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Chapter 55 – Target: Aquarium
I’ve never seen Arina in her casual clothes. No matter how much I squeezed the memories out of my brain, the scenes where I saw her in her casual clothes didn’t come out.
Whenever I imagined her appearance, I could only picture her beautiful legs. Her style and appearance were top-notch, Michelin’s five star. And her legs, man, they sure were something
 I gotta thank the school for that. The school uniform was short enough to expose her exquisite legs. God knew what he was doing when he decided to bless her with those legs.
Does God have the same taste as me?
Anyway, if I may be honest, the article of clothing named the skirt could be called the embodiment of sin. I mean, it was simply tempting to look at them, especially those short skirts.
Women would accuse us, men, being sexual harassers whenever we took a glance, but in truth, it was us, men, who should complain. The legs of the ladies were a product of art, the masterpiece created by God, they should be cherished and ignoring them would be a sin.
Such were my thoughts as I relaxed at a certain coffee shop.
I was sitting on the seat right outside the shop while sipping a cup of coffee. It was a shame that they didn’t have tomato juice on the menu, so I had to force myself to drink this thing. While worrying over the possibility of getting UTI, I sipped more of the black liquid. It tasted so bitter, like charcoal. How could humans think of drinking this? (T/N: UTI/Urinary Tract Infection if you don’t know)
I’m out here to fulfill my mission as Makoto’s personal stalker. Honestly, I’d rather stay at home, laying down like a slug, instead of coming out here exposing myself in the sunlight. I’m actually suffering here.
But of course, I refused to suffer alone. I decided to drag Arina down to the depth of hell with me. I’m here sipping my coffee because I promised to meet her here.
It was about time for her to arrive, but the gentle breeze made me have second thoughts. Staying like this for the rest of the day didn’t look so bad. And then, she, Hiwa Arina came, wearing a wide summer hat, her eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. Covering her body was a milky white coat. Donning that outfit, she wouldn’t be out of place even in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’.
“Excuse me, I’m looking for a person, he’s around 180cm tall and he looks like a bird fodder. People usually mistook him for methane hydrate. Have you seen him?”
She said while approaching me.
“Ah!! That’s me! Me me me! 
As expected, you look so fashionable.”
“Why are you wearing sunglasses? Are you trying to imitate me? Also, why a tuxedo?
”
“What are you on about? I’ve been wearing sunglasses since the start! It’s ‘The Matrix’, you know? ‘The Matrix’! Well, fine, I’ll remove it. I’ll use a mask instead.”
“You know you’ll be conspicuous because of your height, right? If you do that, Ruka will definitely notice you.”
“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, our mission today is to help Makoto if he needs it. If nothing actually happens, then all is good, but if something actually happens, we’ll interfere, got it?”
This plan was dumb, but since Makoto asked me for help, I had no choice but to do it.
Since everything would be over if Ruka noticed something strange, we had to be extra cautious this time.
“Drink your coffee quickly. We’re going.”
“Wait a minute! For a tomato juice enthusiast like me, drinking this thing is hard!”
“Just gulp it all down in one go.”
“This isn’t medicine! Ugh
 Gulp
 I swear I’m going to have my revenge toward this society
”
“Let’s go, we don’t have much time.”
Good thing I brought some tomato juice with me. I grabbed one of them and opened the lid.
“It’s finger licking good!!”
“Be quiet! Act like a normal human being when you’re with me! The next time you say dumb s**t like this, I swear I will scream for help.”
“
Sorry
”
*   *   *
We arrived at the promised place, the park.
Though, Arina and I didn’t enter. Instead, we were observing the place from afar with a monocular.
“Why do you even have something like this? 
Are you into voyeurism?”
“Well, because my name is related to space, I bought this to gaze at the space. This little guy was originally attached to a big telescope. Well, it isn’t as good as the big one, but you can see quite far ahead with it. Here, you can try and see.”
“Ah, it’s true.”
“Right? Also, welcome to voyeurism, young lady. We have cookies.”
“You rotten piece of
”
Makoto looked restless.
Earlier, he texted me ‘Are you coming?’ And I replied to him, ‘I’m watching you right now. By the way, your fly is open.’ After that he stopped replying.
A few minutes later, Ruka arrived. Makoto raised his hand awkwardly.
“It’s starting, Arina.”
“Okay. Tell me if you need anything. In the meantime, I’m gonna pleasure myself with this ice cream.”
Arina was licking an ice cream from God knows where while staring disinterestedly in the direction of the Makoto-Ruka couple.
They seemed to be heading toward the aquarium as planned, which was located near the park. They looked so awkward with each other, it was refreshing to see. Actually, no, it was funny to see, I almost laughed at them.
“What are they talking about?”
Asked Arina while drinking a canned chocolate.
“Dumbass, we’re 40 meters away from them. My mutant power can’t hear them from this distance.”
“There’s this thing called ‘lip-reading’. You’re a voyeur, no? This should be one of your skills.”
“I got it, I got it. Let me see
 He said, ‘Thank you for coming, Ruka. I have a ticket to Antarctica with me, let’s go!’”
“Enough. You suck.”
“What the hell did you even expect?”
The couple entered the aquarium and thus, we lost sight of them.
“What are we gonna do now?”
“What do you mean? Go inside, of course.”
“Woah! I thought you’d ask me to leave you alone outside
”
“If I stay outside, I won’t be able to help you if something were to happen. And since I told you that I’ll help you, of course I’ll go with you.”
“Who are you and what did you do to Arina?”
Before she could retort, I sprinted to the aquarium and left her behind.
We bought tickets for two and walked through the entrance.
I almost said ‘this feels like a double date’ out loud, but I managed to stop myself before. Good job, me.
When was the last time I went to the aquarium? During grade school?
A sense of nostalgia welled up in me. I remembered the scent of water and my excitement as a child when I first came here. When I came to myself, I found myself clinging to the glass.
“I know that there are barely any people here, but for f**k sake, get yourself together.”
“But, but, that seal is so cute! It’s a crime to be that cute!”
“Jeez, dear, we’re here to follow that couple over there, right? We can have fun later, so let’s go.”
“Yes, mommy!”
“Call me that again and I’ll kill you.”
“
Sorry
”
Coming here after a long time, it felt refreshing. There were ugly-looking fish that I’ve never seen before, funny-looking fish and disinterested-looking fish peeking from inside their holes. The view was fascinating.
Arina was watching the couple while licking a lollipop. By the way, why the hell was she wearing sunglasses indoors?