“Ugh, how do I always find myself in these situations?” Hakuta asked himself out loud as he found himself being carried by Iruka by sitting atop her shoulders as he did a strange splash battled against Ninka while she was supported by Itsuki.

Their group had come up with this idea, and while Yuusen had wanted to be the one holding up Iruka. She instead asked to have Hakuta do it instead, much to his chagrin. However people like him were not known for their strength, so the boy attempted and was immediately reminded of Ninka’s ambush on him not long ago as he nearly plunged under the waters and drowned from Iruka’s rather large butt.

She didn’t give up on wanting him as a partner though, despite the pitiful display. So they instead swapped places and now he was the one being carried by her as they played with the others. Heavily wounding his pride in the process as well as likely getting Yuusen upset at him yet again.

His pride would also get more damaged as the boy found himself overpowered during their splashing battle. He, along with Iruka, found themselves tumbling into the waters once their opponents were victorious.

“Whoo!” Ninka put up both her arms to celebrate her hard fought win over the pair with her teammate in Yuusen.

“Yeah, yeah, you won.” Hakuta spoke once he resurfaced from under the waters. “That’s more than enough adventure for me. So Yuusen, you can take my place if everyone wants to play more.” He looked around towards the beach, which was where the boy spotted the two girls who had left them. Considering who they specifically they were, he couldn’t deny having some concern over what topic they had for a conversational piece.

“Yoohoo, hope you didn’t have too much fun without us.” Rouko announced their return with a bit of flair to her wave to them.

“Of course not.” Ninka replied to her, laying back into the water. Now looking up towards the sky, she was feeling the effects of the summer heat. “Phew, I’m thirsty. We should go get some drinks.”

“Sounds good to me.” Hakuta felt his own throat getting a bit dry from an already long day for him. It was likely due to all the talking he had done with the others. Either that, or the salt from the ocean water getting to him. “I’ll just head to the vending machines over there.”

“Actually, how about just Ninka, Iruka, and the other boys go grab everyone some drinks?” Shiuka suggested not everyone go. After all, they already had an idea of what the others would enjoy on a day such as today. Plus she had already been there herself, so it was a bit of a pointless trip for the girl. Not to mention she had her own motives for wanting some alone time. “Me and Rouko’s already done plenty of walking.”

“That sounds great to me.” Yuusen took what he believed to be a great opportunity. So far today had been a wash when it came to interference from Hakuta. So he knew he needed to do as much as possible whenever that boy wasn’t around.

“Boy I’m sure glad to finally get a break.” Hakuta crawled out of the water to lay himself down right along the shoreline. This allowed the water’s waves to sweep up and down, covering him with water only to wash away back into the ocean. “So how have you two been?” He asked.

“Hmm, that’s a good question.” The pair of girls both walked to him, there feet set right besides his head as they both stood above him.

“Uh…” This certainly gave him an interesting view from beneath the girls. Which only made things a bit more embarrassing for him seeing as they were both in their swimsuits and he got to see a lot of body. Not to mention he was also give a good comparison of the bust sizes between the girls. “Is there something going on?”

“I wouldn’t say there’s anything going on right now.” Shiuka replied in coy fashion. “Other than I hear that a certain someone told someone else about one of my most valuable secrets.”

“Wait a second.” He quickly sat up in reaction to this statement. “Rouko did you…?”

“I can’t believe you told her about us!” Shiuka gave up the act and gave her a piece of her mind on his failure. “And don’t try blaming her for me finding out. You should’ve realized I have cameras set up all over the house.”

“You do?” He was shocked and immediately questioned on the location of these cameras. For some reason, from the way she said it, the boy thought she was using it to spy on him. “Wh-what have you seen?”

“Way more than I should’ve.” She scolded him, giving the boy an earful about her displeasure in his actions, despite also understanding why. As she talked, Rouko took note of an important bit of information she left out. The part where she took issue with the kiss given to the boy that night was not mentioned. There was also the bit about how she had sniffed her sheets to realize that Rouko was in his bed too.

Her being a bit secretive on the matter made her wonder what else this girl might’ve kept hidden from the boy. Sure, everyone had their secrets and parts of them they wished to keep away from the rest of the world. Though she couldn’t help but wonder, or more accurately already know, the reasons for being her so held back right now.

So the more important question to her was what made this boy so special that her friends appeared to be enamored with the guy. He was just a random nerd who was one of their classmates. This wasn’t meant as a means of her throwing an insult at him, Hakuta called himself this multiple times when lamenting how he was always surrounded by people despite not desiring it one bit.

From what she could see from the little time with the pair. They had gotten close through a matter of being together practically all the time. Though with Ninka, it still made little sense. Not to mention Iruka had such a strange backstory that it also made no sense to her why that girl would want him. Hakuta wasn’t the only nerd in the school. “So next time, you need to be way more careful.” Shiuka finished her grilling of the boy. He really did get scolded and lectured like how a parent does this to a child who did something real heinous.

“Look, I’m sorry.” He bowed his head and begged for forgiveness. “I just didn’t know what else to do, but at least we’re still good with everyone else not knowing.”

“Yeah, I promise not to tell anyone about this.” Said Rouko, putting a hand up on her heart to make a pledge. “I’ll take this to my grave.”

“Unless you plan on dying in the next three years, I wouldn’t go that far.” He replied. Her theatrics on everything she did always made him wonder just how serious she was. Unless there was a risk that involved her friends, it seemed she would just go about life as a carefree spirit. “Anyway you know what, I’m starting to get a bit tired of all this beach stuff.”

Hakuta stood up and made his way deeper inland. “I’ll set up all the stuff we brought, then it’s relaxation time.” He planned on lounging around lazily for the rest of the day. A beach trip that was supposed to be fun was much more exhausting compared to a video game session.

“Fine, I won’t trouble you then.” Said Shiuka, whose statement only served to prove to Rouko that she had no intentions of talking about her obviously growing romantic feelings for the boy. It was clear as the summer sky that she just wanted to avoid being with him so she wouldn’t have to worry about the topic. “Clearly you’re out of your element here.”

“Don’t think I’ve ever claimed otherwise.” He responded, walking away. This was also another point for Rouko to make in her head. These two were also really casual with each other when they weren’t concerned with keeping up the facade that they shouldn’t be this close from their living situation.

“You two always are really tiring to be with.” Rouko shrugged her shoulders as she looked around the beach. Today was a full house when it came to the people here and she was much more interested in the other aspect about why they came. That being the number of upperclassmen she could mingle with. “Anyway hope none of you guys need me.” With that, she began to walk away from them as well.

“Just don’t carried away.” He commented, but gave up trying to warn her knowing this girl didn’t appreciate him trying to supposedly parent her. But when she made mention of the seniors of their school being here, he couldn’t help but look over at the gathering of students just a little bit down the beach. It seemed a lot of upperclassmen wanted to make the most of their final summer in high school.

For him, this was his first. So it hadn’t hit him as something he considered to be of high priority. Though that was also because he had originally planned on staying indoors. Perhaps he could make a change of plans in this instant as well. “Actually, wait for me.” After he had planted the umbrellas and set the beach blankets, the boy abandoned his original idea and ran to catch up to Rouko.

“You know I don’t need a chaperoned, right?” She replied when he caught up.

“I’ll have you know my life doesn’t revolve around you.” He countered as they went to see what their seniors were up to.