choice. “Now if you need me.” He spoke, but no one paid him any attention. “I’ll just borrow that room you just used.”

He hid himself away in the room, now enjoying a good bit of solitude. Then Hakuta quickly took off his pants and put on the swimming trunks, which fit him perfectly. He even took off his shirt to see how he would look at the beach. “Yep, there was no reason to try this at all.” He shook his head over the matter that he had listened to his friends despite being initially confident in his pick. His shopping trip had essentially been completed and all he had to do was pay for his new swimsuit.

However, right as he was taking off his swimming trunks to change back, a certain someone rudely rushed into the room he had been changing in. “Hey!” He yelled at them, quickly pulling his pants up to hide his decency. “This is…” It turned out the person who came in was Rouko. “...Occupied.

“Yo, what’s up?” She greeted him like this was a perfectly normal thing to do. Perhaps when she was with Shiuka and Ninka, it was. But he was neither of those two girls.

“What are you doing in here?” He couldn’t help but look her up and down to see the girl still being in her bikini. The pair of them were now in this enclosed tight space wearing little clothes which bore a lot of skin. “I know I kind of stole your spot, but I wasn’t going to take long.”

“That’s good because I wanted to talk to you.” She told him. “Privately, and don’t worry about those other guys. They’re off looking for some things for them to wear.” It was fair enough, but yet again he found himself stuck in a situation with Rouko where if they were caught it would look pretty bad.

“I didn’t look through your clothes if that’s what you’re worried about.” He glanced over at the bag she left on the ground. They contained personal items of hers such as panties. So he didn’t want her to believe he was creep since that was totally what he wasn’t.

“It’s about your deal with Shiuka.” She clarified. “I know you don’t want her to know, but I can’t just keep hiding this from her.”

“Don’t know why you’re being honorable now.” He replied, also wondering why she wasn’t more upset that her friend had been hiding this the entire time. “And I do trust you even if you let her know that you know. But I don’t know if I can handle Shiuka getting mad at me again.” At least, not in the current state he was in. Hakuta was still reeling from losing Ino that emotionally he wished to keep himself a bit happy in life.

“But she’s my best friend.” She responded. Now that Rouko knew the truth about Shiuka’s home life. It made her realize all the things she never noticed because she was unaware of what had been truly going on. “She’s been walking on eggshells for months now. I just want to support her instead of letting her go on like this.”

“Right…” He could tell this girl really had a caring side for her friends. It was something he never took her as, since Rouko was always messing around with him. He just assumed she was more the reckless type who would easily move on and leave if they had a fight among them. “How about this? We tell her after we’re all done with the beach.”

Hakuta believed this to be a fair and good idea. While it meant delaying on being honest. The boy didn’t want Shiuka to have this bad news dropped on her and have it put a damper on her feelings during a time that should be fun. So just waiting this tiny bit longer shouldn’t be a problem at all.