The beach volleyball game ended soon after that. Mei and I went back under the beach parasol ahead of the two. There’s an awkward atmosphere surrounding us.
Shinozaki and Wakamiya-san went to get lunch a little early. To be honest, I think it is more painful to wait for the two of them with Mei here even though it seems like they are treating buying us lunch as an apology for hitting my back hard. Perhaps I need to go home early.
Speaking of which, when was the last time I had a silent treatment from Mei? I was sure that we were very comfortable with each other these days.
「….earlier, thanks.」
It was Mei who could no longer stand the silence and opened her mouth.
「Ah, yeah. I apologize too. For pushing you down.」
「No, you were trying to protect me.」
「Yeah.」
Silence again. The awkwardness didn’t go away.
「Thanks for waiting. We bought you some yakisoba.」
「Sorry, it was pretty crowded.」
Soon after, the two came back with their bags.
「What made you decide to buy that, Shinozaki?」
「I was torn between curry and yakisoba.」
「Why those two?」
No, seriously. I can understand why the sea is associated with yakisoba but, curry?
「Well, most food on their menu doesn't have that much vegetables and even though they were being sold from a beach house, there’s no seafood in them. Don’t you think they are out of place?」
「I feel bad for the people who run the beach house but I kind of understand what you want to say.」
If you want me to comment on it, I feel like the food from beach houses has less ingredients.
「But Kazuya-kun, why didn’t we just go to the hamburger shop we saw on our way?」
「No, even if you’re with me, some tonbi won’t be discouraged. I don’t want to deal with those kinds. Even if they were expensive, we can only buy at stalls by the sea.」
TN: Tonbi is a novel about a dumbass who speaks with his fist the moment he loses his cool. He’s being protected by his parents though. In short, an arrogant young master.
「Given the outfit I say yes.」
Shinozaki is wearing surf pants and an appropriate t-shirt just like me. It’s the kind of outfit you’d expect to find at the beach. In contrast, the girls are only wearing hoodies over their swimsuits.
The bikinis peeking out from underneath the hoodies were a bit arousing.
「Maa, I guess it’s hard to go around dressed up like this.」
「I understand that you’re scared of tonbis but isn’t that what summer is for? To see people being attack randomly?」
「You know Amane, you can be a real b*tch sometimes.」
「Leave me alone. Let’s eat.」
I put my hands together and said “itadakimasu” and broke the disposable chopsticks. As I mentioned earlier, ingredients are insufficient but it can’t be helped.
「By the way, why did you choose to eat yakisoba? This is something you can eat at the summer festival later.」
「Because I can get watermelon.」
「Watermelon? Just for an IC card?」
「No, the real thing that can be eaten. They’re going to hold a watermelon splitting event for kids and you can trade this ticket that you’ll get from buying yakisoba for a watermelon.」
「Watermelon splitting, very beach-like event.」
Shinozaki regretfully said “We can’t join.”.
Thinking about going to the beach, watermelon splitting is one of the things you’ll think of first but it’s not often you can actually get to do that so I can understand why he’s disappointed.
「Even so, it’s true that curry would have been better to buy curry since we can always get yakisoba at the festival later.」
「We should avoid yakisoba at the summer festival now.」
「Right.」
The yakisoba, which didn’t have much in it, was gone in a flash. The watermelon splitting was about to start so we moved to the beach house.
「It’s so crowded my crowd sickness is already attacking me.」
「Amane, you’re not that bad with crowds. This is a summer activity for children so it’s normal for their family members to cheer at them.」
「I know that it’s a summer event at the beach but to tell you the truth, I’ve never watch one before.」
「Well, it’s harder to do it in a crowded beach since your eyes are covered and everyone will tell you to swing your stick.」
You’re right and it might even be dangerous. The space for the event is just next to the beach house and is only protected by cones and cone bars. They are being blindfolded one by one and can only rely on the voices around on where to attack.
「Where’s Wakamiya-san and Mei?」
「They said they’ll buy something since we didn’t eat enough. They’re in line at the beach house.」
When I looked at the beach house in front of us to look for them, I found that the line was quite long. This beach house sure is making profit.
「That’s a long line. You should have lined up too.」
「I’m sure they’ll buy something for us. If they don’t, we have to line up too.」
「I’d rather not eat than to wait in that line.」
「Seriously?」
「We have to wait for them to change clothes anyway so we can just eat at that time.」
「Right. I mean, if you take that time into account, we can hardly play in the sea, can’t we?」
「I think we can only do so until 4 o’clock.」
Shinozaki was plainly depressed. I’m sorry to tell you this but the only things I can think of that we can do are to swim or bury someone in the sand.
「Here you go. We got you some octopus karaage.」
「It was hard to find something that we can’t find in a summer festival stall.」
「Well, that’ should be something we won’t find there later.」
「So, are we going to wait for the watermelon splitting while eating?」