When Shiuka was busy with her conversation with Omihiro, Hakuta was more concerned with being with his friends. The first thing he did upon rejoining with the group on the beach was make an attempt to talk to Iruka. She was a girl who had been most excited for a summer break spent with him. It was her who began this whole ordeal by asking him to do something, which prompted him to tell her to plan something with the girls.

Of course, his original idea was to have her only do it with the girls. Yet just like with everything else in his life, the boy had found himself roped into it like this was all meant to be. But as he spoke to the girl, he had run into an unexpected obstacle.

“Hey you having fun?” He asked the girl, approaching her and Yuusen who had been with her the whole time.

“Yep.” It was Yuusen who answered for her. “Now… Shoo.” Then he quietly beckoned for him to leave, which Hakuta found a bit confusing.

“But I just got here.” He responded.

“Hang on a moment.” Yuusen turned to Iruka and told her to stay right where she stood. Then he took Hakuta and pulled the boy aside to have a somewhat serious conversation. “Come on, can’t you let me have this one?” He asked in an exacerbated manner.

“I’m not trying to take her away.” He replied, unsure of what had come over his friend. Hakuta was aware he told them take their chance when they had it while he was gone. It seemed they had, but now he was back and wanting to actually enjoy a day with some friends instead of having to isolate for the sake of some dudes attempting to flirt.

“Don’t be dense Hakuta.” He pointed a finger into his face to make his point known. “I’m starting to think that you do this on purpose to make me and Itsuki put our guard down. That way you can come and swoop in to take the girls from right under our noses.”

“I’m starting to think you drank some saltwater.” Hakuta stared at him like he was the biggest idiot in the world. What kind of person would mistake his attitude as anything but actual contempt for the concept of dating? The boy did little to get people to like him. Sure, there was Ninka, but the other girls were more than available for them. “Look, I’m really sorry about what happened with Ninka, but I really didn’t do anything to get in your way.”

“While that was a major defeat for me.” He replied, then hung his head down in shame in remember that it really was a big loss for him. “You can’t tell me that Shiuka and Iruka clearly notice you. Anyone with a brain can see that.”

“Yeah, if they had a damaged brain like yours.” Hakuta gave him a tap on the skull. He wished he could explain that his closeness to Shiuka was merely due to his living situation, but unfortunately he would be stuck with simply saying that things were as they were without going into detail. An explanation that would do little to assure his friend there were no problems.

“Just give me a chance here man.” Yuusen went into a bit of begging. “I swear it’s every time I like a girl. They just come in and tell me they like you instead.”

“That’s not my fault.” Hakuta had no idea what made people interested in him. Those girls didn’t even have good reasons for crushing on him instead of his friend. Whenever they were pressed it was just things like, ‘he’s so mysterious’ or ‘his coldness is so cool’. Thinking on it, he wondered if he wanted to avoid girls like he always said he would, that he should try changing how he acted to throw them off. “Seriously, I’m a gamer. What else do they think I do?”

“Hakuta, snap out of it!” Yuusen grabbed him by the shoulders and rapidly shook the boy. The conversation had taken a turn and he wanted to remind him of the reason why they were here. “The whole point is I want to be able to enjoy high school. So why is it so hard to just get a girlfriend?”

“Heh, I swear you and Ninka really would’ve been perfect together.” He muttered under his breath. Her initial attempts at romancing him were just the motions of physical flirting. As if she was trying to get a boyfriend for the sake of getting one. Which made sense considering her past history. “You’re the one who should be getting it together. Stop going after girls who don’t care about you. You deserve the world.”

“Oh, wasn’t expecting you to give me a compliment after what I just said.” Yuusen figured that Hakuta would get mad after hearing him out. So he had braced for a fight from an understandably upset boy.

“Because you’re my friend.” He answered. “Every time those girls said they didn’t like you, I told them they were making a big mistake not considering you. That I can’t just date someone who would think I was above you.” Hakuta sighed, annoyed at having to say this out loud. “I get why you want to take things slow. It’s a little worrisome to confess, only to be told they like someone else. So I’ve been patient, but she’s still my friend too.”

“Hey, are you two done over there?” Speaking of the girl, Iruka called out to them. “There’s a crab coming right by my feet!” She had taken the command to stand where she was seriously. So she hadn’t moved a muscle as she waited for their conversation to be completed. “I think it’s trying to get up my leg!”

“I’ll let you be the hero this time.” Said Hakuta. “Come on, go get her.” He relented on the moment for now, but he did keep in his mind that he was going to be with that girl for part of this day eventually.

“Got it.” Yuusen gave him the thumbs up and ran off to go save the girl. “Don’t worry Iruka, I got it.” He said, taking the crab off her legs. This earned him the grasp of the animal as it used its claws to grip on tightly to his fingers. “Ahh! This hurts!” Hakuta sighed, as he walked back to the beach to finally hang out with the rest of his friends.

At this was what he thought until Shiuka popped up in front of his face to cut him off. “Oh, you’re finally here.” He said, wondering what it was she wanted to speak with Omihiro about. “Well, you ready to get this party started?”

Right before she had walked right up to him, Rouko had been staring at the girl for the entire time she was within sight. She couldn’t stop thinking about what she had learned about her and Hakuta. How they were stuck living together and having to keep this knowledge away from everyone.

The worst part of this all was that she also knew she wanted to continue to live with him. It wasn’t the matter of her wanting to hang out often with a person like him. She didn’t have any issues with the boy and trusted him to do good for her best friend. However, this did lead to her being concerned on how long they could truly keep this up. There was no way to believe the pair honestly thought they could live with each other for the entirety of their high school life. That would be nearly three years.

“Rouko?” Itsuki had still been hanging out with her ever since he was able to have some freedom from Hakuta. However, he had noticed she was different compared to every other time they had talked. Like she was tense over some matter, which he initially took as a good thing since he believed this meant she might be getting nervous in his presence. Therefore this was taken as her liking him, but he had misunderstood. “I was asking if you wanted to play some beach volleyball.”

“That sounds like fun!” It was Ninka, who had rejoined with the rest of the group, who spoke up first on the idea. “I need to run around a bit anyway.” She had found herself with a bit more energy after spending alone time with Hakuta. It was like she had found a new way to get her heart to race beyond going for a jog. “Here, let me get Hakuta.”

“Actually…” Rouko quickly stood up and rejected the offer. “I’d love to, but I need to take care of something else first.” She rushed on over to where Shiuka was standing, which was right in front of Hakuta as she attempted to begin her conversation.

She had only been close to him for appropriately 2 seconds and Rouko already found herself in a panic over what could be spoken. Her mind was filled with dread as she stopped the conversation by grabbing Shiuka’s hand. “I need to use the restroom.” She told her.

“Huh?” Shiuka was surprised to see her acting this way. While it wasn’t super obvious to those who didn’t know her. It was clear that this was one of the rare times where Rouko was completely serious. “You need me to come with you?”

“Yep.” She nodded and immediately took her away from the boy. “It shouldn’t take long, let’s just go.” Rouko was quick and direct with stealing the girl away from Hakuta, who stared on with his jaw dropped.

“Huh, I guess now I can finally see Iruka…” He murmured to himself, wondering what the scene before him was all about.